Best of 2009!

So ends another year. We have not only that change, but the end of the decade and a full moon! The wolves are going to be out tonight!


Anyways, Yahoo! put together their "Most Watched Trailers of 2009". Over at RopeofSilicon was their opinion on the top 25 movies of the year. Im going to give one final post of the decade and rate my favorite trailers, top soundtracks, and my favorite movies.

Trailers of 2009: KEEP IN MIND. IM NOT SAYING THESE WERE ALL GOOD MOVIES. The trailer simply got me more excited than other previews...

12. Inkheart


11. Drag Me To Hell



10. Sunshine Cleaning



9. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince


8. Avatar

7. Nine



6. Watchmen



5. 2012

4. UP

3. Where the Wild Things Are



2. Transformers


1. Star Trek

BEST SOUNDTRACKS OF 2009:

5. Grey Gardens (Rachel Portman)

4. Coraline (Bruno Coulais & other various artists)

3. Star Trek (Michael Giacchino)

2. Up (Michael Giacchino)

1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (Nicholas Hooper)


The Ones Buzzing That I Havent Seen Yet that will no doubt change my best movie list.
Single Man
Me and Orson Welles
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
Red Cliff
The White Ribbon
A Prophet
Up in the Air
The Hurt Locker
The Lovely Bones

Biggest Disappointments
5. Wolverine (I knew it would suck… but a tiny part of me wished it would have be amazing… something more serious -instead of campy/cartoony)

4. Monsters Vs. Aliens (Dreamworks follow-up to a favorite of mine (‘Kung Fu Panda’)… did not wow, and was just another film that over did the 3D)

3. Inkheart (I loved the Trailer… which tricked me into thinking this would be a great movie)

2. Transformers 2 (No story / just graphics only works for the box office)

1. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (Stunning cinematography, soundtrack, and graphics could not save a screenplay overly saturated with teen romances and an ending entirely void of emotion and action – notice I said screenplay… not story.)


Best movies (While thinking about this… I really realized how few non-blockbuster movies Ive seen...pathetic)
6. Coraline
5. Fantastic Mr. Fox
4. Star Trek
3. An education
2. Inglorious bastards
1. Up

Love

Last night I watched a film called "Paris Je T'aime". What a great movie. It is a collection of shorts all with the central theme of love. Each short has a different director (most names you will reconize) and includes a list of actors (many of whom you will also reconize). Some of the stories are more down to earth while others are far more fantastical or cerebral. If you remember hearing of "New York, I love You" released earlier this year, It is the same thing but different setting.

I think everyone (especially aspiring filmmakers) should see this film. It is a great chance to see how a director can take a theme and make it very different than another's artistic take.

Brittany Murphy

Brittany Murphy, who we first really met in 'Clueless' burst back into the scene a few years back with 'Happy Feet', 'Sin City', '8 Mile', and more, died unexpectedly yesterday due to cardiac arrest. Murphy was only 32 and is an actor who I expected to be in the scene for many years to come.

Cheers Miss Murphy!

Kick Ass

I like the premise...

Jim Henson

So I got my news back reguarding the job over at Henson Studios... and it was not good.... Merry Christmas to me. But thats what happens in life. You get knocked down and you get up, and keep moving forward. Unfortunately, now the entire industry has gone on break for two weeks and I will not be able to do much of anything.

So, I have been here over a year now, endured countless rejections, and have somehow managed not to fall to pieces. Which, I will say, makes me proud of myself. Its all you can do is to keep believing. When something you want so badly goes awry and what you want is as simple as grabbing ahold of smoke, what else can you do but believe in yourself. And someday it will happen.

Last night a friend came by and ordered some ghastly chinese food (and I mean... like unedible), but I did snag a fortune cookie... And It's note was supprisingly relevant to my life.

"The harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."

So... I guess that means that when I do get a job... its going to be taking over the creative department for Lucas or maybe writing, directing the "Magneto: Origins" movie (which I would be amazing at).

Everyone says that the more rejection you can endure, the stronger you will be in the end. Well... Im probably going to end up like The Thing" from Fantastic 4. Which... would not be too bad...

Valentines Day

Valentines day... ugh. Typical. Anyways, I read the script a while back.... didnt really care for it. But the trailer looks great, much better than I would have expected. And it will obviously do well considering the cast (not to mention the ridiculous hype surrounding Taylor Lautner and Swift). I like seeing who was cast to play each character.

PANIC ATTACK!

Lets pretend that we are not struggling. That we have it made. Simply because of a short we filmed that was seen by a big director with his own production house. This director bid 30 million dollars to get the rights to the film before other studios could. So we are sitting pretty on our gold desk chairs yelling at our assistants that the coffee is burned and that the pencils are not sharp enough (As we sit in an office with a fish tank of sharks swimming behind us).
This story is true. Minus the yelling at assistants and sharks we threaten to feed them to if they dont sharpen our pencils. This short film got the director (who paid roughly 300 dollars for it) a 30 million dollar deal with Sam Raimi's Ghost House Pictures.
So check out Fede Alvarez's "Ataque de Panico!".... and join me as we continue fighting for our own success

Shrek 4

So, Shrek 4's preview is out. After 3... not too excited... It was Chris Nolan who pondered 'who has ever made a successful 3rd film' (as he wondered about doing batman 3... please please try Director Nolan!)

Anyways... Shreck 4...

Exhausting?

"Hot Tub Time Machine"? Has anyone (aside from John Cusack and crew) heard anything about this before? Looks fun. And... we sure could use some more comedy sleeper hits!

Bryan Singer and Xmen... Together Again!

Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men films will be brought back. The dismay the fans endured after X3, then followed by Wolverine:Origins can never truely be forgotten by some (Im speaking mainly of myself... who is a huge fan... and cannot get over that bloody 3rd film)! But this might be diminished now that Singer is back on board! No... he is not going to do what I wished he would (redo the third film... or even do a 4th... that actually focused on Jean Grey's darker side), but an origin film. This one is called "X-Men: First Class" and will be focusing on the younger students.

Personally, Id prefer seeing him direct a Magneto Origins... But I'll just have to hope that might come together in the future.

Iron Man 2 Trailer!

Ladies and Gentlemen... After months of waiting....We got it.

Now if anyone cares about my two cents (which you obviously do as you are reading my blog), what excited me the most... was mister Mickey Rourke. I was so impressed by him in "The Wrestler" and am really hoping he does something amazing again (which, from the tid bit we saw... looks promising).

Iron Man 2 Preview... coming soon.

So, with all the info about Iron Man 2 coming out... I thought I should post some pictures... We are going to see a trailer (apparently before Sherlock Holmes) very soon!

And the most controversial. This poster has fans wondering "Is War Machine going to be a baddie" based on the stance. What do you think?

Havent We Seen This Film Already?

I know Scott directed Gladiator... but this looks like it could be the freakin sequel! And didnt we get an amazing Robin Hood a few years back? I dont really understand. Im sure it will be great... Just doesn't look all that new...

Wonderlands New Trailer!

Wow, Wonderland is certainly going in a direction I hadnt expected. I still hope Johnny Depp doesnt dominate the film. Carter looks great as the Red Queen! Love her.

If You Want A Real Treat, Put Down the Eggnog...

Some of the biggest and most anticipated films of the year are being released right now! This week we saw the first 2D animated film to be released by Disney in years! I have not seen it yet, and it unfortunately is not receiving grand reviews but very very average ones. Yahoo! movies has critics reviewing it at a "B+ and users with an "A-", while over at RopeofSilicon.com (a site that regards an average film to be a "C") has given it a "C+".

Avatar is also heading to theaters in a mere matter of days. 'Silicon' has

given it an early review of an "A-" saying that it delivers as a blockbuster, has a little bit for everyone, but doesn't find it to be as spectacular as they had hoped.

Other films that are buzzing are Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones", "Nine", "A Single Man", "Up in the Air", & "Sherlock Holmes". Im sure that weare going to hear quite a bit about "The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" as well, for obvious reasons... Regardless of your taste in film... there will be something for everyone in theaters this holiday season.

Warner Brothers

So, I heard through the grapevine that Warner Brothers has done another layoff of about 30 people! The industry is picking back up (finally) and it is so concerning that this happenend again! (Im actually scared to ask any of the people I know from there about it... hopefully they were not the ones who were laid off...) *Gulp*

*Note: I looked online and found no record of this... this is strictly based on what I have heard...

Potter 7a

The blu ray for Potter 6 is out. To be honest... I wasnt very impressed with its transfer as the previous (Order of the Phoenix) looked stunning. But I suppose it has to do with how outrageously dark the film is. Its hard to make something look so pristine when there is so little light involved.

One thing that was great about the home video is the special features. A few of the cut scenes really could have added a little to the story. I dont usually care for cut scenes, as there is typically a reason to why they were cut. But I enjoyed these.

Anyways, the main attraction was the preview to the final chapter, The Deathly Hallows. The last book is being split into two (something I think they could have done with the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th film). Personally I would cut each story into two, and make the films shorter as a whole (each is about 2 1/2 hours on average and they could be nice at about 1:45-2 hours with a bit more substance). For example... one major thing this past film left out was (aside from hardly any action) any real attention to the story. We got the bizarre love triangle... but what about more on the Prince? By the end of the story... when the prince is revealed... who actually still cares?

ANYWAYS, I digress... here is the preview for the next chapter. Deathly Hallows: Part 1