81st Annual Oscar Awards

Last night, the Oscars aired on ABC.

"The Dark Knight" won 2 awards, "Slumdog Millionaire" won most of the awards (8 total), and "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" picked up pretty much everything Slumdog didn't (3 total).

~Penelope Cruz won best supporting actress for her role in "Vicky Cristina Barcelona,"
~Heath Ledger won best supporting actor for his portrayal of the Joker in "The Dark Knight,"
~Kate Winslet won best actress for her role in "The Reader,"
~Sean Penn won best actor for his portrayal of Harvey Milk in "Milk."

A few changes that I enjoyed this year were how they announced the winners for best actor, best supporting actor, best actress, and best supporting actress. For those that didn't watch, they played a short video montage of previous winners for that category. Then they had 5 of the previous winners appear from behind the screens on stage to read this year's nominations. Each previous winner spoke about 1 of the nominees and why their role was nominated for the award.

I also liked the 'yearbook' montage they did of each film genre, highlighting scenes from all of the big movies of last year. They had video montages for Animation, Romance, Documentary, and Action films, as well as a musical number highlighting songs from previous musicals as well as the two big ones this year - "Mamma Mia!" and "High School Musical 3" with the main couple of each joining Hugh Jackman, Beyonce and the chorus on stage for the number - my only complaint is that they completely left out songs from "Repo! The Genetic Opera," which had 3 songs considered for Oscar nomination this year - I'm sure they could have had Sarah Brightman, Paul Sorvino or Alexa Vega sing part of one of the songs. Seth Rogen and James Franco also reprised their roles from "Pineapple Express" for a montage highlighting scenes from the comedy films of the 2008, which was put together by Judd Apatow. I also enjoyed the preview during the credits of upcoming films in 2009.

Hugh Jackman did a great job as host this year - he was both funny and clever, taking active parts in the song and dance numbers. Anne Hathaway also did great when Hugh dragged her out of her front-row seat to join him in a musical parody of "Frost/Nixon." His techno number of "The Reader" (where he states he didn't see "The Reader") was hilarious as well!

Other funny highlights include Tina Fey and Steve Martin presenting together with humorous monologue for Best Screenplays; Ben Stiller dressed up and acting like Joaquin Pheonix from his most recent interview on David Letterman while Natalie Portman struggles to stay focused on presenting the award for Cinematography; and James Franco butchering the name of the winning film for the Live Action Short category while his fellow presenter Seth Rogen laughs at him - the film was called Spielzeugland (Toyland), so can you blame him?

Jerry Lewis won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award; Queen Latifah sang "I'll Be Seeing You" while the In Memorium tribute to actors who died in the last 12 months played onscreen; Heath Ledger's mother, father and sister came up to accept his award on behalf of his 3 year old daughter, in which the award will be trusted to her when she turns 18.

The only thing that really bothered me was the logo this year - I'm sure the black glittery, sparkly number 8 with the Oscar statue being a 1 seemed like a good idea... but honestly, at first glance, the number looked more like an 8 instead of 81.

I don't often watch the Oscars, as for awhile they seemed to bore me, but this year's was definitely amusing and I felt worth watching.

Underworld: Rise of the Lycans

Rated R for violence, nudity and sexuality

Starring Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra

This is a prequel to the 2003 hit Underworld, starring Kate Beckinsale, and it's sequel Underworld: Evolution. If you haven't seen either of those, you really don't have too much too worry about, as this one is mainly an elaboration of the short backstory we saw in the first film. I had only seen the first film, but not the sequel.

It starts out centuries ago and it's Viktor's turn to rule the vampire empire, as Marcus, one of 3 vampire elders, has just finished his reign and has been put into a deep sleep. The vampires and werewolves are sworn enemies and the vampires would often capture the wolves and have them put to death. Somehow, one of the wolves mated with a human and produced an offspring, thus was born the first Lycan, Lucian, being half wolf, half human. Viktor could not bring himself to kill the creature and instead had an idea that using Lucian's blood, they could change humans into these creatures and use them as slaves due to the brute strength and protectors during the daylight from the werewolves.

Flash forward several decades, Lucian is grown into an adult and highly respected among the vampire elders, despite being referred to as Viktor's pet. We learn that Lucian and Viktor's daughter Sonja have a secret romance and is imprisoned for removing his slave collar (which prevents him from turning into a werewolve) while saving her and others from the werewolves. Sick of being a slave, while imprisoned, Lucian rallies the rest of the Lycans, including newly changed Raze (from the other films), and with the help of Sonja and a councilman who wants Sonja's seat on the council, scheme a plan of escape. After the breakout, Viktor learns of his daughter's forbbiden romance with a Lycan and holds her captive, as she was supposed to meet up with Lucian, and uses her as bait to lure him back in. Thus beginning the Vampire/Lycan war and a tragic love story.

Those that have seen Underworld know how it ends, as we've already seen Lucian's flashback to the events in this film.

Honestly, I liked this one better than the original. The only thing that really bothered me was one inconsistancy with the flashback - in the original, when Lucian shows a fellow Lycan what really started the war, Sonja's hair is bleached blonde. In this one though, she clearly has dark hair the whole time.

After this film and last year's Doomsday, Rhona Mitra is starting to become one of my favorite action chicks.

If you like vampire vs. werewolve movies be sure to check this one out. It was a fun film to see and I loved the love story in it.

Repo! The Genetic Opera

Rated R for language, gore and a brief scene of sexuality

Starring Alexa Vega, Paul Sorvino, Anthony Head, Sarah Brightman, Paris Hilton, Bill Moseley, Nivek Ogre, Terrance Zdunich

I LOVED IT!

If you like musicals and/or rock operas check this one out. The music is really good - a lot of well known rock musicians contributed to it.

It's like year 2050-something, a plague started causing mass organ failure, but a company, GeneCo, arose to mass supply organ transplants, however you miss your payments and they send in the Repoman to repossess the organs. But that's only part of the story. The main plot of the story focus on 17-year old Shilo (Vega) who has been locked away in her room for most her life, as she has a rare blood disease she inherited from her mother's genes - she desperately wants to go outside and see the world, but her father (Anthony Head) won't let her. She thinks her father is a doctor, set on finding a cure for her disease, but she doesn't know his dark secret. Meanwhile, Rotti Largo (Sorvino), founder of GeneCo, learns he has a fatal disease and must soon pick an heir to his fortune and legacy, however he considers his 3 offspring (Hilton, Moseley and Ogre) to be embarassments and disappointments, not worthy of his inheritance.

It's by the guy that did Saw 2, 3 and 4, but it's not much like Saw at all, other than there's a few minor 'gory' scenes, but id say the gore is on par with Sweeney Todd, imo.

I never heard much from Sarah Brightman before, but man can she sing! Yes, Paris Hilton's in it, but she has maybe 15 min of screentime, at most, and is a minor character. Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the tv series) is one of the leads and he can sing really well too, as can Alexa Vega (the girl from the Spy Kids movies, all grown up).

It was a short stage show for years, but they finally we were able to make into the film they always wanted. Lionsgate didn't really do much to promote it though and it was only limited released in 5 cities for 1 weekend back in November and is now on DVD. Universal wanted it when the writers/producers/directors were shopping for a film studio to back it, however Universal said no musical if they backed it. Now Universal's making their own similar film sans singing.

So go rent it!!!!

Bride Wars

Rated PG
Starring Anne Hathaway, Kate Hudson, Candice Bergen, Kristen Johnston

Girls start dreaming about their wedding day from the time they're very young. For Liv and Emma, it all started one afternoon when their mothers took them to a luncheon at the Plaza and they stumbled upon a lavish wedding there in the hotel. From that day forward, all they could think about was their perfect wedding days, each being the other's Maid of Honor. Flash forward 20 or so years and both girls are still close and awaiting proposals from their men any day now. While being exact opposite personalities, they compliment each other very well. They have only a few key rules about their weddings - it must be in June and it must be at the Plaza. All seems well until the girls get a call that due to a mix up, their weddings have both been booked for the same day and there are no other openings at the Plaza for 3 years. Someone will have to move their date and venue, but neither girl wants to be that someone. And so the sabatoge begins!

While the girls attempts to sabatoge each others wedding plans to get back at the other for not changing their date and venue, Emma beings to grow a backbone and stand up for what she wants for once, while Liv learns that she doesn't always have to be right and in control. Both girls realize how important it is to be themselves and how important their friendship to each really is.

Being someone who just had a wedding last fall, it was fun to see a movie about girls going crazy over the whole process - while a bit exaggerated, it was still amusing. Definitely more of a movie for the girls, although it does show guys how crazy some women get over weddings! See it with your girlfriends or grab a man who loves you for date night.