Oscars: The Morning After

 A fairly uneventful Oscar telecast last night. Obviously after the events of last year, pedestrian was a good thing. 

As predicted, Everything Everywhere All At Once was the big winner, scoring a total seven Oscars, including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Supporting Actor & Supporting Actress.

Congratulations to all the winners, especially Jamie Lee Curtis and Ke Huy Quan, whose careers I've been following since the original '78 Halloween and 1984's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.

Thankfully there wasn't a lot of filler material as in previous years, just awards & musical performances, as it should be. Hopefully that's the script going forward. But we all know how Hollywood likes a rewrite. 

2023 Oscar Predictions: Can "Anything" Stop Everything Everywhere All At Once?

It's Oscar time again. Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert's Everything Everywhere All At Once leads the pack with 11 nominations and seems to have all the momentum for several big wins, including Best Picture. But as we've learned in recent years, anything's possible. We see shall Sunday. Below are my picks in the major categories. Enjoy the show.

Picture: Everything Everywhere All At Once

Director: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Actor: Brendan Fraser, The Whale

Actress: Michelle Yeoh, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Supporting Actor: Ke Huy Quan, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Supporting Actress: Jamie Lee Curtis, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Original Screenplay: Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert, Everything Everywhere All At Once

Adapted Screenplay: Sarah Polley, Women Talking

International Feature: All Quiet on the Western Front (Germany) 

Oscars: The Morning After

 So, an interesting Oscar telecast last night to say the least, all punctuated by CODA's win for Best Picture and Will Smith's "apparent" assault of Chris Rock on live TV. 

The nearly four-hour telecast was anything but pedestrian this year, from dancers during the In Memoriam portion to seemingly no on-screen information regarding winners or the categories they won for once their names were called.  

The Godfather 50th-anniversary segment was nice with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Francis Ford Coppola, but Shaun White, Kelly Slater and Tony Hawk presenting the Bond 60th retrospective? Were Timothy Dalton, Pierce Brosnan and Daniel Craig not in the budget?

And the audience's reaction (or non-reaction) to its new Fan Favorite Movies category said it all. As much as the Academy wants to appeal to the kids, this isn't the MTV Movie Awards. 

But of course Best Actor nominee (and eventual winner) Will Smith's response to presenter Chris Rock's joke at the expense of Smith's wife Jada Pinkett was the real head-scratcher of the evening. Was this staged or really a physical assault on live television? I fear the only ones that will ever know for sure are Smith and Rock. 

Just hard to believe a celebrity of Smith's stature, the front-runner for Best Actor that evening, would actually strike someone before a worldwide television audience just minutes before their category is announced and then be allowed to return to their seat as if nothing happened. Anything's possible in this day and age, but the whole thing seemed just a little too "theatrical" if you ask me. 

Drama aside, congratulations to all the winners. Each were well deserved, especially CODA's three wins, including Best Picture. Just a remarkable little movie that reminds us what life and being human is all about. Seek it out if you haven't seen it. 

Can't wait to see next year's show. 

2022 Oscar Predictions: Can The Power of the Dog hold off CODA?

 Yes, I'm still here. And what better time to return than Oscar season, right? 

 This year's telecast returns to the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood (no more awkward Union Station) with Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog leading the field with 12 nominations. 

Will Dog be able to hold off the surging CODA? Will Ariana DeBose, Troy Kotsur, & Will Smith complete their award-season sweeps? We shall see Sunday.

 Below are my picks in the major categories. Enjoy the show. 

Picture: CODA

Director: Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog

Actor: Will Smith, King Richard

Actress: Jessica Chastain, The Eyes of Tammy Faye

Supporting Actor: Troy Kotsur, CODA

Supporting Actress: Ariana DeBose, West Side Story

International Feature: Drive My Car, Japan

Animated Feature:  Encanto

Original Screenplay:  Kenneth Branagh, Belfast

Adapted Screenplay: Sian Heder, CODA

Quick Blu Review: Mario Puzo's The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone (1990)

 For 30 years The Godfather Part III has been the red-headed stepchild of director Francis Ford Coppola and author Mario Puzo's beloved Corleone gangster trilogy.

Released in 1990, 16 years after the first two films both took home Oscar gold for Best Picture within 24 months of each other, cementing Coppola as one of the greatest filmmakers of his generation, the third installment was widely maligned for its convoluted plot and the amateurish performance of then-19-year-old Sofia Coppola, the director's daughter. 

For the film's 30th anniversary, Coppola was afforded an opportunity by Paramount Pictures to re-edit and re-imagine the film as the trilogy epilogue he and Puzo had originally intended, even giving it the title they always wanted, The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone.

It's 1979, roughly 20 years after the events of previous film, and patriarch Micheal Corleone (Al Pacino) is working on a deal with the Vatican Bank to finally legitimize his family's business holdings once and for all. It seems the institution has lost north of $700 million and needs Corleone to bail them out, a proposal the aging, second-generation don agrees to, as long as he is given the Vatican's majority stake in an international real estate conglomerate, an acquisition that would make Corleone one of the richest and most powerful men in the world.

But of course Michael's attempt to go straight is met with skepticism by both members of his immediate family and his business family, especially Don Altobello (Eli Wallach), who tells Michael that the other heads of the families want a piece of his new Vatican deal. 

To complicate matters, Michael's only son Anthony wants to leave law school and follow his dream of becoming an opera singer, while younger daughter Mary (Coppola) begins a relationship with street tough Vincent Mancini (Andy Garcia, in an Oscar-nominated performance), the illegitimate son of Michael's brother Sonny. 

The best thing about the third film has always been Andy Garcia. Coppola has restructured both the beginning and ending with Coda, trimming only about five minutes from the original running time, but it doesn't really provide any greater clarity or efficiency to a chapter that's always been a bit muddled and suffered from too many moving parts. 

Oddly enough Sofia Coppola's performance comes across more nuanced three decades later, injecting just the right amount of naivete and innocence needed for the role, making the character's climatic fate seem even more tragic.     

Newly released on Blu-ray by Paramount Home Video, Coda is presented in its native 1.85:1 aspect ratio and offers a satisfying viewing experience. The print is reportedly restored but it doesn't appear all that different from the one used for The Godfather Collection: The Coppola Restoration Blu-ray set back in 2008. Gordon Willis' cinematography is warm and full of color while natural film grain is maintained throughout. Overall a nice transfer for a film that visually blends in perfectly with the previous two chapters.

The Dolby 5.1 TrueHD soundtrack sounds great and both dialog and Carmine Coppola's score are clear and immersive at minimal levels.

The Godfather Coda: The Death of Michael Corleone makes for an interesting watch, but ultimately doesn't change or bring anything new to saga. It frankly comes off as a bit gimmicky, a ploy by Coppola and Paramount to entice audiences to give the film a second chance.

Granted the original final installment was never in the same league with the earlier films, but it did act as a mostly serviceable epilogue for our beloved Corleone family. I'll stick with The Godfather Part III. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! 

Quick Blu Review: Superdome (1978)

Made-for-TV movies were a big part of life in the 1970s. It seemed every week at least one of the networks (there were only three back then) had some star-studded drama or adventure to glue us to our television sets from 9-11PM each Sunday and Monday night. They were always heavily promoted and in most cases even bigger spectacles than the films playing in theaters.

I didn't catch many of them as a child, as I usually was in bed by 9PM on school nights, but I do remember marveling at all the full-page TV GUIDE ads each week, imagining my own plots and characters. 1978's Superdome was one of those movies. 

Directed by Jerry Jameson (Airport '77, Raise the Titanic), Superdome unfolds in New Orleans a few days before the Super Bowl and follows The Los Angeles Cougars as they prepare for the big game. There's general manager Mike Shelley (David Janssen), juggling both the needs of the team and a amorous reporter (Donna Mills), veteran receiver Dave Walecki (Ken Howard), battling through knee pain and a neglected wife, suave quarterback Tom McCauley (Tom Selleck), fending off both groupies and the daughter of a persistent advertising executive and beloved former player P.K. Jackson (Clifton James), wading through a sea of parties and mounting debt.  

The drama soon turns deadly when a league security man and team trainer are mysteriously taken out by an unseen assailant and soon we learn a national gambling syndicate has a vested interest in keeping the heavily favored Cougars from winning the game. Everyone is now a target, and a suspect, as the clock ticks down to kickoff. 

Superdome was ABC's attempt to cash in on the building pigskin fervor the week of Super Bowl XII (the game was actually played at the newly opened Louisiana Superdome that year). The plot is predictable, as are the plethora of one-dimensional characters, but the swiftly paced 97-minute telefilm is undeniably entertaining, featuring smile-inducing performances from some of television's biggest past and future stars.

Recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber, Superdome features a new 2K scan and is presented in its native 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The picture is well defined and devoid of any scratches for the most part, but this is '70s-era television so don't expect a lot of vibrant colors and pop. Overall, a nice transfer for a film that hasn't received much love on home video since it first aired over 40 years ago.

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track sounds great and both dialog and John Cacavas' score are clear and immersive at minimal levels.

Extras include trailers and an audio commentary with director Jameson and film historians Howard S. Berger and Steve Mitchell. 

Superdome isn't television's finest hour but it is a fun little reminder of the era and for under $10 on Amazon, an inexpensive discovery/diversion if you've never seen it.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Remembering Sean Connery

Like most, I woke Saturday morning to the news beloved screen icon Sean Connnery had passed away at 90. 

 As a child of the 1970s, I probably first took notice of the charasmatic leading man with the commanding Scottish brogue in Michael Crichton's 1978 Victorian-era adventure The Great Train Robbery with Donald Sutherland, one of the many matiness my mom and I enjoyed Saturday afternoons after errands.  

I can then remember catching 1965's Thunderball on HBO at my dad's one summer afternoon in 1980. Roger Moore had been my only exposure to British superspy James Bond up until that point and I marveled at the fact that there were actually earlier, rather cool adventures with another dashing actor originating the role of 007. 

From there Connery popped up in smaller, independently produced films the next few years, providing memorable turns in Time Bandits, Outland, Never Say Never Again, Higlander and In The Name of the Rose.

It wasn't until his Oscar-winning performance as Jimmy Malone in 1987's The Untouchables that Connery became a sought-after Hollywood A-lister at age 57, headlining major studio films like The Presidio, Indiana Jones and Last Crusade, Family Business, The Hunt For Red October, Rising Sun and The Rock. Seriously, the guy made a film a year for the next 13 years until age 70. Just remarkable. 

Sean Connery meant different things to many genrations of film fans. To me, in addition to being the best Bond ever, he'll always be remembered as a towering prescence on screen, an actor who gave us some of the best and oft-quoted characters in the history of cinema and made every film he appeared in a little better and infinately more intresting.