What Is Your Battle Cry?

Prowling out of the mountains, carrying a vorpal blade, cometh Adam! And he gives a booming cry: "I'm going to flog you into a fine spicy powder, and hit you with a steamroller!!!"

Find out! Enter username: Are you a girl, or a guy ?

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In Case You Haven't Seen It....Another Trailer!

Around the World in 80 Days with Jackie Chan and Steve Coogan

It's Getting Hot in Here...

This ain't no Nelly video...

Thanks to our buddy Stan...

While We're On the Subject of Japanese Movies...


Shirow Masumune's Appleseed

Casshern, a weird sci-fi thing...

And, for those of you who like to collect trailers...a bunch of Japanese trailers for US movies: Return of the King, Paycheck, New Orleans (aka Runaway Jury), Spider-Man 2.

GOJIRA IS COMING! RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!


OFFICIAL SITE (Bookmark This!)

TRAILER!

AND...just because I love you all...trailers for the last G movie, Tokyo SOS...

1 & 2

Peep This!

CLICK HERE!

High Kicks Review! -- No, wait...don't get excited about it...

I have seen the pinnacle of crap.
I have seen the lowest film can sink.
And it is High Kicks.
With less production value than an Andy Sidaris film, High Kicks looks and even sounds like cheap porno. Except, there's no nudity. The closest you get is a couple nipple shots in the opening credits.
A perky, horse-faced aerobics instructor gets raped by a gang who learned all their street cred from Michael Jackson's "Beat It" video. Sam, the new janitor at work (a man with possibly the worst hair ever put to film) befriends her and introduces her to all his martial ats buddies. Yup. The hero is a fucking janitor.
Turns out, the dorkish hero...who lives on a boat...got raped when he was sailing around somewhere, and that's what got him to learn karate. Really. So, apparently, he has something against rapists and cheapass gang members
The two of them, and his asshole friends, start beating up the gang members one by one to get even with them. Then, they devolop karate aerobics. Really.
Honestly, Billy Blanks should sue their Tae Bo-faking asses.

Oscar, Bloody Oscar!
Vol 3. Column 3
Part I

A few tidbits to start today's OBO...first up is an exclusive list of screeners and other materials that an AMPAS member has received:

PIECES OF APRIL VHS 11/21/2003
GIRL WITH A PEARL EARING DVD 11/22/03
THE COOLER DVD 11/22/03
SHATTERED GLASS DVD 11/22/03
CITY OF GOD VHS 11/24/03
DIRTY PRETTY THINGS VHS 11/24/03
THIRTEEN VHS 11/26/03
AMERICAN SPLENDOR VHS 12/1/03
THE MAGDALENE SISTERS VHS 12/1/03
THE STATION AGENT VHS 12/1/03
IN AMERICA VHS 12/1/03
21 GRAMS VHS 12/5/03
LOST IN TRANSLATION VHS 12/5/03
HOUSE OF SAND AND FOG VHS 12/8/03
A MIGHTY WIND VHS 12/10/03
GODS AND GENERALS VHS 12/10/03
MATCHSTICK MEN VHS 12/10/03
MYSTIC RIVER VHS 12/11/03
SCHOOL OF ROCK VHS 12/11/03
MONSTER DVD 12/11/03
WHALE RIDER DVD 12/11/03
RADIO VHS 12/12/03
BIG FISH VHS 12/12/03
THE MISSING VHS 12/12/03
MASTER AND COMMANDER: THE FAR SIDE OF THE WORLD VHS 12/15/03
THE TRIPLETS OF BELLEVILLE VHS 12/16/03
LAUREL CANYON VHS 12/16/03
THE STATEMENT VHS 12/16/03
THE FOG OF WAR VHS 12/16/03
THE COMPANY VHS 12/16/03
MONSIEUR IBRAHIM VHS 12/16/03
SOMETHING'S GOTTA GIVE VHS 12/17/03
MONA LISA SMILE VHS 12/17/03
THE LAST SAMURAI VHS 12/17/03
MATRIX: REVOLUTIONS VHS 12/17/03
X2: X-MEN UNITED VHS 12/18/03
RUNAWAY JURY VHS 12/18/03
SEABISCUIT VHS 12/19/03
KILL BILL VOL.1 VHS 12/19/03
THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS VHS 12/19/03
THE HUMAN STAIN VHS 12/19/03
OPEN RANGE VHS 12/22/03
UNDER THE TUSCAN SUN VHS 12/22/03
PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL VHS 12/23/03
FINDING NEMO VHS 12/24/03
LOVE ACTUALLY VHS 12/26/03
COLD MOUNTAIN VHS 12/31/03
MYSTIC RIVER Script 1/29/04
BIG FISH CD (score) 2/3/04
AMERICAN SPLENDOR Script 2/3/04


Interesting to note how late it was before he received Cold Mountain, only 17 days before ballots were due for nominations, and of course the absence of a Lord of the Rings: Return of the King screener (New Line didn't bother sending out screeners for nomination purposes).

AMPAS members final voting ballots are in the mail today and must be turned in no later than Tuesday, February 24th at 5PM. We are now in the final 3 weeks of the campaign season!


Variety reported today that ABC is apparently trying to push a 5-second delay for the telecast on AMPAS, here are some bits from that article:
"Not even the traditionally well-behaved Academy Awards ceremony is immune to the storm over indecency that is lashing the broadcast biz. For the first time ever, ABC wants to impose a delay on its telecast of the Oscars, so that inappropriate material can be edited out.

ABC approached the Academy of Motion Pictures & Sciences about using a five-second delay. On Tuesday night, the AMPAS board voted not to change its plans for the show, but will not fight the web execs: "It's up to them," said an Acad spokesman.

Unlike other live telecasts, the Oscars have never been subject to a delay -- a point of pride for the org. While board members understand the web's concerns, they decided to make no changes to their Oscarcast strategy."

The networks use a five-second delay on most live events, which allows them to edit for audio.

"The network has made it clear they're feeling enormous pressure to institute a delay," AMPAS exec director Bruce Davis said. "ABC may factor in the board's decision, but has indicated that it will not necessarily feel obligated to follow it."


Thankfully, this was in today's Guardian Unlimited, AMPAS isn't going to back down:
"The Academy is, however, concerned that a similar approach to the Oscars could represent the thin end of the wedge.

"We would be very concerned about a delay that would raise possibility of a network representative deciding that remarks like Michael Moore's last year [in which the maker of Bowling For Columbine publicly questioned the integrity of the Iraq war] would be inappropriate," Davis said. "We don't want that kind of censorship."


ABC won't be able to stronghand AMPAS in this situation, we'll get our live, uncensored telecast.


Coming up later...
Speculation on the Costume Design race (reader request! haha)

This is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO not right...

ESCAPE FROM NEVERLAND!

Oscar, Bloody Oscar!

So I decided to bring back my old column title, "Oscar, Bloody Oscar!" What do you think? :) Today's column will be a little sloppy, as I'll just call it as it comes to my head, I don't feel like editing it tonight. So here we go:

Anyway, following the campaign trail, I've compiled a little list of upcoming TV appearances by a number of the nominees, lots of Mystic River press, check it out:

Jay Leno:
2/6: Naomi Watts for 21 Grams
2/10: Marcia Gay Harden for Mystic River
2/12: Clint Eastwood for Mystic River
2/13: Diane Keaton for Something's Gotta Give

David Letterman:
Tonight, 2/3: Sean Astin for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
2/12: Jude Law for Cold Mountain

Conan O'Brien:
2/9: Russell Crowe for Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

Craig Kilborn:
2/10: Sir Ian McKellan for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

Ellen Degeneres:
2/5: Charlize Theron for Monster
2/9: Naomi Watts for 21 Grams
2/11: Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider
2/16: Sean Astin for Lord of the Rings: Return of the King

The View:
2/4: Marcia Gay Harden for Mystic River
2/6: Patricia Clarkson for Pieces of April

Seems the TV talk show campaigning is a lot lighter this year, not as many appearances going on as expected. Most of these people appearing don't need to be, the people that really need to get their face on TV are the following nominees...
Patricia Clarkson, who did on Monday, I forget on which show

Keisha Castle-Hughes, the Whale Rider sensation chick needs to start making the public fall for her, right now, she's a cute girl and would get a huge boost from an appearance or two

Ken Watanabe needs to get on and get his name out there more

Shoreh Aghdashloo could easily charm her way into some more votes with a TV appearance



As far as the trades are concerned, there are City of God ads sprinkled all over the place, including the internet, which is great to see. TONS of Lord of the Rings in Variety, plenty of Seabiscuit to chase it. A fair number of Mystic River and Last Samurai ads in Variety as well, and a few Master and Commander to top it all off (and what a lovely set of ads Fox has for M&C). The Hollywood Reporter is overflowing with Seabiscuit ads, of course.
The dominate 3 in terms of press ads are definitely Seabiscuit, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and Mystic River, at least from what I've seen and have been told. Fox really needs to step it up and bump those box office numbers for Master and Commander.

Lost in Translation was released on DVD today and is the number one selling DVD on Amazon.com at the moment. If those numbers translate to retail sellers, good news for Lost in Translation.
Here's a bit from today's PageSix on Coppola:
"THAT some Academy members are voting for Sofia Coppola to win Best Director to disprove Barbra Streisand's constant complaint she was never nominated in that category because she is a woman. "We have nothing against women, we just don't like Streisand," said one voter"

The notion that voters are going to throw a vote to Miss Sofia to spite Streisand, if I may be the first to say so, is patently absurd. We're not just talking about general AMPAS members, by the way, only DIRECTORS can vote for Best Director, and virtually all of the directors branch of AMPAS are men. If Coppola were to win for political reasons, it's much more likely that it would be friends and admirers of daddy voting for the Coppola name. I'd bet my life on it that none of the 360-something voters could give two shits about Streisand...That said, I personally feel that if Sofia wins, it will be because of a love and respect of the work, I don't think politics are going to be a large issue in a decision to mark Coppola on the director ballot. A lot of people out there truly love her little movie, and Sofia transcends simple Coppola family labeling by doing what matters, producing good work.

The race is still wide open, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King is still most likely to take Picture and Director, I still wouldn't call either a lock though. But even more wide open are the actor races. Penn/Theron/Robbins/Zellweger seems to be every pundit's prediction right now, which very well could happen...but I say, expect surprises, because it's more likely that will not be the lineup, not saying that 3 couldn't still do it, just don't count on all 4 in your predictions.

Going back to Lord of the Rings, the momentum has gone at a great pace so far and it seems like New Line is settling into a comfortable, straight-forward campaign to the finish line. Peter Jackson and company are showing up at all sorts of parties and are charming the crowds, as they are all very charming, classy people. It's looking good, very good. New Line just has to make sure they stay fairly laissez-faire for the rest of the ride, they are in a position of finally being accepted to take the big prizes and need only to avoid overkill and a resulting backlash with the voters. Just run the ads at a cool pace and everything should point to gold.

WB is appropriately getting more aggressive with Mystic River and is capitalizing on the re-release and tv appearances. A lot of older voters will probably be voting for Mystic River for Picture, and it still poses a huge threat.

Seabiscuit and Universal are hard to place, the aggressive campaigning has worked and is continuing, will the horse continue to trump people's expectations and possibly snag a few statues, maybe even Picture? Still doesn't feel very likely for Picture, but AMPAS members REALLY went wild for it in screenings, as I've said before, so don't count out the biscuit (something I said back in August and September and was laughed at for predicting it for picture, to those who doubted me, eat it, I told you so).

Fox needs to keep pushing Master and Commander hard, it has a chance, but it needs some more attention and a box office boost in this re-release wouldn't hurt either.

Focus is handling Lost in Translation pretty well, appropriately running TV spots for the DVD release listing its nomination success. Lost in Translation is definitely a threat in that it is the most alternative choice for voters in the Picture category.


After a very sloppy rundown, I'll hold off on the specifics of other categories until tomorrow (and yes, I intend to run a column tomorrow, no week-long hiatus again). It all lies in AMPAS' hands...