Not at the Oscars – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

Hold on a moment, I’ve not gone completely delusional. I do realise that this geek orgasm of a film has no chance at winning any of the big awards at a respectable show like the Oscars, no matter how much Edgar Wright directed the bejeezus out of the beast. But from a technical stand point it surely deserves some nominations for doing things a little differently and at a high level of quality and creativity.

There was a time when the film almost made it into the nominees for Best Visual Effects, rubbing shoulders with the far less original likes of Iron Man 2, but it wasn’t to be. Sadly the most visually exciting film of 2010 was not deemed worthy of a nomination.

Another area I could conceive of the film getting a nod is in sound editing/mixing (who outside the profession knows the difference?) as Scott Pilgrim is the only film in the past year where sound design has been so integral. Watch any scene and you’ll find that every eye movement or head turn is accompanied by the subtle sound of some reverb or a coffee maker steaming. Beautiful stuff!

Let’s not even get started on how the huge amount of original songs like the below got ignored in favour of Dido.

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World – ‘Black Sheep’ Music Video from Louis S on Vimeo.

Scott Pilgrim Short-listed for Visual Effects Oscar

There are now seven films in the running (how appropriate), the final five being announced on the 25th.

Please can it win?

No Scott Pilgrim Before Christmas

I got the above email from Amazon today, I’d been wondering when Scott Pilgrim was coming out in the UK on DVD and we now know it’s not until December 27th. Boo!

At least we can all pre-order it on Blu-ray or DVD. Go on click my links!

Look at This

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World – Review

Last night I finally got to sit down in a packed cinema and feast on the visual delight that was Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. In order to not be totally biased I will give a nod to the odd pacing, the lack of explanation of certain plot points and the fact that it didn’t have the full emotional weight of the comics. This sort of thing happens when you condense six books down into a single two hour film.

Those two hours were amazing though. The audience was laughing right from the Universal logo and I had a minor heart attack during the opening credits, a feeling I last had when first seeing the trailer on the big screen. Scott Pilgrim is a relentless assault on your senses and rollicks along firing out jokes, fights and sheer energy at you as the scenes flow almost too seamlessly from one to another.

Never has a film had so much though put into each individual frame and every sound you hear. For a fan of the books and a fan of seeing something different coming out of Hollywood, Scott Pilgrim is what I have been waiting for. Edgar Wright is a genius and the cast are wonderful. I was about to list the stand out actors but it came to 13 so just look and marvel at the full cast list on IMDb.

And the music!

The best review of Scott Pilgrim I can give is that at the end I was tired, a little bit sweaty and my face hurt from smiling so much.

Just Kidding, It’s Freakin’ Scott Pilgrim Day!

I couldn’t let this day pass without some expression of my overwhelming excitement that today is the day that Scott Pilgrim reaches UK cinemas today. Today. Yes, we were originally going to get it weeks ago but lets just enjoy it now it’s here. Look at the site, but not too far, we’ve retro-fitted ourselves in honour of this special day.

I’ve only seen nine minutes, thanks to a lack of luck with preview screenings and not being quite “press” enough for press screenings, but they were glorious minutes. Not everyone is going to enjoy the film, there’s a lot to take in and it has a very distinct style, but I am convinced it will blow my precious little mind.

Go out tonight and see Scott Pilgrim. Go and see it with as many people as you can find and help show America how a box office should look. And if you’re going alone be sure to do yourself an Orange Wednesday, every little helps.

Out Now – 25th August 2010

Nothing too exciting coming out today.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid
“Live-action adaptation of Jeff Kinney’s illustrated novel about a wise-cracking sixth grade student.” Ugh, you completely lost me at “wise-cracking sixth grade student.” Reviews from people who have actually seen the film are similarly unimpressed.

Grown Ups
A whole bunch of comedians who weren’t that funny in their day are back to be not too funny again. Even better it’s set over the 4th of July weekend, something we in the UK don’t really care about. Lame!

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
Comic book adaptation about a weedy guy fighting some more attractive guys to get a girl that is totally out of his league. Apparently it also references video games. Yawn.

A Few Random Thoughts

Here are three things I wanted to share with you this morning:

1. Piranha 3D will be getting a 3D sequel! This is great news. Hopefully this time they will actually film it in 3D as I also discovered yesterday that it was one of the many “converted” 3D films.

2. Who is Salt? I have it on good authority that it is indeed Angelina Jolie. I don’t have to see the film now right?

3. Scott Pilgrim vs the World comes out tomorrow. I hope you have your tickets booked and are ready to bore everyone at work silly come Thursday.

That’s all I have today I’m afraid. Watch this if you get bored.

Edgar Wright in Conversation with Joe Cornish

Last night at the wonderful BFI Edgar Wright ran through his career with the help of Joe Cornish and proved himself to be an incredibly driven person and a poor Rolf Harris impersonator. What follows is a vague and rambling account of what happened.

America Has No Taste

Let’s have a look at the weekend’s box office chart from the US.

1 The Expendables $35,030,000
2 Eat Pray Love $23,700,000
3 The Other Guys $18,000,000
4 Inception $11,370,000
5 Scott Pilgrim vs. the World $10,525,000

Really America? We let you have the film first and you repay us by going to see The Expendables and Eat Pray Love!?

I am consoling myself with the knowledge that the phrase “From the director of Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz” holds a lot more weight over here and that it will no doubt have an awesome DVD that will sell well. Besides, there won’t be a sequel anyway. My only concern is that if films like Scott Pilgrim, Kick Ass and Watchmen don’t do well in cinemas then we’re just going to have more and more mainstream comic book films and less originality.

I shake my fist at you America.