Plot Summary: After a young cop is shot dead in the line of duty, he joins a team of undead police officers working for the Rest In Peace Department and tries to find the man who killed him.

http://media.insidepulse.com/zones/movies/uploads/2009/05/ryan_reynolds_01-120×120.jpg

Prior to the start of Casting By, I was sitting in a row all to myself and listening attentively to two couples sitting behind me. They were discussing The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and how the legendary late-night show was a place to discover new talent. If a performing comedian or comedienne made Carson laugh heartily, he would invite him or her over to sit on the couch with Ed McMahon.

Nowadays, late-night talk shows follow a similar theme with little in the ways of surprises. If Jay Leno is on vacation, NBC airs repeats. If Carson were away from his nightly throne, he would have a guest host lined up, be it Joan Rivers, Bob Newhart, or Kermit the Frog.

What this has to do with Casting By is simple: There seems to be regression when it comes to finding new talent. Tom Donahue’s documentary looks to illuminate and inform people about the art of casting and how it is very much a creative process. Just as a production designer building a set or an editor trimming a film to fulfill the director’s vision, casting is a critical component to moviemaking.

In this brisk 90-minute jaunt through Hollywood’s glory days, which saw an evolution from sticking with studio contract players to casting a bunch of no names, we begin to notice how important casting is to a production. The fact that casting is the only main-title film credit not recognized with an Oscar category seems like a disservice to the profession.

A number of casting directors are featured but the documentary as a whole acts as tribute to the late Marion Dougherty who blazed a trail as a New York casting director before Hollywood came calling.

Said to be a five year labor of love by its producer Kate Lacey who was in attendance at the screening, Casting By features a who’s who list of luminaries speaking about being discovered by Dougherty and the birth of New Hollywood. The impressive line-up of interviewees includes Robert Redford, Clint Eastwood, Al Pacino, Danny Glover, Robert De Niro and filmmakers Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese and Taylor Hackford. All but one of those directors contends that casting should be recognized by the AMPAS.

In Old Hollywood, casting was more form fitting and organizational, as if the producers looked at the studio contract players as widgets and put them into roles according to body type and looks. Dougherty changed all that when she pioneered a shift in actors based on ability and not appearance. Me being a moviephile I knew of Marion Dougherty having seen her name in several Warner Bros. releases of the ‘80s and ‘90s, which included Batman Returns and The Last Boy Scout. But I never knew, or at the very least took an interest to see, how many Casting By/Casting Director credits she had accumulated over a thirty-year span. To my surprise, she was instrumental in populating two landmark series in the 1960s, Naked City and Route 66, where she would trawl Off Broadway shows and acting schools to find talents like James Dean, Dustin Hoffman, Maureen Stapelton, and Christopher Walken among others. Her experience working on Kraft Television Theatre made her close friends to directors that would go on to have major film careers, among them George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting) and Sidney Lumet (Dog Day Afternoon).

Keeping a box of index cards – the pencil markings smudged due to handling – that highlight the attributes of the actors and actresses that have read in Dougherty’s presence, the Queen of the Casting Couch shows that she has more in common with a seasoned police detective, oftentimes going with her gut in making decisions. This is especially true in an episode involving Jon Voight. After the actor botched his first professional acting job on Naked City, five years later he was championed by Dougherty for the starring role in Midnight Cowboy over the more established Michael Sarazzin.

Full of great anecdotes, my favorite may be when she was the head of Warner Bros. casting department and she championed Danny Glover for the film Lethal Weapon. One of my favorite Christmas movies (up there with Die Hard), it was always my belief that the film had been written to have a white actor and black actor in the leading roles. I had no idea that the role of Roger Murtaugh was inferred to be white. But because the script didn’t outright express that the role wasn’t for a person of color Dougherty didn’t see a problem with casting Glover in the role. It was her vision to create a then-modern day Abbott and Costello and she succeeded. (Honestly, can you envision Lethal Weapon without Gibson and Glover?) Other choice anecdotes include Bette Midler being discovered and the casting of Glenn Close and John Lithgow in The World According to Garp.

Marion Dougherty may be the focus of the documentary, but director Tom Donahue also celebrates the work of Lynn Stalmaster. He would be the first to be recognized with an on-screen credit for his work and was instrumental in casting such films as In the Heat of the Night and The Last Detail (where Randy Quaid got a role that was nearly John Travolta’s). He even found the Appalachian banjo-playing kid for John Boorman’s Deliverance.

Casting By closes with the lack of respect given to the profession of casting directors, stemming from misperceptions about what the job involves. Of those filmmakers mentioned above (Scorsese, Allen, and Taylor Hackford), the only one who comes off with a pompous attitude is Hackford, the president of the Directors Guild of America. He is insulted that the word director be associated for anything other than the sole person hired by the studio whose creative vision matters above all. Even describing a cinematographer as a “Director of Photography” makes Hackford uneasy.

Like other fields of entertainment, movies are a collaborative art form and to be dismissive of a field like casting shows a lack of concern of your own profession. The director may have final say in casting roles, but Nancy Klopper, who has been casting Hackford’s films since An Officer and a Gentlemen, was probably very instrumental in casting Louis Gossett Jr. in his Academy Award-winning role.

The fact that the Oscars remain resistant to awarding casting directors while the Emmys have Outstanding Casting categories shows how progressive television has gotten over the years. Programs like The Sopranos, Mad Men, and Homeland are supported by strong acting and to award the casting directors signals an appreciation that goes in the creation of such programs.

As for Dougherty’s contribution and influence to the profession of casting, well for now Casting By will remain her tribute. A write-in campaign to get her an Honorary Lifetime Achievement Oscar was attempted in the early ‘90s but it was ultimately nixed. One can only hope that this release will make the Academy revise their arcane practices and at the very least give her a posthumous honor.

Picked up by HBO and set to be released sometime in 2013, filmlovers should definitely seek it out. Just like the documentary A Decade Under the Influence is a history lesson about the ‘70s movie industry, Casting By will be essential viewing for those who want to learn how one woman with an eye for talent would make a bunch of no names into some of Hollywood’s greatest stars.

Director: Tom Donahue
Featuring: Marion Dougherty, Lynn Stalmaster, Martin Scorsese, Woody Allen, Clint Eastwood, Glenn Close, Robert Duvall, Jeff Bridges, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, Diane Lane, Jon Voight, Bette Midler, John Travolta, Robert Redford, John Lithgow, Ed Asner, Ned Beatty, Peter Bogdanovich, Jeff Bridges, Mel Gibson, Danny Glover, Taylor Hackford, Paul Haggis, Buck Henry, Norman Lear, John Sayles, Jerry Schatzberg, Cybill Shepherd, Oliver Stone

http://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Casting-By-poster-e1352798203169-120×117.jpg

Miller, a Victoria’s Secret Angels and 2008 SI Swimsuit cover model, is joining the cast of R.I.P.D., Universal’s latest starring Ryan Reynolds and Jeff Bridges. She’ll be making her film debut after having peeviously appeared in Entourage, Gary Unmarried, and How I Met Your Mother. The film follows a murdered cop (Reynolds) who is recruited to work in the Rest in Peace Department, a police force comprised of ghosts who battle spirits unready to depart this world.

Bridges is playing Reynolds’ ghostly partner; Miller will be a human avatar, the form humans see when Bridges’ character is in his earthly form.
Kevin Bacon, Mary-Louise Parker, and Stephanie Szostak also star.

http://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/ripd040110-120×120.jpg

The Fisher King (Gilliam’s first film made in the US) tells the story of shock jock Jack whose callous remarks on the air lead to a brutal massacre by one of his listeners. Years later, Jack is washed up and a shell of the man he used to be. One drunken evening he comes across a homeless man named Perry whose life was also destroyed by the massacre in far more devastating ways. Could this tenuous and unlikely friendship mean redemption for both men?

With a fantastic cast including Robin Williams, Jeff Bridges, Mercedes Ruehl (in an Oscar winning role!) and Amanda Plummer (you even get Tom Waits in a cameo role!), The Fisher King offers you everything you would want from a Terry Gilliam film. The auteur was truly at the top of his game when he made this film and I for one am super excited to see this film in high definition.

True Grit

The Coen brothers have had some wild successes, creatively speaking, and some tragic misfires, sometimes within the same movie (Ladykillers, I’m looking at YOU), but you know they never fail to entertain when given a chance. The original True Grit was one of the few classics I’ve never seen (never been much of a Duke fan, sorry to say) so I came into this one without any previous judgment on it. In a word, AWESOME. Although this is technically the remake of the original John Wayne movie, the Coens more specifically went directly from the 1968 novel, giving a movie that’s much more faithful to the original source material.

Back in the late 1800s, Mattie Ross is a 14-year-old girl who watches as her father is gunned down in cold blood by drifting con man Tom Chaney. Given that she’s ill-equipped to seek vengeance on her own and the law doesn’t appear to be interested in helping her, she enlists the services of crusty drunkard Rooster Cogburn (Jeff Bridges, reinventing the classic Wayne role) and Texas Ranger LaBoeuf (pronounced La-Beef, because they’re in AMERICA, dammit). The charm of the movie isn’t in the told-and-retold story of revenge, it’s the details that the Coens throw in to keep the old western yarn interesting. Mattie’s surprisingly hard-nosed negotiations with a horse-dealer are like something right out of The Big Lebowski (“Oh no…are we dealing again?”) and kind of set the playful tone that the movie adopts as it’s own. It never really veers into a full-on comedy, but there’s a definite sense of playfulness from the directors, like when Rooster’s attempts at a one-man ambush goes decidedly south. (“That did not pan out,” notes Cogburn in the typical subdued Coen humor).

Hailee Steinfeld completely steals the show from everyone as Mattie, commanding the expedition as surely as any adult would, until the story finally puts her into the damsel-in-distress role that Hollywood demands for whatever reason. What I really liked about the eventual payoff is how pathetic the big bad Tom Chaney turns out to be. After all the buildup, he’s just another sad drifter who gets overruled by his boss when the chips are down. Unfortunately, this isn’t a movie that ever reaches classic status, as the weirdly stilted language of the novel carries on here (characters speak entirely without contractions in the most glaring example) and it can get really off-putting after a while. As well, the middle portion of the movie, with LaBeouf seemingly unable to decide if he’s going or sticking around, kind of drags compared to the fun beginning and gunfighting finale. And let’s face it, The Dude is not The Duke. Still, if you enjoyed the remake of 3:10 to Yuma from a couple of years ago and you’re looking for something in a similar vein, it’s hard to go wrong here. Extras are good, although I would have liked a commentary track. The Blu-ray offers a bunch of making-of pieces covering the novelist, the costuming, set design and a bunch of other topics, as well as the DVD version of the movie on a second disc and the ubiquitous digital copy that no one cares about. Recommended.

Jackass 3.5

“Football to the groin! It works on so many levels!”

• Homer Simpson

So this is also technically a remake, although of a much more recent movie. Jackass 3D was not exactly a triumph of cinema, but it made a shitload of money and there’s a devoted audience, so now we get the leftovers. There was apparently another movie’s worth of footage left from what made the cut in the original movie, so Jackass 3.5 acts as both a making-of feature and a giant compilation of deleted scenes. In case you’re totally new to the Jackass phenomenon (and really, is anyone unaware of the formula by this point?), a group of ex-skaters who now make millions of dollars a year but still look like homeless people engage in whatever idiotic “stunts” they can convince their insurance company to underwrite. Example: Everyone gets an enema, and then does a long jump to force themselves to poop. Repeat for 90 minutes. For this release, new stunts are intercut with interviews with the cast and crew, as they talk about what didn’t make the cut and why. Some deletions are obvious (Bam Margera trying to run into a wooden post with a pole vault never really goes anywhere, while the human bowling ball exists only as a Johnny Knoxville prank on the rest of the guys) and some stunts had enough goofy charm that they probably could have existed in a longer cut of the original movie. But it’s probably for the best they didn’t, because 90 minutes of this stuff is about the most anyone can take before it wears out its welcome. Even here, the first half of the movie is sometimes gut-bustingly hilarious in a “I can’t look, but I can’t look away” fashion (Barrel Surfing, the various adventures with treadmills, slow-motion camera injuries, and a competition to dropkick Bam in the face all come to mind).

After an hour or so, it starts to get numbing, and by the nutshot compilation that ends things, you’ve had enough for a while. I think that’s why the TV show was such an effective formula: 30 minutes was just enough time not to get sick of the Jackass crew. I’ll say that I laughed a lot here, but this was really a 40-minute deleted scene reel edited into a 90 minute movie. Not as painful as a basketball to the nuts but not as funny either. Extras include MORE deleted scenes (which really shows you that you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel), as well as an extended version of the original Jackass pilot with new cast and crew interviews. I liked this well enough, but if I wasn’t getting this sort of thing sent to me by the studio, I wouldn’t have given it a second glance on the shelf. Mildly recommended as a companion piece to Jackass 3D if you really loved that movie, but as a standalone product there’s not much to recommend. It’s basically like that Matrix Revisited DVD that came out in between the first and second movies – a glorified second disc of special features, but no substance on its own.

The winner this time: True Grit.

http://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/600_true_grit-120×120.jpg

When Tron was released in 1982 there literally had been nothing like it before. People didn’t have Internet or smart phones back then. The world of Tron was just as strange and new as outer space or the deep sea. And while by today’s standards it doesn’t have the greatest special effects, it was way ahead of its time and it still a fantastic film to watch. And now it’s even better on Blu-ray! Oh, and Tron: Legacy is on here as well which is pretty cool.

In Tron Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), a computer programmer, is sucked into the computer by the Master Control Program where programs are forced to face one another in futuristic gladiator arenas. With the help of a program called Tron (Bruce Boxleitner) Flynn must find a way to destroy the MCP and return back to his reality.

28 years later brings us to Tron: Legacy. It seems that some time in the ’80s Flynn disappeared from the public eye. Many thought he was dead. His son Sam (Garrett Hedlund) thought he’d been abandoned until one day when his dad’s partner, Alan Bradley (Boxleitner), points him in the direction of his dad’s old arcade. There Sam unwittingly follows in his father footsteps and finds himself trapped on The Grid.

Flynn’s program, Clu, turned on him and took control of The Grid. Sam must first find his father before taking on Clu before he brings the world of The Grid to our reality.

Legacy is a fun film, and the special effects are absolutely mind-blowing. They have a sleek modern look while still maintaining an esthetic connection to the original. The story is not as engaging as the first, but it’s still a fun film and it’s great to return to The Grid again.

The creepiest part of the film is the CGI used to make Clu look like an ’80s Kevin Flynn. It’s not a 100% perfect and it can be really distracting. As Clu it’s okay, as Clu is a program, but in the beginning of the film when Kevin last sees his son Sam it’s just wrong.

All-in-all this is a fantastic collection. Both films make a great set and they both look fantastic on Blu-ray. This five-disc set also comes with a 3-D disc if you’re into that sort of thing. If not, you can always get the four-disc set.

Tron is presented in 2.20:1 widescreen and 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio with French and Spanish language tracks and English, French and Spanish subtitles.

Tron: Legacy is presented in 2.35:1 & 1.78:1 widescreen and 2.0 Dolby Digital Surround with French and Spanish language tracks and English, French and Spanish subtitles. Both these films look AMAZING! TRON has never looked better! One of the best Blu-ray’s I’ve seen in a while.

Tron: Legacy Disc (Blu-ray ONLY):

The Next Day: Flynn Lives Revealed: (46+ min.) A fun fake documentary about the history of Encom and Kevin Flynn, and it is even cooler cause I’m in some of the footage that was shot in here in San Francisco! Also, at the end you can type in three letter codes to see different footage including some of the flynnlives.com viral stuff and a “vintage” commercial for Space Paranoids. Good stuff.

Disney Second Scene: A way to get more behind the scenes stuff while you watch the film, you need an app for your iPhone or iPad or a program for your computer to make this work.

Launching A Legacy: (10 min.) This shows just how important fans are to a film. The filmmakers made a short trailer for the film and showed it to an unsuspecting Comic Con audience. They loved it and the rest is history.

Disc Roars: (3 min.) At Comic-Con the director used the audience to be his audience for the movie. This is really cool. It shows the Comic Con footage then the footage in the film.

Derazzed, Daft Punk video: (3 min.) Great song, cool little video.

Tron: Legacy Disc (Blu-Ray and DVD):

First look at Tron: Uprising: (1 min.) Promo for an upcoming Disney cartoon that takes place before Legacy. Could be okay.

Visualizing Tron: (12 min.) A typical look at how they developed the look of the film. How they designed the suits is very interesting.

Installing The Cast: (12 min.) A usual but interesting look at putting together the cast of the film.

Discovering Blu-ray with Simone and Pumba: (4 min.) A commercial to convince you to buy a 3-D Blu-ray player and TV.

Tron Disc (Blu-ray):

The Tron Phenomenon: (10 min.) Cast and crew, past and present, talk about the films.

Photo Tronology: (16 min.) Writer/Director Steven Lisberger sits down with his son to look at some old photos from when the first TRON was made. I guess this is better than just a photo montage, but it’s still kind of boring.

You also get all the original DVD Features including: Audio Commentary, Development, Digital Imagery, The Making Of, Music, Publicity, Deleted Scenes, Design, Storyboarding and Gallerys.

Digital Copy of Tron: Legacy

Tron is an ’80s sci-fi cult classic, Tron: Legacy is an entertaining all be it flawed sequel. Together they make a fantastic Blu-Ray release worthy of your hard earned dollars. And I can be seen in one of the special features! What other reason do you need to buy this?

Disney presents: Tron. Directed by: Steven Lisberger. Written by Steven Lisberger and Bonnie MacBird. Starring: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, David Warner, Cindy Morgan and Bardard Hughes. Running time: 96 min. Rated PG. Originally released in 1982.

Tron: Legacy. Directed by: Joseph Kosinski. Written by Edward Kitsis, Adam Horowitz, Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal. Starring: Jeff Bridges, Bruce Boxleitner, Garrett Hedlund, Olivia Wilde and Michael Sheen. Running time: 125 min. Rated PG. Released: April 5, 2011.

In an early announcement to retailers, Paramount Home Entertainment has indicated that True Grit will arrive as a Blu-ray/DVD Combo title on June 7, 2011, packing over an hour of special features, including behind-the-scenes featurettes exploring the cast and cinematography of the film, the period costumes and guns, a fascinating portrait of the brilliant but reclusive novelist Charles Portis and more.

Blu-ray Extras:

o Mattie’s True Grit

o From Bustles to Buckskin—Dressing for the 1880s

o Colts, Winchesters & Remingtons: The Guns of a Post-Civil War Western

o Re-Creating Fort Smith

o The Cast

o Charles Portis—The Greatest Writer You’ve Never Heard Of…

o The Cinematography of True Grit

o Theatrical Trailer

DVD Extras:

o Hailee’s True Grit

o From Bustles to Buckskin—Dressing for the 1880s

o Re-Creating Fort Smith

o The Cast

The standard DVD is presented in widescreen enhanced for 16:9 televisions with English 5.1 Dolby Digital, French 5.1 Dolby Digital, Spanish 5.1 Dolby Digital and English Audio Description with French, English and Spanish subtitles.

The Blu-ray/DVD Combo of True Grit carries a SRP of $29.99 (current price on Amazon.com is $27.99), while the DVD is listed at $19.99 (current price on Amazon.com is $16.99). U.S (DVD)

Rooster Cogburn, an irascible U.S. Marshal hired by a 14-year-old girl (newcomer Hailee Steinfeld) to bring her father’s killer (Josh Brolin) to justice. Matt Damon is an overzealous Texas Ranger who is also tracking the killer, hoping to capture him and bring him to trial for another murder.
http://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/True-Grit-120×120.jpg

Several years in the past I found it a little difficult to come up with 25 viable candidates, even scraping the bottom of the barrel at times, but in 2010, there were so many cinematic badasses produced that I had to turn away several amazing ass-kickers (Noomi Rapace The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and John Hawkes from Winter’s Bone, for example), and even had to come up with a rule (with one exception) that prevented multiple characters from coming from the same movie. Otherwise, this list may have turned into 2010’s Biggest Badasses from The Expendables and The A-Team. Classic action was back in a big way in 2010, and I can only hope that 2011 gives us a few throwbacks in amongst the gigantic blockbusters so that 2011’s Badass list can be just as impressive.

Now, as it is with every year, expect spoilers throughout the list. Hope you guys have as much fun reading it as I did compiling it.

The Badasses of 2010, Part 1

25. Thomas Craven, played by Mel Gibson – Edge of Darkness

“Well you had better decide whether you’re hangin’ on the cross or bangin’ in the nails.”

 I’ve seen very few actors have worse years than Mel Gibson managed to have in 2010, but before things totally hit the fan with his personal problems, the actor was trying to make a bit of a comeback with the revenge thriller Edge of Darkness. Taking a page from Liam Neeson’s success in Taken, this movie had Gibson in full-on Martin Riggs-retribution-mode, which has his Thomas Craven taking out bad guys by the score after the murder of his daughter. While the movie has its problems, Thomas Craven isn’t one of them, as Gibson’s patented, grief-stricken fury is on display like we hadn’t seen in some time. Culminating in an awesome showdown featuring a mansion full of bad guys; Gibson’s Craven deals out justice with no mercy, making us remember better times when we could root for the action star without any guilt.

24. Remy, played by Jude Law – Repo Men

“Almost every job I do ends the exact same way. Some whimper. Some cry. Some even laugh. But in the end, they all do the same horizontal mambo, twitching and thrusting their way into the great beyond.”

Repo Men is the sort of amoral science fiction tale that reminds you of the work of Paul Verhoeven from his heyday, and in the middle of the movie is an amoral man to go with it. Jude Law’s Remy is a man that likes his work; retrieving the mechanical organs out of the bodies of people who are past due paying for them.  The problem comes when he becomes one of those he has hunted in the past. Receiving an artificial heart makes him a killer with a conscience, but one that has to keep killing to survive. Driven with purpose, his knives finally come out with meaning instead of malice, leading to a hallway full of bad guys and one of the best fights of 2010.

23. James Coughlin, played by Jeremy Renner – The Town

“If we get jammed up, we’re holding court on the street.”

You would think that an actual team of criminals would try to do their best not to have a “wildcard” amongst their ranks, but in a heist movie there seems to be a rule that there’s always that one guy that ends up being completely unpredictable when the pressure is on. Like Michael Madsen in Reservoir Dogs or Kevin Gage in Heat, Jeremy Renner’s James Coughlin is the same sort of short tempered lunatic enforcer for The Town’s crew of outlaws. It’s actually the threat of violence that puts Coughlin on this list more than anything else, as he’s simply terrifying in nearly every scene, like a rattlesnake coiled to strike. Whether taking on local thugs or the entirety of the Boston Police Force, Coughlin won’t back down from a fight and would rather go out swinging than possibly die in a jail cell.

22. Francis Costello, played by Johnny Hallyday – Vengeance

“I must take revenge.”

If you were really looking for the “older gentlemen’s badass revenge movie” successor to Taken, I’d give Johnnie To’s Vengeance a try and see how you like it. A sly, Leone-esque shoot’em up, Vengeance has style to burn, and at the center of the movie is a terrific performance from Johnny Hallyday as Frank Costello, a French chef (and former assassin) who comes to Hong Kong after his daughter and her family are gunned down in their home. Problem is, Costello is also losing his memory, so we’re left with questions about the nature of revenge and why retribution is called for, even if the pain of the original incident has vanished. World weary and yet charming, like a cross between Charles Bronson and Alain Delon, Costello’s rampage is a red-blooded odyssey through Hong Kong’s underworld that takes you to places you wouldn’t expect, but completely leaves you satisfied with its bullet-riddled finish when you get there.

21. Rinzler, played by Anis Cheurfa – Tron: Legacy

“User.”

Tron: Legacy’s equivalent of Darth Maul or Go-Go Yubari, Rinzler is the biggest badass in the Tron universe. Adorned with two identity discs and a face covering helmet, he’s not only the coolest looking killer in the entire movie, Rinzler is unstoppable in the game grid, no matter what deadly competition is up for the crowd’s amusement. Not heavy on character development, but when a character makes this big an impression and kicks this much ass, there’s not much more you could ask for.

20. Eli, played by Denzel Washington – Book of Eli 

“Both thorn and thistles it should bring forth, for us. For out of the ground we were taken for the dust we are, and to the dust we shall return.”

Like a samurai wandering the desert or Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name roaming from town to town, Denzel Washington’s Eli is a man on a journey through a post-apocalyptic wasteland, righting wrongs with his machete in hand. Book of Eli’s pseudo-religious message is a bit on the heavy-handed side, but Denzel Washington is riveting every moment he’s onscreen, no matter if he’s speaking softly or separating a bandit from a limb or two. Washington’s most badass character since Man on Fire, his steely presence doesn’t require a lot of conversation before handing out justice on the wicked.

19. Rooster Cogburn, played by Jeff Bridges – True Grit 

“I mean to kill you in one minute, Ned, or see you hanged at Fort Smith at Judge Parker’s convenience…”

There’s nothing quite like a grizzled western lawman, and they don’t come much more grizzled than Rooster Cogburn. Though his drunkenness may throw off his aim a bit, when the chips are down there’s no one you’d rather have in your corner. Even 4 to 1 odds aren’t enough to deter him, as Ned Pepper’s gang of villains finds out in the True Grit‘s amazing action climax. While some may have complained about Jeff Bridges stepping into John Wayne’s shoes, Bridges’ Rooster embodies the entire man, bringing this character to life with a gruff reality; at once making him hilarious and one not to be trifled with. Westerns may have produced better U.S. Marshals before this new Rooster Cogburn, but they’ve never produced a meaner one.

18. Quintus Dias, played by Michael Fassbender – Centurion 

“In the chaos of battle, when the ground beneath your feet is a slurry of blood, puke, piss, and the entrails of friends and enemies alike, it’s easy to turn to the gods for salvation.  But it’s soldiers who do the fighting, and soldiers who do they dying, and the gods never get their feet wet.”

Michael Fassbender‘s Quintus Dias isn’t some big epic hero like Maximus or William Wallace. Instead, he’s just a soldier stuck behind enemy lines trying to get home, and if he has to cut down thousands of savages and travel hundreds of miles to get out of there, then so be it. Like a Rambo in Roman armor, Dias uses cunning and the environment to make his way through hostile territory, fighting off all comers even as his compatriots die off one at a time. Braving the elements, being held face down in a bucket of urine, or being chased by an entire tribe of Picts won’t deter him; Dias can’t be broken and will not yield until he makes it back to Roman country or all that stand before him are cut down.

 17. Scott Pilgrim, played by Michael Cera – Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World

“You’ll pay for your crimes against humanity!”

A lot of us have had to fight to keep a relationship going before, but most of the time you don’t have to literally fight for one like Scott Pilgrim does. Seven evil exes and their henchmen aren’t enough to stop this bass playing, kung fu fighting, flaming-samurai-sword wielding geek from being with the woman of his dreams. Through every test he stands tall, and wades through his adversaries with skill, lots of wit and ridiculous amounts of luck. Michael Cera isn’t usually the type of actor that normally has a character on this list, but with Scott Pilgrim he more than earns his spot for being in some of the best fights and action scenes filmed last year, including an epic showdown with an entire team of stuntmen. Who needs muscles when you’re packing so much awesome?!

Alright, so I’ll be back soon with my next installment of this list featuring spies, super soldiers, kimchi cowboys, and one incredible Mexican Federale.
http://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/scott_pilgrim_vs_the_world_01-535×294-120×120.jpg

Reid, who played the trophy wife, Bunny in the Coen’s brothers comedy classic, was recently asked by Hollywood.tv what projects she’s got coming up and and she mentioned Big Lebowski 2.

“The whole cast should be coming back for that,” she said.

Now before all you Donnie and Walter fans get all excited, one has to ask if there is any truth to this startling revelation, or is it all in Reid’s head?

Jeff “The Dude” Bridges told MTV News back in July while working with the Coen’s on True Grit that “there were no plans, man” for a Lebowski sequel, but he said, “If it happens, what a wonderful surprise.”

What do you think? Will Walter and The Dude be up to more hijinx or is Tara Reid just hoping to get a good role again? I mean, even if they make a sequel, why would they need to bring Bunny back?
http://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/jeff-bridges-as-rooster-cogburn-120×120.jpg

BEST PICTURE

Black Swan (Fox Searchlight)
The Fighter (Paramount)
Inception (Warner Bros.)
The Kids Are All Right (Focus Features)
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company)
127 Hours (Fox Searchlight)
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney)
True Grit (Paramount)
Winter’s Bone (Roadside Attractions)

BEST ACTOR

Javier Bardem in “Biutiful” (Roadside Attractions)
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit” (Paramount)
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network” (Sony Pictures Releasing)
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company)
James Franco in “127 Hours” (Fox Searchlight)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale in “The Fighter” (Paramount)
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone” (Roadside Attractions)
Jeremy Renner in “The Town” (Warner Bros.)
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right” (Focus Features)
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company)

BEST ACTRESS

Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right” (Focus Features)
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole” (Lionsgate)
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone” (Roadside Attractions)
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” (Fox Searchlight)
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine” (The Weinstein Company)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams in “The Fighter” (Paramount)
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company)
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter” (Paramount)
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit” (Paramount)
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom” (Sony Pictures Classics)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
The Illusionist (Sony Pictures Classics) Sylvain Chomet
Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Lee Unkrich

ART DIRECTION

Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney), Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O’Hara (Set Decoration)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Bros.), Stuart Craig (Production Design), Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
Inception (Warner Bros.), Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration)/span>
The King’s Speech (Paramount), Eve Stewart (Production Design), Judy Farr (Set Decoration)
True Grit (Paramount), Jess Gonchor (Production Design), Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration)

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Matthew Libatique
Inception (Warner Bros.) Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Danny Cohen
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit (Paramount) Roger Deakins

COSTUME DESIGN

Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) Colleen Atwood
I Am Love (Magnolia Pictures) Antonella Cannarozzi
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Jenny Beavan
The Tempest (Miramax) Sandy Powell
True Grit (Paramount) Mary Zophres

BEST DIRECTOR

Black Swan (Fox Searchlight), Darren Aronofsky
The Fighter (Paramount), David O. Russell
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company), Tom Hooper
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing), David Fincher
True Grit (Paramount), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Exit through the Gift Shop (Producers Distribution Agency)
Gasland, A Gasland Production
Inside Job (Sony Pictures Classics)
Restrepo (National Geographic Entertainment)
Waste Land Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley (Arthouse Films)

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT

Killing in the Name Nominees to be determined A Moxie Firecracker Films Production
Poster Girl Nominees to be determined A Portrayal Films Production
Strangers No More Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production
Sun Come Up Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger A Sun Come Up Production
The Warriors of Qiugang Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon A Thomas Lennon Films Production

BEST EDITING

Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Andrew Weisblum
The Fighter Paramount Pamela Martin
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Tariq Anwar
127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) Jon Harris
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

BEST FOREIGN FILM

Biutiful, Mexico
Dogtooth, Greece
In a Better World, Denmark
Incendies, Canada
Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi), Algeria

BEST MAKEUP

Barney’s Version (Sony Pictures Classics) Adrien Morot
The Way Back (Newmarket Films in association with Wrekin Hill Entertainment and Image Entertainment) Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
The Wolfman (Universal) Rick Baker and Dave Elsey

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) John Powell
Inception (Warner Bros.) Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) A.R. Rahman
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

BEST ORIGINAL SONG

“Coming Home” from Country Strong (Sony Pictures Releasing (Screen Gems)) Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
“I See the Light” from Tangled (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
“If I Rise” from 127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

Day & Night (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production Teddy Newton
The Gruffalo A Magic Light Pictures Production Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
Let’s Pollute A Geefwee Boedoe Production Geefwee Boedoe
The Lost Thing (Nick Batzias for Madman Entertainment) A Passion Pictures Australia Production Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) A Sacrebleu Production Bastien Dubois

BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

The Confession (National Film and Television School) A National Film and Television School Production Tanel Toom
The Crush (Network Ireland Television) A Purdy Pictures Production Michael Creagh
God of Love A Luke Matheny Production Luke Matheny
Na Wewe (Premium Films) A CUT! Production Ivan Goldschmidt
Wish 143 A Swing and Shift Films/Union Pictures Production Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

BEST SOUND EDITING

Inception (Warner Bros.) Richard King
Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
Tron: Legacy (Walt Disney) Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
True Grit (Paramount) Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
Unstoppable (20th Century Fox) Mark P. Stoeckinger

BEST SOUND MIXING

Inception (Warner Bros.) Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company) Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
Salt (Sony Pictures Releasing) Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
True Grit (Paramount) Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Bros.) Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
Hereafter (Warner Bros.) Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
Inception (Warner Bros.) Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
Iron Man 2 (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment, Distributed by Paramount) Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

127 Hours (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing), Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Michael Arndt. Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
True Grit (Paramount), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
Winter’s Bone (Roadside Attractions), Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Another Year (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Mike Leigh
The Fighter (Paramount), Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
Inception (Warner Bros.), Written by Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right (Focus Features), Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Seidler

Scott Sawitz Commentary: There were a handful of surprises, like John Hawkes in Winter’s Bone and Mark Ruffalo in The Kids are All Right garnering nominations, but the big shock might be Christopher Nolan being snubbed for Best Director again. I had presumed it to be a formality, as a “make good” for The Dark Knight being snubbed, but he can walk away with a Best Picture nomination which is nothing to sneeze at.

Travis Leamons Commentary: Wow, I’m at a loss for words right now. How is it possible that Christopher Nolan gets nominated for writing and not his direction of Inception? It’s just another case where the Oscar voters have dropped the ball, especially when it comes to nominating a director who sooner or later will have an adjective named after him. I mean really. David O. Russell’s yes-I-was-an-ass-but-now-I’m-rehabilitated story was nice, but to select him and Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech over the likes of a Christopher Nolan is a little disenchanting. One could assume that Nolan’s not being a chatterbox to the media played a role in terms of visibility, but all the visuals you need are right there on screen.

Overall, The King’s Speech leads all films with 12 Oscar nominations and is slowly picking up steam. It will probably come down to Speech and The Social Network in the best picture race. Though it got snubbed by the Hollywood Foreign Press for Golden Globes, True Grit is nipping at the heels of the British period piece with 10 nominations. The Facebook movie follows with 8.

Best Picture category was to be expected, though I’m sure the final entries were between Winter’s Bone and Ben Affleck’s The Town. With ten nominees there is a nice mix of mainstream and independents nominated. None of the Best Pic nominees are surprising; critics circles have been raving about them all.

Surprises did come in some of the acting categories. Javier Bardem being nominated for his lead performance in Biutiful may have come at the expense of actors and celebs being the PR task force in making people remember Bardem’s performance. Good to see John Hawkes and Jacki Weaver get some recognition for Winter’s Bone and Animal Kingdom, respectfully, in the supporting categories. Every time I see Hawkes I always flashback to his minuscule role in Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn, where he played the gas station clerk in the opening scene.

Besides Nolan’s snub, some might argue that Ryan Gosling should have been nominated for his performance in Blue Valentine. I’m sure the upheaval won’t be to the level of Leonardo DiCaprio’s Titanic snub, but the Gosling faithful will be Twittering away, I’m sure of it.

Also, explain how Hereafter is up for visual effects and Tron: Legacy isn’t.

Thankfully, Jonah Hex wasn’t nominated for Best Makeup.

What do you think?
http://insidepulse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/oscar-120×120.jpg