When people ask me how my reviews go from my head to the page, a criteria about how you have to back up something you claim the movie does, or doesn’t, always is addressed on my end.  For instance, you can’t just say, “this movie is as painful as an enema;” you have to be able to explain why it is annoying as a tube going up your ass.

This is one of the rare times where yours truly just wants to say the following: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is extremely boring.  It just is.  Its 127 minutes of absolutely nothing happening for the most part.  By the time this plodding script gets to something quasi-stimulating, it already lost you nearly an hour ago.

Spy conspiracies usually have some kick to them.  Even the ones that are quiet and take their time will almost always have a jolt or two in them while they’re building toward the climax.  Well, unless you’re last year’s The American that is.  The only element about this flick is how it can give Nyquil a run for its money.  Better yet, one will fall asleep faster watching this than getting put under by a dentist.

The plot isn’t all that unique from what we’ll call “administrative spy mysteries” (ones with seldom action and a lot of old-man conversations).  A group of senior British intelligence agents (played by Ciaran Hinds, Toby Jones, Colin Firth, David Denick and John Hurt) run the “Circus” during the Cold War Era.  After an operation in Hungary involving agent Jim Prideaux (Mark Strong) goes wrong, a former agent in George Smiley (Gary Oldman) comes out of retirement almost a year later to investigate why this occurred.  His light research leads him to the conclusion that one of the senior agents is a possible mole for the Russians.  As he speaks with other agents involved (played by Tom Hardy, Benedict Cumberbatch and Kathy Burke) with that particular mission, he inches closer to who or whom may be leaking information to the Soviets.

Had the makings to be riveting and intense, but sadly, this flick never comes close to that.  As the screenplay begins jumping back-n-forth depicting the time when the Hungary operation went south, to his present investigation, it becomes a chore to keep up with where we’re at regarding the story and characters.  The goal is to portray a realistic account and avoid using all the gimmicks and flash found in the majority of spy-thrillers.  And while that could make for an engrossing story – on paper – this is almost too thorough and intelligent for the cinematic screen.

This is essentially Gary Oldman walking around in a trench coat having chats with all the players above; some of which who get a minor backstory, while others are just used as place-holders.  And while it is an admirable effort by Oldman leading this accomplished cast, only Tom Hardy provides a glimmer of life in the dialogue department.

The funny or ironic thing; a movie that fires off only a couple rounds is in fact an effective killer…in the entertainment department.

Overall, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy reveals nothing interesting or compelling to encourage anyone to seek this out.  Unless you’re sleep deprived.

RATING: 2 out of 5

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There has been a considerable amount of interest in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy ever since Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy, Mark Strong and other equally talented actors joined the film last year.

Tomas Alfredson, the Swedish director behind Let the Right One, is directing a script by Peter Morgan (The Queen, Frost/Nixon), and today interest reached a new high with the release of the first trailer.

Watch below:

Based on John Le Carre‘s Cold War novel, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy follows a retired MI6 agent (Oldman) who is called back to ferret out a Soviet mole hiding among the highest ranks of the MI6. The cast also includes Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Svetlana Khodchenko, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy will be released September 16 in the U.K., and an awards-friendly November 18 in the U.S.

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Here’s another one of those ‘what if’ casting situations. In a recent interview X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn revealed that his only two choices to play Hellfire Club leader Sebastian Shaw in the film were Kevin Bacon (who got the role) and recent Best Actor winner Colin Firth.

From Total Film:

“There were only two people I wanted for Shaw,” reveals the Kick-Ass auteur, talking exclusively to Total Film. “It was between Colin Firth and Kevin Bacon.

“The reason I thought Firth would be interesting was purely because you’ve never seen him play a villain and I think he would’ve done something really special with it.

“So I said [to the studio] if you’re willing to go with a European actor, I want Firth – and if it has to be American, I want Bacon because I think both those guys are such great actors.”

Back in July last year when Bacon was cast nobody had really heard of The King’s Speech, as it was months away from its November limited release. On reflection Fox may be kicking themselves they didn’t snag an Oscar winner, as they nearly did with Jennifer Lawrence, but i’m sure once we see Bacon as Shaw in June Firth’s potential casting will just be a fun bit of trivia on IMDB.

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The Academy Awards didn’t do much to surprise us this year. All the acting categories were won by the expected nominees, and The King’s Speech took home the Best Picture prize. The royal biopic also picked up Best Actor for Colin Firth, Best Director for Tom Hooper, and Best Original Screenplay for David Seidler.

Inception tied The King’s Speech for the most awards with a whopping four statuettes, winning Cinematography, Visual Effects, and both Sound prizes. The Social Network followed with three wins: Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, and Original Score.

The biggest eyebrow raise, in terms of awards, came when Tom Hooper grabbed the Best Director trophy. Although going in it appeared to be a toss-up between him and David Fincher (The Social Network’s director), I think a lot of people expected Fincher to win on the grounds that he is a much more familiar face around Hollywood. Hooper’s win seems to reinforce the correlation between Best Picture and Best Director winners, as well as between DGA and Oscar winners.

One of the biggest disappointments of the night was Inside Job’s victory over Exit Through the Gift Shop for Documentary Feature – not because Inside Job is undeserving of the award, but because I really wanted to see notoriously secretive graffiti artist Banksy accept an Oscar.

All in all the awards ceremony seemed to be a battle between the older generation and the younger generation. Case in point: The Social Network vs. The King’s Speech – Facebook vs. British Royalty. This battle was also nicely represented by 94 year old Kirk Douglas fighting over his cane with the young guy staged as his assistant.  Likewise, 29 year old Natalie Portman (Black Swan) beat out 52 year old Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) for Best Actress.

On the surface it seemed like the Academy was going for younger, cooler feel, having fresh-faced Anne Hathaway and James Franco host, and presenting goofy videos like the autotuned sound bites from Toy Story 3, Eclipse, The Social Network, and Harry Potter.  Ultimately, however, the older side won out, with the traditional feel-gooder, The King’s Speech, walking away with top honors, and Randy Newman winning his second Oscar for Best Original Song after a mind-boggling twenty nominations over his career.

While I enjoyed the new face of the Oscars (following James Franco’s twitter feed over the course of the evening was highly entertaining), I hope its classy, old school vibe never dissipates completely. The tributes to Bob Hope, Gone With the Wind, and Lena Horne, were all very nice. Especially compared to Melissa Leo’s wonderfully uncensored acceptance speech.

You can see a list of all the winners and nominees here.

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The King’s Speech reigned over the 83rd Academy Awards with wins for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay. As expected Natalie Portman picked up Best Actress for her role in Black Swan and Batman is now played by Academy Award Winner Christian Bale.

Alice in Wonderland picked up the gongs Costume and Art Design, while Inception was earned itself Cinematography, Sound and Visual Effects.

You find the full list of winners (underlined) below:

PICTURE:
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone

DIRECTOR:
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
David Fincher – The Social Network
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
Joel & Ethan Coen – True Grit
David O. Russell – The Fighter

ACTOR:
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours

ACTRESS:
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine

SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech

SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Mike Leigh – Another Year
Scott Silver & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson – The Fighter
Christopher Nolan – Inception
Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg – The Kids Are All Right
David Seidler – The King’s Speech

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy – 127 Hours
Aaron Sorkin – The Social Network
Michael Arndt – Toy Story 3
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen – True Grit
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini – Winter’s Bone

ANIMATED FEATURE:
How to Train Your Dragon
The Illusionist
Toy Story 3

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM:
Biutiful (Mexico)
Dogtooth (Greece)
In a Better World (Denmark)
Incendies (Canada)
Outside the Law (Algeria)

CINEMATOGRAPHY:
Matthew Libatique – Black Swan
Wally Pfister – Inception
Danny Cohen – The King’s Speech
Jeff Cronenweth – The Social Network
Roger Deakins – True Grit

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE:
Exit Through the Gift Shop
Gasland
Inside Job – Charles Ferguson
Restrepo
Waste Land

DOCUMENTARY SHORT:
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More – Karen Goodman & Kirk Simon
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

ANIMATED SHORT:
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing – Andrew Ruhemann & Shaun Tan
Madagascar, a Journey Diary

LIVE-ACTION SHORT:
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love – Luke Matheny
Na Wewe
Wish 143

VISUAL EFFECTS:
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Hereafter
Inception
Iron Man 2

ART DIRECTION:
Alice in Wonderland
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Inception
The King’s Speech
True Grit

COSTUME DESIGN:
Alice in Wonderland
I Am Love
The King’s Speech
The Tempest
True Grit

MAKEUP:
Barney’s Version
The Way Back
The Wolfman

FILM EDITING:
Black Swan
The Fighter
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network

SOUND MIXING:
Inception
The King’s Speech
Salt
The Social Network
True Grit

SOUND EDITING:
Inception
Toy Story 3
Tron Legacy
True Grit
Unstoppable

ORIGINAL SCORE:
John Powell – How to Train Your Dragon
Hans Zimmer – Inception
Alexandre Desplat – The King’s Speech
A.R. Rahman – 127 Hours
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – The Social Network

ORIGINAL SONG:
“Coming Home” from Country Strong
“I See the Light” from Tangled
“If I Rise” from 127 Hours
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3 by Randy Newman

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:
Francis Ford Coppola

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The Academy Awards are less than a week away and all the other major awards shows have made their opinions known; it is time for final predictions to be made. Here is my mildly self-indulgent Oscar predictions list.

Best Picture:
Let’s start with the big one. A month ago I would have said (and I believe I did say) that The Social Network had this one in the bag. I was wrong. The Facebook film has lost most of its Best Picture buzz in the last few weeks and The King’s Speech has taken over top spot, crushing the competition at the BAFTAs last week. With any luck this momentum shift hasn’t come too late and The King’s Speech will take home the prize. It all depends on how many stubborn Academy voters are still clinging to The Social Network’s bandwagon.  If it were up to me Inception would reign victorious, with Black Swan and Toy Story 3 as the other top contenders. Unfortunately for me (and Christopher Nolan) the Academy didn’t ask for my opinion.

Official Prediction: The King’s Speech

Best Documentary Feature:
I’ll be honest – I haven’t seen all the documentary nominees and it’s not a category that develops a lot of discussion. This year there just isn’t a Bowling for Columbine or March of the Penguins to create huge buzz. However, based on what I’ve seen so far this awards season, only one of the nominees has been a regular presence: Exit Through the Gift Shop.

Official Prediction: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Best Foreign Language Film:
Like the documentary category, there hasn’t been a huge Foreign Language standout either.  Biutiful probably has the best shot, as it has consistently been nominated this season. Also, it is the only nominee with a nomination in another category (Javier Bardem’s Best Actor nom), which will likely give it more credit in the eyes of Academy voters. Still, I won’t be surprised of the Canadian drama, Incendies, wins instead.

Official Prediction: Biutiful

Best Supporting Actor:
Up until the BAFTAs Christian Bale had won almost every single Supporting Actor trophy he could find for his role in The Fighter. And for good reason. Bale is well-known for his astonishing physical transformations (see The Machinist), and The Fighter is no exception. Any trace of Bruce Wayne is gone and Bale’s acting totally immerses you in the character of Dickie Ecklund. However, Geoffrey Rush, who pulled off a phenomenal performance in The King’s Speech has been a consistent nominee this season, and was finally rewarded at the BAFTAs. His win may be partly attributed to the BAFTA’s favoritism toward British films and the strong momentum The King’s Speech has been gaining. Whatever the reason, Rush’s win makes him a viable contender for the statuette. The other three nominees, while all putting forth incredible performances, don’t have the buzz or the critical reception surrounding them to garner a victory.

Official Prediction: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Best Supporting Actress:
This category has been a delightfully unpredictable crapshoot this year. No single nominee has stood out above the pack. The momentum of The King’s Speech might propel Helena Bonham Carter toward a win, especially after her BAFTA victory, although I hope that won’t be the case.  Jacki Weaver (The Animal Kingdom) had some decent buzz early in the awards season, but it has mostly faded away. Hailee Steinfeld, the True Grit darling, has a decent shot since the Academy loves the Coen brothers and has a history of favoring young actresses in this category. Where we are mostly likely to see a win, however, is from The Fighter duo – Melissa Leo and Amy Adams. Both of them have been ubiquitous this year (minus a couple notable snubs – I’m looking at you BAFTAs) and the fact that there are two nominations from the same movie adds clout to their chances. Melissa Leo has been the stronger nominee, winning a Golden Globe and a number of other awards, so I’m placing my bets on her.

Official Prediction: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Best Animated Feature:
Toy Story 3, hands down. I’ll be stunned and horrified if anything else wins. I liked How To Train Your Dragon and The Illusionist has a cool retro thing going on, but they just don’t compare to Pixar’s latest gem. Don’t believe me? The fact that it’s the only nominee in this category that also has a Best picture nomination should convince you.

Official Prediction: Toy Story 3

Best Adapted Screenplay:
While The Social Network has been losing some serious Best Picture momentum, Aaron Sorkin has not lost any for his script. He has won at the WGAs, the BAFTAs, the Golden Globes, the Scripters, and too many more to mention. Even in awards where there is only one screenplay prize (like the Globes, where they don’t split original and adapted screenplays), Sorkin has won.

Official Prediction: Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Best Original Screenplay:
The only reason any of these nominees has a chance is because The Social Network is in the other category. That being said, the battle is likely between David Seidler (The King’s Speech) and Christopher Nolan (Inception). Nolan is in contention purely due to his WGA win – the WGA’s strict eligibility restrictions prevented Seidler from being nominated, which left the field wide open for Nolan to step in. The fact is, however, that Seidler has the upper hand at the Oscars thanks to his huge number of other wins.

Official Prediction: David Seidler (The King’s Speech)

Best Actor:
This one shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Colin Firth has been cleaning up this category right from the beginning. His performance as King George VI in The King’s Speech is about as close to flawless as you’re going to find. In another year we might have seen a younger actor like James Franco (127 Hours) or Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network) take home the top prize. Javier Bardem (Biutiful) and Jeff Bridges (True Grit) have both received honors recently, so the Academy shouldn’t feel obligated to snub Firth in order to honor them.

Official Prediction: Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)

Best Actress:
Earlier on this season this was actually a tight race. Both Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan) came strong out of the gate. Since then, however, Bening has all but disappeared off the radar and Portman has continued to soar. I like to think that this is because people have good taste. The other three nominees shouldn’t pose much of a threat. The only way I can see Natalie Portman losing is if a whole bunch of Academy voters decide Annette Bening is too long overdue for a win.

Official Prediction: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Director:
This one might be a bit of a heads or tails call. Personally, I’d scrap all five nominees and hand the award to Christopher Nolan (Inception). Unfortunately, the Academy won’t allow me to do that. Trust me, I asked. The Best Director race looks like it has come down to Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech) and David Fincher (The Social Network), which is more or less a reflection of the Best Picture race. The Academy has a long history of giving Best Director and Best Picture to the same movie. In fact, in the last 30 years, the Best Picture has won Best Director 24 times. Similarly, the Directors Guild of America award has been nearly perfect in predicting the Best Director Oscar, only missing the mark six times since its inception over six decades ago. In light of the fact that The King’s Speech is the Best Picture frontrunner and Tom Hooper won the DGA award, it would seem that he is the one to beat. But Fincher has continued to snag directing awards even when The Social Network loses the Best Picture category (ie. at the BAFTAs).  Fincher also has the “long overdue” card in his hand, having directed films like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Fight Club, and Se7en, whereas before The King’s Speech Hooper was almost exclusively a TV director. It’ll be close, but I expect Fincher will end up getting love from ol’ Oscar.

Official Prediction: David Fincher (The Social Network)

All of those other minor/technical awards:
I’m not going to sit here and pretend I’m an expert on sound editing or sound mixing (or even really understand the difference between the two) or any of the other minor/technical awards. I expect that Inception will walk away with a number of them (the rotating hallway scene alone should give it the Visual Effects award) and Alice in Wonderland is looking good for the Costume Design statuette. The Social Network’s musical score (by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross) looks to be the front runner in that category, and my makeup artist mother says that Barney’s Version should nab the makeup award.

The 83rd Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 27 and will be hosted by James Franco and Anne Hathaway. You can see all the nominees here and feel free to make your own predictions in the comments section below!

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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts displayed their unabashed favoritism toward British films this Sunday by showering The King’s Speech with seven awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor for Colin Firth. The biggest surprise is probably the fact that Tom Hooper did not grab the directing prize after his DGA win. Instead, he watched David Fincher (The Social Network) walk away with that one.

The other huge shocker was Christian Bale’s (The Fighter) Supporting Actor loss to Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech). Bale has swept almost every single Supporting Actor prize, big and small, this awards season, so it was unexpected to have him go home empty handed, especially this close to the Academy Awards. I truly hope it doesn’t hurt his chances at an Oscar win.

The King’s Speech also nabbed the Supporting Actress award for Helena Bonham Carter’s performance as Queen Elizabeth. It makes me wonder if the BAFTAs would have blindly given The King’s Speech the Best Actress prize too, had there been a nominee.

Most of the rest of the awards were predictable: Darren Aronofsky (director of Black Swan) accepted Natalie Portman’s Best Actress award (she’s super pregnant and didn’t attend the ceremony); Aaron Sorkin was honored for The Social Network’s Adapted Screenplay; Toy Story 3, of course, won Best Animated Film; and Inception was given three of those awards that nobody is very interested in (Sound, Production Design, and Special Visual Effects).

It’ll be interesting to see how much of an impact the BAFTAs have on the Academy Awards. You can see the full list of BAFTA nominees and winners here.

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Update: The King’s Speech is now available to pre-order from Amazon on:

- DVD
- Blu-ray

The King’s Speech has been gaining a lot of momentum over recent weeks and it is looking likely that it will be crowned Best Film at the Oscars next month. The film garnered the most Oscar nominations of any other 2010 release with twelve in total, including: Best Picture, Directing (Tom Hooper), Leading Actor (Colin Firth), Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush), Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter), Original Screenplay, Art Direction, Costume Design, Cinematography, Film Editing, Original Score and Sound Mixing.

Anchor Bay and The Weinstein Company today announced that The King’s Speech will be released on DVD and Blu-ray on April 19th.

Special features include:

- Commentary with director Tom Hooper
- The Making of The King’s Speech (20 minutes)
- Archival footage of the actual King George VI

The movie follows the story of King George VI of Britain, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.

The King’s Speech is now available to pre-order from Amazon on:

- DVD
- Blu-ray

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The King’s Speech took home the biggest award at the SAG awards last night, receiving the Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture award, the SAG’s equivalent to Best Picture. The King’s Speech leading man, Colin Firth, also won the Leading Actor prize.

These wins, alongside the film’s DGA win on Saturday night, moves it past The Social Network to claim front-runner status in the forthcoming Academy Awards. It is the most nominated movie at the Oscars with 12 nods. The King’s Speech also garnered 14 nominations from the BAFTAs, which gives out its awards on February 13th. Unless the The Social Network makes a comeback at the BAFTAs, things are not looking good for David Fincher’s Facebook movie.

Natalie Portman grabbed yet another top actress award for her stunning performance in Black Swan. Both supporting acting awards went to The Fighter: Christian Bale continued to sweep the supporting actor category; and Melissa Leo’s win reaffirms her as the likeliest of supporting actress candidates come the Oscars, although that has been a highly unstable category this season.

You can see all of the SAG awards and nominations here.

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Nothing is set in stone. Those are words to live by when it comes to awards season predictions.  Early on it may have looked like The Social Network was going to steamroll the Academy Awards and walk away with Best Picture unchallenged. That would have been very boring. Thankfully The King’s Speech, which upset The Social Network by taking Best Picture at the Producers Guild Awards this past Saturday, is looking like a serious competitor. The Oscar nominations, which were released early this morning, only serve to reinforce that; The King’s Speech garnered twelve nominations, making it the most nominated film this year.

In second place is the Western remake True Grit with ten nominations.  While some may be surprised by this, seeing as the movie was completely snubbed by the Golden Globes and has only popped up sporadically this awards season, it shouldn’t be all that shocking. Joel and Ethan Coen are long-time Academy darlings.  In fact, they took the Best Director slot which many assumed would be given to Inception’s director/writer Christopher Nolan, which would have lined up with the Director’s Guild Award nominations.

It will be interesting to see just how much love the Coens’ movie ends up getting. It is entirely possible that Hailee Steinfeld will grab the Best Supporting Actress statuette for her role in True Grit, as the Academy has a long history of awarding young actresses in that category and there is no clear frontrunner this year.

While a few of the categories probably won’t offer any tension (Colin Firth, nominated for his role in The King’s Speech, should win Best Actor for example), there ought to be a few nail biters. Natalie Portman (Black Swan) is looking strong in the Best Actress category, but Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right) may surprise everyone. This is Bening’s fourth nomination and Academy voters may feel she is long overdue for a win.

The real tension will come at the end of the ceremony, as it looks like we will have another Avatar/The Hurt Locker type showdown for Best Picture between The Social Network and The King’s Speech. While my pride may be hurt if the Facebook movie loses, for I predicted its win with much confidence a while ago, my sense of aesthetic would appreciate a win for The King’s Speech.

You can see a full list of the nominations here.

Based on true events, 127 Hours follows Aron Ralston (Franco), a dare-devil outdoorsman who gets trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone in the Utah mountains. As hours turn into days, Ralston embarks on a personal journey in which he relies on the memories of family and friends – as well as his own courage and ingenuity – to turn adversity into triumph.

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