Logorama was recently nominated for an Oscar this year for Best Animated Short Film. I heard about this movie from article on the Cinematical website. They were saying that it was a must-see, that it was brilliant, I decided to see it. I have to say that the movie is very good watch.

The movie takes place entirely in a stylized town where the buildings, vehicles and landscapes in made of corporate logos. This movie anthropomorphize mascots like the Michelin men into foul-mouthed cops who are chasing after a bad guy that turns out to be Ronald McDonald. Caught in the middle of the action are Bob’s Big Boy and an Esso waitress. There is a stand off between the two factions when a natural disaster happens to put a wrench into each side’s plans.

I was surprised to learn that the creators François Alaux, Herve de Crecy, Ludovic Houplain used over 2,500 logos in the movie. Incorporating the numerous in different ways was very creative and inventive. How could they create this movie without being up in their eyeballs in lawsuits for copyright infringement? I believe that the filmmakers people aware the humans are obsessed with labels, name brands that it has infiltrated our lives like a virus.

You have to watch to see cartoon junk and ass, Mr. Clean as a lispy tour guide, the Pringles guys tries to hit on a girl and interesting way using the X-box, Pepsi, NASA, and Milky Way logos.

Judgment: You could check the movie on YouTube by searching for the title. It’s under fifteen minutes. It’s well worth your time.

Rating: ****1/2

All right, people. This is the moment you have been waiting since the Academy Award nominations were announced recently. The Omies! Yay! Here are the nominees to receive the nonexistent Oscar that they deserve. You have one vote per category. If you have a nominees that is not on list, you could write in your vote. It will count as a vote for that nominee.  Here are the nominees:

The polls will close on March 5th, the winners will be announced on the next day. Happy voting!

 I want to talk about how bad you make this room look.

– Bad Blake

Crazy Heart is the movie that could finally win Jeff Bridges an Academy after four unsuccessful nominations. People think that it’s time for him to get his due. While I do believe that wholeheartedly, I think this is not the Best Actor performance of the year. This is a performance for the Academy to award, which is a shame.

Based on the book by Thomas Cobb, the movie centers around an aging country musician simply named Bad Blake (Bridges) that had been hitting the bottle too many times to write any songs that made him famous in the first time. He is a down and out guy barely living off the money that his manager Jack Greene (Paul Herman) sent that he pissed away on gas for his jalopy, Betsy, drunk groupies, and his vice of choice; whiskey. Out of the spotlight for so long that he is subjected to playing in bowling alleys and dive bars just to have to chance to sing one more time.

When Bad Blake is playing in a dive bar in Santa Fe, a bar manager, Wesley Barnes (Rick Dial) asks him that his niece, Jean Caddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal) could interview him before he performs that night. When Jean shows up at his motel room, Blake is taken with the young woman that wants to get to know the “real” Blake. Jean is weary about Bad Blake’s drinking could be a huge hurdle for their relationship. They begin a love affair inexplicably. What is it about this disheveled 56-year-old mess with greasy hair, permanent sweat stains on his shirt, his pants always unfastened? Is it because of the great song that he wrote that go into his soul? I don’t know.

Blake has a chance to get his name back out there to the modern day audiences if he could be the opening act for a former protégé, Tommy Sweet (Colin Firth). Not having that much money, he decides to do it. After concert, Tommy asks Bad Blake that he could write songs for him for his upcoming album that he is recording. The problem is that Bad Blake hasn’t written a song in over three years. Blake is trying to find some way to his name out of obscurity before he could be another forgotten tragic music legend.

Everybody is comparing this movie to The Wrestler, which is an apt comparison, but this movie feels soulless. Without the performances of Bridges and Gyllenhaal, this film would be nothing but another rags-to-riches story. I thought the first twenty or so of this movie was very good, but when you have the pseudo-family element tacked on in there, the movie falls apart. I was bored. People were groaning that there was more movie when it fades to black before the last sequence.

When I see Jeff Bridges, I kept thinking about “The Dude” that mumbles his lines and the songs. I didn’t understand most of what he is saying. I don’t understand why Bridges is getting the awards lately, except for sympathy.

You have to classic Oscar-bait tropes here, an alcoholic, poor, has a relationship with the only woman onscreen, he pukes, has some sort of breakdown, running around undressed. The Academy shouldn’t be falling for this, but they are. Bridges will get the Oscar, which is unfair.

Before I close out this review, I had one giant question. When he comes back to Houston, he goes to his house. If this guy doesn’t have two nickels to rub together, how could he afford a decent sized house with running water and gas?

Judgment: This is purely a performance only movie. Don’t expect to be entertained by anything except the music.

Rating: **1/2

It’s that time, ladies and gentlemen, to give a special shout-out to the movies or performances that were ignored by the Academy yesterday morning. This is the second installment of the Omie Awards. I want everyone reading this post to send me an email at bdsr80@yahoo.com with your picks of who should have been nominated in the following categories:

Best Picture

Best Director

Best Actor

Best Actress

Best Supporting Actor

Best Supporting Actress

Best Adapted Screenplay

Best Original Screenplay

Best Animated Feature

Best Documentary

Best Foreign Language Film

Best Song

and also the nominee that didn’t deserve a nomination in any of the categories,

The Suck-It! Award

Please, refer this to all of your film blogging friends to participate in this venture. Please, get your picks in by February 9th. I will post the nominees for the Omie on the blog thereafter. Thank you.

The nominees for the 82nd Annual Academy Awards were announced this morning from President Tom Sherak and Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway. There were some surprises among the some old, some old. Take a look at the nominees.

Actor in a Leading Role

• Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
• George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
• Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
• Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role

• Matt Damon in “Invictus”
• Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
• Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
• Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
• Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role

• Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
• Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
• Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
• Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role

• Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
• Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
• Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
• Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
• Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film

• “Coraline” Henry Selick
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
• “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
• “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
• “Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction

• “Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
• “Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
• “Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
• “The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography

• “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
• “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
• “The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
• “Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
• “The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Costume Design

• “Bright Star” Janet Patterson
• “Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
• “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
• “Nine” Colleen Atwood
• “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing

• “Avatar” James Cameron
• “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
• “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
• “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature)

• “Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
• “The Cove” Nominees to be determined
• “Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
• “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
• “Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject)

• “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
• “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
• “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
• “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
• “Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing

• “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
• “District 9” Julian Clarke
• “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
• “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film

• “Ajami” Israel
• “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
• “The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
• “Un Prophète” France
• “The White Ribbon” Germany

Makeup

• “Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
• “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
• “The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score)

• “Avatar” James Horner
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
• “The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
• “Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
• “Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song)

• “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
• “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
• “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
• “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Best Picture

• “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
• “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
• “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
• “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
• “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
• “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
• “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
• “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
• “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Short Film (Animated)

• “French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
• “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
• “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
• “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
• “A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action)

• “The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
• “Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
• “Kavi” Gregg Helvey
• “Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
• “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing

• “Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
• “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
• “Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
• “Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
• “Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing

• “Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
• “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
• “Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
• “Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
• “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects

• “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
• “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
• “Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)

• “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
• “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
• “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
• “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay)

• “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
• “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
• “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
• “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

First of all, I want to say that I do not support the rhetoric that was presented in Loose Change. I think that blaming the government for 9/11 is utterly ridiculous, but I decided to hear the infamous conspiracy theory that will not go away. That there are internal memos amongst government officials to stage fake attacks against the United States. I don’t know credible their “sources” are, bit I am not buying it.

The documentarian Dylan Avery gives faint examples in history of high-ranking officials staging attacks circa the Cuban Missile Crisis, the military manning remote control Boeing jets, the Twin Towers encircled in crosshairs, military jets were pulled from being close to the Pentagon, there were training exercises to crash planes into the Towers and the Pentagons.

There are some phone interviews with different people giving their descending opinions on the motives of the attack. There was an interview with Hunter S. Thompson that was spliced in that talks about his opinion that President Bush had an agenda on that day.

Avery tries to paint a picture that events that had been relayed on the news were inaccurate. Talking about the flight training of one of the hijackers, painting a picture that a missile was fired upon the Pentagon, not a 747 jet. Avery is also saying that the intense heat the planes did not make the buildings collapse, but it was explosive devices implanted in the towers when the planes hit to make the falls quickly.

Okay, let’s say that all of Avery’s fact are correct. Bombing devices were at the Pentagon and the World Trade Centers, why would the government do this to their own people, why the cover it up?

Throwing a bunch of quotes taken out of context will not convert me to the other side of the argument. Where there a bunch of inconsistencies with the news report covering the story? Of course. One station could say one thing; another will say something different. It’s not new.

People were in shock and they convey what they thought they saw or heard. Was it an accurate depiction of what happened? Probably not, because they were under stress. I heard people said it sounded like firecrackers when shots rang out. It doesn’t mean that a prankster lit a couple of firecrackers. I want Mr. Avery to be at the WTC site on that day and tape himself on camera about what he thought he saw.

I have theory of my own. Did Mr. Avery forget to mention about the aborted terrorist on the WTC back in 1993? If it was an inside job that he says, what if an Al Queda agent infiltrated and planted the explosive devices in the buildings? He was so certain that the government was entirely behind the attack that he didn’t explore all the possible explanations? If commercial airplanes were not used on all of the attacks, what happened to the passengers and crew of those American 11, 77, United 175 and 93 planes? Did they simply disappear? Were they killed?

Is this propaganda? Absolutely. Is what Dylan Avery saying could be taken a fact? Not certainly. There is reasonable doubt. Conspiracy theorists almost had me convinced that the moon landing 1969 was no real. They would trick you with their distorted facts, doctored images and misquoting sources. He was even taking his quotes from Wikipedia. Yes, the most credible of sources. You are reaching, sir. You think we created a real version of Wag the Dog or Dr. Strangelove.

Should we ask questions about that day? Yes. Should we get all the answers? No. The public will be in a panic that the government is coming to get them. Some secrets need to be hidden the American people.

Judgment: I don’t agree with the statements presented here.

Rating: **

If there’s something wrong, those who have the ability to take action have the responsibility to take action.

– Ben Gates

National Treasure is a movie that I was intending to see when it came out 2004. I haven’t had to the chance to until now. People were saying that it was a good action/adventure film. I would agree with that.

Descending from a family of treasure hunters, Ben (Nicolas Cage) continues the quest that was told by his grandfather (Christopher Plummer) to find a long lost treasure that were left behind by a secret organization the Free Masons centuries before. His father, Patrick (Jon Voight) tries to dissuade Ben for pursuing the treasure further. The fame and the glory become intoxicating for him.

The story that his grandpa told him years before life with the phrase “the secret lies with Charlotte” brings him to Antarctica with Ben’s sidekick, Riley (Justin Bartha) and his boss, Ian (Sean Bean) to find the Charlotte. They discovered that it is a shipwreck buried under the ice. The team investigates the wreckage to discover a usual pipe hidden inside a barrel of gunpowder. It has a ridden written on it

Ben’s brain deciphers that the invisible map to the ultimate treasure on the back of the Declaration of Independence. Ian wants that document by any means necessary. Ben doesn’t want to steal the Declaration, but Ian has others ideas. He double crosses Ben and leaves him and Riley behind to die there. At the last minute, they escape; their new mission is to stop Ian for getting to the Declaration first.

In Washington DC, the duo tries to warn various government officials about the future theft. They are not hearing it, because they are confident that nothing will happen to the document with it’s high security. The twosome heads over the National Archives where Ben assumes an identity of Paul Brown, because his family has horrible reputation to meet Dr. Abigail Chase (Diane Kruger). Ben tells her about the plan. She doesn’t believe that there is an invisible map on the back of the document.

Ben is tired of getting resistance and sideways glances about the plot. Ben decides to steal the Declaration himself. Riley is uneasy about it. Their plan is steal the document when it is treated in the Preservation Room when the National Archives when they are having their 70th anniversary gala.

That night, Ben has a subtle way in by sneaking in as Paul Brown. His boss, Ian wants to go in guns blazing. Ben gets the document first, which is a chase for Ian to get the document back. When Abigail realizes that Paul Brown was not on the guest list, she confronts him. He blindly gives the Declaration to her and Ian kidnaps her. Ian gets the Declaration. Now, that they have to have a plan to get it back from Ian.

This movie is a cross between Ocean’s Eleven, The DaVinci Code and Night at the Museum. This is a film takes the audience on an adventure, but can also open up the viewer’s mind on history told in a fun way. It was nice to see Nicolas be decent in movie, instead of his schizophrenic acting he does now. I personally did not get the tacked on love story between Ben and Abigail. It was atypical that the leads would hook up. I don’t understand that rationale.

Judgment: A nice, tight action/adventure film for the entire family to enjoy.

Rating: ****

It’s that time again to spew my venom on the dreck that Hollywood shells out to the American public every year. I tried my best to save my money on the excrement, but somehow I am suckered into seeing this shit. I wanted to give a huge middle finger to the films that were a waste of celluloid. In addition, this is my final chance to eviscerate these films for my pleasure.

10. The Proposal – I knew that the premise of this movie preposterous. Come on. A bitchy ice queen wants to forces her shy, but smoking hot assistant to marry so she could not be deported to Canada. Canada? Are you fucking me? What’s wrong with Canada? Pack your parka, toots? To keep up the ruse, they go to Alaska. She is shocked by this. It’s just as cold. The only thing saved this film is seeing Ryan Reynolds buck ass naked and Betty White.

9. Blood: The Last Vampire – When I was doing my “Creep-A-Thon”, I heard about this movie. I thought that the film was from the 70s. I swear that the movie was dubbed. It didn’t seem like an English production. It was so static. The acting was wooden with the broken English. The special effects were blah. Seeing the endless amounts of vampire ooze got on my damn nerves. It wasn’t a horror movie. It was actually a comedy. I laughed how it was absurd this movie was made.

8. Fast & Furious – When I was compiling this list, I completely forgot that I saw this waste of a movie on here until the last minute. I was lukewarm going into this movie, because I wanted to watch something else. It did enjoy first movie that had the “thes”. You bring back the original cast for this soulless fourth installment. You turn a high-intensity film about drag racing into a mediocre revenge CSI movie. Awful. Just plain awful.

7. X-Men Origins: Wolverine – Even after the well-publicized leak of the movie, I can’t believe that this movie still succeeded at the box office. You think that the action was being good. Meh. Live Schreiber’s gallop was atrocious. The story was incoherent filled with glaring plot holes and inconsistencies that go against what Wolverine’s mutant powers are. Can we think about the special effects? What have they been smoking? The only bright side is Hugh Jackman bare ass and Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, not Weapon X.

6. Dragonball: Evolution – This movie was bashed before it was screened. Whitewashing a movie is never a good sign to make it more accessible. I loved the original magna series, “Dragonball Z”. The movie is not horrible, per se. It’s not good. I felt bad for Chow-Yun Fat and Emmy Rossum. The story was uninspired. The CG was laughable. This movie is so bad that it’s good. So, so bad.

5. The Ugly Truth – I cannot believe that people called this a “romantic comedy”. What the fuck have you been drinking? You would want a frigid woman fall in love with a Neanderthal. Who would actually find this movie charming or romantic in any conceivable way? This man, who is essentially a pig, would be the “love coach” for this woman by having this horribly blunt conversation laden with filthy talk. The only highlight is Eric Winter’s ass shot. That’s it.

4. Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li – Having a Street Fighter film that is not about Ken or Ryu is not good. You focus on the “origin story” of Chun-Li that had the step-by-step cliché storyline. It was noting special. The wirework was bad and uncoordinated. Where the fuck did that energy ball come from? You take perfectly fine actors make them into buffoons with Neal McDonaugh and Michael Clarke Duncan. Chris Klein in this movie was beyond the level of suckatude. He was Charlie Nash. Nash out!

&

2. (tie) Obsessed & Year One – This is a rarity that I don’t do that often. I did not see these movies at the theaters, because of the bad buzz that it received. When I tried to watch these films on DVD, I could only get through ten minutes of each movie before turning it off. They were so awful that I couldn’t be bothered to watch it all the way through or even review it on the blog.

1. Paranormal Activity – I don’t know the hype was all about. I saw this movie because I was in the middle of my “Creep-A-Thon”. Seeing the commercials where the audience where jumping out their seats, it kinda had me intrigued. This movie was hyped up so much that I terribly disappointed of how fucking boring the movie is. I didn’t give a flying fuck about this couple, the woman having a demon fellow her. Ooh! If that woman trusted her instincts, she wouldn’t have to deal with that asshole of boyfriend. Nothing happened. They have the inane conservations that drag on. The ending fucking sucked. I can’t believe this made a shitload of money. It boggles the mind. The power of hype at work.

I’m sure that you know that Dylan posted a blog post on the LAMB on Total Film’s list of the  600 Movie Blogs You Might Have Missed. Foolish Blatherings is mentioned here on page three. Scroll down to see it. A few fellow LAMBs are metioned in this article. Also, some blogs that I frequent like Cinebanter, Film Junk and the Film Expierence were mentioned also. Thank you so very much!