I am not entirely surprised by the films which have made the shortlist, and I know which of those I will be pulling for to make the final five which will be in contention for the Oscar.

Here is the press release:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced that seven films remain in the running in the Visual Effects category for the 83rd Academy Awards®.
The films are listed below in alphabetical order:
“Alice in Wonderland”
“Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1”
“Hereafter”
“Inception”
“Iron Man 2”
“Scott Pilgrim vs the World”
“Tron: Legacy”

All members of the Visual Effects Branch will be invited to view 15-minute excerpts from each of the seven shortlisted films on Thursday, January 20. Following the screenings, the members will vote to nominate five films for final Oscar consideration.

The 83rd Academy Awards nominations will be announced live on Tuesday, January 25, 2011, at 5:30 a.m. PT in the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2010 will be presented on Sunday, February 27, 2011, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland Center®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network. The Oscar presentation also will be televised live in more than 200 countries worldwide.

Source: Collider

The Film:

Not much has changed since I saw it on the IMAX in 3D a few months ago. The film is not Burton’s best and not his worst, so that hasn’t changed on Disney’s new 3D Blu-ray disc, and since I already reviewed it (twice, theatrically and on their first Blu-ray combo release), I’ll just paraphrase the my review below.

“On paper, the idea of Tim Burton directing a modern live-action version of Lewis Carroll’s famous story of Alice in Wonderland seemed too good to be true. Tim Burton certainly has established himself over the years as a kooky director with his finger on weird, and even more certain, is that Alice in Wonderland is weird. The classic Disney animated film from 1951 as become a polarizing film from the Mouse House, a film one either loves entirely or hates it entirely. It doesn’t matter if you like or dislike Tim Burton, the very idea presented to us with his adaptation of Alice in Wonderland was one of the most perfect marriages one could assume on paper. Notice how many times I’ve said on paper, because a Tim Burton directed version of Alice in Wonderland should not have been this ordinary.”

Feel free to re-read the original review here for further analysis.

The 3D Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Housed on its own disc (Disc 1; no extras) in this four disc set, the 3D image is quite a bit better here, than I originally remembered when I saw it in 3D theatrically. This transfer has much more depth than I originally remembered, making for a fully consistent dimensionality. Colors are very bright for a 3D film, something that the glasses seem to darken. Not here, nor does the details are clarity suffer. For a film that was shot in 2D (yet conceived as a 3D film), the results on this 3D Blu-ray disc are quite stellar. No complaints here.

The original Blu-ray transfer for the 2D version of the film is equally as stellar.

The audio is in DTS and it’s as active, as bass heavy, as you’d expect. Nothing new here, just a repeat of the great audio mix.

Disc 2 is the Blu-ray version of the film and houses the most extras. Disc 3 is the DVD version of the film, with three extras: The Mad Hatter; Finding Alice; Effecting Wonderland, which are short featurettes taking from larger pieces. Disc 4 is the Digital Copy of the film.

As a reminder, check out my extensive review of the extras here (on Disc 2).

Conclusion: The whole point of this Blu-ray reissue, is the 3D version of the film, and as usual, Disney offers up a great release. The original Blu-ray was stellar as a HD transfer/audio, but having the 3D version is just a cherry on top. Say what you will about the film, the 3D is better here on Blu than in the theater.

The Film: Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The 3D Blu-ray: Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

1 – Avatar (released 4-22-10), 8,356,154 units sold, $147,540,922 in sales revenue

2 – The Twilight Saga: New Moon (released 3-20-10), 7,445,525 units sold, $164,684,139 in sales revenue

3 – The Blind Side (released 3-23-10), 5,435,408 units sold, $87,583,307 in sales revenue

4 – Iron Man 2 (released 9-28-10), 4,481,781 units sold, $100,721,218 in sales revenue

5 – The Princess and the Frog (released 3-16-10), 4,307,477 units sold, $68,947,833 in sales revenue

6 - Alice in Wonderland (2010) (released 6-1-10), 4,060,329 units sold, $72,820,552 in sales revenue

7 – Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (released 3-30-10), 4,024,193 units sold, $66,818,833 in sales revenue

8 – The Hangover (released 12-15-09), 3,351,500 units sold, $54,466,559 in sales revenue

9 – How to Train Your Dragon (released 10-15-10), 3,292,534 units sold, $70,396,979 in sales revenue

10 – 2012 (released 3-2-10), 2,953,274 units sold, $51,225,663 in sales revenue

Should be no surprise to see Avatar, New Moon, or Iron Man 2 on here, but Alvin and the Chpimunks? The Blind Side? C’mon, people! It’s also interesting to see The Princess and the Frog on this list, because Disney claimed it wasn’t the hit they were expecting. I would be interested in seeing an updated list, with Blu-ray sales.

Source: DVDTown

It’s shocking how fast the year has been flying, yet we have caught a slew of films, from mainstream theatricals to documentaries to direct-to-DVD (DTV) flicks. Now, Killer Film is about to tell you what are the best, worst, overrated, underrated, and more in short and simple recommendations. Feel free to search for the reviews, as we’ve reviewed almost all of them here! So sit back and read what we have to say about 2010 so far in our 2010 Mid-Year Review!

What has been the Best Film?

Donny: Kick-Ass

Jon: How to Train Your Dragon

Serena: The Eclipse

What’s been the Worst Film?

Donny:When in Rome

Jon: Valentine’s Day

Serena: Sex and the City 2 /Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married Too?

What has been the Best Limited/DTV Film?

Donny: Cyrus

Jon: Defendor; Universal Soldier: Regeneration

Serena: Across the Hall

What’s been the Best Horror Film?

Donny: The Crazies

Jon: The Crazies

Serena: [REC] 2

What film has been the most Underrated?

Donny: Cop Out

Jon: The Runaways

Serena: Splice

What film has been the most Overrated?

Donny: The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Jon: Alice in Wonderland

Serena:The Human Centipede (The First Sequence)

As writers, what do we Still Need to See?

Donny: Harry Brown

Jon: Best Worst Movie and Harry Brown

Serena: Jonah Hex

In our opinion, what is the Most Anticipated Fall release?

Donny: Dinner for Schmucks

Jon: Machete, True Grit, and (yes, I’ll say it) Saw 3D

Serena: Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D

It’ll be interesting to see if we still have these films on our lists by the end of the year. Either way, we will be back at that time to dish them out, for a thorough look at what 2010 had to offer. Until then, keep it here as we will review every film until December 31st!

We told you are opinions, so what are yours? Comment below!

Downey will play the Wizard Of Oz before he became the Wizard Of Oz circa the 1939 iconic film: he’s in fact a circus wrangler transported by tornado to the mysterious world of Oz where he gets mistaken for a know-it-all (Deadline). Initial filming will more than likely commence later on this year if they want to take full advantage of Sam Raimi’s free time since he jumped ship on Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man franchise.

Do you think that Oz the Great and Powerful can strike box office gold like Walt Disney Pictures’ successful feature Alice in Wonderland?

Now, we were a bit bushed from the past Memorial Day holiday, so let’s recap last week’s key new releases for June 1st, since we didn’t get to it, then on to today’s!

(6-1)

Alice in Wonderland

It very quietly became the 6th biggest film at the box office a mere 13 weeks ago. Still that doesn’t determine quality, and the Burton film is average at best. No 3D option either for this-yet. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)   Jon says: Rent   Donny says: Rent

The Wolfman

Man oh man, were those trailers great. After much behind-the-scenes drama, the film finally got released to mixed results. there was just scenes that felt abbreviated, plot lines rushed, and stiff feeling to it all. Wonder if the new extended cut will change that? (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)   Jon says: Rent   Donny says: Rent

Life

The sorta sequel to BBC’s Planet Earth series is equally as beautifully and memorizing. I did feel like the series felt rushed in each episode-I wanted to focus more on things that had little screen time. But it’s still great. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Buy

New to Blu

Bad Boys

Class of Nuke ‘em High

War of the Worlds (2005)

And now, new releases for June 8th!

Shutter Island

It’s Scorsese which means you should have your wallet out now. Overall, it’s a really good film, just not Scorsese’s best work, but so? Just see it, you won’t be disappointed. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)  Jon says: Buy   Donny says: Rent

From Paris with Love

The trailers really didn’t sell it, and it really didn’t make much money at the box office, but it should be worth a quick look. (Formats: Blu-ray/DVD)   Jon says: Rent    Donny says: Rent

New to Blu

Caddyshack

The Illusionist

That does it for this week and keep it here for reviews of these discs and more, only on Killer Film!

The Film:

On paper, the idea of Tim Burton directing a modern live-action version of Lewis Carroll’s famous story of Alice in Wonderland seemed too good to be true. Tim Burton certainly has established himself over the years as a kooky director with his finger on weird, and even more certain, is that Alice in Wonderland is weird. The classic Disney animated film from 1951 as become a polarizing film from the Mouse House, a film one either loves entirely or one hates it entirely. Despite the fact if you like or dislike Tim Burton, the very idea presented to us with his adaptation of Alice in Wonderland was one of the most perfect marriages one could assume on paper. Notice how many times I’ve said on paper, because a Tim Burton directed version of Alice in Wonderland should not have been this ordinary.

I can’t help but wish this film came during the world’s introduction to Tim Burton back when he was doing things like Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, because for all of the razzle dazzle of (and if you see it in) IMAX 3-D, the film is largely flat and dare I say, boring. One of the sole problems with the film is that there’s little actually going on. Taking a cue from the sequel to Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, called Through the Looking-Glass, the re-imagining of this oft-told tale gives Alice adulthood, but that’s its sole new contribution. She’s still naive and sweet, and is only progressive outside of the Underland. Character depth is as surface level as the visuals here, making it really hard to grasp onto anything in the film as an emotional anchor. The Red Queen (Helen Bonham Carter, Fight Club) has now overthrown the White Queen (Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married) and has made Underland into a desolate place ruled in fear, and that fear is the Jabberwock.

Burton’s style is here, as in the duality of real versus dreams in the cold normalcy of the real world and the kooky, wild Underland, yet the film gets rather plain as it goes on, something no fan of Burton would have expected from his version of Alice in Wonderland. Maybe aiding the Plain Jane affair is his use, or over-abundant use of CGI. This is where I wished this film was made during that heyday of his around Beetlejuice. I felt the CG ran rampant, making a question of why didn’t he just make an animated film then, instead of live-action. Curious, no? The CG is fine at times, like with the White Rabbit or the big red head of the Red Queen, but for Tweedledum and Tweedledee or the army, it looked too cartoon-y when it needed to be weirder.

The one great scene is Alice’s appearance at the Mad Tea Party, which is a prime example of what we thought Burton would bring to this adaptation: humor, kookiness, and odd. One cannot finish a Burton review without mentioning Johnny Depp, and his Mad Hatter is a strange creation. Depp is never afraid to take a wild chance, and what failed for his Willy Wonka, sort of works here for Hatter. Sort of. Still, the promised weird and kooky partnership of Lewis Carroll and Tim Burton is a passable event. When it should have been the weirdest thing around, it’s a generic descent into the rabbit hole.

The Blu-ray:

Audio/Video: Disney has released a near-perfect transfer. Helping the picture quality is the fact Burton shot the vast majority of the film on digital and colors and details are vivid, rich, and highly detailed. There’s really no flaws here, so fans can expect a beautiful looking film in HD. The DTS track is very active with constant musical cues, rare speaker effects, and dialogue. Deep bass rumbles underneath all of that as well. I don’t want to go on and on about how great it looks and sounds, because I’ll run out of adjectives. Disney is stellar on Blu-ray once more.

All extras are in HD.

Wonderland Characters: This is a collection of six mini-documentaries (all accessed individually as well) that cover the characters we know and love as reinterpreted via Burton’s eye. You’ll get the casting of Alice and how they went about getting and finding an unknown, a bit on the Mad Hatter’s funny dance at the end of the film, Helen Bonham Carter’s make-up, and more featuring interviews that feel very electronic press kit type of fluff. For someone hoping for a deeper look at the wild landscapes and CG, we get little, making this all 27 minutes of material really light on info.

Making Wonderland: Similar to the above feature, we get six mini-documentaries again, but this time focusing on the FX, the props, the stunt work, Danny Elfman’s score, and the distortion FX. Sadly, all just graze by the subjects without much depth. This is especially aggravating because it’s a case of a ‘what could have been’. With no commentary track, all these features are really a wash.

Sneak Peaks: We get plenty of HD trailers here for future theatrical films and Blu-rays from the Mouse House.

Conclusion: Not Burton’s best, but not his worst. The disc’s presentation is top-notch, yet the extras are pretty fluffy-sadly.

The Film: Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars

The Blu-ray: Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Deadline reports that if Disney does not succeed in getting Bekmambetov to go into the director’s chair for Oz, that they’ll try to woo him over to do a feature version of Jungle Cruise. Yes, they are trying to put together a film based off the ride that you find at their amusement parks. Granted, Pirates of the Caribbean is doing wonderfully box-office wise does not mean that it’ll happen every time (example: Haunted Mansion). Now it’s just a matter of waiting to hear whether or not Bekmambetov wants to jump on this production.

Here’s what the story is about below from The Playlist.:

Based on one of the many Frank Baum books, and a prequel to the Wizard of Oz, but told from the wizard’s point of view when he first enters Oz, 50 years before Dorothy. The Wizard is a young womanizing con artist who arrives in the land of Oz accidentally, and is mistaken to be a Wizard, playing along hoping to reap the riches of Oz, only to be thrown into a civil war of a royal family of three young women who later become the witches – 2 evil and 1 good.

“The new prices take effect Friday in many markets across the country in theaters owned by such major exhibitors as Regal Entertainment Group, Cinemark Holdings Inc. and AMC Entertainment Inc.”

With the popularity of 3-D today, this was inevitable.

This will only effect certain movie theaters chains, but it could also spread  to others chains as time goes on. I’m not exactly sure as to how much the price will increase at the moment, but at Regal Union Square in New York, its costs $16.50 to see Alice in Wonderland in 3-D. Tomorrow it will now cost you $17. So it’s not a huge increase, but given the popularity it will surely bring in more cash for theaters.

Alice in Wonderland scribe Linda Woolverton is keeping herself in the Disney family as she’s been picked up to pen the live action tale of Maleficent

Woolverton’s “Maleficent” movie would tell the classic fairy tale from the point of view of the self-proclaimed “Mistress of All Evil,” offering a new take on a classic tale as she did with Lewis Carrol’s “Alice” (Heat Vision Blog). Woolverton’s previous written credits include co-writing The Lion King and is said to be penning The Snow Queen feature.

Taking an unimpressive total on it’s opening weekend intake is the controversial Universal Pictures Repo Men, only making $6.1 Million despite the strong marketing campaign behind it. Since the budget totals out to be $32 Million, you can say this is a little bit of a bomb, which surely will make many Repo! fans happy. Here’s the rest of the box office intake below from Box Office Mojo.:

Weekend Box Office (March 19-21)

1. Alice in Wonderland  ($34.5 M)
2. Diary of a Wimpy Kid  ($21.8 M)
3. The Bounty Hunter  ($21 M)
4. Repo Men  ($6.1 M)
5. She’s Out of My Leauge  ($6 M)
6. Green Zone  ($5.9 M)
7. Shutter Island  ($4.7 M)
8. Avatar  ($4 M)
9. Our Family Wedding ($3.8 M)
10. Remember Me  ($3.3 M)

We are making our way into the home stretch of March, and the best way to celebrate this green-filled month than putting your green in the movie theaters. Getting a wide release this coming Friday is Hot Tub Time Machine along with the 3D/IMAX 3D release of How to Train Your Dragon. Following that is the limited releases of Waking Sleeping Beauty, Chloe, Dancing Across Borders, Eclipse and the New York releases of Bluebeard, Lbs. and the NY/LA release of Godspeed.

No writer is attached to this picture yet that is being produced by Chris Meledandri from Illumination Entertainment, says Deadline New York. Burton’s latest directorial work Alice in Wonderland is in theaters right now for you all to watch, unless you want to wait until next Halloween for the animated feature-length animated version of Frankenweenie.

The first of those is the Paul Greengrass directed feature Green Zone, only being able to wrangle up $14.5 Million this weekend. The totals keep on getting lower as the heavily advertised She’s Out of My League brings in $9.6 Million with the Summit Entertainment film Remember Me only having $8.3 Million total. Last but not least is Our Family Wedding, making $7.6 Million on it’s first weekend. Check out the rest of the top ten below from Box Office Mojo.:

Weekend Box Office (March 12-14)

1. Alice in Wonderland  ($62 M)
2. Green Zone  ($14.5 M)
3. She’s Out of My League  ($9.6 M)
4. Remember Me  ($8.3 M)
5. Shutter Island  ($8.1 M)
6. Our Family Wedding  ($7.6 M)
7. Avatar  ($6.6 M)
8. Brooklyn’s Finest  ($4.2 M)
9. Cop Out  ($4.2 M)
10. The Crazies  ($3.6 M)

Were going into the middle of the month, and with that comes even more films. Among those on the list are Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Bounty Hunter, Repo Men and Hubble 3D on IMAX screens only. Those stuck in the limited releases are The Runaways (opening wide on April 9th), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Killing Jar and Vincere. Greenberg comes out in New York and Los Angeles this weekend but will be released wide on March 26th.

Let us not forget that there was one other new release this weekend, that being the Antoine Fuqua directed Brooklyn’s Finest that took in a small $13.5 Million, completely overshadowed by Disney. Every other film practically falls to the waist side this weekend, include Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island, within the box office, showing the true power of Disney once more.

The rest of the weekend box office stats are below thanks to ERC Box Office.:

Weekend Box Office (March 5-7)

1. Alice in Wonderland  ($116.3 M)
2. Brooklyn’s Finest  ($13.5 M)
3. Shutter Island  ($13.3 M)
4. Cop Out  ($9.1 M)
5. Avatar  ($7.7 M)
6. The Crazies  ($7 M)
7. Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lighting Thief  ($5.1 M)
8. Valentine’s Day  ($4.2 M)
9. Crazy Heart  ($3.3 M)
10. Dear John  ($2.8 M)

Next week we get a huge burst of comedy and a little bit of drama in the mix with the releases of Green Zone, She’s Out Of My League, Our Family Wedding and Remember Me. Within the realms of limited, there is SuicideGirls Must Die! and The Exploding Girl along with the New York release of Stolen and the New York and Los Angeles release of Bong Joon-ho’s Mother.

I can’t help but wish this film came during the world’s introduction to Tim Burton back when he was doing things like Edward Scissorhands and Beetlejuice, because for all of the razzle dazzle of (and if you see it in) IMAX 3-D, the film is largely flat and dare I say, boring. One of the sole problems with the film is that there’s little actually going on. Taking a cue from the sequel to Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, called Through the Looking-Glass, the re-imagining of this oft-told tale gives Alice adulthood, but that’s its sole new contribution. She’s still naive and sweet, and is only progressive outside of the Underland. Character depth is as surface level as the visuals here, making it really hard to grasp onto anything in the film as an emotional anchor. The Red Queen (Helen Bonham Carter, Fight Club) has now overthrown the White Queen (Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married) and has made Underland into a desolate place ruled in fear, and that fear is the Jabberwock.

Burton’s style is here, as in the duality of real versus dreams in the cold normalcy of the real world and the kooky, wild Underland, yet the film gets rather plain as it goes on, something no fan of Burton would have expected from his version of Alice in Wonderland. Maybe aiding the Plain Jane affair is his use, or over-abundant use of CGI. This is where I wished this film was made during that heyday of his around Beetlejuice. I felt the CG ran rampant, making a question of why didn’t he just make an animated film then, instead of live-action. Curious, no? The CG is fine at times, like with the White Rabbit or the big red head of the Red Queen, but for Tweedledum and Tweedledee or the army, it looked too cartoon-y when it needed to be weirder.

The one great scene is Alice’s appearance at the Mad Tea Party, which is a prime example of what we thought Burton would bring to this adaptation: humor, kookiness, and odd. One cannot finish a Burton review without mentioning Johnny Depp, and his Mad Hatter is a strange creation. Depp is never afraid to take a wild chance, and what failed for his Willy Wonka, sort of works here for Hatter. Sort of. Still, the promised weird and kooky partnership of Lewis Carroll and Tim Burton is a passable event. When it should have been the weirdest thing around, it’s a generic descent into the rabbit hole.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars