THE DARK KNIGHT - Academy Award Update!

Nominated for eight Academy Awards including Best Supporting Actor, Cinematography, Editing, Art Direction, Makeup, Sound, Sound Editing, and Visual Effects.


Directed by: Christopher Nolan

Starring: Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Michael Caine, and Morgan Freeman


Click here to read my original review for The Dark Knight.




So I watched the Dark Knight this week for the third time and it remains for me the Best Film of the Year. It transcends the Superhero Movie label and is really a superb crime drama, then transcends that genre by focusing on the morality of the entire city of Gotham.


The Good:
The Dark Knight has a dream cast, Oscar winners in every frame, and even the the minor supporting characters are given choices that effect the plot. The film excels in all aspect that it received nominations, but to not reward the dense yet never confusing script and the visionary direction of Christopher Nolan is a crime.



The Bad:

Bale seriously overdoes the growl thing he adds to Batman's voice. It gets hard to understand, seems cumbersome as he delivers the more complex lines, and is just silly at times. How did Nolan allow the growl to make the final cut? There went your direction nomination, Chris!






The Ugly:

While she's definantly not ugly, Maggie Gyllenhaal is not beautiful, as is said a few times in the film. She may be an acting upgrade over Katie Holmes, but it's a hotness downgrade.







Movie Cheetah's Grade: A

Oscar Forecast:
Heath Ledger should have a little Oscar engraved in his headstone by now. He's about as much a lock to win as we have this year. He owns every second he's on screen, so powerful that I found myself holding my breath, waiting for his lines. Hands down the performance of the year in any acting category.
I haven't seen enough of the other films nominated for cinematography, editing or art direction yet to make a statement about The Dark Knights chances in those categories.
As for best makeup, Ledger's Joker face is inspired, but the creature overload of Guillermo del Toro's imagination in Hellboy 2 may be more impressive.
I love the Sound mix of this film. There are moments of weight that are accented by the background noise just fading out, and two great moments that will make you jump that owe their effectiveness to the sound. Give it the Oscar!
And I think Dark Knight loses to Iron Man in Sound editing and VizFx.


This is Heath Ledger's second Oscar nod. He was previously nominated in 2005 for Brokeback Mountain.

Wally Pfister is director Christopher Nolan's personal cinematographer. He was also nominated for Batman Begins (2005) and The Prestige (2006).

This is editor Lee Smith's second nomination, his first being for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003).

Art Director Nathan Crowley was also nominated for The Prestige (2006), but this is the first nomination for Set Decorator Peter Lando.

The Best Achievement in Makeup nominees are John Caglione Jr., Oscar winner for Dick Tracy (1990) and Conor O'Sullivan, previously nominated for Saving Private Ryan (1998).

The Sound Team is Ed Novick, nominated for Spider-Man (2002), Gary Rizzo, nominated for The Incredibles (2004), and first time nominee Lora Hirschberg.

Richard King is the Sound Editor, a winner for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) and nominated for War of the Worlds (2005).

The Visual Effects team is comprised of four first-time nominees Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Timothy Webber, and Paul J. Franklin.

IRON MAN, Academy Award Update!

Nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Editing



I saw Iron Man in May and wrote a complete review here: IRON MAN WHICH YOU MUST READ SO CLICK IT NOW!




The Good:
Eight months later I just watched it again and I was right about everything from the first review. It's still a top 5 film of the year and THE Fun Thrill ride Popcorn film of 2008. Smart script, great FX, Downey's acting and comedic timing and director Jon Favreau (who knew he had this in him?) all blend to make Iron Man a superhero movie for people who don't like superhero movies.



The Bad:
The final battle was a bit of a letdown. No not really a let down, but it didn't surpass anything else in the film, maybe because the rest of the film was near perfect? Hmmmm.....



The Ugly:
A little too violent for my 4 year old to see (specifically the almost execution of a father in front of his family by the terrorists). Which is a shame because he's nutty for Ol' Shellhead! UPDATE: His PawPaw let him watch it. I guess he's not traumatized or anything. And he loved it!


MOVIE CHEETAH'S GRADE: A





Oscar Forecast:
It's VizFX are much better the The Dark Knight, but I haven't seen Benjamin Button yet, so for now Iron Man gets a win! The assembling of the armor scenes really stand out as well as the dogfight and all the cool "touching the holographic computer stuff" that Tony Stark does. The Sound Editing is also very strong, lots of action, shooting, ricochets, explosions, and TONS of whirring robotic odds and ends. So.. if Wall-E's robotic purring of his name (WaaAAAlleeeee! = THE catch phase of the summer!) doesn't qualify as a sound effect, Iron Man should trump Wanted, The Dark Knight, and Slumdog Millionaire (which I also haven't seen yet!)


The VizFX team has one Oscar and 5 nominations between them. It consists of John Nelson, winner for Gladiator (2000) and nominated for I, Robot (2004), Ben Snow, nominated for Pearl Harbor (2001) and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones (2002), Daniel Sudick, nominated for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (2003) and War of the Worlds (2005), and first time nominee Shane Mahan.


The Sound Editors are first time nominee Frank E. Eulner and the much awarded Christopher Boyes, winner in Sound Editing for Titanic (1997) and Pearl Harbor (2001) and Sound Mixing on The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (2003) and King Kong (2005). He also can claim nominations for work on The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl (2003), and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006). Admit it. That's one impressive resume!

WANTED

Nominated for Best Sound and Best Sound Editing

Directed by Timur Bekmambetov

Starring James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, and Angelina Jolie





The FACTS:
So James McAvoy has a lame life and one day Angelina Jolie tells him his dad was the world's greatest assassin and he must carry on that mantle or something. Shootouts occur, awesome car chase, and they go see Morgan Freeman. He runs the assassins and proves to McAvoy that he can do all kind of cool stuff like shoot the wings off some flies (apparently by greatly accelerating his heartbeat and flooding his system with adrenalin!) and he must avenge his dad's death by killing this rogue assassin. McAvoy starts training Karate Kid style, with great personal suffering, and great montages. There's a twist, and a whole lotta killing.

The GOOD:

There's something that separates the really good action flicks from the average ones. It's called the "whoa factor," for lack of a better term. It's when you're watching an action sequence and something happens that you've never seen before, never even imagined before. Wanted has this year's whoa factor. And not just the "actually kind of lame and never quite explained" curving bullets thing. The car chase/shootout is the action sequence of the year. There's also a glimpse of Angelina Jolie's hot ass (BREAK OUT THE PAUSE AND ZOOM BUTTONS!).

The BAD:

A plot full of cliches starting with the "you have a destiny to fulfill" line to the LONG training montages which make McAvoy THE BEST assassin ever seemingly, to an "Obie-Wan never told you about your father" twist. Did I just give too much away? Who cares, just watch the car chase!

The UGLY:

You actually want me to believe a huge tapestry/loom thing tells the assassins who to kill? There's suspending disbelief, and then there's this....ugh.

Wanted is everything a good shoot'em up action should be, and it has enough "whoa" moments cool enough to overcome the "huh?" plot and the "saw it coming 15 minutes in" twist.



MOVIE CHEETAH'S GRADE: B


As for the Oscar noms, Wanted is not a good enough film overall to win Best Sound, something that requires good sound effects, a good score, and a good mix. It has a much better chance to win Sound Editing, with all the cool gunfire and exploding heads sounds, but it really has no chance against Iron Man.

A three man team was responsible for the dense sound mix. Chris Jenkins has two Oscars for mixing the sound on Out of Africa (1985) and The Last of the Mohicans (1992), also nominated for Dick Tracy (1990). Frank A. Montano has four nominations, Under Siege (1992), The Fugitive (1993), Clear and Present Danger (1994), and Batman Forever (1995), but no wins yet. On a side note, Jenkins and Montano also worked on Frost/Nixon. This is the first nomination for Petr Forejt.

The Sound Editing was done by Wylie Stateman, who was thrice nominated. For Sound on Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Sound Editing on Cliffhanger (1993) and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

STOP! Oscar Time!

All right, time to pull my lazy ass off the couch and see some movies! I always get up for Oscar season, and the nominees were announced this week. 26 films nominated this year. I've seen 9.

You can read my full reviews for here for The Dark Knight, Iron Man, and Wall-E.

Reviews for The Duchess, In Bruges, Hellboy II, Kung-Fu Panda, The Visitor and Tropic Thunder will be posted in the following months, as well as the above three after I re-watch them to better judge their nominated catagories.

I've got Wanted on dvd for this weekend, and Vicky Christina Barcelona, Frozen River, and Changeling all hit DVD before Oscar night (Feb 22).

So... I gotta find away to catch the 5 Best Picture noms in theaters, of which Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader and Frost/Nixon are playing nearby. I'll have to do some driving to see Milk or 5 times nominated Doubt. It'll take a miracle for me to see more. And why waste a miracle on seeing movies? Save those for landing planes on rivers or beating the Russians in hockey.

So check back often, then bask in the shadow of my brain as I pick all the correct winners on Feb 22. Mwa HA HAHAHAHAHAHA!