After the black and white introduction we find ourselves in an elementary school classroom, complete with perky teacher wearing a technicolor yellow dresss and well behaved students. The first clue as to the tone of the movie is given when the newly arrived Safety Director of ZomCon (who has a daughter in the classroom) arrives to fill the kids in on how much safer the town will now be with him around. The first question he asks the room filled with nine or ten year olds is: "So how many of you have killed a zombie?" To which the reply is about a half dozen little hands shooting up in an affirmative answer, all the while with smiles all around the cl
Filmmaker Michel Hazanavicius' black-and-white silent film homage, The Artist , led the way with six Globe nods total; co-writer/helmer Alexander Payne's The Descendants and director Tate Taylor's The Help were close behind. That heavily-praised dramedy and popular literary adaptation (respectively) managed to snag five nominations each, putting them one ahead of Descendants star George Clooney's latest directorial effort, The Ides of March and Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris , which each stacked up four nods. Steven Spielberg's latest dramatic offering, War Horse , was right behind that pair with three nominations in technical categories; Albert Nobbs also managed to secure three nods, in the areas of acting and original music, while Moneyball landed three for Best Drama, Actor, and Moviefestivalhub.Com Screenp
So, all in all, just another year at the Oscars - complete with plenty of obvious choices, surprising snubs, and a handful of unexpected nominations. Whether or not the actual winners list will be quite so predictable - or, perhaps, mix things up a bit - that remains to be s
Steven Spielberg's War Horse managed to land six nods, but the bulk of its nominations were for technical achievements; by comparison, Alexander Payne's The Descendants raked in five, including (as expected) one for George Clooney as an actor, and others in areas like adapted screenplay and direction. Similar to War Horse , David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo landed mostly technical category nods - though, Rooney Mara was recognized for her performance in the f
Francine is somewhat mysterious and very intriguing, and through their relationship throws Jason a lifleline and brings him some brief joy. She gives him a feeling of self-worth and validates what a good person he is. Unfortunately she has her own issues that make her damaged goods, and his happiness is short-li
Malalai is not only a politician - she also serves as a counsellor and and lawyer to the locals, offering advice to a young girl of 13 who is in danger of being forced into marriage with an opium dealer old enough to be her grandfather, and to a married couple whose marriage is being destroyed by a husband who is an opium addict. At one point she sits down with the opium dealer in an effort to talk him out of forcing the young girl into marriage (he already has multiple wives) and although we certainly don't side with him, we get to see that perhaps there is more than one side to this story and that although the father of the young girl wants to protect her desperately he may not have been completely honest with Malalai about what he accepted in exchange for his daughter. It is heart wrenching to see this young girl come to Malalai pleading for help, not wanting to marry this man and saying that if worse comes to worse she would rather set herself on fire than marry
Several indie and lesser-known critical-darlings received little-to-no love from the Hollywood Foreign Press, including titles like The Tree of Life , Warrior , Drive , Martha Marcy May Marlene , and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy . Similarly, there were more than a few surprising snubs (no Best Director nod for David Fincher on The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo ? No Winnie the Pooh for Best Animated Feature?) and certain films fared far better than anticipated (namely, The Ides of March ). However, there were also more than a few no-brainers (ex. Meryl Streep being nominated for The Iron Lady ) and some rather unexpected choices (ex. Ryan Gosling in Crazy, Stupid, Lov
We learn the premise of the film in a 1950's style black and white educational movie, the sort of which most of you reading this have only seen as a parody, but I actually watched as a kid. It describes a mysterious "radiation cloud" that came from outer space and re-animated corpses. Shortly thereafter came "the great zombie war", and the rise of a huge corporation called ZomCon which at first took over protection of populated areas, but then introduced a method of domesticating zombies. This was done by means of an electronic collar which eliminated the zombies' desire for human flesh, and rendered them quite docile. They're used to mow lawns, pack groceries, deliver newspapers and most any other mundane job you can think
Our protagonist, Timmy Robinson (played by the oddly named K'Sun Ray, who is excellent in the role) is picked on by a couple of ZomCom "cadets" in his class and has a father who is strangely distant. His dad is more obsessed with death than he is with actually living his life with his family. His "keep up with the Joneses" mom is played by Carrie-Anne Moss (yes, from The Matrix ). She has long complained that they're the only family on the block without a zombie, but her husband is apparently terrified of them and wants nothing to do with them. She eventually gets her way (so the neighbors won't think they're strange) and he grudgingly gives