] With 254 movies to consider, Academy voters better get
] busy. Nomination ballots went out this week and the final
] five Best Picture candidates will be announced with the
] rest of the Oscar nominees on January 27.

According to E Online, the top contenders are:
- Return of the King
- Master and Commander
- Seabiscuit
- Cold Mountain
- Lost in Translation
- Kill Bill
- Mystic River
- American Splendor
- In America

I haven't seen all of the movies on the list yet. Of the ones I *have* seen, I'm rooting for "Return of the King", with "Master and Commander" also a strong possible, and "Lost in Translation" well-worth nominating, but I don't think it was even close to the strength of the first two. I also really enjoyed "Under the Tuscan Sun" and "Whale Rider" this year.

254 Flicks Battle for Best Picture

] King Kong will be filmed in New Zealand and is scheduled
] for release in 2005. English-born, Australian-raised
] actress Naomi Watts is expected to be among the starring
] cast, as well as several members of Jackson's Lord Of The
] Rings cast.

After Lord of the Rings, Director Peter Jackson's next project is re-make of 'King Kong'

LOL

What NOT to do when watching 'LOTR: Return of the King'

] Judging from a recent NEWSWEEK screening in New
] Zealand, "The Return of the King" is a sure
] contender for best picture. More than that, it could be
] the first franchise ever that didn't, at the end of
] the day, let audiences down -- either because of
] laziness, pretension, greed or other phantom menaces.
] This is an especially poignant possibility at a time when
] we can all still smell the smoke from the wreckage of
] "The Matrix."

I still thought that "Return of the Jedi" was good, but I agree, after having seen how embarrassingly bad that Matrix 3 was, and how much I disliked "The Two Towers," my hopes were not as high for "Return of the King." This review gives me hope that it may still be worth seeing!

Newsweek: 'Return of the King' Doesn't Suck

I saw this film at the recent St. Louis International Film Festival, and give it a big thumbs up. The movie is comprised of four short stories, not so much about robots, as about the way that humans interact emotionally with machines and technology. For example, one is about a futuristic couple that's required to take care of a robot baby to show that they have the mettle to take care of a real baby. Another is a very touching story about a mother who painstakingly restores each of her comatose son's robot toys, as her way of trying to cope with his illness.

This feature film is a wonderful debut for the tech- and blogosphere-literate Greg Pak (whose name may also be recognized from the very funny short films at atomfilms.com, "All Amateur Ecstasy" and "Asian Pride Porn.")

I look forward to seeing other projects of his in the future!

Movie: Robot Stories

This is the website of "MetaCortex", the company that Neo worked for in the Matrix. There's a lot of info here, and evidently multiple puzzles waiting to be solved. It's one of those "Alternate Reality Games", like Majestic. I'm way too busy with Kryptos & Cyrillic Projector stuff at the moment to dig into it, but it looks like fun, so I wanted to at least meme it.

More info is here:
http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~mlpatter/matrix/

Enjoy,

Elonka :)

Matrix Puzzle - MetaCortex Headquarters

] Academy Award nominee Diane Lane stars as Frances Mayes,
] a 35-year-old San Francisco writer whose perfect life has
] just taken an unexpected detour. Her recent divorce has
] left her with terminal writer's block . . .
 . . .
] Frances decides to take a break and she buys a villa in
] the beautiful Tuscan countryside and decides to begin anew.

I just saw an advance screening of this movie, and give it a 5 out of 5 rating. Breathtaking (and I mean that literally) cinematography, exquisitely drawn characters, a light touch that can poke fun at things while still pointing out profound truths, tons of literary and historical references without clubbing you over the head with them, and perfectly cast. This movie wasn't just made, it was crafted. The kind where an entire scene can take place without a single word. There were multiple scenes in this movie where all the popcorn-munching stopped, and the entire audience was held momentarily breathless, being carried along wordlessly by the story.

This movie is now on my "Best movies of the year" list (along with "Whale Rider").

If you've got a galloping allergy to anything that might be perceived as a "chick flick," you *might* not care for it, but I still think that this movie is well worth seeing for a wide demographic, and is going to land on many people's lists of "all time favorite movies". Recommended.

Movie: Under the Tuscan Sun

Looks like there'll be new extended versions of I and II coming out just before III:

] Running times for the extended editions are 208 minutes
] for "Fellowship of the Ring" and 214 minutes for "The Two
] Towers."

] Starting the week of Dec. 5, the extended DVD cut of
] "Fellowship of the Ring" will be released in some 100 or
] so theaters in the U.S. and in 20 theaters in Canada.
]
] Then, the week of Dec. 12, sequel "Two Towers" will
] unspool, just a month after having preemed on DVD,
] leading up to a worldwide Dec. 16 daylong marathon,
] during which all three films will be shown back-to-back.
] Exhib guidelines call for a 3 p.m. showing of
] "Fellowship" followed by a 7 p.m. screening of "Two
] Towers" and then an 11 p.m. screening of "Return of the
] King," which will carry over into Dec. 17 -- the day of
] its global release.

Three and a half hours of I, followed by three and a half hours of II, followed by "Return of the King". Popcorn-overdose, dude, I'm there! :)

Lord of the Rings Marathon for Release of 'Return of the King'

This is an incredible movie. See it. Take kids. If you don't have kids handy, go see it by yourself. Yes, it's *that* good.

Five out of five stars.

Movie: Whale Rider

] Going into The Matrix: Reloaded, I wasn't worried if the
] fight scenes or special effects would measure up to the
] first film - it was the metaphysics that bothered me.

Good -- a reviewer who, like me, was more interested in the philosophy of the movie than the fight sequences! I think he's reading quite a bit more into it than was actually there, but then again, the vagueness of some of the references is part of why the Matrix was so fascinating to begin with!

The Matrix Reloaded: A Philosopher's Review