February 8th, 2010 08:16am
Will Pfeifer
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That’s right, James Cameron’s uber-blockbuster, the all-time (depending on how you do the math) box office champ, was finally unseated as the top movie of the weekend. And what managed to accomplish this amazing task?
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DEAR JOHN, the chickiest chick flick in a long time. Congratulations, DEAR JOHN! It’s only fitting that the director of TITANIC would have his next blockbuster beaten by a sappy love story.
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Read all about it here.
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February 5th, 2010 10:56am
Will Pfeifer
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Charlize Theron, glam and non-glam.
Over at Slate.com, Joe Keohane has an interesting, humorous look at how rich, glamourous celebs get de-glamorized to play average Joes and Janes. As he says in his intro…
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“Every now and again, Hollywood makes a go at depicting the working class, often around Oscar season and usually to hilarious effect. The story is generally some slow-moving, minor-key piece involving ordinary folks struggling with ordinary problems in ordinary parts of the country. To offset the dreariness of such an errand, the lead character—a waitress, maid, or stripper with kid/husband problems—is usually played by a jaw-droppingly attractive star, who wins positive press for being willing to subvert her beauty in order to portray one of the great unwashed doing whatever it is they do out there in the dull diabetic landmass between Los Angeles and New York City.”
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Check out the story and video slide show at this link.
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(There’s profanity in the “Sudden Bursts of Profanity and Dialect” section of the video slide show, but you can skip it if you want.)
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February 5th, 2010 09:42am
Will Pfeifer
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Just because I happened to post the trailer for WALL STREET 2 last week and stumbled across THE DOORS last night on cable, here’s a bit from Ben Stiller’s late, lamented early 1990s Fox show focusing on the director of those films…
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February 4th, 2010 04:35pm
Will Pfeifer
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Cinematical poses an intriguing movie question: What the heck is this kid doing at the end of BACK TO THE FUTURE III?
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I mean, I’ve seen this movie several times and I never noticed it before. Theories range from him mimicking what someone was doing off camera to signaling he had to use the restroom. But it was a huge-budget movie. Couldn’t they have done a retake?
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February 4th, 2010 02:26pm
Will Pfeifer
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Though I liked UP, I don’t think it ranked with the best Pixar films (THE INCREDIBLES, FINDING NEMO and TOY STORY 2, in case you’re interrested). And as for animated movies released in 2009, I thought it ranked behind CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS (which looks better every time I see it) and FANTASTIC MR. FOX (one of the best movies of the year). But my misgivings are nothing compared to another writer out in the blogoverse…
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Over at his Cinema Styles blog, Greg makes the impassioned case that Pixar’s UP (and, for that matter, Pixar in general) is way overrated. Inspired by the fact that UP was nominated for both Best Picture and Best Animated Feature, Greg has this to say….
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“I consistently find myself less enamored than everyone else of Pixar’s insufferable whimsy. I find most of their films good to very good as children’s films but not very good as films overall whereas I would rank something like Carol Ballard’s BLACK STALLION as an excellent children’s film and an excellent film overall. And of course I do like several Pixar efforts, from TOY STORY to FINDING NEMO. Around that point, after the release of FINDING NEMO, they started to believe their own press and started injecting their childhood fantasies with adult sentiments, producing for me an uneasy mix. And now, against my better judgment, I will let loose.”
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And let loose he does. I’m not sure I agree with him, but Greg does make a few excellent points, especially regarding (a) who the real villain of the movie is, and (b)Â why is Carl so upset about the bird being captured (live, remember) when he spend decades working in …. a zoo?
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Read the whole thing here.
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February 4th, 2010 08:47am
Will Pfeifer
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Something as heavily hyped as the annual Academy Awards can’t help but have a cultural impact, and Todd Boyd explains the complicated, controversial and sometimes just plain ugly racial history of the Oscars .
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“When Hattie McDaniel, the first African American ever nominated for an Academy Award, arrived at the Ambassador Hotel for the 1940 ceremony, she was seated at a table on the extreme periphery of the auditorium. McDaniel had been nominated for Best Supporting Actress based on her role as Mammy in GONE WITH THE WIND (1939). Though this seating assignment was quite insulting, such slights were not uncommon, as McDaniel had also been forced to miss the film’s Atlanta premiere due to southern Jim Crow laws. McDaniel would go on to win the Academy Award that evening in 1940, becoming the first African American to ever win the prestigious award. It would be 24 years before another African American would be declared an Oscar winner.”
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Read the rest here.
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February 3rd, 2010 04:53pm
Will Pfeifer
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That’s right, LOST is back on the air for its sixth and final season. And, just as we did last year, we’re rehashing the episode, asking questions and arguing theories in our weekly LOST podcast.
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Click here to hear or download the show. It features Billy Kulpa, Chris Soprych and yours truly talking about all sorts of geeky LOST goodness.
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February 2nd, 2010 08:16am
Will Pfeifer
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Wow! Go DISTRICT 9!
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Here they are, straight from Oscar.com:
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BEST PICTURE
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Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air
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BEST DIRECTOR
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James Cameron, “Avatar”
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker”
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Lee Daniels, “Precious”
Jason Reitman, “Up in the Air”
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BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man”
Morgan Freeman, “Invictus”
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”
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BEST ACTRESS
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Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side”
Helen Mirren, “The Last Station”
Carey Muligan, “An Education”
Gaborey Sibide, “Precious”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
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Matt Damon, “Invictus”
Woody Harrelson, “The Messenger”
Christopher Plummer, “The Last Station”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds”
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
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Penelope Cruz, “Nine”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Maggie Gyllenhaal, “Crazy Heart”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Monique, “Precious”
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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
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“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The Messenger”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
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BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“District 9″
“An Education”
“In the Loop”
“Precious”
“Up in the Air”
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“The Princess and the Frog”
“The Secret of Kells”
“Up”
February 1st, 2010 04:28pm
Will Pfeifer
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Just for the heck of it, I thought I’d share a few of the movie books I’ve been reading lately. Some are old, some are new, and if you have any suggestions for more cinematic reading, please share ‘em here.
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A SONG IN THE DARK: THE BIRTH OF THE MUSICAL FILM by Richard Barrios — I’m not a big fan of musicals by any means, but this I found this book about the (very) early days of sound film fascinating. Barrios researched the heck out of his topic, but he never gets bogged down, telling the story from THE JAZZ SINGER (not the groundbreaker most people think) to the days of the Production Code with humor and style. One surprising fact: At the same time sound films were changing the industry, the other big groundbreaking trend was color. Lots of movies were filmed with a crude color process, but few survive today.
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ARROWS OF DESIRE: THE FILMS OF MICHAEL POWELL AND EMERIC PRESSBURGER by Ian Christie — You might not know the names, but British filmmakers Powell and Pressburger are responsible for some of the most unusual, deeply personal and purely entertaining films ever made. If you’ve never seen THE 49TH PARALLEL, A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH, BLACK NARCISSUS, THE RED SHOES or other films by “The Archers” (as P & P called themselves), rent a few (most have been released by Criterion) then read this career-spanning book.
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MONDO MACABRO: WEIRD AND WONDERFUL CINEMA FROM AROUND THE WORLDÂ by Pete Toombs — A recent viewing of the HOUSE, a very strange horror film from Japan, prompted me to take this book off my shelf and give it another look. It’s an impressively complete view of weird movies from around the world. Sure, MONDO MACABRO is more than a decade old, but the upside of that situation is many of these movies are available on DVD now. (Like, for example, the aforementioned HOUSE.)
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JERRY LEWIS: CONTEMPORARY FILM DIRECTORS by Chris Fujiwara — This is a very serious academic look at the directing career of Jerry Lewis, whom I’ve always been fascinated by. Fujiwara does a solid job of charting the themes and techniques of Lewis’ films — and believe me, there’s a lot going on just under the “hey lady” surface. The book also includes an interview with Lewis himself, and if you’ve never heard him speak seriously about his movies, I think you’ll be surprised — and even impressed — about how smart the guy can be.
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February 1st, 2010 10:46am
Will Pfeifer
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Brace yourself: TWILIGHT: NEW MOON has been nominated for several Razzies, including “Worst Supporting Actor” (Robert Pattinson), “Worst Screenplay,” “Worst Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel” and “Worst Screen Couple” (include Kristen Stewart and “EITHER Robert Pattinson OR Taylor Whatz-His-Fang.”
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Cinematical has the details here.
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How, the question remains, will the level-headed fans over at My Life is Twilight react?
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