The General Movie Thread (news, reviews, random thoughts etc.)

[Stirfry]

 

[Masa]

The Academy Makes Changes to the Best Picture Voting Rules

Back in June, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences announced that there would be 10 Best Picture nominees instead of 5 at the upcoming 82nd Academy Awards being held next February. To this day still, that decision causes heated debates among film fanatics, mainly because we don't yet know the kind of impact it will have, and every week we see new movies that have the potential to make it in as a nominee (District 9? Inglourious Basterds?). However, the Academy has announced new voting rules today for members that may effect the final outcome in a big way. It's confusing, but we'll do our best to explain.

Here's an explanation of the new voting rules courtesy of The Wrap. Read on for why it makes a difference.

Instead of just voting for one nominee, the way Academy members have almost always done on the final ballot, voters will be asked to rank all 10 nominees in order of preference — and the results will be tallied using the complicated preferential system, which has been used for decades during the nominating process but almost never on the final ballot.

As a result, a film could be the first choice of the largest number of voters, but find itself nudged out of the top prize by another movie that got fewer number one votes but more twos and threes.

The goal, says Academy executive director Bruce Davis, is to eliminate the possibility that one of the films could win with less than 18% of the vote. One of the issues that increasing the nominees to 10 presents is that, initially, members voting for one movie would vote so sporadically, that it would only take 18% for one movie to win - and that wouldn't be a proper representation of the Academy's choice for Best Picture (they want a majority). That's why this change was made, in order to eliminate that extreme possibility, with the Academy members ranking all 10 of the movies instead, then using a bit of math to determine the winner.

Our friends at Film School Rejects have a fantastic write-up on the new voting rules and both the good and bad. "The major problems have to do with voters themselves," Cole says, but "there are still going to be tight races, still going to be upsets and surprises, and still going to be some genuine winners." Everyone will argue about this for months and months, and even after the Best Picture winner is chosen next year, I'm sure a few people will still argue about it. That's just the nature of the Oscars, but it's also why they're so exciting. Right now I'm just looking forward to seeing what 10 movies end up getting nominated.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/08/31/the-academy-makes-a-change-to-the-best-picture-voting-rules/

[tenkei]

still don't know how i feel about this 10 nominees business...some years its hard enough to get the 5 (The Reader? are you serious?). new voting sounds like our huge ranking polls we do every year i bet they jacked it from shirenu.

[Masa]

Visual Effects: 100 Years of Inspiration

[Masa]

BOONDOCK SAINTS 2 TRAILER 2009 HD

[Tuffty]

District 9 - 10/10

I know Asmo was thinking about watching this movie so, as promised, here's the review.

WATCH IT NOW!!

Best movie of the year.

Finally found a cinema here that's showing The Hurt Locker starting from this Fri, and not far from here either, so I will be going next week to watch it too.

[electric mole]

not quite sure where i should put this but...
Thundercats Movie trailer (fanmade)

hahaha nicely done!

[Masa]

Warner Brothers & DC Comics Form DC Entertainment Inc.

A response to Disney's acquisition of Marvel maybe? It seems that DC Comics properties are finally going to see the same kind of structure and stability that Marvel has displayed over the past few years, as Warner Bros. Entertainment as created a brand-spankin'-new company, dubbed DC Entertainment Inc., that will "fully realize the power and value of the DC Comics brand and characters across all media and platforms." Or so the press release says. DC Entertainment is to be run by Diane Nelson, former president of Warner Premiere (the studio's direct-to-video arm) that cranked out quite a few movies based on DC properties. Paul Levitz, president and publisher of DC Comics since 2002, is to become a writer and consultant for DC Entertainment after a new executive publisher is found, according to Nikki Finke. This restructuring, however, will not have Levitz reporting directly to Nelson, though how much control and to what depth his consultation will reach is as of yet unknown. With Disney snatching Marvel just a little over a week ago, the DC Comics/Warner Bros relationship may have found its own sense of stability with this news.

Often plagued by studio interference, the starting and stopping of scripts in the works, and without any solid DC franchises, save Batman, the creation of DC Entertainment is looking to rectify this — and fast. Already DC Comics' Jonah Hex has wrapped shooting and Green Lantern is set to shoot this spring, but DC is still a far-cry away from Marvel's stranglehold on the comic book-movie genre. Perhaps under the fixated umbrella of DC Entertainment, DC Comics can more equally compete with Marvel in theaters. Though, as a branch of Warner Bros, it's as of yet unknown if WB will be as hands-off as Disney has promised for Marvel, or if DC Entertainment will hold as much control as Marvel did when they were self-financed. Regardless, it is still exciting to see Warner Bros making a strategic and bold move with DC. Now let's roll these franchises out. Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Justice League — I'm looking at all of you to follow in the footsteps of Nolan's uber-successful Batman franchise. What do all of you think of this news?

http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/09/09/warner-brothers-dc-comics-form-dc-entertainment-inc/

[Masa]

Harrison Ford Says the Story for Indiana Jones 5 is Ready

We've all read Shia LaBeouf's quotes, we know he's all set for the fifth installment of one of my most beloved trilogies of all time - wait, there was a fourth Indy film? Hm. Must've missed that - oh, that's right, it was terrible and made me loathe everyone involved. Right. Well, we were all updated that the fifth installment, tentatively titled just Indiana Jones 5, was in the research phase a few months back, but according to People, Indy himself, Harrison Ford, is ready to don the fedora and crack his whip again - depending on the script, of course. Although apparently Lucas and Spielberg have already figured out what the story is.

"The story for the new Indiana Jones is in the process of taking form," Ford told France's Le Figaro. "Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and myself are agreed on what the fifth adventure will concern, and George is actively at work. If the script is good, I'll be very happy to put the costume on again." So there you go.

I love the Indiana Jones films. In fact, I judge people based on which film is their favorite (I'm a Last Crusade type of guy), but the putrid taste that Kingdom of the Crystal Skull left in my mouth has my gag reflex still a bit dodgy. I don't really want to see Mutt return at Indy's side in some kind of bastardization of the brilliance that was the father-son story in The Last Crusade. But, it's happening. The momentum is too great to be stopped. It's not that I don't think Ford can pull off the classic Indy swagger at the age of 67, and I'm not saying that there isn't a possibility that Indy 5 could be a great action adventure film - it's just that the risk is too great. I've lost faith. Hopefully this story is an improvement.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/09/14/harrison-ford-says-the-story-for-indiana-jones-5-is-ready/

Christoph Waltz is Villainous Again in The Green Hornet

Good - nay, great - news, everyone! If you remember, at the beginning of the month we revealed a few more choice casting decisions for Michel Gondry's The Green Hornet, including Edward James Olmos and Tom Wilkinson. At that time, the role of the "gangster villain" had yet to be inhabited, but the rumors were that Nicolas Cage was close to signing on. Well, enter Christoph Waltz, fresh off his sure-to-be-nominated performance as Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds who, according to Nikki Finke on Deadline Hollywood, has just been cast to play the villain in this instead of Cage. Now that's a big step up!

If I were the other actors, namely Seth Rogen, I'd be a bit intimidated to have Waltz as my opposition. And, talk about elevating a film beyond the height it had already achieved - and escaping the Nicolas Cage plague. The playful, but always eerie, aspects of Waltz's Inglourious Basterds performance should prove to mesh perfectly with director Michel Gondry's action-comedy aesthetic. There's no doubt in my mind that this is the perfect man for the job. Personally, I want as much Christoph Waltz as I can get, even if it's in big studio features like this. Sony Pictures has currently set The Green Hornet for release on December 17th, 2010.

http://www.firstshowing.net/2009/09/14/christoph-waltz-is-villainous-again-in-the-green-hornet/

[Foxy Brown]

Tron is a very colorful movie, and I think it may have broken my brain.

[Foxy Brown]

I just watched Pontypool.

Don't watch Pontypool when you're high.

That's all I'm going to say.

[zoolander]

I finally say UP at the dollar theater a few days ago. Its pretty sad how much the talking dogs cracked me up. Pixar just knows how to pump out the great movies year after year.

[iacus]

I just watched Pontypool.

Don't watch Pontypool when you're high.

That's all I'm going to say.

Pontypool was pretty mindbending/terrifying when I was sober.

[SomethingWild]

Just saw 'I am legend'. Even though I'm not a will smith fan, he did pretty good in this!

[Tuffty]

Babylon A.D. - 5/10

Otherwise known as Coca-Cola Zero : The Movie. I swear for the most part those COKE ZERO in-movie ads were rather small but frequent, until this one point in the movie where our protaganists are in a plane that flys by and the camera pans out so you can see COKE ZERO brandished across the side of the plane. I was waiting for the point when the movie would stop and say 'This global apocalypse was brought to you by COKE ZERO'.

Anyway, it stars Vin Diesel as every other lead role you expect Vin Diesel to have starring in more impossible action sequences than you could shake a stick at. My favourite was when he shot down a stealth bomber with one bullet from a pistol. But it wasn't the action that was impossible to believe, the ending too:

*SPOILER*

[bgcolor=#000000]So our softly spoken, posh British antagonist has an army at her disposal and tracked down Vin Diesel and the Messiah girl through no clues to go on, yet whenever the pair escape, the whole cult just gives up and lets Vin live in peace with the kids the cult has killed to have? Did they run out of petrol or something, cause like I said, they were found easy enough with no clues to where they were headed earlier.[/bgcolor]

[Foxy Brown]

Would it surprise any of you to learn that the made-for-tv remake of Children Of The Corn is kind of silly?

[SomethingWild]

Just saw "9".

...WTF was that. Most depressing and violent animation film I ever saw  it looked great and stuff, but the plot was pretty bad. It felt very much like a work in progress. A good idea, but not quite there yet.

[Masa]

[daigong]

shit looks like Afro Samurai LIVE ACTION!! can't wait for 2010!

[Tuffty]

Taken - 9/10

Intense!! Great thriller with some real bone-crunching moves and a chilling premise.