2019 OSCARS: My Predictions for the Top 8 Categories

Here is my annual prediction post for the 2019 Oscars. I really just consider the Top 8 categories on the blog but I play the Oscar game like everyone else (on other websites). Last year I predicted 7 out of 8 and 17 of 24 correctly.

Best Picture:

• “Black Panther”
• “BlacKkKlansman”
• “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• “The Favourite”
• “Green Book”
• “Roma”
• “A Star Is Born”
• “Vice”

SHOULD WIN: A Star Is Born.
WILL WIN: Roma.

Director:

• Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”
• Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”
• Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”
• Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma”
• Adam McKay, “Vice”

SHOULD WIN: Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman.

WILL WIN: Alfonso Cuarón, Roma.

Lead Actor:

• Christian Bale, “Vice”
• Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”
• Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”
• Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”

SHOULD WIN: Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born.

WILL WIN: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Lead Actress:

• Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”
• Glenn Close, “The Wife”
• Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
• Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”
• Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

SHOULD WIN: Glenn Close, The Wife.

WILL WIN: Glenn Close, The Wife.

Supporting Actor:

• Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”
• Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”
• Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born”
• Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
• Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

SHOULD WIN: Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

WILL WIN: Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman.

Supporting Actress:

• Amy Adams, “Vice”
• Marina de Tavira, “Roma”
• Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
• Emma Stone, “The Favourite”
• Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

SHOULD WIN: Amy Adams, Vice

WILL WIN: Regina King, If Beale Street Could Talk.

Adapted Screenplay:

• “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
• “BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
• “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
• “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins
• “A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters

SHOULD WIN: Can You Ever Forgive Me?

WILL WIN: BlacKkKlansman.

Original Screenplay:

• “The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
• “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader
• “Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly
• “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón
• “Vice,” Adam McKay

SHOULD WIN: Roma.

WILL WIN: The Favourite.

2019 OSCARS: The Nominations

And they're off! The nominations for the 91st Academic Awards, i.e. the Oscars, have been annonced.
The nominations in the top 8 categories are given below. For Best Picture I have currently seen 4 of the 9 nominees (indicated in bold), and definitely intend to see "The Favourite" and "Bohemian Rhapsody" before the ceremonies. I don't even want to hate-watch "Green Book." "Vice" is a strong possibility too.

Best Picture:

• “Black Panther”
• “BlacKkKlansman”
• “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• “The Favourite”
• “Green Book”
• “Roma”
• “A Star Is Born”
• “Vice”

Director:

• Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”
• Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”
• Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”
• Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma”
• Adam McKay, “Vice”

Lead Actor:

• Christian Bale, “Vice”
• Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”
• Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”
• Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
• Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”

Lead Actress:

• Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”
• Glenn Close, “The Wife”
• Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
• Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”
• Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

Supporting Actor:

• Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”
• Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”
• Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born”
• Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
• Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

Supporting Actress:

• Amy Adams, “Vice”
• Marina de Tavira, “Roma”
• Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
• Emma Stone, “The Favourite”
• Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

Adapted Screenplay:

• “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs,” Joel Coen , Ethan Coen
• “BlacKkKlansman,” Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, Spike Lee
• “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty
• “If Beale Street Could Talk,” Barry Jenkins
• “A Star Is Born,” Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, Will Fetters

Original Screenplay:

• “The Favourite,” Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara
• “First Reformed,” Paul Schrader
• “Green Book,” Nick Vallelonga, Brian Currie, Peter Farrelly
• “Roma,” Alfonso Cuarón
• “Vice,” Adam McKay

Total Nominations

• 10 — “The Favourite” and "Roma"
• 8 — “A Star Is Born” and “Vice” 
• 7  — "Black Panther”
• 6  — “BlacKkKlansman”
• 5 — “Bohemian Rhapsody” and “Green Book”
• 4 — “First Man” and “Mary Poppins Returns

2017 OSCARS: Nominations Announced! #OscarNotSoWhite

The 2017 Oscar nominations just came out! La La Land leads with 14 nominations (tying the record set by Titanic and All About Eve) but little movies like Hidde Figures, Moonlight and Manchester by the Sea did very well. There are NUMEROUS nominees of color this year.

NPR called it "Oscars Slightly Less White":

Call it Oscars Slightly Less White: Unlike last year, when no people of color managed to secure acting or directing nominations, the Academy nominated Denzel Washington for lead actor in Fences, Mahershala Ali and Dev Patel for supporting actor in Moonlight and Lion, respectively, Loving's Ruth Negga in the lead actress category, and Viola Davis (Fences), Naomie Harris (Moonlight) and Octavia Spencer (Hidden Figures) were nominated for best supporting actress. Moonlight's Barry Jenkins was also nominated for best director.

The big nominations are:

Picture 

• “Arrival” 
• “Fences” 
• “Hacksaw Ridge”
• “Hell or High Water”
• “Hidden Figures”
• “La La Land”
• “Lion”
• “Manchester by the Sea”
• “Moonlight”

Directing

• Denis Villeneuve, “Arrival”
• Mel Gibsion, "Hacksaw Ridge"
• Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
• Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”
• Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”

Adapted Screenplay

•  “Lion,” by Luke Davis
•  “Arrival,” by Eric Heisserer
•  “Moonlight,” by Barry Jenkins
•  “Hidden Figures,” by Theodore Melfi and Allison Schroeder
•  “Fences,” by August Wilson

Original Screenplay

•  “Manchester by the Sea,” by Kenneth Lonergan,
•  “Hell or High Water,” by Taylor Sheridan
•  “La La Land,” by Damien Chazelle
•  "20th Century Women," Mike Mills
•  “The Lobster,” by Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos

Actress in a leading role:

• Emma Stone, “La La Land”
• Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
• Amy Adams, “Arrival” Ruth Negga, “Loving”
• Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
• Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”

Actor in a Leading Role

• Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
• Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
• Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
• Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
• Denzel Washington, “Fences”

More analysis later. 

FILM REVIEW: Arrival

The movie Arrival was one of my most anticipated movies of this year, as the director Denis Villeneuve has previously helmed some of my favorite films: Incendies (2011), Prisoners (2013) and Sicario (2015).  I blogged about some of the trailers for the movie, which stars Forest Whitaker, Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner and is based on an award-winning short story by Ted Chiang called "The Story of Your Life."

I saw it with a friend at the AMC Tysons Corner 16 in Northern Virginia opening weekend. The fact that the movie's source material is a novella is not surprising because in some sense it feels like there are a limited number of characters in the story, almost like a play. The main character is obviously Amy Adams who plays Louise Banks, a Prius-driving, professor of linguistics who it appears has recently(?) suffered the loss of a child after a long illness (these events are told in a prologue).

The movie really begins with the sudden arrival of a dozen egg-like spaceships, suspended in mid-air in various locations around the world. It turns out that the ship in North America is somewhere in Montana. Forest Whitaker's Colonel GT Weber shows up in Professor Banks' office soon afterwards and on the helicopter we meet Renner's Ian Donnelly, a theoretical physicist. Eventually, the three principals don the world's bulkiest hazmat suits to enter the alien ships and try to find out a way to communicate with our alien visitors in order to discover why the aliens have come to our planet and whether their intentions are peaceful or violent.

One of the memorable aspects of Arrival is the design of the ship and the aliens, which do not look like anything we have seen before, i.e. they really appear to be extra-terrestrial. In particular, the language and the manner in which the aliens communicate is so mind-bendingly original that it sets Arrival apart from other first-contact movies like Contact and Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

Some people have issues with the ending of Arrival but I thought this was the key point which elevated the film into one of the more thought-provoking cinematic experiences of the year. Some aspects of it were a surprise but there were some hints dropped at earlier points in the film which led me to make some conclusions before they were revealed in the narrative. Even though I was not surprised by the eventual twist at the end this did not diminish its emotional resonance with me.

Overall, Arrival is a brilliant, well-crafted depiction of first contact between humans and aliens which gets resolved in a way that reveals an existential question that confronts the viewer.

Title: Arrival.
Director: Denis Villeneuve.
Running Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated PG-13 for brief strong language.
Release Date: November 11, 2016.
Viewing Date: November 13, 2016.

Writing: A+.
Acting: A.
Visuals: A+.
Impact: A.

Overall Grade: A/A+ (4.16/4.0).

WATCH: Final Trailer for Arrival (In Theaters 11/11)

Next week, Friday November 11th is when Arrival finally hits movie theaters! The other half and I will be in Arlington but I definitely intend to see it on opening day. The movie is helmed by one of my favorite directors Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoners, Sicario) and stars Oscar-nominated actors Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Oscar-winner Forest Whitaker. It's about the sudden arrival of aliens and the importance of communication.

WATCH: Trailer for Arrival Features Difficulty Of Intraspecies Communication

I"m very excited about the imminent arrival of Arrival, the new film by director Denis Villeneuve (Incendies, Prisoners, Sicario) starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker based (loosely) on an award-winning short story by Ted Chiang. Villeneuve has made some of my favorite films over the last decade (notwithstanding my constant fan-boy love for Christopher Nolan) and I'm thriller he is working in my favorite genre of science fiction for the first time.

In this "Common Ground" trailer, the difficulty of communicating with people who share common experiences but not a common language is depicted as a means of emphasizing the key point of the film which is about the arrival of aliens whom humanity needs to communicate with.

FILM REVIEW: Her

I have finally gotten around to writing up my review of Spike Jonze's Her, the last movie eligible for my Best Films Seen in 2013. Since I saw the movie on Christmas Day it has gone into wide release, become critically acclaimed (93% on rotten tomatoes) and received five Oscar nominations: Best Picture, Original Screenplay, Production Design, Original Song and Original Score. Surprisingly, neither Joaquin Phoenix nor Amy Adams received nominations for their acting, and the Academy did not break ground with a nomination for Scarlet Johansson who does not appear in the film but whose voice is one of the most significant features of the film.

Her is a very involving, thought-provoking film. The plot revolves around Phoenix's character Theodore Twombly whose job it is to write personal letters for other people. He uses voice recognition software to dictate the letters, which are then generated in amazingly realistic handwriting fonts on various stationery. This is a perfect example of the confounding contrasts in the film. Technology is visibly enhanced from our current reality, but people are still sending each other hand-written letters? Twombly is a very solitary person who is going through a divorce. He purchases a new operating system, which has a new self-aware artificial intelligence voiced by Johansson named Samantha, who quickly becomes the most important thing in his life.

In fact, Her is really a non-traditional love story between Twombly and Samantha. However, in Jonze's vision of the future (which is purportedly set in a future Los Angeles, but contains shots of architecture from various cities in Asia like Shanghai and Tokyo) it is not unusual for people to have emotional relationships with artificial intelligences. In fact, the other significant human character in the film is Amy (played by Amy Adams) also has a clear emotional attachment to her operating system as well.

The film definitely makes you think about the definitions of intimacy and relationship, all the time giving you an engrossing look at a potential future which seems both realistic, intriguing and disturbing simultaneously.

Title: Her.
Director: Spike Jonze.
Running Time: 2 hours, 6 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for language, sexual content and brief graphic nudity.
Release Date: December 18, 2013 (limited).
Viewing Date: December 25, 2013.

Writing: A-.
Acting: A.
Visuals: B+.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: A- (3.67/4.0).

2014 OSCARS: Actual Nominations List!

 

The nominees for the 86th annual Academy Awards have been released. I predicted the nominations in the top 8 categories yesterday. American Hustle and Gravity lead the nominations with ten followed by  12 Years A Slave with 9.

The big surprise was the surprising total of Dallas Buyers Club with 6. Notable snubs were Tom Hanks not getting nominated for Best Actor in Captain Phillips and his Saving Mr. Banks co-star Emma Thompson not getting nominated for Best Actress.

Best Picture

• "The Wolf of Wall Street"
• "Captain Phillips"
• "Her"
• "American Hustle"
• "Gravity"
• "Dallas Buyers Club"
• "Nebraska"
• "Philomena"

Best director

• Steve McQueen -- "12 Years a Slave"
• David O. Russell -- "American Hustle"
• Alfonso Cuaron -- "Gravity"
• Alexander Payne -- "Nebraska"
• Martin Scorsese -- "The Wolf of Wall Street"

Best actor

• Bruce Dern -- "Nebraska"
• Chiwetel Ejiofor -- "12 Years a Slave"
• Matthew McConaughey -- "Dallas Buyers Club"
• Leonardo DiCaprio -- "The Wolf of Wall Street"
• Christian Bale -- "American Hustle"

Best actress

• Amy Adams -- "American Hustle"
• Cate Blanchett -- "Blue Jasmine"
• Judi Dench -- "Philomena"
• Sandra Bullock -- "Gravity"
• Meryl Streep -- "August: Osage County"

Best supporting actor

• Barkhad Abdi -- "Captain Phillips"
• Bradley Cooper -- "American Hustle"
• Jonah Hill -- "The Wolf of Wall Street"
• Jared Leto -- "Dallas Buyers Club"
• Michael Fassbender -- "12 Years a Slave"

Best supporting actress

• Jennifer Lawrence -- "American Hustle"
• Lupita Nyong'o -- "12 Years a Slave"
• June Squibb -- "Nebraska"
• Julia Roberts -- "August: Osage County"
• Sally Hawkins -- "Blue Jasmine"

Best original screenplay

• "American Hustle" -- David O. Russell and Eric Warren Singer
• "Blue Jasmine" -- Woody Allen
• "Her" -- Spike Jonze
• "Nebraska" -- Bob Nelson
• "Dallas Buyers Club" -- Craig Borten and Melisa Wallack

Best adapted screenplay

• "12 Years a Slave" -- John Ridley
• "Before Midnight" -- Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater
• "The Wolf of Wall Street" -- Terence Winter
• "Captain Phillips" -- Billy Ray
• "Philomena" -- Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope

The awards are being given out on Sunday March 2.

FILM REVIEW: American Hustle

The other half and I saw  American Hustle, the new film from director David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter), a couple of days after Christmas. American Hustle brings together Silver Linings Playbook co-stars Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper along with Christian Bale and Amy Adams.

However, this time the story is a fictional take on the famous Abscam scandal of the 1970s where numerous political figures were caught on tape taking bribes and sent to prison for corruption. The story revolves around a con man named Irving Rosenfeld (played by a near-unrecognizable Bale) and the love-of-his-life Sydney Prosser (played by Adams), who has a killer fake British accent. Lawrence plays Irving's estranged wife (and mother of his son) with extreme Jersey flair. Irving and Sydney try to scam the wrong person (an FBI agent named Richie DiMaso played by Cooper who has a ridiculously curly head of hair) and end up beholden to the FBI. Cooper basically coerces Irving and Sydney to run a scam that will net atleast 4 arrests in order to be convinced to not press charges against them. Their first target is Mayor Carmine Polito (played by Jeremy Renner) who is convinced by Irving to use his political connections to facilitate investments to refurbish and redevelop Atlantic City. Hilarity ensues.

The script is clever, and Russell's pacing is designed so that the suspense builds as Irving and Sydney get themselves deeper and deeper entangled with more powerful (and more dangerous) individuals, much to the delight of the FBI's DiMaso, who is hoping to advance in his career by arresting "big fish."

At its heart, American Hustle is a caper film, as well as a love story. Both aspects are well-executed and this makes the film-going experience quite enjoyable. The ensemble cast works well together with no one member standing out more than any other. Russell is well-known for the work he does with actors and this is true here, with Lawrence, Bale, Adams, Cooper and Renner doing some of their best work.

Title: American Hustle.
Director: David O. Russell.
Running Time: 2 hours, 18 minutes.
MPAA Rating: Rated R for pervasive language, some sexual content and brief violence.
Release Date: December 20, 2013.
Viewing Date: December 27, 2013.

Writing: A.
Acting: A.
Visuals: A-.
Impact: A-.

Overall Grade: A/A- (3.83/4.0).

WATCH: Trailer for Man of Steel

Definitely on my short list of anticipated films for summer 2013 would be Man of Steel directed by Zach Snyder (the man who brought us the bloody but homoerotic 300) produced by my favorite director Christopher Nolan.

The reboot of the Superman franchise stars the stunning Henry Cavill as Clark Kent, Russell Crowe as his biological father and Kevin Costner as his adoptive father. Amy Adams plays Lios Lane;  Man of Steel is being released on June 14, 2013.  The third trailer is out now and is approaching 5 million views in just a few days.

OSCARS 2011: Nominations Announced

The 83rd Academy Award nominations were announced this morning. The King's Speech leads with 12, followed by True Grit with 10 and The Social Network and Inception with 8 and The Fighter with 7. More analysis later on. but for now here are the top 8 categories:

Best Picture
“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right ”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3″
“True Grit”
“Winter’s Bone”

Best Direction
Darren Aronofsky for “Black Swan”
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
David Fincher for “The Social Network”
Tom Hooper for “The King’s Speech”
David O. Russell for “The Fighter”

Actor in a Leading Role
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network”
James Franco in “127 Hours”
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech”

Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right”
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole”
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone”
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan”
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine”

Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale in “The Fighter”
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone”
Jeremy Renner in “The Town”
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right”
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech”

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams in “The Fighter”
Helena Bonham Carter in “The King’s Speech”
Melissa Leo in “The Fighter”
Hailee Steinfeld in “True Grit”
Jacki Weaver in “Animal Kingdom”

Adapted Screenplay
Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy for “127 Hours”
Aaron Sorkin for “The Social Network”
Michael Arndt, story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich for “Toy Story 3″
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen for “True Grit”
Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini for “Winter’s Bone”

Original Screenplay
Mike Leigh for “Another Year”
Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson for “The Fighter”
Christopher Nolan for “Inception”
Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg for “The Kids Are All Right”
David Seidler for “The King’s Speech”

MOVIE REVIEW: Doubt

Doubt is in the hunt for Oscar nominations, especially for its high-powered cast of Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Viola Davis.

Doubt is written and directed by John Patrick Shanley (who won the 1988 Oscar for Moonstruck) and adapted the screenplay from his own play, Doubt: A Parable, which won the Pulitzer, Drama Desk and Tony awards in 2005.

However, I have doubts about Doubt the movie. As a film director, Shanley is an excellent screenwriter. It is true that Streep is amazing in the lead role of Sister Aloysius that won Cherry Jones the 2005 Tony award while fellow Oscar winner Hoffman matches her in scene after scene as Father Flynn. Many people are touting the chances of Davis to be nominated for (and possibly win) the Best Supporting Actress Academy Award for the pivotal role of Mrs. Muller. To MadProfessah the most affecting non-lead role performance was delivered by Amy Adams who plays the young and innocent Sister James.


Davis is also affecting in her one extended scene but the animating force of the impact is from the plot twist that she reveals during her conversation with Sister Aloysius. The story is set in 1964 in a predominantly Irish and Italian section of the Bronx. It depicts the everyday lives of the Catholic nuns and priests and their congregants in a particular parish. The movie is centered around an incident which may or may not have occurred at a Catholic middle school whose principal is played by Streep's character and is in a parish headed by Hoffman's character. The incident involves the first black member of the school, who is an altar boy in Hoffman's church but also in Adams' 8th grade class.


The lasting impact of the movie with this viewer was of the immense tragedy Catholic education was and a disturbing sense of awe at the sheer immensity of the Catholic Church and its impact on America.

OVERALL GRADE: B+/A-.

ACTING: A.
IMAGERY: B.
PLOT: A-.
IMPACT: B+.

REVIEW: Enchanted

Saw Enchanted opening weekend at the Highland Theater at Figueroa and Avenue 56th Street in Highland Park. The other half wanted to check out the very close cheap theaters and we love Susan Sarandon so I tagged along.

The trailers for Enchanted were frankly horrific so I went into the theater with pretty low expectations. In fact, we had had no intention to see the movie at all until it started getting glowing reviews at the New York Times (Manohla Dargis), Los Angeles Times (Kenneth Turan) and positive user feedback at rottentomatoes.com.


Since then Enchanted has gone on to become a legitimate hit for Disney, grossing upwards of $91 million dollars domestically, sure to surpass the magic $100 million threshold by the end of the year.


The movie stars Amy Adams, Oscar nominee for Best Actress in Junebug two years ago, the very handsome James Marsden (Hairspray) as her prince and Grey's Anatomy's McDreamy himself, Patrick Dempsey as the other contender for her heart.

The story is cute; not as shmaltzy as one would think. The other half liked it more than I did.

I liked it more than Dana Stevens ("There's something rotten about Enchanted") at Slate.com did, however!

The last act is atrocious, built around Susan Sarandon's evil mother-in-law morphing into an evil, fire-breathing dragon. However, the overall message (filtered through Disney's aggressive cross-promotional efforts of buy, buy, buy!) that people should follow their heart even if that doesn't lead to a fairy tale ending is a surprising one. Yeah, I was pretty surprised when the dragon kills the Princess at the end.

GRADE: B.