Predictions: 2013 Academy Awards

Another award’s season is coming to a close and that means the Academy Awards on upon us.  With that in mind, it is time for me annual practice in prognostication.  This year I have brought on a panel of experts to help figure out who will take home the big prize.  Without further ado, here’s how we see things shaking out for the 85^th Academy Awards:

Best Picture	Argo
Best Director	Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
Best Actor	Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress	Emmanuelle Riva
Best Supporting Actor	Alan Arkin
Best Supporting Actress	Amy Adams
Best Animated Feature	Brave
Best Foreign Film	Kon-Tiki
Best Original Screenplay	Quentin Tarantino - Django Unchained
Best Adapted Screenplay	Chris Terrio - Argo
Best Costume Design	Les Miserables
Best Original Song	Suddenly from Les Miserables
Best Original Score	Life of Pi
Best Documentary	5 Broken Cameras
Best Documentary (Short)	Open Heart
Best Makeup & Hairstyling	Les Miserables
Best Production Design	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Best Film Editing	Argo
Best Cinematography	Lincoln
Best Sound Editing	Life of Pi
Best Sound Mixing	Life of Pi
Best Visual Effects	Marvel's The Avengers
Best Short Film (Animated)	Adam and Dog
Best Short Film (Live Action)	Curfew

Best Picture	Argo
Best Director	David O. Russell - Silver Linings Playbook
Best Actor	Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress	Jennifer Lawrence
Best Supporting Actor	Alan Arkin
Best Supporting Actress	Amy Adams
Best Animated Feature	Brave
Best Foreign Film	Amour (Austria)
Best Original Screenplay	Michael Hanenke - Amour
Best Adapted Screenplay	Chris Terrio - Argo
Best Costume Design	Les Miserables
Best Original Song	"Skyfall" from Skyfall
Best Original Score	Anna Karenina
Best Documentary	The Gatekeepers
Best Documentary (Short)	Open Heart
Best Makeup & Hairstyling	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Best Production Design	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Best Film Editing	Zero Dark Thirty
Best Cinematography	Lincoln
Best Sound Editing	Django Unchained
Best Sound Mixing	Les Miserables
Best Visual Effects	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Best Short Film (Animated)	Paperman
Best Short Film (Live Action)	Curfew

Best Picture	Lincoln
Best Director	Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
Best Actor	Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress	Jennifer Lawrence
Best Supporting Actor	Phillip Seymour Hoffman
Best Supporting Actress	Sally Field
Best Animated Feature	Brave
Best Foreign Film	Amour (Austria)
Best Original Screenplay	Mark Boal - Zero Dark Thirty
Best Adapted Screenplay	Tony Kushner - Lincoln
Best Costume Design	Lincoln
Best Original Song	Suddenly from Les Miserables
Best Original Score	Life of Pi
Best Documentary	The Invisible War
Best Documentary (Short)	Mondays at Racine
Best Makeup & Hairstyling	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Best Production Design	Life of Pi
Best Film Editing	Zero Dark Thirty
Best Cinematography	Lincoln
Best Sound Editing	Argo
Best Sound Mixing	Argo
Best Visual Effects	Life of Pi
Best Short Film (Animated)	Paperman
Best Short Film (Live Action)	Death of a Shadow

Best Picture	Lincoln
Best Director	Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
Best Actor	Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress	Jessica Chastain
Best Supporting Actor	Alan Arkin
Best Supporting Actress	Sally Field
Best Animated Feature	Brave
Best Foreign Film	Amour
Best Original Screenplay	Wes Anderson - Moonrise Kingdom
Best Adapted Screenplay	Chris Terrio - Argo
Best Costume Design	Les Miserables
Best Original Song	Suddenly from Les Miserables
Best Original Score	Anna Karenina
Best Documentary	Searching for Sugar Man
Best Documentary (Short)	Redemption
Best Makeup & Hairstyling	The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
Best Production Design	Les Miserables
Best Film Editing	Zero Dark Thirty
Best Cinematography	Life of Pi
Best Sound Editing	Skyfall
Best Sound Mixing	Skyfall
Best Visual Effects	Life of Pi
Best Short Film (Animated)	Maggie Simpson in the Longest Day Care
Best Short Film (Live Action)	Asad

Best Picture	Argo
Best Director	Steven Spielberg - Lincoln
Best Actor	Daniel Day-Lewis
Best Actress	Jennifer Lawrence
Best Supporting Actor	Tommy Lee Jones
Best Supporting Actress	Anne Hathaway
Best Animated Feature	Brave
Best Foreign Film	Amour (Austria)
Best Original Screenplay	Michael Hanenke - Amour
Best Adapted Screenplay	Tony Kushner - Lincoln
Best Costume Design	Anna Karenina
Best Original Song	"Skyfall" from Skyfall
Best Original Score	Life of Pi
Best Documentary	The Gatekeepers
Best Documentary (Short)	Mondays at Racine
Best Makeup & Hairstyling	Les Miserables
Best Production Design	Lincoln
Best Film Editing	Lincoln
Best Cinematography	Life of Pi
Best Sound Editing	Argo
Best Sound Mixing	Lincoln
Best Visual Effects	Life of Pi
Best Short Film (Animated)	Adam and Dog
Best Short Film (Live Action)	Death of a Shadow

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Review: Cloud Atlas

It’s time to pull the plug on Andy and Lana (formerly Larry) Wachowski.  Fourteen years ago they put together a cleverly written and directed mega hit known to all as The Matrix. Since then, their careers have been on a steady descent into ineptitude.  How so?  They greatly devalued their one claim to fame with two disastrous sequels (Matrix Reloaded, and Matrix Revolutions); milked said franchise for every single penny with mediocre video games and other licensing ventures; and they turned a cult classic of a cartoon in Speed Racer into a cinematic assault on the senses.  The latter led to a four-year hiatus from the film game that officially came to an end with the release of Cloud Atlas.

Typically this is the point in the review where I give a synopsis of the plot, but with Cloud Atlas that is really difficult to do.  This difficulty is born from the film’s unbalanced detailing of a handful of plots ranging from the distant past to the distant future, all edited with neither rhyme nor reason and presented with no sense of order or sensibility.  This renders viewers disoriented and completely disconnected from the film and its characters, which is incredibly ironic because the movie fancies itself a highbrow attempt at showing how all life is interconnected, when in fact the film’s many plots are anything but that.

In the line of things that went horribly wrong with this film, first and foremost would be the aforementioned odd choices in editing.  However, right on its heels would have to be the casting and acting choices.  It is a slippery slope to ask one actor to play multiple roles in a film.  I am hard pressed to name two or three times where it has worked and can rattle off movies ad nauseum in which it didn’t (Norbit, The Nutty Professor, Jack and Jill, Last Action Hero, et al).  Besides the fact that none of those movies are in anyone’s pantheon of greats, another thing they have in common is that they all aspire to be somewhat comedic.  Why?  Because the same actor in multiple roles feels gimmicky and is distracting, hence it works best as a sight gag. 

In Cloud Atlas, not just one actor takes on multiple roles, but nearly the whole cast of principles including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, and Hugh Grant.  Let me not mince words here when I tell you that it just flat out does not work.  Forget that the costume changes border on the ridiculous, that the makeup jobs appear absolutely amateurish, and that for the duration of the film you will find yourself constantly struggling to discern the who, what, when, where, and why of any given moment, the fact of the matter is that none in the cast are up to the task of taking on this endeavor.  Never is this more glaring than with Tom Hanks.  This is a guy with some serious hardware in his trophy cabinet and he is made to look like an absolute fool in this flick.  The asinine appearances, over the top accents, and rudimentary logic render the cast inept and completely tear this film down. That I made it to the end of the movie is simply the result of disbelief - disbelief that the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer could a film together of this nature.  In my mind there had to be an “ah” moment at the end that would bring every all together.  But sadly that never happens. 

Even now in thinking about this film, I can’t tell you for sure if I watched five, six, or seven storyline in this movie, but I can tell you for sure that each one of them was bad.  I have heard the words ambitious, genius, and intelligent attached to this movie by the people who will spend forty minutes detailing the difference between a movie and a film, but that’s merely the “nothing musings” of a societal blowhard.  Cloud Atlas is essentially the cinematic equivalent of a bronze rendering of dog poop sitting on a pedestal in an art gallery.  And because someone somewhere calls it is art, people stand there and ponder it, all the while thinking that it is nothing more than dog poop.  That’s Cloud Atlas – dog poop.  Don’t see it.  Don’t rent it.  In fact, never watch another movie made by the Wachowskis again and hopefully their brand of pseudo intellectual cinema will just go away once and for all.

Standout Performance: If there was anyone who acquitted himself of the nonsense surrounding the entire production it would have to be Ben Whishaw who did a nice job as aspiring composer Robert Frobisher.

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Review: Alex Cross

Here comes the understatement of the year.  Tyler Perry is NO Morgan Freeman.  I know.  You’re shocked and chagrined to hear this (sarcasm intended), but really, that’s the one thought that kept bouncing around inside my head the entire time I watched Alex Cross.  Sure, the script does Perry no favors, but his appearance in this film as the protagonist (Police Det. Alex Cross PhD) is a case of gross miscasting of epic proportions – the likes of which we have not seen since Tim Burton tried to cast Nic Cage as Superman some fifteen years ago.

But I digress.  Alex Cross, the character, is from the pages of a series of novels penned by author James Patterson.  In these literary works, Cross is an athletic heroic figure with a doctorate in Psychology and an incredible acumen for detection that borders on genius.  Before this film, this character had been brought to life twice on the big screen by Morgan Freeman in “Kiss the Girls” and “Along Came a Spider.”  And while those films were not remarkable, Freeman delivered layered performances that captured Cross’ aura of superior intellect and keen detection skills. 

In this film, Perry is charged with building upon Freeman’s performance while adding a bit more physicality to the role as he jousts with a professional assassin, hired to eliminate some of the corporate elite taking up residence in Detroit.  Aided by his Detroit PD task force, Perry’s Cross must bring down this assassin and uncover the motives behind his benefactors while the lives of those he cares for hang in the balance.

It doesn’t sound like too bad a premise – not groundbreaking, but with just enough there to put together a decent narrative.   Unfortunately, the powers-that-be make the mistake of empowering writers (Kerry Williamson and Marc Moss) who simply are not up to the challenge.  If you are going to write a character of incredible intelligence then the writing itself has to be incredibly intelligent.  Otherwise, the movie completely lacks credibility.  Sadly, the writing in this film is rudimentary leaving this script with about as much credibility as Lance Armstrong. 

Tyler Perry as the lead exasperates these issues immensely.  Having Cross deduce that his wife drank a latte because she has a stain on her jacket isn’t a sign of great detection. It’s called comment sense.  And having other characters talk about his PhD as a means to convey brilliance is weak at best.  I know a ton of advanced degree holders who won’t be getting an invite to join MENSA anytime soon (including yours truly).  The failure to convince the viewer that Cross is a savant is a fatal flaw because his brilliance as a detective is the crux of the plot.  Sadly, this Alex Cross seems more suited for CSI Miami with David Caruso than as a future elite profiler for the F.B.I.

What can I say about Tyler Perry’s performance?  It’s clumsy, lazy, and void of any conviction.  Yes, he brings greater physicality to the role that his predecessor, but it’s a awkward hulking portrayal of a character who is meant to be calculating, efficient, and precise.  And in those moments when the script calls for him to emote, things completely fall flat.  It is as inept a performance as I have ever seen and it completely drags down the work of some pretty fair actors in Ed Burns, Jean Reno, Cicely Tyson, and (to a lesser extent) Rachel Nichols.

As for Matthew Fox, clearly he goes under an impressive physical transformation to take on this role and when he doesn’t speak a line, he does a fair job of playing the part of a deadly assassin.  Unfortunately, when he does interact with other characters, his work unravels in much the same way that Perry’s does.  In my opinion, Fox has never been much of an actor but has had the good fortune to fall into two television roles (Lost, Party of Five) that garnered him more attention than he deserves.  In one regard, he is the perfect choice to play the antagonist to Perry as they are equally bad actors.

I think when you look at a movie and say that the writing is bad and that both the protagonist and antagonist are terrible, it more or less tells you everything you will ever need to know about the film.  And not only should you avoid this film, you should perform a public service act by preventing others from seeing it.  Station yourself at the local Best Buy and dissuade uninformed consumer from buying it; or start one of those asinine petitions that people send to the White House (like building a Death Star, or getting Piers Morgan deported) to beseech the Obama Administration to ban Tyler Perry from ever making another movie.  Whatever your methods, you have been warned about this film and it is your civic duty to extend that warning to others.

Standout Performance: No one.

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Review: Warm Bodies

A zombie rom-com is not something that easily rolls off the tongue in a figurative sense.  The two genres seem to go together about as well as “lamb and tuna fish” (obscure Big Daddy reference).  So when I first heard about Warm Bodies, I was a bit skeptical.  Since it was based on the novel by Isaac Marion, I figured there could be a market for it with the young adult/tween crowd, but was not sure how it would play for the rest of society.  Having watched the movie I can you tell that it is very much a mixed bag of a film.

The movie places us in a post apocalyptic world where three different humans reside – the living, zombies, and bonies (the equivalent of zombies on steroids).  The plot details the existence of our protagonist R – a zombie played by Nicholas Hoult, who is struggling with his existence as a corpse.  When he meets the lovely Julie (Teresa Palmer), he finds that she brings out a new side of him.  Can he overcome the obstacles that would separate a zombie and a living person from having a relationship?  Well, you have to watch the movie to find out the answer to that question.

What is refreshing about this movie is that it comes at the zombie genre from a different angle.  Seeing things through the lens of the zombie definitely makes things feel fresh and provides an opportunity to spoof zombie flicks in a way that Shaun of the Dead and other such films cannot.  The protagonist provides a witty and lucid inner monologue, which sets up a nice contrast to his physical action.  In this role, Nicholas Hoult does a very credible job and displays a better than expected comedic sense.

Another check mark in the good column is the overall work of the cast.  Rob Corddry as R’s zombie best friend M, is funny in limited screen time.  While he will never get top billing, you can be sure that once a movie, Corddry will provide at least one memorable laugh-out-loud moment. Teresa Palmer as the love interest won’t be nominated for any awards for her work in this film, but she is good at looking endearingly at our love struck zombie protagonist.  As simple as this may sound, those romantic glances are a huge necessity to pull off the kind of romantic cheese writer/director Jonathan Levine is trying to peddle.

Despite this good stuff, flawed logic and plot holes drag this film down.  It’s almost silly to say because we are talking about a film featuring a romance between a zombie and a living woman, but the film’s plot breaks the rules of its own reality a number of times, which is a major letdown because it seems that just a bit of due diligence would have cleaned this script up a lot.  I came away from the viewing feeling that Levine wrote down to his audience rather than produce a clean narrative with larger aspirations.

So when a film is a mixed bag of good and bad like this one, the best you can hope for is that the positive outweigh the negatives.  In Warm Bodies, the interesting premise and fresh take on two genres is essentially negated by foolish errors and patches of mediocre writing, but the work of the cast in this film ultimately tips the scales towards the positive.  Hoult, Palmer, and Corddry along with John Malkovich and Dave Franco provide just enough laughs and “awww” moments to keep the audience engaged.  Unless you are really desperate for a romantic Valentine’s Day movie, I don’t think it is necessary to see this one in the theaters.  It’s a classic rental that won’t make a big impact on your life, but also won’t have you cursing at the Red Box vending machine.  However, should you find yourself in a bind to find a cinematic adventure to cap off a perfectly romantic Valentine’s Day, might I suggest A Good Day to Die Hard.  Nothing says love like Bruce Willis blowing up a bunch of stuff.

Standout Performance: Rob Corddry.  At one juncture, he made the whole cinema erupt with laughter.  Kudos to him.

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