Jake Gittes

The whole stretch from early 2009 (Coraline) to late 2010/early 2011 (Tangled, The Illusionist, Rango) was practically a goldmine of great animated films. Probably the best period for the medium in over a decade.

Avatar v Inception Titanic v Twilight breaking dawn part 2 The Avengers v Transformers 2 Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2 v Star Wars: revenge of the sith Iron man 3 v Catching Fire Transformers 3 v Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring Lord of the Rings: Return of the King v Ice Age 4 Skyfall v Harry Potter and the chamber of secrets The Dark Knight Rises v Ice Age 3 Pirates of the Caribbean 2 v Spider-Man 3 Toy Story 3 v harry potter and the goblet of fire Pirates of the Caribbean 4 v Shrek 2 Jurassic Park v the hobbit 2 Star Wars: the phantom menace v Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Alice in wonderland v Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince The hobbit v Finding Nemo The Dark Knight v harry potter and the order of the Phoenix Frozen v harry potter and the deathly hallows part 1 The Lion King v pirates if the Caribbean 3 Harry potter and the sorcerers stone v Despicable Me 2

Pretty much. Nearly all the action is magnificent (I especially loved the subway fight and, of course, the un-fucking-believable kitchen fight) but for most of the first 90 minutes Evans is piling on a lot of uninspired, uninteresting, messily edited plot and dialogue, and it's often a real drag. It doesn't help that Iko Uwais doesn't have much screen presence when he's not fighting, which is especially noticeable since the various baddies are all colorful and charismatic in their own ways. I admire Evans' desire not to repeat himself and really play with the scope, but making a crime saga out of The Raid is like making a sophisticated romantic drama out of a porn movie. In the end, it's kinda pointless. Ultimately a mixed bag with some really amazing highs and some really obvious lows.

Tele is not impressed

Did someone say list? 1. Rushmore 2. Fantastic Mr. Fox 3. Moonrise Kingdom 4. Bottle Rocket 5. Grand Budapest Hotel 6. Darjeeling Limited 7. The Royal Tenenbaums 8. The Life Aquatic Admittedly I gotta rewatch the last two. All I clearly remember is that they left me completely cold and disappointed that one time I watched them four years ago. But enough time has passed that I don't 100% trust the early 2010 version of me at this point.

LET'S FUCK! Top 15 Domestic 1. How to Train Your Dragon 2 - $319.5 million 2. Transformers: Age of Extinction - $289.9 million 3. Godzilla - $288.1 million 4. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $238 million 5. X-Men: Days of Future Past - $235.8 million 6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - $232.8 million 7. 22 Jump Street - $205 million 8. Maleficent - $173 million 9. The Fault in Our Stars - $170 million 10. Guardians of the Galaxy - $167.5 million 11. Neighbors - $157.2 million 12. Tammy - $118.2 million 13. Million Dollar Arm - $115.7 million 14. Jupiter Ascending - $115.6 million 15. Think Like a Man Too - $112.8 million 16. (backup #1) Blended - $112.7 million 17. (backup #2) Edge of Tomorrow - $107.2 million Top 10 Worldwide 1. Transformers: Age of Extinction - $1046 million 2. How to Train Your Dragon 2 - $897 million 3. Godzilla - $812 million 4. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $707 million 5. X-Men: Days of Future Past - $700 million 6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - $645 million 7. Maleficent - $445 million 8. 22 Jump Street - $389 million 9. Guardians of the Galaxy - $369 million 10. Edge of Tomorrow - $344 million Top 5 Worldwide Weekends 1. Transformers: Age of Extinction - $316 million 2. Godzilla - $180 million 3. How to Train Your Dragon 2 - $179 million 4. X-Men: Days of Future Past - $178 million 5. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $139 million Top 7 Domestic Opening Weekends 1. Transformers: Age of Extinction - $96.4 million 2. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $92.3 million 3. How to Train Your Dragon 2 - $86.7 million 4. X-Men: Days of Future Past - $83.6 million 5. Godzilla - $77.9 million 6. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - $76.2 million 7. 22 Jump Street - $64.4 million 5 Lowest Grossing Films Snowpiercer Legends of Oz Mom's Night Out The Rover And So It Goes Bonus 1: Tell me, of these five films, which one will be the lowest grossing of the summer. Only these five films can you choose from. Legend of Oz: Dorothy's Return ($10m) Bonus 2: Tell me which of these will be the highest grossing film of the summer: Maleficent ($173m) Bonus #3: Tell me, of these five films, which will be the highest grossing INTERNATIONALLY? How To Train Your Dragon 2 ($578m) Question 1: Will at least 2 films gross more than 100 million dollars Opening weekend domestically (3 day weekends count only)? NO Question 2: Will at least two films gross at least 35 million dollars on opening day? NO Question 3: Will any film this summer have a worldwide weekend of more than 200 million? YES Question 4: Will any film make more than 31.5 million this summer in Australia? YES Question 5: Will any film make more than 45 million dollars this summer in the UK box office? YES Question 6: Will any film make more than 200 million in CHINA this summer? YES Question 7: Will at least 2 films make more than 900 mill WW this summer? NO Question 8: Will at least 3 films, listed as comedy make more than 110 million dollars this summer? YES Question 9: Will at least 2 dramas, according to boxofficemojo, make more than 100 million domestically? YES Question 10: Which combination of films will make more money domestically? 3) How to Train Your Dragon 2, Lucy, 22 Jump Street, Million Dollar Arm Question 11: Will any film make more than 35 million in Russia this summer? YES Question 12: Will the top three films combined make more this summer than the next 5 films combined (domestic only)? So to avoid any confusion like we had before, the question reads like this.... top 3 spots add up to more than slots 4-8. NO Question 13: Will any of the top 5 grossing sequels domestically this summer have a second weekend drop of less than 44.5%? NO Question 14: Will ASM2, Godzilla, X-men or Dawn of the Planet of the Apes have a Saturday increase (this includes any money it made on Thursday for midnights/early shows)...so if it makes 50 mill on Friday, including 7 mill from Thursday, then it has to make more than than 50 mill on Saturday to count as a yes? NO Question 15: Will Transformers Age of Extinction's gross in China come within 50 million of ASM2's gross domestically? YES Question 16: Bonus Question of all Bonus Questions -- This is a four parter: 1) Will ASM2 make at least 260 million domestically? NO 2) Will ASM2 make more than 600 million internationally? NO 3) Will ASM2 do at least 10 million for midnights (including Thurs)? NO 4) Will ASM2 make at least 900 million WW? NO Question 17: A) Will any film listed as a horror OR thriller film by boxofficemojo.com gross more than 70 million dollars this summer? YES B. Will any film listed as a horror OR thriller film by boxofficemojo.com open to more than 30 mill? NO C) Will any film listed as a horror OR thriller film by boxofficemojo.com have a second weekend drop of less than 47%? NO D) Will any film listed as a horror OR thriller film by boxofficemojo.com have an opening day of more than 15 mill? NO Question 18: What will the highest grossing comedy be in each of the first three months of the summer? So for the months of May, June and July, tell me the highest comedy to come out of each month. May: Neighbors ($157.2m) June: 22 Jump Street ($205m) July: Tammy ($118.2m) Question 19: 1) How many films will gross at least 100 million dollars this summer? (you have a cushion of 2 films. So if you are wrong by two films, you still get full points) 17 2) How many films will gross at least 650 mill WW this summer? (cushion of 1 film) FIVE 3) What will be the total gross for the top 4 films in August? (you have a cushion of 50 mill) $331m 4) How many films will gross at least 80 million OW? (cushion of 1 film) FOUR 5) Will any film gross at least 35 mill in Brazil? YES 6) Will any horror film make 200 mill WW? NO 7) Will any film gross 20 million in Spain? NO 8) What will be the fourth highest grossing film of May? Maleficent 9) Will Snowpiercer gross more than 30 million (this question must be answered regardless of the ambiguity of the release. As of right now it is not listed as going wide. We should know before May if it is or not, but even if we don't, tough. ) NO 10) Will TASM2 have a better Thursday than Captain America 2? NO 11) Will Jupiter Ascending make more than 80 million? YES 12) How many 1 billion dollar WW films will there be this summer? ONE 13) Will Tammy gross at least half of what Captain 2, ASM2 or X-men DOFP does? YES 14) Will Hercules make more than 70 million? YES 15) Will Lucy make more than 60 million? NO 16) What film finishes second in gross out of the August films? TMNT 17) Will Michael Bay's films gross more than 400 mill domestic? YES 18) Will frank Miller's Sin City open higher than Expendables 3? NO 19) Will the Fluffy Movie gross at least 15 mill? NO 20) How many films will open to at least 50 million? (2 film cushion) EIGHT Question 20: The "Baumer is Killing Us With All These Questions" Question 1) Which comedy will open the highest? 22 Jump Street 2) Will any two comedies combine to open with more than 60 million? YES 3) Which film will finish with the lowest total? Sex Tape 4) Will any film have a multiplier of more than 5.75? NO 5) Will any film have a multiplier of less than 3.3? YES 6) How many of these films will open to number one on the weekend? ZERO 7) Will any film make more than 150 mill internationally? YES 8) Will any film have a first Monday drop of less than 51%? YES 9) Will any film have a first Tuesday increase of more than 15.5%? NO 10) Will any film that opens after June 14th have a second Friday increase of more than 90%? NO 11) Will a sequel be the highest grossing film of all these comedies? YES 12) Will any film make more than 18 million in Russia? NO 13) Will any film make more than 20 mill in the UK? NO 14) Will any film have a second weekend drop of less than 40%? YES 15) Which films will combine to have the highest total gross? A) 22 Jump Street, Tammy, Million Ways

1. The Lego Movie 2. The Wind Rises 3. The Grand Budapest Hotel 4. The Raid 2 5. Nymphomaniac: Vol. 1

Well, as long as it at least makes Hurt Locker money and critics stand by it through the year's end, it should be in the race. Hopefully.

It might seem like it... to those who didn't properly use their eyes, ears or brain when watching the movie. Or turned it off halfway through. I mean, Trier does put Watson through the wringer - he tends to do that with his female characters, to be sure - but his deep empathy towards her is unmistakable. As is his full contempt towards those who, uh, make her life worse without fully understanding her. Again, I get the mysogyny complaint about Antichrist (even though, in my eyes, Dafoe is much more of a villain there and it's largely his actions that lead to what happens... it might be a misanthropic film, which suits my taste just fine, but it's not mysogynistic) but I have no idea what ground people applying it to BIW think they're standing on.

Watch Europa. Honestly, I don't know how any film buff could be disappointed by it. Then Breaking the Waves. I get the complaints about Antichrist (even though I personally find it great) but none of them would apply to those two films.

So McConaughey vs Cranston vs Harrelson vs Hamm vs Spacey I guess. Unless Hamm is inexplicably snubbed in favor of Jeff Daniels or something (which I wouldn't put past those guys).

Saw myself some LVT over the past month. Element of Crime and Epidemic I can take or leave, The Idiots is uneven but at times extremely powerful (and at other times really funny). Not gonna say anything original about Breaking the Waves, it's simply one of the greatest dramas ever made with one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen by Emily Watson. And for anyone who's even slightly interested in watching any of Trier's films (or has only seen his harrowing dramas) I recommend Europa which is a very entertaining, gorgeously filmed stylized neo-noir/genre exercise that's unlike anything else LVT has made - and also visually unlike almost anything I've ever seen. Oh, and Nymphomaniac Vol. 1 I found to be an incredibly boring, unfunny (save for the Uma Thurman scene), uninspired, flatly acted, self-masturbatory piece of shit - pretty much the movie Von Trier's haters always accuse him of making and the one they'd have a field day with. Pity, really. I didn't even go see the second part in the theater though I do intend to watch it just to finish the whole thing. Also have yet to see The Kingdom, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville, Manderlay, Boss of It All, Medea and Five Obstructions. The first three especially I'm still very excited about but I doubt I'll have time for them in the next couple of months. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2usvKfgBjGo

Added since February 1 Design for Living - Ernst Lubitsch, 1933 To Be or Not to Be - Ernst Lubitsch, 1942 Proverka na dorogakh (Trial on the Road / Check-up on the Roads) - Aleksey German, 1971 The King of Comedy - Martin Scorsese, 1983 Europa - Lars von Trier, 1991 Breaking the Waves - Lars von Trier, 1996 Bringing Out the Dead - Martin Scorsese, 1999

Gravity. 4 times in the theater. Before Midnight - 3 times (third time with commentary by Hawke, Delpy and Linklater) Upstream Color, To the Wonder, The Place Beyond the Pines, All Is Lost, Inside Llewyn Davis, The Pervert's Guide to Ideology all twice. I should add though that my most watched single scene is Di Caprio and McConaughey's lunch in WOWS which I probably saw about 20 times. The Quaaludes scene and Di Caprio & Chandler on the yacht would be #2 and #3. I only watched the movie in its entirety once, though.

The Illusionist fully deserved its nomination. Tangled was just the unfortunate victim of there being only three nominees that year.

1939 Hattie McDaniel - Gone with the Wind 1951 Kim Hunter - A Streetcar Named Desire 1952 Gloria Grahame - The Bad and the Beautiful 1961 Rita Moreno - West Side Story 1966 Sandy Dennis - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1967 Estelle Parsons - Bonnie and Clyde 1968 Ruth Gordon - Rosemary's Baby 1970 Helen Hayes - Airport 1971 Cloris Leachman - The Last Picture Show 1974 Ingrid Bergman - Murder on the Orient Express 1976 Beatrice Straight - Network 1982 Jessica Lange - Tootsie 1986 Dianne Wiest - Hannah and Her Sisters 1990 Whoopi Goldberg - Ghost 1991 Mercedes Ruehl - The Fisher King 1993 Anna Paquin - The Piano 1994 Dianne Wiest - Bullets Over Broadway 1997 Kim Basinger - L.A. Confidential 1998 Judi Dench - Shakespeare in Love 2001 Jennifer Connelly - A Beautiful Mind 2002 Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago 2004 Cate Blanchett - The Aviator 2006 Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls 2007 Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton 2008 Penélope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona 2009 Mo'Nique - Precious 2010 Melissa Leo - The Fighter 2012 Anne Hathaway - Les Misérables 2013 Lupita Nyong'o - 12 Years a Slave 29

1948 Walter Huston - The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1950 George Sanders - All About Eve 1951 Karl Malden - A Streetcar Named Desire 1959 Hugh Griffith - Ben-Hur 1960 Peter Ustinov - Spartacus 1961 George Chakiris - West Side Story 1971 Ben Johnson - The Last Picture Show 1972 Joel Grey - Cabaret 1974 Robert De Niro - The Godfather Part II 1982 Louis Gossett Jr. - An Officer and a Gentleman 1986 Michael Caine - Hannah and Her Sisters 1990 Joe Pesci - Goodfellas 1992 Gene Hackman - Unforgiven 1993 Tommy Lee Jones - The Fugitive 1994 Martin Landau - Ed Wood 1995 Kevin Spacey - The Usual Suspects 1997 Robin Williams - Good Will Hunting 2000 Benicio Del Toro - Traffic 2004 Morgan Freeman - Million Dollar Baby 2006 Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine 2007 Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men 2008 Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight 2009 Christoph Waltz - Inglourious Basterds 2010 Christian Bale - The Fighter 2011 Christopher Plummer - Beginners 2012 Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained 26

1959 Charlton Heston - Ben-Hur 1966 Paul Scofield - A Man for All Seasons 1967 Rod Steiger - In the Heat of the Night 1971 Gene Hackman - The French Connection 1972 Marlon Brando - The Godfather 1975 Jack Nicholson - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976 Peter Finch - Network 1980 Robert De Niro - Raging Bull 1984 F. Murray Abraham - Amadeus 1986 Paul Newman - The Color of Money 1987 Michael Douglas - Wall Street 1991 Anthony Hopkins - The Silence of the Lambs 1994 Tom Hanks - Forrest Gump 1997 Jack Nicholson - As Good as It Gets 1999 Kevin Spacey - American Beauty 2000 Russell Crowe - Gladiator 2001 Denzel Washington - Training Day 2002 Adrien Brody - The Pianist 2005 Philip Seymour Hoffman - Capote 2006 Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland 2007 Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood 2010 Colin Firth - The King's Speech 2011 Jean Dujardin - The Artist 2012 Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln 24

1927 Janet Gaynor - Sunrise 1939 Vivien Leigh - Gone with the Wind 1944 Ingrid Bergman - Gaslight 1951 Vivien Leigh - A Streetcar Named Desire 1966 Elizabeth Taylor - Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? 1972 Liza Minnelli - Cabaret 1974 Ellen Burstyn - Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore 1975 Louise Fletcher - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest 1976 Faye Dunaway - Network 1977 Diane Keaton - Annie Hall 1991 Jodie Foster - The Silence of the Lambs 1993 Holly Hunter - The Piano 1996 Frances McDormand - Fargo 1997 Helen Hunt - As Good as It Gets 1998 Gwyneth Paltrow - Shakespeare in Love 2000 Julia Roberts - Erin Brockovich 2004 Hilary Swank - Million Dollar Baby 2006 Helen Mirren - The Queen 2007 Marion Cotillard - La vie en rose 2010 Natalie Portman - Black Swan 2012 Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook 2013 Cate Blanchett - Blue Jasmine 22

I recall Bruno being pretty hilarious. Gotta watch it again sometime, Borat too.

39 for now. Saw four in the past 13 months - The Apartment, A Man for All Seasons, In the Heat of the Night and 12YAS. Also saw Sunrise, so 40 if we count that one.

I'm with Rich on this one. Basically, I just wasn't convinced by Anderson's treatment of the pre-war hotel as this paradise lost. He takes so much time to prepare you for it, and then the part of the film set in 1932 is basically a very entertaining, but shallow comedic adventure the pleasures of which are almost entirely superficial. He's trying pretty hard to ground it with the friendship between Gustave and Zero, but I felt the latter was little more than a blank slate, and the former, despite Fiennes' best efforts, kept alternating between feeling like a human being and a walking set of charming quirks. Then there are so many supporting characters that none of them is given the chance to be developed in any way, which made it all even more weightless. (Ronan's Agatha was especially hurt by this). It's an incredibly beautiful film visually (how many times have Robert Yeoman, as well as Anderson's various production designers, been snubbed for Oscar nominations already? It's ridiculous), and I had plenty of fun, but I didn't find it very memorable and have no desire to come back to it. As I saw it, Anderson lost himself in the world he created and in all the little details and quirks and consequently ended up making a film in which very little actually matters. His greatest films, which I consider to be Rushmore, Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox, are his best in large part because they avoid that very trap.

Sofia Coppola was nominated for her second film and she was an actress-turned-director. (Even if her acting never won her any fans).

No I'm not sure I do. Plenty of blockbusters have been nominated for this. Sure they are often blockbusters that are also up for Best Picture, but even if you take those away, you still have Batman Begins, TDK, Skyfall, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Terminator 2, Batman Forever... okay maybe we best forget about that last one.

Actually I only just thought of a wildcard nomination I'd love to see happen based on the trailers alone: Seamus McGarvey for Godzilla.