OSCARS 2010 NOMINATIONS ANNOUNCED: A BATTLE OF THE SEXES AND THE EXES

The 2010 Oscar nominations were announced this morning and not only will this year be a Battle of the Sexes, but also a Battle of the Exes.  Director James Cameron (Avatar) will be going head-to-head with his former wife Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) in major categories like Best Director and Best Picture.  Each director garnered an astounding nine nominations. 

For the time ever, the format of the Best Picture category has been ammended to include ten films this year.  This year's nominees include:  Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, Up in the Air, Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, The Blind Side and District 9.  Although my heart leans towards The Blind Side as a personal favourite, in all probability this will be Avatar's year.

Finalists in the Best Actor category are: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), George Clooney (Up in the Air), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Morgan Freeman (Invictus) and Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker).  Make no mistake about it, it's all about Bridges in this category.

Nominees for Best Actress are: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Carey Mulligan (An Education), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) and Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia).  I think most of my readers will agree as per a recent poll here, that this will be Bullock's year.

CHRISTMASSIVE BOX OFFICE WEEKEND

Avatar holds on a second week on top of the Box Office, eclipsing its performance from last week with $75 million this weekend.  The praise continues to pour in for the film shot in 3-D technology and internationally to-date it has made $615 million worldwide in two weeks alone. Hopefully this will silence Perez Hilton in his claims that this film has "tanked".  Are you serious, Perez?  Get real, girl.

Sherlock Holmes starring Robert Downey Jr., Canadian darling Rachel McAdams and Jude Law opened in second this holiday weekend with $65.4 million.  The film has received some great reviews overall.  The film broke the previous record set by Marley & Me, with $24.7 million on its opening day - the biggest Christmas Day opening film of all time.

Fox's animated feature Alvin & The Chipmunks: The Squeakquel opened in third with a hefty $50.2 million in its debut.  I myself cannot believe how impressive this years' opening day numbers are.  I would attribute to this to being a result of Christmas Day falling on a Friday, normally an opening day for new films anyhow, enticing movie-goers with a wider selection of new films.

Universal Pictures' romantic comedy It's Complicated starring Meryl Streep, Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin performed very well in fourth, exceeding most expectations, taking in $22.1 million this weekend.  Read my review of it here.

Up In The Air expanded to 1,900 theatres this weekend and it took in $11.8 million alone based on all the Oscar buzz it continues to get.  Best Picture?  Not quite.

The Weinstein Company's musical Nine, which I absolutely adored and saw twice this weekend, performed well below expectations in eight spot, earning just $5.5 million.  The studio takes a severe hit after investing $80 million in this film, although hopefully it will fare better overseas when it gets a foregin release next year.  Perhaps this was an issue of timing because there certainly was enough buzz surrounding the film and the fine performances it features.  Oh well...  Check out my review of it here.

ALIEN ATTACK

It's pretty clear which film would top the Box Office this weekend. Opening in 3,400 theatres, James Cameron's Avatar slaughtered its competition taking, in $73 million. Worldwide, the 20th Century Fox film made an outstanding $232 million, almost recouping half of its rumoured $500 million budget as the most expensive film to be made ever. Read my review of it here.

Last week's top film Buena Vista's The Princess and The Frog, slips to second with $12.2 million and Warner Bros.' The Blind Side continues to impress in third, earning $10 million in its fifth week near the top.

Did You Hear About The Morgans the only other new film to open in the Top Ten, debuting in fourth with $7 million. The Sony Pictures film starring Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant continues to get disastrous reviews, earning back only an eighth of its lofty $58 million budget.

Oscar Best Picture contender Up in the Air continues to pull is some stellar numbers, coming in eighth this weekend with $3.1 million, only screening in limited release at 175 theatres.

Next week's tally should be interesting with all the amazing Christmas Day blockbuster releases arriving like It's Complicated, Nine, Sherlock Holmes and Alvin and The Chipmunks II.

GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEES ANNOUNCED

Up in the Air and Glee lead this year's pack of Golden Globe Awards nominees. The former garnered a total six nominations from the Hollywood Foreign Press Association in the motion picture categories, while the latter earned four in the television categories. Following closely behind Up in the Air with five nods is Rob Marshall's musical Nine, due in theatres on Christmas Day, while James Cameron's Avatar got four. Golden Globe darlings including 30 Rock, Mad Men and Big Love all earned three nominations behind Glee.

The motion picture acting categories are highly competitive this year and notably, personal favourites Sandra Bullock and Meryl Streep each received two nominations. Bullock is nominated for her stellar performance in The Blind Side (Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama) and also The Proposal (Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy). Meryl Streep will be competing against herself for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Musical or Comedy with Julie & Julia and the soon to be released It's Complicated; her 24th and 25th Golden Globe nominations and surely just two of many more to come.

The match for Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama is heated one with some really evenly-matched nominees including George Clooney (Up in the Air), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Morgan Freeman (Invictus), Tobey Maguire (Brothers) and Jeff Bridges (A Crazy Heart). The same can be said about the very competitive Best Supporting Actress category which will be pitting Mo'Nique (Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire), Pénelope Cruz (Nine), Julianne Moore (A Single Man) and co-stars Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air).

BUZZ FOR BULLOCK

Alas, quality prevails! Warner Bros.' The Blind Side continues to roll ahead of its competition with its positive buzz, putting it at the top of the Box Office this weekend, raking in $20 million. As reviewed here previously, the film is an absolute gem and I recommend it highly. There is actually quite a bit of Oscar buzz generating for Sandra Bullock's career-best performance here and I for one would love to see her get rewarded for her work on this film. After having seen many of the other contenders in the Best Female Lead Actress race, I am confident that she is a front-runner.

Of course, that teen vampire flick is still making more many than I could ever imagine in a lifetime, after a two-week reign. Despite a 63% slip from last week, it is still doing well enough to hang on for second with $15.7 million.

Brothers from Lionsgate Films, starring an incredible cast of Natalie Portman, Jake Gyllenhaal and Tobey Maguire debuts in third with a $9.7 million take. Read my review of the film here.

Hunky Matt Dillon has two films in the Top Five with Buena Vista's comedy Old Dogs in fifth at $6.9 million, bringing its total to $33 million, almost recouping its $35 million production budget. Dillon's other film, Sony Screen Gems' Armored placed sixth in its opening weekend with $6.6 million. The action-drama film also stars Laurence Fishburne.

Miramax Films' Everybody's Fine opened in tenth spot with $4 million in ticket sales. As reviewed earlier, the Robert De Niro headlined film is worth a watch. Also worthy of a mention is Paramount Pictures' Up In The Air directed/written by Jason Reitman (Juno) and starring George Clooney, which opened in only 15 theatres this weekend in 13th spot. The Oscar contender, which I reviewed back in September during TIFF, is getting lots of buzz in the Best Picture and Best Lead Actor categories.

Surprisingly running out of steam already is Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire. The film drops to twlefth spot, with a take of $2.3 million in its fifth week in theatres.

TIFF DAY 4 - UP IN THE AIR AND THE JONESES REVIEW

Just got home and I'm taking a quick break to feed Billy, my dog. Earlier today I watched a screening of Jason Reitman's Up In The Air, a follow-up to Juno which screened at TIFF a couple years ago to rave reviews. I must say that I was left with a very positive impression of this film; Reitman has done it again.

The story centers around George Clooney who is a motivational speaker, employed by a company which serves to terminate employees for corporations around the country. He is paired up with a rookie played by talented newcomer Anna Kendrick (Twilight). They both learn some important life lessons from one another about the meaning of love as they travel across the country. Clooney meanwhile, gets involved with the always excellent Vera Farmiga and decides to take her along back home to his younger sister's wedding, where the story unravels. He is faced with the greatest challenge of his life - finding out what he really wants in life after being convinced he did not want love in his life. Clooney's performance is nothing short of amazing and I fully expect him to be in the running for Best Lead Actor come Oscar season. Reitman's script is full of sheer wit and the laughs just kept coming. Up In The Air opens November 13, 2009. Grade: A-

As an aside, Oscar winning filmmaker Michael Moore was sitting a row behind me at Elgin Theatre, enjoying Up In The Air with his wife. He was very friendly and kindly posed for a photograph. Moore is in town to present his latest work Capitalism: A Love Story tonight also at Elgin Theatre.

Later in the day, I caught the debut screening The Joneses at the same venue. In attendance today were David Duchovny, Demi Moore and her partner Ashton Kutcher. The film is from relatively new director Derrick Borte. I happened to run into Ashton Kutcher on my way out of the rest room; he seemed a bit unapproachable. Actually, he is quite photo shy. Moore and Kutcher were seated a couple rows away from me and they munched happily on popcorn throughout the film. And if anyone wants to know the secret to Moore's amazing young looks, I'd say it appears to be the amount of water she drinks!

The film is about a group of Buzz Marketers managed by Moore. They situate themselves in an affluent neighbourhood with a mandate of turning locals onto products they are hired to promote. They do this under the guise of being a family. Although the film starts off entertainingly as a comedy, it seems to struggle in deciding whether it is in fact comedy or a drama. The tone of the second half of the film takes an unexpected twist I'd say, for the worse. The love story between Moore and Duchovny did not seem believable at all as they two had little on-screen chemistry. Moore is consistently strong and overall the acting was great. The main culprits were the poorly constructed plot and script. Not certain how this film will fare when and if it gets a wide release. Grade: C+

Here are some pics below I managed to get of Moore, Duchovny and up-and-comer Amber Heard.

And on the way out of the screening, I couldn't resist getting a few snaps of Kutcher and Moore looking lovey-dovey:

xW