Earlier today the Oscar nominations were announced and it was pretty much what everyone was expecting.  Avatar and The Hurt Locker are the leading contenders and they’re going head to head in Best Picture and Best Director.  Inglourious Basterds and Precious also got a bunch of nominations and the expanded Best Picture category brought in fan favorite District 9 and the shoe in for Best Animated Picture Up.  Check out the complete list of nominees below and be sure to join us on March 8th for our live blog.

BEST PICTURE:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

DIRECTING:
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
James Cameron – Avatar
Lee Daniels – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Jason Reitman – Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE:
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up in the Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE:
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE:
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up in the Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up in the Air
Mo’Nique – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Neill Blomkamp and – District 9
Nick Hornby – An Education
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche – In the Loop
Geoffrey Fletcher – Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire
Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner – Up in the Air

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mark Boal – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Oren Moverman and – The Messenger
Joel and Ethan Coen – A Serious Man
Pete Docter and Bob Peterson – Up

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Ajami  – Israel
El Secreto de sus Ojos – Argentina
The Milk of Sorrow
Une Prophéte  – France
The White Ribbon – Germany

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM:
Coraline
Fantastic Mr. Fox
The Princess and the Frog
The Secret of the Kells
Up

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Maurio Fiore – Avatar
Bruno Delbonnel – Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Barry Ackroyd – The Hurt Locker
Robert Richardson – Inglourious Basterds
Christian Berger – The White Ribbon

FILM EDITING:
Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron – Avatar
Julian Clarke – District 9
Bob Murawski and Chris Innis – The Hurt Locker
Sally Menke – Inglourious Basterds
Joe Klotz – Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire

The Hangover

Inglourious Basterds

Robot Chicken Season 4

G-Force

The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard

Taking Woodstock

The Mel Brooks Collection (Blu Ray)

Flint Lockwood and his crazy food making machine held onto the top spot this weekend, pulling in another $26.4 million. Coming in at second was Bruce Willis’ new movie Surrogates, based on a fantastic graphic novel, with $15 million which is on the low end for Willis movies. Experts are blaming Surrogates ad campaign which focused more on the setting of the future world then on characters or plot. Another of the new movies, Fame, came in at third with a little over $10 million. The final new movie, Pandorum, didn’t benefit from having no one know it was coming out until a week before. It debuted at sixth place with a little over $4.4 million. The Informant and Tyler Perry each moved two spots to fourth and fifth respectively. At the bottom of the top ten Jennifer’s Body and 9 are looking ready to fall of the cliff as both had 50% drop offs from the last week and wound up in eighth and ninth. Inglourious Basterds jammed it’s knife into the top ten and is refusing to drop off, it held onto number ten with $2.7 million and it’s domestic gross is almost $115 million. I guess business really is booming.

There is nothing more mystifying to me than why people keep turning up for all this Tyler Perry crap but “I Can Do Bad All By Myself” was number one at the box office this weekend with $24 million. Shane Acker and Tim Burton’s 9 came in second place with $10.9 million. The other new movies, Whiteout and Sorority Row came in at seventh and sixth respectively, each with just over $5 million. Inglourious Basterds stayed in the top 5 at third with $6.5 million and bringing it’s total to over $100 million. The Final Destination fell off to fifth place with $5.5 million and Gamer is almost ready to fall off the top ten, getting beaten by Julie and Julia, which is in it’s sixth week. Can the promise of Megan Fox killing boys with sex pull in big numbers this weekend for Jennifer’s Body or will Matt Damon clumsily charm America in The Informant or could Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs cook up big numbers?

Apparently Death is America’s new sweetheart as The Final Destination held on to the top spot at the box office again this weekend. The movie pulled in another $12.4 million, bringing it’s total to $47.6 million. All About Steve came in second place with $11.2 million, which is around the average for romantic comedies these days. Inglourious Basterds moved down another spot to third this weekend and one of the other new releases, Gamer, came in at fourth with $9 million. H2 fell three spots to sixth place with $5.6 million. The other new release, Mike Judge’s Extract, barely made it to tenth with $4.2 million. The man can not catch a break, movie wise.

This weekend I was able to be a guest on the Media Junkyard (www.mediajunkyard.com) and we had a fun time discussing a wide variety of topics including:

Check out the episode on their site or search for them in itunes.

Two horror franchises met in teen killing grudge match this weekend and The Final Destination managed to pull of the win with $28.3 million., making it the best opening in the series. Halloween 2′s Michael Myers wasn’t able to defeat the Nazi scalping Basterds, coming in third with $17.4 million while Inglourious Basterds moved down a spot to number two with a little over $20 million. District 9 moved down to the fourth spot with a little over $10 million and bringing it’s total gross to over $90 million, effectively triple it’s budget. The other fairly wide release new movie, Taking Woodstock, debuted in ninth place with about $3.8 million. So the summer blockbuster season is over for yet another year but there’s still plenty of good stuff coming up. Keep reading the site for all the details.

The Basterds managed to slice and dice their way to number one this weekend with $37.6 million, making it Tarantino’s best opening since Kill Bill Vol. 2. District 9 dropped down to number two this weekend with $18.9 million and bringing it’s total to over $73 million. Since it cost $30 million to make it’s more than doubled it’s budget. GI Joe dropped down another slot to number three with $12.5 million and has made over $120 million in total. Julie and Julia and The Time Traveler’s Wife rounded out the top 5. The two other movies this weekend, Post Grad and Shorts both didn’t really register. Shorts debuted at sixth and Post Grad barely made it into the tenth spot, barely beating last week’s The Goods.

Inglourious Basterds

Starring: Brad Pitt, Eli Roth, Diane Kruger, BJ Novak, Christophe Waltz

Directed by: Quentin Tarantino

Plot: A special team of Jewish American soldiers are dropped behind enemy lines in Paris to covertly kill as many Nazis as possible, ultimately attempting to kill Hitler.

Rotten Tomatoes Freshness: 89%

Critic Consensus: “A classic Tarantino genre-blending thrill ride, Inglourious Basterds is violent, unrestrained, and thoroughly entertaining.”

Shorts

Starring: Jon Cryer, William H Macy, James Spader, Leslie Mann

Directed by: Robert Rodriguez

Plot: A kid named Toe Thompson discovers a magical rainbow colored rock that grants anyone holding it wishes.

RT Freshness: 35%

Critic Consensus: “Shorts has imagination and energy, but most viewers beyond elementary school will likely tire of the kiddie humor and sensory overload.”

Post Grad

Starring: Alexis Bledel, Zach Gilford, Rodrigo Santoro, Jane Lynch

Directed by: Vicky Jenson

Plot: Recent college grad Ryden Malby is forced to move back in with her parents after a college rival steals her dream job.

RT Freshness: 9%

Critic Consensus: “A lightweight, unambitious comedy, Post Grad features fine actors that can do little with its middling, uninspiring script.”

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

June 26, 2009
Shia LeBeouf, Megan Fox

The battle for Earth has ended but the battle for the universe has just begun. After returning to Cybertron, Starscream assumes command of the Decepticons, and has decided to return to Earth with force. The Autobots believing that peace was possible finds out that Megatron’s dead body has been stolen from the US Military by Skorpinox and revives him using his own spark. Now Megatron is back seeking revenge and with Starscream and more Decepticon reinforcements on the way, the Autobots with reinforcements of their own, may have more to deal with then meets the eye. (from IMDB)

Public Enemies

July 1, 2009
Christian Bale, Johnny Depp

The incredible story of criminal folk hero John Dillinger (Johnny Depp), whose wave of bank robberies and the subsequent FBI manhunt, commanded by J. Edgar Hoover (Billy Crudup) and run by Special Agent Melvin Purvis (Christian Bale), fascinated the nation in the 1930s. (from tribute.ca)

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

August 7, 2009
Channing Tatum, Dennis Quaid

Director Stephen Sommers (The Mummy, Van Helsing) adapts the beloved Hasbro G.I. Joe toy line with this Paramount Pictures production that pits the Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity against the evil forces of the organization known as Cobra. (from Fandango)

Inglourious Basterds

August 21, 2009
Brad Pitt, Eli Roth

In Nazi-occupied France during World War II, a group of Jewish-American soldiers known as “The Basterds” are chosen specifically to spread fear throughout the Third Reich by scalping and brutally killing Nazis. The Basterds soon cross paths with a French-Jewish teenage girl who runs a movie theater in Paris which is targeted by the soldiers. (from IMDB)