Audible Motion Now on Twitter.

Hey everyone just wanted to let you know Audible Motion now has a Twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/audible_motion . So now all two of the readers don't have to come to Blogger to see if there is a new entry. This isn't a personal feed but dedicated only to this blog. Just go to twitter.com/audiblemotion

Mass Effect 2: The Best Movie of 2010?

*Note: I normally don't discuss video games on this blog I am an avid gamer and as you will see there is a reason for this venture away from my normal medium.*

January is typically the dumping ground for movies that had promise on paper but failed to
warrant the money required to promote a prestige film. The same is usually true for the gaming industry, the prestige games (a.k.a the big sellers) all come out in time for the holiday season.

However the big story in gaming this last year was a number of delays on some major titles like Red Dead Redemption, Alan Wake, and of course Mass Effect 2 all of which are currently slated to come out in January or early spring.

Chances are you've saw commercials for Mass Effect 2 during yesterday's playoff games and if you knew nothing about the game before hand, you may have thought it was the first of the studios line of Avatar rip-offs.



Yes there is little to no game play footage in the in ME2's ad campaign but this is due to the same reason the game is advertised during a mainstream sporting event on network TV. For you see, Bioware's sequel is a role-playing game, also known as an RPG, a genre that usually draws images of World of Warcraft players like these guys.



Unlike World of Warcraft, the Mass Effect games have a story, and that's an understatement. The characters are as well developed as any Oscar winning picture. There are moments in the first game where the player has to make decisions that decide which characters live and which die. More importantly the decisions are some of the most difficult in any game due to the commitment to story.

Finally, that brings me to the games cut scenes, which in most games are are more stiffly acted than any of the Star Wars prequels. Not only are these better acted but the gamer can seamlessly choose Commander Shepard's dialogue choices. Take a look:

http://xbox360.ign.com/dor/objects/718963/mass-effect/videos/masseffect_garrus_091407.html

So if you have a roommate or are planning on getting the game yourself. Make some popcorn, because you'll have one hell of a story to watch.

What Do Last Nights Golden Globes Mean For The Best Picture Oscar? Nothing!

Last night's Golden Globe's gave us few revelations; Ricky Gervais is HILARIOUS and should host every awards show possible, the trendy TV Comedy will always win (although I do like Glee), and Avatar is apparently the best movie of the year. The last of these however is kid stuff compared the Oscars, the Grand Daddy of them all.

The statement that the Golden Globe winners foretell the Oscars has lost nearly all of its relevancy when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that there will be ten best picture nominations this year. However, there are important things to keep in mind when looking at this years Best Picture race:

1. The Golden Globes differentiates between Comedy/Musicals and Dramas-In the past there is usually one spot reserved in the five Best Picture Oscar spots - think colllege basketball's conference tournaments that lead up to the national brackets (see Sideways or Little Miss Sunshine). So by that rule The Hangover would have a lock on the fifth Best Picture slot. However, any of the other Comedy/Musical Nominees are more the Academy's flavor. Given the now 10 nominees, there will now be a couple of spots for comedies. What it means: The Hangover, (500) Days of Summer, and It's Complicated/Julie & Julia will get a nomination-non of which will win.

2. History has shown the winners for Best Picture-Drama rarely match with the Oscars-The Hours, The Aviator, Brokeback Mountain, Babel, Atonement-all movies from the past decade that won Best Picture Drama and failed to win the best picture Oscar. We can put an asterik on The Hours as Chicago won best Comedy/Musical and the best picture Oscar that year. Avatar's win was certainly disheartening, not because its a bad movie but it was in much better company thankfully the odds are still stacked against it. What it means: Per usual, all of the nominations for Best Picture-Drama will carry over to the Oscar's Best Picture Race.

Other factors due to the 10 Nomination rule:

Animation now has a say...kinda-So if you're keeping score my predictions for the nominees leaves 2 slots available. One is pretty much reserved for anything Pixar cranks out that is better than Cars or even A Bugs Life. So Up is a lock. However this poses a predicament for animated films in general. Back in the day, an animated film that makes it into the coveted category is one in a million (in fact only Beauty And The Beast has done it). However, no animated film will ever win the award. So here's the gist: Any animated film that's nominated with nine others for best picture IS the best animated film in the Academy's eyes. Therefore the Animated category loses its prestige as it is actually awarding the second best animated film of the year.

The Mysterious 10th Spot-Here it is the 10th spot left unfilled. If the academy used this slot for the popular Documentary or Foreign film of the year however odds are it will go to a wild card movie like last year's The Dark Knight. Otherwise it could go to another indie film that failed to get some earlier awards love like A Serious Man or District 9.

My roommates can attest that I was upset over Avatar's big win last night however its important to keep cool and remember the Golden Globes mean less than ever in terms of the Oscar race.

Best Picture Nominations What If Series: 2008

While I don't approve the of the academy's decision to bring back the 10 nomination system, one can't help but wonder what could've been. I've decided to go back through the year 2000 and guess at what could've been nominated had this system already been in place. I've based these guesses on Golden Globe Nominees and Winners as well as if they received a nomination for their screenplay. Remeber there are technically 10 screenplay nominations every year (adapted, original) but only five director nominations and those usually are in line with the Best Picture nominations. The actual nominations are listed first followed by the five that would've been nominated under the new rule. I've also given a reason for the each one of the 6-10 as well as the nomination that would have had the best shot.

2008 was definitely a weaker year for film in terms of quality but there were definitely some underrated films that made this list easy to compile.

2008's Top 5 (According to the academy)

Slumdog Millionaire (Won) Milk, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Reader, Frost/Nixon

The could've beens:

The Wrestler- Let's be honest, everyone thought this would be nominated before The Reader (HAARRRVEEYYYY!!!). While it recieved 2 nominations (Actor, Supp. Actress) the lack of nominations in Director and Screenwriter (Even if it deserved them) leave me to think it could've been as arbitrary a nomination as The Reader, even if The Wrestler was a much better film

The Dark Knight-This was most likely 6th amongst the academy. It had the most nominations of any non-best picture nominated film (8) and while many of them were technical and none of them were for director or screenplay, this film was favored to be the Gladiator of 2008. An epic, genre blockbuster that had some real depth to it. Also, the previous years best picture winner (No Country For Old Men) was a genre film with depth, Javier Bardem won Best Supporting Actor for playing a hybrid of Ledger's Joker and Eckhart's Two-Face, except more people saw and liked this movie. I would've had no qualms with the academy if this was nominated. I've watched it as much as any other movie to come out that year and I can find something new almost every time.

Wall-E-It was my favorite film that year and I wish it was at the top of the bottom but unfortunately I just couldn't see it happening. It blew me away with it's maturity and willingness to go where it did and show all the kids with the Cars lunch boxes what their future might be like if they aren't careful. Unfortunately animated family films will rarely be serious contenders despite this one also receiving a best screenplay nomination.

Gran Torino- I just saw this after the initial post. How Clint didn't get nominated for best actor or director is a mystery. Yes he is playing an older Dirty Harry and sometimes the comedy comes from the shocking, racist remarks his character makes but the performance has more depth to that, the movie goes. The only reason I can think of why the academy didn't nominate this for best picture is because they have already shown Clint plenty of love (Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and a smaller amount with Letters From Iwo Jima) even if this was better than Baby. Many thought this had the most timely oscar campaign and would garner a nomination. With 10 there would've been no excuse not to.

Happy-Go-Lucky- Based on this list, the 10 nomination change could do exactly what the academy wants: more underdogs! This was one of the most underrated and under seen movies of last year and also one of the best (Boom! Hyperbole!). It was nominated for Original Screenplay and one can't help but think, Sally Hawkins might have picked up the best actress nomination if not for the infamous Kate Winslet nomination screw-up (I'm working on a better name). She was wonderful in this movie but the real reason it gets the last spot of the nominations is because it is the real indie darling that should've been. By the time of the nominations it was pretty much a no-brainer that Slumdog was going to win. This was as quirky, kitchy but much better than either Juno or Little Miss Sunshine and if there is one thing the Academy has come to love in the past few years, it's quirk.

Honorable Mention: In Burges ,Vicky Christina Barcelona*

*Was in the original ten but has since moved since I've seen Gran Torino.

Hi Everybody!

Sorry there haven't been any new posts lately. Summer's been busy at the DI and my other job. A few quick updates though as to what's in store for the next few posts and possibly the rest of the summer.

• With the addition of 5 more Oscar nominations for next year, I am going to look back (at least through 2000) at what movies would have been in the extra 5 spots.

• I recently watched She's Just Not That Into You and it got me thinking about the "intertwining characters device" and how it's used much more frequently so there should be a post on that.
  

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull: One Year Later

I joined the family at the lake house in WI for the long weekend and a tradition is to watch a movie together after dinner. My Dad has recently discovered the merit of Blockbuster's 4 for $20 deals and just goes back to get 4 more whenever he finishes the last ones he bought. So when I got to the house I was curious to see what they had brought for the weekend. To my disappointment (not surprise) there laid a copy of the most recent Indiana Jones movie. I hadn't seen the movie since I went to see it opening day with my friends but i remember our reaction being similar to this:

http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/187266

Okay so it wasn't as bad as all that, we did stay for the whole thing, but it was safe to say that we felt our childhood had been tainted. So much so, that a few of us went to Burger King the next day (with our Indiana Jones cups) and watched Raiders to get the bad taste out of our mouths.

So the time came to pop in a movie and it was unanimous amongst my mom, dad, sister, and uncle that we watch the film that had caused me so much pain about a year ago. To my surprise, it was fairly harmless this time around, in fact, it may have been as butters put it, pretty good...maybe not that good. At least they didn't pull a Rocky and have Ford do something crazy (fridge aside).

Here are to problems I still have with the movie but don't completely ruin it.

Too Much CGI/Green Screen!: With the exception of the man-eating ants, the CG took me out of the movie. I understand that both Harrison Ford and Karen Allen don't have the endurance for action scenes that they once did , but they couldn't at least film in a real jungle? And for the temples? I would've loved to see some old-school special effects with that infamous black line around the miniture sets. This brings me up to the issue that most found disheartning.

The Aliens were fine...until the ship took off: There's a reason the 1st and third movie are considered by most to be the best of the bunch, is because they involve christian artifacts. Temple of Doom was actually the first Indiana Jones I saw as a kid and I like it as much as the third. Until recently though, it was considered to be the worst of the franchise and I honestly think this has to do with the majority of the US audience belonging to either the Christian or Jewish faith. Because of their faith, a lot of people find it easier to believe the holy grail or arc of the covenant are real but an obscure section of indian religion or the possibility of a mayan civilization worshiping aliens are ludicrous. If some tribes worshiped the sun, then aliens aren't far off. I'm not knocking Christianity, people of faith, or any other form of religion but it is ridiculous to discount the plausibility of a different belief, even if it is subconciously.

D2 Mighty Ducks Entry

Just letting everyone know that the D2 entry is added but Blogger puts the posts in order of when I started writing them, not when they are actually posted. Ill try not to let this happen again.