philmguy

I wonder what it feels like to Oscar nominees who have no chance whatsoever to win in their categories. Are they able just to relax in their sure-to-come disappointment and enjoy the awards season and the ceremony for what they are, or do they cling to some desperate half-hope that maybe some invisible late surge in momentum combined with hanging chads will grant them a win? Whatever the case, here are the people and films that have NO CHANCE WHATSOEVER to bring home Oscars come Sunday evening.

Maxim's Pete Hammond embarrassed himself and all other film critics by playing along with the Weinstein Company's finagling over a TV commercial quote blurb. According to a story in the Daily Variety, the studio planned on using Hammond's quote "the most terrifying thriller of the new year."

"Because I Said So" could have been a much more entertaining film if it had managed to snag Gaspard Ulliel, who plays Young Hannibal Lecter in "Hannibal Rising."

Here's my treatment: Gaspard answers Diane Keaton's internet ad, wows, her, she convinces Mandy to date him instead of Uptight Architect or Musician Who Plays By His Own Rules. Only after Gaspard tries to carve up Mandy's brain at the dinner table does mom finally realize she maybe shouldn't be meddling so much in her kid's love life.

GameSpot links to this story about legislation attempting to ban people from walking through traffic while playing handheld gaming systems like DS or PSP.

In my eyes, it's already a two-film race. I'm not talking about Oscars here, but what will go down as the genuine best movie of 2007 - the one you'll see five times in the theater and buy two copies of the DVD (one to loan out to others and another to keep for yourself). If these trailers are any indication, and barring any unforseen contenders, the best film of the year will either be 300 or Grind House.

I caught up with Xbox Magazine Editor in Chief Francesca Reyes and asked for her takes on the 2006 video game year, her outlook for 2007 and the evolution of the console battles. I was expecting plenty of Microsoft cheerleading - after all, the woman's career depends on the success and expanding interest in the Xbox 360 - but Reyes was even-handed, even surprisingly complimentary toward the Wii (of course, it might have been her Bill Gates-like way of sniping at Sony's PS3).

There's no need to wait until Feb. 25 to see who will take home the best director (and probably best picture) Oscar. The Directors Guild of America awards are more than 90 percent accurate in predicting who will go on to win the best director Oscar, and since the DGA prize went to Martin Scorsese Satrday night, that makes it almost certain he'll be getting a golden statue of a bald man as a new paperweight later this month.

I was disappointed to see "Eragon" miss the final Razzie ballot, and "The Pink Panther" only make it in one category. I had to compromise and shift my support to Sharon Stone and "Little Man," but thus are the travails of democracy. My votes are marked with an X.

There's nothing like bragging about things you had nothing to do with.

A couple high-profile sites have been shot out to my reviews in the past couple weeks. Filmmaker Kevin Smith quoted my "Catch and Release" piece last week on his blog, My Boring-Ass Life, and today Entertainment Weekly's Mandi Bierly sent some love in her "Reviewing the Reviewers" column.

Finally, now that I'm a parent, I have the fully vested authority to call other parents out when they act like irrationally prudish morons.

So Daniel Radcliffe, the kid who plays Harry Potter, stars in a play in which he appears nude onstage, and now some parents are refusing to see any more "Harry Potter" movies. How does this make any sense? Despite what his acting would indicate, Radcliffe is not a robot, but a human being who has all the requisite parts, as well as the free will to show them in freakish British plays about a boy who's sexually fixated on a horse. Heck, I don't blame the kid for choosing risque material. He'll need to get a little creative if he wants to avoid the typecast career trap Mark Hamill fell into.