29th Golden Raspberry Awards Nominations

Though this site tends to focus more on Oscar and other awards shows that award excellence in film making, I do like to make an exception in mentioning the Golden Raspberry Awards. Now in case you don't know what the Raspberries are, they are basically the anti-Oscar, giving awards to movies that have the least artistic merit to them. This year the nominees are:

Worst Picture:

• "Disaster Movie" and "Meet the Spartans"
• "The Happening"
• "The Hottie and the Nottie"
• "In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale"
• "The Love Guru"

Worst Actor:

• Larry the Cable Guy, "Witless Protection"
• Eddie Murphy, "Meet Dave"
• Mike Myers, "The Love Guru"
• Al Pacino, "88 Minutes" and "Righteous Kill"
• Mark Wahlberg, "The Happening" and "Max Payne"

Worst Actress:

• Jessica Alba, "The Eye" and "The Love Guru"
• Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett Smith and Meg Ryan, the Cast of "The Women"
• Cameron Diaz, "What Happens in Vegas..."
• Paris Hilton, "The Hottie and the Nottie"
• Kate Hudson, "Fool's Gold" and "My Best Friend's Girl"

Worst Supporting Actor:

• Uwe Boll, "Postal"
• Pierce Brosnan, "Mamma Mia!"
• Ben Kingsley, "The Love Guru", "War, Inc." and "The Wackness"
• Burt Reynolds, "Deal" and "In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale"
• Verne Troyer, "The Love Guru" and "Postal"

Worst Supporting Actress:

• Carmen Electra, "Disaster Movie" and "Meet The Spartans"
• Paris Hilton, "Repo: The Genetic Opera"
• Kim Kardashian, "Disaster Movie"
• Jenny McCarthy, "Witless Protection"
• Leelee Sobieski, "88 Minutes" and "In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale"

Worst Screen Couple:

• Uwe Boll and ANY Actor, Camera or Screenplay
• Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, "What Happens in Vegas..."
• Paris Hilton and either Christine Lakin or Joel David Moore, "The Hottie and the Nottie"
• Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy, "Witless Protection"
• Eddie Murphy IN Eddie Murphy, "Meet Dave"

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel:

• "The Day the Earth Stood Still"
• "Disaster Movie" and "Meet The Spartans"
• "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"
• "Speed Racer"
• "Star Wars: The Clone Wars"

Worst Director:

• Uwe Boll, "Tunnel Rats", In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" and "Postal"
• Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, "Disaster Movie" and "Meet The Spartans"
• Tom Putnam, "The Hottie and the Nottie"
• Marco Schnabel, "The Love Guru"
• M. Night Shyamalan, "The Happening"

Worst Screenplay:

• "Disaster Movie" and "Meet The Spartans" - Both Written by Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer
• "The Happening" - Written by M. Night Shyamalan
• "The Hottie And The Nottie" - Written by Heidi Ferrer
• "In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale" - Screenplay by Doug Taylor
• "The Love Guru" - Written by Mike Myers and Graham Gordy

Worst Career Achievement (Special Category!): Uwe Boll (Germany's Answer to Ed Wood)

Nice to see Uwe Boll getting a special award. I hope he walks away with more Raspberries then anyone.

Behold: Astro Boy

After the box office failure of "Speed Racer" I'm hoping that wither the upcoming live action "Dragon Ball: Evolution" or animated "Astro Boy" will be a financial success, as I would like to see more anime films turned into live action movies. Sadly, while the movie may still be good, my first impression of "Astro Boy" is fairly weak. With a non-exciting image...

...with an even duller trailer...



...well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see on this one. Chances are it will turn in some profit due to the lack of movies choices next year due to the Writers Strike. I have to admit one thing though: For better or for worse, it looks EXACTLY like the comic books!

Coming October 23rd, 2009

Coming Soon: "Hot Wheels: The Movie" (AKA: "Speed Racer 2")

So, Warner Bros. is making a Hot Wheels movie. No joke, they seriously are. You can read about it here. I mean...seriously? What's up with Warner Bros. these days? Do they have car envy or something? Are they jealous of all the toy cars Disney sold when Pixar released "Cars" a few years back and now they want a piece of that market? Not only that, but Joel Silver is producing this thing. Didn't he already produced the CGI filled "Speed Racer?" Why another car movie? In fact, didn't Warner Bros. fund "Speed Racer?" Do they want another flop? Because, really, "Speed Racer" is about as close to a high speed racing movie for kids as your going to get these days and have it make money.

Oh wait, "Speed Racer" didn't make money.

I think that's because kids don't care as much for racing anymore. I mean, after all, why go to the movies to see CGI races when you can play them on your Playstation 3 or XBox 360? If they want to get this car movie to make money their going to have to do more then throw money at it to make it look pretty. There has to be a solid story, and for some reason I just don't see where a good story can come from when you're working with plastic toy cars. You know, I think this is very telling. See, "Speed Racer" was not a hit at the box office, but the kids who did see it wanted to buy all the collectable toy cars. Likewise, collectors of toy cars were smitten by these things, and Warner Bros. made a fair amount of money on these toys.

So while the movie didn't do so hot, it at least broke even, and the toys brought in the gravy for the stock holders. They want this again, but if they dare mention they are making a sequel to a movie that barely broke even...well, that wouldn't make the stock holders happy, even if there is a side business that benefits from such a move. Therefor they decide to make a movie from a different brand. This way they can continue to sell toy cars, and hey, maybe this movie will actually make enough to warrent a sequel. Really, Hollywood studios aren't too hard to figure out. I just find the whole thing funny is all.

"Speed Racer" Is Out

This is just a friendly reminder that one of the years more overlooked films (and big budget acid trip) "Speed Racer" was released on DVD a couple of days ago. This is a movie that has potential effects and sound nominations in the cards (as well as a wild card Best Animated Feature nod). You can buy the DVD or BluRay below. Oh, and though this may be stating the obvious, the BluRay disk is the second best way to view this thing (the first being the IMAX showing, but that's not much of an option anymore).

"Speed Racer" In The...Best Animated Feature Category?

Yes folks, I did not make a mistake: I purposely put "Speed Racers" name on the list for potential nominees in the Best Animated Feature category. Now you may be wondering why I would do such a thing since this movie is, technically, a live action movie. Well...it IS a live action film, but we have to face the fact that a majority of the film is animated! CGI takes up almost 90% of this movie, with only the actors and a few rooms avoiding any blue screen effects. I mean, one look at a screenshot like this...



...and all of a sudden the movie doesn't look so real anymore. It looks (dare I say it) animated doesn't it? Besides, if "Stuart Little 2" was eligible in this category because it was more of a cartoon then a live action film, then I think Warner Bros. could run this film in the category and get away with it. And considering how much of a flop it was, they very well may do that in an effort to make the DVD look more enticing to the movie buying public. I may remove the prediction later on down the road, but I doubt "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" is going to prove much of a threat in this category.