The Saints, football’s World Champions

Last night, the New Orleans Saints won Superbowl XLIV, defeating the Indianapolis Colts and becoming the World Champions for the first time in their history. Here’s the story, in pictures.

Oscar nominees announced

The Oscar nominees have been announced a couple of hours ago, you can check the list over here. No big shocks so far. As expected, Avatar got a bunch of them – 9 – mostly for the technical categories. I was pleasantly surprised that the obviously superior movie, The Hurt Locker, also got 9 noms. My favorite flick of the year, Inglourious Basterds, is also going strong, with 8 nominees.

Maybe among the few actual surprises were the nomination of The Blind Side for Best Movie (seriously?? I know they expanded the list to 10, but I didn’t see this coming), the snubbing of Melanie Laurent in favor of Maggie Gyllenhaal for Best Supporting Actress, and the fact that Matt Damon was nominated for the wrong movie (The Informant!, anyone???).

Now let’s just wait and hope they won’t repeat the Golden Globes mistake of going with the flow and giving all the awards to Avatar simply because it’s a Jim Cameron crowd-pleaser, and actually reward the better films. If they won’t, well, I will probably lose interest in the Oscars once and for all.

Nightscape

Here’s a kick-ass promo for a possible feature-length flick called Nightscape. I sure hope they find financing for this… eerie artsy horror films are right up my alley.

Golden Globes rants

I wonder how much of the estimated 750 million dollars spent on Avatar went to the Golden Globes, and how much will go to the Academy. Don’t get me wrong, I really liked Avatar and I support it for all technical awards at the upcoming Oscars, but winning the Golden Globes for best film and best director is a joke. It’s like Titanic all over again – all of this is based on hype and/or fixing.

Actually, most of the Golden Globes gala last night was really really bad, many of the awards going to surprising and undeserving winners. The Hangover, best comedy? Really? Again – I enjoyed the film, but it’s NOT award material. Robert Downey Jr. and Sandra Bullock, best actor / actress? They had easy roles in easy popcorn movies. NOT award material.

At least they got it right with Christoph Waltz for Best Supporting Actor, and with the yearly animation award going, obviously, to Pixar’s release.

In the TV department, it’s as boring as it gets. Everybody knows Mad Men is winning every time, regardless of everything else, so no drama there. Props however to Michael C. Hall and John Lithgow on getting their awards for Dexter – although you have to be insane not to give an award to Jeremy Piven for Entourage.

My most anticipated films of 2010

After a surprisingly long delay, here’s the list with the films on my radar for 2010. Great, great stuff – this is shaping up to be yet another great year for movies. And number one – as mentioned before – is without any kind of doubt Nolan’s Inception. There are some other films that could have made the list, but it’s unsure whether they’ll be released in 2010 or pushed back to 2011.

Anyway, without further ado, here are my most anticipated films of 2010.

1. Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan)

2. Alice in Wonderland (dir. Tim Burton)

3. Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky)

4. The Green Hornet (dir. Michel Gondry)

5. Machete (dir. Robert Rodriguez)

6. Shutter Island (dir. Martin Scorsese)

7. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (dir. Edgar Wright)

8. Never Let Me Go (dir. Mark Romanek)

9. Kick-Ass (dir. Matthew Vaughn)

10. The Social Network (dir. David Fincher)

Honorable mentions (random order):

The Expendables (dir. Sylvester Stallone)
The Last Airbender (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Wall Street 2 (dir. Oliver Stone)
Life During Wartime (dir. Todd Solondz)
Green Zone (dir. Paul Greengrass)
The Killer Inside Me (dir. Michael Winterbottom)
Somewhere (dir. Sofia Coppola)
The Tree of Life (dir. Terrence Malick)
Cop Out (dir. Kevin Smith)
The First Gun (dir. Zhang Yimou)
The American (dir. Anton Corbijn)
Biutiful (dir. Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
Area 51 (dir. Oren Peli)
The Crazies (dir. Breck Eisner)
My Soul to Take (dir. Wes Craven)
Piranha 3D (dir. Alexandre Aja)
The Ward (dir. John Carpenter)

Waiting for Antichrist

The Blu-Ray version of Antichrist has just been released in the UK – and my copy is on its way. Von Trier’s madness in full high-def – really, it can’t get any better than this. Bring it on!

Can you endure 20.000 spoonfuls of terror?

Here’s a really funny short film from director Richard Gale – brilliantly titled “The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon”   Enjoy.

Inception

I still haven’t found the chance to build my most anticipated movies of 2010 list – but I can tell you this: whenever I’ll get to do it, the number 1 spot will be Inception.

Two incredible trailers, a fantastic cast, a great director that happens to be one of my favorites, and a mind-fuck of a story dealing with the perception of reality – I really can’t ask for anything more.

Here’s the new trailer… enjoy it. Meanwhile I’ll keep drooling, waiting for July.

How to make a billion dollars in 17 days

1. Be James Cameron
2. Make a kick-ass 3D movie.

That’s it.

Cameron’s Avatar reached the one billion mark worldwide in just 17 days since its premiere, becoming the fourth-highest grossing film of all time (after Titanic – 1.84, Lord of the Rings – ROTK – 1.11 and Pirates of the Caribbean – 1.06).

As it stands – it will take Avatar only a few more days to pass the Pirates and LOTR, and become the second film on the list.

The only question that remains is: will it beat Titanic? Odds are it will. Avatar is still going strong, I wouldn’t be surprised if it will make another billion in the next 5-6 weeks.

One way or another, in a couple of days, James Cameron will be the director of the two highest grossing films of all time.

A year in movies

2009 has been a great year for movies, at least for me. There were at least 6 films I really loved, more than in the previous year, plus many other very good films – most of them didn’t even make this list.

I have chosen the film of the year based on my current mood, but to be honest, any of these first 6 films could’ve been film of the year. They’re all outstanding and I recommend them to everyone.

I have taken into consideration only films that have been released in Romania (in theaters or in festivals). This is why some films I’ve seen and loved at Sitges, like The Road (to be released in 2010), Enter the Void or Mr. Nobody (still without a release date – not even for the States), are not on the list.

Anyway – here we go.

Film of the year:

Inglourious Basterds (dir: Quentin Tarantino)

After a fun film not to be taken very seriously (Death Proof), QT is back – and what a return! Basterds is thrilling, exciting, thoughtful, playful – a perfect proof of the mature-yet-not-really director Tarantino has become. It’s pure cinema entertainment, that contains some of the most memorable scenes of the year, and – by far – the most memorable character of 2009 (Hans Landa, obviously). It’s so good that, despite its unorthodox story and bloody violence, it snatched a bunch of noms for the Golden Globes – to be followed, hopefully, by some Academy love as well.

Rest of the Top Ten:

2. District 9 (dir. Neill Blomkamp) – part thriller, part SF, part political satire, part everything else you can think of, D9 is possibly 2009’s biggest revelation. Watch out for Blomkamp – something tells me there’s more to come.

3. Moon (dir. Duncan Jones) – a perfectly written story and an outstanding performance by Sam Rockwell in this surprising homage to SFs from the 80s. Big winner at Sitges & shown at the Iasi Festival in Romania.

4. The Wrestler (dir. Darren Aronofsky) – don’t get fooled by the title. This is a character drama, not a wrestling action film, with a great performance from Rourke.

5. Avatar 3D/IMAX (dir. James Cameron) – the 2D version of Avatar, despite being really good, wouldn’t have made the top ten. However, in 3D, this is a movie-going experience like nothing you’ve ever seen.

6. Zombieland (dir. Reuben Fleischer) – Harrelson hunting down Twinkies and Zombies, in the funniest film of 2009

7. Up (dir. Pete Docter) – I still think I like Wall-E better, but Up keeps the tradition of Pixar’s masterpieces. A lock-in for both Oscars and Golden Globes.

8. Watchmen (dir. Zack Snyder) – everything I ever wanted from a comic-book adaptation. Snyder’s visuals still amaze me.

9. Drag Me to Hell (dir. Sam Raimi) – what a joy for old-school horror fans! Raimi is back to his genre, with a great, fun flick that’s exactly how it’s supposed to be.

10. The Hurt Locker (dir. Kathryn Bigelow) – gripping, powerful Iraq war story.

For comments, well, use the comments. I will be back later, with my most anticipated films of 2010 list.