The Movie Thread

[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.

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

Thanks!

[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

Thanks!

BTW, The Assassination of Jesse James... comes out on DVD next week, I highly recommend for the cinematography alone -- I believe I predicted a few months back that he'd be competing against himself in that category. Which is a shame since he may open the door for the guy from There Will Be Blood, which is good work but not as good as either of Deakins' IMHO.

[SFGuy]

I would guess no one is going to go near the upcoming movie Strange Wilderness. I've seen trailers of this movie and it looks to rank among the worst movies ever. It's supposed to be a comedy and what they showed wasn't funny one bit. Looks like bad acting, bad writing. Appears to be written by people on heavy drugs.

[RGMike]

I would guess no one is going to go near the upcoming movie Strange Wilderness. I've seen trailers of this movie and it looks to rank among the worst movies ever. It's supposed to be a comedy and what they showed wasn't funny one bit. Looks like bad acting, bad writing. Appears to be written by people on heavy drugs.

Indeed -- it's from the Adam Sandler factory (Happy Madison Productions) and you don't release a movie aimed at young men on Super Bowl Weekend unless it's some sort of tax write-off.

[SFGuy]

I would guess no one is going to go near the upcoming movie Strange Wilderness. I've seen trailers of this movie and it looks to rank among the worst movies ever. It's supposed to be a comedy and what they showed wasn't funny one bit. Looks like bad acting, bad writing. Appears to be written by people on heavy drugs.

Indeed -- it's from the Adam Sandler factory (Happy Madison Productions) and you don't release a movie aimed at young men on Super Bowl Weekend unless it's some sort of tax write-off.

I read on the Imdb dot com website on the Strange Wilderness message board that people will love it or really hate it. It seems to me that those who will love it will be under 21 and/or pot smokers. Some people hinted at the last one on the board there. Some actually found that shark part the funniest thing they ever saw when I saw it as the stupidest thing I've ever seen. Then again, I'm almost 40.

UPDATE: This movie failed. It didn't even finish in the top 10 movies this week.

[RGMike]

Question for Geoff: just noticed your U2 avatar -- have you seen the U2-3D concert film yet? I see that it's expanding this Friday to "regular" theaters, so you can see it in 3D without paying IMAX prices.

[ggould]

Question for Geoff: just noticed your U2 avatar -- have you seen the U2-3D concert film yet? I see that it's expanding this Friday to "regular" theaters, so you can see it in 3D without paying IMAX prices.

thanks for the reminder.  I have so little time anymore, but I'd like to go.  Has anyone else gone?

[RGMike]

Question for Geoff: just noticed your U2 avatar -- have you seen the U2-3D concert film yet? I see that it's expanding this Friday to "regular" theaters, so you can see it in 3D without paying IMAX prices.

thanks for the reminder.  I have so little time anymore, but I'd like to go.  Has anyone else gone?

This afternoon I read that

(a) The planned expansion of U2-3D to 600 "regular" theaters this week has been put on hold because Hanna Montana, originally intended to be a one-week-only run, has been extended by Disney and is therefore monopolizing the 600 theaters with 3-D capability (DAMN you, Miley Cyrus!).

(b) U2-3D will have its IMAX showtimes reduced to once-a-day (in the morning!) starting Friday to make room for Spiderwick Chronicles.

So I went to Metreon tonite to see it and I'm glad I did.  Great sound, the 3-D effects are cool, it's U2's greatest hits in a nice tight 90 min package.  Worth checking out.

[mshray]

Bringing this over from this morning's 10at10 thread:  What are some of the worst Oscar noms ever?  I said Ghost, but Mike said he had several less deserving films in mind, and what with the 80th awards show only days away...

To be fair I can only go back about as long as I've been alive, so the first one I can point out is Cleopatra, in 1963, which may have seen the weakest slate of nominees ever, none are anywheres near the AFI top 100 for instance. 

1974, that great year for Top 40 cheese, also saw a pure cheese movie - Towering Inferno - get nommed ahead of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Harry & Tonto, Murder on the Orient Express, and the Mel Brooks twin spin of Blazing Saddles & Young Frankenstein. 

The Big Chill was almost as sappy as Ghost, but it didn't really steal the nom from any much more deserving film, unless you feel strongly about Silkwood or maybe Fanny & Alexander (which, although widely regarded as superior, had no chance with the academy since it's not in American, I mean English). 

On the other hand it's hard to argue that Fatal Attraction deserved a nom over Empire of the Sun (at the time perceived to be a big snub of Spielberg), or even Full Metal Jacket or Matewan...in retrospect. 

Likewise Babe ahead of Dead Man Walking, Leaving Las Vegas or The Usual Suspects.  Or even personal fave 12 Monkeys.

So I'll probably have to conclude that Towering Inferno was the worst, and Ghost ties with Fatal Attraction for 2nd worst.

[RGMike]

Bringing this over from this morning's 10at10 thread:  What are some of the worst Oscar noms ever?  I said Ghost, but Mike said he had several less deserving films in mind, and what with the 80th awards show only days away...

To be fair I can only go back about as long as I've been alive, so the first one I can point out is Cleopatra, in 1963, which may have seen the weakest slate of nominees ever, none are anywheres near the AFI top 100 for instance. 

1974, that great year for Top 40 cheese, also saw a pure cheese movie - Towering Inferno - get nommed ahead of Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Harry & Tonto, Murder on the Orient Express, and the Mel Brooks twin spin of Blazing Saddles & Young Frankenstein. 

The Big Chill was almost as sappy as Ghost, but it didn't really steal the nom from any much more deserving film, unless you feel strongly about Silkwood or maybe Fanny & Alexander (which, although widely regarded as superior, had no chance with the academy since it's not in American, I mean English). 

On the other hand it's hard to argue that Fatal Attraction deserved a nom over Empire of the Sun (at the time perceived to be a big snub of Spielberg), or even Full Metal Jacket or Matewan...in retrospect. 

Likewise Babe ahead of Dead Man Walking, Leaving Las Vegas or The Usual Suspects.  Or even personal fave 12 Monkeys.

So I'll probably have to conclude that Towering Inferno was the worst, and Ghost ties with Fatal Attraction for 2nd worst.

Inferno is def up there. Greatest Show on Earth, anybody? (that one actually WON!) I'll have more tonight when I get out my Oscar stats book, but I must defend Babe as a great film -- dismissed by far too many as "just a kid's movie".  Totally agree that Empire of the Sun got robbed.  OTOH, I absolutely HATED Babel last year.

[RGMike]

and as we're talking Oscar, here's some great trivia surrounding the Coen Bros this year:

For the first time since 1953 (and potentially only the second time in Academy history), the Coens could earn individual victories in four separate categories. Only Walt Disney, as producer of three live-action, animated and documentary shorts in addition to a documentary feature, was able to leave an Oscar ceremony with four statuettes in hand.

If the Coens can pull off the same feat, they would be the first to do it for a single film. Orson Welles for “Citizen Kane,” and Warren Beatty for both “Heaven Can Wait” and “Reds,” each had four nods but walked off with only a single Oscar (Welles shared the 1941Screenplay prize while Beatty won Best Director in 1981 for “Reds”). A few artists have won three Oscars in one night, including Billy Wilder, James L. Brooks, James Cameron, Francis Ford Coppola, Marvin Hamlisch and others. However, the Coens would join Disney as the only ones to take four.

But there is a catch.

In the best editing category, they credit themselves under their joint pseudonym Roderick Jaynes. Should the Coens win that category , the Academy confirmed this week that there will be only one statuette presented and it would later be engraved as belonging to Mr. Jaynes. This means the brothers would only get that statuette and official Academy record books would technically not list Joel and Ethan Coen as the rightful recipients of four Oscars should they win in all of their categories.

The Editors guild, however, says it will be happy to give both Coens, a.k.a. Jaynes, Eddie awards if they win there Sunday and they can have whatever name they want engraved on them. A spokesperson at the guild said they would be thrilled just to have them show up!

[Gazoo]

Richard Corliss addresses this very topic in tomorrow's issue of Time.  His idea of a snub is rather different from yours and yours. 

ETA: xpost - that was in re baffling winners, not Coen pseudonymity.

[mshray]

So Mike, where are you going to watch the Oscars, just at home?

[RGMike]

Richard Corliss addresses this very topic in tomorrow's issue of Time.  His idea of a snub is rather different from yours and yours. 

ETA: xpost - that was in re baffling winners, not Coen pseudonymity.

if this is the article you mean

http://www.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1705754_1705764,00.html

he's only talking about this year. Or is there another article yet to come?

Mark: yeah, I hate "Oscar parties" generally. (especially gay ones)

[Gazoo]

No, there's another article as well, but I can't find it on the site right now.