This is a big one.
PG Cooper, Fogs, and myself are back for another Director Talk, and this time we tackle the legendary Steven Spielberg.
We celebrate the man’s long, full career and take a look at some of his recent criticisms. And half way through the discussion we realized we’re gonna need a bigger blog.
You can find the discussion here at Fogs Movie Reviews:
Director Talk – Steven Spielberg
Enjoy, and please leave a comment or two!
Another year, another Oscars. Seth MacFarlene was okay. He had some good stuff, he had some jokes that just fell flat. His opening with Shatner was… pretty dumb, honestly. But his Sound of Music joke was quite funny, so some ups and downs.
But man, were there ever a lot of men with long white hair that won Oscars this year!
So last year I only had a 50% prediction rate. How did I fare this year?
BEST PICTURE:
Winner: Argo
My Pick: Lincoln
It is clear I made my predictions too early. As we got closer to Oscar night, Argo was on a roll in awards season. And once it won screenplay and Spielberg didn’t win best director, it became quite clear that this would take it. Good for them, Argo was a good film.
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DIRECTING:
Winner: Ang Lee – Life of Pi
My Pick: Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
Now this was out of no where. I guessed that Pi would clean up in the technicals, but I didn’t think it would get something like directing. Man, I really need to see this film…
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ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Winner: Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
My Pick: Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Well deserved and rather predictable award given here. I loved that performance.
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ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Winner: Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
My Pick: Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
This was really 6 of one and half dozen of the other. It was between Lawrence and Chastain, I just flipped the wrong side of the coin I guess. Anyway, I like both actresses a lot, so I’m glad for her.
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ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Winner: Christoph Waltz
My Pick: Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
This was certainly a surprise to me, but a pleasant one. I loved his performance in Django. In fact, his role was what made taht movie for me, and without Waltz I probably wouldn’t have liked the film nearly as much. Great choice.
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ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Winner: Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
My Pick: Anne Hathaway – Les Miserables
I was pretty sure she was going to win. As she was accepting the award, I had to wonder how many of the people at the ceremony tonight were superheroes and supervillains. Catwoman, Wolverine, Mystique, The Joker, Two-face
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ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Winner: Django Unchained
My Pick: Django Unchained
Tarantino strikes again!
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ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Winner: Argo
My Pick: Lincoln
Hmm, this might be a sign that Argo will win over Lincoln in the big one. (keep in mind that I’m jumping all over the place with this post, and as I write this now, I don’t know what has won BP yet).
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FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Winner: Amour
My Pick: Amour
This was one of the easiest to predict this year, so I’m not going to really pat myself on the back for getting this one right.
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ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Winner: Brave
My Pick: Brave
A lot of people wanted Wreck It Ralph, I know. But Pixar is a powerhouse and they know how to make an animated film. Just because it wasn’t a lot of people’s cup of tea doesn’t mean it wasn’t still wonderfully crafted.
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PRODUCTION DESIGN:
Winner: Lincoln
My Pick: Life of Pi
Hmm. That was a surprise.
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CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Winner: Life of Pi
My Pick: Skyfall
Life of Pi would have been the safe choice, I suppose. But I went out on a limb with Skyfall. It didn’t pay off this time. His speech was hilarious though. He kept forgetting to finish sentences before going into the next one.
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COSTUME DESIGN:
Winner: Anna Karenina
My Pick: Anna Karenina
And my formula of going with the most showy period piece works once again, after failing me last year.
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FILM EDITING:
Winner: Argo
My Pick: Argo
At the point I am writing this right now, I am not sure whether Argo won best picture or not. But at least they won this one. So that’s something.
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DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Winner: Searching for Sugar Man
My Pick: Searching for Sugar Man
I have heard a lot of great things about this movie, and usually the film with the most buzz will win this category. It proved to be the case once again.
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MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING:
Winner: Les Miserables
My Pick: The Hobbit
Okay, this surprised me. They avoided giving it to the showiest nominee and instead went wit the more subtle choice of a lot of people with dirt on their faces.
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ORIGINAL SCORE:
Winner: Life of Pi
My Pick: Life of Pi
After taking a listen to the scores, this one sounded the most unique and impactful.
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ORIGINAL SONG:
Winner: Skyfall – Skyfall
My Pick: Skyfall – Skyfall
This choice didn’t take a lot of brainpower. Adele is the perfect fit for a Bond songstress, and that tune really does resonate.
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SOUND MIXING:
Winner: Les Miserables
My Pick: Les Miserables
I’m doing pretty good tonight.
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SOUND EDITING:
Winner: Zero Dark Thirty/ Skyfall
My Pick: Django Unchained
A tie. And neither was the one I picked. So I guess I was doubly wrong.
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VISUAL EFFECTS:
Winner: Life of Pi
My Pick: Life of Pi
Life of Pi certainly seems to be the Hugo of 2012, cleaning up in the technical awards.
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DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
Winner: Inocente
My Pick: Open Heart
Since I don’t know much about the films, I make my guesses mostly on the subject matter, and based o that Open Heart seemed to be a good choice. Oh well, missed this one.
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ANIMATED SHORT FILM:
Winner: The Paperboy
My Pick: Adam and Dog
I should have realized that the voters would have gone with the more prominent Disney release. Oh well.
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LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM:
Winner: Curfew
My Pick: Curfew
A lot of research and weighing the opinions of others more knowledgeable than myself helped me choose the right winner here.
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MY SCORE: 13/24 = 54%
Well, better than last year, but still not great. As I was watching it seemed like I was doing better than I actually did. My banking on Lincoln as the big winner is probably the reason why.
Regardless, it is clear that this was a pretty damn good year for movies. Lets hope 2013 is as well.
A Good Day to Die Hard works fine as a run-of-the-mill action flick. The story is easy to follow, the action is frequent, and there are a lot of cool smash-em up visuals. Though I must admit I felt bad for the innocent civilian drivers who got decimated during the big car chase scene. The action scenes were filmed with some visual flare, such as the shot where the two McLean’s are falling from level to level with the helicopter. And on a basic, surface level I enjoyed the film. And watching it in Imax with that incredible surround sound didn’t hurt either.
However, when a movie is part of a franchise it also has to be judged on a level of different standards. Does it do the previous films justice? Is it constant is story and tone? And on these levels I hate to admit that Die Hard 5 simply fails.
Why? The biggest reason is that it is far too self-aware. It verges on parody territory. It keeps making obvious references to the first film, like the glass being shot out and “its always about money”, etc. And Willis is just coasting on the reputation of John McClean rather than action sinking into the character again.
Tonally, this film just felt off. It was more of a spy film than a Die Hard film, and the two don’t sync up as well as you may think. Having Willis’ son working for the CIA just seems to lose some footing from the more down-to-earth terrorist stories we have gotten. And yes, I know down-to-earth is a relative term, especially looking at Die Hard 2. But even though Die Hard 2 was ridiculous also, at least it still felt like a Die Hard film.
As a Bruce Willis shoot-em up, this was decent. As a Die Hard film, it was too goofy and too divergent to fit well into the series.
6/10
I know I’m a little late to the party, since this movie came out over a year ago, but I finally managed to catch up with it. What a great little movie. Owen Wilson plays a writer who finds his inspiration in Paris as he appears to travel back to the 1920′s every night and meet his favourite authors and artists. Its an incredibly fun premise which Woody Allen and company explore to its fullest.
Owen Wilson plays a likable guy living a constrained life, and he pulls it off quite well. All around him are great performances of people like Corey Stoll as Hemmingway, Allison Pill and Tom Hiddleston as the Fitzgeralds, Michael Sheen as his fiance’s obnoxious friend, and Marion Cotillard as the mysterious Adriana. Watching him interact with these characters is wonderfully enjoyable.
The message of the movie is pretty heavy-handed, but the charm of the movie is more than enough to make up for that fact. And lets face it, the message is a good one; we must live the fullest life we can in the time period we live in. Even to those in Gil’s golden age believe some earlier time was the true golden age. I quite like this theme and liked how it was explored. This was a fun and very likable movie.
9/10
Cosmic Encounter is one of the greatest board games out there. It’s fun, interactive, and full of variety. So hey, why not more of all of that stuff? The first expansion to the Fantasy Flight reprint of Cosmic is called Cosmic Incursion and adds to the game in three different ways: new alien races, a new card deck, and a sixth player option. Excellent. Let’s take a look.
Additions
The major addition this expansion provides (and likely the reason most people will buy it) is the twenty new aliens races. Yes, the base game already has 50 aliens, giving 2118760 different combinations of 5-player games. And yet it’s still easy to crave even more options! So even though more alien races really aren’t needed, they’re here.
Another great addition is ships and planets for a sixth player. Cosmic Encounter is the type of game that handles a large number of players well, since there is high interaction on everyone’s turn, so this is certainly welcome. The new ships come in orange look every bit as good as the other colours.
And finally, Incursion also adds the rewards deck. This is a new set of cards which players can pick from when receiving ally awards. There’s some pretty cool stuff in there like kickers, which multiply card values, and larger reinforcement cards. This is a great inclusion into the game as it gives more incentives to aid defenders and gives more variety to your card hands.
Critique
Cosmic Encounter’s greatest feature is the variety of alien powers and how these powers interact and change the game. Therefore, I love having even more options for throwing the game into chaos. Some of the coolest aliens this time around are the Plant which can use other player’s powers, the Genius which wins if it collects enough cards, and the Sniveler which can whine to get what it wants (and which you can use to really annoy the other players at the table).
The reward deck is also a great addition that doesn’t change or interrupt the game, but just makes it a little better. It assists in interaction between all players and spices up the cards a bit. The sixth player is also great, since six seems to be a great number of players for a game of this sort. All in all, this expansion is 3 for 3. I am declaring it a cosmic success.
Expansion – 
Base Game –
Base Game & Expansion –
My Expansion Ratings
-- The expansion improves upon the original base game.
-- The expansion provides a differing experience than the base game but neither improves or detracts from the base game.
-- The expansion is effective and provides an interesting new aspect, but the base game is still preferred.
-- The expansion detracts from the base game.
While 2012 had a lot of releases to look forward to at this time last year, 2013 isn’t looking as promising. However, with that said, these “looking forward to” lists are, while fun, really quite useless. The best films of the year will likely be those who slip under the radar rather than the sequels and adaptations we know about at this point.
Okay, now that I’ve invalidated this whole list, here we go!
5.(tie) i. Iron Man 3
I’m interested to see how they use this film to follow up The Avengers. Also, Ben Kingsley as The Mandarin should be quite interesting. I wonder if he’ll have his power rings?
ii. This is the End
A comedy about the apocalypse starring the Judd Apatow crew as themselves? It may suck, its true, but I’m there will be at least a laugh or two along the way. And hopefully many more than that.
4. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
I have to admit that my excitement for this one has diminished since being let down my An Unexpected Journey last month. Regardless, I am still a Tolkien fan at heart and I still can’t wait to see some great set pieces like the spider battle and the barrel scene. And of course my appetite to see Smaug the dragon was wetted just enough by the end of the last film.
3. Oblivion
There seem to be a few movies this year about Earth being abandoned in the distant future, but Oblivion is the one that looks the most promising to me. This Tom Cruise driven vehicle had a very enticing trailer which makes me think that as long as the filmmakers have a good sense of what they are doing, this has the potential to be a great sci-fi film. You could sense it touching on some deep themes and big ideas. Whether it lives up to this however remains to be seen.
2. Man of Steel
I’ll admit that the prospect of another Superman did not interest me at all. I’ve never really liked the previous Superman movies and even when Nolan’s name was attached I didn’t get too excited. And actually, the reason I didn’t get too excited is the reason I sitll hold reservations. I’m worried they are going to try to make the film too gritty and dark, just because it worked for Batman. But Supe is a whole different type of hero, and I’m not sure that style will work. But seeing the trailers, I have to admit that whether it works or not, I am very interested to see the result.
1. Star Trek Into Darkness
I’m not an all out Trekkie, but I am very familiar with the series. I also really liked the last film, probably because I’m not an all out Trekkie. I am also very excited to see what Abrams does with the follow up, since I’ve been loving the casting choices and want to see them all work together again. And now that it is looking less likely that this is a remake of Khan (which if it was, well, what would be the point?), I can let my excitement build until this summer.
But what I’m really looking forward to is the inevitable third reboot film: Star Trek: Revenge of the Tribbles.
10. Skyfall
I’m not that big of a Bond fan, but I do like the Danial Craig interpretations. Skyfall was a pretty fun movie which was not scared to play around with Bond’s iconic image. One of the better action films of the year.
9. The Grey
This was certainly my biggest surprise of the year. I wasn’t expecting much with this story of wolves hunting plane crash survivors in the arctic, but what I got was a great survivalist film. It reminded me a lot of deliverance. Liam Neeson gave the film a lot of weight and a pretty great showdown wit the Wolves. If you are skeptical on this one, I recommend giving it a look.
8. The Dark Knight Rises
Okay, yes this was a slightly disappointing entry into Nolan’s batman trilogy, but its still pretty damn good. It may have pacing and tonal problems, but it also has a great villain, wonderful aesthetics, and it provides a great conclusion to the series.
7. Moonrise Kingdom
I may not be on the Wes Anderson bandwagon, but I do appreciate some of his films, and this is certainly one of his best. Its witty and sweet, and the 1960′s isolated-island setting was a lot of fun.
6. Argo
Ben Affleck’s real events-based thriller was a great two hours at the movies. Between the suspense in Iran to the lighter comedic stuff in L.A., this film found just the right balance of both to make it an effective and entertaining movie.
5. Django Unchained
Tarantino’s go at the western genre is certainly a romp. The first half is much stronger than the second, but damn is it a good first half! Christoph Waltz is the majority of the reason its so strong. He puts in yet another amazing performance. Sam Jackson is right behind him however, giving one of his strongest turns in quite some time.
4. The Avengers
Yes, this movie is complete fan service. And yes, it is more style over substance. And yes, it is completely calculated in its efforts to derive pleasure in the audience. And it worked on me damn it. Chances are this one isn’t going to hold up over time, but this year I can still say that it exceeded my expectations.
3. Prometheus
I honestly don’t understand the backlash towards this film. The arguments either seem to be unfounded (it didn’t provide any answers!) to annoying nitpicking (A scientist wouldn’t take off their helmet!!). When I came out of the theaters, I was pumped. I had just seen a imaginative sci-fi vision with some great moments of discovery and terror. A wonderful film.
2. Zero Dark Thirty
The first half of this film was a bit of a letdown, to be honest. It seemed pretty regular. Then I realized that it was really just building up momentum for the incredible second half, eventually leading to taht gripping assault on Bin Laden’s compound. This is one great, intense film full of great performances, especially by Chastain who anchors the whole thing. Convtroversy be damned! I dont know exactly what happened, nor do I believe I or most of us ever will. But I do know when a movie captures me, and this one did.
1. Lincoln
This was another big surprise for me this year, as I usually find biopics to be sleep-inducing affairs. But Spielberg played it right here, focusing on one aspect of Lincoln’s presidency (mind you, a pretty important one) and having a script which was witty, charming, and thrilling. Not to mention chalk full of great performances.
You know those movies which seem like they were made for you in particular? That was the case for me here. This felt like The West Wing in the 18th century, and since The West Wing is my favourite TV show, I ate this film up. Loved it.
Now I finish my predictions with the “big 6″: the acting categories, director and of course Best Picture.
BEST PICTURE:
Amour (Sony Pictures Classics), Margaret Menegoz, Stefan Arndt, Veit Heiduschka and Michael Katz, Producers
Argo (Warner Bros.), Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producers
Beasts of the Southern Wild (Fox Searchlight), Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers
Django Unchained (The Weinstein Company), Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers
Les Misérables (Universal), Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers
Life of Pi (20th Century Fox), Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers
Lincoln (DreamWorks), Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers
Silver Linings Playbook (The Weinstein Company), Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers
Zero Dark Thirty (Sony), Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers
A pretty solid slate of films nominated here. Once again, only nine nominations instead of the full ten. I like seeing Django and Zero Dark 30 there. Although both are a little too controversial to be declared the winner by the more conservative academy.
Before the noms were announced, it was looking to be a two-way race between Linocln and Argo. However, this changed in my mind once Ben Affleck was snubbed for a best director nomination, making it look much clearer that Lincoln will be taking home the big one.
Prediction: Lincoln
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DIRECTING:
Michael Haneke – Amour
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Ang Lee – Life of Pi
Steven Spielberg – Lincoln
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Now this was an interesting announcement when it was revealed that both Affleck and Bigalow wer not up for best director. I didn’t expect to see Russell there, or even Zeitlin or Haneke. Spielberg and Lee made sense however.
And just as I think Lincoln is taking home BP, best director is going to go hand in hand (as it often does) and Spielberg will be winning his 3rd. Lets face it, hes the most prominent director in the world, and the academy may be wondering just how many more chances they’re going to have to honour him. I’m pretty sure he’s got this one.
Prediction: Lincoln
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ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
Daniel Day-Lewis – Lincoln
Hugh Jackman - Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix – The Master
Denzel Washington – Flight
Some pleasant surprises here with Denzel and Bradley Cooper, but its going to be tough for any of these nominees to beat out Daniel Day Lewis in another outstanding performance. The man is a powerhouse come Oscar time, and his portrayal of Lincoln was a delight to watch.
Prediction: Lincoln
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ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Jessica Chastain – Zero Dark Thirty
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Emmanuelle Riva – Amour
Quvenzhané Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Naomi Watts – The Impossible
I think its neat that the oldest and youngest nominees ever were both given nods in the same category in the same year. But, the Oscars like to award this statue to young actresses at the beginning of an already promising career. However, two actresses fit that bill; Chastain and Lawrence. But I think Jessica Chastain has simply done more in her career at this point in time, and she pretty much carried her movie. She will likely win.
Prediction: Zero Dark Thirty
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ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Alan Arkin – Argo
Robert De Niro – Silver Linings Playbook
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Master
Tommy Lee Jones – Lincoln
Christoph Waltz – Django Unchained
Now THIS is a tough category. Five very worthy candidates, but only one can win. All of them have previously won in this category. Now, I’ll tell you who I’d LIKE to win. Christoph Waltz was one of the best supporting performances of the year. He made Django work, in my opinion. But I have a feeling its coming down to Tommy Lee Jones and Philip Seymour Hoffman, both of whom were in performance heavy films this year. I really enjoyed Jones in Lincoln, but I think I see Hoffman edging him out.
Prediction: The Master
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ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Amy Adams – The Master
Sally Field – Lincoln
Anne Hathaway – Les Misérables
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Jacki Weaver – Silver Linings Playbook
I haven’t seen Les Mis, nor do I plan to. However, I have heard amazing things about Hathaway’s close-up singing scene which is supposed to be all kinds of powerful. For everything I read and hear about it, that scene alone is enough to win her the award. Besides, the Oscars needs to make it up to her after sticking her on stage with James Franco a couple years ago.
Prediction: Les Miserables
The third part of the predictions involves the storytelling through screenplays, editing, and then I threw in cinematography and the music categories just so they fit somewhere. Lets take a look!
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Amour, Written by Michael Haneke
Django Unchained, Written by Quentin Tarantino
Flight, Written by John Gatins
Moonrise Kingdom, Written by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola
Zero Dark Thirty, Written by Mark Boal
Well, Tarantino did get ripped off from winning this same Oscar for Inglourious Basterds three years ago, but I think Amour also has a pretty strong shot. And then there’s Zero Dark Thirty which has a chance…
Then again, looking at the Writer’s Guild awards, Django was not even nominated. But he did win the GG (not that that’s much of an indicator for the Oscars). Bah, whatever, I’m choosing Django.
Prediction: Django Unchained
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ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Argo, Written by Chris Terrio
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Written by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin
Life of Pi, Written by David Magee
Lincoln, Written by Tony Kushner
Silver Linings Playbook, Written by David O. Russell
I was enthralled with the wonderful dialogue in Lincoln and impressed with how tight they kept the focus of the narrative. And as you will see later, I think Lincoln will be coming away with a few statues, this being one of them.
Prediction: Lincoln
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CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Seamus McGarvey – Anna Karenina
Robert Richardson – Django Unchained
Claudio Miranda – Life of Pi
Janusz Kaminski – Lincoln
Roger Deakins – Skyfall
This is one of my favourite categories. I have a feeling that Life of Pi may be the Hugo of this year, wrapping up a lot of tech awards. However, then I see this interesting little nomination for Skyfall’s Roger Deakins. Deakins has been a pretty important photographer in the movies in the last 20 years and this is his tenth nomination. And considering this is the celebratory 50th anniversary of James Bond, I think they just might award the Oscar to him.
Prediction: Skyfall
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FILM EDITING:
William Goldenberg – Argo
Tim Squyres – Life of Pi
Michael Kahn – Lincoln
Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers – Silver Linings Playbook
Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg – Zero Dark Thirty
Argo has been cleaning up all of the secondary awards, but for reasons I will get into later I don’t think it’ll win much here. But it was a big player in the industry this fall, and it will be recognized in one category at least, and this is probably the one it deserves the most.
Prediction: Argo
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ORIGINAL SCORE:
Dario Marianelli – Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat – Argo
Mychael Danna – Life of Pi
John Williams – Lincoln
Thomas Newman – Skyfall
John Williams was actually a little too understated in his score this time, while Life of Pi seems to be a movie made for a great score to lift it up.
Prediction: Life of Pi
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ORIGINAL SONG:
“Before My Time” from Chasing Ice, Music and Lyric by J. Ralph
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend” from Ted, Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane
“Pi’s Lullaby” from Life of Pi, Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri
“Skyfall” from Skyfall, Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth
“Suddenly” from Les Misérables, Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil
Ted…. wow. This category, more than any other, seems to be most susceptible to fringe nominees, which is actually quite cool. How else could South Park or Eninem be represented at the Oscars? But sorry Ted, unlike the Three 6 Mafia, you ain’t gonna win.
However, Adele is the perfect fit for a Bond singer, with that powerful voice of hers, and the Skyfall song has been one of the best Bond openings in many years. It is really one of those songs which sticks with you and really fits the movie its made for.
Prediction: Skyfall
These next categories are usually the categories I am most interested in when watching the Oscars, because they can have a tendancy to honour films that would usually be overlooked in the more prominent categories. These are the categories which focus on the video and audio details of the film.
VISUAL EFFECTS:
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White
Life of Pi, Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott
Marvel’s The Avengers, Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
Prometheus, Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill
Snow White and the Huntsman, Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson
It seems like this award will come down to Gollum vs. The Hulk, vs. the tiger. However, Gollum has already won a few awards, and it appears more ambitious to CGI a realistic tiger than a cartoonish Hulk. Therefore my prediction is Life of Pi. However, I must say that I hope this category eventually moves away from who can make the best CGI creature and lean a little more towards effects which are innovative in ideas rather than just the technique.
Prediction: Life of Pi
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Production Design:
Anna Karenina, Production Design: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Production Design: Dan Hennah; Set Decoration: Ra Vincent and Simon Bright
Les Misérables, Production Design: Eve Stewart; Set Decoration: Anna Lynch-Robinson
Life of Pi, Production Design: David Gropman; Set Decoration: Anna Pinnock
Lincoln, Production Design: Rick Carter; Set Decoration: Jim Erickson
So it looks like this category got a name change from Art Direction to Production Design. in an effort to broaden the scope of what this category covers. The Hobbit is of course a likely contender, but will they give it to a movie which looks so similar to its predecessors films, which they’ve already honoured? Les Mis is supposed to have had excellent sets and design as well, though others have derided the aesthetic of that film, while Life of Pi seems to be universally praised as a visual masterpiece.
Prediction: Life of Pi
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COSTUME DESIGN:
Jacqueline Durran – Anna Karenina
Paco Delgado – Les Misérables
Joanna Johnston – Lincoln
Eiko Ishioka – Mirror Mirror
Colleen Atwood – Snow White and the Huntsman
The academy loves to give this award to historical periodic pieces. Therefore I think its going to comedown to Anna Karenina or Les Mis. So will is be glamour or grime? I’m thinking glamour.
Prediction: Anna Karenina
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MAKEUP And Hairstyling:
Hitchcock, Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane
Les Misérables, Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell
This category tends to go to the most prominent films. And I mean, come on! Look at the design of the 13 dwarves. They seem tailor-made for this category (I realize that this pun makes more sense with the costume category, but just go with it).
Prediction: The Hobbit
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SOUND MIXING:
Argo, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia
Les Misérables, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes
Life of Pi, Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin
Lincoln, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins
Skyfall, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson
Hmm, Les Mis hasn’t been winning many awards, according to my forecast. So why not this one?
Prediction: Les Miserables
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SOUND EDITING:
Argo, Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn
Django Unchained, Wylie Stateman
Life of Pi, Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton
Skyfall, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers
Zero Dark Thirty, Paul N.J. Ottosson
War films are usually a strong contender for this category, since gun fights are usually a great way to showcase sound editing. I have yet to see Zero Dark Thirty ( much to my chagrin) but I don’t think its a typical war movie. Django, however, has lots of messy gun battles, of which the sound is a very prominent aspect.
Prediction: Django Unchained
This has been an interesting crop of nominees for the 2012-2013 Oscars. Its time for my fourth annual set of predictions. As always, I will be discussing my picks for the awards over four posts, and the I will write up a fifth posts after the awards show with the results.
Part 1: The Outliers
This group is made up of the categories celebrating whole films which are not up for Best Picture. These involve the shorts and the special full-length features. These can usually be the toughest predictions to make, considering the films are not that well known.
ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Brave (Disney•Pixar), Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman
Frankenweenie (Walt Disney Pictures), Tim Burton
ParaNorman (Focus Features), Sam Fell and Chris Butler
The Pirates! Band of Misfits (Sony), Peter Lord
Wreck-It Ralph (Walt Disney Pictures), Rich Moore
Before the nominations came out, I thought that Studio Ghibi would take home their second win with Secret World of Arrietty, but apparently it wasn’t even nominated. I know that Wreck It Ralph is the favourite in this category, but I still think that Pixar is going to take this one once more with Brave. Even though many found it to be a disappointment, it was still a well-constructing film and looked amazingly beautiful.
Prediction: Brave
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FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Amour (Sony Pictures Classics), Austria
Kon-Tiki (The Weinstein Company), Norway
No (Sony Pictures Classics), Chile
A Royal Affair (Magnolia Pictures), Denmark
War Witch (Tribeca Film), Canada
Considering Amour is the only one of these five which was also nominated for Best Picture, it seems pretty clear cut.
Prediction: Amour
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DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
5 Broken Cameras (Kino Lorber), Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi
The Gatekeepers (Sony Pictures Classics), Nominees to be determined
How to Survive a Plague (Sundance Selects), Nominees to be determined
The Invisible War (Docurama Films), Nominees to be determined
Searching for Sugar Man (Sony Pictures Classics), Nominees to be determined
Searching for Sugar Man is the movie I’ve heard the most about this year, as far as these nominees are considered. And since The Imposter wasn’t nominated, which I’ve heard great things about, I’m going with Sugar Man.
Prediction: Searching for Sugar Man
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DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
Inocente, Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine
Kings Point, Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider
Mondays at Racine, Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan
Open Heart, Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern
Redemption, Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
It seems to me that with Short Docs, its mostly the subject matter that gets voted for. And in this case, Rwandian chldren with ehart problems seems to be pretty serious subject matter.
Prediction: Open Heart
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ANIMATED SHORT FILM:
Adam and Dog, Minkyu Lee
Fresh Guacamole, PES
Head over Heels, Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly
Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”, David Silverman
Paperman, John Kahrs
This is always a fun category. It appears that the two front runners are Adam and Dog and Paperman. Sorry Simpsons, but I don’t think you’re getting an Oscar this year. I am going to go with the Annie award winner in this category, which is Adam and Dog.
Prediction: Adam and Dog
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LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM:
Asad, Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
Buzkashi Boys, Sam French and Ariel Nasr
Curfew, Shawn Christensen
Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw), Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele
Henry, Yan England
Okay, this one is just a guess. Most of the ones above are educated guesses at least, but this one is just a flat out guess. For some reason, Curfew is calling out to me to be the winner.
Prediction: Curfew
I’ve only recently gotten into listening to podcasts this past year, once I simply couldn’t take any more of commercial radio. Over that short time, I’ve found quite a few podcasts that have made my regular rotation. Here are the ones I would consider my favourites. All of these are available on iTunes.
5. A Podcast of Ice and Fire
As the name indicates, this is a podcast show dedicated to George R.R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire series. I only recommend this if you are also a fan of that excellent book series, and if you are you are in for a treat. Keep in mind that this is an Explicit rating podcast, and they use that rating to be sure. The jokes and discussions can be pretty dirty. The jokes are also VERY insider, and you simply wont understand unless you are familiar with the books, but if you are they are downright hilarious. The episodes could usually benefit from some extra editing (we don’t really need to hear them trying to connect people to skype), but the hosts are fun and the discussion is almost always interesting.
4. The Title Pending Movie Podcast
This is the newest podcast on this list, which has been running for about a year now. It is co-hosted by one of my blogging compatriots Fogs from Fogs Movie Reviews. He and his cohost Tank have great chemsitry, so much so that I was shocked to find out they’ve never met in person. They have a lot of regular segments such as the Box Office Round Up and ON the Radar. They’ve managed to build a lot of familar tropes into their show, like the opening humour skits and the way Tank always seems to get “dusty” in the theater. There are some volume audio problems, especially with the opening theme music, but that is a minor quibble compared with all the fun these guys have making this cast and all the fun you will have listening to it.
3. Filmspotting
Filmspotting is certainly the most professionally made podcast on this site, and also the longest running will over 400 episodes. As far as movie podcasts go, this is certainly one with the more traditional “film snob” critics, but hosts Adam and Josh really aren’t that bad as far as pretension, while their analytical skills are really appreciated, making this both a smart and a fun podcast. Their Massacre Theater segment where they act out a scene from a movie is priceless. Also, they often have film critic Michael Philips (former cohost of At the Movies) as a guest star, which is a huge bonus. The problem is that because its so professionally made, there are some segments which require extensive fast forwarding, like the advertising segment and a paint-drying segment where they thanks listeners who have sent donations. But between those, we get some great film discussion and some fun top 5 lists.
2. The Dice Tower
The Dice Tower is the premiere podcast in the board gaming world, and the show which got me into podcasting. Host Tom Vasal has been podcasting for years and has become a major personality in the board game subculture. The Dice Tower is great for those who are into the hobby, as it give information and opinions on new games, top ten lists which allows a look back at older games, and discussion about the hobby itself and all its facets. The Dice Tower has truly become a beacon for other board gaming aficionados and now has a wealth of contributors who add to the show’s content. This is both a blessing and a curse as the contributor segments are VERY hit and miss; we get some great stuff like GameTek, and some other not-so-great stuff which requires fast forwarding. But when it comes to gaming podcasts, its hard to beat The Dice Tower.
1. Film Junk
I have only just recently discovered Film Junk, but it immediately shot to the top of the list. Film Junk is a movie podcast with hosts Shaun, Jay, Greg and Frank, four friends who love to sit around and talk about movies. With microphones. Really, that’s what this is, just 4 guys who love movies having a chat about them. And its great. As far as humour, this is the funniest of the whole bunch. I will often burst out laughing. The chemsitry between these guys is outstanding. Its just like my buddies and I hanging out. And when they have Reed Farrington on to guest host, it gets even better. The podcasts are usually long, like 3 hours long, but I honestly don’t care. Its a slam dunk.
And hey, any podcast which dedicates almost 5 hours over three episodes on how to organize your bluray collection has got to be awesome, right?
Django Unchained is probably Quentin Tarantino’s most straight forward film, yet it is also perhaps his most indulgent. This story of a slave who is freed, becomes a bounty hunter, and tries to rescue his wife has a clear-cut arc. But within that arc we get a lot of Tarantino’s stylized direction.
The strongest aspect of this movie was the performance of Christoph Waltz (once again). His character Dr. Shultz is, not to put too fine a point on it, the reason this movie works. He is the anchor. He is such a great character, written with tons of wit and played with tons of charm, he makes everything around him fun to watch. I would almost argue that without Dr. Shultz, and without him being played by Waltz, this movie would not have worked nearly as well.
Leonardo DiCaprio has also taken a ballsy role here as the plantation owner Calvin Candy, a domineering bigot. He plays him well, but its Samuel L. Jackson who really shines in the villainous role of his servant Steven. No one can look quite as frighteningly angry on screen as Samuel L.
Now what did I mean about Tarantino being indulgent? He really takes the gruesomeness of slavery and the idea of revenge and takes them to as much extreme as he can. The N-word is dropped a lot, blood splatters are more like geysers, and the unadulterated vengeance inflicted on the slavers. He is very unapologetic about any of this, as you would expect. However, the violence is what threw me off, as Tarantino really seems to be going for a fine line between realistic and over the top, and I don’t think he quite found that balance.
The first half of this film is certainly the strongest part. Watching Django and Schultz form their friendship is a lot of fun, and Tarantino seems to revel in the western genre. The second half at the Candy plantation is good also, however the ends start to unravel and the climax isn’t quite as tight as it feels like it should have been. The ending goes on for too long, and also reaches Return of the King levels of phantom endings.
I can’t help but feel like Tarantino loosened up a little on this one, going too far with the length, the style of violence, and the message. However, we still get that great dialogue and those great long scenes, like the dinner table scene, the bag hole scene , and the saloon scene. It may not be his most solid piece of work, but Django is still a fun ride.
8/10
Munchkin is a game which thrives from the addition of new expansions, as card variety can only enhance the game experience. And the second expansion for Munchkin is Clerical Errors which adds… well, more cards.
Whenever I’m writing expansion reviews, I always need to ask myself, what is it we should expect from an expansion? What should expansions bring to the table? Should they completely change the game, or only tweak it? Do they exist to fix mistakes, or simply add more of what’s already there?
Clerical Errors is the type of expansion which adds more of what’s already there. There are no new mechanisms or dynamics added to this, it’s really just a pile new cards which add to the variety of cards already in existence. Let’s take a look and see if it was worth it.
Additions
With Clerical Errors, we are given 112 new cards; some treasures and others door cards. The classic Munchkin humour is present, providing one of my favourite puns from this game, the Tequila Mockingbird. A new race and class are also added, namely the gnomes and the bards. Not clerics, as you would assume from the title. They already exist in the game.
The art looks as cartoony and great as ever, and we are even given five special cards drown from guest artists. They manage to look different and fit in at the same time. One of these cards is the Perfectly Ordinary Rabbit, which is a great wink at Monty Python fans.
Critique
Alright, more cards are great and all, but otherwise this expansion is a little bland. Yes, Munchkin is the type of game that benefits greatly from adding more variety, similar to the new races and powers added to Small World or new aliens added to Cosmic Encounter. But at the same time, I do expect some sort of thematic thread tying it together.
What do I mean by that? When an expansion is released, I expect it to be a complete package in and of itself, despite needing the base game to play. In other words, there needs to be a reason that it exists other than just adding more stuff. Why are these cards in particular put together in this box? In this case, there is nothing special; they are just a whack load more cards.
Read the title of this expansion to see what I mean: Clerical Errors. With this title, it should have something to do with that idea. But it’s just named after one single card in this expansion, and it’s not even that special of a card. Like I mentioned before, if Clerics were introduced in this expansion, that makes sense. But they weren’t. There seems to be no central theme to this expansion at all. Munchkin 2: Unnatural Axe didn’t have much either, though at least they put some minimal effort in tying it together by having the axe show up throughout the artwork on the cards. Here they don’t even try.
Luckily, looking ahead in the Munchkin expansions, they seem to have fixed this theming problem with Munchkin 4. But I will talk about that more when I write that review. For now, I have to say that it’s nice to have more cards, but I am disappointed with the lack of thematic purpose with Clerical Errors.
Expansion –
Base Game – 
Base Game & Expansion –
My Expansion Ratings
-- The expansion improves upon the original base game.
-- The expansion provides a differing experience than the base game but neither improves or detracts from the base game.
-- The expansion is effective and provides an interesting new aspect, but the base game is still preferred.
-- The expansion detracts from the base game.
Jack Reacher is a pretty standard but enjoyable detective movie. Tom Cruise has helped to make a rather interesting central character. Sometimes its just fun to get caught up in a guy who is about to face five guys in a fight and gets cocky, saying something along the lines of it not being a fair fight… for them. And then proving it to be true. Sure its beyond cliche, but can be fun, and it is in this particular case.
Following the story, its easy to notice that this came from a paperback novel. The plot really has that mass market detective flavour to it. Which is sort of good in the way that it intrigues you in its mystery. But its also bad in that it can seem convoluted at times.
Tom Cruise pulls off a good action performance here. He does exactly what he needs to do to create a fun-to-watch bad ass. The sniper he faces off again, played by Jai Courtney, is good as his foil. However, Rosamund Pike who plays the lawyer teamed up with Reacher, is absolutely atrocious and does certainly bring the movie down when she’s on screen. Also Werner Hertzog as the main baddie, cool as he may be, doesn’t really fit in well. Robert Duvall also makes an appearance, and he’s just awesome as usual.
Jack Reacher is nothing outstanding, but it is an enjoyable watch. And lets face it, as much as we need great movies that challenge us, sometimes we also need movies that our middle-aged parents can just rent and enjoy for an evening. Jack Reacher is the latter.
7/10
