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ENTERTAINMENT
Saturday, Dec. 15, 2012
Fax 403-341-6560 editorial@reddeeradvocate.com
Golden Globe surprises in the making BY JAKE COYLE THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW YORK — The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is known for what you could call a certain quirkiness in its selection process. Any group that would see fit to nominate Patch Adams and The Tourist for best picture certainly marches to its own beat. But in the nominations announced on Thursday, the Golden Globes didn’t throw too many wrinkles into the awards season horse race leading up to the Academy Awards (which has had its own questionable choices in the past). Still, in parsing the nominations, there were some intriguing surprises as well as some inevitable questions, most notably: Salmon fishing where? Yemen. The answer is Yemen. Yes, Lasse Hallstrom’s romantic comedy Salmon Fishing in the Yemen reeled in three unlikely nominations: best picture, comedy or musical; Emily Blunt for best actress, comedy or musical; and Ewan McGregor for best actor, comedy or musical. The film, which had a small run in theatres in the spring, is about an eccentric Yemeni sheik (Amr Waked) who turns to a British salmon expert (McGregor) to bring thousands of salmon to his country. Most critics didn’t bite. The acclaimed, low-budget Beasts of the Southern Wild has generally been seen as a plucky underdog in the awards season, but the film and its young star, Quvenzhane Wallis, yielded no nominations from the Globes. Instead, the Globes — which tend to favour more seasoned stars — followed the lead of the New York Film Critics Circle, nominating Rachel Weisz for best actress for the little-seen The Deep Blue Sea. The HFPA responded strongly to Quentin Tarantino’s Spaghetti Western-style slavery epic Django Unchained, giving it five nominations: best picture, drama; best director (Tarantino); best screenplay (Tarantino); and two for best supporting actor (Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio). Though the academy may be more divided on the film, Django could be emerging similarly to Tarantino’s last film, Inglourious Basterds, which landed eight Oscar nominations. Ang Lee’s 3-D fantasy adventure Life of Pi also fared well, with nominations for best picture (drama), best director (Lee) and best score (Mychael Danna). Tarantino and Lee likely squeezed out directors David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook) and Tom Hooper (Les Miserables). Hooper, who directed the Oscar-winning The King’s Speech, seemed a particularly likely nominee, but the HFPA didn’t go crazy for the musical, which might have also yielded more supporting actor nominations. Blockbusters did not find their way into the mix, as the Globes stayed clear of popular and somewhat acclaimed movies like Skyfall, Looper, The Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers. Perhaps that’s no great shock, but Skyfall (which got a nomination for best song) could have also slid in with Javier Bar-
Photo by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Christoph Waltz, left, as Schultz and Jamie Foxx as Django in the film Django Unchained, directed by Quentin Tarantino. The film was nominated for a Golden Globe for best drama on Thursday. The film also garnered four other nominations for best director, best screenplay and two for best supporting actor. The 70th annual Golden Globe Awards will be held on Jan. 13. dem’s supporting role as an effete Bond villain. By separating best picture and lead actor nominations between drama and comedy, the Globes — and this is one of the best things about them — give comedy the attention most film awards shirk. That suggested, Judd Apatow’s This Is 40 might have been assured some notice, but it went empty handed. Instead, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel continued an upswing with nominations for best picture and best actress in a comedy (Judi Dench). That followed the film on Wednesday landing a best ensemble nomination from the Screen Actors Guild. Also gaining momentum was Nicole Kidman, who
was nominated for her supporting performance in Lee Daniels’ fevered Southern melodrama The Paperboy. (She was also nominated for the HBO film Hemingway & Gellhorn.). Kidman, whose character famously pees on a jelly fish-stung Zac Efron in the film, also received an unexpected nomination from the Screen Actors Guild. Robert De Niro’s latest comedic turn as a footballobsessed father in Silver Linings Playbook didn’t garner a nomination. Matthew McConaughey, whose year included lauded performances in Bernie and Magic Mike, also escaped notice — a result fans surely considered definitely not alright, alright, alright.
Ratchet & Clank, Epic Mickey games disappoint A f t e r several hours of going to war and either winning or losing, if you want to try another match it will be like playing the same thing again. CHRIS The acCAMPBELL tion and visuals don’t disappoint, and fun can be had, but you yearn for another option now and then. Those looking to feed their nuts-and-bolts fix may appreciate the budget $20 price tag for this game, but remember that for the cheaper price you often get cheaper content, and Full Frontal Assault is exactly that, an assault on your patience to stick with a game that does one thing, and one thing only.
GAME ON
Ratchet & Clank: Full Frontal Assault Platform: PlayStation 3 Genre: Shooter Publisher: Sony ESRB Rating: E, for Everyone Grade: three stars (out of five) Just over a year since the release of All 4 One, it may feel strange to revisit the Ratchet & Clank universe so soon. Full Frontal Assault has a simple message for gamers: You get one way to play this game, so take it or leave it. Full Frontal Assault all but
abandons a campaign mode. Instead, this game spends all its time in competitive multiplayer, and while that could open gamers up to a host of opportunities, that is all you get. The multiplayer mode operates in three phrases (recon, squad and assault), each giving you a chance to mold the battlefield to your liking. The goal is to blow up your opponent’s power generators while protecting your own. Acquire bolts (the franchise’s long-running form of currency) and use them to purchase offensive or defensive units.
Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two Platforms: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U and PC Genre: Adventure Publisher: Disney Interactive Studios ESRB Rating: E, for Everyone Grade: 1.5 stars I’m constantly befuddled how Disney manages to screw up a video game featuring its most iconic creation. From the entertainment company that has, for decades, brought charming and sophisticated animation to movies and TVs, The Power of Two is a sequel to a disappointing game that,
sadly, continues to follow every wrong path. This does not come from a Disney-hater; I still sip from the Goofy mug I bought in the early 1990s Nevertheless, frustration mounts early in playing The Power of Two, and the game’s problems remain obvious throughout. The platform best resembles a child’s nightmare. Running and jumping from surface to surface is constantly undone by poor mechanics, making every leap a 50-50 chance of death. You spend most of your time guiding Mickey through
buildings and fighting off enemies with a colorful paintbrush. Oswald tags along as your AI companion, but he provides almost no assistance and ruins several battles by getting in the way. When making a sequel to a game that wasn’t universally loved to begin with, one would hope that lessons were learned and improvements made. The Power of Two shows that a second time around is just twice the frustration. Follow Chris Campbell @ campbler or email him at game_ on_games@mac.com.
Jackie Chan suggests protest rights should be curbed in Hong Kong BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS HONG KONG — Jackie Chan suggests in a recent interview that protests should be restricted in the freewheeling Chinese city of Hong Kong. The action star lamented that Hong Kong has become a city of protest, where people “scold China, scold the leaders, scold anything, protest against anything.” “There should be regulations on what can and cannot be protested,” Chan told the Southern People Week-
ly, which published his comments Wednesday. He didn’t say what kinds of protests he thought should be restricted. The star of movies such as “Rush Hour” and “Rumble in the Bronx” triggered a backlash three years ago with similar comments on the need to restrict freedom in his hometown. A former British colony, Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 and is now a semiautonomous region. Residents are fiercely proud of the Western-style civil liberties they enjoy that are not seen on the mainland, includ-
ing the freedom to demonstrate. Chan also reflected in the interview on how different Hong Kong was before 1997. “Hong Kong in the British era was not so free. Did you hear so much gossipy news? Were there so many taking to the streets? No. Very well behaved. The British badly repressed us,” he told the magazine. “We do not like repression. We like freedom. But you cannot do whatever you want.” The city has been the scene lately of a rising number of protests by people upset with Beijing-backed leader Le-
ung Chun-ying, a lack of full democracy and China’s growing influence on the city. Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in July to protest after Leung took office. In 2009, Chan sparked outrage among lawmakers in Hong Kong when said he said, “I’m not sure if it’s good to have freedom or not.” He also said he was “beginning to feel that we Chinese need to be controlled.” When asked by reporters later Thursday about the comments, Chan said, “I respect everyone’s opinion and others should respect mine.”