Flixens: Movies, DVDs, TV, comic books and pop culture for women. The boys shouldn't have all the fun.

The Bosnian film Grbavica has been one of the year's most discussed films as far as film festivals are concerned. Along with Volver from Spain and The Lives of Others from Germany, it has a chance at being one of this year's Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film.

Most recently, Grbavica was awarded the grand jury prize at the AFI Fest (news HERE), but otherwise it has been receiving very positive reactions from several of the year's festivals, including the awarding of the Golden Bear for "best film" at the Berlin Film Festival (more HERE).

The film is directed by newcomer Jasmila ?bani?, and is about (from the website):

Single mother Esma lives with her 12-year-old daughter Sara in Sarajevo’s Grbavica neighborhood, where life is still being reconstructed after the 1990s Yugoslav wars. Unable to make ends meet with the meager government aid she receives, Esma takes a job as a cocktail waitress in a nightclub. Working all night is difficult for Esma physically and it also forces her to reluctantly spend less time with her daughter.

The film's English title appears to be Esma's Secret, and will be released in the UK and Ireland on December 15. If it does receive an Oscar nomination, I guess that North American audiences can expect it around the holiday season.

I had a chance to see this film, but sadly could not attend and all the positive talk it has been receiving in the festival world is making me really regretful that I missed the opportunity!

The Weinstein Co. has purchased the North American distribution rights to Piccolo, Saxo and Company, a CG-animated French film about a group of instruments who band (HAHA!) together to rescue other instruments and musical notes from a mad scientist trying to build the perfect instrument.

Sort of like Sonic the Hedgehog but with music.  And no cute furry animals.

The Hollywood Reporter says it is based on the 1950's album Les Aventures de Piccolo Saxo by "space-age pop" musician Andre Popp.  I spent some time in France during the 80s and I remember what French pop music was like then... I shudder to think at the horror that would be 1950's French space-age pop music.  Sorry, France, but let's be honest.

Come to think of it, I wonder if Zahra knows anything about this?  I might be unwittingly insulting her favorite album, nay, a cornerstone of her childhood! Sorry Sweetie...

Anyway, the film opens in France this month, and new actors are expected to dub the film into English, although it's not clear whether the film will get a theatrical release in North America or go straight to DVD.

A while back I saw an early trailer for Flushed Away that, while funny, looked horrible.  The CGI animation looked years behind anything that we've grown accustomed to over the last few years, and it seemed as if Aardman Animations first foray into a CGI feature film was a bit of a misstep.

Well, I'm happy to say that my initial misgivings were ALMOST unfounded.

The plot is relatively straight-forward.  My man Hugh Jackman voices Roddy St. James, a well-kept pet mouse, living a posh but lonely life in a nice London townhouse.  While his "family" is on vacation, Roddy gets invaded by Sid, a sewer rat up from the depths of London's underbelly, who immediately makes himself comfortable in Roddy's domain.  An effort to flush Sid down the "whirlpool" backfires, and Roddy finds himself swept down into the sewers, where he meets an entire city full of mice, rats, frogs, slugs, and other icky creatures far beneath his stature.

Roddy soon crosses paths with Rita, played by Kate Winslet, a plucky Lara Croft-type mouse who's being chased by some thugs of The Toad (played by Ian McKellan who has clearly been spending too much time with Patrick Stewart) regarding some jewels.  Roddy's desire to be with company overrides his fear of getting his hands dirty, and soon he's off on a rollicking good adventure.

Flushed Away ends up being an amusing tale, full of the charm that we've come to expect from the British studio that gave us Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run, although I'm afraid a lot of the humor will go right over the heads of most American audiences.  There's a subtlety to Aardman humor that is easily missed, which is one of the reasons Chicken Run did so poorly, despite the fact that it's a terrific WWII prison camp escape yarn.

The other problem with the humor is that it is distinctly British.  For someone who grew up with two brothers constantly spouting off Monty Python skits, it's not an issue, but again, I think most American audiences will find it as over their heads as London Bridge.

The CGI, while much improved from the original trailer, still looked a bit odd in places.  I think this was due to a conscious effort to make the film LOOK like it was being animated using clay figures and stop motion.  This was semi-successful.  I think the animators were having a hard time with this concept, as the effort is uneven.  It's most noticeable in the movement of the character's mouths, which had a distinct stop-motion look to them for the most part, but other movements were a bit to fluid and CGI-ish.  It's hard to describe, but it's one of those things you'll notice when you see it.  What's cute is that the CGI models actually do look like clay, with subtle thumbprints and pits and dimples here and there.  If you watch the credits, you'll see a number of people attached to the project as "surfacers."

The voice acting is solid, with Hugh even getting a chance to sing like we all know he loves to do.  Bill Nighy and Andy Serkis have a nice "Mutt-n-Jeff" chemistry in their scenes together as the thugs, and Jean Reno as Le Frog is the butt of some great jokes about the French.

There's a running gag in the film with the little slimy sewer slugs providing the sound effects and music that never gets tired, and is even used all through the closing credits, and is just so darn cute and whimsical.

Keep your eyes peeled for a TON of sight-gags as well.  The London underbelly scenes are loaded with them.  This is one of those films made for DVD where you can freeze-frame and catch everything.  Look closely for a humorous wardrobe gag early in the film when Roddy is looking through his closet of doll clothes for something to wear.

Regular readers of this site will know that I have said in the past that I HATE Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's one of those esoteric things I can't quite place my finger on... whether it's the overdone Broadway wannaba score by Danny Elfman, or the kitchen sink chaos of the Halloweentown scenes, or the general attitude of co-dependent goth teens who love the movie and seem to be saying "look at me! I'm different because I love Tim Burton!"... I don't know... so many reasons to choose.

And do you know who I bet hates it even more?  Henry Selick.  Because HE'S the guy who directed it but no one remembers that.  They only remember Tim Burton.

So when you are the mother of three, you see a lot of movies that you know you won't like... you do it for the children.  Because they don't know any better.

So it was that I finally gave in and took the young-uns to see the 3D re-release of Tim Burton's double-holiday extravaganza.

And do you know what?

I STILL hate it.

BUT... The Movie MILF is here to tell you... if you like this movie, and you know who you are, then I can happily tell you with mirth and joy that the digital 3D release is THE way to see this movie.  I dare say that it was the way this film was MEANT to be seen.

I'm not going to bother with an in-depth review of the movie itself.  You've probably all seen it.  Chris Sarandon plays Jack Skellington (except for his singing voice, which is Danny Elfman's), the Pumpkin King, who's tired of Halloween and wants to do something different, so blah blah blah he ends up doing Christmas with severed heads and haunted gifts and then Santa sets everything right and Jack learns that what he was looking for was really inside him all along.  End of story.  The whole thing is stop-motion.  If you like Tim Burton, then this film is a pre-requisite to get into the Goth section of Hot Topic.

But I have to tell you... the digital 3D made ALL the difference in the world for me.  It made this movie actually bearable.  I somewhat even enjoyed it, and that's saying a LOT.  I was continually amazed at the difference that the addition of depth made for this film.

One of my biggest complaints with the stop motion techniques used in this movie in the past was that the sets were so bizarrely intricate and there was so much happening on screen in every scene, and none of it with that subtle hint of motion-blur that we've been spoiled with in CGI animation, that it was hard for my brain to process the information.  Maybe it was just me, but the darn thing always gave me a headache.  Join that with the incessant choral chanting of "Halloween! Halloween! This is Halloween!" over and over and I'm ready to tear my own brain out to end the madness.  Thank God for Cosmos.

But with this new third dimension, suddenly every scene is given the proper focus, no pun intended.  You're able to view the scene as the animators saw it and the sets are actually quite gorgeous in this new format.  The "kitchen sink" effect isn't so bad anymore, now that your brain can focus on foreground and background elements properly.

The digital transfer was rock-solid, and I never realized just how colorful the film actually is.  The DLP dramatically improved the 3D effect as well.  I was not impressed with the 3D in Superman Returns, even though I saw it in the IMAX format.  Like Superman, Nightmare was not originally filmed in 3D and has been converted using a painstaking digital process that maps 2D elements to 3D geometry.  It's crazy, but it works... I don't know if they had more time to do it for this movie or what, but the difference was night and day.  You would never know that the film was not originally shot in 3D... it's THAT good.  Perhaps even the best 3D I've seen to date, and I've seen a LOT of 3D.  BIG thumbs up for the effort there.

The score has been given a nice digital overhaul as well, at least that's how it sounded to my ears.  While I'm still not a big fan of the music (it's just SO the "Danny Elfman Show" saying "Look at me! Look at me!"), the choral singing was much more distinct and I could actually make out the lyrics in the big group numbers.  Stereo effects were well-done and immersive.

So... if you HAVEN'T seen the film in 3D yet, give it a go.  It was a great experience, which, as I said before, is saying a LOT because I still hate the movie.  But I liked it.  Go figure.

Oh, and some woman behind me knew ALL the lyrics and sang along with every song.  If by chance, that was you and you are reading this, I HATE you.  HATE YOU HATE YOU HATE YOU!

Way back in June, Samantha (remember her?) told you about the ongoing rumor of the Wachowski Brothers directing a live-action Speed Racer movie.

Turns out it's not a rumor anymore!

The Hollywood Reporter details the news that the W. Bros. will be directing the film, with Joel Silver producing, a la The Matrix, so if you feel the need for Speed, this should make you very happy.

Personally, I'm non-thrilled on many levels.  First off, these guys lost so much clout with the Matrix Trilogy and then with the rather pedestrian V For Vendetta, that this just seems like boilerplate stuff to me.  I also never really "got" Speed Racer.  My brothers loved it and all, but honestly?  I think this is one of those "guy things" that most chicks probably just can't grasp.

I mean come on... He has a cool car and a monkey.  Those are completely guy things.  If I ask my youngest son what he wants for his birthday, those are usually the first things out of his month, followed by "a jet-pack".  But speaking as a woman, a guy with a cool car is hot, but the monkey just ruins the whole picture.  Monkeys smell, they poke you in private places, and they fling poo. Sounds like my ex-husband.

Hey-oooo! I'll be here all week.  Try the veal!

And to top it all off, the Wachowski Brothers have said that they want to make the film family-friendly.  Great.  That means I'll probably have to go see it.

Universal Studios has optioned Everlost, an adaptation of the book by Neal Shusterman, just one of a number of family-friendly fantasy-based projects cooking on the Uni stove at the moment.

The book, just published in August (and getting excellent reviews, I might add), centers on two young teens, Allie and Nick, both passengers in separate cars that collide.  The two meet up in a strange limbo-like "other world," where they don't know if they're alive or dead.  Unfortunately for them, they're dead.  They try to navigate their way through this strange land, meeting friend and foe along the way, including children from other time periods.  Pretty trippy stuff, especially confronting death head-on in a young adult novel.

According to Variety, Gary Ross, through his Larger Than Life company, hopes to direct the film.  Life's Allison Thomas said "We liked the characters, and the idea that it was an action adventure story that had no wizards or dragons, that wasn't driven by magic like so many of these films are... This is an alternative universe, almost Peter Pan-ish, with its own set of rules and two strong lead characters trying to find their way back to their families."

And of course, the book is the first in a planned series.... I smell a film franchise!

A while back we talked about Brendan Fraser and Paul Bettany signing up for Inkheart, New Line's first film in an adaptation of author Cornelia Funke's planned trilogy.

Now Variety tells us that the Andy Serkis and Helen Mirren have also joined the cast of the film, about a bookbinder who can bring literary characters to life just by reading their stories aloud.

Serkis will play the nefarious Capricorn, whose band of rogues captures the bookbinder (Fraser) and carries him off to Literary Land while it's up to the bookbinder's daughter to rescue him.  Mirren will play book collector Elinor Loredan.

And it turns out, at some point Jim Broadbent joined the cast, but I must have missed that when it was originally announced.  You all know I love Jim Broadbent.  Last I knew he was going to appear in Hairspray.