Friday, February 20, 2009

Rob's Oscar predictions

OK as I right this it is two days before the Academy Awards, so her are my predictions (not who I want but who I think will win)for the Academy Awards.

Actor, Leading: Mickey Rourke (WRONG)
Actor, Supporting: Heath Ledger (RIGHT)
Actress, Leading: Kate Winslet (this is probably the one race I'm actually really rooting for) (YAY, SOOO RIGHT)
Actress, Supporting: Penelope Cruz (RIGHT)
Animated Feature: Wall-E (RIGHT)
Art Direction: Revolutionary Road (WRONG)
Cinematography: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (WRONG)
Costume Design: The Duchess (RIGHT)
Directing: Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire) (RIGHT)
Documentary Feature: Man On Wire (RIGHT)
Documentary Short: The Conscience of Nhem En (WRONG)
Film Editing: Slumdog Millionaire (RIGHT)
Foreign Language Film: Waltz with Bashir (WRONG)
Makeup: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (RIGHT)
Original Score: Slumdog Millionaire (RIGHT)
Original Song: Down To Earth (Wall-E) (WRONG)
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire (RIGHT)
Short Film, Animated: Presto (WRONG)
Short Film, Live Action: Auf der Strecke (On the Line) (WRONG)
Sound Editing: The Dark Knight (RIGHT)
Sound Mixing: The Dark Knight (WRONG)
Visual Effects: The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (RIGHT)
Screenplay, Adapted: The Curious case of Benjamin Button (WRONG)
Screenplay, Original: Milk (RIGHT)

I'd love to hear other peoples picks or thoughts on where I had it wrong.

Rob's Top 10 of 2008

While you can never be 100 % I'd say at this point I'm 90% sure about my top 10, Only films I have not seen that as far as I know could have a chance of making the top 10 are Gran Torino and Happy Go Lucky. So here we go

1. The Dark Knight
2. Wall-E
3. Synecdoche, New York
4. Slumdog Millionaire
5. Let The Right One In
6. The Reader
7. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
8. Milk
9. Rachel Getting Married
10. Doubt

Monday, February 9, 2009

BAFTA, .... excuse me.


First of all Kate Winslet won Best Actress, and for the right film. Unlike The American version in England you can be nominated within the same category more than once. I was worried Kate would split the vote between Revolutionary Road and The reader, but despite that possibility she prevailed. This is probably the one award at the BAFTA's and the Oscars that I am rooting for the most. Everything else to be honest it more or less comes down to a couple of nominees I don't want to win. Probably highest on that list was Mama Mia, nominated for Outstanding British Film. I cannot stand that film and I was really rooting for it not to win, and it didn't.

Otherwise I gotta say it's a year of a lot of pretty good films and few great ones and the great ones are not even up for Best Picture. At the BAFTA's Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up with seven wins, I expect it will do the same in two weeks at the Oscars, and it's a good movie, no it's a very good movie, but it's no Wall-E or The Dark Knight. The awards were fun to watch especially as Alex seemed very interested but really he was disappointed that Slumdog and Benjamin Button won everything that the Dark Knight or Quantum of Solace were up for. But then that's what makes the awards fun to watch, having something to root for. And the more I think about it, this year, there's not a lot to root for. Other than Kate Winslet that is, she's always rootable.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Which RENT is the right RENT?

Got my DVD of Rent!Filmed Live on Broadway yesterday! Ali and I had seen this in theatres last fall. What they did was film the final performance of the musical on Broadway using I think 10 or 12 HD cameras. Ali and I were blown away by it in the theatre, and it’s the one new DVD of 2009 that I didn’t have to sell other DVD’s in order to buy. I love this musical and when Chris Columbus’s film version came out a few years ago I was sorely disappointed, but felt that at least now there was a record of it that I could pull out and see the songs performed. But this is what we really wanted, I can’t imagine I will ever again watch the Columbus film. But…. I can’t sell the DVD, why? Well I’ll tell you I didn’t watch the Musical all the way through last night but I did view all the special features and they like the special features on the DVD are really good, but they are different. The documentary on the movie DVD is so good and tells you so much background on the play and how it started and Jonathan Larson that I know I’ll want to revisit that, too bad they didn’t carry the special features from the movie DVD over.
So if you have never seen RENT on stage and want the experience do not watch the movie DVD watch the Filmed Live on Broadway DVD. The only thing better than seeing it live is seeing it in the theatre like this, and since that’s no longer an options seeing this on DVD at home is the next best thing.