Craig's MovieBlog

This Ought To Go Over Well

Enjoy the new poster for Bill Maher’s Religulous.  Please, don’t send me the hate mail; I’m just the messenger.  (It is from the makers of Borat, so…)

 

Only You Can Prevent Boratitis

Please, help stop Boratitus, before it affects someone you love.

UPDATE: Apparently this clip has been removed from YouTube.  And a commenter on Best Week Ever calls out the irony with a certain degree of panache.

The funniest thing I have ever seen on this site. No, not the video. That is down. The reason?
“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Viacom International Inc.”
You know, the Viacom that owns VH1. The VH1 that has that show Best Week Ever.

Oscar Surprises in the Telecast?

Nikki Finke's blog, Deadline Hollywood Daily, has some interesting notes about changes to this year's Oscar broadcast.  I guess some might consider these spoilers, but seriously, if someone told you what the opening act was going to be, would that upset you?  It's not like we'll be revealing who's going to win Best Picture, or who will be most inappropriately dressed (fingers crossed for Abigail Breslin...).

Well, if that kind of news would upset you, stop reading now.

For the rest of you, head over to her Eight Spoilers on Oscar Telecast post, but I do have some thoughts on a few of them below.

• She says that the biggest news will be who is presenting the Best Director Oscar this year (Spielberg, Coppola, and Lucas), but my guess is that four hours into the broadcast, and given the collective age of those three men, most of the world is simply going to yawn.  These days Borat would get a bigger response.  Since this is the year when Martin Scorsese is finally going to get his Oscar, I guess they want to do something special.  To me though, if you really want to do something interesting, when they announce his name, he should be presented his Oscar from Clint Eastwood, Roman Polanski, Kevin Costner, Barry Levinson, and Robert Redford, the 5 directors who beat him for each of his previous nominations.  And then Marty gets to go all Mark "Dignam" Wahlberg on them onstage.
• Her favorite update is that each of the three songs nominated from Dreamgirls, will be sung by a Dreamgirl other than the one that sang it in the film.  Wow - another change that three people will notice...
• She also reports that unlike previous years, where the awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress come almost immediately, they are going to save them until the final 1/3 of the show.  Well, that should save some stress for people on the West Coast who struggle with the 5pm broadcast, since now there is absolutely no reason for to watch the first 3 hours of the show.  I mean, while I couldn't be more interested in Best Original Score or Best Art Direction and Best Sound Editing or Best Live Action Short (not!), I'm not sure the rest of the world feels the same way.

Oscar Nominations

When was the last time the leader in nominations (Dreamgirls) couldn't get nominated for Best Picture or Best Director?  Dreamgirls received 8, but 3 were for Best Song, followed by Babel with 7.

When was the last time that 9 of the 10 actor and actress nominees were NOT from one of the Best Pictures?  Let me put that another way... of the 5 Best Pictures, they only spawned 1 Actor or Actress nomination (Helen Mirren, The Queen).

When they said the field was wide open this year, I really had only thought of that in the Best Picture race, but the breadth of the field this year, the distinction between the Best Picture nominations and the rest of the nominees has never been more vast.

Are you telling me that Leo was better in Blood Diamond that he was in The Departed?

Check out the Best Actor nominees - outside of Blood Diamond, none of those movies received any other major nominations, no other actors, not best picture, no screenplay, nothing.  Just bizarre...

Does anyone else realize that Kate Winslet is about to lose her 5th Oscar nomination in 11 years?  Or that Meryl Streep is about to lose for the 12th time?  At least she has two wins... unlike Ms. Winslet.

Here we go...

BEST PICTURE
Babel
The Departed
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
The Queen

BEST DIRECTOR
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Babel
Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Clint Eastwood, Letters From Iwo Jima
Stephen Frears, The Queen
Paul Greengrass, United 93

BEST ACTOR
Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond
Ryan Gosling, Half Nelson
Peter O'Toole, Venus
Will Smith, The Pursuit of Happyness
Forrest Whitaker, The Last King Of Scotland

BEST ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, Volver
Judi Dench, Notes on A Scandal
Helen Mirren, The Queen
Meryl Streep, The Devil Wears Prada
Kate Winslet, Little Children

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children
Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy, Dreamgirls
Mark Wahlberg, The Departed

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Adriana Barraza, Babel
Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine
Cate Blanchett, Notes on a Scandal
Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Rinko Kikuchi, Babel

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Babel
Letters From Iwo Jima
Little Miss Sunshine
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Borat
Children Of Men
The Departed
Little Children
Notes On A Scandal

Sacha Baron Cohen's Golden Globe Acceptance Speech

How do you give a speech with the words "anus" and "testicles" and still stay classy?

Exhibit #1: Sacha Baron Cohen

Stay classy Kazakhstan.

Borat. In 30 Seconds. Re-Enacted by Bunnies.

Wow.

Live Free or Die Hard Trailer

As Borat would say:

"That looks really NOT good."

"That looks really good not."

"That looks really good pause not."

"That looks really good."

 

"NOT!"

Golden Globe Nominations 2006

My notes on the nominations:

• Bobby?  Really?  Gosh, I wonder if Sharon Stone will finally show up at the Golden Globes this year...
• Leo vs. Leo in Best Actor and Clint vs. Clint in Best Director.  I guess that means Ryan Gosling doesn't get to bring Rachel McAdams to the party, and Bill Condon doesn't get a nomination for Dreamgirls.  Neither does Paul Greengrass for United 93.
• Look at the films nominated for Best Actress (Drama): Volver, Notes on a Scandal, Sherrybaby, The Queen, and Little Children.  Wow - are any of those playing anywhere in this country other than the coasts?  The combined box office take of those films is: $29.3 million, and $24.7 of that comes from The Queen.
• United 93 seems to have lost some momentum here, but the Hollywood Foreign Press likes to nominate stars... and the film had none - unlike Bobby.
• The real surprises to me are Babel racking up the most (7) nods, Mark Wahlberg and Thank You For Smoking getting noticed (deservedly), Notes on a Scandal getting 3, and going back to the Jack Sparrow well for a second time.
• Oh, and on the TV side, Alec Baldwin got nominated for his work on 30 Rock (perfect) but Studio 60 got zippo.  That's gotta hurt NBC, since they air the Golden Globes.  And I did not see a nomination for Dexter's Michael C. Hall coming...
• Best line from David Poland: "Harvey got his meaningless Bobby nomination. Thank God Roger Friedman will have somewhere to sit at the awards."

Best Picture (Drama)

• Babel
• Bobby
• The Departed
• Little Children
• The Queen

Best Actor (Drama)

• Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
• Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
• Peter O'Toole - Venus
• Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
• Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland

Best Actress (Drama)

• Penelope Cruz - Volver
• Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
• Maggie Gyllenhall - Sherrybaby
• Helen Mirren - The Queen
• Kate Winslet - Little Children

Best Picture (Musical or Comedy)

• Borat
• The Devil Wears Prada
• Dreamgirls
• Little Miss Sunshine
• Thank You For Smoking

Best Actress (Musical or Comedy)

• Annette Bening - Running with Scissors
• Toni Collette - Little Miss Sunshine
• Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls
• Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
• Rene Zellweger - Miss Potter

Best Actor (Musical or Comedy)

• Sasha Baron Cohen - Borat
• Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
• Aaron Eckhart - Thank You for Smoking
• Chiwetel Ejiofor - Kinky Boots
• Will Ferrell - Stranger Than Fiction

Best Supporting Actor

• Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland
• Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
• Jack Nicholson - The Departed
• Brad Pitt - Babel
• Mark Wahlberg - The Departed

Best Supporting Actress

• Adriana Barraza - Babel
• Kate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal
• Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
• Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
• Rinko Kikuchi - Babel

Best Director

• Clint Eastwood - Flags of Our Fathers
• Clint Eastwood - Letters from Iwo Jima
• Stephen Frears - The Queen
• Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu - Babel
• Martin Scorsese - The Departed

Best Screenplay

• Babel
• Little Children
• Notes on a Scandal
• The Departed
• The Queen

Sacha Baron Cohen Makes a Statement

Upon receiving 2 Golden Globe Nominations today, he said:

“I am extremely honored. I’m very proud as well for my fellow writers as well as our director Larry Charles, and our producer Jay Roach, and am very thankful for the HFPA’s belief and acknowledgment of our film. I have been trying to let Borat know this great news but for the last 4 hours both of Kazakhstan’s telephones have been engaged. Eventually, Premier Nazarbayev answered and said he would pass on the message as soon as Borat returned from Iran, where he is guest of honor at the Holocaust Denial Conference.”

Since this is the first time (other than the Rolling Stone piece) that he's speaking out of character, perhaps this is the end of him living as Borat.  When he attends the Golden Globe ceremony, do you think he'll attend as Borat, or as Sacha?

The 2006 Academy Awards Tracker

I've finally gotten off my patootie, and I've compiled my annual Academy Awards tracker. 

Clearly the momentum is behind Forest Whitaker, Helen Mirren, and Martin Scorsese right now, but as always, while this is interesting, it doesn't always predict Oscar success.  If it did, we'd be heralding Brokeback Mountain or Sideways as Best Picture winners.  (Crash only won one pre-Oscar Best Picture.)  Note that the so-called favorite for Best Picture, Dreamgirls, has no Best Picture wins, but Jennifer Hudson is leading in the Supporting Actress category.

I love the fact that the only other Best Actor winner other than Forest Whitaker so far has been Borat.

The scoreboard currently looks like this:

Best Picture:

• Letters from Iwo Jima - 2 wins
• United 93 - 2 wins
• The Departed - 1
• Little Children - 1
• The Queen - 1

Best Director:

• Martin Scorsese, The Departed - 4 wins
• Paul Greengrass, United 93 - 2
• Stephen Frears, The Queen - 1

Best Actor

• Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland - 6 wins
• Sacha Baron Cohen, Borat - 2

Best Actress

• Helen Mirren, The Queen - 7 wins

Best Supporting Actor

• Jackie Earle Haley, Little Children - 2 wins
• Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond - 2 wins
• Michael Sheen, The Queen - 2 wins
• Mark Wahlberg, The Departed - 1

Best Supporting Actress

• Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls - 3 wins
• Catherine O'Hara, For Your Consideration - 2
• Adriana Barraza, Babel - 1
• Shareeka Epps, Half Nelson - 1
• Luminita Gheorghiu, The Death of Mr. Lazarescu - 1

Viewer Mail

Hi Craig

Still miss the box office analysis!

I need your help. I've been trying to use your database to find out which movies grossed more in their second weekend while they were still #1 at the Box Office. Can you help?

Love your blog.

[name withheld... because I didn't ask his permission to print it]

-----------

Hi [name] - I've just been super busy in my "real job" so I must be 3 or 4 weeks behind.  It pains me that I haven't been able to talk about Borat's success at the box office.

Note that www.boxofficemojo.com is a super resource for box office data.

In the meantime, you're looking for something pretty specific if I'm reading your question accurately.  You're looking for a film that spent weeks 1 and 2 at #1, but made more money in its second week, right?  I'm just checking because there are movies that may have opened at 2 or 3, but then moved to number 1 later.  Or there are other films that moved up to #1, but still made less money in their 2nd weeks (the competition was weaker also).

Anyway, other than Borat (and it's not totally a fair comparison, since they dramatically increased the screen count) I'm finding 105 films since 1996 that spent weeks 1 and 2 at #1, but the only ones that made more money in week 2 were:

• Titanic - $28.6 million in week 1, $35.5 million in week 2
• The Phantom Menace - $64.8 million in week 1, $66.9 million in week 2
• Cast Away - $28.9 million in week 1, $30.8 million in week 2

Again, some of these aren't totally fair, since some of their week 2's took place on holidays such as Memorial Day or Christmas, giving people an extra night with no school/work the next day, but that's what I've got so far.

Good luck - hope this helps,

Craig

Reno 911: Miami Trailer

I'm not sure if this trailer for Reno 911: Miami was attached to all the Borat prints around the country, but they showed it when we went to see Borat on opening night.  Not only was it hilarious, you have to give them credit for nailing perfect target marketing for the Borat crowd.

Borat Deleted Scenes

So good, but I wouldn't recommend watching these until after seeing Borat in theaters first.

Random Bunch o' Links

Really?  There's a market for two films about Che Guevara?  Really?  I love Steven Soderbergh, but how much money did The Motorcycle Diaries make again?  Who makes these decisions?  Because I bet I can do their job for a much smaller salary.

The Wachowski brothers are finally directing again after The Matrix Trilogy, and it's Speed Racer.  These guys are going to make a "family friendly" film, after Bound, The Matrix, and V for Vendetta?  The mind boggles...

Will Smith comes into his own, according to Kris Tapley and David Poland.  I've got to say, when I think about my days as a junket whore (I was young, I needed the money), the best five minutes I spent was interviewing Will Smith.  The passion, energy, and humor that he exudes is a rare quality.

Finally, NPR's Kim Masters does a good job talking about why she thinks Borat isn't the next Snakes on a Plane, but I'll throw some other data at you: 

1) 72% of this week's Fandango tickets were for Borat.  Second place was Santa Clause 3 with 9%.  Yep - 8 times as many people bought tickets for Borat.

2) Rotten Tomatoes.com gives Borat a 95% approval rating from the critics.  Something tells me this film might be good.  Snakes on a Plane... 69%.  That would make Borat the 8th best reviewed film of the year.

Oh, and if you're offended by Borat's humor, you should definitely make your voice heard at this site.

Borat Touches Conan's Chrum

If this character ever goes away, I'll be very sad. 

Seriously, I want a Borat sitcom, he should be a new doctor on Grey's Anatomy for Meredith to whine about, there needs to be an animated Borat show on Saturday morning for kids, we need webisodes online, he should have his own talk show, he should host SportsCenter, and be a judge on Project Runway.

This needs to happen.