The first teaser trailer for Danny Boyle’s upcoming survival drama 127 hours hit the web today (via In Contention), and it definitely looks very good, but I feel a bit underwhelmed. The film is inspired by the true story of Aaron Ralston, the American mountain climber who had to amputate his arm with a dull knife to escape being pinned by a giant boulder in 2003. You probably saw the news coverage and Ralston’s requisite talk show tour following his rescue. The script for the film was written by Simon Beafoy, whose last collaboration with Boyle on Slumdog Millionaire earned each of them an Oscar statue, for writing and directing respectively. James Franco stars in the film as Ralston, giving him the acting challenge/opportunity of a lifetime, as nearly an hour of the film contains zero dialogue. It’s just Franco and the camera.

Boyle is a fantastic filmmaker, responsible for bringing us classic films like Trainspotting, 28 Days later and The Beach, which this trailer reminds me A LOT of.  It’s very fast-cutting, bright and crisp, with gorgeous cinematography. Classic Boyle. But they don’t get to the actual point of the film (Ralston getting trapped), until the very last second of the trailer, which I didn’t care for. See what I’m talking about below.

A significant majority of the trailer focuses on Ralston’’s Beach-esque antics with the two other hot chick climbers he meets (Amber Tamblyn and Kate Mara). Then after the brief dramatic build up in the last 10 seconds, they’re like, “oh yeah, by the way, he gets crushed by a giant boulder.” Obviously with Boyle, Beafoy, Franco and the subject matter, this will be an Oscar contender, but the trailer just didn’t do it for me. Not to mention the almost blatant advertising of Boyle’s filmogrophy at the beginning of the trailer. Yes, directors like James Cameron, Martin Scorsese and Danny Boyle will boast their previous credits during the trailer for a new film. But to play almost 30 seconds of footage from Slumdog to hammer into our heads, “the guy who directed this, directed that,” is a little much.

Anyway, I’m still very excited for this film, especially to see the kind of dramatic performance Franco pulled out. 127 Hours opens in theaters on November 5th.

What Do You Think? Discuss.

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“Kin ta uuuna masupa kalosi ttttttt ssssssssmmmmmmpapapapa.” This was without a doubt the best moment of last night’s horrifyingly boring Oscar show. About mid-way through the awards, Ben Stiller came out on stage to present the Best Makeup category dressed up in full-on Na’vi makeup, poking fun of the blue aliens from Avatar. He then spouted complete gibberish, making fun of the fake Na’vi language James Cameron came up with for the film and hilarity ensued. I literally almost peed my pants and was on the floor laughing for almost 10 minutes.

Cameron didn’t seem too amused at first. Come on Jim, lighten up will ya? He did chuckle a little bit towards the end, probably because he realized that cameras were zoomed in on him. Stiller was actually set to perform a similar funny Na’vi-related sketch with Bruno/Borat/Ali G Sacha Baron Cohen, that was unfortunately cut from the show because the Academy apparently felt it was too risky. Here’s the description of how this goof was originally supposed to go down:

Baron Cohen planned to appear onstage as a blue-skinned, female Na’vi, with Stiller translating “her” interplanetary speech. As the skit went on, though, it would become clear that Stiller wasn’t translating properly, because Cohen would grow ever more upset. At its climax, an infuriated Baron Cohen would pull open “her” evening gown to reveal that s/he was pregnant, knocked up with Cameron’s love child, and would go on to confront her baby daddy as if s/he were on Jerry Springer.

Damn you uptight conservative middle-class America! Oh well, Stiller’s solo Na’vi performance was good enough for me. Check out the video below.

What Do You Think? Discuss.

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Where in the hell did this from? After getting no love from The Golden Globes or the SAG Awards, The Hurt Locker came out of left field to win six Academy Awards including Best Director (Kathryn Bigelow) and Best Picture. I thought it was a solid film, but NO WAY did it deserve Best Picture. Avatar and Inglourious Basterds were the only worthy nominees for the biggest award of the night in my opinion. I guess the Academy is still too conservative and/or short-sighted to give props to any film that wins big at the box-office.

Say what you will about Avatar and it’s simplistic and recycled storyline, but it should have at least ran away with every technical category. I mean, IT IS the most ground-breaking film of all time in that regard. Yet it still lost to The Hurt Locker in the Sound Mixing/Editing, Film Editing and Art Direction categories. What is your deal Academy?! And Quentin Tarantino’s script for Inglourious Basterds is without a doubt superior to The Hurt Locker, yet the Academy thought The Hurt Locker’s was more compelling…or something. Even District 9 would have been acceptable. I didn’t mind that Kathryn Bigelow won for Best Director, making her the first woman ever to win that award, as her direction in that film was very good, but still.

Then we come to the acting categories. Of course, Mo’nique was a shoe-in, having won every award on Earth previously for Best Supporting Actress in Precious. I was rooting for Anna Kendrick for her performance in Up in the Air, as I found that performance to be much more memorable, but I’m not going to lose sleep over it. Thank god that Inglourious Basterds got some love with Christoph Waltz winning Best Supporting Actor for his brilliant role as “The Jew Hunter.”

I never saw Crazy Heart, but Jeff Bridges seemed destined to win Best Actor for his performance. Like Mo’nique, he had won pretty much every award imaginable for his role, as Mr. Deery applauded in his review of the film. But Sandra Bullock winning for Best Actress? Are you kidding me?! I thought The Blind Side was a decent film at best, and thought Bullock’s performance was okay, but in NO WAY Oscar-worthy. Every other nominee in that category, I thought, gave a much more powerful and compelling performance than Bullock. I mean, it’s not like it was a “we owe you” award, such as last year when Kate Winslet won for The Reader. This was her FIRST NOMINATION!!! I mean come on! Uggghh.

The show itself was mind-numbingly boring. I was expecting so much more from hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin, but they were reading off their cue cards like they were hosting SNL. They jokes were flat, for the most part, and it just felt so scripted and forced, not entertaining whatsoever. Bring back Hugh Jackman next year will ya? At least he’s talented and versatile enough to sing, dance and do things other than, uh, read!

And man they need to work on their timing for this thing. This year’s Oscars ran over 30 minutes late, clocking in at just under four hours. FOUR HOURS! And when the acting categories arrived and they had all these actors who had previously worked with the nominees give 10-minute speeches on their buddy’s grace and character. It made me want to gouge out my eyeballs and stuff my ears with dynamite. They’ve got to do a lot more next year to make up for this poop-filled gala event. Anyway, check out the full list of winners from last night’s 82nd Academy Awards below. Thanks to FirstShowing for the list compilation.

PICTURE:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Pixar’s Up
Up in the Air

DIRECTOR:
James Cameron – Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels – Precious
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air

ACTOR:
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

ACTRESS:
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Penélope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman – The Messenger
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – A Serious Man
Bob Peterson & Pete Docter – Pixar’s Up

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell – District 9
Nick Hornby – An Education
Armando Iannucci & Simon Blackwell – In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher – Precious
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner – Up in the Air

ANIMATED FEATURE:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Pixar’s Up

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Ajami (Israel)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophète (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

ART DIRECTION:
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Mauro Fiore – Avatar
Bruno Delbonnel – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Barry Ackroyd – The Hurt Locker
Robert Richardson – Inglourious Basterds
Christian Berger – The White Ribbon

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America
Which Way Home

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

ANIMATED SHORT:
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

LIVE-ACTION SHORT:
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

COSTUME DESIGN:
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

MAKEUP:
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

FILM EDITING:
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

SOUND MIXING:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

SOUND EDITING:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Pixar’s Up

ORIGINAL SCORE:
James Horner – Avatar
Alexandre Desplat – Fantastic Mr. Fox
Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders – The Hurt Locker
Hans Zimmer – Sherlock Holmes
Michael Giacchino – Pixar’s Up

ORIGINAL SONG:
“Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog
“Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog
“Loin de Paname” from Paris 36
“Take It All” from Nine
“The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart

What Do You Think? Discuss.

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Crazy Heart (A)

With all the buzz surrounding Crazy Heart this awards season and a 92% approval rating on RottenTomatoes, I couldn’t keep myself away from a showing once it hit my local theater. Starring in the lead is the always magnificent Jeff Bridges (The Dude) who took home the 2010 Golden Globe for Best Actor for his portrayal of an alcoholic fading country star named Bad Blake. Bridges won prizes for Best Actor at the 2010 SAG Awards and from the LA Film Critics Association as well as the Broadcast Film Critics Association.

In addition to all those awards Bridges is the front runner for a golden statue at the Academy Awards in March. Co-star Maggie Gyllenhaal is nominated as well for Best Supporting Actress in what I consider the best role of her career by far. Are you listening yet?

Crazy Heart follows Bridge’s character Bad Blake as he travels in his beaten but trustworthy truck from city to city playing his music for small audiences at bowling alleys, bars, and anywhere else he can play for a crowd. His best years as a musician look to be behind the once headlining country star as Bad settles deeper into his destructive life of alcoholism.

His interest is spurred when he meets Jean Craddock (Gyllenhaal), a local music reporter doing a story on the once prominent country star. The two become closer as Jean gets to know the man behind the music. The warning signs of alcoholism and being involved with a traveling musician are not potent enough to keep Jean’s affections at bay.

The narrative does take some time to get it’s feet moving to spur audience interest toward the drunken country singer Bad, but when this movie hits its stride viewers are left captivated to see how the rest of these characters stories will unfold.

Writer/Director Scott Cooper gives his resume a huge boost with this highly acclaimed Oscar contending film (even though it is unjustly not nominated for Best Picture). The screenplay is based off the 1987 same titled novel written by Thomas Cobb. Cooper has limited success as an actor and this is his first splash as a writer and director. His adaption of the novel was one of the best composed scripts I have seen played out in awhile.

All the film’s characters are well rounded and intriguing. The development of friendship to a romance between Bad and Jean is a bumpy but satisfying ride. The dialogue in the film is simplistic but perfectly spoken in a natural sense giving this film a excellent feel of realism almost causing the audience to surmise they are just part of the conversation.

The acting of course is as good as it comes. The credentials are listed in the early paragraphs. Also starring in this film as supplemental characters are Hollywood A-listers Colin Farrell and Robert Duvall. Both play supportive roles in the life of Bad Blake, which brings me back to the well composed character-driven script.

Crazy Heart features a fantastic original soundtrack that any fan of country music would appreciate. I personally hate almost all country music and I loved the musical content in this film.  The song “The Weary Kind” already won the Golden Globe for Best Original Song and a chance to win Oscar gold is up for grabs with the song getting a nomination in the same category.

Overall, Crazy Heart is a movie many of you have never heard of but none of you should miss. Initially the film was set to be a straight to DVD release but was purchased for theatrical distribution by Fox Searchlight Pictures. The limited release started on December 16th, 2009 and has slowly began to make its way across the country.With more and more theaters picking up this marvelous film your chance to see Crazy Heart increases.

What Should You Do? Skip Valentine’s Day, Dear John, and The Wolfman to see the best movie in theaters right now. The psychological thriller Shutter Island is great for fans of the genre and is catching all the buzz, but this is a movie that everyone will love.

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The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed the nominees this morning live from the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills. Anne Hathaway, who was nominated for Best Actress last year, and AMPAS President Tom Sherak presented the nominations. This is going to be very different than any other due to the decision by the Academy to expand the Best Picture category from five to 10 nominees. I talked about the Best Picture issue in great detail when the expansion was announced this past summer.

Not too many upsets, snubs or surprises to talk about. Many of the nominees align with the Golden Globe and SAG Award nominations. One thing that I will mention that I found very pleasing was District 9 getting a nod for Best Picture. Will it win? Probably not. But it’s nice to see the Academy recognize a gritty, low-budget science fiction film that took the cinema wold by storm, and until this point, hasn’t really been recognized with awards. Also, Disney/Pixar’s Up is the first animated film since Beauty and the Beast in 1992, to be nominated for Best Picture.  Check out the complete list of nominees below (via Oscars.org).

PICTURE:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

DIRECTOR:
James Cameron – Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air

ACTOR:
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

ACTRESS:
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Penélope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman – The Messenger
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – A Serious Man
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter – Up

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell – District 9
Nick Hornby – An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche – In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner – Up in the Air

ANIMATED FEATURE:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of Kells
Up

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Ajami (Israel)
El Secreto de Sus Ojos (Argentina)
The Milk of Sorrow (Peru)
Un Prophète (France)
The White Ribbon (Germany)

ART DIRECTION:
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Mauro Fiore – Avatar
Bruno Delbonnel – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Barry Ackroyd – The Hurt Locker
Robert Richardson – Inglourious Basterds
Christian Berger – The White Ribbon

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Music by Prudence
Rabbit à la Berlin

ANIMATED SHORT:
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

LIVE-ACTION SHORT:
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

COSTUME DESIGN:
Bright Star
Coco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

MAKEUP:
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

FILM EDITING:
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

SOUND MIXING:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

SOUND EDITING:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

ORIGINAL SCORE:
James Horner – Avatar
Alexandre Desplat – Fantastic Mr. Fox
Marco Beltrami & Buck Sanders – The Hurt Locker
Hans Zimmer – Sherlock Holmes
Michael Giacchino – Up

ORIGINAL SONG:
“Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog
“Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog
“Loin de Paname” from Paris 36
“Take It All” from Nine
“The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart

What Do You Think? Discuss.

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Weeeellllll….Look who comes crawlin’ back. It took a little movie about a man dressed as a bat, trying to stop a psychotic clown, and another cartoon movie about a robot with a heart of gold to make Hollywood WAKE THE F UP! The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, “The Academy,” announced yesterday they are expanding the best picture nominees of the Academy Awards to 10 nominees, from the traditional five. This is, in my mind, and I think everyone else’s, an appeasement move to change the image of the Academy of being short-sighted and out of touch with the movie-going public, as it doesn’t USUALLY honor popular movies as best pictures.

Many popular, high-grossing films have been nominated and won in the past (i.e. Titanic, LOTR: Return of the King, etc.) but USUALLY the Academy only honors low-budget “indie/historical/period” films. With the snubbing of The Dark Knight and Wall-E last year, the Academy received a lot of grief for not having the balls to nominate a brilliantly executed, universally-acclaimed, box-office shattering blockbuster.  President of the Academy, Sid Ganis, had this to say on the change:

Having 10 Best Picture nominees is going allow Academy voters to recognize and include some of the fantastic movies that often show up in the other Oscar categories, but have been squeezed out of the race for the top prize. I can’t wait to see what that list of ten looks like when the nominees are announced in February.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. While I think it is a good move in order to honor popular movies, I think it is sort of a cop-out in order to avoid the backlash that it received last year for the snubbing of The Dark Knight. A snubbing that most industry entertainment outlets agree upon. I love the Oscars and could talk all day about them. Instead of writing 5,000 words about this development, I decided to make the first Movie Mash Podcast on my feelings on this change, what it means and why it happened. Check it out:

What Do You Think? Discuss.

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