I‘ve committed myself to spending a whole load of time in front of the TV with “Lost” this weekend but somewhere in there, I’m going to have to pull myself away and head out to the theater to catch Rambo. I’m not expecting great things but I do expect lots of guns, lots of blood and lots, lots, lots of killing. And apparently, I’m going to get my wish.

The image comes care of /Film and it speaks for itself.

Click on image for super-size.

I‘m always on the lookout for great video content though I don’t often cruise the web searching it out. Most of the time, someone sends me this stuff as is the case with this one.

A few days ago, the celebrity gawker in me sat in shocked disbelief watching this crazy ass video of Tom Cruise giving some sort of speech after receiving an award from The Church of Scientology. Now let me get something out there, I do actually like Tom Cruise the actor. Sure, he’s mostly in big fluffy movies but I really enjoy his fluff – from Cocktail all the way to overly sappy The Last Samurai, I dig the guy I do but Tom Cruise the man? Let’s just say he creeps me out.

But back to the Scientology talk. The folks over at Funny or Die have posted one of the funniest parodies I’ve seen of late. It stars Jerry O’Connell, the dude from “Sliders” (remember that great show?) and wow, it’s both funny and scary – but mostly funny. Oh god. The laugh…

Enjoy.

The Spanish-dubbed trailer for The Oxford Murders has been floating around for a few months now, but today we finally get a look at the English-language trailer, courtesy of Stale Popcorn. From Spanish director Álex de la Iglesia, the movie stars one of my favorites, John Hurt, as professor at Oxford University who along with one of his students, played by Elijah Wood, tries to prevent a serial killer whose murders are connected somehow by mathematical symbols.

It doesn’t really look like anything we haven’t seen before and these type of movies can easily fall into the formula we’ve all become accustomed too (ending with a “twist” that only leads to a yawn has become a staple), but I’ll give Hurt the benefit of the doubt here. And when these whodunit killer movies are done right, well… I love ‘em. Plus, despite how stale his acting can be at times, I’ve been a lifelong fan of Elijah Wood.

Right now there isn’t even a US Distributor, but it was released in Spain last week, so a release here will probably depend on how it does there and the other European countries in the coming months. I have a feeling that much like Hurt’s Beyond the Gates from a year or two ago, we’ll have to wait for this one to hit DVD, but hopefully I’m wrong.

I am bored; and when I get bored I try to think of fun things to do. So in my state of boredom I have decided to run an Oscar Pool. The way it works is this: you pick the winner from each category and for each one you get right you get one point. The person who has the most points will get a free, regular priced DVD. I’ll mail it to you personally. If there is a tie it will be random who gets the DVD unless it is either John (me), Andrew, Marina, Dave, Kurt or Jonathan and someone else. In that case the prize goes to someone who doesn’t write for Row Three. The contest is open to everyone. Yes I’ll mail it to Europe or wherever but just remember that you’re getting a Region 1 DVD.

The DVD has to be something I can pick up easily and is under $30.00 Canadian.

The nominations are behind the cut.

Would you like to know more…?

So I just got an email from a fellow member of the third row suggesting that HE (narrows it down) has seen the new Diane Lane film Untraceable. I was shocked. The trailer looks like absolute pants; “he hacked into my car’s computer” (*my eyes roll*). So I went investigating this morning and I actually like the poster quite a bit. Admittedly, Diane Lane is hot, but beyond that, I like the mouse, finger-pointer over her lips. It tells alot about what the movie is about and is a clever idea. Plus I just like the color and aesthetics; and did I mention Lane is hot? Still, the movie holds no interest for me. Is anyone else curious about the film (opens wide on Friday I believe). You can check out the trailer under the fold.

PS – friend, just poking some fun at ya. Hope you don’t mind.

Would you like to know more…?

After the Credits Episode 08 - The All Positive Edition [ 33:34 | 30.74 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup

Dale, Colleen and Marina share some of the movies they’re looking forward to in 2008.

Disclaimer: It’s fairly apparent early on but just in case…the show was pre-recorded last week.

Row Three:

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We can also be contacted via email – marina@rowthree.com!

Show Notes:

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I‘ve always been a fan of Uma Thurman but the last few years have not gone particularly well for the talented actress. Apart from her turn as The Bride in the Kill Bill films, her filmography goes from bad to worse: Paycheck, Be Cool, Prime, The Producers, My Super Ex-Girlfriend and the upcoming The Accidental Husband which doesn’t look any better than the previously mention bombs. But people have been talking that another film on the horizon has potential, loads of it.

The drama Life Before Her Eyes stars Thurman and Evan Rachel Wood playing the same character, 20 years apart. The IMDb description is pretty vague but it’s the only thing to go on at the moment and it reads:

A woman’s survivor’s guilt from a Columbine-like event twenty years ago causes her present-day idyllic life to fall apart.

The trailer, which comes care of Cinematical, only vaguely suggests a death and to be honest, I’m not all that impressed by it but I’m very hopeful that folks aren’t pulling my leg and this will indeed be better than the stuff she’s been churning out over the last few years. It certainly has potential and Thurman and Rachel Wood have the talent to make this work – if it manages to avoid clichés and sappy, over the top moments. We’ll see if director Vadim Perelman (of House of Sand and Fog fame) can pull it off.

Life Before Her Eyes is scheduled for limited release on April 18th.

And by the way, that there is the current poster and for the record, I think it sucks the big one.

Just heard from a co-worker that Heath Ledger was found dead today. No details as of yet, We’ll keep you posted. This may put a damper on The Dark Knight though.

UPDATE:
The actor Heath Ledger was found dead this afternoon in an apartment building at 421 Broome Street in SoHo, according to the New York City police. Mr. Ledger was 28.

At 3:31 p.m., a masseuse arrived at Apartment 5A in the building for an appointment with Mr. Ledger, the police said. The masseuse was let in to the home by a housekeeper, who then knocked on the door of Mr. Ledger’s bedroom. When no one answered, the housekeeper and the masseuse opened the bedroom and found Mr. Ledger unconscious. They shook him, but he did not respond. They immediately called the authorities. The police said they did not suspect foul play and said they found pills near body.

This is truly sad news. The more I think about this, the more disheartening it is. A shock to the industry, not to mention family and friends to say the least. I’m sorry to see him go.

At the moment, this is all very, very vague but I couldn’t pass this up.

Bloody-Disgusting is reporting that a “well trusted” insider is reporting that P.T. Anderson is “seriously contemplating making his next project a HORROR film”. On the one hand, this seems out of left field but when one considers the vast differences in genre covered by Anderson in his past projects, it doesn’t sound so off the page. We’ve had dramedies, straight up dramas, a fairly straight forward comedy and a period piece. The natural progression is a horror film right? Either that or a chick flick – and just for the record, I’d watch it in a flash.

So at the moment, this is just rumor but it’s too juicy to pass up. Cross your fingers boys and girls!

I can just picture it now: “A horror masterpiece directed by Academy Award Winning Director P. T. Anderson”. OK, so I’m jumping the gun a bit but it’s all in good fun!

So I’ve seen Cloverfield (our review) and though J. J. Abrams didn’t direct it he may as well have since his name is plastered all over the film and I have to admit, I’m starting to get a little excited about Star Trek. Then there’s “Lost”, a show that gets loads of love but which I have yet to see. What really got me thinking was a recent “Vs.” segment on the Film Junk Podcast in which the guys pitted Abrams against Whedon. I know Whedon’s work but what do I know about Abrams? Well, not very much.

Then I had a thought: a few weeks ago Dale sent me a link to a speech Abrams did at TED.

TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

I’d started the video a few times already but when I saw the 18 minute running time, I always stopped it because there was something more important to do but I finally sat down and watched it today and I have to say that though it didn’t really tell me anything new, it did give me a better sense of Abrams, his work and his philosophy. It’s a very, very interesting talk in which he discusses how he came up with “Lost”, the idea for Cloverfield and special effects in general. It’s a great talk that I highly recommend watching.

On a side note, the “Lost” clip that he shows the audience is awesome. I actually covered my mouth in shock at the climax and that clip alone is enough to sell me – I NEED to see this show.

Well, this is it. Hollywood’s biggest night is just around the corner and we learned today the stars and film makers that are up for the award of their lifetime. Of course, there might not be a big red carpet ceremony with all the hub-bub and Joan Rivers’ commentary. How about a live streaming cast with the stars at home in their PJ’s and accepting awards via their computer’s web cams? However the event is covered, Oscar has assured us that his awards will go on. And so the nominees for achievement in film making are…

Cathy Bates and Gil Cates announce the nominees (really quickly)

Picture:
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton

Director:
Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country for Old Men)
Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly)
Paul Thomas Anderson (There Will Be Blood)
Tony Gilroy (Michael Clayton)
Jason Reitman (Juno)

Actor:
Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
George Clooney (Michael Clayton)
Johnny Depp (Sweeney Todd)
Viggo Mortensen (Eastern Promises)
Tommy Lee Jones (In the Valley of Elah)

Actress:
Julie Christie (Away from Her)
Marion Cotillard (La vie En Rose)
Ellen Page (Juno)
Laura Linney (The Savages)
Cate Blanchett (Elizabeth: The Golden Age)

Supporting Actor:
Javier Bardem (No Country for Old Men)
Casey Affleck (The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford)
Tom Wilkinson (Michael Clayton)
Hal Holbrook (Into the Wild)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (Charlie Wilson’s War)

Supporting Actress:
Cate Blanchett (I’m Not There)
Saoirse Ronan (Atonement)
Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)
Amy Ryan (Gone Baby Gone)
Ruby Dee (American Gangster)

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Word around the street is that Ryan Gosling will be following in the footsteps of Harrison Ford, Alec Baldwin, and Ben Affleck by taking on the role of Tom Clancy’s favorite CIA analyst, Jack Ryan, a character that has appeared in the likes of The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games, Clear and Present Danger and The Sum of All Fears. The most interesting part of the story, according to /Film, is that the fifth Jack Ryan movie won’t be based on a Clancy book nor will it involve any input from the creator of the character – which can be done because Paramount Pictures owns all the movies rights to Jack Ryan.

I think it’s a little stubborn to not have Clancy on board in any way, but I have a feeling they’re going to try and take the character down a different route, something Clancy may not fancy – I’m thinking something more Jason Bourne-ish. While the first three pictures were solid movies (for obvious reasons, I’m a big fan of Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger), the last one with Affleck, The Sum of All Fears, was all kinds of nasty – although it grossed nearly $120 million domestically, which meant it was only a matter of time before they tried to kickstart the franchise again with one of the hottest young names out there.

Gosling is the man with the plan. While I’d rather him take on projects like The Believer, Half Nelson, and Lars and the Real Girl, every great actor out there needs a big-time franchise character nowadays to support their small-scale stuff. Bale has Batman, Depp has Pirates, Norton has Hulk, Downey Jr. has Iron Man, Gordon-Levitt has G.I. Joe…