February 2012 Archives

Without Billy Crystal, this could have been the most boring Oscars ever.  I just wish someone was paying attention to the audio.  What was the horrible buzzing we kept hearing and did that person get fired part way through the show?  (Did Billy Crystal have an iPhone in his pocket that caused interference?) 

You know it is a slow night when the biggest controversies were Angelina Jolie posing on the stage like a gal trying to win America's Next Top Model (fierce!), and everyone wondering if we just caught a glimpse of Jennifer Lopez's lady lumps.

The biggest shock and surprise of the night was Meryl Streep beating Viola Davis for Best Actress.  While Meryl has been nominated 17 times, she had only won twice before tonight (and not since Sophie's Choice in 1983), and Viola Davis had won most of the other Best Actress awards leading up to the Oscars.  This was a shock, but Streep put in a very worthy performance.     

The second biggest surprise of the Oscars might be the appearance of Sacha Baron Cohen on the red carpet dressed at his character from the upcoming movie The Dictator. 

Those of you who follow Oscar news know a bit of controversy broke out this week when Cohen announced he would be attending the Oscars dressed as The Dictator. 

Cohen is part of the contingent from Hugo, which is a Best Picture nominee, but the Academy allegedly warned the funny man his tickets would be revoked if he pulled the stunt.   
However, the controversy has now been shown to possibly be a big publicity stunt, not just by Cohen, but the Academy and the movie studio behind The Dictator, Paramount.

As reported by Deadline.com, Academy president Tom Sherak is a paid marketing consultant for Paramount, the studio releasing The Dictator in May.  Did Sherak use his position as Academy president to broker a massive publicity stunt to benefit his client, while also getting people to tune into the Oscars? 

Cohen came through as he showed up on the red carpet dressed as The Dictator, and spilled an urn full of "Kim Jong Il's" ashes on Ryan Secrest. 

Let the publicity storm begin.

The Best Picture race was supposed to be different this year as the Academy came up with a new way to pick nominees that required each one to pull at least 5% of the first place votes during the nomination period. 

This lead to an odd number of nominees (9, instead of the traditional 5 or 10), but who is going to win and how to predict that winner didn't change very much. 

Who are the nominees? 

The Artist

War Horse

The Descendants

The Help

Hugo

Moneyball

Midnight in Paris

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

The Tree of Life

It is easy to see most of the nominees don't have much of a chance.  They are fine films, and one is War Horse, but this is a four way race.

This is the movie featuring real Navy SEALs (who won't be benefitting from the millions of dollars in ticket sales the movie will make).  However, the Navy SEALs deserve better.  Ultimately, Act of Valor cynically uses these brave men and women to prop up a C-level movie and try to give it some sort of authenticity and marketing hook.

Roselyn Sanchez stars as Morales - a CIA operative working undercover to compile information about a major drug trafficker, Christo (Alex Veadov).  When she is captured, Navy SEAL Team 7 is called in, and they discover Christo is part of a massive terrorist plot to attack the United States.

Will the SEALs save Morales?

Can they act in time to protect U.S. citizens from a heinous act of violence and terror?

A year ago, you never could have convinced me some unknown French funny man would be the favorite over Hollywood royalty like George Clooney and Brad Pitt.  Just goes to show you how Oscar rewards the man or movie of the moment.

Our nominees: 

George Clooney - The Descendents

Jean Dujardin - The Artist

Brad Pitt - Moneyball

Demian Bichir - A Better Life

Gary Oldman - Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

At first, it looked like George Clooney was well on his way to winning another bald golden dude, but all of the momentum has shifted, kinda like how the Redskins disappear from playoff contention around week 4 or 5 each year (or the Wizards disappear from playoff contention around game 4 or 5 of the exhibition season, WACKA WACKA, I have got a MILLION OF THEM). 

Dujardin won the Screen Actors Guild award for Best Actor, and 7 of the last 9 winners of that award went on to win the Oscar.   He also went on to win the BAFTA (British Oscar), and about 1/6th of the Academy's Oscar voters also vote for those British Oscars, so you have to believe in some correlation.    

Plus, The Artist has been successful because of him.  His charm on screen is captivating and he is the one who infuses so much energy and excitement into the movie.  As The Artist triumphs and is celebrated in all corners of the entertainment world, Dujardin benefits.   

If/when Dujardin wins, he would become the first French man to win Best Actor. 

We continue my Oscar predictions as we lead up to my appearance on NewsPlus this Friday at 7:30 AM and Sunday at 10 AM. 

Today, who will win Best Supporting Actress?

Our nominees:

Octavia Spencer - The Help

Berenice Bejo - The Artist

Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids

Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs

Jessica Chastain - The Help

When I saw The Help, I was convinced I was watching the performance that would win Best Supporting Actress.  However, I thought that performance was from Bryce Dallas Howard.

Don't get me wrong.  Both Spencer and Chastain are fantastic in the movie, but I didn't foresee the massive momentum and support moving towards Spencer as the awards season progressed. 

She has won every major award out there including The Golden Globe, BAFTA (British Oscar) and the Screen Actors Guild award.  That SAG award is the biggest indicator of her destiny as the SAG award winner for Best Supporting Actress has gone on to win an Oscar 8 out of the last 9 years.  You can't argue with those results.

If/when she wins, Octavia Spencer would be the 5th African-American to win Best Supporting Actress. 

This category shouldn't even count in Oscar pools. 

Our Nominees:

Christopher Plummer - Beginners

Kenneth Branagh - My Week With Marilyn

Nick Nolte - Warrior

Max von Sydow - Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

Jonah Hill - Moneyball

If Uggie the Dog from The Artist was eligible, he would have a better chance of winning than the other four guys. 

The Oscar season has been a march to coronation for Plummer, and it is one he has earned.  For all of his years in the business, he NEVER has won an Oscar, and was only nominated one other time, for the 2009 movie The Last Station.

That's right.  No nomination for The Sound of Music.

That's right.  No nomination for Star Trek 6 - The Undiscovered Country.

Every year, at least one longtime, respected actor, actress or director has it all come together as voters decide they should be honored for his or her amazing career, which is why Plummer has won every award imaginable during the Oscar season. 

Someone tell Plummer to hire a carpenter to build a nice shelf to put that Oscar on.  If he doesn't win, an inquiry will begin immediately and the Oscars will be rocked by the biggest surprise in Oscar history.  

Every day this week, leading up to my appearance on NewsPlus with Mark Segraves on Friday at 7:30 AM and Sunday at 10 AM, I will be putting it all on the line and predicting the big Oscar winners. 

Then, on Sunday night, you can mock me if I am wrong. 

But, you better praise me when I am right, and I will be right more than wrong. 

Count on it.

This year was a banner year for women in movies.  Of our nominees, four of them would have been winners in any other year, while Rooney Mara can always boast about how she was nominated for an Oscar. 

Our nominees: 

Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady

Viola Davis, The Help

Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

Rooney Mara, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs

To pick a winner, we look to the Screen Actors Guild for some guidance. 

In the last 9 years, the Best Actress winner at the Screen Actors Guild Awards went on to win Best Actress at the Oscars 6 times.  This is because so many SAG voters are Oscar voters.  Plus, Oscar voters take the guild awards seriously because these are people in the business.   

This year, it was Viola Davis taking home the SAG statue, and I think she will go on to become only the 2nd African-American woman to win Best Actress at the Oscars (Halle Berry still is the only African-American woman in history to win Best Actress).

The Help is a movie known for its acting, and Davis headed up that amazing, nominee-filled cast, which won the SAG award for Best Ensemble.  She has been amazing people on Broadway and in Hollywood for several years, and I see Davis getting the Oscar she deserves.
   
Some think Meryl Streep is a serious contender in this category, and many want to see her win.  While she has the most nominations of any actor or actress in Oscar history (17 total), Meryl has not won since 1983 for Sophie's Choice. 

She won the British Oscar for Best Actress a few weeks ago, which is a big deal, since 1/6th of the British Oscar voters ALSO vote for the Oscars, but even Meryl is rooting for her pal Viola. 

It seems nothing gets a Hollywood executive more excited than mixing two genres together, which leads to all sorts of dreams of guys being roped in by the action and Reese Witherspoon looking sexier than ever, and the ladies being attracted to the romance parts of the movie and those two hunky dudes .  However, the mixture here comes off like combining mustard and chocolate ice cream. 

Chris Pine and Tom Hardy star as FDR and Tuck - two buddies and partners in the CIA.  When they screw up a big case, the two get put on desk duty, which gives them plenty of time to think about something other than espionage.

Eventually, they each meet Lauren (Reese Witherspoon) and find themselves smitten (and, let's face it, what man wouldn't be?).  Of course, they are too competitive to step aside gallantly and let the other one try to woo her, so the battle is on to win Lauren's heart, or are they more concerned with defeating each other?

This Means War has the potential to be a wacky, farcical, smart, romantic comedy, but fails to live up to its potential like a Washington Redskins #1 Draft pick. 

Returning for an 8th year, The National Archives Experience, in conjunction with The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences along with the Charles Guggenheim Center for the Documentary Film, will host a series of free screenings featuring the documentaries nominated for Best Documentary at the Oscars!

Join me each night Wednesday, February 22 through Sunday, February 26 in the only place where you can see all of the nominees for free (and with me).  Check out the link to learn how you can get FREE tickets.  Did I mention it is free?  

We'll talk about the Oscars show, Billy Crystal, the history of documentaries and more.    

Check out the list of movies, and start filling up your schedule. 

Wednesday, February 22, 7:00 p.m.
Hell and Back Again
Danfung Dennis and Mike Lerner
(88 minutes; unrated)

Thursday, February 23, 7:00 p.m.
Undefeated
TJ Martin, Dan Lindsay and Rich Middlemas
(113 minutes; unrated)

Friday, February 24, 7:00 p.m.
Pina
Wim Wenders and Gian-Piero Ringel
(106 minutes; rated PG)
*Please note: Although submitted and nominated in 3-D; due to technical limitations we will present Pina in 2-D.

Saturday, February 25, 7:00 p.m.
Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
Joe Berlinger and Bruce Sinofsky
(105 minutes; unrated)

Sunday, February 26, 4:00 p.m.
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
Marshall Curry and Sam Cullman
(85 minutes; unrated)

I don't want to get too high up on the soap box here, but Lincoln ended slavery and won the Civil War, so the country would stay united. Those two facts alone make him a rock star.

Does he really need to be portrayed as a vampire hunter to be a hero to a younger generation?

Ryan Reynolds stars as Matt Weston - a low level CIA agent assigned to run a safe house in South Africa, and he is bored by the lack of action (you would think the action he is seeing with a sexy French medical student would make up for it, or be enough action for any one man, but I digress). 

Of course, all of that is about to change as the agency brings in a legendary rogue former agent, Tobin Frost (Denzel Washington), who has some top secret material that everyone wants to get their hands on, and one of the most awesome character names in movies today.

As you probably figured out, Matt has to keep Tobin under arrest and in his control as everyone attacks the safe house. 

Is the young agent up to the task?

Is Tobin a good guy or a bad guy?

What does the rogue agent have that everyone wants?

Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams play Leo and Paige -a married couple desperately in love with each other.  One snowy night in Chicago, they end up in a car accident (and, truth be told, it's kind of his fault), and Paige awakes from a coma with no memory of Leo.  Now, her estranged family has returned, an old fiancée (Scott Speedman) sees an opportunity to win her back, and Leo is struggling to deal with it all.

Will Leo be able to win Paige's love all over again?

Will she ever be able to regain her memory?

The Vow is not as heinous and mushy as dudes fear, and not as romantic and dreamy as the ladies might be hoping.  However, the ladies do get to check out Tatum, his Abs of Steal and another part of his body that will sell some tickets to people feeling a little bit lonely on Valentine's Day. 

This Woman in Black is frightening. 

More frightening than an ex-girlfriend. 

More frightening than Hillary Clinton chasing after Bill with a frying pan in her hand. 

More frightening than Kathie Lee Gifford without her makeup. 

Daniel Radcliffe stars as Arthur Kipps - an early 20th century barrister in London suffering since his wife passed away during child birth 4 years ago.  Struggling to be a father and not performing well at work, Arthur is being given one last chance to save his job and impress the firm's leadership.  

A wealthy widowed client out in the countryside has passed away, so Arthur needs to head out there, wrap up her affairs and the sell the old, creaky house in which she lived.  However, the young lawyer starts to realize everyone in town is not happy to see him, strange things start to happen upon his arrival, and he keeps seeing this strange, ghastly woman in black.

Set in 1988, and based on the true story, John "He Should Have Gotten a 1988 Hair Cut" Krasinski stars as Adam Carlson - a TV reporter in Alaska who bounces around the state filing human interest stories, who finds the story of a lifetime.  At one of the most northern tips of the state, Carlson has come across three California Gray whales trapped under the ice after winter moves in a bit quicker than normal. 

Their only way to survive is to continue to bob up and down through one small hole in the ice, since the only other break in the surface is five miles away, which is too far for them to swim without coming up for air.  Now, as the story becomes an international sensation drawing the attention of every news organization, Adam tries to bring together a motley crew of people who can help save the whales,  including:

His ex-girlfriend, Rachel (Drew Barrymore), who runs the Alaska branch of Greenpeace,

The Communist ruled Soviet Union,

The Reagan White House and staffer Kelly Meyers (Vinessa Shaw),