Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Nine: There will be Blood

The first DVD I watch to give me a complete view of a 1930s cinematic experience is the one for Captain Blood. This one has a lot of elements that were similar to The Adventures of Robin Hood, director Michael Curtiz and stars Errol Flynn, Olivia De Havilland and Basil Rathbone. However Captain Blood was made three years previously to Robin Hood, sees Flynn in his first leading role and his first of six screen collobarations with De Havilland. The main problem I had with Captain Blood is that we have to buy the fact that Flynn is a doctor at least for the first part of the movie. After treating a man involved in the rebellions against James II Flynn is forced into slavery and whilst in the Caribbean comandeers a pirate ship that has rocked up to pilage the governor's land. Meanwhile Blood has fallen for the niece of a wealthy lanlord who has designs on being governer but double crosses her for a life of piracy. From here it is usual Errol Flynn territory swashbuckling and a sword fight plus a quick appearance from Rahtbone as a French pirate who wants to have De Havilland's character for himself. The finale is a high octane fight as the British fight the French for supremacy as Blood is happy that William of Orange is now in the throne. This is a very much us and them film as the aristocracy are portrayed as fancy clothes wearing cowards and the rebels are portayed as hardworking, loyal and brave. Flynn is a captivating lead even in his early films and his chemistry with De Havilland is winning and it is easy to see why he was paired with her time and time again. As previously mentioned the DVD comes with a newsreel and a cartoon and gives the idea that this kind of cinema was pure escapism for the American depression era as the crowds would get to cheer on Flynn and boo the villians.

In terms of Oscar success this was nominated in the 1936 ceremony, I don't think it is as accomplished as the other film I have already watched from that year - Top Hat but it is still a pretty well made film. In fact it was nominated for five Oscars - Curtiz's direction of course is one of them as is picture alongside script (a bit dubious) and sound recording and music the former sounds ropey by today's standards but obviously was advanced at the time and the latter was a brilliant accompaniment to the swashbuckling adventures of Flynn and co. Despite being nominated it won nothing which is a shame as this was obviously the early forerunner to the big screen action blockbuster that we know today.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Eight: The First to Five

So far I have watched quite a few iconic films on this list but in terms of Oscar history, It Happened One Night is possibly one of the most important. The film was one of the only three to win the Big Five awards (Picture, Actor, Actress, Screenplay and Director), I also have to admit that it is one I haven't seen but I have wanted to see for a while so this project was really ideal for an excuse to finally see what I was missing. What first struck me was the whole simplicity of the story - a rich girl runs away from her overprotective to father to be with her new husband but on the way meets a handsome journalist who helps her on her travels, unlike a lot of films that I have previously watched this film is timeless and could easily be made today. The knockabout humour of the stars and the road movie aspect made me think of the Rob Reiner films The Sure Thing and When Harry met Sally both films see mismatched couples meet on the road and survive together only to find that they actually love each other. However I'm wondering if a film like this was made today with the some calibre of stars and script, if it would be nominated for an Oscar. Romantic comedies are very much seen as passe and to be fair a lot of them are awful but if someone made a really good one I think the snobbery of the Oscars would still prevent it from being nominated. But It Happened One Night kept me interested from beginning to end with its light script and its themes of opression, money and journalism.

Clark Gable thoroughly deserved his Oscar for his charming portrayal of the journalist who turns his attention to Colbert's chracter after he realises who she is, but his declaration of love near the end of the film is brilliant. It's nice to see such a positive female lead, unlike Luise Rainer two years later, Claudette Colbert deserved her Oscar she was feisty and also naive more than holding her own against Gable. I have to say its the first time since I started this that I felt that the female lead was a strong as the man despite some very famous actresses already passing my eyes (Olivia De Havilland, Ginger Rogers) I have to say that Colbert was glamourous and entertaining and a darn fine actress. Meanwhile Frank Capra's direction and Robert Riskin's adapted script were also more than deserving of their awards. From watching Clint Eastwood's Changeling I also learnt that this film wasn't expected to win a thing at it was Cecil B DeMille's Cleopatra (also starring Colbert) which was expected to sweep the board. Today it would be hard for a romantic comedy to top a historical epic but not so in 1935 when things were a lot more simple.

Its also odd that this is the second film I've watched about 'newspaper men' (the first being The Front Page) and the second time that I've found some more of my Oscar films on YouTube. Out of my 1920s/1930s period of Oscar films I'm now only missing 22 out of a possible 86 titles. The one I mostly looking for is Cavalcade (1933) winner of the 1934 Best Picture Oscar, it is the only Best Picture winner from this era that I'm still hunting for so if anyone could tell me a place to find it that would be great. Be back soon with more Oscar movies.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Seven: Good golly Miss Folly

Its a weekend of winners in my next two films that I recieve from LoveFilm. The first to arrive is the winner of the 1937 prize, The Great Ziegfeld. It is also the first film that I can compare to another from that year, that being Three Smart Girls. And if it was a two horse race I would have to put my money on Ziegfeld all the way. I have to put my hands up and admit that I didn't really know much about this film coming into it other than I had heard of the Ziegfeld Follies. But I have to say that this is a towering epic coming in at just under three hours, the DVD version also gave you a feel of those early days of cinema by playing the film's oveture and interval music. The film is set over forty years and is partly based on the true life of Florence Ziegfeld Jr. the son of a respected music professor who wants to break into showbusiness from promoting a strongman at the Chicago's World Fair to having his own show on Broadway. Some of the best parts of the film for me were the opening hustle and bustle that were depicted in the World Fair scenes also a joy were the scenes of bickering between Ziegfeld and his long-time rival and later friend Billings. For me I feel that this relationship is the one that underpins the film and lasts a lot longer than any that Ziegfeld has with his leading laidies. The film started to slip for me when Ziegfeld hired and later married Anna Held. I felt that Luise Rainer failed to hold the screen and captivate in a way that others did. I found it completely surprising then that she won the Best Actress picture over Norma Shearer, Irene Dunne and Carole Lombarde. As this was at the height of MGM's Fame it isn't unusual that their big pictue would get such awards glory but there was a rumor that Louis B Mayer bought the Oscar.

The film got going a bit later on with the introduction of Myrna Loy as Ziegfeld's second wife Billie Burke. Meanwhile there were some great cameo appearances from Ray Bolger and Fanny Brice as themselves, Brice particularly lit up the stage in her handful of scenes. The whole thing was an array of musical numbers and this added to the showbiz feel of the whole thing but at times I thought this ran a bit overlong. All in all a great spectacle with some wonderful musical numbers and an overlooked lead performance from William Powell (not even nominated for Best Actor) it also shed a light on the growing trends in the entertainment industry. In the latter parts of the film Ziegfeld is seen as losing his touch as stars from the stage rush to Hollywood he tries to rebuild his reputation but ends up losing all his money in The Wall Street Crash of 1929. I found parts of the film touching and emotional, others grandiose and a few moments of sheer boredom, Ziegfeld certainly was inconsistent but you can't argue with the glamour and stage production of the Follies numbers. There may've been a better film in the 1937 Oscar Best Picture list but I doubt there was one as grand as this.

Review: Kick-Ass

Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman's last project together was an adaptation of Neil Gaiman's fantasy book Stardust. While that film had its foot purely rated in fantasy this one is a mixture of fantasy and reality as one teenage boy aims to be a superhero. Rather than a low-grade parody of super hero films this is more of a loving tribute as Dave tries to bring down the criminal underworld of New York and in particular crime boss Frank D'Amico. Dave's story is almost a very average teen movie, if you take away the story of the superhero, this is a boy who is incredibly geeky even though he claims not to be and hangs round with two dorky friends reading comic books he then pretends to be gay so he can try and ensnare the girl that he is enamoured with so we get lots of 'comedy' sequences where Dave applies fake tan to his topless would-be-girlfriend. So far so Superbad. But the romantic plot aside Kick-Ass has a lot to offer. There is an emotional underpinning as Dave tries to rid the streets of casual muggers and drug-dealers. He is a boy who's upbringing has been halted by the death of his mother from an annuerism and he has a very monosyllabic relationship with his father but you can tell that there is real love there.

Hoewver the films real emotional underscore is provided by Big Daddy and Hit Girl a father and daughter team who are trying to avenge D'Amico inadventerdly causing the death of Hit Girl's mother. The scenes between a father struggling to raise his daughter are very well played and that is why there is something deeper beyond the violence and swearing. Much has been made of Hit Girl's use of fowl language but that is few and far between however she is involved in two of the film's most memorable scenes and her first violent takedown of thugs to the strains of the theme tune from the Banana Splits is where you truly decide whether you love the film or not (I was in the former category). The third storyline strand is between D'Amico and his comic book loving son Chris who wants to be part of his father's criminal business but isn't the son that his father wants. So in essence this film could be seen as a study of the relationships between parents and children. But you will go away remembering the day-glo costumes, the 12 year old girl throwing knives and the very witty script.

Aaron Johnson is a very likeable lead and he does 'regular guy' very well, if I hadn't read before that he was the actor who portrayed John Lennon in Nowhere Boy I wouldn't have put two and two together. Johnson seems to be at ease throughout the film and makes you care about Dave's welfare during the scenes where Kick-Ass is outnumbered by thugs. Johnson isn't the only Brit among the cast, Mark Strong lays on a thick Italian-American accent as D'Amico and is packed up by, among others, Dexter Fletcher and Jason Flemyng as two of his goons. The mobsters are very much a pastiche of those seen in gangster films such as The Godfather and Goodfellas. Nic Cage delivers his best role in years delivering a very fine Adam West peformance when he dons the Big Daddy gear but also providing more tender moments when he is trying to be a father to his daughter. Christopher Mintz-Plasse is still best known as McLovin from Superbad, but here he is not just a one-dimensional character and as Chris shares a great chemistry with Strong. But it is Chloe Moretz who steals the show as Hit Girl she is great both in the foul mouthed action sequences but also in the more heartfelt scenes with Cage and it is these scenes that make me think that she may've been the right choice to play the girl vampire in the Let the Right One In remake after all.

While there are problems with the film - some of the scenes are a little repetive and although the love story is needed it isn't handled with the same care and attention as the other scenes. Kick Ass is a very funny, very violent and a times very heartfelt film that will appeal to comic book fans everywhere as well as those who just want a good time at the cinemas. This is definitely my favourite film of the year so far.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Seven: A Little bit of variety

Even before my YouTube discovery yesterday I had already come to the conclusion that I wouldn't get to watch all of The Hollywood Revue of 1929. The film was nominated for Best Picture at the second academy awards, the first of two ceremonies to be held in 1930. This is probably the oddest film on the list as it is simply a variety show featuring a ton of performers under contract for MGM in 1929. As this was a variety show a lot of the segments from it were up on YouTube even though the film as a whole is nowhere to be found on the internet. The most famous stars involved would have to be Joan Crawford, Buster Keaton, Nomra Shearer, Laurel and Hardy and Jack Benny who acted as compere. In terms of being nominated for an Oscar I'm a little bemused by the whole thing if truth be told. Apparently at that ceremony no official nominees had been announced so it seems The Hollywood Revue may've just got lucky. Even for a variety show its very patchy, I think the lack of an audience didn't help matters if there'd been somewhere there to laugh at Jack Benny's gags or Laurel and Hardy's magician routine then I may've enjoyed it more but as it is only a couple of the musical numbers made me smirk.

At the same time this film is of some historical value. For one thing it was the first itme a lot of these stars had been heard on screen, many of them were stars of the silent era. It was the first time that Stan and Ollie's voices were heard on screen and it seemed to add an extra element to their performance. Similarly a musical Romeo and Juliet segment (which I wasn't able to find) featured Norma Shearer (she would later feature in the 1936 film version) and Jack Gilbert. Gilbert had been a swashbuckling star of the silent era but after hearing his pleasant singing voice he lost a lot of the charm that he'd portrayed in those silent films. The film is also the first time we ever hear Singin' in the Rain on celluloid this is done mid-way through the performance and also as the finale appearing in two strip-technicolour again something that seems ancient know but very modern at the time. So although as a film it makes no sense, The Hollywood Revue of 1929 deserves a place a hisotrical film but not an Oscar film.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Six: A Good Journalist never reveals his sources

With no LoveFilm DVDs present I turn to the one film available in their 'Watch Now' selection - The Front Page. Adapted from a play of the same name this apparently is considered a Screwball Comedy but frankly I didn't find many laughs until the final scene. I could tell it was a play adaptation straight away as the action was very insular, it being almost entirely set in a small and stuffy newsroom at the court building overlooking the gallows at the county jail. The whole thing is given a sinister edge straight away by the theme of hangings almost being mentioned every five minutes. Public executions it seems were pretty commonplace at the time and the crime in particular in this film is that a man is accused of killing a black policeman. Top reporter Hildy Johnson is about to move to New York with his new wife but his plans change when he is forced to help Earl Williams, the man who is about to be hanged, to escape. With its themes of race relations and political espionage the film could've been a top class thriller but for me it just feels pretty dated. Part of the reason may have been that the film hasn't been particularly well kept and the print was pretty dodgy. But another reason is that this was the era in which sound was first introduced and it seemed that a lot of the actors were still getting used to that phenomenon, The Front Page was definitely what you would call a talkie, one of the first films to appear following the advent of sound at the films. That's not to say there's not much to like in The Front Page, all the performances and the banter between the reporters is very good indeed as are the film's basic plot structure.

I think that if I'd have watched it in 1931 I would've been impressed but in 2010 I would have to give it a must try harder. The film has been remade twice since once under its original title in a version starring Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon and one where the story was slightly tweaked so that the character of Hildy Johnson became a woman and was played by Rosalind Russell acting alongside Cary Grant as the newspaper editor the film was the classic, His Girl Friday. In terms of its Oscar success it was nominated for three awards - Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Adolphe Menju who played the newspaper's editor, a role today that I would consider more supporting than lead. However it did not win a single one of these awards and Best Picture that year went to Cimarron. I would have to say though, in terms of Oscar nominations, I think it did well to recieve all three.

Later on in the day, trying to find more of these films on google videos etc. I stumble across a YouTube page where the user in question has loads of these Oscar nominated films uploaded. I think a lot of these I would never have been able to find without the help of this certain user, but at the same time I'm never one to play nark and reveal the name of this certain user or indeed the films I have obtained from YouTube but suffice to say its a great relief to say that I will be able to watch more films than I first intended.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Five: Matt almost gets outsmarted by three girls.

Up to now all of the films I have watched I have known as either being classics (Robin Hood, Top Hat) or just by reputation (Wings). But for the first time I didn't know what to expect from Three Smart Girls, the latest film in my list and a nominee from 1937. That year's Best Picture Oscar went to The Great Ziegfeld and the only other film I recognise on the list from that year is Mr Deeds Goes to Town. Three Smart Girls is a knockabout film about three sisters who try to stop their father from marrying a gold-digging socialite with a manipulative mother. But really it was the launching pad for Deanna Durbin who, by the age of 14, was the biggest paid star in Hollywood at the time but I have never heard of her. Here she plays youngest sister Penny Craig the one who seems to be able to solve all the problems but is also a lot more precocious then her two older sisters. Durbin was also a recording artists and one of the things that really irked me about the film was the need for her to burst into song every so often I felt that these sequences really slowed the film down. Of course this being a basic farce the main joke is mistaken identity as their father's business associate arranges for a penniless Hungarian count to romance the gold-digger but they end up mistaking him for an Anglo-Australian lord who in turn falls for middle sister Kay. In the end though everything works out as Penny runs away their father realises his mistake in marrying the gold-digger and eventually reunites with their mother. The two older sisters find love with the business associate and the lord respectively and the gold-digger and the mother end up on a ferry journey with the Hungarian count. The film was so succesful that it spawned a sequel however Barbara Reed who played Kay did not return for the sequel. Meanwhile Durbin only lasted for about fifteen years in Hollywood ending her film career in the late 1940s and never giving an interview after 1948, while the other actresses who played the girls also had short-lived careers.

I have to say that this is the first film that I didn't really care for. Part of the reason is Deanna Durbin who I would describe as the Shirley Temple of her time, certainly in this film at least. Nan Grey has little to do as eldest sister Joan and Barbara Reed was the only one of the girls that I found particularly likeable. Another problem I had was that their was a massive age gap between Kay and the Lord (played by Ray Milland, the only actor in the film I recognised) but this was never really bought up and was accepted as the norm. There was a bit of fun to be had with the Hungarian count and the manipulative mother as well as the girl's father who was a very weak and harrassed man. At the end of the day it was all very twee and I'm guessing as it was made during the depression in America that people needed cheering up and listening to Durbin's songs and watching all the happy romantic ramblings of The Three Smart Girls. But I for one didn't care for it and didn't think it should've been nominated for an Oscar.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Four: Let's Go Robin

As previously stated the first part of this project is looking at films that were nominated for Best Picture in the Oscar ceremonies held from 1929 to 1939 and made in the years between 1927 and 1938. The last film I watched was 1929 winner, Wings made in 1927 which as I previously discussed was a silent film made in black and white. Fastforward just over 10 years and the next film I watch is The Adventures of Robin Hood made in 1939 and what a difference those years made. Now the film is available in technicolour, with a terrific score and fantastic sound as well as great ensemble cast. I think I may have seen this when I was very young but since I have developed my love of films I haven't tried to watch it again. It has become famous because of Errol Flynn's lead performance, Flynn was of course heralded for his swashbuckling nature and was one of the stars of the era. In fact the most famous scenes involve his sword battles and various action stunts but thing that wowed me was the use of colour. Its the first film I've watched on this challenge that is filmed in colour and it certainly makes use of this new phenomenon. Every piece of clothing is incredibly colourful and striking from Robin's green tunic to Guy of Gisbourne and Prince John's finery and Maid Marion's dress. The sets are also brilliantly designed and one of the three Oscars that the film won was for the art direction. The score also won an Oscar and sound plays a big part in the film and adds to the mood of the action.

The story itself is very traditional and is possibly the big screen version of Robin Hood that sticks most notably to the actual legend of Robin Hood it is much about the wars between Normans and Saxons as it is between The Merry Men and Prince John and the rest of them. Usually in filmic versions of Robin Hood it is The Sherrif of Nottingham who is the main villain but in this film he has been made into a comic henchman instead it is the snivelling Prince John in charge and Guy of Gisbourne who does all his handiwork, meanwhile the Maid Marian character is quite strong but at the same time quite cold for most of the film. The film is very theatrical and has big performances, its no surprising that Flynn was one of the stars of the time as he is a commanding presence and plays a very good hero while Basil Rathbone, best known for playing Sherlock Holmes, exceeds as Guy. Olivia De Havilland is a perfect leading lady glamourous and able to hold her own with the men while Casablanca's Claude Rains is perfectly suited to the role of Prince John. The film flits from comedy to action to romance and is probably akin to today's blockbusters this technicolour spectacular having the same effect on 1930s cinemagoers as Avatar had on us last year.

However just like Avatar, Adventures of Robin Hood only picked up minor awards for Editing, Art Direction and Score. What surprised me was that no performances were nominated from the film as I thought the acting was great. Again though I cannot judge whether this was the best film in the category until I've seen the other nine films that accompanied it including that year's winner You Can't Take it With You. What I do know though is that I thoroughly enjoyed Flynn and co's retelling of the classic Nottingham-based adventure.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Three: The Project takes Wings

On my first mission to find out how many of these Oscar films I could get on DVD, I was dejected to learn that the DVD was not available. Luckily YouTube came to my aid and I found out that someone had posted the film in 14 parts. At over two hours long this silent film was a bit much to handle at first as I wasn't accustomed to the formula of the pictures followed by the dialogue putting up on the screen. Of course I've seen films like Nosferatu and Metropolis, but those are more of the neo-realism era this is a full on U.S.A.-OK film. The story deals with Jack and David two men who enrol in the Air Force while Jack's girl next door would-be love interest Mary also signs up to the Motor Corps. I thought, seeing as it was 1927, the flying sequences are particularly impressive and the music that accompanies the picture is also well judged.

However the film is archaic in its views and some of the scenes seem laughable. Men training by boxing each other and an odd scene in a Paris nightclub are two examples of where Wings goes wrong. Another probelm is the film's patriotic nature by telling us that the Americans were responsible for winning World War I and the British are portrayed as jolly men who are along for the ride. The performances are impressive especially from starlet of the time Clara Bow as Mary who's expressions made her perfect for the silent era. At the end of the day though this looks at the effects on war both on those fighting and those they've left behind. In 2010 The Hurt Locker won Best Picture but despite its superior effects and scripts it shares a lot of similarities with Wings. Whether Wings deserved to win Best Picture needs to be seen I have to watch its two competitor films but for now its a clear favourite.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day Two: All Quiet on the DVD Front

LoveFilm delivered the first film I would watch that had actually won the Best Picture Award - All Quiet on The Western Front. However when inserting into my computer the DVD drive didn't even recognise there was a DVD in there. Inspecting the back of the DVD I found it was scratched all over and would definitely not play in any of my other players.
Now I'm not slagging off LoveFilm I think they provide a brilliant service and they've been good to me over the years but I don't think a DVD should be sent out in that quality. Anyway annoyed I decide to abandon the challenge for today.

Review: Shutter Island

Scorsese returns to big screen storytelling for his first dramatic feature since The Departed won him a Best Director Oscar three years ago. Shutter Island sees Marty team with Leo DiCaprio for their fourth feature together. The story of Shutter Island sees two federal marshalls in the 1950s travel to an island which houses an institution for the criminally insane. Both men feel information is being kept from them and therefore have to distrust everyone from doctors to the orderlies and everyone in between. From the very first scene it is evident that Scorsese is referencing some old-school thrillers from the score to the cliched use of the weather everything is in place to give the audience chills. Laeta Kalogridis' script based on Dennis Lehane's novel is very well done giving the audience bits of information throughout the film rather than all at once. This allows us to try and question some of the flashbacks that Leo's character has and what they might mean. Although at times the film is overly talky and some of the dialogue is a bit clunky at a times laughable it all fits in the with the tone of the film. The film is incredibly well shot and stylised the sets and especially the costumes all add to the tone and themes that run throughout the film.

As previously stated Leo is perfect as the seemingly by-the-book lawman suspicious of the intellectuals who aren't giving the information he needs. Mark Ruffalo is perfect sidekick material as Leo's partner Chuck, while Sir Ben Kingsley and Max Von Sydow are equally creepy as the pipe-smoking head of the institution and the German therapist respectively. Emily Mortimer and Patricia Clarkson both steal the respective scenes in which they feature while Monk's Ted Levine also has fun in his scene as the island's Warden. While other films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Girl Interrupted have used the space of the instution to create isolation for the characters, the theme throughout Shutter Island is definitely what does it mean to be insane? And how far to we have to go before we are declared mad? There are a couple of negatives in the film, I found the overuse of flashbacks at the beginning of the film meant that it was hard to stick with the opening linear narrative and as previously stated some of the lines and character traits are a bit cheesy or clunky but to an extent that adds to the old school feel of the piece.

While it's never going to be considered a classic like some of Scorsese's previous works it is still one of his most purely entertaining films. While none of the characters has the depth of Jake LaMotta or Travis Bickle the film provides constant thrills and shocks and you will still be thinking about the film long after you leave the cinema. Possibly the most purely entertaining film of the year so far.

Review: No Distance Left to Run

Last year there was a spate of documentaries about Heavy Metal groups we saw Anvil: The Story of Anvil about the heavy metal group that never quite made it as big as their contemporaries while Iron Maiden: Flight 666 was basically a tour video diary filled with live performances and not much depth while the latter was purely for the fans the former could've been enjoyed by anyone. This year it seems we may be relviing the glory years of Indie and Brit Pop, which is odd for me because a look back to the music of my youth makes me feel quite old. The first of these films is No Distance Left to Run looking at Blur, a group who I grew up following and even have a few of their albums on casette tapes. The dual narrative looks at how the four members of the group met while joining the band as they reunite for a seires of small gigs before conquering the main stage at 2009's Glastonbury Festival. As someone who thought he knew quite a lot about the band I was surprised at some of the stories from the bands over-reliance on alchol and drugs to how far they drifted apart in the latter years of their original run.

It was also nice to hear some interviews from them because, while Damon Albarn as always been the band's mouthpiece and Alex James has become pretty ubiquituos in recent years, Graham Coxon doesn't really give a lot of full and frank interviews and I think I've never heard drummer Dave Rowntree speak. I got a whole retrospective of the band and especially learnt a lot about the relationship between Albarn and Coxon whose rumored feud saw Coxon leave the band before Blur recorded their final original album, Think Tank. I think the film is cleverly made and appeals to both casual music fans and die-hard Blur fanatics offering something for both and not overloading on live performances while at the same time giving us the tracks that made Blur stars from 'There's No Other Way' to 'Tender'. A very gentle well-made rockumentary which will leave you feeling happy and warm inside.

Review: Ponyo

After ranking Hayao Miyazaki's Spirited Away as one of my favourite films of the last decade I was eagerly awaiting Ponyo the new offering from Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli and the first he has directed since the impressive Howl's Moving Castle. Fans of the Ghibli animation won't be disappointed as again we are plunged into the world of the sea and the neighbouring island as Ponyo turns from a fish into a little girl. Miyazaki has always excelled at combining the fantasy world and real-life issues and here we see the underwater world that Ponyo lives in intersposed with domestic issues of a father not seeing his family as he his out at sea as well as treatment of the elderly in care homes. So on one hand as an animation it excels and like with The Princess and The Frog, it demonstrates that in this computer-animated world there is still room for hand-drawn animated features.

Where the film falls down is in its story whereas both Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle had complex multi-layered stories, the story in Ponyo is very slight indeed. This may have something to do with Disney's involvement in the film as the themes revolve around very young love and how protective parents should be. The American voice cast is also very much marketed towards a younger Disney-fied audience as we have Noah (sister of Miley) Cyrus and Noah the youngest of the Jonas Brothers, who is too young to be in the band and pass out chastity rings to vulnerable teenage girls. The most misjudged member of the vocal team is Liam Neeson who, as Ponyo's father, seems completely out of place in the film, his booming majestic voice suits Aslan just fine, but he doesn't have the subtle tones needed for a film of this nature. Part of me wonders whether I would've enjoyed it more in its traditional Japanese with subtitles because the American version seems very Americanised indeed.

Overall an interesting film from the Ghibli stable but with an odd choice of voice actors and a very weak narrative it doesn't stand up against classics like Spirited Away and The Cat Returns.

Review: From Paris With Love

From Paris with Love has all the elements of good-old brainless action thriller a Luc Besson producer credit, a shouty bald John Travolta and plenty of cars and guns for good measure. But somehow these elements don't mesh together well enough at the end of the day what we're left with is a film that, if it didn't have Travolta's name on the credicts, would probably have ended up going straight to DVD. For an actor of the calibre of Jonathan Rhys-Meyers his role is very limited, as the main character he has to anchor the action as he becomes involved with Travolta's unfortunately named Mr. Wax but a lot of the time he just ends up reacting to what's going on without having much to do himself apart from playing a little chess now and again. Travolta meanwhile should be better than this, he was one of the better things about last year's patchy remake of The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3 but here he just splurts out cliche after cliche even reviving his old Royale with Cheese line from Pulp Fiction.

Another problem I had with the film was its inherent racism. Even though the film is set in Paris, therefore you would expect the villains to be French, instead they are mainly Chinese or Muslim stereotypes. I don't think this has much to do with the story but instead I feel it would confuse the film's target teen white male audience to see two white guys fighting and so presents them with two different skin colours so they know who they have to root for. The film also skirts over issues of drug abuse and terrorism and uses them purely as tools for advancing the plot rather than making a comment on either of them. At the end of the day this doesn't have the merits to be an entertaining action film or the fun factor to be the next Crank or Death Race. Instead we just have an old tired story with an old tired leading man who should know better at his age.

Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Day One: Putting on my Top Hat

A somewhat succesful hunt means that I have found the first two winners of Best Picture: Wings and The Broadway Melody which will be watched in due course.

But for now today I sat down and watched Top Hat.

The film was one of 10 nominated in the 1936 awards ceremony and is possibly one of the most famous musicals of all time. But yes I have never seen it until today. I don't know why but I think I had an aversion to the Fred and Ginger movies for some strange reason but I have to say I really enjoyed it.

You can see why the film was considered one of the best of its year. In a time where films were just coming into the age of sound this one already had it effortlessly implanted into the film the music from the very start was toe-tapping joy. Of course some of the songs are still implanted in the culture from 'Cheek to Cheek/I'm in Heaven' to 'Putting on my Top Hat' and the whole musical aspect is very well done without being overdone.

Some of the slapstick comedy and farcical nature of the film does seem archane by today's standards but its still quite funny in some places especially from Eric Blore as Bates the manservant while Fred and Ginger's chemistry is always winning and here is no different.

Overall I would say that this is a fine early sound feature with some brilliant musical numbers and a rightly Oscar-nominated set design. As the rest of these films roll in I will have to judge which one of the 1936 films was the best but Top Hat though nominated for four Oscars went home empty handed, Best Picture that year went to the original Mutiny on the Bounty.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to watch another Oscar picture and possibly a winner.

Matt's Big Oscar Movie Challenge

As I watch this year's Oscars I'm impressed by how many films I have seen that are in the running for the awards. However during the overlong ad breaks I find myself glimpsing back into Oscar's past and there's a LOAD of Films I haven't seen.

So here's the challenge:

To watch or in some cases re-watch every film nominated for a Best Picture Oscar before next year Oscars. But first here's some research I did.

There have been 458 films nominated for Best Picture. As not all this year's have been released over here yet I'm looking at the 448 previous Best Picture nominees.

Of those I own just 65.

As I am member of LoveFilm I am able to order another 274 of them.

That means I have to find 109 of them by other means.

I will be taking my mission decade to decade starting in the 1920s and 1930s segment. There was only one ceremony in the 1920s and the 1929 event only had three best picture contenders. From there there were two Oscars in 1930 both with five nominees and one in 1931 again with five nominees. With the exception of 1933 where there was no awards show every year the contest had ten nominees meaning that this period in total has a total of 88 films for me to watch and as you can imagine this is the time where a lot of these films are hard to come by.

I start by adding the ones I can to my LoveFilm account and the rest I will have to find by other means. And as I type my Big Oscar challenge will be starting tomorrow as my first film 1936 contender - Top Hat will be my first film to watch.

Review: Green Zone

For fans of the Bourne films the third collaboration between Matt Damon and director Paul Greengrass has obviously been anticipated for some time. However those expecting the slick yet subtle actioner with depth and fine performances will be unlucky. Though Greengrass' direction is still solid, Green Zone is an entirely different kettle of fish to the pair's previous work. The plot is one of the main problems, a script by L.A. Confidential and Mystic River's Brian Helegeland should've been a solid bet, but the story is disjointed flitting between action and politics and not being sure about either. Although there are still enough explosions to satisfy the die-hard action fans, they will have to sit through a lot of piffle first. The build-up to the action is the reason for the war in Iraq, the search for WMDs and the lack there of. Damon's Chief Miller becomes suspicious of the motives of the war and searches out the people who can help him. Had this film happened five or more years ago then it would've been seen as revolutionary and a critique of the reasons for war may of made a renegade film. But as we are in 2010 and the Iraq inquiry is ongoing the film seems to be rather a late entry into the Iraq cannon.

In the Bourne films part of Matt Damon's charm seemed to be his use of actions over words but here he has a lot to say and most of it is very course. Indeed the dialogue in the first 20 or so minutes of the film uses the same kind of action movie cliches that I criticised Avatar for. Although Damon does assert an authority as an army chief and does play the part well but he struggles with the material he is given. The cast does include some fine character actors including Greg Kinnear as a slimy yes man and Brendan Gleason as a suspicous CIA agent both excel in the film but again have little to do. And spare a thought for poor old Jason Isaacs who is little more than an afterthought basically running around a lot and sporting some fine facial fur. The only woman with a noteable role is Amy 'Beadie Russell from The Wire' Ryan as a cliched journalist who's 'after the truth' as it were. That there are no women involved either as agents or soldiers in the film just demonstrates how testosterone-fuelled the entire film is.

That's not to say there's nothing to enjoy, Green Zone features some fine overhead shots of Baghdad and as with his previous films Greengrass puts us in the centre of the action making Iraq come alive as we journey down its many streets and look down on it from above. There is also an interesting message about U.S. involvement in Iraq, should the Iraqis be allowed to sort out their own problems without the west getting involved? It is an interesting question but it is mixed up with a lot of other politics so it becomes little more than a sidenote. The best performance of the whole film comes from Khalid Abdalla as Freddie an Iraqi native who sides with the Americans and has some great chemistry with Damon.

Overall this is an enjoyable ride if you're just in for a solid action film however the political aspects are a little skewed. Green Zone is no Bourne Ultimatum and certainly can't stand side by side with its most recent contemporary, The Hurt Locker, but it rises above a lot of the action schlock that it is available at the local multiplex so I would still recommend it.

4th Annual Oscar Blog

This is a kind of idea of my night building up to Oscar night. Currently being without Sky Movies I'm having to find a stream of the show. During the show the stream cut out which means I missed Sandra Bullock (wrongly) winning. I am therefore using my tweets to piece together the evening as well as a copy of the event which I have found online to jog the old grey cells. So without further a do, ladies and gentlemen please take your seats for Matt's 4th annual Oscar Blog.


10:30 pm - After finishing watching Stardust on Channel 4 I begin readying myself bringing a whole box of coke cans upstairs with me. Followed by some cheese crackers, a bag of marshmellows and a chocolate orange leftover from Christmas which is still in date.

10:45pm - Found a site on JustinTV that promises Oscar streaming and is at the moment showing the end of the Independent Spirit Awards with Laura Dern harping on about how good independent films have been and showing a montage which was basically Pulp Fiction, Blue Velvet and Lost In Translation.


10:47 pm - I arrogantly announce that I will begin tweeting shortly.

10:55 pm - I realise my computer isn't typing as fast as it should so I shut it down and reboot.

11:10 pm - After my computer fails to print my tweet I resign myself to the fact that the night may be tweet-free.


11:30 pm - Have realised that Word being open is effecting the rest of the programmes so shut it down.

11:41pm - Finally have relaxed enough, after making a cup of tea, to settle down and watch the E! pre-show in which James Cameron is banging on about how much people enjoyed seeing the film in 3D. Any avid blog readers will know my thoughts on the film and its gross really wasn't anything to do with the quality of the film but because of the intrigue of 3D. Hey I saw it twice and didn't think much of it either time!

11:42 pm - Maggie Gyllenhaal and a neo-nazi looking Peter Sarsgaard are possibly Hollywood's classiest couple. Ryan Seacrest interviews Gyllenhaal about her nomination but fails to mention Sarsgaard's starring role in An Education which is nominated for Best Picture.

11:44pm - Pretty blonde actress Elizabeth Banks, drew the pretty actress short straw and had to show all the nerds at the Sci Tech Oscars what a real woman looked like. It got me to thinking if the Sci Tech Awards had their own red carpet, what would it be like? You wouldn't be able to move for holograms and the What Are You Wearing Questions would probably be answered by - My Atari T-Shirt, Same as last year.

11:49 pm - Cameron co-conspirator Sigourney Weaver is no extolling the virtues of 3D. Wittering on about how it underscores the emotional journey of the movie. My Lord, Weaver, no it doesn't it simply underscores Cameron's wish to charge you a pound more when you go to the cinema to buy those stupid glasses which are easily smudged.

11:50 pm - During the Weaver interview there is a cutaway to Tarrantino, who has bought Inglourious Basterds actress Diane Kruger as his date and he seems to think gives him reason to mildly grope her.


11:53 pm - Co-Host Alec Baldwin's TV co-star Tina Fey talks about how nervous he is and also hypes her movie Date Night.

11:58 pm - Ryan Seacrest is now fauning over Sandra Bullock. But isn't mentioning her Razzie win for All About Steve the night before.


12:01 am - As an antidote to all this malarky I decide to watch Bullock's Razzie appearance on YouTube and it is a complete hooot as she hands out DVDs for All About Steve to the members of the Razzie voters.


12:06 am - Bullock's on-screen family, Tim McGraw and Quinton Aaron, are being interviewed now with McGraw cracking a joke about African Americans and coming off as some kind of racist redneck.

12:07 am - Cutaway to Melanie Griffith and Antonio Banderas arriving, Banderas seems to be sporting some kind of beard that should adorn a wise old professor.

12:17 am - George Clooney arrives at the Oscars sans date, or at least that's how it appears.

12:18 am - Katherine Bigelow is now being interviewed she is both classy and cool and very sexy. I cannot believe she is 58!


12:29 am - Clooney's on-screen now and his joined by his Italian date. He always seems to bring a different woman with him each time he's nominated during awards season. Last time it was some kind of Stepford Wife type and this time its this woman who doesn't seem to understand English.

12:32 am - Ryan Seacrest has a quick meeting with Meryl Streep she is above answering questions about dresses and dates and the like and promptly leaves.


12:34 am - Someone who wants to talk is J-Lo. Even though I'm not exactly sure why she's at a movie ceremony, she always brings it in the dress department. She talks about how there is no back-up plan in her marriage to Marc Anthony which begs the question, What Was Ben Affleck?

12:40 am - Seacrest hints that their are last minute tweaks being made to the ceremony, is it going to start with Best Picture and finish with Best Sound Editing so everyone can go home early?


12:44 am - More on these opening twists, I reckon they might kill of the nominee who got the least votes, hey it'd be a good way to guarentee Meryl Streep not being nominated for an Oscar next year. Ryan continues to tell us that the nominees will be lined up American Idol style and that someone who has hosted a previous awards show will come out and do something similar to what he did before. Does that mean that Ricky Gervais will be opening the show by not making anyone laugh?

12:51 am - Seacrest is now inteviewing the stragglers, Cameron Diaz is saying how this summer's Shrek film will no doubt be the last. She says though if Jeffrey Katzenberg wants to do another one she will because she will do anything for Katzenberg. She will also probably do anything that allows her to stand in a booth and talk while earning millions and millions of dollars.

1:01 am - As the Justin TV feed I have is from a British source I get to enjoy the Sky Oscar Panel. After the joys of Stephanie Beacham dissing Penelope Cruz, Seth Rogen and James Franco I'm hoping Celebrity BB's top dog is on it again.

1:05 am - Unfortunately no Beacham. Instead we get the very funny David Baddiel, the very sweet Ronni Ancona and the very unfunny, untalented but with a Sky TV contract Mark Dolan.


1:06 am - David Baddiel admits that he didn't realise A Serious Man was nominated for Best Picture, you think they would've at least got someone who had done their research.

1:10 am - The Sky Panel are chatting about who their favourite recent hosts have been and Claudia Winkleman bizzarely bigs up Chris Rock.

1:24 am - Having not watched Sky's pre-show coverage I was unaware that they had fielded Angela Griffin to interview stars on the Red Carpet. I'm guessing Tracey Shaw was busy.

1:30 am - The show begins with an arkward segment in which the five Best Actor and Best Actress nominees stand together on stage smiling. Their may be a voice announcing their names as the sound was bad all night, certainly there are claps and people acknowledge the people waving so its quite possible. Everyone on stage looks incredibly awkward apart from Precious' Gabourey Sidibe who I know love because she is so different from her character.

1:32 am - Thankfully no Ricky Gervais but instead Seacrest's earlier comment was a nod to former Emmy and Tony host and 'Gay of the Decade' Neil Patrick Harris who starts with a song called 'No-one wants to do it Alone'. Again the sound is really bad and half of the song is drowned out by the orchestra but NPH gives it his all.

1:34 am - NPH and the dancing girls disappear as hosts Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin descend from the heavens. Baldwin and Martin do a comedy double act with Baldwin the straight man and Martin the funny man.

Here's some choice cuts from their opening -

"Steve I know you loved Invictus becomes it combines two of you favourite passions - rugby and tensions between blacks and whites."

Steve: Look there's that Damn Helen Mirren!

Alec: Steve that's Dame Helen Mirren

"Anyone who has ever worked with Meryl Streep always says one thing - can that woman act and what's with all the Hitler memorabilia."

"I love that Precious was nominated because to me it was the one film that really lived up to its video game."

Steve: "Wait a minute Al is that the director of James Cameron" (They both don 3D glasses), "yes it is."
After this the two of them are joined by those little flash tree nymphs from Avatar that were one of the main 3D items in the film. Martin dispenses of them with some fly spray.

(On James Cameron and Katherine Bigelow both being nominated):
Alec: She was so happy that they were both nominated together she sent him a gift basket with a timer.
Steve: And he reciprocated by sending her a Toyota

"In Inglorious Basterds, Christoph Waltz played a Nazi obssessed with finding Jews, (Steve then gestures his open arms to Christoph), Christoph - the Motherload." This joke is preceeded with the cameraperson desperately trying to find a laughing Jew, the closest thing is a smirking Ethan Coen.

During the opening Martin and Baldwin also have a staredown with Clooney twice, the second time prompts Alec to say let's start the awards.

1:47 am - Penelope Cruz is here to present Best Supporting Actor. It seems that this year, the actors and actresses' performances are going to be showed in montages of clips instead of just one clip meaning that we get a bigger picture to why these five men are nominated. I can't help but think that there are two glaring omissions - Alfred Molina and Christian McKay while some of these guys don't look like they deserve their spot here, definitely not Matt Damon as I thought he was rather weak in Invictus.

1:49 am - But unsurprisingly its Christoph Waltz who Waltzes away with the first prize of the night. His speech isn't as good as the one he gave at the BAFTAs but he does reference his famous 'its a bingo' line from Inglourious Basterds - by saying 'its a uber-bingo.'

1:55 am - We're back with the Sky Panel who comment on the opening with none of them, not even Celeb mad host Claudia Winkleman, knowing who Neil Patrick Harris is or what he was doing at the Oscars.

1:57 am - Cameron Diaz and Steve Carell are out to present Best Animated Feature. They cut a speech about how pretty they are which is funny because Carell isn't a glamourous movie star and he admits the speech was originally written for Jude Law, not the most original or funny thing ever but Steve Carell sure knows how to deliver a line.

1:58 am - The 'stars' of the animated features are being interviewed so we have Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, the Old Man and the Dog from Up, the frog from Princess and The Frog and some girl from something called The Secret of Kells, an Irish film that no-one has seen, which was obviously better than both Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs or Ponyo, neither of which were nominated.

2:00 am - Up wins Best Animated Feature, I'm going well on the predictions so far.

2:01 am - Amanda Seyfried and Miley Cyrus are introduced by the hosts as 'two young actresses who have no idea who we are'. They both seem to be struggling with their dresses which both have long trains and so they look like two girls just about to enter their senior prom.

2:02 am - The two are presenting the award for Best Original Song. While doing the intro blurb Miley messes up her lines and says that her and Amanda are both pretty nervous as its their first time up there. This was wrong for two reasons, firstly Amanda looked pretty find and looked like she wanted to deck Cyrus after she said that and secondly I'm pretty sure both have been there before, the former introduced one of the songs a couple of years back and the latter was involved with that mighty musical number last year.

2:03 am - We are presented with the five songs through video packages and not in the traditional performances. Last year they did a montage which only lasted about three minutes, about the same time as these video clips. I'm pretty sure Jeff Bridges wouldn't have minded performing 'The Weary Kind' as he did at the Independent Spirit Awards, while Marion Cotilard would've probably sung her Nine number and I'm sure people would be willing to sing the two nominees from Princess and The Frog. The one song that I'm not sure why it's there is some big operatic number from the film Paris 36, nobody would want to sit through that.

2:06 am - My first mis-step in the predictions stakes as 'The Weary Kind' trumps my prediction of 'Almost There' from Princess and The Frog. Should've stuck to my guns but I thought Disney was owed one.

2:07 am - Throughout the night, the ten Best Picture nominees are being highlighted by various stars. I devised an interesting game to try and figure out the connection between the star and the film. Chris Pine introduces District 9, which must have something to do with the fact he played Kirk in Star Trek and District 9 is another sci-fi. Tenous to say the least.


2:12 am - Alec Baldwin describes the Oscars as 'The Biggest Night in Hollywood, since last night. before introducing the woman who 'revived his career' Tina Fey along with Robert Downey Jr. to present Best Original Screenplay. Downey Jr. is wearing odd spectacles which almost make him look like he's watching the audience in 3D.

2:14 am - Fey and Downey Jr. do a little skit about what actors want from a script and what writers want from their actors. As Fey says its a 'collobaration' and Downey Jr. says 'a collobaration between pretty people and sickly little mole people.'

2:16 am - Mark Boal's win for The Hurt Locker means I'm 3-1 up on my predictions. During the announcement of the winner there's also a shot of fellow nominee Quentin Tarrantino who obviously didn't spend any time perfecting his graceful loser face.

2:18 am - Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick come out to present a special tribute to the late great John Hughes. It's nice to see some old faces up there as Broderick usually turns up to these things as SJP's other half and I'm not sure the last time Ringwald was invited to one of these. The tribute is a classy affair not over-sentimental and there's a nice lot of clips to illustrate what a legendary force Hughes was.

2:24 am - As the orchestra plays 'Don't You Forget About Me', the stage opens up to reveal other Hughes regulars and 80's 'Where are they now?' candidates Anthony Michael Hall, Judd Nelson and Ally Sheedy (I wonder what Emilio Estevez was doing tonight?) with Macauly Culkin and Jon Cryer. The tributes continue and I'm starting to get a little teary eyed if truth be told this was just a really nice segment and bravo to Oscar for recognising one of the true great film-makers of this generation.

2:26 am - Samuel L Jackson is now on for Up. What's the connection here? I know he was in another Pixar film, The Incredibles but I don't think he had anything to do with Up.

2:30 am - We're already an hour in and we've only had four awards, luckily its the short films up next and they usually get rushed through. But first we have a short film about the importance of short films is still really doesn't make me care that much about these short films.

2:33 am - Although I was rooting for Wallace and Gromit to win Best Animated Short it went to some weird looking thing called Logorama which saw a kind of violent Ronald McDonald on a motorbike made out of the Grease sign. It is made by a man called Nikolai Schmirkin which you've got to admit is a funny surname.

2:34 am - Following Schmirkin's acceptance speech there's a shot over to George Clooney who seems to be trying to revive his comotosed other half.


2:36 am - Music by Prudence wins Best Documentary Short and the makes of the film become the first people to be played off by the 'your boring' music.

2:38 am - The New Tenants wins Best Live Action Short Film. As there's no real way of watching these films I had to just guess the outcomes and got all three wrong. As a result I am now 3-4 down.

2:39 am - Ben Stiller comes out dressed as a Na'vi. I know there was some controversy over this sketch and Sasha Baren Cohen was originally scheduled to join Stiller on stage as a pregnant Na'Vi but the academy got cold feet and didn't want to piss James Cameron off that much. Stiller always likes doing something a bit special for the awards last year he dressed as Joaquin Phoenix and this time an Avatar character although he does note that Avatar isn't nominated for Best Make-Up and he should've just worn his spock ears as Star Trek is nominated.

2:42 am - And it's Star Trek that wins it, my prediction was The Young Victoria 3-5 down now.

2:50 am - Jake Gyllenhaal and Rachel McAdams are out to present Best Adapted Screenplay this one has to be a shoe in for Up in the Air.

2:51 am - But no it is in fact Geoffrey Fletcher who adapted Precious Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire from the novel push by Sapphire. He is a very gratious and grateful recicipent and his speech is full of thank yous - his late father, anybody who ever had a dream and precious boys and girls everywhere. But thanks to him I'm down 3-6.

2:53 am - There's gracious moments a plenty as the camera pans to a smiling Morgan Freeman clapping and then the emotional sentimentality is broken up Steve Martin who says 'I wrote that speech for him.' Classic.

2:54 am - A clip montage of The Governer's Awards, a kind of event to get all the 'honorary awards' out of the way. I would've rather them than some of the other things we had to endure tonight. Especially as their honoring some of the finest film-makers and actors including Roger Corman, cinematographer Gordon Willis, producer John Calley and Lauren Bacall who's speech seems the funniest - 'I'm so excited that when I get home I'll have a two legged man in my room'

2:56 am - Lauren Bacalll and Roger Corman are both in the audience but obviously not allowed onto the stage. Clapping begins and everyone seems to be turning around and deciding whether or not they should stand-up or not in the end the whole crowd reluctantly stands and honours these two icons as they rightly should.

2:58 am - On with the business at hand as its time for Best Supporting Actress, Robin Williams is presenting and some more clip montages of these performances.

2:59 am - Maggie Gyllenhaal's clip montage has basically spoiled most of Crazy Heart for anyone yet to see it.

3:01 am - Again another lock as Mo'Nique wins the award and does another impassioned speech something she's been known for around awards times. As she wins the award however I can't help but notice that Michael Sheen is sitting next to her husband and in the same section as the Precious cast. Was he in the movie? Was that him playing Mariah Carey playing a social worker? He's that method I wouldn't put it past him.

3:04 am - Colin Firth presents the montage for An Education, I'm guessing because he's the poshest Brit there who wasn't in the film.


3:08 am - Avatar wins Best Production Design meaning thanks to that and Mo'Nique I'm clawing my way back 5-6!

3:10 am - Before the award for Costume Design, Martin and Baldwin come out and Martin introduces two well known 'clothes whores', Baldwin corrects him 'clothes horses' but Steve says 'Alec I hardly think the pluraly whore is whorses.' Anyway its SJP and Tom Ford.

3:12 am - The only Brit win of the night as Sandy Powell wins her third Oscar this time for The Young Victoria. She thanks all the costume designers who do contemporary films and don't get awards for dressing deceased monarchs. But she loses the applause by telling them all that the Oscar's coming home with her. My original pick was Young Victoria but I flip-flopped to Nine and as a result amd down 5-7.

3:18 am - The Sky Panel are still discussing the opening of the show and still none of them have an idea who Neil Patrick Harris was.

3:20 am - Baldwin and Martin preceed a tribute to horror films with a brilliant little spoof of Paranormal Activity which was better than any part of that film.

3:21 am - Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner come out to present a horror montage and question why horror doesn't get more of a look in? I'm guessing Lautner and Stewart were there to try and get the Twi-hards watching the Oscars. But the Oscar organisers consider the following films as horror - Beetlejuice, Little Shop of Horrors, Marathon Man, Edward Scissorhands and of course Twilight. There's also the debate about whether Silence of the Lambs should be in there as Stewart said that the last horror film to win any Oscars was The Exorcist but Silence of The Lambs won 'the big five'. So if it is not considered a horror film why include in a horror montage.

3:24 am - Anna Kendrick and Zak Efron randomly come out to the strains of Lulu's 'Shout', I'm not exactly sure why. They're here to present the sound awards and before they do they have their 'friend' Morgan Freeman explain the sound process. I would actually like to think that Efron and Freeman are friends and hang out together but I sincerely doubt it. Anyway Freeman is someone who could read the phonebook and make it sound interesting but even he struggles to make the sound process appear in any way thrilling. Someone who should really listen about how to make things sound good are the Oscars organisers as the sound production on the show has been lousy all night.

3:25 am - Hurt Locker wins best Sound Editing

3:28 am - And best Sound Mixing, meaning I'm now down 5-9 as I thought Avatar would win both of these awards.

3:29 am - Elizabeth Banks waxes lyrical about those unimportant Sci Tech awards.

3:35 am - Back to the Sky Panel and David Baddiel is commenting on what a difference the 3D makes to Avatar. Having seen it in both formats I can categorically tell him that it doesn't.

3:37 am - Sandra Bullock presents Best Cinematography to Avatar meaning that I'm now down a massive 5-10 and the gap between Hurt Locker and Avatar is closing 3-2.

3:39 am - Last year's In Memoriam section was ruined by Queen Latifah singing this year James Taylor murders The Beatles classic 'In My Life' while the assembled masses seem to only clap the dead people they recognise therefore there is large applause for Swayze, Brittany Murphy and Karl Malden but less so for some of the writers present. I think John Hughes' family are glad that he got a seperate tribute while Farah Fawcett was conspicous by her absence maybe they don't consider her 'a film actress' but then Michael Jackson was in here and he was primarily known for his singing.

3:45 am - Mark Dolan on the Sky Panel is harping on about how all the other critics were wrong about Avatar and he was right. I know Sky employ him as their film critic but they could've at least got someone who knew about films.

3:47 am - Sam Worthington and J-Lo are presenting Best Original Score, Worthington puts on his glasses that make him look a bit like a buff Elvis Costello, I don't think he would've been able to wear those on Pandora. Worthington informs us that loads of street dancers are now going to hit the stage to perform dances to the five scores and he introduces the legion. For a minute I thought it would be loads of old ex-soldiers coming out to streetdance but then he explained it was the Legion of Extraordinary Dancers.

3:50 am - Hans Zimmer's Sherlock Holmes score just about works as a dance piece but you can't really say the same about The Hurt Locke although it got me wondering what the whole film would be like as an interpretive dance piece and as a friend of mine said - it would have to be tap dancing.

3:51 am - Although I predicted James Horner's Avatar score to win I'm reconsidering and think its a bit too noble and instead am really loving the score to Up even if the dance seems to all be done in a clockwork manner.

3:54 am - And Up does indeed win Michael Giacchino's speech is brilliant talking about how he used to make movies and people who supported him. He tells the kids that if they want to be creative to get out and do it that its not a waste of time. I definitely think this wasn't too gushing or self-involved it was just right.

3:55 am - Gerad Butler and Bradley Cooper are presenting the Visual Effects Oscar and trying to outdo each other in the smouldering looks department. Avatar predictably trumps District 9 and Star Trek on this one. Finally one of my prediction is right and I'm up 6-11 now.

3:58 am - The Up in the Air montage is now on and again if you haven't seen the film it basically spoils a lot for you but you have to watch the film just to look at Sam Elliot's impressive moustache which is only briefly glimpsed in this package.

4:01 am - Back to the Sky Panel momentarily and Ronni Ancona suddenly goes Broken Arrow bemoaning the fact that comedy never gets a look in when it comes to The Oscars. She highlighted Adam Sandler in Funny People and Zack what's his name in The Hnagover as two possible candidates. This was all a bit surreal but Ronni may've just been a bit over-tired and eventually Winkleman had to stop her so we could go back to the awards.

4:02 am - Alec Baldwin comes on and says - 'the next presenting won a screenwriting award and then went onto become an action star, which is the first time in Hollywood that a screenwriter has ever got any action.' Then brings out Matt Damon.

4:05 am - Matt Damon presents the award for Best Docuemntary Feature to The Cove, a good if shocking movie about the Japanese's treatment of dolphins and whales.

4:06 am - Rick O'Barry the environmentalist at the heart of The Cove holds up a sign that says text 'whale' to 44144, the music quickly plays them off. This Oscars obviously doesn't want to send too much of a 'message' especially to the Sushi-eating Hollywood community.

4:08 am - The Hurt Locker gets Best Editing and leads Avatar 4-3, meanwhile I'm gaining some momentum in the predictions stakes 8-11 now I'm closing in.

4:16 am - Pedro Almodovar and Quentin Tarrantino present best foreign feature. Despite Pedro's film, Broken Embraces, being superior to Tarrantino's Inglourious Basterds, there's no room for it at all on the bill even in the Foregin Feature Film category that they're presenting for.

4:18 am - An Argentinian film called The Secret in their Eyes wins Best Foreign Film beating A Prophet and The White Ribbon. The director is actually quite funny thanking the academy for not counting Na'Vi as a foreign language but the production team aren't giving any allowances for foreigners and he has to hurry his speech before being played off.

4:25 am - Last year former winners of the four acting awards came out to present that years awards. Each took one of the nominees and gave a brief speech about why they were nominated. This year only the Best Actor and Actress nominees were given this treatment but instead of former winners there are friends or co-workers of the actors. Although Michelle Pfeiffer's speech towards Jeff Bridges was quite amusing and Colin Farrell's mention of the trip he and Jeremy Renner took to Mexico during the filming of SWAT I find it quite insulting that the Best Supporting Actor and Actresses weren't afforded this treatment. For trivia buffs Vera Farmiga was George Clooney's speech giver, Tim Robbins was there for Morgan Freeman and Julianne Moore talked about how she only worked with Colin Firth for three whole days.

4:34 am - After 9 minutes of waffle and Kate Winslet, Jeff Bridges is greeted with a standing ovation as he wins Best Actor one of the locks of the night.

4:36 am - As much as I appreciate how much Jeff Bridges deserves this treatment, is speech has now been going on for two minutes. Is he going to thank his cleaning lady next, or maybe his pet poodle?

4:42 am - It's time to do the same thing this time for the Best Actresses. Both Stanley Tucci and Michael Sheen are funny and depricating of Meryl Streep and Helen Mirren respectively while Peter Sarsgaard veers from funny to slightly bored in his praise of Carey Mulligan but there's more gushing as Forest Whitaker harps on about the tangible and magical quality that Sandra Bullock brings to her roles (Yeh Right) and Oprah bigging up Gabourey Sidibe on skipping school to audition for Precious, surely Winfrey would tell the kids to stay in school.

4:50 am - Sean Penn is out to present the Best Actress award, I'm guessing they didn't give the Actor award to Mickey Rourke last year so they didn't have to have him back to do this. However my punt on Carey Mulligan didn't pay off and Sandra Bullock won the award.

4:51 am - Sandra Bullock does one of those 'I'm going to share my award with my fellow nominees' which is a complete lie although she does say that Meryl Streep is a great kisser which raises a laugh. With Bullock's win I'm now 9-13, so haven't even got half of the winners right, lets hope Hurt Locker beats Avatar.

4:53 am - Barbara Streissand comes out to present the award for Best Director, as she approaches the stairs she waits until an usher runs across the stage to take her down all three of the stairs.

4:55 am - Katherine Bigalow becomes the first woman ever to win Best Director. But as Streissand pointed out in her opening ramble an African American has never won it either. Another milestone that could've been broken by Lee Daniels, however this had to be Bigelow's night.

4:58 am - Tom Hanks is on hand to present Best Picture, surprisingly he doesn't read out any of the nominees and just opens the envelope straight away and the winner is - The Hurt Locker. I've kind of redeemed myself a little bit but still come out short with 11-13 in the prediction stakes. Well done to The Hurt Locker, the better film won at the end of the day.

5:00 am - Steve and Alec wrap the show up by saying that it was so long that Avatar now takes place in the past.

5:10 am - I move quickly towards bed.

So in a way tonight was groundbreaking we had our first female Best Director winner and the film with one of the lowest budgets trumped the mighty Avatar. But on the other hand their were no big surprises, I would have to say apart from Jeffrey Fletcher's Adapted Screenplay award and the Argentinian film winning Best Foreign Language everything else was fairly predictable.

The show itself was patchy, although Baldwin and Martin were charming and quick-witted their segments were painfully few and far between. I felt the scrapping of the honorary awards and the loss of the Best Song performances took away some of the glamour and tradition from the Oscars. I also thought that the street dances and horror montage was a mistake. I also found the lovieness of the Best Actor/Actress sections a bit hard to handle and a bit harsh on the Supporting Peformers.

There were some highlights - the John Hughes tribute and Neil Patrick Harris' opening song were two but I don't think the show is as good as last year and it felt a bit dry. But maybe I'm just bitter about not doing well on the prediction front.

Oscar Predictions

Didn't do too badly on my BAFTA picks the other week seeing as I took two punts neither of which paid off, here I'm going to play it a little bit safer with one exception so here's my Oscar predictions for 2010:

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Editing: The Hurt Locker
Definitley a lock for Best Director, Katherine Bigelow will make history tonight as the first woman ever to win the award and rightfully so as the film is a masterpiece and certainly the best directed picture out of the five. Screenplay wise Mark Boal's biggest competition has to be Quentin Tarrantino for Inglourious Basterds, seeing as his films up for so many awards he may just snatch this one even though the screenplay isn't perfect, Up might also be in with a brief shot but there's no way either A Serious Man or The Messenger will win. The other three awards are the ones in which Avatar is the strongest competition and they may split the techinical awards more evenly but I certainly think that the cinematography and editing was stronger with The Hurt Locker. Having previously discussed Best Picture in depth in my previous blog I will just say that it is the tightest competition in years and fingers and toes are crossed that the mighty Hurt Locker triumphs ovr Avatar.

Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
Best Actor was meant to be a lock last yaer with Mickey Rourke a definite winner for The Wrestler but somehow he was pipped at the post by Sean Penn possibly because of his involvement in Wrestlemania and possibly because his speech may've been a little blue. But Bridges is a consumate professional and will deliver a moving speech no doubt, he is the clear winner and despite the film being particularly gentle his performance his engaging. His strongest competition would have to be George Clooney simply because he is well liked in Hollywood, having not seen A Serious Man I can't comment on Firth's chances but I heard he delivers the second best performance out of the five. While Freeman's Nelson Mandela is particularly stoic and I think Jeremy Renner is just happy to be nominated, there's no doubt in my mind that Bridges will triumph.

Best Actress: Carey Mulligan (An Eduction)
Here's where I take my punt. Even though alledgely Sandra Bullock is a lock to win the award for The Blind Side I think this might be the surprise of the night. Like when Penn beat Rourke or when Alan Arkin beat Eddie Murphy a few years back there's always a shock and I think it might come here. But because the category is so tightly packed I'm not sure who will win it all I know is it won't be Helen Mirren another one who seems to be just in there to make up the numbers. It may well be Meryl Streep as we know Oscar loves an impression (Bullock's film is also real-life story) and apparently Ms. Streep delivers a hell of a likeness of Julia Child in Julie and Julia. But for me its between the two youngster Gabourey Sidibe for Precious and Carey Mulligan for An Education. My reasoning is that Sidibe gives a subtle and almost real-life portrayal of Precious but at the same time Mo'Nique will win an acting award for the film which may harm Sidibe's chances. That leaves Mulligan, the Brit's strongest hope to leave with some sort or accolade. In An Education, she is charming and captivating in a very old-fashioned story and without her in the lead the film may've been a lot worse, although the American's 'might not get it' I think she's in with the best chance and that's why I'm saying Mulligan over Bullock.

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)
Risky bet over its time to settle down for two performances which will certainly garner awards. Waltz is brilliant in Basterds, the only true star of the film and in my eyes the leading man but he deserves an Oscar no doubt for this role. My other two favourite male supporting performances didn't even make the short list, those being Alfred Molina in An Education and Christian McKay in Me and Orson Welles, meanwhile Stanley Tucci gets a nod for being creepy in The Lovely Bones and Matt Damon for playing an actual person in Invictus. But Waltz will win, no question.

Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique (Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire)
Another sure fire winner, Mo'Nique is tremendously terrifying in Precious playing the abusive mother from hell but also shows a softer side in the final scenes. It's an incredible achievement for a comedienne to pull of a role this dark so again Mo'Nique deserves the plaudits. I can't see anyone else beating her although I'm glad to see Anna Kendrick and Vera Farmiga in the list as they both provided great support for Clooney in Up in the Air, while Maggie Gyllenhaal had some great chemistry with Bridges in Crazy Heart. The one question is how Penelope Cruz got on the list. She won this category last year but she was hardly in Nine and when she was she was completely over the top. I much would've preferred to see Marion Cotillard in the running as I think she was better in Nine. But that's just academic, Mo'Nique will win here.

Best Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air
This isn't a certainity but as its won all the screenplay awards so far I will go for Reitman and Turner's adaptation of Walter Kin's book of Up in the Air. My personal pick would go for Nick Hornby, not only because he's my favourite author, but because he managed to transform one chapter of Lynn Barber's memoir into an entire film script. Elsewhere it would be amazing if In the Loop won, mainly because I would loe to hear Armando Iannucci's speech, but that's not going to happen. We all know Precious was based on the novel Push by Sapphire and so it's no surprise to see that hear but District 9's inclusion is deserved it is still surprising. A good mix here and Up in the Air may not win but that's my decision nonetheless.

Best Art Direction, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, Best Visual Effects: Avatar
Given the size and scope of Avatar it will definitely tie with The Hurt Locker's award score, if not beat it, but if Bigelow's Iraq materpiece does clinch the big one I reckon Avatar will clean up in the technical categories just to make Cameron feel better. It's definitely got to win Art Direction as the design of Pandora was immense and really transported you to this foreign planet. Meanwhile its effects were better than those of its rivals District 9 and Star Trek. The sound in the film was also impressive so I think we'll see it win in both of those categories. Score is the only one where I'm not a 100% but I really enjoyed James Horner's sweeping melodies and thought it definitely added to the film as a whole. The biggest competition in this category has to come from Michael Giacchino's bouncy score for Up, mainly because animations always do pretty well in the music categories but I'll plump for Horner. Avatar may well win more but those are the ones I think it will win.

Best Costume Design: Nine
Coming to an area where I know nothing about, costume and make-up, and I'm really torn in this category between two. Although the costumes in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus were good I don't think that stands a chance, similarly Coco Before Chanel and Bright Star are in here because of the period vote. That leaves The Young Victoria and Nine, two possible winners each of which has a seasoned pro behind the costumes. Both Nine's Colleen Atwood and Victoria's Sandy Powell have won the award tiwce, the former for working with Nine director Rob Marshall on Chicago and for Memoirs of a Geisha and the latter for her work on The Aviator and Shakespeare in Love and this is also there eighth nomination in the category. I just think that Nine was better designed, each of the women had a signature look and costume and the costumes at some time outdid the plot. So that's why I'm going Nine for Costumes and Victoria for Make-up.

Best Make-up: The Young Victoria
Having not seen the film I'm not sure of the prowess of the film in this category and I know little about make-up and its promincence in the film but my reasoning is that period dramas usually do well in these categories so I'm going for the same film in both. Certainly in terms of make-up the other two films, Star Trek an Il Divo, seem mis-placed here and I don't know why District 9 didn't get a nomination.