Big Daddy Gouda

Every year, for the  7 people who care, I tell you who is going to win Oscars in the top six categories. And, as I do every year, I shoot for 4 outta 6 correct. Mostly I nail it. But, sometimes I don’t.

Just to clarify, these are my PREDICTIONS not really my picks. For instance I PREDICT Sandra Bullock is going to win the Oscar for her (annoying) role in The Blind Side, however, in my book, the award SHOULD go to Carey Mulligan from An Education.

Therefore this year I will give my PREDICTIONS, which count toward the 4 outta 6 and also my picks, whom I think are most deserving.

BEST PICTURE: This year for the first time in 60 years, the Best Pic category has expanded from 5 to 10 nominees. Prolly cuz good movies like The Reader and Frost Nixon were nominated last year while masterpieces like The Dark Knight and Wall-E were left out.

Months ago everyone was saying UP IN THE AIR with George Clooney was the film to beat. Then AVATAR came out and suddenly that was the film of the moment. Then THE HURT LOCKER was named Best Film of the Year by all the smaller award panels. Then INGLORIOUS BASTERDS won the Screen Actors Guild award for best picture. So where does that leave us?

I’m saying HURT LOCKER wins the OSCAR but I think either AVATAR or INGLORIOUS BASTERDS is more deserving of the night’s top award.

BEST DIRECTOR: I say it every year, The Best Picture winner usually follows the Best Director winner. However, this year may be the exception. As I stated, HURT LOCKER should win BEST PIC but I think JAMES CAMERON wins the Directing Award for Avatar, the most stunning thing I’ve ever seen on screen. And he deserves it.

BEST ACTOR:  The Oscar will go to Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart. I’d sum up the performance as  One third ‘Dude’ from Lebowski, One Third ‘Johnny Cash’ from  Wak The Line and One Third ‘Randy The Ram’ from The Wrestler This is the performance to beat.  Bridges, should win/will win.

BEST ACTRESS: Bullock wins/Mulligan deserves.

SUPPORTING ACTOR: Hands down CHRISTOPH WALTZ from Inglorious Basterds for his role as the flamboyantly sadistic Hans Landa. Not as sure a thing as Heath Ledger was last year for The Dark Knight but pretty darn close.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: MONIQUE is going to win for her role as  the fat trashy mama from Precious. But I’d like to see Anna “Jessica from Twilight” Kendrick win the award. She gave my favorite supporting actress performance of the year.

So there you have it. MY PREDICTIONS: HURT LOCKER, JAMES CAMERON, JEFF BRIDGES, SANDRA BULLOCK, CHRISTOPH WALTZ AND MONIQUE.

While not nessessarily my favorites in those categories, they are all fairly deserving. Except for Bullock. She was so cheesy in The Blind Side.

“You’re changing that boy’s life”

“No…he’s changin’ mine.” 

BARF.

The last year of the decade really was an amazing year for movie fans.

Starting at the beginning of 09, great movies seemed to pop up at the cinemas every weekend.

Great movies I’ve seen this year are:

Taken, Observe and Report, Coraline,  Sunshine Cleaning, Away We Go, Star Trek, The Hangover, Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, Up, The Hurt Locker, Funny People, 500 Days of Summer, Inglorious Basterds, Drag Me To Hell, District 9, Precious, The Fantastic Mr Fox, Paranormal Activity, Julie & Julia, The Road, Invictus, Up In The Air, Avatar, and Sherlock Holmes.

But…for those of you who love lists….Here are my TOP 10:

10: STAR TREK: Great Story + Great Action + Great Acting = 10th best film I’ve seen this year.

9: FANTASTIC MR FOX: The second funniest (The Hangover) movie of the year.

8: THE ROAD: While this film is dark and depressing and leaves you with only a glimmer of hope for the future, it is a faithful adaptation of Cormac Macarthy’s Pulitzer Prize winning novel and Viggo Mortensen gives an Oscar worthy performance.

7: Up In The Air: The story is simple and timely and the performances especially Clooney and Twilight’s (don’t hold that against her) Anna Kendrick are brilliant.

6. DISTRICT 9: A really cool alien Sci-Fi movie that unlike, say, Independence Day, shows what would prolly REALLY happen if spacemen ever landed on earth. The last image will stay with you long after the film ends.

5. PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: The (second) best time I had at the movies this year. I’ve said it before and I’ll set it again, I’ll never forget that pretty boy sitting behind me in the theater screaming like a little bitch throughout the film. It comes out on DVD Tuesday. Check it out.

4. (500) Days of Summer: If you care, my original review is HERE and it still holds up 4 months later.

3. AVATAR: Don’t be turned off by the underwhelming previews. I almost was and I’m glad I went to see James Cameron’s gift to action movie fans . If you love movies you HAVE to see this film in 3D.  While the plot can be a bit clunky and almost a direct rip-off of Dances With Wolves (replacing Indians with Aliens), the action and special effects more than make up for any shortcomings. Best Special Effects/Visuals in the history of film. Really.

2. INGLORIOUS BASTERDS: Funny, moving and action packed. So good that teens everywhere may actually come to believe that Tarantino has changed history and WW2 truly did end in that French Cinema.

1. THE HANGOVER: Yep, the movie that made me laugh myself silly in June (twice) remains as my favorite film of the year. For me, when deciding how good a film truly is, I not only judge what I’m seeing on screen but how what I’m seeing makes me react.  I laughed from the second the movie began to the raunchy closing credits. The best comedy show I’ve been to in years is my favorite movie of 2009.

In keeping with my best of lists started last week with TV,  I will now run down MY 10 favorite films of the last 10 years.

Noticeably absent from this list is anything I’ve seen in 2009, since those films will be part of my annual Best Films list coming out either later this month or in early January.

And Here…We…Go..

1. THE LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY:  Yeah, you could argue and say, “Hey wait, that’s three movies!” but really it’s just one big ass film cut into thirds. The best trilogy to come along since Star Wars. And that’s saying a ton.

2. ALMOST FAMOUS

3. WALK THE LINE

4. MEMENTO: Trying to piece together the puzzle made this a fun experience at the cinema.

5. GLADIATOR: Russel Crow’s breakthrough role. A bad ass film with a scene stealing performance from Joaquin Pheonix.

6. MILLION DOLLAR BABY

7. OLD SCHOOL: The funniest film of the decade obviously makes it onto my Top 10. “You just took one in the jugular man!”

8. FINDING NEMO: After the TOY STORY movies Disney/Pixar took it to the next level with this story about fish.

9. KNOCKED UP: May have the best line of dialogue in romantic comedy history:

ALLISON: “I’m Pregnant”

BEN: “FUCK OFF”

ALLISON: “What!”

BEN: “What?”

ALLISON: “I’m pregnant”

BEN: “With….Emotion?”

ALLISON: :With a baby!”

10. HARRY POTTER & THE PRISONER OF AZKABAN: With the third film in the seven part series, this “children’s story” became much darker and took a turn for the better.

Below is a video of just audio from a public screening of Paranormal Activity. (see review below).

This is the crowd reaction to the last minute of the movie. Don’t worry, it gives nothing away but it WILL give you some idea of the experience I had watching the film Friday night inside a packed theater.

btw, if you plan on seeing this movie, AVOID Spoilers at ALL costs.  ( i consider this clip spoiler free.)

Years from now, when I think back on the first time I saw the horror mock-u-mentary Paranormal Activity, I’m sure the first thing I’ll remember is the 18-year-old dude behind me, sitting with his three friends, screaming like a little girl.

Yes, he’d scream…out loud…as if he’d just encountered a monster in a dark alley on his way home from soccer practice. But, in that packed theater in Avon Friday night, no one seemed to mind his screaming much. Truth be told – everyone was screaming.

Yep, Paranormal Activity was THAT spooky.

If case you haven’t heard, Paranormal Activity is a low-budget suspense film- shot on a hand-held camera in one week. The movie is done in the spirit of The Blair Witch Project as in, it presents itself as an actual experience where you the audience are viewing the “found footage”.

The movie tells the story of a young couple who believe their house may be haunted and therefore buy a video camera to record any Paranormal Activity.

The tension builds slowly, as the apprehensive Katie, a student, and the skeptical Micah, a day trader, feel the first emotional tremors. The movie keeps us in its grip because we never leave the couple’s haunted property and because all we see is what the camera has recorded when held by Micah or Katie, or when left on at night to monitor their bedroom. That claustrophobia creates a bond between the couple and the audience; they can’t escape, and neither can we.

The tension gets so unbearable that the audience literally groans with dread as the camera is left on each night while Katie and Micah sleep. I don’t want to give anything away and the less you know about this film the better, but the movie works best during these scenes filmed in the bedroom during the night. That is when the true terror happens. That is when the audience, at least at the screening I attended Friday night, screamed loudest.

Paranormal Activity is the complete opposite of The Hangover but at the same time nearly identical. The Hangover made packed audiences laugh so hard they wanted to pee, while Paranormal Activity provides scream inducing scares.

And those are the best movies out there, the kinds that elicit some sort of human response.

So if you like to be scared, go see Paranormal Activity but be warned, you will have trouble sleeping if you are easily frightened.

Like right now. I’m dreading going to sleep tonight. Really fucking dreading it.

I  would never call myself a huge Quentin Tarantino fan.  Sure, I like most of his movies, but I never “rush” out to see them, and other than Pulp Fiction, and to a lesser extent Reservoir Dogs,  I don’t think his movies are amazing.

So, as I parked my ass into the seat for a Sunday afternoon showing of his latest flick, “Inglorious Basterds”, I was expecting to be entertained. However, I was not only entertained, I was  blown away.

The movie gets off to a rousing start with its opening chapter, “Once Upon a Time in Nazi-Occupied France,” when we are introduced to Tarantino’s single best character to date, the somewhat charming Nazi Col. Hans Landa,  played by the amazing Christoph Waltz, who won the Best Actor award for this role at the Cannes Film Festival.

Landa at first doesn’t seem befitting of his nickname, “The Jew Hunter.” During his talk with a local French dairy farmer, Landa is polite as can be, seemingly wanting to do little more than follow-up on a previous visit by another officer about a local Jewish family who may have fled, moving the conversation from German to French and finally to English. As they speak, we start to realize that moving to a language both Landa and the farmer know isn’t just for the audience’s benefit, giving them a moment’s reprise from what will be many subtitled sequences, but setting a trap for the farmer which will make many in the audience squirm as they realize what is about to happen.

Making audiences squirm seems to be what Tarantino wants to do most with “Basterds.” You may be aware from the commercials and trailers that Brad Pitt leads a group of Jewish-American soldiers who are set upon terrorizing the Nazis, leaving their marks by scalping those they kill and carving swastikas into those they leave alive. You may also be aware one of the Basterds, Sgt. Donny Donowitz (“Hostel” filmmaker Eli Roth) has a special skill amongst the team by taking a baseball bat to those who, as his Lieutenant likes to say, “want to die for their country”.

Many heads are scalped, a few are bashed in or carved up. Someone pokes their finger into a bullet wound to get to the truth of what just happened. Thousands of bullets fly, and a number of gallons of blood are splattered.  It’s quite gruesome at times.

Pitt is the name that will get butts into seats, but it’s not his movie. Along with Waltz, who is deserving of every accolade he’ll get the rest of the year, “Basterds” belongs to Mélanie Laurent, the equally little known French actress who plays Shosanna Dreyfus, a survivor of one of Landa’s hunts now operating a movie theatre in Paris under an assumed name, who devises a plan to take down the man who killed her family when an unexpected German movie premiere falls into her lap. And believe me, in one unforgettable piece of cinema,  this bitch means business when she decides to get her revenge.

With out ruining anything, the last shot of the film is of one of the “basterds” staring into the camera after he has just carved up a Nazi soldier.

“This may just be my masterpiece,” he says, of his handy work.

Fittingly, the same can be said of Tarantino’s latest film.

I’m sure back in 1987,  girls all over America dragged their boyfriends (kicking and screaming) into the theaters to see the latest romantic comedy, Say Anything, starring a just getting started John Cusack.

Now 2o + years later, the story of Lloyd Dobbler and Diane Cord is a whole lot more of a guys movie than it is a “chick flik”. I mean, come on, what guy didn’t sympathize with Cusack’s Lloyd? A good looking, witty, kickboxing slacker with a heart.

So, my advice to any dude out there who may be dragged to the new film 500 Days of Summer:  Go willingly and keep an open mind. The reward is a great film. A Say Anything for present day, and,  possibly the best film I’ve seen this year.

The title, (500) Days of Summer,  comes from the name of the girl in the film, played by Zooey Deschanel, and the 500 day period during which she is a part of the main character’s life. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom Hansen, an architect working a crappy job at a greeting card company who becomes smitten by the new intern, Summer Finn. After some awkward attempts to catch her attention, he eventually wins her over and they have a whirlwind romance. Before long, however, the tide changes, and Summer starts to wonder if Tom is really the right man for her, which sends Tom spiraling into depression.

The film works best when the relationship is clicking and Tom is happy. The montage where Tom “struts” to work while dancing to Hall & Oats could become a classic.

When things go bad it’s hard not to hate Summer and sympathize with Tom, but don’t forget the movie is shown from Tom’s point of view so it’s kind of hard not to feel for the poor guy.

Thankfully, at the end of the film Tom sees things more clearly and, as expected, so do we as audience members. And, as I walked out of the theater I couldn’t help think that a sequel could possibly be filmed someday. (500) Days of Autumn, perhaps?

The term “romantic comedy” is not particularly well-regarded nowadays, thanks to years of formulaic and sappy love stories manufactured specifically as light entertainment for couples who are out on a date. But movies about relationships don’t always have to be cheesy and predictable.

Some of you may know that every year five (5) movies are nominated for a Best Picture Award at the yearly Oscar ceremony, and, of those five, only one walks away with the top prize.

Some of you may also have heard that, starting next year, the academy has changed things around a bit. Now, instead of five movies to choose from, the academy will nominate 10 for the prestigious Best Picture Award.

I for one think this is great, especially after last year’s travesty where movies like The Dark Knight and Wall-E were ignored while The Reader and Milk were honored, granted, both were good movies but neither deserved the nod over Batman and Pixar.

While the academy says it’s to generate excitement, I for one think money is behind the expansion of the best picture category.  I mean, I for one am more apt to see a film if it carries the tag “Nominated for  Best Picture”.

Anyway, for those of you who do follow movie patterns, most films that get nominated for awards come out between October and Christmas, which is typically referred to in the movie industry as “award season”. It is very rare for a film released prior to “award season” to earn a Best Pic nomination but it happens.

The Sixth Sense came out in the summer of 1999 and eventually earned a nomination while Braveheart was released in the spring of 1995 and walked away with the Best Picture Prize the following year.

That being said, 3 months prior to the beginning of award season, I have listed a dozen films that have already come out, that I think have a good shot of cracking the Top 10 and earning a nomination for a 2009 Best Picture Oscar. (in no particular order, just how I remember ‘em).

1. UP

2. STAR TREK

3. THE HANGOVER

4. PUBLIC ENEMIES TAKEN

5. ADVENTURELAND

6. EARTH

7. CORALINE

8. DRAG ME TO HELL

9. WATCHMEN

10. SUNSHINE CLEANING

11. THE GREAT BUCK HOWARD

12. AWAY WE GO

Like I said, studios don’t start rolling out their award contenders until late fall/early winter, however  I think we could see a few more contenders this summer that have yet to open.

Harry Potter, Funny People and Inglorious Basterds come to mind.

Simply put, The Hangover is a crude, crass comedy that manages to be smart at the same time – oh, and funny as hell.

When you start laughing about 30 seconds into a movie, that’s usually a good sign.

I saw the film inside a packed theater and it seemed more like I was at a stand-up comedy show than a movie. I don’t remember the last time a crowd was so into a film. People were laughing so hard they were snorting. I think the old guy sitting next to Ashlie peed his pants.

The plot of The Hangover is very simple: Three buddies (and one tag-along) head to Las Vegas to celebrate the impending marriage of one of their own with a bachelor party weekend. They get so incredibly blasted (thank you jaggermeister) on the night of their arrival that they don’t remember a single thing that happened – of course maximum mayhem ensued during the evening, and they must slowly piece together the night because the groom-to-be has gone missing.

If you’ve ever been to Vegas for a bachelor/bachelorette party I’m thinking you can relate to a bit of the madness. It’s amazing how in Sin City things can truly get away from you…and fast.

The Hangover showcases a great cast of characters – Bradley Cooper as Phil, the handsome, smooth talker of the group, Ed Helms as Stu Price – the dentist who keeps reminding people he’s a doctor, and Zach Galifianakis who steals the movie as Alan, the future brother in law of Doug (Justin Bartha). In addition we have Stu’s insane yuppie girlfriend who ya just wanna punch in the face, Heather Graham plays a gorgeous  hooker with a heart of gold,  Jeffrey Tambor (Pop-Pop in the attic from Arrested Development) adds a few laughs as the future father-in-law and Ken Jeong is hilarious as “Mr. Chow.”

Yes,  Jeong was priceless as the Asian gangster, absolutely hysterical – but the stand out performance had to be Zach Galifianakis as the “not quite all there” member of the troupe. He plays the role as almost mildly retarded, and the lines he delivers and the way he says them are probably on their own enough to make you want to see the movie again.  (“Who Let The Dogs Out, doot doot doot”)

There are great bits throughout the entire film, and while some may feel it bogs down for a bit about 3/4 of the way through,  it regains its footing soon enough to wrap up with a really great ending. 

I loved how they handled the backtracking to figure out just what happened the night before – they didn’t resort to flashbacks or fancy back and forward time-jumps… we just hung with the guys real-time and discovered the pieces to the puzzle along with them. So not only do we have great comedy, as a bonus we get a mystery to unravel as well.

I think it goes without saying but for the love of God leave the kids at HOME for this one. If you can’t afford a babysitter this week, save a couple of bucks a day and wait until next week to see it.

This movie, more than any other comedy I’ve seen since Clerks 2, truly earns its ‘R’ Rating.

Trust me, if you are easily offended by rude crude comedy, by all means stay home, (Allison, I’m looking your way) but if you can handle it, The Hangover is not to be missed. 

Some of the most extreme scenes in the movie actually don’t appear until the credits are rolling. I won’t give away anything other than to say if you’re offended by sexually explicit material, you’d better leave just as the credits begin to roll.

Another great point, for once the funniest parts of a great comedy were not ruined by being shown in the trailor. The best parts are inside. Believe me, you don’t know what you’re in for.

I wanna go to Vegas!!!!!!!!!

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btw, Will Ferell’s Land of the Lost also opened this weekend. Some of you may recall a few weeks back when I did my Summer Movie Preview I predicted Ferell’s film would be the biggest turd of the summer.

Was I right? Find out by CLICKING HERE