... FOR "THE GREATEST ANTI-CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS MOVIES OF ALL TIME"

Well, it's Christmas time again, folks! Which means exactly one thing here around the office: endless conversations about what does and does not constitute a Christmas movie. This debate began roughly three years ago, when someone (I think it was myself) singled out Die Hard as the Greatest Christmas Movie Of All Time. This choice, of course, was met with heaping doses of disapproval and disdain (including the immortal argument: "Die Hard doesn't count! Santa Claus isn't even in it!") and has only gotten worse over time.

To which I reply: Why shouldn't it count? What is it about Die Hard that screams NOT A CHRISTMAS MOVIE! anyway? I mean, Home Alone counts as a Christmas movie. Why discount Die Hard when Home Alone tells the same basic story - albeit with less gunplay and foot-slicing – yet still counts itself as a holiday staple in households across America? What makes Die Hard any different from your It's A Wonderful Lifes or your Miracle On 34th Streets, despite the fact that it centers around Mr. Bruce Willis killing the crap out of terrorists for two hours, rather than reindeer and festive good cheer?

... FOR "HOLLYWOOD'S BIGGEST NIGHT - PART 2" (aka "OSCAR 2011") - UPDATED!

UPDATE: Checking around for Oscar results on the Internet this morning, it's great to see that Inception won so many technical awards last night, especially the award for Best Cinematography. Wally Pfister's been working with Christopher Nolan for a good long while now (since Memento), and he outdoes himself each time out.

If you have any thoughts on the telecast last night, please comment below - what you liked, disliked, what you think I missed out on, etc. (Because if there's one thing I love, it's living vicariously through others.) Oh, and the winners have been marked with a star for good behavior below.

Well, it's Oscar time again, folks - everybody's favorite night of the year. And on Sunday, February 27th, we'll all gather again, to see our favorite celebrities stroll down that red carpet, take their seats in Los Angeles' world-famous Kodak Theater, and enjoy an evening's worth of scintillating entertainment as they anxiously await those five magic words: "And the Oscar goes to..." It's almost too much to soak in. The glitz! The glamour! The pure intoxication of it all!

End of sarcasm. You already know how I feel about this, so there's no point in griping about it all over again. Instead (if you care), I thought I'd offer a few choice thoughts on the nominations this year. As always, feel free to voice your own opinion in the comments below.

... FOR "THE BEST FILMS OF THE DECADE" - PART 5

Genre:

DRAMA


Defined:

Happiness. Heartache. Man's eternal struggle to achieve one and distance himself from the other. The Dramatic film is Hollywood's favorite genre, with six out of ten Best Picture wins at the Academy Awards this past decade (Crash, The Departed, The Hurt Locker, Million Dollar Baby and Slumdog Millionaire; other winners included an Action epic, a Biopic, a Musical, and a Fantasy film, respectively). Dramas provide stars ample opportunity to show off their acting skills, and a chance to impress their peers. They also give filmmakers the chance to probe the great mysteries of the human heart. Like all great films, though, the Dramas that matter most are the ones that surprise you with their depth and emotional impact.


The Top Five:

5. Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009)

Typo'd title aside (it's a deliberate riff on a Z-grade Dirty Dozen rip-off from the 70s), Quentin Tarantino's latest love letter to movies features some of his most literate work to date. It's still a mishmash of genres – this time it's World War II revenge fantasy meets Nazi spy thriller with a dose of French New Wave. I include it here based on the intensity of Tarantino's extended dialogue sequences, which build and build to the point of anxiety; an opening prologue at a farmhouse and, later, a rendezvous at an underground bar are like master classes in screenwriting, with adversaries playing verbal games of cat and mouse to discover each others' secrets. The movie itself is almost gleefully anachronistic – a David Bowie ballad plays at one point, and Tarantino even re-writes the outcome of the war so that Hitler meets his end at the hand of Jewish mercenaries. Not exactly what I'd call an accurate depiction of history. Just a director at his exhilarating, visceral best.