"I've had it with the snakes"

The long-awaited trailer for the best film of 2006. (Needs Firefox or Internet Explorer to view).

Previously...

Currently getting to grips with the 24 video game which, somewhat to my shame, I dashed out and bought on its release yesterday. A lot of the reviews have been rather negative, and have a certain point when it comes to the gameplay which isn't nearly as polished a third person stalk 'n' shoot as MGS or as good a driving/pursuit-a-thon as... well pretty much anything out there, including the rather shoddy Getaway. That said it's as impressive an effort I've ever seen at an interactive movie. The cut scenes aren't the best graphically, but there is a real sense of story unfolding (and a story as frenetic and convuluted as any broadcast series of 24. What's more the preponderence of entry-level simple puzzle games controbute to this feel, breaking up the expositional moments (something Resident Evil 4 has also toyed with and something from which MGS could learn) but not demanding so much that they become frustrating. At the moment it's the best thing ever (and unlike Resi 4 hasn't paralyzed me with fear). Mind you, this may have something to do with my Jack Bauer obsession. Not sure if a more neutral observer would get quite as much from it.

The 360 beckons...

sony's announced a whopping great delay to the (rather optimistic) spring release date. After an initial foaming-mouthed reaction have just seen that the new date of November is simultaneous for Japan, the US and Europe. Nonetheless Sony aren't doing themselves any favours and while the PS3 is tempting for stuff like MGS4, November is quite a long way off...

Go Team!

Little bit late but as I've been quiet for a little while figured I'd write this up. Hadthe fortune to catch one of the Go! Team's sold out shows at Koko - the new incarnation of the 'mighty' Camden Palace - just over a week ago. A great album band and a cracking live band too. Bit of a shame about the venue - Koko doesn't have the best acoustics in the world and the 8 people on stage simultaneously banging away on various instruments (including two drummers) really needed a better space. Having said that, was cracking fun though the stars of the night may well have been The Grates who came across like a mixture of Kenickie, Bis and Daphne and Celeste with added tartrazine levels of hyperactivity. Great stuff.

And the award goes to...

So, Oscar results are in and, as usual, I was completely off the markin most of my riskier guesses. Was pleased to be wrong about Wallace and Gromit but was disappointed by failure of History of Violence and Good Night... in the screenplay categories.

Crash's win seemed to take everyone by surprise, and there was a rather depressing story in The Guardian attributing this to the huge amount of money spent by the studio on promotion. My own thinking - for the little it's worth - is along the lines of the Guardian's critic Peter Bradshaw: that the Academy was happy to award prizes to Brokeback Mountain in the more specialist fields of screenplay and directing but were not prepared to recognise it as a film. It's a slight handicap not having seen either movie but from what I can gather Crash is 'radical' and 'controversial' in the politically safe areas of toleration and race relations as opposed to the riskier Brokeback Mountain which not only features homosexual love, but does so without becoming a bleeding-heart 'issue' film.

The problem is that Hollywood likes films that deal with issues, but do so in a relatively simple black-and-white way (excusing the pun). i'm reminded of the difference between Look Who's Coming to Dinner where the plot revolved around Sidney Poitier's race, and The Manchurian Candidate which, if the IMDB is to be believed, featured "the first black actor cast in a part that wasn't specified as a black character." Brokeback Mountain is not a film about homosexuality so much as a love story that just happens to feature two men. The matter-of-factness of this storyline proved too much for the Academy and they went for the safe choice of Crash, which deals with a safe area of debate - 'safe' in the sense that the conclusion (racism is bad) is pretty much universally agreed on in the political mainstream, as opposed to the much more hotly contested subject of the normality and acceptance of homosexuality.

Of course, this reading could be totally off the mark - as I've said I haven't seen either film yet - but I wouldn't be surprised if people look back at the results of this supposedly heavily politicised Oscars and see a more conservative result than may have been hoped for.

Oscar time

Right then, let's get this out the way. My official Oscar predictions for 2006 are:

Best Leading Actor:

Philip Seymour Hoffman in “Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
Terrence Howard in “Hustle & Flow” (Paramount Classics, MTV Films and New Deal Entertainment)
Heath Ledger in “Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)
Joaquin Phoenix in “Walk the Line” (20th Century Fox)
David Strathairn in “Good Night, and Good Luck.” (Warner Independent Pictures)

It's a strong field but the lack of nomination for Viggo Mortenson in History of Violence is an actual crime. Somewhat handicapped by not having seen four of these movies, I'll follow the smart money and take Hoffman for this.

Best Supporting Actor:

George Clooney in “Syriana” (Warner Bros.)
Matt Dillon in “Crash” (Lions Gate)
Paul Giamatti in “Cinderella Man” (Universal and Miramax)
Jake Gyllenhaal in “Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)
William Hurt in “A History of Violence” (New Line)

William Hurt's good but too leftfield. Clooney? By all accounts Syriana is a bit earnest. Hmmm... Gyllenhaal perhaps as the field is less contested than Leading Actor and the Brokeback Mountain block vote will probably count for more.

Best Leading Actress:

Judi Dench in “Mrs. Henderson Presents” (The Weinstein Company)
Felicity Huffman in “Transamerica” (The Weinstein Company and IFC Films)
Keira Knightley in “Pride & Prejudice” (Focus Features)
Charlize Theron in “North Country” (Warner Bros.)
Reese Witherspoon in “Walk the Line” (20th Century Fox)

If Dench wins for Mrs. bloody Henderson Presents I will eat my own face. Not a very strong field this (though I'm only two for five in terms of having actually seen these. Witherspoon or Knightley? Witherspoon I hope.

Best Supporting Actress:

Amy Adams in “Junebug” (Sony Pictures Classics)
Catherine Keener in “Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
Frances McDormand in “North Country” (Warner Bros.)
Rachel Weisz in “The Constant Gardener” (Focus Features)
Michelle Williams in “Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)

Catherine Keener is apparently amazing. Let's have her for this category then.

Best Animated Feature:

“Howl’s Moving Castle” (Buena Vista)
“Tim Burton’s Corpse Bride” (Warner Bros.)
“Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit” (DreamWorks Animation SKG)

My heart says Wallace and Gromit, but my head says Corpse Bride. Corpse Bride - Boo!

Art Direction:

“Good Night, and Good Luck.” (Warner Independent Pictures)
“Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” (Warner Bros.)
“King Kong” (Universal)
“Memoirs of a Geisha” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
“Pride & Prejudice” (Focus Features)

Oooh. Good Night and Good Luck or a giant monkey... Jackson's had his moment, Good Night and Good Luck will take this.

Cinematography:

“Batman Begins” (Warner Bros.)
“Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)
“Good Night, and Good Luck.” (Warner Independent Pictures)
“Memoirs of a Geisha” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
“The New World” (New Line)

Batman Begins? Having a laugh aren't you? Good Night and Good Luck

Direction:

“Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)
“Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
“Crash” (Lions Gate)
“Good Night, and Good Luck.” (Warner Independent Pictures)
“Munich” (Universal and DreamWorks)

Ang Lee will probably take the brace of top prizes so Brokeback Mountain here I think.

Editing:

“Cinderella Man” (Universal and Miramax)
“The Constant Gardener” (Focus Features)
“Crash” (Lions Gate)
“Munich” (Universal and DreamWorks)
“Walk the Line” (20th Century Fox)

I always get this one wrong so I'll say Constant Gardener (though it will more likely be Munich)

Best Picture:

“Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)
“Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
“Crash” (Lions Gate)
“Good Night, and Good Luck.” (Warner Independent Pictures)
“Munich” (Universal and DreamWorks)

Gay cowboys win I'm afraid.

Best Adapted Screenplay:

“Brokeback Mountain” (Focus Features)
“Capote” (UA/Sony Pictures Classics)
“The Constant Gardener” (Focus Features)
“A History of Violence” (New Line)
“Munich” (Universal and DreamWorks)

History of Violence, mainly due to my bitterness at the lack of other nominations (save William Hurt)

Best Original Screenplay:

“Crash” (Lions Gate)
“Good Night, and Good Luck.” (Warner Independent Pictures)
“Match Point” (DreamWorks)
“The Squid and the Whale” (Samuel Goldwyn Films and Sony Pictures Releasing)
“Syriana” (Warner Bros.)

Clooney *has* to get up on stage at some point. For this reason alone I'm rooting for Good Night and Good Luck.


Well, there you go. No way I'm staying up for this on Sunday but if I can be bothered will do post-match run through next week.