Month: November 2009
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1998 at the Oscars
Early Oscar favorite, Saving Private Ryan was knocked off its pedestal by the National Board of Review, not once, but twice, when it came in second best to Gods and Monsters in the Best Picture balloting and Steven Spielberg lost Best Director to Elizabeth’s Shekhar Kapur. Several days later Spielberg could smile once more when…
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Review: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (2009)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Rating Director David Yates Screenplay Steve Kloves (Novel: J.K. Rowling) Length 153 min. Starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson, Jim Broadbent, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Gambon, Maggie Smith, Alan Rickman, Bonnie Wright, James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Julie Walters, Mark Williams, David Thewlis, Natalia Tena, Helena Bonham Carter, Dave Legeno,…
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Review: G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009)
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra Rating Director Stephen Sommers Screenplay Stuart Beattie, David Elliot, Paul Lovett, Michael B. Gordon, Stephen Sommers Length 118 min. Starring Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Christopher Eccleston, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Karolina Kurkova, Byung-hun Lee, Sienna Miller, Rachel Nichols, Kevin J. O’Connor, Gerald Okamura, Ray Park, Jonathan Pryce, Dennis Quaid, Saïd Taghmaoui, Channing Tatum,…
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1997 at the Oscars
The big story of 1997 was, of course, Titanic. It didn’t matter whether or not it was the best film of the year or simply one of the best. Its hold on the imagination and the box office was enough. It was good for the industry. Prior to the Golden Globes, however, Titanic was an…
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Precursor: Satellite Award Nominations
Coming a day earlier than their own site even stated (perhaps taking advantage of the new day in another country), the Satellite Awards have announced their 2009 nominees with six in all categories and splitting much like the Golden Globes do with Comedy/Musical plus a few tech categories they don’t have. Here’s the full list.…
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Previews: Week Ending November 29, 2009
The balance of new trailers has been fluctuating recently and this week has shifted towards the 2010 films. There are nine new trailers for next year and only three for this year. The straggling 2009 film trailers include one Oscar contender, The Last Station; one comedy, The Strip; and one Bollywood pic, De Dana Dan.…
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Newly Updated Oscar Hopefuls & An Animated Short First
I have made a much needed update now to my Oscar Hopefuls list, including several new movements in the field. To see the full list, visit 2009 Oscar Hopefuls. I don’t have a lot of time to explain, so I’ll save that for another day. But this will be my last update before the first…
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1996 at the Oscars
1996 was the perfect Oscar season for those who like to be kept guessing until the last moment. There was no clear front-runner among the year’s top contenders. The National Board of Review got things going with a split vote for the Australian made Shine as Best Picture while Fargo’s Joan Coen took the Best…
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Oscar Campaign Breakdown: The Traditional Indies
In this final article, I’m going to give you some info on the studios that are so small and so vastly underfunded that they can truly claim the Indie title. Most of these companies won’t be that familiar to the general public, but their available titles, though not always huge contenders, are certainly noteworthy. The…
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Two Nominees No One Is Mentioning?
Two performances seem to be untouched so far with Oscar followers that I think need to be considered as serious contenders for a nomination. Both come from long-time Hollywood performers who have yet to make it to the Oscars. Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side. After a much stronger than expected opening this weekend, Bullock…
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The DVD Report #131
The most successful film in Hollywood history in terms of tickets sold is now 70 years old. To celebrate, the 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition of Gone With the Wind has been released on both Blu-ray and standard DVD. Only 150,000 editions of each have been produced. The Blu-ray set contains three discs, the standard…
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The DVD Report #131: November 24, 2009
See what’s coming out this week on DVD! The most successful film in Hollywood history in terms of tickets sold is now 70 years old. To celebrate, the 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition of Gone With the Wind has been released on both Blu-ray and standard DVD. Only 150,000 editions of each have been produced.…
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1995 at the Oscars
It’s difficult to fully comprehend what happened in 1995. Early speculation focused on possible Oscar wins for Tim Robbins’ Dead Man Walking, the true story of a nun who acts as spiritual advisor to death row inmates; Leaving Las Vegas, Mike Figgis’ account of an alcoholic’s descent into hell; Ang Lee’s much admired adaptation of…
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Oscar Campaign Breakdown: The Mini-Majors and Specialty Divisions
In my second article covering the contenders the studios have for this year’s Oscars, I’m taking a look at two groups: the mini-majors (DreamWorks, Lionsgate, Overture Films and The Weinstein Company) and the big studio specialty shingles. The Mini-Majors Although DreamWorks feels like a Major, it isn’t. It doesn’t have its own distribution arm, forcing…
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1994 at the Oscars
A good movie is a good movie and will appeal to almost anyone of any age, but there are degrees of appeal that age sometimes plays a part in. In 1994 most people were either in the Forrest Gump camp or the Pulp Fiction camp. The former appealed primarily to the baby boomer generation, which…
