The Movie Award Season Begins NOW!

Game on. 

I live for this time of year.

Seriously, what with my work life overseas and my family life with two young kids, it is very hard for me to see a ton of movies… and even when I do, my viewing habits are undisciplined and unfocused.  I just go see movies at random and most of the time they’re with my five year-old… so we’re normally seeing ‘G’ rated fare.

However… that all changes during awards season when the nomination list start coming out:  The Golden Globes, American Film Institute, Critics Choice, Screen Actors Guild, Writers Guild, Directors Guild… whoever! 

This time a year sets the ground rules... it gives me an organized and focused list of movies that are actually in contention… and thus begins my two month movie marathon leading up to the Oscar broadcast.  A marathon my wife grins and bares in return for my willingness to watch ‘Top Chef’ and ‘Project Runway’ the rest of the year.

As I said at the opening of this post: “Game on!” 

As the season progresses, my posts will probably be more frequent and definitely more focused as I start tearing through nomination list.

More later!

Upcoming Projects from 6 Great Directors

Today curiosity got the better of me and became obsessed with finding out what projects some of my favorite directors are currently working on… here is what I found out (in no particular order):

Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Bastards):  Django Unchained (2012) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gorden-Levitt, Samual L. Jackson, Christoph Waltz, Kurt Russell, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kevin Costner and Jamie Foxx.  “With the help of his mentor, a slave-turned-bounty hunter sets out to rescue his wife from the brutal Calvin Candie, a Mississippi plantation owner” (IMBD).  This movie is loosely based on the 1966 Italian spaghetti western Django, which at the time was considered the most violent movie ever made.  This should be great inspiration for Tarantino since Inglorious Bastards was also inspired by an Italian film of the same name.  Also, if that’s not exciting enough, Tarantino has also announces Kill Bill, Volume 3 (2014)!

Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia and There Will Be Blood):  The Master (2012) starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams and Laura Dern.  “A 1950s-set drama centered on the relationship between a charismatic intellectual known as "the Master" whose faith-based organization begins to catch on in America, and a young drifter who becomes his right-hand man,” (IMDB).  P.T. Anderson directs some of the most amazing character driven epics… I’m really excited!

Robert Rodriguez (Desperado and Sin City):  Who doesn’t love Robert Rodriguez?  Besides the Directors guild?  As it stands now, nothing has been announced for Robert… looks like his Sin City sequels have been tabled.

Wes Anderson (The Royal Tenenbaums and Rushmore):  Moonrise Kingdom (2012) starring Bruce Willis, Edward Norton, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Frances McDonrmand, and Harvey Keitel.  “A pair of lovers flee their New England town, which causes a local search party to fan out and find them.”  Amazing cast, amazing writer, amazing director… it’s going to be great!

The Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski and No County for Old Men): Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) starring Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan and John Goodman.  “A singer-songwriter navigates New York's folk music scene during the 1960s.”  With the way things are going with the Coen Brothers, this film could potentially cement Timberlake’s acting career big time!

Stephen Spielberg (E.T. and Empire of the Sun):  Spielberg is the man who never quits!  The man has three projects in the works.  War Horse (2011) stars no one of consequence, but likely to launch some careers.  Lincoln (2012) starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Sally Field, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader and Tim Blake Nelson.  Finally, Robopocalypse (2013) doesn’t have a cast yet, but sci-fi is Spielberg’s strong suit.  Say what you will about Spielberg, he makes great movies.

2011 Movies – Shame and Change

To be completely honest… I’m embarrassed.  I just sifted through a list of all the movies released in 2011 so far and I’ve only seen 11.  Seriously!  Only 11 movies!  I am appalled.

Now, if you do the math… I still have about 5 months until the Oscars, which is my unofficial/personal cut off for a year… so there is still time to right this wrong, but still.  Once upon a time it wasn’t abnormal for me to see around a 100 movies in a given year before the Oscars… an achievement I haven’t been able to match (or even come close to) in recent years.

Back in 2006, when I became a father for the first time, it was understandable when my movie intake dropped a bit.  But, it screeched to a halt back in 2008 when I moved Serbia, where most movies are dubbed into Serbian… and then in Pakistan where going to the movies probably wasn’t the safest thing in the world to do. 

I’ve tried though.  I’ve tried to stay on top of the movie industry as a whole.  But it’s been hard.

But this year… I feel the tides a changing.

Now, I’m in Suriname… a Dutch speaking county most American’s have never heard of and even the most seasoned geographers have trouble identifying on a map… I feel like my love for movies has been given a new life!

As luck would have it, my next door neighbor is the son of an America film professor and our taste in movies is almost identical.  Couple that with the fact that we live in walking distance to an English six screen first-run movie theatre and you have the ideal situation for a movie addict like me.

In addition, all my wife, Serena, has been able to talk about, since arriving, is how she wants me to start going to the movies again, saying “I feel so bad!  JohnPaul hasn’t been to the movies in like 3 years and even he could go he wouldn’t have anyone to go with who would appreciate the movies like he would.”  Long story short; Serena is encouraging me to organize weekly trips to the movies.  Best – Wife – EVER!

 ‘Moneyball’ here I come! 

Anyway, here is the list so far, and I will keep track of my complete list on the ‘2011 Films’ tab on this page… so if you’re a geek like me, you can track my progress.

The Dilemma

The Green Hornet

Red Riding Hood

Win Win

Sucker Punch

30 Minutes or Less

Spy Kids: All the Time in the World

Rio

Hop

Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil

The Adjustment Bureau