Hope everyone had a great New Years! Here’s a quick installment (the first of 2008!) of The Buzz….

Movies worth $10

The Bucket List (release January 11, 2008; click here for preview) – Two dieing old men, one a corporate billionaire Edward Cole (Jack Nicholson), and the other a mechanic Carter Chambers (Morgan Freeman) are brought together when they share a hospital room. Finding their clock running down, they set out to do all the things they want to do before they die. Cliches like bonding, feeling, emotion and the purpose of life will be sure to reign in this flick.

Fool’s Gold (release February 8, 2008; click here for preview) - Ben Finnegan (Matthew McConaughey) is a treasure hunter who isn’t much good for anything besides treasure hunting, and that one other thing. Tess Finnegan (Kate Hudson) is falling all over herself to end her run as Mrs. Finnegan. What gives her pause is the possible discovery of one last big treasure. It looks entertaining to me – and my big question is why McConaughey’s reps couldn’t get it together to make this movie a Dirk Pitt movie…I mean, the guy is practically the same character, go the extra step and you have the makings of a possible franchise.

Teeth (release January 11, 2008; click here for preview) – Bear with me here. A young woman played by Jess Wexler learns that her vagina has teeth. Calm down. Yes, it is a modern look at the age old vagina dentata myth, and the movie looks like it could be really good. Lots of dark humor (obviously) and hopefully it has a happy ending. Probably much much more feminist than Juno, but hopefully still really funny.

TV Buzz

Looks like Late Night talk shows are coming back, regardless of the strike. I guess that’s good, I mean, I never really watch those shows anymore, but I guess new content is new content. Wonder if some of those writers will also work for some of the award shows and/or if one of the Late Night talk show hosts will host the Oscars.

A touch of nostalgia

I caught a little bit of Saving Silverman last night and it reminded me about those type of comedies when Steve Zahn and Jack Black were pretty young and unknown, and the big man in that movie was the much less funny Jason Biggs, fresh off his American Pie hit-machine. Throw in Amanda Peet and a bunch of jokes that are usually reserved for Adam Sandler movies and you have a decent movie. Bet no one remembers the equally fun Tomcats, with American Pie alum Shannon Elizabeth???

What the papers say

I was going through the message board for all of the articles and web sites that didn’t quite make it onto the imdb featured page and I came across a pretty amusing article from flixster about the top sci-fi babes. At the very least the list is kind of educational in that it goes pretty far back in history and includes some names you probably wouldn’t have thought of.

This however was probably one of my favorite finds on that same, aforementioned message board: a run down of the top 10 movie endings: Read with caution because it does give some of them away. Some are what you would have thought, others, are not. Like the number 1 choice left me feeling a little let down, but the rest of the list is pretty good.

Now, if you thought those lists I found on EW were addictive/awesome/amazing, you are going to love the Moviefone ones even more. They go even farther into the abstract, and include much more interesting categories for their hottie slide shows.

Um…really???

It’s already 2008????

Who am I?

I went from the beaches of Hawaii to a booming Metropolis.
Send your reply to saltystixtrivia@gmail.com.
Last week’s answer was Cameron Diaz.

-- 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.