Review from the Vault: Cashback

Every now and then I would like to review a film that's not brand new. One doesn't need to run out to the theater every weekend, especially in this economy. Have you seen Cashback? If not, go to your Netflix account or what have you and put it in your queue now. GO! Do it now I can wait.

Is it done? Good.

A film from 2006, it is a feature length version of a short by Sean Ellis done in 2004. The actual short is contained in the feature film. Ths short is a brilliantly creative piece with great writing but the full film becomes so much more when Ellis added the complete love story. Simply stunning and beautifulkly shot. This is not surprising as Ellis by trade is a fashion photographer.

When Ben Willis breaks up with his girlfriend he finds he can no longer sleep at night. He decided to make use of his extra 8 hours a day by working the night shift at the local supermarket. There he learns he can freeze time and decideds to draw the customers in the buff as he dreams of one day being an artist.

The nudity is handled in a very delicate way and does not comes off as exploitation at all. The film admires the everyday women and it is not demeaning in any way. Along with the the technical excellence of the staging of all these events in remarkable. Do yourself a favor and check out Cashback.

2009 Mid-Year Report

Last time I did a mid year report some people didn't know I was exaggerating to make a point and got upset. So I am doing two things:

1. I am going to give you a disclaimer if I exaggerate.
2. I am not going to exaggerate.

I need a job.

Yeah by this time last year I had seen a lot more than 10 movies...and this has effected the outlook on the year in a major way but even so taking into account I have seen the big movies up to this point and some of the smaller ones and if I were to take this as a cross section sample of the whole... (It's a math thing lets skip over this boring stuff)

AHEM- My conclusions: 2008 was a very good year as a lot of very good movies came out that year, probably one of my favorite years overall. Now this may be because I have seen more movies but like a I said 2009's sample isn't faring too well as a example. Now by this time 2008 had a lot of bad movies too. So 2009 is kinda sharing a mediocre rating as everything is kinda hanging around the middle. On the flip side there are some exceptions and we have learned some things. So some awards:

The "Sam Raimi didn't lose his mind" award: Drag Me to Hell
The "Tom Cruise was not in Prom Night" award: Christian Bale for Watchmen
The "Isn't Really as Bad as Everyone Says but its Still Lousy" award: Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
The "Good Sequel" award: Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian
The" Better than the Last One but Isn't the Best Installment" award: Terminator Salvation
The "Underachieving Sequel/ Paul is going to hate me" award: Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
The "I am in freaking everything this year" award: Eric Bana (For Mary and Max, Star Trek, Love the Beast, Funny People, The Time Traveler's Wife and Armored)
Biggest Surprise: Star Trek
The Consistency Award: Pixar for Up and Sam Mendes for Away We Go
Best Poster: Drag Me to Hell

So in Conclusion:
Films I most likely will still be talking about at the end of the year: Watchmen, Up, Away We Go
Other Noble Efforts: Star Trek, Taken, Drag Me to Hell

Everything else has been fun for the moment to forgettable, but luckily nothing has been pure garbage. So like I said, not bad but nothing special. So who do we look for to save the year. Lots of good looking things ahead, my anticipated movie list runs strong but two film stand above them all. Two films I really cant wait for. Two films that look so good that it reignites that fire, they reminds me why I go to movies and make movies:

Whatever happened to the Run 'n Gun?

I have a lot of thought in my head that I have been meaning to put on paper; or in this case a text box. So today I will write down the oldest one and after this long hiatus I have left my 1-2 readers with I will return tomorrow with the next one and hopefully continue on a regular basis so these long pauses won't pile up.


So today, a video game issue. What has happened in the video game industry is a pile, no, a MOUNTAIN of first person shooter games. FPS has been a mainstay in this business since Doom and Wolfenstein 3D came in and changed everything. What people don't seem to remember is that those games, like a lot of games, were not realistic. Movies have to be based on reality, a realistic world, or a world that the movies sets up for viewers to accept. To accept these worlds they must be based on a set of unwritten rules on what is to be expected. If you break these rules people tend to get upset, if you don't everything turns out fine generally (unless your film bores us to death because you are a pretentious twat).

Games are not burdened by these rules. The new Call of Duty game has Nazi Zombies for Pete's sake. When you change things like the aforementioned CoD game you become recognizable in a world burdened by this new rush in the game industry to be realistic. there is nothing wrong with realism but it seems that nowadays almost every FPS game is super realistic and if you make one misstep in this endeavor to be real you will be hung on a cross for sacrilege and we will throw ninja star into your belly (Medal of Honor series I am talking about you). Whatever happened to the Run 'n Gun? Sure a challenging war game can be fun but when was the last time you were able to just relax and have some fun? Why can I no longer run around with ridiculous amounts of health firing away at AI soldiers that are pants on head retarded? Yes I am talking about Goldeneye, Perfect Dark and Timesplitters, true successors to the pioneers of FPS. Wolfenstein has werewolf Nazis! This is not realistic and it was praised for it. People still talk about Doom. Perfect Dark kicked ass. People still play Goldeneye, a game over a decade old. When was the last time you saw someone rush off to play Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault? I want health bars and color again, not every game to copy and paste the same war environments form WWII in gun metal gray color schemes with timed healing and me dying every 30sec because its realistic. Now who wants to play some Goldeneye and Perfect Dark?

Yeah, that's what I thought.
The movie kicks ass too!

Upsets and Upset

I am having lunch tomorrow with two other Oscar experts. I will post my complete feelings then once we fully analyze the night together. I just thought I would check in and let you know that I am disappointed in more than one decision by the Academy.

The night had its up moments too, and Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway just jumped up in the cool book too! Oh and that Tom Cruise ad for Jimmy Kimmell was hilarious.

-The Scarlet Rebel

Late again, but not too late

Life happens but at least I am not too late to post predictions. No extra introduction necessary- here they are:

Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Actor: Mickey Rourke for “The Wrestler”

Actress: Kate Winslet for “The Reader”

Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger for “The Dark Knight”

Supporting Actress: I like Tarija P. Henson for “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” but it will end up going to Penelope Cruz, another worthy recipient, for “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

Original Screenplay: I want WALL-E but my prediction is Milk

Adapted Screenplay: Slumdog Millionaire

Director: Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire

Best Animated Feature: WALL-E (Surprised?)

Costume Design: The Duchess

Foreign Language Film: Walt with Bashir

Visual Effects: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Art Direction: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Makeup: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Sound Mixing: WALL-E

Sound Editting: WALL-E

Best Original Song: “Down to Earth” by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman for WALL-E. Two reasons, one it is a great song and has been a front runner for a long time and 2. Slumdog holds the other two songs causing a vote split very much like what John Williams suffered from in 2005 with “Munich” and “Memoirs of a Geisha”.

Original Score- Thomas Newman for WALL-E is my hearts choice and it stands a good chance. This will be my prediction because I can’t tear myself from it but don’t be surprised if Slumdog pulls this category too.

Cinematography- I love Roger Deakins and he did a good job with “The Reader” but I just have this feeling it’s going to “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

Editing- The Dark Knight

Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire

Best Documentary Short: The Witness

Best Live Action Short: Spielzeugland

Best Animated Short: Presto

Now go win that Oscar pool!

Sincerely,

The Scarlet Rebel

BAFTAS are a girl's best friend

I am so busy I can hardly keep up. Anyway as the Oscars approach the last big stepping stone on the way to the big show is the BAFTAS. Slumdog continued it skyrocketing potential and everything else pretty much went to plan. Except that Marisa Tomei's final push to be the front-runner took a spill. Penelope Cruz, the wide out front runner in the beginning of this journey has come back out of the shadows. This makes the supporting actress category the only big section with any real contention left. The battle between Cruz and Tomei should be a good one to watch. Kate Winslet should also be happy because her gap in the buzz grew so she is now way out front and everyone including Vegas agrees that she will be finally walking home with an award.

That's all for now. I will post Oscar predictions along with what I actually want to win (not to different for once) on Saturday night.

Ketchup Time

I found out I really don't like ketchup (despite all the commercials I have done for Heinz), or catch up for that matter. Problem is I have a lot of it, and this time I am not talking about the red stuff. I haven't written about what I thought about the Golden Globes, or the Oscar nominees. You probably have all heard the news by now so just a quick rundown of the good the bad and the ugly.

Golden Globes:

The Good- Kate Winslet winning both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. However she is not a supporting actress in The Reader so that still confuses me, but since that oversight resulted in her two-fer I will accept it for now. Also, Slumdog Millionaire going 4 for 4 and 30 Rock's sweep as well. Good speeches by Kate twice, Nolan honoring Heath Ledger, and Tina Fey' comedic acceptance.

The Bad- Wall-E not winning Best Song.

The Ugly- Miley Cyrus


Oscar Nominations:

The Good- Just about everything for once. So some special things of note instead: Thomas Newman being nominated in both Best Song and Best Score. Wall·E being nominated for Best Screenplay. No Miley Cyrus.

The Bad- The Duchess not being up for Best Original Score.

The Ugly- Thankfully nothing this year.


Of note: Kate Winslet is up for Best Actress but for The Reader, in which she has previously won Best Supporting Actress. This means three things:
1. More confusion.
2. She can't pull a two-fer like at the Globes :-(
3. Since she can't pull a two-fer she is now the front runner :-)
Anne Hathaway was the front runner, then Bride Wars came out. Eddie Murphy can tell her what happens next.

P.S.- If you don't know what I talking about I am referencing Murphy being the front runner for Dreamgirls and then losing out due to the release of Norbit. What this means is that it is finally Kate Winslet's (above) year.