How to Train Your Dragon

DreamWorks finally seems to be getting the clue. You can't just put some talking animals and throw in slap stick comedy and hope for the best. With Pixar becoming one of the most important studios in Hollywood you better make sure your animation movies also have some story to it. They did it recently with Kung Fu Panda and they do it here with How to Train Your Dragon.

How to Train Your Dragon follows the story of Hiccup, voiced by Jay Baruchel, who doesn't have it in him to follow in the tradition of his village and slay dragons. He is ostracized by his peers and his father Stoick the Vast, voiced by Gerard Butler, the chief of the village.

The movie looks like its going to be a mess as the movie opens with a hectic battle sequence that includes a voice over with bad jokes. It has all the makings of just another kids movie, but as the character progresses we see that the story follows a different archetype, the story of a boy and his dog. Hiccup's dog in this case is one of the most feared dragons in the village, one which has never been seen, the one he names toothless.

The movie reminds me a lot of Lilo & Stitch, a young child working to tame a wild beast, which makes sense as DreamWorks snagged Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois who are known for the Disney movie. The movie is based on the Cressida Cowell book of the same name which included dragons speaking their own language. I am glad the directors left this aspect of the book out to give it a more realistic feel, never forgetting that ultimately this movie is about dragons, it makes it easier to become immersed in their world.

My only regret for the movie is that I did not get to see it in 3-D. There are some beautiful landscapes and flying scenes that would no doubt benefit from the flimsy glasses given out at the theater.

It always takes me a little while to get comfortable with Jay Baruchel's nasally voice but he definitely adds to the dweeby personality that the protagonist is supposed to possess. Gerard Butler combines the action-hero voice from 300 fame and crosses it with his works in the Rom-Com field to add to his nurturing father role. America Ferrera gives a strong girl power voice to the love interest of the story. But Craig Ferguson has one of the funnier roles in the movies as he trains the new cadets. Interesting that the adults all have a Scottish accent while the kids all sound American, I'm sure it just develops after puberty.

This is definitely a movie that parents will enjoy taking their kids to see. And if at all possible see this one in 3-D, from what I understand its worth the extra couple bucks. B+

Oscar night

Sorry I'm a little late.

At least they knocked out all the actors standing up there early, last year they had them up there for what seemed like forever.

I did like how the best pairings video ended with Tom Hanks in Turner and Hootch.

You know if they wanted to have Neil Patrick Harris as the opener why didn't they just have him host. He has obviously proven himself before. Neil has some great jokes in there but he is not getting any positive reaction from the crowd. I like the performance, always so good.


Steve is presenting his jokes a little better, he does have more experience. These jokes just don't seem to have any pop, except the first one. I do like the one for Waltz and the one about the agencies.

The jokes are decent but I can't help but think NPH or just Steve Martin could have done better solo.

Is there a bigger lock than Christolph Waltz...no

John Hughes deserves his own segment. Classic 80s movies. So good

Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. have better chemistry than Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin

Why does everything seem a little blurry. HELP.

Tough one Quentin.

Now we get to some of the more boring roles.
Who is talking for best feature short? Who is this woman?

Love Ben Stiller. Better than his costume last year. "I'll stand far away as not to demean their moment." Great

I do like this showing of the best 10 features they seem to be rolling along and are nice little breaks.

A little bit of an upset with the adapted screenplay. I thought Up in the Air would have it. Not to say Precious didn't deserve it but the writing for Up in the Air seemed stronger. A beautiful speech though and then Steve Martin goes and jokes about it. I love it and him

Robin Williams replaces Heath Ledger, kind of expected his family to be here or maybe the mother of his child. Maggie doesn't deserve the nomination I'm sorry. Mo'Nique taking a little jab at the academy and well deserved they tried to screw her over just because she didn't play the game.

Segourney Weaver is presenting for art direction. Meaning Avatar will win

How do you carry around the I pad. Also I approve of Chinese fire drills. Is that offensive? not that I like it, the term.

I hate horror movies, but love parodies of them. Most of these movies have been honored so the opening intro seemed wrong no? A lot of horror comedies and horror suspense which gets honored. And they seemed to show the same ones again and again. Maybes its just the casual horrors I hate because the genius ones can be appreciated across the board. Was there any horror movies from the last decade? Besides twilight, the only thing scary there is the writing.

Love Morgan Freeman narration. Hurt Locker seems to be on a roll.

I love Elizabeth Banks, she is so wonderfully talented.

More time should probably be used for the In Memoriam, that being said it it was longer than I probably would get bored. No love for the technical side of film that we lost.

Man when are people going to stop with the dancing shows, The dancing for Hurt Locker doesn't seem to fit. neither does fantastic Mr fox but damn those jumps are impressive. But I like what they're doing for Up. Avatar lends itself to this type of dancing.

Hurt Locker and Avatar is knotted up with 3 awards a piece.

Tyler Perry could get up there for an award if he so chose. But he's doing just fine by himself.

I hate that each actor/actress gets their own presenter. I know everyone is all about this category but come on. I thought they had negated this with the opening. Tim Robbins had the best opener, Morgan Freeman hasn't seemed to care at all tonight. Jeff Bridges gets the win, no surprise. Obviously took a lot of time to write out his speech...I guess that's just his style, but apparently his speeches have just been getting progressively worse. I like the family stuff but I only wanna see the dude bowl not in a tux. I like the use of the word groovy but not the numbers of times he says man.

Fucking Spicolli. Looks like the Steve Martain joke remains true: Meryl Streep the biggest loser of the Academy. Though I do love that Sandra went over to Meryl and then she in turn waved her off. That is how you give an Academy Award acceptance speech

Barbara is presenting so Bigelow better win. And she does, and deservedly so.

Alright who wins: Wow no bullshit with the nomination reading by Hanks. Thanks Tom. Thought that the little text message may have screwed it over. Love that the actors are going nuts in the background. Love it when they get lost in the moment. Hurt Locker gets it done, Bigelow is visibly shaking, love the overcome emotion. Is James Cameron upset I wonder? Martin goes down to greet Meryl Streep, its like everyone knows they're wronging her but no one does anything to stop it.

THOUGHTS ON THE SHOW LET ME HEAR THEM

And the Oscar goes to (part 2)...

Well we've done Best Picture and the best acting categories so lets go over the directing and screenplay.

Best Director
Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
James Cameron, Avatar
Lee Daniels, Precious
Jason Reitman, Up in the Air
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds

The Guilds once again go five for five with the nominations for the Academy. All five of these movies are great and the nominees are far and away the best in the field this year. Chances are if there was just five movies nominated for Best Picture these would probably be the five. Tarantino and Reitman both have great movies that also did well in the box office but they are probably the least likely to win. Especially with the chance to make history as Lee Daniels would be the first African-American to win the Academy Award for Best Director. But instead it looks like Kathryn Bigelow is the one to beat and thus becoming the first woman to win the best directing award. An added bonus for Bigelow would be the chance to beat her ex-husband James Cameron. Although he may get a thank you in her speech as it was Cameron who suggested that she direct the movie.


Best Original Screenplay
Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker
Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman, The Messenger
Joel Coen & Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson & Tom McCarthy, Up

This may be the tightest race of the major awards. A Serious Man didn't do anything for me but I can understand why the Coen-heads out there liked this movie. While Up may be the most heartfelt story in the running don't expect an animated movie to win the award. I am a little surprised and even a little hurt that The Messenger took the final nomination for screenplay over (500) Days of Summer. Days was an original way to look at the romantic comedy genre and it went unrecognized by the Academy. The Messenger delivers some strong performances and probably locked up the nomination with a surprisingly small amount of dialogue instead letting the visuals tell the story. Mark Boal writes an incredibly tense story and might have the edge because of the movie being a perceived front runner for best picture, but I like Tarantino to take his second statuette. Tarantino likes breaking the screen writing rules and includes intense details in his screenplays to give the actor's a better idea of what he wants. He also has been known to include directing cues which is usually a no-no in scripts but since he is directing the movie it doesn't do any harm. The story is great and he writes incredible characters and interactions. The story can splice easily between comedy and suspense. This is his best chance to win an Oscar this year and if he really believes that this movie is his masterpiece than he'll have to win at least one Oscar as Pulp Fiction was able to do just that in 1994.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche, In the Loop
Neil Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell, District 9
Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
Nick Hornby, An Education
Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air

I'm a little surprised that there was no love for Fantastic Mr. Fox. While it had no shot to win for the same reason that Up won't win it would be nice to be nominated. Neil Blomkamp has an outside chance to win with his story of intolerance. But you have to believe that Up in the Air is going to take home the award as the dialogue is sharp and the story is relevant to the times. That being said the next movie I plan on seeing next is In the Loop, it's supposed to be fuckin hilarious. The Academy loves to include those little fuckin indie comedies from the U.K. But since it is from across the pond and most Americans avoid foreign films It would be in-fuckin-credible if this movie won. Its liberal use of the word fuck negates any real chance to win, but fuck that I'm still gonna see it.

Need a reason to watch on Sunday. My good friend Kiel Servideo gives you 5 good reasons to watch. Stay tuned as we get closer to the big day.