Netflix Instant: Cool TV & Movie picks

Jonesy here again for my picks for Netflix this week:

Mars Attacks!

Earth is attacked my aliens in Tim Burton's spoof of campy 50's sci-fi movies.  This movie is absolutely ridiculous is the best way possible.  Plus, you will recognize almost EVERYONE in this movie. 

Frozen

One of my favorite movies last year, Frozen does to ski lifts what Jaws did for the ocean.  It's man vs. the elements when three friends get trapped on a ski lift with no hope of rescue for three days.  Frozen is thrilling, frightening, and you'll find yourself forgetting to breathe.  Wonderful independent film.

Up

One of the few Pixar movies available on instant, but perhaps one of their best.  Up is a good old-fashioned adventure story pairing two very unlikely people along with a talking dog.  Up is Pixar at its finest with engaging dialogue, stunning visuals, and enormous heart.  It's a movie that everyone can find something to love about it.

Lost

Now there is no excuse.  All six seasons of Lost are now on instant.  Everyday people are stranded on a mysterious island after a plane crash and must stick together to survive. You've heard the hype, now watch the show that captured millions for six seasons.  

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Oscar Nominations 2011-Reactions!

It's about that time again... the Academy announces its award nominees, and movie nerds all around Twitter and the Interwebs get riled up.  Here at WDYMS, we figured we'd jump on the bandwagon:
(Full disclosure: between both of us, we have not seen all of the movies nominated)

Javi: Whenever I compile my Top 10 list of the year, I try to think of what was good but  also something off the beaten path that might make someone appreciate films in a different way than what everyone else is saying.  The Oscars this year seem to have looked at the every movie site's Top 10 and just copy and pasted it.  There are very few surprises, but it was more surprising at what isn't there.  

The big issue this year is The King's Speech.  I haven't seen this movie, and yet I don't care to because this movie looks boring Oscar bait.  It is the cinematic equivalent of a finely crafted pop song ready to go to the Top 40 and night clubs, but in this case 100% more British.  There's a reason why I am anti-Clint Eastwood and to a lesser extent anti-Daniel Day Lewis; their strategies are always to release Oscar bait movies every year.  It is very repetitive and frankly, artistically dishonest, more Eastwood than Day-Lewis, although that might be a personal bias.  

But I regress. The real shame here is poor Christopher Nolan, who directed one of the best stories of this year, on a technical sense, and was completely left out of the race, even if INCEPTION was nominated for Best Picture. If I had to guess, the King Speech director nomination for Tom Hooper was put there just for the potential of letting this movie sweep the major awards. If it ends up winning a lot and since every other director was legitimate, I guess Nolan was seen as the easily expendable one.  Another big shame is not including Ryan Gosling for his performance in BLUE VALENTINE.  It was one of the most tragic and believable performances of this year, and to me nothing will top it.  


I will say, as a personal note, I am amazed that Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World did not get nominated for Editing, Sound Mixing, Best Original Song, or even Best Visual Effects.  For anyone that has seen the movie and can appreciate the technical aspects of it, you can see that it's true that some recognition was in order.

Overall, this year left me with the impression that slowly but surely the Oscars are getting to the point of being as political as the Grammys.  Their complete lack of recognition of anything not catered 100% to them makes it seem obvious that they are phasing out recognition for excellence across the world of cinema.  Just the tiny scope of what they want to see.  


Jonesy:  For me this year, there were some interesting choices from the academy.  First, I am very disappointed in Christopher Nolan's snub for director.  Unfortunately, the academy doesn't seem to care too much for pure action movies, so I guess Inception's movie nomination will have to be enough. 


I feel he was snubbed to make room for the new academy's golden boys, The Coen Brothers.  Now, I like their movies, I do, but like my cohort mentioned Eastwood above, the Coens seem to have a knack for only releasing toward the end of the year, once a year.  That doesn't mean I write off their movies because I still go into their movies with as open-minded as possible, and I may like it or I may not.  But it's just an observation...


The only acting race that will be interesting to see is Best Supporting Actress.  I think it'll be anyones game, but how fabulous would it be for Hailee Steinfeld to win?


Toy Story 3.  Where do I begin?  Here's what the academy needs to do...either get rid of Best Animated catagory since there are ten nominations or don't let animated movies get Best Picture nominations since they have their own category. 


I am surprised with the amount of nominations The King's Speech received, but I'm also shocked with how many True Grit received since it apparently missed the drunken Golden Globe boat a couple weeks ago.  How do you go from nothing to 10 nominations?  What if it beats Social Network and The King's Speech (the apparent front runners) for Best Picture? That'd be a fun twist.


All in all, the academy is not where it should be in terms of recognizing great non-bait movies (cough, cough, Scott Pilgrim).  However, they're leaps and bounds where they use to be.  At least there are no sweaping epic war movies this year.  In the past, little movies like Winter's Bone, The Kids are All Right, and 127 Hours would have never had a snow ball's chance in hell in getting recognized.  In fact, besides Inception and Toy Story 3, all the movies deal with either personal or family drama.  Interesting. 


On a happier note...Yay for John Powell's HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON score getting a nomination!


And here are the nominations:

Best Picture

“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right ”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3″
“True Grit”
“Winter’s Bone”


Best Direction
Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
David Fincher for “The Social Network”
Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”
David O. Russell for “The Fighter”


Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
James Franco in “127 Hours”
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”


Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”


Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”


Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”


Adapted Screenplay
Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy for “127 Hours”
Aaron Sorkin for “The Social Network”
Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich for “Toy Story 3″
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini for “Winter’s Bone”


Original Screenplay
Mike Leigh for “Another Year”
Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson for “The Fighter”
Christopher Nolan for “Inception”
Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for “The Kids Are All Right”
David Seidler for “The King’s Speech”


Animated Feature
“How to Train Your Dragon”
“The Illusionist”
“Toy Story 3″


Art Direction
“Alice in Wonderland”: Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O’Hara (Set Decoration)
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″: Stuart Craig (Production Design), Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
“Inception”: Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration)
“The King’s Speech”: Eve Stewart (Production Design), Judy Farr (Set Decoration)
“True Grit”: Jess Gonchor (Production Design), Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration)


Cinematography
“Black Swan”: Matthew Libatique
“Inception”: Wally Pfister
“The King’s Speech”: Danny Cohen
“The Social Network”: Jeff Cronenweth
\“True Grit”: Roger Deakins


Costume Design
“Alice in Wonderland”: Colleen Atwood
“I Am Love”: Antonella Cannarozzi
“The King’s Speech”: Jenny Beavan
“The Tempest”: Sandy Powell
\“True Grit”: Mary Zophres


Documentary (Feature)
“Exit through the Gift Shop”
“Gasland”
“Inside Job”
“Restrepo”
“Waste Land”


Documentary (Short Subject)
“Killing in the Name”
“Poster Girl”
“Strangers No More”
“Sun Come Up”
“The Warriors of Qiugang”



Film Editing
“Black Swan”: Andrew Weisblum
“The Fighter”: Pamela Martin
“The King’s Speech”: Tariq Anwar
“127 Hours”: Jon Harris
“The Social Network”: Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter


Foreign Language Film
“Biutiful”: Mexico
“Dogtooth”: Greece
“In a Better World”: Denmark
“Incendies”: Canada
“Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi)”: Algeria


Makeup
“Barney’s Version”: Adrien Morot
“The Way Back”: Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
“The Wolfman”: Rick Baker and Dave Elsey


Music (Original Score)
“How to Train Your Dragon”: John Powell
“Inception”: Hans Zimmer
“The King’s Speech”: Alexandre Desplat
“127 Hours”: A.R. Rahman
“The Social Network”: Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross


Music (Original Song)
“Coming Home” from “Country Strong” Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from “Tangled” Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from “127 Hours” Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from “Toy Story 3″ Music and Lyric by Randy Newman


Short Film (Animated)
“Day & Night”: Teddy Newton
“The Gruffalo”: Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
“Let’s Pollute”: Geefwee Boedoe
“The Lost Thing”: Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
“Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary)”: Bastien Dubois


Short Film (Live Action)
“The Confession”: Tanel Toom
“The Crush”: Michael Creagh
“God of Love”: Luke Matheny
“Na Wewe”: Ivan Goldschmidt
“Wish 143″: Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite


Sound Editing
“Inception”: Richard King
“Toy Story 3″: Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
“Tron: Legacy”: Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
“True Grit”: Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
“Unstoppable”: Mark P. Stoeckinger


Sound Mixing
“Inception”: Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
“The King’s Speech”: Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
“Salt”: Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
“The Social Network”: Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
“True Grit”: Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland


Visual Effects
“Alice in Wonderland”: Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1″: Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
“Hereafter”: Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
“Inception”: Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
“Iron Man 2″: Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

The future of Kevin Smith's Red State

A few months ago, Kevin Smith announced that RED STATE, his new horror movie, would premiere at Sundance, but he was refusing to do press for the movie.  So, for press to gain access to tickets at the festival, they had to request tickets two days in advance for the slim chance of receiving a seat.  For someone who said he wasn't saving seats for press in his movie, when Red State premiered, my (Jonesy's) twitter was overrun with tweets from bloggers who had secured a ticket.  Interesting...

The real story of the day wasn't the movie (though many reviews are up at /Film, The Wrap and HitFlix), but it was the events that transpired after.  Apparently, Kevin Smith was going to auction off for a distributor.  However, he prompted to by the movie from himself for $20 and said it would be self-released under Smodcast Pictures.“Selling my film would be like having a baby and then selling it to somebody else to raise,” Smith said.  “I can’t speak for the movie by myself. I’m not the only one. I’m just the writer/director." 

Before its release, Smith is planning a "Red State USA Tour" where Smith, personally, will travel across the US promoting the film and participating in a Q&A after every screening.  You can view tour dates here.  Smith claims he will not spend any money on conventional advertising, and just promote through the tour. Also, tickets for these shows are rumored to be anywhere from $50-$100.

Smith also announced, at a seemingly perfect opportunity, that Red State is his second-to-last film.  After his last project, entitled HIT SOMEBODY, Smith will focus on producing. 

For someone who is anti-press, Smith sure knows how to stir the blogger-sphere and get people talking.  I've heard more about the Red State before and after than almost anything else about Sundance.  Whether you agree with Smith's angle of distribution or even if you agree with his views on studio involvement and advertising, the man knows what he's doing.  He got everyone talking about it, interest is stirred, and I'm sure it will pay off in the long run.

Red State  is set to release October 17, 2011.

New Transformers: Dark Of The Moon Villain Revealed Through Stolen Toys

Oh no! It's Javi blogging about new Transformers stuff...again.  It's been a known practice that Chinese workers will steal early copies of upcoming toys and sell them on eBay for toy reviewers.  This has been going on for a few years, and thanks to this rather illegal practice, we now have the first view of the main villain of TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON.

Here is Shockwave courtesy of TFW2005, and ACTOYS.

Compare this image to his previous incarnation to the original 1980's cartoon, you'll see it's a good modernization of his character into the Michael Bay movies.  Unlike a lot of the more iconic characters, such as Starscream or Ironhide, Shockwave actually looks like his original design of a purple cyclops. In the original cartoon he turned into a Space Gun, and he was the Decepticon that stayed behind on Cybertron to keep things in check for Megatron, while the main cast of characters were stuck on earth.  For the movie, his alternate mode has been updated to an alien tank of some sort.

Hilariously, this shows Shockwave holding himself in Space Gun mode. Image courtesy of TFWIKI

What I like about this particular design is, like I stated before, all of his iconic characteristics are intact here.  You have the main purple body, the one-eyed faceless head, one of his arms being a gun and the hose that attaches to his back.  This is almost as close to an homage to the original as movie Optimus Prime was. 

As the main villain of the movie, he'll be a huge character, even if plot details are still rather sparse. We'll just have to wait and see. This is his main character description from TFWIKI: 

"Shockwave has been referred to as "a computer on legs." This is not far from the truth. Logic rules Shockwave's thought processes and is the source of his every inspiration. He sees emotion as a weakness and a distraction. His cold and calculating modus operandi is supported by his frightening and exceptionally powerful form.  Shockwave is possibly even more powerful than Megatron. Perhaps logic may one day dictate that the time to replace Megatron's flawed, emotion-fueled rule is at hand. After all, the only logical choice for Decepticon leader would be Shockwave himself."

TRANSFORMERS: DARK OF THE MOON comes out July 1, 2011.

Tron 3 Rumors (SPOILERS)

I, Javi, was an adamant fan of Tron: Legacy. It did have its flaws, but the more I saw it, the more in love I became with that world, even if the execution was not all that great.  The movie did not set the world ablaze with AVATAR-level box office numbers, but Disney has invested way too much money in TRON: LEGACY to not make the most of it.

Well now Harry Knowles ,from Ain't It Cool News, has gotten word that the previous rumor that a teaser for TRON 3 will be in the TRON:LEGACY Blu-Ray is correct.  In an email Harry received, his informant described a couple of scenes of that were written and shot:
"One includes Bruce Boxleitner (as Alan) and Dan Shor (as Ram).   Turns out that "Ram" was apparently running the FLYNN LIVES campaign and he's frantically destroying all of that data and files, as Alan confronts him.....


Another has Quora showing up to ENCOM and getting acousted by the press because she's riding Sam's Ducati - and states that she just spoke with Kevin Flynn, yesterday!   

The last scene that was shot in this mini-shoot involved text screens where you see the Father and Son...  The Dillingers stating that everything is going as planned. "

All of this points to a very interesting set up for the next movie.  The fact that they're also including the RAM character from the original movie makes me excited. RAM was one of the original programs in Tron and was "derezzed" during the course of the first movie.  Like Harry says, it seems that at one point Flynn sought out the programmer of RAM and nicknamed him that in real life.  

The fact that the Dillingers will play into the next movie is very intriguing indeed.  The original Edward Dillinger was played by David Warner and his "Tron" world counterpart was the main antagonist, Sark, while his son, Edward, was the bit part played by Cillian Murphy during the board meeting scene in TRON: LEGACY. 

 And in Quorra's scene it seems that Flynn is alive again? I wonder to what extent people know about her, especially if she is riding in Sam's Ducati and is being sought at by the press.  

All of this seems tantalizing, and I really hope more movies come from it.  It still doesn't take away from the fact that TRON: LEGACY could have benefitted from NOT being a complete set-up for future installments. Well, this half of the blog (the self-proclaimed handsome one) is very excited for this news.

Follow the link to see the original article and pictures of the shoot.  

The New Phase In Movie Scores and Soundtracks

Javi here:

With the recent news that Dan Deacon would be teaming up with Francis Ford Coppolla on the director's newest film, TWIXT NOW AND SUNRISE, now felt like a good time to share some thoughts about this recent trend of contemporary artists creating movie soundtracks and scores.

Movies and rock artists have been coming together for some time already. Off the top of my head, my favorite is The Beatles' A HARD DAY'S NIGHT.  The album and the movie are just as iconic together as they are separate. While you can see how that the movie was just an excuse to see The Beatles running around and cracking jokes, it nevertheless produced a great soundtrack. Same goes for Simon & Garfunkel's contribution to THE GRADUATE soundtrack which are now iconic in cinema culture.  Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and others classic artists have all made a contribution to movie music, but they have always just been songs from their catalog and nothing original.

Even though there could be some argument, it really felt like the ever-popular GARDEN STATE soundtrack might have been the catalyst for creating the importance of how movie music and soundtracks are treated nowadays.  What director Zach Braff did by making the music in the movie not just a highlight but almost the focus, he showed not only artists but the ever-desperate music industry a way to further monetize in a time when downloading and pirating was at an all time-high. While we can always point to other soundtracks where artists are featured heavily, Garden State was one of the first ones in the past decade where the album sold millions of copies (it is now certified as Gold status), and its influence could be felt.  The catchy combination brought renewed fame to bands like Zero 7, Frou Frou, and directly influenced the rise of The Shins.

The next set of soundtracks seemed to be made along the lines of the Garden State formula.  Movies such as THE LAST KISS, NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST, and (500) DAYS OF SUMMER all had quite an emphasis on music, even to the point of making music a part of the plot. All these soundtracks had a style that was mixed contemporary artists such as Vampire Weekend with older acts like Hall & Oates.  Even the TWILIGHT movies have  featured unexpected artists such as St. Vincent, Bon Iver, Beck, and Grizzly Bear in their soundtracks as a potentially genius marketing scheme.

ONCE is the best example of bridging the gap between GARDEN STATE (songs that were the forefront in the movie) to something like THE SOCIAL NETWORK (where a rock artist is the one composing the soundtrack).  Lead actor Glen Hansard created many of these songs that were seen in the movie, all awhile in his then-former-band, The Frames, and while also writing some new songs along with co-star Marketa Irglova.  The effect of this movie was not only winning the duo an Oscar for their wonderful song "Falling Slowly" (FACT: Jonesy and I bonded over this band/movie), but it also helping with the career of The Swell Season, the group that Hansard and Irglova formed after the movie.

In 2007, we had Radiohead guitarist, Jonny Greenwood, scoring THERE WILL BE BLOOD soundtrack to much acclaim. Arcade Fire worked together with Spike Jonze on a short film, which will be released at the Berlin Film Festival.   Grizzly Bear was actually going to contribute original material to the BLUE VALENTINE soundtrack, but due to scheduling conflicts, they were only able to contribute instrumental tracks to the movie.  In my opinion, their music actually helped with the mood of the movie in a way I did not expect.  

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As some people have stated rather sarcastically, Daft Punk's TRON: LEGACY was the best part of the movie.  Finally, we have learned recently that Trent Reznor will continue his working relationship with director David Fincher with THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, and with Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' win for The Social Network at the Golden Globes, I have a feeling that more and more artists will be scoring movies

This new trend is one I hope that continues, and I hope it creates great working relationships between artists and directors. Not only is it beneficial for the bands, but also, in a time when famed composers like Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, and Howard Shore are all starting to plagiarize from themselves, the competition might challenge these more traditional composers to create better scores.  Either way, the outcome can only mean a more rich aural experience for the viewers.

Netflix Instant Cool TV & Movie Picks

Javi back once again with a slew of awesome TV shows and movies to stream from Netflix!

Better Off Ted

Better Off Ted was a small little work place comedy that aired briefly on ABC that was 

unfortunately cancelled.  It's a shame too because it had a rather quirky sense of humor which reminds

me of great shows like Arrested Development and Community.  It's only two seasons long, so you'll go through all of the episodes rather quickly.

Avatar The Last Airbender: Complete Book 1 Collection 

Yes, it is a cartoon for kids.  Yes, it was a horrible movie made by one of the most overrated 

directors of our time.  But if you take the chance with this show, you'll find it to be one of the most 

mature and entertaining series for adults or kids.  It's smartly written, well animated, and the themes that it explores are as deep as a Pixar movie.

The Good, The Bad, The Weird

This was one of my favorite movies that was screened at the Dallas International Film Festival 2010.

It was so much fun, wildly entertaining, and one of the most memorable experiences.

Following an idiotic thief pursued by a bad-ass villain and a noble law man, this movie has one of the best climatic battles I've seen on screen.

It Might Get Loud

I love music, so this documentary is just a great watch.  Getting together three different unique guitarists, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), The Edge (U2), and Jack White (The White Stripes), to talk about music, guitar, and their techniques, and ending with a jam session that would have been amazing to see in real life.  I think I've seen this movie five times just because it's that good. 

Ok! that's it for right now.  I'd love to hear some feedback from you guys to see if this is helping.  I can get weirder or more theme-specific if you want.  See you guys in two weeks!