There might be too many puns available for NBC’s newest 10PM drama Awake. But rest assured, this is not a show to sleep on. Hopefully NBC’s ratings dreams might come true with this one. Okay, I’m done for now.

Seriously, from the pilot episode alone, I’m hooked onto this show. I’ve been waiting for this show to air since I saw trailers last summer but having seen an episode, it makes it all that much more official. Maybe I’m still going through an Inception thing, but dream studies have always been an interest of mine.

Before I get into ratings jargon or what it means for NBC, I’ll explain what the show’s about and why I think you should watch it. First of all, I’m bored with cop shows in general. I would want to assume most of the world is too, yet they keep being made over and over again. Sometimes, spin-offs/reboots/remakes/CSI/Hawaii Five-0, etc. But whenever there’s an interesting spin on one, I’ll give it the benefit of doubt and see if it’s worth sticking around, like Person of Interest. Although, is it fair to call that a cop show? I digress.

Awake is about a family man detective who, after a fatal car crash, wakes up to learn that he lives in two realities. In one reality, his wife survives the car crash but his son dies. In the other reality, his son survives and his wife is dead. Every time he goes to sleep in one reality, he immediately wakes up in the other as if he had been dreaming. That is essentially the main premise of the show. To help him tell the difference, he wears a colored rubber band so he knows where/when he’s “awake.”

But as I started out saying, he’s detective, so he has cases to work each episode. Yes, plural. Both cases are seemingly unrelated, but our hero finds clues from both realities to solve both cases. He also has different partners. What’s interesting is how this is a cop drama, but there’s so much more going on.

The major piece of the puzzle that really helps ground this guy, the show, and us as an audience are the shrinks he’s required to talk to in both realities. Both are different, and have different methods. Both also try to convince him that the other reality is a dream. It’s pretty trippy, to say the least. And it’s a vast understatement to say how emotional this story can get when a family man is torn between two people that he truly loves. Folks, heartstrings were plucked. I wasn’t expecting that. No tears were shed, but I felt for this man.

Probably the most nerve wracking scene, and it was actually something I was wondering about, was what would happen if he woke up and didn’t have either red or green rubber band? Another thing to notice are the colors, when he’s in his wife’s reality, there are lots of reds, warm and earthy colors. When he’s with his son, it’s green/blue, colder colors. This scene I’m referring to is neutral and is mostly white.

There are a bunch of theories I’m entertaining about what’s the deal with this man and how this series can end some day (hopefully not anytime soon). There are lots of places this show can go but I’m signing on for the ride and to see these characters develop.

Jason Isaacs is Det. Michael Britton. He reminds me of Jon Hamm’s Don Draper, but as a cop. Laura Allen plays his wife Hannah, she’s quite beautiful and I’d be quite upset too if I woke up and she wasn’t there. His son Rex is played by Dylan Minnette, the same dude who played Jack Shepherd’s son in the last season of LOST. In fact, he kinda acts like him too. Cherry Jones and BD Wong play his shrinks and Steve Harris and Wilmer Valderrama play his partners. Creator Kyle Killen is most known for his other critically acclaimed but early cancelled show Lone Star. I didn’t watch it either.

The show doesn’t start until March, but you can see it now on Hulu. Fortunately, NBC picked Thursday night for this show, which works for me because that’s what my DVR is recording all night anyway. They also seem to be having a hard time finding a show to fit the comedy block before it, so hopefully this is a keeper. See you all March 1st!

As unexpected as being let go was, it was emancipating. I went back to school, started a radio show/podcast with a growing fan base, worked on a movie set, and started my own business. Creatively I’m in a better place.

Financially, it’s a struggle. I don’t like settling on the idea that I’m part of millions of Americans that are going through the same strife. It’s a crutch of sympathy. Don’t get me wrong, I sympathize with the unemployed due to these hard economic hard times (which is a phrase I’m sick of hearing, by the way). But I refuse to let the economy determine my destiny. My fate rests in my hands, and my hands are in God’s hands.

Say what you will about religion or spirituality, but my faith is what got me thus far, so I’m not going to turn away from it now. On occasion, I forget to rely on that in my harshest times of struggle. But I remind myself of obstacles I’ve overcome with God’s help and promises I’ve made myself and (as outlandish as it might sound to some) prophecies to be fulfilled.

An evangelist once visited my church and asked if there were any millionaires in the congregation. No one raised their hand. He replied that someday there will be, and he will continue to ask that question until there is one. I want to be that person.

Since I was young and first noticed my parents struggling with bills or to keep the lights on (and on occasion get them turned back on), I had made it one of my goals in life to never see them struggle like that again. Better yet, to never worry again. As I get older, it seems that we as a family have been surviving vs living. It was a surprise to my parents that there was such a thing as “lower middle class”, where I feel we fall under. Once in a while, we seem to be just making it, but then life strikes and we are back in the hole we just dug ourselves out of.

Over the past year, I’ve watched the Occupy movement from Wall Street to Oakland and I honestly haven’t seen much change happen yet. For a while, I kinda forgot what they were protesting about. Perhaps they thought the rest of the middle class, the working class, which is the majority of the nation, would rise up and make this movement a revolution? I was hopeful for them, but I’m relying on my own talents to change my own circumstances. And if all goes according to plan, I’ll make the switch from the 99% to the evil 1%. I don’t know how, but once I get over there, I’d like to bring enough people with me to make that a 2%.

I know that’s pretty ambitious, but I’m not comfortable with seeing my family struggling and I’ve always wanted to offer a helping hand to those that need it. I’ve always wanted to take care of my own–my family, my church, my friends. When times were good for me (working at the office), I even started sponsoring a child. I’m at the point now I’m struggling to keep that up.

While this has also been a personal motto for me, I really need to stick to it: don’t just talk about it, but really be about it. Ideas are great to talk about, but it means nothing if there’s no action behind it. That’s what I really dislike about congress and the government: lots of talk. But rather than complain, I’m more interested in overcoming. I can’t wait for a handout that I may not ever get.

I have a few get-rich-quick schemes in play that are neither quick nor guaranteed to make me rich, but they are schemes nonetheless, and I only need one of them to work in order to win. And I’m not about to lose.

Anyway, my initial allure to this film came from watching the trailer. I don’t usually include trailers for my reviews (because I’m lazy) but this one I think is beneficial to what I feel is an under appreciated, little know indie flick.

Take note that the lead actress practically tells you the true plot of this film. And after watching this movie, I also must applaud how well done this trailer was made. I’ll explain in 2 minutes…

I will “warn” you that this film might not be exactly what you think it might be. Then again, I don’t know what you think this film might be unless like me, you thought this was all about meeting your double or visiting “Earth 2″. As it turns out, it’s more about what the girl in the trailer who wanted to tell you her story. She partied too hard and had an accident for which she regrets. Trust me, the plot is a lot deeper than that, and this movie made me sit up from my supine position (I was watching this before bed). That’s saying something.

While I have talked about it on The Lost Dial, I find it difficult to tell other people without giving too much of it away. I don’t know whether or not to tell people if she goes, or what she hopes to accomplish or find if she does go. And just so you know, don’t look for too much scientific accuracy. You know, when a planet is coming closer and closer to your own, you’d expect some hellish things to occur. Nope, this is more about a thought experiment and what would happen if there was another earth… another you.

And I have to say, this story was pretty well crafted. As I was trying to say earlier, the story is more about a woman wanting to reconcile a mistake she made… basically killing a man’s family by way of drunk driving. Years later, she eventually goes to meet this man, who lives a life in shambles, and begins to try to help him. Meanwhile, Earth 2 is getting closer and our heroine wishes to go there. I’m going to stop summarizing  now because all these events tie together so nicely at the end and the ending scene has a big payoff. And again, leaving hardcore science aside, I think logically what happens makes a lot of sense.

This movie tends to move slowly, and I was kinda ho-hum through the beginning of it (not really understanding it was groundwork for the plot), but once the story really started unfolding, good old fashioned curiosity settled in and I was along for the ride.

Ethan... er William Mapother

Shout out to William Mapother who to LOSTies like myself will fondly remember him as the creepiest Other, Ethan Rom. Unfortunately for me, because of LOST, I had a hard time believing he wasn’t Ethan and some very bad, bad guy. Okay, so Ethan wasn’t really that bad of a guy if you see most of the story from his side. Let’s chalk it up to him being manipulated by Ben Linus, like the rest of the Others. But I digress. Mapother plays a character who isn’t a bad guy, but still has that menacing, threatening look that he has when he plays Ethan. At least this character smiles more. But c’mon, “other” is in the dude’s last name! How can I not keep making that connection. Anyway, his character also plays a saw. The person who plays the saw in reality is this lady.

The last thing I’d like to mention is the wide shots of the sky. I loved seeing Earth 2 on the horizon or barely visible with the moon. And it only became more eerie as Earth 2 got closer to Earth 1.

Overall, watch it for the imagery and the thought provoking idea of another Earth. Stay for the story of a girl who tries to make up for killing Ethan’s family. I don’t know if this is a movie I’d own, but I’d watch it again and grab screen shots for my desktop wallpaper.

Well, when this movie first came out, I remember it had some of that buzz going for it. But now that the nominations have since gone out, there isn’t as much buzzing about it these days. Don’t get me wrong, it picked up an adapted screenwriting nod, but that’s it. No noms for Gosling, Hoffman, Giamatti, or Clooney (for acting or directing, but he did get one for writing), or Best Film. Perhaps they’d be well deserved if some of the other better films weren’t chosen or released last year. Perhaps.

But I don’t write my reviews for Oscar audiences. I break down whether or not I think the movie is any good or even worth watching. The Ides of March isn’t that great of a movie and is only worth watching if you’re a fan of any of these characters and/or a fan of political thrillers.

In other words, I thought these actors did a great job with this movie. I thought the story (after it was over and I let it sink in) was very well written. The hint someone gave me to help me appreciate the film better I’ll share with you in one word: cycle*. But overall, watching the movie, I was bored.

Let me not mix up “boring” and “bored” here, there were things happening in mostly every scene. I don’t know (or remember) if every scene was absolutely needed or crucial to the plot, but sometimes I just felt things were moving too slow. It’s a bad sign when I start looking up how long the movie is and how much longer before it ends. It’s also the bad version of “I don’t know where this is going” attitude. Meaning, let’s hurry it up and get to the point. (The good version of that attitude is when there are interesting plot twists or a story that feels new and original.)

I really wanted to like this movie. And to certain aspects, I do. I don’t blame the actors, but I think I made that point clear. Clooney is a pretty good director too. I didn’t care for his football movie that I’m not going to bother looking up, but he’s a very talented guy overall. Maybe he’s to blame for my un-satisfaction? Or maybe it’s just this particular movie. Perhaps I may even compare this to the Clooney vehicle Michael Clayton. (I’ll be honest, I don’t remember it well and when I watched it, I didn’t really like it.) To me, it has the same vibe. Pale blue tint, dreary setting with dreary characters.

Now getting more to the plot of the story, the print ad showing Gosling holding a magazine to his face with Clooney on the cover is perfect. I mean, that ad alone got me interested and told me so much what the film is about. Gosling is either obsessed and stalking Clooney, or he’s the man behind his success. Fortunately, my latter guess was correct. The more successful Clooney is, the more successful Gosling becomes.

Clooney is running for president. Gosling is 2nd in charge running his campaign, telling him what to do or say and spins anything that would hurt the candidate. Hoffman is Gosling’s boss. Giamatti is running the campaign for the candidate running against Clooney. Toss some promiscuous interns and a nosy reporter in the mix and you get a good old fashioned political scandal ensemble film. It almost becomes a cliche of a film, but there’s enough going on to give the film it’s own unique flavor.

So overall, I recommend this movie if you’re a political junkie and like movies about things like this. While I like many things about this movie, I probably wouldn’t watch this again. I know how contradicting I might sound, but I think putting it more simply, it’s like a good song on tape being played on a tape deck that’s timing is a wee bit too slow.

*In case you missed it, what the elder campaign leaders warned would happen, did happen, like it happened to them and will continue to happen after them.

Congrats to New York and good try New England. That was a heckuva game they played last night all the way down to the final second. I love a good Hail Mary play.

But not everyone cared about the game itself. When I was young, I was only in it for the commercials. I admit, these days I only tend to watch playoffs and championship games. But whether you love the game or not, many come for the commercials. Maybe the halftime show.

I don’t have the patience to sift through every ad and make my own countdown. I imagine you don’t have the time to sit through and read them all. That’s what Hulu is for, actually. Plus, you can find a few commercials that maybe I missed or never aired. Coincidentally, Hulu, with the brilliant and hilarious help of Will Arnett, brought it yet again with awesomely funny commercials. If I had to pick a favorite, it would be from that series, specifically the first one they showed with Arnett outside the Hollywood sign spewing famous TV show catchphrases to gain access into the Hulu lab before finally yelling out one of his famous lines from Arrested Development. Yeah, that joke worked for true fans of the show, and also because it fit the situation perfectly.

What I also liked about these ads is that he’s replacing Alec Baldwin (his rival on 30 Rock) who also worked as a Hulu spokesman talking about the wonderful evil that is Hulu. I think Hulu is also suggesting Baldwin and Arnett are aliens or something? I don’t know, but I love it. Follow up commercials with the lab workers voicing more famous lines (or sound effects) from past TV shows also gave me chuckles.

For the past week, I kept hearing from marketing experts that these commercials might not make any money for their companies. But really, who cares? And the commercials that air are usually by companies people already familiar with and don’t really need promotions. And if they are a new company, well, people will certainly know them now.

Click the pic to read my thoughts on "Art & Copy"

As someone who’s getting into the business of making commercials, I take note of how these ads are crafted (see the film Art & Copy). After the game was over, I tried to recall which ads stuck out the most to me. Hulu was one of the first, maybe because it was one of the first to air, and because of the reasons I stated earlier.

Another one was from Fiat. You know, the dude who was totally entranced by this incredibly beautiful foreigner that happened to be a car? Brilliance! Probably my other favorite.

How about the little boy in the pool that has to pee? I’ll credit this one to one of those ads you’ll be confused about the product even though the explanation is given at the end. It’s not a favorite but I laughed.

I had to include this one from Bridgestone. Perfect for football (and the basketball, while cute and clever, was not as funny but still good).

Hyundai and Chevy both had awesome commercials throughout. I think the doomsday would possibly be my favorite since it had just about every end-of-the-world scenario in it. Plus, it’s 2012… in case you forgot. Oh, and Toyota re-invented things. Time traveling babies that never poop. That was a winner too.

NBC did a good job promoting The Voice and the four singing sensations trying to find a mysterious voice only to discover…

Speaking of surprise guests, Pepsi had a nice little twist after they sent Elton John to the dungeon. And Seinfeld was thwarted by probably the most famous car lover. That commercial was almost 2 minutes! So was early released Matthew Broderick’s day off ad. While it was good, I wish they kept a lid on it til game day.

M&Ms… it’s that kind of party.

John Stamos learns not to tease a hot girl with yogurt.

And I loved the Audi that vampires will learn to hate. I applauded that one.

But the true winners last night were the dogs. Most of the top rated commercials on Hulu featured dogs. I loved them too.

I still feel like this guy after that Fiat commercial. Click to see EW.com's list.

There were a lot more but this article is already long enough. Maybe next year I’ll set up a camera or maybe a microphone so you can hear how my family and I reacted throughout these ads. We had the most fun picking on the legend Clint Eastwood and what it takes to have gruff. And now we’re sticking hashtags on our commercials? I’m not hating though. And there’s nothing to see at GoDaddy… I think people are still boycotting them. *COUGH*SOPA*COUGH*

As a stand alone movie, which this works great as (and if you can’t read my subtext–no sequel), it’s a pretty fun caper. And funny. I can’t recall if I had any “side splitting” laughs, but I really enjoyed watching Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudekis play together. I almost kinda wondered how or why these three characters would hang around each other, but at the same time I look back on groups of friends I palled around with, and everyone is an oddball that needs acceptance. Okay, so Charlie Day is the most eccentric of the bunch. A scene stealer is what he’s called. And there’s a scene near the end when he’s on the phone that he practically owned.

The villains are indeed vicious. Kevin Spacey especially. But you must realize, that any role Spacey takes on, he’s going to attack it like a hungry shark smelling a drop of blood from a man who just lost his arm. Gruesome analogy, no? My point is that he’s a master actor and I love seeing him in comedies. Another great comedic actor is Jennifer Aniston. And she’s hot too. She uses that hotness very well.

Anyway, the story was well done. Like I was saying about the group of friends, there were elements about the film that just felt so real. For example, how does one hire a hitman? The results of that search was very amusing. I’ve never encountered a talking GPS or OnStar system, but this is the second film in so many weeks that I’ve seen that the GPS is a character where some good humor is dug from.

I really wanna jump back to the idea of a sequel for this movie. Consider this your spoiler alert. I won’t give away the whole movie, but just the fact that one of the three horrible bosses in question is actually dispatched. I mean, for the sake of argument, the movie ended with the initial threats no longer being a threat. I would prefer an unconventional sequel, if I may suggest one: have these  three main characters (at least) return on some completely different adventure. I enjoyed seeing Jason Squared and Charlie play together. And I guess you might as well bring back a few from the original too. But that’s the only way I see a sequel happening, because the way it ends… well… I just don’t know.

Overall, good movie. I’d own this and watch it again. So chalk that up on my Amazon wish list.

Blogging, for example, I need to force myself to sit down and write. Sometimes, yes, I am too busy actually doing something else when I have the urge to write. But there are other days that I’m literally staring at the wall, or in other words I could be a lot more productive and make better use of my day.

“But that happens to the best of us from time to time,” I hear you saying. And “you” is actually myself trying to justify my laziness. And frankly, that’s what it is. Lately, it hasn’t been “from time to time” and it’s more like every morning. I have dreams and aspirations but they can’t be made into reality if I’m still lying where those dreams may have initially formed. I don’t care to count the cumulative hours I’ve wasted lounging around this past month. Forget “Rise & Grind,” it’s “Snooze & Lose” in this world. I also need to ignore holidays as an excuse to take it easy. Time management will be the skill I improve this month.

I technically have two to-do list apps on my phone. One of which I only used twice so far. (Don’t worry Wunderlist, I’ll be back sooner or later.) The other is my Google calendar that I exclusively use on my phone to remember certain dates or places I need to be so I don’t just blindly agree to being somewhere when I’ve already promised nine other people I’ll be in 16 other separate locations.

I’m saying all of this because there are a lot of things I want to do and need to do with 3s:FX and it’s all on me to get them done. I’m grateful and thankful for my father who constantly pushes me, nags me, and even helps get me clients. As annoying as he can get, it’s needed. But I need to learn to be a better self-motivator and stick to the plan… after writing it out of course. Every day that I let go by that I haven’t completed something or networked with someone, is another day I missed out on feeling accomplished and/or getting paid. Time really is valuable, money or otherwise.

Here’s to waking up the first time my alarm goes off in the morning.

That was my main reason for seeing this movie. Specifically Angry Birds Rio, which is the Angry Birds game with a Rio inspired plot, and features the main characters.

The movie itself, I was hoping to see a cameo of an Angry Bird or two, but the closest I could find were the small round squeaky birds. While they weren’t the same birds I fling around on my Droid, they were adorable and I felt sympathetic for them when anything bad happened to them. But leaving the video game alone and talking about the film: good family entertainment for sure. I mean, it’s no Pixar movie, and I can see parents watching just to watch with their kids vs adults enjoying it like, say, Up. I got worried when this was called a musical, but it’s not Rent, so the songs shouldn’t drive anyone crazy.

I’m struggling to write this review because quite frankly, it wasn’t that impressive of a movie to me. I don’t mean it was bad, because it wasn’t. I rather enjoyed it. I enjoyed the bright fun colors and characters, even the bad guys. It’s one of those films I don’t mind it being predictable… and some of that has to do with the Angry Birds game again.

The voice talent was different. I think maybe there was only one recognizable Brazilian actor, Rodrigo Santoro, whom I first noticed back in Love, Actually. The rest are mostly American, or ethnic American, like George Lopez, Jaime Foxx, Will.I.Am and Tracy Morgan. Part of my interests for seeing this movie is for Tracy Morgan’s role as a slobbering dog. I wasn’t disappointed by his character.

And let’s not forget our stars Jesse Eisenberg and Anne Hathaway. Hathaway at this point I don’t think can do no wrong. Eisenberg is great too, and you can’t help but feel awkward whenever his character as the flightless blue macaw  tries to do or say anything. In his defense, he doesn’t really want to be in Rio in the first place. I’m the first to admit that if I’m put in a situation I’d rather not be in, my A-game is non-existent. And the reason our hero, Blu, is in Rio is so he can mate with Jewel since they are the last of their rare species. I like how they played this up for a family/kids movie without explicitly saying “Hey, these two birds need to get it on.”

Overall, this is a fun little film that from what I can remember, did fairly well. Like I said, I’m sure kids would approve of this film and probably have it on repeat possibly driving their parents mad, thanks to bright and colorful scenery, characters, and music. Not a movie for my collection, but I’d rent it. Also, watch it if you like playing Angry Birds.

My official predictions are in bold. My runner up guesses are underlined. If you compare what I said during the podcast to what’s written below, the only
thing I may have changed are my runner ups… which doesn’t matter if they don’t win anyway since there are no 2nd place Oscars. Also, during the podcast I didn’t have time to research nominees I wasn’t familiar with, like documentaries and shorts. So those predictions are based on previous wins, nominations and ratings according to IMDb.com.

1. Best Picture:

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
• The Help
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• Moneyball
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

2. Actor:

• Demián Bichir – A Better Life
• George Clooney - The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin - The Artist
• Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• Brad Pitt – Moneyball

(After much Oscar buzz for the following, I was a bit surprised there was no nominations for Ryan Gosling – Drive / The Ides of March, no Leonardo DiCaprio – J Edgar, or no Michael Fassbender – Shame)

3. Actress:

• Glenn Close – Albert Nobbs
• Viola Davis - The Help
• Rooney Mara – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
• Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn

4. Supporting Actor:

• Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn
• Jonah Hill - Moneyball
• Nick Nolte – Warrior
• Christopher Plummer - Beginners
• Max von Sydow – Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

(Another surprising snub after all the Oscar buzz was no nod for Albert Brooks – Drive)

5. Supporting Actress:

• Bérénice Bejo – The Artist
• Jessica Chastain – The Help
• Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer – Albert Nobbs
• Octavia Spencer - The Help

6. Directing:

• Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
• Alexander Payne – The Descendants
• Martin Scorsese – Hugo
• Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
• Terrence Malick - The Tree of Life

(No David Fincher for Dragon Tattoo, No Tate Taylor for The Help)

7. Foreign Language Film:

• Bullhead – Belgium
• Footnote – Israel
• In Darkness – Poland
• Monsieur Lazhar – Canada
• A Separation - Iran

8. Adapted Screenplay:

• Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon and Jim Rash - The Descendants
• John Logan - Hugo
• George Clooney, Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon - The Ides of March
• Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin and Stan Chervin – Moneyball
• Bridget O’Connor and Peter Straughan – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

9. Original Screenplay:

• Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
• Annie Mumolo and Kristen Wiig - Bridesmaids
• J.C. Chandor – Margin Call
• Woody Allen – Midnight in Paris
• Asghar Farhadi – A Separation

10. Animated Feature Film:

• A Cat in Paris
• Chico & Rita
• Kung Fu Panda 2
• Puss in Boots
• Rango

11. Art Direction:

• The Artist
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Hugo
• Midnight in Paris
• War Horse

12. Cinematography:

• The Artist
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• The Tree of Life
• War Horse

13. Sound Mixing:

• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Moneyball
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• War Horse

14. Sound Editing:

• Drive
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon
• War Horse

15. Original Score:

• The Adventures of Tintin - John Williams
• The Artist - Ludovic Bource
• Hugo – Howard Shore
• Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias
• War Horse – John Williams

16. Original Song:

• “Man or Muppet” from The Muppets - Bret McKenzie
• “Real in Rio” from Rio – Sergio Mendes, Carlinhos Brown and Siedah Garrett

17. Costume:

• Anonymous
• The Artist
• Hugo
• Jane Eyre
• W.E.

18. Documentary Feature:

• Hell and Back Again
• If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front
• Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory
• Pina
• Undefeated

19. Documentary (short subject):

• The Barber of Birmingham: Foot Soldier of the Civil Rights Movement
• God Is the Bigger Elvis
• Incident in New Baghdad
• Saving Face
• The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom

20. Film Editing: (I haven’t seen any of these, so it’s a complete guess)

• The Artist
• The Descendants
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Moneyball

21. Makeup:

• Albert Nobbs
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• The Iron Lady

22. Animated Short Film:

• Dimanche/Sunday
• The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore
• La Luna
• A Morning Stroll
• Wild Life

23. Live Action Short Film:

• Pentecost
• Raju
• The Shore
• Time Freak
• Tuba Atlantic

24. Visual Effects:

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Hugo
• Real Steel
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• Transformers: Dark of the Moon

I’ve been hearing a lot of chatter and good things about this installation since it was in theaters. The good news had spread all the way to the Oscars and the exclusion of the performance capturing acting abilities of Andy Serkis. Perhaps they mean the Academy should consider adding a new category for performance capture, since that’s a semi-newish trend these days in film making. Avatar is the next movie that comes to mind when it comes to this technology. But a lot of animated films are using this technique.

I’m mentioning the performance capture, because first of all, how could you not? But without a believable chimp in this plot, the movie would fall to pieces. The mannerisms and realness of Andy Serkis’ performance was good enough for me to suspend my disbelief and get thrown into the story. Once that happened, they probably would’ve had me in tears if they killed Caesar. But I won’t lie, I was getting close to being emotional a couple scenes, from moments he was in the attic to when he went to the “sanctuary.”

Even though I haven’t seen the original Planet of Apes, I knew enough of the originals to pick up a few hints to the previous movies. But that’s the case I would argue for prequels: to capture the attention of a new audience. Iguess, just make sure you direct their attention to the original afterwards vs. the Tim Burton remake.

Overall, I really enjoyed this movie a lot more than I thought I would. I felt good accurately predicting who wasn’t going to live to see the credits. Not that having those characters live would be a dealbreaker for me, I could just feel my monkey rage raise when certain characters showed their true nature. James Franco remains a good guy. Actually, I wasn’t aware of the human actors like Freida Pinto, John Lithgow and Brian Cox (can’t remember if he lived or died, but I had him on a “he’s gonna die” list). Anyway, swell performance by these actors. Nothing Oscar-worthy, but just a good job.

I wouldn’t mind owning this movie, meaning I could watch this again. They hype surrounding the movie is justified. Great special effects and a great story.