Top 100: 40-31

     Continuing ever and ever closer to the conclusion of my "Top 100" countdown (check out the previous weeks by clicking the following weeks: 100-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61, 60-51, 50-41), this week is an interesting mixed bag of popular main stream films, "arty" foreign films, and some old-fashioned classics. This includes two of the few films on my list to have honest to goodness musical numbers, two dark science-fiction films from the 1980's, one of the most unconventional "war" films you will ever see. In terms of the timeline, this week is biggest appearance for the 1940's, with three films coming from the pivotal 20th century decade. With the old there is also a lot of new, with three films coming from the first decade of the 21st century. There is also great range of auteur directors this week. There are two films from the Japanese master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, the third appearances of my two favorite modern auteurs, Quentin Tarantino and the Coen Brothers, and the second film from the much admired Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Now on to the countdown!

Review: The Fighter

     Practically from the very beginning of the town, Hollywood has had an obsession with boxers and fighters. From Wallace Beery in the original 1932 version of "The Champ", to Kirk Douglas in 1949's "Champion", to the winner of Best Picture in 1976, "Rocky" (and its many sequels), to Robert De Niro's classic turn as Jake LaMotta in Martin Scorsese's 1980 classic "Raging Bull", to Russel Crowe's Depression Era Jim Braddock in Ron Howard's "Cinderella Man", the list of "boxing movies" goes on and on and has become a bona fide genre in and of itself. While I am not the genre's biggest fan, as the abbreviated list above shows, there have been some good films in the genre. Given the history, any director attempting to make a boxing film has to be very competent to make his unique stamp on the genre. If you have been following the awards season (including the coverage on this blog), you know David O. Russell's "The Fighter" is consider to be one of the main players in this year's Oscar race and has received much praise from critics all over the country. But does it live up to the hype? And how does it stack up against some of the other famous films in the genre?

Top 100: 50-41

     This week marks the beginning of the second half of my countdown, or in other words, the start of my Top 50 countdown (to see the first half of the countdown, click the following links: 100-91, 90-81, 80-71, 70-61, 60-51). Depending on my mood and how critical I want to be, the movies from about 80 up to 50 would either get a 9 or a 10 in my rating system, but from here on out, no matter my mood, these movies are absolute tens. These are the films that come as close to the arbitrary, imaginary ideal of perfection as anything I have seen on the silver screen. For this week's ten, there is no one genre that dominates, although many of the films fit what I would describe as "light-hearted drama", films with comedic moments that are still focused on an individual's struggles. This is yet another week with a lot of big Oscar contenders, including three Best Picture winners and three other Best Picture nominees. For directors, this week includes the introduction of the man who is probably considered France's greatest auteur, two films from the most nominated director in Oscar history, and two more films from the most commercially successful filmmaker ever, Steven Spielberg. Finally, this week's retro theme is all about the seventies, with four films from the decade appearing on the list (as well as a film from the 1990's that is a continuation of sorts of a genre that began in the 1970's). Now on to the countdown!

Review: 127 Hours

     You may remember the story of Aron Ralston (James Franco) back in 2003. It was the highly reported story of how, while hiking in a state park in Utah, Ralston got into a jam when he got his right arm stuck in between a boulder and a canyon wall in one of those tight crevices that so commonly dot the red clay landscape of the Beehive State. Ralston spent 127 hours (hence the name) stuck in this spot before he finally got up enough courage to do the only thing he could to save his life: amputate his arm with a cheap pocket knife. The story made for a great evening news anecdote or morning show interview about the inspirational feats that can be accomplished when the innate desire to live trumps over all other fears, and it probably made for an interesting autobiographical book which Ralston wrote entitled "Between a Rock and a Hard Place" (no kidding), but would a story about one man stuck in the same spot for 127 hours make a good film?

News: Screen Actors Guild Gives Out Nominations

     This actually happened yesterday, so you may have already heard this, but just in case you have not, I thought I would alert you about the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). Unlike the critics' awards, the SAG awards includes actual members of the Academy. The Screen Actors Guild is much larger though than the actors branch of the Academy, and it includes a lot of smaller bit players who tend to vote for popular actors more than the Academy. Nevertheless, it gives you a rough idea of what some of the acting nominations might look like come Oscar time. If you want to check out the SAG nominees, click here.

Top 100: 60-51

     This week we reach the halfway point in my countdown, going from 60 to 51 (check out 100-91, 90-81, 80-71, and 70-61, if you missed them). Comedy makes its biggest presence felt since the first week, with three and one-half of the films falling under the genre's heading. Not surprisingly then, two more Woody Allen films (including my favorite Allen movie) make appearances, which brings a grand total of five of Woody's films on my list, tying him for the most appearances of any director on my list. There are also a few second appearances from some of my other favorite directors, and the only appearance from one director who I consider to be the most underrated director working today (a few of his other films almost made my list). In terms of a timeline, the 1990's and 1980's make the most appearances, with each decade having three films in this week's list. Now on to the countdown!

News: Golden Globes Nominations

     The Hollywood Foreign Press Association announced their nominations today for the 68th annual Golden Globes show. Who were the winners and losers? The two biggest winners in my opinion were "Black Swan", which had four nominations (Best Picture Drama, Best Director, Best Actress Drama, Best Supporting Actress), and "The Fighter", which had six nominations (Best Picture Drama, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and two Best Supporting Actresses). Today's nominations, along with their relative success in the critics circuit, almost locks up an Oscar nomination for Best Picture in my estimation.

News: New York Gets Onboard "The Social Network" Bandwagon, Broadcast Film Critics Association Nominees, and Globes Nominations Tomorrow

     The most prestigious critics awards, the New York Film Critics Circle, announced their winners today, giving "The Social Network" their Best Film award and giving David Fincher its Best Director award. The Broadcast Film Critic Association also announced their nominees with nothing too unusual to report about their nominations. Tomorrow, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association will announce the Golden Globe nominees which I will go over at some point. The Golden Globes have never been that good of a predictor for the Oscars (especially recently), but since they have their own television show on NBC in January, people usually make a big deal about them. The Golden Globes also have television categories, so I might make a few comments on those tomorrow too.

News: When the Awards Keep Rolling In

     A slew of nominees and awards were announced today, and the one thing to take away from it all is that "The Social Network" is without a doubt this year's critics' favorite. Every single major awards organization which has announced its winners have given the film Best Picture, and the film has also been included as a Best Picture nominee in all the organizations that have yet to announce their winners. Director David Fincher has either won or tied in all the awards that have been given out so far, and actor Jessie Eisenberg has fared pretty well too for his fantastic performance as Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg, which should quell any doubts of an Oscar nomination for Eisenberg. If I had to pick one other film that has seemed to benefit the most from these critics awards, I would probably have go with "Black Swan", Darren Aronofsky's film which is a supernatural/psychological-thriller/ballet picture (not a combination that I would have thought of). There are also a few other actors who have benefitted from the critics awards, but I don't want to get in to it here, as I am saving this analysis for my next Oscar predictions column (which I will do my best to get up within the next few weeks). In the meantime, if your interesting in seeing some of the critics nominations and winners, click any or all of the following links:

Houston Film Critics Society

Boston Society of Film Critics

New York Film Critics Online

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

American Film Institute

News: Detroit Weighs In

     The almost totally inconsequential (in terms of its effect on the Oscars) Detroit Film Critics Society came out with the year-end nominations today. While they won't have any significant effect on any other awards, I do have to say they had some interesting nominations. In particular, I really liked the two nominations for "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (Best Director for Edgar Wright and a Best Ensemble nomination), which I consider to be one of the most underrated films of the year, and a Best Supporting Actor nomination for John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone", who did a spectacular job as Jennifer Lawrence's gruff uncle in the drama about life in the Missouri Ozarks. If you want to see the full list of their nominees, click here.

Top 100: 70-61

      Amazingly, this is already the fourth week of my "Top 100 Movies" countdown. It's been going by fast, as we are now approaching the half-way point (if you missed the previous three weeks, catch up by clicking the following links: 100-91, 90-81, 80-71). Much like last week's ten, this week's list does not have any strong theme to it, other than there being a lot of Oscar contending films. Eight out of the ten films this week were nominees for Best Picture, including four movies that won Oscar's most prestigious prize, so this week will showcase some films where I am in total agreement with the Academy. In terms of genres, there isn't one that sticks out, although most of the films I guess would fall under the very generic "drama" category (which explains the correlation between the Oscar nominations and this week's list). There is no real dominant decade either, with the 1980's and 1960's tied for the most this week with 3 apiece. On the director front, there is no director that appears more than once, but there are some great auteurs on the list, including the first appearances of two of my all-time favorites. Well, I think that's enough for the tease, so now on to the countdown!

News: Academy Countdown to Oscars

     I thought I would pass along the news that the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences (the official name of for the organization that runs the Oscars), is starting a countdown to the Oscars tomorrow. This year will be the 83rd edition of the annual awards show, and tomorrow will mark 83 days until the show's premiers, so in honor of this year's show, the Academy is going to post some photos and interesting trivia about each year, from the beginning in 1927 until last year's 2009 show. If you don't know much about Oscar history, it sounds like a fun way to learn. I will definitely be checking it out myself, so maybe I will post an update giving you my opinion on it sometime. In the meantime, here is the official press release from the Academy.

    On December 7 (tomorrow!), we will be 83 days away from the 83rd Academy Awards. Beginning tomorrow, we will be counting down to the February 27 ceremony by revisiting all of the Academy Awards ceremonies that have come before. You’re invited to visit Oscars.org on December 7 – and every day thereafter – to experience highlights from throughout the history of one of the world’s most anticipated annual events. We’ll be showcasing photos, audio clips, video segments and interesting facts (from the year’s awards winners and ceremony, as well as around the world in general) and all of the content featured will be shareable.

    We hope you’ll spend a few minutes each day venturing back in time as we continue on our journey forward to the 83rd Oscars. You can sign up for our RSS feed of the Countdown, follow us on Facebook (Facebook.com/The Academy) or Twitter (twitter.com/TheAcademy), or just check oscars.org each day.

News: Washington D.C Critics Announce Their Favorites of 2010

     As part of the oncoming onslaught of awards announcements, the Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association announced there yearly nominations and winners. Like the NBR Awards, the big winner was "The Social Network", winning Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay. Another successful film in the D.C. Critics awards was "The Fighter", which won both Best Supporting Actor (Christian Bale) and Best Supporting Actress (Melissa Leo). The other two big acting awards went to Colin Firth for "The King's Speech" and Jennifer Lawrence for "Winter's Bone". Like the NBR, "The Town" also won a Best Acting Ensemble award from the D.C. Critics, which is just another data point in the upward-swinging momentum of the Ben Affleck film. To check out a full list of the nominees and winners, click here.

News: NBR Announces 2010 Awards

     The National Board of Review (NBR) announced its annual film awards yesterday. If you're asking yourself, "Who is the NBR?", don't worry about it, nobody really knows who the NRB is exactly. There not film critics, there not really industry professionals, and they even include bankers, but regardless of this fact, there annual awards mark the unofficial start of the awards season. This year's big winner was "The Social Network", which won Best Film, Best Director (David Fincher), Best Actor (Jessie Eisenberg), and Best Adapted Screenplay (Aaron Sorkin). NBR also lists an additional Top Ten, which I was happy to see included one of my favorite films of the year, "Shutter Island". Historically, the NBR's awards haven't had much effect on the Oscars, but it's still part of the fun tracking the rising and falling hopes of different films along the awards season. This has also reminded me that I need to update my Oscar predictions some time in the next week or two. I have been waiting to see another one of the huge contenders before I updated my predictions, and now that "127 Hours" has finally come to my area, I'm hoping to see it before making the update, but I may just do the update anyway if I can't see the film soon. In the meantime, if you want to see all the NBR's awards, click here.

Top 100: 80-71

     Another week and another ten movies on my countdown (check out 100-91 and 90-81). This week I will countdown 80-71, but unlike the previous two weeks, there is no real theme that stands out with this group. This is the first (and one of the few) weeks to include a sequel (as well as the original), there are three movies that at least indirectly deal with World War II, three (and one-halfish) foreign language films, and this is also the first and only week to include a western (sorry western fans, but it is just not my genre). No director has more than one film in this week's list, and a few of the directors are not very famous with the exceptions of the films listed. Overall though, one very famous director makes his third appearance on my list, which is the most so far. Now on to the countdown!

News: TV Shows

     I know this is a blog dedicated to film, but a lot of people who enjoy cinema also enjoy the occasional television show, so I thought I would mention some great television shows I have been watching on DVD (which has been cutting into my movie viewing time). First off are two HBO comedies. "Eastbound and Down", starring Danny McBride as a "John Rocker-like" baseball player who had it all until he went on a racist and homophobic rant, ruining his reputation and along with diminishing skills, ended his career as a professional baseball player. This forces him to come back to his home town and live with his brother while teaching P.E. classes at the local middle school. Being a delusional self-conceited narcissist, instead of focusing on his job he focuses on winning back his now-married high school sweet heart (who also happens to teach at the middle school), and work on getting his career back in the Majors. The show is produced by Will Ferrell (who has a small part in the show) and it does have a little of that "Look at how funny I am" style that Ferrel has made a career out of, but unlike Farrell's work, after a few episodes you actually begin to sympathize with the characters despite all their flaws. It is a really good show (that just wrapped-up its second season), so if you have HBO I would definitely check it out, and if you don't have HBO, try renting it somewhere. This is one of the best current shows on television.

     The other HBO comedy is "Bored To Death". The show has a great reoccurring cast of Jason Schwartzman (the show's star), Zach Galifianakis, and Ted Danson. The show is a semi-autobiographical show about the life of writer Jonathan Ames (Schwartzman), who also moonlights as "a non-licensed private detective". The show's comedy style is worlds apart from "Eastbound and Down", but it incredibly funny nonetheless. The show relies on situational comedy and is much more subtle than "Eastbound and Down" and many of your typical television shows. It fits in with the type of comedy that Jason Schwartzman has been attracted to, not quite comparable to Wes Anderson's films, but calling them "distant cousins" would not be a stretch by any means. It I had to chose between the two shows, I would probably go with "Eastbound and Down" by a little bit, but both shows are more than worthy of your viewership. I am also about to start watching the HBO show "Flight of the Concords", so maybe I will let you know my verdict on that after I finish watching all the episodes.

     In the non-fiction departments, there are two shows I would like to mention as well. The first is a seven part series on TCM about the history of early Hollywood titled "Moguls and Movie Stars". Unfortunately, I found out about the show a little late, so I missed the first three episodes, but if you want to check out the last few episodes, watch new episodes at 8 p.m. on Mondays and reruns at 10 p.m. on Thursdays. The two episodes I have watched are pretty good, but it disappoints me that the series is going to stop in the 60's. I know TCM is all about classic Hollywood, but there is so much interesting history in cinema that occurs after the 1960's, so it saddens me to see the series is going to stop just as the auteurs really began to take over the filmmaking process.

     Finally, I would like to mention the real "mythbusting" by magician/comedian/libertarian duo Penn and Teller. The show is called "Bullsh*t" and airs on Showtime. The show looks at mistakenly believed "truths" that are perpetrated by scam artists and scallywags, such as new age healing and environmentalism. The show is strictly libertarian and uses and lot of swear words and nudity (somewhat randomly), so if you take offense to these sort of things easily, or if you can't stand listening to rational arguments against something you believe in, you probably won't enjoy the show. The thing I love about the show is it really tries to get to the heart of the motivations behind the people pushing the scam and the people who want to believe in the scam, but there usually very careful not to overstate their arguments, pointing out in weaknesses in their arguments and clarifying what they can and can not prove. If you're interested in debates in a wide variety of issues, ranging from the political to the spiritual, I highly recommend this show.

News: James Franco and Anne Hathaway to Host 83rd Oscars

     Official word came in today that this year's Oscar ceremonies are going to be hosted by the tag-team duo of Anne Hathaway and James Franco. This seems like an obvious ploy to attract the Holy Grail of television ratings: the 18-44 audience. The Academy Award's ratings have been trending downward (for the most part) for about a decade or so and this is largely due to an evaporating younger audience that has lost interest in the once prestigious Oscars. I'm not sure if Franco and Hathaway are big enough names to draw in the "youngin's", but I guess this is the Academy's compromise between maintaining a certain level of professionalism and prestige, and appealing to the "chic and hip" crowd. The other interesting aspect of this choice is that it is almost a certainty at this point that James Franco will be nominated as Best Actor for "127 Hours", which creates an odd sort of conflict of interest situation. To my memory, there has never been a nominated actor that simultaneously hosted the Oscars, so whether Franco wins or loses I guess it should be interested (if not awkward). The main thing that bothers me about the decision is nether of these actors strike me as great comedians. It's true that Franco was funny in the stoner comedy "Pineapple Express", but that's because he was playing a character, not hosting an awards show. No matter how good a comedian is, the nature of the job is going to make it hard to pull off something memorably funny, but it would help if they actually used talented stand-up comedians. For instance, someone like the Golden Globe's host Ricky Gervais would be good, but I guess they don't want to look at copy cats. I would also be excited to see a pairing Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. How about you? Who is your idea as a perfect Oscar host?

News: Leslie Nelson Dies at Age 84

     I'm sure you know this by now, but I thought I would acknowledge the death of Leslie Nelson on Sunday. He died at the age of 84 due to complications from pneumonia. He is most famous for his career as a comedian later in life for roles in parody films such as "Airplane" and "The Naked Gun" and its sequels. I haven't seen this movies for many years, and even though I have the feeling they wouldn't quite live up to my memory if I watched them today, but I loved them as a kid. No matter what, these films stand miles ahead of the poor excuse for parodies films today like "Meet the Spartans" and his performances had a lot to do with that. Before his career as a comedian, Leslie Nelson was actually a serious dramatic actor appearing in films like "The Poseidon Adventure". It is sad news whenever a beloved film figure dies, and with the ever expanding impact of media on American culture, there are only going to be more and more of these sad announcements. I think though the best way to honor any person's memory is to discuss what stuck out about them in your mind, so if you have any cinematic  moments in Mr. Nelson's career that you would like to share, feel free to leave your memory in the comment section.

Top 100: 90-81

     Last week I started counting down my 100 favorite movies, revealing 100-91, and now this week I'm back at it again, counting down ten more movies (90-81). This week has an interesting mix of movies, leaning heavily towards newer films. After last week's heavy dose of the 1970's (seven out of the ten films were from the 1970's), I get much more up-to-date this week with half the films coming from the 2000's, one film from this year (in fact, the first film I reviewed for this blog), and all but one of the films coming from after 1990. In terms of genres, there isn't one that sticks out as much as comedy did with last week's batch, although four out of the ten films are bio-pics (biographical films). For at least three out of the four films though (and even the fourth film to some extent), they are not you're typical bio-pics. Instead of simply chronicling the events of the subjects life, each of these films mirror the personality of the subject, staying truer to the idea of the protagonist's life as an artist, which is the reason I enjoy the films so much. Finally, from the auteur's perspective, there are two films from the visually artistic Tim Burton. I'm not a fan of much of his recent work, but these two films show why he became a household name. Now on to the countdown!

Review: Skyline

     Every era in cinema history has its version of B-movies. Whether it is "Reefer Madness" of the 1930's, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" of the 1950's, "Silent Night, Deadly Night" of the 1980's, or "The Room" of the 2000's, no decade can escape the inevitable B-movie. As time goes on, I keep thinking there will be some point where the B-movie will disappear like some worn out old custom, because the evolved "modern man" will see how backwards and outdated movies with terrible acting and dialogue are. I mean, no one is "thrown into the gallows" anymore. We don't use torture devices like the iron maiden, we don't hold witch trials, and most countries don't even hang people in this day and age, so at what point can we permanently bury the B-movie. Well, for anyone hoping that this might be the decade where we could wave goodbye to the B-movie will be sorely disappointed, because now, even at this very early age of the 2010's, I can confirm this decade has at least one terrible B-movie in "Skyline".

News: Daniel Day-Lewis Set to Play Honest Abe

     Steven Speilberg has been preparing to direct an Abraham Lincoln bio-pic for about a decade now, but has consistently delayed it to direct something else. Well, it finally looks like Spielberg may be ready to get the project under way, as it was announced this week that Daniel Day-Lewis is set to play the famous sixteenth president. Apparently, Day-Lewis is checking out Lincoln's old stomping grounds in Illinois to research the role. Ever since the project was announced, Liam Neeson has been attached to be the film's star, but for some reason or another Daniel Day-Lewis has now taken over the role. I'm personally happy to see the change, but I am still skeptical about the project. Spielberg has the tendency to over-simplify things in his historic films, and even with Daniel Day-Lewis, I'm betting the film will be incredibly reverential, but we will have to wait and see. If you want to read more about the casting, clcik here.

Top 100: 100-91

     I have been wanting to do my own "Top 100 movies" list for a long time now. Lists like these have become an obsession in pop culture over the last decade or so, and while ranking any great art does somewhat of a disservice to the art, and all lists are more likely to start arguments more than anything else, the fun of seeing great films ranked and debating what should and shouldn't make the list ultimately outweighs the negative aspects in my mind. With any two individuals, their opinion on what constitutes a great movie is going to vary somewhat, and I would be shocked to find any two human beings on earth with the exact same list of their 100 favorite films, but that's kind of the point with these lists. There meant to start debates, and more than anything, they get people thinking and talking about good movies, which is definitely a positive thing.

     The only other negative aspect of making a top 100 list, and the only reason I considered not making the list, is that there are always more great films to see. In fact, three of the films that made my list I saw for the first time just within this last month, so unless you have seen every film in existence, your list is never really complete. I know for me at least, there are a lot of famous films I have yet to see, so every once and a great while, I may make updates to my top 100 list as I see new films and my opinions on older films change. I would also like to take the time here to make a little disclaimer: There were a lot of really great films that didn't quite make my top 100. It doesn't mean I don't think they're really good movies, but they just happened not to be in my top 100. So once I finish releasing my whole list, if one of your favorite films is not on it, it doesn't necessarily mean I didn't like it. In fact, I may love it, but once you have seen a lot of movies, 100 isn't as big a number as it sounds. This means a lot of really great films were left off my list, so after you see my complete list, let me know of some films that would be in your top 100, and I will let you know my thoughts on the films and whether they just missed my top 100 list.

     Before we get started, I thought I would just list some interesting facts about my list. The decade with the most movies in my top 100 was the last decade. It doesn't necessarily mean the last decade was the greatest in cinema history, but it makes sense that the decade I have seen the most movies from would have more films in my top 100 than any other. That being said, the 1970's had only one film less than the 2000's, so like most big top 100 movies lists, I guess I am a pretty big fan of the movies that were made during the 1970's as well. In terms of directors (or auteurs since this is auteurfan), there is a four way tie for the most movies directed in my top 100 list. Each of these auteurs directed five movies each on my list, but I don't want to give any hints as to which movies are on my list, so I won't mention their names yet (if you have any guesses though, feel free to guess).

     And now finally, the list. Each week I will be revealing 10 more movies on my list and writing a bit about why I love them. I will reveal the list in countdown fashion, so I will start with 100 and count my way down to my all-time favorite film. This week I will be revealing 100-91. Out of the ten movies for this week, five of them are comedies (although two of the comedies are a little on the serious side), one is a Best Picture film, and another is a foreign film that was a co-production between two different countries. All the films skew a bit older this week, as the newest film on here comes from the mid-80's. Enough teasing though, it is time to get to movies!

Review: Iron Man 2

     Continuing my recent trend of catching up with summer movies I wasn't willing to pay for at the theaters, I checked out "Iron Man 2", one of the many summer sequels earlier this year. The first "Iron Man" was a pleasant surprise back in 2008 and was well reviewed by critics who are usually not too fond of superhero or action movies. One of the main reasons for the film's positive responses was that the film moved along at a quick pace and had a very likable care-free attitude, personified by its lead actor, Robert Downey Jr. Anyone familiar with Hollywood's obsession with sequels will know that the second time around, things are rarely as fresh. So how about "Iron Man 2"? Does it pull off the rare feet of being a great sequel, a la "The Godfather Part 2" and "The Empire Strikes Back", or does it go the typical route of most sequels in being lackluster versions of the original?

Review: Robin Hood

     Have you ever felt like you have done something before? Been somewhere before? Seen something before? That feeling of deja vu, is the feeling I had watching Robin Hood, a movie that does not contain a single original frame in its film reel (although I think it was shot digitally, but you get the drift). The cliches ticked off so fast, that I lost track of how many there are. It felt like a blitzkrieg of action/period piece stereo-types, and it left me totally dazed and confused, but nevertheless, I will give it my best effort to document as much of the blatant unoriginal parts of "Robin Hood" I can remember.

     First, let's start with the story. Instead of going the traditional route of telling the warmed over story of Robin Hood taking from the rich and giving to the poor (an actual misnomer since in reality, Robin Hood took money from the government and gave it back to the people), Ridley Scott and crew decided to tell a prequel of sorts. The film's story gives us a glimpse into the early years of Robin Hood, and how he changed from being a soldier in the crusades to a man of people fighting for justice and the anglo-saxon way. The decision to change the story is the only non-traditional thing about "Robin Hood", but unfortunately it was a poor decision. I understand the desire to tackle the story of Robin Hood from a new perspective, as the traditional story of Robin Hood has been done ad nausiem by Hollywood over the years, but to include a preposterous back story about Robin Hood's father drafting the Magna Carta and put to death because of it, only to have Robin Hood rediscover it and introduce to Prince John, is just stupid.

If I Picked the Winners: Best Adapted Screenplay 2008

    To get the idea behind this column, click here

  
     Before I get started on dissecting 2008's Best Adapted Screenplay race, I need to make an announcement about this column. I will be temporarily suspending this column either after this edition, or maybe next week's edition. Over the last week, I have been working hard on composing my own "100 Greatest Movies" list, and once it is done, I plan on releasing ten movies at a time each week, starting with 100-91. Since this will require a bit of time, I didn't want to attempt to do ten write-ups of some of my favorite movies and continue to rank different categories in Oscar history, which is why "If I Picked the Winners" will be going on a ten week hiatus while I count down my favorite movies.

     Now to the real point of this article: 2008. 2008 was an extremely disappointing year for me in terms of the Oscars (and the Super Bowl for that matter, but that discussion is better left for another blog).  The main reason for my dissatisfaction with the Academy Awards in 2008 was their sinful omission of "The Dark Knight", one the decade's greatest films, in the writing, directing, and picture categories. How on earth they managed to nominate typical "Oscar bait" films like "The Reader", "Frost/Nixon", "Milk", "Slumdog Millionaire", and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", but failed to nominate one of the most memorable movies in recent history is beyond me. In fact, I was so angered a movie that was so well received by the public and critics alike failed to live up to the Academy's "high-class" sensibilities, I considered boycotting the Oscars, but at the last minute I couldn't help but watch. The good part of this terrible snub was it lead the Academy to make some changes. Immediately, by the next year they expanded their Best Picture nominees to ten. The Academy felt this would make room for more movies from a variety of genres, such as action/drama films, which, with the very small sampling data of one year, has seemed to work so far.

     There were more problems though with the 2008 nominees than just "The Dark Knight". A number of other good films were mostly ignored by the Academy in favor of the stereo-typical films mentioned above. For instance,"Tropic Thunder" was one of the best comedies of the last decade in my book, but since the Academy has a perpetual bias against movies that make you laugh, it was not too surprising it did not get a Best Picture nomination. What was more surprising, was that three really good dramatic films, "Gran Torino", "Doubt", and "The Wrestler", failed to secure a Best Picture nomination, but garbage like "Frost/Nixon" did. What can I say, that's the Academy for you. Oh well, on to ranking the nominees.

Review: Grown-Ups

     Adam Sandler seems like a nice guy. He appears to care deeply about family and is probably one of the better fathers in Hollywood. Whenever I have seen him interviewed on a television show, he is extremely reserved, but I bet once you get to know him, he probably makes a great buddy too. The problem is in comedy, nice people rarely make good movies. Most comedians are angry, bitter people, but this is the reason they notice things about people that most us only contemplate somewhere in the far reaches of our minds. Comedians obsess over the imperfections of human beings, and when they point them out, even if we don't focus in on people's flaws as much as comedians do, we recognize these flaws when we hear them and are able to appreciate the humor. In Adam Sandler's newest comedy "Grown-Ups", you will see almost nothing remotely close to the humor I just described (or even anything close to real human beings for that matter).

If I Picked the Winners: Best Supporting Actor 1953

     Check out the idea behind this column here

     For the first two editions of my fantasy column, "If I Picked the Winners", I picked the relatively recent category of Best Actor 1997 and the extremely recent category of Best Picture 2009. For my third edition of this column, I thought I would go old-school and pick the oldest Best Supporting Actor category in which I had seen all the nominees, which ended up being 1953. I'm not sure if anyone old enough to remember 1953 reads this blog, but if you're out there, get ready for a trip down memory lane, and for everyone else, this is a good starting point for an education on the history of cinema.

     The year 1953 was all about "From Here to Eternity". The film was based on the popular book of the same name, written by James Jones, but was heavily edited and changed to get the cooperation of the U.S. Military. The changes did not seem to bother the movie-going public or the Academy though, as the film did gang-busters across the nation and the Academy nominated it for an impressive thirteen awards and rewarded it with eight Oscars, which tied "Gone With the Wind" for a record at the time. More pertinent to this column though, it resurrected the career of Frank Sinatra, who was desperate for the part, as his career was in the proverbial crapper at the time. Luckily for Sinatra, he did get the part and the film turned out to be the defibrillator he needed to jump-start his flat-lining career, as he won 1953's Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Did he deserve it though?

Review: The Town

  
     In the world of cinema, the 2000's were to the city of Boston what the 1970's were to New York City. In the 70's, you had a slew of famous films by great directors set in in the Big Apple. "The French Connection" by William Friedkin, "Taxi Driver" by Martin Scorsese, and "Manhattan" by Woody Allen are just a few examples of films where the city itself is practically a character of the movie. In this last decade though (a decade in which the New England Patriots dominated the NFL and the Boston Red Sox finally broke the "Curse of the Bambino"), Boston has taken the reigns from New York City as the auteur's favorite playground. From films such as Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" and Scorsese's "The Departed" (as well as his last film "Shutter Island" that was set in a mental institution outside of Boston), to films like "Edge of Darkness" and "Gone Baby Gone" (another Ben Affleck film), this has been a golden age of cinema for Boston. It arguably all started though in the last decade, when two unknown actors wrote a screenplay called "Good Will Hunting". The film was a critical and box-office success and made its two writers and stars, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, household names and industry leaders. Thirteen years later, even with all his fame and fortune, it is clear that at least one of the Boston Duo has not forgotten his hometown as his second directorial effort "The Town" uses Boston as its backdrop and continues the Hollywood's recent obsession with all things Boston.

News: 127 Hours Proving Too Much For Some to Handle

     "127 Hours", the newest film from Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire"), is the movie version of the real incident in 2003 where Aron Rolston got his arm stuck in a rock while hiking in the mountains. The 127 hours that the film is titled after refer to the amount of time Mr. Rolston was stuck there, until he finally freed himself by amputating his arm with a pocket knife. Well, apparently for some, watching a man amputate his own right-arm was a little too gruesome, because on three different occasions where the film has been shown, someone in the audience has fainted. I haven't seen the film myself, so I can't give you my personal warning on how graphic it is, but for the very squeamish, this may be one Oscar hopeful they will have to skip (or at least close their eyes on certain parts).

Retro-Review: The Shining

 
     As I confessed in my in article on five great movies for Halloween, I've been somewhat of a coward in terms of watching horror films. This means there are a lot of very famous films that, simply because they are in the horror genre, I have yet to see. Recently though, I have managed to muster up enough courage to view some of these fright flicks, and it being the Halloween season, it seemed like a perfect time to watch the more famous films of the genre. I still didn't feel like I had the nerve to watch probably the most famous horror film, "The Exorcist", but instead opted for two films I felt wouldn't give me permanent nightmares: the original "Halloween" and "The Shining". Against what would seem like the logical order, I watched "Halloween" the night before the actual holiday (read my review here) and "The Shining" on Halloween night, but even though there would be nothing more appropriately on the nose then to watch "Halloween" on Halloween, it turns out the scarier film was the one without the holiday for its title.

Retro-Review: Halloween

    
     How many holidays have films named after them? There are plenty of Christmas films, but I am not aware of any entitled "Christmas". There is a movie about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but that doesn't exactly qualify as a Valentines Day film (and from the reviews, this year's romantic comedy "Valentine's Day" doesn't qualify as an actual film). Of course there is "Groundhog's Day", a good movie starring Bill Murray, but the problem here is that Ground Hog's Day fails the pass the "real holiday" test. Halloween though, is lucky enough to have a film named after it, so it seemed rather appropriate as a horror film newbie to start the Halloween season off with John Carpenter's 1978 film "Halloween".

If I Picked the Winners: Best Pictue 2009

To get the idea behind this column, click here

     Okay boys and girls, it's time to put on your H.G. Wells hats, go down into the basement, and dust off the old handy-dandy time machine as we travel way back into the mysterious, mystical land that was 2009. It was a strange time with primitive customs and habits that are hard to understand for our sophisticated 2010 minds. It was a time when Lebron James was still universally admired by everyone, Geico had yet to run that annoying ad with a pig that says "wee, wee, wee" all the way home, and NBC had not yet approved a comedy that points out the hilarious clash of cultures that occurs when an American has to work in India (that last point was a bit of sarcasm, and yes, I'm well aware of how corny this opening is, but I could not help myself). It was also the first year since 1943 that the Academy Awards expanded its Best Picture nominees pool to ten. While I have to admit, I was initially very much against the idea, in the end it worked out great. Spurred on by 2008's criminal omission of "The Dark Knight", the Academy thought that if they expanded the Best Picture category to ten nominees they would be able to recognize a wider taste of films from all different genres, and at least in the first year, it was mission accomplished. Their were independent films, more traditional films, an animated film, and even two sci-fi films! The only downside of ten nominees is it means I have to write a longer article right now, but that's not your concern, so here we go to my ranking of last year's nominees for Best Picture.

5 Great Films for Halloween

     I have to admit it, when it comes to scary films, I am a wimp. As a child I was easily scared by horror films, and even as a teenager they bothered me enough so that I consciously avoided them. I am just now starting to view some of the most famous horror films, which makes the horror genre far from my expertise. In fact, there is probably no other major genre of film that I know less about than horror. Despite my lack of qualification though, this is a movie blog and it is near Halloween, so I am pretty much obligated to make a list about the best films to see for Halloween. The consequence of my ignorance of the genre though means that the list includes films that are definitely a stretch to be included as "Halloween films" (only one of the films would clearly qualify as a horror film), but all five films are great no matter what genre they belong in. Also, I want to clarify before hand that the ranking of the films reflect their appropriateness for Halloween and do not necessarily represent my view on how the films should be ranked overall. Now without further ado, here is my (unqualified) opinion on the five best movies for Halloween.

News: Batman 3 Gets a Title

   
     Any time there is a whisper about anything to do with the next Christopher Nolan Batman film, people go crazy, but today, there is actual legitimate news to report. Nolan revealed in an interview that the next Batman film will be titled "The Dark Knight Rises". It seems there is a clear attempt here to cash in on the enormous success that was "The Dark Knight" by keeping it in the title. I'm sure the film would do great no matter what it is called though, and I'm kind of disappointed with the lack of creativity in the title. Overall, the title of a movie doesn't matter (although I think some people like "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" more just because of the title). What matters is how good the film is and Christopher Nolan has a tall task to follow-up one of the best films of the last decade.

     Nolan also revealed that the villain in the movie will not be The Riddler like many were speculating. Frankly, I’m glad the villain isn’t The Riddler, because even though I like the character, I think it would be a little too similar to The Joker. We're going to have to wait a bit longer to find out who the villain of the film will be, but it the meantime, let me know what you think of the new name and the villain that you would most like to see in "The Dark Knight Rises". If you're interested in reading more about Nolan's thoughts on the upcoming movie, click here.

Retro-Review: Badlands

   
     Wouldn't it be great to do something only four times in 37 years and be declared one of the greatest geniuses of your profession? As implausible as that sounds, somehow film auteur Terrence Malick has managed it, directing only four films in his 37 year career and yet miraculously building one of the most rabid fanbases in all of moviedom. You would think that four films in this amount of time span would create too small a sampling to create a fanbase for a director, but Malick's upcoming film, "The Tree of Life" (release date May 27, 2011), is the most hotly anticipated film in the movie blogging community. The advantage of the brief filmography is that it creates one of the easiest "film festivals" to complete. Hell, even if you wanted to do an "Ed Wood film festival" (if you're into masochism), that would take nine films, so the "Terrence Malick film festival" is relatively just a blink of the eye.

     I started on this bunny hill of a film festival with Malick's first film, 1973's "Badlands". "Badlands" stars Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek (who both look shockingly young) as a twenty-five year old man from the wrong side of the tracks and fifteen-year old girl raised by her father in nowhere-ville South Dakota. One day after walking home from his job as a garbage man, Sheen sees Spacek playing with a baton in her front yard and immediately takes an interest and approaches her. After a short conversation, the two start up relationship until Spacek's father finds out about the two and forbids her from seeing Sheen. After a failed attempt from Sheen to convince Spacek's father to let the relationship continue, Sheen breaks into Spacek's house with a gun and demands to take Spacek away with him. When her father refuses to acquiesce to Sheen's demands, he attempts to call the police but is shot and killed by Sheen before he can reach the phone. From then on, Sheen and Spacek go on the run, as the body count at the end of Sheen's gun piles up.

What's in a Meaning: Will the Real Mark Zuckerberg Please Stand Up

     For my first ever review last week, I sounded off on my love of David Fincher's newest film, "The Social Network" (or "the facebook movie" as it's more commonly known). One of the strongest points of the film is the fascinating character that is the film's protagonist, Mr. Mark Zuckerberg. There is a lot of protest from people who say the film takes too many liberties with the moral character of the real Mark Zuckerberg, and this may be absolutely true, but frankly, I don't care. It's a movie, and the character as he is written makes for great dramatic art, so while I have no clue what the real Mark Zuckerbeg is like, I am interested in discussing the Mark Zuckerberg of "The Social Network". That's why, for the first ever edition of "What's in a Meaning", I thought we could look into the soul of the Mark Zuckerberg of the film, and discuss the varying opinions people seem to have on who he is and what his motivations are.

     The idea behind this irregular column, "What's in a Meaning", is whenever there is a film that seems to generate special interest in the film's meaning, or the meaning of a particular scene, or the interpretation of a character or line of dialogue, this column will be the place where I will give my opinion and where others can express their opinions. Basically, I wanted a place to get philosophical and this felt like the best way to do it, and the movie that has stimulated my thinking the most lately has been "The Social Network". In particular, I have been fascinated to hear people's different interpretations of Mark Zuckerberg and why he takes the actions that he does in the film.

Predicting the Nominees: You Can Try the Best You Can

 
     What would a blog about movies be without predictions on the Academy Awards? Well, I guess it could focus on the artistry of the films themselves, but given my love of the Oscars, there was no way I was going to start a movie blog without throwing in my own Oscar predictions. Every year, like many others, I take part in a friendly family competition to see who can guess the most winners correctly in all the categories, and I usually don't do too bad, but I have never attempted to guess the nominations themselves. I have no idea how good I'll be compared to other bloggers, but I'm eager to see if all my Oscar obsessing will lead to superior prognosticating. Honestly, I don't think I will be all the good, but I'll try the best I can, so check out my predictions after the jump. For now, I am only going to make predictions in the major categories, but at some point I will make predictions for every category. I will list the nominees in order of how confident I am that they will be nominated, and then I will list a few possible substitutions that could sneak in. Finally, after the predictions, I will give some analysis on each of the categories. Here goes nothing!

News: South Park Mocks Inception

     I enjoyed Christopher Nolan's "Inception" early this summer, but I thought it was a little over-rated by some (especially in the blogging community). It's a pretty good film, but I actually think it's one of Nolan's weaker films. Apparently, Trey Parker and Matt Stone of South Park had some problems with the film too, as most of last night's South Park was devoted to mocking the film. As I said, I liked the film, but the weaknesses of the film that last night's episode of South Park pointed out are dead on. They are the exact problems that, in my opinion, kept the film from being a "masterpiece", like so many other people eagerly crowned it. So if you want to check out my problems with Inception, and laugh your ass off at the same time, click here. Thank you South Park!

If I Picked the Winners: Best Actor 1997

     If you haven't read the "About Me" section to the left of your screen, I will let you know here that I am obsessed with the Oscars. I have been obsessed with the Oscars since about the age of ten. From then on, I have collected numerous books on the Academy Awards and spent (wasted) countless hours flipping through them and memorizing winners and nominees. I can name from memory all the Best Picture winners in order from 1927/28's "Wings" to 2009's "The Hurt Locker" (I wonder how many more important things I would know if I didn't have this in my brain) and I have seen all but ten of the winners.

     I am not really sure why I became so obsessed with the Academy Awards. I think it might be because it merges the competitive aspect of sports that I love with the artistry of film. Nevertheless, I am still driven by all things Oscar, which is why I am writing this weekly (hopefully) column where I will take one of the 8 major categories (Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, Director, and the two Writing categories) from some year and rank the nominees. It is a lifetime goal of mine to see all the nominees, from every year, for all these categories (technically it is an impossible goal since a few of the early films are lost). I have about 800 and something movies to go, which may sound like a lot, but to get it down to that number you have to watch a lot of Oscar nominated movies. The upshot of this is there are a lot of categories where I have seen all the nominees, which gives me a lot of potential columns to write, but for the very first "If I Picked the Winners" column, I thought I would start off with the first category in which in I saw every nominee: Best Actor 1997.

Retro-Review: Guess Who's Coming to Dinner

     Before I get into my review of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner", I would like to explain the Retro-Review section. The idea behind the Retro-Review section is pretty self-explanatory (I review old movies), but I would like to take some space of my little part of the internet to make a public service announcement about old movies.

     I watch a lot of old movies. In fact, I watch too many old movies to write Retro-Reviews on every old movie I see, but whenever an old movie inspires me to write a review, you will see it in the Retro-Review section. Unfortunately though, most people don't watch a lot of old movies. For many people, if a movie (like history) happened before they were born, it doesn't matter, and this is a shame, because some of the greatest movies of all-time are very old films.

     In today's world of Facebook and Twitter (I'm starting to sound like I am 80), movies with antiquated ideas, no explosions or sex, or shots without cuts every five seconds may be a little too much to ask of an audience, but that's sort of the point. I have always felt that movies, whether they are about some historical event or are simply a window to another place and time, are the best way to learn about history. The thing that many people fail to realize is that as much as things have changed, people have really stayed the same.

Review: The Social Network

How do you become the youngest billionaire in the world? Hard work and practice? That may get you into Carnegie Hall, but in and of itself it will not make you a billionaire. Education and intelligence? They sure don't hurt, but there are many smart educated people who will never come close to making a billion dollars over their entire lifetime. Kill your enormously wealthy parents and watch the inheritance flow in? While this option is only available to a select few, it may be the most practical option I have mentioned yet. Exploiting the psychological motivations of your generation for everything its worth? Welcome to Facebook!

     "The Social Network", if you haven't heard by now, tells the story of Mark Zuckerberg and the creation of Facebook. The film starts with a snappy conversation between Zuckerberg (played by Jessie Eisenberg) and his girlfriend (Rooney Mara). After a few careless comments by Zuckerberg, the couple breakup, and this event (according to the film) leads to a chain events that ends with the creation of the social networking website.