I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving holiday, watched some football, saw some good movies, and we are now back to Thursdays.

Movies worth $10

National Treasure: Book of Secrets (release December 21, 2007; click here for preview) – the sequel to the blockbuster Indiana Jones-esque flick by Nicholas Cage looks to be much of the same. Except maybe now the movie won’t suck. While the first movie felt like a recycled Da Vinci Code, this movie could be more original. There is a chance at least. Even if the story lags, Nick Cage and Jon Voigt can always carry the day, and relative unknowns Diane Kruger and Justin Bartha are great in their Treasure roles. Keitel comes back too, and Ed Harris and Helen Mirren join a great cast.

The Kite Runner (release December 26, 2007; click here for preview) – The Kite Runner is based on the popular selling novel of the same name about a boy from Kabul as tumultuous events from the fall of the Afghanistan monarchy, the Soviet invasion, mass refugee exodus, and the Taliban. This movie could pack in more culture than most movies as well as educate people about a country we now have a vested interest in.

Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (release December 21, 2007; click here for preview) – the preview for Todd has been on every major channel repeatedly and it still isn’t old yet. The movie, which stars Depp in the title role of another Burton vehicle, the 19th century legend of a recently released convict who seeks vengeance against those who wronged him. Of course Helena Bonham Carter joins the cast of her boyfriend’s new pic, along with Alan Rickman and Sacha Baron Cohen. I kind of hope Carter can break out on her own, even though she is great in Burton’s films. And I am totally jealous of Burton. For his Hollywood success of course. This film is a musical, so be careful, but it could be great. I always think of Jersey Girl when I hear about this movie.

Cassandra’s Dream (release January 8, 2008; click here for preview) – Woody Allen’s new flick about two brothers played by Colin Farrell and Ewan McGregor who fall for Haley Atwell, a charmer who soon has the money challenged brothers delving into some serious crime and endangering the brothers’ brotherly love. This movie looks to be a new version of Small Time Crooks except significantly better and with the British feel of Woody’s last two movies. It will be interesting to see if Atwell can pull off a role that was likely written for Woody’s new muse Scarlett Johansson. That’s a big brassiere to fill.

Update: No Country For Old Men was totally worth $10! Hitman, probably closer to $7.

TV Buzz

Friday Night Lights comes back is back after a painfully long two week hiatus while a bunch of fans of Fox shows need to prepare for a long winter as they take the month of December off. It will be tough to go without seeing Olivia Wilde every Tuesday.

A touch of nostalgia

Remember Hugh Grant? Saw About a Boy the other day, probably the best movie Hugh starred in. He used to crank out those same romantic comedies like it was his job. Now he is stuck doing weak fare like American Dreamz. And his character in Bridget Jones is totally not what I am looking for. Basically I didn’t see that much on TV that reminded me of the past. So that was a real short trip down memory lane…

What the papers say

I found two AWESOME articles on Cracked.com about comic book movie adaptations. They successfully did what I tried to do with the last Fanboys article with more humor than I could muster. The first article is a hysterical send up of the five worst comic book properties. I found another article that was also pretty interesting, and comprehensive in running through the adaptations that were least faithful to the original comic.

Some bad news this week – Natalie Portman has officially stated that she would NOT reprise her character in a possible Leon/The Professional sequel. That hurt, because there were some good reports earlier in the year that Portman had listened to producers who were trying to get her to agree to a Besson script where she would be a grownup assassin in the vein of her mentor, played by the first movie’s Jean Reno. Oh well.

One of the LA Times entertainment blogs featured an interesting article/poll about the worst Oscar losers of all time, with Samuel L. Jackson and Bill Murray at the top. Check it out here – it’s pretty interesting, especially if you want to remember the early nineties.

Um…really???

The UN survey is out and apparently Iceland is the best place to live. Who would have thought? The whole article can be found here, and ranks about fifty countries in the world. The U.S. did not crack the top ten. Ouch.

 

-- Written by Aaron --

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.