 Read the Full Press Release:
Beverly Hills, CA – Producer Hawk Koch was elected president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences tonight (July 31) by the organization’s Board of Governors. This will be his first term in the office.
Koch, who is beginning his ninth year as a governor representing the Producers Branch, has served as first vice president of the Academy during the past year. He previously served three one-year terms as treasurer and one term as vice president. Read more on Hawk Koch Elected New Academy President!…
 I can’t say that I’ve ever been a fan of the Broken Lizard comedy troop’s films. ‘Super Troopers’ seems to be the one that’s most admired by their fans, but it never did anything for me. Director Jay Chandrasekhar has been the man behind their flicks for some time (along with the big screen incarnation of ‘The Dukes of Hazard’…the less said about that one the better, however), and he’s finally found a way to amuse me with ‘The Babymakers’, a raunchy comedy that also manages to get at some heartfelt points. It’s hardly high art, and too often plays it a bit safe, but it’s very entertaining and among the funnier films of the year so far (the recently released ‘Klown’ is both funnier and dirtier, but they’re hardly similar films). The film comes out on Friday, and I can easily recommend it with this Early Review to those looking for a good laugh. Chandrasekhar isn’t doing the best direction that’s ever been seen, but by leaving the scripting duties to others, the humor is a cut above what I’m used to from his flicks, though arguably still not that phenomenal. Don’t go in expecting anything incredible, but I found myself laughing perhaps more than I’d like to admit, and that’s enough for a recommendation here.
Read more on The Babymakers (***)…
AMPAS has unveiled the fifth film in its “The Last 70mm Film Festival” series, and it is Stanley Kubrick’s science fiction masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Kubrick was the subject of last week’s Circuit 3, in which I selected this epic film as my personal favorite of his career, so I am glad to see the film being honored and receiving more exposure, and hope that it finds a new generation of fans ready to explore Jupiter space.
Here is the official release:
Beverly Hills, CA – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences presents the 1968 science fiction epic “2001: A Space Odyssey” as the fifth film in its series “The Last 70mm Film Festival” on Monday, August 6, at 7 p.m. at the Academy’s Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills.
The film was nominated for four Academy Awards®, including Art Direction (Tony Masters, Harry Lange, Ernie Archer), Directing (Stanley Kubrick), and Writing – Story and screenplay written directly for the screen (Kubrick, Arthur C. Clarke), and won an Oscar® for Special Visual Effects (Kubrick).
Read more on Academy Opens the Pod Bay Doors for ’2001: A Space Odyssey’ in 70mm…
The awards ceremony honoring excellence in production design will be held on February 2, 2013 at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Here is the press release and official timeline for the Art Directors Guild Awards:
BEVERLY HILLS, July 31 — The 17th Annual Art Directors Guild Excellence in Production Design Awards honoring production design in nine categories of theatrical motion pictures, television, commercials and music videos will take place on Saturday, February 2, 2013, at the International Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel, it was jointly announced today by ADG President Thomas Walsh and Awards Producer Greg Grande.
Read more on The 17th Annual Art Directors Guild Awards Have a Date…
 MTV announced the nominees for Video Music Awards, not that they even play music videos anymore, they still like to pretend from time-to-time they care about music.
Rihanna and Drake lead the nominations with five. Check out the full nominees below.
Read more on MTV Video Music Award Nominations!…
 Many of us have been looking for a big film to begin eagerly anticipating now that ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ is over and done with. Personally, now I’ve got it with the latest James Bond flick ‘Skyfall’. Today we have a new Full Trailer for the movie, and it’s pretty sweet (complete with a few Batman vibes, actually). It’s everything you’d like to see 007 doing, and then some. You can take a look at the Trailer after the jump, and get set to have a new adventure with Bond on November 9th, courtesy of director Sam Mendes (and of course with Daniel Craig still in the lead). Take a gander and enjoy…for me November can’t come soon enough. Behold it below.
Read more on Full Trailer for ‘Skyfall’…
 This week, it’s again a light slate of releases hitting Blu-Ray/DVD. I prepped everyone last week for this, but we’re right in the middle of it now, so just take a deep breath and make the best of it until things brighten up in a few weeks. Once the summer ends, we’ll be back to top notch (or at least mostly high end) releases, so it’s not the end of the world. I’ll try and make up for it in the Vintage section later on in the column, but for now let’s just take a look at what there is to actually choose from today. For my PICK OF THE WEEK, I really had no choice but to go with the only flick that I particularly enjoyed of the group. Clayton happened to tease it a bit yesterday, but I’ll get into it more now. I bet you all know what it is, but in case any of you don’t, I’ll let you in on the (not so) secret. It’s: Read more on Joey’s DVD Picks of the Week (7/31/2012)…
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