On the lot is a new reality show about a group of aspiring movie directors all vieing for a prize of a million dollar contract with Dreamworks. On the first episode their task was to pitch a movie idea based on one of the following five concepts. I'm glad I didn't have to pitch one of them because this is what I think of when given the ideas...2003
Other Nominees:
· Gangs of New York - 7.2
· Hours, The - 7.6
· Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, The - 8.7
· Pianist, The - 8.4
2002
Other Nominees:
· Gosford Park - 7.2
· In the Bedroom - 7.4
· Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, The - 8.7
· Moulin Rouge! - 7.7
The results may be a tad skewed for 2002 and 2003 because we have to assume that there are a fairly large number of LOTR fanboys voting in drones. Personally I never understood why everyone had such a hard on for those movies. They just didn't do it for me. One thing is for damn sure though. The Pianist should have beaten that piece of shit Chicago.1999
Other Nominees:
· Elizabeth - 7.6
· Saving Private Ryan - 8.4
· Thin Red Line, The - 7.3
· Vita è bella, La - 8.4
I remember this year vividly and how bizarre it was that Shakespeare in Love won especially over Saving Private Ryan and Life is Beautiful. I guess I'm not alone.1998
Winner:
Other Nominees:
· As Good as It Gets - 7.7
· Full Monty, The - 7.2
· Good Will Hunting - 7.9
· L.A. Confidential - 8.4
Now here is a really anomalous year. The winner has the lowest rating of all the nominees and it really deserves the lowest. Lets face it Titanic wasn't a great movie it was a fucking fad. Over hyped nonsense. Although I do have to say it was a pretty good story, I mean I totally didn't expect the ship to sink.1997
Winner:
Other Nominees:
· Fargo - 8.2
· Jerry Maguire - 7.2
· Secrets & Lies - 7.8
· Shine - 7.5
The funny thing about this year is that I have absolutely no memory of the movies Secrets & Lies or Shine.1995
Winner:
Other Nominees:
· Four Weddings and a Funeral - 7.1
· Pulp Fiction - 8.8
· Quiz Show - 7.4
· Shawshank Redemption, The - 9.2
Ok this may go down as the biggest academy fuck up ever. FORREST GUMP BEAT SHAWSHANK??? Shawshank is the imdb's second highest rated movie of all time (right behind the Godfather). Forrest Gump is a movie in which Tom Hanks acted like an idiot. hmmm oh and Gary Sinise was in it too..... WHAT???? can we revoke oscars???? (We'll pick that one up on the way to Halle Berry's house) .1992
Winner:
Other Nominees:
· Beauty and the Beast - 7.8
· Bugsy - 6.6
· JFK - 7.9
· Prince of Tides, The - 6.2
Interesting facts this year. Prince of tides is the lowest rated best picture nominee of the past 20 years, while Terminator 2: Judgment day (8.3) is nowhere to be found.1991
Winner:
Other Nominees:
· Awakenings - 7.4
· Ghost - 6.8
· Godfather: Part III, The - 7.4
· Goodfellas - 8.7
Its funny that Godfather 3 is regarded as a joke and that Ghost is regarded as one of Patrick Swayze's best movies. But look at the ratings. I actually saw Swayze the other day at some really low budget dive bar. I asked him if he was filming a sequel to "Roadhouse" he said no and then took my drink order. Other Nominees:
· Born on the Fourth of July - 7.0
· Dead Poets Society - 7.7
· Field of Dreams - 7.6
· My Left Foot - 7.6
So there you have it. Of the last 20 Academy Awards 9 didnt go with the public's popular opinion.
Severance has been described as "the office" meets "Deliverance", a comedy/horror/thriller where a group of British office workers go on a weekend retreat in the mountains of eastern Europe for a team building workshop only to be hunted by a bunch of psychotic ex-militants.
The Fountain is the much anticipated third movie for director Darren Aronofsky (who did Pi and Requiem for a Dream). From the Imdb plot summary: Spanning over one thousand years, and three parallel stories, The Fountain is a story of love, death, spirituality, and the fragility of our existence in this world. This is actually a really hard film to explain, I think you have to see it to really understand what it's all about.
American Hardcore is a documentary about the Hardcore Punk Scene in the USA (and Canada when they refer to D.O.A.) from 1980 - 1986. The film feature interviews with most of the key players and features rare live footage (but not really a lot).
The basic story to Trapped Ashes is Seven strangers on a Hollywood movie studio tour are trapped inside an infamous House of Horror and forced to tell their most terrifying stories to get out alive. So in a Tales from the crypt style 4 different stories are told. Each of the stories and the wrap around story are done by a different director: Sean S. Cunningham, John Gaeta, Monte Hellman, Ken Russell and Joe Dante each has a fairly large resume in the horror genre.
Set in 1983 against a backdrop of Thatcher era Britain This is England Focus' on 11 year old Shaun who is trying to deal with the loss of his father (who died in the Faulklands war) as well as being bullied at school. Before long he falls in with an older gang of boys and girls who act as a kind of surrogate family and protect him from being picked on and although many of them are skinheads they are non-racist and basically harmless. Everything is fine until the former leader of the gang Combo returns from jail. Combo is aggressive and with racist tendencies with ties to the National Front. He soon breaks the group apart taking some of the members along (including Shaun) promising a better country with his radical political agenda.
Again a world premiere from yet another first time feature film director Nacho Cerda. An American film producer named Marie returns to her homeland,
, where her Mother’s dead body has been found under bizarre circumstances. She never knew her, having been adopted and brought to Russia as a baby. The only clue to what might have happened is an isolated, abandoned farm in the mountains that supposedly belonged to her natural parents. America Being the only next of kin, she inherits the place, but no one will take her there as local superstitions state that the area is... DAMNED. Only one man will embark on such a dangerous and long journey... A stranger that oddly seems to know quite a bit about her history... But once arrived, the guide mysteriously disappears, forcing Marie to explore the derelict location alone.
She discovers someone else on the property... A man named Nikolai, who claims to have been lured there exactly in the same manner, so he could discover the truth behind his unknown past as well.
They become stranded in the immense compound, plagued by terrifying, ghostly visions… The problem is that the ghosts that wander around are THEIR OWN. Dead versions of themselves marauder between the buildings in the night…
Time begins to move in reverse as history re-lives itself in front of their very eyes. While both their ghosts, illustrating exactly how they will die, patiently await their living counterparts to expire. A cycle of horror comes to fruition, as they are revealed the reason they have been summoned for this perverse reunion… And the brutal secret behind their family.
German Director Volker Schlondorff tells the story of a shipyard worker Agnieszka Kowalska (based on Anna Walentynowicz) and her actions that help move Poland toward Democracy.
I attended the world premiere of New Zealand director Jonathan Kings feature film debut "Black Sheep". The basic story is that an experiment in genetic engineering turns harmless sheep into blood-thirsty killers that terrorize a rural town in New Zealand. The film is a mix of comedy, horror and gore that pays tribute to many films in the same vein of the past. Weta workshop (of Lord of the Rings fame) worked on the animatronic puppets and the special make up effects.
When my brothers and I got tickets to the 31st annual Toronto International Film Festival one film was at the top of all our lists. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan. The problem was that the movie was at the top of a lot of peoples lists. Even though we had advance tickets and had our choice of films before the general public it was still sold out almost immediately.
I first heard Daniel Johnston in 1995 when 2 of his songs ("Casper" and "Casper the Friendly Ghost") appeared on the "Kids" Soundtrack. I bought that soundtrack as soon as it came out because at the time I was a really big Sebadoh/Sentridoh/Folk Implosion/Lou Barlow fan (I was a 17 year old stoner at the time... what else would you expect). Anyway when I heard that the soundtrack was coming out that had 9 Lou Barlow project songs on it I had to have it, and of course I listened to it tons of times. At the time I partially wrote off Johnston as a novelty act "Casper the friendly ghost" was recorded in an extremely lo-fi fashion with what sounds like a toy organ and Johnston's unique voice. It wasn't that I disliked the song I guess I just had a hard time taking it completely seriously (remember I was 17 at the time). The funny thing is that as time went on I noticed that I often had "Casper the friendly ghost" pop into my head. Years after the fact I can barely remember any of the Lou Barlow songs on that soundtrack yet I would catch myself with lines from "Casper the friendly ghost" like "He was smiling through his own personal hell, dropped his last dime in a wishing well..." running through my mind. So I thought that if this song could have stuck with me for this long, there must be something to this Daniel Johnston character, I should get some of his records and find out what his story is. When I finally got some full recordings, I understood the genius that was Daniel Johnston.
Seriously, as far as I'm concerned the guy can eat a garbage bag full of dicks. I'll admit that I was into the "Mad Max" movies, the "Lethal Weapon" flicks were decent (despite getting the tbs treatment is recent years), "conspiracy theory" was alright and I was even kinda a fan of Payback but when Gibson got on the whole "Passion of the Christ" thing it didn't really work for me. The whole thing just rubbed me the wrong way. The reports were that at the end of it all "The Passion of the Chirst" will have earned Gibson upwards of One Billion Dollars. Now I've always felt that if Gibson is truly a faithful man and truly just wanted to show the what happened to Jesus then he should donate every penny of profit from that film to charity and if not he should be confronted with some serious questions.
