Whoa! Two in a row! (I know, I’m impressed too)

Movie buzz

88 minutes (release April 18, 2008; click here for preview) - Phone Booth meets 24 meets that one episode of Law and Order CI where the guy Goren studied under comes back into play to catch a serial killer. That doesn’t really ring a bell? The movie follows a psychiatrist played by Al Pacino whose recent testimony sent a man to death row. But now he is plagued by the media, the police, the FBI, and the man he sent down – all claiming HE is a killer and that the killer is innocent. To make matters worse he gets countdowns – from 88 minutes of when he will die from a computerized voice over the phone. Could be typical suspense thriller. Could be? Will be. But it has Pacino.

The Life Before Her Eyes (release April 18, 2008; click here for preview) - A good trailer makes LBEH look pretty good. And fronted by Evan Rachel Wood and Uma Thurman helps a lot. The movie follows the lives of their characters (at different points in the same life) as they deal with the fateful day when a school shooting shook their world. Intense themes of growing up and dealing with pain resonate – even in the preview. This movie could be very good – or very bad. But it comes at a good time I think, where we realize the importance of this movie without it being too soon.

Baby Mama (release April 25, 2008; click here for preview) - I thought this movie would be a lot better when I thought Tina Fey wrote and directed it. Instead, she just stars in it. However, this looks like one movie where Amy Poehler might be really funny, so it has potential. The movie follows a woman played by Fey who wants to be a mother but can’t conceive so she recruits Poehler to be a surrogate. Slapstick antics ensue when Poehler’s character is revealed to be an incompetent klutz.

Movie fuzz

Zombie Strippers (release April 18, 2008; click here for preview) - I cant decide what is more surprising – that there is actually a trailer for this, or that they managed to make it look as good as a slightly oversexed Resident Evil. Either way I cant quite figure out if this is one of those porns they’ve released in an R-cut because they spent so much money on the effects or what, but its gotta be a porn beneat the surface. Either way, there are strippers…and zombies in this. So it will probably be really entertaining.

TV buzz

Do people even watch TV anymore? Do I have to say more?

What do you think about…

Austin Powers 4? Generally? I don’t know. I didn’t really like Goldmember that much and I wanted to see Myers do some good stuff. Instead he has done nothing. Literally. Can you name the last live action movie he was in? Either way, the movie will take me back to my youth when I was obsessed with the second movie. Can Myers make Austin funny again? We’ll see. On a more specific note there are reports that Gisele Bunchen will play the love interest. Yawn. Get someone who is hot AND can act. Or at least pretends like they know how. Like Beckinsale. Or, I don’t know. A non-model?

On the web

So I have two articles this week from den-of-geek – which is a SWEET site – and lives up to its name. It has all of the stuff I wish I had thought to write about. Definitely check out their site.

James Bond themes - I liked that they had the balls to put On Her Majesty’s Secret Service high up there considering its an instrumental, but it is THAT good. And while this article shows music depth that I do not pretend to have, it does bash a bunch of songs I really like (well, considering I like ALL of the themes minus Madonna and Thunderball, that’s easy). But The Living Daylights wasn’t THAT bad – I kind of liked it. And get your eighties on! Where’s Duran Duran on this list?

Traitor! - Their next article is tangentially connected considering it reference a James Bond traitor. Either way this is a pretty good top ten list. Some of the ones here I would not have remembered.

“Bromantic” comedies - I thought this was pretty funny. When you think about it though, its not THAT hard to believe. My main beef with the article is that it talks more about how much money the movie made than anything else.  And that so many of the movies on the list get such a low rating on their scale you have to wonder why the movies are even there.

Um…really???

The art of Star Wars? Actually. I kind of like it. Go to the link.

Who am I?
Six degrees, roller skates, Jack the Ripper, RFK. What (who) does that mean?
Send your reply to saltystixtrivia@gmail.com
Last Buzz’s answer was Rose Byrne.

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.