Looking in to my crystal ball . . . . .

With the Oscars less than five days away, I figured it was time for Movie Mazzupial to unveil some predictions. Well, I say predictions but really these are the people/films I want to win. The people I think will actually win are highlighted in green and the people I want to win are in pink. If I believe the planets will align and what I want to win and what I think will win are the same thing, then it will appear in blue. Confused? So am I. If the following spins you out too much just wait for the actual Academy Awards ceremony which is on Sunday, February 22 or Monday, February 23 for us Aussies. And the winners are -
Performance by an actor in a leading role
Sean Penn in “Milk” (Focus Features)
Mickey Rourke in “The Wrestler” (Fox Searchlight)
Performance by an actor in a supporting role
Heath Ledger in “The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.)
Performance by an actress in a leading role
Kate Winslet in “The Reader” (The Weinstein Company)
Performance by an actress in a supporting role
Amy Adams in “Doubt” (Miramax)
Penélope Cruz in “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” (The Weinstein Company)
Best animated feature film of the year
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Andrew Stanton
Achievement in art direction
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” (Paramount and Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Donald Graham Burt, Set Decoration: Victor J. Zolfo
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Art Direction: Nathan Crowley, Set Decoration: Peter Lando
Achievement in cinematography
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Wally Pfister
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Anthony Dod Mantle
Achievement in costume design
“Australia” (20th Century Fox), Catherine Martin
“The Duchess” (Paramount Vantage, Pathé and BBC Films), Michael O’Connor
Achievement in directing
“Milk” (Focus Features), Gus Van Sant
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Danny Boyle
Best documentary feature
“The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)” (Cinema Guild), A Pandinlao Films Production, Ellen Kuras and Thavisouk Phrasavath
“Man on Wire” (Magnolia Pictures), A Wall to Wall Production, James Marsh and Simon Chinn
Best documentary short subject
“The Conscience of Nhem En” A Farallon Films Production, Steven Okazaki
“The Witness - From the Balcony of Room 306” A Rock Paper Scissors Production, Adam Pertofsky and Margaret Hyde
Achievement in film editing
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lee Smith
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Chris Dickens
Best foreign language film of the year
“The Class” (Sony Pictures Classics), A Haut et Court Production, France
“Waltz with Bashir” (Sony Pictures Classics), A Bridgit Folman Film Gang Production, Israel
Achievement in makeup
“Hellboy II: The Golden Army” (Universal), Mike Elizalde and Thom Floutz
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)
“WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Thomas Newman
Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)
“Down to Earth” from “WALL-E” (Walt Disney), Music by Peter Gabriel and Thomas Newman, Lyric by Peter Gabriel
“O Saya” from “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Music and Lyric by A.R. Rahman and Maya Arulpragasam
Best motion picture of the year
“Milk” (Focus Features), A Groundswell and Jinks/Cohen Company Production, Dan Jinks and Bruce Cohen, Producers
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), A Celador Films Production, Christian Colson, Producer
Best animated short film
“La Maison en Petits Cubes” A Robot Communications Production, Kunio Kato
“Presto” (Walt Disney), A Pixar Animation Studios Production, Doug Sweetland
Best live action short film
“The Pig” An M & M Production, Tivi Magnusson and Dorte Høgh
“Spielzeugland (Toyland)” A Mephisto Film Production, Jochen Alexander Freydank
Achievement in sound editing
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Tom Sayers
Achievement in sound mixing
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Lora Hirschberg, Gary Rizzo and Ed Novick
Achievement in visual effects
“The Dark Knight” (Warner Bros.), Nick Davis, Chris Corbould, Tim Webber and Paul Franklin
Adapted screenplay
“Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Simon Beaufoy
Original screenplay
“Frozen River” (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Courtney Hunt
“In Bruges” (Focus Features), Written by Martin McDonagh

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Transformers: More than meets the red, glowing eye

It’s no secret I disliked the Transformers movie and spent the entire film laughing my head off at the shameless product placement, shotty acting, over the top script, self indulgent special affects and utter Bayhem that was Michael Bay’s hugely successful creation. Yes, it cut me deep within my soul to know this trashtastic film made so much money and even spawned a generation of f-wits getting the Transformers logo tattooed on them. Seriously, the number of people I’ve seen with a Transformers tattoo freaks me out to no end. Being the box office smash that it was, several sequels are inevitable with the first, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, being released in Australia on June 25 this year. As much as I'd promised myself not to write any news on the Transformers sequel I have a friend who is hopelessly in love with the movies and all Bayhem related projects. So this post and image is for you and only you. Please note, I’m getting no enjoyment out of this. Empire Magazine online posted the first image from the up and coming Transformers sequel on their site yesterday.

The image has got quite a lot of hits which leaves me asking the question, why? The poster depicts the main baddy of the film (The Fallen) but all you can really tell about the Wall E related robot is he has two, red glowing eyes. Whoopdy freakin doo. I’m pretty sure I can create a better marketing poster in paint. And just to further push myself in to the good books online blogging site comingsoon.net has a rough image of Sideswipe, one of the new robots to be featured in Tranformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Click here to check it out.

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It's school horror-days again . . .

It Thursday again but this week it’s school holiday season (shudder).Yes, that means every time you go to the movies in the next two weeks little brats are going to be throwing popcorn at the back of your head while you try to enjoy a movie. Regardless, school holiday Thursday usually means more movies are released to take advantage of school-aged audiences and such is the case this week. Here’s a quick run down on today’s releases:
Wall-E-

This has been hailed a masterpiece by pretty much every critic who has seen it and needless to say box office takings have been blockbuster ($220million in the US to date). With no human voices until the second third of the film Wall-E seems to draw from the great silent films of our time such as A Trip to the Moon and The Great Train Robbery . Once again, Pixar animation studios have outdone themselves smashing previous animation benchmarks. Directed by Andrew Stanton of Finding Nemo fame, people are pipping this to be the first animated film to win a best picture Oscar since 1989. FYI this baby scored a whopping 97% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Son of a Lion-
A complete change of pace from breathtaking animation, this art house film is made by young Aussie director Ben Gilmour. Shot in the depths of Pakistan it’s about an Islamic boy who wants to go to school instead of becoming a weapon maker like his father. Subtitles ensue.
Space Chimps-
Shoty animation from Dreamworks who have clearly tried to throw together another movie to roll off the success of Kung Fu Panda. My thoughts? The title tells you everything you need to know: there are chimps and they’re in space.
Wild Child-
Julia Roberts’ niece proves she certainly won’t be following in the footsteps of her Oscar winning auntie in this tween comedy about a spoilt American girl (yes, another one) sent to an English school to get her act together. You know what would be better? If Emma Roberts’ got her shit acting skills together.
Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging-
Another film aimed directly at the tween market but unlike Wild Child, this British offering seems do have some substance. Touted as a Bridget Jones for teenage girls it will be interesting to see if it can find an Australian market.
Step Brothers-
Wahoo. Another decent looking comedy from the Frat Pack. Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly team up again to play two unemployed, middle-aged men who end up as stepbrothers when their parents marry. Unlikely to be as good as Pineapple Express or Tropic Thunder, but from the gags shown in the trailer this still looks highly amusing.

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