Golden boy.

its oscar season. the nominees have been outed and the winners will be presented in less than a month. its the time of year when every self-appointed movie buff gives his/her five dimes on who will win and who should win. so i guess i cant be any less of a movie buff than anyone else. here goes. well make this into neat and tidy lists. i like lists. ive mentioned that before i think. so batting first, for the academy - the nominees!

Best Movie - Babel, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, Letters from Iwo Jima, The Queen

Best Director - Clint (Letters from Iwo Jima), Stephen Frears (The Queen), Alejandro G. Iñarritu (Babel), Paul Greengrass (United 93), Martin Scorsese (The Departed)

Best Actor - Leo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond), Ryan Gosling (Half Nelson), Peter O'Toole (Venus), Will Smith (The Pursuit of Happyness), Forest Whitaker (The Last King of Scotland)

Best Actress - Penelope Cruz (Volver), Judi Dench (Notes on a Scandal), Helen Mirren (The Queen), Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada), Kate Winslet (Little Children)

Best Supporting Actor - Alan Arkin (LMS), Jackie E Haley (Little Children), Djimon Honsou (Blood Diamond), Eddie Murphy (Dreamgirls), Mark Wahlberg (The Departed)

Best Supporting Actress - Adriana Barrazza (Babel), Cate Blanchett (Notes on a Scandal), Abigail Breslin (LMS), Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls), Rinko Kikuchi (Babel)



and now, my opinion.

Best Movie -> will win: Babel, just cos its so "big" and meaningful. an epic movie, with solid acting. very oscar material.
should win: Little Miss Sunshine, just wonderfully real and human. deals with real emotions and real situations, with characters one can relate to. its just a wonderful feel good movie. and its hilarious.

Best Director -> will win: Martin Scorsese, he deserves it. finally. a legend. and no oscar as of yet. come on. (and ive heard that The Departed is good.)
should win: see above.

Best Actor -> will win: Forest Whitaker, havent seen the movie. but you can tell its oscar material. and its such a hardcore role for him. just very oscar. and again, "meaningful" role, "meaningful" movie.
should win: Ryan Gosling, havent seen Half Nelson either, but its apparently really good. and also i loved Ryan in The United States of Leland and The Believer, and it would be good to see a young actor get the award.

Best Actress -> will win: Helen Mirren, its obvious. the queen. serious. come on.
should win: Helen Mirren maybe, havent seen any of the movies, so cant really say, but i do believe Helen Mirren will live up to the hype once i see the queen.

Best S.Actor -> will win: Eddie, probably, with all the hype around Dreamgirls its bound to win one of the big 'uns.
should win: Alan Arkin, again, cant really say bout the others, but Alan was fantastic as grandpa/dad/fatherinlaw in LMS, and the movie deserves at least one win.

Best S.Actress -> will win: Jennifer Hudson, two words: Dreamgirls
should win: Rinko Kikuchi/Abigail Breslin: Rinko was stupendous as the deaf japanese girl in Babel, i think she deserves it easy. but then again Abigail was fantastically cute and very good in LMS as well, tho i guess this has more to do with me wanting LMS to win something, if i think bout it seriously i think Rinko Kikuchi deserves it. she was phenomenal.

so there we have it. a short and sweet list of my predictions for February 25th. well see what happens.

id like to thank the academy....
anton

ps. didnt you find it tasteless to have the "Winner - Best Director, Cannes 2006" thingy in the beginning of Babel? in the trailer it would be fine to have it. but in the actual movie? come on. i felt that it was just so in your face, like hes warning us that were gonna see something amazing and really meaningful, so pay attention. this also relates to why my expectations fell a bit short with babel, which was beacuse iñarritu tried too hard to be meaningful and make a "big"/important movie, tho it was still very good, as you can see from the 5th position on my best of 2006. but still, come on. is iñarritu slightly full of himself?

The Great Beyond.

i just watched a Stephen Hawking tvshow today. hes awesome btw. insanely smart. you should read A Brief History of Time, its very good if youre interested in the universe and more. tho i could only understand pretty much a third of all the technical mumbo-jumbo (and id like to think that im somewhat smart. it makes me feel good.) hi-ho silver! to the point! ive watched the show countless times (we have it taped on vhs + im a nerd = countless times), but i hadnt watched it in a long time. and seeing it again just brought up many thoughts. at the top of that pile of random thoughts and theories and wonderments, there was the amazing realisation that whenever we look at the stars, we see the past. i just think thats amazing. i dont have anything more meaningful to say about that, but just the fact thats its immensly cool. (if you dont know what im talking about, we see the past, because the light arriving from distant stars has taken many millions [or billions] of years to get to us, the stars are really really really really really far away, so the light we see from stars is the light that left the stars millions of years ago, make sense?). but yeah, just thought id leave you with that thought.
whenever we look to the stars, were looking into the past.



The universe rocks!
- anton

PS. were not even made of especially common matter. 90% of the universe is made up of dark matter, which we cant even see. and less than 2% of the universe is made up of the same stuff we are. kinda puts you into perspective. (im not entirely sure about the 2%, but the 90% is 100%. im such a geek.)

Best of 2005.

its been a quiet beginning to the week. so im just gonna stick to things that are simple and fun. lists. movies. and years. so im gonna combine the three into yet another Top 5 list. this time the best movies of 2005 (yeah. you guessed right. im bored). so here goes. top 5 movies of 2005.

1. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang / The Weatherman / Thank You For Smoking
2. Syriana / Brokeback Mountain
3. Good Night, and Good Luck
4. Batman Begins / The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
5. Sin City / V for Vendetta / Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit

there you go.. many good movies were omitted from this list. and even then i couldnt narrow it down to five. well. shame. thats just how the cookie crumbles. the pistol pops. and the umbrella opens.

xoxo
antoine

Best of 2006.

lists. who doesnt love 'em? top 5, top 10, top whatever. a good list will cheer you up whenever you see one. so ima start writing my top 5/10 somethings every week, ie one list of my top [choose appropriate noun] every week. great. ill start with the Top 5 movies of 2006. now sadly i didnt have a chance to see as many movies as id have liked in 2006, cos i was in the army half of the year, but nevertheless, i still did see some fantastic releases, and some mediocre ones. but here you have my five favourite movies of 2006 in a neat and tidy list.

1. Little Miss Sunshine
2. Paris, je t'aime/ El Laberinto del Fauno (Pan's Labyrinth)
3. Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan
3,5. The Departed
4. La Science des Rêves (The Science of Sleep)
5. Cars / Babel / Casino Royale

tell me what you think. what would you change with the list?

- greenpeace, anton

edit 30.1: there are many movies that might/could be on the list, but arent because i havent had a chance to see them yet... these movies include:Pan's Labyrinth (i believe this has a good chance of making the list), The Last King of Scotland, The Illusionist, Blood Diamond (which hasnt even come to finland yet..)

edit: 8.2: i finally saw The Departed, at it was really good, so now it took its rightful spot in between Borat and Sleep.

edit 17.2: saw El Laberinto del Fauno today (pans labyrinth), and my god its good. go see it. very very good. it almost got its own second place ranking ahead of paris je t'aime, but i decided to let them share it instead. its good. see it.

Up in the ass.

now who ever said finns didnt have a sense of humour?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=wqQhQSbe6fw

(tho on a more personal note, i bet that hurt like hell. but marcus is just so funny.)

One teaspoon of emotion.

i have to repeat a famous line that may or may not be over-used: take time for yourself. i did. and i just realised how great it is. i was chilling at home doing nothing. when im at home chilling i do nothing. it means i waste time. most of the time i waste is used up on the time spent while walking from room to room, relocation. i do that a lot. for no reason. the rest of my time goes to opening the fridge every time i walk past the kitchen and checking if we have something good to eat. we never do. so basically i divide my time between walking around aimlessly and thinking about making something good to eat. now youre probably wondering what this has to do with taking time for oneself, but be patient, im getting there. so now then. today i was wasting time as usual, until i decided to go outside and shovel some snow out of our driveway (its been snowing like hell here, very beautiful, but thats the subject of a different post), or well i was told so by my brother. so i put my iPod on and went outside, with some heavy duty winter-gear. and when i was shoveling snow and listening to coldplay and the shins i realised that life is good. like seriously good. and goddamn i love my friends. so i took a moment and lay in the snow while New Slang (by the shins) and Fix You (coldplay) played through.... and i couldnt have felt better. it was this feeling of just being in the moment and soaking in every second of it. and letting all the wonderful things in ones life go flowing through your head and just being.. happy.

i really really recommend that you do the same some day. doesnt have to be shoveling snow, but anything. lying in the grass on a sunny day, taking a walk in the rain. anything. but it does need to be outside. and you also need good music. or well, lets just say it makes it a whole lot more enjoyable. but that could also just be me, i just love music so much.

so drop whatever you're doing and take a walk. go stand in the rain. or lie down in a big pile of snow. put on one of your favourite songs. and just sink in. forget everything. let that inexplicable feeling of happiness and relaxation wash over you. its worth it.

Change. (announced)

i feel good. finally i get to write something about the progress of my projects/movies, which was after all the main idea behind this blog. but to the point. i have now finally started proper work on my next movie, entitled 'Change'. i havent started writing a script yet, but i have worked out many details involving many of the sequences in the film. i wont tell you about the details in the story yet, because theyre still in a very fluctuating stage. when i finish my rough drafts/plans for all sequences (its sequential movie or whatever the official term is, eg. coffee & cigarettes + Paris je t'aime) and begin writing the actual script youll hear more from me. but this was just to inform you that i am on my way...i also came up with a very rudimentary shooting schedule, which would indicate that this film is going to be a summer block-buster, released sometime in june most probably.

Release Date: June-July 2007

[ive put the status of the project, ie in what stage the film is,in the title of this here post, so you can quickly see where im at, not entirely unlike imDb]

-antoine

Scrubs.

<3

Beautiful World.

life is wonderful. and beautiful. thats a fact. dont argue with me. and now ill leave you for the night with a wonderful and beautiful song.



goodnight, anton

Tori. A place to catch up on life.

some of my friends have probably already heard me rant and rave about this place, but nevertheless, if youre looking for the best café/restuarant in helsinki look no further. it resides on Punavuorenkatu in the heart of helsinki (off to the side a teensie weensie bit), and goes by the simple name of 'Tori' and it offers a very relaxed atmosphere with fantastic foods at a reasonable price. i guess you couldnt ask more of a restaurant. well you couldnt.
ive been to tori only once so far, but i absolutely fell in love with it, and i guess thats why im here telling you about it, its seriously the best place to eat in helsinki. the decoration is very simple, and its a small space, but quite modern, and with the feel of a local café. the music they played when i was there, was alternative and very chilled and good, though if youre looking for that nice classical background music you hear at fancy restaurants with violins and all that jazz, then you should look further. when you sit down in tori it feels like your sitting midst people who are full of ideas, the clientele is very bohemian and many artists reside there (apparently), and this is one of the main features i like about the place - the atmosphere, its hard to explain, but if you go there, youll realise what im talking about.
now, to the food, i had the Tandori chicken salad, which was tantalising and just amazing. it was a very well sized portion, not leaving me with a feeling of hunger whatsoever (and i can eat a lot, trust me), and it was also well priced at just under 10€, if i remember correctly (not too far from 10€ in any case). but apparently, according to NYT, their most famous and best dish is their homemade meatballs and potato muusi, which is also just 10€, and offers a hardy meal for any sizeable man.
but i can recommend this restaurant solely based on that one chicken salad, though it was the atmosphere that really impressed me, go there and find out yourself. try it out. and tell me what you think.

so stop wondering about what you should make for dinner/lunch or breakfast and walk over to Punavuorenkatu 2, in Helsinki, and grab yourself a well priced and delicious meal, and sit down and enjoy life.

ps. it was even rated the 17th best restaurant in Helsinki by viisitähteä.fi (http://www.viisitahtea.fi/content/view/549/51/1/2/), this was amongst "fancy" restaurants. so take that beethoven.

Ravintola Tori
Punavuorenkatu 2, 00120 Hki
Weekdays - 10-22
Sat - 12-22
Sun - 14-02
The kitchen closes all days at 23
ravintolatori.fi

the picture was taken from:
www.city.fi

Sundance - Indie?

I just read an article in TIME (January 29, 2007 - woah! its from the future...shit. get the tin foil caps out!) by Richard Corliss, TIMEs movie critic, where he argued that sundance has gone main-stream. basically the gist of the article, was that the movies that come out of the Sundance Film Festival have become predictable and have lost their originality - "…they have devolved into a genre…the theme is relationships, beginning in angst and ending in reconciliation…the focus is often ona dysfunctional family…" reading throught his article (btw, interesting and good article, read it) got me thinking about how i label movies and what "original" movies are.

so now then, ive always been interested in original and quirky movies, and movies that break the mold, so to speak, and i have felt that the words "official selection Sundance Film Festival" have been synonymous with this - low-budget movies, made with passion and a love for films, and often very different from what we are used to seeing in theatres. but are they actually that original? i cant say that ive seen many films that came out of sundance last year, pretty much only Little Miss Sunshine (which is AMAZING, see it.) and i still really want to see Half Nelson and a cpl of others, but nevertheless i havent seen what they had to offer last year, but even according to my image of LMS and the image i have of sundance movies, richard corliss could be right. they do involve dysfunctional families and usual end in a feel good ending (nothing wrong with that per se) and are made with an earthy/real feel to them. now imo theres nothing wrong with this, but if this becomes the standard, and sundance just starts churning out films that are each more similar than the last, then whats gonna happen to the indie-film?

i feel like this is the same phenomenon as i keep seeing in our "youth culture", where its become, during the past year, hip to be different. and if youre not different youre not in or cool. which is in itself a contradiction, "Be yourself, just like everyone else" (thnx axl). and this could be the case with sundance/indie movies as well, couldnt it? i dont know. all i can say is that i hope it isnt the case and never will be. but with movies from sundance all seeming similar (i base this on what ive seen, and trailers [not very solid i know, but its the image i get, or is it just because of this article i read?]) we might be losing indie-film to conformity. what i think people need to think about/learn/realise is that being different is not something to try to achieve and it is not that different actually, people should just accept themselves and be what they are - themselves. human. erronous. flawed. but still wonderful in their OWN quirky ways.

so dont be different. be yourself.

hope this didnt sound too pretentious, and please tell me what you think about this. cos the article really got me thinking, but then i couldnt completely decide whether this is actually the case with sundance movies, or if im just lettting myself be influenced by a well written article.... i gotta watch more sundance movies, and then ill get back to you.

and now ill leave you with a song from one of my favourite movies



xoxoxoxxXXx
(kisshugkisshugkisskissbigkissbigkisslittlekiss)
anton

The Shins. Awesome.

Now that i got into this i cant seem to stop. oh no! help me i cant stop. yes. anyhoo. The Shins are an amazing band, had to clear that first, and now they came out with a new album - Wincing the Night Away. it was released today in the States and will be released on the 29th in the UK, if i remember correctly, lets hope it comes to finland soon after that. but, now, to the main selling point of this post, previews (Schnell! Schnell!), i have obtained the rights to preview a couple of songs from their album right here on my blog, now how awesome am i? come on, give it to me..theere you go. well no. i found them on a random internet radioblog thingy. so here goes, i give you the Shins - Wincing the Night Away







-anton

Champagne and caviar not included.

Allrighty then, this is the real opening of this here blog. So to explain what this is gonna be about. Firstly, and mainly, this is supposed to be a place where you can keep up with my projects, ie. movies, hence the name of the site Random Entertainment. Those of you who know me know what this means. So... ill keep posting here with new developments in my scripts and shootings and whatnot. However, i will also post random comments on whatever i might find interesting at any given moment. So what you might see here are short reviews of movies ive just seen or posts about something funky/interesting/astonishing/unbelieveable or otherwise eye-catching thats happened in the world. and i think ill make it a habit to add a good song to listen to at the end of every post, i think this will go down well with the audience. yes. i do believe so. but without further ado, i give you "dot dot dot. and i feel fine" - a blog about life and everything associated with it.

and to finish this off, one of my most favouritest songs of favourite songs, ever: 'Chicago' by Sufjan Stevens



your friend, anton

Grand opening...

allright then. i dont have time right now to explain what this is gonna be about, so to satisfy your hunger ill leave you with an amazing song to listen to (and ill get back to you later..):



peace love and puppy dogs (sorry Zach)

-anton