Now look - I’m well aware that most movies that are based on Saturday Night Live sketches don’t turn out so great.  And really, that may be putting it lightly.  When I had first read about a MacGruber movie, I naturally rolled my eyes and thought it was a dumb idea.  Sure, the sketch itself can be funny from time to time, but stretched out to an hour and a half?  Yikes.

But then I saw the trailer, and it was actually pretty funny.  That got me reading more about the production of the film, who’s in it, who wrote it, and so on.  After everything I’ve seen and read, I’m pretty convinced that - believe it or not - MacGruber is going to be a very funny movie.  Here are five reasons why:

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I’m not going to write about who deserved to win which awards, nor will I whine about a terrible movie cleaning house at this year’s Oscar ceremonies; I’ve already done plenty of both.  Instead - and Paul already started this off with a pretty good live blog - I simply wanted to comment on what I thought were the best, worst, and most memorable moments from the awards ceremony itself.  Overall I feel pretty neutral about the show, but you can’t really expect anything too cutting edge from prime time network television.  Still, the ceremony did have its moments, and here are the ones that stuck out the most to me.

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On Friday afternoon I was sitting around thinking of something to write for today and I had absolutely nothing on my mind.  I went completely blank so I attempted to source my wife for ideas.  She admitted that this wasn’t her thing but I said “just try.”  So when she said “I hate Juliette Lewis” I figured why not?

So here are my wife’s (word for word) reasons for hating Juliette Lewis.

1.  “Ok, she dated Brad Pitt and he’s a million times hotter than she is.”

2.  “Ummm, I think she’s very unattractive, she’s so ugly.”

3.  “She used to be on this TV show, like in the 80s (I Married Dora), and that’s where I saw her and thought she was the worst actress ever.”

4.  “Can you help me?”

5.  “Her whiny, annoying voice.”

So there you have it.  My wife’s one hell of a muse.  Personally I’m not a huge fan of Lewis either.  I don’t really hate her but I can understand how that whiny, long, drawn out way of talking that she has can affect people.  Plus if you’ve ever seen her in the movie What’s Eating Gilbert Grape you will not like her, at all.  My wife just said “Oh my God yeah, that’s so true.”

P.S. I attached a very annoying music video after the jump

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Sunday night marks the 82nd annual Academy Awards ceremony, and the description of the Oscars as a self-congratulatory circle-jerk amongst the Hollywood elite has never been more appropriate.  Unlike last year - which I’d argue was a very strong year for film - the nominees for all the major categories are underwhelming, and adding five more nominees to the category of Best Picture has further watered-down the ceremony.  It was a simple ploy to increase ratings, as the inclusion of normally neglected blockbusters in the category is a sure way to generate interest.  It still doesn’t make up for The Dark Knight snub of last year, though.

But since we cover movies here at Unreality, I give you my obligatory picks for the winners in each of the major categories.  Just like last year, I’ll be writing about I think should win, not necessarily my prediction of who or what is going to win. 

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I’ve written before that I’m not quite sure how I feel about Tim Burton.  He’s made some imaginative, classic films, and even his clunkers are more watchable than 99% of the crap that passes for movies these days.  Unfortunately, I think that the quality of Burton’s movies have been on a sharp decline in recent years - which brings me to his version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.  It’s not just Burton’s recent track record that is discouraging me from seeing his version of Alice, but that, from a creative standpoint, the story in Burton’s new film will likely go against the grain of the original.

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This is one hell of a debate.   You just can’t teach the awesomeness of a JCVD and a Dolph Lundgren.  I mean when you think 80’s and early 9os action stars you can’t leave these guys out.

No, they weren’t A-list actors but come on guys.  It’s impossible to mess with characters like Ivan Drago, He-Man, and basically anything Van Damme did before 1989.

It’s as great a topic as any and I’ve used 5 criteria below to make the comparison

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If you haven’t yet experienced Chat Roulette, you’re either missing out or incredibly lucky.  Allow me to explain.  Chat Roulette is, as you’d probably expect, well, chat roulette.  Simply by going to the website (you can access it by clicking HERE), you’re paired up in a video chat room with a total stranger.  If the person has a webcam (and really, it’s not much fun to chat with someone who doesn’t), you’ll see the results of your roulette “spin.”  It could be a cute girl from Brazil, it could be a man dressed as a cat, or it could be much, much worse.  I decided to spend some time on Chat Roulette and for the most part, it was pretty interesting.

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When I was a kid, I kept a list on a sheet of notebook paper of every Nintendo game I had beaten.  The list grew from one column to two, and soon enough I had to flip the sheet of paper over to account for all my triumphs.  The paper was, in a sense, my video game trophy case.  There was an exhilarating feeling of accomplishment when I beat a Nintendo game, especially when the game was notorious for being difficult.  After all, a grizzly bear’s head looks a lot more impressive on a hunter’s wall than, say, a deer.  Back in my glory days, beating a game was far from a given, though, and many games were considered unbeatable.

The point of this isn’t to brag about how good I was (and, I think, still am) at video games.  It’s that now, virtually every game I buy I expect to beat for the simple reason that video games just aren’t that difficult anymore.  But why?

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I’ve said this in the past and I’ll say it now:  I do not like the Academy Awards.  However, that doesn’t mean we don’t need it.  There are plenty of those out there that think the award show is simply another place for the higher ups in Hollywood to pat each other on the backs and celebrate being “better” than all of us.   And while I think that is true to an extent, you can’t deny that there are plenty of people in the academy who truly appreciate the work of their peers and do view this Award show as a recognition of this work.

For those of you who don’t know, the Academy consists of over 6000 people who have been chosen by those in the industry.  These people include Directors, Producers, Actors, etc etc and they are what make up the list of decision makers on determining who wins the Oscars.  One can only be a member if an invitation is given.   To find out more about the selection process you can check out How Stuff Works.

When you get down to it, the selection and voting process really isn’t all that bad.  The problem comes in when people think that the Academy itself consists of a bunch of liberal, artistic folks who tend to pick out winners that are movies who “send a message” or are “artistically superior.”  So it doesn’t really lend itself to much debate on larger pictures that most audiences have seen and enjoyed….

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The list of nominees for the upcoming Academy Awards has been released and soon enough, Paul and I will make our selections for who we think deserves to win in each of the major categories.  Before we get into that, though, I think now is as good a time as any to discuss which movies and actors didn’t receive nominations.

In any awards show or ceremony there are going to be snubs, but of course some stick out more than others.  In fact, the omission of some movies or actors can be considered downright egregious.  Overall, the list of nominees was pretty predictable and fair (and awesome, I guess, considering that District 9 made the cut) but there were a few movies and/or actors that I felt were unjustly left out.

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