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Slum Dog Millionaire: This will win. Great Picture. Good story in an unsual setting.
Benjamin Button: Should win for actors, but a long, long film.
Grand Torino: A great movie but Clint doesn’t seem to feature at the Oscars.
The Wrestler: Mickey Rourke to take the crown.

MOVIES
(No Particular Order)

The re-make of the 1951 movie, “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is a shocker.
Keanu Reeves has made some duds, and this is up there with worst of them. No, it’s not just his fault. The makers have tampered with the original script by changing to an environmental theme rather than the original anti-violence stance. Also “modernising” it has utilised today’s special effects to make it just like all the others.
Enough said. Keep away from this movie. I’m sure it will put the environmental cause back 10 years. See the original!

The Original

The cold Melbourne winter has one good point. It provides a perfect excuse to hole up in a dark warm place and catch up with the US summer blockbusters.

BATMAN - The (Long) Dark Knight:
Yes it’s good! No buts! 
Heath Ledger is very good as are many of the other supporting artists. Gary Oldman as Lt/Commissioner Gordon is superb and Aaron Eckhart as Harvey Dent shows us all of his acting repertoire as the good, bad and ugly.   

XFiles - I Want to Believe:
The re-emergence of Mulder and Scully exploits the “absence makes the heart grow fonder” expectations as did the latest Indiana Jones chapter. I liked this movie but at the end I felt I’d seen a really good episode of “Law and Order” rather than the the conspiracy riddled paranormal X File adventure. I’m sure there’s plenty of room for heated debate on whether or not it conforms to a true X-File experience, but not from me. I liked it. (I never thought Billy Connolly could keep a straight face for so long)

In a nutshell: Young Temudgin’s life in the harshest of environments of 12th century Mongolia.
The metamorphosis of a young boy into the legendary Ghengis Khan.
I’m guessing this is the first of a series as very little time is devoted to his “taking over the world” phase, mainly concentrating on his rise to power.

Brush up on your Mongolian, or take your reading specs for the sub-titles. I liked it.

Indiana Jones : Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
I saw it. I enjoyed it. It worked well.
BUT …. (you knew that was coming) ……
Indiana Jones is like a favourite uncle that comes to visit once in while. When he’s not there, you reminisce about all the good times in the past. When he is there, you are never disappointed as he strives to put a new gloss on all his old party tricks. After he’s gone you sit back contented but ask yourself “Is it just me or was he better last time?”
The key to the success of this movie is the long time since the previous instalment and like the favourite uncle, “absence makes the heart grow fonder”.
The question is, would this movie stand up on it’s own if you had never seen the previous ones? We’ll never know as finding someone who has never heard of Indiana Jones would be harder than sending a probe to Mars.

First off, I know I’m a biased Stones fan and won’t find much wrong with anything they do. I was expecting something similar to the previous Bigger Bang and Four Flicks sets released to DVD. These have pretty much summed up the Stones in concert over the last decade and I couldn’t see where this would be different. Perhaps it’s not, but having just experienced “Shine A Light” on the big IMAX screen with the full surround sound, I can’t praise it any more than, “Fantastic!”

I’m not sure Martin Scorsese is going to win an oscar with this, but his own fanatacism with the Stones has certainly raised the bar in concert movies. There’s enough behind the scene footage and interviews to give an insight into how the Rolling Stones juggernaut operates but doesn’t take away from the intimate feeling of being there in the front row of the Beacon Theatre in New York.
The set list is surprising in that a number of the lesser featured Stones songs are included at the expense of some of the bigger hits. (”As Tears Go By”, “Faraway Eyes”, “Loving Cup”, “I’m Free”).

Look I’m not going to go on, simply see it , but at an IMAX theatre. The sound is terrific and superbly mixed for the movie (not like the usual live CD with Keith in one speaker and Ronnie in the other).
Warning: You may feel a bit queasy where the camera tries to keep up with Jagger running around from side to side of the stage and also a close up of Keith on a 50ft high screen may scare small children.

Sorry, but this left a prickly taste in my mouth. Cactus is the story of kidnapping and the relationship that develops between the two parties as they traipse across the NSW outback. Why? Where to? and Who is behind this all remain a mystery? Unfortunately it suffers the newbie filmmaker problem of not enough spent on the script, in particular the abrupt conclusion.
As far as I was concerned the star was the 1972 XA Fairmont. Travis McMahon and David Lyons explore the trials and tribulations of the kidnapper/ victim but may have been more at home on a theatre stage. Bryan Brown excels at playing Brian Brown dressed up in a policeman’s outfit as he has done many times before. Shane “Kenny” Jacobson makes a brief appearance as a Road Train driver and threatens to provide some much needed plot thickening but only has a very limited role.

“Taking from Peter to pay Paul”??? Not when you can rob Mum and Dad instead. Phillip Seymour Hoffman shows how things can go from bad to worse when the initial idea was crazy anyway. Good movie .. a bit slow at times but enjoyable if you like watching some-ones world fall apart around them.

Any one who has ever had a movie or video camera and tried to make a short film will love this movie.
Jack Black, Mos Def and Danny Glover are high profile names in what appears to be a low budget movie.
Regardless of the cost, this is a very entertaining and funny film where a not so flash video-shop has all of its VHS tapes wiped.
Its up to Mos and Jack to satisfy the customer and carry on business as usual, so they decide to film their own versions of ‘Ghostbusters’, ‘Robocop’ and ‘2001 a Space Odyssey’ to name a few. See it.

Walk Hard. I loved this movie.
I’m sure it comes with apologies to Johnny Cash and Walk The Line somwehere in the credits.
So many silly jokes make up for the lack of original ideas (”avoid the temptations backstage” … “talking bout my girl”)
The meeting with the Beatles plays out what may have been the real relationship between John and Paul.
Just see it.

What a great movie. Vitto is the coolest bad guy/ good guy in such a long time.

“No Country for Old Men” is the latest from the Coen Brothers.
I can’t put my finger on it but whilst I enjoyed the majority of the film, I wasn’t happy with how it ended.

Accompanying the new film “I’m not there” is a double CD of Bob Dylan covers.
Some very obscure songs covered by even more obscure people.

Some gems, but not enough to keep any-one’s interest after the novelty of the movie wears off.