John Cusack and Samuel L Jackson in starring roles, and, from the trailer, 1408 looks great!

Watch the trailer

I like John Cusack, so I hold out some kind of hope for this. From the short clip (and I must admit, I’ve not read ANY Stephen King since Dolores Claiborne), I can see similarities to Kubrik’s ‘The Shining’. Cusack’s character even seems to look remarkably like Jack Torrence (Jack Nicholson from The Shining).

Good films based on Stephen King’s works are remarkably few and far between, when you consider the extensive list that’s been made.

Personal faves would be Misery, Carrie, Stand by Me, Shawshank Redemption, and the Green Mile.

Atrocities? Lawnmower Man, It, The Tommyknockers, The Langoliers, Cujo……
I could go on.
It’s a long list unfortunately. Let’s hope this doesn’t end up on it.

Firstly:
Pan’s Labyrinth receiving 6 nominations:

Achievement in Art Direction
Achievement in Cinematography
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year
Achievement in Makeup
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
Original Screenplay

I loved Pan’s Labyrinth. Easily my favourite film of last year, and, if I had my way, it would walk away with Best Foreign Language Film and Original Screenplay. A real shame it’s not nominated in best film (more on that later….)

United 93 receiving two nominations:

Achievement in Directing (Paul Greengrass)
Achievement in Film Editing

Another of my favourite films from last year. I thought it might have been overlooked, and am really happy that it hasn’t been.

Children of Men gets 3 nominations:

Achievement in Cinematography
Achievement in Film Editing
Adapted Screenplay

The Best Actor in a Leading Role category is interesting:

Leonardo Di Caprio (Blood Diamond)
Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson)
Peter O’ Toole (Venus)
Will Smith (Pursuit of Happyness)
Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

I would love to see Peter O’ Toole take the award. He’s been nominated 6 times in the past. He has been awarded an Academy Honorary Award in 2003 which he accepted saying that he would still like to “win the lovely bugger outright”.
I can’t help but feel that he’ll be beaten to the statue again this year. Forest Whitaker’s performance as Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland is simply incredible.

And then there’s Babel getting 7 nominatons:

Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Achievement in Directing
Achievement in Film Editing
Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score)
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Original Screenplay

I’m sorry. Maybe I’m missing something. What is so great about this film?
I found it dull, really dull. It has some of the most contrived plot points I’ve seen in a film.
Granted, the performances are good, as is the direction, but the script sucks, and without a half way decent script…….

Anyway, full list of nominations is available from the Oscars website

1. Spice World
2. Titanic
3. Grease 2
4. Waterworld
5. Hostel
6. Anaconda
7. Batman & Robin
8. Gigli
9. Catwoman
10. Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot.

I haven’t seen all the films on the list, but……

Titanic wasn’t that bad. Fair enough, it’s no masterpiece, but compared to something like Raise the Titanic, then (to quote Mark Kermode) it’s Citizen Kane.

Waterworld didn’t live up to the hype, fair enough, but it’s not as bad a film as say….. Razor Blade Smile…..

Hostel just a gore flick. An endurance test for teenagers, and not that bad either…..

And why isn’t Little Man on that list?!
Worst film of all time surely?!

Sci-fi thriller Children of Men yesterday won the University of Southern California’s Scripter prize.

The award recognises book-to-film adaptations, with the honours in this case going to crime writer PD James and screenwriters Alfonso Cuáron, Timothy J Sexton, David Arata, Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby. Cuáron also directed the film.

I really enjoyed Children of Men. Having not read the book, I can’t really comment on whether or not it should have won.

Other nominations were:

• The Devil Wears Prada
• The Illusionist
• The Last King of Scotland
• Notes on a Scandal

Pan’s Labyrinth - Easily my choice for best film of 2006. If you haven’t seen it, you’re missing a masterpiece. IMDB

United 93 - Superb retelling of the hijacking of the 4th plane on September 11. IMDB

Capote - A wonderful performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, but I didn’t really like the film. IMDB

Wisconsin Death Trip - Beautiful film based on newspaper articles in Wisconsin between 1890 - 1900. IMDB

Roman Holiday - Not seen it in years. Still as good as I remembered it. IMDB

To Kill a Mocking Bird - Better than I remembered it, and that was amazing! IMDB

Casino Royale - A gritty Bond movie. And it’s good! IMDB

Requiem - Hard hitting German exorcism film. Really powerful, but not a fun watch. IMDB

Wizard of Oz - It was a joy to see it projected. IMDB

Hellboy - Really enjoyable comic book to film adaptation, something that rarely goes well! IMDB

Ghost in the Shell 2 (Innocence) - Really good sequel to one of the most amazing animes ever. IMDB

Children of Men - Superb dark dystopian thriller about a society where women are infertile. IMDB

I’m sure I’m missing some in there. I’ll update it as I remember.

This is a fabulous idea for reusing your wine and liquor bottles after
your holiday parties. Just spray them with chalkboard paint. After the paint dries then rub chalk all over the bottle and then erase it. This will “prime” the bottle and give it that old chalkboard look that you so love!

Looks really nice and considering I drink a lot of wine, there should be no shortage of materials!

Have a look at this. It canexxors:

1×1=1
11×11=121
111×111=12321
1111×1111=1234321
11111×11111=123454321
111111×111111=12345654321
1111111×1111111=1234567654321
11111111×11111111=123456787654321
111111111×111111111=12345678987654321

Nice.

No excuses. I’ve just been lame.
So, now I am going to make a concerted effort to write stuff a bit more often. Let’s see how long it lasts this time