First Image of Dreamworks "Oobermind"

Though it was announced a mere couple weeks ago it looks like Dreamworks is planning on bringing this movie out as early as next year (November 5th to be precise). Dreamworks have come a long way since making "Shrek." With "Kung fo Panda," "Monsters vs. Aliens," and now "Oobermind" Dreamworks is finally starting to up the quality of their films a bit. So what's "Oobermind" about? Well it's about a villain (played by Robert Downey, Jr.) who finds life a little boring after defeating the hero of the city (Ben Stiller...of all people). The movie is being directed by Gary Trousdale, one of the men responsible for directing Disney's acclaimed classic "Beauty & The Beast." With Trousdale directing you can bet this will be something to keep an eye out for. Maybe Dreamworks will finally snatch another Best Animated Feature Oscar since they won for "Shrek" in 2001.

"Toy Story 3" Teaser

I hear that with this movie the Toy Story trilogy will be complete and there will be no more after this. It's ironic since "Toy Story" was the movie that made Pixar who they are today. If they play this right, they can apply all the stuff they've learned since then to make an already timeless franchise even more timeless.

Here's Something For The Ladies

I'm not a fan of the "Twilight" movie in any sense of the word. And don't get me wrong: I like the books. Well, all of them except "Eclipse" that is. But the movie was just one problem after another. But...it did excellent business at the box office, and I do have female readers, so here's the trailer for "New Moon." Does it look better then the first? Eh...not really.

Are Pixar's Best Picture Odd's Looking "Up?"

The movie has received a 96% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes.com. It was the first animated film chosen to open the prestige Cannes Film Festival. Critics are calling it a revolutionary film. Roger Ebert loves it. It will likely open at number 1 this weekend and stay in the top five for months. Chances are it's already won the Best Animated Feature Oscar (though the competition in that category is looking more tough then it has in recent years). So now we ask the ultimate question: Will "Up" be the Pixar film that finally break into the Best Picture category? Boy I would love to think so. I loved the movie. I think it's excellent. This would easily be a Best Picture contender for any other film. But I'm going to go on a limb and say, no, it's not happening. Now I'm not saying I throw in the towel. I'm putting that title under my Best Picture Predix and I'll leave it there til the end of the year.

I think it's time the Academy stop mucking around and recognize that Pixar makes classics and it's nonsense that they haven't cracked the top category by now. The only reason I'm not fully backing this idea is simple: "Wall-E." If "Wall-E" couldn't crack the top category then I'm having a hard time thinking of any reason this one will. Is it THAT much better then "Wall-E." No. It's more of less of the same quality. But despite a lackluster year where we're considering an apocalyptic film that's based on a highly overrated book as a frontrunner for Best Picture shows just how much the Academy goes out of their way to keep animation out of the top category. It will get multiple nominations but will likely only walk home with Best Animated Feature. And really, if that happens again, that category is going to feel like such a shallow victory. I mean, more so then it already does.

Disney Enterting The Documentary Race?

Though Disney has popped up in various Oscar categories over the years the one category they rarely pop up in anymore is Best Documentary. I'm not even sure if they've won in that category yet. However their release of "The Boys: The Sherman Brothers Story" may change that. While Disney's official trailer has chosen to focus on songs and celebrities praise of those songs (most likely in hopes that they'll sell a few more CD's), the fact of the matter is "The Boys" is a terrible story of two brothers who creatively worked well together but through personal differences never had much of a family relationship. It's actually a very tragic movie, one that sticks with you long after the movie is over. I left wondering how two men who wrote such great songs of friendship and love could hate each other so much. Worth hunting down if you can find it.

Not Your Father's Sherlock Holmes

Now Sherlock Holmes gets a reboot. I'm doubtful this will be praised as much as J.J. Abrams "Star Trek" reboot was though. While Abrams showed great respect to the Star Trek franchise and rebooted it with the old shows spirit, Guy Richies "Sherlock Holmes" seems to be screaming "this is old, boring, and I can make it better." Can he do it? We'll see, but I'm skeptical. Robert Downey, Jr. looks good in the lead role but I feel Jude Law may be miscast as Dr. Watson.

"Funny People" Trailer

Will Judd Apatow finally be recognized at Oscar for his witty writing? Fortune says...don't count on it. The movie still looks funny though.

Disney's "A Christmas Carol" Poster

Though Disney may be returning to 2D animation with "The Princess & The Frog" they aren't going to throw in the towel with 3D animation yet either. In fact, they may have done one of the smartest things by signing a multi-picture deal with Oscar-winner Robert Zemeckis. Now Bob may be best known for "Forrest Gump" and the "Back To The Future" trilogy, but in recent years he's been perfecting motion capture technology. His most recent work was with "Beowulf," which took in so much more money with it's IMAX and 3D showings that Hollywood had to sit up and take notice. His most noticble work in recent years was "The Polar Express." Though the movie was snubbed an Oscar nomination in favor of Dreamworks (far more subpar in my opinion) "Shark Tale," Bob had the last laugh when word-of-mouth made his film a much bigger hit. Not only that, but IMAX found it could be a yearly tradition, and the thing was re-released for five years straight every Christmas at IMAX.

That said though "The Polar Express" is starting to run out of steam, and IMAX needs a new tradition to keep them alive during the holidays. Enter Disney's "A Christmas Carol." Bob has wrote the screenplay, directed the film, and Disney is finally coming home to IMAX after a long absense. What should make this a big hit is Jim Carrey providing the voice of not only Scrooge, but the three ghosts as well. If this movie is half as good as "The Polar Express" was we should have a new Christmas tradition on our hands. Oh, and hopefully the Academy won't blunder the nomination with this one.

"The Princess & The Frog" Poster

We now get a glimpse of the poster for "The Princess & The Frog." And it looks...

...very epic. Very classic. Very Disney. Getting more excited for this by the minute.

"Nine" Trailer

It's funny how this trailer business works out sometimes. I had watched the trailer for "The Road" before I watched the trailer for "Nine." I was expecting to be unimpressed by the trailer for "The Road" but to be blown away by "Nine."

Boy was I wrong.

How can a movie that has a cast of Oscar winners and nominees look so utterly dreadful. Yeah big stars make trash, but they rarely advertise the trash as such. "Nine" looks like trash right upfront. What's most puzzling is that I fully believed Harvey Weinstein was going to market the hell out of this thing for Oscar season. When you've got a musical starring Daniel-Day Lewis, Nicol Kidman, Penelope Cruz, Kate Hudson, and Judi Dench, plus Rob Marshal directing, you'd think the trailer would exploit those names for all it's worth. Just mentioning that virtually all these people won Oscars would make the movie feel more credible right away (even if they themselves lose credit). But nothing. No star power. No event vibe. Not even any blurb's from film festivals. The movie, in fact, looks like a parody of "Cabaret." And THIS is The Weinstein Companies Oscar contender for the year (in theory)!?! Well...good luck Harvey.

"The Road" Trailer

And so the much delayed film adaptation of Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" is finally unveiled. And the movie...doesn't look bad. In fact, I'm pretty interested in seeing it now. I'm cautious though because I personally felt that this Pulitzer Prize-winning, New York Times best seller, and Oprah's Book Club selection was TERRIBLY boring! The movie looks to be a major step in the right direction. Unlike the book the movie looks like it's about something. Viggo Mortenson is also looking promising as the lead. Oh, and you can bet your momma's soul that the company is going to make sure everyone knows that the author of "No Country For Old Men" wrote this, all but ensuring it becomes an Oscar contender long before we see it. The road for Oscar won't be easy though (no pun intended): just ask delayed movies like "The Soloist" and "All The Kings Men" for prood that when a studio delays a film, they usually delay it for a reason.

I'm Officially An Author...

...kind of. See, I was bored one night when I had a sudden urge to write again. Rather then work on the final draft of my (much delayed) fantasy novel I wrote a short story about a man who has a dream of being a writer but just can't seem to reach that dream. It's not a very long story, just a few pages, but I was so happy with it I decided to share it with the world. Then I remembered how I was going to start selling my novels on Amazon.com as eBooks and figured this would be a great way to begin the account and establish a presence. So I put together a cover, converted the text, and have uploaded the book. Below is a picture of the cover. It's not expensive (as of this writing it's a mere $3.99) but if you could buy it and show you're support I would be most grateful. All you need to do is click on the cover art. More short stories and books will be coming. Thanks for reading and for all your support.

"The Princess & The Frog" Trailer

Here it is everyone! I can hardly wait. It's nice to see Disney embracing their legacy once again.

Set Phasers To 'Stun'

"Star Trek" is officially a hit. It has a unpredicted 96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. It has a high Metacritic score of 84. It has made over $30 million on the first day and could very well cross the $300 million mark in a few weeks. Casual fans and hardcore fans love it. The production on the film is universally acclaimed. Frankly, the only thing that might not be in "Star Trek's" court is Roger Ebert (who gave it a lukewarm 2 and a half stars in his review). With a film this critically acclaimed combined with a strong box office usually leads to gold from the Academy. The question is how many Oscar nominations will it garner? 2? 4? 8? Will they all be tech awards or will one of the big five sneak in there? Who knows at this point. Right now I'm only willing to bet on some tech awards. The boldest prediction I'm going to make is Best Director for J.J. Abrams, as the Academy will usually honor the movies overall quality in this category more then anywhere else.

I'm not sure about the rest though. Makeup, sound, and visual effects seem like a given right now, but I don't forsee any acting or writing nominations. Chances are it won't even come close to touching Best Picture. Best Director though...that I have a funny feeling about. I'm going to be keeping an eye on that one for personal reasons. I'll also share my full review sometime with you next week (right now there are some legal issues with a former employeer that is eating up my free time).

Not A 'Ghost' of a Chance For Oscar...Right?

Okay folks we ALL knew "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" was going to be a stinker of a movie! Just the fact that Matthew McConaughey is in it should be reason enough to skip it. It's also gotten a low score of 36% at Rotten Tomatoes, so we know it wasn't made with quality in mind. So the movie really shouldn't even be discussed on this site. But then...


...Michael Douglas shows up in the movie and steals the show. Literally. It's kind of a testament to an actors ability when they can show up in a bad movie and make it enjoyable whenever their on screen. Douglas does this and makes it look easy. Here is a contender for one of the worst films of the year, and yet these scenes with Douglas are clever, witty, and fun. He takes a nothing role and MAKES something of it! That's impressive no matter how you slice it. He's to this movie what Penelope Cruz was to "Vicky Christina Barcelona." It's a shame it's not a better movie or else an Oscar nomination would be a sure thing at this point. But you know what...I'm going to predict him anyway. Yeah it probably won't happen as more worthy performances will come out, but it's difficult to argue with something that just makes you feel good all over.

"Julie & Julia" Trailer

Well we've gotten our first look at the upcoming Nora Ephron film...and strickly speaking it doesn't look like much. Certainly not the Oscar bait many of of us (myself included) thought it would be. But it's got Meryl Streep in it. Will she get her mandatory Oscar nomination anyway? I guess we'll see.

'Soloist' Fails To Inspire

Well, the much delayed Joe Wright film "The Soloist" has finally been released to theaters with a big thud. It's opened at number 5 at the box office and the reviews haven't been much kinder. This was originally supposed to be released last year for Oscar consideration, but the studio decided to push it back to this year.

Looks like we know why now.

The only thing that has been resonated with people are the lead performances of both Robert Downey, Jr. and Jamie Foxx. Right now though it's too early to see whether only won can get nominated (much less both). If I were to bet money though I'd bet on Downey, Jr. getting the nomination. Right now he's Hollywood's golden actor, the guy who does great work and makes a difficult job look easy. If one of these men are getting the nomination it is. But gee, only 61% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes? If that doesn't make you pause with anxioty then I don't know what will.

No Ladies: Zac Efron Is NOT Winning An Oscar!

So I saw "17 Again" last week. I'll be posting my full review of it on The Movie Wizard.com tomorrow (if not the following day), but I just want to mention something to all my girlfriends who were holding their breath on my opinion of this film; yes, I liked this movie. And yes, Zac Efron was very good in this film. But girls, he's NOT getting an Oscar for this movie! In fact, it's laughable to think he'd even get nominated for this film. I know that Tom Hanks got an Oscar nomination for "Big," a movie that shares a similar story with this film. But not only was that movie directed by Penny Marshall with a complexity you don't normally find in crowd-pleaser films, it starred Tom Hanks. Tom is such a likable and talented actor that even in his bad movies he can squeez out a good performance ("The Ladykillers" anyone?). Zac Efron, despite being cute and likable, is NOT Tom Hanks!

If anything his performance in "17 Again" is much like Matthew Broodricks performance in "Ferris Buelure's Day Off": Cute, sweet, and most likely the highlight of his career. "17 Again" IS better then most movies like this are! Truth be told I'll probably be buying the BluRay when it comes out because it's a movie that is so easy to like that I'll end up watching it several more times down the road. But Oscar worthy? I think you girls need to educate yourself on what a real young actor can do. If you want to see kids and teens in award nominated roles check out Justin Henry in "Kramer vs. Kramer," "Haley Joel Osment in "The Sixth Sense," Leonardo DiCaprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?," and Anna Paquin in "The Piano" (this role actually took home the gold). But if Efron gets a nomination it will only be because it was a slow year.

Harry Going Home With Oscars?

I know that, technically, Harry Potter has not been a big hit at the Oscars. It has never been nominated in any of the big categories. It has been nominated for three of the five films but has yet to win (not even for John Williams now classic score). It hasn't shown any promise of ever touching Best Picture. But is it naive to think that maybe -just MAYBE - "Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince" will get close to that top category?! I have no idea if the movie is Oscar worthy, but after watching the new trailer three times...man, I'm sold. I'm more excited about this movie then I ever was before. It just screams epic. As the series gets closer to the end the movies (despite the PG-rating for this one) will likely stop being kids films and be more for adults then anyone else. That's how the books worked and that's how the movies will likely work. I didn't think I'd say this, but keep an eye out on this one. With a lack of movies coming out this one could be a contender. Let me stress the "could be" part one more time.

I've Been Waiting For This: 'Ponyo' Gets Dated

As mentioned above, this is the announcement I've been waiting for:

Walt Disney Pictures has announced the U.S. release date of Hayao Miyazaki's latest film, PONYO, a story inspired by Hans Christian Andersen's fairy tale THE LITTLE MERMAID. Fans of the animation master will only have to wait until Aug. 14th to see what is already a hit in Japan.

The story of a young and overeager goldfish named Ponyo (voiced by Noah Cyrus) and her quest to become human. The voice cast includes Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Tina Fey, Cloris Leachman, Liam Neeson, Lily Tomlin, Betty White and Frankie Jonas as Sosuke, a young boy who befriends Ponyo.

Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall are producing the English-language dub with Steve Alpert. Exec producers are Miyazaki and John Lasseter, who also exec produced the English dubs of Miyazaki's SPIRITED AWAY and HOWL'S MOVING CASTLE.

The English screenplay was written by Melissa Mathison.

As you can read above Disney has dropped the overlong "Ponyo On A Cliff" title for the shorter "Ponyo." Maybe that will help and maybe it won't. It's hard to tell at this point. But good news is good news: "Ponyo" is coming to America!