Bully - Trailer

Awesome! This story is important & must be told.

Snow White vs Snow White or: Charlize vs Julia

Snow White makes a double comeback (for better or worse) in 2012. First as a fantasy battle epic with Charlize Theron, Kirsten Stewart & Chris Thor Hemsworth, then as a gaudy, colourful, Bollywood-inspired fantasy with Julia Roberts, Lily Collins & Armie Winklevii Hammer.

Snow White and the Huntsman: 

Mirror Mirror:

How will they compare to Michael Cohn's gothic 1997 made-for-TV (& Emmy nominated) Snow White: A Tale of Terror, with the lovely Sigourney Weaver playing the evil queen alternately as evil hottie / grotesque goblin.

The Hunger Games - new Trailer

Jennifer Lawrence is back in tough-older-sister-protecting-younger-siblings at-all-costs mode. Some of those sets & costumes look a bit yech, but all-in-all, this looks like good, intense fun. 

Bret McKenzie, France & Meryl Streep win Oscars

The Artist (5 wins)

The Artist wins Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Score & Best Costume Design

The Artist winners (clockwise from left): Director Michel Hazanavicius, Main Cast & Director with Producer Thomas Langmann, Costume Designer Mark Bridges, Score Composer Ludovic Bource, Lead Actor Jean Dujardin

Hugo (5 wins)

Hugo wins Best Visual Effects, Best Art Direction / Set Design, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Mixing & Best Sound Editing 

Hugo winners (clockwise from left): Visual Effects crew Robert Legato, Joss Williams & Ben Grossman; Production Designer Dante Ferretti with Set Decorator Francesca Lo Schiavo; Sound Editors Philip Stockton & Eugene Gearty; Sound Mixers Tom Fleischman & John Midgely; Cinematographer Robert Richardson

The Iron Lady (2 wins)

Meryl Streep wins Best Actress & J Roy Helland wins Best Makeup

The Help (1 win)

Octavia Spencer wins Best Supporting Actress

Beginners (1 win)

Christopher Plummer wins Best Supporting Actor 

The Descendants (1 win)

L - R: Nat Faxon, Jim Rash &  Alexander Payne win Best Adapted Screenplay.I love that Dean Pelton (i.e. the guy who finds any excuse to wear "his sister's" Lady Gaga /etc outfits on Community) is now a legit Oscar Winner.

Midnight in Paris (1 win)

Woody Allen wins Best Original Screenplay (his 3rd screenplay win)

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (1 win)

Angus Wall & Kirk Baxter win Best Film Editing
(their 2nd consecutive win on Final Cut Pro)

The Muppets (1 win)

Flight of the Conchords' Bret McKenzie wins Best Original Song for Man or Muppet. How awesome is that?!

A Separation (1 win)

Iran & Asghar Farhadi win Best Foreign Language Film

Rango (1 win)

Gore Pirates of the Caribbean Verbinski wins Best Animated Feature 

Undefeated (1 win)

Daniel Lindsay, TJ Martin, Rich Middlemas &, um, P Diddy
win Best Documentary 

VOTE for the Best Best Picture of the 90s

VOTE for the Best of a decade that gave an Oscar to Kevin Costner over Martin Scorsese, ignored Spike Lee entirely & gave top honours to five films that kill off their protagonist. It's the 90s & it's the decade where I started caring about the Oscars, so vote for the Best of the Academy's Best & shake your head in disapproval of their poorer choices.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

I find the Best Actor pattern particularly interesting: two villains, three very sympathetic & physically impaired heroes, two tragic heroes with intense psychological demons & three dramedies, two of which are as tragic as they are funny. Fun stuff. 

VOTE for the Best Best Picture of the 00s

VOTE! For the Best of the (Academy's) Best of the Noughties!

Sure, the Oscars get it wrong as often as they get it right, and some winners go on to big things while others fade into obscurity, but how would the best of the Academy's best fare if competing against each other? You decide:

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world's leading questionnaire tool.

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter

Taking itself lightly enough to be gleefully ludicrous, but also taking itself seriously enough to be thrillingly elaborate. Tim Burton produces, Nightwatch / Wanted's Timur Bekmambetov directs, Benjamin Walker (aka Meryl Streep's son-in-law) stars as Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Just for fun, Benjamin Walker screen debuted in Bill Condon's Kinsey, playing the 19-year-old version of the titular character who grows up to be the sex researcher played by Liam Neeson. True story.

In & Out of Character

Leading up to Sunday's Oscar ceremony, check out IMDB's gallery of Oscar nominees "In & Out of Character." A nice idea nicely executed.

Click on the pic to go to the site.