The 82nd annual Academy Award nominations were announced this morning. This is the first year that the Best Picture category has been expanded to ten films. Here is a list of the major category nominees.

For a complete list of all nominees, visit the official site of the Oscars. The Awards take place on Sunday, March 7 at 8/5P on ABC.

Best Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz, Nine
Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhal, Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
Mo’nique, Precious

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Damon, Invictus
Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress
Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
Helen Mirren, The Last Station
Carey Mulligan, An Education
Gabourey Sidibie, Precious
Meryl Streep, Julie and Julia

Continue Reading →

Overall, it was a pretty quiet weekend at the box office for Hollywood. Invictus and The Princess and the Frog were new releases vying for the top spot, and Disney’s Princess easily won. Princess made about $25 Million on 3400+ screens.  This is good news for fans of hand drawn animation, as this is the first time Disney returned to the method since 2004, when Home on the Range was released.

It’s been all computer generated ever since. I haven’t seen Princess, but people I’ve talked to really liked the look of the movie, and said it looked like the older Disney movies. The Blind Side also continues to impress, and came in at number two with $15.4 Million.

In its fourth week of release, it only dropped 22% from last week. It now has a domestic gross of over $150 Million. With a budget of around $30M, this movie is shaping up to be one of the biggest hits this year.

Invictus made a paltry $9 Million over the weekend. Considering the star power (Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman) and the director (Clint Eastwood), I think everyone expected this movie to perform better. Critical and audience feedback has been positive, so perhaps it will pick up a bit.

The Twilight Saga: New Moon placed fourth, with about $8 Million, bringing its domestic total to over $267 Million. In fifth place, A Christmas Carol only dropped 11% from last weekend, and made about $6.8 Milion. Now in its sixth week of release, the movie continues to perform , but it has not yet recouped its budget of $200 Million.

Holdovers Brothers, 2012, Old Dogs, Armored, and Ninja Assasin rounded out the top ten. Outside of the top ten, Up In The Air also did very well, making $2.4 Million on only 72 screens for an average of $34,000 per screen. The film will roll out more theaters next weekend.

Clint Eastwood follows up his racially charged Gran Torrino (2008)  with a movie that is based on historical events that occurred shortly after Nelson Mandela became the president of South Africa in 1994.  Post apartheid South Africa was still deeply racially divided and Mandela had the idea that getting the entire country behind their Rugby team  (The Springboks) would help unify it.

Problem is, for a movie that is supposed to be an inspiring story about an underdog sports team that overcomes enormous obstacles to win the World Cup, the movie feels very….uninspired.  I can’t really point to anything that is inherently wrong with the film, but I never felt emotionally invested in the team, and that makes for one long, dull movie.

The acting in the movie is quite good. A buffed up, blond Matt Damon plays the captain of the rugby team, Francois Pienaar.  He’s honorable and likable, and when he is summoned by Mandela to have tea, he shows the proper respect toward the man.

His light skin and light hair represent the white minority (Afrikaners) that has held most of the power in South Africa. Damon aptly handles the South African accent and seems well suited to the role.

Continue Reading →

According to THR’s Heat Vision Blog, John C. Reilly and Mary-Louise Parker are now in negotiations to join the cast of Red, Summit Entertainment’s adaptation of the Wildstorm/DC Comics miniseries written by Jon and Erich Hoeber and being directed by Robert Schwentke. If they do end up signing up for the film, they will join a cast that already includes Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman and Helen Mirren.

Originally published in 2003 and 2004, Red was co-created by writer Warren Ellis and artist Cully Hammer. It centers on a former black-ops agent Paul Moses (Bruce Willis), now in retirement, who has to contend with younger, more high-tech assassins who want to kill him and keep his former exploits from going public. Naturally, the first hit squad fails and alerts Moses that he’s being targeted. So, he goes on the offensive in order to stay alive.

If cast, Reilly would play a retired CIA agent who is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. Parker would play Willis’ character’ love interest, a federal pension worker who becomes embroiled in the Willis character’s struggle to stay alive. Red is expected to begin filming in January in Toronto with an projected release later in 2010.

Late yesterday, Warner Bros. released the first trailer for Clint Eastwood’s next Oscar contender, Invictus. In case you’re not familiar, it tells the true story of Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) who joins forces with Francois Pienaar (Matt Damon), the captain of South Africa’s rugby team, to help unite their country.

At the time of his election, Mandela knows his nation remains divided racially and economically after the end of apartheid. He hopes to bring his people together by rallying them behind their rugby team as they make a longshot attempt to win the 1995 World Cup match.

You really can’t go wrong having Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon in your film and this one looks very interesting to me. Being a big fan of Eastwood as both actor and director, I’m sure I’ll see this when it comes out. Until then, we can be entertained by this new trailer, which you can watch courtesy of Apple after the jump, or at Apple’s website in HD.

Continue Reading →

Here’s a list of some of the new movie and TV shows coming to DVD and Blu-ray this week that we’re looking forward to seeing. Also, there’s some classic and not-so-classic movies hitting Blu-ray for the first time this week as well.

Of all the new releases, we’re particularly interested in the Blu-ray versions of movies like Braveheart, Gladiator and M*A*S*H as well as the latest season of Heroes — season 3 if you’re wondering — also on Blu-ray.

Check them out.

Movies

Braveheart ~ Mel Gibson (Blu-ray)

Bring it On: Fight to the Finish ~ Christina Milian, David Starzyk, Nicki SooHoo, and Gabrielle Dennis (DVD)

The Girl Next Door (Unrated Edition) ~ Emile Hirsch, Elisha Cuthbert, Timothy Olyphant (Blu-ray)

Gladiator ~ Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, Connie Nielsen, and Oliver Reed (Blu-ray)

Continue Reading →

Here’s a list of new movies and tv shows coming out on DVD today. Plus, some old favorites coming out on Blu-Ray.

New Movies:

* Confessions of a Shopaholic – Isla Fisher, Leslie Bibb, and Hugh Dancy (DVD and Blu-Ray)

* Inkheart – Brendan Fraser, Paul Bettany, Helen Mirren, and Jim Broadbent (DVD and Blu-Ray)

* Pink Panther 2 – Steve Martin, Jeremy Irons, Alfred Molina, Jean Reno, and John Cleese (DVD and Blu-Ray)

* Waltz With Bashir – Ari Folman, Ron Ben-Yishai, Ronny Dayag, and Dror Harazi

* Dragon Hunters – Forest Whitaker (Blu-Ray)

* The Code – Morgan Freeman, Antonio Banderas, and Radha Mitchell (DVD and Blu-Ray)

* Bob Funk – Rachael Leigh Cook, Amy Ryan, Grace Zabriskie, and Eddie Jemison (DVD)

* Phoebe in Wonderland – Elle Fanning, Patricia Clarkson, Felicity Huffman, and Bill Pullman (DVD)

Classic Movies:

* My Dinner with Andre (Criterion Collection) – Andre Gregory, Jean Lenauer, Wallace Shawn, and Roy Butler

* The Pianist – Adrien Brody, Frank Finlay, Thomas Kretschmann, and Maureen Lipman (Blu-Ray)

Continue Reading →