Thoughts, Insights, and Inspirations

Opening up this weekend was "Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son about his Father," which is undoubtedly one of the most heart wrenching documentaries that I've ever seen. Might be one of the best documentaries ever viewed, but as much as I praise this film it should be reminded that I cannot give a full praise without feeling empathetic also.


This film just draws you in with a sensation of just raising up to the occasion of what this films' purpose is. How can you not feel helpless after watching this? With twist after twist feeling shock will be apart of this journey of an incredible friend and father for his son.


If you have not seen this film I HIGHLY SUGGEST IT! If you have what are your thoughts on this?


-LouEx : http://www.village8.com/louex_intro.htm

Predictions of the 2009 Oscar Nominees

So with only 2 more days until the Oscar nominees are announced I have decided to go ahead an predict who might get nominated this year. I generally do this every year, but this is the first year in which I've actually posted my predictions. I'm only picking the main six categories.

predictions for Oscar Nominees of 2008 films:

Best Picture

Slumdog Millionaire

Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Dark Knight

Milk

Frost/Nixon

Actor

Richard Jenkins- The Visitor

Sean Penn- Milk

Frank Langella- Frost/Nixon

Brad Pitt- Benjamin Button

Mickey Rourke- The Wrestler

Actress

Kate Winslet- Revolutionary Road

Meryl Streep- Doubt

Melissa Leo- Frozen River

Anne Hathaway- Rachel Getting Married

Sally Hawkins- Happy Go Lucky

Director

Clint Eastwood- Gran Torino

Danny Boyle- Slumdog Millionaire

David Fincher- Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Ron Howard- Frost/Nixon

Christopher Nolan- The Dark Knight

Supporting Actor

Health Ledger- The Dark Knight

Philip Seymour Hoffman- Doubt

Robert Downey Jr. - Tropic Thunder

Josh Brolin- Milk

Haaz Sleiman- The Visitor

Supporting Actress

Amy Adams- Doubt

Kate Winslett- The Reader

Taraji P. Henson- Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Marisa Tomei- The Wrestler

Penelope Cruz- Vicky Cristina Barcelona

What are your predictions?

-LouEx

www.village8.com

Thoughts, Insights, and Inspirations

For the opening day of Janurary 16, 2009 we have the FIRST Bollywood Kung Fu action/comedy film that is distributed by a major studio, that of Warner Brothers.

It's fortunate that we get to be a part of history by opening this film up here at Village 8 Theatres. It's in the style of a regular Bollywood film, but with a huge twist of the comedy "Kung Fu Hustle" with it's action scenes and slap stick environment and of course; it's Kung Fu - hi yah! > I know, that was uncalled for and probably misspelled with it's right Batman punch effect.

Well, with that being said. What did you think of this film? It's a love hate relationship here so gives us your thoughts about "Chandni Chowk to China."

P.S.

Check out the soundtrack to this film as it is somewhat catchy with original songs. I know I was dancing badly with it, but it's just to hard not to.

-LouEx

http://www.village8.com/louex_intro.htm

A Millionaire wins the Globes

Well we've passed the first big day in awards. Even though viewership was reported down, but up from last years debacle with the writer's strike practically killing films themselves, I still found it to be a pretty good event. With a very well balanced field of possibly amazing films it seems the general consensus points to "Slumdog Millionaire" may be in fact the greatest film released in 2008. I'm obviously not convinced just yet because frankly I haven't had the chance to see it, but I like Danny Boyle so my gut tells me that it probably is a great film. He did come away with an overall record of 4-0 for the categories his film was nominated for.

However though as history shows or at least periodical history; those who win a Golden Globe doesn't mean that they will win the mack daddy of all awards - Mr. Oscar. However, this does give a brief view of things to come and who might be the front-runner. My money is on The Dark Knight as of right now for Best Picture.

With a pretty good night of winners and no real surprises, except for Kate Winslet obtaining two Globes both for Lead & Supporting Actress (which is hard to do) and to the fact that Woody Allen might actually have a shot of getting more than one Oscar nod which hasn't happened since I can remember, I thought that for this year most people might actually agree for once that these certain winners probably deserved it.

I will say congrats to Mickey Rourke and for the inspirational speech, which I hope one day is read in front a high school graduation crowd. Also congrats to Steven Spielberg for obtaining the Cecil B. DeMented award, which I'm a little shocked because I thought he won this when was like 16.

List of Winners:

And the Globe goes too...

Picture, Drama: "Slumdog Millionaire."

• Picture, Musical or Comedy: “Vicky Christina Barcelona.”

• Actor, Drama: Mickey Rourke, “The Wrestler.”

• Kate Winslet, “Revolutionary Road.”

• Director: Danny Boyle, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

• Actor, Musical or Comedy: Colin Farrell, “In Bruges.”

• Actress, Musical or Comedy: Sally Hawkins, “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

• Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, “The Dark Knight.”

• Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, “The Reader.”

• Foreign Language Film: “Waltz With Bashir.”

• Animated Film: “Wall-E.”

• Screenplay: Simon Beaufoy, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

• Original Score: A.R. Rahman, “Slumdog Millionaire.”

• Original Song: “The Wrestler” (performed by Bruce Springsteen, written by Bruce Springsteen), “The Wrestler.”

That's Gold Jerry, That's Gold!

The Golden Globes are here! It was the first sign that the Oscars are approaching when the nominees were announced on Dec.11, 2008. Now I know most people probably don't care about Oscar season when the annual Film/TV (mainly Film) award season kicks into gear, but I happen to take notice because it gives merit to filmmakers and film goers alike to enjoy fantastic films that are suppose to move you emotionally more than any other film that is released throughout the year. Now that's not to say that there aren't emotionally great films released pre-Oscar seasons because there are. It's just that this is when we get overwhelmed with so many good to great films all at once. It feels like finding a gold mine which just pours an abudence of film watching for months.

Sadly though only one film/actor can win in each category regardless if the other film/actor was just as good. But that creates debate and debate can be good because not everybody has the same taste or thoughts in film or otherwise why even bother with awards? I thought 'Gangs of New York' should have won Best Picture in the 2003 Oscars, but alas it went to 'Chicago.' If a musical was ever going to win a Best Picture in this decade it should have been 'Moulin Rouge'. And how did '300' not get any nominations for 2007? But as cliche as this sounds,"We can't always get what we want," when it comes to who should have gotten nominated, who should have won, and who shouldn't have even been considered as a great film. However, this is what sparks a film lover such as me. It's like my March Madness (which I follow as well) for films all starting with the People/Critics Choice that leads up to the Academy Awards, and the Globes is the first heavy weight award show that recongizes these such films that I dire to see.

So with the Globes finally arriving in 2009 representing the 2008 Film year it's time to get psyched! Maybe you'll be surprised or flat out happy that a film that you've seen won something which could lead it to getting nominated for an Oscar. Be sure to catch the Golden Globes on Sunday Janurary 11, 2008 on NBC @ 8/7c p.m.

P.S.> Watch one of our Exclusive films we have as well before you see the Globes (A Christmas Tale or Humboldt County) or the day after the Globes. We'll give you a hug.

--Lou Ex

http://village8.com/louex_intro.htm

Thoughts, Insights, and Inspirations

Ok. So being that this is the first actual post that involves our Exclusive Films. What did you all think of 'A Christmas Tale' or 'Humboldt County' depending on which one you saw or if you saw both of them.

If you haven't had a chance to see them make sure you do as in we never know if we'll keep the film the following Friday. You might miss out and we and you do not want that to happen.

Do you think 'A Christmas Tale' deserves some Oscar buzz? As it is being rumored.

-Lou Ex

http://www.village8.com/louex_intro.htm

(keep checking back to this blog every so often cause we might discuss some other films/events as well and we would love to hear your input on the matter)

Welcome to the Exclusive Film blog!

Hey everybody! So we've started this blog as a doorway for you all. In a sense it's more like for you all to discuss certain Exclusive Films as well as other films and making suggestions. It's a new way of communicating with us this year as well as our Exclusive Films Newsletter (which we hope you request to receive if you haven't done so yet). So what better way to start off 2009 right than to expand more on our communication with you.

Here's the rundown:
Watch an Exclusive Film, come here to the blog and post your thoughts about that film whether you liked it, loved it, or hated it. We'll make a main post in which you can comment on in order to obtain your thoughts.

Think of it as a group discussion about Exclusive Films or film in general. It's a like a book club discussion group, but with films instead.

That's it, simple enough I think. And we hope to see you at the movies.

--Lou Ex

http://www.village8.com/louex_intro.htm