FAT JACK Oscar Still Up For Grabs

Sophie shows off this year's FAT JACK Oscar.

We have a three way tie for the FAT JACK Oscar. Kathy, Stacy and Linda all have predicted 12 winners. So we go to an Oscar history question to find the winner of this year's Oscar. This year's winner was Kathy with 12 correct predictions! Larry Litle won the second prize for the worse predictions this year with only six correct predictions. Even the 6-year-old beat Larry; she predicted nine winners.

UPDATE: Upon further review, the FAT JACK Oscar Committee has decided that FAT JACK, his wife, daughter or affiliates thereof, are not eligible to receive the FAT JACK Oscar. Therefore, there is a two-way tie between friends Stacy and Linda. The FJ Oscar Committee will compile a quiz of Oscar history material that each candidate will fill out. She who answer the largest number of quiz questions correct will be the official winner of:

• The FJ Oscar
• Spaceballs on DVD (gently used)

The FJ Oscar Committee regrets any confusion or heartache this might have caused.

Sincerely,
Jack

79th Oscar Night Festivities

11:13 p.m.
BEST PICTURE
The Departed
Could have blown me over. I really didn't expect The Departed to win both Director and Best Picture.

11:07 p.m.
DIRECTOR
Martin Scorcese, The Departed
No big surprise here. Scorcese has never won an Academy Award and it is about time he won one. I don't really know that he actually won for The Departed. As the Academy often does, they give awards out to people for works that they should have won for. I am happy for Scorcese. He deserves an Oscar.

11:02 p.m.
ACTOR -- LEADING
Forest Whitaker

ACTRESS -- LEADING
Helen Mirren, The Queen
I'm really glad that Streep didn't get the award. The Devil Wears Prada was a fine enough movie for a Saturday afternoon rental, but it was not, in any way, Oscar Worthy. It was much ado about veyr little.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman has never seen a comb. I swear that guy couldn't brush his hair if his life depended on it.

FILM EDITING
The Departed

ORIGINAL SONG
"I need to wake up", by Melissa Ethridge
An Inconvenient Truth

They didn't use enough titty tape on poor Jennifer Hudson; a bit of her bra was showing, bless her heart. Someone is getting fired.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Little Miss Sunshine

ORIGINAL SCORE
Babel

We've decided that as a group, with one dissenting vote, that we do not like Celion Dion, most of us for different reasons. I don't like her French bitchiness. Paul doesn't like her fakeness. Stacy decided that her chin is too pointy for her short forehead. And her breast, we all decided that her breasts were trully pittiful.

You may be wondering why I don't mention the special Oscars that are given out. I don't know, really. I just don't care about those too much so I don't mess with them.

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
An Inconvenient Truth
Seinfeld's little diatribe on movie theatres was too funny and his crack about the depressingness of the films in this category was also humerous. Friend Larry, a self-proclaimed conservative, proclaimed that he was an evangelical Christian. That is a label that he usually decries, but tonight he lumped himself in that group. We both thought Jesus Camp would win. So the next time he complains about being lumped into the crazy evangelical Christian group, then you can remind him of his proclamation at 9:50 p.m.

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The Blood of Yingzhou District

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Hudson
The American Idol contestant has made a career for herself. I really didn't think she would win an Oscar, but she proved me wrong. Good for her.

Holy Crap! That whole dance routine with Ellen and Snakes on a Plane was bad ass.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Lives of Others
Another huge upset. We all picked Pan's Labyrinth as a sure win in this category.

VISUAL EFFECTS
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Naomi Watts and Robert Downey Jr. introduced Best Visual Effects. I didn't know Downey would be sober enough to do it.

Palabus (sp?) just did a dance routine where they acted out the Little Miss Sunshine bus and the girl running behind.

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Pan's Labyrinth

Now Ellen has changed into a white tuxedo, which also looks very nice. Her bit where she made Steven Spielberg take a snap shot of her with Clint Eastwood for her My Space page was hysterical. She is doing a great job.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Marie Antoinette
Another dress with a bow, this one on her chest. For the love of God. Bows do not make a dress better, unless the wearer is 8 years old.

8:51 p.m.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Departed

ANIMATED FEATURE
Happy Feet
That was a real upset. We all voted for Cars. What is Hollywood's hard on with penguins? I just don't get it.

We just finished watching, during the commercials, the movie Grindhouse by Tarantino and Rodriguez. Now that is some kind of double feature.

The Academy Awards have gone green. You can go to oscar.com to find out more. Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio announced this.

The dance troupe Polabolous (sp?) rocks the house. That is a remarkable, sculptoural, artistic performance. Amazing. They came to Springfield once, according to friends, Monty and Stacy. I wish I hadn't missed that. If they come again, tne I am all over that.

Okay, at this point in the night, my wife and I have decided that we need to see some movies: Apocalypto, Little Children and the live action short, West Bank Story. I am heading to Netflix at the next commercial break.

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine

BEST SOUND MIXING
Dreamgirls

BEST SOUND EDITING
Letters from Iwo Jima

The Sound Effects Choir was really cool, making all those sound effects to those movies with just their voices. Impressive.

8: 05 p.m.
Whoa! Jack Nicholson went cue ball. Good for him. FAT JACK loves that shaved look.

LIVE ACTION SHORT
West Bank Story

That Abagail Breslin from Little Miss Sunshine is one really cute kid.
ANIMATED SHORT
The Danish Poet

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
Pan's Labyrinth

I don't know what Nicole Kidman was thinking wearing that head pillow on the shoulder of her dress. Crazy. What is wrong with people wearing big old bows on their butts and bodies?

ART DIRECTION
Pan's Labyrinth

7:40 p.m.
So far Ellen is a funny host.

7:30 p.m. -- The Oscars Begins
The beginning montage was very cool. What will Ellen wear, a dress or a tuxedo? It's a tux! It's a tux. Maroon velvet tux with white shoes. Good for her.

Paul is an idiot. Tonight we talked about the movie, 300, and Paul asked what it was. We are planning a guys night out to go and watch that.

The majority of us (60%) voted for The Departed for Best Director. Thirty percent voted for Letters from Iwo Jima and 10% voted for United 93. For my part, I think that the time has come for Martin Scorcese to win Best Director. Besides, Eastwood has one two in a row and I don't see him winning another one.

7:16 p.m.
Cameron Diaz needs to go back to being a blonde.

6:30 p.m.
Friends in attendance at our party:
Paul and Linda
Monty and Stacy and child
Larry and Michelle and child
Shad and Woodchuck Draft Cider

I will offer updates throughout the night, so keep checking back.

FAT JACK's Thoughts on the Nominees

I am in school. Balancing a graduate program and a family leaves little time for anything else including movies. So I have not seen most of the Oscar nominees this year, much to my chagrin. I am not even going to bother trying to predict the winners on this blog. However, I will share my thoughts on the movies that I have seen and the ones that I really want to see.

PAN’S LABYRINTH
I was lucky enough to catch this little gem at The Moxie a couple of weeks ago. It is captivating and disturbing, beautiful and treacherous too.

JESUS CAMP
My wife and I both really regret the fact that we didn’t get to see this and I forgot to add it to my Netflix queue before the Oscars. We love documentaries and this is right up our alley. We are Christians, my little family, yet we are not a part of the evangelical movement that is ripping through our country. We would probably fall into the category of liberal Christian. That is we believe in love as the driving force behind Christianity, as opposed to the emotional rape and pillaging of many so-called Christian groups and movements of the day.

So this interesting and provocative film really peaked our interest. It is important to understand how many Christians are being led astray – brainwashed – by the corruption of the church. We are anxious to see this one. If my mind serves me correctly, the church camp featured in this film shut down not long after this film came out. I don’t remember where I heard that, so don’t take it for truth.

OUR TWO FAVORITES THIS YEAR
Little Miss Sunshine and An Inconvenient Truth are two of our favorites that we saw this year. Little Miss Sunshine was a breath of fresh air amidst a sea of same old same old films that Hollywood puts out. An Inconvenient Truth was very interesting and opened our eyes. Up until this point neither of us had really followed all the global warming pandering that had been going on: It’s real; it’s not real. This documentary clears that up pretty well.

APOCALYPTO
This is a film, despite it’s nefarious director, that I want to see. I enjoy films of different cultures and I think the Mayans are very interesting. Their technological advances and warmongering make for an interesting history lesson. I love the fact that it is in original language. We are not ones to shy away from subtitles.

THE GREAT WAR
Both Flags of our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima appear to be films that shouldn’t be missed. I am a bit skeptical based on the ridiculously over-hyped praise of Clint Eastwood’s last winner, Million Dollar Baby. Anyone that knows much about disability could drive trucks through the holes in that films storyline, but Hollywood didn’t care about that.

PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST
This was not as good as its predecessor, but it was fun in its own right. It’s a movie based on a Disney ride for goodness sakes. How seriously can it be taken? It made for a great Saturday afternoon movie rental.


I seriously doubt I will be able to watch many of the films this year. Many of them can’t be watched with a 6-year-old running around and by the time she goes to sleep it is either time to clean the house, study or sleep.

The Academy Awards is This Sunday Night

Sunday night is the Academy Awards, an event that our family never misses. My wife and I have been watching the Oscars for years and we have hosted an Academy Awards Party for the past several years. Nothing fancy mind you. We don’t get fancied up and we don’t come in costume either, although we have entertained both ideas seriously. We just have a small group of movie-loving friends over to watch the show.

This year snuck up on us as my wife and daughter were sick all last week and I just lost track of time. So today I am rushing around a bit to get things ready. I didn’t even get to send out real invitations this year; I just sent out emails. Oh well.

I hope to post some interesting tidbits about the event as the night unfolds right here on INCONCEIVABLE. So check back that night to see what’s happening.



I don’t know how you could not have already known, but just in case you didn’t, the host for this year’s event is Ellen DeGeneres. I suspect she will be very funny and a great host. She promises to give all kinds of inside, backstage gossip on her show the next day.

Click here to download a printable Oscar ballot.
Click here to see Oscars featured movie quotes of all time.

Show-Me International Film Festival

Butter my butt and call me a biscuit.

I'm a bit late coming out with the news. School sometimes gets in the way of blogging. This week is the second annual Show-Me International Film Festival, held here in Springfield. We are very lucky to have such an endeavor and I should have reported on it earlier.

Springfield's GO Magazine had a great article on the all the goings-on with the festival, including a comprehensive schedule of events. There will be films, forums, workshops and the opportunity to meet filmmakers.

My friend, MC at Entertain Me, is one of this year's judges. He has a blog post on the event as well. He's a much better film blogger than I.

Mini-Review: "Pan's Labyrinth

Review by Fat Jack
My Rating 5 stars out of 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 96% Fresh
Netflix: 4.4 stars out of 5
IMDb: 8.5 stars out of 10
Roger Ebert: 4 stars out of 4






Dan, the co-owner of The Moxie (Springfield’s only independent movie theatre) introduced the film as having mind-searing violence. He was right. This may be a fairytale, but it is an grown-up fairytale, leaving the reality of a happy ending up to the filmgoer. It is a cold and cruel world – an idea, which is aptly applied through the character of the Captain. He is concerned about little except producing progeny and dying honorably on the battlefield, and all his actions push him toward those goals. His utter disregard for anyone or anything is expertly dramatized by actor Sergio Lopez.

Young Ofelia travels with her pregnant mother to live with new father and husband, Captain Vidal. Ofelia wants no part of it. Once in the encampment, she realizes the world around her is full of death and pain. She soon discovers Pan’s Labyrinth. Pan being the name of the faun she encounters. He tells her a fairytale about a long lost princess of the underground world and suggests that she is the princess found. In order to discover this world, she must first complete three tasks.

The movie is not about the fairytale world, but rather about the journey toward this new land -- a metaphor for Heaven. Her path makes her interact with the Captain’s cruel hunt for the resistance soldiers hiding in the forest, where there is constant war and hatred. Inside the Captains camp there are members of the resistance wreaking havok.

The beauty of Pan’s Labyrinth is in the deep expression of director Guillermo del Toro, who has a tendency to create horror-dramas. It is a stunning work, full of beauty and darkness with an interesting story devoid of any typical Hollywood ending. It is a fairytale for adults, but one that is worth seeing.

CAPTAIN VIDAL: You could have obeyed me!
THE DOCTOR: But captain, to obey - just like that - for obedience's sake... without questioning... That's something only people like you do. [Captain Vidal shoots him].


CAPTAIN VIDAL: Tell my son the time his father died. Tell him I...
MERCEDES: No. He won't even know your name.

MERCEDES: You won't be the first pig I've gutted.

Mini-Review: The Devil Wears Prada

Review by FAT JACK
My Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 77% Fresh
Roger Ebert: 2 stars out of 4
Netflix: 3.7 stars out of 5
IMDb: 6.7 stars out of 10

I expected this movie to get a higher rating than it did from the critics. For anyone who’s played the role of Satan’s cabana boy with their boss will be able to relate to this entertaining flick. Meryl Streep had a great time playing this role, and she certainly had Martha Stewart in mind the entire time. I understand the plot and sympathize. I’ve played the part myself and worked for the devil in order to get a better job. I did and then moved on to bigger and better things. I learned a lot about myself and the world around me, and for that I am eternally grateful. Our heroine learned a thing or two as well. The experience changed her, for a time, into someone she ultimately could not live with. I suppose my being able to relate to that increased my enjoyment of this movie. I found it worth watching.

Review: Lady in the Water

Review by FAT JACK
My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 24% Rotten
Roger Ebert: 1.5 stars out of 4
Netflix: 3.3 stars out of 5
IMDb: 6.2 stars out of 10

You can tell by the ratings above that this movie was not well received -- not at all. I don’t understand why. This wasn’t M. Night Shayamalan’s finest film, not by any stretch, but it was an interesting movie. Seems that most everyone holds his movies up to the “Sixth Sense” and I think that is ultimately the problem for the writer-director. Everyone loved his horror flick so much, that they are salivating for more and Shayamalan refuses to deliver a hack job on his previous work. I give him kudos for not falling prey to the idiots who just want another “Sixth Sense 2”. I thought Lady in the Water was an intriguing bedtime story. Not that they were not problems with it. There were.

First of all it was billed as a horror film in the trailers. Big mistake. It makes people expect something other than what it is. I knew that ahead of time, which helped me. I didn’t have any false hopes for the movie. I also think that Shayamalan’s performance was a bit wooden and restricted. I kept recognizing him and it took me out of the film, something you do not ever want to do, especially for this film. It was a stretch to suspend the disbelief at times. I maintained mine, but I can see how failing expectations could combine here to make for a bad movie going experience. There were scenes of comedy, which worked fine for the most part. There was one that stood out as going too far. The movie critic faces off with the scrat and he offers too much in the way of direct dialogue. It’s an attempt to interject some comedy, but it ruins the mood. Too much comedy is bad comedy and Shayamalan has yet to learn how to write good comedy.

Other than that, I enjoyed the quirkiness of the film and how it bordered on the surreal. I choose that word because in the real world, one might argue that people would not act the way the do in this film. They would not so readily believe or be sucked into the situation. Of course if you follow the fairy tale, you discover that is the beauty of the story. People who are meant to be play a part in the story, are inexplicably drawn to the apartment complex and to each other. That is the beginning of the theme of the movie.

My mother taught my Sunday School class when I was a teenager. The overriding message was this: God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.” That use of the ordinary to do something extraordinary is what this bedtime story is all about. It is a fairy tale after all and as all good fairy tales require, it is supposed to teach the audience something. If you keep in mind that it is a fairy tale, then you may just get the movie and enjoy it for what it is and what it is supposed to be.

By the way, this story is based on a bedtime story that Shayamalan made up and told his children. He turned the story into a children’s book by the same name. It was after the book publication that he developed the movie, which is significantly different than the book.

Mini-Review: Night at the Museum

Review by FAT JACK
My Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 46% Rotten
Netflix: 3.9 stars out of 5
IMDb: 6.5 stars out of 10

Not a movie that has received much critical acclaim, but a movie that was a lot of fun for the family. Seems most folks have not really cared for it, but we enjoyed it for what it was supposed to do. I didn’t expect anything spectacular from Ben Stiller over his typical shtick. I assumed there would be lots of physical comedy, a basic plot, sarcasm, and a simplistic dilemma that is overcome and wrapped up in the end. That’s exactly what I got. For that I don’t really see why everyone is so hard on this movie. It’s entertaining. What did people expect? I expected it to be simplistic fun, like a trip to Silver Dollar City. I’ve been on those rides a thousand times. There’s nothing new about Fire in the Hole, but I still ride it – for my daughter and for me.

Mini-Review: Clerks 2

Review by FAT JACK
My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 63% Rotten
Netflix: 3.8 stars out of 5
BrandonCrain Blog: 8 out of 10

There are some big differences between the two Clerks films and most of those differences are in favor of the original. There are minor things as well, such as the use of color in the second film, but those are inconsequential. The first film utilized what Kevin Smith does well, and that is write compelling dialogue in the league of Quentin Tarantino and the writers of Seinfeld. Interesting and engaging dialogue is hard to write, especially when that dialogue does not push the plot along. Smith did that flawlessly in the first film, but Clerks 2 somehow falls prey to the same thing that plagues the entire film. It is forced. That does not mean that there is not excellent dialogue in this film. There are short burst of it. One little gem is the whole Trilogy v. Trilogy issue that is speckled throughout. The argument between which trilogy rules, Lord of the Rings versus Star Wars, is ecstasy. I had been warned about this ahead of time and I found it as entertaining as any piece of dialogue in the Clerks franchise. Genius to be sure. I am left wishing that the rest of the dialogue had been this funny.

To continue with the problematic theme, the acting felt forced too. It appeared that they were trying too hard to make Clerks again, to touch into that edgy vein, and the fact that the actors cared so much showed on the screen and took away from the film. Replacing it was a hackneyed attempt to simply gross us out, rather than show us the characters. Not that I mind the whole donkey thing. I’ve heard those stories about what goes on in Mexico. But somehow the portrayal didn’t ring true. Some of Jay and Silent Bob’s diatribes were choppy and simplistic, even for them. The Silence of the Lambs spoof was hysterical, or it would have been had they not shown that in the trailers. By the time it hit my screen it was old hat.

All in all, I guess I enjoyed Clerks 2 but not as much as I should have. Just so we are clear, Lord of the Rings is a much higher quality trilogy than Star Wars. The acting is better, the special effects are incredible and the plot is rich.

Mini-Review: Superman Returns

Review by FAT JACK
My Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Larry of INCONCEIVABLE: B+
Bryan of INCONCEIVABLE: 4.5 stars out of 5
Rotten Tomatoes: 76% Rotten
Roger Ebert: 2 stars out of 4
Netflix: 3.7 stars out of 5
IMDb: 7 stars out of 10
Entertain Me: B
BrandonCrain Blog: 6 out of 10

This is a movie that I was looking forward to, but my expectations were pretty low based on the reviews that I’ve read about it. The script was poor and the writing was full of too many holes to even bother writing about. There was real potential for a great movie. All I can say is that the producers must have been passing about kryptonite martinis during the entire production. Come on. He swims under water and picks up an entire island laced with kryptonite? The only really cool thing was the bullet hitting Superman’s eye and bouncing off, but we saw that in the trailers. Too bad.

Mini-Review: Pirates of the Caribbean -- Dead Man's Chest

Review by FAT JACK
My Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 54% Rotten
Netflix: 3.9 stars out of 5
IMDb: 7.3 stars out of 10
Entertain Me: B

A bit darker and less funny, Dead Man’s Chest was still fun. I would have preferred it to have more comedy. The cgi was wonderful and I loved the fact that we didn’t see all of the Kraken. The plot was a bit convoluted at times and rushed, but it was fun nonetheless. Just not as fun as the first.

Movies I Should Not Have Missed

In 2006, there were a lot of good movies such as Little Miss Sunshine, which the reviewers at INCONCEIVABLE predicted would be a hit independent movie. FAT JACK neglected to see it, but got it for Christmas, so it will only be time before I can watch it and offer my own review of it. There were a few others that I missed this year that you may not have heard of, but that had real potential. I have added them to my Netflix queue and will get to when I can. Especially, Pan’s Labyrinth. That has received wonderful reviews and after watching the trailer, I can't wait to see it. I love martial arts films, so those are always on my list, even if they aren't great films. As for Renaissance, it just looks so interesting to me. I love independent and art house films. The question is, what did you miss this year that you wish you had seen?

Pan’s Labyrinth
Rated R
Thriller
(see the trailer and official site)

Rotten Tomatoes: 99% Fresh
Roger Ebert: 4 stars out of 4
Netflix: 4.3 stars out of 5
IMDb: 8.3 stars out of 10





Jet Li’s Fearless
Rated PG-13
Martial Arts -- Action-Adventure
(see the trailer and official site)

Rotten Tomatoes: 73% Fresh
Netflix: 4 stars out of 5
IMDb: 7.7 stars out of 10






Curse of the Golden Flower
Not yet rated
Martial Arts – Foreign
(see the trailer and official site)

Rotten Tomatoes: 61% Fresh
Netflix: 3.7 stars
IMDb: 7.1 stars out of 10





Renaissance
Rated R
Science Fiction
(see the trailer and official site)

Rotten Tomatoes: 42% Rotten
Netflix: 3.2 Stars
IMDb: 6.9 stars out of 10

Movies To See in 2007 (first six months)

With the new year comes a new film season and there are several good potentials on the horizon. I’ve picked a few that I think will be worth seeing for one reason or another. This pre-view only covers the first half of the year and is split into categories. I haven’t included any storyline information. Watch the trailers and if you find you need more information from there, then you can go find it yourself. I’m too busy. The only thing I want to point out is that “The Hitcher” is a remake and we all know how those go. “Evan Almighty” is a sequel to “Bruce Almighty”.

FAMILY

Happily N’ever After
January 5, 2007
Rated PG
Animated – Family
(see the trailer and official site)








Arthur and the Invisibles
January 12, 2007
Not yet rated
Animated – Family
(see the trailer and official site)








Ratatouille
(rat a-too-ee)
Summer 2007
Not yet rated
Animated – Family
(see the trailer and official site)








Action-Adventure

Spider Man 3
May 2007
Not yet rated
Comic Book -- Action-Adventure
(see the trailer and official site)









Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
June 15, 2007
Rated PG-13
Action-Adventure
(see the trailer and official site)






Transformers
July 4, 2007
Not yet rated
Action-Adventure
(see the trailer and official site)









Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
July 13, 2007
Not yet rated
Action-Adventure
(see the trailer and official site)









COMEDY

Epic Movie
January 26, 2007
Rated Not yet rated
Comedy
(see the trailer and official site)









Norbit
Februrary 2007
Not yet rated
Comedy
(see the trailer and official site)









Balls of Fury
April 27, 2007
Rated PG-13
Comedy
(see the trailer and official site)









The Simpsons Movie
July 27, 2007
Not yet rated
Animated
(see the trailer and official site)









Evan Almighty
Summer 2007
Not yet rated
Comedy
(see the trailer and official site)





DRAMA

300
March 9, 2007
Rated R
Bloody Drama
(see the trailer and official site)









Premonition
March 27, 2007
Not yet rated
Drama
(see the trailer and official site)





THRILLER

The Hitcher
January 19, 2007
Rated R
Thriller
(see the trailer and official site)








The Invisible
January 26, 2007
Rated R
Thriller
(see the trailer and official site)








Primeval
April 13, 2007
Rated R
Thriller
(see the trailer and official site)

Movie Review- The Santa Clause 3

Over the weekend, I took my daughter to see The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause. We went with Bryan and his family. It was a fun time of going out and enjoying a movie with friends. This is a winning movie with my daughter. It appeared to be enjoyed by Bryan's kids. Any movie that has Santa as the hero this near to Christmas is bound to be popular with the young ones.

The Santa Clause 3: The Escape Clause revolves around the relationship of Santa and his opening act- Jack Frost. Frost wants the fame that Santa has. He is assigned to Santa to assist him since Santa has a baby on the way. Santa also has to deal with his in-laws and story that they are actually in Canada, Eh! This gives Frost a chance to cause mischief and plot how he can become Santa.

Jack Frost is played by Martin Short. He plays Frost as your stereotypical over the top villain of a melodrama. He is very funny in this role but it nothing more than a chilly Dastardly Dan.

This movie had it moments as a comedy. Tim Allen delivered some classic Santa moments. There were laughs but not as many as I hoped.

This movie is a typical third movie in a series. It is not as good as the first two. The first Santa Clause was a great take on the Santa Claus story. The second one was not as good but a fun movie. This movie was just a notch below the second one.

I give this movie a C+. My five year old daughter would probably give it an A. It was worth seeing just to see my daughter enjoy it so much.

Other Reviews:
IMDB User Rating: 2.8 / 10
Rotten Tomatoes- Rotten- 13%
Rotten Tomatoes- Rotten- 44%
Coming Soon- 50%
IFilm 3 out of 5 stars



Best Quotes:
Jack Frost: You're not Santa anymore. You're just a guy who smells like a cookie.

Mother Nature: [From Trailer] You are both willful and malicious!
Jack Frost: Did you just accuse me of being skillful and delicious?

Scott Calvin: Give me a status report.
Curtis, the Experimental Elf: Your pants are on fire.
Scott Calvin: ...Yes they are.

New Poll- Best Matrix Quote

The phenom movie the Matrix is our latest quote poll. There are a lot of memorable lines from this movie. Check out the quotes and vote for the best one. Did I miss one? If so, let me know.

It is the Airplane quote... and stop calling me Shirley!

Here is the winning quote from Airplaine!:

Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious.
Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

Coming in a close second is:

Elaine Dickinson: There's no reason to become alarmed, and we hope you'll enjoy the rest of your flight. By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane?

Love this movie.

Stranger Than Fiction!

I just read a great review of a new movie. The review is on Ain't It Cool News and is entitled: Massawyrm Loves STRANGER THAN FICTION!! Stranger Than Fiction, which opens 11-10-06, is a Will Ferrell movie with a lot of buzz. It also stars Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, and Emma Thompson.

This movie is not your typical comedy with Will Ferrell. According to the article, this movie is "One of those uncommon comedies that manages to transcend the genre and enter Oscar level territory (an award rarely offered to comedies) this film sets itself apart from the very beginning." This movie is directed by Marc Forster, of Monster’s Ball and Finding Neverland fame.

In the Fantasy Moguls game, I was able to pick this movie as my third round pick. I love this pick after reading this review. I am hopeful that the great reviews and Oscar hype continue. Check out the movie review above. Then check out the trailer here. If it intrigues you as much as it does me, make sure to put this on your must see movie list. After all, it is not just about seeing a quality movie that is getting Oscar buzz (that I did not start but I am perpetuating) but also about my fantasy team.

Movie Review- The Guardian

I went and viewed The Guardian in the theature. I attended with a group of friends from work. I had a great time but it had very little to do with this movie.

This movie stars Kevin Costner and Ashton Kutcher. Costner plays Ben Randall, a Coast Guard rescue diver. Kutcher is a hotshot diver want to be that is in Costner's class. Randall is a brooding instructor very similar to Gunny Highway (Clint Eastwood) in Heartbreak Ridge. Kutcher is a combination of Zack Mayo (Richard Gere) from An Officer and a Gentleman and Maverick (Tom Cruise) from Top Gun.

If the characters were the only retreads and not also the plot, then this movie might have been good. Unfortunately, they stole all of the major plots points from other movies. According to Greg, one of my friends I saw it with, "It is a cookie cutter movie of several others." An Officer and a Gentleman is copied a lot but it is not as good. There are definite scenes out of Top Gun in this film. It is a typical- "Yeah for our Armed Service Branch" movie. This one specializes on the Coast Guard.

The acting was not bad. There are scenes where Ashton Kutcher demonstrates some great talent that I did not know existed. It is almost worth the price of admission to see his acting growth. Sela Ward adds some other dramatic scenes being Randall's wife.

The women in my group of friends seemed to like this movie better than the men. There are a lot of scenes with no shirts and 6 pack abs that seem to get their attention. There are no such scenes that grab the male attention span. It reminded me of the Volleyball scene in Top Gun. If only there was Cool Fighter Jets flying around to distract us.

This movie was not horrible. I would not pay full price or even matinee price for it (which we did). It is a decent cheap movie or rental. I give it a solid C+. Most of this is for Kutcher's new found acting ability.

Here is what other reviews have to say:
IMDB Users Rating: 6.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Critics- 37% -Rotten
Rotten Tomatoes Users- 80% -Fresh
E Online Review- C+

Fantasy Moguls

Do you like watching movies? Do you think you know what movies will be hits and what movies will be flops? Do you think you can out smart 7 other movie buffs? If so, then check out Fantasy Moguls. This is similar to fantasy baseball and football but with new movie releases. Here is what they say about themselves.

"FantasyMoguls.com is a fantasy game for Hollywood movies. Like Fantasy Football but here you draft movies that will be released during the Holiday Movie Season!You get points based on things like box office and review score. "

You can go to their site and sign up for a league. Leagues are free. There is a simple and a more complex version of the game. As a fantasy sports geek, this brings the fun of fantasy sports to a new group of individuals that may not be into sports. I think this will be a huge hit. Check it out and get a group to play.