Best Picture

Avatar – I didn’t love it but there are certainly enough people willing to overlook the plot and give this award based on how much work it took to make the film. Plus since Cameron won’t win for Best Director this is sort of a 2-in-1 award. I think Inglourious Basterds deserves to win, but it is doubtful that it will get past Avatar and The Hurt Locker.

Best Director

This will be an interesting year as I am picking to split Best Picture and Best Director which seems to be happening more and more frequently. Faced with the serious prospect of being able to give the first Best Director Oscar awarded to a woman I can’t see the Academy voters denying the gesture. Kathryn Bigelow will win for directing The Hurt Locker.

Acting Awards

There aren’t going to be any major upsets here so I thought I would group them all together. Jeff Bridges will get his award after four unsuccessful tries. Christoph Waltz has walked away with every major award this season and this should be no different as his role in Inglourious Basterds will win the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. Best Actress could go to the serious actress in the comedy or the comedic actress in the serious film. I am going with Sandra Bullock though Carey Mulligan might be a dark horse favorite since they Academy seems to favor young actresses. Best Supporting Actress should go to Mo’Nique in a walk for her devastating role in Precious.

Technical Awards

Avatar should clean up in the technical awards picking up awards for Cinematography, Visual Effects, Art Direction, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing. I am picking District 9 to win for film editing, but that one will probably go to Avatar as well.

Screenplay

I expect that original screenplay will go to Quentin Tarantino for his strange parallel finale to the Second World War Inglourious Basterds. As an Adapted Screenplay Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner are my choice to win the award but the category is much closer.

Other Awards
This is the area I always do so badly in. I just don’t have the opportunity to see most of the foreign films and live action shorts.

Foreign Language Film – Ajami
Makeup – Star Trek
Costume Design – The Young Victoria
Live Action Short – Miracle Fish
Animated Short Film – A Matter of Loaf and Death
Documentary Short – The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Original Song – The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart
Animated Feature – Up
Documentary Feature – Which Way Home

Related posts:

1. Oscar Review 2006
2. Golden Globe Picks 2005
3. Golden Globe Picks 2006

District 9 tells a not so unbelievable story of what humans might do if aliens came to Earth. The aliens, here termed ‘prawn’, come to Earth nearly death with a disabled space ship and hover over Johannesburg South Africa. Beneficent beings that humans are, the aliens are rescued, fed, and locked into a ghetto called District 9. There the humans proceed to exploit them in every way possible buying and selling the aliens’ stuff and do ungodly tests on them while keeping them as downtrodden as possible. The humans would probably have eradicated them entirely but the prawns have fantastical weapons that do not work with the human physiognomy.

Weta did the effects and they did a phenomenal job integrating the aliens and their technology into the South African landscape. It is as bleak and fraught with danger as anything from Slumdog Millionaire. The flat dun colors highlight the squalor of District 9 and the gross, disconcerting, and obviously alien prawn scurry through the shantytown like cockroaches.
District 9 is not a film that is easy to watch. It doesn’t make the obvious choices and the aliens are as foreign looking and as likeable as the insects they resemble. They are not cute and accessible to the audience and most of them have little personality or differentiation. The people scurrying around the Johannesburg landscape are littler better though they think themselves the superior race. There is no nice guy to root for, merely a scrabble for survival that is heart-wrenching. It is a story about how beings can willfully misunderstand one another.

District 9 is also the story of Wilkus Van De Merwe a middle management bureaucrat of no particular talent or beauty. He is a thoughtful if somewhat ridiculous husband who married fairly well but doesn’t seem cutout for greatness. Sharlto Copley, heretofor unknown, plays him as an average sap barely able to grasp the events unfolding around him much less react sanely to them. Copley has never carried a major film before but here he does an incredible job as an ordinary joe who suddenly develops kinship with the aliens after he is exposed to a technology that slowly turns him into one of the prawns.

Blomkamp gives the film a strange feel by beginning the movie with a documentary feel then moving to a larger scope of an action film. Initially coworkers are interviewed about Van De Merwe’s strange behavior and disappearance. Then the film goes back in time to follow Van De Merwe during the serving of notice to the inhabitants of District 9 that they are being moved further from town into and even more cramped slum named District 10. Sequel anyone? The film could have become tedious if the documentary approach had continued through the film but as Wilkus starts to diverge from his standard life and turn into one of the prawns the film steps back from the documentary perspective.

District 9 is at times a satisfying action film, making far better use of the human in a robot suit than either Avatar of GI Joe, it is a nail biting war film, and a heartfelt drama. I admit that the film was so intense that I had to get up and leave the room for a few minutes near the end. District 9 definitely deserves to be considered among the five best films of the year.

No related posts.

I know another list that has been done to death. But I like to have my say as well. What with the Big Dance ending and the Stanley Cup playoffs beginning I have sports on the brain. Again, I’ll name my ten favorites but I’m not sure whether I’ll put them into any particular order.

Slap Shot (1977) - This is a fantastic comedy starring Paul Newman as washed up minor league hockey player Reggie Dunlop. As far as I am concerned sports movies should have humor in them, and bring something to the sport that it either misses normally, or is not practical to include. In this case it is the antics. No team could get along playing like this team plays in this film. For one thing most of their players would get lifetime suspensions from the sport. In an actual game it is dangerous, but in a movie it is hilarious. The Hanson brothers add a hilarious element both by being extremely funny, and by lending credence as real hockey players skating through scenes.

Miracle (2004) - This is a movie about true events. The three things this lends to sports movies that are not apparent in a normal game. 1. History, the film is well couched in the events of the time from gas shortages to the Iran hostage crisis. 2. Camera angles - this is the way you wish hockey could look, fast pace and with tons of camera angles. Of course this is not practical because some of the cameras would have to be in the center of the ice and the players would have to skate around it. 3. A happy ending - historically the Americans did win the gold and crowd onto the podium together, you couldn’t ask for anything more. Oh yeah and it includes Kurt Russell’s best performance and a tender family story.

Remember the Titans (2000) - Any sports movie that deals with race relations has to tread carefully. Another film based on a true story, this one deals with the integration of a high school football program. The coach will be fired if they lose a game, so the go undefeated. A film that gets you to cheer along with the action is a great movie and this one had the audience cheering like they were in the stands. One of Denzel Washington’s finest performances and that is saying a lot.

Eight Men Out (1988) - Starring John Cusak, D.B. Sweeny, Charlie Sheen, and David Strathairn Eight Men Out tells one of the saddest true stories in sports history, the 1919 Chicago Black Sox scandal. The film depicts a group of men whose whole life revolves around baseball, on the greatest team in the league, but are so squeezed for cash that when gangsters approach them and offer bribes to throw the World Series. The team came back from a 3-1 game deficit the win the World Series, but when the scandal arose months later the eight players were banned from baseball for life while the gamblers who made so much money from the games walked away scot free. This film is moving in its portrayal of both the game and the condition in which the players lived at that time hardly believable in this day of multi-million dollar athletes.

Rocky (1976) - This is the ultimate underdog story of a smalltime Philadelphia boxer given a chance at the heavyweight championship. It may be a marketing ploy by the champ but for Rocky it is a chance to ‘go the distance’ and garner his self-respect. One of the few films on this list critically acclaimed enough to win the Best Picture Oscar far and away Sylvester Stalone’s best film, don’t laugh, and the start of a large and long franchise. The film is as much a view of Philadelphia and the city has so taken to the underdog boxer that they have a statue of Rocky outside of their sports complex.

Bull Durham (1988) - One of the only Kevin Costner movies I can stand this film again follows a minor league team, this time in baseball as three people dream about the majors and what the expect of life. Susan Sarandon plays Annie a baseball fan that has an affair with one player a season. This year she coaches Tim Robbins as Nuke a young up and coming pitcher with a shot at the majors. Making thing more complex is Kevin Costner as Crash Davis a seasoned catcher who has been to the majors and knows that Nuke has a lot of growing to do before he can compete at the majors. The down and out theme works well for sports and the combination of humor and disappointment works well here.

Chariots of Fire (1981) - Another critically acclaimed sports movie based on true events. The film is slow but it tells the story of the 1924 Olympics and the British track team. This film is as much about the decline of the British Empire between the two World Wars as it is about the aristocracy and the friendship of competitors. It tells the story of Harold F. Abrahams played by Ben Cross and Lord Andrew Lindsay played by Nigel Havers a Jew and a devout Christian and the roadblocks that their religion place before them in their sport. This film is a really impressive detailed study of sports when dignity and honor were just as important as winning.

The Pride of the Yankees (1942) - A classic, and often cited, sports film. Gary Cooper plays Lou Gehrig as the film follows him from his childhood to his farewell speech in 1939. As you all probably know Lou Gehrig died of ALS, often called Lou Gehrig’s disease in his late thirties and this film was a tribute to him. Made only a few years after his death it tends to do the Hollywood gloss over most of Gehrig’s less friendly personality traits, Cooper plays him flawlessly as a man who loves the game and feels his life slip away from him from a disease he cannot control. Interestingly the film also features Babe Ruth playing himself.

Seabiscuit (2003) - A fantastic energetic film and certainly better than the sappy drivel that passed for horse racing movies in the 1940s. Seabiscuit is the true story of a little horse and his big jockey who surmount numerous obstacles to be the best and win. The acting is all around great, the costumes are colorful and beautiful, and the horse racing sequences are a dramatic blur of horse flesh, dirt, and color.

The Hustler (1961) - The story of a group of pool grifters and one big game. Paul Newman plays Fast Eddie Felson a young up and comer on the pool circuit who takes on Jackie Gleeson’s Minnesota Fats in a high stakes pool game. Fast Eddie has to learn the ropes from the bottom up to cool his hothead and learn the rules of engagement but risks losing himself to the shadowy world of pool sharks. Fun and cool as were most of Paul Newman’s films of the 60s.

Runners Up

The Longest Yard
North Dallas Forty
Raging Bull
Hoosiers
Breaking Away

Related posts:

1. Miracle

1. Singin’ In the Rain (Singin’ In the Rain 1952) - magic on the screen, truly a moment when the sum is greater than all of its parts and the movie gods smile down.
2. Somewhere Over the Rainbow (The Wizard of Oz 1939) - nobody belted them like Judy here singing her standard.
3. White Christmas (Holiday Inn 1942) - So good they used it in two movies, here it is a little less stylized than later versions.
4. I Could Have Danced All Night (My Fair Lady 1964) - exuberant and joyous song, one of the best songs from one of the best musicals ever.
5. Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas (Meet Me in St Louis 1944) - not the most famous from the film at the time, The Trolley Song got the Oscar bid, but this is the one we still sing every Christmas
6. Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend (Gentlemen Prefer Blondes 1953) - mythical icon of Marilyn in that pink dress
7. Rainbow Connection (The Muppet Movie 1979) - sweet, and sincere, and sung by a muppet
8. Under the Sea (The Little Mermaid 1989) - the little kids were singing this for two years straight, remember
9. As Time Goes By (Casablanca 1939) - the quintessential star-crossed love song
10. Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah (Song of the South 1947)
11. My Gal Sal/Blue Skies(The Jazz Singer 1927) Maybe not some of these songwriters most memorable work, but ah, to hear it up on the screen!
12. When You Wish Upon a Star (Pinocchio 1940) - one of the best of the old Disney films and a truly wishful and hopeful song
13. Get Happy (Summer Stock 1950) - Judy looked back in form for this final number of the film
14. I Wanna Be Loved by You (Some Like it Hot 1959) - immortalized by Ginger on Gilligan’s Island
15. I’m A Yankee Doodle Dandy (Yankee Doodle Dandy 1942) - had you marching in the aisles
16. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (Mary Poppins 1964) The only reason I can think of that Chim Chim Cher-ee was nominated and won the Oscar is that it is easier to spell.
17. New York, New York (On The Town 1949) - What a wonderful town.
18. Mrs Robinson (The Graduate) - the quintessential inappropriate love song
19. Hard Day’s Night (Hard Day’s Night) - the music documentary started here
20. Stayin Alive (Saturday Night Fever) - Dance your heart out
21. My Heart Will go On (Titanic 1997) - we all got swept away in a wave of sentimentality
22. The Way We Were (The Way We Were 1973) - edit previous entry, we all got swept away again.
23. The Time of My Life (Dirty Dancing 1987) - every 13 year old girls’ fantasy
24. In Your Eyes (Say Anything) - the perfect use of a song in a movie
25. On The Good Ship Lollipop (Bright Eyes 1934) - Shirley Temple at her sweetest

Runners Up:
Moon River (Breakfast at Tiffany’s) I know this probably made the list. It is a good song, but I never thought it suited the movie very well.

Que Sera, Sera (The Man Who Knew Too Much 1956) Anytime there is a musical number in a Hitchcock movie it has to raise a few eyebrows, and it won the Oscar for best song.

I Was Born Under a Wandering Star (Paint Your Wagon) Lee Marvin singing? Whose idea was this anyway?

Somewhere Out There (An American Tale 1986) - plantative and sweet

Rock and Roll High School Soundtrack - anything with half the soundtrack by The Ramones has to be good.

Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid 1969) Again, a good song and an endearing scene, but somewhat extraneous to the film.

Moanin’ Low (Key Largo1948) Clair Trevor won her best supporting actress Oscar as Gaye Dawn with this one song. It is torturing to see her washed up alcoholic singer punished into singing for a drink.

The Trolley Song (Meet Me in St Louis 1944) The more popular song from the film

Theme from Shaft (Shaft 1971) yeah baby!

Ich bin von Kopf bis Fu

Related posts:

1. Top Ten Movie Musicals

1. A Christmas Story (1983) - I can’t imagine Christmas without a 24 hour marathon of this film on TNT (or in this year’s case TBS). I don’t know what people watched on television Christmas Day before this movie came about nor would I want to. It seems un-Christmas-like to not watch this movie at least 3 times in fragments throughout Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The adventures of Ralphie Parker and his hilarious family on the days leading up to Christmas inn the 1940’s is a wonder. Performances by Peter Billingsly and Darren McGavin are over the top but put this heartwarming film on the map. Since I already mentioned that there are a number of great Christmas movies from the 40’s it is interesting that the greatest Christmas movie of the modern era is set in the 1940’s in a typical suburban family.

2. Holiday Inn (1942) - Personally I’m not a big fan of the Christmas film White Christmas though I am sure that it tops numerous other Christmas film lists. I always felt that it was too slick and refined. That is why I prefer this earlier Bing Crosby gem that features the first use of White Christmas. Of course this being a film about an inn that is only open for major holidays it occurs over a number of years and includes songs for Valentine’s Day, Fourth of July, and Lincoln’s Birthday as well. But all of the major action occurs around Christmas and the films is suitably festive. Some of the numbers seem dated and have not worn well, but Bing crooning White Christmas never gets old.

3. It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) - I suppose this is what everyone watched on Christmas before A Christmas Story came along. I am a big fan of Jimmy Stewart and of Frank Capra and this film is a gem. Oft repeated this is the story of George Bailey who loses faith in life at Christmas when things turn bad for his savings and loan. An angel named Clarence comes to earth and shows George how his life affected those around him and gives him the perspective he need to keep living his life. It points out that every life no matter how small has a big impact on those it touches. It is a bit overly sentimental and some of it hasn’t aged well, but the story and the acting is timeless.

4. A Christmas Carol (1951) - You can take your pick of the Scrooge related remakes of Charles Dickens’ Christmas classic but it is generally agreed that no one played Scrooge as well as Alastair Sim. If you don’t like the old man in a bathrobe character try the updated Scrooged starring Bill Murray as a miserly television executive.

5. The Santa Claus (1994) - Tim Taylor as Santa? This film starts with the concept that if you kill Santa on his yearly route and take up his suit that you become the new Santa. Though I thought this morbid, kids seem to gloss over that for the amazing visuals of the North Pole. Tim Allen made the jump from television to movies based mainly on this portrayal of Scott Calvin, Santa Claus-in-training. Scott is a man who is too tied up in his business to take time with his family who eventually grows into the job of taking an interest in everyone’s families.

6. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation (1989) - The Griswold family events are well documented even if the series is somewhat uneven. It reached its pinnacle with this Christmas disaster film, starring Chevy Chase as Clark Griswold, when the family, including cousin Eddie get together at the Griswold homestead to celebrate Christmas. The mayhem includes a septic system explosion, an inhabited Christmas tree, electrocution, and of course a kidnapping. If only all of our holiday’s went so well.

7. Elf (2003) - There have been a glut of so-so Christmas movies of late but Elf is truly a fun fest for the family. About an orphaned baby who climbed into Santa’s sack one Christmas and was raised by elves. Will Farrell is endearing as the man-child, or would it be man-elf, who goes to New York to meet his real father. He of course turns the city on its ear with his bizarre elf ways not the least of which involves putting syrup on everything. Think Crocodile Dundee with a Christmas theme.

Runners Up:
Nightmare before Christmas - love it but I see it more as a Halloween movie
White Christmas - the story of old army buddies and a snowless inn, shiny and full of songs, see above
Christmas in Connecticut - fun story about a city girl columnist pretending to be a Connecticut homemaker entertaining a soldier for the holidays
Miracle on 34th Street - courtroom drama about a man claiming to be Santa is charming but at times slow

No related posts.

1. Halloween (1978)
Babysitting teenagers who get picked off by an escaped psychotic mental patient named Michael Meyers. The body count and camp in the first film aren’t high but it is far better than the films that came after. Plus it introduces the queen of scream Jamie Lee Curtis. If you want a good quality slasher flick with the frisky teenagers who meet their end, this is the one.

2. Scream (1996)
A slasher flick for the jaded Gen-X crowd. This film’s characters know the slasher genre and all of the films that went before thus the film can be clever in playing with the rules of the genre. The teens know better than to wander off for drinks or sex when a mass murderer is on the lose, but they do it anyway. The gore factor in this one is high as is the fun.

3. The Lost Boys (1987)
This flick from the Cory and Cory era is a scream. About a group of suburban teens whose neighborhood is infested with vampires these kids run around trying to find the lead vampire and kill him. An 80s blast from the past with Jason Patrick in the pre-Speed 2 era and Jami Getz living the teen dream of partying all the time and never getting old.

4. Shaun of the Dead (2004)
A new entry and one not available on video yet this one will no doubt become a classic Halloween party movie. Shaun is a twenty-something in a rut whose greatest joy in life is hanging out at the local pub with his best buddy. Of course a zombie invasion spoils his do-nothing life, but it leads to some hilarious consequences as he gathers his friends and heads to the pub to wait out armageddon. Until then watch Dawn of the Dead about some survivors holed up in a shopping mall.

5. The Evil Dead (1981)
This entry should also include Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness the Sam Raimi/ Bruce Campbell trilogy of Ash’s fight against evil. Though these are creepy movies and contain a lot of images of violence against women, they are also campy, and gory, and fun. Watching the stoic Bruce Campbell do anything would be fun, but even more so is watching him fight his own hand and chop up the dead.

6. A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984)
The best of the Wes Craven slasher films is guaranteed to keep guests from falling asleep. A story of Freddy Krueger the man with the razor fingers who kills children in their dreams. Nightmare is fun and frightful though the series devolved rapidly.

7. The Frighteners (1996)
From Peter Jackson before he got into all things Hobbit this story starring the charismatic Michael J Fox centers around a man who can talk to the dead and someone in a small town who is trying to make sure he has lots of people to converse with. Well written and with nice effects this underappreciated film is highly watchable.

8. The Birds (1963)
Alfred Hitchcock’s story of a flock of birds that terrorize a small town. Yep, that’s it. Though the film is really frightening in parts, for the most part the film is campy and hysterical as people in the small town run screaming from groups of mostly normal and harmless looking birds.

9. Gremlins (1984)
More 80s memorabilia, remember when everyone loved Gizmo and the dolls were selling out all over the place. If not you might want to check out the film that caused all of the fuss and see where the fuzz ball began. Remember the rules, no bright lights, don’t get them wet, and never, ever feed them after midnight.

10. Child’s Play (1988)
The debut of Chucky, the homicidal maniac doll. Need I say more?

Related posts:

1. 10 Best Scary Movies

1. The Exorcist (1973)
For my money the scariest and most disturbing movie ever made. I watched this in a fully lit room with my roommate and neither of us wanted the other to get up and go to the bathroom and leave us alone to watch. The Exorcism is the story of a little girl possessed by the devil and the priests who come to help her by performing an exorcism. (By the way the Catholic Church still recognizes exorcism as a viable activity.) The 2000 reissue adds some truly horrifying effects and is worth seeing. Ignore this year’s prequel.

2. Psycho (1960)
After this movie the late Janet Leigh would never take another shower, she wasn’t the only one. Landmark for its time this film started the slasher genre and changed many of the rules of filmmaking. If you don’t know the story, Norman Bates runs the Bates Motel where people check in and they don’t check out. Combine that and a twisted oedipal complex and you have one of the most terrifying movies of all time.

3. The Shining (1980)
Certainly some of the scariest acting in Jack Nicholson’s Jack Torrance winter caretaker of the Overlook Hotel. The only problem with this original is that it is hard to believe that Jack was ever sane. Purveyor of ‘Jack’s back!’ and ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’, this horror fest from Stanley Kubrick is both unnerving and beautiful.

4. Alien (1979)
As if giant murderous Aliens aboard a spaceship weren’t scary enough, these acid dripping aliens want your innards to nest in. Just ask poor John Hurt’s Kane in one of the most gut wrenching, literally, scenes in Hollywood horror. True this is one of the picked off one by one sort of films, but it introduced the captive group fighting the big bad evil later seen in Predator and other horror films as well as one of the toughest kick-ass woman heroes in Sigourney Weaver’s Ripley.

5. Halloween (1978)
John Carpenter started the 80s fascination with slasher films with this high anxiety story of a homicidal maniac on the loose. Jamie Lee Curtis became the queen of scream off of this film and for good reason. Don’t be surprised when you watch this movie, the body count is quite low compared to the sequels and focused more on tension than gore.

6. Poltergeist (1982)
If there is one lesson to take from this it is that no place in suburbia is safe enough, especially when that new tract home is built on a cemetary. Poltergeist has a number of nightmare inducing scenes using ever household device from chairs, to televisions, to toys. If you what more horror check out the string of incredibly bad luck following the cast and crew of these movies that lends itself to great paranoid conspiracies.

7. Jaws (1975)
Jaws is proof that a blockbuster can scare the pants off you too. An awesome movie from all angles it is also tremendously scary. The film is also proof that less is more as the giant shark appears for less than 15 minutes of the film. If only they had continued that trend for the other films. Jaws features great acting and a story that kept people out of the ocean for years.

8. The Others (2001)
A dark atmospheric almost Gothic tale of a woman and her two children who suffer from a strange disease that keeps them from going in the sun. Thus the family members are virtual captives in a large house that seems to be inhabited by spirits. The house is overlarge and foreboding and the house staff are unnerving at best. Nicole Kidman’s Grace holds this film together with the fierceness of a tigress defending her cubs and makes the whole story, twist ending and all, work.

9. Diabolique (1955)
A truly suspenseful and scary movie this one may not appeal to the modern horror fan as it is in black and white, and entirely in French. But those who know the appeal of The Ring in its original Japanese form Ringu can grasp the appeal of a true original classic. Remade hideously in 1996 as a Sharon Stone vehicle the original casts one of the biggest French stars Simone Signoret as the buxom other woman. The story is simple a man is killed by his wife and his mistress at a boarding school where they are all teachers. But murder is never so simple as the body goes missing and clues point that the man might not be dead after all.

10. Carrie (1976)
High school angst the Stephen King way. Not your ordinary adolescent coming of age story, though this one does involve the prom, it also includes telekinesis, pig’s blood, and religious fanatics. Spacek’s Carrie is a weird girl who you can’t help feeling sorry for, especially when you meet her mother.

Runners Up:

Scream (1996) - plays with the slasher flick conventions
The Ring (2002) - a video that invites death sound stupid, but turns out to be a pretty cool gimmick
Seven (1995) - by far some of the most disturbing corpses on film
The Silence of the Lambs (1991) - great acting. Fava beans anyone?
Night of the Living Dead (1968) - classic, the granddaddy of all zombie movies
Rosemary’s Baby (1968) - rather dated for today’s audience

Related posts:

1. Halloween Party Movies
2. Scary Movie 4

Of course as a journalist I will try to be objective about this presentation, but that is not always possible. Take for instance the film Control Room, a documentary behind the scenes of Al Jazeera the Arab news network. Al Jazeera states that they try to be objective, but to a Western audience their policy of showing graphic footage of bombings and beheadings seems inflammatory. They seem to incite anti-American sentiment by showing civilian casualties of bombings. As everyone knows, all war carries with it some human toll and no matter how smart the bomb there are going to be civilian casualties, but to plaster them on television heightens the already rampant tensions in the region.

Then there is the issue of Rathergate, of course this is not a film topic, but it bears mention here anyway. It has been argued that fraudulent documents were used on Dan Rather’s story on Bush’s National Guard record because there was not sufficient check or the results of fact checking were ignored. This was chalked up to an over eagerness to knock the conservatives down a peg. This has been made a major issue not only because the documents were wrong, but because there are questions about the motives behind the story and its rush to release. Of course ever news venue wants to rush. They want to be the first to release the story, provide an ‘exclusive’ look at whatever topic they are covering. The American people rely on the media to fact check themselves on the data they release so that we can rely on it as truth. The upheaval here shows that the system works by and large, that incorrect facts are checked and shot down if they are found to be wrong.

Our opinions, our upbringing, and our beliefs always color what we do. The interesting thing is that this year blatantly coloring ones work to mirror ones perspective is not only acceptable, it is the norm. Take for instance Fahrenheit 9/11 from the master of manipulation Michael Moore who twists and distorts facts in his one man crusade against the Bush administration. Though he stated at Cannes that he wanted to make movies not political statements, Fahrenheit 9/11 showcases Moore’s bias against President George W Bush and Moore’s questioning of the motives for the actions that Bush has taken as President of the United States. Or look at The Passion of the Christ which was backed by conservative religious groups and appealed to masses of Christians. The Passion of the Christ could have been a mediocre film released to mediocre box office, but it has become a lightning rod for Christians to revisit past violence that mirrors the violence of the post-9/11 world.

On February 25th, 2004 Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of the Christ was released to great hoopla and greater box office receipts. This 30 Million dollar movie has grossed more than 370 million dollars in the US alone and has become a rallying point for conservative Christians. Recently The Passion of the Christ came out on video and has been selling briskly. The film, which tells the story of Jesus’ last days and crucifixion, was extremely violent yet it has been seen by a widely diverse audience. The film may have been lambasted for its excessive violence and mediocre storytelling but it resonated with the American public and caused many ministers to admonish their parishioners to go see the movie and reflect on their religious beliefs. In some instances religious leaders even suggested taking children to see this graphic and gory R rated movie.

On the other side of the field stands Michael Moore and his opinion piece masked as a documentary Fahrenheit 9/11. This 6 million dollar film has grossed more than 180 million in the US and caused an uproar from the conservatives in Congress and across the nation. Michael Moore has made a career of creating pseudo-documentaries where he melds facts and interviews and his own often ridiculous stunts into an opinion piece on topics ranging from outsourcing, to America’s weapons culture, to the current Administration’s Iraq policy. In the process Moore has created a new kind of film where the documentarian abandons objective viewing and becomes an active participant in the film and its message. In Fahrenheit 9/11 Moore pulls no punches taking on the Bush Administration head on with a rather biased view of the war on terror and the war in Iraq. The partisan sniping going on in Hollywood is such a part of this year’s campaign that Moore even appeared at the Republican National Convention where Senator John McCain called Moore ‘a disingenuous film maker who would have us believe that Saddam’s Iraq was an oasis of peace’ drawing boos from the Republican faithful and drawing a wave and a laugh from Moore himself. This sort of activity gives Moore and his film much more credence and credibility than most movie directors ever garner for their films in topical relevancy.

And let us not forget the most startling and powerful development, the election of Hollywood superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger to the governorship of California following the recall of Gray Davis. This action not only changed the makeup of that state’s politics, but it gave the Republican Party a new and powerful weapon. The charismatic Schwarzenegger is now viewed as a serious politician and he is able to stump for the Republicans both nationally, as in his convention speech, and locally. Though he probably can’t deliver them the highly Democratic state of California, he has been aiding in local elections and even stumping for Bush in other states.

This year’s political debate is much more polarized than in years past as is the electoral. It is interesting to see that both parties have films to rally around this year. These are politically charged films that espouse the values of their core constituency. On one hand there are the conservatives rallying around a film of religion, and on the other are the liberals rallying around a film based on the principals of freedom of speech and opposition to the war in Iraq. The most interesting part is how both parties have embraced or vilified these films lending them such immediacy and relevancy to the upcoming election. It is not surprising that the studios have released these films on video within weeks of each other and only weeks before the presidential election to capitalize on the influence that these films have had this election year.

Related posts:

1. Fahrenheit 9/11

This year the films are even more pertinent thanks to Stephen Sommers’ VanHelsing, an ode to the classic monster movies, and to the release of The Legacy Collections from Universal Studios. These nicely packaged sets include the main films of the series as well as numerous bonus tracks such as documentaries, original artwork, and alternative scores. There is Dracula, The Mummy, Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, The Wolfman, and even The Creature From the Black Lagoon now available everywhere.

Of course the legendary films have to begin somewhere and in this case they begin with Carl Laemmle the founder of Universal Studios. Laemmle did not have much interest in horror pictures but luckily his son did. Carl Laemmle Jr had loved the atmosphere of such silent films as Lon Chaney’s Phantom of the Opera and Hunchback of Notre Dame and he thought that there could be a market for these scary films. A previous film of Dracula had been made, a German film by the name of Nosferatu, and there was a current play that was a hit on Broadway so Carl Laemmle Jr acquired the rights to the Bram Stoker novel to make a big budget talking picture starring Lon Chaney. Unfortunately Lon Chaney died of cancer in 1930 before the film could be made and there was a little issue of the stock market crash that affected the budget of the film. Thus Universal Studios looked for a more modest film that more closely resembled the stage play than the novel.

It seemed appropriate that they would turn to the stage actors to play the major film roles and thus Bela Lugosi for the foreign and sexy Count Dracula. Though the film seems more like a play with little action and a lot of dialogue the film set the standard for all of the monster films to follow. It depicted a lavish and lascivious man who lived in a decadent though rundown mansion filled with shadows, cobwebs, and ruins. The film, and its Spanish language sibling, is filled with atmospheric shots of the castle alive with scavenging armadillos, home to bats and other creatures of the night. There are the sweeping staircases and the lingering close-ups on the dangerous creature with the vivid eyes. All of the important film elements that make up traditional horror films are evident in this initial film.

Dracula was released in 1931 and became a relative success for the small Universal Studios. Carl Laemmle Jr decided that another monster serried should be created. The next monster they tackled was Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. Again they offered the lead to Bela Lugosi but this time he turned Universal down, Lugosi had no interest in playing a part whose main acting was to emit moans. In true old Hollywood fashion the producers case Boris Karloff as the monster after seeing his angular face in the studio commissary. The film Frankenstein made Karloff a star and signaled a decline in the career of Lugosi. Lugosi continued working in Hollywood though his career never surpassed his fame as Dracula and he was reduced to spooky roles in Ed Wood camp classic films Glen or Glenda and Plan 9 From Outer Space before his death in 1956.

The next monster movie in 1932 was The Mummy again starring Boris Karloff who at this time was a bankable star. The film did well with its romantic story of a mummy who rises from the dead to reclaim the love he lost nearly 3000 years ago. Karloff with his distinctive profile never separated himself from the monsters he played and had a very successful career playing countless monsters and mad scientists until his death in 1969.

Universal followed The Mummy with yet another series starting monster, The Invisible Man in 1933 starring Claude Rains. Claude Rains was a talented actor who began his career in The Invisible Man. Unlike many of the other monster actors he was a handsome man who was not shackled to playing creatures and madmen. He is also well known for roles in Casablanca, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and Hitchcock’s Notorious where he was able to showcase his considerable acting abilities away from the makeup and the cobwebs and the laboratories. But just like the others, he began and ended his career with roles in low budget horror films with monsters like the wolfman.

Lon Chaney Jr, the son of the legendary man of a thousand faces, Lon Chaney had come to notice by studio execs after years of bit parts when he played Lennie in the 1939 film of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men. Lon Chaney Jr became the only man to play all of the monsters, tackling Frankenstein’s monster in The Ghost of Frankenstein, the mummy in The Mummy’s Tomb, The Mummy’s Ghost, and The Mummy’s Curse, and Dracula in Son of Dracula. Lon Chaney Jr continued playing these and many other roles until his death in 1973.

1935 saw the sequel The Bride of Frankenstein and The WereWolf of London though the latter was eclipsed by the 1941 film the Wolfman starring Claude Rains, Bela Lugosi, and Lon Chaney Jr as the wolfman. Thus began the franchising of these monster films as a Universal property. All told there were 4 Dracula movies through the 30s and 40s, 5 Frankenstein features, 5 Mummy films, 5 of the Invisible Man, and 4 Wolfman movies. This is not mentioning the Abbott and Costello Meet the monsters films among others. These films became a franchise that supported Universal Studios long after Carl Laemmle and his son were removed from the studio management in 1936.

These films and their monsters remain alive and well today and are evident in television and film everywhere. Not only has Stephen Sommers resurrected the Mummy and Count Dracula, there is Buffy Summers fighting vampires in a Halloween marathon and even a recent foray into The Invisible Man with Kevin Bacon. The monsters are also present the continued interest in playing Count Dracula or Frankenstein’s monster every Halloween by children and adults all over the world.

Related posts:

1. The Wolf Man
2. Van Helsing

1. War of the Worlds - Paramount
I’ve just got to see this one the moment it comes out. I’m drooling just thinking about seeing this movie. Starring Tom Cruise, directed by Steven Spielberg, and releasing July 29th. When the other studios found out the date for this one they reshuffled their schedules to give it a wide berth.
2. Serenity - Universal Pictures
Serenity Now!! I loved this show from the moment it aired and thanks to brisk DVD sales it will now be a feature film. I’d like to think that the fact that I made everyone I know watch the show on DVD helped to make this a reality. Unfortunately they moved the release from April 22nd to September 30th. September can’t come fast enough.
3. King Kong - Universal Pictures
Since The Lord of the Rings trilogy Peter Jackson can do no wrong. Lets see if that holds up as he remakes a classic film of beauty and the beast. So far the images on the web look magnificent. Releases December 14th.
4. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - Warner Brothers
The third may have been my favorite book but the fourth is no slouch either. Only the volume, and nature, of material causes a problem in this one. The film releases November 18th.
5. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Warner Brothers
The latest version of the children’s classic stars Johnny Depp and releases July 15th. This is not a musical. Said to be much creepier than the Gene Wilder version I still expect a lavish and intriguing adventure.
6. Sin City - Dimension
I haven’t loved Robert Rodriguez’s work but this one sounds cool. Starring Bruce Willis and Elijah Wood it should be pretty well acted if nothing else, and I love the dark film noir atmosphere. This film releases April 1st.
7. Batman Begins - Warner Brothers
June 17th the Batman series begins anew. No camp, no cheese, just a superhero caught up in his own neuroses, just like it ought to be.
8. The Producers - Universal Pictures
The film releases on Christmas Day. I’m not quite sure what to say here. I loved the movie the first time. Now it has become a movie again by way of a Broadway show. Only in Hollywood.
9. Kingdom of Heaven - 20th Century Fox
Billed as the latest release since Gladiator, what isn’t billed as that nowadays? But a story about the Crusades starring Orlando Bloom sounds well worth the price of admission. This film opens May 6th kicking off the ever earlier summer season.
10. The Corpse Bride - Warner Brothers
Tim Burton and Johnny Depp are together again for this animated fare reminiscent of Nightmare Before Christmas. This one is set for a September 23rd release so it should do good business in the runup to Halloween.

Others:
Be Cool - MGM
This one releases March 4th a no-mans land of filmdom but this movie should be good since it builds off some great characters from Get Shorty and has a fatally hip attitude.
Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith - 20th Century Fox
Oh please, please, please be a good movie. I still am looking forward to this one, but after Episode II I have my doubts. Opens all by itself on May 19th.
The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy - Walt Disney Pictures
This film opens June 3rd. I loved these books, I hope the sense of humor carries into the film otherwise this whole exercise is a lost cause.
The Pink Panther - MGM
This is another one I am holding my breath on. The Pink Panther is a great role and Steve Martin can do it, maybe. He needs to get back in touch with his schitzophrenic side like he did in All of Me when his physical comedy was at its prime. This one releases September 23rd.
The Legend of Zorro - Columbia Pictures
Everybody is back for this sequel to The Mask of Zorro. Releases November 4th.
The Brothers Grimm - Dimension
Not as high a flier as some of the others on the list though since this stars Heath Ledger and Matt Damon expect a big advertising blitz before this fantasy/historical film hits theaters November 23rd. Of course it was supposed to release November 2004 so there may be some issues with the final film still to be worked out.
The Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe - Walt Disney Pictures
The childhood story of four siblings who discover a different world in the wardrobe gets the big screen treatment. Though it may appeal to current sentiment I hope that the films don’t get bogged down in the Christian religious imagery with which CS Lewis imbued his books. This film releases December 9th.

Related posts:

1. Ten Most Anticipated Films 2007
2. Ten Most Anticipated Films of 2006
3. Most Anticipated Films of 2005 Revisited