I have returned! I know, five weeks ago I said the same thing. But I emerged from my exile at an inopportune time – kind of like when Apollo Creed returns to the ring in Rocky III. The only difference being that I’m going to survive writing this article. But, I digress from the format you know and love.

Movie buzz

Street Kings (release April 11, 2008; click here for preview) – I am pretty excited for this movie although I acknowledge it could be pretty hit or miss. Basically what I expect is a L.A. Confidential tale of cops who do whatever it takes to achieve justice as they see fit. Two of those cops are Keanu Reeves and Forest Whitaker who look sick in the preview. Throw in Hugh Laurie (read my House plug below) and Common (who I think is pretty good, especially in Smokin’ Aces) and you have a pretty solid cast. The story will be good enough, the action will be above average and hopefully the movie will have the right feel.

Chaos Theory (release April 18, 2008; click here for preview) – I like the idea of Ryan Rennolds. Or at least I think I do. I think he could be good. He sort of has the potential to pull off action, drama, and comedy. He just needs to turn in some adequate acting jobs. Every time I see one of his movies in theatres I say that movie is the make or break for him but I keep giving him another chance. This movie should be good – it has a pretty good rating of the 500 people or so who rated it on imdb. My big deal is whether the movie (about an “obsessively organized efficiency expert whose life unravels in unexpected ways when fate forces him to explore the serendipitous nature of love and forgiveness”) is a drama or a comedy. Either way it could be different. Or it could be incredibly cliché.

Smart People (release April 18, 2008; click here for preview) – The movie has Ellen Page. That’s pretty much $10 right there. It also has some solid veterans like Dennis Quaid and Thomas Hayden Church. But…both of those are probably well past their “prime.” Which assumes they had a prime. But it could be a quirky movie that is unique. Sort of a hybrid of independent fare and commercial fare. The big strike against this movie (I won’t go into a summary here – its kind of nebuluous what the movie is about but it involves Dennis Quaid rebuilding his life after his wife’s death) is that it has Sarah Jessica Parker. Probably the WORST thing any form of entertainment can feature. But I’m hoping Ellen Page will balance Parker out.

Movie fuzz

Prom Night (release April 11, 2008; click here for preview) - Apparently we needed MORE horror remakes with rising hotties, so this one got pumped out in about a week. Brittany Snow plays a. What’s the point. Some psycho they pissed off in high school has something in their deep dark past and is trying to kill them. That’s it. I cannot conceive what piece of originality we might find in that movie. Hell. You could probably buy the VHS tape of the original for about a quarter. That might be a better investment considering you’d be buying an antique. I even took the luxury of using their amazingly original artwork promoting the movie.

TV buzz

Pretty much not watching TV anymore besides the random TV movie, which doesn’t really count. But House comes back the end of the month so I have that to look forward to and so does everyone else when the best show on network television returns after the cursed writer’s strike. I have been watching the first season of 24 (for the first time) and it is solid. I strongly recommend it to those of you who have not seen it.

What do you think about…

I was going to school the other day and listening to the radio and the radio personality was really ripping into the recently deceased Charleton Heston. I mean. This was not a casual “too soon” type of thing, this was a no holds barred mockery of a great Hollywood legend. Did you know that before his recent bout of conservativism Heston was an activist? For civil rights and other causes, and very active in the actors union. Even his recent NRA leadership and other statements should not change that he was Ben-Hur. He was El Cid. He was the Brad Pitt of their time. And I don’t think his legacy should be tarnished just because he snuggled with a shotgun instead of Angelina Jolie.

On the web

You may have seen some of these because they are old – I have hoarded them for the last few weeks – but I thought they were interesting.

Controversial Movies – This one is a list of movies that were controversial during their time. It is especially cool in light of film history because it shows how film has changed with the general culture and what was once taboo is now no big deal. It helps that most of the movies on the list are pretty good. You might of seen them and not seen anything controversial but the list does a good job of explaining the controversy too.

Underdogs – I liked the general premise of this article, and some of the selections, but I dislike a bunch of the selections too. Most of that stems from what I see as differing definitions of “underdogs.” Some of these choices seem like they are just protagonist x from y movie. I see characters like Lucas as true underdogs because things are REALLY stacked against them – and things don’t always work out. But you can’t have everything I guess.

Depressing endings – Again this was an article whose theme really appealed to me but the selections were disappointing. First and foremost I had not seen a lot of these movies, so I tried not to spoil it for myself. So if you click on the link, realize that you might read some movie endings. Frankly there are a lot of really good movies I have seen recently that I would have preferred a different ending. Maybe it was not quite because they were depressing, but they were unsatisfying.

Um…really???

High School Musical 4? I will admit that I shouldn’t really knock something I don’t know, but really, a FOURTH installment? I know they are huge. But they are still TV-Movie properties with one glorified theatre release. A theatre release that has not come out yet and they are already burning the midnight oil on a fourth. I guess business is business but are kids REALLY that sequel starved already? I mean. We were happy to get Return of Jafar but we didn’t fall over ourselves for the third one.

Who am I?

-- 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.