Click here to view the embedded video.

HIGH - GLEN HANSARD AND MARKETA IRGLOVA WIN FOR BEST SONG

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

One of the truly sweetest, most heart-warming moments you’ll ever see on any awards show. The song, which they performed last night, was far and away the best song. Haunting and beautiful, it was much better than the THREE songs nominated from Enchanted, all of which were crap, and a song from August Rush, a movie that was critically panned. They deserved to win and as John Travolta, and whatever woodland creature he skinned to adorn his presumably balding head, opened the envelope I feared the winner wouldn’t be Hansard and Irglova. But Oscar sometimes has a way of shining on the underdog. The speeches were moving and when the orchestra played Irglova off before she’d even opened her mouth (something I will get to later), host Jon Stewart did the classiest thing of the evening and ushered Irglova back onstage to give her speech as you’ll see above. The moment touched even the most cynical hearts and in a year where the pair of brothers that won for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Director and Best Pictures acted like they just got free seat cushions at a baseball game, it was nice to be reminded how much these awards mean to the people receiving them.

LOW: SETH ROGAN AND JONAH HILL BOMBING

I don’t know if this bit was written for them but Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill had, hands down, the least authentic, least clever and frankly, least funny banter of the night when they argued over who was Halle Berry and who was Dame Judi Dench. As someone who likes Rogan’s work (save Superbad, which I thought was a really horrible, unfunny movie), I was frankly embarrassed for him.

Another low for me was Bill Conti’s direction of the show’s orchestra. Now, I’m not going to blame Conti for all of it because I’m sure his direction was coming from the show’s producers but I find playing people off when they are in the midst of a speech they’ve waited, literally, their entire lives to make (save Joel and Ethan Coen, apparently) completely disrespectful. The very least The Academy can do is extend the courtesy to the professionals in your own industry to let them say what they have to say and have their moment.

•The continuation of the newest season of Lost. The season premiere was last night and though I will have to go back and watch it again to really get everything, I’m glad it’s back.

•The Super Bowl. The biggest spectacle in American sports. Whether you’re watching the game as a fan or just watching for the commercials, which are on the whole disappointing and not funny, the Super Bowl is essentially a civic holiday.

•In Bruges. This film comes out in limited release on Feb. 8. I saw the trailer before Michael Clayton and it looks like a hilariously fun, kind of heist film in the same vein as Snatch and Lock, Stock… It features a pretty fantastic cast including a pair of Harry Potter alums (Brandon Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes) and the normally regrettable Colin Farrell, who could actually be quite good in this movie. The film is directed and written by first-timer Martin McDonagh, who won an Oscar in 2005 for his live-action short, Six Shooter. The film opens in limited release and hopefully goes nation in short order.  Let us hope this movie proves to me more Snatch and less Shoot ‘Em Up.

•The New Nada Surf record. If you stopped listening to this band after their huge hit, Popular, you’ve missed quite a bit. This is a band who has quietly been putting out some of the best rock records of recent memory. Their last studio record, The Weight is a Gift, is one of my favorite albums of all-time and their newest offering, Lucky, hits stores on Tuesday.

•Great DVD releases.  Some of the year’s best films come out on DVD this month and my Netflix queue is the better for it. Just to give you an idea: American Gangster, Redacted, Rendition, The Assassination of Jesse James by The Coward Robert Ford, Michael Clayton, and Elizabeth: The Golden Age.

•Jumper. This is a movie that I haven’t been too excited about, having seen the trailers many, many times and the prospect of a movie that stars both Hayden Christensen and Samuel L Jackson in some sort of weird white wig doesn’t make me horribly optimistic but the film’s director has me slightly optimistic. Doug Liman, director of The Bourne Identity, returns to direct this sci-fi action flick about a guy who can teleport himself anywhere, anytime. Think Nightcrawler from X-Men. It could be one of those movies that’s just good, mindless fun. It could also be dreadful.

•The New Mike Doughty record.  The former Soul Coughing frontman releases, Golden Delicious, on Feb. 19. Hopefully not an album about produce, I’ve seen Doughty live and I really enjoyed his latest album, Haughty Melodic, which featured a somewhat forgettable duet with Dave Matthews on Tremendous Brunettes, a song I enjoy much more sans Matthews. What Doughty does incredible well are earnest, funky love songs like Unsingable Name and Madeline at Nine. Let’s hope Golden Delicious has a couple.

•Vantage Point.  This is the most-highly anticipated movie of the month for me. I’ve seen the trailer a bunch of times and the cast is great (Dennis Quaid, Forest Whitaker, Matthew Fox, William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver). The film is basically about the assassination of the president told through five different story arcs. It could be great beyond words (kind of wish it wasn’t PG-13) and it could easily be a muddy disaster. Guess, we’ll find out on Feb. 22 when the film opens.

A mini-review here at The Bottom Line of Michael Clayton, which I caught over the weekend. I’ve been itching to see Cloverfield but the girlfriend offered up Michael Clayton instead and given the great things I’ve heard about the film, I couldn’t say no. And I’m glad I didn’t. Believe every positive thing you have heard about this movie.

First let me say that every single performance in this movie is masterfully done. From George Clooney to Tilda Swinton to Sydney Pollack, every person in this film is perfectly cast and gives the film an ultra-realistic feel.

My hats off to Tony Gilroy, who wrote and directed the film. The guy already is a winner in my book, having written The Bourne Trilogy which I love so much. The film is well-written and the Gilroy’s visuals are enveloping and wonderful and I love the way the story moves and the way that by the end of the film, the story comes into focus for the viewer in a way that it hadn’t before.

I should preface this review by saying that this is not The Firm or any of the other legal thrillers. The film does have suspenseful moments but more than anything, I think this film is a wonderfully compelling character study.

Please, if you’re thinking of going to see Cloverfield or Rambo or Meet the Spartans (if you are seriously thinking of going to see Meet the Spartans, let me know and we will try to set up a meeting with a neurologist of your choosing), please check out the re-release of Michael Clayton.

As some of you may have heard, Golf Channel analyst Kelly Tilghman has been suspended two weeks for a remark she made while calling the Mercedes-Benz championship last weekend.

On air, Tilghman joked that to stymie Tiger Woods’ dominance on tour young golfers needed to “lynch him in a back alley.” Tilghman has since apologized for the remark and has received the suspension I’ve mentioned above. Tiger’s camp has accepted her apology and the whole thing appeared to be over. A very poor choice of words into a live microphone had earned Tilghman two weeks off from work and a fair share of embarrassment.

If only that were the end of this story. Rev. Al Sharpton, as he seemingly always does, has interjected on behalf of… well at least himself, saying that Tilghman’s comments were no less inflammatory than Don Imus’ famous comments about the Rutgers womens basketball team and that Tilghman ought to be fired.

I should preface this post by saying that I think this country needs people like Rev. Al Sharpton serving as a watchdog for civil rights.

Al Sharpton is just flat out wrong about Kelly Tilghman. What he does when he injects himself into situations like this is compromise his own legitimacy as a leader and as a public figure when called upon to lend his voice to causes that are actually socially significant (the Jena Six most readily comes to mind).

You absolutely cannot make the comments that Tilghman and I do not condone making those types of comments because of the emotions and years of vicious violence they invoke. But Imus and Tilghman are not the same because there is nothing in her past that suggests that she is bigoted in any way (her friend, Washington Post columnist and PTI host Michael Wilbon said as much on last night’s program), the same cannot be said for Imus who, on a number of occasions, referred to Illinois Senator Barack Obama as “that young colored fella.”

Leave Kelly Tilghman alone, Al.

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Playoff Picks

GREEN BAY over Seattle

NEW ENGLAND over Jacksonville

INDIANAPOLIS over San Diego

DALLAS over New York

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When did Sports Writers become gossip columnists?

Does anyone really, truly, honestly care where and with whom Tony Romo spent his off weekend?

It is an absolute embarrassment to our profession that sports writers are asking Dallas Cowboys players and coaches what they think about Tony Romo heading to Cancun for a couple days during the Cowboys off week. A trip, it should be noted, he did not take alone, pro bowl tight end Jason Witten went along.

Romo broke no team rules by going, didn’t miss any practices or team functions. In fact, Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips instructed his players to get away from the game for a couple days. So what’s the problem? Do we care at all if Marco Rivera mowed his lawn over the weekend? Or if Marion Barber took a nap, played a little Call of Duty 4 and went to see No Country for Old Men? No and we shouldn’t care about this.

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Am I really excited about a flick called Cloverfield?

Answer: Very much

Ever since this film began it’s somewhat cryptic viral marketing campaign, I was interested to see what producer J.J. Abrams had in store. The trailer is out (and below) and what I like most is that they let you know just enough about the plot but leave it at that. Too many times trailers are giving away the movies they are advertising for to lure moviegoers into theaters. This film doesn’t need to do that and I’m itching to see what this movie has to offer.

That being said, I’m not expecting a whole lot. My guess is that this is a monster movie in the same vein that we have seen monster movies before and I hope that, after seeing the film, my favorite part about it isn’t the build-up before I saw going to see it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Senior Bowl adds some more big names

Add to the list of players committed to playing in this year’s Senior Bowl, five LSU Tigers. Those players are Jacob Hester, Craig Steltz, Early Doucet, Ali Highsmith and Chevis Jackson.

They join a nice contingent of players from the SEC who’ve committed already.

Also announced this week were Missouri tight end and First team All-American Martin Rucker, Texas wideout Limas Sweed, and Biletinikoff finalist Jordy Nelson from Kansas State.

The final rosters are to be announced on Sunday, Jan. 20 and will be posted here on The Bottom Line. This year’s Senior Bowl will be played on Saturday, Jan. 26 at 3 p.m. and will be televised on the *sigh* NFL Network.

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Sampson vs. Weber, Round 1

It’s a big afternoon for Indiana sports Sunday as the Colts kick off against the Chargers at 1 and IU and Illinois square off at 4:30 in Bloomington. If you thought the relationship between Bill Belichick and Eric Mangino was contentious, watch the IU game on Sunday on CBS. These are two men who genuinely hate each other’s guts, due in large part to Weber’s belief that Sampson contacted Gordon after the guard had verbally committed to play at Illinois in 2008. Sampson claims a member of Gordon’s family initiated the contact with his staff and that led to Gordon de-committing to Illinois and signing with the Hoosiers. What we have here is a good, old fashion Big Ten Bloodfeud and while the game Sunday won’t come close in the palpable hatred department at Feb. 7’s game in Champaign, it should be entertaining none the less. The end of game handshake will be like Patriots/Jets minus Belichick assaulting a photographer.

Kayla Killian (Bottom Line girlfriend)

1. The Little Giants
2. Sweet Home Alabama
3. Garden State
4. Se7en
5. A Cinderella Story
6. The Great New Wonderful
7. Almost Famous
8. Little Miss Sunshine
9. Love Actually
10. Steel Magnolias
11. Pretty Woman
12. Remember the Titans
13. Rear Window
14. In the Land of Women
15. What About Bob?
16. Men of Honor
17. Billy Madison
18. The Virgin Suicides
19. One Flew Over the Cookoo’s Nest
20. Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail

Kevin “K Squibbs” Donohue - (Bottom Line Brother)

1. Constantine
2. V for Vendetta
3. The Rock
4. Pirates of the Carribean (Black Pearl)
5. Caddyshack
6. Inside Man
7. Boondock Saints
8. Babe
9. Wedding Crashers
10. Apollo 13
11. Gladiator
12. Blow
13. D2: The Mighty Ducks are Back
14. Bourne Ultimatum
15. The Devil’s Rejects
16. Cool Runnings
17. Toy Story
18. The Majestic
19. Reign Over Me
20. Sixth Sense

Kelly Donohue - (Bottom Line Sister)

1. beauty and the beast
2. garden state
3. man on fire
4. the wedding singer.
5. billy madison
6. mr brooks
7. click
8. lady in the water
9. v for vendetta
10. the weatherman
12. the illusionist
13. happy gilmore
14. big daddy
15. hercules.
16. the golden compass
17. saw 4

Lauren Morrill-Ragusea - (Friend of Bottom Line) - Lauren has a nice list of movies but was called out for not having them in order. She promises to do so soon.

Brendan Sorg (Friend of Bottom Line)

1. Remember the Titans
2. Love Actually
3. Elf
4. Crash
5. Miracle
6. Cool Runnings
7. The Family Stone
8. Dreamgirls
9. Rocky IV
10. Hoosiers
11. Wedding Crashers
12. Home Alone II
13. Mighty Ducks II
14. Tommy Boy
15. Monsters Inc.
16. Toy Story
17. Christmas Vacation
18. Cars
19. Forrest Gump
20. Hairspray

Rich Davis - (Bottom Line Cousin)

1.Almost Famous
2.The Rock
3. The Last of the Mohicans
4. Red Storm
5. Hook
6. 3 Musketeers
7. Good Will Hunting
8. The Graduate
9. Platoon
10. Bitterswet Motel
11. Garden State
12. The Big Lebowski
13. The Shining
14.High Fidelity
15. Crash
16. Pulp Fiction
17. The Hunt For The Red October
18.Traffic
19.Motorcycle Diaries
20. Mallrats

Jennifer Schaefer (Friend of Bottom Line)

1. The Last King of Scotland
2. Raise the Red Lantern
3. The Pilllow Book
4. Amelie
5. Secretary
6. Best in Show
7. Little Miss Sunshine
8. Cry-Baby
9. A Clockwork Orange
10. Dog Day Afternoon
11. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
12. Pulp Fiction
13. Ben Hur
14. Taxi Driver
15. Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
16. Silence of the Lambs
17. Fried Green Tomatoes
18. American Psycho
19. Rebecca
20. Steel Magnolias

Patrick McDermott (Friend of Bottom Line)
1. Videodrome
2. Duel
3. The City of Lost Children
4. Primer
5. Harold and Maude
6. The Day of the Triffids
7. Wild Strawberries
8. Hard Boiled
9. Dark City
10. Mona Lisa Smile
11. Sullivan’s Travels
12. Battle Royale
13. Aguirre, The Wrath of God
14. Crash (1996)
15. They Live
16. Rabbit-Proof Fence
17. Death Wish 3
18. Rocky IV
19. Sunset Boulevard
20. Russian Ark

Mallory Hanson (Friend of Bottom Line)

1. Good Will Hunting
2. A Beautiful Mind
3.The Bourne trilogy
4.Hotel Rwanda
5. Reign Over Me
6.The Shawshank Redemption
7. Garden State
8. The Truman Show
9. Office Space
10. The Sandlot
11. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
12. Secretary
13. Mona Lisa Smile
14. Pride and Prejudice
15. Anchorman
16. Live Free or Die Hard
17. Life
18.Cinderella featuring Brandy and Whitney Houston
19. Prime
20. Pleasantville

5. Shaun of the Dead - There isn’t anything about this movie that I love. The way it mocks both itself and other genre movies like it is clever and well-done and makes the movie an absolute joy to watch each and everytime. The scene where they are throwing Shaun’s record collection at the zombie and trying to figure out which LPs are worth throwing and which aren’t is one of my favorite scenes in any movie in the last 10 years. The writing is fantastic, the delivery of the dialogue is spot-on and well-timed and there’s even a Coldplay cameo at the end talking about ZombAid. If a friend of mine didn’t like Shaun of the Dead, I would really have to re-evaluate my friendship with them.

4. Se7en - David Fincher’s masterpiece. When it’s all said and done, Fincher’s film about a series of seven ritualistic killings will be considered one of the greatest films of the last 25 years. The performances, every single one, is poignant, gripping and chilling. The way that Fincher uses the camera, particularly to frame the killer is breathtaking and sinister. I remember Seven being the first rated R movie that I really wanted to see and when I finally did see it, it quickly became one of my favorite movies. The way subtle uses landscapes, like the oppressive grey and rain of the city to illustrate the moral decay of the film’s backdrop. Se7en also contains my favorite shot in any movie ever. There is a scene where Brad Pitt is lying on the street and John Doe is standing over him, the rain beating down and the camera pans up and all you see is the barrel of the gun and a shadowy figure… it’s just spectacular. Such a well-made, well-acted, well-written movie.

3. Garden State - Like Boondock Saints and John Mayer’s music, it seems to be in fashion to bash Zach Braff’s directorial debut but there are few movies that I’ve enjoyed as much as this film. I’ll agree that the film has had the unfortunate side effect of spawning a generation of uber-quirky girls, desperate to imitate the performance of Natalie Portman as the adorably quirky epileptic Sam. And of course, there’s that soundtrack, which overshadowed the film in its popularity. But it’s difficult for me to say a bad thing about a movie with such tremendous heart. I think when it’s all said and done, this will be a generational film in the way that Say Anything, Breakfast Club and *gasp* The Graduate were generational films.

2. Batman Begins - I never claimed to not be a dork. I remember sitting in the movie theatre in Terre Haute, Indiana in summer 2005 at midnight, my friend Zac to my right. I was trying to forget that when this movie let out, I would need to be up at 6:00 in the morning to get to work at my summer job in the shipping department of a nearby plastics plant. The movie started, the opening credits rolled and I thought “This is going to be awesome.” It should be said that this is the movie that saved the Batman franchise. Christopher Nolan’s Frank Miller-esque take on Batman and Christian Bale’s awesome performance as Bruce Wayne (with a little help from the ever-brilliant Michael Caine) made Batman relevant again and have geeks everywhere giddy with anticipation about the upcoming Dark Knight. This movie is far from perfect, Katie Holmes is dreadful, the usually-great Tom Wilkinson was kind of silly and cartoonish as mob giant Carmine Falcone but the film was dotted by great performances by Bale, Caine, Liam Neeson, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, Cillian Murphy and Ken Wantabe. I will always be a fan of Nolan’s for helping to save a character that I’ve loved since I was little.

1. High Fidelity - Those of you who know me well should have seen this coming when High Fidelity hadn’t appeared in my list so far. This adaptation of Nick Hornby’s incredible novel of the same name (which would appear very high up on the list of my favorite books) and the result is solid gold. Cusack is great, Jack Black is hilarious but not Nacho Libre, Todd Louiso is spot-on as the sheepish Dick and Tim Robbins plays the hilariously new age Ian/Ray. My only question about the film is Frears’ decision to cast the Danish Iben Hjejle as the romantic lead but hey — she’s better than Reese Witherspoon. The film’s got tons of music and film references — “What would you say if I told you I hadn’t seen Evil Dead 2?” “I’d say you’re a cinematic idiot and I feel sorry for you.” — and a Bruce Springsteen cameo. Quick, tell me how many films have a Bruce Springsteen cameo. Not many. This is a deal-breaker movie for me. If someone said to me, uttered anything closely resembling these words, “I don’t like High Fidelity,” I would quickly insult their mother and make my getaway post haste.

I like…

USAToday’s Pop Candy blog has a cool story about the pen pal relationship between John Waters and a young Fred Armisen, now a cast member on SNL.

Arctic Monkeys have released some new tracks under a fake name.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Mark Bradley tears into the BCS.

Spin has a cool interview with Mike Doughty.

Anthony Bourdain is returning to work the sauté station at Les Halles in New York for a night. Working the grill station? Eric Ripert of Le Bernadin. Might not be a bad time to think about booking a table at Les Halles in the near future.

The new Chronicles of Narnia trailer:

Click here to view the embedded video.

To view the trailer in HD, head on over to Yahoo! Movies.

I don’t like…

BCS Coordinator and SEC Comish Mike Silve says increased parity in college football won’t change the BCS.

The Sabres have ended their 29-year relationship with the Rochester Americans.

9. Knocked Up - Yes, I read Katherine Heigl’s comments about this film in the recent issue of Vanity Fair and I find the timing of her criticism of the picture (one that has has surely upped her asking price for future roles) to be particularly interesting. Not that her description of the film as “sexist” and that the women in the film were portrayed as “shrews” is without total merit, it’d be impossible for her to argue that Knocked Up and it’s success had nothing to do with her being on the cover of the magazine in the first place. Sorry, had to get that off my chest. I genuinely enjoyed this movie from beginning to end. I didn’t always agree with all the choices Apatow made in the film (the decision to shoot the famous birth scene in graphic detail was something that I thought was foolish) but what I love most about this picture, and about Apatow’s work as a whole, is it’s honesty. The dynamic between Rogen and his friends and the dynamic between Rogen and Heigl is something that you buy from the word “go.” A movie that I have seen 15 times and will likely see another 15. Nothing is better than when Paul Rudd calls Seth Rogen Babe Ruth’s gay brother, Gaybe Ruth..

8. National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation - Not just a seasonal favorite, this is one of my favorite movies ever made by humans. I can’t bear to watch the movie when it’s not Christmas time because it makes me yearn for the the day after Thanksgiving when my soul says it’s ok to put up the Christmas tree and lights. This film has joined the pantheon of Christmas classics (It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, A Christmas Story) and for good reason. I’ve seen this movie 30 times and yet I find new, subtle jokes everytime that make me laugh. I was watching the movie last night and I cracked up when Clark’s christmas lights don’t turn on and his dad tells him to check each bulb and then tells him,”if you need any help, call me, I’ll be upstairs.. asleep.” Unfortunately, Chevy Chase hasn’t been in anything nearly as good since.

7. Three Kings - One could argue that it was David O’Russell’s 1999 film about four U.S. soldiers who set out to steal a huge cache of gold stolen from Kuwait during the Persian Gulf War that saved George Clooney’s career in film. The only David O’Russell film that I can tolerate, Three Kings uses some of the most innovative cinematography I’ve ever seen in an action film and was the first time a director had actually went inside the body to show the audience the path of a bullet. For me, it was the first time that it really dawned on me that Mark Whalberg could really act. The casting of Ice Cube and Spike Jonze turned out to be brilliant moves and I really feel as if kids 20 years from now will still be watching and enjoying Three Kings.

6. Mallrats - Back when Jason Lee was making good career choices (before he took roles in the Underdog movie and this atrocious, borderline offensive live action/CGI Alvin and the Chipmunks debaccle), he was a pro skateboarder with little to no experience other than a bit role in Alison Anders’ Mi Vida Loca. All of that changed after Mallrats. For me, watching this film for the first time in 8th grade with my friend Lars Johanson and brother really signified an epiphany that has shaped my movie-watching life thereafter. Watching and loving Mallrats, a movie that I have probably seen more than any other, it dawned on me that there was a world of movies out there that weren’t Independence Day and Titantic, that didn’t have big holiday openings. There was a world of movies that I’d never heard of, a world I was all too anxious to explore. If you’re wondering why Cameron Crowe cast Lee in Almost Famous (a movie I despise) or why NBC picked him as Earl, watch Mallrats. Lee is magnetic, charismatic and downright hilarious as Brodie Bruce opposite the wooden Jeremy London. The film made me a fan of Kevin Smith’s, a fan of Jason Lee and a fan of movies I’ve never heard of.