Monday, February 1st, 2010

That is one of the more priceless frightened faces on a child that I have ever seen. It is also completely unrelated to anything we're about to discuss. First off, in all of the award-season chaos, many people tend to leave the Golden Raspberry Awards off of their lists. Like always, the Razzies tend to be the worst of extreme mainstream cinema, instead of being the worst of cinema, period... as advertised. Case in point, Land of the Lost lands a nomination for Worst Picture, even though it had some supporters, one being Roger Ebert. Also, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen had a terrible script, but has kept a decent fan base, and despite not being a Fellini, the movie was entertaining enough at least, to keep it off this list. Other notables pointed out in /Film's coverage include four nods for The Twilight Saga: New Moon, Sandra Bullock's nomination for All About Steve, which could couple with a possible Academy Award nomination announced tomorrow for her role in The Blind Side (which for my consideration, would fit in more on this list than any other). There is also three decade awards that is worth checking out.

Other than Bullock, not a lot of Oscar speculation coming out of the nominations for the Razzies, but another award show went down over the weekend, the Directors Guild of America Awards, in which Kathryn Bigelow took home the trophy for Best Director for her film The Hurt Locker. Cinematical's Girls on Film column focuses on Bigelow's big win, trumping her ex-husband James Cameron among others. The article also notes that Bigelow's chances on Academy gold just shot up considerably, seeing that the winner of the highest honor the DGA presents has won the Oscar 90% of the time in the last 61 years. On top of all this, Bigelow also holds the distinction of being the first female winner of the DGA Award, and is looking as a nearly positive groundbreaker as the first female to gain the Oscar in the same category.

Finally stepping away from the award stuff for a bit, /Film has an article up focusing on Kevin Smith's Twitter account, where the Clerks. director has announced he is shopping Hit Somebody, a dramedy set in the world of hockey, to Warner Brothers. They also quote Smith as referring to Hit Somebody as an equal to 1993's Chasing Amy, the quality of which he has been, for lack of a better word, chasing ever since.

Well, with all attempts of not mentioning Avatar, the fact that the Oscars are announced this week, and the aforementioned news of Bigelow's triumph over the film makes it almost impossible. Also continuing to block me from ignoring the blockbuster is the fact that the film took the top spot at the box office again this week, for the seventh time, in the process breaking the record for the highest grossing seventh weekend of all time. Box Office Mojo's weekend report also estimates that the current record holder for worldwide box office will overtake the U.S. domestic record sometime this week, beating out Titanic. Cameron's film also was the first to cross the worldwide $2 billion mark over the past week. Many may wonder exactly why all the praise for the flick, including the comically monotoned guy that posted a 70 minute review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace on YouTube. He now has an 18 minute review of Avatar posted. Here is the first part, enjoy.

Thursday, January 7th, 2010

Just as I am about the renew my Netflix account, the Associated Press reports today that the DVD-by-mail and streaming rental service signed a deal with Warner Brothers Pictures that will delay releases of all films under the Warner label for 28 days after the scheduled release date. I suppose the move for Warner is in hopes that Netflix users will start buying the films, or renting them elsewhere for more revenue. However, if you're already paying for Netflix, chances are Warner films will just be setting for 28 days in peoples queues for most of the next year. One of the perks that will come from this is that Warner supposedly signed over the rights for more of their content to be streamed across the Internet to PCs and video game consoles. I'll still probably go down the Netflix road once again though, as getting a film 28 days later is quite better than not being able to rent them at all, case in point Away We Go and Anvil! The Story of Anvil, two non-obscure films that did not get a release at any of the three local rental places. So the better question, will those that live in places with adequate rental options decide it is time to cut their losses with Netflix?

It was announced in Variety today that Thor has an official release date, May 20th, 2011. This is big news for those of us awaiting to see the Asgardians on the silver screen; however, its appearance on today's blog just isn't for that alone. The date had formerly belonged to Spider-Man 4, and after weeks of any website not being able to confirm or deny the rumors that the superhero flick was having production troubles and indefinitely delayed, the removal from Marvel's film schedule and replacement with Thor all but confirms it.

The Directors Guild of America announced their nominees for Director of the Year today, via Cinematical. It is no surprise to see that Jason Reitman, Quentin Tarantino and Kathryn Bigelow scored a nod, as all three have been rumored to be in top contention for the Academy Award. James Cameron also gained notice for Avatar, which according to how you look at it is the most shocking or the most obvious pick among the group. Finally, the underdog pick is Lee Daniels, for Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. I'm going Tarantino all the way, but have a hunch that Bigelow will take the award.

Nerd Bastards has an entertaining article up, quoting an interview with Darren Lynn Bousman on his frustration with the release of Repo Men, as he feels that it is for all purposes, a re-envisioning, albeit non-musical, of his rock opera/horror flick Repo: The Genetic Opera. I see his point, but after already gathering a cult following, Bousman's flick will have a longer shelf life than the Jude Law/Forest Whitaker drama.

/Film announced today that the first 3-D Blu-ray has been scheduled for release. 'Twas inevitable. The Sony Pictures CGI animated Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs will claim the milestone of being the first, as the release coincides with the release of Sony's brand new Bravia 3-D compatible HD, LCD television sets. I am still hoping that 3-D is a passing fad, but this TV is another step towards a bleak future for that hope.