I was shocked to see Martin Scorsese getting snubbed AGAIN for his directorial duties in the Aviator. But the thing is, I'm not angry he lost. He just didn't deserve it this year. The Aviator is a great film, among of the best films of 2004. But when you compare it to Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, and the ultimate Scorsese film, Raging Bull, the Aviator is not even a tenth of those films. Remember, they're awarding Best Director of 2004 not 1976, 1980, or 1990.

The Clint won the Oscar for best director for good reason, to direct a simple film without special effects, overacting, or grand cinematography.

It was intense seeing the Fockers present the Oscar for best picture and when Barbara Streisand said, "I'm again happy to give this to you Clint." I was shocked, I was flabbergasted, and above all I was happy. Aside from last year (when Return of the King won), the true best picture actually won the fucking best picture Oscar. Sideways was great, the Aviator was amazing, Ray was splendid, Finding Neverland was okay (why was this nominated again?), but Million Dollar Baby was the best of the bunch and it won.

Among the best moment in the Oscars was the line from Jamie Foxx: "I only speak to my grandma in my dreams. I can't wait to sleep tonight because we have a lot to talk about."

Hey Marty, there's still that Departed film but don't fuck it up.

Rock didn't do a bad job either.

And I still need to see Unforgiven.

Off.

Wow, it's been awhile since I've updated. Well, things are going really well in school. I'm learning more and more about the film business and that being lazy is not an option. If you're late for five minutes, they will find a replacement for you. I better stand up and fly right from now on. I've been also reading scripts for Script Analysis class from the films Alien 3 and Lawn Dogs. Lawn Dogs was effing boring as hell but the Alien 3 ones (3 drafts) were interesting. The screenplay written by Walter Hill and David Giler (the one they actually shot for the movie) was the most intriguing.

It's also pretty nice to have two classes Monday, no classes until 6:30 pm Wednesday, and the last one of the week on 2:00 pm.

On the audio front, I downloaded a free track from iTunes from this band named Kasabian. After listening to their first single, "Club Foot," I am definitely buying their album come March 8th.

On other notes, I saw this DVD player from Barrett's (a DENON 5910, to be exact) while walking around downtown Chicago and the picture quality was amazing. I entered the store and went straight to the DVD player. Man, I saw the price and my jaw dropped. The price for it was $4,499 and that was on sale. Man, the picture quality coming out of this player was simply jaw-dropping to say the least and displaying it calibrated with one of the best new displays, this brand new Sharp HDTV 45-incher, was incredible.

On other note, Emmy Rossum is absolutely luminous and ravishing. She's just simply too beautiful for words.

Don't forget people, the Oscars are on Sunday at 7 pm on ABC. Here's hoping that Million Dollar Baby will win Best Picture.

On the subject of Million Dollar Baby, I have something to say about the film. If you haven't seen the film, STOP READING NOW.

The ending to Million Dollar Baby has caused great controversy within the United States because of its subject matter. Hilary Swank's character Maggie is sucker punched by Billie between rounds during a title fight. Because it's between rounds, the cutman places the stool on the corner for the ring for Maggie. Maggie gets knocked out and her neck breaks on the seat of the stool. Now straight to the point, Maggie feels that her time on this world is over and asks Frankie (Clint Eastwood) to kill her like her dad killed their disabled dog. After some deliberating with a priest and himself, Frankie kills Maggie.

What disability groups have their tits in a twist is that they feel that Eastwood is glorifying euthanasia. In my opinion, if he's glorifying anything, it's the guilt one man should suffer throughout his life. The trade off is that Frankie is sacrificing his way into heaven but one's suffering. He's doesn't want to see her suffer and he kills her. The pain he goes through is so great that he doesn't even want to see Morgan Freeman's anymore. The other thing is that, she wants this to be done. She even says it in the film, "I've seen the world. People chanted my name. It really wasn't my name but they were cheering for me." Film critic Roger Ebert has said, "We go to movies but we always don't agree on what people do in movies." Million Dollar Baby is a fine example of this statement and for people who protest this film are either oblivious to it or are just plain ignorant.

Things to mention:

- Yesterday, before Constantine began, I saw two girls who wanted to get in into Constantine and tried to sneak in until I heard the usher scream at them ("LADIES!!!!"). He checked their IDs and kicked them out of the theatre. Pure hilarity.

- The House of Wax trailer with Elisha Cuthbert and Paris Hilton. The crowd hollered when Paris's name was shown on screen.

- I'm on the dean's list for my 4.0 GPA last fall semester.

- Found this site (http://www.yourmusic.com) that sells albums at $6 a pop. Sadly, a lot of albums I want are not even on the site but nonetheless I bought 3 albums.

- Finally saw all the Oscar best pictures nominees with my last being Ray. Ray truly deserves to be on the best picture nomination list and so is Jamie Foxx's incredible performance. For once, I truly believed that it was Ray Charles and not Jamie Foxx. Foxx deserves to win his best actor Oscar. The only picture that DOES NOT deserve to be nominated is Finding Neverland. Although Ray is great, it doesn't even come close to the emotional depth and power of Million Dollar Baby.

Constantine
2005
Director: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Rachel Weisz, Shia LaBeouf, Djimon Hounsou, and Gavin Rossdale.

I was pretty hyped with this film and with all the advertisements (they showed a shitload of ads on this film), I thought it would suck. Well, the film surely didn't suck and it turned out to be one of the most entertaining comic book to film adaptations ever. I even found it to be better than X2. The reason why it's so entertaining is that it never takes itself too seriously or too dark in tone. Aside from that, the performances were pretty good all around while Tilda Swinton, who plays the half-breed Gabriel, had a standout performance. I was also pretty surprised with the plot twist near the end (and I find plot twists really early in films, i.e. Into the Mirror). The visual effects were great as well and didn't look at cheap at all. Lawrence did a great job as a first time film director and it shows. He doesn't use blaring music or quick cuts like other first time directors do. This film was pretty great. Critics didn't like this film and I know why, they take the film too seriously. And oh yeah, don't leave until ALL the credits are finished.

Stars: ***1/2

I decided to drop my History of cinema class because the teacher was just wasting a lot of time reiterating the book. I mean, when she talks about the shit and says that it's in the book it's a waste of time, right? Fuck yeah, man. So my schedule is down to 12 hours instead of 15. I really hated the class because it was so goddamn boring. Now I know what Cory was talking about when he said that teachers who lecture are really people who failed in life and don't have nothing else to do in their entire fucking lives, so they teach. My history of cinema teacher also looks like that she will grade papers like a bizzitch in heat.

Damn.

Off.

Anyone see the Grammys?

From what I saw, it was pretty good. I saw Alicia Keys' performance and she was absolutely beautiful. Her live performance was so good it sounded like the track off of her album. Thank God Kanye West didn't win album of the year (or record of the year for that matter). Man, that guy is so overrated. He loves it when he gets awards and I saw it when the crowd was giving him a standing ovation for his overacted rendition of Jesus Walks. He was folding his arms like he was the king of everything or something. It was great seeing Norah Jones winning again (whatever happened to her? It's like she just left the face of the Earth). Green Day didn't win a lot of awards but at least Kanye West didn't win album of the year (did I mention I don't like Kanye West?). The only thing I didn't like is that a lot of awards were given to that Ray Charles album even though it wasn't rated very highly. It seemed that the voters gave him the awards just because he recently passed away (hmmmm.....it's sad Ray died, LET'S GIVE HIM The AWARD!). I think that's just stupid, they should give it to the best, period, rather to some dead guy. I also got kinda mad when they were talking about downloading illegally. Well, we wouldn't be downloading illegaly if your goddamn albums weren't so goddamn much! Fuck iTunes, Thank God for AllofMP3.com!!!!!

Saw Ong Bak: The Thai Warrior today and the print presented was really, really dark. Sometimes I couldn't see the faces of actors. The DVD had a much better contrast setting than this print. While the film flowed much better than the original Thai version, the new music composed by the RZA was just plain jane generic. It made a few scenes slower than it was supposed to be (especially the chase on foot scene). Overall, I found this edition much better than the original Thai edition (which was goddamn good in the first place).

I've been watching a lot of movies lately.

Finding Neverland
2004
Director: Marc Foster
Starring: Johnny Depp, Kate Winslet, Freddie Highmore, Julie Christie, and Dustin Hoffman

This film is pretty good and I recommend it to everyone but the only problem is that it doesn't deserve an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture. They voted this over Hotel Rwanda? I'd give it a B-

The Grudge
2004
Director: Takashi Shimizu
Starring: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jason Behr, KaDee Strickland, and Clea DuVall

There's a big problem with this movie. It's a remake and you know most remakes stink ass. The problem with this remake is that it's just a rehash of the other (and better) Ju-On movies. Just watch those and you've already seen this. And the performances just suck in this film. Bleh. Go rent the original (the problem is, the original stunk too). I give it a D. Final note, the Japanese girl in the beginning is really hot.

In Good Company
2004
Director: Paul Weitz (American Pie, About a Boy)
Starring: Dennis Quaid, Topher Grace, David Paymer, and Scarlett Johansson

This will be a quick review so bear with me. Many ads were presenting as a chick flick but it isn't. It's a well-made and well acted film with great performances from Quaid, Paymer, and Johannsen. But the breakthrough performance here belongs to Grace, whose shell cracks from "That 70's Show" to create an relatable chararacter who doesn't know what to be in his life. It's an understated performance that should win him many roles in the future. The problem I found with this film is its clichéd ending that could have been written much better but it's a minor quibble. I recommend this film despite its ending.

Grade: B

Can these be uncut pics of Kung Fu Hustle?

I think this article is just plain stupid.

First off, he's trying a new role rather than being a person who just kicks ass. Second, Rogue Pictures didn't make the film, they just bought it. Europa Corp. is the company that financed the film. Man, the Chinese can be really stupid too.

Beck's new EP is the shit. What a difference from his last album, "Sea Change."

Doppelgänger
2003
Director: Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Starring: Kôji Yakusho, Hiromi Nagasaku

Wow. This movie sucked pretty bad. The film's first hour is so well directed and so well acted that I don't know what happened the final 45 minutes. The film takes a huge plot shift that it turns from an intriguing look of duality to a black comedy. The ending left such a horrible taste in my mouth I wanted to smash my laptop. I loved Kurosawa's previous film, "Cure," as that was an interesting and intriguing film through and through. But here, it's like he asked a 4 year old to write the final 45 minutes of the film because he didn't know what to do with it.

The main character,Hayasaki (Kôji Yakusho), is played well by Yakusho but his acting failed to leave an impression during the final 45 minutes. The incredibly cute Hiromi Nagasaku plays one of his assistants and I felt that her character would be more developed as the film winded down but it didn't.

"The most terrifying film yet from Kiyoshi Kurosawa!" That's what it says on the DVD case. Terrifying, my ass. It stunk like a dead squirrel on the road. Stay away from this film. It misleads you to think that it will become a great film but then it gives a shit pie in the face.

Grade: D-
(not a F because of the great first hour, it's still better than Alexander)

A great read on Asian films and why they can't be released here wide. Mentions Infernal Affairs, Kung Fu Hustle, and Shaolin Soccer.

Last Life in the Universe
2003
Director: Pen-ek Ratanaruang
Starring: Tadanobu Asano, Sinitta Boonyasak

I watched this film after 3-Iron and I loved this film even more. They are two films that require patience and the rewards you get from both of them are rich. It truly is a film to cherish and recommend to others. It's a film to lift people's spirits and as one film critic says, "a grown up Lost in Translation." It's sad that this won't win an Academy Award because it was already submitted two years ago as Thailand's submission. What an injustice that this film wasn't nominated. It is a film that is pure, crystalline, and perfect.

The story revolves around Kenji (Tadanobu Asano), a librarian nerd whose obsessive compulsive disorder always gets the better of him. He believes that his life is going nowhere so he tries to commit suicide numerous times to no use (he's always interrupted). Believing that committing suicide is the only way to get into the next step in life, he tries to shoot himself in the head. While trying to do his deed, he hears something and sees his brother get killed in front of his eyes by a gangster and he accidentally kills the gangster himself. He meets the older sister of a girl that gets sideswiped in front of him and begins to fall in love with her. He begins to live with her as he helps her with her problems.

Along with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, Tadanobu Asano is another actor whom I greatly admire and his performance here is nothing short of spectacular. Many of his OCD tics are quite funny and his calm, serene demeanor is perfect with the match of the talkative Noi (Sinitta Boonyasak). I would never believe that this is Sinitta's first acting role. Her performance is so natural and her looks so luminous and beautiful it feels like she's a classic actress of Katherine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, and Ava Gardner . She is Kenji's yin and his yang. The two work together so naturally that if other actors were used, there would be no chemistry.

Christopher Doyle's cinematography again has to be applauded. His work here is remarkable and downright breathtaking. This is why he is the greatest cinematographer working today. But all this would not be accomplished without the masterful direction of Pen-ek Ratanaruang. Without words and only using the image, we find out what Kenji's background, what he dislikes, what he loves, and his personality.

Aside from Million Dollar Baby, this ties it for being the best film I've seen this year. The only difference being that both films are from the different sides of the spectrum.

It was written on the post-it note in the film and it truly defines this film:
"This is bliss."

Grade: A+

3-Iron
2004
Director: Ki-duk Kim
South Korea

I'll say it first, 3-Iron is definitely one of the best films in 2005 (despite being released in 2004). Director Kim is masterful at directing a film without barely any dialogue. His use of the film image is quite spectacular and at times simple. The most amazing thing about this film is its simplicity. It's storyline is so simple that it makes you wonder why Hollywood hasn't thought of a plot like this.

The story goes like this: A young man breaks into houses where people have gone to vacation, eats people's food, wears their clothes, but not leaving without fixing a couple of things and doing their laundry. One day, the young man breaks into a house of a battered wife and finds out that the wife is still inside. The husband comes back from an overseas meeting to find the young man still inside his house. The battered wife leaves with the young man to live a life she really needs and wants.

What really made me intrigued into this film are the amazing performances by Seung-Yun Lee (the young man) and Seung-Yeon Lee (the battered wife), the two protagonists of the film. They don't feel like actors, they feel like real people who just want to live life to the fullest. They both get into your head and will stay there for days. If this film doesn't get an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film next year, it will be a travesty.

Grade: A+

Effin hilarious

http://www.uweboll.com/

Here's a great read on the battle of the Academy Awards by Kris Tapley. Michael Wilmington writes a fascinating article on why Martin Scorsese should win the best director trophy on February 27th. Finally, film critic Roger Ebert's great response to all the controversy "Million Dollar Baby" is getting into. Roger Ebert's response is filled with spoilers on "Million Dollar Baby" so read it at your own risk.

The Used's most recent album "In Love and Death" is pretty good. The problem is that, all the songs sound the same.

"I'll be just fine.....pretending I'm not."