Jake Gittes

Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest I've ever seen. For some time after watching it, I wasn't sure if I would ever be able to watch other "war is hell" movies and find them at all compelling. Coppola took this one idea/concept, of a journey into the heart of darkness propelled and surrounded by the hell of war, and delivered the most complete and powerful film that could be made out of it. With all-time best cinematography, hypnotic pacing, great characterization, some instantly classic dialogue and overwhelming sound and scope. It's really a once-in-a-lifetime movie, a huge, rich epic driven by a single idea and the complete creative control of its author.

Considering it made $50m on Thursday, I always thought that had it opened on Friday, it not only would have taken down SM1, but held the record until SM3. The total gross would most likely have stayed around the same, though.And I still don't get why exactly Fox felt the need to open it in less than 3700 theaters. (Well, just like TPM with less than 3000 and AOTC with less than 3200). Why the hell not 4000+?

Since I was 11 when ROTS came out, it was definitely one of the main movies of my childhood - I had watched all the other films not long before and ROTS easily became the culmination of that. For about two years afterwards, I was utterly obsessed with everything Star Wars and also had much easier time viewing the saga as a single whole (I did think, and obviously still do, that TPM and AOTC are inferior to the OT, but not to the extent I couldn't enjoy them and accept them as a major part of the story).That obsession has worn off since, but I'm still an overall fan of the whole story and the universe and ROTS, imo, stands up very well. There aren't more than three or four instances of bad dialogue (AOTC had tons more), the story works, Christensen ups his game while McGregor is the heart of the film and Ian McDiarmid is wickedly fun as Palpatine. Also importantly, CGI has aged much better than in TPM and AOTC and all the action is spectacular. Finally,- Anakin and Padme looking over the cityscape- The mask landing on Vader's face followed by his first breath- The final 5-minute montage culminating in the Tatooine sceneare all the classic Star Wars moments that deserve to stand next to anything from the OT.

Get some Final Destination in there too. Alice hunts down the Paranormal shit found-footage style while narrowly escaping ridiculously elaborate deadly accidents.

Well, if the field turns out to be weaker than expected (or if the movie is really, really loved) I can see it following, say, a film like The Kids Are All Right to the BP nom. It also seems like a good contender for Screenplay in any case.

I'd be surprised if both Hawkes and Hunt won. But we'll see how the buzz builds after release.

Yeah. I remember myself wondering just where the hell did she go a few years back. Glad she's returned and doing great.

From what I've heard Searchlight has decided to push Helen Hunt as supporting for The Sessions, so she's definitely a big contender here.

Monsters is not guaranteed, it'll need to make $62m which no post-LK re-release has done yet. But it should get past $300m in lifetime gross.Also, any chance Nemo gets its $1 billion WW? TLK did $83m OS, Nemo will need to do around the same. Its chance of just passing the first HP's $974m and stopping there is much more likely though.

I suspect you think that it's playing in 4 theaters. It's actually playing in 5, so it's weekend PTA will be in the 140k-160k ballpark. Will still beat Moonrise and get into top 10 all-time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ik-RsDGPI5Yhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SZMEImptPQ

Hilary Swank and Sean Penn received their second Oscars five years after their first, for Cotillard to do the same wouldn't be unprecedented. (of course, there's Tom Hanks as well, but that was more of an anomaly, some incredibly perfect timing).

Well, it did have a lot of serious moments, but I thought the dramatic and the satirical blended beautifully into a single whole.

I'll go for Lawrence, Cotillard, Wallis, Winstead and Streep. It will be between the first two for the win.

Agreed. And unlike some (many?), I never think while watching it that the CGI is dated. One of the most exciting action scenes I've ever seen, and the score is awesome. Although, in my opinion, nothing beats the car chase.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyNyHark4xkI know it's technically from Reloaded, but still. Weaving as Smith was definitely something that was perfect throughout all three movies.

If the THG sequels are as well-received as the first one and don't go 3D, I can definitely see Mockingjay 2 doing it.Other option is the next Bond film after Skyfall if the latter turns out as good as it looks and then the next movie looks as promising as Skyfall does right now. Also, the third film in the rebooted POTA series if Dawn is as well-received as Rise and the core creative team (Wyatt, the writers, Serkis, and Franco wouldn't hurt either) stays on-board.Not so sure about Fast & Furious series - could become stale if they just keep recycling the "car / heist movie" concept - but wouldn't rule it out completely. But this is also the case where I can't see Fast Six jump almost 50% OS - 500-550 seems like the roof (same with CF and Skyfall) but if it's good, Fast 7 could pull it off.

Wouldn't be surprised if Ted got a comedy nom

One of the true greats. A seamless blend of a huge epic and a character study that never even comes close to being messy or boring.

I like Inception a lot, but The Matrix is a landmark film. Outstanding in pretty much every way.

Two years in between animated sequels? That's a new one

Lowest grossing #12 movie and the first one to make less than $100m since 2005. At the same time, on top, you've got two $400m movies for the first time.

Second

Love it. Loved the game just as much as the first time. Now if only I could take my Top 12 from last year and put it together with my weekly/SOTM/preseason stuff from this year in a single summer... but, that's for the next BSG, for which I'll sure as hell be back.Huge congrats and respect to Fake for being so insanely consistent, to Baumer for the same thing and for beautifully organising and running the whole thing once again, and thanks to everyone else for some strong competition. It was terrific.

Someone get Adrian Lyne out of his apparent retirement. Let him show 'em how it's done.