Batman, Iron Man, Kidman Clash Over F/X Oscar

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Indy, we hardly knew ya.

Comic book-based blockbusters The Dark Knight, Iron Man and Hellboy II: The Golden Army lead the list of seven semifinalists in the running for this year's Best Visual Effects Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today.

Also making the cut: Australia, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and two Brendan Fraser-powered flicks, The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor and Journey to the Center of the Earth (which is gunning to be the first 3-D movie to be nominated in this category).

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Cloverfield and two other superhero opuses—Hancock and The Incredible Hulk—were among the surprise snubs. The films were among 15 shortlisted last month.

On Jan. 15, the Academy will screen 15-minute reels from the contenders and then a panel of experts will whittle the field down to a final three. (The screenings at the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater are open to the public).

Nominations for the 81st Academy Awards will be unveiled Jan. 22, with the ceremony taking place exactly one month later.

By : The Author

DiCaprio, Eastwood are Palm Springs Film Winners

PALM SPRINGS, California – The world economy is in dire straits, but you sure wouldn't know it from the red carpet at the 20th-annual Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala. The actresses were dripping with jewels, actors donned high fashion, and logos of jeweler Cartier and automaker Mercedes-Benz loomed large behind all as they posed for photographers.

"I'm just doing what I know how to do, and that's make movies and hopefully get people to go see them so I can continue to make more movies," said actor Leonardo DiCaprio, when asked if he felt uncomfortable in this setting, given widespread financial woes.
DiCaprio was on hand Tuesday night to accept the fest's Ensemble Performance Award for the drama "Revolutionary Road," for which he's a nominee at Sunday's Golden Globes.
This year's other Palm Springs honorees included many who are widely considered strong Oscar contenders, including "The Changeling" director and "Gran Torino" star and director Clint Eastwood, who showed up to take home the Career Achievement Award.

"Milk" actor Sean Penn and "Rachel Getting Married" actor Anne Hathaway each came to pick up a Desert Palm Achievement Award.

Is Hathaway ready for eight more weeks of awards-show mania, ending with the Oscars on Feb. 22?

"I've decided to keep a journal about it, and write down my reflections every night. Because I know that if I don't do that now, when I look back, I won't be able to remember things so clearly," Hathaway said. "So I think that's what I'm going to do."

The Oscar-winning Penn summed up the red-carpet experience in two words — "It's loud!" — and Eastwood had only a few more. "Once in a while it's fine," he said. "But, after a while, you go blind by the time they hit you with about 400 flashbulbs."

Awards Gala presenters included "Frost/Nixon" star Frank Langella, there to give the film's director Ron Howard the Director's Lifetime Achievement Award, and actor Ben Stiller to hand his "Meet the Fockers" co-star Dustin Hoffman the Chairman's Awards.

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" composer Alexandre Desplat received his statuette from "Button" actor Taraji P. Hanson — herself an awards-show veteran, thanks to her role in the acclaimed "Hustle and Flow."

The red carpet is "a lot of work and I really would like to find out who said it was all glamorous and I'd like to kick them in their shins because it's not so glamorous," Hanson noted. "You have to be on, you have to be personality, you know, even if you don't feel like it."

By : The Author

“Brokeback Mountain” Movie, When Love Won’t Count

Something has arisen between the two men, it is like a storm coming from nowhere that has entered their lives and that will mark them forever.

After a number of months hearing once and again a ton of good comments about “Brokeback Mountain” movie I finally had the opportunity to watch this movie in the theaters. I know I’m kind of late, even Oscars have passed, but it took sometime for the film to arrive in my town.

Curious sensation what I felt when the movie started playing, after hearing so many comments about the film I was at the point from which I already knew, at least from the morbid side, what the story was about and who was whom on the screen. At least that’s what I thought.

It all starts in the distance; one truck passing by the hills and then we find one young man outside an office that seems to be far away from everything. Then our second character arrives almost pushing his old black truck. It is now that we realize what they are looking for…they need a job.

They are hired to take care of sheep in the mountains of Wyoming, they will spend the summer together in the mountains, they will live and work side by side during all those days. As they arrive to their destination, “del Mar” , feeling more confident, releases a few words from his mouth and starts talking a bit more and showing some signals of sympathy to his buddy. He is a tough young man with a family history with resemblance of a nightmare from one of those Dickens stories. No one suspects anything “out of normal” is happening in the story. Days seem to be passing without any great novelty.

But something new happens, something out of the regular tasks of those working days and nights at “Brokeback Mountain”. Something has arisen between the two men, it is like a storm coming from nowhere that has entered their lives and that will mark them forever. It seems to be just a passionate episode of the lonely at the beginning, a dream that none will ever know. But reality dictates something different, what just happened, will continue happening once and again, they are attached forever by a force that makes or bends the will of anyone; something we may call, love.

Summer is over and both men must go back to their worlds away from the mountain, to their previous lives, but inside them in a secret place they know those lives exist no more. They have been confronted with their most inner reality and it won’t go away.

They will marry wives and strive to pursue a “normal” life just to realize they are being a pair of fakes. They don’t belong to that traditional society, they belong only to each other since those day in the mountains. They finally decide and meet again outside “del Mar’s” home, a poor second floor apartment. He hasn’t had much luck in life since childhood and it seems to accentuate everyday, now even his wife knows about his preferences. We are inclined to conclude his only luck and fortune in life is what he feels for Jack, his “fishing buddy”.

Things go wrong at “del Mar’s” home, marriage brakes and he is left alone fighting for life in a society that would stone him to death if they only knew. But there are bright moments too, and those happen at “Brokeback” where he regularly meets Jack who travels from far away Texas to meet the only love he has known.

By the end of the story there have been conflicts arising between the partners; too much distance and just a scarce proximity can not improve any relation. They have just had a bad encounter in their paradise, they part away with the promise of meeting again and fix what can be fixed when suddenly the story takes us to a scene where “del Mar” receives the notice of Jack’s death in a cold post card with letters that say “deceased”. Everything indicates he has been murdered, he was caught by those who won’t let the “others” happen. And now Ennis del Mar has been left aside from society, with his love eternally longing for Jack and a daughter that will get married soon and who doesn’t know his dad is a loner for a reason; and love won’t count.

By : The Author

Twilight's Kristen Stewart Is Joan Jett

It’s not often I’m right about something, so excuse me while I take a moment of your time to gloat. In my 2005 review of Zathura, I predicted big things from Kristen Stewart in the future. Sweet Jesus do I wish I had been wrong. I’m usually wrong. Why did I have to be right about this one?

Look, it’s not that I hate Kristen Stewart. Obviously back in 2005 I rather liked her. I still like her. She’s pretty and to be honest she wasn’t completely terrible in Twilight. She’s never going to be a Meryl Streep though and unfortunately, the massive, over the top, success of Twilight is causing Hollywood to treat her like she’s already halfway to an Oscar. According to HR Kristen Stewart will play legendary fem-rocker Joan Jett in a rock n’ roll biopic called The Runaways, a movie about Joan’s same-named, all-girl band. No not the Blackhearts. That came later.

Here’s the thing: Joan Jett is hell'a cool. She deserves a goddamn good movie made about her. I want to see that. Unfortunately with Kristen Stewart playing her the best we can hope for is a probably okay movie in which she’s played by a really, really pretty girl. Well ok, at least played by Kristen Joan Jett will look good and I suppose that’s halfway to being a decent rock chick. It just would have been nice to have her played by a really solid, younger actress. Not too young though, someone with at least a few years, some experience, to put behind Joan’s eyes after she’s been living the rock and roll lifestyle for awhile. Give me an Elizabeth Banks or a Rachel McAdams, not 18-year-old, pleasant but not particularly brilliant Kristen Stewart choking out “I Love Rock N’ Roll” in her gravely voice.

Kristen Stewart should follow the career path of Jessica Alba. Do movies which make you look pretty and get you in a bikini. Don’t do anything challenging. Get paired up with Paul Walker or Dane Cook (both of whom tend to make whoever stands next to them seem like a brilliant actor by comparison) and you’ll go far in this world. Or at least give it a few years before you tackle anything important. Who knows, five years from now maybe you’ll be ready for an Oscar. Apparently I’m rooting for you. Right now you’re 18 and best suited for movies in which you withhold sex from vampires.

Alright, I will say this for casting Kristen. She actually looks a little like Joan Jett. Maybe she’ll wow us and nail it. Surprise us fang-banger.

Side note: This will be the second attempt at making a movie about The Runaways. In 1979 Jett was halfway through filming a Runaways movie in which she played herself, before the plug was pulled and she ran off to have a successful solo career and sing “I Love Rock N’ Roll” up the charts.

By : The Author

The Newest Hollywood Movie Trailers Are HERE

Upcoming movie trailers are sometimes as entertaining as the feature movie itself. I find myself spending a large amount of time watching just the trailers. Then I’m satisfied and don’t even need to watch a full featured movie !

Since I love movie trailers I created a new movie trailer site. New movie trailers are added on a regular basis, and the current sampling includes WALL.E, Hitman, Horton Hears A Who, I Am Legend, The Seeker: The Dark is Rising and many more.


www.videodetective.com

Movie trailers are an important part of the cinematic experience. Research shows that movie trailers are the most-watched video material on the Web. Sometimes the movie trailers are better than the actual films.

Consumers who watch online movie trailers are far more likely to turn to the Internet first for information about new movies.

Movie trailers are coming out earlier and earlier these days.

“Walt Disney’s Bolt,” “Narnia 2,” “WALL.E,” and “Rapunzel” are examples as of this date in late March 2008.

WALL.E !

I’m sorry but I can’t wait to see the movie WALL.E. I hope the trailers that I’ve watched are as good as the full movie!

When you’re deciding which movie to watch (either at the theater or DVD store) do you watch movie reviews or movie trailers ? I say watch the movie trailers and although the trailers can sometimes be misleading, you’ll get the just of the movie quickly and if it fits the action, romance or drama you think you want to see then you’re good to go!

Come on, online movie trailers are what broadband was created for, right ?

It’s been real fun building my movie trailer site. One of the biggest challenges is finding a way to display the movies witout getting lost in the navigation or bombard the viewers with ads that interupt the flow of the site. I do believe I’ve found this balance and the popularity of the site is increasing which must mean something is right… I think?

My movie trailers site uses a flash player for all the movies so that you don’t have to think about which player you need to watch the movie with. Most browsers have flash these days so that helps in keeping the members watching the previews they want to see without frustrating them with selections they shouldn’t have to make when trying to get their daily fix of the latest movies coming out.

There’s nothing I dislike more than to be bombarded with ads, then have to select a movie player, install it and then… ummm what was I doing again… oh ya I was checking my email. You see what I mean ?

On the link below you can find a complete list of titles for which we have high quality movie trailers for your viewing pleasure. They Look real good in full screen too so you be the judge.

By : The Author