What makes a good screenplay? Ask a variety of people and you will likely get varying answers back. Original screenplays don’t do as well as adapted screenplays because their stories aren’t yet tested. Adaptations can go woefully wrong but if the source material has been approved the chances of the thing being good are vastly improved. Also a good indicator...
Monthly Archives: December 2009
Erik Childress has posted his annual Criticwatch’s Whores of the Year – which has funny bits, no doubt. Pete Travers and Pete Hammond are two who take it annually from Childress but they’re probably used to it by now (we hope, because we love Pete and Pete!). Some of the quotes from lesser known critics have a funny ring to them when boiled down to the...
Tom O’Neil has some fun chiding his fellow Oscar bloggers for giving him hell way back when for his Inglourious Basterd prediction. He has a few good reasons why he thinks the film is as good as gold. Here is one: Remember how shocked everybody (except me) was when “Inglourious Basterds” reaped the most Critics Choice Award nominations and landed in all...
EW has a long history of putting the Best Picture frontrunner on the cover of its Oscar issue and this issue is no exception: Dave Karger does the predictions — but I don’t have the issue handy and I don’t think it’s online yet. I’d like to see their 25 Movies article as well. Nice pics of Farmiga and Kendrick. ...
The Kennedy Center Honors kicked off awards season proper last night as the tribute was televised. Mel Brooks, Robert De Niro and Bruce Springsteen (three of my personal heroes) were honored, along with Dave Brubeck and Grace Bumbry. What surprised me most about them was that the critics had given Mel Brooks’ The Producers bad reviews. Really? There is stupid and...
It’s been a while since the Oscar race was confronted with a conundrum like The Blind Side. The movie is an organic hit, making boatloads of cash as it races to $200 million. Most people who have seen it seem to love it despite its bad reviews, although it does have its detractors. In fact, some have told me there is no way it can be nominated because of the liberal...
We have a new contest, just in time for New Year’s Eve. The Producers Guild has decided to up their slate of nominees to ten. They will probably shrink them back down to five if the Academy changes their mind again, but for now, we’re dealing with ten. The Directors Guild is, then, the group we will look to for the strongest Best Picture contenders. The PGA...