Oscar noms tomorrow, time to start guessing!

Now, regardless of how silly many feel the Oscars are, I like them.  I like the prestige and I like the fact that films coming out around this time tend to be some choice morsels of cinematic consumption.

Or Season Of The Witch…but that’s not important right now.

So,  here are my predicted picks for an Oscar nomination tomorrow. Films I haven’t seen are marked with a * and I am going on the current momentum built up from other awards and reviews.

Anyway, check out my predictions, come back Tuesday and watch me look baffled if they pull another Globes bout of film madness. If The Tourist creeps into Best Picture…something’s wrong indeed.

Best Film (No particular Order)

The King’s Speech / The Social Network / Inception / Black Swan / The Kids Are All Right / The Fighter* / Toy Story 3 / 127 Hours / True Grit* / Blue Valentine*

Wildcard surprises : The Town / Winter’s Bone

Best Actor

Colin Firth (King’s Speech) / James Franco (127 Hours) / Jessie Eisenberg (Social Network) / Javier Bardem (Biutiful*) / Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine*)

Wildcard surprises: Jeff Bridges (True Grit*) or Marky Mark Walhberg (The Fighter*)

Best Actress

Natalie Portman (Black Swan) / Annett Benning (Kids are All Right) / Julianne Moore (Kids Are All Right) / Jennifer Lawerence (Winter’s Bone) / Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole*)

Wildcard surprises: Lesley Manville (Another Year*) or Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine*)

Best Director

David Fincher (Social Network) / Christopher Nolan (Inception) / Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan) / Tom Hooper (King’s Speech) / David O’Russell (The Fighter*)

Wildcard surprises: The Coen Brothers (True Grit*) / Lisa Cholodenko (The Kids Are All Right)

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale (The Fighter*) / Gefforey Rush (King’s Speech) / Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) / Andrew Garfield (Social Network) / John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone)

Wildcard surprises: Jeremy Renner (The Town)

Best Supporting Actress

Helena Bonham Carter (King’s Speech) / Amy Adams (The Fighter*) / Melissa Leo (The Fighter*) / Hailee Steinfield (True Grit*) / Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom*)

Wildcard surprises: Mila Kunis or Barbara Hershey for Black Swan

The Hidden Cinematic Gems of 2010....

Since we're approaching the end of 2010, it's time to remember and forget those cinematic nuggets that came to the cinema this year.

My best of list is coming shortly but for now enjoy the select morsels of hidden gem that you may have missed at the cinema. Prehaps you could pick them up on DVD or wait til their actual cinema release next year?

The Genre-Giant's Hidden Gems of 2010

Rare Exports: A Christmas Tale

The Christmas tale of tradition gets a bit dark and a little twisted in this Finnish macabre tale where Santa really wants to eat bad children instead of giving them presents. Entertaining and a refreshing change for Christmas films, complete with a gut busting finale. It’s worth checking out around this festive time.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

From an independent cinema employees eyes, The Millennium Trilogy was the biggest world cinema release of the year. The first film, Dragon Tattoo, is a perfectly paced and tense thriller that doesn’t shy away from the dark sides of human nature. However, its two sequels dampened the original’s glow and its TV roots horribly showed. I’m looking forward to seeing what Fincher and Craig do with the English version but I still recommend this one for any detective story lovers out there.

The Losers

We had many men on mission movies this year. A-Team, Expendables, Red. So many. The best one is the one that didn’t expect much attention from anyone. Based on the comic book, The Losers was breezy entertainment. A great cast that gave everyone a chance to shine from Jeffery Dean Morgan to Idris Elba to Chris Evans – even to Jason Patric. It didn’t have anything to prove and it reaps the benefits with this nice Saturday night actioner.

Carlos (Five Hour Version)

Last year I was quite fond of Vincent Cassel’s epic tale of crime with Mesrine that spanned two films. Carlos was in a similar vein, charting the mysterious political terrorist over his rise and fall in the late 70s and early 80s. Spanning five and a half hours, this dramatized biopic was propelled by a great performance by Edgar Ramirez (who incidentally attended the screening I went to and was kind enough to sign the back of my ticket) as Carlos embodying charisma, boldness and sleaze as the hypocritical terrorist.  There is a three hour version out there for those not too fussed by all the details but it’s a must watch for European crime cinema.

The Brothers Bloom

I saw it for the first time in 2008 at the London Film Festival and loved it. However well recieved though, it shockingly took two years for it to get an UK release but Rian Johnson’s second film is just as entertaining as his breakthrough Brick. Great performances and a great score makes this tale of conmen in Europe always entertaining to watch.

Everything Must Go (2011)

Not many people will stretch past the idea of Will Ferrell doing nothing but man child comedies. He dabbled a bit with straighter comedy in the surreal Stranger Than Fiction and he did again with Everything Must Go. A bittersweet comedy about one man’s collapse through alcoholism was helped by Ferrell’s presence. Injecting some of the depressing turn of events with a sympathetic edge and likeability as its protagonist, Everything Must Go was a refreshing change from Ferrell’s usual bout of shouting like a girl. It’s out in 2011 at cinemas, hopefully, and it’s recommended.

Black Dynamite

In an age where spoofs and satires mostly consisted of Vampires Suck. At least someone, out there, tried to take it back to the good days. Michael Jai White (you know, Spawn) came up with the idea of Black Dynamite, a 70s afro crime fighter that’s superbad and knows kung-fu. It’s loving send up off everything Jai White loves in blackploitation and it’s funny. Very funny. From intended hiccups in filming from changing a stunt man, to boom shots, to the utterly insane plot diversion to Kung-Fu Island. Black Dynamite is something fans of blackploitation and spoof fans will enjoy.

Tron Legacy - Quick! Someone give it an story file update!

Tron: Legacy (2010)
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Stars: Jeff Bridges, Garret Hedlund, Olivia Wilde, Michael Sheen

Disney have been pushing this one heavily over the last year promising something on equal par with Avatar and delivering a film many fans of the original would be very happy to see. I think they might want to reconsider that prediction.

Let's get this out of the way first, Tron: Legacy looks brilliant. It features the best 3D since Avatar and it certainly looks like they spent a lot of time creating this updated computer world with top notch special effects. Complied with an electronic epic score from Daft Punk, which I'd easily write here and now is one of the best soundtracks of 2010. So, at a casual glance, Tron: Legacy could get a comfortable good box office haul over Christmas for its first week at least. It's perfect for all men who like a good sci-fi tale, from the teenagers to the grown ups.

Yet, somehow, Tron: Legacy will not be able to hold a candle anywhere near the staying power of Avatar and the many audiences that came to see it over and over again. The reason? The great fault that plagued Avatar despite the film's success - story.

The first half of Tron: Legacy is very entertaining. Sam Flynn (Hedlund) gets zapped into the Tron universe after trying to find his missing father (Bridges) and ends up taking part in the deadly games this universe knows and loves. Crazy disc flinging games, light cycle showdowns, this is great.

Then he goes to the digital mountains to find his father...where not much happens and a lot of exposition gets dumped on everyone. If you know your technobabble, this might be a nice moment of computer fun. Everyone else could get bored out of their skulls.

And this is where Tron drops the ball big time despite shifting its story in the second half to stage a great escape from the computer world. Now if I look at Avatar by comparison, yes the story was a little hokey and all the jokes about Pocahontas in Space aside, actually had some fun moments in its bloated runtime. Plus there was an appeal for all audiences, a love story, science fiction, robots, aliens, monsters, battle scenes. All the boxes were ticked despite the flaws and I hate to admit that!

Tron doesn't tick all those boxes. It has a few moments after the promising first half but it never recovers. It's just too serious.

You can't fault the cast, they try the best they can. Jeff Bridges, now pretty much putting The Dude into any role nowadays, is always watchable. Hedlund makes good typical generic male lead, yet I think he might have benefited from a better director that deals with actors. Olivia Wilde makes fine eye candy and Michael Sheen pretty much goes into overboard in his brief fifthteen minutes of fun at a nightclub.

You know you're a badass when your playing a mock electric guitar as a fight breaks out around you. That or possibly easily distracted by noises.

I don't regret my time with Tron: Legacy. I'm happy with the visual aesthetic and Daft Punk's amazing score. The problem is that there's just no joy to be found anywhere else. And considering the lengths they went to make this film for the fans, for the geek community that thrived with films like Avatar, it really doesn't work. There's something way too serious about this nostalgia and not a lot of audiences are going to like it. Especially from a big blockbuster. That's why it won't get a continuing audience after opening weekend. How can you appeal a film like this to every audience?

Saying the words Tron and 3D just doesn't cut it.

When all of 2010's Xmas releases look dull, dire, and unexciting, you'd hope Disney would have downloaded a fun patch to keep this film head and shoulders above the others.

The download failed.

The Interceptor - Cold as Ice

The Interceptor (2009) 

Director: Konstantin Maximov

Stars: Igor Petrenko, Aleksandr Baluev, Andrey Chubchenko and Aleksey Dmitriev

The Interceptor was a film I’ve been meaning to see for a while. I picked it up cheaply on blu-ray for a small price, nothing I would complain about after watching the film. I had seen the trailer and, like Night Watch and Day Watch, looked like a great visual spin on science fiction.

I had watched a Russian sci-fi prior to this, Paragraph 78. A group of commandos get locked inside a quarantined research bunker and get infected with a deadly virus. Their decision, fight to the death – last one blows it all up. Fun times indeed, it saddens me that it’s still yet to get a release anywhere outside Russia (or Brazil).

But I’m digressing. The Interceptor from first glance seems to keep up the good work modern Russian cinema has had lately. If anything, The Interceptor is definitely visual with some great stunt work.

Apart from that, it just feels cold to its audience.

The basic plot sees mystical powerful people from a future time over watching Russia in 2013. These people identify that a great evil is coming to take over and decide to select a Russian special agent called Matvey (Petrenko) to be their weapon of justice against the growing evil. The evil creature, who looks like a villain from Resident Evil, takes its own host in this special’s agent former partner, Kurylo (Baluev), now arms dealer. Thus begins to journey towards their inevitable fight to the death.

Just first, throw in random subplots involving violent political vigilantes, a forgotten romance and a deadly psychosis weapon that can kill. Yep, silly games indeed. Oh a mysterious man who will teach Matvey the secret powers he's been keeping dormant.

As I said earlier, The Interceptor is filmed beautifully. There are some stonking barmy action sequences involving a car driving under a flipping jeep, as well as a great little punch up in a warehouse. There has clearly been a budget and its been used well. More entertaining that a fast cut MTV style actioner anyday.

The problem with The Interceptor is just it feels cold to anyone watching it. You don’t really get a sense of danger or a remote sense of connection with your ice cold hero, Matvey. He just plods from point a to b, effortlessly kicking ass, learning more powers. That’s it. He’s not really that charming. Plus it might require extra viewings to even remotely get an understand what the hell is going on with these mystical sci-fi lords that just pop in and out as we go on.

I could sum it up nicely as Highlander meets Bourne to a degree. If you like the current crop of Russian action and science fiction, The Interceptor is at least one watch. Just don’t expect it to be grateful for your time.