Hop is a fairly flat hybrid of live action & CGI about the Easter Bunny. There is nothing particularly interesting or special about Hop, in fact, I found a few things objectionable, but I'm known to be surly.
The versatile and shameless James Marsden plays a 30-ish slacker who is unfortunate enough to meet up with a slacker junior Easter Bunny. Kaley Cuoco (of The Big Bang Theory) gets second billing (for humans) but is in the movie far too little and wears far too conservative attire.
1:30
Monday, April 18, 2011
Talking at Movies
There are three kinds of people who talk during movies: people who just plain like to talk at movies; people who talk to their young children out of necessity; and people who talk at movies under the pretense of talking to their children.
Guess which of these heinous, selfish, no-good excuses for humans being sat down one seat away from me today (in an almost empty theater, no less) and talked almost non-stop for the entire* movie?
*I moved to a seat out of earshot about five minutes into the movie but I could still hear murmurs coming from that direction during quiet parts of the show.
Guess which of these heinous, selfish, no-good excuses for humans being sat down one seat away from me today (in an almost empty theater, no less) and talked almost non-stop for the entire* movie?
*I moved to a seat out of earshot about five minutes into the movie but I could still hear murmurs coming from that direction during quiet parts of the show.
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Hanna
I went to see Hanna this afternoon, for the second time. Aside from that implied endorsement, here are a few things you need to know:
The title character is German, so her name is pronounced Honna. The lead actress is Saoirse Ronan, whose name is pronounced Sur-sha (if we believe the internet).
Although it looks like a spy movie and fully 3/4ths of the characters are current or former spies, it's not a spy movie. Hanna could be considered a full-tilt, balls to the wall action movie but it's really a coming of age movie. It's a character study about Hanna finding out who she is. Unlike your typical 17-year-old girl finding herself, Hanna is a killing machine.
Hanna has been raised by her father in seclusion in northern Finland. It's possible that she's never met another person and definitely no one her own age. She's never used electricity or heard music. Her father has raised her to be strong, independent and lethal. He drills her incessantly, repeating "Always be ready, even in your sleep," and "Adapt or die." That last mantra is really the theme of the movie.
The father never kept from Hanna that her mother was killed by a CIA officer named Marissa Weigler. That name sounds more ominous when said with a German accent. He trains Hanna to get revenge. After giving her lukewarm warnings about how dangerous it will be to start down the revenge path, he gives her a device that will attract the attention of American intelligence and allow her to come face to face with her mother's killer. Really, he programmed her for this mission from infancy. She had no choice.
The rest of the story is a cat & mouse game where the CIA peoples don't understand that they are the mice. Hanna has to travel across half of Europe to catch up to her father and she learns much about herself in the process.
Here's what I liked about Hanna. It ends up with a necessary confrontation but gets there in unexpected and leisurely ways, many of which you don't normally find in an action movie.
Director Joe Wright is highly talented, helming Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightley version) and The Soloist, and worked with Saoirse before, in 2007's Atonement, which netted her an Academy Award nomination for Supporting Actress. She was also fine in City of Ember (a terrible movie otherwise) and OK in The Lovely Bones.
Wright is so talented he couldn't resist showing off in Hanna. There is one scene that takes place with a single shot. The father steps off a bus, scoots across a lane of traffic, walks through the terminal, out the other side, down a long sidewalk, down an escalator, then gets into a fight with four spies in a large underground plaza, and then walks out. It's a three minute plus shot and it's beautiful, although unnecessary. Wright did it before in Atonement, with a much bigger wartime shot. I like the idea of continuous shots but this one seemed like showing off.
Much of Hanna involves Hanna seeing the outside world for the first time. When she escapes custody, she takes refuge in a rundown motel. The clerk turns on a light switch, which she finds mesmerizing. Same for the TV. She flips out when the phone rings. Much of this discovery is made with pounding techno music assaulting our ears so we get a hint of what she feels. Yet, Hanna adapts, as later in the movie she stops at an internet cafe and surfs as well as anyone.
There's another scene that I found remarkable yet it passes almost unnoticed. Her host in Berlin begins to make waffles and gets out a carton of eggs. Hanna asks for one, he tosses it to her, she catches it, cracks it open and swallows the contents in a single motion. It's a great scene that tells you almost everything you need to know about her yet it's over in a few seconds.
Although I'm raving about Hanna - perhaps not in ways the studio might approve of - there are a few downsides. Cate Blanchett, one of the best actresses working today, uses a clumsy southern accent while playing Marissa Weigler. Never mind that Hanna takes place in Europe, where she was one of a very few people speaking American, and that Cate is immediately recognizable as not being from the American south, the accent really gave no additional element to the character. It seemed like a distracting quirk more than anything else. Her shoes and flossing fetishes were much more interesting.
Worst thing about Hanna, though, is that the studio put a spoiler in the commercials. When Hanna is captured, she turns the tables and kills a CIA officer and some guards. That's no spoiler - it's in the commercials. The scene is powerful, elegant, long and shocking. It would have been gasp-worthy if the idiots in marketing hadn't used it. It may well have been considered one of the best movie moments of 2011, if only it hadn't been shown to us before we even saw the movie.
Let's end on a positive note. I mentioned that Hanna is as much of a character study as it is an action adventure. In her travels, Hanna meets up with an English family, with the mother played by Olivia Williams, a favorite of mine and late of my beloved Dollhouse. It becomes apparent rather quickly that the mother is much more in tune with Hanna than her own daughter. Hanna senses it as well but also knows that she is well beyond needing a mother anymore. She has adapted.
1:43
The title character is German, so her name is pronounced Honna. The lead actress is Saoirse Ronan, whose name is pronounced Sur-sha (if we believe the internet).
Although it looks like a spy movie and fully 3/4ths of the characters are current or former spies, it's not a spy movie. Hanna could be considered a full-tilt, balls to the wall action movie but it's really a coming of age movie. It's a character study about Hanna finding out who she is. Unlike your typical 17-year-old girl finding herself, Hanna is a killing machine.
Hanna has been raised by her father in seclusion in northern Finland. It's possible that she's never met another person and definitely no one her own age. She's never used electricity or heard music. Her father has raised her to be strong, independent and lethal. He drills her incessantly, repeating "Always be ready, even in your sleep," and "Adapt or die." That last mantra is really the theme of the movie.
The father never kept from Hanna that her mother was killed by a CIA officer named Marissa Weigler. That name sounds more ominous when said with a German accent. He trains Hanna to get revenge. After giving her lukewarm warnings about how dangerous it will be to start down the revenge path, he gives her a device that will attract the attention of American intelligence and allow her to come face to face with her mother's killer. Really, he programmed her for this mission from infancy. She had no choice.
The rest of the story is a cat & mouse game where the CIA peoples don't understand that they are the mice. Hanna has to travel across half of Europe to catch up to her father and she learns much about herself in the process.
Here's what I liked about Hanna. It ends up with a necessary confrontation but gets there in unexpected and leisurely ways, many of which you don't normally find in an action movie.
Director Joe Wright is highly talented, helming Pride and Prejudice (the Keira Knightley version) and The Soloist, and worked with Saoirse before, in 2007's Atonement, which netted her an Academy Award nomination for Supporting Actress. She was also fine in City of Ember (a terrible movie otherwise) and OK in The Lovely Bones.
Wright is so talented he couldn't resist showing off in Hanna. There is one scene that takes place with a single shot. The father steps off a bus, scoots across a lane of traffic, walks through the terminal, out the other side, down a long sidewalk, down an escalator, then gets into a fight with four spies in a large underground plaza, and then walks out. It's a three minute plus shot and it's beautiful, although unnecessary. Wright did it before in Atonement, with a much bigger wartime shot. I like the idea of continuous shots but this one seemed like showing off.
Much of Hanna involves Hanna seeing the outside world for the first time. When she escapes custody, she takes refuge in a rundown motel. The clerk turns on a light switch, which she finds mesmerizing. Same for the TV. She flips out when the phone rings. Much of this discovery is made with pounding techno music assaulting our ears so we get a hint of what she feels. Yet, Hanna adapts, as later in the movie she stops at an internet cafe and surfs as well as anyone.
There's another scene that I found remarkable yet it passes almost unnoticed. Her host in Berlin begins to make waffles and gets out a carton of eggs. Hanna asks for one, he tosses it to her, she catches it, cracks it open and swallows the contents in a single motion. It's a great scene that tells you almost everything you need to know about her yet it's over in a few seconds.
Although I'm raving about Hanna - perhaps not in ways the studio might approve of - there are a few downsides. Cate Blanchett, one of the best actresses working today, uses a clumsy southern accent while playing Marissa Weigler. Never mind that Hanna takes place in Europe, where she was one of a very few people speaking American, and that Cate is immediately recognizable as not being from the American south, the accent really gave no additional element to the character. It seemed like a distracting quirk more than anything else. Her shoes and flossing fetishes were much more interesting.
Worst thing about Hanna, though, is that the studio put a spoiler in the commercials. When Hanna is captured, she turns the tables and kills a CIA officer and some guards. That's no spoiler - it's in the commercials. The scene is powerful, elegant, long and shocking. It would have been gasp-worthy if the idiots in marketing hadn't used it. It may well have been considered one of the best movie moments of 2011, if only it hadn't been shown to us before we even saw the movie.
Let's end on a positive note. I mentioned that Hanna is as much of a character study as it is an action adventure. In her travels, Hanna meets up with an English family, with the mother played by Olivia Williams, a favorite of mine and late of my beloved Dollhouse. It becomes apparent rather quickly that the mother is much more in tune with Hanna than her own daughter. Hanna senses it as well but also knows that she is well beyond needing a mother anymore. She has adapted.
1:43
Friday, April 8, 2011
Torchwood
For the last couple of weeks, I've been watching this ridiculously addictive TV show on DVD called
Torchwood. It was produced by the BBC from 2006 to 2009. It's a sci-fi adventure crossed with a
police procedural. I devoured each episode as fast the mail and Netflix streaming could deliver
them. 31 episodes were produced.
Cardiff, Wales, sits on a rift in time and space. Things pass through the rift unfettered. Torchwood
exists to fight aliens, protect humans and appropriate alien technology for use as weapons when
malevolent and predatory aliens make an appearance later this century.
The rift is a perfect sci-fi plot device. Need an alien? Got one. Need a monster? Here. Need a
doohickey to wreak havoc? It's over there. Need a romance with a babe from 1953? Here she
comes now. Want to send your own people back in time? Would you prefer World War I or II?
Torchwood is an independent agency located in an old tube station under Cardiff. Its leader is
Captain Jack Harkness, an action hero sent over by Central Casting. Jack is played by John
Barrowman, who is possibly the most handsome man in the history of, well, men. Jack is a
confident rogue and a fearless leader, as well as a mystery. It is established early on that he is
immortal, bouncing back to life shortly after he is killed, which happens frequently. That trait is
related to him being a former Time Agent, as Torchwood is a spin-off of the BBC's 2005 recreation
of Dr Who. I've never seen Dr Who, so I just went with it whenever references came up.
The heart of the show is Gwen, a former police constable who tracks down Torchwood in the first
episode. Where Jack is often amoral or just rude, Gwen is the conscience of the show and keeps the team
focused on helping humans more than exploring alien swag. Played by Welsh actress Eve Myles,
she is more than a little adorable, despite a David Lettermanesque gap between her front teeth.
Hey, it's the UK and hot is hot.
There are a few things you need to know about Torchwood. First, it has movie-quality visuals.
This must have been an incredibly expensive show to produce. The lighting is lush and beautiful,
and the action sequences are adrenalific. Cardiff looks like a dramatic, sexy city and I'm guessing
that in real life, it might not be.
Another thing, Torchwood is unbelievably bi. Except for Gwen, every character has sexual
congress with members of both genders at some point during the series run. It's kind of strange (although welcome) to see this degree of liberation and you'll never see it on American TV. Captain Jack, born
sometime after the year 5000, hints that attitudes will change in the future but that doesn't account
for the omnivorousness of the characters from this century.
Finally, the Welsh and English accents are a bit thick, so captions were helpful and necessary for me.
Barrowman, born in Scotland but raised in the US, certainly sounds American, but you can tell his
writers had no interest in making him be American. He talks like a Brit, based on phrasing and word choice, but without the accent. For example, he addressed a couple of people as "You lot," which no American would. We'd say "You," "You two," "You guys," or even "All Y'all," but we'd never say "You lot." Maybe it's intentional, as Jack has lived in the UK for centuries. Hard to say.
I'm not sure what the story is behind Torchwood's odd production history. There were two
13-episode seasons, followed by a five-episode season. That third season took place over five
action-packed days and probably cost as much to produce as an entire 13-ep season. It was even
aired in the UK on five consecutive nights, making it quite the broadcasting event. I understand that
Torchwood season four will air ten episodes sometime this summer. It will be interesting to see
where they take the show. After you save the world, what do you do next?
First Thoughts on Hanna
This movie is not about my Onvoy co-workers John and Megan Hanna. It is not about cartoonist William Hanna of Hanna-Barbera fame. It is not even about the 11th governor of North Dakota. It's a spy movie about a girl.
I'm not sure what to think about all this.
I'm not sure what to think about all this.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Battle Los Angeles
Battle Los Angeles is a pure combat movie. There is no character development, no big picture, just good guys vs bad guys in an urban environment. As a movie that just follows a platoon as they execute a simple rescue mission that goes sour, Battle Los Angeles works very well. Staff Sgt Nantz is also the role that Aaron Eckhardt was born to play.
At times, the movie seems like a recruiting film for the US Marines, but let's just assume that's the nature of war movies and not a Pentagon plot. If you had to make the obvious comparison, I would say I liked Battle Los Angeles a bit more than Independence Day because of its simplicity and its lack of humor. It's a combat movie and not much else.
Here is something I thought about on the drive home from the theater. Movies or TV shows where Michelle Rodriguez plays a bad-ass:
Battle Los Angeles
Avatar
Lost
The Fast & the Furious
Resident Evil
SWAT
Movies or TV shows where Michelle Rodriguez is hot without vamping it up:
Battle Los Angeles
Avatar
Lost
The Fast & the Furious
Resident Evil
SWAT
Hmm... 100% overlap. As far as I'm concerned, this is not a bad form of typecasting.
1:51
At times, the movie seems like a recruiting film for the US Marines, but let's just assume that's the nature of war movies and not a Pentagon plot. If you had to make the obvious comparison, I would say I liked Battle Los Angeles a bit more than Independence Day because of its simplicity and its lack of humor. It's a combat movie and not much else.
Here is something I thought about on the drive home from the theater. Movies or TV shows where Michelle Rodriguez plays a bad-ass:
Battle Los Angeles
Avatar
Lost
The Fast & the Furious
Resident Evil
SWAT
Movies or TV shows where Michelle Rodriguez is hot without vamping it up:
Battle Los Angeles
Avatar
Lost
The Fast & the Furious
Resident Evil
SWAT
Hmm... 100% overlap. As far as I'm concerned, this is not a bad form of typecasting.
1:51
Monday, March 14, 2011
Rango
A pet chameleon is released into the desert and becomes sheriff of a critter town. I suppose the plot is no stranger than that of WALL-E, Ratatouille or Bambi, but Rango isn't in their league. I've complained - maybe not in my blog but complained nonetheless - that animated creatures in modern animated movies are too clean and fashionable. Well, if it was grit and grotesqueness that I was asking for, I got it. Half the varmints in Rango are approaching the line of icky and the other half are way over the line.
The plot of Rango is a bit convoluted and the motivation of the villain doesn't hold up under mild scrutiny. There are a few laugh-out-loud gags for adults but I suspect that most kids would yawn many a time during the movie. This child-at-heart did.
1:40
The plot of Rango is a bit convoluted and the motivation of the villain doesn't hold up under mild scrutiny. There are a few laugh-out-loud gags for adults but I suspect that most kids would yawn many a time during the movie. This child-at-heart did.
1:40
Sunday, March 13, 2011
The Adjustment Bureau
The Adjustment Bureau was promoted as a stylish sci-fi film and it is stylish, but they explain the sci in a hurry, which deflates much of the excitement. Matt Damon and Emily Blunt do well in their roles, but the movie is more about their romance than the thriller that was promoted in the commercials.
All-in-all, The Adjustment Bureau was a decent movie, even with the bait & switch, but I had a big problem with the ending. Actually, to have a problem with the ending, you have to have a problem with the premise, but I'm only going to talk about the ending. It was based on a short story by Phillip K Dick. I've not read any Dick stories but I've seen several movie adaptations and I recognize that he writes dark stories. The Adjustment Bureau has a syrupy sweet-ending, so I'm guessing the movie followed his story closely but it wasn't one of his best, or the film-makers made their own ending. My guess is that this wasn't the planned ending. They probably had something darker in mind that the studio or test audiences didn't like, so they re-edited and threw in a voice-over to wrap things up.
My recommendation, for the Matt Damon part of the movie, is to watch anything else he's done in the past two years that you've missed (True Grit, Green Zone, Hereafter, Invictus, The Informant!). The guy is fabulous, but this movie was a misfire by his standards. As for Emily Blunt, her ultimate romance was in My Summer of Love (2004).
1:38
127 Hours
127 Hours was nominated for Best Picture, etc, so you may have heard of it. Here are a few observations about it spread out in nutshell .
First, Kate Mara and Amber Tamblyn appear in the movie, albeit briefly. No movie with those two in it could be completely bad. If you are a film-maker, let me give you a phrase that should be your mantra: More Kate Mara.
Next, either the name of the movie should have been changed or they should have lost the graphics telling us how much time had passed. We see the guy get trapped in a cave. We know the title of the movie is 127 Hours. What are the odds that it's going to take five days & seven hours before something changes? Every time they flashed a graphic stating it was Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, et al, my brain left the movie and calculated how much time was remaining. Sure, a lot of stuff happened and much of it important, but THERE WAS NO SUSPENSE. When I knew nothing crucial would happen for X number of days or hours, I felt like I was the one trapped.
Decent movie, big problems with the execution.
1:29
How I Met Your Mother – Again? Edition
I've put up a few posts about How I Met Your Mother in recent weeks. I could blog about other TV shows, but would you rather I talk about How I Met Your Mother or Charlie Sheen? Thought so.
How I Met Your Mother was in the news last week. They received a two-year renewal from CBS for their 7th and 8th seasons. When I saw that, I had two thoughts simultaneously. Yes, simultaneously. It's called in-brain multitasking. Or MPD. I can't tell which I have.
Firstly, in 2003, ABC was riding high with The Drew Carey Show. Just concluding its 7th season, Drew Carey was dominating its Wednesday time slot, delivering all the eyeballs ABC could want and still putting out a quality product. ABC decided to lock in their most valuable show and gave Drew Carey a two-year renewal.
Almost immediately after the 8th season premiere episode aired, the ratings dropped. Hard. I can't tell you if the quality of the show changed or not as I was one of the millions who stopped watching, although I don't remember any particular reason why. It was just time to move on, I guess.
The Drew Carey Show limped through its 8th season and was yanked by ABC. Remember that two-year renewal? Warner Bros held ABC to their end of the contract and forced them to pay for season nine. But in order to collect, Warner Bros actually had to produce the show. The entire show – cast, crew, writers, staff – made 26 episodes that they knew weren't going to air. ABC eventually burned off the episodes, airing them in the summer of 2004, a full year after production began.
CBS gave 2.5 Men a two-year renewal last year, after its 7th season, and look what happened. 2.5 Men is also produced by Warner Bros and co-stars Ryan Stiles, who was also in The Drew Carey Show. Funny coincidence. I get worried when shows I like get two-year renewals.
My other thought was for Ted's daughter on How I Met Your Mother. In most episodes, they show a few seconds of two teenagers on a couch listening to their Dad's stories about how he met their mother. It's kind of the point of the show. The two kids aren't aging, so the actors probably showed up for one day of work in 2005, did a whole bunch of reaction shots and have been collecting easy paychecks ever since.
Except that these actors still exist, grew up and are still working. The daughter is played by now 24-year-old Lyndsy Fonseca, who is creating a nice little career for herself, appearing in the movies Kick-Ass, Hot Tub Time Machine and co-starring in one of my favorite TV series, Nikita.
The troubling thought that I had was that Lyndsy is a hottie with well documented comedic chops. In two years, at the end of How I Met Your Mother's guaranteed run, she'll be about the right age to play Ted's wife (the right age in sitcom terms, that is – I personally think Ted should try to stay a bit more age appropriate). Wouldn't it be neat if Lyndsy Fonseca played both the daughter AND the mother? Neat, and a little creepy? The resemblance would be uncanny. And a little creepy.
This was just a passing thought when I heard the news of the two-year renewal. I really hope that Lyndsy won't be available to appear on How I Met Your Mother as an adult because I want her to be playing Alex on Nikita for a few more years.
The Green Hornet
It's been five weeks since I saw The Green Hornet in the theater. My note at the time was “Barely Adequate.” Looking back, I think that may have been a Minnesota Nice way of saying it was bad.
Much like Jack Black, a little Seth Rogen goes a long way. As he was also the writer and producer, I guess his Hollywood success has reached that level where no one wants to tell him “No.” The story was thin and more than a little familiar. The rich man-boy suffers a tragedy and becomes a vigilante has been done – it was called Batman.
Christoph Waltz of Inglorious Basterds cashed a paycheck and chewed the scenery as the villain. I have no idea why Battlestar Galactica hero Edward James Olmos or aging uberhottie (but still uberhot) Cameron Diaz were in this movie. The gadgets, the sight gags, the CGI fight scenes all sound great until you put them together into The Green Hornet. All in all, a good movie to skip, even on home video.
1:51
Sunday, February 27, 2011
83rd Annual Academy Awards
Of all the award shows out there, I only pay attention to the Academy Awards. The Oscars are most closely tied to the industry they represent and the voters are members of the industry, so they hold a little more sway with me. Yet, do the awards matter more than the work itself?I have a few gaps in my movie attendance this year, so I'm going to just concentrate on the big awards. And diving into the big awards brings us headlong into The Problem.
The Problem is this: What do you do when last year's winner outdoes himself? Jeff Bridges took home the trophy for Best Actor last year for Crazy Heart. This year, he gave us an even better performance in True Grit. Should he win automatically for doing a better job than a previous performance that won an Academy Award or should everyone be judged with a clean slate? Clean slate, obviously. The Problem occurs when voters (or observers who make a living hyping entertainment news) declare a winner due to a great body of work over a career. No one could argue that Jeff Bridges has a great resume and deserves career recognition, but, one year later, we can clearly see that Crazy Heart was Jeff's third best role, maybe. It's very important to cast our votes, non-binding or not, for the best performance of the year.
Having warned my readers about the dangers of acclamation, let's dive into the awards. Let's start with...
An asterisk * leading a nominee means I didn't see the movie.
Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening The Kids Are All Right
*Nicole Kidman Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman Black Swan
*Michelle Williams Blue Valentine
Acclamation has it going to Portman. Acclamation is correct this time, as her performance was head, shoulders and wings above the others I saw. She took some serious chances and it paid off big time. Some will say it's Bening's time and her performance was good, but, sorry, not this time. We could make a good argument for Jennifer Lawrence but Portman was feather better.
It would be a different story if Hailee Steinfeld had been nominated in this category for True Grit. She had more screen time than Jeff Bridges and completely inhabited her character. A competition between Natalie and Hailee would be be very interesting to contemplate.
Actor in a Leading Role
*Javier Bardem Biutiful
Jeff Bridges True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg The Social Network
Colin Firth The King's Speech
James Franco 127 Hours
Again, acclamation has this award already engraved with Colin Firth's name. I wouldn't have a problem with the Oscar going to any of the other three.
Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale The Fighter
John Hawkes Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner The Town
Mark Ruffalo The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush The King's Speech
Acclamation has this award going to Bale. I'd be fine with Bale or Hawkes taking it although I generally don't care for Bale. Renner and Ruffalo, while doing fine jobs, weren't quite as good. Rush did a decent job but I felt like he hit the comic relief part just a little too hard.
Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter The King's Speech
Melissa Leo The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld True Grit
*Jacki Weaver Animal Kingdom
As I mentioned before, Hailee did a fantastic job in what was really a lead role, so I'm going with her here. Oddly, The King's Speech was so good that I forgot my general dislike of Helena Bonham Carter (going back to The Wings of the Dove in 1997). I wouldn't object if she won which says volumes about how good she was. The ladies from The Fighter were both decent but not quite award winning. And really, why wasn't Mila Kunis nominated for Black Swan?
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Social Network Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
There is no need for discussion or even mentioning the other nominees. Sorkin.
Directing
Black Swan Darren Aronofsky
The Fighter David O. Russell
The King's Speech Tom Hooper
The Social Network David Fincher
True Grit Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
I'm going to give it Fincher for The Social Network. The most important thing about this category is that Darren Aronofsky can never win an Oscar. We can say wonderful things about Black Swan and some of his other movies but the guy who directed The Fountain can simply never be allowed to win an Oscar for directing.
Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
Ten Best Picture nominees is simply too many to consider. I wouldn't object to any of them winning, except for:
Black Swan Both because it was hard to watch and to punish Aronofsky.
Inception It was 20 minutes too long. Maybe that's why it didn't get a nom for Film Editing.
127 Hours Not enough Kate Mara.
Oh, you want me to actually choose a winner? OK. Umm... The King's Speech. It's a close call this year, with The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit and Winter's Bone as exceptionally good runners up.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find my tux so I can be suitably dressed when the show starts.
The Problem is this: What do you do when last year's winner outdoes himself? Jeff Bridges took home the trophy for Best Actor last year for Crazy Heart. This year, he gave us an even better performance in True Grit. Should he win automatically for doing a better job than a previous performance that won an Academy Award or should everyone be judged with a clean slate? Clean slate, obviously. The Problem occurs when voters (or observers who make a living hyping entertainment news) declare a winner due to a great body of work over a career. No one could argue that Jeff Bridges has a great resume and deserves career recognition, but, one year later, we can clearly see that Crazy Heart was Jeff's third best role, maybe. It's very important to cast our votes, non-binding or not, for the best performance of the year.
Having warned my readers about the dangers of acclamation, let's dive into the awards. Let's start with...
An asterisk * leading a nominee means I didn't see the movie.
Actress in a Leading Role
Annette Bening The Kids Are All Right
*Nicole Kidman Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence Winter's Bone
Natalie Portman Black Swan
*Michelle Williams Blue Valentine
Acclamation has it going to Portman. Acclamation is correct this time, as her performance was head, shoulders and wings above the others I saw. She took some serious chances and it paid off big time. Some will say it's Bening's time and her performance was good, but, sorry, not this time. We could make a good argument for Jennifer Lawrence but Portman was feather better.
It would be a different story if Hailee Steinfeld had been nominated in this category for True Grit. She had more screen time than Jeff Bridges and completely inhabited her character. A competition between Natalie and Hailee would be be very interesting to contemplate.
Actor in a Leading Role
*Javier Bardem Biutiful
Jeff Bridges True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg The Social Network
Colin Firth The King's Speech
James Franco 127 Hours
Again, acclamation has this award already engraved with Colin Firth's name. I wouldn't have a problem with the Oscar going to any of the other three.
Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale The Fighter
John Hawkes Winter's Bone
Jeremy Renner The Town
Mark Ruffalo The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush The King's Speech
Acclamation has this award going to Bale. I'd be fine with Bale or Hawkes taking it although I generally don't care for Bale. Renner and Ruffalo, while doing fine jobs, weren't quite as good. Rush did a decent job but I felt like he hit the comic relief part just a little too hard.
Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter The King's Speech
Melissa Leo The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld True Grit
*Jacki Weaver Animal Kingdom
As I mentioned before, Hailee did a fantastic job in what was really a lead role, so I'm going with her here. Oddly, The King's Speech was so good that I forgot my general dislike of Helena Bonham Carter (going back to The Wings of the Dove in 1997). I wouldn't object if she won which says volumes about how good she was. The ladies from The Fighter were both decent but not quite award winning. And really, why wasn't Mila Kunis nominated for Black Swan?
Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
The Social Network Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
There is no need for discussion or even mentioning the other nominees. Sorkin.
Directing
Black Swan Darren Aronofsky
The Fighter David O. Russell
The King's Speech Tom Hooper
The Social Network David Fincher
True Grit Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
I'm going to give it Fincher for The Social Network. The most important thing about this category is that Darren Aronofsky can never win an Oscar. We can say wonderful things about Black Swan and some of his other movies but the guy who directed The Fountain can simply never be allowed to win an Oscar for directing.
Best Picture
Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King's Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter's Bone
Ten Best Picture nominees is simply too many to consider. I wouldn't object to any of them winning, except for:
Black Swan Both because it was hard to watch and to punish Aronofsky.
Inception It was 20 minutes too long. Maybe that's why it didn't get a nom for Film Editing.
127 Hours Not enough Kate Mara.
Oh, you want me to actually choose a winner? OK. Umm... The King's Speech. It's a close call this year, with The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit and Winter's Bone as exceptionally good runners up.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to go find my tux so I can be suitably dressed when the show starts.
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Unknown
Contains minor spoiler
Unknown is what we will henceforth describe as the basic Liam Neeson thriller. A grainy, dark film set in an exotic foreign locale with car chases up the wazoo and a mano a mano resolution featuring lots of quick-cut martial arts. Convenient for us that Liam Neeson is also the star of Unknown. It's very similar to Neeson's Taken of two years ago, where a former spy tracks down his kidnapped daughter in Paris, causing untold physical and personal carnage. Here, an amnesiac summons his inner spy when his life and wife are stolen in Berlin, with untold physical and personal carnage.
Although I'm describing Unknown as a formula movie, it doesn't feel like one, and the presence of Liam Neeson means you automatically know who the good guy is. It runs about ten minutes too long but is a very serviceable thriller.
Here comes a minor rant
I watched the movie this morning and watched a little TV this afternoon. Wouldn't you know it, I saw a commercial for Unknown. Part of the plot revolves around stopping a bomb from detonating. The commercial, run during a prime-time TV show last Thursday, showed the bomb going off. I had not seen any commercials for the movie before seeing it and saw the in-theater preview maybe three times, most recently two weeks ago. The sequence with the explosion - very tense - worked. If the commercial or preview had been fresh in my mind, I wouldn't have cared - I would have known what was coming. Consider this yet another example of the movie's marketing department ruining the hard work of the creative department - you know, everybody who made the dang movie. Stop it.
1:48
Unknown is what we will henceforth describe as the basic Liam Neeson thriller. A grainy, dark film set in an exotic foreign locale with car chases up the wazoo and a mano a mano resolution featuring lots of quick-cut martial arts. Convenient for us that Liam Neeson is also the star of Unknown. It's very similar to Neeson's Taken of two years ago, where a former spy tracks down his kidnapped daughter in Paris, causing untold physical and personal carnage. Here, an amnesiac summons his inner spy when his life and wife are stolen in Berlin, with untold physical and personal carnage.
Although I'm describing Unknown as a formula movie, it doesn't feel like one, and the presence of Liam Neeson means you automatically know who the good guy is. It runs about ten minutes too long but is a very serviceable thriller.
Here comes a minor rant
I watched the movie this morning and watched a little TV this afternoon. Wouldn't you know it, I saw a commercial for Unknown. Part of the plot revolves around stopping a bomb from detonating. The commercial, run during a prime-time TV show last Thursday, showed the bomb going off. I had not seen any commercials for the movie before seeing it and saw the in-theater preview maybe three times, most recently two weeks ago. The sequence with the explosion - very tense - worked. If the commercial or preview had been fresh in my mind, I wouldn't have cared - I would have known what was coming. Consider this yet another example of the movie's marketing department ruining the hard work of the creative department - you know, everybody who made the dang movie. Stop it.
1:48
Monday, February 7, 2011
How I Met Your Mother - Climbing Out of the Hole
Last month, I wrote about how an episode of How I Met Your Mother was ruined by an overly funny gag during a death-in-the-family story. Because I am holding them to a high standard and blogged about it when they screwed up, I feel obligated to report when they get something right. Tonight's episode (season 6, ep 15) was out-of-the-ordinary funny.
First, it featured the relatively new character of Zoey, played by the adorable Jennifer Morrison, previously Dr Cameron on House, MD - always good to see her. In this episode, Zoey's cousin was played by Katie Perry and her breasts. I'm not sure what Katie's claim to fame is, but she's also cute and her cleavage is a good sport. There was ample screen time for Suzie Plakson as Marshall's mother. I've liked her since she played a Klingon on Star Trek The Next Generation a generation ago.
Aside from the good writing on tonight's episode, there were the Minnesotisms, which put it over the top. The politeness in answering the phone and Robin's fake accent were good, but Mrs Erickson's comment about going to Byerly's was genius.
So, How I Met Your Mother producers, you've climbed out of the bottom of your hole a little. This was a very good episode, but you still us a great one.
First, it featured the relatively new character of Zoey, played by the adorable Jennifer Morrison, previously Dr Cameron on House, MD - always good to see her. In this episode, Zoey's cousin was played by Katie Perry and her breasts. I'm not sure what Katie's claim to fame is, but she's also cute and her cleavage is a good sport. There was ample screen time for Suzie Plakson as Marshall's mother. I've liked her since she played a Klingon on Star Trek The Next Generation a generation ago.
Aside from the good writing on tonight's episode, there were the Minnesotisms, which put it over the top. The politeness in answering the phone and Robin's fake accent were good, but Mrs Erickson's comment about going to Byerly's was genius.
So, How I Met Your Mother producers, you've climbed out of the bottom of your hole a little. This was a very good episode, but you still us a great one.
Beverage Recycling
At the last two movies I've been to, they played a Coca-Cola commercial before the previews. It showed several flashy, bouncy sequences where one person would toss a can or bottle into a recycling bin and immediately someone else would get a full pop from a vending machine. The tag line was "If you've had a Coke in the past 85 years, you've been part of the biggest beverage recycling program in the world."
I really hope they meant to say "beverage container recycling" rather than "beverage recycling." If they're turning old containers into new ones, hey, count me in. If Coke is putting urine - filtered, treated, evaporated, condensed, sliced, diced, or otherwise - in my pop, I'm switching to something else.
I really hope they meant to say "beverage container recycling" rather than "beverage recycling." If they're turning old containers into new ones, hey, count me in. If Coke is putting urine - filtered, treated, evaporated, condensed, sliced, diced, or otherwise - in my pop, I'm switching to something else.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)