The 2nd Annual Blog Cabins End of Year Spectacular (2008)

To see the list of all of films I've seen since 2008 (save for those reviewed this week), click here. Otherwise, let the SPECTACULAR begin!!

The Five Best Films I Saw This Year (Academy Award eligible):
1. Man on Wire
2. The Dark Knight
3. Wall*E
4. Slumdog Millionaire
5. The Wrestler

The Five Films That Barely Missed "The Five Best Films I Saw This Year" List:
1. El Orfanato (The Orphange)
2. Milk
3. Waltz with Bashir
4. Iron Man
5. In Bruges

The Best of the Rest that Didn't Make Either of the Above Lists:
Tropic Thunder, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Be Kind Rewind, Roman de Gare, The Visitor, The Fall, Hellboy II: The Golden Army, Pineapple Express, Religulous, Synecdoche, New York

The Top Five Films I Didn't Get Around to Seeing This Year (I'm Guessing):
1. Let the Right One In
2. Encounters at the End of the World
3. Snow Angels
4. Paranoid Park
5. Boy A

The Five Worst Films I Saw This Year
1. Strange Wilderness
2. The Day the Earth Stood Still
3. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
4. The Incredible Hulk
5. Street Kings

My Five Ten Favorite Performances of the Year That Won't Win Any Awards:
1. James Franco, Pineapple Express - A career-defining performance. Seriously - hate the rest of the movie if you will (I won't, but I will admit that it's spotty), but Franco is gold in it.

2. Phillippe Petit, Man on Wire - You wouldn't normally call someone's role in a documentary a "performance." But you also wouldn't normally walk on a tightrope between two buildings 1,000 feet in the air. Such is Petit.

3. Ken Jeong, Role Models - Quickly becoming my favorite character actor. He didn't just steal all of his scenes - he kidnapped them and took such good care of them that they had Stockholm Syndrome and didn't want to leave him after awhile.

4. Justin Long, Zack and Miri Make a Porno - Capping off a banner year for Mr. Long. Not onscreen for long, but memorable indeed (bonus points to "Superman" Brandon Routh" for lampooning his image as well).

5. Russel Brand, Forgetting Sarah Marshall - I wasn't the only one worried about Brand from the trailer alone - "Oh, great, here's the annoying cockney rock star." Wrong. Also stole the show, which was hard to do because Jason Segel was pretty damned appealing (when not naked).

6. Prem Kumar, Slundog Millionaire - "Who wants....to be a MILLONAIRE [sic]??" Brought a smile to my face every time he said that...

7. Dominique Pinon, Roman de Gare - The lovable grump from Amelie was the perfect poker face in this twisting, turning French thriller in which we're unsure of Pinon's character's true identity through 3/4 of the film.

8. Ralph Fiennes, In Bruges - Vulgar, nutty, and yet logical when need be - between this, The Reader and the Harry Potter flicks, Fiennes is finally becoming a favorite of mine. It was worth the wait.

9. Craig Robinson, Zack and Miri Make a Porno - He could read a Denny's menu aloud to me and I'd likely find it funny.

10. Jon Voight, Pride and Glory - Of course, Voight was awful in this battered family cop flick. But that's what I loved about him - he wasn't just bad, he was drunk and seemed to play four characters simultaneously. High comedy. Casting directors - there are other (and vastly) better actors over the age of 50 working these days. Use them. Thanks.

And a Few that Have or Will Win Some:
1. Meryl Streep, Doubt - Managed to make that ice queen from The Devil Wears Prada look like a little kitty cat. No small feat.

2. Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight - It really can't be underestimated either how great this manic performance was or how unfortunately bad his onscreen exit was. Such a sad tease for audiences.

3. Richard Jenkins, The Visitor - It's true - there were richer, tougher performances done this year (witness his three main competitors - Rourke, Penn, and Langella - for the Best Actor statue, for starters), but it was sweeter seeing a lifelong character actor such as Jenkins given the chance to be the headliner and having him knock it out of the park. A shame that much of that goodwill disappeared along with his appearance in Step Brothers.

The Five Films I Was Most Looking Forward to Last Year at This Time and the Results
1. Cloverfield - Wasn't quite worthy of the insane hype, but it was a nice blending of Blair Witch and Godzilla, produced well and marketed even better. If only the "characters" (haha) had been developed a little more. It would have been nice for us not to be cheering for the demise of our de-facto narrator, either (the camera guy).

2. Be Kind Rewind - Many hated it. A handful loved it. The rest hunt and pecked for good/bad things. I fell closer to the "loved it" crowd; sure, Jack Black was mostly annoying, the city was made into some kind of sainted object and the ending was sappy as hell, but c'mon - if you love the power of the imagination as it applies to filmmaking, then Michel Gondry has to be one of your favorite directors. The man is a visionary and is to directing what Charlie Kauffman is to screenwriting; why else do you think their partnership resulted in the best movie of this decade?

3. The Dark Knight - Last year, I said that it would be "hard to imagine this being a failure." Understatement of the year, perhaps? Safe to say that it more than lived up to the hype. - if only it had scored about $100 million more to take out Titanic from the top box office spot. With enough re-releases, I have faith it will accomplish that goal.

4. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - Since we're looking back, in contrast I said this about Skull: "the collective hope is that it just isn't awful." So much for that. I don't even want to get started on this again.

5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Meh. Certainly wasn't worth the amount of "Looking Forward To" that I had done for it.

The Five Films I'm Most Looking Forward to for Next Year
1. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - What can I say? I'm a sucker for this popcorn franchise. Doesn't help that it was delayed by nine months.

2. Where the Wild Things Are - Famous children's book. Passion project in the works for years. The words "Directed by Spike Jonze." Starring Paul Dano, Forrest Whitaker, Catherine Keener and James Gandolfini. Yes, please.

3. Inglorius Basterds - Tarantino still has a Season Pass. Having Brad Pitt as his lead doesn't hurt.

4. 9 - Pretty big buzz for a previously unheard of film that doesn't open for nine months. Haven't seen the trailer yet? You should.

5. The Box - The quandry that was Southland Tales only makes me that much more curious to see what Richard Kelly comes up with next. The news of an original score done by Arcade Fire is just a nice perk.

Finally, Mrs. Fletch's Top 10
1. Mongol
2. Waltz with Bashir
3. Slumdog Millionaire
4. Persepolis
5. The Wrestler
6. In Bruges
7. Roman de Gare
8. Synecdoche, New York
9. Pineapple Express
10. The Savages

Honorable mentions:
"Penelope - for the most awesomely weird costuming and set design.
Forgetting Sarah Marshall - for actually making me laugh out loud."

And then...

TGITDNMAR (1/30/09)

It's that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It's The Day New Movies Are Released.

The Uninvited
I must suppose that Unwanted and Unneccesary were already taken as film titles.

I'd like to get excited about this, what with Elizabeth Banks and David Strathairn onboard (note to Strathairn: get a new agent; you're better than this), but I just can't. Wake me when we're finished with all of the The Uns movies.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 2%

The Class
Hard to believe from watching the trailer that this won the Palme d'Or at Cannes. It looks like so many other "teacher in the inner city" inspirational movies, where the white hero comes to save all the non-white kids from their surroundings and themselves. Really? We haven't heard this story enough?

The redeeming quality here (aside from the overwhelmingly positive reviews, which I'm conveniently ignoring for the time being) is that this is a semi-autobiographical tale, written by and starring a former teacher, so I'm guessing where Hollywood might bring us cliches, The Class might bring us realities. I hope so, anyway.

Of course, I'm also pretty interested in any movie that has characters with names like Souleymayne and Boubacar.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 53%

New in Town
Raise your hand if you'd heard of this Renee Zellwegger vehicle prior to this week. Anyone?

Thus, the beginning of the end of Squinchy McBunchyface's has begun. Excellent. Sadly, though, this co-stars the appealing (and increasingly talented - see Bug for additional evidence) Harry Connick, Jr. and the always-great J.K. Simmons.

Still, I can't support Renee. Go away, witchy woman. (Daniel, with your interest in Minnesotan filmmaking, will you be swallowing the pill and seeing this?)
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 0%

Taken
I gotta say, this really doesn't look like it's any good at all (not to mention the fact that we've seen a lot of angry WASP movies lately, what with Death Sentence, The Brave One, et al.)...but, something about the thought of 56-year, typically-soft-spoken Liam Neeson going on a murder death kill spree just tickles me.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 68%

And then...

Breaking news...

The Large Association of Movie Blogs (aka The LAMB) has just come out with its Top 10 films of 2008. Go there now to find out what they are (and in the process, get me higher up the LAMB Leaderboard). You know you want to.

And then...

Fletch's Film Review: The Reader and Waltz with Bashir

Guilt is all the rage this winter. For things you did, for things you don't remember doing, for things you remember doing but are running away from so fast that you run smack dab into a 15-year old boy. Then you have sex with him. A lot. You each get naked. A lot. Then you go on a bike ride. Or maybe you walk out of the ocean naked yet wearing a machine gun with a couple pals of yours. All I know is, whatever the hell you did, it wasn't really your idea, and now you feel like a turd about it. Lot o' good that'll do you.

I don't think there's ever been a weekend before where I saw two films that seemed different enough on the surface only to end up being about the same things. The Reader seems like a story about love and its effect on the life of one man, or maybe about the price of stubbornness and pride, or maybe about the price of sexing up teenagers...and it is all those things. But it's really about responsibility. And complicity. And nothing made that more evident than watching Waltz with Bashir.

The only difference is in the way that the guilty parties deal with their, um, guilt. The Reader's Hanna Schmitz has some mighty big skeletons in her closet. She doesn't talk about them and it's clear she doesn't like to think about them. She lives alone, works with people yet does a solitary job and generally minds her own business. But eventually, those skeletons are brought to the forefront. Though we're supposed to simultaneously feel bad for her and towards her, it's hard to feel remotely bad for someone who acts as if they were a third party to their own actions.

Meanwhile, Ari Folman, the star/director/writer/producer of the gorgeous Waltz with Bashir, doesn't shirk the blame for the actions of his past - he can't, as he just plain doesn't remember them. Spurred on by hearing about the recurring dreams of a friend haunted by the ghosts of his past, Folman becomes aware and somewhat shocked that he can remember little of his own participation in the 1982 Lebanon War (and specifically the Sabra and Shatila massacre, where somewhere between a few hundred and a few thousand Palestinian men, women, and children were killed by Christian Phalangists as revenge for the assassination of their leader, Bashir Gemayel).

Like any good documentarian, he sets out on a quest for the answer, talking with friends that lead him to comrades of old that help him unlock the mystery of his past. It's like The DaVinci Code, only important and without puzzles. And an albino. What we're left with is a meta-quasi-documentary that might be too depressing and/or too obscure (after all, this is no Holocaust we're talking about here) were it not for its outstanding presentation.

Though it's not rotoscoped, the traditional/3-D/Flash-based animation of Waltz has that "moving still life" feel to it, and it's rich skies and dark tones are the perfect match to the mixture of punk, rock, electronic and local music featured on the soundtrack. With it's early '80s-setting (the war scenes, anyhow), Bashir feels, with good reason, like a companion piece to last year's (slightly superior) Persepolis, mixed with Richard Linklater's Waking Life. Good company.

Fletch's Film Ratings:
The Reader

"You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."


Waltz with Bashir

"It's in the hole!"

And then...

Tuesday's Twelve Tags #8

Calamity, questions of integrity and an interrogation scene too intense for most any Law & Order episode were the highlights of last week's 12 Tags. In the end, Jason maybe/possibly/definitely did or did not use the Google as an aid in getting 8 points and the win.
Though you might have known all that and didn't even care. What you want to know is: what was the mysterious theme that tied the 12 films (namely, Bewitched, Rocky Balboa, Space Cowboys, Irreconcilable Differences, Wall Street, Mrs. Doubtfire, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Havana. License to Drive, Casper, The Polar Express, and Dream a Little Dream)?

Ready? Here it is: there is none.

No, I'm just kidding. That would be beyond cruel, if not spiteful. The theme is that they all feature a song from Frank Sinatra on their soundtrack. Told you it was tough (but not impossible). Brownie points to Shane for tossing out a number of creative guesses (movies where people have fruit thrown at them or something, movies where people get sick in a vehicle, etc.).

Here's the new dozen. The rules are simple: - I'm going to give you a dozen taglines, all you have to do is name as many flicks that they belong to as you can. Get the most and you win. Sometimes there might be a theme, sometimes not. There will now always be a theme, though it's worth will vary according to how difficult I think it is. This week's theme is attainable, but I think I might stump y'all again, so it's worth 8 points.

Good luck.

1. This time you can't change the channel.
2. He's the prime suspect in a terrifying mystery. The police are after him and so is the murderer.
3. Have you flirted yet?
4. This Christmas, Santa's Got A Brand New Bag
5. Make your own rules.
6. A Comedy about Life, Love, Airplanes and Other Bumpy Rides.
7. Love is a game. Easy to start. Hard to finish.
8. This October, fall in love with fate.
9. Based on a True Story.
10. What one loves about life are the things that fade.
11. It's a tough job but somebody's got to do it!
12. The story of the extraordinary people who changed our world.

As you get them right, I'll mark them as gotten and stuff. Good luck. No hints.

Standings
Justin - 3
J.D. - 1.5
Sea_of_Green, Jason - 1
Dead Pan - .5

1. Freddy Got Fingered (Nick)
2. Nightwatch (Dreamrot)
3. Flirting with Disaster (Jess)
4. Jackie Brown (J.D.)
5. Varsity Blues (Nick)
6. Pushing Tin (Nick)
7. Singles (Justin)
8. Bounce (Jess)
9. Blow (given away by me due to its impossibility)
10. Heaven's Gate (Jess)
11. Stakeout (Nick)
12. Fat Man and Little Boy (Jess)
Theme - All the movies star somebody that is the child of an already famous actor or actress. (Shane)

To wit:

1. Drew Barrymore (John Barrymore)
2. Josh Brolin (James Brolin)
3. Ben Stiller (Jerry Stiller/Anne Meara)
4. Bridget Fonda (Peter Fonda)
5. Scott Caan (James Caan)
6. Angelina Jolie (Jon Voight)
7. Campbell Scott (George C. Scott)...and Bridget Fonda
8. Gwyneth Paltrow (Blythe Danner/Bruce Paltrow)
9. Emma Roberts (Eric Roberts)
10. Jeff Bridges (Lloyd Bridges)
11. Emilio Estevez (Martin Sheen)
12. Laura Dern (Bruce Dern)

And then...

Fletch's Film Review: The Wrestler

There's a scene about halfway through that made The Wrestler for me. It's practically a throwaway scene in terms of the grand scheme of the film, but it's one of those that just adds another layer to the character. You'll see lots of these scenes in independent, character-driven flicks, and to be honest, it's not even so much the action that takes place in it as much as it's the content of said action.

Randy "The Ram" Robinson (Mickey Rourke) is feeling down, left with a job he can't physically perform, a daughter he didn't want that now doesn't want him, a love interest that's uninterested, and to top it all off, he gets locked out of his trailer from time to time. Sad and bored and sitting at home one day, he turns to a neighborhood kid and asks him if he wants to play some video games. The kid is one that might've been a fan once upon a time, but is too young and probably sees him as that creepy big guy two trailers down. Nevertheless, he plays. The kid talks video games to him, psyched about the latest Call of Duty game, which Randy, due to being out of touch and hard of hearing, misinterprets beautifully as "Call it doody for." Great as all this is, it's not what did it for me, though.

It's the fact that they're playing a fictional, '80s era wrestling game on the old Nintendo (NES) that prominently features Robinson in his glory days. Randy rules at his game, which of course he should - it would be a shock for anyone with that much pride and/or vanity to have not played it for hours upon hours. The game (titled Wrestle Jam: The Ram vs. The Ayatollah) is onscreen for literally less than 30 seconds, but the fact that the filmmakers (I'm not sure who to credit specifically) didn't just throw in some easily photoshopped game jacket but commissioned someone to craft this fictional game is one of those easily skipped-over details that transform a good movie to a great one (the same could probably be said of Randy's action figure, but for whatever reason, that didn't have the same effect on me).

Of course, there are several other things to enjoy about The Wrestler, many of which have been documented ad nauseam, but some that haven't:

* Naturally, the career-rejuvenating performance by Rourke. Don't call it a comeback...

* Marisa Tomei's complete lack of inhibition.

* The '80s lovin' soundtrack, featuring songs from, amongst others: Ratt, Quiet Riot, Guns 'n' Roses, Scorpions, and the so-obvious-yet-still-perfect usage of Cinderella's "Don't Know What You've Got (Till It's Gone)."

* The beautiful, heart-wrenching (no pun intended) ending. The film simply had to end the way it did. Had any of the alternate paths been chosen, the effect of the film's power would have been stunted tremendously.

* The scene upon where Randy's foray into working the deli counter at his day job (at a supermarket) is juxtaposed with his traditional ring entry. Brilliant.

* The kickass combination of cinematography and editing that made the handful of wrestling scenes the best action scenes I saw on film this past year. What so many who've become fond of hand-held cameras (in action movies) have forgotten is that, despite that "oh so realistic" feel, the audience still needs to know what the hell is going on. Randomly shaking a camera in front of two guys fighting does not an appealing action scene make - and yes, I'm looking at you, Paul Greengrass (and all of your acolytes). The Wrestler manages to take the same kind of wrestling scenes you've seen on TV for decades and make them into a visceral experience that you needn't be a fan of wrestling to enjoy.

Fletch's Film Rating:

"It's in the hole!"

And then...

Stained Glass Cinema Sunday (#23)

After months and months of trying at various games and hours of therapy, Nick is on the board, having gotten last week's SGC, D.O.A. (an underrated movie, if I recall correctly). Congrats, Nick.

Anyway, on to this week's episode. For a subtle hint, I'll tell you that there's a small tie between last week's movie and this week's, but don't dwell on it, because it's nothing that you'd probably ever come up with and I don't want to mislead you. Only I might have just done that. Come to think of it, there's actually two ties...

Hehehe.


















Standings:
Wendymoon, Jason/Daniel, J.D. - 3
Evan Derrick, Jason Soto - 2
Steel11Kane, TonyD, Luke Harrington, Rachel, Adam Ross, Justin, Anders, Nick, Fletch - 1

Here are the altered/actual posters from last time:

And then...

TGITDNMAR (1/23/09)

It's that time again for TGITDNMAR, which (obviously) stands for Thank God It's The Day New Movies Are Released.

Oscar nominations on Thursday. A (football-free) weekend before the Super Bowl. A mostly crappy slate of new releases. Know what that adds up to? Catch-up time for American filmgoers. See your Ben Buttons and your Readers and your Slumdogs now, people - they're more likely now than ever to be playing all across America - heck, even that little movie everyone already saw (I think it co-starred Heath Ledger) is re-opening for awards season. Here's the new grime:

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans
It's funny how a certain film defines your awareness of a star, regardless of what they did previously (or after, for that matter). To me, Michael Sheen is Tony Blair. Nevermind that I saw the original Underworld long before The Queen was ever released; I have no idea what role he played, even though I can see it was "Lucien." Maybe it's because I haven't seen that film that many times or maybe it's because I couldn't tell you the name of a single character (there's a ton of them, they all mumble, it's loud), but without a description (and I don't care enough to look), I don't know who Sheen was. Likewise, I saw the guy in Blood Diamond before The Queen and don't recall him at all; I assume he was some other journalist or something, but only because he's white and British and the film's set in Africa. Power of deduction there...

All of this is to say - what the hell's he doing in the third Underworld film? He wasn't in the second, was he? And why is Bill Nighy slumming so damn much? And why isn't Rhona Mitra a bigger star? Oh yeah, that's right - 'cause she can't act. Oh well, at least she has Oscar-nominated co-stars to lean on.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing (in the theater): 5%

Inkheart
I remember seeing trailers for this some months back. At the time, I thought that it had to be the holder of one of the worst titles in recent memory. No, it's no Snakes on a Plane, but something about it's overwhelming generic-ness got to me.

Come to find out it's been poorly marketed to boot. If you've seen the trailer as well, you probably know that Brendan ("Please don't make me act!") Fraser starred, with LOTR alum Andy Serkis on as the villain (and an appealing one at that). What you probably weren't aware of was that Paul Bettany and Helen Mirren co-starred as well.

Call me a big-time movie geek, but when you have high-caliber (read: British) stars in your film and don't publicize that fact, I think you're dumb. And that you have a bad title.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 15%

Killshot
Sweet everloving redemption!

If you've been paying attention to this feature at all, you are probably more than aware (and possibly annoyed) that it's become the de facto place for me to bitch about the red-headed stepchild treatment that Phoenix gets on the national stage by Hollywood, rarely-to-never landing limited-release flicks on their opening weekends and so on.

Well, the tide has turned (at least for one film this one week). As you can see here, Killshot not only has a limited release, it's release is limited to Phoenix only! Of course, as a story linked to the above page demonstrates, it's because Killshot, which stars Wrestler hot hand Mickey Rourke and Diane Lane, has been in turnaround for the past three years and it's distributor (The Weinstein Company) has been desperately trying to dump it in that time. But progress is progress, damnit, and I must support it, even though the closest theater playing it is 20 miles from my house).*

* It doesn't hurt that it's an Elmore Leonard adaptation that co-stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Thomas Jane.
Fletch's Chance of Viewing: 60%

And then...

Poll results; new poll; Oscar nomination predictions

Blog Cabins' readers have spoken - top two films of the year? No question, The Dark Knight (25%) and Wall*E (21%). In a distant third was "other" with 10% of the vote, followed by Slumdog Millionaire at 8%. Full results to your right.

New poll wants you to grade me. Over the course of 2+ years, Blog Cabins hasn't changed much. I still post a review of every film I see in the theater, but I've scaled back on the scope/length of them in the hopes of freeing up some time for me to bring you entertaining games (SGC, 12 Tags), dynamic features such as Burning Questions and FF-UN, along with TGITDNMAR and all the random stuff (oh, and the LAMB). Good idea, or get back to harder core reviews?

On to the pressing issue of the day. Oscar noms, as you must know, will be the deafening talk of the blogosphere as of early tomorrow morning. As such, it's my last chance to get some predix on paper so we can all marvel at my prognostication ability (or lack thereof). To wit:

(temporarily eschewing italics for film titles; please forgive me)

Best Picture
Slumdog Millionaire
The Dark Knight
Milk
Gran Torino
Frost/Nixon

Comments: The first three are locks. I'd rather see any number of films make it over G.T. and F/N, such as Wall*E and The Wrestler, but I just don't see that happening. Switching out Ben Button for G.T. (I remembered that the Academy lurves Eastwood) might come back to bite me.

Best Actor
Frank Langella
Sean Penn
Mickey Rourke
Clint Eastwood
Leo DiCaprio

Comments: Yeah yeah, the first three are locks. I tend to think Clint is, too. That last one - well, many see Pitt as a strong possibility, and I may be over-analyzing, but I think people will recognize that it was a role that leaned too heavily on f/x and give it to an all-around acting performance. If not Leo, Richard Jenkins.

Best Actress
Kate Winslet (Rev Road)
Sally Hawkins
Meryl Streep
Anne Hathaway
Cate Blanchett (Button)

Comments: Here, the first four are locks. Blanchett is (shock!) the wild-card, as she's been snubbed by just about everyone else. I placed her here for two reasons: 1) she was indeed excellent in Button and 2) I just can't see the Academy voters picking someone from an underseen French film (Kristin Scott Thomas in I've Loved You So Long), an underseen American indie (Melissa Leo in Frozen River or Michelle Williams in Wendy & Lucy) or Winslet in The Reader, where she's being touted for Supp. Actress.

Hence, Blanchett's in. If not her, look to Angelina Jolie for Changeling.

Best Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger
Bob Downey, Jr. (Tropic Thunder)
Josh Brolin (Milk)
James Franco (Milk)
Michael Shannon (Rev Road)

Comments: A bit of a crapshoot category. Dev Patel (Slumdog) could sneak it, but I doubt it, Phil Sey Hoffman is probably a lock but I smell a snub (Academy might be sick of writing his name), Eddie Marsan (Happy-Go-Lucky) should be a lock but will get snubbed. Heck, I'd rather see Franco get picked for Pineapple Express, but that ain't gonna happen. What a toss-up. Of course, it's all for naught anyway. We already know who's winning...

Best Supporting Actress
Marisa Tomei
Penelope Cruz (VCB)
Viola Davis
Taraji P. Henson
Kate Winslet

Comments: Ah, the Supporting categories - the home to non-whites year in and year out. Pretty confident in this grouping; the only wild cards I see are the ladies of Rachel Getting Married (Rosemarie DeWitt, who deserves a spot, and Debra Winger, who definitely doesn't) and Amy Adams (who I'm sure will be left out).

Best Director
Clint Eastwood
David Fincher
Gus Van Sant
Danny Boyle
Christopher Nolan

Comments: Isn't Ron Howard always getting left out of the Best Director race when his films get a Best Pic nod? I swear, it seems like an annual tradition. Look for Fincher to take his spot. I could see Aronofsky sneaking into that spot as well...

Best Original Screenplay
Milk
Rachel Getting Married
Synecdoche, New York
The Visitor
Vicky Christina Barcelona

Comments: Rooting for In Bruges...

Best Adapted Screenplay
Slumdog Millionaire
Frost/Nixon
Doubt
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Reader

Comments: None.

Get up early! The noms are announced at 5:30 AM Pacific.

And then...

A really long-winded intro to...The Films I Saw In 2008

For last year's Blog Cabins' End of Year Spectacular, I merely listed all of the films that I had seen in 2007, then went along with the business of handing out the awards, so to speak. This year, however, I've decided to mix things up a bit, as I'm wont to do.

What you'll see below is a listing of every film that I saw in the theater in 2008, plus the handful that I've viewed thus far into 2009. Reviews were written for all except the few where noted, and reviews will be coming for those in the very near future. The films are sorted first b the rating I gave them, from best to worst, then by date order - so the top of every rating is the first film of that rating I saw and the last is the last.

If that weren't complicated enough, I've added up or down arrow images to a handful of films. As I'm sure many of you do or did, when I looked back on the films I saw and the ratings I ave, some of them didn't sit well with me. What can I say - we're entitled to alter our opinion on these things, no? In other words, just because a film earned an "It's in the hole!" rating some months back, that doesn't necessarily mean it'll place in my Top 5 or 10.

So what you have is the official per-cursor to the End of Year Spectacular, which I've been putting off not for procrastination's sake (a first), but so that I could see a number of the prestige films before the Academy Awards hit. I'll by no means catch them all, but damnit, I'm holding out for Waltz with Bashir, and it arrives in town this Friday (I may see The Reader before then as well, but am not nearly as concerned with seeing it, as my hunch tells me it won't be amongst my favorites anyhow).

There are 81 films in all, 78 viewed in 2008 (up from 75 in 2007) and 3 from 2009. To view a review of any of these film, either use that search bar at the top of the page, check The Rundown of the last ten seen (in the sidebar), or, uh, wait for me to finish my review index. But don't hold your breath on that last one...


Wall*E
The Dark Knight
Man on Wire


Juno
The Savages
There Will Be Blood
El Orfanato (The Orphanage)
Persepolis
Be Kind Rewind
Roman de Gare
Tropic Thunder
Religulous
Slumdog Millionaire
Synecdoche, New York
Milk
Frost/Nixon
The Wrestler (viewed in '09; not yet reviewed)


Iron Man
Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Pineapple Express


Cloverfield
Definitely, Maybe
In Bruges
Penelope
Horton Hears a Who
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Hors de Prix (Priceless)
The Visitor
The Fall
Mongol
Swing Vote
American Teen
Traitor
Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist
Rachel Getting Married
W.
Burn After Reading
Zack and Miri Make a Porno
What Just Happened?
Role Models
The Tale of Desperaux
Valkyrie (viewed in '09)
Revolutionary Road (viewed in '09; not yet reviewed)


Sweeney Todd
The Spiderwick Chronicles
The Bank Job
Chaos Theory
Drillbit Taylor
Atonement
Stop-Loss
Smart People
You Don't Mess With the Zohan
Wanted
War, Inc.
Henry Poole is Here
Tell No One
Babylon A.D.
Choke
Doubt
Gran Torino (viewed in '09)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (viewed in '09)


National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets
Cassandra's Dream
Vantage Point
Get Smart
The Promotion
Step Brothers
Elegy
Passengers
Pride and Glory
Happy-Go-Lucky
Four Christmases
Australia
Nobel Son
Seven Pounds


Run Fatboy Run
Street Kings
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
The Incredible Hulk
The Day the Earth Stood Still


Strange Wilderness

And then...

Tuesday's Twelve Tags #7

Right down to bidness. Put your thinking caps on this week.

Here's the new dozen. The rules are simple: - I'm going to give you a dozen taglines, all you have to do is name as many flicks that they belong to as you can. Get the most and you win. Sometimes there might be a theme, sometimes not. This time...there IS a theme, and it ought to be a toughie, so I'm making it worth 5 points see comments. That's right - you could win without getting a single tagline correct. It's like Quidditch, but with taglines!

1. Be warned. Be ready.
2. It ain't over 'til it's over.
3. Boys will be boys.
4. They've Got Everything... including a 10 year old daughter who's suing them for divorce.
5. Every dream has a price.
6. She will rock your world.
7. Four Days, Three nights, Two Convertibles, One City
8. A gambler who trusted no one. A woman who risked everything. And a passion that brought them together in the most dangerous city in the world.
9. Some guys get all the brakes!
10. Get An Afterlife
11. Journey Beyond Your Imagination
12. With dreams like these who needs reality?

As you get them right, I'll mark them as gotten and stuff. Good luck. No hints.

Standings
Justin - 3
J.D. - 1.5
Sea_of_Green - 1
Dead Pan - .5

1. Bewitched (Rachel)
2. Rocky Balboa (Jason)
3. Space Cowboys (Jason)
4. Irreconcilable Differences (Jason)
5. Wall Street (Rachel)
6. Mrs. Doubtfire (Rachel)
7. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Jason)
8. Havana (Jason)
9. License to Drive (Jason)
10. Casper (Alex)
11. The Polar Express (Jason)
12. Dream a Little Dream (Jason)
Theme - ?

And then...

Familiar Face - Unknown Name #10 - James Hong

Call them what you want - character actors, "That Guy(s)," scene stealers - I don't care. This is a regular feature where I spotlight one performer, whether they be longtime veterans like J.K. Simmons or Barry Corbin, or a fresher face just making their way up the stardom ranks. For previous FF-UNs, click here.

Today's Familiar Face-Unknown Name:

James Hong

Where You've Seen Him (high profile): Where haven't you seen him might be the better question. Hong has over 300 credits on his IMDb resume that stretch over the course of some 50+ years of acting (he also has a handful of producing, writing and directing credits). He's been a guest star on every TV show ever made (not an exaggeration) and has been featured and/or had high-profile roles in Blade Runner, Big Trouble in Little China, Chinatown, Airplane!, The Golden Child, Wayne's World 2, The Shadow, Bloodsport 2 (and 3!), and loads of other films.

Where You've Seen Him (not-so-high profile): See above. It's impossible for one person to have seen him in everything he's been in, so let's just call them all high-profile, k?

Character Specialties: Every Asian stereotype under the sun, but generally seen recently as the all-knowing, wise mentor type. Also excels at being a speaker of Engrish. You name it, he can do it - and probably has.

My favorite role: Despite such a massive career, I probably get the biggest kick out of one of his smallest - that of the maitre'd Bruce in "The Chinese Restaurant" episode of Seinfeld. Clueless, friendly Bruce mistakes George's last name of Costanza for "Cartwright," is oblivious to Elaine's attempt to bribe him for faster seating, jokes with a regular customer and of course, calls out the group "Seinfeld - four!" just after the gang has grown impatient and left the restaurant.

Little Known Facts: Despite the heavy accent he can put on like a pair of comfy shoes, Hong was born in Minneapolis. Also, he unsuccessfully auditioned for the part of Sulu on the original Star Trek series. Who would have been better - him or Takei?

Interestingly enough, there is a two-part "conversation with James Hong" on YouTube (really, it's just video footage of him speaking to a small gathering of fans in Houston). The quality isn't great (background noise, etc), but if you really dig the man and want to hear some life stories from a great character actor (it's about 40 minutes all told), I can't think of a better place to start.

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JICAilI_4Ro
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRzmCgLz5KE

On Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hong
On IMDb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0393222/
Official Website: http://www.jameshong.com/

And then...