02/11/10

Tops at the Box: It’s funny, really, that one of the worst reviewed major releases of the last few years (Dear John) is the film to knock the No. 1 grossing film of all-time (Avatar), bringing in just under $32.5 million its first weekend. Avatar pulled in another $23.6 million last weekend, pushing it’s overall total to over $2.2 billion. When you consider DVD sale and rental predictions, James Cameron’s Avatar should end up bringing in over $4 billion. Damn. Coming in at No. 3 last weekend was John Travolta action latest stinker, From Paris with Love, with $8.1 million at the box office; coming in at No. 4 was Mel Gibson thriller Edge of Darkness with $7 million; and rounding out the Top 5 for the weekend was The Rock’s Tooth Fairy, which upped it’s so-far total to $34.3 million. Awful movies across the board, we’d bet. Dumb world. 

New This Week: Three possible blockbuster titles hit screens this weekend, starting with sure-thing hit Percy Jackson & the Olympians. Directed by Christopher Columbus (the first two Home Alone films and the first two Harry Potter films) and based on the popular children’s books, Percy is all set to take over as Harry beings to fade away. Next we have the star-studded rom-com Valentine’s Day, which looks to be about as original as its title suggests. And then, finally, we have the one promising release of the week, The Wolfman. Starring Benico del Toro as the lead and Emily Blunt and Antony Hopkins as support, this remake looks promising. Not great, but likely entertaining and full of style, grit and personality. Also, damn, look at those names - three for three.

Oscar Buzz: Rather than recap all the nominations announced last week, we figure it’d be more interesting to note the snubs that bother us most. First and foremost is Souleymane Sy Savane, the lead in Ramin Bahrani’s great Goodbye, Solo. Best acting performance of the year, save for maybe Jeff Bridges’ performance in Crazy Heart, which is most definitely great, even if the film is only decent. And what about Sam Rockwell’s performance in the underrated Moon? Our pick for best female performance of the year, Melanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds, wasn’t nominated, yet that plastic surgery mess known as Vera Farmiga (nominated for her performance in the overrated Up In the Air) is? Grr! We’re also a bit curious as to why (500) Days of Summer and Where the Wild Things Are were both snubbed. Were it up to us, (500) Days would’ve received a Best Screenplay nod while Wild Things would’ve scored both Best Cinematography and Best Director nods. Best Original Song, too. Sugar should’ve scored at least a Best Screenplay nod while The Blind Side should’ve been disregarded until MTV Movie Awards season. Samantha Morton snubbed again?! Sigh. No love for The Road or Viggo? But, hey, our two favorite films of 2009, Inglourious Basterds and The Hurt Locker, received eight and nine nominations each, respectively, so we’re not too upset. Too bad it’s gonna be blue man night.

A Weekend Lost: It started when I found an old CD-R disc in a shoebox. I popped it in my computer and found a folder full of files I’d long forgotten about. In this folder was a file that had my Top 10 Film lists from each year through the 90s, a list I’d put together for a website I designed as a college freshman at IU. Back in those days I still had a somewhat epic VHS collection and, admittedly, some spotty taste (for example, I had White Men Can’t Jump listed as my No. 3 film of 1992). While kinda/sorta watching that big football game last Sunday I decided to revamp the lists and post them here. Big, important job. I realized quickly that there wasn’t a solid source anywhere to reference. Wikipedia had too many holes and IMDB was a pain. I put my lists together anyhow, knowing that they’d be flawed, then, once done with the year lists, I compiled a “Top 50 Films of the 90s” master list. Incredibly important work I’m doing here. Through these studies I came to a few realizations: 1) it’s rare that a single year produces more than seven classics films, and some only produce two or three; 2) 1999 was one hell of a good year; 3) I need to get a life. Below you’ll find my Top 20 Films from the 1990s. Head over to the website for more list fun.

Top 20 Favorite Films of the 1990s: 20. Good Will Hunting; 19. Naked; 18. Buffalo ‘66; 17. Blue; 16. Hoop Dreams; 15. Forrest Gump; 14. Red; 13. Fargo; 12. American Movie; 11. Kids; 10. The Shawshank Redemption; 9. Reservoir Dogs; 8. My Own Private Idaho; 7. Bottle Rocket; 6. Jackie Brown; 5. The Silence of the Lambs; 4. Fight Club; 3. Boogie Nights; 2. Rushmore; 1. Pulp Fiction

Written by G. William Locke