Oscar predictions 2010

Okay, here goes...

BEST PICTURE

Avatar

At this point I'd be really surprised if it wasn't Avatar. If I had my pick, I'd go for the following (in this order): Up, District 9 & Inglorious Basterds, Up in the Air and then Avatar...

Id be happy enough if Avatar wins, it's a good film (just not Cameron's best)

BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron, Avatar

Prior to watching The Hurt Locker I would have said Kathryn Bigelow, but I think this will go to Cameron as well. Would love to see Quentin win!

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

I just think people would like to see her blub when she gets the award!

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mo’nique, Precious

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

I really hope that this goes to Waltz...

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up In The Air

A tough one to predict – but I'm going to go with the above. Never read the original source, but the story was good and certainly well written.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

Again, a tough one to predict, I think it is likely between Up and Inglorious Basterds... I think the Basterds may take it by the end of the night.

ART DIRECTION
Avatar

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar

COSTUME DESIGN
Coco Before Chanel

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
No prediction

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
No prediction

FILM EDITING
The Hurt Locker

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
No prediction

MAKE-UP
Star Trek

MUSIC: ORIGINAL SCORE
Up

I'm going to go with Up for this one – which had a fantastic and moving score.

MUSIC: ORIGINAL SONG
Crazy Heart – The Weary Kind

SHORT FILM: ANIMATED
No prediction

SHORT FILM: LIVE ACTION
No prediction

SOUND EDITING
Avatar

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
Avatar

VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar

BEST ANIMATED PICTURE
Up

I will officially cry if Up doesn't at least scoop this!

PSN issue and Borderlands

First of all I need to mention an oddity with PSN. For me (and possibly others, I have not checked), I seem to be disconnected from the PSN at 12:00 midnight every night, pretty much on the dot. At first I thought this was problems with my internet connection (which in the past I was having issues with, but this has nothing to do with that. It isn’t normally a problem, as I just need to pop back in the menu and sign in again, which takes a matter of seconds.

Anyway, onto Borderlands.

I haven’t posted on my blog about Borderlands (but then again I’ve barely touched my blog), but it is worth mentioning that it is a fantastic game. It is also a great co-operative game, which I have been playing with random strangers in my second playthrough (I would love to play it with real friends, but my real friends are either 360 owners or if they do have a PS3, hardly use it for gaming and likely have zero interest in Borderlands).

Anyway, in the past I have regretted buying DLC for games, as I find that I barely touch it and end resenting paying the money, but for Borderlands I have loved The Zombie Island of Dr Ned and Mad Moxxi’s Underdome. It has to be said, however, the Mad Moxxi is tough as hell. I have almost obtained all the trophies for the main game and, already have all of them for Dr Ned, for Moxxi, however, I have not even managed to get the first bronze.

Moxxi are tournament levels where you have 3 different arenas and have to fight through 5 rounds, each consisting of 5 waves (in other words 25 waves of baddies of ever increasing difficulty). To get the first bronze you have to beat all three arenas. I have managed one so far, and that was DIFFICULT. It is impossible to do on your own, you really need someone else along to help out for various reasons.

Incidentally, to get the other trophies you have to play all 3 arenas in a harder mode which is 20 rounds, each consisting of 5 waves (in other words 100 waves of baddies). I know that some people have managed this, but I fully believe that I will never manage this

Anyway, onto last night…

Last night I was trying a second arena on Moxxi and after a long, long slog, with many very, VERY closely fought battles, I just managed to get to the end (with higher level co-players). I was logged onto one of their games, so as such, was not hosting the game.

At the end of each round (even the last) there is a countdown from 10 to 1 to signify the end of the round. So as we finally killed the boss wave at the end of round 5 (the final round), I sank back into my sofa in relief, relieved that I’d managed to get through a second arena of Moxxi and also picked up some epic random generated weapons. I watched the timer, waiting for the victory to be registered.

10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

DISCONNECT…

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Falls to knees and shakes fists at the heavens)

DAMN YOU PSN!

Oscar nominations 2010

Okay, the Oscar nominations have been announced today.

These are as follows:

BEST PICTURE
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up In the Air

BEST DIRECTOR
James Cameron, Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up In The Air

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
George Clooney, Up In The Air
Colin Firth, A Single Man
Morgan Freeman, Invictus
Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

BEST ACTRESS
Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up In the Air
Anna Kendrick, Up In the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
Mo’nique, Precious

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
Matt Damon, Invictus
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones,
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell, District 9
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, In The Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner, Up In The Air

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Mark Boal, The Hurt locker
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Up

ART DIRECTION
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Avatar
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The White Ribbon

COSTUME DESIGN

Bright StarCoco Before Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man In America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of A GM Plant
Music By Prudence
Rabbit A La Berlin

FILM EDITING
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Ajami
El Secreto
Desus Ojos
The Milk of Sorrow
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

MAKE-UP
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

MUSIC: ORIGINAL SCORE
Avatar
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Hurt Locker
Sherlock Holmes
Up

MUSIC: ORIGINAL SONG
The Princess and The Frog – Almost There
The Princess and The Frog – Down In New Orleans
Paris 36 – Loin de Panane
Nine – Take It All
Crazy Heart – The Weary Kind

SHORT FILM: ANIMATED
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
The Lady And The Reaper
Logorama
A Matter of Loaf and Death

SHORT FILM: LIVE ACTION
The Door
Instead of Abracadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

SOUND EDITING
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

VISUAL EFFECTS
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

BEST ANIMATED PICTURE
Coraline
Fantastic Mr Fox
The Princess And The Frog
The Secret Of Kells
Up

A few observations…

This year is slightly different that instead of the normal 5 films being nominated for best picture there are 10. The last time this was done was back in the 1940’s. I think this has been done to broaden the appeal of the Oscars as having 10 films nominated means that it is more likely for mainstream films to be in the batch of nominated films. As a result, both Up and District 9 have been nominated, which is great news (even though it is unlikely either will win). I’m especially please that Up has been nominated (which is also nominated for best animated film, which it should win), as this is just the second animated fim ever to be up for Best Picture, the first being Beauty and the Beast.

As with previous years, I will post my predictions, and reviews / opinions, shortly before the ceremony on this blog.

The Apartment

Film watched:
The Apartment

Okay, I’m throwing away my twenty word rule out of the window, instead, what I plan to do is just review films when and if it take my fancy, or if I feel like I have anything to say, as in this instance.

I’ve had The Apartment on my Lovefilm list for a little while now, as it is a classic film that I have wanted to watch for some time, however, as soon as I started watching it I suddenly realised that I didn’t know anything about it! Sure I knew that it was considered a “classic”, it was a Billy Wilder film and starred Jack Lemon (always good) and Shirley McClain. As such, I think I was expecting a whimsical classic comedy in the same vein as Some Like it Hot (best comedy of all time), but boy was I wrong.

Okay, maybe no completely wrong, yes it was whimsical and yes it had comedy elements, but it was a lot darker than I had imagined and also hit upon themes which I imagine were quite daring for early 60’s popular cinema. We’re talking adultery, self depreciation, suicide and above all else, the differences between those who take advantage of others and those that are taken advantage of.

Overall it is a masterfully written film with fantastic performances mainly by Lemon and McClain. A real gem that I’m glad has come to my attention.

8.5/10