Oscar Winners

Brodie Fanns!

FINAL RESULTS ARE IN!

Tonight... going on right now, I am bringing my blogs (blogspot, myspace and broadcasteverywhere) to you live. With live updates.

Why? It's Oscar night, that's why. It's my Super Bowl. I locked in my predictions yesterday, and today, I will be bringing you live updates on winners. If my prediction matches the winner, the entry will be listed in green. If not, then the entry will be in red, with the winner in green next to it.

First up for the night... WHY IS MILEY GORRAM CYRUS BEING INTERVIEWED FOR THE PRE-CEREMONY BARBARA WALTERS SPECIAL?! That's the burning question of the interview.

Best Picture- No Country For Old Men
Best Director- Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men
Best Actor- Daniel Day Lewis for There Will Be Blood
Best Actress- Julie Christie for Away From Her (Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose)
Best Supporting Actor- Javier Bardem for No Country For Old Men
Best Supporting Actress- Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone (Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton)
Best Original Screenplay- Diablo Cody for Juno
Best Adapted Screenplay- Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men
Best Animated Feature- Ratatouille
Best Foreign Language Film- Die Falscher from Austria
Best Documentary Feature- Sicko (Taxi to the Dark Side)
Best Documentary Short- Salim Baba (Freeheld)
Best Short Film Animated-Peter and the Wolf
Best Short Film Live-Action- The Mozart of Pickpockets
Best Cinematography- The Assassination of Jesse James... (There Will Be Blood)
Best Editing- No Country For Old Menm (The Bourne Ultimatum)
Best Art Direction- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Costume Design- Across The Universe (Elizabeth: The Golden Age)
Best Make-Up- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End (La Vie en Rose)
Best Original Score- 3:10 to Yuma (Atonement)
Best Original Song- "Falling Slowly" from Once
Best Sound Mixing- Transformers (The Bourne Ultimatum)
Best Sound Editing- Transformers (The Bourne Ultimatum)
Best Visual Effects- Transformers (The Golden Compass)


Peace out fanns!

-Brodie Mann

Oscar Predictions

Brodie Fanns!

It's the most wonderful time of the year...

No, not Christmas again. I'm talking Oscar season! The Super Bowl for movie fans. And thankfully the writer's strike is over, so it will go on, with Jon Stewart at the helm. If you remember, I was a big fan of his when he first did it 2 years ago (though I am still pushing for Conan to host... OH! Bring the Conan/Stewart/Colbert feud to the Oscars!)

So... like I always do, every year... Oscar Picks!

Click here for a full list of nominees.
Click here to fill out your own ballot!

Best Picture- No Country For Old Men
Best Director- Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men
Best Actor- Daniel Day Lewis for There Will Be Blood
Best Actress- Julie Christie for Away From Her
Best Supporting Actor- Javier Bardem for No Country For Old Men
Best Supporting Actress- Amy Ryan for Gone Baby Gone
Best Original Screenplay- Diablo Cody for Juno
Best Adapted Screenplay- Joel and Ethan Coen for No Country For Old Men
Best Animated Feature- Ratatouille
Best Foreign Language Film- Die Falscher from Austria
Best Documentary Feature- Sicko
Best Documentary Short- Salim Baba
Best Short Film Animated-Peter and the Wolf
Best Short Film Live-Action- The Mozart of Pickpockets
Best Cinematography- The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Best Editing- No Country For Old Men
Best Art Direction- Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Best Costume Design- Across The Universe
Best Make-Up- Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Best Original Score- 3:10 to Yuma
Best Original Song- "Falling Slowly" from Once
Best Sound Mixing- Transformers
Best Sound Editing- Transformers
Best Visual Effects- Transformers


Keep in mind that for some of those, I was working on speculation, as I only had buzz to go on. But it's hard to see all those flicks up here in the MQT.

Watch the Oscars tomorrow night on ABC!

Peace out fanns!

-Brodie Mann

DEATH!

In case anyone out there cares, and has been living underneath a rock for the past two days, Toshiba has officially announced that they are discontinuing production on all HD-DVD players and other related media. What does this mean? In the great HD format war, Sony's Blu-ray has emerged victorious. And all that money you spent on HD DVD, well, you're gonna have to spend it again on Blu-Ray. Read the full article here.

What does this really mean for all you HD-DVD fans out there? Well, technically nothing really. After March there will be no more new releases in HD-DVD, so you will have to go Blu-Ray, and will have to get those players. But your HD-DVD player will still work, as will the discs you purchased. So you don't need to go out and re-stock your HD movie collection right away.

This is good news for people like me. Where... once you look past the fact that I have absolutely no money to spend on a proper HD set up, let alone maintain the HD lifestyle, once you're past that major obstacle... my primary reason for buying into HD movies yet is because I wanted to see a victor in the HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray format war. Otherwise it would have been a waste for me to go with the losing format. So now that Blu-Ray is the winner, I can go back to not affording it.

Jumper

Jumper

2 Stars

Ah, the sturdy piece of wood that is Hayden Christensen. Sure, a sturdy piece of wood is good for building a boat. Or a treehouse. But for acting? Not so much. I'm not saying it would have been a better film without him. But it's a start.

Jumper is the story of a young man, David, who discovers he has the super-human ability to teleport from one location to another. But instead of using it to save the world, a la Spider-Man, he decides to go for personal gain, teleporting into banks and what not, just so he can get some money. There's even a scene where he's watching the news, and there are people stranded in a flood, who he could totally save with his ability, but doesn't. Damn. What a self serving jackass, as the script wants us to believe. Then we get to the action. There's an ancient brotherhood led by a silver coiffed Samuel L. Jackson who is trying his hardest to both keep the jumpers at bay, and go 2 minutes without saying "motherfucker." And David is just trying to woo an old schoolmate, who by the way, has been under the impression that David's been dead for the past 8 years, along with anyone else who ever knew him. The film quickly devolves into an exercise in flashy special effects and even flashier location shooting. Which I will give to director Doug Liman as being pretty cool.

I always kick it off with the acting, so here goes. Samuel L. Jackson is good, as usual. When is he not. I have a theory, that he is the black Christopher Walken. The movie could be absolute shit, but he'll still be "OK" in it. As is mostly the case with this one. He seems to walk through the role as if it's just a paycheck to him, which is entirely likely. Diane Lane has become less hit and more miss recently, and this is no exception. And of course the two leads. Christensen. And Rachel Bilson. The only person I can think of with the exact same lack of charisma as Christensen. Put the two together and you get... well.. Jumper.

What happened to David Goyer? He did Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, all of the Blade movies, and coming up he's got The Flash and Magneto. So promising was his writing career. Then he turns out this P.O.S. that is an hour and a half of plot holes and missed opportunities. And that could be due to Liman not able to work the sci-fi angle. But come on. There could have been great fight scenes. Don't get me wrong, the ones they had were fantastic. But... there could have been more.

There could have been more exploration into the "Jumpers" vs. "Paladins" (shadowy Sam Jackson organization) struggle. Especially considering how HUGE of a plot point it really is. There could have been more exploration into the whole David being dead thing. I mean... they watch him fall through the ice at the age of 14-ish, he teleports out, never to be seen again. He comes back 8 years later and people treat him as if he just got home from college. What the hell? It makes little to no sense.

The whole thing should have been longer. Should have been more in depth. Should have been better.

Though I will give them credit for doing some fantastic special effects work. The teleporting was magnificent, and they kept the practical science behind it pretty accurate. The replacement of the displaced matter when a Jumper leaves an area was accurate. The comparable velocity law was accurate. Basically it was as scientifically accurate as you would expect a sci-fi flick about young adults who can create tiny black holes at will and travel anywhere in the world through them, to be.

And as Liman demonstrated in The Bourne Identity, he has a knack for doing impressive location shooting. He gets some damn fine shots of Rome, Giza, London, Tokyo and Prague. But I could watch the Travel Channel, and get the same thing. Only no Hayden Christensen. So it's better.

2 Stars go to this, but only because I'm feeling generous on President's day, and I enjoyed the special effects. If we get a competent filmmaker behind the wheel, who knows what those effects can do.

Later Brodie Fanns!

-Brodie Mann

A very special Valentine's Day Gift for you

Brodie Fanns!

As if all those clips weren't enough this morning, I come bearing a very special gift.

The brand spankin' new teaser-trailer for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

February 14th is now officially the best day of the year, 2008. Sorry, second best behind February 13th. Best day ever honours has to go to Strike Resolution Day.

Anywho... trailer... CHECK IT!

Valentines Day!

Brodie Fanns!

I love you all. Not like that. Well... maybe you like that. You know who you are. Call me. Yeah.....

Anyway. I realize I kinda fucked myself by posting my top 5 romance flicks a few weeks ago. I should have held onto it for today.

Now I've got nothing to post, really.

Well... not a list per se... how about a collection of films about romance, love, relationships, that weren't on that original list, but I enjoyed anyway.

First up...
Mr. and Mrs. Smith
I think it's a funny take on the fractured marriage story.


Romeo + Juliet
It's Dicaprio before his talent really matured, but I like it.


Out of Sight
Off-beat sure, but just about the only film featuring Jennifer Lopez I can watch.


Lost in Translation


And finally... Closer.

Fool's Gold and Other assortedness

Brodie Fanns!

I've got a review and other stuff for you. Let's get started, shall we?

Fool's Gold

1 star

What do you get when you take the mediocre Indiana Jones rip-off, Sahara, remove the sexy latina and Steve Zahn, and put the adorably perky Kate Hudson in their place? Well, you get solid gold shit. But no shortage of a shirtless Matthew McConaughey

Ben and Tess Finnegan (McConaughey and Hudson) are a bickering, brink of divorce couple that also has a passion for treasure salvaging. Then, amidst their divorce, Ben, who never quite grew up, found some clues indicating the location of a nearly 300 year old buried treasure. With the financial assistance of Tess' new employer, Nigel Honeycutt (Donald Sutherland in a take off of the Hilton family, I suppose), they are able to start searching for the wreckage off a small Caribbean island. They only have to contend with Ben's former investor, a deranged rapper who owns the island in question.

And then McConaughey takes his shirt off for a while.

I give it points for being a romantic comedy tangled with an adventure yarn, but that's just a thin connection at best, as it contains not even the tiniest of fractions of thrills and excitement in other modern adventure flicks of it's kind. Including National Treasure and the aforementioned Sahara.

I blame it on the lack of any real personae or charisma between the two leads. Separately, they have those things. But together... I don't know, they were just vapid and hollow characters leading vapid and hollow lives. I didn't care one way or another if they got the gold and got back together in the end. Spoiler alert. Everything you think happens in this movie, does happen. It's almost like this could have been reworked as an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond and no one would have noticed. Except for the distinct lack of shirt removal thank god.

The jokes fell flat. Everybody's talents were wasted on this film. Hudson and McConaughy both showed so much promise in Almost Famous and Dazed and Confused, respectively. But neither seem to have really caught on as far as actual talent goes. Maybe they should stick to artsy 70's nostalgia flicks with kick ass soundtracks. That's what they should do next. Maybe play Cher and Duane Allman.

Am I being fair to this film? Probably not. I don't know. I rated Rambo a little higher because it delivered what it promised. But Fool's Gold... it's one thing to go into a movie with low expectations and have them exceeded. But it's another to go in with low expectations and not even have them met.

Expect to see this in a few years with "Three Chances to Watch" on TBS or something.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Roy Scheider: 1932-2008. RIP

The star of Jaws and All That Jazz passed away on Saturday of multiple myeoma, a form of bone cancer. He was just 75 years old.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Actually, that's about it for now.

Writer's Strike is over!

Brodie Fanns!

Let me be the first to give you the best news I could ever give in my years, past, present and future, as an entertainment reporter.

THE WRITER'S STRIKE IS OVER!!!!!

At least according to an article posted over on cnbc.com. Read the full article here.

Jackass deluxe Michael Eisner has spoken to the press about the conclusion of the strike (started on Nov. 5), saying that the Writer's Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have reached a tentative agreement, set for final approval on Saturday. This will end the now 14 week, 4 day strike which has had a strangle hold on American film and television productions, and all but canceled several major awards shows.

I must quote Jon Stewart (update, if you will) on how the strike has impacted TV and Film, particularly late night comedy shows. This was said upon his return to the air on Jan. 7th: "We have been off the air for 8 weeks. And the last time the late night shows went off the air for an extended period of time, was after 9/11. And that was for only a week. So by my math, the writer's strike is 8 times worse than 9/11."

Obviously there's a hint of sarcasm in there.

For those of you who don't know what the strike was all about, let me try to explain it as best as I can.

The last time the writer's contracts were negotiated, was in 2005. And this left out residuals of internet presentations, be it downloads or streaming on the site, as this was a brand new technology no one had really taken advantage of yet. So now, cut to 2007, you can download a plethora of shows on iTunes, and all the major networks put full episodes of their shows online. The writers are not seeing any of the money. None of it.

Now, as an aspiring writer, I sympathize. If people were making money off of something I wrote, I'd want some of that two. But here's the thing of it all. The money, the profits, that the producers and network heads are seeing, is a monetarily insignificant amount. To slice that up into even smaller chunks, would make the whole process cost-ineffective.

To quote jackass deluxe Michael Eisner from a Nov. 7th Fox News interview, "For a writer to give up today's money for a nonexistent piece of the future -- they should [strike] in three years, shouldn't be doing it now -- they are misguided." He goes on to say, "They don't know what to give. ... Digital will eventually be the dominant medium for distribution but not yet."

So why did they strike if there's no money to be had? Producers and studio heads are stupid and kept going on and on about how digital presentation is doing so well. But really it wasn't.

The studios are like that jerk at the bar who goes on and on about how great he is at such and such sport or whatever, and the writers are the quiet guy in the corner (not nerdy quiet, I'm talking Wolverine quiet), who calls him out on it and wins.

Alls I know is, thank god TV will be back. Though who knows how the networks are going to structure their seasons, since most shows are only halfway through with no new episodes to air, and it'll take some time for production to get rolling again.

But the most important thing... strike is over. Maybe my writer's block I've been having will finally clear up.

Strange Wilderness

Brodie Fanns!

New review for your reading pleasure. I don't know what's in store for the blog-o-dome this week. But, you'll know it when I post it.

Strange Wilderness

2.5 stars

Could we really expect the latest offering from the guys who brought us Grandma’s Boy to be a masterpiece? No. But was it funny as hell? Yes. And no.

Faced with struggling ratings and competition from a hipper, more knowledgeable show, the cast and crew of the long running Strange Wilderness, a wee hours of the morning nature documentary show, make one last ditch effort to save their beloved TV program, started by star Peter Gaulke’s father. They embark on an international road trip to hunt Bigfoot, who has been found in Ecuador of all places.

The cast is anchored by Steve Zahn, and he slips perfectly into a role he probably would have done about 10 years ago, but at this point he seems out of place in this stoner/slacker flick. Happy Madison Production regulars Peter Dante and Alan Covert are right at home playing character-types that have brought them a huge cult fan base throughout the years in just about every Adam Sandler flick ever made. While comedic child prodigies Justin Long and Jonah Hill seem to be wasting their talents on a film that is far beneath their talents they have previously demonstrated in Accepted and Super Bad respectively.

I don’t think it’s really fair to fault the cast for the film being unfunny. Because in all actuality, the scenes in the film are not unfunny. But this is where the age old maxim about a film’s director comes into play. The saying goes that a film really has three directors: the writer, the director and the editor. And if you want to get really technical, you could add the cinematographer into the mix, but we’ll just stick with these three. Writer Peter Gaulke (yes, he named the main character after himself) has had moderate success with some of the most mediocre to awful comedies of the past 10 years (Me, Myself and Irene, Say It Isn’t So), while director Fred Wolf (former head writer/cast member of SNL) is marking his feature film debut. But I think the problems of this film lie with the third director. The editor, Tom Costain.

Like I said, it wasn’t an unfunny film. The scenes individually were hilarious. It’s a very quotable film. And the actors did some damn funny work, including the intentionally unintentionally funny Robert Patrick (T2: Judgement Day) and the always good for a laugh Joe Don Baker (Mitchell). Yet while the cast is a weird amalgamation of the Happy Madison, Judd Apatow and Broken Lizard (Kevin Heffernan) camps, which should lead to great comedy, it falls apart in the editing.

It feels like term paper written over a Red Bull and Hot Pocket fueled all-nighter. It’s convoluted, hastily put together, rushed and sometimes makes little sense. It’s like Wolf filmed a very funny movie, then Costain put it on his shelf, sat down with his bong for about a month, then realized it had to be shipped to theatres in week, and spent all night cutting the thing from memory. There were times when I was left wondering if it was a joke they were playing on us. Like they had cut the real movie, then decided to make a second version of the same movie, only using all the deleted scenes and blooper reels.

And it’s sad, because Grandma’s Boy was such a great cult classic. Luckily, most of the negative backlash will be going to Happy Madison, while Apatow’s crew and Broken Lizard should escape relatively unscathed.

Couldn't End it there. Just couldn't

Brodie Fanns!

Well, I loved doing my Top 100 of all time so much, that I asked around to various people I know what their top 10's were. Because I know the burning questions on all of your minds is "What kinds of films do the people Brodie associates with like?"

Well, until I run out of lists, I'll let you know.

I asked family and friends to send me their lists with optional commentary, and I would provide YouTube videos for them. If the film appeared on my list somewhere, and a YouTube video was already posted, there won't be one on their list, just for practicality's sake.

But the first list is my esteemed cousin, Elizabeth Fredericks. She and I share similar tastes, which is always fun. We can compare notes, and inform each other on classics, current releases and upcoming flicks. She introduced me to Brick, which became one of my favourite movies of the past few years.

So here's her list, in no particular order-

Top 10 Movies EVAR

Casablanca -
It's a bit trite to have Casablanca on a top 10 list, and even worse to lead off with it, but in truth, I do watch this movie at least two or three times a year, making it the cinematic equivalent of a favorite sweater: I am unashamed of how comfortable I feel when all wrapped up in it. I know the pacing feels incredibly slow to a modern audience at times, but this is a movie that you can inhabit, not just watch, and the writing is crisp and precise. **NOTE: Video has been posted on this film at least twice before. So there.**

The Third Man -
I really like Orson Welles and I really like Graham Greene and so naturally I adored this movie. The setting is post-WWII Vienna, and Joseph Cotten plays the American naif who ventures into the morass of post-war devastation only to discover a mystery surrounding the apparent death of the friend who invited him. The cinematography is simply gorgeous, and Welles' famous "cuckoo clock" speech evocatively and unnervingly sums up the uneasy grey morality of the place and time.



Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind -
Screenwriter Charlie Kaufman is undeniably brilliant, but this was the first film of his that seemed to have an emotional core underneath the narrative acrobatics. Kate Winslet was her typical brilliant self, and Jim Carrey surprised me for how much he disappeared into his role. Add in the very fine supporting cast and there's not much to dislike. **NOTE: Video has been posted on this film.***

Bon Voyage -
Obligatory foreign film? Maaaaybe...but it is a favorite of mine. I saw this the day after seeing the visually stunning but utterly depressing Korean film Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter...and Spring, and it was the perfect antidote. It's a bit of a melodrama, a bit of a farce, a bit of a thriller, all taking place in France during World War II. Put a lovelorn writer and the self-absorbed actress he's mooning over in with a professor and his lab assistant trying to smuggle heavy water to England and a charming thief and let the magic unfold. It's just a deeply pleasing film.



Hot Fuzz -
This should be fresh enough in everyone's mind to require little explanation. A roommate of mine rhetorically asked, "Who wouldn't like Hot Fuzz?" We agreed the only answer was "people with no joy in their souls." Whereas the climactic shoot-out in Mr and Mrs Smith caused the whole film to go off the rails, the climactic shoot-out in Hot Fuzz fits seamlessly with all that comes before it and, furthermore, contains some of the most giggle-worthy moments in the whole film. It's wickedly funny, and you only feel a little bad for laughing so hard at an old lady getting kicked in the face.



Robin Hood (Disney Animated) -
Personally, I think every top 10 list needs to contain a childhood favorite, and this was one of mine. My brother and I practically wore out our videotape of this film when we were children, and really, this stuff is the golden age of Disney animation, with fantastic voice talent like Andy Devine and Phil Harris. I can't ever stop loving this movie.



Brick -
Not nearly enough people saw this film during its very brief theatrical release in 2006, but it earned that Sundance award for Originality of Vision fairly. I've got a soft spot for film noir and hardboiled detective stories, and Rian Johnson's transfer of those tropes, archetypes, and distinctive lingo to a modern Southern California high school was daring and captivating. It's not so perfect that you can't see the seams, but it's quite polished for a $500,000 production.



Serenity -
I didn't jump on to the Browncoat bandwagon until more than a year after the original series was canceled, but it was soon enough to breathlessly anticipate the movie and drag my family along to it. My dad went in with zero expectations and came out musing that he preferred it to Revenge of the Sith. (Controversy, ignite!) As with Brick, Serenity contained its own unique reimagining of a largely-abandoned genre, this time the western, and also had its own very special brand of dialogue and vocabulary. It's one of the best ensemble casts I've ever had the pleasure of watching, and the film fairly earns all the laughter and heartstring-tugging that it aims for. And oh, such quotable lines.



It's a Wonderful Life -
A professor of mine once said that to brand Frank Capra's films as sentimental is to do them something of an injustice, for Capra almost unfailingly acknowledges the misery that life can contain before unleashing his feel-good sentiment upon you. The time he invests in making you both love and pity George Bailey deserves the film's happy ending. It's charming but never precious, and captures Donna Reed and Jimmy Stewart at their prettiest and most engaging. **NOTE: Video has previously been posted.**

Wait Until Dark -
I know I'm not the only person who mistakenly thought at one point this was a Hitchcock film, which should indicate something about the tense, claustrophobic setting that director Terence Young creates in this thriller. It's tough to go wrong with Audrey Hepburn starring, and the final confrontation between her blind character and Alan Arkin's creepy villain is pure suspense movie perfection.



Runners-up: Lord of the Rings, North by Northwest, The Big Sleep, Singin' in the Rain, The Bourne Trilogy, Chinatown, The Incredibles, Infernal Affairs, Beauty and the Beast (Disney), You Can't Take It With You.