Movies worth $10

American Gangster (release November 2, 2007; click here for preview) – This movie will be a strong Oscar contender and an all around great movie. Ridley Scott re-teams with Russell Crowe and another Oscar winner (Denzel Washington) joins them. The movie follows the rise of a Harlem crime boss, Frank Lucas (Washington), and the efforts of the police led by Richie Roberts (Crowe) to stop him. This could be the best movie of the year. Throw in some drugs, some Vietnam, and you have yourself a pretty intense movie. Read AJ's review here.

Southland Tales (release November 14, 2007; click here for preview) – This movie could be interesting – The Rock plays (stick with me, this one could be different) an action star with amnesia who’s movies keep coming true. Sarah Michelle Gellar plays a porn star (real stretch) and Sean William Scott plays a sharp police officer. This sounds like a movie where The Rock can thread the needle of having a real role while not taking himself to seriously. At the same time Sean William Scott is pretty sweet. And LOTS of crazy stuff happens in the movie, click the title to read what imdb has to say. Oh yeah, and Mandy Moore is in it.

There Will Be Blood (release January 1, 2007; click here for preview) – I think this could be a dark horse Oscar favorite that has been receiving almost no publicity. Sure it comes out in two months. But come on! Daniel Day-Lewis is in it! He only makes a movie every few years. Then you chalk up that Paul Thomas Anderson is directing a movie based on an Upton Sinclair movie, and you have a new version of Giant, except good instead of really bad.

Fred Claus (release November 9, 2007; click here for preview) – what a waste of talent – Giamatti, Vaughn, Richardson, Spacey, Bates, Banks...This movie sounded funny when it was first announced, but every promotional vehicle and preview I have seen make this movie look like a ridiculous juxtaposition of Elf and Bad Santa – with none of the childish Elf humor or dark Bad Santa humor.

TV shows to watch

Nip/Tuck (click here for FX’s Nip/Tuck homepage) is back in full force and the boys have moved McNamara/Troy from the boring beaches of Miami to the exciting shores of Cali. The show pretty much cannot get much better considering Joely Richardson and her annoying plotlines have finally hit the road. Christian is worried about staying himself, while Sean tries as hard as possible to create a new self. And from here the craziness can only escalate. Read Brett's review here.

A touch of nostalgia

I caught the last half of Old School the other night on TV. Sure it’s not going that far back. But that movie was one of the first movies I bought in my DVD buying craze only recently sated by Netflix. This movie was hysterical the first time through and holds up for multiple repeat viewings. This was Will Ferrell’s first great movie and a big step for Luke Wilson and Vince Vaughn. And yes, it was the beginning of the Frat Pack in a movie where they were the frat pack. Without this movie, we certainly would not have gotten Wedding Crashers, the apex of the Frat Pack’s movies. Just a short trip down memory lane…

What the papers say

Yesterday was Halloween and I saw this article a few days ago that I thought was fun. It was about the rise of “ghost tourism.” Ghost tourism is where people go to locations that are supposedly haunted or locations of the supernatural. The article is pretty interesting but the best part is the links section in the middle of the page that features a link from livescience about the top ten most famous ghosts.

And for those of you 007 fans, Daniel Craig signed on for three more Bond movies. He was great in Casino Royale, hopefully he can keep it going in the next film, which will supposedly feature the same crime syndicate fronted by the illustrious Mr. White who gets mercilessly gunned down by a vengeful Bond in the closing scenes of Casino Royale.

Umm…really???

Come on people – how could you let Saw IV dominate the box office? This is ridiculous! The first one wasn’t even that great and you’re still going to the theatres in droves to see the fourth installment! The movie you should be seeing is Gone Baby Gone, which is totally underappreciated – at the box office and with Oscar buzz. GBG is worth $10 compared to Saw IV’s 50 cents…GBG better at least win original screenplay.

Supposedly the studios are going to unleash a Crank 2. The first movie was entertaining, a movie that quickly separated itself from any pretense at reality. But to little surprise, Statham’s character dies at the end of the movie (he is ‘killed’ in the opening minutes). However, Statham is back for the Crank 2 which is NOT a prequel, but will happen chronologically after the first movie. Kind of confusing consider Statham died in a pretty big way. Oh well…

~ read last week's edition of The Buzz ~

Could “Avatar” Win Best Picture?

By Brett Hogan

 

Last week, the trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi experiment “Avatar” debuted. While initially unimpressed with the teaser, I began to wonder: Could this film win best picture? 

 

Buzz has been generating for this movie for years. Years. The technology to make this movie didn’t exist when Cameron conceived it, so he invented it. When is the last time you heard of a director spearheading the invention of anything? The casting started in 2005. Most movies these days, even epics, are done in half that time. I could go on. 

 

The most important thing to take away from all of this is that people are saying this will be the future of movies. Now, I don’t agree with the idea that CGI will become more prevalent than it already is. But I do believe that this will set the bar miles higher for sci-fi. I mean, that is what Titanic did. And that won some awards if memory serves.

 

I’ll bet you’re asking yourself, how can you even suggest that a film like this will win Best Picture when the initial trailer was nothing better than visual stimulation? Well, there are a couple of reasons. First, the Academy has expanded Best Picture to ten films. This doesn’t guarantee anything other than improved chances for most films on the cusp.

 

Second, after last year’s Oscars debacle, which saw the best film of the year, “The Dark Knight,” not only get shafted in awards but nominations as well, the Academy is pulling out all the stops to appease those with the loudest voices in the film industry, the fanboys. Now, the Academy probably didn’t lose anything because of that other than some viewers of the award show. Perhaps if people are again outraged with the winners or nominees, the heads of the Academy would lose their jobs. So this is all about the Academy protecting itself, which is not so outrageous.  

 

 

Third, there is an economic motive here. I’ve heard this film will cost $190 million, not counting the R&D costs associated with Cameron’s inventions or the cost of getting 3-D cameras into every theater in the country. The Academy will do everything in its power to get people into the seats and make this the next “Titanic” or “The Dark Knight.” But the Academy doesn’t have much power, besides nominating and awarding, so they will slap the “Nominated for Best Picture” moniker onto every commercial and print ad to get the people who didn’t believe the critics to relent and see this movie.

 

Of course, all of this is pure conjecture, and no revolutionary film (Terminator 2, Jurassic Park, etc.) has ever won the Best Picture category because it changed the game. Except maybe Titanic. But still, could this movie actually win? My answer is no but a nomination is certain and who knows what could happen from there. We’ll know more come February 2010.