Countdown to Oscars: 10 days

Some people couldn't care less about the Academy Awards. "It's just a bunch of Hollywood phonies patting themselves on the back." Then there are folks who take the Oscars waaay too seriously, obsess over their favorites' chances, and bemoan past "injustices" with juvenile obstinacy.

I fall in to the second category.

To hype this year's Oscars, I'm starting a countdown to the big event.

Will "Slumdog Millionaire" win? Can Harvey Weinstein pull a "Shakespeare in Love" with "The Reader"?

Tune in here for the latest buzz every day.

And keep your browser dialed to CaptainCritic.blogspot.com on Oscar night, as I'll be live-blogging the event!

Reeling Backward: "Forbidden Planet"

I'm pretty amazed at how well the special effects hold up in "Forbidden Planet," 53 years after it was made. Most early sci-fi films were fast-and-dirty cheapies, but the production values of this classic are impressive even today.

Yes, by modern CGI standards, where Brad Pitt can age from 90 to nine days in a couple of hours, "Forbidden Planet" is rather primitive. But the spaceship and laser blaster effects undoubtedly blew people away back in 1956.

Ditto for Robby the Robot, although with his clacking gizmos that sound like a 1950s punchcard computer, he was very much a product of his time. I find it interesting that the filmmakers made no attempt to give Robby discernible eyes. He's got arms and legs and a head and even a mouth that lights up when he talks, but no eyes. Nearly all movies since have tried to anthropomorphize robots as much as possible. Even R2-D2 had a single humanizing eye. Robby was the robot without a face.

"Forbidden Planet" takes place in the 23rd century, but the movie is so 1950s it's sometimes cringe-inducing to watch. The rampant sexism with regard to Alta (Anne Francis), the daughter of mad scientist Morbius (Walter Pidgeon), is hard to swallow, even taking into account the high cheese factor for which this movie is associated. The all-male crew of astronauts lands on the planet, which had been colonized by scientists 20 years earlier, and immediately start falling over themselves to get into Alta's pants.

Francis' outfits were pretty risque by the standards of the day -- publicity photos even show Robby helping Alta get dressed in her barely-there numbers. And for some reason she walks around the rocky planet barefoot most of the time.

Leslie Nielsen plays the commander, and the fact that I grew up only knowing Nielsen from the "Airplane" and "Naked Gun" spoofs made it hard for me to take him seriously in a straight role. I kept expecting him to say, "Don't call me surely."

Another observation: The neutral gray uniforms the newcomers wear, which are virtually indistinguishable from each other, resemble the drab proletariat worker outfits worn by Soviet bloc nations of the time. Given the anti-Communism hysteria of the '50s, isn't it odd that these very American-sounding boys look like they should be calling each other "comrade"?

I enjoyed "Forbidden Planet," but more in a "Rocky Horror" type of way, where you ridicule the flick while reveling in its twisted charm. I would love to see this movie on the big screen with a hooting audience.

Vote now for the IMA Summer Nights program

If you've never experienced the Summer Nights film program at the Indianapolis Museum of Art, you're truly missing out on a great movie experience.

It's movies outdoors in the IMA's Greek-style atrium theater, often preceded by an interesting guest or program of sorts. I remember going there a couple of years ago to see "Breaking Away," and they had the real-life guy the main character was based on there.

Once again, the IMA is offering you a chance to pick some of the lineup this year. Starting today (Feb. 11) you can go to their web site and cast your vote in several categories. I'm hooked up with the inside dope, so I've got a sneak peek at the choices to share:

Rain, Rain, Go Away

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. That’s our philosophy, so choose your favorite from this list of recent Summer Nights rain-outs--we’ll give it a second chance on the big screen.

A Hard Days’ Night (1964)

Barbershop (2002)

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Field of Dreams (1989)

Hey, Mr. DJ

Check out this set list. Any of these riff heavy films hit the right chord? Pick your favorite.

Empire Records (1995)

Grease (1978)

High Fidelity (2000)

Once (2006)

Classically Cult

Let’s admit, these films are bad. Bad as in GREAT! Tell us which film you love to hate.

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)

Dazed & Confused (1993)

Flash Gordon (1980)

Footloose (1984)

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Love a man in uniform? Have a thing for hitmen? Pull the trigger on your favorite sweet action flick.

Desperado (1995)

Fight Club (1999)

French Connection (1971)

The Professional (1994)

Here are my picks, and reasons why:

A Hard Day's Night -- Never seen it, and I need to.

Once -- Wonderful little love/music story that most people missed.

Flash Gordon -- "No! Not the bore worms!!" 'Nuff said.

Fight Club -- Haven't seen it since it came out, didn't like it that much then, want to see if my sensibility has changed.

Polls close Feb. 27, so vote now!

www.imamuseum.org/blog

The world's saddest puppy

Our dog, Sterling, just came home from the vet and officially is the saddest puppy in the world.

He had his teeth cleaned, which requires anesthesia. Putting an animal under is a big deal that requires extensive pre-screening, so we took the opportunity to also have several tumors removed. They were all benign, fortunately, but he's one shaved and stitched pup right now.

And yes, he has to wear that ridiculous collar thing for a couple of weeks -- not all the time, just when we're not around. He doesn't like it.

Catching up with "Vicky Christina Barcelona"

Woody Allen's latest reminded very much of "Barcelona," Whit Stillman's take on Americans living in Spain from more than a decade back. This is ironic, since Stillman was often compared to Woody Allen when he first broke onto the scene.

You've got the understated narration that discusses life-moving events with the same calm tone as when it describes their meal. "Vicky ordered the clam bisque but found it too salty. Later that night she decided that she no longer loved Mark and never wanted to see him again. In the morning, she picked up her dry cleaning before she headed out to see the architectural columns in Belize."

Penelope Cruz is nominated for an Oscar in Best Supporting Actress for this film, and it's easy to see why. As the unhinged, wildly spontaneous Maria Elena, she roars in the movie somewhere around the halfway point and literally steals the show.

Up until that moment, it had been the story of lifelong friends Vicky (Rebecca Hall) and Christina (Scarlett Johansson) spending the summer in Barcelona. One night they are propositioned by Juan Antonio (Javier Bardem) who introduces himself, offers to fly them down to a resort town and have sex with one or both of them, or all at once if possible. The carefree Christina agrees, bringing the engaged and comparatively uptight Vicky along as chaperon. As it happens, Christina falls ill, and while Vicky and Juan Antonio are alone they have a passionate encounter.

Still, it's clear that the flighty Christina and Juan Antonio, a renowned painter, are more temperamentally suited to one another, and soon they're living together. Around this time Maria Elena, Juan Antonio's ex-wife, turns up after a suicide attempt and moves in with them. Vicky essentially disappears around this time, as the movie becomes the triangle of Juan Antonio, Christina and Maria Elena.

It's an interesting dynamic, with the two exes constantly at each other's throats, when they're not rekindling their love. It seems they always had something missing in their tempestuous relationship, and having Christina around somehow calms their storms. But Christina is the ultimate fair-weather navigator -- as soon as she finds something stable and rewarding, whether it's a relationship or deciding between being a filmmaker or photographer, she soon grows bored with it.

As is typical of the lesser Woody Allen films, I had a hard time buying the authenticity of the main characters. Vicky, for example, after disappearing from the movie for an entire reel or so, suddenly decides she's in love with Juan Antonio and begins maneuvering to claim him. Vicky and Christina never seem like more than literary constructs, designed to act in a particular way so as to carry out the functions of the plot.

Cruz truly is vibrant in the film, which makes me able to recommend it on a marginal basis. "Vicky Christina Barcelona" is a typical Woody Allen movie with a cross-Atlantic flavor.

2.5 stars out of four

Review: "He's Just Not That Into You"

How do you make a romantic comedy based on a self-help book for women?

Awkwardly.

"He's Just Not That Into You" is a mildly amusing flick starring Jennifer Aniston, Drew Barrymoore, Ginnifer Goodwin, Jennifer Connelly and Scarlett Johansson as a loosely-connected web of put-upon women, and Ben Affleck, Kevin Connolly, Justin Long and Bradley Cooper as the men who done them wrong.

If you think I didn't like this movie because of gender war issues, you couldn't be further from the truth. My main beef with the movie was that it tried too hard to portray the men sympathetically, and even ended up with a couple of the guys as the ones getting mistreated by the lovely ladies.

You see, in this terrible modern age, men have been treating women really shabbily, and now some of the women are getting into the act. The story is a long litany of gals waiting for phone calls that never come, and awkward messages being left on voice mail. You've got Men Who Are Afraid of Marriage, and women who don't want to commit.

Its saving grace is Ginnifer Goodwin as the narrator and more or less main character of this ensemble movie. I love her slightly goofy vibe, the way she never gives up on romance even when her exploits leave her mistreated and unloved. I remember first seeing Goodwin in a supporting role a few years ago, and immediately wished someone would give her her own movie. "He's Just Not That Into You" is not it.

A few program notes: Having being married for 10 months now, I confess that I approached this movie with a certain smug satisfaction in not having to deal with most of the issues contained in the movie. After watching a romcom with people behaving badly in the name of love, I often turn to my wife and say, "Aren't you glad we don't have to deal with that stuff anymore?"

Also, I should mentioned that I did read the popular book on which this movie was based. Or at least, I read about half of it before I gave up. I found it to be a bunch of silly (and, I suspect, fabricated) anecdotes about women too stupid to realize that the man they're seeing isn't about to commit to them.

We saw the movie at a sold-out show at AMC Castleton on Saturday night -- sorry about the late review turnaround, but our Sunday was filled with chores -- and the audience seemed split evenly between couples and large packs of (apparently) single women. Even though I wasn't particularly impressed with this flick, my heart leaped at the sight of dozens of people standing around outside a movie theater, discussing what they'd just seen.

I didn't see any guys by themselves. It's their loss -- this movie is a great dating opportunity!

Two stars out of four.

New reviews this week: "Confessions of a Shopaholic," "Waltz with Bashir"

Ilsa Fisher is getting her own leading role, and it'll be interesting to see what she does with "Confessions of a Shopaholic." Although I hear it's about an inept person who gets a high-paying job for which she's not qualified, which, given the current economy, sounds like a ridiculous fantasy.

I'll also have "Waltz with Bashir," an animated film nominated for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category.