More Matt Damon Movie Rumors

As if a swingers movie with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck as Yankees wasn't enough, a new movie rumor has surfaced. Apparently Matt Damon may be playing Robert F. Kennedy in an upcoming role! It feels like April Fools is early this year!

Oscars Preview and Predictions

If only Shutter Island had come out a little sooner, Boston Movie fans would likely have a dog in the hunt. The show is actually being hosted by a pair of actors whose longevity just so happens to include multiple works from Boston. I'm not sure who is getting top billing so alphabetically, Alec Baldwin had a fantastic role in one of Boston's biggest movies The Departed and also filmed here for the production of Malice. His co-host Steve Martin has worked a number of Boston filmings including Housesitter, Pink Panther 2, and The Out-Of-Towners. The two will tagteam hosting the Oscars on March 7th. And the nominees are... a few more than usual! Best Picture is including ten nominations, who has time to watch all those movies?? Not me. But that won't stop me from making predictions on instinct and randomness! Best Picture Avatar District 9 Up Up in the Air Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire A Serious Man Inglorious Basterds The Blind Side An Education The Hurt Locker It really almost has to be Avatar... half a billion dollars earned at the box office should be enough to get it Best Picture. Performance by an actor in a leading role * Jeff Bridges in "Crazy Heart" (Fox Searchlight) * George Clooney in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) * Colin Firth in "A Single Man" (The Weinstein Company) * Morgan Freeman in "Invictus" (Warner Bros.) * Jeremy Renner in "The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Toss-up between Freeman and Bridges... Let's get Crazy Hearted and go with Jeff Bridges! Performance by an actor in a supporting role * Matt Damon in "Invictus" (Warner Bros.) * Woody Harrelson in "The Messenger" (Oscilloscope Laboratories) * Christopher Plummer in "The Last Station" (Sony Pictures Classics) * Stanley Tucci in "The Lovely Bones" (DreamWorks in association with Film4, Distributed by Paramount) * Christoph Waltz in "Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Happy if either Boston star walks with it. Saw an interview with Woody this week saying he thought his chances of winning were under 1%... so Matt Damon wins! Performance by an actress in a leading role * Sandra Bullock in "The Blind Side" (Warner Bros.) * Helen Mirren in "The Last Station" (Sony Pictures Classics) * Carey Mulligan in "An Education" (Sony Pictures Classics) * Gabourey Sidibe in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate) * Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia" (Sony Pictures Releasing) No idea! None! I mean everyone talked up Blind Side and Precious, but then you got Meryl Streep who's old, been around, so I don't know. Just rolled some dice, Helen Mirren takes it! Performance by an actress in a supporting role * Penélope Cruz in "Nine" (The Weinstein Company) * Vera Farmiga in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) * Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Crazy Heart" (Fox Searchlight) * Anna Kendrick in "Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) * Mo'Nique in "Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate) Doubt they'd give a win to one of two from the same flick... think Crazy Heart was good enough for Maggie to win, I'm picking her. Best animated feature film of the year *"Coraline" (Focus Features) Henry Selick *"Fantastic Mr. Fox" (20th Century Fox) Wes Anderson *"The Princess and the Frog" (Walt Disney) John Musker and Ron Clements *"The Secret of Kells" (GKIDS) Tomm Moore *"Up" (Walt Disney) Pete Docter I loved Coraline, I hope it wins. Achievement in art direction * "Avatar" (20th Century Fox) Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair *"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (Sony Pictures Classics) Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro Set Decoration: Caroline Smith *"Nine" (The Weinstein Company) Art Direction: John Myhre Set Decoration: Gordon Sim *"Sherlock Holmes" (Warner Bros.) Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood Set Decoration: Katie Spencer *"The Young Victoria" (Apparition) Art Direction: Patrice Vermette Set Decoration: Maggie Gray Avatar, easily. Achievement in cinematography *"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) Mauro Fiore *"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" (Warner Bros.) Bruno Delbonnel *"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Barry Ackroyd *"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Robert Richardson *"The White Ribbon" (Sony Pictures Classics) Christian Berger Avatar, again Achievement in costume design *"Bright Star" (Apparition) Janet Patterson *"Coco before Chanel" (Sony Pictures Classics) Catherine Leterrier *"The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus" (Sony Pictures Classics) Monique Prudhomme *"Nine" (The Weinstein Company) Colleen Atwood *"The Young Victoria" (Apparition) Sandy Powell Have yet to see any of these, hadn't heard about most of them, but that Victorian charm is big in the theater circles so we'll take The Young Victoria Achievement in directing *"Avatar" (20th Century Fox) James Cameron *"The Hurt Locker" (Summit Entertainment) Kathryn Bigelow *"Inglourious Basterds" (The Weinstein Company) Quentin Tarantino *"Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire" (Lionsgate) Lee Daniels *"Up in the Air" (Paramount in association with Cold Spring Pictures and DW Studios) Jason Reitman I'm a big Tarantino fan, loved his movie but it won't be him. Up in the Air had to awesome a cast to give this much credit to the director. They'll give it to Cameron. This was another Titanic, and that did pretty well!!! That pretty much wraps up the major categories, to see full lists and details on the event, visit the Oscars homepage.

Matt Damon, Ben Affleck and the Yankees?

The Boston Herald is speculating that it may be true! The two home-towners may be in the works of making a movie about a couple "swingin" Yankees! yikes. They should just make-out and get it over with, right? Anyway, here is a link to the article.

Shutter Island Tops Box Office

With over 40 million dollars taken in this weekend, Shutter Island opens on top of the box office. Ten of those 40 million are mine, and they were well worth it! I actually saw it at Legacy Place in Dedham, which kept being mentioned in the movie! There was a line about Dedham prison, which I actually visited on a high school field trip... weird.

The movie was a solid 8 out of 10, twisty, turns, suspenseful and I enjoyed myself overall. And Leonardo DiCaprio really hit it out of the park with his performance. There were a couple little things about Shutter Island I didn't much care for. There were a lot of turns, and it kinda played out like a book would (yeah, I know it was a book by Dennis Lehane). It looked like they wanted to make one of those movies you "get more of" when you re-watch it, so I'm semi-looking forward to that. And it also seems like characters in Boston movies like this are always a "Marshall" just to impress that weird, unnatural Boston accent on the audience. I mean, I'm in Boston all the time and I see cops/officers everywhere, no Mahhshalls.

Moving on, Michelle Williams... wow! She just keeps getting better and better looking, and her acting is keeping up with her looks. She was one of my favorites in this flick and has been one since her Dawson's Creek days... her Boston accent was spot-on and she definitely creeped me out. And when you see her standing by her backyard pond in the movie, you can't help but think she's Jen, that's the creek, and Dawson and her got into one of their usual, overblown episode snits.

The majority of Shutter Island was filmed here in Massachusetts, but it's hard to find Boston specifically in the movie. I mean, it takes place on an island, that's not Boston. They did some filming in Boston Harbor so I suppose that's gonna have to count. Anyway, the movie is in theaters everywhere, enjoy!

Did I Shutter?

Here is a Boston Globe article about the movie Shutter Island that opened this weekend and the company of "crazy" movies it keeps.

Matt Damon Goes Green!

The commercials have hit the airwaves for the hometown heart-throb's newest feature. On March 12th, Green Zone is scheduled to hit theaters nation-wide.

Matt Damon reunites with his Bourne-sequels director Paul Greengrass for the film. Even from the commercials one can see similar action sequences upon comparison. And like the Bourne flicks, the majority of filming took place overseas.

The Internet Movie Database (imdb) has the movie's tagline as "Chief Warrant Officer Roy Miller is done following orders." Sweet!

If you're interested in a trailer, we got it here!

Start Shuttering!

With the newest Boston movie Shutter Island scheduled to open tomorrow, I've found an article you might be interested in.

Leonardo DiCaprio Interview

And to watch the official trailer from Shutterisland.com, simply click the image! Looks Awesome!!!

Hollywood East Concerns

Here is a link to an article this week from my hometown paper, The Patriot Ledger, concerning our booming movie enterprise in Massachusetts! If it was a magic 8-Ball, it would read "outlook does not look good".

Hollywood East

Box Office Weekend

Well Mel Gibson gave it his best, but his new movie Edge of Darkness was unable to claim the top spot at the box office last weekend. Will anything be able to knock off Avatar??

The reviews of Edge of Darkness seem a bit wishy-washy. And it seems that many are harping on the too forced Boston accents! But that's the risk you run making a Boston film with a non-Bostonion lead.

Anyway, I predict Avatar will eventually fall from the top in a couple weeks... when Shutter Island comes out! I think that Leonardo DiCaprio's 2-D appeal will topple the 3-D flick. We'll see.

More Winter!

Hey, even though it's a Pennsylvannia movie, I still love it, and am sure it'll be on TV at some point today! Happy Groundhog's Day!