Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "The Palm Beach Story" (1942)

One of the all time great screwball comedies is out on blu-ray this week, and it's from one of the masters of the genre, Preston Sturges. Sturges wrote and directed all his films, and the first time you ever see one you might be thrown for a loop, because they're basically nothing like movies that get made now- the pace is extremely fast, the dialogue is insane, and the plot twists sometimes verge on ludicrous, yet that's all part of what defined "screwball" in the '30's and '40's. This is one of the best, with Claudette Colbert as a wife who decides her financially struggling husband (Joel McCrea) would be better off without her, so she runs off to Florida and ends up the house guest of a very rich and ridiculous brother and sister, while McCrea tries everything to get her back. It defies explanation too much, because the plot gets nuttier and nuttier, but you should give it a chance if you're interested in checking out the kind of film they used to make that no longer exists. It's a good one.

Original 1942 Trailer:

REVIEW: "American Sniper" (2014) Bradley Cooper, Sienna Miller. Dir. Clint Eastwood

American Sniper is a perfectly fine, well-acted, and well paced rendering of the story of American Iraq vet Chris Kyle, but one that really doesn't tell us much of anything about Kyle, war, Iraq or the trauma that returning vets face when they come home from a life far removed from anything they've lived every day of their tours.

What we do get in this film is a great performance from Bradley Cooper, who really stretched himself to inhabit the mind of this Texas cowboy who signed up for military duty because he wanted to lay his life on the line for his country. The role doesn't dig deep into Kyle's mindset (which is too bad because as the supposed deadliest sniper in U.S. history, it was probably a mind worth exploring in a far more introspective manner), but Cooper embodies his attitude and the way he carries himself so well, and it's such a turnaround from other roles he's played recently, that he elevates the material far beyond what's actually on the page.

The script is pretty rote, as it quickly shows us a scene from Kyle's upbringing by a macho, physically intimidating father who teaches his son it's okay to bully the "bad guys," leading to Kyle as an adult who's quick to confrontation and manages to channel that tendency to good use by joining the U.S. SEAL program. Then he meets his future wife in a bar (Sienna Miller), falls in love, and is sent to Iraq to avenge 9/11 (the movie sticks with the old party line about Iraq having a direct connection to the 2001 terrorist attacks, which is apparently still something a lot of people believe, and Clint Eastwood doesn't care, or is just too lazy, to correct). Kyle serves an unbelievable four tours in the country, where he racked up his estimated 160 kills, more than any other in American history. However fine the war scenes are shot though (you have to be slightly impressed with an 84-year-old Eastwood still having the wherewithal to give us the visceral action that he does here), my problem with all of this is that there's nothing new about any of it. Watching American Sniper is kind of like watching a cross between Coming Home and The Hurt Locker, but not as fresh or as interesting as either one of them.

Many of the long drawn out action scenes veer into dull territory, reminiscent of those first person shooter video games, which I suspect may be a solid chunk of the audience that turned out for this over the weekend. The drama on the homefront is old-fashioned and predictable, with poor Sienna Miller saddled with the absolutely thankless role of the long-suffering, occasionally pregnant wife who does nothing but cry and ask Chris when he's coming back, needling him to be "there" when he is home, and the movie hints at Chris's post-traumatic stress when in between tours, but never bothers to dive deeper than surface level, except what you might be able to discern from Cooper's excellent and shaded performance. He hints at depth in this guy that the script does not provide. The basic message of the film seems to be that war is hell- yet how many movies have we seen that in over the years? This one feels redundant and unnecessary, despite the slick professionalism in the way it's translated to the screen.

* *

Movie of the Day: "Selma" (2014)

What better movie to recommend for Martin Luther King Day, right? Selma was timed to release close to the holiday weekend, and it's also a perfect kickoff entry to this week's Movie of the Day series, which is political in nature (also in honor of the State of the Union tomorrow). The week's theme is "real life political events," and Selma honors the events that took place in the spring of 1965, when MLK was organizing, along with his colleagues in the civil rights movement, the marches in Selma, Alabama that turned public opinion on its head and led to the introduction and passage of the Voting Rights Act. It was a contentious battle, and Selma shows how grassroots collective activism can spark government action, when efficiently organized and motivated. It also boasts the wonderful performance of David Oyelowo as Dr. King, who by all rights should definitely have been nominated for Best Actor last week. See Selma in honor of the man and the movement that still remains so relevant today.

Trailer:

BOX OFFICE 1/16-1/18: 'American Sniper' Stuns with $90 Million Opening

It's the biggest box office shocker in years- Clint Eastwood's American Sniper has just blown expectations out of the water (way, way out) by amassing the kind of opening that now seems only reserved for superhero and YA movies. The film bowed with an astonishing $90 million over the weekend and is expected to earn $105 million over the four day holiday- the biggest January opener of all time. Couple of things to take away from this- number one, Bradley Cooper is now a huge movie star, and number two, Clint Eastwood at 84 years old, can still direct a blockbuster. Also, the movie was clearly boosted by its six Oscar nominations Thursday morning, which gave it significantly more buzz after it had been playing in limited release for the last few weeks. With that kind of an opening, a $300 million total is not out of the question, giving it a chance to challenge The Hunger Games and Guardians of the Galaxy for the highest grossing movie of 2014.

I think the encouraging thing about it is the fact that a non-sequel, non-franchise movie from a big studio, intended for adult audiences and not teenagers, can still make the kind of money most think only comic book movies can. Maybe it'll encourage studios to consider more original properties as the coming onslaught of superhero films is bound to wear thin at some point. The Wedding Ringer opened with $21 million, about half of Kevin Hart's last hit Ride Along, and The Weinstein Co.'s Paddington played pretty well with family audiences, opening with $19 million. Taken 3 fell 64% from last week to land at No. 4, and Selma also decreased about 27% (disappointingly over the MLK weekend), to round out the top five.

Top 5:

American Sniper- $90.2 million
The Wedding Ringer- $21 million
Paddington- $19.3 million
Taken 3- $14.1 million
Selma- $8.3 million

Outside the top ten, The Imitation Game held steady at No. 7 and has now crossed $50 million domestically and $100 million global- by Oscar night, American Sniper and Imitation will probably be the only two Best PIcture nominees to top $100 million in the lineup (another reason I can't believe they left out Gone Girl). Other limited release Oscar movies like Birdman, Theory of Everything and Whiplash received small boosts from the nominations haul, but none of them are going to break out of the arthouse realm in the next month. And Michael Mann's Blackhat bombed in wide release, earning a paltry $4 million total over the weekend, I guess showing that Chris Hemsworth is decidedly not a draw outside of the Thor movies. Come back next week when we'll see how well American Sniper can hold, and also if Johnny Depp's Mortdecai and George Lucas's animated Strange Magic can do any damage. Next week also sees the limited release of Jennifer Aniston's Cake and the Cannes winner Mommy, from French-Canadian director Xavier Dolan.

London Film Critics Confirm Oscar Frontrunners

The London Critics Circle is I believe, our last group of film critics to announce, but they didn't really award anyone interesting, instead choosing to rubber stamp the Oscar frontrunners, all of whom happen to be American. I find it interesting that while most other countries give out their film awards to honor the films that get overlooked from their own countries (including English- speaking ones like Canada and Australia), the UK consistently chooses to remain squarely in the Oscar wheelhouse. Aside from the "Best British" categories of course, whose winners should be happy they exist, otherwise they'd get nothing. I just find it suspicious that such a distinctly American movie like Boyhood would appeal to the British experience, but watch this same exact top winners group be duplicated at BAFTA in February.

Best Film: BOYHOOD
Best British Film: UNDER THE SKIN
Best Director: Richard Linklater, BOYHOOD
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, STILL ALICE
Best Actor: Michael Keaton, BIRDMAN
Best Breakthrough British Filmmaker: Yann Demange, '71
Best British Actress: Rosamund Pike, GONE GIRL and WHAT WE DID ON OUR HOLIDAY
Best British Actor: Timothy Spall, MR. TURNER
Best Screenplay: THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Best Foreign Language Film: LEVIATHAN
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, BOYHOOD
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, WHIPLASH
Best Technical Achievement: UNDER THE SKIN
Best Documentary: CITIZENFOUR
Young British Performer of the Year: Alex Lawther, THE IMITATION GAME

'Boyhood,' Michael Keaton, Julianne Moore Win Big at Critics Choice Awards

I do hate the Critics Choice awards, and this year's affair was no less embarrassing, low-budget and horribly written than all the others. They mostly stuck with what they think will win the Oscar right down the line, leaving room for surprise only in a category like Best Comedy Actress, where Jenny Slate pulled off a win in the one place where she's nominated this year. Other than that, it all goes according to script, aside from some techs where the BFCA fouled up by choosing winners that, oops, didn't even get nominated earlier today. Make no mistake, if they could take back those wins in Foreign Film, Editing, Documentary, Screenplay and Animated Film, they would. That's how little legitimacy this organization boasts.

Foreign Film: Force Majeure
Sci-Fi/Horror: Interstellar
O. Screenplay: Birdman
A. Screenplay: Gone Girl
Documentary: Life Itself
Score: Birdman
Ensemble: Birdman
Young Actress/Actor: Ellar Coltrane, Boyhood
Actor in an Action Movie: Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
Actress in an Action Movie: Emily Blunt, Edge of Tomorrow
Action Movie: Guardians of the Galaxy
Animated Film: The Lego Movie
S. Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Song: "Glory," Selma
Visual Effects: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Cinematography: Birdman
Editing: Birdman
Makeup: Guardians of the Galaxy
Costumes: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Art Direction: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Actor in a Comedy: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Actress in a Comedy: Jenny Slate, Obvious Child
Comedy: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Actor: Michael Keaton, Birdman
Picture: Boyhood

They did manage to get Michael Keaton up on stage three times, as he accepted for ensemble, Best Actor and Best Actor in a Comedy, so frankly I do think he's sealed up that Oscar now. If he takes the SAG award on the 25th it's totally over. But I wish the Critics Choice awards would cease to exist. They're pointless, they're not critics, and they make a fool out of themselves with their awkward and awful "ceremony" each and every year. It needs to be put away. The one funny thing about it is that for the last two years they've taken place on the same night following the Oscar nominations, and you can always tell who's pissed off. Tonight it was the entire Selma table, Jessica Chastain, and Jennifer Aniston trying overly hard to hide their sad faces- Jen must have taken it especially hard since she had to cancel her post-nomination Oscar junket already scheduled to take place for tomorrow morning, and she had to face down perpetual rival Angelina Jolie on the red carpet once again. Ouch.

Jennifer Aniston doesn't have as many 'friends' in the Academy as she thought

Snubs, Surprises & Thoughts on This Year's Oscar Noms

THOUGHTS

Of the nine movies I predicted to get nominated for Best Picture today, all got in except Gone Girl, giving us the first lineup in Oscar history with eight nominees. Of that set, Foxcatcher missed the cut despite nailing nominations in Actor, Supporting Actor, Screenplay and Director, giving us the first lone director nomination since the Best Picture field expanded in 2009. How on earth did that happen? Foxcatcher is apparently admired for its individual elements only, yet not loved enough to garner 5% of #1 votes. Weird.
The complete opposite happened to the beleagured Selma, which landed a Best Picture nomination and one other nod for Best Song, which frankly makes the Picture nom look pretty token, wouldn't you say? There's a reason people are talking about how all 20 acting nominations this year went to white people- I guess a year after 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture, the Academy thought well, that's enough of race relations for a while. Despite rapturous reviews and the fact that the Academy was sent screeners of the film, they very nearly rejected it completely, which is sad, and more a reflection on them than the film. I do think the movie was damaged by the LBJ controversy that heated up right during the voting period- that seems pretty difficult to deny at this point.
Nightcrawler was only nominated in Screenplay, despite its strong showing at all the guilds AND Bafta, which I guess tells us that genre movies, no matter how well they play with the industry, are always going to have a hard time with the Academy. I had thought Gone Girl and Nightcrawler were vying for the same slot- in the end, it turns out there was no room for either of them.

SNUBS

Okay, there were a lot this year, so let's just go down the line- Jennifer Aniston misses in Best Actress for Marion Cotillard?!! I couldn't believe it- how did they see 2 Days, 1 Night? Or did they? To be honest, I think this may be more a rejection of Aniston than an embrace of Cotillard, who is a previous winner. Jennifer Aniston simply is not taken seriously by the Academy, which I had always believed was the case, and I only wish now I had stuck to my guns on it (of course, I assumed Amy Adams would take that final slot, not Cotillard, so I guess it wouldn't have mattered). Marion Cotillard can thank the critics for putting her on the map for this one, a rare nomination that came from a non-existent Oscar campaign.
David Oyelowo overlooked for Selma. This a tragic misstep in my opinion- did they really need to nominate Bradley Cooper three years in a row? If anything, I thought Selma might get snubbed in Picture but make the cut for Actor, like Malcolm X did 25 years ago. He is far more deserving than either Steve Carell or Cooper for this performance.
Here's a big one- The Lego Movie not nominated for Animated Feature?! How the hell did that happen? I never thought it would actually win with the overall Academy, but for the animators to snub the biggest animated hit of the year, which got incredible reviews on top of it? I'm stunned. Did they hate the live-action segment of the movie? The fact that its directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, move back and forth between animation and live action films? I'm at a loss- they've never done anything like this before and all I can say is that it's very, very strange (and I'm not even the movie's biggest fan).

Life Itself shut out of Best Documentary- that's pretty surprising too. Okay, so I guess filmmakers still hate critics, right? Or the documentary branch has a longstanding hatred of poor Steve James, who was once again not nominated 20 years after Hoop Dreams became the most notorious Oscar snubbing in history. Are they still holding a grudge against him for all the ensuing backlash that made them look bad? Or is this a way of forcing the overall Academy to vote for the political film (and now default frontrunner) Citizenfour, knowing they have not done so for the past two years when given a choice between a popular film about artists and one with a more serious and weighty subject matter? I'm kinda thinking it's the latter.
Ava DuVernay, who would have made history as the first black female director nominated, is sadly overlooked, although it did seem inevitable with so little support for Selma overall.
Gone Girl shut out of Adapted Screenplay- this is actually a big one, because that film was winning so many critics awards for the script and most considered it a genuine threat for the win in this category. The fact that Gillian Flynn missed here (and she would have been the only female writer nominated) has to tell you that they really hated this movie. I can't help but wonder if they would have embraced it had the ending been a little more Fatal Attraction-esque (which back in the day was nominated for 7 Oscars), and SPOILER ALERT- had Rosamund Pike's villainous Amy get what's coming to her instead of being allowed to triumph completely over Ben Affleck's Nick. With the Academy being such a boys club, I honestly think if the film had a different ending, they would have gone for it after all (if anything, just to reward the box office of a well-reviewed, adult-oriented thriller, like they did with Fatal Attraction).

SURPRISES

In the acting categories, obviously Bradley Cooper pulled out his third consecutive nomination (a feat only matched by a very exclusive group including Spencer Tracy, Jack Nicholson, Al Pacino and most recently, Russell Crowe), and Laura Dern's friends in the Academy came through for her after all in Supporting Actress, which I had always thought was likely to happen, despite no precursor support.
Bennett Miller takes the Best Director slot away from Clint Eastwood, the person I actually thought was least likely to happen there. Wow. Other than that, the eclectic directors branch stuck with the DGA nominees, including Wes Anderson and Morten Tyldum, which shows just how insanely loved Grand Budapest and Imitation Game are.
Other minor, but happy surprises in the tech categories- Mr. Turner! Not skunked after all, getting nods for costumes, production design, cinematography and most surprisingly, score. All very well deserved, along with a cinematography nod for Ida's gorgeous black and white photography- very cool choices (which is not something you can say in general about many of these nominees).
The Song category redeems itself from the horrors of their nominations just last year and the year before by giving us some pretty decent picks this time around, including "Everything is Awesome" (Lego Movie's only nomination now, as fate would have it), "Lost Stars" from Begin Again (yay!!! Will Keira and Adam sing a duet?) and the song from Beyond the Lights, an overlooked film from the late fall, which was totally unexpected. Even though "Lost Stars" is my favorite, I completely expect the John Legend/Common song from Selma to win this category now, since it was treated so shabbily by the industry overall.

'Birdman' and 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' Lead the 2015 Oscar Nominations

Well, the Academy has finally spoken, and they have for the most part gone their own way, giving out a surprise nomination in just about every single category this year (more on that later, when I recount the snubs, which were many). Birdman and Grand Budapest tied with 9 nominations each, while The Imitation Game was right behind them with 8. Boyhood remains the frontrunner, earning six nominations, but in all the key categories it needed to hold that place in line. I'll just say for now that I can't believe the highest grossing film in this lineup is The Grand Budapest Hotel and that the Academy opted not to include a single major box office hit like Gone Girl or Interstellar (although that will change when American Sniper breaks through this weekend). They went for a mostly indie down the line, which makes it the lowest grossing Best Picture group since 2007.

BEST PICTURE

   •   American Sniper
   •   Birdman
   •   Boyhood
   •   The Grand Budapest Hotel
   •   The Imitation Game
   •   Selma
   •   The Theory of Everything
   •   Whiplash

BEST DIRECTOR

   •   Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
   •   Alejandro Inarritu (Birdman)
   •   Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
   •   Bennett Miller (Foxcatcher)
   •   Morten Tyldum (The Imitation Game)

BEST ACTRESS

   •   Marion Cotillard (Two Days, One Night)
   •   Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
   •   Julianne Moore (Still Alice)
   •   Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
   •   Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

BEST ACTOR

   •   Steve Carell (Foxcatcher)
   •   Bradley Cooper (American Sniper)
   •   Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
   •   Michael Keaton (Birdman)
   •   Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

   •   Patricia Arquette (Boyhood)
   •   Laura Dern (Wild)
   •   Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
   •   Emma Stone (Birdman)
   •   Meryl Streep (Into the Woods)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

   •   Robert Duvall (The Judge)
   •   Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
   •   Edward Norton (Birdman)
   •   Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
   •   J.K. Simmons (Whiplash)

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

   •   American Sniper
   •   The Imitation Game
   •   Inherent Vice
   •   The Theory of Everything
   •   Whiplash

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

   •   Birdman
   •   Boyhood
   •   Foxcatcher
   •   The Grand Budapest Hotel
   •   Nightcrawler

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM

   •   Ida (Poland)
   •   Leviathan (Russia)
   •   Timbuktu (Mauritania)
   •   Tangerines (Georgia)
   •   Wild Tales (Argentina)

BEST DOCUMENTARY

   •   Citizenfour
   •   Virunga
   •   Last Days in Vietnam
   •   Finding Vivian Maier
   •   The Salt of the Earth

BEST ANIMATED FILM

   •   Big Hero 6
   •   The Boxtrolls
   •   How to Train Your Dragon 2
   •   Song of the Sea
   •   The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

   •   The Grand Budapest Hotel
   •   Interstellar
   •   The Imitation Game
   •   The Theory of Everything
   •   Mr. Turner

BEST EDITING

   •   Boyhood
   •   American Sniper
   •   The Grand Budapest Hotel
   •   The Imitation Game
   •   Whiplash

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

   •   "Lost Stars" (Begin Again)
   •   "Glory" (Selma)
   •   "Grateful" (Beyond the Lights)
   •   "Everything is Awesome" (The Lego Movie)
   •   "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" (Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me)

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

   •   The Grand Budapest Hotel
   •   The Imitation Game
   •   Mr. Turner
   •   Into the Woods
   •   Interstellar

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

   •   Mr. Turner
   •   Into the Woods
   •   Inherent Vice
   •   The Grand Budapest Hotel
   •   Maleficent

BEST SOUND MIXING

   •   Interstellar
   •   Unbroken
   •   Birdman
   •   American Sniper
   •   Whiplash

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

   •   Mr. Turner
   •   The Grand Budapest Hotel
   •   Ida
   •   Birdman
   •   Unbroken

BEST SOUND EDITING

   •   The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
   •   American Sniper
   •   Birdman
   •   Unbroken
   •   Interstellar

BEST HAIRSTYLING & MAKEUP

   •   The Grand Budapest Hotel
   •   Guardians of the Galaxy
   •   Foxcatcher

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

   •   Guardians of the Galaxy
   •   Interstellar
   •   Captain America: The Winter Soldier
   •   X-Men: Days of Future Past
   •   Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

   •   Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
   •   Joanna
   •   Our Curse
   •   The Reaper
   •   White Earth

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT

   •   Aya
   •   Boogaloo and Graham
   •   Butter Lamp
   •   Parveneh
   •   The Phone Call

BEST ANIMATED SHORT

   •   The Bigger Picture
   •   The Dam Keepr
   •   Feast
   •   Me and My Moulton
   •   A Single Life

MPSE Golden Reel Nominations

Well, we're down to the last guild that announces before the Oscar nominations tomorrow, and that's the Motion Picture Sound Editors. The sound mixers already announced, so now the sound editors have their turn. What's the difference? Well, the mixers are the ones who put together raw, already existing sounds from on-set and balance them, like background noise, car alarms, etc. and sound editors create new sounds altogether for the movie's soundtrack. Or at least I think so- it could be the other way around actually, but I'll have it down before Oscar night. All I know is that war movies, musicals and action movies tend to do pretty well in both categories.

FEATURE ENGLISH LANGUAGE -DIALOGUE/ ADR

Birdman
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Imitation Game
Still Alice
Theory of Everything
Unbroken
Whiplash

FEATURE ENGLISH LANGUAGE -EFFECTS/ FOLEY

American Sniper
Birdman
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Fury
Guardians of the Galaxy
Interstellar
Unbroken

2014 Razzie Nominations Include 'Annie,' 'One Million Ways to Die in the West' and 'Transformers'

In stark contrast to all the celebratory end of the year accolades, the annual Razzie noms are out, taking time to recognize the worst of 2014. This year their main target seems to be Kirk Cameron and his Saving Christmas movie (if you can even call it that), but my favorite thing on this list is the new category they added, the Razzie Redeemer Award. This one is to ostensibly congratulate legendarily consistent Razzie nominees for finally starting to rehabilitate their careers, but frankly, all that does is remind you of how truly shitty the vast majority of their movies have been, doesn't it? Heh. Nice backhanded slap, Razzies.

WORST PICTURE

Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Left Behind
The Legend of Hercules
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Transformers 4: Age of Ex-STINK-Tion

WORST ACTOR

Nicolas Cage / Left Behind
Kirk Cameron / Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Kellan Lutz / The Legend of Hercules
Seth MacFarlane / A Million Ways To Die in the West
Adam Sandler / Blended

WORST ACTRESS

Drew Barrymore / Blended
Cameron Diaz / The Other Woman and Sex Tape
Melissa McCarthy / Tammy
Charlize Theron / A Million Ways to Die in the West
Gaia Weiss / The Legend of Hercules

THE RAZZIE REDEEMER AWARD

Ben Affleck (From RAZZIE “Winner” for GIGLI to Oscar Darling for ARGO and GONE GIRL)
Jennifer Aniston (From 4-Time RAZZIE Nominee to SAG Award Nominee for CAKE)
Mike Myers (From RAZZIE “Winner” for LOVE GURU to Docu Director of SUPERMENSCH)
Keanu Reeves (From 6-Time RAZZIE Nominee to Critically Acclaimed JOHN WICK)
Kristen Stewart (From RAZZIE “Winner” for TWILIGHT to the Art House Hit CAMP X-RAY)

WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Cameron Diaz / Annie
Megan Fox / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Nicola Peltz / [Transformers: Age of Extinction]
Brigitte Ridenour (Kirk’s Sister) / Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Susan Sarandon / Tammy

WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Mel Gibson/ Expendables 3
Kelsey Grammer / Expendables 3, Legends of Oz, Think Like a Man Too and [Transformers: Age of Extinction]
Shaquille O’Neal / Blended
Ah-Nuld Schwarzenegger / Expendables 3
Kiefer Sutherland/ Pompeii

WORST DIRECTOR

Michael Bay / [Transformers: Age of Extinction]
Darren Doane / Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Renny Harlin / The Legend of Hercules
Jonathan Liebesman / Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Seth MacFarlane / A Million Ways To Die in the West

WORST SCREEN COMBO

Any Two Robots, Actors (or Robotic Actors) [Transformers: Age of Extinction]
Kirk Cameron & His Ego / Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas
Cameron Diaz & Jason Segel / Sex Tape
Kellan Lutz & Either His Abs, His Pecs or His Glutes / The Legend of Hercules
Seth MacFarlane & Charlize Theron / A Million Ways To Die in the West

WORST SCREENPLAY

Kirk Cameron’s Saving Christmas, Written by Darren Doane and Cheston Hervey
Left Behind, Screenplay by Paul LaLonde and John Patus,
Based on the Novel by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins
Sex Tape, Screenplay by Kate Angelo and Jason Segel & Nicholas Stoller
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Written by Evan Daugherty and Andre Nemec & Josh Applebaum,
Based on Characters Created by Peter Laird and Kevin Eastman
[Transformers: Age of Extinction], Written by Ehren Kruger, Based on Hasbro’s Transformers Action Figures

WORST REMAKE, RIP-OFF OR SEQUEL

Annie
Atlas Shrugged #3: Who Is John Galt?
The Legend of Hercules
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
[Transformers: Age of Extinction]

REVIEW: "Two Days, One Night" (2014) & "Force Majeure" (2014)

Two reviews for the price of one today, as I catch up with a couple of significant foreign language films that came out last year, both of which are seriously worth a look. The first is Two Days, One Night, the Cannes entry from Belgium's the Dardennes brothers, who have a history of making humanist dramas with a strong working class bent, something we don't see nearly enough of in American film.

This time they work with a much more known actress than usual, as Marion Cotillard takes the lead role as a woman recovering from a nervous breakdown, who now suffers the indignity of having to ask each one of her co-workers to vote against a pay raise so that she can keep her job at a factory. It's never made clear exactly what the work is that's being done in this factory, but it doesn't matter much, as Cotillard races against the clock to visit each and every one of the twelve colleagues she needs to procure a promise from before the vote is taken. The film works as a fascinating observation in human nature, because each person Cotillard faces reacts completely differently, many hostile, some guilty, others willing and eager to help her out, even it means sacrificing their own pay. And Cotillard gives a very earnest performance with a character who at times becomes unbearable in her self-pity and suicidal tendencies. That may sound harsh, but after her recent breakdown she attempts yet another suicide in the middle of her fight for her family's future, and you can't help but think this woman probably does belong in a hospital ward and frankly shouldn't be working at all.

There's also a tendency for the nature of the story to become a bit repetitive, as we see Cotillard confront every one of her colleagues with the same exact speech, but the human drama is very potent and the ultimate outcome extremely affecting. The other movie getting quite a bit of awards buzz (it's certain to be a frontrunner for this year's Oscar for Foreign Language Film) is Sweden's Force Majuere, an exploration of marriage and communication between couples by way of a claustrophobic thriller set at a ski resort. A family of four is on vacation for a long weekend when a terrifying incident unwittingly reveals the father Thomas's true colors, or so it would it seem to his wife Ebba. An avalanche threatens to surround the balcony where the family's having lunch, and at the moment the threat reveals itself, Thomas runs from the table, leapfrogs over his kids (but not before grabbing his phone) and leaves his family in the dust, literally. The avalanche turns out not to have been as fatal as it looked, but yeah- the rest of this vacation is going to be awkward. If that sounds kind of funny when read, that's how it plays in the film as well, and the situation is mined for dark laughs as well as spot on observations about the way men and women often have an impossible time relating to each other or even telling each other what they want, while the kids look on as unwitting bystanders to their parents' relationship drama.

The way this whole scenario is explored is never less than totally engrossing, amplified by the pressurized setting of the mountainside resort and another couple that's dragged into Thomas and Ebba's increasing frustration with one another. The movie is a vastly entertaining, thoughtful and sharply written depiction of marriage and a kind of battle of the sexes, until a long, drawn out and unnecessarily ambiguous ending throws everything out of whack, making you scratch your head over what it is you just watched. I wish it hadn't taken such a hard left turn at the end of the movie, one that unfortunately does scar what came before it, but for a good 90% of the film, Force Majeure provides you with some of the year's best cinematic moments, and it's a conversation starter that's definitely worth checking out.

Two Days, One Night: * * * 1/2 / Force Majeure: * * * 1/2

Blu-Ray Pick of the Week: "My Left Foot" (1989)

With all the drummed up talk about how Eddie Redmayne could win the Oscar because his performance in The Theory of Everything recalls a similar Oscar-winning performance in a much better movie, I think it's time to take another look at that first movie, especially since it's out on blu-ray today. Daniel Day-Lewis surprised everyone with his portrayal of Irish writer Christy Brown in My Left Foot, and frankly it's still one of the most impressive performances in film history (and one that didn't make people think of another, better movie at the time it came out). The truth is this biopic directed by Jim Sheridan was miles better than Theory of Everything, because it focused entirely on Brown and what he achieved despite being born with cerebral palsy, and the last word anyone would use to describe this moving film would be "superficial." It was a great movie and when you see it, Day-Lewis's all-encompassing performance will likely overshadow any other actor you'll ever see who tries to play a person with a physical handicap.

Original 1989 Trailer: