Starring: Vince Vaughn, Malin Akerman, Jason Bateman, et al.

The cast is star studded.  Yes, I know, you don't like all of them. Well, like them or not, they're in there.  With a few surprises as well.

Part of me had to wonder if this film would connect with considering I am not in a relationship.  Would the humor be too couple oriented for me to appreciate, or understand?  I'm just kidding - I didn't think, or care about any of that.  Vince Vaughn is funny, the leading ladies are all beautiful, what's not to like?

Granted the story is pretty much what you get from the trailer.  No deep truths are hidden here.  In fact, I can't help but feel like the cast read the script, saw the location where they would be filming, and all jumped on board.  Almost like a pseudo-vacation on the movie studio's dime.  If that is the case, well, more power to them.

In spite of having to film in that grueling paradise, they did manage to put together a somewhat funny flick.  My roommate commented that he was rather disappointed in it, but I found myself laughing quite a bit.  There are the typical over dramatic parts, but for the most part, it was funny and went along smoothly at a comfortable pace.

I think part of the reason why the actors all gave good performances, and just seemed like they really enjoyed themselves, is because, well, they were on a psuedo-vacation!  And who could blame them!  I'm not an actor, but if someone put this script in front of me, heck yeah I would jump all over it.  I'll stand around, deliver some lines, mug at the camera for a bit, just to spend some downtime in paradise.  Shoot, sign me up right now.

Okay, I've gotten of course.  This is turning into a plea for a vacation getaway more than a movie review.  And why not?!  This place looks fantastic!!  The movie is funny ... you'll watch it, you'll laugh, and you'll thank me.  Now - back to this whole getting me a ticket to paradise.

No review today.  Instead, I'm going to do what everyone else is doing, and share my thoughts on this year's crop of Academy Award nominated pictures. Well, sort of.

I haven't seen too many of this year's selections, so my personal experience with performances will be somewhat limited.  Still, as with most other people, that won't stop me from having an opinion about it anyway!  Now, let's get started:

Best Picture
I didn't see all of the films nominated for this category, but of those that I did see, I would have voted for Avatar.  The experience was amazing, and by far, the most engaging of the films I've seen.  My hunch is the academy will vote this way as well.

Best Actor, in a Leading Role
I have a feeling that my vote would have been the way everyone else voted, Jeff Bridges.  "Crazy Heart" was not a fantastic movie, not by a longshot, but Bridges made it look easy.  His portrayal felt real, and authentic.  Much like Mickey Rourke in the "The Wrestler."

Best Actor, in a Supporting Role
Hands down, Christoph Waltz.  This may be the only award for "Inglourious Basterds" this evening, and if that is the case, so be it.  It is beyond, well deserved.  Waltz portrayed a character that I argue was the true star of the film itself.  He did so beautifully, from beginning to end, with the conviction and talent of what it truly means to be an actor.


Best Actress, in a Leading Role
I'm a Sandra Bullock fan, and a Meryl Streep fan.  That being said, Meryl did great in "Julie & Julia," but what I've head about Sandra in "The Blind Side" leads me to believe she did more.  That's why she is my pick, and my hopeful win for this category.

Best Actress, in a Supporting Role
I've heard no one else stands a chance against the force that was Mo'Nique.

Best Animated Feature Film
I have a weird feeling that Up is going to win, and so be it.  It was a good film, but personally, I really enjoyed Coraline and would not be upset if they took this honor. 

Best Director
The competition seems to be between James Cameron, and Kathryn Bigelow for "Avatar," and "The Hurt Locker," respectively.  I would like to think that Quentin Tarantino has a shot because of "Inglourious Basterds."  The film was just fantastic, and well executed.  The directing was top notch.  The telling of the story, along with the performances he managed to get from his actors all lead me to believe he deserves this as much as anyone.  It would be a great surprise if he were recognized once and for all, for his talent.

Best Visual Effects
Three nominees, "Avatar," "District 9," and "Star Trek."  That's it.  I've seen all three, and find myself torn between what exactly qualifies one film over the others.  I'm going to go on a limb here and say "District 9."  Only because I feel that their visual effects were the most sophisticated and authentic when it came to blending the real with the fantasy.  Each of the others had elements of that as well, but for "District 9" I felt it was closer to real life than the other two.

Best Original Screenplay
Please, please give this to "Inglourious Basterds."  I've already talked about Tarantino's great direction of the film, and the story behind it is just as strong.  Without such a solid story that basically re-writes history, the film could have still been good, but this just made it 10x better.  The talent needs to be recognized, the writing was fantastic.  Remember how much we all loved "Pulp Fiction?"  Yeah, this was that good.

Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Johnny Simmons, and Adam Brody.

This was a crap loads better than I expected it to be.  Seriously, when you see the trailer and listen to the hype, you're expecting some juvenile horror film that is just supposed to showcase how hot Megan Fox is.  Well, boys and girls, it's certainly more than that.

It was a solid story!  I couldn't believe it either.  I mean, the premise is somewhat out there, but if you stretch your imagination a little, and just absorb it, then this turns out to be pretty darn entertaining.  It's hard to say too much without giving away some major points, but I'll do my best to put what you see in the trailers into context.
Basically you have Jennifer (Fox) and "Needy" (Seyfried).  They've been best friends forever, and no one can really figure out why, as they seemingly have nothing in common.  Jennifer eventually becomes this creature that feeds on boys and Needy knows something is wrong.  She is torn between helping her friend, and helping those she cares about.  Eventually, she makes her decision, and can never go back to the way things were.

Wow.  There ya go.  If I made it any vaguer, it would be simply "something happens."  But trust me, it's a good flick with some good stuff.  Diablo Cody wrote the script, and you may or may not know she also wrote Juno.  Now, I think the dialogue is similar, but only because I know who wrote it.  If someone unaware of the style were to watch it, I doubt they could tie the two together.  So, what I'm getting at it is simply this, if you didn't like Juno, give this a chance.  It seems different enough that you may not hate it.  And if you liked Juno, then, well, watch it and embrace the fact that you may like Diablo Cody after all.  Did you see it already?  What did you think?

Starring: Justin Long and Emmanuelle Chriqui.

Personally, I don't get the appeal of Mr. Long here.  He is perfectly adequate as the Mac Guy in those commercials, and the geek/nerd in Galaxy Quest.  But, other than that, I don't buy him as much of a leading man type.

This film tries to play both sides of that coin.  He is the leading man, but one who is the hapless geek who runs the local Battlefield Museum.  In the small town of Patriotville, Chase Revere (Justin Long) is the curator of the Battlefield Museum, and seemingly the only one interested in the small town's history.

Soon, his museum becomes the target site for a new Indian casino and as he fights to keep that casino from ruining everything he loves, he discovers that maybe there is more out there to love.  Deep right?  Yeah, I just wrote that sitting here in my pajamas trying to think of something nice to say to lull you into a false sense of security.  Beside the beauty of Chriqui, and the novely of seeing Star Trek: Voyager's Robert Beltran, this movie had nothing redeeming about it all.

The writing was such that I felt it lagging at different points, and the characters were just cliche for the most part.  I kept waiting for something funny to happen, but it never did.  No, wait, there was one scene where I chuckled.  It had to do with (forgive me) balls.  It was somewhat funny the way the character delivered the line, but aside from that, I was just waiting for the stupid thing to be over.

How is it Missy Pyle wasn't utilized more by the way?  She is awesome!  She is up there with Martha Plimpton in my book - and well, speaking of Martha Plimpton, did you see NBC is going to start airing that show Parenthood finally?!  Thank God the Olympics are over - ugh.  Now I can get me my Lauren Graham fix.  I'm disappointed more people couldn't find good scripts for her to work with.  Seriously.

Oh.  The movie.  Right.  Avoid.  There, done.  'Nuff said.  What's next?

Starring: Alexis Bledel, Zach Gilford, Michael Keaton, Jane Lynch, and Carol Burnett.

Are you wondering how you never heard of this film with a cast like that?  I know I sure was.  According to IMDb, the film premiered at that end of August, and ran for 6 weeks.  It grossed just over $6.3 million, and I think that's fair.

Don't take that the wrong way, I enjoyed the film, but for the subject matter, and the end result, it did the amount of business one should expect from a theatrical release.  The real money is going to come from DVD rentals and sales, and of course, the television rights.  This movie was MADE for playing on tv.

It's your basic coming of age story.  Girl graduates college with a plan. The plan falls apart.  Girl learns life lesson.  So on, and so forth.  You get the picture.   If I were to focus on the negative stuff in the film, I could probably go one for awhile.  But, like I told you, I kind of liked it, and let me tell you why. Two words.

Rory Gilmore.

I seriously think this film was written by a fan of the Gilmore Girls tv show.  They saw Alexis and said, we need to do a Rory movie.  Well, it certainly felt like that's what they wanted to do.  Maybe it's like one of those alternate universe things.  Yeah, that's it.  A story of Rory Gilmore if such and such was different, and so and so was in her life.   Really, you're not going to find too many surprises here.  It follows the formula rather well.

Still, it has its humorous moments, and touching ones too.  However, perhaps the most realistic moment in the film is the car accident.  When the little white girl's car is hit by the Mexican's truck full of lawn equipment on a Los Angeles street, you are taken aback.  Then, the next shot is that of the truck driving away .. you are suddenly brought back to reality and realize, this is real.  This is what happens everyday.  Oh, and just to save you some discussion time, Columbia = Columbia, and UC Creston = UCLA.  You'll thank me later.