In Contention

Tag: Speed Racer

  • My picks for the 10 WORST films of the year

    Emile Hirsch in Speed RacerAs always, this list was no trouble to write.  There is always an abundance of bad films in a given year.  I tend to go for the films that should have been stronger, that had a good director or fine actors, but still came out smelling like sewage.  There’s no excuse for that.

    1. “88 MINUTES”
    It only felt like 88 weeks.

    2. “10,000 BC”
    What really needs to be said?

    3. “THE LOVE GURU”
    And again…is there anything I can say?

    4. “THE HAPPENING”
    Shyamalan continues to disappoint.

    5. “SEX AND THE CITY”
    Great looking girls with money bitching about their poor lives…awwww.

    6. “MIRACLE AT ST. ANNA”
    Spike Lee’s war epic, horribly acted by a central character with an annoying child…stupid and boring. Worse, Lee’s own racism was never more evident.

    7. “THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL”
    Just bloody awful.

    8. “MEET DAVE”
    More from Eddie Murphy as his career spins round and round the toilet bowl.

    9. “SPEED RACER”
    ???

    10. “BANGKOK DANGEROUS”
    Cage can act…so why doesn’t he??

    (Check out my list of the year’s best here.)

  • Best in show: the year in superlatives

    Cate Blanchett in The Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonThe year is slowly coming to a close, and after this week’s year-in-review pieces, I’m happy to see so much healthy and spirited discussion on my humble picks for the year’s best films.  Today I’m wrapping all of that up with a list of superlatives, some of them in your usual categories, the staples, some of them in a couple of, oh, let’s call it “fun” arenas that I like to mix in year in and year out.

    I should note, however, that Nathaniel Rogers at The Film Experience is the king at this stuff.  His annual “Film Bitch Awards” are a must-read.  Here’s last year’s set.

    So with that, let’s get into the awards.  I used to call these the “In Contention Awards,” but I don’t think that’s fair anymore now that we have a slew of contributors.  So I’ll let them speak to their favorites at their leisure.  These reflect my views of the season and mine only.  You know the Best Picture champ, of course, but beyond that, I hope you enjoy the rundown.  Just keep the (inevitable) disagreement friendly:

    Best Picture
    “Slumdog Millionaire” (Fox Searchlight Pictures/Warner Bros. Pictures)

    Best Director
    Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire”

    Best Actor
    Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler”

    Best Actress
    Cate Blanchett, “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

    Best Supporting Actor
    Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight”

    Best Supporting Actress
    Samantha Morton, “Synecdoche, New York”

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  • Poland calls ‘Speed Racer’ a “masterpiece”

    speedracer1.jpgWell, as usual, he doesn’t come right out and say it, but his implications are obvious.

    This film looks like an absolute headache to me, and considering the Wachowski brothers have not created something that caught my fancy since the first installment of “The Matrix” nine years ago, I’m not holding my breath here. Poland’s endorsement is also no shock given that he has gone into the well for the Wachowskis over and over and over again. I guess if you can find genius in “The Matrix Reloaded” and “V For Vendetta,” you’re bound to find it in what looks, on the surface, to be a bubble gum time warp and nothing more.

    But wait, there are family values!

    I doubt it’s that deep, but David likes what he likes. As do we all. See for yourself.

  • OFF THE CARPET: 2008, a year in advance

    Another year, another set of wins…and another look ahead at what’s in store NEXT year.

    It’s never too late to take a long gander at what we might see dominating the film awards landscape in 365 days, and with that in mind, I’ve been doing my usual mulling over the possibilities for a few weeks to put together the sadly thorough examination of the 2008-09 award season that follows. Let’s get into it. There are some major considerations to take into account. right off the top.

    Like Leonardo DiCaprio, for instance, who is set to be the entertainer of the year. With performances in “Body of Lies” (Ridley Scott) and “Revolutionary Road” (Sam Mendes), DiCaprio is working with a duo of awards-proven talent this year. Perhaps that will work against him, much like it did in 2006, and no major Oscar success will come knocking. But we’ll wait until we see the performances. Each of them could be enticing.

    This year’s Best Picture Oscar victor Scott Rudin is back again, by the way, with “Revolutionary Road,” recently inherited by Paramount Vantage and probably one of the true “frontrunners” this far out that we could put our finger on. The only other film in Vantage’s arsenal is Edward Zwick’s “Defiance,” which could simply be a commercial success, but might find its way to multiple nods like “The Last Samurai” and “Blood Diamond” in recent years.

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