Tag: Movies

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.

Posted in Movies

Idiocracy

Posted on by Godfather

Never heard of it? Well, you should have. This is one of the most accurate portrayals of modern society I have seen. Sure, in movie making quality, it isn’t THAT great. The comedy is great at first, but kind of dies down towards the end, but I really don’t think that matters. The movie goes like this. A government program is testing a life freezing idea that could keep soldiers alive but in a sleep mode until the next war, then they can come out and fight years later for their country as if it were yesterday. They test it on two average people, but then, before they’re taken out of the chamber, the program is shut down and they’re left for 500 years before a landfill slide wakes them up. It turns out, in 500 years, everyone is an idiot and these average people are now the smartest in the world.

Now, if you have gone to High School in the last few years, we all know its not all the dancing and gayness (as in happy, geez you people are immature) of High School Musical. But we also see a trend, the smart people are doing good in school and going on to higher education, as the idiots get pregnant or do drugs. This is a little stereotypical, but it is the basic flow of things. Now, while these idiots have more and more kids, the smart people only have one or two, making for more stupid people in the world. While Idiocracy is just a comedy at a short glance, its also a horrifying glance into a worst case scenario of where our world is headed. If you have any brains, watch this movie and see for yourself an extreme possibility of the future.

Posted in Movies

Some of My Favorite Scenes

Posted on by Godfather

There are so many great movies out there, and with that comes some of the greatest scenes that I’ve seen. Watching some of these whole movies can get kind of boring, but sometimes there is just one section that makes the whole movie.

Planet Terror (Part of Grindhouse)

This is a new zombie movie by director Robert Rodriguez with the help of Quentin Tarantino, and really is a departure from my favorite types of movies. I’m not really a fan of gore, but when El Wrey, one of the best action heroes I’ve seen for a while goes through a hospital to get to his girlfriend, the scene just had me pumped to go and kill some zombies. He took these knives and just plowed his way through the group, and came out pretty much without a scratch.

Fight Club

While there it doesn’t stick out too far from this overall great movie, there is this one section of the movie that just keeps me laughing every time I see it. Since the narrator has insomnia, he decides to go to some peer support groups to see what real pain is like. After going to one, he becomes addicted to them and just goes to every single one he can find.

Kill Bill Volume 1

I will kind of ruin this one, but hey, I’m not telling you the ending of the series. So after the bride kills another one of her targets, she takes a woman hostage and uses her in order to find Bill. The scene goes between before and after the questioning, and Bill is asking the girl questions about the bride. At the end, he lets loose a secret that just blindsides you, making you beg to watch the second one. The way this scene is shot is why it was so good, too bad the next movie wasn’t anywhere near as good as this scene.

That’s all I can think of for now, but I’ll do some more in the future.

Posted in Movies

5 Movies That Should Be Required Viewing

Posted on by Godfather

All of the films on this following list are great in many ways. They are all amazing movies, but more importantly, there are messages that we all should learn. Some are brutal and would normally not be watched by people in their teens, but the messages are so important to learn, especially in the teen years of someone’s life, that they must be seen. No violence in them is without good reason, and all it does is make the story more powerful.

5. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Every aspect of film is top notch in this drama. But its on this list because of it’s message. Jack Nicholson plays a guy who gets stuck in a mental hospital where all of the patients are trained to do whatever the nurse says. Throughout, he tries to make them realize that there is a whole world out there where they can be free. The purpose? To show viewers not to get to attached to “the system” in which we live our lives. Live on the edge, take some chances and have some fun while you’re here.

4. Raging Bull

It is a boxing movie, but there is so much more to this than that. Raging Bull is the story of Jake La Motta, a great boxer, but a horrible person. With some anger problems and being a womanizer, there wasn’t much for viewers to like in his character. Really, this one is about being a good person to those around you. Raging Bull shows how he lost everything because of the way he acts, and that its a hard road to redemption.

3. American History X

When I was talking earlier about some of these movies being brutal, I basically thought about this one and the #1. American History X is about two brothers who are involved in a neo-Nazi gang in their town that terrorizes African Americans. The older brother is arrested when he kills some of them at his house. I bet you can all guess what the point of X was, which is don’t be racist, but the way that it’s told is why I put it on the list.

2. Schindler’s List

Before seeing the #1 this weekend, I would have had Schindler’s List top this list for sure. It’s about Oskar Schindler, a German businessman during the holocaust who employed Jewish people at his factory. He saves 2,000 from death by getting the Nazi’s to let him take some workers for his ammunition factory. But none of the bullets or guns ever worked. While some would think its about the same message as American History X, its actually about being good to the less fortunate, and standing up for what is right.

1. Requiem For a Dream

Again, the brutal thing I was talking about earlier, applies to this one. With a wonderful score, great acting, editing, and story this is one of the greatest movies of all time to me. Requiem is about 4 people who each have a drug addiction. Diet pills, cocaine and heroin are just some samples of what they are doing. By the end, they are all withered away from this, and its not too pretty. I won’t go too much into it, but some of the images just makes your stomach drop, and really no one could ever take drugs after watching it. It is NC-17, but there’s not too much more shown in this than there is in R rated movies. Watch it, and the next few days this will be all you’re thinking about.