The Movie Thread

[Gazoo]

The noms are in, and no great surprises, I don't suppose:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/22/oscar.nominations/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/22/oscar.list/index.html

Best Picture: "Atonement," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."

Actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"; Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"; Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises."

Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"; Julie Christie, "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"; Laura Linney, "The Savages"; Ellen Page, "Juno."

Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"; Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton."

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"; Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"; Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement"; Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"; Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."

Director: Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Jason Reitman, "Juno"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."

[RGMike]

The noms are in, and no great surprises, I don't suppose:

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/22/oscar.nominations/index.html

http://www.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/22/oscar.list/index.html

Best Picture: "Atonement," "Juno," "Michael Clayton," "No Country for Old Men," "There Will Be Blood."

Actor: George Clooney, "Michael Clayton"; Daniel Day-Lewis, "There Will Be Blood"; Johnny Depp, "Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street"; Tommy Lee Jones, "In the Valley of Elah"; Viggo Mortensen, "Eastern Promises."

Actress: Cate Blanchett, "Elizabeth: The Golden Age"; Julie Christie, "Away From Her"; Marion Cotillard, "La Vie en Rose"; Laura Linney, "The Savages"; Ellen Page, "Juno."

Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck, "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford"; Javier Bardem, "No Country for Old Men"; Hal Holbrook, "Into the Wild"; Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Charlie Wilson's War"; Tom Wilkinson, "Michael Clayton."

Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, "I'm Not There"; Ruby Dee, "American Gangster"; Saoirse Ronan, "Atonement"; Amy Ryan, "Gone Baby Gone"; Tilda Swinton, "Michael Clayton."

Director: Julian Schnabel, "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"; Jason Reitman, "Juno"; Tony Gilroy, "Michael Clayton"; Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, "No Country for Old Men"; Paul Thomas Anderson, "There Will Be Blood."

actually there are several surprises there: Tommy Lee Jones for "..Elah" had been written off by most pundits as a lost cause -- I'm glad he's there, it's a wonderful perf.  And NOBODY expected Reitman to get a Director nom for "Juno".  Mild surprise: no love for director Sean Penn (or for "Into the Wild" as Best Pic), despite noms from the various Guilds.

[Gazoo]

See, I just assumed everyone disliked Sean Penn.  (I thought the Vedder soundtrack would get a song mention, but it seems like the rock idiom has falllen out of favor in voting circles.)

[RGMike]

See, I just assumed everyone disliked Sean Penn.  (I thought the Vedder soundtrack would get a song mention, but it seems like the rock idiom has falllen out of favor in voting circles.)

These are "Hollywood liberals" we're talking about  . He's still pretty popular, as evidence the directors, producers and actors guilds nominations the film got.

I'd also say I'm surprised and pleased to see Viggo Mortensen get a nod for "Eastern Promises".

[RGMike]

equal time: the Razzies noms were also announced...

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=ae1fa7d2-e4b6-4217-b0c7-32bc5debc455

[Lightnin' Rod]

equal time: the Razzies noms were also announced...

http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=ae1fa7d2-e4b6-4217-b0c7-32bc5debc455

I watched "Norbit" the other day on HBO.  Not exactly sure why I stuck it out, maybe the train wreck syndrom.  Anyway, Murphy deserves all the noms for those performances.  Offensive and not very funny in each and every role.  The Norbit character was like a bad Adam Sandler performance.  Not that there are many good Adam Sandler performances -- but Eddie was worse than Adam's normally lame characterizations.  Wierd facial manerisms to no apparent purpose...

[RGMike]

For those with digital cable who have the "On Demand" function, this is kind of interesting:

4 Months 3 Weeks 2 Days, the Romanian film that was rather scandalously denied a Best Foreign Film Oscar nom this week by the Academy's rather geriatric committee-on-foreign-entires, will be playing starting Friday (1/25) thru the IFC On Demand menu.  It's supposed to be quite amazing and I can't wait.

And at the other end of the spectrum, On Demand's "free movies" menu is offering the Sgt Peppers flick with Frampton and the BeeGees -- which I've NEVER seen. So, again, I can't wait.

BTW, I was gonna post a review of Cloverfield but I found it rather unpleasant and would rather not relive the experience.  But I am seeing the new Woody, Cassandra's Dream, Friday afternoon. Another British one, but no Scarlet Jo this time.

[Gazoo]

For those with digital cable who have the "On Demand" function, this is kind of interesting:

And at the other end of the spectrum, On Demand's "free movies" menu is offering the Sgt Peppers flick with Frampton and the BeeGees -- which I've NEVER seen. So, again, I can't wait.

The cameos are more fun than you've been led to believe.

[RGMike]

For those with digital cable who have the "On Demand" function, this is kind of interesting:

And at the other end of the spectrum, On Demand's "free movies" menu is offering the Sgt Peppers flick with Frampton and the BeeGees -- which I've NEVER seen. So, again, I can't wait.

The cameos are more fun than you've been led to believe.

Well, I just watched it. Wow, it was worse than I was expecting.  Just soooo badly directed -- a shame, because it was helmed by Michael Schultz, one of the few black directors working in H'wood at the time (he'd done Cooley High and Car Wash) and his career never really recovered. What was hilarious and unexpected was the fact that Frampton, the BeeGees and Paul Nicholas don't utter a Single. Line. Of. Dialogue. Because, of course they're Brits playing guys from "Heartland, USA" and their accents would've ruined everything. So the whole movie is narrated by George Burns and lots (and lots) of title cards. The cameos in the singalong chorus at the end (everyone from Robert Palmer to Carol Channing to Stephen friggin' Bishop) are kinda fun, tho' it has one of the Silliest. Endings. EVAH.  But if I ever try to kill myself, I wanna be saved by a magical weathervane that turns into Billy Preston.

Kudos to Earth Wind and Fire for not realizing they were in a crappy movie and just doing a great cover of GTGYIMYL.

[RGMike]

OK, so here's a pic of Sean Penn as a mid-1970s, bearded Harvey Milk:



Someone at Hollywood Elsewhere posted that he looks more like Pete Townsend and I wholeheartedly agree. maybe Sean can play Pete in that Keith Moon biopic (Mike Meyers is supposed to play Moon).

[Lightnin' Rod]

What was hilarious and unexpected was the fact that Frampton, the BeeGees and Paul Nicholas don't utter a Single. Line. Of. Dialogue. Because, of course they're Brits playing guys from "Heartland, USA" and their accents would've ruined everything.

Like that would have made it worse?  I'm mean, could it have ruined it more?

I watched it again a few weeks back and was just amazed at how many poor choices were made in it's creation.  One WTF moment after another.  I saw it when it first came out, and knew it was bad then, even if you were stoned.  But it was even worse than I remembered, except for a segment here and there that brought a smile to my face (including the EWF number).

[RGMike]

And speaking of awful movies, a very funny review of Meet the Spartans:

http://www.slate.com/id/2183162/nav/tap3/

[RGMike]

mshray especially will find this of interest: an interview with Oscar-nommed cinematographer Roger Deakins.

[mshray]

mshray especially will find this of interest: an interview with Oscar-nommed cinematographer Roger Deakins.

I would be if there was a link somewhere, please kindly repost it.

[RGMike]

mshray especially will find this of interest: an interview with Oscar-nommed cinematographer Roger Deakins.

I would be if there was a link somewhere, please kindly repost it.

Yikes, my 2nd or 3rd "oops!" of the day.  Here 'tis:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080130/ap_en_mo/film_q_a_roger_deakins