Monday, April 30, 2007

MTV Movie Award Nominations 2007: the battle for the golden popcorn.

The MTV Movie Awards Nominations were announced this week. You can you can take a look at them over here, and if you feel inspired by the nominees you can vote for your favorites over here.

By looking at the categories I just found it hilarious that Anne Hathaway wasn't even able to get an MTV Movie Award nomination. Her two Devil co-stars, Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt were the ones getting all the awards attention back in January and February, and here it was no different. Meryl got a nod for Best Villain and Emily got two nods, one for Best Breakthrough Performance and Best Comedic Performance. I'm really happy that Emily is getting all the accolades she deserves and the she is being recognized by the general public. She's got a great career ahead of her. Also I'd love to see Meryl win an award for what was my favorite performance of last year.

Aside from those, the nominations overall were pretty bad. The Best Summer Movie You Haven't Seen Yet category is just plain stupid, why vote for something I haven't seen? Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix is probably going to turn out to be the best film in that category.

300
got plenty of nominations as well, including one for Best Movie and Best Performance for Gerard Butler; Jack Sparrow and company also are up for Best Movie and the great Bill Nighy is up for Best Villain.

If you want to find out who wins, tune in to watch the awards on June 3rd on the MTV network.

Sunday, April 29, 2007

The Silence of the Lambs (52 Films in 52 Weeks)

Hannibal Lecter: "A census taker once tried to test me. I ate his liver with some fava beans and a nice chianti."

The Story: Clarice Starling, an FBI agent in training, is given the task to interview Hannibal Lecter, to see if she can extract from his some information regarding the serial killer Bufallo Bill. A relationship develops between the two characters when Hannibal asks Clarice to give him details of her personal life in exchange for clues on Bufallo Bill.


Review: This movie is so engraved into popular culture and I've heard and read much about it that I felt like I knew everything about Silence of the Lambs without even watching it. But, thankfully, that wasn't the case. I really enjoyed every bit of it and was surprised by all the twist and turns that this awesome movie has.

Much has been said about the two main performances, Hopkins and Foster, and I thought they were every bit as good as everybody says they are. Hopkins is just terrifying with his calm poise, his emotionless expression, his quirky remarks and his voice. He just gave me the chills. Although I do have to admit that it really isn't a leading performance since the film is mainly about Buffalo Bill; Lecter is only the means by which the transvestite killer is found. But, as it happened with Whitaker this year, the performance is so powerful and good that it was considered lead. I really don’t have a problem with that, his Oscar was well deserved.


Jodie Foster is very good too. I loved how Clarice changes throughout the movie. At first she’s very vulnerable and scared but as the movie progresses she finds her inner strength and is able to confront her own demons (with Lecter’s help) and go after a very dangerous serial killer on her own. Foster has this special charm that helps the audience identify with her character. I also loved the fact that most of the movie is seen through Clarice’s eyes.

The music and cinematography really help to create the eerie mood of the film. The scene were Clarice goes into a dark warehouse is especially spooky and the final confrontation between Clarice and Buffalo Bill when everything goes dark is terrifying as well.

A-

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Evening trailer

If this summer you happen to get bored of all the Shreks, Spidermans, and Jack Sparrows in the cinemas, and find yourself somewhere in the United States, check out the film Evening.

Evening tells the past and the present of Anna Grant, a 65 year old woman dying of cancer. As she lays in bed she tells her two daughters, Constance and Nina, the story of her life. Anna also confesses her fondest memory, a weekend in the 1950's when she met the only true love of her life. The film is based on a book by Susan Minot and it is adapted to the screen by Pulitzer Price winning author Michael Cunningham.

(Claire Danes and Mamie Gummer)

Ok, granted, the plot doesn't sound all that exciting, but what really makes me want to see this movie is the impressive cast it has. Evening stars, (hang on), Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Vanessa Redgrave, Natasha Richardson, Claire Danes, Toni Collette, Patrick Wilson, Hugh Dancy, and Mamie Gummer (Streep's daughter). Add to that mix the name of Michael Cunningham, whose novel inspired one of my favorite films, and we could potentially have a very good movie. I just hope it won't turn out to be disappointing.

The film opens on June 29 as a limited release in the United States and below you can find the trailer...