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M. Night gets R rated. Can't wait.

THE WACHOWSKI'S ARE AT IT AGAIN

Wow. If this is what SPEED RACER is going to look like then sign me up right now.

AWARDS SEASON BEGINS -- NATIONAL BOARD OF REVIEW

Here are the various winners from the National Board of Review for 2007 (my comments are below) :

BEST FILM: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

TOP 10 FILMS OF THE YEAR (excluding NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN):

THE ASSASSINATION OF JESSE JAMES BY THE COWARD ROBERT FORD
ATONEMENT
THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM
THE BUCKET LIST
INTO THE WILD
JUNO
THE KITE RUNNER
LARS AND THE REAL GIRL
MICHAEL CLAYTON
SWEENEY TODD

DIRECTOR: TIM BURTON for SWEENEY TODD

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY

ACTOR: GEORGE CLOONEY for MICHAEL CLAYTON

ACTRESS: JULIE CHRISTIE for AWAY FROM HER

SUPPORTING ACTOR: CASEY AFFLECK for JESSE JAMES

SUPPORTING ACTRESS: AMY RYAN for GONE BABY GONE

DOCUMENTARY: BODY OF WAR

ANIMATED FEATURE: RATATOUILLE

ENSEMBLE CAST: NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN

BREAKTHROUGH ACTOR: EMILE HIRSCH for INTO THE WILD

BREAKTHROUGH ACTRESS: ELLEN PAGE for JUNO

DIRECTORIAL DEBUT: BEN AFFLECK for GONE BABY GONE

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY (tie): DIABLO CODY for JUNO and NANCY OLIVER for LARS AND THE REAL GIRL

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: JOEL & ETHAN COEN for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN


Comments:

Right off the bat, I am very pleased to see some love for JESSE JAMES and INTO THE WILD. Obviously, the best picture win for NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN is terrific, as it's classic crime film already. AMERICAN GANGSTER, ZODIAC, BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD, ONCE, THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE, and EASTERN PROMISES all got snubbed, which is a shame as those are some of the best films of the year. Though I have only seen the trailer for THE BUCKET LIST, I can't honestly say that I think it will be as good as any of those films I just listed above; it looks like Hollywood polished crap with two solid actors anchoring a mountain of cliches. Again, haven't seen it, but something tells me that ZODIAC is a better film. Just a hunch. I haven't seen ATONEMENT or JUNO either but the advance buzz has been phenomenal for both. Also haven't seen THE KITE RUNNER (I'm hearing solid buzz but not masterpiece level) so I can't say anything on that. It's nice to see an action movie on the list with THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM; it was certainly excellent, a true four-star action picture. I pretty much hated the script to LARS AND THE REAL GIRL so I never went to see it. Paul Thomas Anderson's THERE WILL BE BLOOD, which won't open until Christmas, has gotten some of the best reivews of any year, yet it went unnoticed. The early word on SWEENEY TODD is excellent, so I'm not surprised that Burton picked up best director. The fact of the matter is that this year has been an embarrassment of riches at the movies, and there are so many outstanding films out there that picking a top ten list or 5 best picture candidates is going to be virtually impossible. While I loved MICHAEL CLAYTON and thought George Clooney gave an excellent movie-star performance, there is no way that his work was better than Benicio Del Toro in THINGS WE LOST IN THE FIRE or Emile Hirsch in INTO THE WILD. Ben Affleck did a terrific job with GONE BABY GONE, and I was super excited to see that Amy Ryan picked up best supporting actress for that film; not only was she incredible in Affleck's film, she was also excellent in BEFORE THE DEVIL KNOWS YOU'RE DEAD and DAN IN REAL LIFE; what a year for her. I am very anxious to see THE DIVING BELL & THE BUTTERFLY (planning on seeing it this weekend) but it strikes me as weird that it's being called a foreign film. Granted, the dialogue is spoken in French, but it was financed with American money so....doesn't make sense to me. I haven't seen BODY OF WAR, but for it to have beaten CRAZY LOVE as best documentary means that it must be a masterwork of some kind. I haven't seen AWAY FROM HER, but I have heard nothing but remarkable things about the film, and Julie Christie's performance. All in all, a solid group of films and decisions by the National Board of Review. 2007 has been an amazing year for American cinema, and it's going to be all over the place for the rest of awards season with all the various critics groups and top 10 lists.

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Next July can't get here soon enough. The smart and stylish filmmaker Christopher Nolan, who directed BATMAN BEGINS (as well as MEMENTO, INSOMNIA, and THE PRESTIGE), is back on board as helmer on THE DARK KNIGHT. Christian Bale is back in the bat suit and Heath Ledger is the new Joker. It's almost unfair that we all have to wait for next July to see this bad-boy! I have heard that the first 6-7 minutes of the film will be shown infront of prints of I AM LEGEND on IMAX screens next week when the Will Smith action flick opens nationwide.

RANDOM BITS

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END, the third installment in the PIRATES franchise, got released today on DVD. I had a blast watching it in the theaters and look forward to my second viewing; that last act battle during the hurricane was something else.

Ben Kingsley has joined Leo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo in Martin Scorsese's SHUTTER ISLAND, a 1950's Boston set crime saga, that will no doubt be a masterwork of some sort.

The Hollywood Reporter is saying that Johnny Depp may be teaming up with director Michael Mann (HEAT, COLLATERAL, THE INSIDER, MIAMI VICE) for a Depression-era crime film based on Brian Burrough's book "Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933-34" for Universal. Depp and Mann have never made a film together and this one sounds like it would be a perfect match for star and filmmaker.

Jason Reitman's JUNO, his follow up to the excellent satire THANK YOU FOR SMOKING, gets released tomorrow and is getting nearly universal acclaim from the critics. I'm looking forward to it very much.

Russell Crowe has replaced Brad Pitt in STATE OF PLAY, a new political thriller to be directed by Kevin McDonald (LAST KING OF SCOTLAND, TOUCHING THE VOID). Crowe joins the already cast Ed Norton, Helen Mirren, Rachel McAdams, Jason Bateman, and Robin Wright Penn. What a cast.

Tim Burton's SWEENEY TODD has screened for big-gun critics and both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter gave it terrific reviews; can't wait for that one. The trailers have been sensational and I love the near monochromatic look that Burton and his amazing cinematographer, Dariusz Wolski, have brought to the picture. Looks pretty stunning. And what a trip to see Depp singing and slicing throats open!

THE SURPRISE OF THE YEAR

ENCHANTED is the biggest movie surprise of 2007. A blast from start to finish, it's a clever, funny, whimsical fantasy that's as much of a movie for adults as it is for kids. The incredibly talented and extremely engaging Amy Adams gives one of the best performances of the year, and has to be considered for a best actress nomination at the Oscars. My full review will appear soon, but let me just say that if you want a delightful movie to see with your family or significant other, ENCHANTED is the ticket to buy. Funny, fast-moving, stylish and warm, I was won over by its charms immediately.

Reviews on deck for this week include: ENCHANTED (***1/2), I'M NOT THERE (***1/2), BEOWULF (**), and SOUTHLAND TALES (**).

QUICK COMMENTS ON BEOWULF

I didn't like BEOWULF, even after seeing it in the much hyped 3-D IMAX format. Sure, the technology is cool and the movie has a lot of fun moments, but I thought it was boring, cheesy and campy at times and not in good ways (like some of 300), and just not all that much fun. I'd give it two stars. You get to see Angelina Jolie naked (sans nipples) and her character is one of the best parts aspects of the movie but she's in it for like 5 minutes. I know that the filmmakers are basing the film on the poem, but c'mon...she's one of the coolest, sexiest, trippiest images in the piece and she's barely in it. I pretty much hate motion-capture. It looks like Playstation graphics. Sorry. Some of the renderings were amazing, I will say, but it was never consistent, and it just grew irratating. And while the 3-D was cool, it all started to feel like a pop-up book come to life and at times, looked childish and phony. The story was uninvolving, the film nice to look at on occasion, but overall, it just went nowhere. A huge step back for Robert Zemeckis, a filmmaker I have loved without reservation for many years. I found his last 3-D motion capture film, THE POLAR EXPRESS, be a truly thrilling cinematic experiene. You're positively on that gigantic train as it skids over that frozen lake, a feeling I never got once while watching BEOWULF. Zemeckis seems to have lost interest in making films...he's becoming an innovator, much like James Cameron, and I am disappointed by that. I love BACK TO THE FUTURE 1-3, CAST AWAY, FORREST GUMP, CONTACT (minus the McConahaey sp? stuff), WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT? (where Zemeckis was innovating AND telling a great fucking story). WHAT LIES BENEATH was cool but flawed, but at least it was stylish and human in a Hitchcockian way at times. But Zemeckis now seems more interested in figuring out new ways to film stuff, rather than advancing the art of storytelling. Imagine this: Zemeckis directing a $150 million BEOWULF movie in LIVE ACTION, and THEN it's put into the 3-D process. That would be utterly amazing. Imagine BRAVEHEART in 3-D. GLADIATOR in 3-D. Now were talking. Motion-capture is bullshit--why the fuck do we need to see Tony Hopkins's digitally smoothed over naked ass as he plays a younger version of himself? I just didn't get it.

Off to see ENCHANTED, looking forward.