Franken, my DH just said the same thing about Roger Rabbit. I may need to see it again; I saw it once when it came out and just felt like I didn't get it.

I like Beej's categories. I think the Foamies this year should be Categories That Should Exist But Don't.

Random Oscar note: One of the Greek channels is carrying the Oscars this year so there are ads all over. They show famous movie quotes. The only 3 quotes you can read without glasses are:

1. "Rosebud!"
2. "I coulda been a contender"
3. "Frodo!"

Is it just me or does one of these not fit?

So, continuing with The Great Oscar Nominee Rewatch of This Weekend, I am very pleased to say that Little Miss Sunshine holds up beautifully. The performances are so wonderfully committed and grounded, and the direction is just understated enough that there's a definite visual style, but it doesn't distract from the actors, who are what makes the movie work.

My sister and I saw Roger Rabbit in the theaters when it first came out. We went to a mid-week matinee that was filled with moms and their kiddies, and at quite a few points during the film, we were the only two laughing in the place--the kids weren't getting the joke, and the moms were all horrified at what they were exposing their sweet innocents to!

I bought the DVD a few years back, and it definitely holds up, most likely because it was made pre-CGI and therefore doesn't suffer from advances in computers. The story is even funnier now, IMO, especially since I know that Judge Doom's whole plot to eliminate the streetcars and replace them with freeways was based on what actually happened, but with the car and oil companies replacing Doom as the Big Villains of the story.

I think one of theose quotes should be replaced with "Stellaaaahh!!!", but that could be just me.

The story is even funnier now, IMO, especially since I know that Judge Doom's whole plot to eliminate the streetcars and replace them with freeways was based on what actually happened, but with the car and oil companies replacing Doom as the Big Villains of the story.

Oh yes. Like Chinatown, Who Framed Roger Rabbit is based very heavily in real life Los Angeles history, and let's just say that LA has a very sordid and lurid past. People kind of forget about it I think, because of Hollywood and the fact that it's always sunny around here, but LA has always been able to hold its own with the other big cities when it comes to corruption.

Wikipedia has a quick entry on the consortium of interest which bought up street car lines and ripped them out. GM, Standard Oil, Goodyear...

I'm flipping through the Fall 2006 FLM Magazine ("The Voice of Independent Film") and realize that I missed two movies that I was really interested in.

The first was the French movie Renaissance which was animated with motion capture like A Scanner Darkly and is a b/w Bladerunner type movie set in Future Paris. I wanna see that!

The other is a musical titled 20 Centimenters by Salazar that looked really loopy and fun.

Anybody seen these?

Oh, I remember seeing the trailer for Renaissance ! It looked awesome. I think I read that the look was more awesome than the movie, though.

I haven't seen either, but I've heard very mixed reviews of 20 Centimeters.

The first was the French movie Renaissance which was animated with motion capture like A Scanner Darkly and is a b/w Bladerunner type movie set in Future Paris.

Anybody seen these?

Yep. It doesn't actually look anything like Scanner, even though both animation processes involved motion-capture and rotoscoping. It's kind of a narrative mess, but I really enjoyed it anyway just for the visuals, which are stunning. Not just the animation, but the visualization of futuristic Paris.

I saw Because I Said So this weekend. For those who like throwaway fluff, it was a nice sappy screwball romance. Diane Keaton chews the scenery in more than one scene and I started closing my eyes for those, wish I'd had earplugs, too. The fun was the CFerg sighting. I squealed a little.