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With the field for a 2010 best picture Oscar being expanded to 10 this year in theory to allow for more popular films to be nominated I thought it would be interesting to see which I have seen and how.  First however I will look at 2009 as a comparison to see if expanding the field worked.

2009:

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button: The Criterion Collection
Watched this one on Blu-Ray and enjoyed it.

Frost/Nixon
No desire to see this.

Milk
No desire to see this.

The Reader
No desire to see this.

Slumdog Millionaire (Winner)
Saw it in the theater and really liked it.

In 2009 I only saw 2 out of 5 or 40% of the nominees, now is 2010 better?

2010:

Avatar
Watched this in the theater in mini IMAX 3D and loved it.

The Blind Side
Haven't seen it yet but would like to.

District 9
Watched this in the theater and really enjoyed it.

An Education
Haven't seen it and not sure that I want to.

The Hurt Locker (Winner)
Have the NetFlix here and hoping to watch this weekend.

Inglourious Basterds
Watched it on Blu-Ray and really liked it.

Precious
No desire to see this.

A Serious Man
Watched it on Blu-Ray and enjoyed it.

Up
Watched this in the theater in Disney 3D and loved it.

Up in the Air
Watched this in the theater and loved it.

In 2010 I have already seen 6 of the nominees and want to see another 2 with the last two being ones I don’t really want to see.  That makes it 80% this year which is much better than last year.  I would say for me at least the Oscars have become more relevant.  Maybe I will revisit this next year and see if it was just a blip or not.

I have been really looking forward to the Dark Knight coming out.  A couple of weeks before it was to be released I heard that several scenes were filmed with IMAX cameras and the director Christopher Nolan was speaking very highly of them.  I looked into seeing the film in IMAX and found that it wasn't showing anywhere in the entire state of Maryland.  The closest places were a museum in Harrisburg, the new Air and Space in Chantilly, VA and two places in Philadelphia.  I looked at getting tickets for the Harrisburg location but due to timing issues they were sold out.  Kelly found tickets for a 9 AM Sunday showing at the Franklin Institute and got tickets.

We got to FI about 8:30 AM, once inside we found out this showing was sold out as well.  The IMAX screen at the FI is an OMNIMAX style.  Kelly got seats in almost the exact center of the theater both horizontally and vertically.  The only initial problem is the projection booth sticks out into the seating area in the row we were in.  We were able to move over one seat and it was much better.  Dark Knight was shot in two ways, part with normal cameras and part with IMAX cameras.  I think the split is about 70% normal / 30% IMAX.  An IMAX screen is closer to and old style TV 4:3 square shape and less like movie / HDTV 1.85-2.35 rectangle shape.  During the normal shot scenes the screen is very much a letterbox shape with the lower an upper portion of the screen blank.  When the IMAX scenes come on it fills the entire gigantic screen.  The main scenes in IMAX were exterior shots and especially the Hong Kong roof top scenes.  Also the big car chase scene was in IMAX.  Those scenes were really amazing, if you have ever seen a traditional IMAX nature movie you will know what it looks like.  The normal scenes were not as good, they were a little distorted and just very wide.  The normal scenes weren't bad just not as good as the IMAX ones.  Also there were certain scenes that due to screen size and how busy the scene was it seemed like we missed stuff.

I really enjoyed the Dark Knight as a movie as well.  We watched Batman Begins on Friday night since Kelly hadn't seen it.  Going into this my expectations were high, and they were met and even exceeded.  There was good character development of new characters and further exploration of existing ones.  The action scenes were even better than BB and pretty impressive in scale.  The Joker character is just evil, like psychotic nothing to loose evil.  Also the gadgets are ratcheted up this time, but still not too over the top.

The movie is really dark, it feels the way you think a Batman movie should be.  He isn't a hero so much as the person trying to keep a city from total collapse.  The movie is also quite long, but it seemed to be worth it and pay off the patience in the end.  Also this movie is on the R side of PG-13 I think, not a kids movie in any way.

I highly recommend this movie, no matter if you aren't a super hero movie person.  If you enjoy a good action movie with a good storyline go and see this, you won't be sorry.

On June 27th Netflix lowered its pricing on the 2 out plan from 14.99 to 13.99.  Then today it lowered it again to 12.99.  The best part is you don't have to do anything it is just automatic.  I would like to the pricing page but it isn't updated yet.  Here is a pic of the email I got though.

The summer movie season, which is starting early this year with Spiderman 3 on May 4th, is jam packed with sequels.  I actually started looking and it is almost a sequel a week between now and September.  Between May 4th and September 21st there are 14 sequels coming out.   The links go to Rotten Tomatoes since that is where I got the info.  Check it out:

May

May 4th - Spiderman 3

May 11th - 28 Weeks Later

May 18th - Shrek the Third

May 25th - Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

June

June 8th - Ocean's Thirteen and Hostel: Part II

June 15th - The Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer

June 22nd - Evan Almighty

June 29th - Live Free or Die Hard

July

July 4th - Transformers (ok remake rather than sequel)

July 13th - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

August

August 3rd - The Bourne Ultimatum

August 10th - Rush Hour 3

August 31st - Halloween (Again more remake than sequel)

September

September 21st - Resident Evil: Extinction

Ok so it has been a while since I wrote about some movies.  Haven't been watching enough it seems.  First, a few that we saw in theaters.

Children of Men - The storyline for this movie is pretty depressing but it is a really interesting look at a potential near future.  Many have compared this movie to Blade Runner and it is similar in its dark look of the future.  The film is really well made in regards to cinematography and settings.  It definitely isn't cheery but I really recommend the film.

Babel - This movie has an interlocking storyline like Pulp Fiction or Sin City.  If there is one word to describe this movie it would be intense.  The stressful situations start almost immediately and never let up.  It is also to a certain degree a little depressing, definitely needed a change of pace after this and the last one.  It is also a good movie that I would recommend, but not a forget the world and relax movie.

Breach - This is based on the true story of one of the worst spies to infiltrate the US government.  I heard an interview with Eric O'Neill in which he said the movie was very accurate, just a few dramatizations.  It was impressive to see how many resources were used to catch the spy and how many mis-steps were made along the way.  For someone who lived in Fairfax County it was interesting to see how it was all happening right in town.  A really good thriller that I would recommend.

Pan's Labyrinth - This movie is a cross between WWII period piece and a messed up Alice in wonderland.  The WWII parts were about the fascist control of Spain and were pretty gruesome at times.  Those darn fascist aren't very nice.  The other part of the movie was a young girl completing tasks to find if she was a mystical princess.  The part with the young girl gets just weird at times, there is a creepy faun and a monster that eats babies.  It is a pretty good movie, if a little strange.  Oh and it is subtitled.

I have a netflix membership now so I can get some DVD and HD-DVD without my usually buying of everything.

Wordplay - This is a documentary about the current NY Times crossword puzzle editor.  It is also about the annual crossword puzzle championship.  In several scenes they have several people from Jon Stewart to President Clinton talking about how they do the crossword puzzle.  While I must admit I don't a lot of crosswords it was interesting to see how they are created.  This is a short quirky movie, if you are at all interested you will enjoy it.

It has been a while since I have written about movies. There are three I can remember right now and maybe one other I have forgotten. The three movies are Brick, Inside Man, and The Departed.

Brick was a critical success but not a box office one this spring. It was closer to an independent film than a wide release. It can most easily be summed up as a teen noir. It is the story of a high school student attempting to find out what happened to a friend. In the process he has to make deals with people and pit others against each other. It moves very quickly and is very stylized. I really liked it by Kelly was so-so on it. I would recommend it.

Inside Man was more of a mixed bag in the reviews. I wasn't sure about the movie going in due to what I had heard. It is Spike Lee's latest film and he has had some recently that I have really liked and others that have been real flops. The move is a heist move pure and simple, although it has some very interesting sub/side plots. I liked the movie and again Kelly was so-so. I would recommend it as well.

The last movie is The Departed and that one we saw in theaters. This movie is amazing, the best movie of the year and will probably win multiple Oscars. It is rough, a touch long but still really good. The cast is great and used very well. I cannot too highly recommend this movie.

Amazon sends out suggestions based on previous purchases and what others have bought. This week I got a really weird one. First the DVD it is suggesting is odd, even more so is the connection. Here is the relevant bit.

We've noticed that customers who have expressed interest in The Lion King (Disney Special Platinum Edition) have also ordered ChickFight 3: Special Edition (two-discs) on DVD. For this reason, you might like to know that ChickFight 3: Special Edition (two-discs) is now available on DVD. You can order your copy for just $29.95 by following the link below.

I have finally updated my DVD list.  I also got a program to help me keep it updated.  The new list can be found at this link.  The program is handy, it let me scan via upc my whole collection and entered everything for me.  If the disc didn't have a upc (some special editions) I could just insert DVD and it would use disc id.  There was only one that couldn't be identified, it was the In the Line of Fire that was included in my first DVD player.  Most likely the number of these discs pressed is very small.

The funny thing is that I am just now doing this.  Simply because my DVD purchasing has slowed to a crawl since the spring of 2005.  Especially if you compare it to the number I used to buy.  I just didn't buy any really while I worked on my basement and I haven't picked up much since.  Maybe in the next 6 months I will get a HD-DVD and get a few more discs.

On Friday night Kelly and I were both tired and decided to just relax and watch a movie.  We decided on one of the ones I got from my family for my birthday.  The movie we watched was Shopgirl.  This movie did not do well in theaters, it only made 10 mil, so I wasn't expecting too much.  Also the commercials and trailers I had seen didn't seem to portray the movie as it really was.  It was a very good drama with a well laid out storyline.  It had good pacing so it didn't seem to drag at all.  I really enjoyed the film and would recommend it, especially if you are in the mood for an emotional drama.  It doesn't get overly emotional though, just enough so you know what the characters are feeling.

On Saturday night I had been left alone to try and recover from my recent sickness.  I took the opportunity to watch one of the films that Kelly seems to keep skipping as a possibility.  I watched Zathura which is a spiritual successor to Jumanji.  This movie is best described as a family friendly action adventure movie.  It is aimed more so at kids but I liked it as well.  The movie has some good special effects and great action scenes.  Also it has a nice brotherhood moral which I thought was cool.  It isn't a great movie but I did enjoy it.  One interesting note is how few people are in it.  There are two main characters, two sub characters and a bit part by a fifth.  That is really it, I guess you could call the house itself as a character.  It is a fun little movie that can kill a couple of hours.

On September 5th Kelly and I went to a preview screening of The Guardian, which comes out September 29th.  It was a free screening at The Charles.  It was in their second largest auditorium and it was about 85% full.  I had seen trailers for the film, but I still wasn't sure what to expect.

I didn't see Annapolis but somehow I see this movie as the Coast Guard's response.  I doubt either the Navy or Coast Guard really had much to do with the original idea of these movies, however both seemed to support them fully.  I think the Guardian will do better than Annapolis, which wouldn't be hard compared to its total gross of 17 mil.

The movie is kind of a standard old guy needs to retire but instead becomes teacher and then a new young kid thinks he is better but learns a lesson.  One of the problems with this film is it is pretty long and has too many things going on.  One of the weird parts was a 10 minute montage of working out.  It was done to look like it was a reality show with grainy video and it was a little jarring compared to the rest of the movie.

The story was pretty good and gave an interesting look into the Coast Guard rescue school.  It was also funny to watch some of the Coast Guard vs. Navy jokes.  A good chunk of the movie was very similar to the Perfect Storm, only from the rescuers standpoint.  There was some really good special effects and it was obvious they had buy in from the Coast guard from the on location filming.

The movie had some issues and tried to be a little sappy at points.  However it had some pretty good action scenes and decent acting.  I wouldn't run out to see it, but it is worth seeing.  I almost want to see Annapolis just to compare the two.