Here it is at last! The 2010 Academy Awards! Who’s bringing home the Oscars? James Cameron or Kathryn Bigelow, or will Tarantino stage an upset? Will The Dude Lebowski have a best actor win under his belt? The stars are crossing the Red Carpet right now and in a few hours Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin will be hosting 82nd Academy Awards.

Prior the main event, you can check out the AP staff picks for all of the winners and check back often as I’ll be updating all the wins with my own commentary as the evening progresses. Feel free to drop your own guesses and thoughts on the evening as it progresses.

Me, I’m pulling for District 9 for best screenplay!

See you at the Oscars!

Updated! The entire list of winners with my thoughts and earlier predictions below:

— Motion Picture: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Actor: Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart.”

— Actress: Sandra Bullock, “The Blind Side.”

— Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds.”

— Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”

— Director: Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker.”

— Foreign Film: “El Secreto de Sus Ojos,” Argentina.

— Adapted Screenplay: Geoffrey Fletcher, “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”

— Original Screenplay: Mark Boal, “The Hurt Locker.”

— Animated Feature Film: “Up.”

— Art Direction: “Avatar.”

— Cinematography: “Avatar.”

— Sound Mixing: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Sound Editing: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Original Score: “Up,” Michael Giacchino.

— Original Song: “The Weary Kind (Theme From Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart,” Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett.

— Costume: “The Young Victoria.”

— Documentary Feature: “The Cove.”

— Documentary (short subject): “Music by Prudence.”

— Film Editing: “The Hurt Locker.”

— Makeup: “Star Trek.”

— Animated Short Film: “Logorama.”

— Live Action Short Film: “The New Tenants.”

— Visual Effects: “Avatar.”

Best actor in a supporting role:

Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Christopher Plummer in The Last Station
Matt Damon in Invictus
Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones
Woody Harrelson in The Messenger

Updated:  And the first award of the night goes to Christoph Waltz! No surprises there, but it’s nice to see him win. Waltz was a fantastic villain and it’s good to see new fresh faces take home awards. A nice short acceptance speech that thanked his  fellow filmmakers on ‘embarking on this journey.’

My guess: With the exception of Tucci, who was one-note in a revolting role, all of these performances were good. But it’s Waltz who really zings in Inglorious Basterds and elevates the movie he’s in with his presence. Waltz also doesn’t come with the baggage these others have, allowing the Academy to really focus on the singular work he’s done here.

 Matt’s Pick: Christoph Waltz

Creth’s Pick: Christoph Waltz

Brett’s Pick: Christoph Waltz

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Animated feature film

 
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Peterson)
The Princess and the Frog (Ron Clements and John Musker)
Coraline (Henry Selick)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Wes Anderson)
The Secret of Kells (Tomm Moore)

Absolutely loved the way they introduced this award, with each of the animated protagonists briefly talking about being nominated. Great way to quickly showcase the films and give the Oscar telecast some pep it’s lacking in the awkward Baldwin/Martin team-up. As I watched this I was reminded how great all of these movies are. And Up wins of course! Nice to see Pete Doctor thank his wife and family! Nice, touching moment with a cutaway to his wife in the audience.

My pick: Up has this one in the bag. The fact it was nominated for a best picture it has no chance of winning pretty much clinches it. Pixar is almost always an unstoppable beast in this category. Confession though: It’s not even close to being my favorite of the five choices. I’m a much bigger fan of Mr. Fox and Coraline, which were both odd and brilliant in equal measure. Disney had a great return to form with Princess and Secret of Kells, the mysterious visitor to the list, is a great little bit of art.

Matt’s Pick: Up

Creth’s Pick: Up

Brett’s Pick: Up

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Music (original song)  

Almost There, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Down in New Orleans, from The Princess and the Frog by Randy Newman
Loin de Paname, from Paris 36 by Reinhardt Wagner and Frank Thomas
Take it All, from Nine by Maury Yeston
The Weary Kind, from Crazy Heart by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

The Weary Kind wins the award and takes home the Oscar! Interesting though, have they stopped performing Oscar nominated songs? Usually this one comes far later in the evening after all have played. Must have missed that. Loved this song and it makes me want to grab the soundtrack. Nice perf by Colin in the film as well.
 
Nate’s pick: The Weary Kind. Bingham and Burnett are a hard team to beat and the song is part of the film itself and related to Bridges performance. No one saw Paris, and I think the two Princess songs will cancel each other out. Although I loved Princess and the Frog, none of the songs were particularly memorable.

Matt’s pick: Down in New Orleans

Creth’s pick: The Weary Kind

Brett’s pick: The Weary Kind

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A John Hughes tribute? The classiest thing the program has done all night! Bravo! Nice to see all of those actors up there all these years later giving Hughes his due.

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Writing (original screenplay)

 The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
A Serious Man (Joel and Ethan Coen)
Up (Pete Docter and Bob Petersen)
The Messenger (Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman)

Mark Boal wins for The Hurt Locker. Not too surprising. This is the first win of the night for the film, and a good sign. Let’s see how the rest of the night goes.

My pick: The work that Mark Boal did here is very good in movie terms but recently there’s been plenty of discussion as to how much of it was journalistically accurate. Will that hurt its chances? In a different year, probably, but the truth is that Bigelow’s final film speaks more loudly than anything else (including the recent producer scandals) and the other nominees, save for Basterds, don’t have the gumption to best it. If the Academy does decide it wants to punish Boal, expect them to give it to Tarantino.

Matt’s Pick: The Hurt Locker

Creth’s Pick: Inglorious Basterds

Brett’s Pick: Inglorious Basterds

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Short film (animated)
French Roast (Fabrice O Joubert)
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty (Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell)
Logorama (Nicolas Schmerkin)
The Lady and the Reaper (Javier Recio Gracia)
A Matter of Loaf and Death (Nick Park

Logorama? I hadn’t heard of this one prior to the win. What a cool idea! Love the strange animation style and the basic premise; characters running about in a world made up of brand names, icons and slogans. Definitely gonna have to seek this out.
 

My pick: A Matter of Loaf and Death. The Lady and the Reaper is a really fantastic bit of animation, but I suspect that voters are more than happy to welcome Park and his animated characters back into the Oscar fold.

Matt’s Pick: French Roast  

Creth’s Pick: French Roast

Brett’s Pick: A Matter of Loaf and Death

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Documentary (short subject)

China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province (Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill)
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner (Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher)
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant (Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert)
Music by Prudence (Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett)
Rabbit à la Berlin (Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra)

Music by Prudence wins and it certainly was a worthy film. I have to say though, that was a terribly rude and awkward moment where one of the winners interrupted the other and then steamrolled them by using the excuse “they always let the man talk first’. Totally unprofessional, but then that seems to be the theme this year.

My pick: Music by Prudence: I’ve seen exactly one of these short films, and by default that’s the one I picked. It helps that Music By Prudence is a delightful little movie and may actually have a shot at it.

Matt’s pick: Music by Prudence

Creth’s pick: Music by Prudence

Brett’s pick: Music by Prudence

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Short film (live action)

 
The Door (Juanita Wilson and James Flynn)
Instead of Abracadabra (Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström)
Kavi (Gregg Helvey)
Miracle Fish (Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey)
The New Tenants (Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson)

Never seen the New Tenants but it looks interesting. I was just eager to wash the taste of that last embarrasing display away but then the technical team goes right ahead and plays music over one of the recepients as he’s talking. I’m pretty sure they did this two years ago too when Stewart was hosting. If I remember correctly, it was for ‘best song’ when Falling Slowly from Once won.

My pick: Miracle Fish is a perfectly quirky bit that I enjoyed very much. Will it win? Hard to say. The Door might have a shot as well. Kavi’s worth seeing too. Hoping to see a collection of these released soon so I can catch up with the rest.

Matt’s Pick: Kavi  

Creth’s Pick: Kavi

Brett’s Pick: Miracle Fish

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Makeup

Il Divo (Aldo Signoreti and Vittorio Sodano)
The Young Victoria (Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore)
Star Trek (Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow)

Star Trek wins! Awesome. Loved the work they did here and feel they captured the ST universe in a way it previously hadn’t been. For a franchise that started out with the worst kind of pancake makeup, they have come a very long distance. Must say though, after five seconds Stiller’s Na’vi routine wasn’t working for me.

My  pick: Star Trek. Granted, the makeup in Young Victoria is fantastic, but Trek isn’t just giving us the best conceivable version of these characters, visually speaking, it’s also delivering subtle suggestions of the older actors in the younger actors and that’s really hard to pull off. My personal favorite makeup job is the little alien who looks like he’s made out of Cabbage but let’s give some shout outs to the green gal too.  

Matt’s pick: The Young Victoria

Creth’s pick: Star Trek

Brett’s pick: The Young Victoria

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Writing (adapted screenplay)

 
District 9 (Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell)
An Education (Nick Hornby)
Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner)
In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche)

Precious wins the award! I didn’t see this one happening at all, but you know, at least this throws in some surprises. Precious was a difficult work to translate to film and Fletcher managed it beautifully. A great script for a great movie and a pretty darn good acceptance speech too. Maybe Precious will have a bigger night than we guessed.

My pick:  District 9. Although I loved the wonderfully witty screenplay for In the Loop, I don’t believe it has any sort of chance at winning. That may be true too for District 9, but if you consider the fact that it’s one of two big sci-fi pictures nominated this year and the other has been chastised for a lackluster script and generic story, it might pull an upset. The script had all the nuance and originality lacking in Avatar, but it’s highly probable that Up in the Air could gum up the works. I can see this going either way and I’m pulling for Blomkamp. If the Academy wants to honor him at all, this is probably the only feasible chance to do so.

Matt’s Pick: Up In The Air

Creth’s Pick: Up In The Air

Brett’s Pick: Up In The Air

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Actress in a supporting role

Mo’Nique in Precious

Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air
Penélope Cruz in Nine
Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart

Mo’Nique taking the award and doing it with some class and style. I liked this moment a lot. Maybe the best one so far. Go Precious!

My pick:  Mo’Nique

Vera Farmigia is definitely my personal favorite of five and the work she does in Up In The Air is mostly very subtle for long stretches of the film. Ultimately though, it’s Mo’Nique who makes the biggest leap forward from previous roles and hers is also the performance that is most emotionally commanding. I think she’s got this one.

Matt’s Pick: Mo’Nique

Creth’s Pick: Mo’Nique

Brett’s Pick: Mo’Nique
 

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Actress in a leading role

 
Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia
Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Helen Mirren in The Last Station
Gabourey Sidibe in Precious
Carey Mulligan in An Education

Bullock takes the award! I can live with that. She had a cute little acceptance speech. Loved the line “Did I deserve this, or did I just wear you down?” Nice addition of shouting out to all the mothers who “take care of the babies” and the tribute to her own late mother. Good for you Sandy!

My pick: There’s probably a very good chance Bullock will walk away Sunday with the Oscar. Part of it may come from the fact she’s surrounded this role with several lackluster comedies that aren’t very flattering to her acting ability. Where that worked against Eddie Murphy back in 06, it works for Bullock because Blind Side came after those other films and aimed at and surprised her fan base. However, I’m going with Gabourey Sidibe because it stands to reason that if Mo’nique can win for Precious than certainly the big beating heart of the movie, Sidibe, has a shot. Add to that the fact that Sidibe is a first-time actor who takes a problematic, easily-botched role and gives us a completely plausible and sympathetic human being. She should win and I think she’s got more of a chance than most think.

Matt’s Pick: Meryl Streep

Creth’s Pick: Sandra Bullock

Brett’s Pick: Sandra Bullock

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Actor in a leading role

 
Morgan Freeman in Invictus
Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
George Clooney in Up in the Air
Colin Firth in A Single Man
Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker

My pick: Bridges, no contest. Jeff has been doing great work all through his career and I’ve got a soft spot for his performances in Fearless and Starman. Even if you aren’t as familiar with Bridges past work or aren’t a fan, it’s hard to argue with how completely he embraces the character of . You couldn’t ask for a more plausible grizzled, world-weary country singer, even if Kris Kristofferson was playing the part himself. I suppose Clooney has a shot, but I’m pretty sure we are gonna get to hear The Dude give his acceptance speech.

Who didn’t guess that Bridges acceptance speech would be the most fun. It’s always great to hear a winner use terms like ‘groovy’ and the ‘biz’ in the middle of a big spiffy event like the Oscars and be completely sincere about it. Bridges is the man and his few minutes on stage were genuinely more heartfelt than a good bit of the rest of this. Entertaining too.

Matt’s Pick: Jeff Bridges

Creth’s Pick: Jeff Bridges

Brett’s Pick: Jeff Bridges

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Foreign language film
Ajami (Scandar Copti and Yaron Shani, Israel)
A Prophet (Jacques Audiard, France)
The Secret of Her Eyes (Juan Jose Campanella, Argentina)
The White Ribbon (Michael Haneke, Germany)
The Milk of Sorrow (Claudia Llosa, Peru)

The Secret of Her Eyes takes the award! I rather like that something I’m not familiar with won. Every time that has happened in the past in this category. I find myself seeking it out and being rewarded with a treasure. I’m looking forward to catching up with this one. Seriously, though, see A Prophet if you can, it’s fantastic.

My pick: This is a hard one because I’ve only actually seen two of these, A Prophet and The White Ribbon. My guess is that both of them are the primary contenders and both are worthwhile movies. The Academy has gone flipping for Haneke before and he won big accolades at Cannes last May, so Ribbon has that going for it. For my money, A Prophet is possibly the best film of the year and after Sunday I’m confident that it will have the same kind of unexpected publicity that previous winners like Lives of Others and Departures got.

 Matt’s Pick: A Prophet

Creth’s Pick: The White Ribbon

Brett’s Pick: The White Ribbon

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Directing

 
Avatar (James Cameron)
The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow)
Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
Up in the Air (Jason Reitman)
Precious (Lee Daniels)

Bigelow gets the award! This sets Hurt Locker up for the big win! I expected this, but it’s really shaping up to be a steamroll for Locker vs. Avatar. Add in that sort of ridiculous Stiller moment and I think it’s safe to say Cameron’s reception here isn’t what it was some 12 years ago. Kudos for Bigelow giving a modest acceptance speech that never referred to herself as queen or included a line about her dominion over the planet.

My pick: This is a really interesting category. Kathryn Bigelow battling it out with ex-husband James Cameron? How ‘bout the fact both have atypical Oscar juggernauts that feature men of war in pictures awash in adrenaline and action? That being said, I think this one belongs to Kathryn. Balancing realism, exhilaration and escapism (even if we are ready to get back out five minutes in) is hard to do and she excelled at it. There are suspense pieces in this film that Hitchcock would be proud of. Bigelow deserves it and I think she will easily dethrone the King of the World on this one.

Matt’s Pick: The Hurt Locker

Creth’s Pick: The Hurt Locker

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

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Best picture

Avatar (James Cameron and Jon Landau, producers)
District 9 (Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, producers)
An Education (Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, producers)
The Hurt Locker (nominees to be determined)
Inglourious Basterds (Lawrence Bender, producer)
Precious (Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, producers)
A Serious Man (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, producers)
Up in the Air (Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, producers)
The Blind Side (nominees to be determined)
Up (Jonas Rivera, producer)

And The Hurt Locker claims the big prize! Awesome and nicely done. In the end, I think this was the right choice. A pretty strong close to an evening I felt was otherwise rather haphazard. All in all, I guess it’s about what one expects from The Oscars.

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Art direction

 
Avatar (art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; set decoration: Kim Sinclair)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; set decoration: Caroline Smith)
Nine (art direction: John Myhre; set decoration: Gordon Sim)
Sherlock Holmes (art direction: Sarah Greenwood; set decoration: Katie Spencer)
The Young Victoria (art direction: Patrice Vermette; set decoration: Maggie Gray)

What? Avatar won? How did this happen? Amazing acceptance speech though from Robert Stromberg, who shared the award with Rick Carter and Kim Sinclair. “You know, 13 years ago, the doctors told me I wasn’t going to survive and I thought that this dream of standing here would never come true,” he said. “And here we are…” This is perhaps the most well deserved award of the night, save for the vfx guys. Cameron and the rest wouldn’t even be here without them.

My pick: Avatar. This is where the movie is going clean house. Half the reason it’s been nominated for the big prizes is because of how breathtakingly ground-breaking it is on the technical end of things. If you can point out a more stunning elaborate use of art direction this year, I don’t think it will be found on that list. The other films are fine, but none of them frankly come close to what Cameron’s team put together. Pandora was an entire world and culture that felt organic as you were watching it.

Matt’s Pick: Avatar

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

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Cinematography

 
Avatar (Mauro Fiore)
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Bruno Delbonnel)
The Hurt Locker (Barry Ackroyd)
Inglourious Basterds (Robert Richardson)
The White Ribbon (Christian Berger)

My pick: Avatar. The man invented his own camera specifically for the film. Nuff said. Unless of course, you feel that what was done on the movie is less ‘cinematography’ then special effects editing. Still, some of the best and most effective 3-D shots in the films were captured on the ship and inside the human compound. I’m guessing the only potential competition is Hurt Locker, which found fresh, harrowing ways to visualize the explosions.  

Finally, some reliable Avatar love! Still, I don’t think the movie got the traction it expected. Oh well, it’s not like a lack of awards is going to keep Cameron awake at night. I hear it’s easy to get back to sleep on a bed of money.

Matt’s Pick: Inglorious Basterds

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

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Costume design
Bright Star (Janet Patterson)
Coco Before Chanel (Catherine Leterrier)
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (Monique Prudhomme)
Nine (Colleen Atwood)
The Young Victoria (Sandy Powell)

Yawn. The Young Victoria wins. Deserving? sure. Best work of the nominees? No. SandyPowell doing faux modesty while name dropping her three wins is pretty much par for the Oscar course.

My pick: Bright Star. Period pieces always stand a great chance in this category but there is something wholly refreshing and authentic about the work done in Bright Star, the touching biopic about John Keats and his love Fanny Brawne. Fanny herself was a fashion designer and made many of her own clothes which are highlighted extensively in the picture. But it isn’t just that, it’s the perfect way in which all of the clothing/wardrobe choices accentuate and define the characters. The cinematography on the film was deeply sumptuous and the costume work managed to keep pace with it. Fabulous stuff.

Matt’s Pick: The Young Victoria

Creth’s Pick: The Young Victoria

Brett’s Pick: Bright Star

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Documentary (feature)

 
Burma VJ (Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller)
The Cove (nominees to be determined)
Food, Inc (Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein)
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers (Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith)
Which Way Home (Rebecca Cammisa)

The Cove wins the award! Good form and perhaps it will lead others to discover this great film. As usual, there are those pesky shots of the other nominees looking on longingly as the winners take the stage. If I were Daniel Ellsberg, I think I’d look at those cutaways of me and feel like I had just shown up to school naked.

My pick: The Cove. Easily one of the most entertaining documentaries I’ve seen in some time, The Cove plays out like a narrative adventure while also drawing alarming attention to its subject. There’s a really fine line it walks between trying to give us a story we can follow and deliver a fair and intelligent look at all sides of the issue. There’s an odd mash-up of Jacques Cousteau meets Ocean’s Eleven. I’m counting on this one to take home the gold.

Matt’s pick: Food Inc.

Creth’s pick: The Cove

Brett’s pick: The Cove

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Film editing

 
Avatar (Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron)
District 9 (Julian Clarke)
The Hurt Locker (Bob Murawski and Chris Innis)
Inglourious Basterds (Sally Menke)
Precious (Joe Klotz)

This is the death blow to Avatar. The Hurt Locker grabs the film editing award.

My  pick: The Hurt Locker. Yes, this is another significant technical achievement that seemingly Avatar should scoop up. There’s more going on here though. Typically if a film wins film editing it also wins best picture. There have been very few deviations from this theory. If the Academy goes for Hurt Locker in the best pic and directing category, which I suspect they might, then it’s not a big stretch to give it this too. It’s also helpful that Hurt Locker may actually be more deserving of the editing award than Avatar. The suspense scenes are integral to the Hurt Locker and it’s the way all of those elements are cut together that makes those scenes work.

Matt’s pick: Avatar

Creth’s pick: Inglorious Basterds

Brett’s pick: The Hurt Locker

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Music (original score)
Avatar (James Horner)
Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
Up (Michael Giacchino)
The Hurt Locker (Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders)
Sherlock Holmes (Hans Zimmer)

Up wins? I can certainly live with that. Afterall, Michael Giacchino did some great work, not just on this but the Star Trek score as well. Nice job Giacchino!

My  pick: Avatar. A fine epic score that sometimes scoots over into new age ambient chanting a bit too much for my taste, but is engaging all the same. Is it the best score? Nah. That’s Fantastic Mr. Fox, hands down. But Avatar’s score is integral to the overall effect of the movie and that’s going to work in its favor. Plus, a lot more people saw Avatar than Fox.

Matt’s pick: Avatar

Creth’s pick: The Fantastic Mr. Fox  

Brett’s pick: Avatar

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Sound editing

 
Avatar (Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson)
Inglourious Basterds (Wylie Stateman)
Star Trek (Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin)
Up (Michael Silvers and Tom Myers)

More awards for The Hurt Locker! Expect the sound mixing to follow suit then.

My pick: Avatar. Cameron is a technical guru and in addition to the slamming visuals his film has some of the finest sound design I’ve ever heard. This, perhaps as much so as the 3D, goes a long way to making the movie an interactive experience. Nothing else comes close.

Matt’s Pick: Avatar

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

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Sound mixing

 
Avatar (Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson)
The Hurt Locker (Paul NJ Ottosson and Ray Beckett)
Inglourious Basterds (Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano)
Star Trek (Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J Devlin)
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (Greg P Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson)

My pick: Avatar. Duh.

Matt’s Pick: Avatar

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

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Visual effects

 
Avatar (Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R Jones)
District 9 (Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken)
Star Trek (Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton)

Avatar. As far as the Academy is concerned, I tend to think awarding Avatar’s visual effects is to honor it for everything they valued about it. I can’t see it having gotten nominated for best picture without that massive box office. Again, it little matters about the lack of other awards. People will be watching this for years to c0me on home video I think and Cameron and his artists landed a grand achievement.

My pick: Avatar. All of these are great looking movies and best of all, each also happens to be a stellar science fiction movie. Back in 99 there was an upset where Matrix bested Phantom Menace for visual effects, mostly because voters thought of Matrix as the better movie. Could that happen again with District 9? Not a chance.

Matt’s Pick: Avatar

Creth’s Pick: Avatar

Brett’s Pick: Avatar

Yes, I am well aware that I am late to the game but better late than never, I have heard a couple of people say. I must admit this took a shorter time than I thought it would. Looking back on so many films, the ones in my blu-ray library and the ones that just stick out in my head, the list was HUGE. Narrowing them down into a top 10 list was something that was a very hard task.

To get the list was something I wanted to put out there. This list is not perfect by any means. I know for a fact I am missing some movies that should be on here. With that said, this is my list and I love each of these movies and cannot see them being pushed out.

This list is not a list of which one is better, this list contains 10 movies that I love and put onto a numbered list. By no means is it in any ORDER what so ever!

Enjoy

1. Children Of Men (2006)

2. Pan’s Labyrinth (2006)

3. The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy (2001-2003)

4. The Dark Knight (2008)

5. Avatar (2009)

6. The Hangover (2009)

7. Gladiator (2000)

8. District 9 (2009)

9. Memento (2000)

10. V for Vendetta (2005)

So how far off was I from you all? Who did I miss and why do you think I am wrong? See you all in the comments.

Up is still in my top three films of the year. Even now with it’s release on Blu-ray, the gut-punch still gets me and it’s still a marvelous film to watch. The Blu-ray is also no slouch in it’s pristine presentation of the film, it also features a nice batch of extras that go into great detail about how and why the film was made. In honor of this release, I was able to participate in a virtual roundtable discussion with both Docter and Peterson. Aside from being dressed in obscure outfits (Docter in a bunny suit, Peterson as Amelia Earhart,) both seemed to be very proud of the work they did. They should be as the film is incredible.

Who came up with the idea to cast Ed Asner as Carl?

Bob Peterson: Once Pete and I had arrived at the idea of doing an Old Man movie, the thought of Ed Asner came fairly early on. Good casting at Pixar is an exercise of balance. Woody in “Toy Story” could have been perceived as unappealing when he was jealous of Buzz if we had the wrong voice for him, but Tom Hanks brings such a natural appeal that he balanced any of Woody’s negatives. The same with Ed Asner. Ed’s soulfullness balanced his curmudgeon side. When Ed saw the small statue of his character when he came in to read for us he said “It looks nothing like me!!!” In a cranky (tongue in cheek) way. We knew from that, that Ed was the perfect voice for Carl!!

Other than the trip to South America, what inspired the story of UP?

Bob Peterson: Various things – the lives of our grandparents. For example, I had a grandfather who always wanted to go West from Ohio, but never got the chance. I had the foresight to videotape my grandparent’s home after they had passed 20 years ago. There are the side by side chairs – one soft and one hard which absolutely paralleled who the were as people. Many of our life experiences with our wives and children were put into play in the script, and of course living with our dogs gave us great insight into dog behavior!

Who or what was the inspiration behind Charles Muntz?

Bob Peterson: Charles Muntz in story terms is “Carl Fredriksen at the end of the line.” In other words, if Carl had made it to Paradise Falls without accepting others into his life, then he would have gone crazy, wallowing in his unfinished quest. Carl is represented by a square shape. So as far as shape language, Muntz is a “collapsed square.” He end up having more diamond shapes as if a square has collapsed upon itself. From real reference, we looked at the grand adventurers of the last century including Lindbergh. We looked at Howard Hughes, being a sort of inventor/adventurer. We also looked at photos of Errol Flynn and even the dapper photos of Walt Disney in the 1930′s with his pencil thin mustache.

While Docter was on hand as well, he didn’t answer the questions we gave him. Nor did he answer the question my partner in crime Shane MacDonald of Eye Crave Network, but Bob Peterson was. Shane was gracious enough to let me use his question for this piece, so if you could, give him and his site a visit. I promise he won’t steal your girlfriend.

When you release the final film is it like watching your kids go off into the world? You’ve shaped it, guided along, then you have to let them go and see how they do.

Bob Peterson: Yes. It is interesting watching the movie for the first time at our Wrap Parties with our crew. We don’t ever get to see our movies like a regular audience member because we lived through the creation of the film and see the memories brought forward by each shot and movement we see. When I look at my 14 year old (who I don’t want to grow up and go to college!!!) I see her as a 3 year old at the pumpkin patch, the the 5th grader at the spelling bee.Those memories are there. When our movies leave us we hope we’ve given them enough love and sense to do great things in the world!!

Up is available now on Blu-ray and DVD, but quite honestly, grab the Blu-ray. Better deal, and it comes with a DVD of the film that has some nice extras.

With the summer movie season of 2009 drawing to a close, it’s time to look back at the ten films that made us laugh, cry, howl and above all entertain us. Now bear in mind while films like The Hurt Locker and Moon saw release over this summer, they won’t be included here as this focuses more on the blockbusters than it does some films that had play at festivals. Enough babble, onto the films.

10. GHOSTS OF GIRLFRIENDS PAST

Some are going to have films like Land of the Lost, The Proposal, or dare I utter Year One on their top ten lists, but I’m going to opt to put this one on there. Oh yes, it’s a shock this shows up here but the film was actually a decent little romantic comedy. It’s more a comment on how this summer has been, but let’s not discredit a movie that actually took the time to develop the leading characters and moved rather briskly. Matthew McConaughey is more than tolerable as Michael Douglas steals every scene he’s in. May 1st started blockbusters off on the wrong foot with Wolverine, but romantic comedies started off well with this fairly underrated movie.

Current Grade – 7/10

9. HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE

Potter die-hards snatched this film up and drank every last drop of it, others (like yours truly) felt it did just enough to be considered good, but lacked an explosive action scene present in most blockbusters. Word on the street is the book has a climatic battle that could have been present here helped the picture. Instead this remains a decent Harry Potter picture that shows the growth and talent of the leads and might be considered one giant build up for the final two films. If it is, it’s a well done ad for Deathly Hallows and did get me interested to see where this is going to end up.

Current Grade – 7/10

8. G.I. JOE: THE RISE OF COBRA

First, this by no means has anything in it resembling a good, even decent film. However, the film spoke to the child inside me and for that I enjoyed the hell out of it. Besides when you’re a kid playing with your action figures you don’t care about your Boba Fett or Batman action figure on a deep quest to find themselves. No, you want them to take out everyone in the room and engage in an all-out war, plot be damned. While the effects are spotty in some spots, it doesn’t matter in the end as Stephen Sommers gets the tone of G.I. Joe right and gave us the blockbuster Terminator Salvation, X-Men Origins: Wolverine, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen promised but failed to deliver.

Current Grade – 7/10

7. DRAG ME TO HELL

Look for this in something I’ll concoct at the end of the year called “Films I Was Wrong On.” It’s still not one of the films of the year, the movie is a nice mish-mash of new and old Raimi while the director just has a blast making a nice throwback film. Like another film on this list, it gets a little too self-indulgent for it’s own good and Raimi’s slapstick style doesn’t always work, but who doesn’t love an anvil taking out a demon. The performances were a little better than expected as well, the best of whom comes from Dileep Rao. Oh yeah, and I’ll still stand by it being one of the best horror films of the decade, credibility be damned.

Current Grade – 7/10

6. THE HANGOVER

You have to applaud this film for being the one to debunk Warner Brothers’ “no more tentpole R” films as this went on to become one of the highest grossers of the year. As far as the funny goes, this film brought it in spades with a decent plot and some great comedic performances. In fact, most of the random things these characters end up in are plausible considering this is supposed to be the craziest Vegas hangover ever. Ed Helms was terrific both on the piano and as “Dr. Douchebag” as Zach Galifiankis made up for his turn in What Happens in Vegas. It loses it’s way toward the end, but it still comes out as one of the funniest films of the year.

Current Grade – 7.5/10

5. STAR TREK

Most have called this ‘the film to beat this summer.’ While the film has some really big plot problems, overall J.J. Abrams brings it all together to craft one of the most entertaining and best films not just of the summer, but the year. This one also furthers the destruction of the “even-good odd-bad” theory that Nemesis helped to take care of. I may be the only one, but I still feel Chris Pine gave a better Kirk than Shatner (flame me below) but Karl Urban so sneakingly steals the film away from everyone, he should be arrested for it. It was action-packed, featured wonderful characters and while fun, wasn’t completely dumb. Oh, and it’s fourth best of the entire Trek series.

Current Grade – 8/10

4. DISTRICT 9

Boy, science fiction sure is having a wonderful year with Moon, Star Trek, Watchmen, and now this. It doesn’t insult it’s audience’s intelligence, the action is coherent and shot well, and the performances are just as powerful and moving as anything you’ll find this year (Sharlto Copely deserves at least a nomination.) One of the most original pieces of the year, District 9 remembered what it was that made summer such a gold mine for films in the first place. It’s tough to talk about anything in the film as the less you know going in the better but just know this: District 9 is the summer blockbuster we deserve and hopefully it’s a success so studios take notice that we want our movies to have some form of intellect behind them. Leave now, go see it.

Current Grade – 9/10

3. PUBLIC ENEMIES

I love Michael Mann, and will worship pretty much any film he makes (hey, I’ll at least admit it.) Public Enemies is another great one of his, and is the equivalent of Picasso painting a masterpiece or Mozart conducting another classic. That won’t work for some as Mann follows the beat of his own drum but at least here it ended up being one of the best flicks of the summer. It’s the 1930′s through the eyes of Michael Mann, and seldom has it ever been this stylish or cool. Public Enemies also has the best shootout this year with the cabin shootout and one of the most beautiful scenes that Mann’s ever filmed with Dillinger’s last moments. It’s poetry, pure poetry.

Current Grade – 9/10

2. UP

Pixar just outdoes themselves every year, even though WALL*E made a case that the trend had ended. Well, it doesn’t as Up edged the robots out to take the crown. Ten minutes in, Up gives one of the best directed scenes ever in ANY film and doesn’t let go from there. There’s likely not going to be a more deserving animated film to break the barrier and be nominated for Best Picture. It still overwhelms me how terrific this film is, from how subtle it is with telling it’s characters to making Ellie a character without her being there and not making Russell an annoying little kid. All that, and we’ve yet to talk about the story is pure bliss. In short, it’s Pixar’s finest hour to date.

Current Grade – 9.5/10

1. INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS

If I were a history teacher, I’d be teaching this film in history classes as fact. Tarantino has crafted a movie that’s his best since Jackie Brown, and no that’s not an overstatement. The journey might have been a long one for the Basterds to get to the screen but it was well worth it. Brad Pitt is at his finest and way, way better than he appeared in last year’s The Curious Case of Benjamin Button namely because he as a personality in this one. The big winner of this is Christoph Waltz who should go on to bigger things thanks to his performance as Col. Hans Landa. For Tarantino, he does self-indulge like he did in Death Proof, but doesn’t go overboard and uses the dialogue to build tension during scenes. Also unlike that film, there’s no fat to be cut as everything moves the film along briskly. The results are magic, and as the writer/director himself puts it, a “masterpiece.”

Current Grade – 9.5/10

So there you have it, these are the films that took summer 2009 by storm. Sure things started off bumpy with Wolverine and there were pot-holes along the way in Terminator Salvation, Year One, and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen but this summer didn’t limp to the finish line. In fact it went out with a big bang and turned in some fun and two seriously great pictures. In fact, that may as well define the summer as one that showed promise, faltered, then delivered big time in the clutch. Here’s to a great end of the year with The Lovely Bones and Black Dynamite still to come.

With June now leaving us, this marks the midway point of the year. It also means Comic Con, District 9, the 2009 NFL Season (GO STEELERS), my birthday, and Christmas are all around the corner. It also means it’s time to take a look at as of right now are the ten best films of the year. As always, I suggest you take this as opinion only and not some form of law that these are absolutely the best films of the year so far. But really, I’m right and you’re wrong anyway so that’d be pointless.

10. STAR TREK
Star Trek may have a story that’s full of plot holes and problems, but J.J. Abrams makes the chaos work to create the film that kicked off summer. Chris Pine takes Captain Kirk and makes him his own while Karl Urban a performance DeForest Kelley would be proud of. The effects don’t disappoint and the action is pretty thrilling. It works, and it’s certainly better than Orci and Kurtzman’s other film this year. Here’s looking forward to another, better adventure with this team.
Current Grade – 7.5/10

This is one of those weeks where what happened last week doesn’t matter, what the Top 5 will do doesn’t matter, and Michael Bay gets to count all his money. Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen is going to storm in, kill everything, and destroy all competition. If this topples what The Dark Knight did last year, all hope for quality blockbusters will be lost.

If I had my way….this would happen:

1. The Hurt Locker $224M
2. Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen $142M
3. The Proposal $19M
4. The Hangover $15M
5. Up $12M

Instead, we’re likely going to get this:

1. Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen $121M (weekend. Total = $210M)
2. The Proposal $17M
3. The Hangover $14M
4. Up $11M
5. My Sister’s Keeper $9M

Greaaat day in the morning was I off or what last week? I figured the quartet in Vegas would still pound strong but bland do-gooder Ben Stiller is proving to be a bigger juggernaut than originally thought. As far as Eddie Murphy is concerned, he better start seriously moving the ball on Beverly Hills Cop IV as that looks to be the only thing that’ll revive him now. Tony Scott’s latest fiasco was a different story and probably is underperforming. No matter, it’s not like Scott won’t find work somewhere, same goes for Denzel and Travolta. If I’d my own way, everyone would have seen Moon and the world would have been a better place.

This week is the calm before the storm, and that storm is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen which will undoubtedly destroy everything in it’s path. Getting back to the films of the week, the headliner is some Sandra Bullock film called The Proposal. It is what it is, and certainly you could do worse but it’s going to play to it’s audience well enough. It faces competition (if any) from Jack Black and Michael Cera’s new romp Year One which should play well with anyone eight and under. Sadly, it’s not marketed toward them and word of mouth is terrible so this is going to do less than Land of the Lost numbers. The Proposal is surprisingly receiving decent-to-good reviews and since it’s the only date movie out right now, should be a strong opening all things considered.

Yet, I still see The Hangover winning out. It hasn’t dropped off too terribly from last week and it’s sill on everyone’s lips as the comedy to beat, even if most couples will head into The Proposal. Up‘s drop shouldn’t be anything major and will probably round up the last of it’s “big bucks”. Pelham 1 2 3 was overshadowed by Vegas and could possibly have a bigger drop than expected. Night at the Museum 2 MIGHT have this week left in it but with Up playing so well it should finally peter out. Land of the Lost? Yeah, at this point it’s a miracle that film was still in the top five. It’s going to fall, and hard this week. Bring on Optimus!

Predictions below:

BOX OFFICE PREDICTIONS FOR JUNE 19-21, 2009

1. The Hangover $29M
2. The Proposal $28M
3. Up $21M
4. Year One $17M
5. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 $14M

Coming at you now and every Friday from here on is a new thing we’re calling The Wrong Guess where I’ll do my best to predict what the weekend totals for the box office.

First we’re going to take a look at the top five from last week and I may have been the only one unsurprised The Hangover performed like it did. Granted I didn’t think it would churn out $45M but I didn’t doubt it could take the weekend from Disney and Pixar. Seeing as how dismal the year has been to Warners, they’re probably jumping for joy that they finally have a surprise hit that’s…R-RATED! Irony? You bet, and I bet Warners drops their “no more R-rated tentpole films” policy now. Up is doing just about as everyone expected it would and right now is outperforming everyone’s favorite yellow robot. Even with the competition it faces this weekend, there’s little question The Dynamic Duo (Pixar and Disney) can lose and it will continue to perform strong. The biggest disappointment of last week was Land of the Lost that only managed a meager $18.8M which was well below expectations. Bottom line was the film didn’t have a wide appeal and word of mouth wasn’t particularly strong, and it shouldn’t have been given the trailers. Getting back to family films, if anything is going to be hurt by Eddie Murphy it’ll be Night at the Museum 2 as it maybe has one more week left in it’s tank before it topples out. That, and families that don’t go see Up for the eightieth time may want something fresh. By far the biggest earner of the year (or will be) is Star Trek which still continue to perform strong a month after release. $300M is possible at this point but likely it’ll top out at $275M if it doesn’t hit three.

How will the new releases fair? The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 will be the one that performs strongest, but the top spot will be a battle with the four boys in Vegas. Word of mouth is pretty decent for Tony Scott’s opus and it certainly has gained the interest of all the adult males looking to be entertained with it’s flashy trailers and Denzel Washington. The Hangover is a machine right now though, and the great word of mouth is going to propel it again for this week. All things considered, it could win again next week but that’s for later. Imagine That isn’t going to fair strongly when you consider how strongly Up is doing and how poorly the last few Eddie Murphy films were received. It’s also unwise to doubt Night at the Museum 2 as everyone did the weekend of release. If Imagine That manages anything above $20M, consider it a minor surprise.

Personally, if I had my way, everyone would go see Moon and the world would be a better place.

PREDICTIONS FOR JUNE 12-14, 2009:

1. The Hangover – $28 Million
2. The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3 – $26 Million
3. Up – $20 Million
4. Imagine That – $12 Million
5. Star Trek – $10 Million

That’s it for next week. Enjoy!