Happy 50th Jim Carrey!

A very happy ½ century mark to Jim Carrey! He seems to have given up on chasing Oscar and returned to the generally more lucrative world of high concept multiplex comedy. We kind of miss his dramedic self.

Favorite Carrey performances off the top of my head.

1. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
2. The Truman Show (1998)
   ...and yes, I'd have nominated him for both of those. 
3. Man on the Moon (1999)
   ...one of those rare cases where Oscar got really stingy about loving biopic mimicry. 
4. Doing Time on Maple Drive (1992)
5. Batman Forever (1995)
6. I Love You Phillip Morris (2010)
7. The Mask (1994)
8. Bruce Almighty (2003)
9. Liar Liar (1997)
10. Lemony Snicket A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004)

 It's true. I never saw the comedic blockbusters involving his talking ass or doubled idiocy.

Yours?

The first time I ever saw him was on the shortlived sitcom "The Duck Factory" which I watched as a kid because I wanted to be an animator when I grew up. The peak of my interest was The Truman Show. Strange that that movie isn't talked about more. 

The Duck Factory, The Truman Show, Burt Wonderstone

He's currently filming Burt Wonderstone with Steve Carell. Carell plays the title role but they're playing rival magicians in Las Vegas... Carrey being threatened by the newer magician Carell. Could certainly be fun but was no one worried about some sort of Evan Almighty curse? That last time Carrey passed the baton to Carell it didn't work out so well. Not that critical favor matters to Hollywood when you can break $100 million just by showing up.

SAG Ensemble Flashback: "The Birdcage!" & Oscar Trivia

With the Screen Actors Guild Awards less than a month away, let's look back at the history of our favorite SAG Category, "Outstanding Performance by a Cast" i.e. Best Ensemble. Though the Guild had long been in the business of lifetime achievement awards, they didn't hold their first full fledged awards ceremony until 1995 for the 1994 film year. That first SAG year did not include an Ensemble movie prize which is strange since they handed out TV ensemble prizes from the start so it's not like they hadn't dreamt up that honor! The next year Apollo 13, which was something of a frontrunner for Oscar's Best Picture prize (it eventually lost), won the inaugural ensemble prize. It beat a field that included only one other Oscar Best Picture nominee (Sense & Sensibility)... a percentage ratio you rarely see today.

At the third annual ceremony the award went to the (thankfully) dated gay marriage comedy The Birdcage (1996), based on the 1978 French classic and three-time Oscar nominee La Cage Aux Folles. The films farcical comedy emerges when a gay couple (Robin Williams & Nathan Lane) try to fool a conservative couple (Gene Hackman & Dianne Wiest) into thinking of them as a "reputable" traditional family so that the son can marry the other couple's daughter (Dan Futterman and Calista Flockhart). Everything goes wrong over dinner as the gay couple has a terrible time keeping up the facade.

This is so Guatemala. They put hardboiled things in everything down there. Because, you know, chicken is so important to them. it's their only real currency. A woman is said to be worth her weight in hens and a man's wealth is measured by the size of his cock."

Will you excuse me?"

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Tuesday Top Ten: Memo to AMPAS

Oscar ballots left the Academy offices today on their way to the 6,000+ members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. If you must concern yourself with the math of Best Picture voting, here is how it works. I've always found that the discussions of hard but unknowable facts like voting percentages (no one but the accountants see them) and the math and statistics that surround them obscure the more telling aspects of like mood and buzz. Those are equally invisible things but way more honest about their own unknowability.

Anyway, sorry to distract with math. Here are the top ten things we'd respectfully like to say to AMPAS members today as they mull over their abundant choices. We may contradict ourselves a few times but so it goes in Oscar season.

TEN IMPORTANT MESSAGES FOR OSCAR VOTERS

10 We Feel For You Even When We Complain!
It's true that you can't please everyone. That's especially true if you are making decisions that millions of people are invested in even when they claim not to be. Thick skin is handy. We assume you have it when people like us start storming the castle. (If we didn't love you we wouldn't care... so stop freaking out about your relevancy)

09 Take Your Time. Watch a Few More Movies.
You have until January 13th to turn in your ballot. Yes, it sucks that at least a hundred screeners arrive between November and now assuming you have nothing better to do during the holidays than prop open your eyes with toothpicks for a marathon session. I don't want to overwhelm you further with more options so I will only boldly suggest a triple feature before you send off your ballot: A SEPARATION, BEGINNERS and MELANCHOLIA. These three films -- and several others -- won't get as much press as the bigger name movies they're superior to (*cough* You Don't Need To Horse Around With The Girl With the Iron Lady Tattoo) but that doesn't mean you shouldn't vote for them! I single them out because they're good, under-discussed and I know you have the screeners.

[Update: You don't have the screener but CERTIFIED COPY is on Netflix Instant Watch so do yourself the favor. (Whoops that's a quadruple feature!)]

08 Vanessa Redgrave in Coriolanus
You also might want to give Coriolanus a whirl too to see why some people are so excited about Vanessa Redgrave again. It's been kind of a great year for actresses and actors of a certain age (Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor may both skew the oldest ever). But don't throw that particular theme party at the Kodak and forget to invite the best one! That would be... weird.

"you are not my son"

07 On the other hand... consider rejecting the one-week qualifiers altogether.
We're not sure what went wrong in 2011 but the one-week qualifier shenanigans went viral this year. There were more of them than ever. Too many films are screaming "screw you!" at audiences and only courting YOU. This is not healthy for the cinema which is meant to be an art form for the masses. If you've ever worried about charges of elitism consider rejecting them entirely.

peek-a-boo releases, combating genre bias, and sticking it to loudmouth pundits after the jump!

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Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Five-Year Engagement"

Amir here with a new edition of Yes, No, Maybe So. Today’s film is The Five-Year Engagement from the Apatow production machine, starring Emily Blunt and Jason Segel, who also co-wrote the film. 

Yes...

• JACKI WEAVER EVERYONE! The Oscar-nominated Aussie surely deserves more demanding roles but at least she didn’t totally fade away as we feared, given her age and outsider status. The movie also has Mimi Kennedy who never fails to make me laugh out loud. After Midnight in Paris, this looks more than a bit like typecasting to me, but if she can find a way to be as funny as in In the Loop we’re in for big laughs.

•Jason Segel’s been having a good few years after he forgot Sarah Marshall. He’s actually proved to be a better comedy writer than an actor. His most recent feature is, of course, in theatres now (The Muppets) and it’s been extremely well-received. Can we assume his hot streak will continue?

No, Maybe So... and the trailer after the jump.

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Yes, No, Maybe So: "The Three Stooges"

Andreas here. After over a decade in development, the Farrelly Brothers' tribute to their slapstick idols became its own sad punchline, swapping out the bizarro dream team of Sean Penn, Benicio Del Toro, and Jim Carrey for a more conventional, less A-listy trio. Revivals of decades-old franchises always make me nervous, especially when those franchises relied on specific performers with very specific talents. But let's give the trailer a look, shall we?

YES...

 

• I've been a Stooges fan since early childhood. I'm pleasantly surprised to see that the Farrellys seem to get their style of comedy... by which I mean nonstop, mean-spirited violence augmented by cartoonish sound effects. They're clearly not afraid to go as lowbrow as possible to replicate it.
• The actors subbing in for the long-dead Stooges do some pretty accurate impersonations, especially Mad TV veteran Will Sasso as the blithely animalistic Curly...

"No"s "Maybe So"s and the trailer after the jump.

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