Everyone pray every night the WGA strike ends soon before the tidal wave of reality TV shows washes over us.

Movies worth $10

Avoiding the Golden Compass juggernaut, every other release this week is limited.

The Amateurs (release December 7, 2007; click here for preview) – This movie is also called The Moguls, and apparently came out in 2005…but abroad? Unclear. Anyways. The movie stars Jeff Bridges, along with an eclectic cast including Tim Blake Nelson, Joe Pantoliano, Ted Danson, Patrick Fugit, Lauren Graham and Alex D. Linz. The movie is about a small town who think they all can get rich if they create an amateur adult film and end up (you know the cliché is coming) “way over their head.” Real shocker there. But the movie could be good, sort of a Full Monty meets Waking Ned Devine meets I’m Reed Fish (at least you saw the Full Monty from that list). I will take no responsibility if this turns out to be an 05 movie released under a different title.

Grace is Gone (release December 7, 2007; click here for preview) – This flick stars John Cusack, doing his best to look like Mathew Broderick (he already does, doesn’t he?) in a tearjerker depicting a reality many have to deal with. Cusack plays Stanley Philips, a man who finds out his wife has died in the Iraq war. Completely lost, Cusack decides to hit the road with his two daughters. Kind of like Rushmore meets Little Miss Sunshine. Except, really more just like Broken Flowers with two little girls tagging along.

The Bucket List (release December 25, 2007; click here for preview) – Now here is a movie most people know about and may even have seen the preview for. With two great perennial Oscar nominees in Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, this movie might be the best on this week’s list (I mean, give me a break, they’re all indies). The movie follows a billionaire (Nicholson) who meets a mechanic (Freeman) in a hospital room where they find out they both have terminal illnesses. Because clearly a billionaire, who has half an ounce of personality like Nicholson’s prima donna, would be totally fine with going to a normal hospital and mixing with us common folk. Back to the movie. They decide to create a list of all the things they want to do before they die and then, do them, together. Of course they become unlikely friends and decipher the true meaning of life just before they kick the bucket. Expect lots of pictures of golden statues to adorn this DVD cover when it comes out.

Persepolis (release December 25, 2007; click here for preview) – This movie, likely to qualify in both Best Animated Film and also Best Foreign Film for this year’s Oscars follows a young Iranian girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution. I know I know, I put another movie on the list that has educational value. My apologies. But in all seriousness, the film has received rave reviews, and looks like it has a simple animation style that we have not yet scene in America. And in the English version a couple of famous people lend their voices, like Sean Penn.

Remember Juno, Atonement, The Golden Compass, and Revolver this weekend!

TV Buzz

This week was one of the most exciting for me despite the fact that my regular shows all took the week off. This was because I caught Tin Man, with Zooey Deschanel and Kathleen Robertson, on the Sci-Fi channel. This three part mini series is a modern take on The Wizard of Oz. It was a lot of fun, and drastically exceeded expectations. One thing they should watch though, the line they kept saying in the first part was, “it’s the O.Z.,” which could be easily confused with, “it’s the O.C.” If you want to see what I am talking about, you can check out this cool comic that is a lead in to the series’ story. And expect reruns – the Sci-Fi channel will start showing it again this Sunday. Read more about Tin Man in my article earlier this week.

Another thing at the back of my mind is that Journeyman is not out of the tunnel yet – it is not on NBC’s schedule. I hope the show makes it, as it is starting to grow on me, and I think it is getting better.

A touch of nostalgia

Again, the nostalgia is just not coming that easily to me lately. But I did catch the painful For the Love of the Game, starring Kevin Costner. Does anyone remember the guy? Sure I talked about how Hugh Grant has sunk into the woodwork, but Costner was pretty big, and now he is nowhere to be found. The guy made the same sports movie over and over again (doesn’t anyone else realize Tin Cup and Bull Durham were the SAME!?) But he also made two movies I loved – Field of Dreams and Dances With Wolves (yes, I know I am the only person who likes this movie, stop making fun of me).

What the papers say

Yahoo featured a report early this week that showed that the highest paid actress is Reese Witherspoon. Who would have thought? Guess that is what Julia Roberts gets for sitting on her ass for a few years. You can read the whole list of all of those starlets raking in the big bucks, here.

Something that brought a smile to my face was the flurry of activity early in the week about this ‘Golden Compass religious controversy.’ Apparently the book is anti-church. I haven’t read them. They might be, or they might back. The only reason I’m bringing it up is that one of the articles quoted Catholic author Sandra Miesel echoes my view that protesting anything just gives what you are protesting more credibility. Warmed my heart that someone finally said what seemed so obvious to me. You can read about the whole controversy, here.

And, I didn’t forget to feature some Top ## lists, don’t worry. This week I found EW’s exhaustive list of the top 25 Entertainers of the year, with Clooney at the top because of Syriana and Ocean’s Thirteen. While I can’t say I agree with that – at all really, the article is totally in-depth on all 25. Poking around, I also found their list of the top rock frontmen and women of all time. Which was also interesting, and only slightly less in-depth.

Um…really???

Christian Bale is the new John Connor – does it matter? I think the bigger question is, why would he attach himself to such a questionable franchise when it is already branching out into TV. Oh, and he already stars in the best fanboy franchise. And that one comes with a bat suit and a mansion.

Katherine Heigl gave an interview pretty much bashing the hell out of Apatow’s gem, Knocked Up, which cemented Heigl as a real star, as opposed to a TV star one step away from a career ending racial faux paux. The commentary on her interview is hysterical – and true: don’t bite the hand that feeds.

Now I found this story today. Yahoo main page headline. About…how Chuck Norris’ support of Huckabee could swing the election. Yes. The article BARELY stopped short of making a comment about how roundhouse kicks get voters to the booths.

-- 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.