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The Cavalcade review of the 2011 Oscar Nominees

Posted in Academy Awards, movies, Oscars with tags Academy Awards, movies, Oscars, Oscars Wild on January 26, 2012 by Paxton

Well, the academy released the Oscar nominations for this year’s Academy Awards. Again, some surprises, some not so surprising. I usually like to take a look at the most popular categories and give you some of my thoughts on the decisions. Looking back, I see I’ve done this recap since 2007 (for the 2006 movie year). Here are those articles:

2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

Normally, by now, I’ve posted my Movie Board articles telling you guys what my favorite/least favorite movies of the year are. However, I’m still catching up on Oscar eligible movies, so I’ll have those up in a few weeks. I have my preliminary list, but there are some good ones I need to see just to be sure.

Anyway, back to the Oscar nominees for this year. You can find the full list of nominees at Oscars.org. Now, let’s take a look at the “money” categories and judge how the Academy did this year.

Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in “A Better Life” – What? Who?
George Clooney in “The Descendants” – Man, Clooney no longer does the “one for you, one for me” formula. He pretty much just does whatever the hell he wants to do. How else do you explain The American or Men Who Stare At Goats? I miss the Clooney from Ocean’s 11, Goodnight and Good Luck and Intolerable Cruelty. I’m not having as much fun with the current version.
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist” – This movie actually doesn’t sound that bad, but I have yet to see it.
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” – Looks amazing. Really want to see this movie. Oldman is great in pretty much everything.
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball” – Again, I really want to see this but have not yet had the opportunity.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn” – This movie doesn’t look great.
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball” – Props to Jonah for dipping his toes into the dramatic pool.
Nick Nolte in “Warrior” – I hear this movie is great, but I can’t support a Nolte nomination. For anything.
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners” – Meh.
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” – This movie looks amazing. But I’m reluctant to see it because as a new dad, I feel the heavy father-son relationship at the center of this plot will completely undo the macho-man hold on my emotions and cause me to bawl like my wife at cheesy cell phone commercials.

Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs” – Close may be fantastic in this, but it just “feels” tailor made for the Oscars. Like they were trying to get Close a nomination. Julie Andrews did gender bending first in Victor/Victoria. Close’s makeup in this just looks like posturing for an Oscar. See also Nicole Kidman’s makeup in The Hours and Charlize Theron’s in Monster.
Viola Davis in “The Help” – Better movie than I expected and Viola was great in it.
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” – Really, really good movie. Hard to watch, but very good. Rooney Mara is also great in it.
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady” – I imagine this is good. I want to see it.
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn” – Not a fan of Michelle Williams.

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The Cavalcade takes a look at the 2010 Oscar Nominations

Posted in Academy Awards, movies, Oscars with tags Academy Awards, movies, Oscars, Oscars Wild on February 1, 2011 by Paxton

This is what I wait all year for. The reason I saw 50+ movies last year. The Oscar nominations.

I’ve been doing this review of the Oscar nominations for about 5 years now. Check out my Oscar nomination reviews from 2010, 2009, 2008 and 2007. I’ve clearly shown that I know more than the Academy. So let’s see what I think of the nominations this year. I’m only going to look at the “money” categories because no one really cares about sound mixing unless they are actually a sound mixer.

Best Actor
Javier Bardem in “Biutiful” (Roadside Attractions) – Dammit. Where the f**k did this movie come from? I saw 50+ movies last year and I’ve never heard of this.
Jeff Bridges in “True Grit” (Paramount) – Yes. Agreed. Well done.
Jesse Eisenberg in “The Social Network” (Sony Pictures Releasing) – Just watched this. It deserves all the praise it’s getting.
Colin Firth in “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company) – This is one of those I know I should see and my wife will want to see, but I’m like…”I’ll pass.”
James Franco in “127 Hours” (Fox Searchlight) – Apparently this movie is NOT a prequel to the 1993 Renny Harlin classic, Cliffhanger, starring Sylvester Stallone. And Franco does NOT play a younger version of Sly’s Gabe “Mountain” Walker. I don’t know about you, but that adjusts my expectations to somewhere below…zero.

Supporting Actor
Christian Bale in “The Fighter” (Paramount) – I didn’t like this the first time when it was called The Wrestler.
John Hawkes in “Winter’s Bone” (Roadside Attractions) – I totally thought this was porn when I first read the title. I was like, “Go Academy!” Nope. It’s about a small girl who searches for her druggie dad who put the family trailer up for his bail. Sounds all lovely and depressing. My friend Dr Mike’s wife will love it.
Jeremy Renner in “The Town” (Warner Bros.) – Yes, I couldn’t agree more. This movie is great and Renner is fantastic in it.
Mark Ruffalo in “The Kids Are All Right” (Focus Features) – So both Hawkeye (Renner) and The Incredible Hulk (Ruffalo) from the upcoming Avengers movie are nominated for Supporting Actor awards. That’s pretty awesome. Oh, and Batman. Forgot Bale was up there too.
Geoffrey Rush in “The King’s Speech” (The Weinstein Company) – This movie got a lot of nominations. I know my wife is going to want to watch it.

Best Actress
Annette Bening in “The Kids Are All Right” (Focus Features) – Lesbian couple, raising teenagers, Oscar noms, blah, blah, blah.
Nicole Kidman in “Rabbit Hole” (Lionsgate) – A couple’s son dies, they drift apart. The Academy loves these depressing dramas.
Jennifer Lawrence in “Winter’s Bone” (Roadside Attractions) – Kid searches for trailer park druggie dad. Not porn. Touching.
Natalie Portman in “Black Swan” (Fox Searchlight) – Lots of angry lesbian sex between Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis. Of course I want to see this. Too bad it was filmed by Darren Arnofsky who totally ruined similar sex scenes with Jennifer Connelly in Requiem for a Dream.
Michelle Williams in “Blue Valentine” (The Weinstein Company) – Supposedly a very sexy picture. However, I don’t think I would agree because Michelle Williams is not sexy.

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Movie Board: The worst movies I saw in 2010

Posted in movies, reviews with tags Academy Awards, Movie Board, movies, Oscars, reviews on January 13, 2011 by Paxton

So, on Tuesday I talked about my favorite movies of 2010. Now it’s time to take a look at the Movie Board and pick the worst movies I saw last year. Here’s a quick refresher of this year’s Movie Board:

My Movie Board 2010

You can see previous years’ Movie Boards here.

Now let’s see what movies I felt were a waste of my valuable time in 2010.

In no particular order.

Sex and the City 2 – Yes I saw this. My wife loved this show. She has the full box set of DVDs she watches nearly every summer. I watch the show every once in a while with her. It’s not awful. I can’t watch too much of it at once, but I don’t hate the show. It can be pretty amusing at times. I even went to see the first movie with her, and enjoyed it. So I expected at least some light humor and to be mildly entertained. Instead, I HATE THIS F***ING MOVIE. Hate it with all the fiery hatred in the bowels of Hell. They should have stopped at the last movie. The Samantha character is RIDICULOUS. At 60, they are still trying to make her the fiery sex bomb and it doesn’t work anymore. She looks old. And her antics are cringe inducing. The Carrie character, who was never my favorite anyway, is off the charts irritating in this one. Why anyone would go out with, or stay married to her is beyond me. This movie was worse than terrible. It was offensive. If there’s a part 3, I will not see it. But judging from the box office, there won’t be a part 3. So there is a God.

The American – F**k movie studio marketing departments. F**k. Them. They totally played this as a European Bourne Identity. However, it’s more like those old, slowly paced ’70s action movies everyone remembers loving but when they watch them now, realize how goddam boring they are. I think I was more pissed at the bait and switch than this being a bad movie. If I had known what I was in for and adjusted my expectations, I think I might have enjoyed this. I say MIGHT. It is a very European style movie with long boring shots, minimal dialogue and some nudity. I just went in expecting something completely different and I totally blame the marketing departments of the movie studio. They can suck it.

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Movie Board: My favorite movies of 2010

Posted in Academy Awards, Harry Potter, movies, reviews with tags Academy Awards, books, Harry Potter, Movie Board, movies, Oscars, reviews on January 11, 2011 by Paxton

Here we are again. It’s time for my annual encounter with The Movie Board. We’ve been through a lot, Movie Board, and it’s time to do it again. Let’s dance.

First off, let’s take a look at this year’s Movie Board.

My Movie Board 2010

According to it’s all-knowing whiteness I saw 52 movies this past year. Very close to last year in which I saw 53 movies. I was on a tear throughout the summer, way ahead of my pace for last year, but the pace slowed to a crawl in September with the birth of my son. However, I rallied and was able to get my movie viewing total back up over 50. Actually, the number of movies I saw was probably closer to 60 as I also saw movies like True Grit (the original), Death Trap and Harry Brown, but they were all released before 2010. And this list is for movies released within the calendar 2010 movie season.

Anyway, from this list I’ve culled my favorites. And here they are in no particular order.

Inception – Mind bending. Best way to describe this movie. Leo is great in this. I think I prefer this movie to Shutter Island. I’d definitely watch Inception again before watching Shutter Island. Sure, some of the dream mechanics are a little…ill defined. Sure, Ellen Page’s character actually going into the dream made little to no sense. But I enjoyed it all the same. Fun and interesting story, action and a cliff hanger ending that usually SERIOUSLY pisses me off but didn’t here. I love that rotating hallway fight sequence. So awesome.

Salt – I was blown away by this movie. It’s brutally AWESOME. The action is intense. I was not expecting the action and suspense in this movie to be as balls out awesome as it is. Angelina is great and Liev Shreiber is also great (as usual). So ridiculously good. It’s like a female Bourne Identity. I seriously think this is nearly as good as the first Bourne Identity (not the last one, the first one).

Harry Potter 7-1
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I – I have seen every one of these movie in the theater. And dammit if every one of these movies hasn’t gotten better and better. Prisoner of Azkaban is phenomenal, Goblet of Fire is pretty good, but then Order of Phoenix and Half-Blood Prince are nothing short of spectacular. And this movie just continues that awesomeness forward. However, many people I know have been saying they were disappointed with this one. I think it’s all expectations. This movie is much darker than any other of the movies. Plus, it covers the section of the book where Ron leaves and Harry and Hermione are running/searching for horcruxes alone. Many people thought that storyline was boring in the book but I loved it. It shows just how difficult a time they had and just how cut off from the rest of the wizarding world they really were. Makes what happens later mean more. I love this movie and I can’t wait to watch the next one. Oh, yeah, since this is a Part I, it sets up a lot of the story for Part II, which may throw people off also.

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Cavalcade of Awesome looks at the 2009 Oscar Nominations

Posted in Academy Awards, movies, Oscars with tags Academy Awards, movies, Oscars, Oscars Wild on February 3, 2010 by Paxton

The Academy Awards are almost upon us. This year the Oscars will be broadcast on Sun, March 7 at 8pm EST. The ceremony will be co-hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

The Oscar nominations for this year were released on Tuesday, Feb 2. I do this every year, I go through the nominations for the biggest categories and see how much I agree with the Academy. More often than not, I don’t agree at all.

See my thoughts on last year’s Oscar nominations here.

See the Oscar noms for 2007 here.

You can see all the nominations on the official Oscar website. So, without further ado, here are the nominations.

BEST PICTURE
Avatar – I can see this in Visual Effects, but not Best Picture. It’s a good movie, it’s just not a great movie. And by that I mean it’s not the best written movie in the world and it’s AT LEAST 30 minutes too long. The mineral the corporation is mining in the movie is called Unobtainium. They actually say it in the movie. COME ON!
The Blind Side – Think about this: The Blind Side has a shot at being the BEST PICTURE OF 2009. Don’t get me wrong, I like this movie, but BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR?! No.
District 9 – On my list of top 5 movies of 2009. Of course, there’s no way in Hell this is going to win, but it’s good to see it here.
An Education – Yeah, didn’t see it. Nor have I heard of it. Well, played, Academy. Well. Played.
The Hurt Locker – I don’t normally like war movies. I hear great things about this, so I may have to suck it up and give it a watch.
Inglourious Basterds – An exception to my war movie rule. In my top 5 movies of 2009.
Precious – I see why this is nominated. I really do. I just never want to watch it.
A Serious Man – The Coen’s are weird, dude. I’ve only enjoyed 3 of their movies. EVER. And I’ve only watched one of those three movies more than once. I’m not exactly itching to see this.
Up – I really did enjoy this movie, but, again, I’m not sure it deserved a BEST PICTURE OF 2009 nomination.
Up In The Air – I love George Clooney. I knew this was going to be high on Academy voters’ lists. And I still have no desire to watch it.

District 9 Inglorious Basterds

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, CRAZY HEART – Bridges wasn’t nominated for The Men Who Stare At Goats? RIGGED! I’m kidding. Of course, I’ve never even heard of this movie.
George Clooney, UP IN THE AIR – Another missed opportunity for The Men Who Stare At Goats.
Colin Firth, A SINGLE MAN – Love Colin Firth. Unless this is a sequel to Love Actually, then I’m not interested.
Morgan Freeman, INVICTUS – I have a man-crush on Matt Damon and I love Morgan Freeman. That still does not make me want to see a movie about rugby…and apartheid.
Jeremy Renner, THE HURT LOCKER – Again, I hear Renner is great in this.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon, INVICTUS – Yay, Matt! I’m still not going to see this movie.
Woody Harrelson, THE MESSENGER – WTF is The Messenger?! Harrelson should have been nominated for Zombieland. There, I said it.
Christopher Plummer, THE LAST STATION – What?
Stanley Tucci, THE LOVELY BONES – Nice nom for Tucci. He was good in this sequel to What Dreams May Come.
Christoph Waltz, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – Waltz better win this. From what I see here, he PWNS this category.