Thor (Super Bowl TV Spot)

Director: Kenneth Branagh

Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman

Genre: Superhero, Action, Adventure

Release: May 2011

Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon (Super Bowl TV Spot)

Director: Michael Bay (Transformers 1 and 2, Armageddon)

Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Release: July 2011

Battle: Los Angeles (Super Bowl TV Spot)

Director: Jonathan Liebesman (Darkness Falls)

Starring: Michelle Rodriguez, Aaron Eckhart, Bridget Moynahan

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Release: March 2011

Super 8 (Super Bowl TV Spot)

Director: JJ Abrams (Mission: Impossible III, Star Trek)

Starring: Elle Fanning, Kyle Chandler

Genre: Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Release: June 2011

In a Better World (Trailer)

Director: Susanne Bier

Starring: Mikael Persbrandt

Genre: Drama

Release: April 2011 (US – Limited)

*Golden Globe winner – Best Foreign Language Film (Denmark)

*Academy Award nominee – Best Foreign Language Film

Batman and Bond 23 Casting Updates

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, one of the first names to come up to possibly play a villain in Christopher Nolan’s long-awaited sequel to his critical and box office success The Dark Knight, may get a role in the film after all. Slowly but surely, Nolan is making known his intentions to make The Dark Knight Rises a family affair once again, bringing back actors he’s comfortable with, this time from his latest flick Inception.

Not that I mind at all. I just want him to a get the movie done already.

In other news, Best Actor nominee Javier Bardem is once again making the rounds with confirmation from himself that he’s been offered a role in Sam Mendes’ (American Beauty, Revolutionary Road) follow-up to Marc Forster’s Quantum of Solace. In a recent interview he’s been quoted that he’s up for a juicy villain part, hearkening us back to his splendid turn in the Coens’ No Country For Old Men.

One can only hope the MGM crisis won’t hinder this film from getting made as soon as possible.

Can’t you tell I’m just itching for Batman and Bond?

Incendies (Trailer)

Director: Denis Villanueve

Starring: Lubna Azabal

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Release: April 2011 (US – Limited)

*Academy Award nominee – Best Foreign Language Film (Canada)

Review: Dogtooth (***1/2)

A recently-anointed Best Foreign Language Film nominee, Yorgos Lanthimos’ Dogtooh raised many eyebrows upon its initial rounds during the festival circuit in its home country of Greece as well as at Cannes, where it snatched the event’s Un Certain Regard Prize. No doubt the film casts a stark and sometimes satirical portrait of society shunned in favor of a life of ultimate subordination, but to have it embraced by the grandest stage of them all validates this cinematic work as both thought-provoking and pertinent.

At the film’s heart is a twisted and malicious mystery, where we discover the family’s patriarch (Christos Sterioglou) deliberately submitting his three adult children (Christos Passalis, Aggeliki Papoulia, and Mary Tsoni) as well as his indifferent wife (Michele Valley) to lifelong imprisonment on their pristinely ordinary middle-class Greek home. The children have been taught incorrect vocabulary, with words such as “cunt” supposedly meaning a large lamp, while they obsess over airplanes falling from the sky, and fielded by incessant urges, the family’s only son is serviced by a female security guard from his father’s office. Sexual intercourse has become an emotionally devoid activity, and incessant licking, barking and gnawing have become the norm.

Vanity Fair’s 17th Annual Hollywood Issue

Vanity Fair’s annual Hollywood Issue is pretty much a staple for any person with at least a passing interest in anything entertainment, and this year’s classic ensemble is another diverse and well-assembled group of young thespians who’ve made an impact in film one way or another.

Leading the pack are Green Lantern to-be Ryan Reynolds, with Love and Other Drugs stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway, as well as Oscar co-host and 127 Hours star James Franco – all front cover-worthy I might add. On the inside, The Hurt Locker star Anthony Mackie gets a well-deserved appearance, flanked on both sides by Oscar nominee Jennifer Lawrence and the sizzlingly sexy Olivia Wilde.

Truth be told, I still prefer last year’s elegantly shot Annie Leibovitz set, of course for the simple reason that it was an all female photoshoot. Carey Mulligan, Mia Wasikowska, Amanda Seyfried, Emma Stone, Anna Kendrick, Rebecca Hall, and heck even Kristen Stewart all looked impeccable.

Shot of that after the cut…

One More ‘Speech’ at the SAG Awards

And there you have it. Your Oscar race is over, folks.

Only one film that’s nabbed the Producers Guild, Directors Guild and Screen Actors Guild has not won the Best Picture Academy Award (Apollo 13). It is certainly a very precarious situation for David Fincher’s The Social Network, which was once thought to be a major player come February 27 after winning accolade after accolade during the critics awards circuit, as it came up empty during today’s SAG Awards.

It was an unfortunately predictable night, with the frontrunners in all of the top four categories coming up with confirmatory wins in their march towards the Oscar podium. Firth, Portman and Bale look like virtual locks at this point, but I am still having second thoughts about Melissa Leo’s campaign as I am still sensing a Hailee Steinfeld intrusion (or most probably hoping for one) on the red carpet.

Inception chalked up its consolation prize with Best Stunt Ensemble and you can pretty much only hope for wins in Sound Editing, Mixing and Visual Effects for the box office juggernaut. And even those might be in peril.

The King’s Speech is looking more and more likely to come up with a lopsided sweep come Oscar night, while outstanding films such as Fincher’s will forever be sidelined alongside other great films which failed to capture the elusive Academy Award.

The best part of the night? The amazingly dressed and drop-dead gorgeous Mila Kunis.

Full list of winners after the cut…