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"The only reason people get lost in thought is because it's unfamiliar territory."

News on March 18th

Another super special awesome edition of Xavier University News. I could not do a movie review this week, but the show is still awesome without it. Enjoy!

The Hangover Part 2 - HD Trailer 2 (OFFICIAL)

One of the biggest sleeper hits in recent memory is The Hangover. I saw this at a free screening about three weeks before it opened, and I thought this was going to be so bad. However, the screening was free so I went anyway. To my surprise, I absolutely loved this film. It was one of the few films that had me laughing throughout the whole picture. It was a flat out hilarious comedy and I felt that I was going to die of laughter*. I had to leave the theater a couple times just to compose myself before I went back inside. It is the first movie that I have seen at the theater more than two times. Granted that these were all free screenings, but I would had still paid to see this film.

The film was a huge hit as it grossed $467 million worldwide. The production budget was only $35 million, so naturally the suits at Warner Bros wanted a sequel and they got one. I knew there would be a sequel to this film even though the story was complete in the first one. I was curious on what they were going to do for the sequel.

The Hangover Part II stars the four main leads from the original, Phil (Bradley Cooper), Alan (Zach Galifiankis), Doug (Justin Bartha), and Stu (Ed Helms) as they travel to Bangkok for Stu's wedding. After their little escapade in Las Vegas, Stu wants a safe, subdued pre-wedding brunch. However, things do not go as planned after they lose the younger brother of Stu's fiancée (Jamie Chung).

So this seems like a retread of the first film, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The trailer looks hilarious and features more of the same gags as the first film. Even Mike Tyson is scheduled to reprise his role as himself from the first film. In addition, Ken Jeong and Jeffrey Tambor are returning from the first film. Plus Paul Giamatti and Liam "Badass" Neeson have roles in the film. I am a little disappointed that Heather Graham is not returning, but Jamie Chung is an excellent substitute.

Some people say the original Hangover was overrated, but that is such a cliche argument. When there are films that have enormous success there will always be people saying that it was such an overrated film. It may be a retread of the first film, but as long as I laugh it is worth the money. The Hangover Part II comes out on May 26, which is part of Memorial Day weekend.

* People have actually died of laughing before. Look it up.

Super 8 Theatrical Trailer

Here's the new trailer for Super 8, the new movie from J.J. Abrams (Mission Impossible 3, Star Trek, Lost). At first the movie looked like it was going to be a sequel to Cloverfield, but thank you Jesus that it is not. The film is set back in 1979, where six children are using their Super 8 Camera to make a zombie movie. One night while filming they see a truck collide with an oncoming train leading to a catastrophic derailment. However, within the destruction, something inhuman emerges.

Steven Spielberg is a producer on this film so it should be interesting to see Abarams and Spielberg work together. The film sort of reminds of a re-imaging of Spielberg's E.T. Think about it. Super 8 has an alien, boys on bikes, conspiracy in town, cops, and Spielberg. Of course it seems like this alien is more ruthless and murderous. Anyway it's coming out on June 10 in conventional and IMAX theaters.

The Oscar Reactions

Well, it wasn't the worst Oscar show. Seriously though the Academy Awards ceremony was very subpar this year. Before I get to that let me tell you about my predictions.

The awards were predictable, but there were a few surprises. Colin Firth, Christian Bale, Natalie Portman, and Melissa Leo won in their categories. This is not a big surprise considering all of the other awards these four got before the Oscars. Colin Firth and Natalie Portman were definite locks. In supporting Actor category, Christian Bale was going to win, but there was the possibility of The King's Speech winning in this category. However, this did not happen and it's for the best. Christian Bale was so marvelous in The Fighter that it would have been a crime if he didn't win.

In the Best Supporting Actress category Melissa Leo took home the statuette. In her speech she dropped the F-bomb, which was one of the highlights of the evening. I was actually hoping that Hailee Steinfeld would take home the award, as she was the best thing about True Grit. She really knocked the role out of the park. Still, this is her debut performance and the Academy tend not to give out Oscars to first time actors/actresses. Steinfeld is a talented actress and she will be back. It's only a matter of time.

I knew The King's Speech was going to win Best Picture. I didn't think it was the best film of the year, but the Academy goes nuts over period pieces. Once you combine that with a historical figure trying to overcome a great obstacle and we have Oscar gold. IMHO, The Social Network was the best film of the year. It's a landmark film that defines a generation and talks about how a simple social networking site can lead to shattered bonds, excessive greed, and loneliness. It's a 21st century version of Citizen Kane. It was robbed of the award and I think it will be remembered more in the long run than King's Speech. For example there are great films like Raging Bull, Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, The Shawshank Redemption, Pulp Fiction, and Citizen Kane that never won Oscars, but are still remembered after decades. I believe The Social Network is going to be one of those films.

I also felt sour that David Fincher didn't win Best Director for The Social Network. Instead Tom Hooper won for The King's Speech. I was hoping that Fincher, the veteran director, would take home for the prize. Fincher has done some amazing work (Fight Club, Se7en, Benjamin Button) and I'm sure that his work will be rewarded one day.

Toy Story 3 won Best Animated Feature, which shouldn't surprise anyone. It was the best animated film of the year despite being the weakest in the Toy Story trilogy. It was a great year for animation though. How to Train Your Dragon, Tangled, and Despicable Me exceeded my expectations. It's a shame the latter two did not receive Oscar nominations.

The screenplay categories were very easy to predict. The Social Network won Best Adapted Screenplay and The King's Speech won Best Original Screenplay. I was hoping that Inception might snag Best Original Screenplay since it did win the WGA award, but the script for The King's Speech wasn't eligible for the award. That's the only way Nolan won the WGA. Unfortunately that didn't translate into Oscar gold.

As far all the other categories go, it was hit-or-miss. I never saw Alice in Wonderland, but from what I heard it was an awful piece of !@#$. However, people did say the visuals and costumes were fantastic. So I figured it would win Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design, and it did! Best Cinematography went to Inception, which shocked me as I thought True Grit would get it. At first I thought Inception would get it, but a lot of Oscar prediction articles said that True Grit would get it. Even Roger Ebert said True Grit was his pick so I changed my decision and went with it. Plus the cinematographer for True Grit was Roger Deakins, who has worked with the Coen Bros on almost all of their films. He has been nominated eight times without a win, so maybe next time.

Inception was in line of my other predictions as it won for Visual Effects, Sound Editing, and Sound Mixing. The Social Network won Best Score and Best Editing, Toy Story 3 also for won Best Song, and The Wolfman won for Best Makeup. Yes that's right, The Wolfman. If a terrible film like that can win an Academy Award then maybe it is time to abandon this category. Still, I have to give props to Rick Baker as this is his seventh win for Best Makeup.

Inside Job won Best Documentary Feature and In a Better World Won Best Foreign Feature. The Best Foreign Feature always throws me off because it is so random. It is one of the hardest ones to predict. First of all, countries can only submit one film to the Academy and sometimes a country doesn't even send a film. For example, I thought The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo would have been a lock for Best Foreign film, but Sweden didn't even submit it. Second, it is hard to predict because the majority of voters probably haven't seen all of the nominated films, so it's like blind voting. This year In a Better World won, but I was hoping that Incendies would be a potential upset.

Best Short Film went to God of Love, Best Animated Short went to The Lost Thing, and Best Documentary Short went to Strangers No More. I got both of those wrong, but there was no way to find these shorts so I just had to pick one and hope for the best.

Well I got 16 out of 24, which is better than last year. However, I was hoping to reach for at least 20 correct.

As far as the overall show goes it wasn't as horrible people said it was, but it was still pretty bad. James Franco and Anne Hathaway were chosen as the hosts for this show. I'm pretty sure they were the youngest actors/actresses to host show. This was done to bring in the younger demographic, but it failed miserably. The pre-taped skits shown at the beginning of the Awards looked decent, but then it collapsed after that. James Franco seemed spaced out and acted like he didn't want to be there. IMO, I thought he smoked that Pineapple Express before the show to relax. Anne Hathaway had plenty of energy, but it felt like she was trying to hard. However, she was carrying Franco on her back the whole time so she had to put in double the effort. It was a forgettable awards shows with only a few semi-big surprises, but at least there were some good movies nominated. Well, until next year.

P.S. Sorry that this post is way late. I wrote it the day after the Oscars and completely forgot about it until today. I think that proves how the forgettable this year's Oscars truly were.

The Ocsar Predictions Wrap Up

Okay, I swear that this is the last Oscar prediction post. I just wanted put down my final thoughts about who will win, who could win, and the nominees that snubbed i.e. Andrew Garfield, Chris Nolan, The Town. So here they are:

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Dark Horse: The Social Network

Should Have Been Nominated: The Town

Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Dark Horse: James Franco (127 Hours)

Should Have Been Nominated: Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Dark Horse: Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Should Have Been Nominated: Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)

Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Dark Horse: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)

Should Have Been Nominated: Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right)

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Dark Horse: Hailee Steinfeld or Helena Bonham Carter

Should Have Been Nominated: Mila Kunis

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Dark Horse: None

Who Should Have Been Nominated: Despicable Me or Tangled

Best Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland

Best Cinematography: True Grit

Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland

Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)

Dark Horse: Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Should Have Been Nominated: Christopher Nolan (Inception)

Best Documentary Feature: Inside Job

Dark Horse: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Best Documentary Short Subject: Killing in the Name

Best Film Editing: The Social Network

Best Foriegn Language Film: In a Better World

Dark Horse: Incendies

Should Have Been Nominated: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

- Technically Sweden didn't send Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to the Academy for competition, which is a shame. The film could have really stood a chance in this category, and possibly could have gotten nominations in other categories.

Best Makeup: The Wolfman

Best Original Score: The Social Network

Dark Horse: Inception

Should Have Been Nominated: Tron Legacy

Best Orginal Song: "We Belong Together" (Toy Story 3)

Best Short Film (Animated): Day and Night

Best Short Film (Live Action): Na Wewe

Best Sound Editing: Inception

Best Sound Mixing: Inception

Best Visual Effects: Inception

Dark Horse: None

Should Have Been Nominated: Tron Legacy

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network

Dark Horse: Toy Story 3

Should Have Been Nominated: The Town

Best Original Screenplay: The King's Speech

Dark Horse: Inception

Should Have Been Nominated: Black Swan

The Oscars Are Here!!! (Part III)

Finally we reach Best Picture, which is the most prestigious award of the night. This is the second year that the Academy has expanded Best Picture nominees to ten. I’m still split on this issue because now films that have snubbed by voters all these year can finally get some attention. For example nominees like Toy Story 3 and Inception would have never been nominated for Best Picture if this change hadn’t happened. However, it still doesn’t really mean anything in the end. There are always going a few films that truly have a shot at winning the big prize.

The films that absolutely have no chance in winning are The Kids Are All Right, Winter’s Bone, 127 Hours, Inception, and Toy Story 3. The Kids Are All Right is a comedy that has solid action and heart. It has a good mix of drama and comedy, but I do not think this is Oscar worthy at all. I really didn’t see what all the hype was about. Comedies rarely win at the Oscars and this wouldn’t be the comedy to win the award.

Winter’s Bone was the surprise nomination for Best Picture. It’s a well done independent drama film that won the top award at the Sundance Film Festival. It even got nominations for acting and writing. However, some voters thought The Town should have been nominated in place of this. That may put some voters off.

127 Hours seemed like excellent fodder for the academy. It’s a biopic about a rock climber who overcomes the odds to survive after his arm gets crushed in between a boulder. James Franco’s performance elevated this film and managed to get the best reviews of his career. So what went wrong here? It certainly wasn’t the reviews as they are at 93% positive on RT. The film’s director, Danny Boyle, did not get a directing nomination so this film. That is vital for a film to win, so 127 Hours is out of the picture.

Inception is a big summer blockbuster that actually engages the audience instead of throwing non stop explosions in your face. Along with great writing and directing from Christopher Nolan, it was one of the smartest blockbusters in a while. Unfortunately, this film did not get a directing or editing nomination, which really hurt its chances. Despite all of the support from the Christopher Nolan fanboys, the voters still don’t think this is an Oscar worthy film.

Some people have already stated that Toy Story 3 is the greatest animated movie of all time. That’s a really bold statement as it was great, but it wouldn’t even crack my top 10 list of the greatest animated films. It is still the best animated film of the year though. However, if this was the year for an animated film to win this wouldn’t be it. I thought Wall-E and Up were more deserving of the big prize. Plus it’s a sequel and the Academy rarely gives sequels Best Picture. Plus it has its own category, which is Best Animated Feature.

Black Swan was a powerful and beautiful film. The movie is anchored by Natalie Portman’s marvelous performance. The director of the film Darren Aronofsky has made an intense, passionate psychological thriller. The problem with the film is that the film may be too obscure for many voters and that alienates them from voting best Picture.

True Grit has been an amazing success as it is one of highest grossing westerns of all time and it gained ten nominations. Plus it was directed by The Coen brothers, who are worshiped by Academy voters. Plus the Coens didn’t do a conventional remake. They went based the remake more like the original book, which made the film grittier and edgy. Plus there are outstanding performances by Jeff Bridges and newcomer, Hailee Steinfeld. This seems like a best Picture winner to me. However, remakes are rarely rewarded and it was great, but is it really Oscar worthy? Plus the Coen Brothers already won best Picture for No Country for Old Men, which was no less than four years ago.

The Fighter is packed with powerful performances and it has plenty of heart. It’s predictable, but it could pull a surprise win just like Rocky did back in 1979. However, the film’s just not as good as the last two nominees and it has already peaked.

At this point the real competition is between The King’s Speech and The Social Network. For a long time it seemed like The Social Network would sweep the awards. It earned outstanding reviews for David Fincer’s flawless directing, Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant screenplay, and excellent performances from Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield. It’s a film that defines a generation and a film that has high replay value. It’s a modern classic and some call it a 21^st century version of Citizen Kane. It swept so many critics awards and won the Golden Globe award for best Picture. However, something happened along the way and it stopped the momentum of the film. Despite coming out in October the film peaked by the end of the year. To add insult to injury it lost the DGA, PGA, and BAFTA to The King’s Speech.

The King’s Speech didn’t come out until December, but it gained momentum very quickly. The film has everything that the Academy loves. It’s a period piece dealing with historical figures. In the film King George, played by Colin Firth, has to overcome a debilitating stutter. Critics have called this Firth’s best performance along with other good performances by Helena Bonham carter and Geoffrey Rush. In addition, to all of that it robbed the social Network of the DGA, PGA, and BAFTA awards. Even the SAG got onboard. Once again, The Weinstein brothers have worked there magic with an effective ad campaign and excellent word of mouth. The only thing that can stop this film is The Social Network. There is also the slim chance of the King’s Speech and Social Network splitting votes, and The Fighter or True Grit could emerge as a dark horses. Nevertheless, this is highly unlikely. The Social Network was my favorite film of the year, but The King’s Speech pretty much has this wrapped up.

Well, that’s about it moviegoers. It has been a decent awards season, but not the greatest one. I still pulling for The Social Network to win the big one. The 83^rd Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday February 27^th on ABC.