On My Honeymoon

Sorry I was unable to post something about this before I left, but with the last minute wedding details and preparation, I just didn't have time. Anyways, just wanted to let everyone know that I'm currently on my honeymoon and I'll be back sometime late next week. So my Dark Knight thoughts and other posts will have to be held off until then.

In the meantime, keep the forums going. I look forward to reading everything when I return.

Bad Idea of the Day (#2)

How do we feel about THIS lovely lady:


Being cast in the same film opposite THIS lovely man:



The film is Nine directed by Rob Marshall and co-written by Frederico Fellini. Thoughts, impressions, predictions? Oh and while we're at it how 'bout we take a gander at some of the other cast members, shall we?

Bad Idea of the Day (#1)

As reported by Dark Horizons & The Sun, "Tom Cruise has been asked to reprise his role as cocky fighter-pilot Maverick in a Top Gun sequel. It's been twenty-two years since the first film in which Cruise played a Navy pilot trainee and now a sequel script has apparently been penned. 'The idea is Maverick is at the Top Gun school as an instructor - and this time it is he who has to deal with a cocky new female pilot' a source tells the paper."

Seriously, is Tom Cruise getting this desperate for a hit?

The Film Script's Half-Year Oscars

We're halfway through the year of 2008 and while nearly all of the serious Oscar contenders have yet to come out, I wanted to shine a light on the films, actors and directors that have entertained me thus far this year, the misses I hope to rectify and some of the worst examples of filmmaking of the year thus far.

Best Supporting Actress
(winners in bold)
Isla Fisher – Definitely, Maybe
Mila Kunis - Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Natalie Portman - My Blueberry Nights
Hiam Abbass - The Visitor
Gwyneth Paltrow - Iron Man

Best Supporting Actor
Joseph Gordon-Levitt - Stop-Loss
Haaz Sleiman – The Visitor
Jude Law - My Blueberry Nights
Brendan Gleeson - In Bruges
Colin Farrell - Cassandra’s Dream

Best Actress
Audrey Tautou - Priceless
Norah Jones - My Blueberry Nights
Renee Zellweger - Leatherheads

Best Actor
Richard Jenkins - The Visitor
Ryan Phillippe - Stop-Loss
George Clooney - Leatherheads
Colin Farrell - In Bruges
Robert Downey, Jr. - Iron Man

Best Director
Thomas McCarthy - The Visitor
Andrew Stanton - Wall-E
Martin McDonagh - In Bruges
Wong Kar-Wai - My Blueberry Nights
Gus Van Sant - Paranoid Park

Best Picture
Wall-E
My Blueberry Nights
In Bruges
The Visitor
Iron Man

And as for the worst…

Worst Performance of the Half-Year
Matthew McConaughey - Fool’s Gold
Donald Sutherland - Fool’s Gold
Dennis Quaid - Vantage Point
Edward Burns - 27 Dresses
Kate Hudson - Fool’s Gold
Forest Whitaker - Vantage Point

Worst Picture
The Happening
21
88 Minutes
Vantage Point
Rambo
Fool’s Gold

And the movies I've missed and mean to catch up with...

Shine a Light, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Redbelt, Snow Angels, Encounters at the End of the World, Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, The Fall, War, Inc., Married Life, Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day, Smart People, The Band's Visit, Doomsday, Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, Get Smart, City of Men, Wanted, Chicago 10, The Air I Breathe, The Incredible Hulk

Comments to follow...

In the Screening Room - George Steven's Shane

Session 021 - Shane

Who saw it and what are your thoughts on it?

Reactions to Hancock (Peter Berg, 2008)

Post reactions, highlights, drawbacks, best/worst moments, or whatever else you feel needs saying.

Must See Movie of the Month: July 2008

As if there could be any other choice?

Who else wants to see it and what are your "must see's" of the month?

Other Notables:

Hellboy II: The Golden Army, X-Files: I Want to Believe (still haven't seen the first though, so it's unlikely I see this anytime soon), Step Brothers, American Teen

Recent Watches: July 2008

What's everyone been watching?

Hard Candy (David Slade, 2005)

Hard Candy is Hostel for the self-righteous filmgoer. A heinous, wish fulfillment fantasy about what director David Slade and screenwriter Brian Nelson would like to do to pedophiles, the film amounts to nothing more than a justification for getting satisfaction out of torture porn. But instead of sympathizing with the people on the receiving end, hoping for their escape… Hard Candy asks us instead, “Why watch a film like this unless you can root for the torturer?” Enter Ellen Page as our fourteen-year-old heroine Hayley, in her now-patented snarky fashion (this is really nothing more than her Juno performance crossed with a sociopath). She suspects Jeff (Patrick Wilson), a thirty-something photographer of being a predator of little girls her age… so in between some smarmy quips, she drugs him, ties him up and begins her search for the damning evidence by ransacking his home. It’s an interesting role-reversal decision to see the preyed upon get the better of the predator, the only problem being Hayley is entirely insane. And we as the viewer are expected to cheer her on while she gets all sorts of sickening pleasure out of her vile acts, even without Hayley having a shred of evidence to show us (don’t worry, she’ll obviously find some later to justify the blood thirst). Thankfully, Nelson has also provided Page with enough trite, longwinded speeches to spit out all the while about how harmful pedophilia is… apparently just so we don’t lose sight of who the real bad guy is here. It’s a hideous spectacle of the filmmakers’ ids, a terrible moral lesson on taking an eye for an eye and purports the appalling message that victims of sexual predators should take revenge into their own hands. All this is not to say that a pedophile does not deserve what he gets, but who appointed Page judge, jury and executioner? It’s not her responsibility, nor entitlement to do so. It’s simply a means to an end for Slade and Nelson, using Page as their surrogate to show us what they themselves would like to do…