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Peter Gabriel is pulling out of performing at this year's Oscars. The reason?  The producers are limiting his performance to a  segment or a three song medley of songs nominated for the Best Song category  .  His song, "Down to Earth" (from Wall-E) is about six minutes long. The producers wanted him to cut the song down to about sixty-five seconds.

There are people reading that thinking how great it is that the Oscar telecast will be about six minutes shorter this year. I seriously doubt that one myself. At least in terms of the Oscars ending six minutes closer to 11:00 PM EST.

I think what really made me think about this was how music from films has become less relevant in the past decade or so. Growing up, there always seemed to be a new song on the radio that was from a new movie coming out that would become a huge hit. Especially in the Eighties where movie soundtracks would would be full of songs that would dominate the charts. Think of the Top Gun or Footloose soundtracks. Both had songs that eventually got Oscar nominations (Top Gun's "Take My Breath Away" even won an Oscar). And in the Nineties, Disney films were basically musicals which always took home at least a Best Song Oscar about every year.

Now, it seems like movie music isn't as powerful as it was back then. There are Cd's tied to movies that feature songs that aren't even in the film itself. Or the music itself  will be less out of sync with what is popular on the radio.

It's kind of sad because that crossroads between music and film as a cultural force is being less and less traveled.

Best Ongoing Comic: RASL

Jeff Smith's latest comic work doesn't come out often, but when it hits the shelves it brings the awesome.

Best Graphic Novel: Amulet vol. 1

An excellent work that features some great and creative ideas. Plus, the artwork is just stunning.

Best Miniseries: Marvel 1985

It was a tough call, but Marvel 1985 takes it. Featuring stunning art and great writing, it squeaks by with the honor.

Best Storyline: Batman RIP

The only storyline that I could think of that delivered. It started out a bit rough, but it was excellent at the end. Add to the fact that the entire arc reads better upon additional readings, and this story is a lock.

Best One Shot: Pilot Season : Genius #1.

In a year of great comics, Genius is easily one of the best comics of 2008. With sharp writing and tight art, Genius is one hell of a read.

Best Short Story: Béisbol 2 from Flight vol. 5

The sequel to Flight vol. 2's Béisbol, this tale focuses on a young kid who meets his baseball idol. A great tale that features a stellar ending.

Best Writer: Grant Morrison

Even though he was a little so-so at times, Morrison finished the year strong with Batman RIP and Final Crisis.

Best Artist: Paolo Rivera

An artist that doesn't get enough exposure. His painted work on Mythos is just stunning. When he switched to pencil work, he managed to create another great showing in Amazing Spiderman.

It's a piece of crap.

Gotta get that out fast. For those of you who want to save some time, there it is. The Core is a crappy movie. Normally, a longform review would require a bit more elaboration than that, so for the sake of getting this message across, here it goes....

People with pacemakers-dying. Pigeons-dying. Yep. Something screwy is going on and the only way to fix things is to journey to the core of the Earth. Only a group of talented individuals can save the day. Will they make it out alive?

The story is flat out silly and lacks any tension. A hacker gets his hands on a cell phone for a minute and allows any user to get free long distance on it....for life. A recluse scientist has developed a prototype version of a tool that can cut through the Earth...with hardly any sense of funding. A conveniently stable material that can shield a ship through the Earth's layers? It's in there. US goofing up? It's in there.

Believe me, the story is not the only thing that's silly in this film. The dialogue is just plain sad. Nothing about it comes across as sharp or meaningful. The characters don't have anything about them that is unique ,in any way, shape or form.

The other elements of the film go like this:

Acting-bland
Music-bland
Directing-bland

Sensing a pattern?

If you've skipped the top part of this review and have skimmed down to the last paragraph, here's a recap-this movie sucks. There is no part of this film that does anything right. It's dull, uninspired and a piece of crap.

2* out of 10*