MD Poll: Goin' South

When it comes to movies adapted from TV shows, Movie Dearest readers prefer them "Bigger, Longer and Uncut".

That's right, South Park reigned in a narrow victory over The Fugitive, while Sex and the City and Star Trek tied for third place. See the comments section below for the complete results.

An Enterprising Operetta

Los Angeles' Crown City Theatre Company is taking Gilbert & Sullivan to where no light operetta has gone before with their current production of USS Pinafore.

Billed as an "outer space musical", the new production is a hilarious mash-up of HMS Pinafore and the Star Trek universe, complete with Tribbles, Vulcans and an alien lizard man played by Movie Dearest's own James Jaeger!

USS Pinafore continues through June 27.  Click here for more information, and click here for a special video preview.

MD Poll: As Seen on TV

With movie versions of The A-Team, MacGruber and Sex and the City set to debut in the coming months, the latest MD Poll takes a look back at the best of the "boob tube-to-big screen" adaptations and asks, "What is your favorite movie based on a TV series?"

Aim your remote control at the choices found in the poll located in the right hand sidebar and make your selection. And be sure to tune back in on June 5 for the results!

UPDATE: This poll is now closed; click here for the results, and click here to vote in the latest MD Poll.

Monthly Wallpaper - May 2010: As Seen on TV

In recognition of this summer's premieres of The A-Team and Sex and the City 2, May's movie calendar wallpaper is a salute to movies inspired by the "boob tube".

Our "As Seen on TV" tribute features the families Addams, Brady and Simpsons; the adventures of Richard Kimble, George of the Jungle, Charlie's Angels and the crew of the Starship Enterprise; and the comedic stylings of the Sex girls, Wayne Campbell and the residents of South Park, Colorado.

All you have to do is click on the picture above to enlarge it, then simply right click your mouse and select "Set as Background". (You can also save it to your computer and set it up from there if you prefer.) The size is 1024 x 768, but you can modify it if needed in your own photo-editing program.

Reverend’s Preview: Anaheim Comic Con

There will be more characters than usual roaming around the Disneyland Resort area this week, as the Anaheim Convention Center hosts the inaugural Anaheim Comic Con April 16-18. No doubt, a sizable number of GLBT comic book and pop culture fans will be among them.

One might think the massive Comic Con International held each summer in San Diego would have the southern California market cornered when it comes to superheroes, graphic novels, role-playing games and fantasy movies, as well as related toys and other memorabilia. Not so, according to the Anaheim event’s producer, Wizard Entertainment; as publisher of the pop culture magazine Wizard, the company knows well how keen interest is in more Comic Cons both locally and nationally. Wizard Entertainment presents several other such gatherings across the country each year.

Anaheim’s first Comic Con will be smaller than the San Diego event, but I welcome this as someone who has covered Comic Con International for several years now. Limited convention center space, parking and hotel rooms have made San Diego’s con increasingly difficult to attend. A formal proposal has been submitted to move Comic Con International to Anaheim in the future for at least one year, since the Anaheim Convention Center is a larger facility.

At press time, at least 150 celebrities and pop culture icons were confirmed to appear during the Anaheim Comic Con’s three days. They include Captain Kirk himself, William Shatner; Marvel Comics’ superhero creator, Stan Lee; Oscar-nominated actors Mary McDonnell (Battlestar Galactica and Independence Day) and Eric Roberts (The Dark Knight); The Empire Strikes Back director Irvin Kershner; and Ilya Salkind, producer of Superman: The Movie and its first two sequels.

Other celebrities of more specifically GLBT appeal set to attend are the fabulous Julie Newmar and Lee Meriwether, both of whom played Catwoman on the campy Batman TV series in the 1960’s (the late Eartha Kitt also served as the show’s feline femme fatale); Star Trek actress and GLBT supporter Nichelle Nichols; The Bionic Woman herself, Lindsay Wagner; Kathy Najimy of Sister Act and Hocus Pocus fame; sexy actor Kaj-Erik Eriksen (The 4400); pop music diva Taylor Dayne; and Linda Blair of The Exorcist, Roller Boogie and Chained Heat fame.

More than 400 exhibitor, celebrity and creator booths will be set up, giving attendees ample opportunity to peruse collectibles and pursue autographs. As at Comic Con International and other such conventions, guests are not only allowed but strongly encouraged to dress in costume as their favorite comic book, film, TV, game or other characters. There will be a costume contest on Saturday, April 17. Please note: There will be children present, so costumes must be kept “PG-13” with no nudity or anything too revealing. I anticipate there will be more than a few costumes inspired by Tim Burton’s current box office hit, Alice in Wonderland.

A feature unique to the Anaheim Comic Con will be a Horror Pavilion. Billed as “a celebration of all things gory and grisly,” the pavilion will feature writers, artists, actors and musicians who have contributed to the horror genre in comics, movies and TV. There are plenty of GLBT horror fans who will want to check the Horror Pavilion out … but don’t do so alone!

For complete information about the event and to purchase tickets, visit the official Anaheim Comic Con website.

Preview by Rev. Chris Carpenter, resident film critic of Movie Dearest and the Orange County and Long Beach Blade.

Awards Watch: Oscars 2009

And the winners of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards were ...

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker - Producers: Kathryn Bigelow, Mark Boal, Nicolas Chartier and Greg Shapiro
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds
Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker
Best Adapted Screenplay: Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire - Geoffrey Fletcher
Best Original Screenplay: The Hurt Locker - Mark Boal
Best Cinematography: Avatar - Mauro Fiore
Best Art Direction: Avatar - Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg, Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria - Sandy Powell
Best Original Score: Up - Michael Giacchino
Best Original Song: “The Weary Kind” from Crazy Heart - Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett
Best Film Editing: The Hurt Locker - Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
Best Sound Mixing: The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson
Best Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker - Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
Best Visual Effects: Avatar - Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
Best Makeup: Star Trek - Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
Best Animated Feature: Up - Pete Docter
Best Foreign Language Film: The Secret in Their Eyes (El Secreto de Sus Ojos) - Argentina
Best Documentary Feature: The Cove - Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
Best Documentary Short: Music by Prudence - Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
Best Animated Short: Logorama - Nicolas Schmerkin
Best Live Action Short: The New Tenants - Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

The Hurt Locker led the night with six wins, followed by Avatar with three and two each for Crazy Heart, Precious and Up.  The official Movie Dearest predictions correctly picked 18 out of the 24 categories, one more than last year (drat those short films!).

Tune in tomorrow for our annual "Oscar Post Mortem", where we'll have a thing or two (or three) to say on tonight's show. We'll also have our "Yearly Round Up", where we take a look at all the major movie awards from the past year to see what really was the best of 2009.

Movie Dearest's Fearless Oscar Predictions 2009

This year's "Fearless Oscar Predictions" is brought to you by* the delectable creations found in Eleni's Oscar Season cookies! Above you'll find the five Best Actor edibles, which brings up the inevitable question, "Who would you rather nibble, Colin Firth or Jeremy Renner?" Now on to business ...

This year's predictions aren't quite so fearless as there are several sure things in the mix, including at least three of the four acting categories. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of tight races, including the expanded Best Picture field and the highly competitive Best Actress category (both envisioned in dessert form below).  And now, on to the predictions (click here for the complete list of nominees) ...

Best Picture: Despite recent scandals, The Hurt Locker should best its closest competition, Avatar.
Best Actor: An Oscar Bait role and previous losses will make Crazy Heart's Jeff Bridges this year's Kate Winslet.
Best Actress: It's a diva smack down, with The Blind Side's Sandra Bullock expected to come out on top.
Best Supporting Actor: There's no surer thing than Inglourious Basterds' Christoph Waltz ...
Best Supporting Actress: ... except Precious' Mo'Nique.
Best Director: It's pretty much a foregone conclusion now that Locker's Kathryn Bigelow will become the first female winner in this category.
Adapted Screenplay: Up in the Air's best chance for a win.
Original Screenplay: Another close call, between Locker and Basterds, with the edge going to the talkier Tarantino.
Cinematography: Probably the toughest race of all. Will say Avatar in a tech sweep, which will also include Art Direction, Sound Editing and Visual Effects ...
Film Editing and Sound Mixing: ... with Hurt Locker picking up a few too.

Costume Design: Royalty reigns here of late, so The Young Victoria will be victorious.
Original Score: Michael Giacchino's Up music is irresistible.
Original Song: Crazy Heart's "The Weary Kind" will continue its sweep of this category.
Makeup: Star Trek's first ever Oscar.
Animated Feature: Best Picture nominee Up should sail away with the prize.
Foreign Language Film: Last year's dark horse won, so I'm going out on a limb with Argentina's The Secret in Their Eyes.
Documentary Feature: The Cove elicits the right amount of righteous outrage ...
Documentary Short: ... as does China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province.
Animated Short: Wallace and Gromit's latest escapade, A Matter of Loaf and Death, will continue their hold on this category.
Live Action Short: The Door has the dramatic edge.

Who do you think will win at this year's Oscars? We'll find out this Sunday when ABC presents the 82nd Annual Academy Awards live from Los Angeles.

* Not really.

Men on Film: If We Picked the Oscars 2009

Borrowing a page from Siskel and Ebert back in the good ol' days, Movie Dearest's very own Men on Film — Chris Carpenter, Neil Cohen and yours truly — are presenting our own version of "If We Picked the Oscars"! These aren't predictions (we'll get to those next week), but what movies, actors, directors, et al that we would vote for if we were members of the Academy.

So without further ado, the envelope please ...

The nominees for Best Picture are: Avatar, The Blind Side, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, A Serious Man, Up and Up in the Air.
And our winners would be:
CC: While A Serious Man ranked slightly higher on my top 10 list, I would vote for the more moving Precious.
NC: I loved Up in the Air. It's witty and surprisingly moving, and boasts a perfect ensemble.
KH: Can the most entertaining movie of the year be the "best"? If it's Up it can.

The nominees for Best Actor are: Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart, George Clooney in Up in the Air, Colin Firth in A Single Man, Morgan Freeman in Invictus and Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker.
And our winners would be:
CC: Firth, who manages to be devastated and affecting without debasing himself or losing his character's sense of humor.
KH: I agree. No performance this year was as raw, as real as Firth's tortured, transcendent one.
NC: A perfect trifecta! Firth makes his suicidal pent-up perfect gentleman a hero of restraint and agony. He's period perfect.

The nominees for Best Actress are: Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side, Helen Mirren in The Last Station, Carey Mulligan in An Education, Gabourey Sidibe in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Meryl Streep in Julie & Julia.
And our winners would be:
CC: It's tough because I loved all of them, but I would vote for Bullock's very impressive turn.
NC: Sandy was great, but Meryl was sublime, giving a pitch perfect performance that showed us the real woman behind the icon.
KH: Never lapsing into caricature, Streep served up a saucy (and sexy?!) Julia Child.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are: Matt Damon in Invictus, Woody Harrelson in The Messenger, Christopher Plummer in The Last Station, Stanley Tucci in The Lovely Bones and Christoph Waltz in Inglourious Basterds.
And our winners would be:
CC: Plummer (who I can't believe hasn't been nominated before) would get my vote for his great Leo Tolstoy.
NC: Waltz dances away with this award, creating an indelible villain with a twinkle in his eye as he mowed people down.
KH: Harrelson avoided all the "drill sergeant" clichés, creating a uniquely humorous — and humane — individual.

The nominees for Best Supporting Actress are: Penélope Cruz in Nine, Vera Farmiga in Up in the Air, Maggie Gyllenhaal in Crazy Heart, Anna Kendrick in Up in the Air and Mo’Nique in Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.
And our winners would be:
CC: No contest: Mo'Nique.
NC: Yes, she is in a whole other league than the other women. She was like an open wound on screen.
KH: Mo’Nique's final scene turned her "mother from hell" into a mother in hell.

The nominees for Best Director are: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, James Cameron for Avatar, Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire, Jason Reitman for Up in the Air and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds.
And our winners would be:
CC: Bigelow did a great job, and its way past time to break up the boys' club.
KH: Who else could create the gleefully twisted alternate universe that was Inglourious Basterds but Tarantino?
NC: I'm with you. Tarantino did a brilliant rewrite of history, and staged some of the best suspense scenes of the year.

The nominees for Best Adapted Screenplay are: District 9, An Education, In the Loop, Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire and Up in the Air.
And our winners would be:
CC: I liked the funny and foul-mouthed In the Loop a lot, but I would have to vote for Geoffrey Fletcher's Precious.
NC: Up in the Air is like classic golden age comedy, and much adaptation (by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner) was necessary to create it.
KH: Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell's District 9 was inventive, intelligent science fiction.

The nominees for Best Original Screenplay are: The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: A tough call for me at present between Inglourious Basterds and A Serious Man, both of which are very smart, sophisticated, and unapologetically pro-Jewish!
NC: Basterds is a remake (wasn't it?), but Tarantino's script is hilarious and horrifying.
KH: Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman's The Messenger ... now this is how you make a contemporary war film.

The nominees for Best Cinematography are: Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds and The White Ribbon.
And our winners would be:
CC: Robert Richardson, probably the best cinematographer working, would get my vote for his stunning work on Inglourious Basterds.
NC: I vote for Richardson too, but The Hurt Locker was amazing as well.
KH: Agree, his work on Basterds was old-fashioned moviemaking at its best.

The nominees for Best Art Direction are: Avatar, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine, Sherlock Holmes and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: Avatar is undeniably stunning.
KH: Granted, but parts of Pandora looked like the E.T. ride at Universal Studios; still, there was still plenty to gawk in amazement at.
NC: If I picked it, A Single Man wouldn't have been ignored. Of what's here, Sherlock Holmes was fun and creative.

The nominees for Best Costume Design are: Bright Star, Coco Before Chanel, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: I would vote for Catherine Leterrier's work in the fashion-centric Coco Before Chanel.
NC: Again, my vote is for A Single Man's gorgeous 60's duds, but The Young Victoria is the best of the nominees.
KH: Sandy Powell's exquisite color choices and opulent designs served Young Victoria well.

The nominees for Best Original Score are: Avatar, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Hurt Locker, Sherlock Holmes and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: While I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes' jaunty score, Up is great and composer Michael Giacchino is the man of the hour.
NC: Up with Up!
KH: For Up, Giacchino created a musical theme that was an instant classic.

The nominees for Best Original Song are: "Almost There” from The Princess and the Frog, "Down in New Orleans” from The Princess and the Frog, “Loin de Paname” from Paris 36, “Take It All” from Nine and “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from Crazy Heart.
And our winners would be:
CC: "Almost There" (although the un-nominated "Dig a Little Deeper" and "When We're Human" from the same film are better, more memorable songs).
NC: The Paris 36 song is terrible and inexplicable, but "Almost There" is classic Oscar song magic.
KH: It's unanimous ... too bad we won't get to see Anika Noni Rose belt it out at the Kodak.

The nominees for Best Film Editing are: Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds and Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: We all agree that the high anxiety level of The Hurt Locker is thanks to the taut cutting of Bob Murawski and Chris Innis.

The nominees for Best Visual Effects are: Avatar, District 9 and Star Trek.
And our winners would be:
CC: Avatar cannot be denied in this category.
KH: Yes, Avatar is a game changer; but I prefer the scrappy results (at a fraction of the budget) of District 9's team.
NC: I second District 9's effects that merged with the documentary style.

The nominees for Best Sound Mixing are: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.
And our winners would be:
CC: I'll say Avatar.
NC: Inglourious Basterds for its firepower.
KH: The Hurt Locker proved that silences can be as equally terrifying as explosions.

The nominees for Best Sound Editing are: Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Star Trek and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: It's always hard for me to tell the difference between this category and the previous one, but I would probably vote for Avatar.
NC: Again, Inglourious Basterds rules the roost.
KH: Avatar's team created a whole new world of sound effects.

The nominees for Best Makeup are: Il Divo, Star Trek and The Young Victoria.
And our winners would be:
CC: Star Trek, if only for making the normally attractive Eric Bana appear nasty and virtually unrecognizable.
NC: Trek was style and substance, rather than just age makeup.
KH: Two words: Spock ears.

The nominees for Best Animated Feature are: Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells and Up.
And our winners would be:
CC: I have a soft spot in my heart for the crafty Coraline, and would have to vote for it.
NC: Mr. Fox was fantastic, but Up is heavenly.
KH: In a banner year for the medium, Pixar still reigns.

The nominees for Best Foreign Language Film are: Ajami from Israel, El Secreto de Sus Ojos (The Secret in Their Eyes) from Argentina, The Milk of Sorrow from Peru, Un Prophète (A Prophet) from France and The White Ribbon from Germany.
And our winners would be:
NC: Broken Embraces. Oh wait, it wasn't nominated?  Then I'll go with the haunting and hypnotic The White Ribbon.
CC, KH: Can we vote on this next year when all the movies are out on DVD?

The nominees for Best Documentary Feature are: Burma VJ: Reporting from a Closed Country, The Cove, Food, Inc., The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers and Which Way Home.
And our winners would be:
CC: The Cove and Food, Inc. are both very well made and highly disturbing, but the latter gets my vote for its slightly more immediate impact.
NC: Capitalism: A Love Story is the film that the Republicans need to watch. Too bad it was overlooked.
KH: Like the best of its genre, The Cove offers filmmaking as compelling as its subject matter.

The nominees for Best Documentary Short are: China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province, The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner, The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant, Music by Prudence and Rabbit à la Berlin.
And our winners would be:
CC, NC, KH: This is always the Oscar Pool "Lucky Guess" category, so here goes: The Last Truck, which taps into the country's woes best (we hear).

The nominees for Best Animated Short are: French Roast, Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty, The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte), Logorama and A Matter of Loaf and Death.
And our winners would be:
CC: The audacious (or should that be adacious) Logorama.
NC: Logorama is brand-named brilliance.
KH: The Lady and the Reaper is ... (wait for it) ... to die for.

The nominees for Best Live Action Short are: The Door, Instead of Abracadabra, Kavi, Miracle Fish and The New Tenants.
And our winners would be:
NC, KH:  We bow down to the reverend on this one:
CC: The hauntingly sublime The Door.

Now it's your turn: tell us who and what you would vote for in the comments section below!

Oscars 2009: A Guide to What's on Disc

Haven't seen all of this year's Academy Award nominees? Here's a complete list of all of the Oscar nominated feature films that are currently available on DVD and/or Blu-ray, plus release dates for those that are coming soon.

Now available:
- Bright Star: DVD
- Coraline:  DVD / Blu-ray
- The Cove:  DVD
- District 9:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Food, Inc.:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince:  DVD / Blu-ray
- The Hurt Locker:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Il Divo:  DVD / Blu-ray
- In the Loop:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Inglourious Basterds:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Julie & Julia:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Paris 36:  DVD
- Star Trek:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen:  DVD / Blu-ray
- Up:  DVD / Blu-ray

Coming Soon:
- The Blind Side:  DVD / Blu-ray (available March 23)
- Coco Before Chanel:  DVD / Blu-ray (available February 16)
- Fantastic Mr. Fox:  DVD / Blu-ray (available March 23)
- Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire:  DVD / Blu-ray (available March 9)
- The Princess and the Frog:  DVD / Blu-ray (available March 16)
- A Serious Man:  DVD / Blu-ray (available February 9)
- Sherlock Holmes: DVD / Blu-ray (available March 30)

Click on the links above to purchase from Amazon.com.