The directors of the new and already forgotten movie “Skyline,” the Strause Brothers, were quite outspoken about the movie’s visual effects. They worked on movies like “Titanic,” “300,” and “Avatar” but decided to make their own movie on a sort of DIY scale. The movie’s release certainly made them feel entitled to call out in Vulture the special effects that movies still mess up: fur, dust, water, and breath.
I’ll admit that they are right, to a certain extent. Those are things that are often botched, and much of the technology that has come out recently have been to correct the obvious errors in these elements. But I’m not writing this post to speculate on visual effects’ flaws today; I’m writing to talk about visual effects of the past.
It’s so funny to watch “Spider-Man,” the 2002 release that sparked the superhero craze all over again, and see the visual effects. Not that they are terrible because I remember being so wowed by them in third grade. It was the talk of recess for quite some time. But I want to say just how incredible it is that we can look at a movie only eight years old and see what incredible leaps and bounds technology has taken in that time. You don’t watch it and say, “Oh, that looks terrible.” You watch it and say, “Oh, we can do that so much better now!”
It’s an interesting phenomenon that I invite anyone who loves nostalgia to take part in.
How important is it for the diversity of Hollywood actors to be represented at the Oscars? That’s a question many voters will be facing this year when they fill out their ballots. Many pundits have put all the hopes of breaking up what appears to be 20 white acting nominees on the backs of 2001’s winner for Best Actress, Halle Berry.
This could work in two ways. First, like the prodigal son, they could be willing to welcome her back with open arms. Or, the alternative is that they could shun her for disgracing her title as “Academy Award Winner Halle Berry.” The movies she has been taking don’t exactly merit the descriptor.
Welcome back to the random factoid column, which I should really just rename “Dumb Stuff Jessica Alba Says.” As you may remember, she made the news last week for Elle interview in which she claimed that 
I’m fuming that I didn’t get a chance to catch “Waiting for Superman” before it left Houston theaters, but c’est la vie sometimes. We can’t see everything.
There are two things going for “Biutiful” going into awards season – well, two names, really. Javier Bardem and Alejandro González Iñárritu.
This is totally random, out there, and will probably be discarded as one of those “too personal” posts that probably have no use to the average reader. But if you made it past that first long sentence, then clearly you give some sort of a care about what I’m writing, so I’ll write it anyways.
I 
In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new pairing of legendary director and actor to make every pundit go “Oscar winner in 2 years.” Morgan Freeman and Clint Eastwood for “Invictus” was an example of just such a pairing.
You’ve probably heard about “Blue Valentine” for all the wrong reasons, particularly because of the absurd NC-17 rating it received at the hands of the violence-loving but genophobic (that’s the fear of sex) ratings boards of the MPAA. Harvey Weinstein lawyered up and is now going to stare down the ridiculous organization until they renege on the rating that has led all other movies to final ruin.
But I get the sense that the reward for “Blue Valentine” will come through its actors, Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams. It is their movie, and most reviews I read state that Cianfrance largely steps out of the way and lets them create the art. According to Sasha Stone of Awards Daily, this movie is the culmination of a whole lot of work and passion from Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams:
Today, ladies and gentlemen, I feel like a real critic.
I have to admit, I’ve always wondered if I would ever walk into a theater thinking I was seeing one movie and then see another. I get particularly suspicious when the trailers before the movie don’t seem to match in tone with the movie I’m about to see. What I could only imagine became a reality for some audiences this week. According to 
Marshall and the Movies 
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