The 2012 Omie Award Winners

I know that tens of you are eagerly anticipating the winners of the Omie Awards. Here they are in all their glory.

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Picture goes to…

for showing that incoming apocalypse can be beautiful,

Melancholia. Producers: Meta Louise Foldager and Louise Vesth

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Director goes to…

(tie)

for making a balls out translation of the Swedish favorite,

David Fincher, "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo"

and 

for making a film about a getaway driver into a sleeper hit,

Nicholas Winding Refn, "Drive"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Actor goes to…

for portraying a man dealing the dark side of sexual addiction, Brandon Sullivan,

Michael Fassbender, "Shame"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Actress goes to…

for portraying a mother that is struggling to keep her destructive son in check, Eva Khatchadourian,

Tilda Swinton, "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Supporting Actor goes to…

for portraying a mobster who wants a stock car, Bernie Rose,

Albert Brooks, "Drive"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Supporting Actress goes to…

(an unprecedented four way tie)

for portraying a girl trying to forge a relationship with her father, Alexandra King,

Shailene Woodley, "The Descendants"

for portraying a woman that broke up her family, Julie Speer,

Judy Greer, "The Descendants"

for portraying a woman that is reeling from personal tragedy, Mrs. O'Brien,

Jessica Chastain, "The Tree of Life"

for portraying an emotionally damaged sister, Sissy Sullivan,

Carey Mulligan, "Shame"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Original Song goes to…

for encapsulating the struggle for people of color,

"The Living Proof" from "The Help"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Foreign Language Film goes to…

a film about a woman losing her memories captures beauty with poetry,

"Poetry". Director: Chang-dong Lee

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Animated Feature goes to…

a 3D adaptation of the beloved comic strip series,

"The Adventures of Tintin". Director: Steven Spielberg

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Original Screenplay goes to…

(tie)

for a story about a woman that refuses to grow up,

"Young Adult". Written by Diablo Cody

and

for a story about the greatest day of life could be your last,

"Melancholia" . Written by Lars von Trier

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Adapted Screenplay goes to…

for a story about a disillusioned lawyer who tries to cash in a wrestler's prowess,

"Win Win". Story by Tom McCarthy and Joe Tiboni. Written by Tom McCarthy

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Documentary goes to…

for showing the inside story about what it takes be on the front page,

"Page One: Inside The New York Time". Producers: Alan Oxman and Adam Schlesinger

And for the granddaddy of them all, The Suck-It! Award goes to…

a movie exploiting 9/11 to get the sympathy of the audience,

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" nomination for Best Picture

Another year has gone by and more people are getting screwed over for getting their deserved nominations. We broke all the rules this year. Congrats to big winners, "Shame", "Melancholia" and "The Descendants" Until next year...

Trailer Tuesday Smackdown - 2/21/2012

The winner last week is "Beyond the Black Rainbow". That trailer is weird and I love it. This week is very subdued. Here are the two trailer duking it out this week.

 The US "Sound of Noise" trailer.

 This trailer is very quirky and wacky with its "Stomp" vibe with taking random objects to make music. I love this trailer. 

 vs

   

 "Friends with Kids" red band trailer.

 Possibly the bathroom humor would turn off a number of people, but you have to admire the people in this movie.

Other trailers: Struck by Lightning, Cherry, Dorothy and the Witches of Oz, Intruders and Pusher (Remake).

Trailer Tuesday Smackdown - 2/14/2012

Okay. Since nobody is voting for the smackdowns, I am no longer opening the voting. I am going to decide the trailers and the winners. Maybe if I build up more than ten readers, I could re-open it.

 The clear winner last week was "The Amazing Spider-Man".

 

I have read the book and I was fine with it. Looking at the trailer, I was surprised that it was more action packed that I thought it was. I didn't want to post the first trailer that it was meh.

vs

 This trailer reminded me of 2001: A Space Odyssey, but more fucked up then that movie.

Other trailers: Seeking A Friend For the End of the World and Extraterrestrial

Voting Is Now Open...

Here are the nominees for the 4th Annual Omie Awards. Make sure to vote for the person or movies that you think should have been nominated for an Oscar. (Remember, this is for the omitted nominees. Not the actual nominees this year.) The winners will be revealed on Friday, February 24th.

Happy voting!

Trailer Tuesday Smackdown - 2/7/2011

Well, since nobody voted on the last Trailer Smackdown-- I didn't expect anybody would-- I declare the winner of last week is "Iron Sky." This week sees more big budget trailers. I am not including Super Bowl teasers, because they are a tease-- not a full trailer. Here are the contenders:


 We haven't seen Sarah Polley behind the director's chair since her exquisite movie "Away From Her" came out in 2007. Now, she is back with "Take the Waltz". It stars tjhe phenomenal Michelle Williams as woman who is married to Seth Rogan, but has feelings for another man, Luke Kirby.

 vs

 
 The offical trailer for "The Amazing Spider-Man" came out. I know that people have reservations of having a reboot, but I have to say that I kinda like the badass Peter Parker, than the dorky one of the Sam Raimi series of movies. Don't get me wrong, two out of the three movies were my favorites.

Other trailers include: Game Change, Brake, and Red Lights

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory (2011)

Directed by: Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky

Stars: Jessie Misskelley Jr, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, John Mark Byers and Terry Hobbs

Being that this is the final film of the Paradise Lost trilogy, it feels bittersweet. I have watched the West Memphis Three started out as teenagers who are now in their mid-30s. It was heartbreaking to me that these three innocent men are still behind bars, even though the original judge that presiding over their trailer, David Burnett have denied their appeals numerous times.

The movie goes back to the side of the three men saying that they are innocent, even though they went down a similar path with Revelations as accusing another stepfather of the murdered boys saying that he might be involved, Terry Hobbs. I did not want to get into what was discussed, but it might be possible that he could have done it.

This film showed the new evidence that was not available back in 1994 when the trials were going on. there was evidence that showed the Byers was not mutilated by a knife, but by a wild animal that found the bodies. New DNA evidence showed that a hair belonging to Terry Hobbs was on the shoelaces that was found of the boys. None of the DNA from the WM3 was found on the victims.

The one person that was vocal about making the WM3 die is now stomping for their release, John Mark Byers. he is adamant that the WM3 should be released.

You would think that the new evidence that was introduced would grant the men a new trial, but it doesn't. They have to go into huge hurdles in order to get their convictions overturned. Luck was on their side as Burnett was not assigned to their case.

I won't tell you what happens at the end, but I felt that the WM3 have gotten a raw deal. I felt duped. Really? It reinforces the fact that the justice system is broken. This is it on the screen. Shown in its full un-glory. When I finished watching the film, I was aggravated. These three innocent men have gotten a raw deal. Their youth was taken away from them and the state of Arkansas took a huge shit on them. This makes me question, how could take have happened? It makes me question the validity of the judicial system as it is today.

My Rating:

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations

Paradise Lost 2: Revelations (2000)

Directed by Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky

Stars: Jessie Misskelly Jr, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols, John Mark Byers, Kathy Bakken, Burk Sauls, Brent Turvey

After the events of the first film, the story of the West Memphis Three has made international news. The way that the first film unfolds it is revealed that the boys did not receive a fair trail when they were convicted of murdering Chris Byers, Stevie Branch and Michael Moore in 1993.

A group has formed to free the three who are now in the their twenties lead by Burk Sauls who has gathered people from across the nation in order to stomp for the cause of freeing them.

This movie does not have the same impartiality as the first film. It seems to take a very pointed look at the stepfather of one of the victims named John Mark Byers. He is a man that has very heated threates against the WM3. he is shown to have has a violent past. There was the mystery behind his wife's death. Damien Echols himself pointed the finger at Byers saying that he was the one who killed those boys.

There were experts for the defense that were not used during the first that dissemable the porsectuiong notions that the boys were killed in a different place and they bodies were dumped in the creek bed that faithful May day. An expert named Brent Turvey was shown the crime scene photo that suggested that one of the boys has a bite mark on his face that did not match anybody of the convicted men.

During the course of the film, it was suggested that the WMPD have covered up potential evidence that would have exonerated the teens, but either it was destroyed or simply lost.

The major misstep with this movie was the pointed way that the filmmakers accused John Mark Byers as the  killer without any evidence of his guilt or innocence. After a while, I had grown tired of looking at Byers face all the time if he was burning the graves of the killers with gasoline, him pulling out his dentures or his constant presence at the numerous appeals that the men have filed. It grew tiresome.

My Rating:

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hills

Paradise Lost: The Child Murders at Robin Hills (1996)

Directed by Joe Berlinger, Bruce Sinofsky

Stars: Jesse Misskelley, Jr, Jason Baldwin, Damien Echols

I heard about this movie from Tassoula from the Cinebanter podcast when they recently had a discussion about the now trilogy series of documentaries from HBO films. It was shown on VOD over the weekend and I had to see them.

The first movie tells the story of three outcasts from West Memphis, Arkansas that are accused of committing the murders of three 8-year-old boys in May 1993. Directors Berlinger and Sinofsky follow the trails of the accused.

First, it was Jessie Misskelley Jr that tried first, because of a coerced confession that would admitted into evidence that said that Echols, Baldwin and himself committed the murders. Even though, it seems that the Jessie's story didn't fit the timeline of when the murders occurred. The subsequent trails of the three teenagers seemed to be a media circus.

It was a modern day witch hunt. Accusing these three boys of a crime that they may not have commit. I understood the families of the murder victims when they said that they want the accused burn in hell. Personally, I was a little sketchy if they were actually innocent or not. It seemed the evidence or lack thereof was all circumstantial evidence and here say. There was no physical evidence that linked the trio to the crimes.

After the credit rolled on the movie, I was flabbergasted by the outcome of the trial. How could this be possible? The judicial is a joke if this was the outcome. Did I have my doubts about the verdict? Absolutely. Did I believe that they were all innocent? No. I had my doubts about Echols in the last moments of the movie.

This movie had me shaking my head in disbelief. The filmmakers' cameras were an impartial jury to the people who may not have known about what really happened. Unprecedented access was more astonishing them the OJ Simpson trial or Michael Jackson's. It amazes me that the filmmakers could make a film that did not pass judgment on anyone. It cast reasonable doubt on other potential suspects that the WMPD did not bother to investigate. Amazing.

My Rating:

The Omie Awards Announcement

It's that time again ladies and gentlemen for the award show for the people that were left out of the Oscar nomination list last week. To the tens of people reading this, send me your picks of who was left out. The nominees will be announced on February 7th. Get your vote in. Thanks.