If you haven't heard, this year's Oscar Nominations were announced earlier today. Of course, considering all of the movies nominated in all the categories, I've only seen...well...oh yeah, ONE nominated movie! So, I'm probably the last person to be dishing out predictions but I'll give it a shot anyway. And how about we start with the ONE movie that I did see: Inglourious Basterds.
Even though Avatar and The Hurt Locker got most of the recognition with nine nominations each, Inglourious Basterds was no slouch and manage to garner eight of its own. Those nominations being Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz, Achievement in Cinematography, Achievement in Film Editing, Achievement in Sound Editing, Achievement in Sound Mixing and Best Original Screenplay for Quentin Tarantino. Anyone who's read my Top Movies of 2009 knows how much I love Inglourious Basterds but honestly, I don't expect the movie to win many of these awards. That's not a knock against the movie at all but a testament to the movies its running up against. Between Avatar and The Hurt Locker alone, the odds of Basterds winning Best Picture or Best Director is a long shot at best. I hope Tarantino gets the nod for Best Original Screenplay but it's going up against The Hurt Locker in that category too, as well as Up, The Messenger and A Serious Man. Maybe they'll get one of the technical awards as a consolation prize or something. Honestly, the only award that Basterds has a clear shot at is Best Supporting Actor for Christoph Waltz. In a movie with strong performances all around, Waltz shone through them all as Col. Hans Landa and he deserves the Oscar. However, there's still a chance he won't get it despite also having won the Golden Globe in the same category. Remember last year when Mickey Rourke won the Golden Globe for Best Actor for The Wrestler, only to lose the Oscar to Sean Penn in Milk? I really hope that doesn't happen again this year.
As for Avatar, I fully expect that movie to clean up in the technical awards, with the Best Visual Effects award being pretty much a lock. But as for Best Picture and Best Director, the cynic in me really doesn't want Avatar to win either of those awards but thinks it'll probably win one, if not both. Even though this might sound as a double-standard coming from me but I really don't think Oscars should be given out to "popcorn" movies and that's pretty much what Avatar is. I don't care if people walked out of it blown away or had their lives changed or whatever, the fact is it's a pretty movie with blinking lights that's super-shallow with a message as subtle as a clawhammer to the genitals. If The Dark Knight didn't get any huge Oscars beyond Heath Ledger's Best Supporting Actor (which I fully didn't expect it to), then neither should Avatar. Even though I haven't seen The Hurt Locker for myself, I really wish it would get both awards for Best Picture and Best Director for a couple of reasons:
1) Just so James Cameron could lose his awards to his ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow.
2) I can pretend those Oscars went to some of Bigelow's previous works, namely Point Break and Near Dark.
Oddly enough, just before I started this entry, I saw an article from James Cameron saying that he would rather have Bigelow win, which is big of him. Also big of him was the fact that he reconciled with a fan who was snubbed for an autograph and called an "asshole" by Cameron, all of which was caught on film. But the fact that he consistently talks about the possibility of unrated Na'vi sex scenes when Avatar comes out on DVD just makes me shudder. In the end, I don't think that the Oscars would ignore the fact that Avatar is still on track to becoming the biggest movie OF ALL TIME so I won't be surprised if Avatar gets Best Picture, but I hope they give Bigelow (or someone else *cough*Tarantino*cough*) the nod for Best Director. At least I found it funny that Avatar didn't get a nomination for Best Screenplay in any shape or form.
Anyways, onto movies I'll actually watch, the trailer for Ong Bak 3 has been released and I'm getting psyched. Surprisingly enough, I haven't seen Ong Bak 2 yet as no theaters around me were playing it. But since it comes out on DVD today, my roommate plans on getting it (if he hasn't already). So yeah, there's gratuitous knees to the face and gratuitous elephants so we're not really getting anything new but who cares?!? If Jesus Christ knew martial arts, he'd be Tony Jaa. And that's scientific fact. Enjoy the trailer courtesy of Film School Rejects.
To follow up on some of my recent Blockbuster blogs (or Blogbusters, if you will...or won't, I realize how corny that is), I forgot to mention having watched While She Went Out in my previous movie viewings. Basically, Kim Basinger plays an abused wife who goes out for some Christmas shopping and ends up being accosted by some thugs (led by Lukas Haas, who I swear will still be playing a teenager by the time he's 90) who accidentally kill a rent-a-cop and decide to take her out as well, being the only witness and all. Of course, she's not gonna take it (NO, she ain't gonna take it!) and she fights back. It's not too remarkable but it's not bad either. I see it as the middle-ground between schmaltzy made-for-Lifetime-TV movies and female revenge-sploitation like I Spit On Your Grave. It's not corny but it's not offensive either. But hey, if you wanna see Kim Basinger beat someone to death with a tire iron, I can't think of a better movie.
Also, I just watched JCVD last night and it was pretty good, if a bit too artsy for me at times. But it's a French movie so that's to be expected. Basically, Jean Claude Van Damme plays himself, returning home to Brussels down on his luck after losing his daughter in a custody battle and losing straight-to-DVD roles to Steven Seagal. But in a tale told slightly out of order Tarantino-style, Van Damme gets caught in the middle of a bank robbery but being the only person seen a part of it, everyone thinks its his doing when he's really just a hostage being used as a pawn due to his celebrity status. It makes for a pretty original story but it's a bit flawed, mostly due to the bank robbers themselves. Basically, they're a crew of three, one of whom being a big JCVD fan so of course you know he's going to do the right thing in the end, one of whom doing next to nothing and the "leader" being a complete psychopath, only I couldn't take him seriously at all due to the fact that he looked like Dario Argento playing the Anton Chigurh character from No Country For Old Men with an even gayer haircut somehow. I know they were going for gritty realism and all but the entire time I kept thinking "I don't care, you're Jean Claude Van Damme! You can take these guys out in your sleep!" Also, another thing that irked me was the fact that the public surrounding the crime scene were nothing but Van Damme fans, complete with signs and chants and everything. I know it's set in his hometown and it's supposed to be a statement on his celebrity and such but for all they know, he robbed the bank so why are they cheering? But for as off-center as the movie can be, you do get to see Van Damme actually ACT and he does a pretty decent job of it. Near the last 30 minutes of a movie, he gives a speech (which is supposed to be an inner monologue of his thoughts) where he breaks down and cries and you really feel for the guy, no matter how many mistakes he's made in his career.
Finally, in a completely random note, I'm super excited that I'm able to actually use mp3s on my phone as ringtones like seemingly everyone else with a cell phone can now. I've tried to do it a few months ago but couldn't do it, even when cracking into my phone, but even the program prevented me from doing it. Needless to say, I was pretty pissed off, especially since the main feature of my phone is that its an mp3 player, so I should be able to use them for ringtones, right? Well, I got the urge to do it a few nights ago and even though I did nothing different than previous attempts, it worked this time. So right now, I have The Final Countdown as my ringtone, the Metal Gear Solid codec sound as my text message alert and Dr. Quinn from Sealab 2021 yelling "ALARM! ALARM!" for my alarm clock (which I'm still trying to get used to, it practically scares me awake). Also, I have a picture of Melina from the WWE as my main wallpaper (and Maryse before that) and a piece of sushi as the secondary wallpaper for my main button in the center of my phone's scroll wheel. So, go me. I have plenty of other ringtones saved and even more ideas to create my own from various songs on my CDs but I don't know when I'll use them as I hardly use my phone for calling as it is. I literally use it about 80% as my mp3 player and 20% as my phone. Anyway, don't know why you'd ever need to know that info but I'm pumped about it.
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