Category: Movies

Movie Reviews

Posted in Movies

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Oscars

Posted on by Godfather

This was the third movie that I saw when we were in the big city, and all I can say is wow. Its not my favorite movie of the year, but its definitely one of the best made. Button is 3 hours long, but every minute is necessary for what it is trying to say, and I even think that it could have been a little longer. Its also slow paced, so don’t expect it to go quickly, this is the telling of a man’s whole life, and it does feel like we were with Benjamin his whole life. What I meant by it being longer though, is that near the end, the movie felt a little rushed. In the beginning of his story, they spent a lot of time dealing with what he did while he was younger, and it spent less and less time with him as he got older. The last years of his life were told in just a quick montage, and should have been stretched a little more. So now to the Oscars. This was nominated for 5 Golden Globes, and that pretty much confirms at least a few nominations for it. Best Picture has a very good shot, and I think that it also has a chance at winning, even though Slumdog Millionaire and The Dark Knight were more enjoyable. David Fincher is also almost a lock for Best Director, a long overdue award in my eyes since he’s made some great movies like Zodiac, Se7en, and Fight Club. The cinematography was some of the best of the year too, and will probably get a nomination. Now, when I was younger, I always though of Brad Pitt just being a bad actor who women love, but I’m realizing that he is a great actor instead, and this year he will get a nomination for Best Actor. Cate Blanchett is also most likely going to get a nomination for her acting. Best Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Special Effects, Score, and Makeup are all serious contenders for this movie as well. I would suggest this to most people, but just remember that it is a long movie that you need to be in the right mood to see.

Best Picture- Very good chance
Best Director- Very good chance
Best Actor- Nomination, but not going to win
Best (Supporting?) Actress- Maybe Nomination, but probably won’t win.
Best Cinematography- Very good chance
Best Adapted Screenplay- Good chance
Art Direction- I would think that its a lock to win.
Special Effects- Great chance, the aging with Pitt’s face is amazing.
Score- It was stuck in my head hours later, not sure if its original though…
Makeup- Again, the aging is well done.
That’s most likely it…

Posted in Movies

Double Oscar Wammy!

Posted on by Godfather

Interesting title eh? Well, since I saw three contender movies this week, I decided to talk about 2 of them so this series doesn’t run too long. Frost/Nixon and Milk are the two topics for today.

Milk

The weakest of the three I saw, it was still a decent movie. The concept was good, but the emotional impact wasn’t what it should have been. I really didn’t feel to close to the characters, and it just didn’t do much for the inspiring factor. The funny thing is though, in my home town, its not being played because the only big movie theater is owned by a company that is against Gay Marriage. But with the moderate filmmaking of the rest, are there any oscars that are looking good? Yes, Sean Penn did a great job acting the character. I wouldn’t be surprised after seeing the movie to learn that he was gay himself. In fact, all the actors did a great job for their parts, and I hope that it does get some of these nominations, but not much more. The directing was good, but not to the level that other movies have been this year, and it shouldn’t get a Best Picture nod since there have also been better movies. But, we never know, the Academy loves to make the wrong choices.

Best Picture- To me a long shot, but a perfect Academy choice
Best Director- Not as long of a shot, but not a good shot
Best Writing- Average shot
Best Actor- Lock
Best Supporting Actor- Any of the other actors could be nominated, but James Franco and Emile Hersch would be my top two choices
And other awards I know less about could have ok shots

Frost/Nixon

It seemed that the movies got better and better throughout the week. If you can find this movie near you, go see it. Its in very few theaters in big cities, so be lucky to be one of those who does see it. While not a great movie, it does seem to be one of the better made movies of the year. It also is tied for the most Golden Globe nominations right now, so I wouldn’t be surprised or displeased if it gets just as many, or maybe more, Academy nominations. It is one of the Best Pictures of the year so far that I’ve seen, and did deserve the Globe nominations. Also, it should be nominated for Frank Langella, who played Nixon flawlessly. Michael Sheen did a good job too as Frost, but it wasn’t quite as good. The script, based off the play, is well done, as is the directing by Ron Howard. While still not as good as The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Slumdog Millionare, or The Dark Knight, it is a solid, well made film that has a universal appeal.

Best Picture- Good chance, but shouldn’t win
Best Directing- Also a good chance, but shouldn’t win
Best Actor- Good chance, wouldn’t be sad if it won
Best Writing- Good chance, wouldn’t be sad if it won
Best Editing- It was good, but this category is mainly for action movies
Thats mostly it, but could have a small chance at others

This is what my personal Best Picture category would look line now…

Slumdog Millionaire (Won’t change)
The Dark Knight (Won’t change)
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Most likely won’t change)
Frost/Nixon (Might Change)
Changeling (Subject to change)

Posted in Movies

Hallelujah!!!

Posted on by Godfather

Ok, so this is just a quick update on my movie situation. I have recently been complaining to everyone that our little old town is a terrible place to live, and one such reason is that lack of good movies going there. Well, Christmas is the day of miracles. Tomorrow, Benjamin Button, Doubt, and Valkyrie are all coming to that city. So I’m pretty excited, and while I still don’t like the place overall, there is a little light in all that blackness. Granted though, that if I were in Los Angeles or some other big city, I would have had these and many, many more already. So yeah, once I get back home, its MOVIE TIME!

Posted in Movies

A Day Early… Slumdog Millionare Oscars

Posted on by Godfather

I’m sure you are thinking one of two things right now. 1. But godfather, why are you writing this a day early? or 2. You actually think we notice that you’re writing a day early? Either way, I’ll explain to my fans out there why I’m messing with their Sunday schedule of reading my fresh new blog. Well, our esteemed webmistress and I are going on a little drive tomorrow, and I won’t have time to update. So, here is another new movie, Slumdog Millionare that has some Academy Award chances.

I’m sure none of you have heard of it, seeing as it is a smaller film that was made in India. But, it is quite possibly my 1st or 2nd favorite movie of the year. Normally, I don’t like romance movies and I just want them to be over, but this one is the exception. It develops so well that even a real man like myself can be rooting for the guy to kiss the girl of his dreams. Read any review, and they’ll agree that it is one of the best movies of the year. So, which Oscars is it looking towards then? Best Picture is almost a lock for it, seeing as it’s nominated for 4 Golden Globes including Best Drama and Best Director. Well, the same awards in the Academy could easily given to this one. Slumdog could also be nominated for Best Cinematography, seeing as it easily beats out any other movie I’ve seen this year in this category. Acting awards could be potentials, but aren’t a lock since there have been other, better performances and the academy likes to go with familiar faces. That should be about it, so I’ll make a little list for those of you who were too lazy to read this whole thing.

Best Picture- Almost Positive
Best Director- Almost Positive
Best Cinematography- Good Chance
Best Screenplay- Almost Positive
Best Actor- Long shot
Best Supporting Actress- Long shot
Best Editing- Mediocre chance
Best Score- Good Chance
and other awards I know less about also all have chances

Here are the other movies that I still want/have to see to have a well balanced view of this year’s awards. They’re ranked by how much I want to see them.

1. The Wrestler (Love this director’s earlier work, and looks like one of the best sports movies ever)
2. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Fincher made my favorite movie, and the writer wrote Forrest Gump, whats not to like?)
3. Gran Torino (My favorite director, and another great role for Clint)
4. Milk (An interesting story, and looks like it could be pretty powerful)
5. Frost/Nixon (Looks like it’s going for too much, but could be good)
6. The Reader (Could be good, but some reviews say otherwise)
7. Revolutionary Road (I’ll only see it if it gets nominated for some of the bigger awards, and the director made something similar about 9 years ago)

Posted in Movies

Australia Oscars

Posted on by Godfather

First off, I would like to add some potential nominees for The Dark Knight that I forgot last week. I watched it again last night, and it could have a chance at Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Best Editing.

So I went to see Australia yesterday with my mom, and about 4 months ago I would have thought it to be a big contender in the Oscars. But, the golden globe nominations are out, and Australia go 0, but for good reason. It was an average film, not wonderful, not horrible. There were parts that were good, and others that were just way to cliche and cheesy. So to me, Australia has almost no shot at Best Picture, but hey, we never know for sure. Cinematography could have a little shot, though I didn’t think it was too good, since there were moments of greatness and horribleness. But the main categories to watch out for are Art Direction and Costume Design. One thing I can say about Australia though, is that the sets felt real (for the most part) and the crew did a good job at making the movie seem like the 40s.

By the way, the Golden Globes nominations were announced this week, and Benjamin Button, Doubt, and Frost/Nixon were all tied for the most nominations. Hopefully, I’ll see Button in a few weeks, and the other two soon.

Watch out for:
Cinematography- Maybe
Art Direction- Good chance
Costume Design- Good Chance

Posted in Movies

The Dark Knight Oscars

Posted on by Godfather

So I guess I’ll be writing about current contenders for Oscars these next few weeks, and unfortunately, there were no new real contenders out this weekend in our theaters, so I’ll have to talk about this one. Hopefully there will at least be one good looking one here next week, or else I’ll go see Australia. Anyway, to the article.

As all of you should have seen (who HASN’T seen The Dark Knight??), Christopher Nolan’s latest Batman movie has easily surpassed any others ever made, even his previous installment Batman Begins. It was a hit with both casual movie goers and film lovers alike, and broke all the box office records for opening weekends. But was it good enough for the Academy, who have surpassed many great films in the past like Fight Club, Se7en, The Usual Suspects, Assassination of Jesse James, and countless more? Well, it seems to me like most people think it has a chance in this category, and I’m one of them. So far this year, no other film has come close to matching The Dark Knight in really any aspect, except for maybe visual effects (Iron Man). But not having THE best effects of the year shouldn’t dampen it’s prospect should it? Most of the public would agree with me on this, even the film lovers are adoring it, so shouldn’t it be a lock? It should, but the academy has made some horrible choices with their nominations. Juno (Enjoyable, but Best of the year???? I don’t think so), Forrest Gump (It was one of the better films of the year, and I have no problem with it’s nomination, but in a year with Shawshank Redemption and Pulp Fiction, there is no way it was best), and Jerry Maguire (Come on, really? Its like Juno, enjoyable but not amazing). It is definitely a contender for this spot, but I’m not so sure it’ll make it.

The other major award that it will be nominated for is Best Supporting Actor for Heath Ledger. Heath did a wonderful job with the great script and brought it to life with one of the greatest performances of all time, and he should be honored with this award even after his death. Oh, and Adapted Screenplay, its not a lock, but to me the whole reason the movie worked was that the screenplay was flawless, and allowed the actors to give great performances off it. So, awards to watch…

Best Picture (Maybe)
Best Supporting Actor (Lock)
Best Adapted Screenplay (Maybe)
Best Cinematography (Maybe)
Best Director (Maybe)

Posted in Movies

Oscar Season

Posted on by Godfather

So, this is the time of year in which all the Oscar contenders come out and I want to know what you guys want me to write about. First, I could write about past winners of the award and what my take was on that year. So, for example, I would talk about last year’s Academy Awards and say that No Country for Old Men was the best movie, and that Juno, Michael Clayton, and Atonement were all poor choices for other nominees. Or, I could start talking more about this year’s movies. This would let you see an insight into some of the best movies to see over the holidays, and which ones would most likely be nominated for something. Changeling, for example, has a good chance at being nominated for Best Actress, Set Design, and maybe even costumes. Or, if you want me to just ignore the Oscars for right now, then vote for that option. I start next week, so get busy voting!

Posted in Movies

So we just take it back…

Posted on by Bri

So me and Rachel went to see Twilight on Wednesday night. We knew it wasn’t going to live up to the books, of course, but dang, we didn’t think it would be THIS bad. It was awful, there was no character development or plot building, and it was HILARIOUS. We laughed at the most inappropriate parts, but oh well. To express my distaste, I’ll go character by character.

Edward: He wasn’t even that attractive, and his pale makeup didn’t go past his face, so he had a tan neck and a white face, which looked weird. Plus, he had the same expression the entire movie and he wasn’t seductive at all.

Bella: In the book, she’s got a good sense of humor and is very sarcastic. In the movie, she didn’t smile once, always seemed out of breath and afraid, and the actress wasn’t very good anyways. A huge disappointment.

Jacob: One of the only redeeming qualities of the movie. Attractive, once of the best actors in the film, and interesting. I can’t wait for New Moon, where he gets a bigger part.

James: Twisted his head to the side so often he looked like a confused dog.

Victoria: Too sweet looking… she needed to be more severe.

Laurent: He was a weird character anyways.

Mike: I LOVED him! He was probably the best actor, and he was hillarious!

Angela: Too outgoing and perky; she’s supposed to be quiet and reserved. They totally ruined her.

Jessica: They got her hair all wrong, but she wasn’t bad.

Lauren: Wasn’t even in the movie.

Tyler: Didn’t have a very big part, unimportant.

Eric: Entertaining, but I would have liked him to be a bit more nerdy.

Charlie: He was actually ok.

Billy: He wasn’t bad either, but how could he drive?? He’s in a wheelchair…

Jasper: He looked afraid the entire movie. The couple times he didn’t, he was a cutie!

Alice: Kind of odd, a little too cold to fit the actual character. She needed to be perkier.

Emmit: He was pretty good.

Rosalie: She did ok, but she looked kind of funny.

Carlisle: He was kind of scary looking, actually. He was one of the better actors, however.

Esme: She was kind of creepy too.

Overall, the movie was too intense to follow even the idea of the book. I was very disappointed, but at least I got a laugh out of it.

Posted in Movies

How We Watch Movies

Posted on by Godfather

I’ve noticed a loose correlation between the average movie goer and a film lover. We watch movies in different ways, and that’s why there are few movies that transcend both groups of people totally. You see, I think that film lovers would rather see a well put together movie in all aspects, and not just be a good story. This is why I was the only one in my family who wanted to watch all of Children of Men, because the story was weird, but cinematography and editing was amazing, and that along with an interesting (to me) story helped me watch and enjoy the movie. On the other hand, my parents loved The Game Plan, even though it was one of the worst put together movies I’ve ever seen. The subject matter and story is what most people look for in movies, not how well it was made. Sure, I look for both these things in movies, but a bad story wouldn’t completely take me out of a movie unless it was overwhelming, other aspects would have to be bad too. I’m also sure that normal movie watchers also can kind of tell when a movie is well made, unless the subject matter was overwhelming to them, then they wouldn’t notice. But some movies that I do think both types of people will like are The Dark Knight, Lord of the Rings, and Titanic. Why do you think these movies made so much money? They were well made, and had appealing stories.

Does this make sense? Or am I just going crazy after a long day trying to promote a charity?

Posted in Movies

Directing Styles

Posted on by Godfather

After watching both Barton Fink and Changeling yesterday, I realized that if you know what kind of movies the director likes to make, its easy to spot them without knowing. So here are a few famous directors and how to tell its their movie.

Quentin Tarantino

Probably the easiest to notice, Quentin’s movies have so far always been violent with lots of swearing. But what differs him from most other directors is the way he presents these acts. Kill Bill for example is one of the most violent movies I’ve ever seen, but he shows these acts in a way that doesn’t freak you out like a horror movie would. Instead, these scenes are filled with classic rock and they’re stylized in a way that makes you wonder what the heck is wrong with the guy who made this. If you watch Reservoir Dogs, you’ll never hear the song “Stuck in the Middle With You” the same. Trust me, if you hate violence portrayed in a manner that almost seems to congratulate it, then don’t see his movies, since they aren’t for everybody.

Joel and Ethan Coen

These two normally stay in the boundary of thrillers or comedies, most of the time their movies are a combination of both. In some cases, they do have movies that have no comedy whatsoever, but so far its only happened two times with No Country For Old Men and Blood Simple. Almost all of these movies though have killers, but not ones that you’ll see in other movies. In Barton Fink, the guy lights a building on fire, kills two policemen, and then talks to his neighbor friend who saw the whole thing and keeps complaining about how hot it is. If someone is being killed, and you were laughing just a second before, then the movie is probably by the Coen Brothers.

Stanley Kubrick

Of these directors, he is definitely the least main stream. To watch Kubrick’s movies, you really do have to love films a lot, because they are kind of like abstract art. People who do understand films and why certain things are chosen can respect his films, while about 90% of people would hate them because of the way they’re told. A Clockwork Orange for example, its extremely violent with lots of nudity, and really the only people who can bear it are those who can respect it for how it portrays these scenes, or those who are really messed up in the head. Really none of his movies go like normal ones, with plots that you’ve never seen before, or just a movie that leaves you wondering why people liked it. Well, they like them because Kubrick is an artist with a camera, and if you do have a knowledge of film you can see that.

Clint Eastwood

While he is a great actor too, I still think that he works just as well behind the camera. I’ve noticed that while most of his movies are for a more broad audience, most have the thriller feeling that makes you care for the characters while wondering how things will turn out. He also normally portrays strong characters as the sort of role models we hope we are. Heck, even some of his political views get bounced around a little. When I watched his newest movie Changeling, a mother told her son “Never start a fight but always finish it”. This is just his tendency to lean towards the right shining through without being showy like others. He has changed what movies he’s done though since in the 60s-90s he was mainly making westerns or action movies like Dirty Harry. Now, he’s settled for thrillers with great stories. Since he is so consistent with his quality of movies, I can firmly believe Clint is one of the greatest directors of all time.

So that’s it for now, if I do come up with any more, I might do some more of these in the future. Tell me what you think of these directors and what their best movies are in your opinion.