Dr. Wilson: Playing Brains with my Game

My wife and I are in the middle of watching season two of the television show House MD. A show she absolutely loves.

Well, it's bothered me for awhile that Dr. James Wilson, the chief oncologist for Princeton Plainsboro hospital looked very young to me.

"I bet he's a lot younger than they try to make him on the show." I tell my wife.

"What do you mean, he looks like a middle aged man, probably forty or so." She says.

"No way, I bet he's not even 30, he just looks so young to me." I respond.

So I check imdb.com in sheer confidence that Dr. Wilson (played by Robert Sean Leonard), surely must be under 30. But alas, I check and he's 37, probably some where between my wife's guess of 40-something and mine of under 30.

But then I look at his bio info...

"I can't believe it." I exclaim. "No wonder I think he looks so young."

It was at that moment that I realized Dr. James Wilson of House had been one of John Keatings (Robin Williams) students in the late 80s in the film Dead Poet's Society. In fact, Robert Sean Leonard was the lead actor along side Williams and Ethan Hawke.

It was as though, subconsciously when I saw 37 year old Dr. Wilson on the screen my brain saw 20 year old Neil Perry from Dead Poet's Society.

Actors...you're used to them in one film and then they pop up in another and mess with your head.

Related Tags: Dr House, House MD, Robert Sean Leonard, Dr James Wilson, Television, Celebrities, Dead Poets Society, Neil Perry

Babbling

Babel received recognition and significant buzz at this year's Cannes Film Festival, has really mobalized itself as a critical favorite.

I think Babel will be an excellent movie, and that many critics will love it, give it critical awards and paste it into various spots of their top 10.

I am also anxious to see this film BUT, many people have been quick to include it in their top 5 choices for what they predict will get nominated for best picture.

As I did with the movie the Blood Diamond, I am going to site the cast and crew that have previously been nominated, to get a sense of what type of contenders and repeat nominees may surface in all categories including technical categories.

Previous Academy Award nominees in the cast and crew of Babel:

• Cate Blanchett (won supporting actress for The Aviator, nominated best lead for Elizabeth)
• Brad Pitt (nominated best supporting actor for Twelve Monkeys)
• Composer Gustavo Santaolalla (won best score for Brokeback Mountain)
• Cinemotographer Rodrigo Prieto (nominated for Brokeback Mountain)
• Editor Stephen Mirrione (won for Traffic)
• Production Designer Brigitte Broch (won for Moulin Rouge!, nominated for Romeo + Juliet)

Certainly not a bad crew, and I think some of this crew and quite possibly some of the acting talent, could get recognition by the Academy, but I don't think Alejandro González Iñárritu's creative film will be mainstream enough to get a best picture nomination.

Related Tags: Babel, Award Buzz, Academy Awards, Brad Pitt, Cannes Film Festival, Film Critics, Cate Blanchett, Gustavo Santaolalla, Rodrigo Prieto, Stephen Mirrione, Brigitte Broch, Alejandro González Iñárritu, Best Picture

Helen Mirren is The Queen (two in fact)

The new movie poster for the film The Queen looks awesome (previous post about the film here).

It'll be interesting to see how this film is perceived in Venice this week, especially Helen Mirren's performance as Queen Elizabeth II following the death of Princess Di.

I can't help but assume that Helen Mirren will get an academy award nomination for her performance in this modern-biopic.

And what if she wins? Wouldn't it be interseting, especially considering just last weekend she won the Emmy (Outstanding Lead Actress in a Miniseries or a Movie) for playing Queen Elizabeth I in the TV movie Elizabeth I?

That would seem like quite an accomplishment to win awards for portrayls of Elizabeth I and Elizabeth II in the same life time, let alone the same year.

Related Tags: Queen Elizabeth I, Queen Elizabeth II, Award Buzz, Helen Mirren, The Queen, Emmy, Academy Award

Venice Film Festival Kicks Off Today

The Venice Film Festival kicked off today. Last year at the Venice Film Festival Brokeback mountain was screened and won the prestigious Golden Lion before it received it's academy award nominations including best picture.

(Also, other films like The Constant Gardener and Good Night, and Good Luck also screened. David Strathairn took home the festivals award for Best Actor for Good Night, and Good Luck)

This year, some possible critical favorites and award contenders will be shown at this festival which goes from August 30th-September 9th.

This year 21 films are in competition for the Golden Lion are...

Black Dahlia, The (2006) - Brian De Palma
Bobby (2006) - Emilio Estevez
Children of Men (2006) - Alfonso Cuarón
Coeurs (2006) - Alain Resnais
Daratt (2007) - Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Ejforija Russia (2006) - Ivan Vyrypayev
Fallen (2006) - Barbara Albert
Fong juk (2006) - Johnny To
Fountain, The (2006) - Darren Aronofsky
Golden Door, The (2006) - Emanuele Crialese
Hei yanquan (2006) - Ming-liang Tsai
Hollywoodland (2006) - Allen Coulter (I)
Intouchable, L' (2006) - Benoît Jacquot
Mushi-Shi (2006) - Katsuhiro Ôtomo
Nue propriété (2006) - Joachim Lafosse
Paprika (2006) - Satoshi Kon
Queen, The (2006) - Stephen Frears
Quei loro incontri (2006) - Jean-Marie Straub; Danièle Huillet
Sang sattawat (2006) - Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Stella che non c'è, La (2006) - Gianni Amelio
Zwartboek (2006) - Paul Verhoeven (I)

I am particularly interested to see how films like The Queen, Hollywoodland, The Fountain, Bobby, and The Black Dahlia are perceived and how these films might play into this award season.

Previous post mentioning films that are screening:
Bobby: The Other Bobby Movie
The Queen: The Days Following the Death of Princess Diana

Related Tags: Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, David Strathairn, The Queen, Bobby, The Black Dahlia

O'Reilly, Jesus, & Everclear's "Hater"

The rock band Everclear has a new song whose video has created some controversy. The song is called "Hater."frontman Art Alexakis in a head to head interview with Bill O'Reilly can be seen in this video.

This clip from the O'Reilly Factor where band frontman Art Alexakis responds to O'Reilly's criticism of the video which hit the internet about a month ago.



O'Reilly says this video is controvrsial because:
1. The video is unclear and fails to spell out it's message
2. The video depicts Jesus (or a heathen version of Jesus) doing immoral things
3. Dedicating this video to Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson does not make sense and is judgemental

Alexakis supports this video because:
1. It's artful in it uses icnons
2. It's a "break-up song" and the video was written to show hate in a unique way
3. It makes a saliant point to criticizes people who claim to be men of God but are unproductive, unjust, unholy, and hypocritical.

Related Tags: Everclear, Art Alexakis, Jesus, Hater, Music Video, Television, Bill O'Reilly, O'Reilly Factor, Controversy, Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Religious Icons

3 African Countries, 3 Decades, 3 Stories

Film: The Blood Diamond
Director: Edward Zwick
Release Date: December 15, 2006
African Country: Sierra Leone
Decade: 1990s
Lead African Male: Djimon Hounsou
Lead Caucasian Male: Leonardo DiCaprio
In Five words: Two Search for Conflict Diamond

Film: Catch A Fire
Director: Phillip Noyce
Release Date: October 27, 2006 (limited)
African Country: South Africa
Decade: 1980s
Lead African-American Male: Derek Luke
Lead Caucasian Male: Tim Robbins
In Five words: Police Investigate Man During Apartheid

Film: The Last King of Scotland
Director: Kevin Macdonald
Release Date: September 27, 2006 (limited)
African Country: Uganda
Decade: 1970s
Lead African-American Male: Forest Whitaker
Lead Caucasian Male: James McAvoy
In Five Word: Scotish Physician Dilemna With Dictator

Related Tags: Uganda, Sierra Leone, The Blood Diamond, South Africa, Catch A Fire, Phillip Noyce, Edward Zwick, The Last King of Scotland, Forest Whitaker, Leonardo Dicaprio, Derek Luke, Tim Robbins, Apartheid, Dictator, Diamonds, Kevin Macdonald, James McAvoy, Djimon Hounsou, Africa, Upcoming Films, History, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s

First Thoughts on the Last King of Scotland

I finally got a chance today to watch the trailer for the upcoming film The Last King of Scotland.

This film is striking and very interesting.

It tells the real life story of Idi Amin, the dictator of Uganda during the 1970s. Forest Whitaker plays the part of the dictator, in a compelling way that will surely garner him Academy Award attention.

The buzz for Whitaker has been around all year, but The Last King of Scotland tells the stories from the perspective of Idi Amin's personal physician, Nicholas Garrigan, a young adventursome guy from Scotland. This role is played by James McAvoy who played the part of Mr. Tumnus the Faun in the most recent adaptation of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I was very impressed with McAvoy's portrayl of Mr. Tumnus, and I think that his role in The Last King of Scotland could garner him some critical attention. I'll be interested to see if this is the case.

For whatever reason, the preview for this film, directed by Kevin Macdonald, looks like it could be a very compelling and unique film, or a snoozer with some powerful acting by Forest Whitaker and company. In some ways this trailer reminds me in some faint way of Fernando Meirelles great film City of God, but with expectations like that I'm only setting myself up to be disappointed.

Related Tags: Forest Whitaker, James McAvoy, The Last King of Scotland, Upcoming Movies, Film, Uganda, Idi Amin, Nicholas Garrigan, Tumnus, Africa, Kevin Macdonald, Award Buzz

Survivor 13 Goes Hollywood

CBS's hit reality show Survivor has been credited with bringing the reality television crazy to network primetime. Hailed, for bringing fresh unseen faces of everyday America into our common everyday world.

Since then, we've seen other reality shows follow this pattern of casting the unknown from across the United States, who strangely because a part of our pop-ethos.

YET...in the upcoming season of Survivor 13 of the 20 cast members are from California, certainly not the cross section of American life. And even more striking, 9 of those people are from Los Angeles and it's surrounding area (Venice & Marina Del Rey). (source)

In addition, Survivor: Cook Islands stars Sundra Oakley and Jonathan Penner (both pictured right) each have decent list of past acting credits on imdb.com, both having roles on different different franchises of CSI.

How many more of these "real-life Survivor characters" are "want to make in big in Hollywood characters?"

In 2000, the concept of unknowns exposed to entire world was an enchanting concept for television viewers, perhaps today the Unknown is overexposed?

Maybe the casting department for Survivor is having a hard time finding attractive able bodied people across the US who are willing to travel overseas for 39 days at a time?*

Perhaps it was hard to find 5 Asian-Americans/Hispanics/African-Americans/Whites that they felt would round out the contestants the way that they wanted to? Or maybe it was just too much work?

It's hard to tell.

*Normal seasons have 16 contestants on an island for 39 days. Will this season with 20 contestants, leave Jeff Probst and his crew on the island for more than 39 days of filming?

Related Tags: CBS, Survivor, Television, Cook Islands, Reality Television, Survivor 13, Los Angeles, Sundra Oakley, Jonathan Penner, CSI, Hollywood

Update: Vomit Inducing Summer Movies

On May 2nd I posted my list of Vomit Inducing Summer Movies. The last of those films, Beerfest is released in theaters today.

True Confession:
Of the 17 films on the list, I saw 2 of the films. Both at the invitation of others. In both cases I enjoyed the films. Those two films were... Wordplay& Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.

Not Even a 2006 Film:
No one had a chance to see The Reaping, although I caught the trailer a few times, this Hillary Swank film about the plagues has had multiple release date changes and is now coming out March 2007.

The Box Office Speaks:
Currently The Break-up & Talladega Nights are the highest grossing films of the 17 on the list. Poseidon with it's $160 million dollar production budget only gross $60 million.

The Tomatoes Speak:
The 16 movies (The list of 17 minus The Reaping) in order of freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

95% fresh: Wordplay (read note above...saw it and loved it)
72% fresh: Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
70% fresh: Brothers of the Head
68% fresh: Snakes on a Plane
49% fresh: Beerfest
36% fresh: The Lake House
36% fresh: The Fast and the Furious 3: Tokyo Drift
33% fresh: The Break-up
31% fresh: Poseidon
27% fresh: The Omen
21% fresh: You, Me, and Dupree
15% fresh: Pulse
14% fresh: Little Man
11% fresh: Garfield's A Tale of Two Kitties
7% fresh: Material Girls
6% fresh: See No Evil

I guess I lucked out by seeing the two highest rated films off my list...the one film I really missed by not including on the list was Zoom staring Tim Allen and Courtney Cox which received a 0% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes.

StrangeCulture stories relating to the 17 movies on the list:
Tallagega Nights: John C. Reilly Choosing Comedy
Wordplay: Square Fillers: War vs. Play
Wordplay: Ellen Ripstein Responds on StrangeCulture
The Reaping: Biblical Horror
4 movies in the same weekend: Stink-fest Movie Weekend

Related Tags: zoom, rotten tomatoes, bad movies, poseidon, see no evil, the break-up, the omen, The Fast and The Furious 3, Tokyo Drift, The Lake House, Documentary, Wordplay, Garfield's A Tale of Two Kitties, Little Man, You Me and Dupree, Talladega Nights, The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, The Reaping, Snakes on A Plane, Beerfest, Material Girls, Summer Movies

A Steady Stream of Tears

There are movies that have made me cry. Often for just a short moment, or at a scene built for creating a couple tear drops.

For me it's the most random combination of movies like Big Fish, Schindler's List, World Trade Center, For Love of the Game, Dead Poet's Society, and Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and I am Sam (to name a few).

But the films were I have cried most consistently through out the majority of the films are Hotel Rwanda and the documentary Paper Clips.

Last night, my wife and I watched Paper Clips and it was the most bizarre experience that I cried almost from start to finish...not because the entire film was overly emotional but it hit me in all the emotional themes that sometimes "get me."

Why are these the two movies that have made me continuously emotional? They are completly different films, but still there are many common themes between these two films. Can you seen any themes between Hotel Rwanda and Paper Clips. (I can see a few)

Related Tags: Paper Clips, Documentary, Hotel Rwanda, Emotional Movies, Film, Crying

Survivor 13 Adds Major Racial Element

Are the new people Surivors more tan than usual?

CBS's hit series Survivor: Cook Islands is entering it's 13th season, and this time changed up in a major way...they'll begin the season dividing the tribes by race.

Normally, there are 16 contestants when the season begins, this year there are 20.

Traditionally they begin the season in 2 tribes that have gotten mixed and mingled through various random ways. The 2 tribes at the begin are sometimes created randomly or picked by the producers. Last season on Surivor: Exile Island the show began with 4 tribes of 4 divided older men, younger men, older women, younger women.

This year they will begin with 4 tribes of 5 people divided by race. The four groups (CBS's terms) are white, African-American, Asian-American, and Hispanic.

These teams will probably get intermingled and mixed early on, but surely this is a bold move to create stir and pick up viewers.

What are people saying?

"white America will learn the occult secret of how the little-understood Hispanics make fuego in their secretive barrios" -- Shakespeare's Sister

"I can't believe how bad of an idea this is. Please, all you people out there still watching Survivor: give this one a miss." --Feminist Engineer

"the term, the 'white tribe,' really makes me uncomfortable. are they serious?" --blac(k)ademic

"I wish I could have been a fly on the wall in the CBS board room when it was decided" --Kimberly Ann

"what I'm really looking forward to - the following season of Survivor will feature teams consisting respectively of Christians, Jews, and Muslims. It will be called Survivor: Holy Land, and the winner gets Lebanon." --Rod

"I'll watch to see how the Asians do and also so I can yell at them on television when they do something stupid..." --The Hyphenator!

"However, I will make a prediction. The Hispanics will win. Why? They'll do the challenges that the other tribes just won't do." --Rick Moore

"I guess they are desperate for attention. We're supposed to talk about them. Should we fall for it?" --Althouse

"If the folks at CBS want to use Survivor to talk about race, they should figure out how Black people manage to survive with inadequate health care, diminishing job opportunities, poor schools, and institutionalized racism." --Marc Lamont Hill

"...looking at the Olympics, you'd have to say the white tribe would be the best swimmers." --Rush Limbaugh

Pictured above are Sundra, Cao Boi, & Ozzy.

Survivor: Cook Islands premiers premiering Thursday, September 14.

(Thanks to Anthony & my mom for sending me e-mail about this today)

Related Tags: Survivor 13 Cook Islands, Race, White, African American, Asian American, Hispanic, Ethnicity, Rush Limbaugh, Reality Television, TV, Survivor, Tribes, Ozzy Lusth, Sundra Oakley, Cao Boi

More Unfortunate than Infamous

in-fa-mous (adjective) 1. having an extremely bad reputation 2. deserving of or causing an evil reputation

un-for-tu-nate (adjective) 1. suffering from bad luck 2. marked by or inviting misfortune

Friday the 13th (October 13, 2006) Infamous will come out in theaters in the US (at least in LA and New York) after a premiere at the Venice Film Festival.

Infamous tells this story (from imdb.com): While researching his book In Cold Blood, writer Truman Capote (Jones) develops a close relationship with convicted murderers Dick Hickock and Perry Smith.

Sound familiar??? It's a very similar story to 2005's Capote which received 5 Academy award nominations including the best actor Oscar for Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Bummer for Toby Jones who is playing the part of Truman Capote. Toby Jones, is best known to me for playing the voice of Dobby the House Elf in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Smee in Finding Neverland.

Bummber for Sandra Bullock who is playing the part of Harper Lee which Catherine Keener got a supporting actress nod for last year.

Bummer for Douglas McGrath who wrote and directed this fun and gutsy film when Bennett Miller was nominated for best director last year and Dan Futterman was nominated for best adapted screenplay last year.

Bummer for Warner Independent who are distributing Infamous.

Bummer, bummer, bummer.

The cast for infamous also includes soon-to-be-James-Bond Daniel Craig & Lee Pace (playing the killers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock) as well as stars Peter Bogdanovich, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, and Sigourney Weaver.

See the trailer here.

Related Tags: Infamous, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Truman Capote, Toby Jones, Daniel Craig, Lee Pace, Perry Smith, Dick Hickock, Peter Bogdanovich, Jeff Daniels, Hope Davis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Isabella Rossellini, Sigourney Weaver, Douglas McGrath, Sandra Bullock, Catherine Keener, Bennett Miller, Dan Futterman, Dobby the House Elf, In Cold Blood, Harper Lee, upcoming movies, film, award buzz, academy awards

Bugs, Bugs, Everywhere

You can tell by my list of vomit enducing summer movies that I'm not too keen on the serge in horror movies that has taken place over the past couple years.

But, the film Bug has caught my attention because...

(1) Ashley Judd has gotten rave reviews since this film was shown at the Cannes Film Festival earlier in the year.

(2) Michael Shannon (pictured right, with Judd) was a standout in World Trade Center (as the marine) and I think his career could begin to take off.

(3) The story seems intriguing (although reminds me somewhat of the opening scene in A Scanner Darkly)

The Story...
A paranoid war veteran sees invicible bugs crawling everywhere.

The film is directed by William Friedkin (who won an academy award for The French Connection and was nominated for The Exorcist).

The film comes out in limited release December 1st, 2006. The preview for the film can be viewed here.

Related Tags: Bug, Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon, William Friedkin, Horror Films, Cannes Film Festival, Upcoming Movies

Dead's Man Chest - over $400 million domestic gross

After coming in at number 8 in the US Box Office this weekend (just over $5 million dollars), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has passed the 400 million dollar marker.

It's currently the 5th highest grossing film (domestic box office) of all time*

1. Titanic, $600 million
2. Shrek 2, $441 million
3. Star Wars: Episode I, $431 million
4. Spider-Man, $403 million
5. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, $401 million (as of 8/20/06)

What's the draw to Pirates of the Caribbean to make it a break out success...I mean, c'mon it's based on a Disney World ride about pirates?

It can only be Johnny Depp in the role of Jack Sparrow. He's created a unique and iconic film character that's funny, dramatic, and has a humble humanistic nature unlike most other summer blockbuster heroes.

* This number does not include Star Wars: New Hope which made 460 million but in 3 release time periods 1977 (307 million), 1982 (re-issue, 15 million), 1997 (special edition 138 million) or E.T. with three releases 1982 (359 million), 1985 (re-issue, 40 million), 2002 (20th Anniversary 35 million).

figures via boxofficemojo

Related Tags: Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest, Jack Sparrow, Johnny Depp, Box Office, Records, Movies, Summer Blockbusters