Screen Junkies » The Hurt Locker

Paramount Assigns Jeremy Renner a ‘Mission: Impossible’

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

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_{(Above) Jeremy Renner’s First Solo Album: Can I Borrow a Feeling}

The Hurt Locker‘s Jeremy Renner will co-star with Tom Cruise in the fourth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, Deadline is reporting. Yesterday it was rumored that Paramount was in search of a younger actor to join the film with the hope that he could take over the staring role once Cruise steps aside. But the studio ultimately decided on the 41-year-old Renner, who they felt had a "Daniel Craig quality."

While Renner is a great actor, I really don’t understand the logic behind bringing him in. After Knight and Day bombed, it was reported that Paramount wanted a star to help compensate for Cruise’s waning box-office appeal. Is Renner the man for that job? If you really want this thing to be a hit, you need to cast Taylor Lautner or maybe The Situation. That’s how you get asses in the seats, damn it.

2010 Academy Awards Winners

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The 82nd Annual Academy Awards have come and gone with no real big upsets. Here’s a quick recap but you can also check out our live blog for a play-by-play of the night.

The Hurt Locker took home Best Picture as well as snagging the Best Director prize for Kathryn Bigelow. Not to mention Best Original Screenplay for Mark Boal.

Jeff Bridges finally won the Best Actor prize that has been waiting for him for his portrayal of Bad Blake in Crazy Heart.

Sandra Bullock was surprised to see she edged out Meryl Streep to win Best Actress for The Blind Side.

The supporting categories went to Cristoph Waltz and Mo’Nique.

Though James Cameron was beat by a girl, Avatar won three prizes – Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects.

A round of congratulations are in order for all of the winners as well as the nominees who went home empty-handed. It’s a thrill just to be considered and I think we all can agree that the real loser of the night was Ben Stiller.

CHECK OUT THE FULL LIST OF WINNERS AFTER THE JUMP…

BEST PICTURE
The Hurt Locker

BEST DIRECTOR
Kathryn Bigelow

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges

BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christoph Waltz

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Mo’nique

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
El Secretro de sus Ojo, Argentina

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Up

ART DIRECTION
“Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair

CINEMATOGRAPHY
"Avatar” Mauro Fiore

COSTUME DESIGN
“The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
"The Cove” Nominees to be determined

DOCUMENTARY SHORT
“Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett

FILM EDITING
“The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis

MAKEUP
"Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow

ORIGINAL SCORE
“Up” Michael Giacchino

ORIGINAL SONG
“The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

ANIMATED SHORT
“Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin

LIVE ACTION SHORT
“The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

SOUND EDITING
“The Hurt Locker&rdquo Paul N.J. Ottosson

SOUND MIXING
"The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett

VISUAL EFFECTS
“Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones

Road to Oscar: Cameron vs. Bigelow

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

BEST DIRECTOR SHOWDOWN

This year’s Oscar nominations have been announced, which means it’s time to take the frontrunners from each category and throw them into the Thunderdome where they’ll wage a bloody battle to the death for the honor of taking home a Shiny Gold Dude. Alas I’m speaking metaphorically, though I suspect this scenario wouldn’t be beyond the realm of possibility for our Best Director frontrunners, Kathryn Bigelow and her ex-husband James Cameron. Yes, the directors were once married. It’s almost like something out of a movie, though not one either Cameron or Bigelow would direct. We’ll leave that to some hack like Mark Steven Johnson. If this were a Mark Steven Johnson movie the pair would spend the first ac fighting and the second act rekindling their love, followed by a big misunderstanding to kick off the third act that would culminate in them either co-winning the award or both refusing to accept it. Thankfully this isn’t a Mark Steven Johnson movie (too bad the same couldn’t be said for When in Rome, Ghost Rider or Daredevil). This is real life, which means on March 7th one director shall emerge victorious, while the other must suffer the indignity of losing to someone they used to bang.

KATHRYN BIGELOW

When I was told that Kathryn Bigelow was working on The Hurt Locker I was certain I’d heard wrong. “Did you say she’s working at The Foot Locker?” An easy mistake: While Bigelow was responsible for one of the greatest action movies of all time — Point break — she’d all but disappeared from showbiz after the Clinton years. Still, Hollywood does love a comeback and I’d be hard pressed to name a more impressive comeback than Bigelow’s. But is it enough for her to win Best Director?

PRO: The Hurt Locker is an actual good film. Not that Avatar is bad, but Cameron’s Dances with Smurfs should not be confused with high art. By way of comparison, Star Wars was nominated for a bunch of Oscars in 1978 but only managed to win in the technical categories — because it was up against Annie Hall. Of course in 1978 most Americans still had functioning cerebral cortexes so this comparison may not be apropos.

PRO: Looks matter, and Kathryn Bigelow is quite possibly the most attractive 58-year-old woman on earth. Cut her age in half and she’d still be over-the-hill per my usual standards. I’ve never been all that into post-menopausal women… hell, I’ve never been all that into post-pubescent women. But there’s something about Ms. Bigelow that makes me want to don the old ski mask, fire up the windowless van and treat her to an unsolicited romancing she’ll never forget. Believe me, when I was through with her “The Hurt Locker” wouldn’t just be the name of her movie, it would also be our pet name for her neener.

James Cameron meanwhile, despite possessing enough money to have every internal organ in his body replaced three times over, has not aged nearly so gracefully. While his ex-wife looks like the centerfold from GILF Magazine, Cameron looks like a half-melted stick of butter wearing a hobo wig. It’s like he’s not even trying to look ALIVE anymore. He has so much money and power that he can look like something that washed up on shore — say, a rotting seal carcass — and A-list actresses will still line up to give him oral. But that doesn’t mean anyone wants to see him on TV. His “I’m the king of the world!” speech was almost endearing in 1998, but twelve years later it’ll look like grandpa forgot to take his meds again.

PRO: Kathryn Bigelow just won the DGA Award, the first women to do so since… since… well, forever. That her peers chose to recognize her is indeed impressive, but it also must be taken with a grain of salt. Consider that most directors are male, unkempt and somewhat dorky. And that Kathryn Bigelow is a stone-cold fox. She’s like the cute girl in the IT department surrounded by the gaggle of mouth-breathing Poindexters. Those dweebs will do ANYTHING to get in her pants.

CON: She’s a woman. The male members of The Academy are huddling together on the glass ceiling, making sure Kathryn doesn’ break through in to their club.

JAMES CAMERON

Believe me; no one wanted to see James Cameron fall on his face more than me. Not that he hasn’t made movies I genuinely love. Terminator is my favorite film plagiarized from the works of Harlan Ellison, and Aliens is a bonerfide masterpiece. But post-Titanic, it seemed that the director’s ego had inflated like a hot air balloon and carried him off to the same land of oblivious delusion where George Lucas currently resides. That he was due for a face plant was only further reinforced when I saw the Avatar trailer, which reminded me of a videogame cut-scene, only without a red X button to mash so I could skip ahead to the end-of-level boss. However the moment I strapped on the 3D glasses to actually watch Avatar I knew that bastard had gone and done it again. It was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and I’ve been in a Tijuana prison on mushrooms.

PRO: Avatar is a game-changer, probably the first of its kind since The Jazz Singer proved that Neil Diamond could actually act. Or perhaps I’m thinking of that OTHER The Jazz Singer, the one that introduced sound to moving pictures for the first time. Regardless, what Cameron accomplished with Avatar belongs in the history books. Not that anyone will know how to read in the future, but at least the information will be there for our alien overlords to peruse when they’re not busy turning us into zombie slaves for their salt mines.

PRO:Avatar is the highest-grossing film of all time. In a utopian society with universal healthcare and copious leisure time, where art, love and life are put on a higher pedestal than commerce – you know, France – the amount of money Avatar made at the box office wouldn’t matter. But this is AMERICA, damn it. Our Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science is a professional society dedicated to advancing the motion picture INDUSTRY. In other words: this is business, kids, and keeping James Cameron happy is good business.

PRO: James Cameron is a man. And making movies — like getting married to five different women and cheating on every one of them — is man business.

ADVANTAGE: CAMERON

Kathryn Bigelow deserves every bit of the praise she’s received for The Hurt Locker. She deserves the resulting resurgence of interest in her directing talents, and she deserves the dedicated lovemaking skills of a younger man who only cares about her pleasure, and who happens to be wearing a ski mask and who owns a blacked-out van. But alas I don’t think she’s going to win a Best Director Oscar.

The Academy Awards – like the Grammys and every other televised awards show – is ultimately a populist affair. And at the end of the day your average shlub would rather watch a fantasy movie about a war in a far-off land driven by evil corporations seeking to pillage the natural resources of its indigenous people…. than one about an ACTUAL war in a far-off land driven by evil corporations seeking to pillage the natural resources of its indigenous people. Iraqis aren’t blue, feline-esque and oddly arousing to look at. But beyond all that, what Cameron accomplished with Avatar was more than simply making a great film. He brought back the spectacle, the magic, and in so doing reinvented the medium. Also, he is a man.

FIRST 8 MINUTES OF ‘THE HURT LOCKER’ – WARNING: SPOILERS!!!

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Seems we have a hankerin’ for purée de ballsack today, because this 8-minute clip from The Hurt Locker popped up on Hulu not too long ago and we couldn’t resist posting it. If you haven’t read our review of the film – currently in limited release – AND you enjoy verbal fellation, bone up here.

The above opening scene sets the anything-goes tone but doesn’t quite do the theatrical experience justice. Word to the wise, should you decide to see The Hurt Locker at the cinema, you’ll need to make sure your underpants have their own pocket organizer so they can pencil in a reminder about their inevitable meeting with a Mr. Poop Fromyourbutt. He took several meetings with various pairs of undergarments in my screening.

‘THE WAY YOU DON’T DIE’ CLIP FROM ‘THE HURT LOCKER’ + 8 NEW IMAGES

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

THE HURT LOCKER – The Way You Dont Die Clip – Watch more Movie Trailers

In the latest released clip from Summit’s upcoming war flick about the military’s bomb squad in the Middle East, Colonel Reed (David Morse) gets Staff Sgt. Wiliam James (Jeremy Renner) to open up about just how many bombs he’s blown up working for the EOD. I’ve seen the film and when put in the full context of the story, even this little dialogue piece is tense. I kept thinking Renner’s character was gonna get the sh*t chewed out of him by Morse for being a loose cannon. Turns out Morse’s character’s a bit of a wildman himself, I guess.

We also have eight new still images , which you can see after the jump!

In the meantime, enjoy today’s top links:

_{Theresa Correa If Book Titles Were Truth Megan Fox is CGI}

_{50 White Gangstas Remote Control Titanic! Devito is DRUNK! AGAIN!}

_{What Apocalypse?! David Lynch iPod Spot UFC Invades Germany}

_{Polarizing Movies 11 Moments in Dad Pop Culture Lingerie League}

_{Kickass FBB Portraits Movies that Make Men Cry Good NCAA B-Ball Joke}

NEW IMAGES FROM’THE HURT LOCKER‘

HIGH TENSION! NEW CLIPS & IMAGES FROM ‘THE HURT LOCKER’

Wed, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Today, Summit released two new clips and six new stills from the upcoming Kathryn Bigelow-directed war movie, The Hurt Locker, opening June 26th. The first clip, entitled "Die Comfortably," features loose-cannon Staff Sgt. William James (the badass Jeremy Renner) resigning himself to the fact that if the bomb he’s diffusing goes off, his armor isn’t doing squat to save his life.

The other clip, which you can watch after the jump, is called "Cell Phone, Two O’clock," and gives a tiny clip of the film’s tension quotient, as St. Matt Thompson (Guy Pearce) – bedecked in full blast suit and all – is compromised by an insurgent with a cell phone-cum-detonator. And the guy’s got Thompson’s number… on speed dial… Check out the clip after the jump.

We’ll have a review for anxiety-inducing The Hurt Locker coming soon, but suffice it to say my sphincter was clenched the entire movie so as to avoid dropping a deuce in the pristine Wilshire Screening Room. And I want to be invited back there.

THE HURT LOCKER – Cell Phone Clip – Watch more Movie Trailers

IF YOU LIVE IN THE LOS ANGELES AREA…

You may want to check out Hurt Locker director Kathryn Bigelow’s retrospective at the American Cinematheque running this Friday, June 5th thru Sunday, June 7th!

SCHEDULE:

Friday, 6/5 – 7:30PM

Advance Screening of The Hurt Locker, followed by Q&A with Kathryn Bigelow and stars Jeremy Renner, Anthony Mackie, Brian Geraghty and Screenwriter Mark Boal.

Saturday, 6/6 – 7:30PM

Double feature of Near Dark and Strange Days, with an introduction by Kathryn Bigelow and actor Lance Henriksen

Sunday, 6/7 – 7:30PM

Double Feature of Point Break and K-19: The Widowmaker, with an introduction by director Kathryn Bigelow