Into Into The Woods.

I bought an advance ticket to Into the Woods weeks ago and it was finally released here on White Day last week. I went with my friend Yvonne (aka. Batgirl) and gave her this lump of brown goo as a White Day present.

If you look at it at another angle, it turns out to be an iguana, which is kind of cool.

When I purchased the ticket, I received a mini calendar but I have little use for a pocket sized one, so I also gave it to her.

I liked Little Red a lot. Great voice, coy yet nasty, nice acting chops. I expect great things from her in the future.

Rapunzel was cute, yet I hope she didn't suffer from dandruff. I'd call shenanigans on her hair loss and instant regrowth, but hey, it is a fairy tale.

I had NO idea that the Prince was Captain Chris Kirk Pine. 
Cinderella has a great voice. Furthermore, I was not disappointed in the hobbling that her step-sisters suffered.

Depp as the Wolf. Suitably sleazy and unless it was dubbed, has a fairly good set of lungs on him.

Usually I find kid-actors to be annoying yet Jack was really good. His mom was terrific but when isn't Tracey Ullman terrific?

Once again Streep pisses me off by proving that she can do anything and play any character. (Jealous much?)

If you look at this photo closely you can see that I'm wearing the green.

That's because it was St. Paddy's and afterwards I went out for a pint or three of Guinness. Yum. Happenny Bridge was crawling with dignitaries from the recent WCDRR, who had wrapped up their Disaster Risk Reduction Conference earlier that day. Thus I had to sit way at the back and only got a blurry photo of the entertainment.

Still, I met some old friends, made a few new ones and had a great day overall.

The Oscar-Meyer Weiners.

Let's see how well I did:

Best motion picture of the year: Almost nailed it.
"No Country for Old Men" Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers

Performance by an actor in a leading role: Nailed it.
Daniel Day-Lewis in "There Will Be Blood". Not bad for a guy with two left feet. (I saw Sweeney Todd last night and adored it. "Johnny gets passed over yet again.)

Performance by an actress in a leading role: Not even close.
Marion Cotillard in "La Vie en Rose". She won it for playing Edith Piaf...sounds like a rice dish. (I've liked Julie Christie ever since Fahrenheit 451. No luck, this time.)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role: Nailed it, even though I've never heard of the guy.
Javier Bardem in "No Country for Old Men".

Performance by an actress in a supporting role: Not even close.
Tilda Swinton in "Michael Clayton". Good for the White Witch.

Achievement in directing: Nailed it and desired it.
"No Country for Old Men" Joel Coen and Ethan Coen. Gotta see it someday.

Best animated feature film of the year: Nailed it.
"Ratatouille" Brad Bird.



Achievement in art direction: Almost nailed it.
"Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" Art Direction: Dante Ferretti; Set Decoration: Francesca Lo Schiavo. After watching this movie, it certainly deserves any accolades heaped upon it.



Achievement in cinematography: Nailed it.
"There Will Be Blood" Robert Elswit. Sounds bloody great.

Achievement in costume design: Not even close.
"Elizabeth: The Golden Age" - Alexandra Byrne. She missed out for the Costume award for the prequel, so I guess she deserved it. Sweeney had great costumes too, but they got covered in blood.

Best documentary feature: Not even close.
"Taxi to the Dark Side" - Alex Gibney and Eva Orner. I hear it is torture to sit through it.

Best documentary short subject: Nailed it, even though I'd never heard of it.
"Freeheld" - Cynthia Wade and Vanessa Roth. Yay, lesbians!

Achievement in film editing: Not even close.
"The Bourne Ultimatum" - Christopher Rouse. Still don't like the shakey-cam and all the copycats we're going to be subjected to (Can anyone say bullit-time?)

Best foreign language film of the year: Not even close, but who knew Nazis would become popular again.
"The Counterfeiters" - Stefan Ruzowitzky (Austria)

Achievement in makeup: Nailed it.
"La Vie en Rose" - Didier Lavergne and Jan Archibald. Thank gawd it didn't go to Norbit (winner of several Razzies!)

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score): Nailed it.
"Atonement" - Dario Marianelli. He missed out on V for Vendetta, so he was due.

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song): Almost nailed it.
"Falling Slowly" from "Once" - Music and Lyrics by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. I knew the Enchanted songs would cancel each other out. Explain why Sweeney Todd was overlooked for both Score & Songs. Is it because the tunes are old?

Best animated short film: Nailed it.
"Peter & the Wolf" - Suzie Templeton and Hugh Welchman. Though the Canadian one didn't win, I am very impressed with this.

“

Best live action short film: Nailed it.
"Le Mozart des Pickpockets (The Mozart of Pickpockets)" - Philippe Pollet-Villard. The French really cleaned up these Awards. Next year expect a Documentary on Poutine.

Achievement in sound editing: Not even close.
"The Bourne Ultimatum" - Karen Baker Landers and Per Hallberg. Louder than Transformers I guess.

Achievement in sound mixing: Almost nailed it.
"The Bourne Ultimatum" - Scott Millan, David Parker and Kirk Francis. Granted it was certainly mixed well.

Achievement in visual effects: Not even close.
"The Golden Compass" - Michael Fink, Bill Westenhofer, Ben Morris and Trevor Wood. I'm sorry but CGI animals look like CGI animals to me. Now CGI robots look like robots!

Adapted screenplay: Not even close. But hey, if you're going to sweep, you need a big broom (I don't even know what that means.)
"No Country for Old Men" - Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen

Original screenplay: Nailed it.
"Juno" - Written by Diablo Cody Right on for this one. Though the stripper-writer is American, the lead and director were both Canajuns.

Wow! Pretty good! Nailed it 11 times! (45.8%) Almost nailed it 4 times! (16.7%) Not even close 9 times (37.5%) but most of the not even close were for obscure categories.

For an amusing take on the Awards, I recommend Ken Levine, writer of MASH, Cheers and Frasier.
I'm going to steal a line that he, himself, stole from writer Allan Katz: "Jessica Alba; a perfect color dress to go with her present shape -- eggplant."

Rabbit of Seville.

Here's the most famous haircut in history...







I just read today that Johnny Depp has definitely joined Tim Burton in the remake of this cartoon. (Okay, they're actually going to do Sweeney Todd which is about a murderous barber.)