What SHOULD win at the Oscars on Sunday...

I fully expect that the highly overrated film THE KING'S SPEECH to undeservedly clean up ahead of the most relevant film in years THE SOCIAL NETWORK and my own personal favourite film BLACK SWAN (which thankfully cleaned up at the Independent Spirit Awards last night). Therefore below is a list of the films and people that I think SHOULD actually win the little gold statuettes on Sunday night. For the purposes of my list I have included some people or films that weren't even nominated but I felt deserved recognition.

Do you agree or disagree?

Best Picture: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Best Director: Christopher Nolan for INCEPTION.
I know he wasn't nominated but the Academy are clearly idiots. This man not only resurrected Batman but developed from scratch, a critically and commercially successful original blockbuster.

Best Actor: Ryan Reynolds for BURIED
What he did in that film is arguably even better than what James Franco does in 127 HOURS (basically carrying an entire film by himself while trapped in one location) but because hardly anyone saw it, he misses out on the glory. Consider him to be the Sam Rockwell of this year!

Best Actress: Natalie Portman for BLACK SWAN
A tour-de-force performance that thoroughly deserves every award going.


Best Supporting Actor: Justin Timberlake for THE SOCIAL NETWORK
I expect Bale to win for THE FIGHTER and that is fine with me, but a lot of people have moaned about the fact that Andrew Garfield was overlooked for his role as Eduardo Saverin in the Facebook movie but for me the bigger oversight was Timberlake being past over for his performance as a showboating, seductive entreprenuer who drives the wedge between Zuckerberg and Saverin. Proved he is not just a pop star!


Best Supporting Actress: Hailee Steinfield for TRUE GRIT
I know that she is actually the lead actress in the movie and that due to some tricksy campaign voting she has ended up here to give her more chance of winning. She was terrific in the film and more worthy than the other contenders but I would also be happy to see Jacki Weaver win for ANIMAL KINGDOM.

Best Original Screenplay: INCEPTION

Best Adapted Screenplay: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Best Animated Film: TOY STORY 3

Best Foreign Language Film: OF GODS AND MEN
Another glaring oversight by the Academy. The best foreign language film of last year and oddly also features the use of Swan Lake, as heard in my other favourite film!


Best Cinematography: BLACK SWAN

Best Editing: A tie between THE SOCIAL NETWORK and SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD.

Best Original Score: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

Best Visual Effects: INCEPTION

Best Sound Editing/Mixing/Etc: BLACK SWAN (wasn't even nominated but it was the best)

To find out if I'm right in some of my picks, you'll have to watch the broadcast on Sky Movies tonight but if you are tired of Alex Zane talking about films during the advert breaks then tune into the Picturehouse Videcast with Sam, Simon, YourTurnHeather and Incredible Suit... and listen out for a voice appearance from myself!

BlogalongaBond #2 - From Russia With Love

It's that time of the month again... no, not that time. Time for another slice of Bond and this time it's From Russia With Love, even though somewhat ironically Bond never visits Russia in the film!

Relevance of pre-credits sequence to rest of film: Very relevant. We see Bond trying to infiltrate a mansion only to be garotted by Red Grant (played by Robert Shaw). Only it turns out not to be Bond but a decoy and Grant has completed his training at SPECTRE. Set the standard for the rest of the series.

Bond song: Instrumental version of From Russia With Love (Matt Munro's silky smooth vocals appear at the end of the film).

Time elapsed before we hear the line "Bond... James Bond": He doesn't actually say it :(

Attractiveness of Bond girls: Tatiana is very pretty but awfully needy for my liking. Also she lost some of the mystique when I discovered that she had been dubbed over by someone else!

Best innuendo: Bond - You're one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen. Tatiana - Thank you, but I think my mouth is too big. Bond - No, it's the right size... for me, that is.

Best one-liner used when despatching an evil henchman:
[after Rosa Klebb is killed trying to stab Bond with her poisoned shoe knife] Tatiana - a horrible, horrible woman. Bond - Yes, she's had her kicks!

Best gadget: Q makes his first appearance in the series and provides Bond with a suitcase

Evilness of villain: Several villains in this film. The mostly unseen Number 1 (who will become Blofeld), the evil brain of Rosa Klebb and the brawn of Red Grant who is more than a match for Bond physically and is played with a roguish charm by Robert Shaw... but he shouldn't have had red wine with fish! Altogether a formidable trio and there is the feeling that Bond is in actual danger in this film.

Feasability of villain's evil scheme: Very feasible and achievable. SPECTRE plan to steal a Russian coding device from the government and then sell it back to them whilst killing Bond in the process to avenge the death of Dr. No.

Now this is what a "proper" Bond film should be. I haven't seen this film in years and had forgotten how good it was. For the time being, this is the Best Bond Film!!!

James Bond will return in March in Goldfinger.

Top Ten Films of 2011 - Week 7

It has taken me a few weeks to actually see some more films this year. I'm puzzled by this but looking back at the film line up we have had, it has mostly been dominated by the same films The King's Speech and Black Swan (which I've actually seen five times now).
This week I have made up for my absence from the screen by seeing four new films. Once I catch Paul, I'll have a full ten films and then we can start the process of adding and deleting films from the exclusive club.

1. BLACK SWAN - 5 stars
"An absolute masterpiece and the first film to ever make me shed a tear"

2. TRUE GRIT - 4 stars
"The Rooster Abides in this effortless film from the Coens. Hailee Steinfield is 2011's Chloe Moretz"

3. ANIMAL KINGDOM - 4 stars
"A cracking family crime drama which is the best thing to come out of Oz since the Wizard"

4. THE FIGHTER - 4 stars
"Esquire called it 'The best boxing movie since Rocky'... not quite but certainly the best boxing movie since Rocky IV. Bale is on terrific form"

5. BLUE VALENTINE - 4 stars

6. THE KING'S SPEECH - 3 stars
"A good BBC drama elevated to overrated status thanks to some great performances"

7. 127 HOURS - 3 stars
"2011's BURIED... only not as good!"

8. NEVER LET ME GO - 2 stars
"I am quite happy to let this one go. Boring and insipid. As far as recent films about clones go, I actually preferred The Island!"

9. LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS - 2 stars

BlogalongaBond #1 - Dr. No

This is my first entry in the blogging craze that is set to sweep the nation - Blog-A-Long-A-Bond. It was set up by the huge Bond fan The Incredible Suit after he realised that there were 22 months until the release of the next Bond film and 22 OFFICIAL Bond films available to watch. The plan is to watch one film a month until the release of Bond 23: Red Sky At Night, Shepherd's Delight or whatever they call it, and review each one on our blogs.

Check out the Facebook page dedicated to the challenge and the chance to read all the contributing bloggers thoughts on the original Bond film.

For my reviews, rather than doing the standard type of review where it describes the plot, complements the acting, action, etc... I will be rating each film on a number of elements that have become synonomous with the Bond series. So here we go...

Relevance of pre-credits sequence to rest of film: No pre-credit sequence :(

Bond song: No Bong song but instead the credits are set to the classic Bond theme composed by Monty Norman... no wait, John Barry... no wait, Monty Norman... no, John Barry... and on and on and on... It also has a bizarre Calypso version of Three Blind Mice before the action starts up again with three blind assassins... very odd.

Time elapsed before we hear the line "Bond... James Bond": 7 minutes 42 seconds

Attractiveness of Bond girls: There is an attractive wealthy woman playing cards with Bond, a white woman who is supposed to be of Asian origin (?!), and then Honey Ryder, who has the iconic entrance of coming out of the sea in that bikini, has a great name, looks good and shows some steel to her in what otherwise is a damsal in distress role.

Best innuendo: Honey Ryder - "Are you looking for seashells too?" Bond - "No, just looking"

Best one-liner used when despatching an evil henchman:

[Professor Dent tries to kill Bond, but his gun is out of bullets]
James Bond: That's a Smith & Wesson, and you've had your six.
[shoots Dent twice]

Best gadget: Q was not introduced in this film so Bond has to make do with a Geiger counter

Evilness of villain: Dr. No has no real physical presence in the film until 20 minutes from the end. Before that he is a shadowy figure that strikes fear into his minions and commuincates through elaborate methods and only by his voice. Having said that, physically he isn't a match for Bond and the end fight between them is over too quickly.

Feasability of villain's evil scheme: Only truly revealed too close to the end of the film to have any real threat or impact (and detailed to Bond in one of those now-cliched "I will tell you my entire plan over dinner before killing you" moments, Dr. No wants to interfere with a US space launch by using a radioactive radio signal. Feasibilty rating - slightly implausible and low on the death count

As you can tell from the examples provided, this was not a "classic" Bond in terms of the formula that we have come to know and love. Dr. No is more along the lines of the tricky first film where you have to spend time introducing us to the characters and the world that they inhabit. They do a fantastic job of building Bond's character who is cynical and sardonic, a no-nonsense killer when he needs to be, and isn't afraid to take the time to romance the ladies. And Connery is damn near perfect in the role.

James Bond will return in February in From Russia With Love.

THE DARK KNIGHT RISES casting news

So Warner Bros have officially announced some of the casting for the new Batman film.

Man of the moment Tom Hardy will be playing Bane and hopefully Nolan can go someway to rectifying the horrendous treatment that the character went through during Batman & Robin.

Catwoman is much more contentious casting as my number one pick was:

Marion Cotillard

But she went and got herself pregnant ruling her out of the race.

Second choice was Natalie Portman...

but she went and got pregnant too.

So we are left with Nolan's choice of Anne Hathaway...

I'm a little hesistant about the casting but Rachel Getting Married showed she can do more than just be a goodie two-shoes and I know she'll look good in a catsuit (or out of one if Love And Other Drugs was anything to go by).

However the big casting news seems to have been missed by all the big movie websites but "official sources" claim that Nolan needed someone to help the film appeal to the kids and so teeny bopper sensation Justin Bieber will be playing Robin (OMFG!!!!)

Top Ten Films of 2011 - week 2

Week 2 of the cinematic year saw The Belmont (and every other cinema in the UK) under siege from the masses flocking in to see The King's Speech. I was expecting it to be a success but to continually have audiences of 100+ every screening is amazing. The last time we had such a popular film, ironically it was probably The Queen!

Anyway, here is my updated list for 2011 so far.

1. BLACK SWAN - 5 stars

2. BLUE VALENTINE - 4 stars

3. THE KING'S SPEECH - 3 stars

4. 127 HOURS - 3 stars

5. LOVE AND OTHER DRUGS - 2 stars

BLUE VALENTINE review

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