Movies that provoke visceral responses can be traced all the way back to when the Lumiere brothers first showed an audience footage of an approaching train and people scrambled from their seats to get out of the way. But what does it take to really shock the jaded audiences of today on a primal level? Apparently director Danny Boyle know, as the premier of his new film 127 Hours caused three audience members to pass out.

Note: Spoilers ahead, even though the film is based on a real-life story.

According to The Wrap, three people passed out during the screening of Boyle’s film Sunday evening and at a second screening on Monday the audience fared little better. As they describe -

The scenes of mountain climber Aaron Ralston (James Franco) taking off his own arm to free himself after a fall are among the most realistic of graphic gore ever put on film, and not for the faint of heart. At the screening Monday, once again there were several mad dashes to the door when these scenes came on, and more than a few moviegoers were looking anywhere but at the screen. You could clearly see people in shock, struggling to stay in their seats, working to get past the intensity of what was going on in front of them. The sequence is never gratuitous, just very realistic, gruesomely so, and because we have grown to care so much about the character, all the more unsettling and raw.

I have to think that many going in to the film were probably aware of the story Boyle was going to be telling, but could not conceive that the director would go for such a realistic depiction of it’s key moment. The film’s trailer sets up the film’s premise nicely, but certainly doesn’t hint at the momentarily gory turn it will take. But then again, the MPAA had some blood stains digitally scrubbed off of Emma Watson’s hands for a recent Harry Potter trailer, so it’s no surprise really.

You can see if you can make it through 127 Hours when it hits theaters on November 5.

Earlier this week, we here at FilmBuffOnline handicapped the Oscar race as we saw it. As we all know, the nominations have just been released. How did we do?  Well, let’s find out. And the nominees are…

Performance by an actor in a leading role-

• Richard Jenkins in The Visitor
• Frank Langella in Frost/Nixon
• Sean Penn in Milk
• Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler

Number of Nominations We “Called”:  4 out of 5

The One We Didn’t:Do we get any credit for saying the academy might snub Leonardo DiCaprio? No, because Richard Jenkins should have been a no brainer. His performance was one of the most critically acclaimed of the year. This is what Jenkins had to say about the nomination:

“This nomination is such an unexpected honor and I am grateful to the Academy for the recognition. I’ve been awed by the work of my fellow nominees this year and am truly humbled to be in their company. Having been an actor for many years now, I am moved by the fact that something like this can happen at this point in my career, particularly for a film that has meant so much to me.”

 

Richard Jenkins, THE VISITOR

Performance by an actor in a supporting role-

Number of Nominations We “Called”: 4 out of 5.

The One We Didn’t: Nobody from Frost/Nixon got the call. Strangely, this was the only acting nod Revolutionary Road received. Shannon got good notices for his role, but was he the most deserving of the cast?

Performance by an actress in a leading role- 

• Anne Hathaway in Rachel Getting Married
• Angelina Jolie in Changeling
• Melissa Leo in Frozen River
• Meryl Streep in Doubt
• Kate Winslet in The Reader

Number of Nominations We “Called”:  3.5 out of 5

The One Point Five  We Didn’t: We are taking partial credit for Kate Winslet. We predicted she would be nominated and that her role in The Reader should be lead. I think that should be good enough for a .5. Leo, like Jenkins, was an early year, yet still worthy performance that we goofed on not including. Althought ignoring Sally Hawkins was a major snub.

This is what Kate Winslet said on her nomination for The Reader:

• Amy Adams in Doubt
• Penélope Cruz in Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Viola Davis in Doubt
• Taraji P. Henson in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Marisa Tomei in The Wrestler 

Number of Nominations We “Called”:  4 out of 5

The One We Didn’t: We were going to list Henson, but the Oscar’s not following the Golden Globes’ lead on putting Winslet in this category through us off. Yeah, yeah, that’s what happened.

Achievement in directing-

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, David Fincher
• Frost/Nixon, Ron Howard
• Milk, Gus Van Sant
• The Reader, Stephen Daldry
• Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle

Best motion picture of the year-

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  
• Frost/Nixon
  
• Milk
  
• The Reader
  
• Slumdog Millionaire

Number of Nominations We “Called”:  4 out of 5

The One We Didn’t: In what is becoming a rare occurance, the Best Picture nominations match up with the Best Director nominations. This means that The Reader gets the nod over Revolutionary Road. And, yes, The Dark Knight and Wall-E too. But the Best Animated Film was created so the “real film” don’t have to mingle with the animated riff raff. And, really. A comic book movie? For Best Picture?

Stay tuned to FilmBuffOnline, because, as we get closer to the ceremony, the staff will bring you our Oscar picks.

It’s that time of year again. This Thursday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will announce the nominees for the 81st Annual Academy Awards.

Every year there are snubs and surprises, thrills and controversies. There is no way of knowing who will be nominated, but we here at FilmBuffOnLine, who believe the day nominations are announced should be a National holiday, are going to try and handicap the process for you.

We will try to tell you who we think are Almost Certain to get a nomination, who Definite May Be nominated, and whose nomination is a Outside Shot in the major categories (the four acting categories, Best Director, and Best Picture). We are trying to cover all bases, but don’t come to us if you lose money on your Oscar Nomination pool.

Best Actor:

Almost Certain:

Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler; Sean Penn, Milk

Definite Maybe:

Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon; Leonardo DiCaprio, Revolutionary Road; Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Outside Shot:

Colin Farrell, In Bruges; Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino

It seems that this year, if Mickey Rourke didn’t win a Best Actor award, Sean Penn won it. Both men seem to be all but a lock for a nomination. Benjamin Button seems to be role that screams “nominate me,” so Pitt has a good chance. Langella won a Tony for originating the role of Nixon on Broadway, so it seem logical that he’d at least get a nod. The Academy might have something against DiCaprio, since he has been snubbed more than once in the past. That could work against him here. Farrell won the Golden Globe for this role, which gives him a chance. And the Academy might want to reward Eastwood for what could be his last acting role with a nomination.

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If Romero’s zombie film Night Of The Living Dead reinvented the genre as social satire, Danny Boyle’s 2002 post-zombie apocolypse 28 Days Later feels almost like a reaction to the previous year’s terrorist attacks on New York City. A simple bicycle currier awakes from a coma to discover that London has been evacuated for the safety of the countryside, which he strikes out for with a small band of survivors. What caused such an exodus? An engineered virus released from a laboratory has turned a majority of the population into rage-fueled, nocturnal beserkers. A variation on the zombie motif, though Boyle is careful to never use the word in the movie. Ironically, the fast moving creatures of this movie are reportedly the inspiration for the fast moving zombies in Zack Snyder’s remake of Dawn Of The Dead.

Premiering this weekend at the Telluride Film Festival is Danny Boyle’s latest, Slumdog Millionaire. Set in India, it tells the story of an 18-year old orphan (Dev Patel) from the slulms of Mumbai who goes on the Indian version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, ultimately winning the grand prize. Of course, this raises suspicions as to how a kid from the streets could know so much. the film is based on the book Q&A by Vikas Swarup.

In anticipation of its Telluride bow this weekend, Fox Searchlight has sent out a couple of photos from the film, which are in the gallery below. (Click to get the full picture.)

Slumdog Millionaire opens November 28.