A busy weekend, though in many respects quite productive.
On Friday night, Julie and I took Riley to see Horrible Bosses. Not the most-appropriate movie for a 13 year old, but a kid has to learn about these things someday…
On Saturday, the three of us attended the Japan Bazaar at the Southern Alameda County Buddhist Church in Union City. They had carnival games and some merchandise, along with plenty of food and drinks and entertainment. I had a very tasty teriyaki burger and a beer (this, clearly, is a different kind of church than the one I’m used to). We were there since the family of one of Riley’s buddies goes to the church and was working one of the booths.
Quinn spent Friday night at a sleepover, then on Saturday at a birthday party where they saw Transformers (and Julie gives me a hard time for taking Riley to see Horrible Bosses!). On Sunday, I took Quinn out to hit some tennis balls. He has great fashion sense!
I also spent some time catching up on some blogging. I posted a ton of blog posts this weekend. Here are all the links!
We went to see Toy Story 3 yesterday, after reviewing Toy Story and Toy Story 2 a week ago. So, all these films are fresh in my mind. Given that Pixar seems to have yet another outstanding film with broad appeal, I thought I’d put my list of favorite Pixar movies. These are my favorites, the films I’d most like to watch if you put a gun to my head and said watch one right now. These might not be the “best” films based on artistic merit but the ones I like the best.
Toy Story 3
Wall-E
The Incredibles
Toy Story 2
Toy Story
Up
Cars
Monsters Inc.
A Bugs’s Life
Finding Nemo
Ratatouille
A couple notable things about the list. Yep, Toy Story 3. What a wonderful mix of humor and action and most of all heart. Perhaps the most tissue-worthy climax of any film since Marley & Me, and you didn’t have to kill a dog to get there either. Â Obviously, I really love the Toy Story films based on their positions on the list. My favorite Toy Story character? Woody.
Some might be surprised to see the oft-ridiculed Cars so high on the list (especially over the Oscar winners Finding Nemo and Ratatouille). I really liked Cars, and not just because Frat Pack favorite Owen Wilson is the lead voice. I really love the Route 66 theme and did find the storyline to be just as touching as many of the other Pixar films.
Thanks to NetFlix and a list of critically acclaimed films that I actually wanted to see, I managed to see quite a few films in 2009. Here’s the list of every 2009 film that I managed to see, and listed here in order. I’ve grouped them into several categories, in order to show that there were differences between the Very Successful group and the Disappointment group, for example.
Regarding my top tier, I’ve managed to see most of these a second time and they do hold up. I’d say that Inglourious Basterds is number one by a considerable margin, however. It was such an entertaining, thrilling, and suspenseful movie! It also featured my favorite performance of the year, Christoph Waltz.
The Best of the Year – Transcended their Genre:
Inglourious Basterds
Avatar
Star Trek
Up in the Air
Up
I Love You, Man
The Hurt Locker
Observe and Report
Funny People
Zombieland
The Hangover
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Monsters vs. Aliens
Very Successful (within their Genre):
Anvil: The Story of Anvil
Taken
Year One
He’s Just Not That Into You
State of Play
Sunshine Cleaning
Management
The Blind Side
Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
Bruno
Angels and Demons
Extract
Julie and Julia
Paper Heart
Adventureland
Watchmen
Sherlock Holmes
Duplicity
The International
Disappointments:
Land of the Lost
17 Again
Paul Blart: Mall Cop
Terminator: Salvation
Away We Go
Fanboys
The Girlfriend Experience
Just Plain Awful:
The Marc Pease Experience
The Proposal
Obsessed (“very successful” if you view this as so-bad-it’s-good and love a good catfight)
I know the Oscars aren’t until March 7, 2010, but I thought I go out on a limb with my fearless predictions for the top categories. Yes, I know the nominations aren’t even out yet. But, here we go…
Best Picture:Â Up in the Air
Best Director: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Best Actor: George Clooney, Up in the Air
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, Julie and Julie
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Best Animated Feature:Â Up
Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air
So, clearly, I’ve got a lot of horses bet on Up in the Air and Inglourious Basterds. I think that as often has happened in recent years the Best Picture and Best Director will split, so that could easily go the other way. But I think that Up in the Air feels more like “topical sign of the times” that the Academy often likes to recognize. I’m hedging my bets for these two films in the respective Screenplay categories as well.
When folks vote for Best Picture they often like to vote for a man in acting category, so the Best Picture support for Up in the Air and Inglourious Basterds will translate to extra votes for Clooney and Waltz. There may be two “newcomer” candidates for Best Actress with Casey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe, so I think they’ll split that vote. If Sandra Bullock gets nominated it’ll be like Anne Hathaway’s last year – the nomination is the reward. Which probably leaves Meryl Streep as the last woman standing. There will certainly be some sentiment to reward Street for the first time in almost 30 years, though I happened to not love her performance in Julie and Julia personally. And I’m going for Farmiga for Supporting Actress because she’s playing against George Clooney (think: 2008 winner Tilda Swinton).
Although my passion for the subject has waned, I’ve always been a big Star Trek fan. You know those kids in the 1970’s who made Star Trek, well, “STAR TREK”? Â I was one of them. I watched the show on TV in the afternoons. I watched the animated series. And every day when I was in third grade we played “Star Trek” on the playground. Each kid had their part. Mark was always Captain Kirk. Ariel was always Mr. Spock. Greg was Scotty. Me? I played the alien who would stand behind a tree until the gang “beamed down to the planet.” Then I’d jump out from behind the tree and scream and yell before being blasted in a haze of phaser fire.
Yep, that was me. I was Mugatu 25 years before Will Ferrell made the role famous for avid Trekker Ben Stiller.
Of course I have seen all the movies. But, importantly, I’ve seen them all on opening day. Which means that you get to see the movies with all the rest of the hardcore “Trekkies” (my preferred term). It’s a streak I’ve kept alive since the first film in 1979 and continued to the last one in 2002 or whatever year it was (can you tell when my interest in the franchise waned?). It was good for Star Trek to take a break. But I’m glad it’s back.
Cut to the best TV ad I’ve ever seen for a movie.
Â
Not. Your Father’s. Star Trek.
Perfect.
Of course, I’m keen to see the new Star Trek movie and it looks great. And I’ll be there on the first day.
It just so happened that I’ve started to rewatch some of the old movies, including Star Trek: The Motion Picture that I haven’t seen since it first came out in 1979. Not a great movie, and I was watching the updated DVD version with improved special effects.Â
So, here’s my list of the best Star Trek movies:
Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan – anyone who says this isn’t the best Star Trek movie is a Star Wars fan
Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home – (yes, the one with the whales)
Star Trek: First Contact – best “Next Generation” movie (and, yes, an “even numbered” Trek film)
Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier – not as bad as it’s rep, and would be really good if they could redo the effects in act three.
Free Enterprise – the comedy film about two Trek fans who befriend “Bill Shatner”. Way more of a “Star Trek” film than many real Star Trek films
Star Trek: Generations
Star Trek: Insurrection
Star Trek: Nemesis
Star Trek: The Motion Picture
Trekkies – lots of fun
We’ll see where this year’s Star Trek film fits in when it opens on May 7th.
Update: I’ve rewatched Nemesis and TMP and have switched their positions in the list.
Picture: Â Slumdog Millionaire
Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Doubt
Original Screenplay: Wall-E Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire
Animated Film: Wall-E Foreign-Language Film: Departures
Documentary: Man on Wire
Editing: Slumdog Millionaire Cinematography:Â The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Costume Design: The Duchess
Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Music Score: Slumdog Millionaire
Song: Jai Ho, Slumdog Millionaire
Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Sound Editing: The Dark Knight Sound Mixing: Wall-E Live Action Short: Toyland Animated Short: Presto
Documentary Short: The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
18/24 but nearly a sweep in the top categories. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Every year I try to guess who’ll win at the Oscars. For an amateur Oscar historian I think I do fairly well, and though I haven’t had a ton of time this year to pay as close attention as I’d like here are my picks.
Picture:  Slumdog Millionaire Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire Actor: Sean Penn, Milk Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight Supporting Actress: Viola Davis, Doubt Original Screenplay: Wall-E Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire Animated Film: Wall-E Foreign-Language Film: Departures Documentary: Man on Wire Editing: Slumdog Millionaire Cinematography: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Costume Design: The Duchess Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Music Score: Slumdog Millionaire Song: Jai Ho, Slumdog Millionaire Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Sound Editing: The Dark Knight Sound Mixing: Wall-E Live Action Short: Toyland Animated Short: Presto Documentary Short: The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306
Biggest crossing-fingers moment? If by some sort of miracle, somehow, amazingly that Heath Ledger is upset and Kirk Lazarus Robert Downey Jr. grabs the prize.
This was the first year in over a decade that I didn’t dutifully get up at six in the morning to watch the Oscar nominations live. There were a variety of factors for this. I’m working on a big project at work so I wanted to get all the sleep I could (getting up extra early kind of wrecks the day, you know?). Mostly, though, is what the experience that early really is. You watch the announcement but they only focus on the top categories. And while things like Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor are important, I often watch the music, song, and other categories. Which sounds like not a big deal. Right after the live announcement the anchors at E! have the numbers for the total number of nominations, figures that include the minor categories. You’d think that you could then go online to see the full list of nominations right away.Â
You’d think. But you would be wrong.
It’s the 21st century, but up until last year at least you could not get the complete set of nominations for at least a half hour past the initial announcements. Whaaat? Â So, besides hearing the Oscar experts talk about who was snubbed, what is the point of getting up early? So, this year I skipped it.
That said, I’m still really interested in the Oscars this year as in year’s past. I have an ongoing bet with my aunt Jill back in Connecticut who is also an avid Oscar-fan. Each year we try to get the most picks correct and after about eight or so years doing this I think it’s been an even split. So, it is a true accomplishment to win the yearly bet.
This year, I was naturally rooting for Tropic Thunder’s Robert Downey Jr. to get a Best Supporting Actor nomination. Because you don’t often get a chance for an Oscar nomination from a Ben Stiller film (ever since Dodgeball was “snubbed” back in 2004). So, even though RDJ was on a lot of precursor awards it was still great to see him nominated this year. Even though he’ll lose to Heath Ledger.
Other Awards
Meanwhile, it had been my dream for some time to run by own yearly awards. The Razzies are an example of a grassroots award system that sprung up and now has national prominence. I even joined the Razzie academy to vote. But a funny thing happened on the way to the ceremony. I realized the Razzies are just as “cliquish” as the Oscars. In fact, the Razzie organizers basically give you a ballot with a few choices and then ask you to nominate from that – which means that its not the vote of the Razzie voters but the editors. Bogus, totally bogus!
For the past three years, The Frat Pack Tribute has run it’s own set of awards, called the Earmuffs. If the Razzies are a “limited” view of the movie awards, the Earmuffs are a micro view. We only look at movies from the Frat Pack, Team Apatow, and their friends. Â The awards are voted on by the fans – totally democratic.
This year, the nominations were collected via web survey for the first time, and our participation went up over 300%. Still not thousands but a big improvement year over year. And it was a lot of work to whittle down 26 categories to three nominees per category. So, I hope that now that we only have five in each category with just a single choice that we’ll have even more voting for the actual awards.
The Earmuffs are a fun set of awards. Serious – in that we actually do recognize filmmakers with serious categories like Best Director and Best Picture. But also not-so-serious, with categories like Best Sex Scene and an award for Dubious Achievement.
Earmuff Award Nominees
Romantic farce Forgetting Sarah Marshall led all contenders with 27 nominations for the 2008 Frat Pack Earmuff Awards. The film written and starring Jason Segel was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sex Scene, and Best Character, amongst others.
Ben Stiller’s action-comedy Tropic Thunder received a Best Picture nomination and 21 nominations total. Stiller was nominated for Directing and Robert Downey Jr. and Jack Black received acting nods. Protests from humor-adverse advocacy groups garnered a nomination for Dubious Achievement.
Will Ferrell received a Best Actor nomination for Step Brothers, a film that received 14 total nominations including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Catch-Phrase, and Best Sound Bite. Step Brothers‘ costar John C. Reilly received a nomination for Best Performance by a Frat Pack Friend.
Stoner comedy Pineapple Express was a summer favorite and recieved numerous nominations from the Earmuff voters. In addition to Best Picture, the film received several nominations in the category for Best Use of Drugs/Alcohol as well as for Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, and Best Character.
Steve Carell received a total of four nominations, leading all individuals. In addition to a Voice-Over award for Horton Hears a Who!, Carell also received a Best Actor nod forGet Smart. The film also scored nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress and 9 nominations in total.
The Earmuff Awards are voted on by Frat Pack fans worldwide. The ballot for fans to vote for the winners will be available on January 25th.
Inglourious Basterds
Romantic farce Forgetting Sarah Marshall led all contenders with 27 nominations for the 2008 Frat Pack Earmuff Awards. The film written and starring Jason Segel was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Sex Scene, and Best Character, amongst others.