Sprint to the Oscars - Pan's Labyrinth

The Sneaky Cheetah continues his quest to see every nominated film before the Academy Awards!

Pan's Labyrinth
Nominated for Best Foreign Language Film (Mexico), Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, Cinematography, Art Direction, Makeup, and Music (Score)

Dark. Poetic. Creepy. Magical. Haunting. Sad. These are the adjectives going through my head after watching Pan's Labyrinth, much like the striking images from the film keep replaying in my thoughts. It's a perfect little fairy tale, albeit one the kids shouldn't see. It's the Neverending Story and Alice in Wonderland tossed into a blender with Silent Hill. The film actually operates on two levels. It's set in WWII era Spain after that country's civil war, at a camp manned by Spanish soldiers (bad guys) trying to root out the revolutionaries (good guys) from the forest. Ofelia is a young girl brought to the camp when her mother marries the captain. The second setting is the magical world of Ofelia's imagination she creates to escape her unhappy existence. It's not a happy fantasy. It's dark, dirty, and scary. Reflections of Ofelia's hard life.

The Art Direction is the star of the film: the crumbling gothic Labyrinth, the wild verdant forest, the orderly yet confining camp. It's a unique vision created by writer/director Guillermo Del Toro, who's become a master of such work.

The makeup job may get the Oscar for the creation of one of the scariest creatures I've ever witnessed on screen.This guy to my left. The Pale Man. Holy Shit, what an entrance, what a scene! The Pan character is also a wonder of prosthetics and mechanical gizmos that make his ear's twirl, and those reverse legs of his were not CGI. It was all makup and movie creativity.

The score is a melancholy blend of strings and flutes that fade in and out of the film. Scores are hard to analyze on just one viewing, but Pan's conveyed the emotions of the film. That's the point isn't it?

Pan may be the front runner in the foreign language category, simply because it'll be the most viewed here in America. It may also have a shot at the screenplay award. It's a perfect little story. And very tragic. But eternally memorable. A

Pan's Labyrinth recieved 6 nominations and it's first noms for everyone of the honored. So to Director/Screenwriter Guillermo del Toro, Cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, Art Director Euginio Caballero, Set Decorator Pilar Revuelta, Makeup Artists David Marti and Montse Ribe, and Composer Javier Naverrete, welcome to the show.

IMHO: If any film I've yet seen deserved the Sound Editing award, it's this one. Pan had his own unique sound every time he moved, something like opening doors/sliding furniture/snapping twigs/creaking wooden floors. There were incredible sounds for the bugs/fairies, even the chalk made cool sounds. It was an aural feast. And sorely deserving the Oscar for Sound Editing.

Sprint to the Oscars - Letters From Iwo Jima

The Sneaky Cheetah continues his quest to see every nominated film before the Academy Awards!

Letters From Iwo Jima
Nominated for Best Picture, Director, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen, and Sound Editing


Well into his 70's, Clint Eastwood is hitting his creative peak and keeps pumping out some of the best films of the decade. He may have directed his career film in Letters From Iwo Jima. Filmed in less then a month on the actual island of IwoJima after Eastwood shot his studio picture Flag of our Fathers, Letters seemed almost an afterthought, a bit of indulgence for Eastwood. He used an entirely new cast, and the film is mostly in Japanese. It's now widely regarded as the better of the two films and I'll call it one of the greatest war films ever made.
It's stark and beautiful. A simple , ugly island with no vegetation, but majestic rock formations , Eastwood shoots the films in a near colorless palette , which further gives it the feel of a classic war film. He explores the soldiers many responses to a hopeless battle, doubting the righteousness of their cause and the honesty of their leaders. The responsibility to country or to morality. And in my eyes he doesn't pass judgement. Some have called this film anti-American, but I don't see it. Both sides are portrayed evenly committing atrocities and showing compassion. It's war. It brings out the best and worst in humanity.
As far as Eastwood's directing, less is more. He avoids the Private Ryan-like chaotic carnage for more restrained but no less exciting battle scenes. (The exception is a gruesome scene where an officer decides the battle is hopeless and orders his men to honorably commit suicide with hand grenades. And they do. One by one.) There's only a few obvious computer effects, another reason this film feels so Old School.
The screenplay was very good, bringing a few tears to my eyes at times. I can't remember any spectacularly memorable examples of the Sound Editing, but sometimes they say it's doing it's best work if you don't notice it. (or is that NFL lineman?)
Letters From Iwo Jima instantly jumped into number 1 as the best film I've seen all year. It is destined to become one of the definitive films of World War II, along with Schindler's List, Bridge on the River Kwai, Saving Private Ryan, and Band of Brothers. Deserving of Best Picture or Director? I think so. I haven't seen the others yet. But Iwo Jima is an All-Time Classic. A

Director Clint Eastwood is a two-time Best Director, in 1993 for Unforgiven and 2005 for Million Dollar Baby. He was also nominated in 2004 for Mystic River.

The Screenwriters are Paul Haggis (winner in 2006 for Crash and nominated in 2004 for Mystic River) and Iris Yamashita who scores her first nomination with her first screenplay.

The Sound Editors are Alan Robert Murray (past nominations for 1985's Ladyhawk, 1989's Lethal Weapon 2, 1996's Eraser, 2000's Space Cowboys, and also nominated this year for Flags of Our Fathers) and his partner Bud Asman who also worked on Eraser, Space Cowboys, and Flags of Our Fathers.

The Oscar history of the three producers of this film are ridiculous. I'm only going to mention their past Best Picture Nominations. You got Clint Eastwood (Best Picture winners Unforgiven and Million Dollar Baby, nominated for Mystic River), Steven Spielberg (Best Picture winner for Schindler's List, nominations for E.T., The Color Purple, Saving Private Ryan, and Munich), and Robert Lorenz a co-producer on Mystic River.

IMHO: When will Ken Watanabe get some respect? This guy is one of the greatest actors EVER, yet Oscar noms continue to elude him. (he got a Supporting nod in 04 for the Last Samurai) His performance is awesome here as Iwo Jima's commander, General Kuribayashi. Strong, emotional, genial, furious... he really is pulled in every direction as an officer who knows he will never leave the island, yet believing that every day he holds out is another day he keeps American forces away from Japan. A legendary performance.

Sprint to the Oscars - Poseidon

The Sneaky Cheetah continues his quest to see every nominated film before the Academy Awards!

Poseidon
Nominated for Best Visual Effects

This is not a typo. Poseidon is actually nominated for Best Visual Effects. The film that gave us such classic dialog as "I'm an architect. This boat was not designed to float upside-down." And "That's a pressurized hatch. It'll only open under tremendous pressure!" This movie is such total crap, it sullies the Oscars just to have to say "Poseidon" on Oscar night. You must suspend disbelief for a film like this, but this pushes your disbelief to the limits time and again.
As for the viz effects, their OK. Not spectacular. The first few minutes of the film is a fly by of the Poseidon (the ship) that's total CGI and looks good. But the sinking of the ship is weak. You never get a sense of humongousness of the ship rolling over like you did on Titanic. And the rogue wave that swamps the ship is nowhere as impressive as the one on The Perfect Storm (ironically delivered by the same director, Wolfgang Petersen). No chance this takes an Oscar home. D

This is the seventh nomination for visual effects genius John Frazier, who won in 2005 for Spider-Man 2 and was nominated for Twister, Armageddon, The Perfect Storm, Pearl Harbor and Spider-Man. He shares the nomination with first time honorees Boyd Shermis, Kim Libreri, and Chas Jarrett.

Sprint to the Oscars -An Inconvenient Truth

The Sneaky Cheetah continues his quest to see every nominated film before the Academy Awards!

An Inconvenient Truth
nominated for Best Documentary Feature and Best Music (Original Song)


Everyone should see this film. If you take it's message to heart, it will change the way you live. I do know a few scientists (seriously!) that don't believe in global warming at all, but this film presents some overwhelming evidence that the planet is in trouble and we need to do something NOW! As far as a documentary, it's average. The best parts are a straight ahead presentation of Al Gore's Global Warming Power Point Presentation that he travels around the world showing to anyone who'll pay him. It's a great show. But a great documentary that does not make. The slide show is inter cut with vignettes about Gore's lifelong battle to get this message out. The film seriously drags when this happens. This is definitely something people should see to learn about, but I don't think this breaks any new ground as a documentary. I haven't seen any other docs nominated, but I'm sure a few of them are better works of the art of documentary film making.
It's also nominated for Best Song, "I Need to Wake Up", a Melissa Ethridge song played over the credits. It's a good song and fits the film, but 1 of the 3 Dreamgirls songs are gonna take this award. B

This is the first Academy Award nomination for director Davis Guggenheim and songwriter Melissa Ethridge.

Sprint to the Oscars - The Illusionist

I sacrificed some nap time to begin the quest this week. Took stock of what's available on DVD and jumped in!

The Illusionist
Nominated for Best Cinematography

I loved The Illusionist. A small film big on performance and style, it's probably better enjoyed on the small screen then the big. The story of Eisenhiem the Illusionist, an early 20th century magician (Ed Norton) in Prague who is reunited with his teenage love Sophie(Jessica Biel), now a duchess in a forced engagement with a cruel Austro-Hungarian Prince (Rufus Seawell). They plan to escape the Prince and his loyal Inspector Uhl (Paul Giamatti). There's great mystery, wondrous magic, and a few twists here, which makes this the best film I've seen this year, SO FAR! (I've still got a lot to see!)

It's up for a cinematography award and the look of the film is unique. It's color palate is sepia toned and there's occasionally black edges in the corners of the picture, along with some slow circular fades and wipes, all of which gives it an "old fashioned" feel. It's very effective and is never distracting, perfectly executed. A

This is the first Academy Award nomination for Cinematographer Dick Pope.

IMHO: Paul Giamatti deserved a Supporting Actor nod, as this is his best performance since Sideways. And he's been in a lot of pictures since then. I was starting to get tired of him a bit. You won me back Paul!

Sneaky Cheetah's SPRINT TO THE OSCARS 2007!

Oscar noms came out this week and, shocker, I haven't seen any of the Best Picture Noms. My Theater Viewing skills are hurting!
So I'm embarking on an undertaking so ambitious, the surgeon general slapped a warning on me as soon as I thought of it.

(drum roll please)

The Oscars are on Feb 25. I have ONE MONTH to see EVERY FILM NOMINATED! This is my mission and it started 2 days ago!

I figure I've seen 22 films this calender year and only 3 have scored Oscar nods.
Here's what I thought:

Cars
Nominated for Best Animated Film, Best Music (Original Song)


Cars is up against Happy Feet and Monster House. I figure it's the favorite because Pixar's last two films (The Incredibles and Finding Nemo) have won this cat and while Cars is not as strong as those two, it's in my top 5 films of the year (of what I've seen so far!). It's really funny and touching and I've seen it 4 times. Have I mentioned I live with a 3-year-old boy? It SHOULD win, but never underestimate the power of dancing penguins!
The Song is ok. It's "Our Town," the tearjerker played during flashbacks of Radiator Springs glory days. The music rocks as a whole on this, though. Any use of a Tom Cochrane song is to be praised! But i'm assuming 1 of the 3 songs from Dreamgirls will take this award.A

Director John Lasseter was also nominated for best animated film for Monsters, Inc, got a sceenplay nod for Toy Story, and won Best Animated Short in 1988 for Tin Toy.

"Our Town" was written by the immortal Randy Newman who has won only one Oscar, for Song from Monsters, Inc. That was after 13 other Song or Score nominations. The List: Ragtime, The Natural, Parenthood, Avalon, The Paper, Toy Story, James and the Giant Peach, Babe: Pig in the City, A Bug's Life, Pleasentville, and Meet the Parents.

IMHO: Cars deserved a cinematography award. It may not qualify since no actual cameras were used, but the shot composition was stunning. From the nascar-like races to the route 66 desert scenery, the visuals on this film were flat-out scrumtrelescent.


Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Nominated for Best Visual Effects, Art Direction, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing

Pirates 2 was a disappointment. It never seemed to get moving, seemed disjointed in it's plot devices, and expected us to gawk at Johnny Depp's performance and maybe we won't notice it's crappy. It was shot simultaneously as Pirates 3 and it shows. It feels like an unfinished film. Luckily for it, all that has nothing to do with it's nominations.
The VizEffects were done by about 10 different companies, including ILM. They were VERY impressive. The destruction of the ships by the Kraken, Davy Jones fishy crew and Jones himself, aided by a great performance from Bill Nighy are very strong. I think it's the favorite here.
The Art Direction was top notch also. Almost overdone at times. There's immense detail in the construction of the ships, especially The Flying Dutchman, and EVERYONE and EVERYTHING is so grimy and slimy, you can almost smell the fish and salt-water through the screen.
Sound editing is for Sound Effects. Cannons booming, swords clashing, that sort of stuff. It's a veritable smorgasbord of sound effects. It's just that kind of film. Big, Loud, Over the Top.
Sound mixing is the combining of the sound effects, voices, and music into the finished product. My 10 year old home audio system is not the best environment for this, so I'll be Canadian and say 'eh' to this cat. My memory of the sound mix was this: it's not memorable.B

The Visual Effects team is John Knoll (previous nominations for The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Curse of the Black Pearl), Hal T. Hickel (Curse of the Black Pearl), Charles Gibson (winner in 1996 for Babe, also worked on Black Pearl), and Allen Hall (winner in 1995 for Forrest Gump, nominated in 1992 for Backdraft and 1999 for Mighty Joe Young)

The Art Director is Rick Heinrichs (winner in 2000 for Sleepy Hollow, nominated in 2005 for A Series of Unfortunate Events). The Set Decorator is Cheryl Carasik (4 previous Oscar noms for 1996's A Little Princess,
1997's The Birdcage, 1998's Men In Black, and 2005's A Series of Unfortunate Events).

The Sound Editors are Christopher Boyes (winner as sound editor for Titanic and Pearl Harbor, nominated for Curse of the Black Pearl) and George Watters II (winner for The Hunt for Red October and Pearl Harbor, 5 nominations for Top Gun, Star Teak VI: The Undiscovered Country, Crimson Tide, Armageddon, and Curse of the Black Pearl).

The Sound Mixers are Paul Massey (4 noms for Legends of the Fall, Air Force One, Master and Commander and Walk the Line), Christopher Boyes, pulling double duty (oscar winner for mixing Return of the King and King Kong, nominated for mixing The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers and Curse of the Black Pearl), and Lee Orloff (winner for mixing Terminator II: Judgement Day and 5 nominations for The Abyss, Geronimo: An American Legend, The Insider, The Patriot, and Curse of the Black Pearl).

Superman Returns
Nominated for Best Visual Effects

After I saw Superman Returns, I was gushing over it. After reflexion, I think that was from the mere experience of seeing Superman, and seeing it done better then the last one, with today's modern effects. It was ok, but could have been much, much more. Brandon Routh was a good Clark Kent, but an average Supes. Maybe because Supes had very little dialogue. He didn't say much. Just swooped in, TCB, swooped out. It's expected to see Kent stumble and bumble over Lois, but we don't want Superman to seem so obsessed. ANYWAY... the effects were good. The rescue of the Space Shuttle was the best Visual Effects scene of the year. Read that again. The best of the year. But the bullet to the eye was CHEESY. Chester Cheetah Cheesy. It's already being mocked in Epic Movie. So in a foot race, I'd say this is below Pirates in this cat. It had the best scene, but on a whole, it wasn't as consistent, and had no WOW scenes in the end. B

The Visual Effects guys who worked on Superman Returns are Mark Stetson (previously nominated in 1984 for the film 2010 and a winner in 2002 for The Fellowship of the Ring), Neil Corbould (winner in 2000 for Gladiator), Richard R. Hoover (nominated in 1999 for Armageddon), and Jon Thum (winner in 1999 for The Matrix)


I've already started my quest by viewing The Illusionist (Cinematography) and An Inconvenient Truth (Documentary Feature, Song) this week. I'll post reviews in the coming days. Wish me luck and if anyone will offer their baby sitting services, I'll accept. GODSPEED! and MAY THE FORCE BE WITH ME!

The Sneaky Cheetah

Wait'll Next Year!

Good year, Saints. You went farther then we ever expected. Although I won't be sporting my #25 jersey this offseason after your "taunt and flip" on Sunday, I'm drooling over what you can accomplish next year.

Go COLTS!

and that's all I have to say about that.







p.s. Here's the hottie that was sporting the "Fuck Da Eagles" shirt!

I Believe!

I didn't really hit me until the final second ticked off the clock. The Saints are 1 game away from the Superbowl. HOLY SCHNIKIES! To get excited before that would only incure the wrath of the football gods, who nearly took my dream away with that late Brees/Bush fumble. But we prevailed. It was a phenominal game, as have all the Saints' games this year. It's an incredible team. On that can even win a Superbowl. Let's all pull for Seattle over Chicago today so we get an NFC championship game in the Superdome. WHO DAT?

Celebrating the Sugar Bowl!

I'm gettin' too old for this shit!

Here's how my new year began.

THE SYMPTOMS
Awoke January 1st to numbness in my right hand which spread to the arm, leg, neck and face, all on the right side. Big headache and vertigo. Trouble collecting my thoughts enough to speak coherent sentences.

MY REACTION
SHIT! I'm having a stroke!

SOOOOO...... Went to the hospital, where symptoms subsided. Got a EKG, some blood work, a CT scan, spent the night and got a Looong MRI. Nothing wrong. Clean bill of health. You're too young to have a stroke. It's probably a migraine. Or TIA, I forgot what the stood for. Something-Something-Attack. Take an aspirin everyday.

The numbness has returned once since then, my doc thinks I may have a Hyperthyroid, which may explain everything. More tests to follow.

And I'm growing a gnarly beard.

So how's your year so far?