I’m back, baby.Hi folks (all three of you), I haven’t updated the blog in three weeks, lots of news to catch up on and this Oscars recap is pretty tardy as it is, so let’s get on with it…the 82nd Academy Awards took place on Mar 7 at Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre, with Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin hosting. This year’s event was notable for having double the usual amount of nominees up for Best Picture – it’s been fifty-six years since the Oscars had ten films in contention. In any case there were few surprises awards-wise, but the event was marked by a couple of oddball moments, with George Clooney (nominated for Best Actor for his role in Up In The Air) looking surprisingly grumpy (or was it a put on?) and Sean Penn making an odd comment (probably in relation to his ex-wife... Similar posts

The Hurt Locker was not a big budget movie - at least not on the scale of Avatar, yet it swept the boards at last night's Oscars. Irish hopes were not completely dashed, as Irish man Richard Baneham was awarded for Visual Effects work on Avatar.... Similar posts

The whole Academy Awards is a fucking joke. If it was in any way based on REAL talent, Gabourey Sidibe would have just won her first Oscar. But no, they gave it to a pretty comedy / rom com actress instead. (I do like Sandra Bullock, but she's not deep enough to win an Oscar for acting.)I am so angry and... Similar posts

Tomorrow, the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony will take place in Hollywood. This annual shindig is a huge marketing tool for the film industry and is a chance for members of the Academy to tell each other how great they all are. In the US, the large number of independent and low-budget films that have been nominated for Best Picture over the last few years has also led to a drop in TV viewers (and advertising revenue). I would argue that a deterioration in the quality of films coming out of Hollywood over the last few years may be the actual reason for this decline in audience numbers. I was shocked that Crash and Slumdog Millionaire were recent Oscar winners for Best Picture because I felt that both of these films were turkies. In an effort to get more people watching, the organisers have... Similar posts

Did Chartier just blow (up) the movie's... Similar posts

This should be put in the "weird" category. According to a story over on TrekMovie.com, JJ Abrams has been made an "honorary Irishman". Gotta love the way Oirish Americans get to give out those kind of titles ..... Similar posts

Oscar night is the night that ‘tinseltown’ lives for.  People from all parts of the movie world come together to pat one another on the back and say “well done”.  This year it will be hosted by both Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin and will take place on March 7th, a date that has been in my diary for some time.  I love the Oscars.  I know it’s just a group of rich people being self-obsessed, but when you love film you just can’t help yourself.  Growing up my sister and I would make out a list, on one side was who we thought would win and on the other, who we thought should win.  We each did this and had a little competition to see who was right.  We’d go to bed really early and then get up in the middle of the night to watch it live.  It was... Similar posts

THE SECRET of Kells has been on a good roll of late. Hell, it’s been on a good roll since the movie premiered last Spring. Of course, nothing says “good roll” than rolling on up to the Oscars as Cartoon Saloon’s The Secret Of Kells has been nominated for Best Animated Feature Film at the 82nd annual Academy Awards. See full list of nominees here. If Glen Hansard can do it, maybe the “luck of the Irish” can rub off as the Tomm Moore directed movie goes up against Corlaine, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess & The Frog and Up (which I loved in the cinema). Congratulations to Tomm, Paul and everyone else at the Saloon who worked on the production, both in Ireland and overseas. It’s great to see another company from Kilkenny making a serious mark... Similar posts

You can't get more populist than one of the biggest films of all time,... Similar posts

Image via WikipediaThis year's Oscars ceremony is only is only a few weeks away (March 7th 2010) and the final nominees are due to be announced on February 2nd.The race for Visual Effects is now down to the last 7 films, which are:"Avatar""District 9""Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince""Star Trek""Terminator Salvation""Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen""2012"Of the 7 only 3 will make it onto the final list!So which ones are going to make it?Related articles by ZemantaStar Trek Is The Most Pirated Film Of The Year (cinemablend.com)Top 10 Box Office Movies of 2009 (blippitt.com)Top Pirated Movies For 2009 & Other Top 10's (screenrant.com)... Similar posts

Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin have been announced as the co-hosts of the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony next March. Okay this is awesome, not quite the rumoured Neil Patrick Harris presenting the Oscars level of awesome, but awesome nonetheless. Both Baldwin and Martin, who co-incidentally are vying with each other for the Saturday Night Live guest hosting record, are extremely funny guys. Baldwin’s portrayal of Jack Donaghy in 30 Rock is one of the funniest things on TV. The Oscar producers, Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman are pretty damn happy with their selection too. “We think the team of Steve and Alec are the perfect pair of hosts for the Oscars,” said Shankman and Mechanic. “Steve will bring the experience of having hosted the show in the past and Alec will... Similar posts

There are very few female movie stars who are known by their first names; Meryl, Angelina, Jodie, Julia and Charlize are just a few. All but one of these ladies are also considered box-office gold, guaranteed bums-on-seats no matter what the film. Charlize is on her way though, and she’s doing it the hard way - in spite of, not because of, her looks. Charlize grew up on a farm outside Benoni, close to Jo’burg in South Africa, an only child in a less-than-happy household. Her father was a successful business man who was doing his best to drink away his business. Her mother, however, was, and still is, made of strong stuff. She raised her daughter to be strong and proud. My mother was an incredible example to me. I can’t imagine going through life without her. I think she... Similar posts

Al Pacino as Michael (Michele) Corleone, The Godfather (1972)Coppola's masterpiece, The Godfather, is probably one of the most influential films ever made, but most of us are too young to have been able to see it on the big screen. The closest most of us have come to seeing it on a big screen would be on some large flatscreen TV! Tomorrow the film will be shown in Cineworld, Dublin. If I could I'd head up to Dublin just to see it!... Similar posts

I read an interesting article over at The LA Times which suggested that we may be able to spot how radically the new voting rules have changed the way that the Academy awards people and... Similar posts

It's summer time! That means blockbusters, comic book movies! It's comic con time! That means more blockbuster and more comic book movie gossip! It seems that everything from the Tron viral campaign to the impending release of the Alice in Wonderland teaser is generating a lot of buzz. And quite right, too. We do live in the era of the geek. However, once we get into autumn proper, there are more prestigious films approaching. Looks like the studios are sticking to the tried-and-true "cram as many Oscar contenders as you can into the least amount of time" method, and there's a huge schlock of films coming out. Here are just some of the main ones I'm looking forward to during awards... Similar posts

I've finally gottent to see all the five Best Picture nominees for the 81st Academy Awards. I'm hoenstly disappointed it took me so long, but that's what happens when a flood of prestige movies hit the cinemas over three weeks in January and the Academy doesn't even pick the good ones. I'm honestly not sure how I feel about the contenders, in retrospect. The previous year's awards featured a fantastic line-up - Juno, No Country for Old Men, Atonement, Michael Clayton, There Will Be Blood - that hit just about every demographic and represented the awards at their best. This year, we got a closed... Similar posts

Wow. The Academy might actually be serious about changing things. I was indifferent about the expansion of the Best Picture category, and a bit miffed about the demotion of the Honorary Awards to an event outside the regular show, but today's list of new members of the Academy gives me a little cause for hope. These are the people who will vote on the nominees in coming years and I'm actually surprised: I recognise most of the names. Don't get me wrong, these are only 134 new members in an organisation of 5000. This announcement by itself won't move the Oscars back to the centre of popular culture where they belong, but - if the Academy can stick to its guns on this one - it may prove a better way of incorporating mainstream tastes than simply doubling the size of the Academy's... Similar posts

I'm going to give the expansion of the Best Picture category the benefit of the doubt and I don't really care about the Original Song rules, to be completely honest, but I am a little ticked off at the announcement that the Honorary Oscars are being shunted back stage. Talk about completely missing the point - the Academy doesn't seem to get that most viewers aren't clamoring for that extra High School Musical song so badly that they're shunt off someone who has made such a massive contribution to popular culture as to warrant the Honorary Award. I just don't get this... Similar posts