This year I've decided to write an Oscar column for TheCinemaSource; I was going to do it for this site anyway, like I've done for the past four years, so I figured I may as well get more than two or three people to read it in the process. The good news is that it's a weekly column and I've actually actually managed to write it each week (although on a different day every time); the bad news is I forgot to tell you about it until now. Don't worry; we still have, like, ten weeks until the Oscars actually arrive. Here's what you missed so far:

Oscar Spiel #1: The frontrunnners of the Best Picture race so far... (11/7)
Oscar Spiel #2: A look at the Best Actor race (11/15)
Oscar Spiel #3: The Few Great Roles for Women (11/28)
Oscar Spiel #4: National Board of Review winners and revised Best Picture predictions (12/6)
Oscar Spiel #5: Reaction to the Golden Globes & Critics Groups nominees (12/16)

This week was relatively quiet at the box office - everyone was scared to open a movie opposite I Am Legend - but I've got a review for the Will Smith movie for you.

...Plus, an interview with Jason Lee for Alvin in the Chipmunks, which my boss insists is a great movie.

In bigger news, ABC has finally decided to firm up their spring season schedule in the face of very little original programming thanks to the strike. Lost will indeed debut it's fourth season - on January 31st, in the Thursdays at 9pm time slot previously occupied by Grey's Anatomy.

From a business standpoint it's a fairly good move, and the good news is that ABC still has plenty of faith in the show - Thursdays at 9 is generally considered to be just about the best time slot out there in terms of when viewers traditionally tune in the most.

The bad news, of course, is that only eight episodes are finished. Even if the strike ends soon, there's really no conceivable way they could finish the other episodes in time without some break. It looks like they'll be resigned to airing them this coming fall - good for us since we'll get 24 episodes from Sept - May, but awkward for the show as the arc will be all screwed up. Of course, things could change, so I'll keep you updated.

I understand that the WGA has made mistakes in the five weeks since the strike began and even before that, but even a very close look at both side of the argument leads me to conclude that the AMPTP is nothing less than evil personified. I'm pretty sure the image on the left is a photograph of a typical AMPTP member. So what follows is my newest article/editorial, which doesn't try whatsoever to be impartial; the original link is here.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) walked out of negotiations with the Writer's Guild (WGA) this past Friday, then blamed the writers for trying to prolong the strike.

"We're disappointed to report that talks between the AMPTP and WGA have broken down yet again," the AMPTP said in a statement. "Quite frankly, we're puzzled and disheartened by an ongoing WGA negotiating strategy that seems designed to delay or derail talks rather than facilitate an end to this strike...While the WGA's organizers can clearly stage rallies, concerts and mock exorcisms, we have serious concerns about whether they're capable of reaching reasonable compromises that are in the best interests of our entire industry."

Hm. That sounds very pretty until you realize that the WGA has every reason to want to end the strike, and the AMPTP has many reasons not to. For one, they need to renegotiate their contract with the Director's Guild (DGA) soon. "[Studios] may be able to persuade the helmers to hammer out a contract that would create a formula for thorny issues such as payment for the Internet and other digital media," suggests Variety. "But it's far from certain whether the writers and actors guilds would adhere to any formula OK'd by the directors."

However, there's also a more devious reason at work: "force majeure" clauses legally allow the studios to terminate any contract they've made - let's say a three-picture deal with a filmmaker whose first film tanked - in the event of a circumstance beyond their control, i.e. the strike. The thing is, force majeure doesn't go into effect until six weeks into the strike - which will be a week from today. The money the studios recoup from terminating unproductive contracts could even balance out the money they've lost since the strike began.

For these reasons, the writers suspected that the most recent round of negotiations was just for show. ""What was so galling about Friday was that it made clear how disingenuous they were being," one WGA negotiator told Variety. "They never intended to negotiate. They told us if we took DVDs off the table we'd get a deal on new media. But they were lying."

That last bit about DVDs is referring to the original round of negotiations, when the WGA took their proposal of a new DVD residual deal off the table in order to secure fair deals that the AMPTP had promised for things such as streaming video and internet downloading.

The AMPTP, of course, reneged on that promise. And now they're blaming the WGA for not wanting to negotiate. That would be hilarious if it wasn't so catastrophic for the industry.

In the same weekend I had to review one of the best and one of the worst movies of the year. On the one hand was Juno, which overcame an annoying first five minutes to become a really, really enjoyable, original, engrossing, hilarious movie - in my head, it keeps flip-flopping with Into the Wild as the best movie of the year.

On the other hand was Revolver, a colossally stupid movie that actually made me angry because it stars Jason Statham, whom I usually really like.

And then somewhere in the middle was The Golden Compass, which was good but ultimately felt like a pretty generic fantasy movie.

In the beginning of my review I touch a little on the controversy Compass has had - some Catholic groups are calling for a boycott on the grounds that it's anti-religious, and while the movie itself is not, don't get all self-righteous about crazy Christians being intolerant just yet. The source material is very, very anti-religious, which of course is perfectly allowed and actually fairly interesting. But don't get mad at Catholics for being offended by a fantasy trilogy that calls Christianity "a very powerful and convincing mistake."

On the other hand, those calling for the boycott are saying that the movie stripped away the anti-religious themes on purpose - to "trick" parents into subsequently buying the books for their children for Christmas. So let's see, either (A) New Line Cinema is spearheading a conspiracy to turn children into atheists, or (B) New Line Cinema wanted to make a fantasy movie to make lots of money. Hmm...

As always, both sides are full of idiots. Either way, go watch Juno instead.