Being AR Rahman

School children in India celebrate Slumdog Millionaire score composer AR Rahman's double-Oscar triumph yesterday by donning Being John Malkovich-esque face masks. Incidentally, 'Jai Ho' (the title of Rahman's Best Song winner) means 'may you win'. Which he did. So there you go.

And the winners are...

Sooooo... the 'leaked winners' (previous blog below) were way off the mark. In fact, Straight To Video's own predictions were more accurate. Except The Freelance Hellraiser predicted The Sun's headline would read 'Kate Wins It', but they went for 'Kate Win-A-Lot'. The Freelance Hellraiser's is loads better though isn't it. The Sun's sounds like canned dog food.

Enniooooo (that's 'anyhoo' in movie score world FYI)...

Slumdog Millionaire cleaned up, winning EIGHT awards.

Kate 'Wins It' Winslet won it and she gave a composed and endearing speech (we may have cried a bit on her behalf) with just the right amount of thank yous balanced with some personality, humour and emotion (people who take to the stage with bits of paper and read out boring lists- take note).

As anticipated, Heath Ledger received the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor for his inspired turn as The Joker in The Dark Knight. The only real surprise came when Sean Penn beat Mickey Rourke to the Best Actor post for his role in Milk. It was a deserved win, but Mickey had the edge if you ask us.

And finally, here at Straight To Video Towers, we've been rooting for AR Rahman and the Slumdog Millionaire music all through awards season and he got the double last night - Best Score and Best Song (for the amazing film-closer, 'Jai Ho').

An amazing night for the Brits all round... in addition to the Slumdog Sweep and Kate Winalot Prime's victory, Man On Wire took home Best Documentary and The Duchess won Best Costume design. Rule Brittania etc.

Here are the winners in full:
Best Picture - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Directing - DANNY BOYLE (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Actor In A Leading Role - SEAN PENN (Milk)
Best Actress In A Leading Role - KATE WINSLET (The Reader)
Best Actor In A Supporting Role - HEATH LEDGER (The Dark Knight)
Best Actress In A Supporting Role - PENELOPE CRUZ (Vicky Cristina Barcelona)
Best Original Screenplay - MILK
Best Adapted Screenplay - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Cinematography - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Visual Effects - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Art Direction - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Costume Design - THE DUCHESS
Best Makeup - THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
Best Film Editing - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Original Song - JAI HO (Slumdog Millionaire)
Best Score - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Sound Editing - THE DARK KNIGHT
Best Sound Mixing - SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE
Best Animated Feature - WALL-E
Best Animated Short - LA MAISON EN PETITS CUBES
Best Documentary Feature - MAN ON WIRE
Best Documentary Short - SMILE PINKI
Best Foreign Language Film - DEPARTURES
Best Short Film - SPIELZEUGLAND (TOYLAND)

Are these really the winners?

Zane Lowe Vs James King on Radio 1

VS

Movie critic James King finally managed to get himself on a decent BBC Radio 1 show last night. Zane Lowe invited him to be his Versus guest for a movie soundtrack Oscars special. You can listen again HERE.

And here's the tracklisting (we've corrected the spelling mistakes on Radio 1's behalf - we must look into the work of 'Tarrentino' some time...):

Round 1- Songs from an 80s movie
JK - Kenny Loggins - 'Danger Zone' (Top Gun)
ZL - Yello - 'Oh Yeah' (Ferris Bueller's Day Off)

Round 2 - Song from a Tarantino movie
JK - JK - 5,6,7,8s - 'Woo Hoo' (Kill Bill)
ZL - Stealers Wheel - 'Stuck In The Middle With You' (Reservoir Dogs)

Round 3 - Tune from a comedy
JK - Dr Evil - 'Hard Knock Life' (Austin Powers)
ZL - Will Ferrell - 'Afternoon Delight' (Anchorman)

Round 4 - Song from any teen movie
JK - The White Stripes - 'We Are Gonna Be Friends' (Napoleon Dynamite)
ZL - Radiohead - 'Talk Show Host' (Romeo and Juliet)

Round 5 - Instrumental from any movie
JK - Pink Panther Theme Tune
ZL - Road To Perdition Theme

Round 6 - Song from a musical
JK - John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John - 'Grease Megamix'
ZL - The Rocky Horror Show - 'The Time Warp'

Round 7 - Song from an animation
JK - Team America - 'Montage'
ZL - The Simpsons - 'Spiderpig'

Round 8 - Song from a movie you watched as a kid
JK - Bugsy Malone - 'Fat Sam's Grand Slam'
ZL - Vangelis - 'Chariots of Fire'

Round 9 - Closing track to a movie
JK - School of Rock - 'It's A Long Way To The Top'
ZL - Rage Against The Machine - 'Wake Up' (The Matrix)

The next Straight To Video night is upon us...

Saturday 28th February
The Kingpin Suite :: Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes :: London

Starring Phill Jupitus + The Freelance Hellraiser
+ The 20th Century Fox + Guests


Buy tickets for Straight To Video here:

It's someone else's score, actually

On 20th January, we Twittered this:
'would like to know why the trailer for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button is using the score from Love Actually.'

We've also seen the trailer for Young Victoria at the cinema and they're bloody using it too. WHY?

Composer Craig Armstrong must be raking in the royalties. Especially as it's also a favourite for X Factor VTs when a contestant is playing the sympathy card and telling viewers about their dead mum/wife/hamster to cover up the fact that they have absolutely no chance of winning based on ability alone.

Ps. Twitter. Literally the most boring load of old shit ever, right?

This week's UK cinema releases

Confessions Of A Shopaholic

Chick-flick fluff by numbers starring Isla Fisher as a woman who can't stop spending. Based on the pastel-coloured chick-lit book by Sophie Kinsella, the action has moved to New York (instead of London). A lightweight, shallow story but worth watching for the strong cast, which includes John Lithgow, Lynn Redgrave and Joan Cusack. Isla Fisher's natural flair for comedy makes Shopaholic watchable, and her slightly pathetic character, likeable. Directed by Muriel's Wedding's PJ Hogan.

Anvil! The Story Of Anvil

A touching and funny story about a Canadian 80s hair metal group who won't give up. This documentary should finally give them the stardom they've craved. Featuring interviews with Slash, Lemmy and loads more.

Gran Torino

Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this gang drama, which also features his son Scott in a bit-part role while his other son, Kyle, provides the score.

Also released this week:

20th Century Boys - Japanese manga comic adaptation
Cadillac Records - musical biopic about Chess Records with Adrien Brody as the label's boss and Beyonce as Etta James
Franklyn - British film with Ryan Phillippe, Eva Green and Sam Riley (Ian Curtis in the masterpiece biopic, Control) as the leads
Push - Action film featuring characters with paranormal abilities
Che: Part Two - Second installment of Steven Soderbergh's Che Guevara biopic, starring Benicio Del Toro

Update

Last month, we told you about a movie location up for sale - Sleddale Hall from Withnail & I:
http://stvblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/location-location-location.html

Well, Kate Moss must have been reading as she reportedly tried to buy the ramshackle farmhouse, but was gazumped by local pub owner Sebastian Hindley, who bought it at an auction in the Berkeley Hotel, London, for £265,000.

So there you have it.

EDGAR WRIGHT :: Straight To Video Exclusive Interview

Listen to Straight To Video's exclusive interview with director Edgar Wright (Shaun Of The Dead, Hot Fuzz) live from the Toronto set of his new film, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World.

Find out what the new film is about, who's in it, what Edgar's got coming up (including the third instalment of the ice cream trilogy with Simon Pegg) and who he's going to be rooting for at the Oscars this Sunday.

Peter Gabriel Pulls Oscar Show

Peter Gabriel has pulled out of performing his Oscar-nominated track from Wall-E at the ceremony next Sunday, after his stage time was cut to 65 seconds.

'Down To Earth', co-written by Thomas Newman, is nominated in the Best Song category and will be one of three shortlisted songs to be performed as part of a medley at the Kodak Theatre.

Gabriel, who was hoping to perform the track in full, said, 'It's a bit unfortunate', before adding he's 'an old fart' who can afford to 'make a little protest'.

And the world shrugs in unison.