I definitely went into this movie expecting that Forest Whittaker would be pretty good but the rest of the movie would be overly dramatic and less than great. Whittaker's performance ended up really deserving most of the credit that he is receiving. I can't really compare him to the somewhat random other best actor nominees, but it was quite a good performance. He pulls off a slightly crazy guy really well.
On a side note, I'm really glad there's becoming more and more roles like this one for otherwise not widely known actors who are generally pretty good. Phillip Seymour Hoffman had always been really good, Capote gave him recognition. Forest Whittaker was excellent in Good Morning Vietnam and some other things, and how he has received notice. Next up in my mind is Jack Black, who's fully capable and just awaiting the correct role.
What most surprised me about the movie was that the rest of it was quite good. The primary non-Whittaker character I thought did a really good job. The story was also just really interesting. I don't know to what aspect it's fully accurate but it was pretty informative but also character driven enough to keep you motivated. Through the first half of the movie, you're kind of rooting for Amin, and then you go through the transformation along with the primary character.
Given the quality of the movie and that its really an Academy-type movie (ie: drama, political, etc...) I'm really surprised this didn't get more nominees. One side note is that there are legitimately moments in the movie that I turned away from the screen from the gruesome stuff happening. It's pretty rare for that to happen to me, but it happened twice. Overall, really good acting and really good movie.
Monday, February 5, 2007
Sunday, February 4, 2007
Epic Movie: Comments
So I hate to admit that I saw Epic Movie. It was largely due to the fact that I was home and didn't want to work on my thesis and was intrigued by it being the #1 movie in American on its opening weekend. The other reason I wanted to see it is that I believed that there had been way too many epic-type movies made recently. Basically, any fantasy novel, any story with an epic battle or any story with some guy addressing a large crowd from atop a mountain/stone structure are made. Although many of these movies are good, I felt a spoof was more than called for. Neither my intrigue, desire to see a spoor nor desperation for entertainment were satisfied by this "movie".
I'd classify the problems with this movie as universal. For a spoof, you're supposed to do similar things but over the top. However, this movie was basically just a worse version of Chronicles of Narnia (which is tough to begin with) that added very little of its own. When I think about a successful spoof I think of Last Action Hero which was just a ridiculous action movie with some specific allusions to other films. Epic Movie was just a bunch of non-sequitor breaks from Willy Wonka (almost as scary as Johny Depp was) randomly to Narnia, and then just as randomly to the show Cribs.
The other little thing was that it was probably the worst acting I'd ever seen. I realize its a dumb teen movie so its not gonna have anything great, but it was shockingly bad. It was like they signed up the replacement crew for Harold and Kumar or Date Movie but then they all fell ill so their back up crew ended up acting in this movie. Finally, it just wasn't funny. I was in a granted pretty empty theater of like 10 people, but none of us laughed once through the movie. The writing was also just annoying. Probably about 80% of one character's lines was just repeating another person's lines. This continued for the whole damn movie to the point where it was just shockingly annoying.
You will get dumber watching this movie. You will want your 8 dollars and 85 minutes back. You will want to walk out almost as much as during Windtalkers.
I'd classify the problems with this movie as universal. For a spoof, you're supposed to do similar things but over the top. However, this movie was basically just a worse version of Chronicles of Narnia (which is tough to begin with) that added very little of its own. When I think about a successful spoof I think of Last Action Hero which was just a ridiculous action movie with some specific allusions to other films. Epic Movie was just a bunch of non-sequitor breaks from Willy Wonka (almost as scary as Johny Depp was) randomly to Narnia, and then just as randomly to the show Cribs.
The other little thing was that it was probably the worst acting I'd ever seen. I realize its a dumb teen movie so its not gonna have anything great, but it was shockingly bad. It was like they signed up the replacement crew for Harold and Kumar or Date Movie but then they all fell ill so their back up crew ended up acting in this movie. Finally, it just wasn't funny. I was in a granted pretty empty theater of like 10 people, but none of us laughed once through the movie. The writing was also just annoying. Probably about 80% of one character's lines was just repeating another person's lines. This continued for the whole damn movie to the point where it was just shockingly annoying.
You will get dumber watching this movie. You will want your 8 dollars and 85 minutes back. You will want to walk out almost as much as during Windtalkers.
Thursday, February 1, 2007
Academy Awards: Best Picture Thoughts (3)
3. Letters from Iwo Jima: so although I think its a close call with The Departed, Iwo Jima has to get the number three spot. Probably the strongest part of this film was the story itself. Although we've all seen lots of war movies it was certainly unique to see a film from an "enemy" perspective. Many of the similarities in what soldiers were feeling and thinking for the Japanese makes for an interesting perspective with American soldiers' feelings as portrayed elsewhere.
Moreover, Clint Eastwood definitely deserves acclaim for his directing in this picture. Many individual scenes were really excellently done, most notably the arrival of American forces, the flashback scenes and reading the POW's letter from his mother. Finally, the acting was really excellent. Watanabe was probably the best I have seen him (and he was pretty excellent in Last Samurai) and deserves all the acclaim he is receiving. Some of the other not really well known actors playing regular soldiers were quite excellent as well. Finally, something true of all of the top 3 was that the soundtracks were absolutely fantastic and really enhanced the movie.
Holding this movie back from the one or two spot in my mind was the pace, and what sometimes wasn't shown. The movie dragged a bit in the middle. In addition, Eastwood's choices for what didn't appear on screen were strange. We never really saw a/the battle in any scale even though we were told tens of thousands of soldiers were involved over several days. The movie made it seem like it was 10-20 Japanese soldiers defending the island and the lack of scale and dramatic battle scenes (every movie could use some Saving Private Ryan thrown in) held the film back.
2. The Departed: a really really really excellent movie. It will be a real shame if Scorsese doesn't earn his first Oscar for this film. So, to mix it up, first the weakness: the end. I haven't seen the original Infernal Affairs so I can't speak comparatively of the ending, but this one certainly seemed over the top. Even though much of the movie was shooting and killing, there was just a bit too much in the last 5 minutes. The only other weakness of the movie is: it just wasn't as good as Little Miss Sunshine.
So the strengths of this movie are pretty much everything. Again, the soundtrack was really good. The directing was close to perfect. Transitions from the childhood scenes of Matt Damon to the present day were pretty flawless and drew you in right away. The screenplay was excellent. Some movies overdue the crime dialog but Departed does just enough of it that its interesting and catchy but not too much that it gets annoying. Next, the ridiculously superb acting. There were probably the best performances I've ever seen from DiCaprio, Wahlberg and Baldwin and more than above average from Damon and especially Nicholson. Wahlberg and Baldwin's smaller side characters did wonders to keep the movie going and draw us into additional characters. Finally, the story was really edgy and kept everyone interested for 2+ hours.
1. Little Miss Sunshine: the best picture of the year 2006. I've seen this movie three times now and its gotten arguably better each time (although it was pretty damn good the first time). So I'm going to skip over the weaknesses as I don't really know any. Again to quickly point out, the soundtrack was fantastic and makes you want to start a road trip of your own. The screenplay was maybe one of the best I've seen. The dialog never disappointed in wittiness, humor, and ingenuity. Coupled with what I'd say might be the best ensemble performance of a cast I've ever seen made the entire movie hilarious, clever, tragic (at times) and generally fantastic.
I wouldn't have thought it unreasonable for Kinnear, Breslin, Arkin, Carrell, Collette, and even Dano to receive nominations. I do think that not giving ones to Kinnear and Carrell is really ridiculous. Overall, this movie grabs all emotional appeals. The dysfunctionalness of the family is believable enough to be kinda tragic to watch but ridiculous enough to be hilarious. It's hard not to watch the whole movie without laughing hysterically or at minimum smiling throughout. Its pretty rare to find a movie that is both so well done and also so fun to watch.
That being said for all the movies, I'd be shocked if my #1 wins. Comedies have always been snubbed by the Academy (and arguably LMS is as well in terms of acting), and there's little reason to believe this year will be different. Assuming that the Departed wins instead, it won't be too ridiculous but if its the 3rd through 5th choices of mine, I'd really feel that the Academy has lost all credibility...again.
Moreover, Clint Eastwood definitely deserves acclaim for his directing in this picture. Many individual scenes were really excellently done, most notably the arrival of American forces, the flashback scenes and reading the POW's letter from his mother. Finally, the acting was really excellent. Watanabe was probably the best I have seen him (and he was pretty excellent in Last Samurai) and deserves all the acclaim he is receiving. Some of the other not really well known actors playing regular soldiers were quite excellent as well. Finally, something true of all of the top 3 was that the soundtracks were absolutely fantastic and really enhanced the movie.
Holding this movie back from the one or two spot in my mind was the pace, and what sometimes wasn't shown. The movie dragged a bit in the middle. In addition, Eastwood's choices for what didn't appear on screen were strange. We never really saw a/the battle in any scale even though we were told tens of thousands of soldiers were involved over several days. The movie made it seem like it was 10-20 Japanese soldiers defending the island and the lack of scale and dramatic battle scenes (every movie could use some Saving Private Ryan thrown in) held the film back.
2. The Departed: a really really really excellent movie. It will be a real shame if Scorsese doesn't earn his first Oscar for this film. So, to mix it up, first the weakness: the end. I haven't seen the original Infernal Affairs so I can't speak comparatively of the ending, but this one certainly seemed over the top. Even though much of the movie was shooting and killing, there was just a bit too much in the last 5 minutes. The only other weakness of the movie is: it just wasn't as good as Little Miss Sunshine.
So the strengths of this movie are pretty much everything. Again, the soundtrack was really good. The directing was close to perfect. Transitions from the childhood scenes of Matt Damon to the present day were pretty flawless and drew you in right away. The screenplay was excellent. Some movies overdue the crime dialog but Departed does just enough of it that its interesting and catchy but not too much that it gets annoying. Next, the ridiculously superb acting. There were probably the best performances I've ever seen from DiCaprio, Wahlberg and Baldwin and more than above average from Damon and especially Nicholson. Wahlberg and Baldwin's smaller side characters did wonders to keep the movie going and draw us into additional characters. Finally, the story was really edgy and kept everyone interested for 2+ hours.
1. Little Miss Sunshine: the best picture of the year 2006. I've seen this movie three times now and its gotten arguably better each time (although it was pretty damn good the first time). So I'm going to skip over the weaknesses as I don't really know any. Again to quickly point out, the soundtrack was fantastic and makes you want to start a road trip of your own. The screenplay was maybe one of the best I've seen. The dialog never disappointed in wittiness, humor, and ingenuity. Coupled with what I'd say might be the best ensemble performance of a cast I've ever seen made the entire movie hilarious, clever, tragic (at times) and generally fantastic.
I wouldn't have thought it unreasonable for Kinnear, Breslin, Arkin, Carrell, Collette, and even Dano to receive nominations. I do think that not giving ones to Kinnear and Carrell is really ridiculous. Overall, this movie grabs all emotional appeals. The dysfunctionalness of the family is believable enough to be kinda tragic to watch but ridiculous enough to be hilarious. It's hard not to watch the whole movie without laughing hysterically or at minimum smiling throughout. Its pretty rare to find a movie that is both so well done and also so fun to watch.
That being said for all the movies, I'd be shocked if my #1 wins. Comedies have always been snubbed by the Academy (and arguably LMS is as well in terms of acting), and there's little reason to believe this year will be different. Assuming that the Departed wins instead, it won't be too ridiculous but if its the 3rd through 5th choices of mine, I'd really feel that the Academy has lost all credibility...again.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
Academy Awards: Best Picture Thoughts (2)
4. Babel: So, unlike The Queen, I don't think its absurd that this was nominated for Best Picture. Once again, this movie was pretty mixed in my mind. Before I get to that, I'm concerned about the growing trend of movies like this. After Crash, the path has been paved for nonsensical, noncontiguous social commentary movies, that just don't make sense as movies. Just because someone can come up with three interesting stories doesn't mean you can combine them into one movie.
So, first, the good. I thought the acting was generally really fantastic. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barazza and "the girl who played the deaf/mute Japanese volleyball player" were all really really great. Also excellent were a number of really powerful and moving scenes. For example, the son turning himself into the police, Brad Pitt trying to pay the guy who helped with this wife, Brad Pitt on the phone with his kids, and a few others were exceptionally well done scenes.
However, the movie suffered from three big problems. The first is what I'll will now call the "Crash/Babel Problem" which shall heretofore be defined as "having a bunch of nonsequitor plot lines with no meaningful relation to each other." Babel took this problem to a whole new level from Crash. The second problem was that the stories also not only had no unifying point but no real point at all. Basically the only underlying current of the movie (as far as I could tell) was that random stuff happens. Third, the movie was too long. Not only that, it felt WAAAAY too long. The last hour moved decently, but the first hour and a quarter was too much nothing. There's only so much not seeing Brad Pitt helped, seeing Japanese girl be frustrated etc... that I really need to buy the storyline.
Overall, good movie, MAYBE good enough to be nominated for best picture in some years. But outside of the acting, the movie probably shouldn't have been nominated.
So, first, the good. I thought the acting was generally really fantastic. Brad Pitt, Cate Blanchett, Adriana Barazza and "the girl who played the deaf/mute Japanese volleyball player" were all really really great. Also excellent were a number of really powerful and moving scenes. For example, the son turning himself into the police, Brad Pitt trying to pay the guy who helped with this wife, Brad Pitt on the phone with his kids, and a few others were exceptionally well done scenes.
However, the movie suffered from three big problems. The first is what I'll will now call the "Crash/Babel Problem" which shall heretofore be defined as "having a bunch of nonsequitor plot lines with no meaningful relation to each other." Babel took this problem to a whole new level from Crash. The second problem was that the stories also not only had no unifying point but no real point at all. Basically the only underlying current of the movie (as far as I could tell) was that random stuff happens. Third, the movie was too long. Not only that, it felt WAAAAY too long. The last hour moved decently, but the first hour and a quarter was too much nothing. There's only so much not seeing Brad Pitt helped, seeing Japanese girl be frustrated etc... that I really need to buy the storyline.
Overall, good movie, MAYBE good enough to be nominated for best picture in some years. But outside of the acting, the movie probably shouldn't have been nominated.
Academy Awards: Best Picture Thoughts (1)
So the five films nominated for best picture this year are The Departed, Babel, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen, and Letters from Iwo Jima. I have just today finished seeing all five, having seen Babel and Iwo Jima in the last week. Although I certainly had views before seeing all the movies, I now have pretty confident feelings about the movies. Before I get to my own opinions on the five movies, I want to discuss some movies that weren't nominated.
First, I was extraordinarily pleased that Dreamgirls was not nominated for Best Picture. I had vowed that if it had won I would boycott watching the Oscars for three years, and indeed it now won't. I would have enjoyed explaining why this movie didn't deserve to win but I'm happy to say I don't need that opportunity.
Second, there are several movies I think should have been up there that weren't. The number one movie in this respect was Thank You For Smoking, a really really great movie. This picture got hugely snubbed in the Oscars (should have at minimum received something for the screenplay). Other movies that potentially deserved a best picture nod or at least consideration are An Inconvenient Truth, The Prestige, Casino Royale, The Illusionist, Inside Man, and maybe Children of Men. Although these movies were not the Best Picture, I think all of them are better than certainly two of the nominees.
My own personal rankings of the five movies are as follows, with a short explanation for each to follow.
1. Little Miss Sunshine
T2. The Departed/Letters from Iwo Jima (slight edge to Departed probably)
4. Babel
5. The Queen
5. The Queen: Even though I really don't think this film had any business being so acclaimed and nominated, it had a couple of things going for it. Primarily, the story itself was excellent and an interesting, unseen twist on an event most of us remember vividly. Many times throughout the movie I remember being really interested and impressed with the story. In addition, the parts of the movie that were documentary footage were excellent additions. The only other good part of the movie was some (but not all) of the acting done by the queen character and the Tony Blair character.
However, otherwise I thought the movie pretty much sucked. My primary rationale for thinking this was that by far the most interesting parts of the movie were the documentary footage. Each part of the movie that was originally written or acted was worse than the stock footage. Also, extraordinarily little happens in the movie. Although that is kind of the point I realize, it doesn't make for too great a movie...there's only so many times you can see and hear the queen doing nothing. Finally, the stag-metaphor plot line. If you haven't seen the movie, imagine the most over extended and nonsensical metaphor you've ever come across and then quadruple it. This entire addition was a total waste of time.
First, I was extraordinarily pleased that Dreamgirls was not nominated for Best Picture. I had vowed that if it had won I would boycott watching the Oscars for three years, and indeed it now won't. I would have enjoyed explaining why this movie didn't deserve to win but I'm happy to say I don't need that opportunity.
Second, there are several movies I think should have been up there that weren't. The number one movie in this respect was Thank You For Smoking, a really really great movie. This picture got hugely snubbed in the Oscars (should have at minimum received something for the screenplay). Other movies that potentially deserved a best picture nod or at least consideration are An Inconvenient Truth, The Prestige, Casino Royale, The Illusionist, Inside Man, and maybe Children of Men. Although these movies were not the Best Picture, I think all of them are better than certainly two of the nominees.
My own personal rankings of the five movies are as follows, with a short explanation for each to follow.
1. Little Miss Sunshine
T2. The Departed/Letters from Iwo Jima (slight edge to Departed probably)
4. Babel
5. The Queen
5. The Queen: Even though I really don't think this film had any business being so acclaimed and nominated, it had a couple of things going for it. Primarily, the story itself was excellent and an interesting, unseen twist on an event most of us remember vividly. Many times throughout the movie I remember being really interested and impressed with the story. In addition, the parts of the movie that were documentary footage were excellent additions. The only other good part of the movie was some (but not all) of the acting done by the queen character and the Tony Blair character.
However, otherwise I thought the movie pretty much sucked. My primary rationale for thinking this was that by far the most interesting parts of the movie were the documentary footage. Each part of the movie that was originally written or acted was worse than the stock footage. Also, extraordinarily little happens in the movie. Although that is kind of the point I realize, it doesn't make for too great a movie...there's only so many times you can see and hear the queen doing nothing. Finally, the stag-metaphor plot line. If you haven't seen the movie, imagine the most over extended and nonsensical metaphor you've ever come across and then quadruple it. This entire addition was a total waste of time.
First Post
So, I've randomly decided that it would be interesting to create a movie blog. For one, I watch a ton of movies. More importantly, I have fairly strong opinions about most movies. It's certainly possible this will simply fizzle out quickly as an idea, but now for I thought it would be fun to try.
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