Just so everyone knows, I updated my Top Ten Movies of 2007 List. I forgot to put Once on the list, and if you’ve seen Once, you know that’s a movie that deserves to be recognized. The movie, about a street musician and an immigrant who strike up a relationship to work on producing an album of the musician’s work, is incredibly simple yet absolutely intriguing at the same time. The song, nominated for an Oscar, is one of the greatest songs to grace the silver screen in a long time.

Read my Once movie review, or take a look at my updated Best Movies of 2007 list.

The Oscars are almost upon us! Sure, the writer’s strike may destroy things, but I’m pretty sure everything will be resolved before February 24th, 2008. Anyway, the Academy Award nominations for 2007 movies were released yesterday, and today I re-launched my Oscar database with all nominees and winners for years 2004 through 2006, and the nominees for 2007.

I’m sure you’ve already checked them out, but here are the 2007 Oscar nominations on FilmJabber.

Over the next several weeks, I will analyze each category with my picks, predictions and thoughts. Who do I think was snubbed? Who got lucky? Which categories are most competitive, and which are a near absolute?

Let me just say that I am pretty impressed with the Oscar nominations this year. I knew that The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford wouldn’t get nominated for Best Picture, even though it was brilliant, but the movie did get recognized in a few categories, most notably Casey Affleck for Best Supporting Actor (even though he was the leading actor in the film). This is a film and actor that could have easily been overlooked, but the Academy voters were smart enough to recognize some great stuff when they saw it.

There are a couple categories where I haven’t chosen a pick yet, since I’ve only seen one film out of the five (in the Best Actress category, I’ve only seen Juno). Best Supporting Actor is an amazingly tough choice. Interestingly enough, while I choice Atonement as the best movie of the year in my Top 10 Movies of 2007, I’m rooting for There Will Be Blood to win. It’s just a bolder film, and I will be a bit surprised if it wins (since it will split votes with No Country for Old Men).

View my picks for the 2007 Academy Awards (or are they the 2008 Academy Awards?). Please note that these are MY PICKS, and not necessarily MY PREDICTIONS. Those will come later.

As many people know, Roman Polanski is not allowed to return to the United States or travel to countries that have an extradition treaty with the U.S. (like Great Britain) due to his conviction of “engaging in unlawful sexual intercourse with a minor” in the late 1970’s.

With a new movie called Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired looking to be a major contender at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, I figured now would be a good time to gauge what people think of Polanski and what should happen to resolve everything. The movie, directed by Marina Zenovich, details the events revolving around Polanski’s conviction and flight to France, is sure to stir up controversy…

These are not all the facts, but this is what I pulled from Wikipedia:

•  In 1977, Polanski got the permission of Samantha Geimer’s mother to conduct a private photo shoot of the 13-year old (or was she 14?) girl.
• On March 10, despite her reservations, Geimer returned for a second photo shoot. “We did photos with me drinking champagne,” Geimer says. “Toward the end it got a little scary, and I realized he had other intentions and I knew I was not where I should be. I just didn’t quite know how to get myself out of there… I said no several times, and then, well, gave up on that.” This took place at Jack Nicholson’s home.
• Polanski was initially charged with rape via use of drugs, perversion, sodomy, lewd and lascivious act upon a child under 14, but put in a plea agreement for a lesser charge.
• On a tip that the judge was going to throw out the plea agreement, Polanski fled to France, where he was still a citizen. France and the U.S. do have an extradition treaty, but France will not extradite its own citizens. The U.S. could put in a request for France to try him, but they have not do so and will probably never do so.
• While Polanski admitted to unlawful conduct, psychiatric experts did not consider him a sexual predator and both the defense and prosecution believed probation would be sufficient punishment rather than jail. (Yahoo!)
• In a 2003 interview, Geimer (now Samantha Gailey) said, “Straight up, what he did to me was wrong. But I wish he would return to America so the whole ordeal can be put to rest for both of us… I’m sure if he could go back, he wouldn’t do it again. He made a terrible mistake but he’s paid for it”.

So, here are some questions:

• Is Roman Polanski likely to re-offend?
• Has Polanski already “paid his due”?
• Since Polanski has directed several great films and the crime committed was thirty years ago, does that factor in?
• Do any of the previous questions matter? He had sex with a 13-year old.

What do you think? I’m torn myself. I must admit that I do have some compassion for people who committed crimes decades earlier. More than likely, those people have grown beyond whatever they did in the past, experience guilt and suffer as a result. And the fact that Polanski has won Oscars and contributed extensively to the arts does provide some bias. At the same time, Polanski had sex with a young girl. He knew how old she was, and he knew she was really, really young. And according to the initial charge and statements from Geimer, the sex was definitely not consensual or pleasant in any way or form.

Some may take offense to the fact that I may appear more concerned about the next Batman movie than Heath Ledger, but that is not my intent with this article. Heath Ledger’s death was shocking and a little depressing, considering that he was a great and underrated actor who, I believe, was on the verge of breaking through to becoming a huge star. But if you are a Batman fan, you must admit that seconds after learning of Heath Ledger’s death, you thought of the upcoming movie The Dark Knight and how it will be affected by the situation.

The good news is that assuming to IMDB, The Dark Knight (2008), directed by Christopher Nolan, is in post-production, which, with exception to a major film fire (knock on wood, Ledger’s scenes should all be complete. Of course, there always chances of needed reshoots or additional scenes to be filmed, but I don’t see Nolan as someone who often does stuff like this – and I don’t see the WB tampering with the director’s vision. I have looked around on the Internet for other articles about this topic, but have yet to find anything too substantial. Most are just re-iterating the news story, which you can read here. The basics are that Ledger fell victim to drug abuse and either accidentally overdosed or killed himself (since he was found surrounded by pills), which is a fuzzy line anyway.

Will The Dark Knight be pushed back at all, my boss asked. Highly unlikely. The Dark Knight is WB’s tentpole release of the summer, and buzz is high. Also, with the film’s release several months away, there is really no emotional obligation to put things on hold. Even if The Dark Knight were to open this Friday, I doubt the WB would push back the release.

Some fans are concerned that the ending of The Dark Knight will be changed. I don’t know what fans have heard, but there seems to be some assumptions that The Joker lives at the end (based on the fact that Ledger allegedly had signed on for a sequel). The worries surround the thought that The Joker may escape at the end, and thus the WB would be forced to deal with a situation where they would have to tie up loose ends. To this, I say these worries are unfounded: more than likely, The Joker will survive (didn’t they learn their lesson with Tim Burton’s Batman?) but will be incarcerated. The other option, if he doesn’t get killed, is that he escapes, though I find this a bit unlikely since The Dark Knight is probably Nolan’s last Batman film – and who would want to end a comic book film with the villain “winning” unless you plan to wrap up the story later on? And even if The Joker does escape, who cares? You can just drop the storyline for the next film or, heaven forbid, get yet another actor to play the creepy Batman foe.

Anyway, unless I hear otherwise, I will assume that all of Heath Ledger’s scenes have been filmed and that the movie will be released on time (presumably with a “In memory of Heath Ledger” at the beginning or end). Of course, with Ledger’s life cut short at age 28, that means we’ve been denied a good fifty or sixty years of quality acting. While some people shrugged Ledger off as a pretty face, remember that he turned in an Oscar-worthy performance in Brokeback Mountain, was great in I’m Not There, and was poised to break out in The Dark Knight. After all, how many actors get so much positive buzz just from a movie trailer?

Four new movies are coming to DVD today, January 22, 2008. These DVD releases range from pretty decent to downright terrible, and here’s your guide to each:

Recommended DVD Releases

The Game Plan (2007)

The Rock stars in Walt Disney’s The Game Plan, a family film about a pro quarterback who, while on the run for the championship game (not called the Superbowl here) discovers that he has an eight-year old daughter named Peyton and has to quickly become a father… and learn ballet. The movie is entertaining enough for what it is, and as far as Disney family films go, it’s pretty decent. Kids should find it pretty funny and parents will find it amusing. The movie is rated PG, but I didn’t notice much offensive stuff in the film whatsoever – even the facts about how The Rock ended up with a daughter he didn’t know about is covered, so all you Christian conservatives can breathe easily.

DVD features include bloopers, deleted scenes, a Sportscenter interview with The Rock on how he learned to play quarterback, a behind-the-scenes featurette and some makeover-madness set-top activity that I didn’t watch. The DVD also includes a fictitious Sportscenter biography of The Rock’s character, hosted by Stuart Scott.

The Game Plan movie details | The Game Plan movie review

The Hunting Party (2007)

A politically charged movie that isn’t quite a real thriller or a comedy but a unique blend of the two genres, The Hunting Party stars Richard Gere, Terrence Howard and Jesse Eisenberg as three reporters who go searching for a notorious war criminal. The movie is pretty entertaining, though it never reaches its full potential. Recommended for people who like something slightly off the beaten track, even though the film is pretty mainstream in many ways.

The Hunting Party is rated R; it has some violence, a fair amount of language, a little bit of sexual material and some brief moments of nudity.

The DVD includes a feature commentary, deleted scenes, interviews with the real group of journalists who inspired the movie, a making-of featurette and the original Esquire article, “What I Did on My Summer Vacation”.

The Hunting Party movie details | The Hunting Party movie review

Not Recommended DVD Releases

Saw IV (2007)

The fourth film in the Saw franchise, Saw IV is the worst as the bunch. Starring a bunch of actors we don’t care about who play characters we care about even less, the movie is just a jumbled mess and offers little in the way of clear narrative. It is clear the writers have run out of ideas and are now simply adding confusing and unnecessary layers to the stories that have already been done. I’ve never liked the Saw movies, but even fans of the franchise have to admit that Saw 4 falls short in many ways.

Saw IV is rated R, of course, for the usual: torture and gore.

For those of you who do brave the movie, the DVD includes: director’s commentary, producers’ commentary, a video diary, a music video, a deleted scene and a couple featurettes that look at the traps and props of Saw IV.

Saw IV movie details | Saw IV movie review

Sydney White (2007)

Amanda Bynes stars in this college-oriented version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, about a tomboy but pretty freshman who, after being kicked out of the top sorority for not being polished enough, teams up with a frat full of dorks to take the sorority queen down via student body elections. The movie really has nothing to do with Snow White and is about as dull and unoriginal as they come; Bynes doesn’t do many good movies, but this is one of her not-so-good ones.

Sydney White is rated PG-13; it has some minor language, teen drinking and partying and a little bit of sexual humor, but compared to most PG-13 movies it is pretty mild. I would give it an NC-17 for stupidity, though.

DVD special features include deleted scenes, a gag reel and a few other uninteresting features.

Sydney White movie details | Sydney White movie review

Over the weekend, I went through and updated the DVD release date schedule for January, February and March 2008 (as well as a few releases in April and even May). I realized I hadn’t updated the DVD release dates in a while, as I managed to add release dates and Amazon.com links for over 50 movies, including some pretty good films such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (February 5, 2008), American Gangster (February 19, 2008), Into the Wild (February 12, 2008) and Michael Clayton (February 19, 2008).

I try to keep my DVD release date schedule as streamlined as possible. If you’ve ever looked for DVD release dates on other websites, they often crowd their listings with Special Edition releases, TV show releases and even direct-to-DVD releases, which to me just makes things more complicated. I want to know when the big movies are coming to DVD – I don’t care about when White Noise 2 is being released. Anyway, I’ve received a lot of good feedback about my DVD release dates schedule, so I hope you like it – check it out now!

Cloverfield, the J.J. Abrams-produced monster movie, earned $41 million over the three-day weekend, according to box office estimates. With Martin Luther King, Jr. Day tomorrow and many of the film’s target demographic free, the movie is set to make a fair amount of money on Monday, too.

The movie only costs $35 million to make (I’ve heard some reports that say $25 million), and combined with the $41 million three-day take means:

• It has already made more than its production budget
• It beat out the re-release of Star Wars‘ $35.9 box office weekend that up until now has held the January box office record
• It beat out Black Hawk Down’s $33.6 MLK holiday weekend record.
• It goes to show that you can make a high quality film on a low budget.

Congrats to Cloverfield for once again showing Hollywood that you don’t need to spend $150 million to make big action movies.

The anticipation is over, and the J.J. Abrams-produced movie Cloverfield is now in theaters. After one of the most impressive marketing campaigns ever performed by a major motion picture studio, expectations were high, the buzz extraordinarily high. Cloverfield was pretty much asking to be a disappointment, but it is not to be.

Cloverfield pretty much kicks ass. The movie is fun, exciting and action-packed, which is more than anyone can ask for. I’ve written a full Cloverfield movie review here.

Cloverfield, easily the most anticipated film of early 2008, did not disappoint on Friday, January 18th, as it earned a whopping $16.7 million on Friday. Other Friday estimates have it at $18.25, and I have to figure the disparity between the figures relates to the Thursday-night midnight showings.

UPDATED: Here are the final box office weekend estimates for Cloverfield.

Either way, the Friday grosses put Cloverfield in a position to earn approximately $45-$52 million over the weekend, an astounding feat considering that January is usually a month reserved for expanding Oscar-worthy films and the dreck studios want to dump. I haven’t seen Cloverfield yet (UPDATED: read my Cloverfield movie review), but it’s actually receiving pretty decent reviews – decent enough for a monster movie, anyway. The handheld camera approach is getting a bit of criticism, but it sounds like the movie entertains nonetheless.

The $16-$18 million Friday gross for Cloverfield puts the J.J. Abrams movie in a nearly guaranteed position to set box office records for the most earned over a three-day weekend in January. On top of that, don’t forget that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is on Monday, which means that the movie is also poised to break records for the MLK holiday weekend. I have trouble considering it a holiday weekend since I have to work on Monday, but that’s another story.

Write your own movie review for Cloverfield here.

Up until now, I’ve stayed quiet on the Golden Globes. Yes, the reason is partially that I’ve been too busy to do a blog post, but after the winners were announced in a press conference earlier in the week, I had to chime in. How in God’s name did Sweeney Todd win Best Musical or Comedy at the Golden Globes?

Sweeney Todd, directed by Tim Burton and starring Johnny Depp, is a f**k up in more ways than one. The production values are pretty good, but the movie is boring and features some of the worst music to ever grace musicals. The songs are literally brain numbing, and when sung by the likes of Helena Bonham Carter (who was somehow nominated for Best Actress for her role) and several other actors who just weren’t made for musicals, the film just sucked. Two of my buddies spent most of the time laughing at how bad it was, and even my brother, who I thought might like the film, didn’t find much to be entertained by. My movie review is less than friendly.

All four of the other movies nominated in the category are so much better. Hairspray isn’t anything spectacular, but Charlie Wilson’s War and Across the Universe are both a step above much of the landscape. Juno is simply terrific, and a legitimate (albeit unlikely) contender for Oscar Gold.

I’ve never been a huge fan of the Golden Globes. I never understood the point of them. They’re like the Oscars, only not as prestigious and not as meaningful, and they often have a few off-the-wall surprises like Sweeney Todd that just plain out suck. It’s hard to take the Golden Globes too seriously, and they’re pretty much like Spring Training to the MLB or Pre-Season for the NFL. In other words, they’re meaningless.

While I’m on my rant about the Golden Globes, I’ve always hated the Best Musical or Comedy category. I do realize that comedies often get screwed when it comes to year-end awards (though since Shakespeare in Love, not nearly so much), but the Best Musical or Comedy category often serves as a means to provide non-deserving films a chance at an award (come on, did anyone really think that Dreamgirls was that good of a movie?). Thinking of Dreamgirls, the category tends to favor dramas that happen to have music in them. As Chicago proved, musicals can compete with dramas in the main event, so why should musical dramas (Walk the Line, Ray, Dreamgirls and so on and so forth) get placed in a separate category, which only serves to neglect the real point of the category: to benefit comedies.

And furthermore, do you realize that the Golden Globes nominated 12 movies for best picture this year? 12 movies! For some reason, they nominated seven movies for Best Drama, and another five for Best Musical or Comedy. That means that twelve different movies get to market that they were nominated for Best Picture at the Golden Globes. What bullsh*t.

At least Atonement and Daniel Day-Lewis won for Best Drama and Best Actor respectively.