Now Watchable!

It's finally been done! Now, the full-length version of At the Core is entirely viewable from both YouTube and IMDb!

This had been delayed earlier due the movie's entry into this year's Mill Valley Film Festival, and I did not want a simultaneous online showing to hurt its chances. Now that this situation is over, I've made an executive decision and here we are!

On a different note, I've updated my Oscar Predictions part of the website (go here and choose Oscar Predictions). The actual dates for Nominees Announcement and Winners Ceremony have been released, and the hosts (plural!) have been chosen. I reeeeally want to view Precious...

New Prez

No, I'm not talking about Obama this time... Actually, I'm referring to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (the Oscar giver-outers)! For the past 4 years, Sid Ganis held the title of President of that organization. As of yesterday, however, that title has been transitioned over to a new person: Tom Sherak.

Tom Hanks was elected as 1st Vice President, too, and other elected positions went to such names as Kathleen Kennedy and John Lasseter. I recognized all names but the new top dog, which means he must be a behind-the-scenes guy.

Sid Ganis was still responsible for creating the return of 10 Best Picture Nominees... Guess he won't still be in charge when it happens.

3rd Site, Part II

So far, with the exception of a single pop-up window that was not a repeat occurrence, this 3rd site experiment is working well. Thus, I've decided to put the "Z site," aka Garett's Moving Ratings [and more], into the new location as well.

This includes the start of my Oscar Predictions for 2009, complete with a new design that works a bit better than last year's did, however creative it was. I've mentioned in a previous News Blog entry some possible nominees for Best Pic, but lately, there's been a LOT of buzz for Kathryn Bigelow, the Director of The Hurt Locker. Not only is she from San Carlos (the town I grew up in), but she also happens to be an ex-wife (prior to Linda Hamilton) of James Cameron (think Titanic).

Anyhow, her film is getting rave reviews, and she herself is getting serious talks about becoming the 4th female to become a Best Director Oscar nominee. Three cheers from a fellow San Carlan!

10 Noms for Best Pic??

Wowsers, THIS changes EVERYTHING! Imagine if this were the situation in the past few years: Could WALL-E, Into the Wild, Children of Men, or (dare I say it) The Dark Knight have been included for Best Pic consideration, instead of snubbed like in reality?

So, it's back to how things were in the 1930s. How might things go this year for Best Pic noms? This is how I think it might go, with the year nearly half over (as of July 1st), give or take an extra five:

1. Up
2. Away We Go
   
3. Where the Wild Things Are
4. Nine
5. Precious
6. Avatar
7. Coraline
8. Bright Star
   
9. Public Enemies
10. Sita Sings the Blues
11. Green Zone
12. The Informant
13. Biutiful
    
14. The Hurt Locker
15. The Lovely Bones
    

Silly Little Thang

I can't believe I didn't post this sooner: the next (82nd) Academy Awards have been pushed back into March of 2010 from the month before. Why? A silly little thang called the Winter Olympics.

Not much the athelete myself (unless you'd count bowling a sport), I tend to value the Oscars above the Olympics. Maybe it's merely participating in the same genre as the Oscars to "know the sport better". Just a thought.

But yeah, the specific new date is March 7th. I have no idea what movies are yet to fill the race, but I'm really looking forward to Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are.

Overdue

This post regards three things that are overdue, in one way or another:

1. Starting today, GPicturama is receiving a facelift. Unbeknownst to me until hours ago, links within the yearly archives had still not been updated since the 2nd site's domain had changed from directorG2.com to jimthzz.bingodisk.com/public.
   
   
   Thus far, I've fixed things all the way back to 2005, and I'm working to fix the rest by tomorrow. I'm also extending the addition of the hovering image outline to pages I update. Check it out!
   

2. I read a blog article today from The Film Experience that arranged a new Top Ten list of actors yet-to-receive-an-Oscar, rearranged now that Kate Winslet has [finally] earned one. You'll never guess who their #1 choice is! Read that article here.
   
   
3. Speaking of overdue Oscar selections, I've been keeping such a list all along, but I don't arrange it like The Film Experience does. Instead, I call it a "Snubbed List," and continually add films by year that should have won for Best Whatevertheawardis, plus other actors that just deserve it. To see it, go here and click "Snubbed List" at the bottom.
   

Eight is Great

Though Melissa Leo did not end up with the big goldie, the night d'Oscars still was consumed largely by Slumdog Millionaire, as predicted. I didn't quite think it would earn 8, the most of any pic since The Gourd of the Flings: Return of the Bling Bling, but I was more than satisfied. Yay for Sean Penn, too!

Overall, it was a relatively easy year of predictions -- my score was 17! However, I don't think anyone expected Japan's nominee for Foreign Film to win over Israel's Waltz with Bashir. WTF??

Tomorrow

Surprises are what tomorrow brings about, and hopefully more for the better.  I hope for surprises because many awards to be given already seem to be definite, thus "dull and boring," lacking suspense.  There's new tension in existence, though, with such categories as Best Actress.

Winslet and Streep are neck and neck, which is possibly bringing about a surprise attack from Melissa Leo.  Her performance in Frozen River is the true indie of the bunch, and it's been getting critical acclaim for some time.  However, she won an Indie Spirit Award today, and she is Ebert's selected choice for who will win.  She might just pull this off...

Quit Happens

Despite WALL-E musical pair Thomas Newman and Peter Gabriel winning not one but TWO Grammies this past weekend (and even nom'd for a 3rd), the Motion Picture Academy has officially done something so wrong that Gabriel now refuses to attend this year's Oscars.

Yes, you read that correctly. As if cutting down song nominations from 5 to 3 wasn't slashfest enough, the Academy wants to combine all of the songs into a medley to cut back on time. Thus, the song from WALL-E would only receive 65 seconds' worth of airtime. I'd imagine something similar would occur for each of Slumdog Millionaire's songs as well.

Diehard Gabriel fan or not, I respect Newman's work beyond words, so I, too, am rather outraged.

It Is Written

This past evening, Slumdog Millionaire and Milk won WGAs for Best Adapted and Original Screenplays, respectively. This continues to confirm Slumdog's destiny of reaching Best Pic status, and that Milk is bound to win at least 1 or 2 significant Oscars as well -- perhaps Sean Penn will get his 2nd? I simply must wait until my Oscar Party on the 22nd for the final results...

While it may not be fate, the new code for the redesigned movie web pages has certainly been written [by yours truly]. I decided that it might look better to put links regarding various available media at the side, rather than have the media occupy half of the page from the getgo. It all now appears in a media layer once the links are clicked...

So far, it's only been officially uploaded into the 2005 movies, Abrupt and The King Who Rained, as an experiment. More should be uploaded soon...

Followsite Widget

Apparently, this site has been noticed (or robotically tracked) by the site followsite.com, which may (or may not) help site readers learn when new info is available here after being updated.

Though the button immediately above is only an image, there is an identical one to that at the very bottom of this page that is an active widget.

BTW, I saw Slumdog Millionaire this past weekend. Flippin' awesome. Go see it -- it is the one to beat.

Not Bad!

First, I viewed Waltz with Bashir last night. Let me say how excellent a film it is. It is breakthrough animation -- fantastic, heartwrenching and mindblowing. If you get to see any of the great pics up for Best Foreign Film, see this one first. Not for kids, though.

Now for why I started writing. Being the Oscar fanatic that I am, I always enter the annual Awards Daily (er, Oscar Watch) contests, for both predictions and then awards. This is the first year my name made the list of runners up!

In this case, I think we could only vote for the top awards: picture, director, actor, actress, sup. actor, sup. actress, and then mayyybe orig. screenplay, adap. screenplay, and perhaaaaps animated film. (Things would have gotten out of hand with the tallies beyond that.)

You can see my '08 predix here and click Oscar Predictions at the bottom, then Nominations at the top. The top 5 numerical selections are my choices, and the actual noms are backed in gold.

No Doubt

Just like last year's Oscar Nominations, in which Michael Clayton received significantly more acting nods than any other piece (let alone more than one), Doubt received 4 in acting, followed by both Milk and The Wrestler with 2 each. Thus, the piece with most nods (as with Tilda Swinton of Michael Clayton) must get honored with at least one Oscar. Kate Winslet is practically a given for The Reader, but since she's now bumped up to Lead Actress in nomination (unlike everywhere else), that opens the door for Amy Adams or Viola Davis... I choose Viola.

That sort of brings up another topic: As Viola played a young boy's mother in Doubt, I've managed to post another early Thomas Productions movie on YouTube, aptly titled, Mother. Based on the chapter of the same name in Sherwood Anderson's book, Winesburg, Ohio, it follows a hotel-owning family whose older members are grotesque, leaving the youngest one desiring to escape.

It's a dramedy in two parts, embedded above. Enjoy!

Predix: Mostly 'B's

Early this morning, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences announced the 2008 Film Nominees for their annual Oscars. For the categories I made predictions (which are all that regarded feature length films), I actually did pretty well -- a few were 100% on the dot (A+!), and the most often occurring prediction result (8 times) was a 'B' with 4/5 (80%) per category.

Films nominated for Best Picture were The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (which earned the most noms with 13), Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader (which some believe stole the show from The Dark Knight) and Slumdog Millionaire. One of my favorite parts was that Composer Thomas Newman earned not one but two nominations for WALL-E (song and score), and it's his second time earning so many at once!

Anyhoo, the Oscars are exactly one month away, on February 22nd. See My Predictions by clicking here and selecting "Oscar Predictions" at the bottom, perhaps also making your own, and then tuning in when the time comes!

Innovative & Unprecedented

What a day it's been, and it's not even noon yet! We as Americans have officially shooed the Bush away, and brought in a much more intellectual President who can properly pronounce the word, "nuclear," among other things. Oh yeah, the "new guy" plans to end the war, too! Here's the entirety of his Inauguration Speech (in Parts i, ii & iii):

One minor thing: the Academy had to postpone the date of its Oscar Nominations for a few days because had it not been for the rather significant happenings for Obama, the Noms would have been announced today. Stay tuned...

Milk It Out

Waitin' now for the Guilds to give a better set of nominations and awards, since the Golden Globes all but snubbed the film Milk, save for Sean Penn's acting. The same goes for Ledger and The Dark Knight. Quite surprised, however, for the quantity for Revolutionary Road, as well as for Eastwood's musical noms!

I mention all this here because it affects the status of my Oscar Noms Predictions. Throughout this site's reconstruction, that's one small part being reposted at a new link. It's indirectly found at jimthzz.bingodisk.com/public/z by clicking a link for "Oscar Predictions" at the bottom, or more directly at jimthzz.bingodisk.com/public/z/predix.

New Ratings Design

It's about time I shaped thost things up a little... After not touching that part of the site for a few months, I'm gettin' back on it.

The new movie ratings are slightly more colorful, and utilize more pages to cut down on loading time. There's also a semitransparent floating menu to weave among the different ratings categories.

As for my Oscar Predictions page, there's a completely new design that implements textual scrolling at the click of a button. Kinda hard to describe, but you'll like it when you see it.

Check it all out at directorG2.com/z jimthzz.bingodisk.com/public/z!

Academy Sets Dates

For the purposes of next year's Oscars (and thus Garett's Newest Oscar Predictions), the following dates have been announced:

• Thu., Jan. 22, 2009: Nominations announced
  
• Sun., Feb. 22, 2009: 81st Academy Awards
  

There are 2 significant comments to make here.  First, the nomination announcement occurs on a Thursday instead of a Tuesday, like usual; this is to get out of the way of any political occurrences regarding the entrance of the newly elected president.

The other comment regards the date of actual Oscars, as it is the earliest planned date for the event ever.  I still prefer a March date, but that's just me...

Anyhoo, those dates will go atop this year's Oscar Predictions page.

- - - - -

Yay, Tilda

Though it's more of a cousin to this site than a direct relation, mostly not being about movies of Thomas Productions, we still have a portion called Garett's Film Ratings. It includes everything from a full-blown list of films Garett has viewed (good and bad), his annual Oscar Predictions, a best-by-year list, and more.

This is a good time to mention this part of the site due to a recent updating that now includes two more great films, "Michael Clayton" (2007) and "The Last Emperor" (1987).  This portion of the site is often updated without mention.  Check it out!