The third installment of The Twilight Saga is less than four months away from it’s July 9th release date, and today Twi-hards get their first glimpse of the trailer of Eclipse. There’s ab-tastic Jacob, fang-tastic Edward, miserable Bella and a first glance at Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria. This time around Hard Candy director David Slade is at the helm and it will be the first of the franchise to make it onto IMAX screens.

Fans of the franchise, let us know what you think. Is it everything you hoped it would be? Happy with a new actress playing Victoria? Which team should I be on; Team Jacob, Team Edward, Team Jedward? Leave all your thoughts in the comments section below.

There have been rumours around for a while that Josh Brolin would be involved, playing a younger version of Kay who Jay travels back in time to team up with – perfect casting as long as you buy into the time-travel elements. The latest rumours though are for a new character called Yaz, with Sacha Baron Cohen and Jemaine Clement (of Flight of the Conchords fame) apparently on the studio’s wish list. Both would seem perfect additions for the franchise (with my preferred choice being Clement) and would certainly up the comedy quotient for the potential threequel.

Shah Rukh Khan hosted a party at the JW Marriott, which was attended by a lot of stars such as; Juhi Chawla, Poonam Dhillon, Riya Sen, Madhoo, Sonal Chauhan, Diana Hayden, and many more.

Akon says that he is a big fan of Shah Rukh and that we will be seeing a lot more him in India. “I am a big fan of Shah Rukh. I am very familiar with Shah Rukh’s work. I am meeting Kareena (Kapoor) for the first time today,”Akon told reporters in a press conference here Tuesday.

“I am also composing. You know, I will give him (Shah Rukh) a couple of versions of the song, the way I do it. And I will also integrate it with the traditional way theBollywood films are done. I will give them options and they will decide, which one to use in the film,” said Akon.

Akon, orginally from Senegal, claims that Indian culture is not all different from African. “You know the tradition in Africa is not different from India. There is same type of entertainment going on, the difference is only in language. I always wanted to expand my horizon, explore and enjoy,” said Akon.

This 3D Sequel retains Jeff Bridges as Kevin Flynn, the original gamer who became trapped inside the computer system in the first film. Garrett Hedlund plays his son Sam. When he investigates his fathers disappearance, he finds himself pulled into the same world where his father has been living for 25 years. He must join in his fathers battle against the games system and the scheming Master Control Program.

The trailer mostly features footage before Sam enters the game so theres not too much revealed about the main games machine plot. That said, what there is looks great and Tron:Legacy looks set be an action packed blockbuster. It does recycle some footage that avid fans may have seen before from last years Comic con but there are plenty of new scenes as well. Bring on 17 December!

Tron Legacy Trailer

The Crazies is a George Romero horror classic from the 1970’s, and the Hollywood trend to remake his works is this time taken up by an unexpected figure; director Breck Eisner of Sahara fame.

The story is set in the fictional American town of Ogden Marsh. Sheriff David (Olyphant) discovers that an unreported plane crash occurred in the towns marshlands. When residents start to behave very oddly, he is convinced that the drinking water has somehow become contaminated by the plane. The military arrive to try and contain the infection, and things rapidly spiral out of David’s control. The military nickname the infected as the ‘Crazies’ (due to their bizarre symptoms), for whom their contamination policy seems simply to be kill anyone  thats infected. Along with his deputy Russell (Anderson) and wife Judy (Mitchell), David goes on the run to escape Ogden Marsh and its army of crazies.

Whilst the film starts off as a low-spec zombie movie, it takes a dramatic turn when the military arrive, with high budget special effects and explosions galore. This surprise move makes for a very enjoyable, unpredictable, and exciting film. The use of sound and music to build up the tension and atmosphere is very simple but effective. In one scene the protagonists enter a car wash to hide and there are some surprising seat jumping moments when the crazies appear. There are quite a lot of gory killing scenes, but again these never look low quality, with just the right amount of blood used.

Although Olyphant is quite well known for roles in films like Hitman and A Perfect Getaway, he’s not a major star and the rest of the cast are also mostly unrecognisable. That said, they all give solid performances and their anonymity heightens the films frightening sense of realism (the likelihood of a chemical warfare accident is much more realistic than the usual unlikely plague causes in such zombie films). The plot escalates very quickly, without much character development but this comes later and we are soon urging the characters on. One of the good things here is that the film does not try to introduce a ‘new romance’ sub plot, as David and Judy are already married so the film simply concentrates on the infection plot without trying to tie in a formulaic love story as well.

The Crazies has a very similar plot (and some almost identical shots) to another Paramount horror film, Carriers, released last year. It could also be compared to Zombieland as both these films follow an escaping plot trajectory as characters take to the road to escape infection. The Crazies however is much more believable than previous films in the zombie sub genre, and takes a few unexpected turns to make it definitively the best of the bunch so far. A must see for any horror or zombie genre fan.

The Crazies Film Trailer

Worst

Vera Farmiga
What was up with that dress? The colour – yes, the design – err, no. Why would you want some party decoration going down the front?!

Amanda Seyfreid
Weird was the best to describe this. It looked like a piece cardboard was decorated and stuck in front of her chest, followed by a fancy twirly gown feel.

Charlize Theron
As gorgeous as she is, the cuffing around the chest looked ridiculous and took away the attention from all her other aspects, thumbs down I’m afraid.

Meryl Streep
Yes, she is a legend. But personally she failed in the fashion department. If you’re an oscar nominee, you must dress better.

Best

Mariah Carey
She looked less glamorous than usual, but the simplicity of her outfit and look was really attractive. She did show glimpses of her curves through the medium of her thigh. Good eye candy for the guys!

Elizabeth Banks
If you’re going to go to the oscars then you go in style. Her dress was very different to the rest. Versace did a great job with her. Her figure was really brought out.

Tina Fay
Black and Oscars does really go well together. She wore a very elegant looking dress. It was the epitome of the oscars. Infact, you could probably make a trophy out of her!

Sandra Bullock
An Oscar nominee and looking nervous! I must say the bottom part of her dress made up for the rest, which was okay I guess, nothing too fancy.

Penelope Cruz
Looking natural as always. Wasn’t too impressed with her hairstyle, but thumbs up with the dress.

Jennifer Lopez
And the award goes to Jenny from the Block! She looks better and better every year. The long gown was causing a lot of traffic, deservedly so! It was maybe hiding her curves a bit but that’s where she plays with the imagination of people looking.

Here is the full list of winners at last nights Academy awards – winners indicated in bold. The Hurt Locker was the clear winner, picking up six wins while Avatar recived a measly 3 wins.  Crazy Heart, Precious and Up both also got 2 of the coveted awards each. Meanwhile Up in the Air which recieved 6 nominations didnt get any wins at all!

Best Picture
:
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

Best Director:
James Cameron – Avatar
Kathryn Bigelow – The Hurt Locker
Quentin Tarantino – Inglourious Basterds
Lee Daniels – Precious
Jason Reitman – Up In The Air

Best Actor In A Leading Role
:
Jeff Bridges – Crazy Heart
George Clooney – Up In The Air
Colin Firth – A Single Man
Morgan Freeman – Invictus
Jeremy Renner – The Hurt Locker

Best Actress In A Leading Role:
Sandra Bullock – The Blind Side
Helen Mirren – The Last Station
Carey Mulligan – An Education
Gabourey Sidibe – Precious
Meryl Streep – Julie & Julia

Best Actor In A Supporting Role:
Matt Damon – Invictus
Woody Harrelson – The Messenger
Christopher Plummer – The Last Station
Stanley Tucci – The Lovely Bones
Christoph Waltz – Inglourious Basterds

Best Actress In A Supporting Role:
Penelope Cruz – Nine
Vera Farmiga – Up In The Air
Maggie Gyllenhaal – Crazy Heart
Anna Kendrick – Up In The Air
Mo’nique – Precious

Best Animated Film:
The Fantastic Mr Fox
Coraline
The Princess and The Frog
Up
The Secret of Kells

Best Original Screenplay
:
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
The Messenger
A Serious Man
Up

Best Adapted Screenplay:
District 9
An Education
In The Loop
Precious
Up In The Air

Best Foreign Language Film
:
Ajami
El Secreto De Sus Ojos
La Teta Asus Tada
A Prophet
The White Ribbon

Best Original Score:
Avatar – James Horner
Fantastic Mr. Fox – Alexandre Desplat
The Hurt Locker – Marco Beltrami, Buck Sanders
Sherlock Holmes – Hans Zimmer
Up – Michael Giacchino

Best Original Song
:
Crazy Heart – “The Weary Kind”
Faubourg 36 – “Loin de Paname”
Nine – “Take It All”
The Princess and the Frog – “Down in New Orleans”
The Princess and the Frog – “Almost There”

Best Documentary, Features:
Burma VJ
The Cove
Food, Inc.
The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers
Which Way Home

Best Documentary, Short Subjects
:
China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province
The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner
The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant
Królik po berlinsku
Music by Prudence

Best Short Film, Live Action:
The Door
Istället för Abrakadabra
Kavi
Miracle Fish
The New Tenants

Best Short Film, Animated
:
French Roast
Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty
La dama y la muerte
Logorama
Wallace and Gromit in ‘A Matter of Loaf and Death’

Best Art Direction
:
Avatar
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
Sherlock Holmes
The Young Victoria

Best Cinematography
:
Avatar
The White Ribbon
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds

Best Costume Design
:
Bright Star
Coco Avant Chanel
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Nine
The Young Victoria

Best Makeup
:
Il Divo
Star Trek
The Young Victoria

Best Editing
:
Avatar
District 9
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious

Best Visual Effects
:
Avatar
District 9
Star Trek

Best Sound Editing:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Up

Best Sound Mixing
:
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

So the night has finally passed and we all finally know who won what at the 2010 Academy Awards. But who were the real winners and losers last night? For those of you who didn’t manage to stay up during the wee hours to watch last night’s ceremony or for those who don’t have the luxury of cable here’s our analysis of all last night’s major occurrences at the 82nd Oscar awards night.

Bigelow vs Cameron
The battle of the exes came to its major conclusion last night and the clear winner was Kathryn Bigelow, winning 6 Awards in total for The Hurt Locker over James Camerons 3 for Avatar. As expected after picking up similar awards elsewhere The Hurt Locker won Best Picture. Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing and Best Editing. Meanwhile all Cameron was left with to collect was Best Visual Effects, Cinematography and Art Direction, no big surprises that these were all for the films visual style and achievements whereas Bigelow received awards for her films riveting story and overall style.

Surprise Winners
There were two main category surprise winners. The most major surprise was Precious’ win for Best Adapted Screenplay. In all other awards with the same films in competition for this prize the award has gone to Up in the Air so this win surprised all last night. The Secret in Their Eyes, the foreign language film that no one had really heard of before the nominations was also a surprise winner in its category, Best Film not in the English Language, as the expected winner here was Michael Hankeke’s The White Ribbon. However aprt from these two categories most of the awards were quite predictable in the major categories.

Obvious Winners
Most of the major awards had obvious favourites to win, usually because the nominees have already picked up so many awards against the same candidates. In fact the odds on all four major acting categories last night for the four eventual winners were so slim they had a low range of 1.04 – 1.25 and there were no lucky winners at the bookies for those who gambled against them. Sandra Bullock’s received the Best Actress for The Blind Side, Jeff Bridges got Best Actor for Crazy Heart, Mo’Nique received Best Supporting Actress for Precious and Christopher Waltz Best Supporting Actor for his role in Inglourious Basterds in what was the most predictable year in the acting categories for years.Ups win for Best Animation was another predictable choice, as it outshines all its fellow nominees by a mile and it also managed to pickup the Best Original Score gong to add to Pixar’s Oscar’s cabinet.

Other wins
Star Trek won the Best Make up award in the only category that oddly only has 3 nominees so was a clear cut favourite here and The Cove picked up Best Documentary, again another film that had already won similar awards across the globe. The Young Victoria also picked up Best Costume Design for its Victorian ruffles and Crazy Heart’s The Weary Kind received the Best Original Song for its country theme tune.

So altogether there were no major surprises at this years awards, as each year the number of ceremonies held before the Academy Aawrds increases, and as winners are picked from similar nominees for similar prizes each year the race for the Oscars become more and more predictable. The major disappointment will probably be felt by Jason Reedman who received 6 nominations for Up in the Air but failed to pick up any awards including the expected win for Adapted Screenplay

Short film categories
British animator Nick Park lost out last night as Wallace and Gromit’s latest caper was beaten to the finishing line by Logorama. Logorama is an interesting choice for the academy as it is probably the most offensive film to ever win an award – this animation from French collective H5 is a satirical look at corporate branding as its set in a world full of literally hundreds and thousands of logos and is full of extreme violence and swearing. In the live action short category the favourite was Miracle Fish but the race wasn’t nearly as clear cut as the major awards so it’s not such a huge shock that it lost out to The New Tenants.

The Ceremony
This year there has been much debate about the changes in format to the ceremony, from the removal of the usual performances of the original song nominees to the expansion of the best film nominees category list from 5 to 10 films. Along with a serious of younger presenters, these changes have all come about to try and improve the awards declining audience figures so we’ll find out soon if it achieved this. There were also some controversial bans – Nicolas Chartier, a Hurt Locker producer was banned from attending the ceremony by the Academy due to a violation of Oscar rules after he sent an e-mail to Academy members, asking them to vote for his film for Best Picture. A planned sketch by Sacha Baren Cohen was also pulled at the last minute. However Ben Stiller still went ahead with his part of the duos skit, as he presented the Best Make Up Award dressed as a Na’vi from Avatar.

The Presenters
Hosts Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin presented the show, with plenty of gags and they even put on 3D glasses to welcome James Cameron to the stage. However all their jokes seemed to revolve around celebrities and they were given far too much stage time. Some of the award presenters outshone them by far, especially Tina Fey and Robert Downey Jr. who got to hand out the original screenplay award and had a nice debate routine over the importance of writers vs actors. There were no embarrassing speeches or guffaws as the ceremony went very smoothly, even if it did drag on a bit too long.

The special tribute to the late John Hughes was the ceremonies most touching hour as clips of his films and actors he discovered where shown and his two sons stood up to remember their father.So thats it – its finally over folks.. only another year to go before we can have all the fun and hype again!

Watch the trailer here-