Sunday, February 27, 2011

My Oscar Pick 2010

Best Picture


“Black Swan” Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers

“The Fighter” David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers

“Inception” Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers

“The Kids Are All Right” Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers

“The King's Speech” Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers

“127 Hours” Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers

“The Social Network” Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers

“Toy Story 3” Darla K. Anderson, Producer

“True Grit” Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers

“Winter's Bone" Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers


Actor in a Leading Role


Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”

Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”

Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”

Colin Firth in “The King's Speech”

James Franco in “127 Hours”


Actor in a Supporting Role


Christian Bale in “The Fighter”

John Hawkes in “Winter's Bone”

Jeremy Renner in “The Town”

Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”

Geoffrey Rush in “The King's Speech”


Actress in a Leading Role


Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”

Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”

Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter's Bone”

Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”

Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”


Actress in a Supporting Role


Amy Adams in “The Fighter”

Helena Bonham Carter in “The King's Speech”

Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”

Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”

Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”


Animated Feature Film


“How to Train Your Dragon” Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois

“The Illusionist” Sylvain Chomet

“Toy Story 3” Lee Unkrich


Art Direction


“Alice in Wonderland” Production Design: Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Karen O'Hara

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Production Design: Stuart Craig; Set Decoration: Stephenie McMillan

“Inception” Production Design: Guy Hendrix Dyas; Set Decoration: Larry Dias and Doug Mowat

“The King's Speech” Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Judy Farr

“True Grit” Production Design: Jess Gonchor; Set Decoration: Nancy Haigh


Cinematography


“Black Swan” Matthew Libatique

“Inception” Wally Pfister

“The King's Speech” Danny Cohen

“The Social Network” Jeff Cronenweth

“True Grit” Roger Deakins


Costume Design


“Alice in Wonderland” Colleen Atwood

“I Am Love” Antonella Cannarozzi

“The King's Speech” Jenny Beavan

“The Tempest” Sandy Powell

“True Grit” Mary Zophres


Directing


“Black Swan” Darren Aronofsky

“The Fighter” David O. Russell

“The King's Speech” Tom Hooper

“The Social Network” David Fincher

“True Grit” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen


Documentary (Feature)


“Exit through the Gift Shop” Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz

“Gasland” Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic

“Inside Job” Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs

“Restrepo” Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger

“Waste Land” Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley


Documentary (Short Subject)


“Killing in the Name” Jed Rothstein

“Poster Girl” Sara Nesson and Mitchell W. Block

“Strangers No More” Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon

“Sun Come Up” Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger

“The Warriors of Qiugang” Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon


Film Editing


“Black Swan” Andrew Weisblum

“The Fighter” Pamela Martin

“The King's Speech” Tariq Anwar

“127 Hours” Jon Harris

“The Social Network” Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter


Foreign Language Film


“Biutiful” Mexico

“Dogtooth” Greece

“In a Better World” Denmark

“Incendies” Canada

“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)” Algeria


Makeup


“Barney's Version” Adrien Morot

“The Way Back” Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng

“The Wolfman” Rick Baker and Dave Elsey


Music (Original Score)


“How to Train Your Dragon” John Powell

“Inception” Hans Zimmer

“The King's Speech” Alexandre Desplat

“127 Hours” A.R. Rahman

“The Social Network” Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross


Music (Original Song)


“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey

“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater

“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong

“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman


Short Film (Animated)


“Day & Night” Teddy Newton

“The Gruffalo” Jakob Schuh and Max Lang

“Let's Pollute” Geefwee Boedoe

“The Lost Thing” Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann

“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)” Bastien Dubois


Short Film (Live Action)


“The Confession” Tanel Toom

“The Crush” Michael Creagh

“God of Love” Luke Matheny

“Na Wewe” Ivan Goldschmidt

“Wish 143” Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite


Sound Editing


“Inception” Richard King

“Toy Story 3” Tom Myers and Michael Silvers

“Tron: Legacy” Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague

“True Grit” Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey

“Unstoppable” Mark P. Stoeckinger


Sound Mixing


“Inception” Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick

“The King's Speech” Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley

“Salt” Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin

“The Social Network” Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten

“True Grit” Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland


Visual Effects


“Alice in Wonderland” Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips

“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1” Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi

“Hereafter” Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojansky and Joe Farrell

“Inception” Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb

“Iron Man 2” Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick


Writing (Adapted Screenplay)


“127 Hours” Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy

“The Social Network” Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin

“Toy Story 3” Screenplay by Michael Arndt; Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich

“True Grit” Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

“Winter's Bone” Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini


Writing (Original Screenplay)


“Another Year” Written by Mike Leigh

“The Fighter” Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson; Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson

“Inception” Written by Christopher Nolan

“The Kids Are All Right” Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg

“The King's Speech” Screenplay by David Seidler


Sunday, February 20, 2011

Review: I Am Number Four

IMDb

Title: I Am Number Four
Distributor: DreamWorks SKG
Director: D.J. Caruso
Writer(s): Alfred Gough (screenplay), Miles Millar (screenplay
Staring: Alex Pettyfer, Timothy Olyphant, Teresa Palmer, Dianna Agron, Callan McAuliffe
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, and for language
Running Time:
Synopsis: John is an extraordinary teen, masking his true identity and passing as a typical high school student to elude a deadly enemy seeking to destroy him. Three like him have already been killed ... he is Number Four..

What Others Are Saying?


Rotten Tomatoes: T-Meter:
27% (Rotten), Top Critics: 19% (Rotten), Audience: 74% (Fresh)
Metacritic: Critics: 35 out of 100, Users: 5.6 out of 10
MRQE Metric: 49 out of 100

Yahoo Movies: Critics: C- Users: A-

My Review

Source Material: Based on book with the same title written by Pittacus Lore (James Frey and Jobie Hughes)

Entertaining Value:

  • Action Elements: The basic "Micheal Bay" action movie we all have either grown to hate or love. Personally, his formula in this movie fits to a degree.
  • Comedy Elements: This area was really lacking there could have been more. This guys is in a sci-fi movie there could have been some funny reference to other alien type movies. Making pop culture reference grounds you into the reality of the real world. It also brings comedy to the film.
  • Dramatic Elements: I will explain this more in the acting section but it was very "Twilight" esk, meaning very melodramatic without any substance.
  • Sci-Fi / Fantasy Elements: For being a Sci-Fi film the CGI and mythology was very weak to say the lest. Visually it belong on the CW ranking behind Smallville and Supernatural.

Cinematic Value:

  • Acting and Dialogue: D+: Very weak acting. I understand that the filmmakers were trying to appeal to Twilight crowd but did they have to emulate the acting style as well?
  • Art Direction: C: Most of the movie happens at night or around night fall. The effect were dark and dingy and not very appealing.
  • Cinematography: C: Average at best the movie seemed poorly lite maybe that's because it spouse to be night time or something.
  • Direction: B: I thin it had decent pace for what it was worth like I said before it would work on television among Smallville and Supernatural. Maybe it should have been a mini series or episodic.
  • Editing: B: I always thought something was missing in the story but maybe that was what they eliminated from the book not necessarily the editors fault. Over all I think it was a decent film from a editing stand point.
  • Screenplay: C: The mythology was very weak. There was too many question left unanswered...answers are probably in the book. I would think when you adapted a book into a screenplay you not only please the fan but you include important details. Since I never have read the book I don't fully understand what going on. I keep on equating this movie to Smallville and Supernatural but these two show have ten times better mythology.
  • Sound and Music: B:The sound track fits I will say it again CW material.
  • VFX: C-: Very weak could have been a lot better.

Overall: C: I would say this film was around the decent markers on the scale of "Lame as Hell" to "!@#* Amazing" It has it entertaining moments that work for the average movie going audience that loves tv shows like Smallville or Supernatural. But climatically it very flawed. You may think I am tearing this movie apart saying it sucks well it this retrospect it kind of does. But you may want to wait for this one to come on DVD and or catch it on Netflix for "free"