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Birds of Prey Gets a New Title to Help Bring Life to the Movie

Birds of Prey Gets a New Title to Help Bring Life to the Movie

If you thought that the tittle Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) was a bit of a mouthful than you are not the only one. Warner Bros. has officially changed the title of the movies from Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn) to a more digestible Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey. While not the best title they could have gone with it does succeed in what the other title didn’t, and that is putting Harley Quinn front and center.

It is important to point out that when the film was originally announced it was simply called Birds of Prey back in 2015. However, after Suicide Squad failed to deliver and was panned as one of the worst movies of 2016, major changes were made Birds of Prey. With Harley Quinn being the stand out character of the movie, there needed to be a bigger emphasis on her. Margot Robbie was also given more creative control over the character. Margot Robbie would post on her Instagram the script with the new title Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn).

Despite gaining momentum from Aquaman, Shazman, and Joker delivering in the box office, and CW airing their “Crisis on Infinite Earth,” Birds of Prey was expected to be a sure fire-hit. Unfortunately, after earning just $33.2 million domestically from its first week, short from the projected $45 million, the studio was expecting. The movie has mostly recive positive reviews with the movie sitting at an excellent 80% critic score with an 81% fan response on Rotten Tomato. So what happened? Many factors come to mind; for one, despite the success of the previous two films, Birds of Prey is still seen as a direct sequel to Suicide Squad (a.k.a the lowest point of the DCU). That association could have kept people away. Another reason, and one that many critics have pointed out, is that the movie is mainly about Harley Quinn. Yet, when advertising on TV the movie was simply referred as Birds of Prey.

Changing Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of one Harley Quinn) to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is a smart tactic, but with the movie already bombing after one weak, is it too little too late? Of course not, movies have failed to gain its audience after one week before; however, good word of mouth and critical reception can help any movie come back from the brink. Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is in an excellent position heading into Valentine Day weekend. The only competition is To All The Boys I loved Before 2 (Netflix), and Sonic The Hedgehog Movie. So it is safe to say that the choice is pretty obvious.

It is also fun to point out that movies getting title chances is nothing new. The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies was originally titled The Hobbit: There and Back Again. Edge of Tomorrow also received a title change before the Blue Ray release officially named Live, Die, Repeat: Edge of Tomorrow.

2020 Academy Awards Recap- History is Made as Bong Joon-ho Pave the Way For The New Wave of Storytellers

2020 Academy Awards Recap- History is Made as Bong Joon-ho Pave the Way For The New Wave of Storytellers

The 2020 Academy Awards closed the door on the last 10 years of cinema by honoring some of the most diverse movies in recent history. However, and more importantly, it is who is leading the way that marks a massive change for the Academy. Here is a quick round-up; Once again the Oscars goes hostless, but the dynamic between each duo presenter was excellent enough that you did not notice. The standouts, of course, were the hilarious duo of Christ Rock and Steve Marting who singlehandedly stole the show.

Making the wait between commercials bearable were the funny/ awkward M&M commercials, pretty much reflecting what we are all thinking.

On to the awards, despite getting the most nominations of the night with a stunning 11 nomination including best movie, director, and score, Joker only managed to walk away with 2 awards (best original score, best actor). That’s right in one of the most obvious decisions of the night Joaquin Phoenix won Best Leading Actor his first Oscar. Joining him with his first Oscar for acting was Brad Pitt winning Best Supporting Actor, for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood. Best Actress in a Leading Role was a whole different battlefield with powerful performances from Cynthia Erivo for Harriet, Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story, Saoirse Ronan for Little Women, and Charlize Theron for Bombshell all bringing their A-game. However, it was Renee Zellweger who won for her role as Jude Garland for Judy.

Laura Dern won Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Marriage Story. Once again, the Academy played it safe by giving the award for Best Animated Film to Toy Story 4, despite the popularity that Klaus and I lost My Body (Both Netflix Original) have gained. Taika Waititi also won his first Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit (The first Maori to do so). The biggest winner of the night was yet to come. Outside of Joker, no other film had as much buzz going into the award as Parasite, directed by Bong Joon-Ho this psychological thriller won 4 awards, the most of any movie of the night, with 1917 coming in second with three awards. Despite the amount of buzz, Parasite was seen as the underdog, being a Korean film, with Korean actors, and no trace of English insight. It was clear that the Academy was going to awards the film best International Film (Previously know as Best Foreign Language Film) and call it a day. Then it happened. Parasite walked away with four awards, Best Original Screenplay, Best International Film, Best Director, and Best Film.

This is s historic moment as not only is this the first time a Korean director won an award for Best Director and Best Film. This is also the first time that a movie that won Best International Film (Formally Best Foreign Language Film) also won Best Picture. Last year’s Roma was also seen as the movie that would accomplish this, but better late than never. Parasite marks a historic step forward for the Academy, as now the sky is the limit to who can earn the prestigious award. Despite being the 92 Academy, the night could not end without a small accident as the curtain-call started to appear in the middle of Parasite‘s acceptance speech. The audience started to yell, “Up!” causing the crew to lift the curtains and allow Miky Lee to give a well-earned acceptance speech.

  Here are other notable awards:

Best Documentary Film

  • American Factory- Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert, and Jeff Reichert– winner
  • The Cave- Fera Fayyad, Kristine Barfod, and Sigrid Dyekjaer
  • The Edge of Democracy- Petra Costa, Joanna Natasegara, Shane Boris, and Tiago Pavan
  • For Sama- Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts
  • Honeyland0 Ljubomir Stefanov, Tamara Kotevska, and Alanas Georgiev

Best Live Action Short Film

  • The Neighbors’ Window- Mashall Curry– winner
  • Brotherhood- Meryam Joobeur and Maria Gracia Turgeon
  • Nefta Football Club- Yves Piat and Damien Megherbi
  • Saria- Bryan Buckley and Matt Lefebvre
  • A Sister- Delphine Girad

Best Film Editing

  • Ford v Ferrari- Andrew Buckland and Michael McCusker– winner
  • Jojo Rabbit- Tom Eagles
  • Joker- Jeff Groth
  • Parasite- Yang Jin-mo

Best Cinematography

  • 1917- Roger Deakins– winner
  • The Irishman- Rodrigo Prieto
  • Joker- Lawrence Sher
  • The Lighthouse- Jarin Blaschke
  • Once Upon a Time in Hollywood- Robert Richardson

Best Animated Short Film

  • Hair Love- Matthew A. Cherry and Karen Rupert Toliver– winner
  • Dcera (Daughter)- Daria Kashcheeva
  • Kitbull- Rosana Sullivan and Kathryn Hendrickson
  • Memorable- Bruno Collet and Jean- Francois Le Corre
  • Sister- Siqi Song

For the official list of all the nominees and winners visit the official site: https://oscar.go.com/news/winners/oscar-winners-2020-see-the-full-list

The 2020 Oscars, Kick-off A New Decade of Cinema

The 2020 Oscars, Kick-off A New Decade of Cinema

The 2020 Oscars marks the first Oscars of the new decade, and the landscape could not be any more different. Movies that would not be given the time of day, ten or even five years ago, are now the talk of the town. However, as progressive as the Oscars has become, there is still a long way to go before it can become the must-see event of the year. Before we take a look at the 2020 Oscars, lets wind back to the 2010 and 2011 Oscar and see where we stood and what, if anything, changed.

The 2010 Academy Awards marked the end of the 2000s, a decade of movies made famous by the way they tried to improve on the rise of digital technology. CGI was the new frontier for movies, and it seems fitting that ending the previous era was Toy Story 2 (1999) and ten years later we would honor Avatar (2009) a movie that, for the time, was the peek of CGI. While the rise of technology is a pretty cut and dry case, the waters get muddled when looking at the rest of the categories. 2010 marked the beginning of the 10 nominations for best movies, an increase from the traditional 5. This was mainly done as a way to regain viewers’ interaction since it paved the way for larger more recognize movies to earn a spot. The decision was mostly influenced by the 2009 Oscars snubbing of films such as The Dark Knight, and Wall-E, who despite winning awards for best-animated film and supporting actor respectively weren’t nominated for best picture. A change in the way movies are select would mean that, despite the limit of 10 films, we would mainly see around eight or nine films getting nominated. So what were the 2010’s Oscar nominations?

The 2010 line up was filled with one of the most diverse lists of films ever accumulated:  Avatar, District 9, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, A Serious Man, Up in the Air, The Blind Side, and Up. 2010 Oscars was also the first time that a film directed by a woman was nominated, with Lone Scherfig’s An Education, and best-picture winner Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker. Raising the limit of movies would prove to be an overall success; however, even by looking at this list, you can see the flaw in the system. Looking back, it was easy to see all these movies as contenders, however with hindsight, it is clear to see how movies such as The Blind Side, Up in Air, and A Serious Man didn’t stand the test time and were only nominated to fill up space. This would plague the Oscars going forward since it has become increasingly easy to point at which movie each year does not deserve a nomination. Some examples are Life of Pi and Les Miserables for the 2013 Oscars, and more recently Bohemian Rhapsody and Vice for the 2019 Oscar. It is safe to say the term, ‘Oscars Bait,’ really started to gain massive traction throughout the 2010s. The Hurt Locker was the perfect movie to win the Oscars since it perfectly encapsulated the mentality of post 9/11 America. War and social issues were big themes throughout the night with Woody Harrelson winning the best-supporting actor for The Messenger. Even Avatar, Precious, and District 9 tackled social issues in very different ways. America cinema was ready for change, and these movies represented this.

Moving the calendar by one year and the Oscars is singing a different tune. The 2011 Oscars was an interesting show if the 2010 Awards can be seen as America moving away from war, and good vs. evil, 2011 was the year that America cinema was ready to flex its rebellious muscle. The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, Winter’s Bone, if there is one word to describe the 2011 Academy Awards it would be challenging. The Kids Are All Right (One of my favorite Films of All Time) challenge the ideal platonic family, by showing a same-sex couple (Played by Julianne Moore and Annette Bening) raising a family. The Social Network challenge what it means to be the protagonist of a film by offering the most unlikeable character in cinema with Jessie Eisenberg’s portrayal of Mark Zuckerberg. Toy Story 3 challenge the notion that animation can never stand toe to toe with other films by once again getting nominated for best-film (Years later Toy Story 4 still paves the way for animation with another film of the year nomination). I can go on and one with examples such as Inceptions contribution to action movies. Still, the idea is clear these movies proved that American cinema was ready for something new, that if a movie wanted to get nominated, it needs to challenge what we believe is standard cinema. However, one thing that nobody was expecting was the sudden boom of superhero movies, a shift that would drastically affect the Oscars.

Superhero films have become some of the biggest money earners for Hollywood, fans and newcomers alike line up almost every other month to see the latest Superhero movie. However, rarely do we see Superhero films earning anything outside of best special effects. This disconnect becomes an issue when you start to consider all that these movies have accomplished. The Avenger becoming one of the important cinematic accomplishments of the last ten years, Wonder Woman becoming the most powerful female portrayal of a superhero. Superhero films have become an important part of pop culture, and the Academy needs to acknowledge this. During the 2019 Oscars, the Academy hinted at a new category for the most popular movie. This was quickly met with criticism, with fans and experts agreeing that this meant that they want to give Superhero movies an award without acknowledging them as, ‘real cinema.’

Now, before talking about this year’s nominees, here are just some ways to fix the Oscars. One, make it easier to stream the Oscars. The Oscars will air on ABC, and it will also be viewable through HULU, Direct TV Now, PlayStation Vue, and YouTube TV. While all these are great platforms, they are hidden behind paywalls. The average fan might not want to spend more on a yearly award show. One suggestion would be to open it up to more platforms, such as standard Youtube, give the fans more interactivity by Livestream fan reaction, or let fans chat live with others while watching. Fans need to know that they can become part of the show.

Another solution is fixing the way movies are judged; one category that has suffered the most from the way movies are judged is animation. It seems that movies that make it to the Oscars are movies that have gain public buzz, and anything between Disney, Dreamworks, and Pixar. The Academy doesn’t take into consideration any smaller movies that deserve a nomination, outside of the occasional Studio Ghibli or Netflix film. This can lead to strange decisions such as the infamous 2018 Oscar nominations of Boss Baby and Ferdinand. However, even when nominating movies, the Academy mostly stays on the safe side with examples such as Coco earning best animated film over The Breadwinner. The same goes for horror films, if these last ten years have proven anything is that horror movies have become some of the best ways to show social commentary with films such as It Follows, The Witch, and of course Get Out.

However, the biggest obstacle that the Oscars has faced during this last decade, and a word you are going to hear a lot, is diversity. I praised the 2011 Oscars for the diversity in storytelling, but how about the people behind the camera telling the story. As it stands this year, the directors nominated for best director are mostly white males, with Bong Joon Ho bringing diversity with his well-earned nomination for Parasite. While it is easy to argue that maybe no female-directed movie, nor film directed by a minority, was good enough to make the cut, keep in mind that Jordan Peele is considered one the biggest snubs this year for his follow up to Get Out, US. Alongside him, Lupita Nyong’o was also snub for best actress in a leading role. These last ten years have shown that the best stories are told from the point of view of a director that truly has a voice on the issue; notable examples are Moonlight, Wonder Woman, and Roma.

Finally, ten years later, and we see a diverse selection of movies this year. With Parasite and Joker keeping the 2011 spirit alive with their brand of social commentary. (Sidenote, how amazing is it that we consider a proper portrayal of the Joker as one of the biggest challenges in cinema, and when done correctly and actor can earn an Oscar buzz). Jojo Rabbit proves that comedy does have a spot on the Oscar. 1917 shows that nothing beats a good war movie. Marriage Story, Little Woman, and Ford vs Ferrari bringing some of the best performances this year, and of course, The Irishman and Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood showing us why we go to the movies in the first place. This stellar line up of movies helps usher in a new decade of Hollywood and closing the last ten years of cinema. Now the question is, where do we stand?

The nominees this year have proved that Hollywood is still growing, despite the incredible amount of stories that grace the big screen this year Hollywood is still in a bit of an awkward situation. On one hand, the Academy is nowhere near as conservative with their choices as they used to be, but it is clear that movies that follow the Hollywood formula are still given a fairer shot.

The 2020 Oscars marks not just another night to honor some of the best movies of the last, but as a way to close the door on the last 10 years. Society has changed, trends have changed, and movies reflect all those changes. So once more we turn on our TVs and sit down to watch the Oscars not only a chance to see the best dress celebrities but as a chance to reflect on the stories that help us reflect on these last ten years.

[Movies] First trailer for Zombieland 2

[Movies] First trailer for Zombieland 2

The first trailer for the second Zombieland movie has dropped. 

The movie is called Zombieland Double Tap and will feature the same four leads (Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, and Abigail Breslin) as the first movie. Also, the director (Ruben Fleischer) and two writers (Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick) are coming back for the sequel. 

The trailer doesn’t show a lot of the plot, but features characters meeting up to fight various zombies together. 

“Through comic mayhem that stretches from the White House and through the heartland, these four slayers must face off against the many new kinds of zombies that have evolved since the first movie, as well as some new human survivors. But most of all, they have to face the growing pains of their own snarky, makeshift family,” says the description. 

Though I’m excited for this movie, it’s fine that this trailer doesn’t really give us anything substantial about the film because it is only the first one. I hope in future trailers we get more details about the plot, but that is okay for now.

[Movies] “It Chapter Two” drops second, thrilling trailer

[Movies] “It Chapter Two” drops second, thrilling trailer

“It Chapter Two” has just released its second trailer, and has been causing some excitement. Unlike the first trailer, this one ramps up the creepy quickly, so much that even the most avid horror fans took notice. 

The first “It” was based on a Steven King novel with the same name, and shows a group of children terrorized by a shape-shifting clown Pennywise.

The second chapter follows the kids as adults. The official film synopsis is, “”Because every 27 years evil revisits the town of Derry, Maine, ‘IT CHAPTER TWO’ brings the characters — who’ve long since gone their separate ways — back together as adults, nearly three decades after the events of the first film.”

The cast that will play the adults are James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, Isaiah Mustafa, Jay Ryan, and James Ransone. Pennywise will be played by Bill Skarsgård. 

[Movies] Hustlers’ first full length trailer

[Movies] Hustlers’ first full length trailer

Hustlers has just released its first official full-length trailer. The movie will tell the story of a stripper named Destiny (Constance Wu) who teams up with other strippers to steal from the much richer. The most impressive part of the trailer is its star-studded cast. It has got Cardi B, Jennifer Lopez, Lizzo, Keke Palmer and more. A movie with that many stars is going to rake on an extraordinary amount of revenue.