A Dream, a Queen, a Labyrinth & Babel

the most nominated films of 2006 are all over the place. England, Spain, Mexico, Japan, Morocco, the U.S., with most of these settings being from only one film.

today was the announcement of the 79th annual Academy Award Nominations, and Mexico's filmmakers have the most nods, with Alejandro Gonzalez Iñarritu's BABEL garnering 7 nominations, Guillermo Del Toro's EL LABERINTO DEL FAUNO (Pan's Labyrinth) getting 6, and Alfonso Cuarón's understated CHILDREN OF MEN netting 3.

although the most nominated film is DREAMGIRLS it isn't nominated for Best Picture. it got the "most nominated" honor basically because it has 3 nominations in the Original Song category. no major nominations except for Supporting Actor (Eddie Murphy) and Supporting Actress (first ever American Idol contestant to get an Oscar nod, Jennifer Hudson).

in that sense babel, the queen and pan's labyrinth are the ones that go into the most categories (babel has 2 supporting actresses nominated). babel and the queen are directly competing in 2 major categories (best picture, director), while pan's labyrinth goes for the more artistic (art direction, cinematography, makeup), while all three are going head-to-head in 2 categories (original score & original screenplay).

the acting categories are mostly a given already, based on previous awards helen mirren & forest whitaker are locks, while the supporting players of DREAMGIRLS are almost shoe-ins, although you can expect upsets in these categories.

great suprises were the nods for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, especially supporting players Alan Arkin and Abigail Breslin - it is also up for Original Screenplay and Best Picture. as for the rest, i will weigh in once i get to see more of them. go PAN'S!!!

A Brand New Day

jack bauer, we need to sacrifice you for the greater good. yeah, right!

The 6th season of this action thriller we like to call '24' kicked off with a bus exploding in the middle of Los Angeles, our hero being traded back to the US so he can be sacrificed to some terrorist organization and stop major attacks on US soil, all this to end up duped by said terrorist organization into killing the wrong man. All in a day's work.

I don't get it, i know i've had my issues with this show for quite some time now, especially how it is completely surreal that it's actually going on in "real time". But this season started off with quite a lot of inconsistencies, things you would never even expect to see or just way too many terrorist attacks on the US (especially in Los Angeles) in only 6 seasons! This is the 6th president the united states has in around 10 years (that's aprox. the time that's gone by in the show) - pre-Palmer in season 1, David Palmer, succesor to David Palmer (the guy from Unhappily Ever After), Charles Logan (who stepped in after successor to Palmer almost died in an attack on Air Force One), successor to Logan (who was taken from his post for being an idiot) and now Wayne Palmer! I have to say that the new Palmer is looking like a big wuss. Another is the continued attacks inside the US (a-bombs, viruses, nerve gas, big ass nuclear bomb), this show started as an assassination attempt on a presidential candidate, now it's an assassination attempt on the world!

Then there are the things that just looked unbelievable, like the insta-haircut Jack got and him being able to run around all over LA after that brutal stabbing he got from the terrorist at the beginning of the first hour (but it's Jack Bauer!). And there were characters that are taking too much time to actually tell us why they're on the show, like Palmer's sister (who was never mentioned in previous seasons) and her loverman.

I have to say that these initial 4 hours were a bit of a bore and a same-ol' same-ol', even thought there were some great moments, like Jack going all canibal on the terrorists to get away, and chloe being herself. but in true 24 fashion, they had to redeem themselves at the end of hour 4, they just knew it was a 4 hr. event, so they had to hook you in the last possible moment, not before. I totally saw Curtis getting killed but not by Jack, and i truly did not expect they would blow up that nuclear bomb like they did, the look on all the white house & ctu staff was the same as mine!!! i am telling you, if it wasn't for those final moments i probably would watch heroes and tape 24 to watch some time later, but now it's not gonna happen!

My Grade: B

amazing cast?

today was the day that the amazing race cast for the all-star edition was announced and we got the expected (rob & ambuh) the likeable (david & mary) the sad puppies (uchenna & joyce) the token seniors (teri & ian) the hillarious (kevin & drew) and the blondes (dustin & candice), but there's something i loathed from the list, first was john & jill (who even enjoyed these two!), charla & mirna (i don't understand why people liked them, they were ANNOYING!!!) and 'team guido' as the token gay couple!!! if there was one team i did not want to see back was the 'guido's, they should've gone with great likeable Lynn & Alex. it's great to see danny & oswald, and a mix of 2 members of previously separate teams (eric & danielle) although i don't really remember them at all. just one thing, they should've gotten at least one more team and try to get a pair from the family edition to get into this normal race to see them in a real amazing race. would've liked to see the clowns from season 4 though.

that's my rant.

And by "balls" i mean creative vision

And creative they got, the golden globes that is.... although it was a dull show, the awards were interesting, kudos to Ugly Betty and its star America Ferrara, Alec Baldwin and Grey's Anatomy for being recognized by a renowned organization like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. this year's winners mostly completely deserved their awards, it's been a very interesting and exciting decade for film and television, and it keeps getting better each year.

i have yet to watch 'dreamgirls' but am looking much forward to it, especially now that one of it's stars has won several big awards, coming from a tv reality show as american idol wouldn't normally transform into a golden-globe winner, but Jennifer Hudson has done it, kudos to her! and with 'Babel' winning for best picture, mexican filmmakers are getting even more recognition for their amazing work of late in american cinema. it was the nite for great wins for comedic performaces in film also, with the devil herself meryl streep and borat's sasha baron cohen receiving their deserved awards with great acceptance speeches.

now it's on to the oscars, with nominations being announced next week, its gonna be a free-4-all race to the finish. the ones that i truly want to be recognized are 'babel' as a whole and with its amazing cast; 'children of men''s cinematography; 'pan's labyrinth''s visual effects, cinematography, art direction and foreign languageness; 'pirates of the caribbean''s visual effects and all the recognition 'little miss sunshine' can get, especially as the best picture of the year.