Brett Ratner and Don Mischer Co-Producing 84th Academy Awards

WHAT? NO!!!! STOP DOING THIS TO US! WE DON'T DESERVE IT!!!! I'm sorry, but the more mainstream the Academy Awards becomes, the less it holds to what it truly should be. Brett Ratner and Don Mischer are teaming up for this year's Oscar telecast, and neither of them is proving too inspiring a choice. First of all, Don Mischer was the man behind this past year's hack job of an awards ceremony, and I did not appreciate it at all. And then there's Brett Ratner, who has brought us massive failure after massive failure, all out of the attempt for excitement.

So why did the Academy do this? Because they're looking for somebody with a comedic sensibility, and who knows that better than the man behind Rush Hour 3? I'm being sarcastic, but this is truly a terrible decision I feel awful for existing to see it take place. What do you think? Happy? Engrossingly depressed and alone in the world? Because that's what I feel. When are they going to get Claire Denis to produce the awards?

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" Trailer

I'm not sure why the marketing team behind this film is so bent on using thumping and sinisterly effective scores from films I hated, but now they've gotten around to using one of themes from X-Men: First Class. Sadly, all of this is rather misleading to what the actual film will be like. I don't imagine Tomas Alfredson will be using loud and thumping scores too much in his film, and the trailer focuses very much on all the concrete aspects of the story. Yes, it's just as effective as the previous trailer, but can't we get something more?

For Your Anticipation: We call it enrichment.

There's a lot in place to make me want to like Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and that's sadly just not going to happen. It could be attributed to the silliness of the plot, the lack of psychological resonance in the execution, or the obviousness of it all. However, that can all be boiled down to the fact that it's a part of this particular series which has never been truly spectacular, even when it was headed by Charles Heston. I'll see the film this weekend, but I don't expect it to be anything special.

Jones, Smith, and Winfrey earning Academy's Governor Awards

Well I suppose I can't feel too vitally disappointed by the Academy's choices for the Governor Awards, but I find it so much more interesting when I haven't heard of a name on the list. In this case, I've heard of all three. Oprah Winfrey is a dead giveaway, and it makes sense that the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award would go to her. There were rumors of her hosting the Oscars, so I'm glad that this takes her effectively out of the running. Then there's James Earl Jones, and I can't imagine having a truly bad thing to say about the man.

It's freakin' James Earl Jones! He deserves it. It's also nice to see Dick Smith getting an award amongst the two heavy weights. Having done makeup on films like Taxi Driver, The Exorcist, and The Godfather, which I watched a bit of last night as part of AMC's mob week, he's a more than honorable choice, no pun intended. So what do you think of these selections? Post a comment below! Also, as we get ever closer to the end of the year, who do you expect (or hope) to host the festivities? My vote is still for Kevin Spacey, but I'll settle for Jennifer Aniston. Hell, they both deserve better than they got from Horrible Bosses.

For Your Anticipation: You. Me. Beer. Baseball.

I am so completely sick of body-switch comedies at this point. When are we going to see a body-switch tragedy for once? I've been griping about The Change-Up for what seems like forever, and the only thing to really have me interested in this film is Olivia Wilde. I know she's ridiculously beautiful, and I'm not the first guy to notice that. However, she is also a really good actress. Cowboys and Aliens, TRON Legacy, and countless others have squandered her usefulness entirely, and I foresee something similar happening this weekend. In fact, it's a guarantee. We know how this ends up, which is in stupidity and failure.

"Drive" Poster

From a birthday standpoint, which I won't get into any further than that, today is somewhat melancholy, but this honestly worked to make my day so much more enjoyable. Yes, it's a simple one-sheet, but I think it looks wonderful, and I want nothing more than to see this film. It's about a month away, but well worth the wait.

"Twixt" Trailer

You can tell the age of a director by the projects they choose to work on. Clint Eastwood is busy making semi-mediocre films each year that are increasingly plain. Steven Spielberg has gotten honestly lost in the bustle of the new and shiny. Francis Ford Coppola is making films like Twixt, which seem oh so predictable and yet unpredictable in a way. It looks kind of corny, more than a tad stale, and reminds me eerily of Rubber. Yet I'm somehow intrigued. This trailer doesn't play as bad. It plays as unconventional, and as such it has a sense of draw. And then the title card comes up, capping it off well enough.

"Like Crazy" Trailer

And now I get to go through the phases of reminding myself that I'm not crazy. I just have a higher taste in cinema. As you might have already guessed, I'm not liking the trailer for Like Crazy at all. It's sad, because I heard there was good reception coming out of Sundance, and I guess you can't trust anyone but yourself. I'm usually into these mellow sort of films, but aside from the fact that you can't hear a damn thing the characters are saying, it just looks really dull and kind of dumb. Not to mention the feeling like I've seen it before in the much better form of Blue Valentine. It is kind of pretty, and I'll give it that.

Film Review: "Cold Weather" (***1/2)

It doesn't surprise me that the most entertaining and rewarding cinematic experience I've had since The Tree of Life (which I don't want anyone to believe that I hated) came from an almost unknown source. You can spend so much time away from greatness such as this and begin to blow it out of proportion, so a level head is more than a little bit useful in circumstances such as these. Oddly enough, I find myself having difficulty cracking into this review, because with a film so mundane in its objectives and purpose, what exactly are you supposed to talk about?

Cold Weather is a title that really only has anything to do with one moment in the film, and it's a small moment. That's really what the bulk of Cold Weather is is these small moments, but something that director Aaron Katz manages to do is put a mystery plot in the center of this film. Doug is a former forensic science major who has that typical slacker attitude and is now living his sister in Oregon. This film doesn't wallow in a slacker finding resolve to follow his dreams, nor is it about an awkward living situation with his sister. It's not about the problems of working in an ice factory, and it's certainly not about the weather.

Box Office Update: "Cowboys" Gets "Smurf"ed

I'm sorry Damon Lindelof, but you really shouldn't have brought it up in the first place. While some will gripe that both films opened about equally, Cowboys and Aliens had more potential and expectation going into this weekend, so the adequate opening weekend gross just doesn't match up. The Smurfs, on the other hand, played higher than it was expected or deserved to, so it's kind of the champion of this weekend, regardless of what Monday's numbers say. In other news, completely unrelated to the colossal debuts this weekend, Captain America dove 61% from last weekend, showing that it doesn't have quite the same staying power as Thor did in May.

Deathly Hallows: Part 2 continues to do really well despite the expected massive drop in its second weekend. Sadly, you can tell my disposition about the film from how I only refer to it as Deathly Hallows: Part 2, and not Harry Potter. Crazy, Stupid, Love is faring as you'd expect a standard rom-com to nowadays. The superior Friends with Benefits dipped precisely 50%, and should hopefully hold up better than the former. So expect the box office to hit a massive slump after this weekend, much like it did last year.

1. The Smurfs (First Weekend; $36.2 million)

2. Cowboys and Aliens (First Weekend; $36.2 million)

3. Captain America: The First Avenger (Second Weekend; $24.9 million)

4. Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Third Weekend; $21.9 million)

5. Crazy, Stupid, Love (First Weekend; $19.3 million)

6. Friends with Benefits (Second Weekend; $9.3 million)

7. Horrible Bosses (Fourth Weekend; $7.1 million)

8. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (Fifth Weekend; $6 million)

9. Zookeeper (Fourth Weekend; $4.2 million)

10. Cars 2 (Sixth Weekend; $2.3 million)

Film Review: "Crazy, Stupid, Love" (**)

In a summer where I'm simply begging for a romantic-comedy that takes things seriously, Crazy, Stupid, Love was the biggest opportunity I could have wished for. I often wonder how things that seem so clearly easy to make wonderful take a turn for the worst for no reason. Earlier this week I spoke of how Friends with Benefits managed to be about more than just its title, and that's made it so worthwhile. The problem with this film is that it's entirely too much about its title, and sadly not just the "Love" part.

The film has many different branching subplots, but it starts out with Cal Weaver, a divorced man who is trying to establish himself after his marriage. He ends up forming an unlikely friendship with Jacob, a smooth-talking womanizer who tries to reform Cal to being a more functioning human being. In the meantime, Jacob is falling for beautiful and sassy red-head Hannah, which raises complications late in the game. Also, Cal's son Robbie has a crush on his babysitter Jessica, who coincidentally has a crush on Cal. If this all sounds so predictable and sad, that's because it is.

Film to See in 2011: August

This will be a bit of an unorthodox edition of this monthly column, mostly due to the fact that I can't say I'm truly ecstatic about any of the films releasing this August. In any case, I'll be busy this month catching up on films I've missed out on over the past couple months. Meek's Cutoff and Tabloid are two films I'm eagerly waiting to see, and I'll be sitting down this afternoon for Crazy, Stupid, Love, so it's very much a reserved time of the year. In my opinion, it's a month too many in a Summer that has long since become redundant. Still, there are a few films probably worth checking out.

I can't say I feel anything but contempt for The Change-Up, which stacks together the repetitive Jason Bateman and the much maligned Ryan Reynolds. Rise of the Planet of the Apes has been artificially cold on the radar for quite some time. The Help honestly looks insipid, and sadly what you'd expect to see from it. 30 Minutes or Less could be fun, but it lacks the emotional core that made Zombieland enjoyable in the first place. No comment on Final Destination 5, Glee's concert film, Spy Kids 4, or Columbiana, and that's for good reason.