The trailer for Quentin Tarantino’s greatly anticipated latest effort is finally here.

Looks promising to me.

-Travis

With such an incredible trailer, I was sort of surprised at how disappointed I was after seeing Ink.
A good idea executed poorly it seems.

PICTURE
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

DIRECTOR
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
Clint Eastwood – Changeling
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon

ACTOR
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

ACTRESS
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – The Reader

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Josh Brolin – Milk
Robert Downey Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams – Doubt
Penelope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler

I agree with none of these.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Courtney Hunt – Frozen River
Mike Leigh – Happy-Go-Lucky
Martin McDonagh – In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black – Milk
Andrew Stanton & Jim Reardon – Wall-E

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Eric Roth & Robin Swicord - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
John Patrick Shanley – Doubt
Peter Morgan – Frost/Nixon
David Hare – The Reader
Simon Beaufoy – Slumdog Millionaire

ANIMATED FEATURE
Bolt
Kung Fu Panda
Wall-E

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
Der Baader Meinhof Komplex
The Class
Departures
Revanche
Waltz With Bashir

ART DIRECTION
Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Tom Stern – Changeling
Claudio Miranda – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Wally Pfister – The Dark Knight
Chris Menges & Roger Deakins – The Reader
Anthony Dod Mantle – Slumdog Millionaire

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
Encounters at the End of the World
The Garden
Man on Wire
Trouble the Water

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Conscience of Nhem En
The Final Inch
Smile Pinki
The Witness – From the Balcony of Room 306

ANIMATED SHORT
La Maison en Petits Cubes
Lavatory – Lovestory
Oktapodi
Presto
This Way Up

LIVE-ACTION SHORT
Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
Manon on the Asphalt
New Boy
The Pig
Spielzeugland (Toyland)

VISUAL EFFECTS
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Iron Man

COSTUME DESIGN
Australia
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Duchess
Milk
Revolutionary Road

MAKEUP
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Hellboy II: The Golden Army

FILM EDITING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
Milk
Slumdog Millionaire

SOUND MIXING
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Wanted

SOUND EDITING
The Dark Knight
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E
Wanted

ORIGINAL SCORE
Alexandre Desplat – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
James Newton Howard – Defiance
Danny Elfman – Milk
A.R. Rahman – Slumdog Millionaire
Thomas Newman – Wall-E

ORIGINAL SONG
“Down to Earth” from Wall-E
“Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire
“O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire

Fernando Meirelles, director of City of God and The Constant Gardener, now brings us Blindness.

This looks great! Blindness has a really cool and creepy premise and it is drawing a lot of comparison to The Happening which I have still yet to see. I hadn’t heard anything about this movie before today, and I’m not sure how this one got past me. I’m a big fan of both Mark Ruffalo and Julianne Moore and with Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal involved as well, I can’t wait.

-Travis

The trailer for the new Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, was made available this morning.

It looks good. I was really impressed by Daniel Craig’s performance in Casino Royale, as well as the film as a whole. No matter what anyone says, Daniel Craig was the best choice for the role. It doesn’t look like I’ll be let down by this film either.

Quantum of Solace currently has a November 7th release date.

-Travis

Another CG animation movie about a misfit mouse, will be out this winter. This comes by way of The Movie Blog.

Given the basic subject matter, The Tale of Despereaux will undoubtedly draw comparison to last year’s Pixar movie, Ratatouille. This isn’t necessarily bad news, as it could help get people into seats.

The animation on this looks really good. It’s a real departure from the standard that has been set by Pixar and imitated by most other CG animation companies in recent years. The cast is they’ve assembled is pretty stacked too, featuring Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame, as well as Dustin Hoffman, Matthew Broderick, Sigourney Weaver, Christopher Lloyd, and more.

The Tale of Despereaux hits theaters on December 19th.

-Travis

Sorry Travis, I had not seen that you already wrote a review… but since I wrote one too (and cut it short once I realized you beat me too it), here is mine:
Pixar’s latest animated feature film, Wall-E, tells the story of the last operational robot left on Earth traveling deep into space, in pursuit of another robot who had made a brief visit to Earth in search of extraterrestrial vegetation.  Along the way, Wall-E inadvertently teaches humans what it is like to be social and independent again.

Pixar has created some of the best-animated films of all time. From the classic Toy Story to the previous release of Ratatouille, not one film has come weak (some argue Cars to be below the Pixar standard, but that is highly debatable).  So it should come as no surprise that Wall-E is worthy of not only a best-animated film Oscar, but also a best film of the year nomination (a first for any animated film).

Every scene of the film contains such meticulous attention to detail that at certain times it becomes easy to forget that the film is computer generated.   With help from cinematographer Roger Deakins (The Assassinations of Jessie James, No Country for Old Men), the film is able to truly achieve a greater sense of reality than any animated film before it has.  And with so much visual support, it becomes equally apparent that Pixar has invested a lot in to the sound design by employing Ben Burtt (Star Wars, Indians Jones, Munich) to create not only the sound effects, but also the voice of Wall-E.  The voice of Wall-E is also interesting for another reason though, and that is that Wall-E, being a robot, cannot talk past a few simple sounds.  Which is presumably a giant risk for Pixar… but that is what they are known best for.  Each character relies heavily on body language to communicate, and the way this is achieved is beyond many classic silent films from the past, truly remarkable.  In the showing I attended I counted many children and heard even more crying before the film began, but heard hardly a peep throughout the entire film from a single one of them.  After the credits rolled, smiles could be seen on everyone’s face, child or adult.

The Pixar creative team has always been known to not stop at just attention to the feature.  With Wall-E we are given an amazing short film called Presto. Presto is the story of a magician and his rabbit, which is in my opinion, in the top 5 best Pixar shorts. I won’t give away more than that though.   The credits are also a story in their own, they continue telling the story of Wall-E once the feature has ended in several magnificent ways.   And, this has yet to be officially confirmed, but once the DVD/Blu-Ray is released, be on the lookout for a ‘Burn-E’ short film.
Wall-E is truly unlike any film I have previously seen. Each aspect of the film has a unique style, almost like a 1980’s science fiction film, only more modern and with a more romantic feel, but that would still not give the film an accurate description.  I really suggest you catch Wall-E in theatres many times and then again on DVD, just be able to take in everything offered.

- Keith

Trailer for the Coen Brothers’ new film, Burn After Reading, starring Brad Pitt, John Malkovich, George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Frances McDormand, and J.K. Simmons.

I was beyond excited when they announced the cast of this film , and this trailer only further fuels that excitement. The Coens don’t don’t disappoint often, and I don’t expect to be let down by this one either. This looks wild.

-Travis

They’ve finally released the trailer for Guy Ritchie’s newest film, RocknRolla, Gerard Butler, Tom Wilkinson, and Thandie Newton.

Another London underworld movie, involving Russians, Americans and lots of money changing hands. This is not a bad thing at all. It is what Guy Ritchie is good at, and he hasn’t had a miss yet, in my opinion. It has a feeling about it akin to Snatch, and I cannot wait. Plus, Ludacris is in it.

-Travis

I got a chance to go to one of the first screenings of Wall-E last night at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood thanks to the mother-of-a-friend’s-friend.

If you have ever had even a light inkling of interest in seeing Wall-E, DO IT! The whole thing is very impressive and possibly even a little overwhelming. Visually it is one of the best movies I have ever seen, especially compared with most CGI movies. The folks over at Pixar have outdone themselves this time, in both style and story. It is about as far from the “everyday” animated film as you can possibly get.

If asked to assign a genre to Wall-E I don’t think I could bring myself to do it. It is equal parts science fiction, comedy, and romance woven together seamlessly with a little bit of satire. Wall-E himself, is a very endearing character with surprising depth, and personality. I found this to be pretty impressive, considering that Wall-E is basically a trash compacter with limited ability to communicate verbally. Most of the film is pantomime with very limited dialog.

If you’ve seen any of the trailers or commercials, you’ll know that Wall-E is a robot left to clean up the planet after humans abandon Earth. After seven hundred years or so of being alone, with only a roach for a friend, he’s developed quite a personality. His lonely existence is shattered one day by the arrival of EVE, a reconnaissance robot who steals Wall-E’s robot heart and begins an epic adventure, meeting all sorts of wild and entertaining characters along the way.

I think they took a big risk with the lack of dialog in the film, and I think it payed off big time. My hat is off to Andrew Stanton on this one. To create a story containing deep, lovable characters, predominantly without the use of words is truly a great feat. I was also very impressed by the choice of the soundtrack for the film.

Anyway, Wall-E is a great movie for everyone, kids and adults, and is a must see for any Pixar fan. SEE THIS MOVIE

-Travis