Here’s the very first look at the new Steve McQueen directed movie called Shame. The film has just been announced to be playing at the Toronto Film Festival later in the year and now courtesy of our friends at The Playlist, we have our first look images. These images show two of the main cast, Michael Fassbender who in our opinion can do no wrong and Carey Mulligan who while I come to think about it, is rather awesome in pretty much everything too!

Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Hunger, A Dangerous Method) is a 30-something man living in New York who is unable to manage his sex life. After his wayward younger sister moves into his apartment, Brandon’s world spirals out of control.

Steve McQueen has previously directed Fassbender in the 2008 movie, Hunger.

We’ve no release date as yet for Shame but we’ll keep you updated.

Click the images below to enlarge

The rumours about who’s going to lead Quentin Tarantino’s next project, Django Unchained, have been going around for a few months now, and Deadline are reporting that the role has now all but been finalised with Jamie Foxx set to play Django.

Both Will Smith and Idris Elba had been rumoured to be circling the lead in Tarantino’s upcoming Spaghetti Western-esque film, but negotiations are now going to be getting underway to have Foxx fill the role in a film everyone should be looking forward to.

Tarantino has long since carved a niche for himself in the market, which he took to another level with the release of Inglourious Basterds in 2009, a film that had a rapturous reception, earned Christoph Waltz an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, and took $320m. at the box office from a $70m. budget.

When he gets to work on a new project, fans and press alike get excited about it, and Django Unchained is no exception, garnering a lot of attention in the past few months. Tarantino is a director who seems to love working with the same actors and actresses across his films, and for that too, his next project is set to do the same, with Waltz and Samuel L. Jackson both set to star in Django Unchained.

Working with Tarantino for the first time will be Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie, the lead antagonist in the film, a plantation and club owner, who allows the female slaves to be exploited for sex and pits the men to fight each other to the death. Whilst DiCaprio’s casting has been talked about as an unexpected choice, he has the potential to excel in the role. It’s something completely different to what we’re used to seeing him in, and I think we’re going to love to hate him in the film.

Like DiCaprio, Foxx will be working here with Tarantino for the first time. As much as I would have loved to see Will Smith take the lead on this film, Foxx is definitely an excellent choice too, and he’s shown in recent years that he’s capable of acting beyond what we might expect of most comedians, earning his Academy Award in the 2004 biopic, Ray. In the same year, he was also nominated for a Best Supporting Oscar for his role in Collateral opposite Tom Cruise; it’s not at all often we see an actor on both the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor nominations lists at the Oscars, but Foxx managed it.

In Django Unchained, he’ll be playing Django,

“a slave who’s liberated by a German dentist-turned-bounty hunter and taught the tricks of the trade by his mentor. Django’s major goal in life is to recover his wife, and to do it he needs to get past the villainous ranch owner Calvin Candie (DiCaprio), who runs Candyland, a despicable club and plantation in Mississippi where female slaves are exploited as sex objects and males are pitted against each other in “mandingo”-style death matches. Candie is a slave’s worst nightmare, and that is where Django’s wife Broomhilda is an abused slave.”

Tarantino finished work on the script back in April, and production is now set to begin in November. Whilst it’s still very early to talk about possible awards for Tarantino’s next film, I think a lot of people would agree there’s a fair chance that it will be highly tipped for the Oscars when it’s released, and Foxx could well be earning at least another Best Actor nomination for the lead.

The cast for follow up Garry Marhsall’s 2009 movie, Valentine’s Day has added yet another to the ever growing list in the form of Transformers star, Josh Duhamel. By our records, that now means the cast includes Jon Bon Jovi, Seth Meyers, Til Schweiger, Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Sofia Vergara, Jessica Biel, Abigail Breslin, Robert De Niro, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer and Hilary Swank!

I have to admit, that’s really rather an impressive cast but let’s hope and pray it’s going to be better than Valentine’s Day!! I went along to the press conference for that and man, it was dull, just like the film!

More as we get it!

Source: The Wrap

Last night, Apple released the first trailer for the new Focus Features movie, ‘Beginners’. We’ve not heard much from this movie since August last year when Adam put up some images from it.  The movie stars Ewan McGregor, Christopher Plummer, Melanie Laurent, Goran Visnjic and is directed by Mike Mills.It lo0oks like it’s going to be with us Summer this year although we’ve not got an official release date as yet.

I rather like the poster as it looks like it’s just random bits of text sitting on the page!

I’ve embedded the trailer below the synopsis or you can head over to Apple to view in HD.

Please let us know what you think in the comments section below.

Synopsis: From writer/director Mike Mills comes a comedy/drama about how deeply funny and transformative life can be, even at its most serious moments. -Beginners- imaginatively explores the hilarity, confusion, and surprises of love through the evolving consciousness of Oliver (Golden Globe Award nominee Ewan McGregor). Oliver meets the irreverent and unpredictable Anna (Melanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds) only months after his father Hal (Academy Award nominee Christopher Plummer) has passed away. This new love floods Oliver with memories of his father who – following 44 years of marriage – came out of the closet at age 75 to live a full, energized, and wonderfully tumultuous gay life. The upheavals of Hal’s new honesty, by turns funny and moving, brought father and son closer than they’d ever been able to be. Now Oliver endeavors to love Anna with all the bravery, humor, and hope that his father taught him.

Three more names have joined the already impressive ensemble for director Garry Marshall’s New Year’s Eve.

Jon Bon Jovi, Seth Meyers and Inglorious Basterds star Til Schweiger join Zac Efron, Ashton Kutcher, Halle Berry, Jessica Biel, Abigail Breslin, Robert De Niro, Sarah Jessica Parker, Michelle Pfeiffer and Hilary Swank for the tale of a bunch of New Yorkers celebrating and commiserating their lives on (yep, you’re guessed it!) New Year’s Eve.

In a role that will no doubt involve much research and digging deep to find the character, Bon Jovi has been cast as a rock star who stumbles across an old lover (Berry) at a party. Meyer (a US comedian who currently serves as head writer for Saturday Night Live) will play a father who wants his wife (Biel) to deliver the first baby of the year in order to win a $25,000 reward. No doubt hilarious will ensue as he tries to conjure up different ways to get his wife into labour!

Wonder if Bon Jovi will supply a theme tune too? His brand of slushy soft rock would probably serve as the perfect complement with this film.

News courtesy of The Hollywood Reporter.

The news that Michael Fassbender was to be reunited with his director on the 2008 film Hunger instantly gave Steve McQueen’s next film a great deal of momentum and expectation, and now as shooting for the film, entitled Shame, draws ever closer we’re learning a little more about the supporting cast.

IFTN have a report on the film which names Carey Mulligan and James Badge Dale as Fassbender’s co-stars in the film about a man unable to control his sex addiction. Mulligan’s star has been firmly in the ascendant since her wonderful performance in Lone Scherfig’s An Education, and bypassing her walk down Wall Street, her portrayal of Cathy in Mark Romanek’s Never Let Me Go was very solid indeed.

The name of James Badge Dale put me in mind of his performance in 24 alongside Keifer Sutherland, and the actor has played in the follow up to Band of Brothers, The Pacific as well as a recurring part in Rubicon on US TV. There are no further details as of yet for which part either actor is playing but it can be presumed that Mulligan will play Fassdender’s sister, as described in the recently revealed synopsis.

Brandon (Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds, Hunger, A Dangerous Method) is a 30-something man living in New York who is unable to manage his sex life. After his wayward younger sister moves into his apartment, Brandon’s world spirals out of control.

Another new film to emerge from the American Film Market (AFM) is Shame, the second feature from UK artist turned filmmaker Steve McQueen.

A follow-up to the director’s BAFTA-nominated Hunger, he’s reunited here with that film’s lead Michael Fassbender (Inglourious Basterds, Fish Tank).

Here’s the synopsis:

Brandon (Michael Fassbender, Inglourious Basterds, Hunger, A Dangerous Method) is a 30-something man living in New York who is unable to manage his sex life. After his wayward younger sister moves into his apartment, Brandon’s world spirals out of control.

From director Steve McQueen (Hunger), Shame is a compelling and timely examination of the nature of need, how we live our lives and the experiences that shape us.

Fassbender seems to be successfully juggling work in arty, esoteric fare like this with showier parts in big Hollywood mainstream features (he’s currently playing the part of a young Magneto in Matthew Vaughan’s X-Men: First Class).

Like the Hunger poster before it, this one offers a similarly abstract impression of the film, which will no doubt reflect it’s content.

Poster and synopsis courtesy of Collider.

Mickey Rourke continues his current career resurgence with a role in action thriller The Courier (as reported by The Wrap).

The Wrestler star joins the Watchmen’s Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Inglourious Basterd Til Schweiger in the story of a tough courier (Morgan) who finds himself having to avoid being picked off by corrupt federal agents, crooked cops and dangerous rivals when he’s assigned a job to deliver a briefcase to a notorious crime boss.

It does sounds suspiciously like a re-working of Jason Statham’s Transporter films, but with 3:10 to Yuma scribes Derek Haas and Michael Brandt onboard and Hany Abu-Assad (director of acclaimed drama Paradise Now) attached, any comparisons between the two films will probably be the main character’s job role.

It is of course always sad to lose someone of great and unusual talent, but to lose them in their prime, with so much still ahead of them is especially tragic.

News comes today from The LA Times of the death of Sally Menke, who was an acclaimed and gifted editor, having worked with Quentin Tarantino on every one of his films, from Reservoir Dogs all the way up to and including Inglourious Basterds, for which she was rightly nominated for an Academy Award. As distinctive an ear for dialogue as Tarantino undoubtedly has, his films are just as marked for their audacious, unconventional narratives and editing and Menke’s contribution to Tarantino’s films cannot therefore be overstated.

Menke was not shackled to Tarantino by any means. She edited films as diverse as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, All The Pretty Horses, Mulholland Falls and Heaven and Earth, working alongside such directors as Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Stone and Lee Tamahori. Alongside her Oscar nomination for Inglourious Basterds, she was also nominated for Pulp Fiction, picking up BAFTA noms along the way for Basterds, Fiction and Kill Bill:Volume 1.

Menke had been hiking in Griffith Park and was found at the bottom of a ravine in Beachwood Canyon, the searing temperatures in LA for the past few days being speculated upon as a contributing factor to her sad death.  She was a genuinely and exceptionally gifted young editor, gone far to soon at the age of 56.

This news came first from The Los Angeles Times where you can find more info.

The Playlist have posted three pictures from yet another film playing at the Toronto International Film Festival next month – the family drama Beginners.

Starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Plummer, it’s the tale of a dying man’s confession to his son that he’s been in the closet for all his life, and the emotional repercussions which follow this revelation.

It’s good to see McGregor back in an indie-type role again after a slew of forgettable big-budget studio fodder, and there’s the added bonus of Mélanie Laurent (last seen trying to evade those dastardly Nazis in Inglourious Basterds) playing his love interest.

I was a little underwhelmed by director Mike Mill’s debut feature Thumbsucker, but his shorts (particularly Paperboys) are fantastic and anyone who has seen his promos for the likes of Air and Moby will know that this guy will deliver something unique here.

The Concert is one of the best films I’ve seen this year, it’s moving, funny, original, completely satisfying and definitely a surprise hit this year and I hope more people will get to see it amongst the summer blockbusters that mostly disappoint during this seasons of films. So if you care to see another film other than Inception and Toy Story 3 then you should really go check out Radu Mihaileanu’s excellent movie.

The Concert is the story about Andrei Filipov (Aleksei Guskov) a once revered Russian orchestra conductor whose career was destroyed during a performance of Tchaikovsky’s The Violin Concerto when he was sacked and humiliated mid performance for hiring Jews. 30 years later and Andrei now works as a janitor in the Bolshoi desperate to relive his former glory and he gets his chance when he devises a crazy scheme to impersonate the Bolshoi Theatre Orchestra, with his former colleagues, when he’s cleaning one night he intercepts a fax invite from Paris to perform at the Chatelet Theater. And so like the Blues Brothers he attempts to get the band back together to finish the concert they were destined to play.

Andrei’s plan also includes convincing an acclaimed French violinist Anne-Marie Jacquet (the wonderful Melanie Laurent from Inglourious Basterds) to play with his impostor orchestra for mysterious motives other than needing a very talented lead to play the key parts to Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto and as the film develops we get to understand the real connection between Anne-Marie Jacquet and Andrei’s Orchestra 30 years before.

The Concert is a highly enjoyable, fun, comedy drama with humour that swings between touching commentary, cheeky satire and wackiness that although doesn’t try to cut too savagely into it’s communist history it does enjoy poking fun at the KGB especially in the character of Ivan Gavrilov (Valeri Barinov) who desperately clings onto a highly romanticized view of what life was like under communist rule who in-turn offers the newly reformed orchestra its only chance of getting out of Russia to Paris for the concert.

The Concert has a wonderful pacing and although it slows down a bit in the middle after the raucous troop descend onto Paris descending into a drunken crowd who vanish into the Paris city with no intention of performing at the Concert leaving Andrie in the lurch, the film does picks up considerably when Anne-Marie becomes more involved into the story and although she has a small amount of screen time her presence is clearly noticeable and memorable as her past comes to link with Andrei’s desperate mission of completing the Concert and achieving the ultimate harmony for over 30 years, as long as he can find his missing orchestra.

Radu Mihaileanu directs wonderfully and the entire cast offer something truly brilliant, not all the jokes work but there is more than enough to keep you amused throughout and even more touching storylines to give your heart a tug. The music is hugely enjoyable and to read that Melanie Laurent had to learn how to play violin from scratch was remarkable as she looked completely at ease with the movement and characteristics of playing the instrument that suited her role and did not look out of place. The Concert is full of likable characters and some excellent musicians who offer something uniquely musical and funny in equal doses that help make the film so watchable, you can’t help but smile when they start playing together.

Now the moment that makes the Concert so incredibly memorable and pure cinematic satisfaction. The combination of perfect poignant acting and the most spine tingling engaging music of Tchaikovsky mixed with some heart-rending flashbacks that explain the past and some heart warming flash-forwards showing the future of the group whilst the Concert reaches its crescendo that perfectly concludes every aspect of the film in the most satisfying and touching way I could possibly imagine and probably provides one of the greatest movie endings I can remember of recent years and one that for me propels the film into greatness, Encore indeed.

The Concert is out on the 16th July, I cannot recommend it enough.

Two of the most well known comic book franchises are lining up against the reboot/prequel wall currently, and with attachments on both sides coming in thick and fast, be they rumour or confirmations, the slew of talent orbiting each one is growing each day.

Now it’s the turn of our favourite Basterd, Michael Fassbender to join the likes of James McAvoy (confirmed for X-Men) and Jamie Bell (rumoured for Spider-Man) as in Roger Friedman’s Showbiz 411 webspace today news unfurled that Fassbender is being courted by both Fox and Columbia for their super hero franchises, X-Men and Spider-Man respectively.

Fassbender was simply amazing in Steve McQueen’s Hunger and impressed with turn in Andrea Arnold’s BAFTA winning Fish Tank, and it’s no surprise that either studio is out for his signature.

Immediately speculation grew as to the parts he is being sought for – the younger incarnation of Magneto in the X-Men: First Class movie seems a certainty, but for Spider-Man the buzz is all about Fassbender suiting up against the webslinger as the film’s main villian – the smart money is on Electro but we’re still a while away from confirmation.

Recently seen in Neil Marshall’s Centurion, and soon to be seen in the Jonah Hex movie as well as the iconic romantic role of Mr Rochester in Cary Fukunaga’s Jane Eyre adaptation, Fassbender will need to choose well, as the expected schedules of the two potential projects won’t allow him to take on both.

Interesting times.

HeyUGuys are conflicted.  We exist because we love film and celebrate the artistry and endeavour of anyone who has the sack to commit pen to paper and scenes to celluloid but sometimes we despair of a world where originality has been overthrown by the banal, the safe and the (ick) reimagined.  As a rule we’d prefer not to revisit old ground but – as a wiser man than HUG once observed – it is the exception that proves the rule.

Empire and Jameson understand that wisdom well and, furnished with this knowledge, created the genius that is the Done in 60 Seconds project.  Done in 60 Seconds is a competition which encourages budding filmmakers and movie lovers worldwide to celebrate and encapsulate their favourite celluloid triumphs in one short minute of film.  The longlist of entries was assembled last autumn and, after careful consideration, reduced to a shortlist of twenty sixty second films which were presented to an illustrious judging panel and a motley crew of journalists (and biased friends) this evening at London’s 24 Club.

It would be impossible for us to accurately capture here the utter brilliance of the entries.  Suffice it to say, if you have never seen the Evil Dead story told entirely in plasticine, Top Gun recreated with slurs on $cientology or There Will Be Blood in its arcade game incarnation you should click the links and prepare to be bowled over!

Empire assembled a panel of judges, including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s Edgar Wright, to crop the list to a manageable five ahead of Sundays Jameson Empire Awards when the winner will be announced.  HeyUGuys will of course be on the red carpet and inside the after party to bring you the news as it happens but, in the meantime we have the Top Five 60 second movies for you and a wee word from Mr Wright himself.

The nominees, in no particular order, are:

Irish entry, There Will Be Less Blood (Tom Rowley, Dublin 8.)

Russian entry, True Lies

UK entries, Evil Dead (submitted by Lee Hardcastle), Top Gun (Mark Wong / produced by Chris Slaughter) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Michael Whaite)

When we exclusively caught up with Edgar Wright moments after the decision he told us the judges were fairly unanimous in their choices.  There were no dramatic battles over the nominees because the Top Five were clear to all three.  Despite appearing at the 24 Club on only two hours sleep, Edgar was gracious (and coherent) about the overwhelming reaction he has had to the newly released Scott Pilgrim trailer which debuted at Kick-Ass screenings around the country tonight.  He acknowledged finding the excitement over the 80 second trailer “weird” but had had “so much fun” on the judging panel that he was distracted from the hysteria.  On our journey home we also noted that Mr Wright had had the cheek to pinch one of HeyUGuys exclusive Twitter photos to share with his army of fans across the Twitterverse.  Ordinarily we’d cry foul but we’ll excuse one of the site’s favourite directors as long as Scott Pilgrim lives up to the promise of its trailer.

As for the HUG verdict: well, we had a bit of a soft spot for Seam Callanan’s condensed Inglourious Basterds and an amazingly clever clown take on District 9.  That aside, we rather agreed with the judges’ verdicts.  It will be interesting to see which film triumphs at Sundays Jameson Empire Awards and whether its creator goes on to greater (and longer) glory in the future.  For now we have had an amazing night at the mini-movies and we look forward to seeing what Sunday will bring…

With huge thanks to Empire, Jameson & Mauricio Samayoa at We Are Social!



The biggest night in Hollywood is here and over the next few hours they’ll be tears, cheers and (hopefully) a few surprises as the 82nd Academy Awards are handed out.

The sordid trudge up the red carpet has finished and I’m going to be blogging live as the winners are announced, you can have a look at our Oscars predictions here and follow us on as the Twitter storm rages, or get all interactive with FilmXtra Tom who is video blogging the Oscars here.

My hopes are with Colin Firth and Carey Mulligan and I’m secretly hoping that Tarantino walks off with Best Picture for Inglourious Basterds and Coraline bests Up for Best Animated Feature.

Ok… the time is upon us.  I’ll be updating the blog with the winners as I go, as well as providing as coherent a commentary as possible.

Remember to keep hitting refresh to get all of the latest news as it happens…

Live Blogging Begins…

So here we are! It’s 1 AM here in the UK and the world and his blog are hunched over keyboards and I’ll do my best to keep up with all of the awards as they are handed out. Let’s hope Alec Bladwin and Steve Martin get the show off to a good start…

The red carpet wasn’t too onerous, depending on who you were watching…

People are still talking about Tarantino and what he’ll win tonight – Christoph Waltz is a cert for Supporting Actor, but Screenplay perhaps? Best Film? Hmmm, we can hope. I remember 1994 – Forest Gump… it still hurts.

It’s actually pretty cool to see District 9 standing up with those other films, I bet Neill can’t believe it.

I thought this thing started at 1 AM… My tea’s gone cold. Updates to resume as soon as anything Oscary happens. In the meantime if you’re feeling chatty head on over to our FilmXtra page to talk Oscars with Tom Perkins – you won’t regret it.

Here we go…

The Best Acting nominees are all on stage – are they lost?

Neil Patrick Harris is doing the Hollywood self parody song – nice!

Actually, I’m hoping this is all part of a Dr. Horrible sequel.

Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin take the stage – Jack Donaghy is here, and it’s going to be a lot of fun.

This is already funnier than the BAFTAs, the two are a class act. I wonder if anyone is missing Hugh Jackman?

Ok, well it’s all very ‘Oh look – there’s (random Hollywood celebrity in the crowd) – wait for applause – joke of variable quality’… this could go on for ages – there’s a ton of people in that audience.

The Dude still looks great though.

Ok, awards time!

And it’s all go for BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR.

* Matt Damon
* Woody Harrelson
* Christopher Plummer
* Stanley Tucci
* Christoph Waltz

Stanley Tucci was the best thing about The Lovely Bones, sorry – he was the only good thing about The Lovely Bones, but his character was far too one note, despite his good work, to walk off with an Oscar, so who’s left? Matt Damon? Woody Harrelson? Christopher Plummer as Tolstoy? You know what? This one was telegraphed so early on that if Christoph Waltz doesn’t leave clutching a statue tonight then I’ll rescind my faith in all things Oscar.  There was no other performance in 2009 (and for many years before) which had the same power and depth as Waltz’s Hans Landa. Tarantino created a monster but Waltz gave him ten thousand volts to truly bring him to terrifying life. If you’ve not seen Inglourious Basterds then you’re missing out on a sublime performance. Shall we see if he wins? Why not…

And the winner is…Christoph Waltz of course. Great pick – he was sublime in Basterds! Very gracious man. Great start!

What a great speech – the man is pure class – I can’t wait to see what he does next.

Ryan Reynolds is talking The Blind Side, it won’t win Best Picture but Bullock does all the right things to kick all the heartstrings.

So, off to a good start – I’m assuming Best Supporting Actress is up next? Wonder if the time of no surprise is here and Mo’Nique steps up…

Oh, I guess not… there’s some nice Animated Features ‘interviews’ Mr. Fox and Coraline… this is pretty cool.

Loving the Princess and the Frog section – that was such a great film.

BEST (Coraline) ANIMATED (Coraline) FEATURE (Coraline).

* Coraline — Henry Selick
* Fantastic Mr Fox — Wes Anderson
* The Princess and the Frog — John Musker and Ron Clements
* The Secret of Kells — Tomm Moore
* Up — Pete Docter

Subliminal suggestions aside I am still holding out hope that Henry Selick’s wonderful adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s Coraline gets this one. The sensible money is on Up, and it’s truly great to see so many different styles of animation getting a look in this year. Im hoping next year will be a toss up between Moldovan Shadow Puppetry and a Flick Book. Anyway – some great films here… who is it?

Balls…Up won it. Which is great, because the film is great, but I wanted Coraline to get some Oscar love.

Pete Docter looks so great, but I can’t work out why. Very strong category this year.

Amanda Seyfried and Miley Cyrus are on stage – Miley is taller than Amanda. Hmm.

They’re presenting for BEST ORIGINAL SONG now…

* “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
* “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
* “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36″ Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
* “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
* “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

As I’ve only seen Princess and the Frog out of the list of nominees my opinion may be a little biased, but I loved the music in Disney’s beautiful film, both songs are worthy choices. The could almost be called the Randy Newman Award, he won in 2002 for Monsters Inc.’s If I Didn’t Have You, and there’s usually a Newman somewhere in the nominees but I have an odd feeling that Crazy Heart may get the nod. Don’t ask me why. Ok, let’s have it then…

As a side note before the award is given out – Princess and the Frog is stunning. Go and see it if you haven’t already.

And so it was – Crazy Heart wins it. Isn’t Ryan Bingham part of Glee?

No, I’m wrong apparently. People seemed to expect that one. Loves who more than rainbows?

Now District 9 is getting the treatment – and it’s just great to see this film here – so well envisaged and executed. There’s no way it would have been there if the list for Best Picture was still five films, but it must blow Neill Blomkamp’s mind to see his film up there. And good for him too.

RDJ and Tina Fey are on stage – great pairing. I smell a dysfunctional romantic comedy in the offing…

These two are great…

So, who’s got your vote for BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY then? The nominees are..

* Marc Boal– The Hurt Locker
* Quentin Tarantino — Inglourious Basterds
* Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman — The Messenger
* Joel Coen, Ethan Coen — A Serious Man
* Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy — Up

When Marc Boal’s work on The Hurt Locker won the BAFTA recently I was surprised. Tarantino’s script for Inglourious Basters was a great piece of work, and for the sublime first act alone it should be seriously considered for this award. Pulp Fiction won this award in 94, and I that was the first night I watched the Oscars live, and was very annoyed to see F. Gump best Tarantino’s masterpiece in the other categories that night. I enjoyed A Serious Man a lot, and the screenplay was a truly wonderful piece of work, anyone who comes up with Sy Ableman should get something for their troubles. Recent winners of this award include Diablo Cody for Juno and the team behind Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and going back even further Alan Ball’s American Beauty scooped this one in 1999, and Marc Norman and Tom Stoppard’s script for Shakespeare in Love won the year before – I always get excited for this category, the capability of these people is truly astounding. In true Miss America pageant tradition – you’re ALL winners…

But really – the winner is Marc Boal. Well, not a huge surprise, but dammit Tarantino can’t catch a break. Boal’s screenplay was great though, and he really told his story well.

It’s Ferris Bueller! And Molly Ringwald – this is the John Hughes tribute. Let’s all slow a while and look around – don’t want to miss a thing…

Molly Ringwald looks better than Ferris – I haven’t seen her for years! That’s a surprise, maybe the only one of the night.

Got to love John Hughes though – HeyUGuys did a retrospective on him when he died – it was a shock and he was a director who inspired us all growing up. Of course I wanted to be Ferris Bueller. But for us on this site we all grew up independently of each other and we all had the same experiences watching his movies.

Great montage – in a non Team America sarcastic way. Wait… Is this… The Breakfast Club?

Seriously – this is great and strange seeing this kind of tribute – all these faces from our childhood grown up. It’s like an enormous mirror held up to us all… damn, I feel old…

Samuel L. Jackson is now introducing Up as Best Picture, there’s bound to be a Scouts on a Plane reference somewhere.

The Twitterverse is going crazy in regards to the Children of John Hughes (credit: Roger Ebert, 2010), but mostly it’s people seeing Judd Nelson for the first time in years.

Carey Mulligan and Zoe Saldana are on stage presenting Short Film.

The Best Animated Short goes to..Logorama – not Wallace and Gromit… that’s a surprise.

Only one I’d seen was Nick Park’s so can’t really add to much. But he looks very happy and French. And it’s a great speech – if this was the BAFTAs they’d have cut this bit out. And this is a guy who has worked six years for this film.

Best Documentary Short winner is…Music by Prudence.

I’m sure I’m not alone in having seen none of these, hopefully iTunes will step in and make them available….wait – who is this woman?

Oh, she’s involved. Right – I thought she was crashing that guy’s big moment.

Best Action Short now…

The New Tenants wins it – love seeing these snippets of these films – perhaps it’s easier to make a more personal short than a huge feature.

Now it’s Ben Stiller as a Na’vi… Where’s Borat?

Ok, new nightmares forged right here.

BEST MAKEUP is the award people are talking about now…

* “Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
* “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
* “The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Not seen Il Divo so can only speak of the world of difference between Star Trek and The Young Victoria – one is a popcorn space epic with a whole host of alien makeovers and the other a period piece with some impeccable work on screen. Can’t decide myself – let’s see what the Academy came up with in their wisdom…

Fingers crossed in a Vulcan greeting for Star Trek…

Grand! One for Star Trek – and that’s an award well deserved.

It’s the Dude! Bigging up the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man.

Everything’s going to be fine…

This would have won Best Trailer.

Here’s the trailer for A Serious Man by the way…

Ok, who’s this then?

Jake Gyllenhaal and someone I can’t work out who…(It’s Rachel McAdams apparently)

Lots of great work on offer here for BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY.

* Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell — District 9
* Nick Hornby — An Education
* Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche — In the Loop
* Geoffrey Fletcher — Precious
* Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner — Up in the Air

Nick Hornby’s work on An Education was truly something special, giving Lynn Barber’s memoirs a cinematic voice which held, and transcended, the conventional story points and had enough depth to elicit some wonderful performances for a great cast. For sheer entertainment though In The Loop provided satire so fierce it could chew the face off of a Jabberwocky and set new standards for eloquent swearing – that’s the one I hope wins, but the transition from Neill Blomkamp’s short Alive in Joburg to the feature length District 9 was also an amazing piece of work. Nice to see a wealth of talent on offer here…

Come on In The Loop! Surprised they could show any of the film though…

Balls – Precious wins this one. Geoffrey Fletcher walks up – I’ve not seen the film, but this man looks emotional. Nice change of pace.

Bit of a surprise there…and not a good one really. But the man was grateful and that was good to see.

Nice quip by Steve Martin…

Lauren Bacall is all kinds of wonderful. Good to see everyone at the Oscars giving her a standing ovation.

Now it’s time for Robin Williams. I’m a big fan of his.

So here we are then, one of the big awards of the night. BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS is up.

* Penelope Cruz
* Vera Farmiga
* Maggie Gyllenhaal
* Anna Kendrick
* Mo’Nique

It’s hard to see Peneiope Cruz winning this award again following her success for Vicky Christina Barcelona last year, but maybe one of the Up in the Air actresses will overturn the huge expectation everyone seems to have for Mo’Nique to take this one home for her work in Precious. I’ve not seen Crazy Heart so can’t comment on Maggie Gyllenhaal’s performance but, like the male counterpart category, I think this one is a foregone conclusion…

Ok, I now really want to see Up in the Air again now. Great film.

But the winner is Mo’Nique – really this was no surprise. Precious is doing pretty well tonight isn’t it?

Great speech, brilliant look from Samuel L. Jackson…

Now Colin Firth is on stage introing An Education – I’d like to say ‘Get used to being up on that stage Col.’ but I think that’s the only time he’ll be up there tonight…

And now… Ms. Sigourney Weaver is on stage to present an award…

What you see is what you get with the award for BEST ART DIRECTION.

* Avatar: Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
* The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus: Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
* Nine: Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
* Sherlock Holmes: Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
* The Young Victoria: Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

I will always have a soft spot for Terry Gilliam, so unlikely as it is to win my heart is with Dr Parnassus for sheer imagination and craftsmanship to get it to the screen. Sherlock Holmes was riddled with details and looked truly amazing, some dodgy CG notwithstanding. Can’t see Avatar winning it, but stranger things have happened…

Stranger things indeed – Avatar nabs it. Cameron is giving his film a standing ovation. Must be thinking – Glad we won at least one… Sigourney seemed almost embarrassed.

“This Oscar sees you…” Game Over Man…Game Over.

Sew…onto the BEST COSTUME DESIGN Award, as presented by Tom Ford and Sarah Jessica Parker.

* Bright Star –Janet Patterson
* Coco before Chanel — Catherine Leterrier
* The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus — Monique Prudhomme
* Nine – Colleen Atwood
* The Young Victoria – Sandy Powell

You can see some of Sandy Powell’s designs exclusively on our site and they are truly remarkable, easily worthy of her BAFTA win of a few weeks ago. The costumes of Bright Star still stick in my mind, and while I’ve seen Coco before Chanel or Nine they would need to have been pretty impressive to win out. Colleen Atwood is a legend though, her work with Tim Burton is something wonderful, and she has won this award twice before for Chicago and Memoirs of a Geisha. Right! Here’s the winner then…

Sandy Powell wins it – grand! Seriously good work being recognised here. The Young Victoria is doing well in the costume stakes – BAFTA and Oscar combo.

Precious is being paraded out in front of the audience now – check out Brendon Connelly’s dissection of Precious in Mouth Off Episode 7…

Back to Baldwin and Marty – they are introducing a skit before their horror movie montage. Now its the bait for the kids out there – Lautner and Stewart – the Twilighters.

This is a Horror Montage. Did I miss the reason for this one? John Hughes – yes. Giving Horror its due by showing snippets of films? Not so much.

Christ – the Shining Twins still freak me out. And they will forever and ever and ever.

Back to the awards…

Morgan Freeman does a post modern narration…
Next award is for BEST SOUND EDITING.

* “Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
* “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
* “Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
* “Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
* “Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

The Dark Knight picked up this award last year, and my pick is for The Hurt Locker, whose chaos and calm were underscored perfectly with its sound editing. Can’t claim any specialist knowledge of these editors or their previous work, so let’s see who gets it…

The Hurt Locker wins it – not a huge surprise… The guy’s wife looks so happy. That’s sweet.

Now… BEST SOUND MIXING is our next award.

* “Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
* “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
* “Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
* “Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
* “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Anyone out there think Transformers 2 is oscar-worthy? Maybe not, Razzie-worthy certainly. I’m a big fan of Star Trek, and the sound design was pretty fantastic, but chances are The Hurt Locker will emerge victorious…

It does – The Hurt Locker wins it and that guy is right back on stage…He didn’t have to go far. Great speech from those two guys – really, really seemed to appreciate it.

Now John Travolta is auditioning for the next career resurrection by showing us Inglourious Basterds – and Bowie’s song is so perfect here.

Everyone should see this film.

People are not sure which way it is going – with The Hurt Locker winning the tech awards it either means that Avatar will win the big prizes, or it means that this is the beginning of a sweep for Bigelow. There’s only one way to be sure…

Sandra Bullock is up – holding her Razzie perhaps?

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY is an interesting category this year…

* Avatar:Mauro Fiore
* Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Bruno Delbonnel
* The Hurt Locker: Barry Ackroyd
* Inglourious Basterds: Robert Richardson
* The White Ribbon: Christian Berger

There was something truly wonderful about the opening act of Inglourious Basterds that owes a lot to Robert Richardson’s cinematography. The wide expanse of the French countryside contrasted so beautifully with the confines of the farmhouse and Richardson is Scorsese and Oliver Stone’s man of choice and won this award in 2004 for The Aviator. Will Avatar’s computer powered look win out, or will The Hurt Locker win out? Our breath is baited…

The winner is Avatar – ok, well that’s interesting. Cameron looks very happy.

Demi Moore is out now to do the obituary section, with James Taylor on guitar.

Right back now…what’s up next? It’s 3.45AM in the morning and in two hours I’ll have been up for 24 hours straight. I’m amazed I can still type.

OK soundtrack fans, let’s see who’s getting the gong for BEST ORIGINAL SCORE.

* “Avatar” James Horner
* “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
* “The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
* “Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
* “Up” Michael Giacchino

I re-watched Sherlock Holmes last night and the Zimmer score jumped out at me, just as it did when I saw it in the cinema, plenty of nice touches, but with few unifying themes meant it fell short of being a great score for me, but I love the many details Zimmer puts in. Michael Giacchino’s score for Up was great fun, and suited the Pixar film to a tee, elevating it (ok, pun intended – sorry – it’s late here…) to truly great heights. Sneaking suspicion Horner may bag it. Why don’t we see what’ll happen, eh?

Oh… it’s dancing.

And still dancing. Bring back Judd Nelson.

Ok – here’s the winner…

Michael Giacchino wins it. Of course he does. Up’s theme is simply wonderful. Nice speech sir.

Up next is the award for BEST VISUAL EFFECTS.

* Avatar Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
* District 9: Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
* Star Trek: Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

This one seems obvious right? Avatar’s visual effects help elevate a mediocre story to epic heights, but if there’s one complaint it is that they are so obvious in their intent, and there are so many deliberately impressive moments that the subtlety of District 9 proved far more seductive for me. Seeing the Prawns mill about the shanty towns of Joburg seamlessly blending in under the huge mothership make District 9 my choice. Let’s see…

It’s Avatar. The whole world is in a severe lack of shock.

Now there’s an Up in the Air bit. It’s a great film. Really – if you’ve not seen it then you really should. Reitman makes good on his promised shown in Thank You for Smoking and Juno.

Here’s Matt Damon everyone, introducing BEST DOCUMENTARY.

* “Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
* “The Cove” Louie Psihoyos and Fisher Stevens
* “Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
* “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
* “Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

The Cove’s tough subject matter and engaging narrative helped it win the Audience Award at last year’s Sundance Festival, and the story behind the documentary is almost as interesting as the subject matter itself – cameras disguised as rocks and such like. Burma VJ was a film we covered on the site a while back and what it truly humbling is the dedication of these film makers, who have risked their lives getting these stories to us, and so to see these films celebrated is a great thing. Let’s see whose name is about to be read out…

It’s The Cove, this one got a lot of buzz when it was on the festival circuit. Hopefully tons of people will now see it. Remember Man on Wire?

BEST EDITING Award? Why not…

* “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
* “District 9″ Julian Clarke
* “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
* “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Sally Menke’s work with Tarantino has been widely acclaimed and with good reason, Tarantino without good editing doesn’t bear thinking about, and Menke was nominated for her work on Pulp Fiction in 1994. She didn’t win there and I’ve a feeling that run will continue despite her being my pick. The Hurt Locker excelled at the BAFTAs, gathering a handful of technical awards as well as Best Director and Film, and perhaps the Academy have decided to continue this trend…

The winner is… The Hurt Locker gets it! The awards are being split down the middle.

Keanu Reeves is here to present The Hurt Locker. Wish he’d done it as Ted ‘Theodore’ Logan.

Ok… so, The Hurt Locker looks set to win Best Picture if tradition has any say. I can’t see Cameron winning for Best Direction so does this mean that The Hurt Locker is going to win both?

Et maintenant, le Oscar pour BEST FOREIGN FILM.

* “Ajami” Israel
* “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
* “The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
* “Un Prophète” France
* “The White Ribbon” Germany

Well, I was lucky enough to see White Ribbon and Un Prophète at the London Film Festival and they are the two front runners in my mind given the amount of critical acclaim and awards already. Looking back at previous winners like The Bicycle Thief, Rashomon, La Strada, Day for Night this category has a great legacy, and more than the celebration of some truly astonishing work, there’s an excellent chance that the winner will receive a far wider audience than it would otherwise have received. That’s the hope anyway – ok, enough of my yakking – whose name est dans la envelope?

The winner is…El Secreto de Sus Ojos. That’s a bit of a shocker right?

It was a surprise, and here’s Kathy Bates introducing Avatar, for those three people who didn’t see it.

So, now it’s getting down to it – the big awards are left and Team Hurt Locker are looking very good from where I’m sitting.

I have to say that this ceremony seems a lot longer than previous years, with slightly odd choices and no memorable moments – no tears, no really heartfelt speeches. Maybe Cameron will blub and fall to his knees in gratitude/shock?

Bullock, Streep or Mulligan?

Firth or Bridges?

These are just a few of the things you might want to consider in the next few minutes…

K, home straight time.

Will this be The Year of the Dude? BEST ACTOR time…

* Jeff Bridges
* George Clooney
* Colin Firth
* Morgan Freeman
* Jeremy Renner

I’ve made my love for Colin Firth’s performance in Tom Ford’s A Single Man no secret, and to see him winning the BAFTA was a wonderful thing. I don’t think he’s going to repeat that success here tonight but it is a beautiful turn, but is it enough to stop the accolade roller coaster which has greeted Jeff Bridges for his turn in Crazy Heart. Renner’s nomination for The Hurt Locker is a nice touch, and he was the dark heart of that film, but I feel its technical merits are more likely to garner Oscar success. Clooney was great as himself in Up in the Air, but again I felt the Actresses are more likely to win tonight. So… does the Dude abide?

Blimey – this is protracting what should be a fairly simple opening of an envelope… It’s all so embarrassing.

Gotta love Mr Firth though. It would make this whole staying up all night worth while if he won.

The winner is… Of course – he is The Dude.

And a standing ovation. He’s won for Crazy Heart but this is for so many films.

For people new to Bridges I’d highly recommend his work with Terry Gilliam.

Ok – nearly done here! Will this be a Razzie/Oscar double bill for Sandy?

One of the most difficult to call is the BEST ACTRESS award.

* Sandra Bullock
* Helen Mirren
* Carey Muligan
* Gaborey Sidibe
* Meryl Streep

Carey Mulligan is my pick, and her success in the BAFTAs is indicative of how much we love her here in the UK, but this is the Oscars and this could be called the Meryl Streep Award but her Julia Child, great though it was, has a lot of competition in Sidibe for her first feature role and Sandra Bullock’s Southern Sass in The Blind Side. I’ve not seen The Last Station but I have heard commendations for Mirren’s performance as Tolstoy’s wife out to secure her husbands financial and literary legacy, perhaps not the role to match her Oscar win in in 2006 for The Queen. Good to see a great list of female roles up this year, I’m hoping for a few tears on the stage this year…

Of course – that’s after the ridiculous melodramatic mutual congratulatory moments…

But Michael Sheen rules. That is all.

Just lost the feed – now it’s back with Oprah – the Power of Oprah brings me the Oscars to me…

But now the moment is here, the winner is…Sandra Bullock?

Ok, that was a great speech. Respect to her for that.

So, this one will be interesting….the BEST DIRECTOR Academy Award is up next!

* James Cameron — Avatar
* Kathryn Bigelow — The Hurt Locker
* Quentin Tarantino — Inglourious Basterds
* Lee Daniels — Precious
* Jason Reitman — Up in the Air

Millions of words have been poured into blogs around the world about Avatar and The Hurt Locker, and Bigelow’s win at the DGA seemed to point to the Oscar win for the Hurt Locker director, but James Cameron and his Avatar juggernaut could win this one. I don’t see a win for Lee Daniels or Reitman, but it is great to see the Up in the Air director get nominated. Let’s hope if Bigelow wins then someone keeps a camera on Cameron’s table. Tarantino did great work for Inglourious Basterds but I don’t think the Academy is in that much of a radical frame of mind. Ok, waiting over – the Oscar goes to…

Kathryn Bigelow! It’s great to see a woman standing up on the stage with a Best Director Oscar.

Awarded accepted gracefully, now we’ve only to go…

Right then. Here’s the one they’ve been building up to…BEST PICTURE

* Avatar
* The Blind Side
* District 9
* An Education
* The Hurt Locker
* Inglourious Basterds
* Precious
* A Serious Man
* Up
* Up in the Air

Raising the number of nominations to ten films competing for Best Picture was a good move. It gave the Academy want it wanted, which is more debate and more investment as fans of ten films will be behind their nominee, but it is fair to say that this award is more than likely to go to Avatar or The Hurt Locker. Speaking to our readers there’s far more support for Team Hurt Locker than Team Avatar, and a few shouts for Team Basterds, but as great as it would be to see something like District 9 take this one home, it is unlikely. Could this be Tarantino’s night? Rumours (or a particularly well manned hype machine) have it that Inglourious Basterds may cause one of the biggest upsets in recent history and I’d love to see it happen. But – enough talk. Here we go…

Blimey…. The Hurt Locker wins it.

That crowns off a phenomenal night for Bigelow and her film – that is truly something to see.

Well, that’s it! What a night for The Hurt Locker – everyone on that stage looks so happy to be there.

Ok, that’s it for another year, thanks for staying with us, it’s now 5AM and I’m off to bed.

Same time next year?

With HeyUGuys recently posting the Top films of the Decade as voted by you the reader, I thought I would look back into noughties myself and do my own top 10 films of the last decade as I was a bit disappointed with a majority of the top 10 choices like Kill Bill, There will be Blood and Donnie Darko.

Searching for my Decadian film winners was a great experience, going through vast amount of films from the last 10 years (which has flown by) and picking my personal 10 favourite films. It was a difficult challenge choosing them and also coming up with my 10 runner up movies from each year as there were so many quality films to pick from and I had to make some difficult choices in letting some stunning films miss out like Children of Men, District 9, Hurt Locker, Let the Right one in, The Departed etc. And so here are my choices, starting with the year 2000.

2000 Winner - O Brother Where Art Thou

The classic Coen Brothers film that created a new found love for Bluegrass and traditional Folk music for many people after seeing this film as it went on to win a Grammy for best album. George Clooney stars with Tim Blake Nelson and Coen regulars John Turturro and John Goodman in a film loosely based on Homer’s Epic Poem “The Odyssey”.

Visually it’s stunning, shot using digital colour correction to give it a sepia tone look which makes it fit the Southern America 1930′s period brilliantly. The comedy is typical Coen Brothers and probably some of the best they have written and all credit should go to George Clooney for delivering the best lines in one of his finest ever performances.

The story is brilliant as we follow Everett Ulysses McGill (Clooney) and his companions Delmar (Nelson) and Pete Turturro breaking free from a chain gang and going on a mis-adventure to find some buried loot before its lost forever in four days when a valley is flooded to create a lake. The trio come across a variety of excellently portrayed characters including a cyclops, Sirens, the KKK, a blind prophet, a musician who sold his sole to the devil and many more that all add to this stunning movie that will always raise a smile when ever you watch it.

Entirely entertaining and easily the winner of 2000 for me.

2000 Runner up – Unbreakable

One of my favourite superhero films ever made with some of the most stylish shot scenes. M Night Shyalaman’s finest film. Bruce Willis plays David Dunn, a man who is the only survivor of a train crash who comes to terms that he is ‘Unbreakable’ and unable to get hurt. The complete opposite to him is Samuel L Jackson as Elijah price and the film covers the story of being a real life superhero. It has unpredictable twists and turns and a very entertaining plot, although not positively received everywhere it was definitely one of my favourites of 2000.

2001 Winner - Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the ring

Quite possibly the most outstanding filming achievement of all time as Peter Jackson filmed all three Lord of the Rings movies in one go and released one of the most outstanding trilogy’s ever.

The Fellowship of the Ring was released first and is for me the best of the trilogy as we are introduced to the heroes of the film and the start of their journey through Middle Earth and even at three hours in length was the most enjoyable film of that 2001 by far.

Lord of the Rings gave another reason to look forward to Christmas with it’s annual December release date and nothing was more exciting than seeing the battle in the Mines of Moria as the music cuts just as the battle commences or Aragon taking on numerous Orcs and Boromir falling to the arrows of the Uruk-hai. It was perfect and exciting cinema that will never be achieved again to such detail and passion.

2001 Runner up – Amelie

Got to No.4 in the Heyuguys best film of decade poll and deservedly so. Jean-Pierre Jeunet masterpiece is visually beautiful, stunningly told and emotionally perfect. One of my all time favourite films ever, always makes me smile.

2002 Winner – Punch Drunk Love

Paul Thomas Anderson gets Adam Sandler to act seriously (but still a bit crazy) in this brilliant and hugely underrated film. Sandler stars as Barry Egan a small business owner who’s unlucky in love, mainly due to his abusing seven sisters, and gets his chance of love with Lena (Emily Watson) but due to a previous conflict and exploitation from a phone sex company things don’t go to plan.

It’s subtly Funny, it’s brilliantly acted and is so different from what Adam Sandler and Paul Thomas Anderson fans would expect from these artists.
The script is brilliant, as with all of Anderson’s films, and Sandler really carries the film well considering his slapstick and physical comedy roles previously and shows a really excellent side to his acting.

Punch Drunk Love was a surprising success for me and confirmed my love for Paul Thomas Anderson’s movies and with superb supporting performances from the ever excellent Philip Seymour Hoffman and Luis Guzman it made it the best film in 2002 for me.

2002 Runner Up – Phone Booth

An amazing and original film Directed by Joel Schumacher with a simple plot that worked perfectly. Colin Farrell stars as a slimy publicist who answers a ringing payphone to be held hostage by a sniper with a grudge against him. Tense and very very clever.

2003 Winner - Old Boy

Chan-wook Park followed up the incredibly dark film Sympathy For Mr Vengeance with OldBoy and what a film it was.

The story is horribly bleak, the ending disturbing, the action is brutal and Min-Sik Choi’s turn from miserable average man to intimidating crazed killer is one of the most amazing character changes in movie history, you are barely able to tell it’s the same actor.

Dae-Su Oh (Min-Sik Choi) is kidnapped and imprisoned for 15 years and then suddenly released without explanation with just new clothes, a mobile phone and money to his name and the lust to find who did this to him and why. So off he goes in a story of revenge that is one of the most stunning and visually brilliant movies of 2003.

There are a couple of stand out scenes, but the one that impresses most and is probably one of my favourite all time film moments is the jaw dropping and beautifully shot corridor fight. Shot in one long continuous take, Dae-su Oh rampages his way through something like a hundred thugs, armed only with a hammer and the desire to make up for the 15 years he lost. It really is the perfectly shot scene of all time and the best film of 2003.

2003 Runner up – Mystic River

An emotional roller-coaster of a film that shows Clint Eastwood at his best. Childhood friends Jimmy Markum, Sean Devine and Dave Boyle reunite following the death of Jimmy’s oldest daughter, Katie. Sean’s a police detective on the case, gathering difficult and disturbing evidence; he’s also tasked with handling Jimmy’s rage and need for retribution. Tim Robbins and Sean Penn won Oscars for their roles and it was nominated for four other Oscars. Brilliant film.

2004 Winner – Shaun of the Dead

The finest British Comedy, Horror film ever made and the film that launched Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg into Hollywood’s radar. Edgar Wright learnt a lot from the Spaced TV show which helped make Shaun of the Dead so successful and he took a risk having Simon Pegg to act the lead role for the first time in a motion picture, but what a result. Simon Pegg is outstanding and played the part of Shaun better than anyone on the planet could have done, Nick Frost as Ed was the perfect sidekick to Shaun and their real life friendship made it even more believable and enjoyable to watch and with the supporting cast all adding brilliantly to this genius film, it made Shaun of the Dead as near to perfect comedy/Horror as you could possibly imagine.

The film is basically about the relationship of Shaun and his girlfriend Liz and how their breakup and getting back together is set during the outbreak of a Zombie apocalypse. It’s a satirical take on the Zombie film that pokes fun and fully embraces the genre and adds it’s own spin on it by making a comedy of it. The film succeeds on all levels and surprisingly became a hit all over the world and received praise from Mr.Zombie himself George Romero.

There are some truly stunning moments and my favourites are the scene in the pub after Shaun breaks up with Liz where the banter between Ed and Shaun is so so funny. When Shaun goes to shop at the start of film pre-apocalypse and then again post apocalypse mirroring the previous scene as Shaun walks past all the destruction and walking dead oblivious to it all, it’s subtle and so well done. It’s just such a good film that never gets boring no matter how many times i see it. You’ve got red on you!

2004 Runner Up – Downfall (Der Untergang)

A German film brave enough to confront its country’s history head on. Downfall is both a history lesson and a knife-edge drama/thriller that astounds in it’s depiction of Hitler during his last days as his secretary, Traudl Junge, tells of the Nazi dictator’s final days in his Berlin bunker at the end of WWII. Bruno Ganz is the reason I loved this film, there has never been a performance like it. Incredible film.

2005 Winner - Batman Begins

Christopher Nolan was a great director before Batman Begins but i never thought he could do a Superhero film as good as Batman Begins. Restarting the Batman franchise was a dangerous task, especially after the monstrosities of Batman & Robin and Batman Forever, so the only option was a reboot ignoring everything that came before and giving Batman an origin movie showing how he came from nothing to a martial art trained superhero and used his wealth to fund proper legitimate weapons and the best Bat-Mobile of any Batman film ever.

Bruce Wayne heads off to the mountains of Asia to join the league of Shadows lead by Ra’s Al Ghul where he is trained by Henri Ducard (Liam Neeson). Bruce having different views on what the Shadows fight for returns to Gotham to fight crime and uses Wayne Enterprises to build the tools to create his secret identity of Batman. The story is incredible and hardly flawed, the characters are all well written and superbly performed by a stellar cast of Christian Bale, Michael Caine, Gary Oldman, Cilian Murphy, Morgan Freeman etc and never has a film helped the comic book genre improve it’s quality output as much as Batman Begins did.

It had everything you could want in not only a superhero film but in any action film. A plot that was exciting and smart, characters that worked well against each other, and when you saw the Batman Tumbler Batmobile for the first time  you instantly smiled and thought “that is the dam coolest thing I’ve ever seen” and when it roared as Wayne put his foot down, you instantly forgot the neon absurdities from the last Batman movie. You can’t help love the Batman.

2005 Runner Up – History of Violence & Howls moving Castle

Howls Moving Castle is a masterpiece in animation from the legendary Studio Ghibli and  incredibly talented director Mayao Miyazaki who’s animated films stun in their beauty and originality. Howls Moving Castle is based on the novel by Dianne Wynne Jones and is a sublime story that is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. Stunning movie and it’s hand drawn animation at it’s best.

2006 Winner – Pan’s Labyrinth

The stunning film by Guillemo Del Toro. Not enough praise can be heaped onto this film as it walks away with the best film of 2006 where Del Toro creates a wonderful story, incredible characters and a stunning fantasy world set alongside war torn 1944 Spain. We follow a young girl and her love of fairy tales as she desperately creates a fantasy world to escape the harsh realities of her life.

Everything about Pan’s Labyrinth works, stuns, fascinates and astounds as it drags you into the world and makes you question what is fantasy and what is reality as we reach the climatic conclusion of probably the most outstanding film of the decade so far.

The fantasy creatures the little girl, Ofelia, comes across are brilliant but none are as intimidating and terrifying as the Pale Man that guards over a table covered with food who she has to steal a dagger from, she disobeys the order not to eat the food and is chased by the Pale Man, it’s so dam scary but that’s mainly due to the excellent Doug Jones portrayal as the creepy child eating monster.

Great film, really can’t wait for Del Toro’s Hobbit.

2006 Runner up – Little Miss Sunshine

Little Miss Sunshine was the surprise hit of 2006, Nominated for four Oscars and winning two it would have easily won 2006 if it wasn’t for the incredible Pan’s Labyrinth. A brilliant cast and a brilliant story of a families road trip across America to get their daughter to the Little Miss Sunshine beauty pageant. Hilarious, satirical and very moving. A real joy of 2006.

2007 Winner – Ratatouille

Pixar created one of the best animated movies of all time in 2007 with Ratatouille. It’s a story that is beautifully told and so amazingly animated that it just dazzles and astounds. Each time Pixar release a film you feel it can’t be bettered but they always raise the bar with each movie and Ratatouille is no exception.

It’s about a Rat named Remy that has a taste for fine food and a natural talent for cooking and so when he comes accidentally separated from his huge trash eating family he ends up in Paris and gets involved with a talentless garbage boy named Linguini who works at a once famous restaurant called Gusteau’s. They team up and with Remy guiding Linguini to cook and to get Gusteau’s back on the map as the famous restaurant it was.

It’s wonderfully made and puts a lot of films that year to shame with it’s quality and touching story that is brilliantly voiced by the actors and with such high level of detail used in every aspect of the background, foreground, character animation, facial expressions etc everything has so much love poured into it creation that there is no doubt that Pixar is the most brilliant and successful film making company of all time.

2007 Runner up – No Country for Old Men

The Coen Brothers Quadruple Oscar winning masterpiece that is up there with the best suspense thriller movies ever made. Javier Bardem stands out amongst the stellar cast that also include Josh Brolin and Tommy Lee Jones who all take part in a story that just stuns from start to finish. Bardem rules the screen as one of the most terrifying movie bad guys of all time and Josh Brolin is brilliant as the luckless hunted nice guy who gets mixed up in all the chaos surrounding a drug deal gone very wrong. Stunning stuff

2008 Winner – The Dark Knight

The overall winner of the Heyuguys best film of the decade and rightly so in my opinion too. The second film on my list by Christopher Nolan (Memento and Insomnia also coming close to making my list) which I think proves that Nolan is the Director of the decade too as he has created original and exception movies throughout the noughties and looks to be starting this new Decade in similar style with the incredible looking Inception.

The Dark Knight had everything Nolan did right with Batman Begins and tripled it to create not only one of the greatest comic book movies ever but one of the greatest crime thriller movies ever and with one of the finest villain performances of all time from Heath Ledger everything came together perfectly.

Having some of the most exciting set pieces of action of any film throughout the noughties the Dark Knight raised the bar for every film to come after it. The performances from everyone involved added to the quality of the film and I can’t fault anyone. The film ran for around 2.5 hours but could have easily gone on for more because it was so dam good.

Can Batman 3 really get better than this? who knows, but there is no doubt it’s going to be the most anticipated films of this new decade.

2008 Runner Up – Wall-E

Another Pixar classic and if it wasn’t for the Dark Knight it would have won the 2008 film. Wall-E is a wonderful film that again raised the bar of the expected quality in animation that’s matched to a stunning grownup story that appeals to both children and adults alike.

The first half hour stuns in it’s simplicity with hardly any dialogue and when the story progresses to space it continues to entertain with wonderful characters and an excellent story. It’s emotional, funny and a perfect example of just how talented the folks at Pixar are.

2009 Winner – Moon

The surprise film of 2009 for me. Never did I believe Moon was going to be as good as this but it was and so much more. Sam Rockwell proved again what a brilliant actor he is and fully deserves more credit for what he does, His performance as Sam Bell makes the film work and was nothing short of perfect.

Duncan Jones made an incredible debut film that was high in quality, claustrophobic, thoughtful and just visually stunning that has made him one to watch in this decade with everyone waiting to see whats coming next. Kevin Spacey adds his perfectly cast voice to Gerty the computer assistant that runs and maintains the space station and adds an air of unpredictability and doubt to the film. It’s quite brilliant.

Set on the Moon, Sam Bell is coming to the end of his three year contract to mine the Moon for Earth’s primary source of energy, he’s starting to get ill and become delusional and as he is looking forward to returning home to be reunited with his wife and child he has an accident whilst out in his lunar buggy. When Sam Bell awakes he eventually ventures out to find a lunar buggy crashed into one of the harvesters and finds something that looks like Sam Bell inside and takes him back to base. The film then deals with who or what is Sam Bell, is he imagining it? is he going crazy? It’s a beautiful brilliant movie and a real joy to watch.

2009 Runner up – Inglorious Basterds

Tarantino at his best, Inglorious Basterds was just one of the most enjoyable movies of 2009 with a great cast, incredible story and some truly unforgettable moments. It’s brutal in it’s violence, enjoyably funny at times and introduced one of the most scariest evil villains of movie history in Hans Landa, a character that deserves an Oscar for te best supporting actor role as the evil Jew hunting Nazi. The opening scene of Inglorious Basterds was the highlight of the whole film for me but the rest of it was never as good but still incredibly enjoyable.

Thanks for reading. Make sure you vote for Heyuguys.co.uk for best NewComer Blog at the Totalfilm Blog awards here.

The latest movie given to us by NBC Universal to review from the iTunes library is Quentin Tarantino’s Basterds, that would be in the Inglourious ones! Inglourious Basterds is one of the movies of 2009 for me. I saw an advanced preview of the movie and was desperate to see it again but for some reason that took me about six months to do! Unfortunately life gets in the way and so do many many other movies which meant that I didn’t get to watch it until I had some time over Christmas and the second viewing was better than the first!

After rigging my laptop up to my TV, plugging in the surround sound and turning it up to 11, I was in for a treat as my wife and two friends were there to experience this wonderful movie for their first time. Often a movie like this may not need a second watch as you saw everything there was to see the first time round, but with any Tarantino movie, you could watch them 100 times and still get something different out of it.

Inglourious Basterds is about a plot to kill Hitler during the 2nd world war. It’s a completely made up story but Tarantino lets his mind go wild thinking up loads of ‘what-if’ storylines’ to create a wonderful film. The cast is rather vast but every character has been carefully and perfectly picked to fulfil their role. The movie could not have worked without a genius performance from top class badie, Christoph Waltz who plays Col. Hans Landa aka, ‘The Jew Hunter’. Other members of the cast include Eli Roth, BJ Novak, Mike Myers, Michael Fassbender, Daniel Brühl and Til Schweiger.

Synopsis: In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers.

Each of the different scenes in the movie is broken up into chapters, something that Tarantino has used before and it really works well. Without giving anything away, my favourite chapter is when the Basterds, let by Brad Pitt go to a bar to meet Diane Kruger’s character. Suffice to say the meet doesn’t fully go to plan and some of the best dialogue in the movie is exchanged between Brad Pitt and Gedeon Burkhard.

It’s hard to write a review about the movie in itself without giving various plot-lines away so I might leave it there and just encourage you to go out and rent or buy this movie as soon as possible. It really is a Tarantino classic and is one of my favourite movies of 2009. Watching it with people who hadn’t seen it before was wonderful as you got to see the expression on their faces that I no doubt had the first time I saw it. Watching it for a second time was just as good, if not better than the first and this will be a movie that I’ll throw on time and time again to keep enjoying the wonderful acting and dialogue that Inglourious Basterds brings. There’s talk of a prequel and I hope it happens!

Inglourious Basterds is available on DVD and Blu Ray here or to download from iTunes here.

Images © 2009 Universal Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Ho Ho Ho! It’s that time of the year for giving and receiving and if your having trouble finding the perfect gift for your loved one then i will hopefully mention something that will help fill that stocking in time for 25th December.

I’m going to run down my top Blu-Ray films, Top DVD’s, Top TV Boxsets and Top anything else that I think are must haves this year.

We’ve added links to Zavvi.com who are currently offering free delivering on everything so make sure you check them out.

BLU-RAY and DVD FILMS

I’ll start with Blu-Ray/DVD films. Blu-Rays have reduced in price incredibly in the run up to Christmas and if you shop around then you will find all sort of deals like 2-4-1′s or 2 for a nice low price, and it’s still not to late to get them in time for Christmas.

1. Inglourious Basterds – Tarantino is back to his creative best in this incredible homage to the war buddy film creating one hell of a story with brilliant characters and one of the all-time greatest film villains. It”s brutal it’s funny and it’s film making at it’s best, Tarantino and the entire crew have so much fun and so will you.
   Set in an alternate version of nazi germany  Brad Pitt leads a crack crew of jewish Nazi killers on a revenge mission. intertwined with the story of a french-Jewish girl who survived the slaughter of her family, it’s a glorious Tarantino story.
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £10
   




2. District 9 – Neill Blonkamp brings one of the films of the year in the surprise hit District 9. With faultlessly designed aliens, super huge geeky weapons and a gripping imaginative story the film offers a brilliant world to escape to, especially after your christmas dinner, and beautifully brought to the screen by Blonkamp. The lead actor Sharlto Copely is stunning as Wikus and is going on to play Murdoch in the new A-Team movie and you will see why in this outstanding film.
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £10
   




3. Moon – My movie of the year, this is film making at it’s imaginative and creative best and a shear delight to watch. Staring just Sam Rockwell and the voice of Kevin Spacey as a robot who are based on the moon mining on a three year contract, when the contract is almost up and Sam is ready to return home to his family strange things start to happen. It’s amazingly made by Duncan Jones and Sam Rockwell puts in a performance worthy of an Oscar that is long overdue. A future classic
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £10
   




4. The Hangover – Probably one of the funniest films this year and many years before it. It’s made stars of it’s cast and been one of the surprise successes of the year, in fact it’s so good it’s getting a sequel.
   It’s dirty, it’s shocking and it’s what my stag doo could have been.
   It’s the perfect film for the Boxing Day blues and guaranteed to make your granny laugh and for your granddad to want a trip to Vegas. A fantastic film with so may laughs, the perfect gift.
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £10
   




5. The Bourne Trilogy – How is this so cheap! It’s the Bond Beating Jason Bourne on Blu-Ray, all three films The Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremacy and the Bourne Ultimatum in stunning Blu-Ray for a ridiculously low price.
   Jason Bourne loses his memory and over the three films unravels who and why he is. Filmed on location in so many amazing countries Doug Liman and Paul Greengrass bring Bourne to life in one of the finest Trilogy’s ever made.
   Matt Damon is perfect and partakes in some of the most stunning fight sequences, car chases and stories committed to film. What a bargain.
   Blu-Ray – approx £18
   




6. Terminator Salvation – By no means a good film or a decent Terminator movie but never-the-less it’s a reasonable action movie that will entertain at least and definitely show off your new Blu-Ray player and HD TV to the max.
   Christian Bale takes on the role of John Connor as he struggles to survive the war of the robots and Skynet and takes through the next chapter of the Terminator franchise. The plot is poor but the action enjoyable enough to please the stuffed bellies and slightly tipsey family members after Christmas dinner who want to switch off for a couple of hours.
   Amazing Blu-Ray transfer and an ok film worthy of any christmas wrapping paper.
   Blu-Ray – approx £15
   DVD – approx £9
   




7. Drag Me to Hell – Sam Raimi is back behind the camera making a horror film after a long stint of seven years making the Spiderman Trilogy, and what a return it is.
   Fans of Raimi will be pleased that he has created one of the best horror movies in recent years and he’s back  to his roots of the Evil Dead movies by using cool camera angles and tricks t great effect. With a strong story and fine acting it’s a movie for Christmas evening for when the hyperactive kids have gone to bed.
   Blu-Ray – approx £16
   DVD – approx £10
   




8. Star Trek XI – The Best Star Trek film ever made? arguably yes and definitely yes for non-Trekies as J.J.Abrams brings us the 11th Star Trek film the most accessible Star Trek  film ever made. Staring Chris Pine (Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Eric Bana (Romulan Baddie, Karl Urban (the perfect young Bones) and Simon Pegg (Scotty) all loving and enjoying their roles in this reboot of the Star Trek series are all fantastic and do the franchise proud.
   A film for the entire family and a truly surprising treat for those non-fans of Star Trek and a great great Blu-Ray experience.
   Blu-Ray – approx £18
   DVD – approx £9 – £15
   




9. Time Crimes – One of the most enjoyable and flawless time traveling films ever made that came out of nowhere and is still an unknown entity to the masses.
   The incredible Spanish movie takes on the tricky story of time traveling and does it better than any film i’ve ever seen using a great plot, amazing paradoxes and dilemmas and with perfect pacing that doesn’t let logical or illogical story slow it down and allow it to confuse.
   It’s a stroke of genius and i can’t recommend it enough.
   Not one for the family but definitely one for the alert minded pre christmas day booze.
   DVD – approx £5
   




10. Let the Right One In - The best Vampire relationship film ever made bar none. Better than that Twilight rubbish that’s getting all the attention at the moment and one of the finest films of the year. Staring two young kids in the lead roles who stun with their performances of this excellent Swedish vampire story that amazes from start to finish. It takes on all the known rules of vampires like daylight killing them and what happens if a vampire comes in uninvited  and showcases them brilliantly.
    With a finale in the swimming pool that is truly incredible it will go down in history as a classic horror film, get it now (Very cheap) before the American remake ‘Let me in’ comes out 2010 WHY!
    Blu-Ray – approx £9
    DVD – approx £5
    
    A few more to mention
    Some films that didnt make the top 10 list but also worth a mention:-

11. Transformers : Revenge of the Fallen – For me a terrible film but worth a panic buy if your desperate for a gift and you have bought all the other movies above! but only then buy this film. Full of action, huge transforming robots and terrible dialogue and acting.
    Blu-Ray – approx £17
    DVD – approx £10-£13

12. Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince – Not seen this but i’ve been informed that it’s a corker so well worth a buy for the fans of the series
    Blu-Ray – approx £17
    DVD – approx £8

13. Kill Bill 1 & 2 – The stunning Tarantino two part revenge movie. Full of  action and OTT blood and gore in the first part and then full of revenge with a plot and cool dialogue in the second part. Well worth a grab for a christmas present and dead cheap for two great films.
    Blu-Ray – approx £15
    DVD – approx £7
    
    
14. Watchmen – The incredibly made comic book adaption of the unfilmable Watchmen. Zack Snyder created a stunning film that was probably too long for non fans but still a superb style over content superhero movie. I loved it maybe your receivee will too.
    Blu-Ray – approx £17
    DVD – approx £7-£11

15. Wall-E - Better than this years UP! and my favorite Pixar film ever. It’s low down on the list mainly because everyone should already own this masterpiece Oscar winner from the most talented film studio in the world. centered on a lovable little robot that cleans for a living on a deserted Earth who goes on an adventure into space, it’s flawless story telling.
    Blu-Ray – approx £11
    DVD – approx £8
    




16. Public Enemies -Michael Mann directs Johnny Depp, Christian Bale and Academy Award winner Marion Cotillard in the story of legendary outlaw John Dillinger.
    A good yet slightly disappointing film which could have been so much better.
    Blu-Ray – approx £16
    DVD – approx £10
    




17. Red Cliff - John Woo is back to his best for his most outrageously amitious epic movie yet. The Han Dynasty is facing its death in third century China, and the emperor raises a million-man army against two kingdoms that are hopelessly outmatched. Tony Leung stars and John Woo is on fire.
    Blu-Ray – approx £9
    DVD – approx £14 !

    TV SHOWS

1. House Season 1-5 – One of the finest TV Shows ever made with one of the most surprising performances from Hugh Laurie who has grown into one of the most respected actors in America with his portrayal of Dr Gregory House, a miserable drug addicted genius rare disease specialist.
   The series has grown from strength to strength and has produced some of the most incredible episodes of TV ever made.
   If you haven’t seen it at all and were put off by Hugh Laurie’s American accent, don’t be it’s actually suits him by the time you get into season one, so buy it now, if you have seen it and don’t have season five buy it now! It’s TV at it’s best.
   DVD – 1-5 Boxset approx £50
   Each Season approx £12-£20
   




2. Arrested Development – One of the finest comedy shows ever made that was cruely cancelled after 3 series, although the cast and crew knew this before filming had concluded so ridiculed the decision in the final few episodes which was hilarious.
   Staring Jason Bateman, Michael Cera, Will Arnett, David Cross and more it’s about an extended family brought together after the arrest of the father of the family. It’s sometimes bonkers but always hilarious with some of the best characters of any comedy show made. I still miss it.
   DVD – 1-3 Boxset approx £21
   Each Season approx £15
   




3. Lost Season 1-5 – What can i say, the best TV show ever made and coming into it’s final season in February 2010 it’s a must have addition to any collection.
   Following the adventures of the survivors of flight 815 on a remote island thats surrounded in mystery, hatches, smoke monsters , Dharma and many more it’s a stunning watch and incredible production.
   This is the perfect show with a fine cast, i would love anyone who got me this for christmas if i didn’t have it already!
   Blu-Ray individual boxsets- approx £34 – £45
   DVD 1-5 Box set – approx £80
   Each Season – approx £16 – £33
   




4. Breaking Bad – One of the best unknown TV shows of the last few years. Currently awaiting it’s third season to air in 2010 it’s been getting rave reviews and winning awards and one of my favorite shows ever.
   Staring Bryan Cranston as an over educated chemistry teacher who is diagnosed with lung cancer, realizing he doesn’t have enough money to support his wife, unborn daughter and a son with cerebral palsey after he dies so he enters the drug trade creating the purest form of Meth with an old student called Jesse and so starts off on the path of the criminal underworld. The performance of Bryan Cranston is remarkable as his condition deteriorates through the series as he becomes more involved with the characters of the drug world.
   Stunning stunning TV.
   DVD Season 1 – approx £16
   




5. Family Guy Season 8 – One of the most successful animated TV shows ever made and for me a Simpson’s beater. It’s controversial, it’s hilarious, it’s rude, it’s also hit and miss at times but still provides more laughs an episode than most comedy shows. It’s been cancelled once and brought back to life due to popular demand and it shows why as each season gets better and season 8 is the best so far.
   So follow Peter Griffin and his family on this excellent boxset and if you haven’t seen Family Guy before now is a great time to start.
   DVD Season 8 – approx £18
   Each Season – approx £10 each
   




6. Life – You can’t beat BBC nature programs and Life is another can’t miss nature documentary. The series takes a global view of the specialised strategies and extreme behaviour that living things have evolved in order to survive. Narrated again by the incredible and soothing voiced Sir David Attenborough, he guides us through some of the most incredible nature filming ever seen and like the excellent series ‘Planet Earth’ it’s in glorious HD on Blu-Ray which is how you should buy it if you have the technology to do so because it’s truly incredible to watch and are guaranteed to see something you have never seen before in nature. Phenomenal stuff.
   Blu-Ray - approx £35
   DVD – approx £29

7. The Sopranos Season 1-6 - The Soprano’s is regarded as one of the best TV shows ever made and rightly so. All 6 seasons are full of Tony Soprano and his two lives, One of his family and the other of the mafia family. It has arguably the best written episodes ever shown on TV and some of the most memorable characters and likeable characters I’ve ever seen. If your a fan of mafia movies then your going to love it, If your a fan of family Drama’s then your going to be pleasantly surprised by the depth and detail it enters the world of family issues and drama. Multi award winning and incredibly enjoyable from start to finish, this is a must buy gift.
   DVD Season 1-6 – approx £80
   Each Season – approx £16
   




8. The Wire Season 1-5 – For some reason The Wire has been like marmite when I try to introduce people to it. Some have gone on to buy every season, some have told me it’s pants after 2-3 episodes and that’s the secret to enjoying the Wire, get to episode 4 or 5 and this show will embed itself into your brain and never leave until you finish the entire series. It’s begins slowly and picks up so much momentum that if it was a snowball rolling down a hill it would end up the size of 45 houses. The characters, the plots, the subject matter is so well portrayed on screen that it’s easy to believe that the Wire is based on real life events. It’s unlike anything else on TV and it’s the best of it’s kind ever made. Genius.
   DVD Season 1-5 – approx £60
   Each Season – approx £16.

9. Curb Your Enthusiasm season 1-6 - The best comedy series on TV for me. I’ve never laughed out loud so often whilst watching Larry David in Curb your Enthusiasm. Those that don’t know, Larry David was the Co-Creator of the amazing Seinfeld TV show and Curb follows on in a documentary/improvisation format showing the life of Larry David and the appalling situations he gets himself in whilst living his life in LA. Larry gets himself into the most hilarious situations that get more controversial as the show goes on and you can’t but laugh.
   With cameos from numerous celebrities  that all seem to not mind getting involved in embarrassing scenarios, it’s a pure joy to watch and fantastically entertaining. I cannot recommend it enough.
   DVD Season 1-5 – approx £57
   Each Season – approx £13
   




10. Battlestar Galactica season 1-4 on Bluray – A bit pricey this one but if you like your Sci-fi with a fantastic story then Battlestar Galactica is for you. I was slow getting on board to this series as i thought ‘What have they done to my beloved 80′s Battlestar’ and i shouldn’t have worried. Battlestar Galactica remake is one of the most incredible TV shows ever made. The first three seasons are incredible with some episodes that truly amaze with it’s creativity, shock and awe stories and production values. The plot is similar to the original but it’s been turned on it’s head with the Cylon’s now taking on human forms which are unknown to the survivors of the war and this add’s an incredible sense of paranoia and fear to the characters of Battlestar Galactica. The actors take time to grow into their roles but by the end of season 1 they are in full flow and when season 2 kicks off it launches into it’s own and takes its position as one of the best ever shows and well worth forking out for someone you love (hint to my wife).
    Blu-Ray complete Boxset – approx £115

    A few more to mention
    Some TV shows that didn’t make the top 10 list but also worth a mention:-

11. Friends Complete series 1-10 – You know the story, you know the characters. It’s one of the most popular comedy series ever made that completed ten consistently funny seasons that followed Chandler, Monica, Joey, Ross, Phoebe and Rachel and their lives living in New York. The perfect gift and such a bargain.
    DVD Season 1-10 – approx £45

12. Fringe Season 1 Blu-ray – The incredible sci-fi show from the minds of J J Abrams, Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci. A special FBI agency is created after a series of unexplained, often ghastly occurrences that are occurring all over the world and the team use unorthodox ‘Fringe’ Science to investigate. It’s a lot better than it sounds and is in fact is one of my favorite new shows of the last year.
    Blu-Ray – approx £40

13. Rome Complete Series – The stunningly made Rome TV Series season 1 & 2. Rome is about the saga of two ordinary Roman soldiers and their families and covers the intimate drama of love and betrayal, masters and slaves, and husbands and wives, it chronicles epic times that saw the fall of a republic and the creation of an empire and is an incredible watch and well worth a purchase for christmas.
    Blu-Ray – approx £47
    
    
14. Madmen season 1-2 – Another slow and genius TV series that is incredibly well written and supremely produced. Set in the 1960′s and focusing on Don Draper who is the creative director at an advertising company and his life in and out of the office. The show brilliantly shows the changing social values of America. It’s a stunning show and fully deserving of it’s numerous awards.
    Blu-ray – approx £40
    DVD – approx £30

15. Heroes season 1-3 – Heroes started off with one of the finest first series to debut on TV. It had great characters, a great story and superheroes a plenty. Each episode expanded on the numerous characters story-lines which were unveiled in a comic book like presentation. With superb special FX and strong stories it was a surprise that it went down hill in the second series but it did eventually pick up again for season 3 to get it back on track but nowhere near as good as the first season. Well worth a buy.
    Blu-Ray – approx £85
    DVD – approx £64

That should be enough ideas to complete your christmas present shopping. There is no better way to say i love you than buying a film or TV series for your loved ones, So hurry up as there is not long to go!

Following his success with Sin Nombre Cary Fukunaga is to adapt Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre from a script by Moira Buffini, and today rumours blossomed that soon-to-be Alice In Wonderland MiaWasikowska is in talks to play the eponymous heroine.

Jane Eyre has been adapted many times in recent years with actresses such as Samantha Morton and Charlotte Gainsbourg taking the lead role, now Focus Features and BBC films look to the relative newcomer to play the governess of Thornfield Manor.

Variety also report that my favourite Inglourious Basterd Michael Fassbender is considering the role of Mr Rochester. While literary adaptations, particularly those under the constraints of a feature film’s running time, rely on a tightly constructed abridging of the original work it is the actors breathing new life into well known characters that ensure a success or deliver a failure.

Fassbender showed his quality in Steve McQueen’s Hunger and is quickly establishing himself as a fine character actor, and while Tim Burton has placed the fate of his version of Alice in Wasikowska’s hands, we’ll wait to see how she fares as that famous literary heroine before looking forward to her take on Bronte’s classic creation.