The Big & Small Screen: January 2009

Saturday, January 31, 2009

DVD Play

I love this new way of getting old and new DVDs on your way out of Safeway or Walgreens and this Sunday and Monday DVD Play are charging just 80 cents for a one night rental! I am sure the DVD will eventually be replaced by digital downloads but for now this is a great service for those nights when you are waiting for the next Netflix envelope to arrive.

Current Titles: Pride And Glory Fireproof Lakeview Terrace Igor Saw V Henry Poole Is Here Max Payne College The Rocker My Best Friend's Girl Open Season 2 Pineapple Express Righteous Kill Rock N Rolla Babylon A.D. Disaster Movie Mirrors Appaloosa Bangkok Dangerous Swing Vote The Family That Preys Brideshead Revisited The Wackness The Duchess Ghost Town Eagle Eye Thelma and Louise Kalifornia From Hell Traitor

Friday, January 30, 2009

My Top 5 Movies Set in Paris

It's my favorite city in the world and also the beautiful setting for many great films. Here are my top five movies set in the City of Light.

1. Amelie (2001)

This is certainly in my top 10 films of all time and maybe even gets into the top 5. Jean Pierre Jeunet wrote a love letter to his city with this movie in the way Woody Allen did with Manhattan. His casting of Audrey Tautou was genius but it is the overall visual technique that brings to life the promise of the fantastic that seems ever present in Paris.

2. La Femme Nikita (1990)

Its hard to believe this French action flick came out 19 years ago when Anne Parillaud stormed onto the Big Screen with her visceral portrayal of a women on the edge of society that ends up as an assassin for a shadowy government agency. Who can forget that amazing scene when after two years of training she is handed a gun in a crowded restaurant and ordered to kill a diner in cold blood? It was also great to see the brooding Tchéky Karyo playing 'Uncle' Bob, Nikita's mentor in her training.

3. Frantic (1988)

Looking back at Harrison Fords career I am not sure this movie will get alot of attention but I loved this Roman Polanski written and directed thriller. The plot follows Ford as a doctor who is in Paris to give a lecture when his wife is snatched on the street and the movie follows his 'frantic' attempts to get her back. Ford plays the frustrated American at sea in a foreign land perfectly and his unlikely alliance with punky Emmanuelle Signier works brilliantly well. I watched this recently and found it hadn't lost any of it's original edge so if you haven't caught it yet check it out on DVD.

4. Angel-A (2005)

15 years after La Femme Nikita director Luc Besson creates a black and white fantasy set during one long summer night in Paris. Small time scam artist, Andre (played by the always watchable Jamel Debbouze) plans on escaping his woes by jumping into the Seine but ends up saved in so many ways by an Angel played by the very tall and very angelic looking ex-Victoria Secrets model Rie Rasmussen.

5. Ratatouille (2007)

It doesn't have to be all art house all the time just because these movies are set in Paris. I loved this silly tale about a rat who dreams of cooking in a fancy restaurant. Amazingly the team that created the beautiful animation in this movie actually worked along side Mega-Chef Thomas Keller to understand the beauty and art of cooking at the very highest level (Keller also has a cameo appearing as the voice of a customer in the movies restaurant Gusteau's).

OK so I know I missed a ton of great movies set in Paris so let me know what you would have included.

British Loyalty to Life on Mars

If you check out The Big & Small Screen youtube channel you will see a trailer for he ABC show Life On Mars. It is a US remake of a BBC show and it is amazing what emotions it has stirred in the fans of the original British version.

I loved the original show when I saw it on BBC America and having grown up in 1970s England I enjoyed the great attention to detail taken in recreating that era. ABC has taken the exact same concept and transplanted the characters into the same decade but in New York City. For me the two couldn't be more different and should be judged on their individual merits especially when the ABC version brings along the talents of Harvey Keitel and Michael Imperioli.

Here are some of the youtube comments from the fans of the original show after viewing the trailer for the ABC version:

"Good God. It looks like all they've changed is the cast, the setting, and switched the nice dark cinematography for a horrible yellow filter. Hooray for creativity."

"This is sad - why re-make this when you change nothing, nada, rien.... argh.
When I heard there would be a US version, I at least thought they would come up with new story lines and lines."

"America.....you make the best telly in the world....why would you carbon copy one of our best programmes."

"ok... i'm actually crying... how could they do this, it's not 'based on' it's ripped off, i mean 'don't waltz into my kindom (sic) acting king of the jungle' is word for word... what's inventive about that... be inspired, not copy. Anyway at least the money they paid for the rights went towards some good new BBC drama."

And one comment from this side of the pond!

"Well I guess this is why this version is made for American and not Brits and the original is made for Brits and not Americans. Meaning of course you're not going to like this version if your a Brit. It wasn't made for you to like. And there is absolutely no way the original version would work in America, no matter how good it is."

People take this stuff seriously and so they should after all it's TV!

Thursday, January 29, 2009

2012

It's the end of the world ... again.

Does My Love for The Shield Make Me a Bad Person?

So the series finale of The Shield originally aired back at the end of November last year but I just got around to watching the last 5 episodes on Tivo. I won't go into a big analysis of how it all plays out for Vic and the Strike Team just in case you are planning to watch it on DVD but it's fair to say the 1hr 45min finale was as good as anything I had seen in the the last seven seasons.

The central character in The Shield is Detective Vic Mackey.

Played by Michael Chiklis, he is the charismatic leader of Farmington's Strike Team and it was Mackey that dominated the show and took our expectations of a gritty TV cop to the next level. His bulldog personality and physicality had a captivating effect on the audience as he rampaged through Los Angeles with little regard for a traditional approach to policing. Shield creator and writer Shawn Ryan managed to get perfectly reasonable and relatively moral TV viewers (me and a few friends I know that also love the show) cheering for the guy who is beating up supects, selling drugs and killing fellow police officers! Mackey has done for bad cops what Dexter has done for serial killers and somehow that's just how we like it.

As much as this could have been renamed The Vic Mackey Show there was also a great supporting line-up of actors alongside Chiklis. From the cast members who appeared in all seven seasons including the excellent Jay Karnes as Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach to his one time partner and ultimately Captain at Farmington, CCH Pounder as Claudette Wyms - both acting their socks off in every episode. Also who can forget the big name guests that appeared for season long guest spots such as Glenn Close as the thorn in Mackey's side in season four or the relentless IAD Leiutentant John Kavanaugh played by Forest Whitaker. It was a testament to the writing and acting on previous seasons that such big names would commit themselves to extended runs on a show which aired on basic cable.

I will miss The Shield and know fans of good quality police dramas will too. Hill Street Blues introduced this style of realism into cop shows back in 1981 and the tradition of innovation of the genre was held up by NYPD Blue at the end of the 1990s. Now our first 21st century police drama has given us the amoral anti-hero Vic Mackey we can only wonder what is coming to our TVs next.

Michael Chiklis as Vic Mackey

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

How Many Statues Are Given Out for Best Ensemble Cast?

A Big & Small Screen reader posed this question of the recent SAG Awards when Slumdog Millionaire picked up Best Ensemble Cast last week. Here are a couple of of images that suggest it is clearly more then one but is there a limit?

If you know post a comment and enlighten us!

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Toddlers & Tiaras

Tonight at 9pm Eastern TLC is showing their bizarre doc' about mother and daughter bonding on the edge of reason (and certainly taste) in the world of child beauty pageants. It is a truly an unpleasant and unnatural side of our culture which continues to flourish in various parts of the country. The competition featured on tonights season premiere is based in West Virginia and I will let you draw your own conclusions about that.

Series Premiere: Tuesday at 9pm on TLC

The Damned United - Trailer

Great actors in what may be one of the few decent films about 'The Beautiful Game'

Movie Review - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Even before this week's Oscar nomination for Best Picture this was on my radar to watch as it had enjoyed so much buzz prior to its December 25th US release. American historical movies don't usually get me that excited and that includes films like last year's There Will Be Blood and 2002's Gangs of New York which when I eventually got around to seeing them I really enjoyed. So taking the afternoon of work I decided to man-up and go and see Mr Pitt in action.

OK first things first, this is a 90 minute movie which has been stretched into 2 hr 46 mins and this isn't a good thing. The movie is an adaptation of a short story by F Scott Fitzgerald about a New Orleans man born with the physical appearance and ailments of a man in his eighties and his journey through 20th century America as he gets younger.

The film is certainly a Brad Pitt vehicle but his co-stars Cate Blanchett and Tilda Swinton put in very strong performances as the two major loves of his life as does Taraji P Henson playing his adoptive mother. The recreation of America in the 1920s and later was done with amazing attention to detail although with Pitt's southern accent there were times I felt like I was watching a slightly more serious version of Forest Gump.

It is in the last hour of the movie that the story seems to find it's voice as Pitt and Blanchett's fractured romance seems on the verge of realization. At this point the reverse aging actually impacts the characters on an emotional level as opposed to the previous two hours of the film in which it was a curiosity. Other than a few ham-fisted moments (the humming bird and and backwards turning clock came across as clumsy symbolism) the final hour of the film is actually very engaging and leaves you wondering why they didn't get here sooner.

Frankly I don't agree that this is worthy of an Oscar win and probably not even a nomination but the Academy does seem to like these sweeping historical dramas with a couple of big names attached. Worth a visit to the Theater? Your call, but then again it won't be out on DVD before the Oscars so take a cushion for your bee-hind and check it out.

Rating: ***

Monday, January 26, 2009

More on Ab Fab - The American Version

As reported here a few months back the British comedy show Absolutely Fabulous is getting a very unnecessary American treatment by FOX. Variety.com reports:

"Fox’s Americanized take on famed Britcom “Absolutely Fabulous” has been ordered to pilot.

Also on a busy Friday, NBC picked up the medical drama pilot “Trauma,” while ABC greenlit the drama project “Happy Town.”

The new “Ab Fab” is based on the original, which revolved around the boozy exploits of fashion publicist Edina and editor Patsy, both of whom face off with Edina’s square daughter, Saffron.

Jennifer Saunders, who wrote and starred in the original “Ab Fab,” is an executive producer on the U.S. edition as well. She’s joined by scribe Christine Zander, who’s penning the U.S. edition.

Zander and Saunders are exec producers with Ian Moffitt, Mitch Hurwitz, Eric Tannenbaum and Kim Tannenbaum. Sony Pictures TV is producing with Tantamount and BBC Worldwide Americas.

“Ab Fab,” which ran for 36 episodes in the U.K., has developed a cult following here via regular airings through the years on outlets including Comedy Central, PBS and Oxygen."

Interview - Let the Right One In Director Tomas Alfredson

Courtesy of Bloodydisgustingtv

Movie Review - Let The Right One In

This was a movie I heard about a few months back on a blog I follow and was knocked out by the concept of the movie and it's trailer. While I enjoyed HBO & Alan Ball's True Blood and thought Interview with a Vampire was a pretty decent movie it would be a stretch to say I am a fan of the 'dripping teeth' genre. But then again as you will see if you check out the trailer below this is no ordinary Vampire movie.

The film centers around Oskar, a lonely 12 year old boy in the suburbs of Stockholm, Sweden during the winter of 1982. After enduring another day of abuse from a school bully Oskar meets a new friend Eli who is not the 12 year old girl she claims to be but in fact a vampire feeding off the local community. The film plays out in the depths of winter and the season itself is a dominant character offering the whitest of backdrops to the blood spattered violence taking place. The apartment block where Oskar lives with his single mother is so bland and the school so non-descript it adds to the strange (for the genre) everyday quality of this film. We soon see the friendship developing between Oskar and Eli in a very convincing fashion from two great young actors in their first feature roles. The uber pale Kåre Hedebrant who plays Oskar offers us a convincing look at a boy cut off from reality and a victim ready to play out revenge fantasies. His co-lead Lina Leandersson as Eli gives an equally assured performance as the vampire who befriends and protects Oskar yet at the same time making him an accomplice to her bloodlust carried out through need not desire.

At no point does the story fall into cliches instead choosing to startle with the most extraordinary moments set in the most ordinary settings. Each frame of the movie seems to have a special clarity to it with such care and attention given to cinematography. In a genre so often ready to go over the top and rush to well trodden story lines we have all seen before, Let The Right One In dares to be different and ultimately redefines what we will now expect from a Vampire film. As director Tomas Alfredson himself said in an interview at the Neuchatel International Fantastic Film Festival:

"I’ve been doing film and television for twenty years and this is the first time I’ve gotten into the horror business, and the true horror for me as a filmmaker was to create this supernatural story in this very naturalistic and everyday environment. For me, the key into this film was to omit as much as possible of the graphic details concerning the most fantastic details of vampirism, and in the opposite cases where we do show it, I wanted it to be as dull, dry and skimpy as possible."

Låt den rätte komma in (Let The Right One In) premiered at Göteborg International Film Festival in Sweden a year ago and has since been playing at Festivals around the world throughout 2008 (including winning the Audience Award at Toronto After Dark Film Festival). The US release of the DVD is slated for March 10th but is also playing at a few towns right now including my local Chandler Cinemas and is set for a wider theatrical release at small indie theaters all over the country, click here to check local listings.

Rating: *****

Sunday, January 25, 2009

SAG Award Winners

The Screen Actors Guild Awards were held tonight and the winners were as follows:

MOTION PICTURE

Actor:

Richard Jenkins - "The Visitor"

Frank Langella - "Frost/Nixon"

WINNER: Sean Penn - "Milk"

Brad Pitt - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Mickey Rourke - "The Wrestler"

Actress:

Anne Hathaway - "Rachel Getting Married"

Angelina Jolie - "Changeling"

Melissa Leo - "Frozen River"

WINNER: Meryl Streep - "Doubt"

Kate Winslet - "Revolutionary Road"

Supporting Actor:

Josh Brolin - "Milk"

Robert Downey, Jr. - "Tropic Thunder"

Philip Seymour Hoffman - "Doubt"

WINNER: Heath Ledger - "The Dark Knight"

Dev Patel - "Slumdog Millionaire"

Supporting Actress:

Amy Adams - "Doubt"

Penelope Cruz - "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"

Viola Davis - "Doubt"

Taraji P. Henson - "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

WINNER: Kate Winslet - "The Reader"

Ensemble Cast:

"Doubt"

"Frost/Nixon"

"Milk"

WINNER: "Slumdog Millionaire"

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

Stunt Ensemble:

WINNER: "The Dark Knight"

"Hellboy II: The Golden Army"

"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"

"Iron Man"

"Wanted"

PRIMETIME TELEVISION

Actor in a television movie or miniseries:

Ralph Fiennes - "Bernard and Doris"

WINNER: Paul Giamatti - "John Adams"

Kevin Spacey - "Recount"

Kiefer Sutherland - "24: Redemption"

Tom Wilkinson - "John Adams"

Actress in a television movie or miniseries:

Laura Dern - "Recount"

WINNER: Laura Linney - "John Adams"

Shirley Maclaine - "Coco Chanel"

Phylicia Rashad - "A Raisin in the Sun"

Susan Sarandon - "Bernard And Doris"

Actor in a drama series:

Michael C. Hall - "Dexter"

Jon Hamm - "Mad Men"

WINNER: Hugh Laurie - "House"

William Shatner - "Boston Legal"

James Spader - "Boston Legal"

Actress in a drama series:

WINNER: Sally Field - "Brothers & Sisters"

Mariska Hargitay - "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit"

Holly Hunter - "Saving Grace"

Elisabeth Moss - "Mad Men"

Kyra Sedgwick - "The Closer"

Actor in a comedy series:

WINNER: Alec Baldwin - "30 Rock"

Steve Carell - "The Office"

David Duchovny - "Californication"

Jeremy Piven - "Entourage"

Tony Shalhoub - "Monk"

Actress in a comedy series:

Christina Applegate - "Samantha Who?"

America Ferrera - "Ugly Betty"

WINNER: Tina Fey - "30 Rock"

Mary-Louise Parker - "Weeds"

Tracey Ullman - "Tracey Ullman’s State of the Union"

Ensemble in a drama Series:

"Boston Legal"

"Dexter"

"House"

WINNER: "Mad Men"

"The Closer"

Ensemble in a comedy series:

WINNER: "30 Rock"

"Desperate Housewives"

"Entourage"

"The Office"

"Weeds"

Stunt ensemble:

"Friday Night Lights"

WINNER: "Heroes"

"Prison Break"

"The Unit"

"The Closer"

Life achievement award:

James Earl Jones

Clooney & Margulies Return to ER

After last weeks rumors that Clooney will return to the set of ER to reprise his role as the original Dreamy Doc Doug Ross it now appears Juliana Margulies will also make a cameo before the seasons finale in March.

We have already seen Anthony Edwards return in flashback scenes as Dr Green and in last weeks episode Alex Kingston's character returned as a Duke University recruiter. Laura Innes came back for a cameo this season and we can also expect to see Noah Wyle's Dr Carter to return for 4 episodes before the show says goodbye.

Clooney is naturally the name that everyone is buzzing about and he is certainly ER's most successful graduate. That said it does seem a bit hilarious that according to People Magazine (so take it with as much salt as you need to) ER creator John Wells recently ordered a closed set for the star's appearance.

The final (sob, sob) season of ER continues on Thursday nights on NBC.

Robert DeNiro Winning an Oscar for Raging Bull

It was the Oscars in 1981 and Lack Lemmon, Robert DeNiro, Robert Duvall, John Hurt and Peter O'Toole are all nominated in the category of Best Actor. A youthful Sally Fields presents to such serious faces ... have the Oscars become such a light hearted affair in the last 28 years? These clips from the Academy Awards Youtube channel are absolute gems that reward the viewer with happy memories of great movies and wonderful performances.

Click here to see a young and good looking De Niro tell the world he 'loves everyone!"

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Return of the Hobbits

In what we can only describe a bizarre turn of events, Dominic “Merry” Monaghan has said that the team developing The Hobbit want the original band to return for the prequels.

"They really want us to come back, and I think there's a really strong chance that we might be back," he told MTV.

"We're not in 'The Hobbit,' no, but I think the idea in [Jackson's, Del Toro's and the other producers'] heads is that the trilogy of the 'Lord of the Rings' films was so beloved by the fans that they're really keen to try to say thank you for the support that they gave to the 'Lord of the Rings' movies and possibly bring back some of those characters that they know and love.”

‘The fans will be charmed’

News surrounding the proposed prequels has been so far sketchy. We’re working under the assumption that Del Toro has dismissed the idea of a ‘bridging movie’ and are basing the two films solely on The Hobbit.

If that's true, then we can’t see how Pippin, Merry and the rest could possibly have a place in the story. Still, if anyone should know if Monaghan is in talks to come back, it should be Monaghan.

[Source: Total Film / MTV via The Hobbit Movie]

Watchmen Soundtrack Released

1. Desolation Row (My Chemical Romance)
2. Unforgettable (Nat King Cole)
3. The Times They Are A-Changin' (Bob Dylan)
4. The Sound Of Silence (Simon & Garfunkel)
5. Me & Bobby McGee (Janis Joplin)
6. I'm Your Boogie Man (KC & The Sunshine Band)
7. You're My Thrill (Billie Holiday)
8. Pruit Igoe & Prophecies (Philip Glass)
9. Hallelujah (Leonard Cohen)
10. All Along The Watchtower (Jimi Hendrix)
11. Ride of the Valkyries (Budapest Symphony Orchestra)
12. Pirate Jenny (Nina Simone)

A pretty decent track listing, if you are going to buy it why not head to your local 'record' store and keep independent places like Zia in Phoenix alive.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Watchmen Viral Video

Very slick marketing from the upcoming Watchmen Movie.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Academy Award Nominations 2009 - Full List

BEST MOTION PICTURE OF THE YEAR
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"(Paramount and Warner Bros.) A Kennedy/Marshall Production; Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
"Frost/Nixon"(Universal) A Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment and Working Title Production; Brian Grazer, Ron Howard and Eric Fellner, Producers
"Milk"(Focus Features) A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production; Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
"The Reader"(The Weinstein Company) A Mirage Enterprises and Neunte Babelsberg Film GmbH Production; Nominees to be determined
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) A Celador Films Production; Christian Colson, Producer

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Richard Jenkins in "The Visitor" (Overture Films)
Frank Langella in "Frost/Nixon" (Universal)
Sean Penn in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Brad Pitt in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)
Mickey Rourke in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Josh Brolin in "Milk" (Focus Features)
Robert Downey Jr. in "Tropic Thunder" (DreamWorks, Distributed by DreamWorks/Paramount)
Philip Seymour Hoffman in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Heath Ledger in "The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.)
Michael Shannon in "Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Anne Hathaway in "Rachel Getting Married" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Angelina Jolie in "Changeling" (Universal)
Melissa Leo in "Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics)
Meryl Streep in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Kate Winslet in "The Reader" (The Weinstein Company)

PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Amy Adams in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Penélope Cruz in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona" (The Weinstein Company)
Viola Davis in "Doubt" (Miramax)
Taraji P. Henson in "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.)Marisa Tomei in "The Wrestler" (Fox Searchlight)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"(Paramount and Warner Bros.) Screenplay by Eric Roth; Screen story by Eric Roth and Robin Swicord
"Doubt" (Miramax) Written by John Patrick Shanley
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal) Screenplay by Peter Morgan
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company) Screenplay by David Hare
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
"Frozen River" (Sony Pictures Classics); Written by Courtney Hunt
"Happy-Go-Lucky" (Miramax); Written by Mike Leigh
"In Bruges" (Focus Features); Written by Martin McDonagh
"Milk" (Focus Features); Written by Dustin Lance Black
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney); Screenplay by Andrew Stanton, Jim Reardon; Original story by Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM OF THE YEAR
"Bolt" (Walt Disney) Chris Williams and Byron Howard
"Kung Fu Panda" (DreamWorks Animation, Distributed by Paramount) John Stevenson and Mark Osborne
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney) Andrew Stanton

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
"Changeling" (Universal) Art Direction: James J. Murakami, Set Decoration: Gary Fettis
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.) Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando
"The Duchess" (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films) Art Direction: Michael Carlin, Set Decoration: Rebecca Alleway
"Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage) Art Direction: Kristi Zea, Set Decoration: Debra Schutt

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
"Changeling" (Universal) Tom Stern
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Claudio Miranda
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.) Wally Pfister
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company) Chris Menges and Roger Deakins
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Anthony Dod Mantle

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
"Australia" (20th Century Fox) Catherine Martin
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Jacqueline West
"The Duchess" (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films) Michael O'Connor
"Milk" (Focus Features) Danny Glicker
"Revolutionary Road" (DreamWorks, Distributed by Paramount Vantage) Albert Wolsky

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTING
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) David Fincher
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal) Ron Howard
"Milk" (Focus Features) Gus Van Sant
"The Reader" (The Weinstein Company) Stephen Daldry
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Danny Boyle

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
"The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)" (Cinema Guild) A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
"Encounters at the End of the World" (THINKFilm and Image Entertainment) A Creative Differences Production, Werner Herzog and Henry Kaiser
"The Garden" A Black Valley Films Production, Scott Hamilton Kennedy
"Man on Wire" (Magnolia Pictures) A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
"Trouble the Water" (Zeitgeist Films) An Elsewhere Films Production, Tia Lessin and Carl Deal

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT
"The Conscience of Nhem En" A Farallon Films Production Steven Okazaki
"The Final Inch" A Vermilion Films Production, Irene Taylor Brodsky and Tom Grant
"Smile Pinki" A Principe Production, Megan Mylan
"The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306" A Rock Paper Scissors Production, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.) Lee Smith
"Frost/Nixon" (Universal) Mike Hill and Dan Hanley
"Milk" (Focus Features) Elliot Graham
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Chris Dickens

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
"The Baader Meinhof Complex" A Constantin Film Production; Germany
"The Class" (Sony Pictures Classics) A Haut et Court Production; France
"Departures" (Regent Releasing) A Departures Film Partners Production; Japan
"Revanche" (Janus Films) A Prisma Film/Fernseh Production; Austria
"Waltz with Bashir" (Sony Pictures Classics) A Bridgit Folman Film Gang Production; Israel

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Greg Cannom
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.) John Caglione, Jr. and Conor O'Sullivan
"Hellboy II: The Golden Army" (Universal) Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SCORE)
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Alexandre Desplat
"Defiance" (Paramount Vantage) James Newton Howard
"Milk" (Focus Features) Danny Elfman
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) A.R. Rahman
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney) Thomas Newman

ACHIEVEMENT IN MUSIC WRITTEN FOR MOTION PICTURES (ORIGINAL SONG)
"Down to Earth" from "WALL-E" (Walt Disney) Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman; Lyrics by Peter Gabriel
"Jai Ho" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Music by A.R. Rahman; Lyrics by Gulzar "O Saya" from "Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Music and Lyrics by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM
"La Maison en Petits Cubes" A Robot Communications Production; Kunio Kato
"Lavatory - Lovestory" A Melnitsa Animation Studio and CTB Film Company Production; Konstantin Bronzit
"Oktapodi"(Talantis Films) A Gobelins, L'école de l'image Production; Emud Mokhberi and Thierry Marchand
"Presto" (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production; Doug Sweetland
"This Way Up" A Nexus Production; Alan Smith and Adam Foulkes

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM
"Auf der Strecke (On the Line)" (Hamburg Shortfilmagency); An Academy of Media Arts Cologne Production; Reto Caffi
"Manon on the Asphalt" (La Luna Productions) A La Luna Production; Elizabeth Marre and Olivier Pont
"New Boy" (Network Ireland Television) A Zanzibar Films Production; Steph Green and Tamara Anghie
"The Pig"An M & M Production; Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
"Spielzeugland (Toyland)" A Mephisto Film Production; Jochen Alexander Freydank

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.) Richard King
"Iron Man" (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment) Frank Eulner and Christopher Boyes
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Tom Sayers
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney) Ben Burtt and Matthew Wood
"Wanted" (Universal) Wylie Stateman

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) David Parker, Michael Semanick, Ren Klyce and Mark Weingarten
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.) Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
"Slumdog Millionaire" (Fox Searchlight) Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke and Resul Pookutty
"WALL-E" (Walt Disney) Tom Myers, Michael Semanick and Ben Burtt
"Wanted" (Universal) Chris Jenkins, Frank A. Montaño and Petr Forejt

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (Paramount and Warner Bros.) Eric Barba, Steve Preeg, Burt Dalton and Craig Barron
"The Dark Knight" (Warner Bros.) Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin "Iron Man" (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment) John Nelson, Ben Snow, Dan Sudick and Shane Mahan

Movie Review - Hamlet 2

I will start by saying I really wanted to enjoy this movie. I am a big fan of Steve Coogans TV work in the UK (Alan Partridge is just about the funniest TV character ever created) but his movie career doesn't appear to be enjoying the same success.

The premise for this film is pretty basic stuff with Coogan playing an out of work actor forced to teach drama at a High School in Tucson, AZ. The drama department is threatened with closure unless Coogan and his drama class can come up with a musical production that will wow enough people to invest in its future so Hamlet 2 is born (with signature number 'Sexy Jesus'). Pretty straightforward right? No.

First of all Coogan makes the horrible mistake of playing an American and his accent is a disaster. The characters are one dimensional, the plot dull and the jokes (remember this is meant to be a comedy) are painful and not painfully corny which works on occasion but painful, not-funny-painful! After 20 or so minutes I turned to my better half to ask if she was having the same experience and yes, this was a million miles from the Steve Coogan that we knew and loved from TV.

According to Roger Ebert 'The movie is an ideal showcase for the talents of Coogan' which maybe the case but he couldn't have misused the opportunity in a worse way. Even the appearance of Elizabeth Shue playing herself felt pointless as the movie moved from one failed scene to the next.

Netflix subscribers gave this flick an average review of 2.5 out of 5 ... very generous indeed.

Rating: *

Academy Award Nominations 2009

The nominations are minutes old, here are the big ones:

Best Picture
'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
'Frost/Nixon'
'Milk' 'The Reader'
'Slumdog Millionaire'

Best Director
Danny Boyle, 'Slumdog Millionaire'
Stephen Daldry, 'The Reader'
David Fincher, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
Ron Howard, 'Frost/Nixon'
Gus Van Sant, 'Milk'

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins, 'The Visitor'
Frank Langella, 'Frost/Nixon'
Sean Penn, 'Milk'
Brad Pitt, 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'
Mickey Rourke, 'The Wrestler'

Best Actress
Anne Hathaway, 'Rachel Getting Married'
Angelina Jolie, 'Changeling'
Melissa Leo, 'Frozen River'
Meryl Streep, 'Doubt'
Kate Winslet, 'The Reader'

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Stars Come Out for Obama & Arianna

The Huffington Post's Pre-Inaugural Ball Monday night hosted Obama Fans from The Big & Screen.My invite clearly got lost in the mail.

Robert De Niro

Val Kilmer

Rosie Perez

Marisa Tomei

Larry David

Gerard Butler

Dustin & Lisa Hoffman

Ashton Kutcher & Demi Moore

(all photo credits The Huffington Post)

Say it Ain't So Joaquin

Movie Review - Heaven on Earth

I had heard of this movie when it was screening at last years Toronto Film Festival and finally got chance today to check it out. It comes from much honored Indian director Deepa Mehta and is a harsh look at an arranged marriage for a woman just arrived in Canada from India.

The movie opens with a joyous and color drenched pre-wedding celebration in India for the lead character Chand (Preity Zinta) before she heads to Brantford, Ontario for an arranged marriage. Chand is understandably nervous but is assured by her mother that all will be well and so she heads West for a new life in the the Punjabi community on the frozen outskirts of Toronto. It is here we witness her slow slide into a desperate marriage full of abuse and isolation. Her husband, a man frustrated by life and who takes it out on those closest to him, is played with a simmering anger by Vansh Bhardwaj in what seems to be his first major film role. There is a tension that exists in the movie and doesn't let up but Heaven on Earth is alot more than a rail against domestic violence in arranged marriages as Mehta shines the spotlight on the complicity of family members. To a those of us that have grown up automatically accepting that equality in a marriage is the default position from which we all start what is portrayed here little short of medieval. When you add allowing children to witness violence and prejudice towards other races it is clear Mehta is not writing a love letter to the Canadian Sikh community but perhaps showing it to be no different from many others in its ability to foster acutely unacceptable behavior.

Priety puts in a strong performance as a woman pining to return home especially when the abuse becomes too much and she retreats into an escapist world of fantasy. The support cast are just that and fill the scenes adequately but this is not a film full of Best Supporting nominations.

Heaven on Earth clocks in at 106 minutes but it feels longer. This is no Friday night DVD but a worthwhile look into a world on our doorstep of which I knew very little.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Happy Inauguration Day

Here is a large part of why today is such a great day for the United States.

Monday, January 19, 2009

New Image from Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

Lovely Luna Lovegood.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

We are One: The Obama Inaugural Celebration At The Lincoln Memorial

Stars of the Big & Small Screen showed up in DC yesterday for the big HBO shindig celebrating tomorrows inauguration of Barack Obama including Philadelphia stars Tom and Denzel.

Movie Review - Burn After Reading

This was a film I was looking forward to seeing and with good reason. Firstly it is directed by the bizarrely talented brothers Cohen and it also offered a cast with some of my firm faves including Richard Jenkins & Frances McDormand. It also starred Pitt and Clooney but I'm afraid I have been soured on that Big Screen partnership by the deteriorating Oceans franchise, I mean come on, did anyone enjoy Oceans 12 or 13 ... really?

The plot is amusingly bonkers and convoluted:

Osbourne Cox, a Balkan expert, is fired at the CIA, so he begins a memoir. His wife wants a divorce and expects her lover, Harry, a philandering State Department marshal, to leave his wife. A diskette of Osbourne's musings falls out of a gym bag at a Georgetown fitness center. Two employees there try to turn it into cash: Linda, who wants money for elective surgery, and Chad, an amiable goof. They try to sell the disc back to Osbourne, who has a short fuse, then they visit the Russian embassy. To sweeten the pot, they decide they need more of Osbourne's secrets. Meanwhile, Linda's boss likes her, and Harry's wife leaves for a book tour. All roads lead to Osbourne's house. (IMDB)

There were a few laugh out loud moments in the movie and I did enjoy John Malcovich's diatribe against the 'league of morons' in our society (actually this short scene with Richard Jenkins was worth the DVD rental alone). However while I am hard pressed to find fault with any of the individual performances the movie left me with an empty unsatisfied feeling as the credits rolled. I guess the pairing of such stellar directors with an incredibly talented cast sets the expectations too high but it might also be the case that every now and the the brothers Cohen release a picture that leaves me non-plussed ... Intolerable Cruelty & Barton Fink come to mind.

I think Frances McDormand's Golden Globe nomination was correct but it was also right that she didn't win, it was a nomination performance not a winning performance and there is a pretty clear difference sometimes.

Rating: ** (hard to believe but it's fair)

Transformers 2 Poster

I was not blown away by the first Transformers movie but then I was not the generation that played with the toys so I doubt Paramount are that bothered. They did a nice job on the site though.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Love and Conchords Return

Staying on today's theme of free promotion for HBO (checks or envelopes stuffed with cash gratefully accepted) Sunday sees the return of two of the networks more successful recent shows, Big Love and Flight of the Conchords.

I was a Big Love fan from the start but have never seen Conchords. I guess these two shows premiered when HBO was seemingly starting to lose it's magic touch that had given us The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and Curb Your Enthusiasm. I also tried to watch John from Cincinnati which turned out to be quite awful and mercifully ended up cancelled after season one's final episode. Last week in San Francisco people were urging me to get on board with Conchords so I think I will Tivo this new season and watch the first season on Netflix.

No such catch up needed with Big Love as I was always going to want this show to succeed. Chloe Sevigny, Bill Paxton and Harry Dean Stanton have been favorite actors of mine for some time and when the stars literally align and end up in a premium cable show together it's a bit of a no brainer.

Stars Celebrate Obama on HBO

Friday, January 16, 2009

25 Years of Sundance

As Sundance Film Festival enters its opening weekend Variety looks back at the journey it has made to become the most successful Independent Film Festival in the world.

1985

Robert Redford's Sundance Institute buys the struggling U.S. Film Festival, moves it to Park City from Salt Lake, and focuses programming on the work of independent filmmakers.

In its first year under Sundance supervision, fest screens 80 pics, including Grand Jury Prize winner "Blood Simple," a low-budget noir thriller from first-timers Joel and Ethan Coen.

1989

Steven Soderbergh's "sex, lies and videotape" makes its world premiere at Park City, then goes on to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes and earn $25 million domestically for a relatively unknown New York-based distribution company named Miramax.

1991

Fest officially changes name to the Sundance Film Festival. Geoff Gilmore takes the programming reins. "Poison," first-time director Todd Haynes' controversial, experimental narrative, wins the festival's Grand Jury Prize.

1994

"Clerks," a slacker comedy that 23-year-old Kevin Smith makes for $27,000, draws rave reviews at its Sundance premiere, gets picked up by Miramax, and earns $3.1 million at the U.S. box office.

1996

The big-money acquisitions era officially begins when "The Spitfire Grill," a tearjerker funded by a Catholic nonprofit, is picked up in Park City by Castle Rock for $10 million. Miramax topper Harvey Weinstein tussles with Fine Line brass over "Shine." Fine Line prevails and nabs seven Oscar noms for the pic in 1997.

1999

In perhaps the most infamous example of festival buzz gone haywire, comedy "Happy, Texas" sells for "north of $10 million" to Miramax, only to gross $1.96 million domestically.

2004

High-profile bidding-war pics "Supersize Me," "Napoleon Dynamite" and "Garden State" sell big at the festival, then go on to collect a combined $83 million at the U.S. box office.

2006

"Little Miss Sunshine" and
"An Inconvenient Truth," the most talked-about narrative and docu pics to debut at Sundance, end up grossing a combined $104 million in ticket sales and grab a total of four Oscars the following year.

2007

Frustrated with celebrity culture, paparazzi and gifting suites invading Park City during the festival, Sundance organizers hand out buttons with the slogan "Focus on Film." This trend is revived in 2008.

2009

In what seems like a "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" spirit, Sundance officially partners with one of the biggest "pirate marketing" hubs, the Lift, and turns it into a hospitality and event space -- but decidedly sans swag, organizers promise.

Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian

Thursday, January 15, 2009

In Memoriam - Patrick McGoohan

The star and co-creator of the 1960's British TV show The Prisoner has died aged 80. The story of this show is an interesting one about a secret agent that 'knew too much' and was known for pushing the boundaries in a very conservative time for TV. The show which spawned the famous line, 'I am not a number, I am a free man' caused such a controversy with the final episode that McGoohan moved to Los Angeles to escape from unwanted attention.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

In Memoriam - Ricardo Montalban

The actor who played the memorable role of Khan in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan has died aged 88. Ricardo Montalban was a Mexican born actor and amongst a varied and busy career also memorably portrayed Mr Roarke in Fantasy Island.

TV But Not As We Know It

Traditional TV watching has certainly gone the way of the dodo. No longer do we gather around the water cooler to discuss last nights episode of our favorite show as the advent of DVRs has us watching TV on our own schedule. Now we see sites like Hulu and TV.com offering us HD content from full episodes to clips from our favorite shows.

At this stage it seems hard to imagine we would say goodbye to traditional TV altogether but I read yesterday that some TV heads out there are already cancelling that pricey monthly cable or Satellite TV fee and instead watching their favorite shows online or on DVD. I myself love to catch up on a show on DVD so you can watch them whenever you want and then turn to your other half and say 'shall we just watch one more?' (this isn't good if you are trying to get a healthy 8 hours sleep in!).

As mobile devices become more powerful and sites like these offer us the shows we want on demand in high def it will be very interesting to see if more people turn their backs on regularly scheduled programming.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Movie Review - The Reader

I am asking myself a serious question, are we in some kind of Golden Age of movie making? In the last few weeks I have seen some of the best films in years and The Reader is my latest addition to the list. When I checked out the times for this movie I was hoping the other January movie starring Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road, would be playing but instead it was The Reader and to say the least it was a good night at the multiplex.

The movies opens in post war Germany in 1958 when we meet Michael Berg, a young man who stumbles accidentally into a relationship with tramcar ticket collector and former SS guard Hanna Schmitz played in a Golden Globe winning performance by Kate Winslet. This unlikely relationship develops into a teenage infatuation for Berg as Schmitz becomes his first sexual partner and indeed his first real relationship with a woman. During the scenes between the two a natural chemistry is born including the ritual of Berg reading to Schmitz from his school books because as we find out later in the movie the former SS guard is illiterate. No mention is made of his lovers connection to the SS during this part of the film and it is only when we flash forward to Germany in the 70s and later that we see an older Berg (another strong performance by Ralph Feinnes) discovering the dark past of his former lover.

As the movie time shifts between key parts of Bergs life we enter into the real story being told here which deals with the trial of former SS guards which includes Schmitz and her time working at Auschwitz. We move from a teenage love story to watching a man wrestle with his own morality when he realizes what his former love did for the Nazis during the war. We see Berg as a Law student walking through the gas chambers and prison huts at Auschwitz serving as a turning point in the young mans thinking towards Schmitz as he watches her trial with his fellow students. But this film is not as simple as that as the movie is a triumph of subtlety and suggestion taking you on a journey with Berg as he faces up to the devastating revelations about his first love. Nothing is cut and dried, even Schmitz's obvious guilt and complicity is questioned, was she brain-washed, did her illiteracy prevent her from making the right decision, how much blame should a lowly guard take for carrying out orders. On paper one imagines our response is pretty black and white and in some respects they are but The Reader is a movie that does not offer easy answers having cleverly established the humanity that is within Hannah Schmitz.

Winslet and Feinnes are both playing at the top of their game in this movie but we are also introduced to David Kross who plays the teenage Michael Berg (himself just 18) with a confidence and assuredness beyond his years. The imtimate scenes with Winslet would have been a challenge for the most experienced of actors and Winslet has said she had to inject humor into the scenes to put Kross at ease. Well it certainly paid off for the German actor who has been nominated for Best Young Actor/Actress at the Annual Critics Choice Awards.

This film is complex but rewarding, asking tough questions of it's audience about how morality and law should relate to each other and the motivation of people forced to make choices in extraordinary situations. Shadowed by the horror that was the holocaust these questions become even harder to ask but certainly no less necessary.

Rating: *****

American Idol - Same Old Same Old

OK so this must be a record, 21 minutes into tonight's season premiere of Idol I have turned the TV off. Even the fact that the season opens in my hometown of Phoenix is not enough to keep me watching the same tired format. A fourth judge is irrelevant and trotting out the same tuneless characters with the occasional 'talent' is not enough to keep my attention I'm afraid.

Let's be honest the signs weren't good last year. There were some absolute clangers in 2008's the final 12 including the quite dreadful Jason Castro and the winner David Cook was the most average Idol we have seen to date.

It will be interesting to see the ratings for this season. I am sure tonight's will do well but I can't be the only person whose interest waned last year and has decided to bail altogether. There's no getting away from it, the show is just so 7 years ago!

Dull as dishwater I'm afraid, sorry Simon.