That time of year...

I swore I wouldn't do this again this year, but hey, cut me some slack, it's my last week (day, in fact) of the semester. Been bombarded up the wazoo with finals-- my last one starts in an hour-- and while I've still been running to screenings, time to write reviews has been few and far between.

I have rough semblances of reviews written right now for "I Am Legend" (* * 1/2), "The Kite Runner" (* 1/2) and "Alvin and the Chipmunks" (* 1/2), but I haven't had time to finish them. This is the time of year when there are so many screenings that you have to sacrifice some to catch others (I won't get a look at "Charlie Wilson's War" till opening day because both of my chances to see it interfered with screenings of other films I had more of a desire to see), so there's a solid ten films left this year I need to see. Beyond them, I've gotten at least one look at pretty much everything else. All that remains are:

--"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"
--"Starting Out in the Evening"
--"Grace is Gone"
--"Youth Without Youth"
--"Charlie Wilson's War"
--"National Treasure: Book of Secrets"
--"Persepolis"
--"Aliens vs. Predator - Requiem"
--"The Bucket List"
--"The Orphanage"

I should get to those first 4 by the end of this weekend; "Persepolis," "Orphanage" and "Bucket List" by mid-week next week; and "Charlie Wilson," "National Treasure" and "Aliens" won't be seen by me until they're in theaters. So I haven't set in stone a top 10 just yet, but I have a map of one tentatively carved out at the moment.

In terms of the Golden Globes: yeah, the seven nominations for Best Drama thing was absurd. Still, it's nice to see my three favorite films of the year all getting Best Picture noms, as well as Ryan Gosling and Viggo Mortensen getting much-deserved boosts. And while, yeah, I'm in the "'Atonement' and 'Michael Clayton' are overrated" camp, at least they're good movies, so I'm not upset at their nominations; "The Great Debaters" on the other hand...

As for snubs, the only ones that particularly came to mind were Laura Linney (yet again!) being ignored for her remarkable work in "The Savages" and Hal Halbrook's wonderfully touching performance in "Into the Wild" being overlooked. In the "undeserving" camp, I'd have to immediately point to Keira Knightley, Denzel Washington and John Travolta. And I haven't seen "Charlie Wilson" yet, but I doubt Julia's performance is going to engender my passion. Anyway, that's all for now kids; should have quick takes on "I Am Legend" and "Alvin" to come by the end of the weekend, and "Kite Runner" sometime soonafter.