John’s Movie Musings

Amazing.

TRON:Legacy — Click me for HD QT

You’ve probably noticed my reviews have been pretty slim these past few weeks.  That’s because I’ve been spending my time with Avatar: The Last Airbender.  If you’ve not heard of it, it’s an anime series first aired on Nickelodeon.  Obviously, I wouldn’t waste time with a kid’s cartoon, much less talk about it if I did, but Avatar is a fantastic series you should become aware of.

The series consists of three seasons (literally, Act I, II, and III) of 20 episodes each.  I wrapped up the series over the weekend and I came away very satisfied.  Not only does the main storyline have a distinct beginning, middle, and end – each and every character goes through a solid story arc.  There are episodes in season 3 that wrap up subplots from season 1 I had forgotten about. It is so great to watch such a wonderfully crafted story.  And so unfortunately rare.

Since this is a movie blog and not a one for kids TV shows, let me end with some movie news.  M. Night Shyamalan is adapting the story into a live action movie for next summer.  M. Night has a lot of crap for which he owes penance and I have no idea how he’s going to fit three seasons into two hours.  My doubts are understated.  Nonetheless, this one’s on my radar for next summer.

Check it out:

I’m really hoping for good things out of District 9.  This and 9 could be my two favorites of the summer (Go number 9).

Wow.  Summer already.  And it starts next week!

Let’s get crackin’…

May 1

• Battle for Terra – I think this is a small 3D movie.  Other than that, I know nothing.
• Ghosts of Girlfriends Past – Matthew McConaughey stars in yet another romatic comedy.  I bet he takes his shirt off.
• X-Men Origins: Wolverine – I honestly don’t understand the need for this.  It’s called X-Men, not X-Man.  And didn’t we already get Wolverine’s origin story in the first X-Men?

May 8

• Star Trek – JJ Abrams fills the Enterprise with kids twentysomethings douchebags.

May 15

• Angels & Demons – Dan Brown’s prequel book is now a sequel movie to The DaVinci Code.  Fortunately all the fake history is preserved.

May 21

• Terminator: Salvation – Christian Bale takes over for Arnie.  I heard he’ll be back for two more after this.  (groan.  Yeah, I know).
• Night at the Museum 2 – Looks to be the same as the first.  The first one was funny, so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
• Dance Flick – Hey look!  A Wayans movie no one cares about.

May 29

• Drag Me to Hell – Hey look!  Dance Flick gets a new title.
• Up – Pixar goes 3D.  Yay!

June 5

• Hangover – No idea on this one.
• Land of the Lost – On its own, this would be awful.  But Will Farrell is starring and now it’s an awful Will Farrell movie.

June 12

• Imagine That – Eddie Murphy is still making movies.  Imagine that!
• Taking of Pelham 123 – Lot of big names in this.  Looks like a good caper movie.

June 19

• The Proposal – Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds rom-com.
• Year One – Fortunately, there’s a Jack Black comedy about cavemen.  Men rejoice.

June 24

• Transformers 2 – Michael Bay and Shia LaBeouf continue to rape my childhood.
• My Sister’s Keeper – No idea, but it’s a Cameron Diaz movie.  I’d rather watch Transformers.

July 1

• Ice Age 3 - I’ve always enjoyed these movies.  And this one’s in 3D.
• Public Enemies – Johnny Depp continues his reign of awesome as John Dillinger.

July 10

• Bruno - It’s Borat, but with a NC-17 rating.  It’s like that movie Ass from Idiocracy.
• I Love You, Beth Cooper – Who doesn’t?!

July 15

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince – The Penultimate Harry Potter.  Sort of.  Book 7 gets two movies.

July 24

• G-Force – Gerbils…in…Spaaaaaace!!
• The Ugly Truth – Gerard Butler in a Romantic Comedy?  Say it ain’t so Leonidas!

July 31

• Bandslam - We’re goin hoppin.  We’re goin hoppin today where things are poppin.  The Philadelphia way.  We’re gonna drop in, on all the music they play, on the Bandslam.  Bandslam.
• Funny People – Adam Sandler and Seth Rogan.  I bet there’s a fart joke or twenty.
• They Came from Upstairs – Ooh!  A teen movie about aliens.  Squeeeee!!!!

August 7

• G.I. Joe – I just want to know now if this is gonna suck.  ‘Cause knowing is half the battle.
• Shorts – Bets the sequel will be called Pants?

August 14

• A Perfect Getaway – You know a movie will suck when they give away the plot in the title.
• District 9 - A super-secret Peter Jackson sci-fi movie.  OK, I’m sold.

August 21

• Goose on the Loose – A title that makes me want to drop a deuce.
• Inglorious Basterds – Tarantino’s latest.  It has Nazis and Brad Pitt.  What more do you need?

August 28

• Final Destination 3D – Oh man.  One of my guilty pleasures.  And now I get to watch death in 3D!!
• H2 - Oh…

And that’s it.  Let’s see…. The Terminator, Land of the Lost, Transformers, Star Trek, and G.I. Joe.  Proof Hollywood ran out of ideas twenty years ago, right?  Ah well, at least the explosions are better this time around.

Welcome to the new site!  Nothing is too different yet, but as time goes by, I’ll be able to add some new features.  First up, the Review Index is working.  You can get to it from the link at the top, or over there on the right.  –>

Also, I think my Weekly Box Office widget actually sorts correctly now.  That alone will make this all worth it.

If you’ve got any suggestions or features you wanna see, let me know in the comments.

Enjoy!

Oh, and there’s a new Twitter feature at the end of each post.  Any other sites I should add?

BEST PICTURE
Slumdog Millionaire

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Sean Penn (“Milk”)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Kate Winslet (“The Reader”)

DIRECTING
Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Heath Ledger (“The Dark Knight”)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Departures

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Wall-E”

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
”Man on Wire”

The official Oscar nominations were announced early this morning.

Here we go…

Best Picture:

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire

I haven’t seen a single one of these. The Dark Knight and Wall-E were my favs of 08. So yeah, we’re off to a pretty typical start.

Best Actor:

• Richard Jenkins (“The Visitor”)
• Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”)
• Sean Penn (“Milk”)
• Brad Pitt (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
• Mickey Rourke (“The Wrestler”)

Best Actress:

• Anne Hathaway (“Rachel Getting Married”)
• Angelina Jolie (“Changeling”)
• Melissa Leo (“Frozen River”)
• Meryl Streep (“Doubt”)
• Kate Winslet (“The Reader”)

Any guesses?

Director:

• David Fincher (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
• Ron Howard (“Frost/Nixon”)
• Gus Van Sant (“Milk”)
• Stephen Daldry (“The Reader”)
• Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire)

I guess I should check out some of these movies.

Best Supporting Actor:

• Josh Brolin (“Milk”)
• Robert Downey Jr. (“Tropic Thunder”)
• Philip Seymour Hoffman (“Doubt”)
• Heath Ledger (“The Dark Knight”)
• Michael Shannon (“Revolutionary Road”)

Best Supporting Actress:

• Amy Adams (“Doubt”)
• Penelope Cruz (“Vicky Cristina Barcelona”)
• Viola Davis (“Doubt”)
• Taraji P. Henson (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”)
• Marisa Tomei (“The Wrestler”)

Well I didn’t see any of the women, but happy to see both Heath Ledger and Robert Downy Jr. for the men. But if these awards mean anything, it’s gotta go to Heath.

Best Animated Film:

• “Bolt”
• “Kung Fu Panda”
• “Wall-E”

Hey, I saw all those. Gotta be Wall-E.

Documentary:

• “The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)”
• ”Encounters at the End of the World”
• ”The Garden”
• ”Man on Wire”
• ”Trouble the Water”

Hey look, Man on Wire made it.

Of all the nominations, Benjamin Button got 13, Slumdog Millionaire got 10, The Dark Knight and Milk each had 8, while Wall-E got 6.

So any predictions? They are predicting a huge audience this year because The Dark Knight (a movie people actually watched) is up for so many awards. I guess we’ll find out on Feb 22.