Yeah... happy valentine's day.

Congrats Boston!

sorry Vancouver, but The Bruins were the better team, and they clearly deserved it.

Schoool's out -- for -- Summer!

Well, May is almost here and it's time to get back into the swing of things. Tomorrow will mark the first official Sunday Top Ten of the year. You'll get a new one weekly throughout 2011, just to keep things fresh.

I'll also try to actually get out and see some movies to review. I'll confess to not looking forward to this summer movie season in particular, but I'll write down some brief thoughts on whatever new releases I do see. That said, I probably won't start up the video reviews again until the Oscar season begins in the fall, so don't expect too much activity on the YouTube page this summer.

As usual, monthly updates on the sidebar predictions are in store. Cannes will hopefully give us a look at some Oscar hopefuls.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Here's my favourite scene from one of my St. Patty's Day staples.



Have a wonderful St. Patrick's Day!

2011 Preview

Yes yes, I'm still here.

I figured I should post at least something within a week of the Oscar's big bow, but in all honesty, there just isn't much to write about after what was ultimately a dry and predictable season. Do I have complaints? Naturally, and they shall manifest themselves in the form of my "Top Ten Pet Peeves of the 2011 Oscar Season" post that'll be put up next Sunday.

I'm actually thinking about making "Sunday Top Ten" (a new movie-related top ten list every Sunday) a regular feature on the site for the year, y'know, just to keep me busy during the long Oscar off-season. And it's always nice to take a step back and write about something that doesn't centre on the awards circus (although you can be sure that at least a few of these lists will have an Oscary tinge). Whad'ya think? Any particular themes or topics you want to see covered? I'm open to suggestions, and I think this would be a nice way to keep the site at least somewhat active until next January. Look for this series to start in May.

In the meantime, I've been casually looking ahead to what the cinematic year might have to offer. I'll confess that this year the pickings look comparatively slim from the outset, but there are sure to be some surprises waiting to delight us. On Friday, March 18th you'll see the results of my investigation in the first of my year-in-advance predictions, one category at a time, as always.

Speaking of which, I took a gander at how well my advanced predictions from last year panned out. I got 4/10 Best Picture nominees (The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, and eventual winner The Kings Speech). I got 3/5 in Best Supporting Actor (including eventual winner Christian Bale), Best Supporting Actress (including the then-unheard-of Hailee Steinfeld... yeah, lucky guess, but I'm gonna brag about that one anyway), Best Original Screenplay, and a perfect 3/3 in Best Animated Feature.

As usual, there will be reviews throughout the year as I see new movies, but how substantial or detailed depends on the mood I'm in. Some movies I just can't muster up the motivation to give a damn about. The good ones will hopefully get meatier reviews from me.

And that's basically what's on tap for the coming ten months. Hope you enjoy it.

So, yeah...

... Happy f***ing Valentine's Day (Bah humbug).

"Welcome Christmas while we stand

Heart to heart, and hand in hand."

Never fails to bring a tear to my eye.

Have a safe and happy holiday, everyone!

And now I play the waiting game...

Time for a brief sociogeographic aside:

It's not often you'll hear me complaining about being a Canadian. Indeed, there are many blessings that come with being a citizen of America's frostbitten northern neighbour, including our preference of the kilometre over the mile, our woollen winter wear, our speciality for ice hockey, and our delightfully idiosyncratic spelling of words like "neighbour", "kilometre", "woollen", and "speciality".

But if there's one time of year where I'll curse my otherwise proud hoserhood, this is it.

While U.S. audiences are quickly crossing the must-see Oscar contenders off their lists, I continue to wait, shivering in the cold cold snow, for several buzzed-about titles to finally see the light of day in Canada (cue "Jeopardy" theme music). Some films that I'm really looking forward to won't even get a limited release until after Oscar nominations are out! Needless to say, the distributors aren't making it easy for me to see all the nominees before the big night.

So here's my plea: Release the damn movies already! Stop making me rush around in January to catch this or that. Most years I can't even build my top ten list until months after everyone else has released theirs. I need more time! Open up earlier! Expand faster! People in Ontario like watching movies too, eh!

FYC sites of note

Most of the big distributors have gotten their campaign sites up and running. Here's a quick reference list of the ones I could find:

20th Century Fox
Focus Features
Paramount Pictures
Sony Pictures, not to be confused with
Sony Picture Classics
Universal Pictures
Warner Brothers
Walt Disney Pictures
The Weinstein Company

Couldn't locate one for Fox Searchlight, but I'll keep my nose to the ground.

Dum dum dum da-da-dum dum dum da-da-dum...

How d'you do? I
See you've met my
Faithful handyman!

He's just a little brought down because
When you knocked
He thought you were the candyman.

Rocky Horror Picture Show was so awesome! Can't wait to do it again!

Happy Halloween, everybody!

In keeping with werewolves/Rick Baker...

Rick Baker for the win!