tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45642775709603544702024-03-05T03:21:34.485-05:00Tips from ChipA blog to recommend movies, hikes, books, TV shows, internet sites, or other things that may catch my interest.Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.comBlogger911125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-69782058615956920012016-04-11T16:51:00.000-04:002016-04-11T16:51:47.593-04:00Steve’s Selections #16 – Stake Land (2010)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Nn1WgN1bvf4T7x3eMiHro_hZv9tTGwUMxx3GQmeeKdNwEdvtmvPvOEtOYd297epvbfsn_Ojt2MF1RBdhCna7Uwyy-_LHkMtmTKSdfVQG-I_srVwRqERr6ug3vfJ_3Yj4ujUzD3LvnmgB/s1600/Stake+Land.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6Nn1WgN1bvf4T7x3eMiHro_hZv9tTGwUMxx3GQmeeKdNwEdvtmvPvOEtOYd297epvbfsn_Ojt2MF1RBdhCna7Uwyy-_LHkMtmTKSdfVQG-I_srVwRqERr6ug3vfJ_3Yj4ujUzD3LvnmgB/s320/Stake+Land.jpg" width="226" /></a>This is the fourth for this year and 16<sup>th</sup> overall
review of a film that Steve Honeywell at <a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">1001plus</a> gave me to see. He is doing the same with films from me. This month’s selection is Stake Land, one of
the two horror movies Steve gave me this year.
I didn’t know if my health situation was going to allow me to get this
done on time. I was in pain while
watching it and I freely admit this may have negatively impacted my impression
of it. Overall, I can see why Steve
picked it for me – being a “not your usual” vampire movie – and while there are
some good points to it, the film ultimately comes in at an “it was okay” level
with me.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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The basic premise is that we are in a post-apocalyptic
United States where vampires have taken over.
These aren’t your Twilight vampires, though, nor even your Dracula kind –
these are slavering, mindless animals whose only concern is blood.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Star and co-writer (with Director Jim Mickle) Nick Damici
plays a man known only as Mister. In the
opening of the film he saves a teenage boy named Martin (Connor Paolo) when a
vampire kills the rest of Connor’s family.
In the best traditions of most any western, Mister takes Connor under
his wing and starts training him how to fight and kill vampires.<o:p></o:p></div>
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They travel north by car, occasionally coming across
protected small towns still populated by humans. They also run into religious nutcases who
have convinced themselves that the vampires are God’s way of getting rid of the
wicked. And since anyone who disagrees
with the nutsos is therefore by definition wicked, they take it upon themselves
to gather up vampires then release them onto the other humans that have survived.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As the film goes along Mister and Connor pick up a few more
people to travel with them. They also
have to keep dealing with the nutsos. As
with most any post-apocalyptic road movie (including the most recent Mad Max
movie) there’s a near-mythical location where everything is wonderful. All you have to do is get there. For Stake Land it’s called New Eden and it’s in
Canada.<o:p></o:p></div>
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First things first – the good:<o:p></o:p></div>
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I mentioned there are different kinds of vampires in this and
the movie as a whole is a different kind of vampire movie. Many films would have turned it into an
extended training montage, with Connor taking on more and more powerful
opponents, all the while with Mister watching with proud eyes. And of course, it would have built to Connor’s
biggest showdown – whatever that would have been. That’s not this movie.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We don’t just get all five travelers at once, do quick
intros to all of them, then spend the rest of the movie wondering who’s going
to die first. We meet them gradually and
organically. We learn about them in more
depth. We care about them more. So when one of them does die (not a spoiler –
this is a horror movie; you think everyone lives happily ever after?) we feel
the impact more.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Second – the not so good:<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of the things from the good also appears here – the approach
to the film. By not focusing on the “usual
stuff” the movie instead takes its time with philosophical musings (usually in
voice over), with showing the drive itself, the road, the countryside, the
downtrodden people, etc. Unfortunately,
they overdid this. The result is a film,
that even though it is only 1 hour and 38 minutes long, feels much longer. This is normally where I’d say something like
“10-15 minutes could have been cut out”, but in thinking back I’m not really
sure there are that many repetitive scenes.
It’s just the way they are presented.<o:p></o:p></div>
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As the film was winding down I was mulling giving this a recommended
rating, but then it did three small things in short succession (which I will
not spoil) that bugged me. They all felt
out of sync with the entire rest of the movie and that’s what pushed me to an it’s
okay rating.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I just want to comment on the casting. When the movie opened and Mister first
appeared on the screen I wondered for a couple seconds if it was Val Kilmer in
the role. I decided it wasn’t and moved
on. Later, a nun appears and I thought
to myself, “She looks a little like Kelly McGillis”, but I dismissed it. It turns out that was her. And in the latter half when a pregnant young
woman appears I did recognize her face, but not her name. She was played by former child actress
Danielle Harris. And here was the weird
part – I recognized her because she looked so much like she did when she played
the foul-mouthed daughter of Bruce Willis’ character in The Last Boy Scout – a movie
made 20 years before Stake Land. I would
have sworn she might have aged 6-8 years since then. In fact, when she first appeared onscreen she
looked to be a contemporary age with the teenage Connor – maybe a couple years
older. After doing some math I knew
something had to be wrong and I paused the movie to look up her IMDB page. Guess what?
She was 33 when she made Stake Land.
Unbelievable.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Back to the film; overall this is a better than average
horror film in that it avoids a lot of genre clichés, but at the same time it’s
also not the most engaging movie to watch, either. I don’t feel I wasted my time watching it,
and I didn’t dislike it. I just didn’t
end up liking it quite enough to recommend it.
Sorry Steve.</div>
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Chip’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-86233895048305775102016-04-04T11:22:00.000-04:002016-04-04T11:22:15.541-04:00My Health and March Movie Status<div class="MsoNormal">
This posting is days late.
My life has been in some turmoil.
I had another gallbladder attack a few weeks ago and I’ve been fighting
with people ever since to have it taken out.
It finally was removed last Friday, but when they got inside it was in
much worse shape than they were expecting.
Thankfully, they were still able to do the surgery laproscopically, but
they did keep me overnight in the hospital, which is not normal. Now I’m recovering, hoping the pain gets a little
less each day. I’m only now getting
around to this post. And I never did do
a post on what I feel are the Top 10 films of 2015. I honestly don’t know if or even when I might
do it now.</div>
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Anyway, on to the March status. In the month of March I saw 18 new films,
re-watched 4 more, and watched a season of a TV show.</div>
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I chipped away at the IMDB movies I need to see. I also knocked off a couple more 101 Genre
movies, too. In both cases there were
DVDs I received from Netflix that I watched.
I didn’t get to any of the new TSPDT entries.</div>
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Here are the 18 films I saw in March. Ones I would recommend (give at least a three
star rating to) are highlighted. </div>
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<b>101 Genre (2): </b><st1:city w:st="on"><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Manhattan</span></st1:city><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"> Melodrama (1934)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Underworld <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.A.</st1:country-region></st1:place> (1961)</span></div>
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<b>IMDB (5): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Little Women (1994)</span>,
Transformers: The Movie (1986), Strange Brew (1983), Mystery Science Theater
3000: The Movie (1995), Cheech and Chong’s Next Movie (1980)<b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Other (11): </b>The
Lunchbox (2013), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The
Flower of My Secret (1996)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Love Punch (2013)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Clip (2012)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">This Island Earth (1955)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Mistress of Spices (2005)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon:
Sword of Destiny (2016)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Reel Injun (2009)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Rebound (2009)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Deadpool (2016)</span></div>
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<b>Re-watches (4):</b> <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Spotlight (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Kingsmen: The Secret Service (2015)</span>,
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Friends with Benefits
(2011)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Peanuts
Movie (2015)</span></div>
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<b>TV:</b> <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Daredevil Season 2 (2016)</span></div>
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<b>The Lunchbox (2013)</b>
– This is a well-acted, and for the most part, well-written film.
Unfortunately, it's a relatively inexperienced writer/director and he either
couldn't figure out how to end it, or he was too cowardly to commit to one of
the two paths that the film had set up (because either path would have
disappointed part of the audience). As a result, the crap ending undoes a lot
of good that was built up during the course of the film. <b>2.5
stars</b></div>
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<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on"><b>Manhattan</b></st1:place></st1:city><b> Melodrama (1934)</b> – “Melodrama” certainly
is fitting as we have Gable and Powell as lifelong friends - one a criminal,
the other a lawman - and Loy who starts with one and leaves him for the other.
Gable plays maybe the most happy-go-lucky criminal ever put on screen, and
Powell plays maybe the most black and white decision maker ever put on screen.
Had this been made a couple of years earlier (pre Code) we might have had a
completely different ending. <b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>Little Women (1994)</b>
– After not caring for the 1930s version of this movie I have to admit I wasn't
looking forward to watching this movie. As it turns out, Ryder is far less
annoying than Hepburn was, and overall the cast's acting is much better than
the 30s one, especially Dunst and Bale.
<b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Transformers: The
Movie (1986)</b> – I’m not the target market for this. I stopped watching
Saturday morning cartoons a little before Transformers hit the air. The only
thing I know about them is from the first three live action films. I watched
this because it's on an early IMDB Top 250 year end list. As it started it
quickly became apparent that this is about the most clichéd 80s movie I've seen
in some time. Music video style sequences? Check. Generic "rock"
score? Check. 80's slang? Check. 80's "cool" factors? Check. One
thing that did surprise me was that there were some sequences that appeared to
be influenced by ones from Heavy Metal (1981), which is pretty much the polar
opposite of Transformers. <b>2.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Flower of My
Secret (1996)</b> – This is lesser Almodovar, but it's still worth seeing if
you like his films (which I do). <b>3 stars</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Exit Through the Gift
Shop (2010)</b> – You can read my review of this <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/03/steves-selections-15-exit-through-gift.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>3.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>Underworld <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.A.</st1:place></st1:country-region> (1961)</b>
– There’s some good acting and cinematography is this otherwise standard tale
of revenge. I was hoping that 1961 was modern enough to allow for something
other than the standard ending, but unfortunately it wasn't. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>Strange Brew (1983)</b>
- Max von Sydow has had one of those careers where every once in a great while
you catch yourself asking "what the hell is he doing in this movie?"
Strange Brew is the latest example for me. Maybe he never read the script.
Maybe someone sold it to him as "Hamlet in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>". Who knows? In
this case he plays an evil man who plans to flood the world with a beer that
makes people violent, stupid, and suggestive. Um, isn't that what beer already
does? (Maybe I'm overthinking it.) And of course I am because this movie
is based on the Canadian comedy sketch show SCTV routine's of "Bob and
Doug McKenzie" (Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas), just as any number of
movies have been made of Saturday Night Live sketches. The characters are,
of course, dumb but lovable. There's nothing particularly wrong with the movie.
It just didn't make me laugh that much.
<b>2.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Love Punch (2013)</b>
– I like heist movies and the concept of a retired couple pulling a heist to
get back their stolen retirement money appealed to me. Unfortunately, the
writer wasn't that interested in the heist itself. Whole sections of things
that would have had to be figured out or solved were just magically swept aside
by someone "knowing a person" whenever a problem came up. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>Clip (2012)</b> – The
obvious comparison here is to 1995's Kids. (Man, has it been more than 20 years
since that came out? I suddenly feel old.) Clip shows a bunch of modern
teens partying, getting wasted, and having random sex, but in a difference from
Kids because of the modern era, they all have their phones out recording
themselves, too. The reactions Clip has gotten (denial, outrage, cries of
exploitation) greatly remind me of those that Kids got - if you think your teen
is not partaking in at least SOME of these activities then you've got your head
buried in the sand. It also means that you've never been on the internet.
Apparently it was the thousands of thousands of clips of themselves that teens
post online doing stuff like this that gave director Maja Mlos her idea for the
movie. It happens to be set in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Serbia</st1:country-region>
because that's where she's from, but it could be teens anywhere. Lead
actress Isidora Simijonovic is gorgeous and appears quite natural on camera.
And for those people hyperventilating over the fact that there are maybe 10
seconds of explicit footage in the film, she is not in any of it. The director
used body doubles for anything explicit since her main cast (including Simijonovic)
was under 18 - much like the Kids main cast was. Only time will tell if
Clip will have someone emerge from its young cast and become a star, like Chloe
Sevigny and Rosario Dawson did from Kids. Personally, I'd be interested in
seeing Simijonovic in another movie.
<b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>This Island Earth
(1955)</b> – I started to watch the MST3K movie, which was crapping on this
one, and I stopped because I had heard halfway decent things about This Island
Earth and I had not seen it yet, When I did watch it I found it to be an above
average science fiction movie from among those made in the 1950s. It's reasonably
intelligent. Yes, it does go overboard on what were I'm sure top of the line
special effects of the day, but you could say that about many, many movies. If
you have only ever seen the bastardized version in the MST3K movie then you owe
it to yourself to see the real version.
<b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>Mystery Science
Theater 3000: The Movie (1995)</b> – I never watched the TV show, so I was not
coming into this as a fan. Then the movie they picked as "one of the worst
of all time" turned out to be one of the better science fiction films from
the 1950s (This Island Earth). I stopped watching this and went to see the full
version of that first. I then came back to this and I could see how they had
completely bastardized the movie to try to make it look as bad as possible, cutting
whole sections out of it so the story made no sense. Finally, the jokes and
quips just weren't that funny. I read more about this movie afterwards
because I couldn't believe the TV show had had such a cult following if the
movie was anything to go by. Apparently, all involved hate the movie. One of
the MST3K people, when asked what the worst movie ever featured on the show
was, replied "Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie." <b>1
star</b></div>
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<b>Cheech and Chong’s
Next Movie (1980)</b> – Yup, it was their next movie….. <b>2
stars</b></div>
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<b>The Mistress of
Spices (2005)</b> – This movie didn't turn out to be what I was expecting, but
there are still enough parts of it that make it worth watching. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Crouching Tiger,
Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny (2016)</b> – This movie is linked to the first
only via Michelle Yeoh's character, the sword, and the title. Don't go in
expecting to see the original. And yes, there is another character that
would probably have been from the original movie if Zhang Ziyi had signed on,
but she didn't so they changed the character name in this movie. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Reel Injun (2009)</b>
– Not really enough actual film footage, and a little too much time spent with
Conspiracy Guy, but still an interesting look at how Indians have been
portrayed in Hollywood films. <b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Rebound (2009)</b>
– This is billed as a romantic comedy. It's not. It's a drama with some romance
in it. I didn't buy the supposed age difference between them, but I suppose a
31 year old guy playing 25 is nothing what with all the 30 year olds playing
teens in movies and TV shows. <b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>Deadpool (2016)</b> –
This film starts out very funny. I wouldn't even call this part an action
comedy, but an out and out comedy that happens to have some action in it.
Unfortunately, the movie then goes into a long flashback that features cancer,
torture, disfigurement, lost love, and revenge plots. This kills off all the
fun in a big, big way. The movie then tries gamely to get it back, with partial
success, but it would have been FAR better if they had just kept the humorous
tone all the way through. <b>3.5 stars</b></div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com29tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-81631026837669849132016-03-17T18:08:00.000-04:002016-03-17T18:35:08.569-04:00Steve’s Selections #15 – Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmxgZo302ZAAPVbcC3R6Su_vzAEUftcdJbLyXqzKXY7iJP8rWzvYj4WVkhrmPBiVujbJu8VeJehCiiVt2SjNOkJhwmwvDAwSezQZ88-WjNnI5FL__X7X-iziVimeQ_kfYfnB9EYCQcuxp3/s1600/Exit-through-the-gift-shop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmxgZo302ZAAPVbcC3R6Su_vzAEUftcdJbLyXqzKXY7iJP8rWzvYj4WVkhrmPBiVujbJu8VeJehCiiVt2SjNOkJhwmwvDAwSezQZ88-WjNnI5FL__X7X-iziVimeQ_kfYfnB9EYCQcuxp3/s320/Exit-through-the-gift-shop.jpg" width="216" /></a>First things first, this is a few days late. Steve Honeywell at <a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">1001plus</a> and I plan to
post our monthly reviews of the films each of us gave the other on the second
Monday of the Month. This time I gave
Steve a heads up that health would prevent me from being able to do so on
schedule this month. I have since
watched the movie Exit Through the Gift Shop and I liked it. The big question surrounding this documentary
is whether it is a hoax or not. I have
no firm opinion one way of the other, but I will submit that in the end, it
actually doesn’t matter.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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If you take things at face value this is a documentary that
was sort of going to be about “street artists”.
Amateur cameraman Thierry Guetta, who has the attention span of a
squirrel, hooked up with first his cousin then with other people and he
recorded them creating their art. He
told all of them he was making a documentary.
This went on for years. He shot who knows how many thousands of hours of
footage.</div>
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Guetta finally connected with the most famous and most
elusive street artist of them all – Banksy.
The two became friends. Banksy
eventually encouraged Guetta to finally make that long gestating
documentary. When Banksy saw it he
realized Guetta didn’t have a clue what he was doing. Banksy then took over the footage and
refocused the documentary on Guetta instead.
Guetta goes on to become a popular artist himself and that is the movie
we see.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Those folks crying foul say that Banksy is a known
trickster, that Guetta is a complete fabrication, that the two of them are the
same person, and even wilder ones I read.
The one pattern I saw start to emerge in the comments was a desire to
not want to believe the last act of the movie was real. Not that people had proof it was fake; that
they want it to be, even <i>need</i> it to
be because of what it would say about the world of art if it were real.</div>
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If a man as bumbling and inconsistent as Guetta can turn
himself into an overnight art sensation simply by copying others, notably
Banksy and Warhol, then how much real integrity is there is the movers and
shakers who decide what is and isn’t good art?</div>
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Now I have always maintained that the “art” in modern art
lies not in the creation of it, but in successfully convincing someone else to
give you money for it. And if this doc
is real, boy does it illustrate that in spades.
At one point Guetta has to create 200 “unique” works of art to hand out
to the first 200 people to his show. He
has his people lay posters down then wheel him rapidly along, splattering paint
over the posters – no rhyme or reason to the application of the splatters –
just a man trying to check off a task prior to the opening of his show.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And as I said at the top, it doesn’t really matter if this
is fake or real because it’s the same condemnation of the art world. It’s just one way it might be Banksy doing
the condemning.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ultimately, I tend to think this is real. At the very beginning of the movie Guetta is
shown as the owner of a retro-clothing store.
He brags about how he buys huge bags of clothes for $50 then turns
around and sells them to the trendy folks for $400 per piece of clothing. By the end he is simply doing the same thing
with his art: creating a big buzz for his product and selling it for many times
what it is worth.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In regards to fakes the obvious comparison is Orson Welles’
film F for Fake (1973). I would call
that a better movie than this. And if
this is a straightforward doc on the hypocrisy of the art world then I would
call it comparable to Art and Craft (2014).
That doc featured an art forger who for 30 years painted copies, but
then simply donated them to museums.
“Experts” in art were brought it and always verified that these were real
paintings. He was finally found out when
there were so many copies of the same painting in various museums that the art
directors comparing notes discovered it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Exit Through the Gift Shop does not require an interest in
art to enjoy. In fact, it may be better
if you’re not too serious about it. If I
gave half star ratings this would be 3.5 stars.
I definitely recommend you give this film a try.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-52761357037924963402016-03-01T20:48:00.000-05:002016-03-01T20:48:26.412-05:00February Movie Status<div class="MsoNormal">
In the month of February I saw 7 new films, plus I
re-watched 2 more.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is even fewer than last month and the reason is the
same – I just haven’t been in much of a movie watching mood. I don’t know why. I made myself watch two of the three DVDs
I’ve had from Netflix for more than a month.
I’ve been doing some reading instead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In February I did finish off the last of the Oscar Best
Picture nominees for 2016 – making me as complete as I can be on all nominees
again, but I didn’t watch any of the 14 additions to the IMDB list. February also saw a new They Shoot Pictures
Don’t They list being issued. The result
of the re-ranking done for 2016 is that I now have 16 films to watch to once
again be complete on that, too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will probably plug away at these 30 films over the next
few months rather than try to just get them all out of the way as quickly as
possible.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are the 9 films I saw in February. Ones I would recommend (give at least a three
star rating to) are highlighted. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Oscar (3):</b> <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Room (2015)</span>, <st1:placetype w:st="on"><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Bridge</span></st1:placetype><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename>
(2015)</span>, <st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place> (2015)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>101 Genre (2): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Oh! What a Lovely War (1969)</span>,
The Wiz (1978)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Other (2): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Shaun the Sheep Movie (2015)</span>,
Crazy Horse (2011)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Re-watches (1):</b> <st1:place w:st="on"><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Hollywood</span></st1:place><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;"> Shuffle (1987)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:address></st1:street> (2015)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><b>Hollywood</b></st1:place><b> Shuffle (1987)</b> – I re-watched this
film and reviewed it for an “Acting Black” blogathon. You can read my review <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/02/acting-black-blogathon-hollywood.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>3
Stars<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Room (2015)</b> – I
reviewed this Best Picture nominee <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/02/movie-room-2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>.
<b>3 Stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bridge of Spies
(2015)</b> – I reviewed this Best Picture nominee <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/02/movie-bridge-of-spies-2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>4
Stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><b>Brooklyn</b></st1:place><b> (2015)</b> – I watched this Best Picture
nominee, but did not write a review because it was not quite good enough for me
to recommend. <span lang="EN">Oh, it's not a bad movie, but ultimately there's
not much depth to it or the characters.
A young Irish woman with a crappy life moves to the U.S., is homesick,
makes friends, takes classes, aces her bookkeeping certification, meets a great
guy, falls in love, and is very happy. Of course, if you know anything about
movies you know the happiness won't last for two major reasons: 1. the movie's
only halfway through; and 2. critics like the movie. <b>2.5
Stars</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><span lang="EN">Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Fury
Road</st1:address></st1:street> (2015)</span></b><span lang="EN"> – I re-watched this Best Picture nominee. You can read my review of it <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/02/movie-mad-max-fury-road-2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>4
Stars</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Oh! What a Lovely War
(1969)</b> – <span lang="EN">This is a different
kind of film. It's one part anti-war drama, one part musical, one part satire,
and one part theatrical allegory. A whole host of familiar faces cameo in a
retelling of how WWI started and its impact on one fictional British family. <b>3.5
Stars</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Shaun the Sheep Movie
(2015)</b> – <span lang="EN">It doesn't start out
that well, but after 30 minutes or so it improves. Aardman has done better than
this, both with this character and with others, but there are still some smiles
to be had. Just don't expect A Close Shave. <b>3
Stars</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Wiz (1978)</b> – <span lang="EN">There are parts of this that are quite
good (i.e. Michael Jackson as the Scarecrow breaking into Ease on Down the Road
for the first time), but there are also parts that are just terrible (i.e.
trashcans with fangs, many of the bland songs early in the film). I do admit that it grew on me as it got
towards the end, but not enough that I could recommend this. <b>2.5
Stars</b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Crazy Horse (2011)</b>
– Director <span lang="EN">Wiseman has been making
documentaries since the 1960s. I guess it takes that much experience to film
the most famous nude revue show in the world (<st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Paris</st1:place></st1:city>' Crazy Horse) and somehow make it a
little boring. <b>2.5 Stars</b></span></div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-53809490712548458902016-02-28T10:25:00.000-05:002016-02-28T10:25:53.615-05:00Sorry, I Can’t Do Oscar Predictions This YearThis is just a quick post to say that there’s been a sudden and unexpected death in the family. I’ve been helping out however I can and I won’t have an opportunity to put the thought needed into making decisions on potential Oscar winners, then formatting a post on them.<br />
<br />
At this point I don’t know if I’ll have a post-Oscars post, or if I’ll even be watching them tonight. We will see.Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-28950436361139087622016-02-23T17:42:00.000-05:002016-02-23T17:42:59.759-05:00Ranking the 2016 Best Picture Nominees, Plus Some Observations <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I have now posted reviews for the seven of the eight films
nominated for the Best Picture Oscar that I would recommend. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In regards to ranking the eight nominees I had a much easier
time this year picking the best than I did last year. The Martian was one of the most enjoyable
films I had seen for quite a while. And
following after it is a clear number two – Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:address></st1:street>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The one nominee I did not review was <st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place>
because it wasn’t quite good enough for me to recommend. When it comes right down to it there’s just
not much depth there in either the story or the characters. People who have read the book it is based on
seem to like it more, so perhaps the director just didn’t do a good enough job
conveying inner feelings well enough for the audience members who have not read
the book.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Here is how I would rate the eight Best Picture nominees
from best to not quite the best. I have
also included how these films are ranked according to the Rotten Tomatoes
critics (RTC), the Rotten Tomatoes audiences (RTA), and the IMDB voters. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; border: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-insideh: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-border-insidev: .5pt solid windowtext; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Me<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Nominee<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reviewed?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">RTC<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">RTA<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-left: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">IMDB<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The Martian<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/01/movies-martian-2015.html" target="_blank">Read my review here</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Fury
Road</st1:address></st1:street><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/02/movie-mad-max-fury-road-2015.html" target="_blank">Read my review here</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Bridge</span></st1:placetype><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/02/movie-bridge-of-spies-2015.html" target="_blank">Read my review here</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Spotlight<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/02/movie-spotlight-2015.html" target="_blank">Read my review here</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">3<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The Big Short<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/01/movies-big-short-2015.html" target="_blank">Read my review here</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">6<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The Revenant<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/01/movie-revenant-2015.html" target="_blank">Read my review here</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">7<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Room<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/02/movie-room-2015.html" target="_blank">Read my review here</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">4<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">2<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="border-top: none; border: solid windowtext 1.0pt; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 26.8pt;" valign="top" width="36">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 149.6pt;" valign="top" width="199">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Brooklyn</span></st1:place><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 117.0pt;" valign="top" width="156">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: .5in;" valign="top" width="48">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">1<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 39.85pt;" valign="top" width="53">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
<td style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-left: none; border-right: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border-top: none; mso-border-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-left-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-border-top-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 42.15pt;" valign="top" width="56">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">8<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">My trend of not really aligning with any of these three
groups continues. It’s interesting to
see that <st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place> is the highest rated among
critics, but towards the bottom with audiences and dead last with IMDB users. I also found it interesting that The
Revenant, one of the more picked nominees to win, is the lowest rated for both
critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, yet is second highest among IMDB
users. Finally, I’m amazed Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:address></st1:street> did so
poorly (relatively) with audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A few more observations now that I have seen the eight
movies:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0in;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Last
year I wrote, ”Thankfully, the last two years have had only a single
nominee longer than 2 ½ hours (The Wolf of Wall Street and Boyhood). And also in the last two years there
have been two nominees under 2 hours long (Philomena, Gravity, Whiplash,
and The Grand Budapest Hotel). Each
of the last two years the remaining nominees have been just under or just
over two hours long. I hope this
trend continues.” It did. This year only The Revenant is more than
2 ½ hours, while <st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place> and Room are
both under 2 hours long (and Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:address></st1:street> is exactly 2 hours.)</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The
Big Short is one of the stronger contenders for Best Picture (it won the
Producers’ Guild Award for Best Film).
If it wins the Oscar it will go back to back with last year’s
winner Birdman, which was the first film with comedic elements in it to win
since back to back winners Shakespeare in Love (1998) and American Beauty
(1999). Maybe humor is acceptable
to the Academy for a couple of years at a time, every couple of decades.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The
prior three years I liked all the Best Picture nominees enough to
recommend them. This year I finally
had one that I felt wasn’t quite good enough to do that (<st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place>).<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Last
year five movies were rated R and the other three were PG-13. The same thing happened this year. Unlike recent years where Spielberg’s
PG-13 rated film War Horse would have received an R for violence if
directed by anyone else, and <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Nebraska</st1:place></st1:state>
received an R despite having no sex, no nudity, no violence, and two F-bombs,
this year I pretty much agree with all the ratings across the board.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The
prior three years have seen a trend of nominees re-creating true events
(Lincoln, Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, The Wolf of Wall Street, Philomena, 12
Years a Slave, Dallas Buyers Club, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Selma,
The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, and American Sniper.) That continues this year with <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place>, The Big Short, Spotlight,
The Revenant and Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Fury
Road</st1:address></st1:street>.
(Just kidding on that last one.)<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I’m
a little surprised that this year features not one, but two science
fiction films with Best Picture nominations. That hasn’t happened since 2010 with
Avatar and District 9 (probably not coincidentally that was also the first
modern year of more than five nominees.)
And in case you are wondering, 2014 with Her and Gravity doesn’t
qualify because Gravity is not science fiction. In fact, those four films from those two
years represent almost half of all science fiction films ever nominated
for Best Picture. The others are A
Clockwork Orange, Star Wars, E.T., Inception, and Her. Fantasy has had more nominees (i.e. Toy
Story 3, Benjamin Button, Crouching Tiger, etc.) and one winner – The Lord
of the Rings: The Return of the King.
Even Horror has had a winner with The Silence of the Lambs. No science fiction film has ever won
Best Picture, though. And sadly, I
don’t think it’s going to happen this year, either.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Three
years ago Jennifer Lawrence broke a string of 27 straight years, and all
but 4 years since 1970, where the Best Actress winner has done nudity
during their careers. Many of the
winners appeared nude in the role that won them the Oscar. (So much for “real actresses don’t do
nudity.”) Two years ago Cate
Blanchett, who has also not appeared nude on screen, repeated <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Lawrence</st1:place></st1:city>’s win. Last year we went back to the norm with
Julianne Moore winning. This year both
Lawrence and Blanchett are nominated again, and Saoirse Ronan has also not
done nudity. Only Charlotte Rampling
has not been shy onscreen, and at all ages, too.<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Tom
Hardy appeared in two of the eight nominees (Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:address></st1:street> and The Revenant), and he
was nominated for the latter. Domhnall
Gleeson appears in both The Revenant and <st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place>,
but did not receive a nomination.</span></li>
</ol>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-54873299099542227642016-02-21T19:00:00.000-05:002016-02-21T19:00:14.624-05:00Movie – Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg39reJ2O5-6Gst57Pz56YQP0ZbxJB56NtilsP38gz8TTc5RI3mo75vPBxWPBa6xurgEpmsyz_zMYux7q7Tr-j9-uNM7Uv0e_WEDyT7yxepEjDrloe75hmh35CRg3sxqGAykvYc379n6gGy/s1600/Mad+Max+Fury+Road.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg39reJ2O5-6Gst57Pz56YQP0ZbxJB56NtilsP38gz8TTc5RI3mo75vPBxWPBa6xurgEpmsyz_zMYux7q7Tr-j9-uNM7Uv0e_WEDyT7yxepEjDrloe75hmh35CRg3sxqGAykvYc379n6gGy/s320/Mad+Max+Fury+Road.jpg" width="269" /></a>After a thirty year wait Max Rockatansky returns in Mad Max:
<st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street>…probably. (More on that in a bit.) This is a balls to the wall, completely
insane action film and it blows my mind that it somehow got nominated for Best
Picture. Don’t get me wrong; I think
it’s entertaining as hell. It’s just
that these kinds of movies pretty much never get Oscar nominations beyond ones
for visual effects, sound, and editing.
Well, Mad Max: Fury Road (MMFR) received nominations for no less than
ten Oscars, including one for director George Miller.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
When it comes right down to it, MMFR is essentially one very
long, very kinetic car chase. Much like
Gladiator (2000) was a remake of only one part of Spartacus (1960), so too is
MMFR a remake of only one part of The Road Warrior (1981) – the ending chase
with the tanker truck and cars. Of
course, being a remake doesn’t mean it’s a bad movie (Gladiator won the Oscar
for Best Picture, after all). As much as
both critics and audiences have liked MMFR I just don’t see it winning Best
Picture for itself, though.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In addition to essentially being a remake, this film is also
sort of a reboot, but at the same time, it is also sort of a sequel. Instead of Mel Gibson as Max this movie has
Tom Hardy in the title role. He is a
younger Max than we saw in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and sharp eyed
watchers have noticed that Max has a music box and jacket that he gave to the
Feral Kid in The Road Warrior. This has
led some to speculate this movie takes place between the first and second
films. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For others it has led to the theory that this is not Max,
but the Feral Kid who is now grown up and who has modeled himself after his
hero. Bolstering this is that when the
movie starts he is essentially feral and he hardly speaks the entire film (only
52 lines according to someone with too much time on their hands). Weakening this theory is that this movie’s
Max has flashbacks to his family being killed from the first film. But then that raises a question because they
don’t die in the same way they did in that film, which leads some people back
around to the idea of this being a reboot.
Whatever it may be, it is right there with The Road Warrior as the best
films in the series.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also starring in the movie is Charlize Theron as Imperator
Furiosa. She works for Imorten Joe (Hugh
Keays-Byrne), a dictator who controls a settlement with cult-like methods. She drives a war rig that travels between
this settlement and <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Gas</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Town</st1:placetype></st1:place> to bring back
fuel. It’s not long into the movie
before she changes things up and heads due east, off road. This is spotted by Imorten Joe’s men and the
chase is on.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joining in that chase is a sickly War Boy of Imorten Joe’s
named Nux (Nicholas Hoult). Max was
being used as a “blood bag” to transfuse healthy blood into him. Nux isn’t going to miss the chase, so he has
Max strapped to the front of his car, transfusion line still connecting
them. Max is also wearing a chain and
muzzle. He gets the best and most
dangerous view of the first major car chase.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Without spoiling how, Max and Nux end up getting more
involved with Furiosa and her plans.
They involve trying to get revenge on Imorten Joe by stealing all of his
wives. The five of them are played by
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keogh, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney
Eaton. If I had one negative to mention
with this film it’s that some of them are so obviously models in real life that
they look hilariously out of place in this movie. Yes, their characters would have been kept
healthy and well fed, but they look like they just walked off a runway and in
front of this movie’s cameras.
Huntington-Whiteley’ character, for instance, is several months
pregnant, yet she is still thin as a rail everywhere except her belly. She looks exactly like what she is – a six
foot tall skinny model with a fake belly.
This is a minor complaint, though.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the wives aren’t really that big in regards to onscreen
impact. In fact, I’d say after Max and
Furiosa the third biggest stars in the movie are the vehicles. Take the ones from the end chase in The Road
Warrior, put them on steroids, trick them out with tons of found objects, and
multiple them by three and you’ve got the vehicles in MMFR. And let’s throw in a huge speaker covered truck
with drummers and a guitarist (whose twelve string doubles as a flamethrower)
to provide a live soundtrack for the chase.
If that last sentence didn’t make you A. smile; B. chuckle; or C. want
to see it; then this may not be the movie for you.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And the stunts in the movie are certifiably batshit insane,
especially the “Polecats” who ride flexible poles over the tops of moving
vehicles. Director Miller is proud that
most of what we see onscreen are practical effects, not cgi. (He’s fudging a bit – almost every frame of
the movie has cgi in it; what he means is the crashes, explosions, and driving
are all real).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in 1981 the movie An American Werewolf in <st1:city w:st="on">London</st1:city> came out and it
was a quantum leap forward in regards to makeup and prosthetics. It forced the notoriously resistant to change
AMPAS to finally add a Best Makeup Category.
If ever there was a movie that was going to force them to finally add a
Best Stunt Production category I would think it would have to be this one, but
I’ve heard nary a word about that.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hardy does a good job in the lead and Theron gets to play a
strong female character that is just as much a survivor as he is. We get only a small amount of her backstory
in the movie and I was left wondering more about her. She’s certainly got the beauty – might she
have been one of Imorten Joe’s wives that was cast out in some way, perhaps
being punished by having her arm removed, yet she still managed to fight her
way back up to being an Imperator and war rig driver?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I mentioned, MMFR was very popular with audiences and Tom
Hardy has reportedly signed on for three more movies. I do not think it will win Best Picture, but
I can see it actually winning more Oscars than any other film this year.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury
Road</st1:street> is a very entertaining movie. You don’t have to have seen the prior films
to understand what is going on in this one, but do yourself a favor and check
them out anyway. Unless you hate any and
all action movies, I highly recommend it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-49925965565918028892016-02-17T19:01:00.000-05:002016-02-17T19:01:25.095-05:00Movie – Bridge of Spies (2015)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-nhDHIcKqjMpxqMJk4suGepFIIZ8RehfLxss_RANivyPQKYE6pjLrplVG0FzqrlbL9q9GJKYzp_NS63bYNyRLKrUNXqQzHEhjviIDm_z0cK4T7Gn1gkROq_UKixN1mSBEpiQ7pDwtGSP/s1600/Bridge+of+Spies.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM-nhDHIcKqjMpxqMJk4suGepFIIZ8RehfLxss_RANivyPQKYE6pjLrplVG0FzqrlbL9q9GJKYzp_NS63bYNyRLKrUNXqQzHEhjviIDm_z0cK4T7Gn1gkROq_UKixN1mSBEpiQ7pDwtGSP/s320/Bridge+of+Spies.jpg" width="290" /></a>What do you get when Steve Spielberg directs a film from a
screenplay written by the Coen Brothers?
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place>.
It’s a period drama (Coens) starring Tom Hanks (Spielberg) and a bunch
of lesser known actors (Coens), done on a lower budget than most mainstream
studio releases (Coens) about a man who is principled and steadfast
(Spielberg). The result works pretty
well.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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The movie is based on true events, but there are a lot of
liberties taken with the story. Anyone
who knows anything about the Cold War knows about Francis Gary Powers being
shot down in his U-2 spy plane over the <st1:place w:st="on">Soviet Union</st1:place>. In that respect this movie may not hold a lot
of suspense for folks. Of course, if you
don’t know history then what happens to him will be new to you. What was new to me was the story of the other
spy involved in things and the third man who became central to the outcome.</div>
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<br /></div>
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We first meet James B. Donovan (Tom Hanks) as a scumbag
lawyer representing an insurance company that has denied claims against one of
its customers. We see that he can argue
the most ridiculous concept (hitting five separate motorcyclists is only one
accident so there should only be one claim against the company, not five) with
a straight face.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We also see Soviet spy Rudolf Abel (Mark Rylance – Oscar
nominated for Best Supporting Actor) going about his quiet life before the FBI
arrest him. It’s never explained in the
movie what secrets he’s passing on to the Soviets, but we are shown that he is
truly a spy.</div>
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Donovan is asked by his law firm to represent Abel to show
that <st1:country-region w:st="on">America</st1:country-region>
will give a valid defense even to its enemies.
Apparently they figure that if Donovan has no compunctions about
representing evil insurance companies then he also won’t balk at representing a
foreign spy. He takes the case, but with
the knowledge that he won’t be liked.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Abel turns out to be about as unemotional and taciturn as
you can get. Donovan explains to him
that if they lose Abel could get the electric chair. After getting no reaction, Donovan observes,
“You don’t seem to be too concerned about that.” And Abel’s response is “Would
it help?” This type of exchange is
repeated a few times during the film.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Despite the lip service about American justice Abel doesn’t
remotely get a fair trial. The judge
denies all of Donovan’s requests for more time to prepare the defense, to
declare evidence obtained illegally as being disallowed, and denying Donovan’s
motions for a mistrial. The one place
Donovan is successful is in getting the judge to not sentence Abel to death,
but instead 30 years in prison.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Donovan appeals eventually to the Supreme Court, going far
beyond what his own law firm wanted him to do.
He becomes a pariah even among his peers, and his family comes under
attack.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the first 75 minutes. There have been a few scenes of Powers
(Austin Stowell) training for his missions, but the last hour of the movie
kicks off with Powers getting shot down.
He receives a ten year sentence from the Soviets.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> wants to get Powers back and
the U.S.S.R. wants to get Abel back, but they can’t be seen to be openly
exchanging spies. The CIA approaches
Donovan about brokering the deal to swap these two extremely high profile people. As presented in the movie he’s an insurance
lawyer who got an unusual criminal case, tried it anyway, and now out of
nowhere is being asked to broker a deal between powerful enemy nations during
the height of the Cold War, with no official sanction from the U.S. government. And he in essence responds, “No problem”.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It comes across very incongruous. I found out afterwards that in real life he
had been the General Counsel for the <st1:city w:st="on">OSS</st1:city>
– the precursor to the CIA – and that he was used to moving about in the world
of spies and spy craft.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Donovan runs into issues in East Berlin (where the swap is
supposed to occur) because the Berlin Wall has just gone up and an American
student was grabbed by the German Democratic Republic (aka GDR aka <st1:country-region w:st="on">East Germany</st1:country-region>)
for being a spy. The Soviets want to exchange
Powers for Abel, but the GDR wants to be a player on the world stage and so
they want to swap this student for Abel, to then be able to hand him over to
the Soviets. Once Donovan learns about
the student, he wants to get both Americans back, despite the CIA not caring in
the slightest about the student.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hanks does a decent job in the role, especially in being
able to sell some of his character’s arguments that at first glance would seem
outrageous. The nominated Rylance does
quite a good job in his role. I don’t
know if that’s how the real Abel was, but it works for this film. In looking at Rylance’s resume on IMDB I have
seen him in smallish roles in a couple of other films, but I didn’t remember
him. He’s more of a stage actor than a
movie actor and he’s won three Tony Awards.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other than Alan Alda in a small role as Donovan’s boss, and
Amy Ryan as Donovan’s wife, there are not really any other familiar faces in
the cast. There is a bit of stunt
casting, though. Eve Hewson plays
Donovan’s oldest daughter. She’s an
Irish actress who has been in a few films, but there is certainly no reason to
go all the way to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Ireland</st1:country-region>
to cast a young actress to play an American daughter who has maybe 10 lines of
dialogue in the movie. So why did
they? She also happens to be the
daughter of Bono. Yes, as in the lead
singer of U2. So they cast Bono’s
daughter for a movie involving the shooting down of the U-2 spy plane.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Overall, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place> received six
Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay. Spielberg did not receive a Best Director
nomination, so that appears to limit the films chances to win Best
Picture. (Although it didn’t stop Argo a
few years ago.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I liked this movie more than I was expecting. It is slightly slow in a couple places, but
it didn’t feel like a more than 2 hour long movie. I read that this is Spielberg’s lowest
grossing film since <st1:city w:st="on">Munich</st1:city>
(2005) – another movie about period global politics. Obviously, if that subject holds no interest
for you then you may want to skip this movie, but for everyone else I highly
recommend it.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-66970740199099610462016-02-15T10:21:00.000-05:002016-02-15T10:23:28.142-05:00Acting Black Blogathon – Hollywood Shuffle (1987)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMo5pmoxAYLzvOeeuy3S8xKZYUbAnjXk-pemtRk1dMNmYvw43e_d6Xv8jUDOvKvXYAz-TSDEyUfDMFg-PbSgmw5SzmXBDcz1dyTo9_PzDXzVyR5dHr6CfsP8pvqhlIAtVY89QoAjdZtk4/s1600/bannerfans_17046254.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="321" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidMo5pmoxAYLzvOeeuy3S8xKZYUbAnjXk-pemtRk1dMNmYvw43e_d6Xv8jUDOvKvXYAz-TSDEyUfDMFg-PbSgmw5SzmXBDcz1dyTo9_PzDXzVyR5dHr6CfsP8pvqhlIAtVY89QoAjdZtk4/s400/bannerfans_17046254.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipX0fiZ0EH99ZwSavN5Lu18eQv83k4hNFjbj6_9cYpsE_-Gspy1cFvo_91b5AmhYY4n18LON66IQkZ_j8rpQ7Gber_JyH1AjFzeoVPXKfTOf_1RgZ0IkrbMzxsBkOD4yI9wPI6oFk8nOZw/s1600/Hollywood+Shuffle.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipX0fiZ0EH99ZwSavN5Lu18eQv83k4hNFjbj6_9cYpsE_-Gspy1cFvo_91b5AmhYY4n18LON66IQkZ_j8rpQ7Gber_JyH1AjFzeoVPXKfTOf_1RgZ0IkrbMzxsBkOD4yI9wPI6oFk8nOZw/s320/Hollywood+Shuffle.jpg" width="223" /></a>As you can tell from the banner above this review is part of
the <a href="http://dellonmovies.blogspot.com/2016/01/announcement-acting-black-blogathon.html" target="_blank">Acting Black Blogathon</a>. When I saw
Dell’s explanation of this the very first film that popped into my head was
Hollywood Shuffle – Robert Townsend’s biting satire of what it’s like to be a
black actor in <st1:city w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:city>. And even though it was done almost 30 years
ago, things have only marginally improved since then.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The movie’s framework is that a young black man named Bobby
Taylor who is an aspiring actor. We see
him go for an audition, a callback, and then during filming. Interspersed among these base scenes are ones
where Townsend’s character daydreams about all the roles he’d like to play, or
has bad dreams about the roles he’s afraid he might be forced to do.</div>
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<br />
<a name='more'></a>Townsend produced, directed, starred in, and co-wrote the
movie (with Keenan Ivory Wayans – his first film writing). Most of the cast plays multiple roles – one
in the “real world” of the film and then ones in Bobby’s imagination.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Townsend was at the forefront of people making movies
themselves by getting financing any way they could – most often by maxing out
credit cards. He spent two years
shooting this one because he had to take time off to act in other movies or to
do stand up comedy to earn money to buy more film stock. Does this sound familiar? Kevin Smith financed Clerks (1994) by maxing
out credit cards and selling his comic book collection.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Between them was Robert Rodriguez making El Mariachi (1988)
for a mere $7,000. And just before them
was Spike Lee with his first film She’s Gotta Have it (1986). Lee, Rodriguez, and Smith all went on to do
many more well known movies. For reasons
that escape me Townsend did not do anywhere near as well. Oh, he continued acting through the 1990s and
has mostly been producing in the 2000s, but he’s nowhere near the household
name that the other three are. And that
extends to this, his first film. And it’s
a little sad that both he and this film are not better known.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In Hollywood Shuffle we see Bobby go for a part in a movie
titled Jivetown Jimmy’s Revenge. He’s
reading from a script with lines such as “I ain’t be got no weapon” and “I’s
gonna turn my back.” At the casting we
see a whole room of black men and women running lines, trying to be the worst
stereotype you can be because they all are willing to do anything to get parts
in movies. During one audition we see
the producer, director, and writer (all white) asking one of them if they can
“act more black” for them. Their entire
knowledge of how they think black people act in real life has been garnered
from TV shows and other films like theirs.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hollywood Shuffle would be only a one joke movie if all it
showed was “white people are keeping blacks down”. It goes far beyond that. We see that a (presumably) Puerto Rican gang
in the same film is expected to play up to similar bad stereotypes – “Did ju
hear what I’m sayin?’” We also see
another actor up for the same part as Bobby telling him the entire script is
bullshit, how it’s all a way to keep blacks down…then he happily goes in to
audition for it anyway. Later, we see he
got a minor role while Bobby got the lead and he tries to mess with Bobby
again. He’s the first one in line to
take advantage of an open role is this offensive movie, though.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a couple sequences we also see black characters not only
tolerating a bad TV show and a bad movie – both of which play into the same
stereotypes – but they even love them.
These scenes are taking shots at the actors who go along with the bad
stereotyping and the audiences who pay money to see negative depictions of
their own race.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
It’s not just about stereotypes, though. We see satire and commentary on the whole
process of moviemaking in general. Bobby
keeps lying to his boss to go to auditions. The filmmakers sometimes ignore the
people auditioning. The writer is
clueless. The producer is way too full
of herself. There are always people
waiting in the wings to take your place.
And we see how Bobby has people in his life that support him (his
family) and the ones that are trying to tear him down because he’s trying to
follow his dream (his co-workers at a hot dog stand).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is a lot of humor in the film, although a sizable
chunk of it is wincing humor because it’s almost too honest. By far the best parts of the movie are the
daydream sequences. And the best one of
them is <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Black</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Acting</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We see a standard scene from an escaped slave movie. We get short bits from each of the archetypes
– strong black woman, weak willed man, Mandingo (literally) character, and
Townsend does almost a dead on impersonation of Stepin Fetchit – acting slow
witted with a whiny voice. Right as he
finishes a line we suddenly hear “cut” and suddenly he’s no longer Stepin
Fetchit but is speaking in a cultured British accent. He has just demonstrated what his <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Black</st1:placename> <st1:placename w:st="on">Acting</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">School</st1:placetype></st1:place> can do for other
black performers like him. He shows
instructors (all white) teaching black performers how to be jive and how to
“walk black”. He interviews one graduate
who proudly cites that since going there he’s played “9 crooks, 4 gang leaders,
2 dope dealers and a rapist twice.” The
owner of the school cautions that it’s for “dark skinned blacks only”, though, because
“light skinned and yellow blacks don’t make good criminals”. Ouch.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another nightmarish dream Bobby has is being told the movie
makers are looking for “an Eddie Murphy type” and suddenly he can’t control the
Murphy laugh from coming out of him and he changes who he is in order to make
the filmmakers happy.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are several positive dreams, though. We see Bobby imagining himself as a 40s noir P.I.,
playing Shakespeare (King Lear), playing a superhero, playing a big action
star, winning the Oscar, and imagining himself as one half of a “street” Siskel
and Ebert where the only movie both of them like is one about killer black
zombie pimps.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the decade after this movie came out we saw Wesley Snipes
become a popular action star (Passenger 57, Blade), Denzel Washington do
Shakespeare (Much Ado About Nothing), Washington again playing a 40s private
eye (Devil in a Blue Dress), and Townsend wrote himself another movie where he
played a superhero (Meteor Man). And
when Hollywood Shuffle was made the sum total of black performers who had won
acting Oscars was three, count ‘em three, over 58 years – Hattie McDaniel in
1940, Sidney Poitier in 1964, and Louis Gossett, Jr. in 1984. Since this film came out there have been 12
more winners – most of them only once we got into the 2000s, though.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hollywood Shuffle is simultaneously a skewering of the then
current situation for black actors in <st1:city w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:city>,
and prescient about the future for them – both good and bad. It is definitely a film that deserves far
better than to be mostly forgotten like it is today. And the same can be said about Robert
Townsend. I definitely recommend this
film to you.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars<br />
<br />
Here is the Black Acting School bit, with it's framing scenes (bad language included):<br />
<br /></div>
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_ASZ6K9cPNk" width="640"></iframe>Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-34690069950802653742016-02-13T20:36:00.000-05:002016-02-13T20:36:42.989-05:00Movie – Room (2015)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_RkkvhXXwk2lfv7ZAKXIXR2y43kr2ESMzRqBESJ1OVfbVN8q8mEbkPf27LacSuNieVTwql67RK66xCj7-_vMs4AKfCvhducxNNdjwK7CKoEw-80UFg7yIxtVKEWH94xMBauQMQbu44pWZ/s1600/Room.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_RkkvhXXwk2lfv7ZAKXIXR2y43kr2ESMzRqBESJ1OVfbVN8q8mEbkPf27LacSuNieVTwql67RK66xCj7-_vMs4AKfCvhducxNNdjwK7CKoEw-80UFg7yIxtVKEWH94xMBauQMQbu44pWZ/s320/Room.jpg" width="258" /></a>Room is nominated for four of the big five Oscars – Best
Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. I don’t know that it will win any of them
because of the flaws in the film. Brie
Larson probably has the best chance of winning because her best scenes are
during the better parts of the movie.
Overall, I’m guessing this got its Best Picture nomination because of
the subject matter, not because of the actual quality of the film compared to the
other potential nominees.</div>
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And what is the subject matter? A woman and her five year old son are locked
in a tool shed, kept captive by a man.
Ma (Larson) has been there seven years, ever since she was kidnapped as
a 17 year old. Her son Jack (Jacob
Tremblay) has only ever known the inside of the one room that he has lived in
his entire life. The door has a
combination code and the only window is a skylight.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Ma and Jack find ways to pass the time during the day and
each night her kidnapper, known as Old Nick (Sean Bridgers), comes in and has
sex with her while Jack is supposed to be sleeping in the wardrobe.</div>
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The first half of the movie consists of scenes only within
this one space. Then the second part of
the film is outside the room. It is also
a complete change in tone and style, too.
It’s as if they shot two short films and just smushed them uneasily
together. The first half is interesting,
different, and sometimes quite tense.
The second half is something you can see most any week on Lifetime.</div>
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In addition to Larson and Tremblay, the film has William H.
Macy and Joan Allen as Ma’s parents.
Unfortunately, both of their talents are wasted. Macy barely appears for five minutes and
Allen isn’t given a whole lot to work with.
The supporting character who actually does do the most with his limited
screen time is Tom McManus as Allen’s character’s new husband or live in lover.</div>
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There was talk when the film came out about the 8-9 year old
Tremblay possibly getting a Best Actor nomination. There was related talk about him maybe being
shunted to Best Supporting Actor even though he becomes the central character
at a certain point in the film. As it
turns out, he received neither nomination.
Personally, I thought he did a good job in some scenes, mostly the quiet
ones where he had to actually act without speaking. Other times he was just a kid playing a kid –
no acting needed. Finally, there were
times when he was annoying as hell (not the actor’s fault). One of the weaknesses of some movies’ writing
is when they have a small child in a major role and they feel they have to make
the kid a brat in order to make him or her interesting. Emma Donoghue adapted the screenplay from her
own book of the same name.</div>
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Director Lenny Abrahamson bizarrely chose to use heavy
shakycam to film the three or four most important scenes in the film, rendering
them essentially unwatchable. That
greatly lessens their impact. Most other
scenes have competent cinematography in them.</div>
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And I realize “it’s only a movie”, but one thing really bothered
me. Ma has been kept captive in an above
ground tool shed for seven years. It has
thin walls that could be penetrated with various items in the room, a skylight
that is easily reachable using the furniture in the room, and a door with only
10,000 combinations at a maximum to try to get it open. You could easily run through every
combination in 2-3 days. I know if some
psycho had me locked up and was coming each night to rape me that I’d sure as
hell be punching buttons as fast as I could, as long as I could. And that’s not even figuring that each number
has a unique tone that she has been hearing every single day for seven years. He’d have to be resetting the code every
single day to prevent this – which still leaves the skylight and the walls as
ways to get out. I guess what it comes
down to is I expect more from a critically acclaimed, Oscar nominated
movie. It shouldn’t have glaring errors
in it like that.</div>
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Overall, Room has some parts that are quite good, but it
also has parts that are quite pedestrian.
It’s not among the better Best Picture nominees this year, but it is
still worth your time to see, if only for the first half.</div>
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Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-7519660449250891692016-02-10T18:57:00.000-05:002016-02-23T17:44:22.957-05:00Movie – Spotlight (2015)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnnMyXnkSrPAm2qlySGc0gb9yxMd6C_Ajka88dWsv0IZhIvJGKxo5fAih_w2S4WT90XHcaf0r7yUEjEAsaEYZLjaYdiA6b_NtG_tEVpqUTr-dJoP4uO-zZPBADo1V3J1SmQEw3s6TmLrby/s1600/Spotlight.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnnMyXnkSrPAm2qlySGc0gb9yxMd6C_Ajka88dWsv0IZhIvJGKxo5fAih_w2S4WT90XHcaf0r7yUEjEAsaEYZLjaYdiA6b_NtG_tEVpqUTr-dJoP4uO-zZPBADo1V3J1SmQEw3s6TmLrby/s320/Spotlight.jpg" width="273" /></a>Spotlight is a film about the work Boston Globe journalists
did to research and expose the vast scope of child molestation and cover-up
that had occurred in the Boston-area Catholic churches. The title of the film comes from the name of
the team of journalists within the Globe who would get assigned months-long
investigations of important stories.
This is a good film about a tough topic.
The best thing it does is treat the subject with the respect it deserves
and not try to be sensationalistic with it, even though that has caused those
who want more excitement and action to label the film “boring”.</div>
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It’s easy to forget now just how little the general public
knew about these crimes back in 2001. In
fact, the Globe’s entire investigation started with a single priest who had
been accused of molesting a child many years before. As they dug deeper the story just kept
expanding. The obvious parallel here in
regards to films is All the President’s Men (1976) about the Washington Post
reporters revealing the Watergate scandal.</div>
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The Spotlight team consists of lead reporter Robby Robinson
(Michael Keaton), along with reporters Mike Rezendes (Mark Ruffalo), Sacha
Pfeiffer (Rachel McAdams), and Matt Carroll (Bryan d’Arcy James). </div>
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Most of the real reporters were on set for a lot of the
filming, answering questions for the actors and just interacting with them so
the performers could take in their mannerisms and speech patterns. Robinson, in particular, lauded Keaton for
being so much like him that it was scary.
Robinson also said that seeing Keaton performing as him made him want to
apologize to some of the people he had interviewed.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
In the film the Spotlight team has just completed a large
investigation and story and is ready to start a new one. One of the options is a story on a priest
accused of child molestation. The
accuser isn’t the most reputable kind of witness, though, and this is the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">CATHOLIC</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">CHURCH</st1:placetype></st1:place> we’re talking about. <st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city>
is heavily Catholic, especially Irish Catholic, so this was a (literally)
sacred cow you did not kick. As it turns
out, most of the Spotlight team was Catholic.</div>
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Editor Ben Bradlee, Jr. (John Slattery) – yes the son of Ben
Bradlee of the Washington Post Watergate fame – is not keen on the priest
story. But the Globe has just been
bought by new owners and they bring in a new person to be Editor-in-Chief. He is Marty Baron (Liev Schreiber), not just
an outsider to <st1:city w:st="on">Boston</st1:city> (much of the staff is born
and raised in the area), but he’s from <st1:city w:st="on">Miami</st1:city>
and is Jewish. When he says to pursue
the priest story there is some wondering if he’s a “vindictive Jew” out to use
the paper to cause trouble for the Catholic Church.</div>
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When they do start to look into the priest they start to
find there are already other lawsuits either in progress, or that have been
settled by the Catholic Church. There is
no public record of the latter, though. They
try to talk to lawyers involved, but none of them will cooperate. Even a lawyer (Stanley Tucci) defending a
victim who refused to settle doesn’t want to get involved in the Boston Globe
story. And at least one victim is pissed
at the Globe because he says he sent them evidence years earlier and they did
nothing with it.</div>
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<br /></div>
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It takes a lot of work by the Spotlight team to individually
pursue their leads and get people to start talking to them. When they begin to realize just how large the
victimization and cover up might be, they are horrified.</div>
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The Catholic Church quickly becomes aware of their
investigation, of course, and uses both persuasion and veiled threats to try to
get them to stop. They get out and out
threats from other people who consider the Catholic Church to be inviolate and
who resent anyone trying to “harm” it.</div>
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Spotlight received six Oscar nominations, including Best Picture,
Director, and Original Screenplay.
Ruffalo and McAdams also received nominations in the Supporting Actor
and Actress categories, giving this film a “mini-five” set of nominations. (Actor and Actress are the missing ones for
getting nominated in all five major categories.)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Director and co-writer Tom McCarthy is a man who was a
character actor for many years before finally starting to do his own small
films. His first writing/directing
effort was The Station Agent (2003), a terrific movie that introduced the world
to the talented Peter Dinklage. Next for
McCarthy was The Visitor (2007) which earned fellow character actor Richard
Jenkins a well-deserved Best Actor Oscar nomination. (Jenkins also has an uncredited phone voice
cameo in Spotlight as an expert on the psychology of pedophile priests.) McCarthy’s 2011 film Win Win received many
nominations for his screenplay. McCarthy
also was involved in writing the Pixar film Up.</div>
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In short, Spotlight is simply a continuation of the fine
work McCarthy has been doing behind the camera and I think it’s great that he’s
finally getting more widespread recognition.
It’s certainly not an edge of your seat kind of thriller, but it is a
mature, thoughtful story about one of the most horrific things the Catholic
Church has ever done to people. It is a
story that everyone should know more about.
I highly recommend you see this film.</div>
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Chip’s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-16411599745621851252016-02-08T17:48:00.000-05:002016-02-08T17:48:35.304-05:00Steve’s Selections #14 – Rollerball (1975)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQ1ptLBgCHdfPorqTWZ2MnwvOQDd_dHRKq-9dTqOOWvuiOq9UK1QqzIq81EusJgP3ITST4SYFd2em4ZciaVSWrDUxQj4FsrJZwzVDp77YU-eTDIZywSqEdwhYSPuSTipkqhTtBVTbSORW/s1600/RollerballPoster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNQ1ptLBgCHdfPorqTWZ2MnwvOQDd_dHRKq-9dTqOOWvuiOq9UK1QqzIq81EusJgP3ITST4SYFd2em4ZciaVSWrDUxQj4FsrJZwzVDp77YU-eTDIZywSqEdwhYSPuSTipkqhTtBVTbSORW/s400/RollerballPoster.jpg" width="264" /></a>Steve Honeywell at <a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">1001plus </a>and I agreed to continue to do a
monthly review of a film the other picked for us. We did 12 in 2015 and we will do 12 more in
2016. The second one this year is
Rollerball – the original version from 1975, not the 2002 remake. It’s also on the list of the 101 Sci-Fi
Movies You Must See Before You Die, and I am slowly working on those entries. I saw the remake of Rollerball back when it
came to DVD and I honestly can remember nothing about it other than it had
Rebecca Romijn and LL Cool J in it, so I will not be comparing/contrasting the
two films in this post.</div>
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The original movie stars James Caan as Jonathan E – the star
of a sports team based in <st1:city w:st="on">Houston</st1:city>
that plays an ultraviolent game know as rollerball. The movie is set some time in the future and
corporations run the world. Rollerball
(the sport) is designed to distract and entertain the masses – sort of a bread
and circuses approach.</div>
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<br /></div>
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Jonathan’s team is owned by Bartholomew (John Houseman), a
man so far out of his element in the violent world of rollerball that at first
he seems miscast. As the film goes on,
though, it becomes apparent that he’s not really doing this by choice, but he
is himself also a pawn of the corporations, ordered to build and run the team.</div>
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<br /></div>
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The movie opens and closes with several minutes of “game
footage” of Jonathan’s <st1:city w:st="on">Houston</st1:city>
team battling others. There are also a
couple more rollerball games shown during the film. The sport is played by men on roller skates
and motorcycles. The action is a
combination of the popular-at-the-time-the-film-was-made Roller Derby and the
sport of Jai Alai. A heavy metal ball is
sent spinning on a circular, ramped track and two teams compete first for
possession of the ball, then to put the ball into a single small receptacle
above the track. Pretty much anything
goes in regards to accomplishing this, from knocking competitors out to running
over them with the motorcycles. Death is
a common occurrence.</div>
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And Jonathan is not just the star of his team; he’s also the
face of the entire sport. He’s somehow
not only survived a game with a high mortality rate for more than a decade, he
has thrived. Fans all around the world
love him. And that’s a problem for the
corporations. They want the sport to subconsciously
demonstrate to the masses the futility of continuing to fight for whatever is
important to them. But how can it do
that if this one man continues to win?</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The corporations decide to put a stop to him. They control people’s lives and the only
complaint Jonathan has early in the film is that they took his wife away from
him and gave her to a corporate bigwig.
When the owner tells him that he is to announce he (Jonathan) is retiring,
though, he finally starts to ask questions.
He wants to know why. He wants to
know who made the decision. And he
refuses to make the announcement, putting the owner in a very bad position
since he can’t control his player.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like most science fiction movies certain elements don’t age
well. Case in point with Rollerball is
that the only way Jonathan can get answers is to physically travel to Switzerland
to visit the one computer in the world that is able to hold all books in
it. He does so in what is the most
bizarre scene in the film, with the computer’s operator berating it for not
answering. I think this was an attempt
on director Norman Jewison’s part to say that we shouldn’t trust computers, but
it just comes across as really silly.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In fact, I read afterwards that Jewison’s overall intent
with this movie was to be anti-violence and that the rollerball scenes in the
movie were intended to horrify people.
It turns out he failed spectacularly because not only did the cast and
crew play the sport during down time, the film was shot in West Germany and
used extras from there who fell in love with the “sport” and there was serious
talk about setting up a league there.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I tend to agree with those people; I found the rollerball
scenes to be the most entertaining ones in the movie. The other scenes ranged from okay to kind of
slow. The movie could have been 15-20
minutes shorter and benefited from it.
(It’s over 2 hours long.) </div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And while Caan is good in other movies I didn’t think he
took the right approach here. He
appeared to be going for “dumb jock” in his tone of voice and mannerisms, but
he was so soft-spoken that it contrasted too much with his violent, loud
personality during the action scenes (where he looked a lot more
comfortable). Overall, the movie came
across as a bit schizophrenic in its approach to me, and I would say the same
thing about the star.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One other thing that happened is about 10 minutes from the
end I suddenly realized that I had seen the final shot of the movie. I don’t know where from, maybe a special on
science fiction films, or maybe even in the extras on the DVD of the remake,
but it spoiled any suspense for me in the final kill-or-be-killed ending.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Since I like science fiction this is a film that I’ve been
aware of for a long time, but for whatever reason I never got around to
watching it. I sent Steve a consolidated
list of films I have not seen from various movie lists I may do someday. I asked him to pick from those, when possible,
so this was one Steve chose to honor my request. I pushed him into it and the result is a
movie that I liked parts of, but didn’t like others. Overall it balances out to an okay movie, but
not one that is quite good enough for me to recommend to others. Sorry Steve.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-88645216097160887452016-02-01T19:53:00.000-05:002016-02-01T19:55:18.897-05:00January Movie Status<div class="MsoNormal">
In the month of January I saw 12 new films, plus I
re-watched 2 more. I also watched about
30 Oscar-nominated shorts, mostly from the 1930s.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The number of movies is low because I didn’t watch any new ones
after the 10<sup>th</sup> of the month.
I just wasn’t in a movie mood, and I felt like reading instead. I’ve gone through several books in the last
week or two, including re-reading many of the Pern books. I didn’t watch any of the additions to the
IMDB list, nor any of the three remaining new Best Picture nominees I have not
yet seen.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Watching the shorts came about from seeing comments on a
Letterboxd list of every single thing ever nominated for an Oscar. Someone built a YouTube list of over 500
nominated shorts that were available there.
If you are interested you can find that <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL0o-lwNcy0daBSrxO5AUfGqZ47hudcc2f" target="_blank">here</a>. I figured I’d do them decade by decade, but
hours later I still hadn’t finished off the 1930s. Even “shorts” can be long when you add them
together.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are the 12 films I saw in January. Ones I would recommend (give at least a three
star rating to) are highlighted. Note –
I’m not going to list out all of the Shorts, except for one on which I want to
spread the word.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Oscar (2):</b> <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Revenant (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Big Short (2015)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>101 Genre (4): </b>Zoltan,
Hound of Dracula (1978), Wild Style (1983), Rollerball (1975), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Went the Day Well? (1942)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Other (5): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Hobbit: The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Battle</st1:place></st1:city> of the Five Armies Extended Edition
(2014)</span>, Some Kind of Beautiful (2014), Cheap Thrills (2013), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Sherlock: The Abominable Bride
(2016)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Carol
(2015)</span>, Viola (2012)</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Re-watches (2):</b> <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Twinsters (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Martian (2015)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Hobbit: The
Battle of the Five Armies Extended Edition (2014)</b> – Like the previous
Hobbit film Jackson didn’t just add in more footage, he also changed some of
the scenes from the way they were in the theatrical edition, making this a
different movie. The largest change is
that the dwarves and elves actually do fight each other now. <b>3
stars<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Some Kind of
Beautiful (2014)</b> – S<span lang="EN">alma Hayek
and Jessica Alba play sisters who both sleep with the same man played by Pierce
Brosnan. How the heck do you make that boring? I don't know, but the director
managed to do it. <b>2 stars</b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Zoltan, Hound of
Dracula (1978)</b> – <span lang="EN">This was on the
101 Cult Movies to Watch Before You Die list. I've noticed that the editors
seemed to have wanted to have more than 101 Horror movies and so they shifted
several more over onto the Cult list.
This isn't a cult movie. It's not even a "so bad it's good"
movie. It's just plain bad. Bad acting, bad story, bad props/effects. It's the
kind of movie where a family - camping in a friggin' RV that can leave on a
moment’s notice no less - has to get attacked three nights in a row at their
campsite by wild dogs before they decide maybe they should leave. <b>1
star<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Cheap Thrills (2013)</b>
– <span lang="EN">This was recommended to me a year
or two ago and it finally made it to the top of my Netflix DVD queue. It wasn't
worth the wait. Two guys keep getting paid money to do dares. 200 dollars to smack a stripper's ass? Count
me in. 500 dollars to slug a huge bouncer? Not a chance. That's when the film
lost me right there - the main character was an idiot and I didn't care what
happened to him after that. And the
worst thing is is that the film is completely predictable. The dares have to
keep being upped, otherwise there's no movie. Eat a dog? Chop off a body part?
Gee, I WONDER where it's ultimately going to lead? I wonder what the ultimate
action to get a payoff will be? Some
might argue that this film isn't intended to be real - that it's all a metaphor
for the evils of capitalism or some such thing. I think that's giving the movie
too much credit. The clue is in the title - watch this movie to get some cheap
thrills from seeing two guys humiliate themselves and each other
for money. <b>2 stars<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Wild Style (1983)</b>
– T<span lang="EN">his is ostensibly a movie about
graffiti artists, but the reason to watch it now is to see performances from
several early rap acts, along with some breakdancing. IMDB labels this a documentary, but it's not.
It stars non-actors, but it is a fictional story. None of them can act worth a
damn, but they were cast because they did graffiti for real or they were
real rappers. One note - those
expecting today's easy listening rap based on 70's R&B soft hits, may be
surprised by how rap sounded before it got watered down. <b>2.5
stars<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Sherlock: The
Abominable Bride (2016)</b> – <span lang="EN">Despite
the premise of the modern day characters being traditional ones in the 1890s this
actually is a continuation from the last movie that aired (or season 3, episode
3, if you prefer). I won't spoil how, though. They essentially show us what's
going on just a little ways in anyway when a particular
coroner appears. This is well done,
with numerous references to the written stories, but with the related changes
to them to both make them more modern and just different enough to be new for
the story readers. <b>4 stars<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Rollerball (1975)</b>
– This is both on the 101 lists and it’s a Steve’s selection. I’ll have a review and rating coming next
month on the second Monday.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Revenant (2015)</b>
– You can read my review of this Best Picture nominee <a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/01/movie-revenant-2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>3.5
stars<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Carol (2015)</b> –
Haynes<span lang="EN"> revisits the "1950s
closeted homosexual" theme he explored in Far from Heaven. The difference
is that his earlier film also had other things going on, especially the
potential racial romance aspect. Carol has nothing but the
main story. And that story
meanders, wanders, stops, starts up again, and just generally is there, rather
than having much of any build towards something. Related to this is that
everything is presented very distant and antiseptic. I felt nothing between the
two women, to the extent that I wondered if that was actually the point -
that's it's not actually a love story but rather a rich, bored forty-something
housewife who has a fling with a young, beautiful shop girl, but it means more
to the young woman. In other words, a story that's been done many times with
the mid-life crisis man and the young ingénue, except with a
lesbian twist. If you want to see a
period lesbian romance/drama then you can do much better with Desert Hearts
(1984). And for the theme of 1950s homosexuality in general you can do better
with Haynes' own film Far from Heaven.
<b>3 stars</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Viola (2012)</b> – <span lang="EN">I'm at a bit of a loss on how to describe
this. It's not really a film. It's more a series of loosely connected and
unconnected scenes that seem to exist to show off the acting of the people on
screen. And it's barely an hour long, with an abrupt ending as if they ran out
of money, ideas, or both. The
highlight of Viola is something that would make an excellent ten minute short -
one actress, in a bit of mischief, decides to use a scene from Shakespeare's
Twelfth Night that she performs (as the character of Viola disguised as a man)
with another actress to attempt to seduce the other actress to prove that deep
down a strong, obvious desire from someone else is irresistible, even if there
was no attraction there before. They run the same lines over and over, but they
take on different meanings as the first actress gets closer to her goal
of seduction. <b>2.5 stars</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>The Big Short (2015)</b>
– You can read my review of this Best Picture nominee <a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/01/movies-big-short-2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>3.5
stars<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Went the Day Well?
(1942)</b> – You can read my review of this 101 List film and the first of
Steve’s Selections for 2016 <a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/01/steves-selections-13-went-day-well-1942.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>3.5 stars</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>Twinsters (2015)</b>
– This was a re-watch and I enjoyed it just as much the second time. It’s streaming on Netflix Instant for anyone
who wants to see it. <b>4.5
stars</b></div>
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<br /></div>
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<b>The Martian (2015)</b>
– This was a re-watch of this Best Picture nominee and I liked it even more the
second time. You can read my review of
it <a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/01/movies-martian-2015.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>5 stars</b></div>
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<b><br /></b></div>
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<b>The Fantastic Flying
Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (2011)</b> – This is the short I wanted to
emphasize. It won the Oscar for Best
Animated Short in 2012. Anyone who likes
books should see this. It’s The Red
Balloon for adults. You can watch it
here: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad3CMri3hOs">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad3CMri3hOs</a>
<b>4.5
stars</b></div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-64399116673739412852016-01-26T17:55:00.000-05:002016-02-10T19:01:34.161-05:00Movie – The Big Short (2015)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijdqOXNl5oKpxpfRp67UWfBpMO5vEklWrteEIaPoCDme8o5VCyyyQZ0gbJ_qWKQerCi33ZpwAGjkJLTsoPoCX5ejF7PXQ-HKlVdU2J1YUV8JbJ3CKirnSlKWokJiEch2dkKT6ovapZjpEa/s1600/The+Big+Short.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijdqOXNl5oKpxpfRp67UWfBpMO5vEklWrteEIaPoCDme8o5VCyyyQZ0gbJ_qWKQerCi33ZpwAGjkJLTsoPoCX5ejF7PXQ-HKlVdU2J1YUV8JbJ3CKirnSlKWokJiEch2dkKT6ovapZjpEa/s320/The+Big+Short.jpg" width="273" /></a>As I write this The Big Short just became the unexpected
winner of the Producers Guild Award for Best Picture. Since the PGA winner has presaged the Oscar’s
Best Picture winner for seven years straight, and since The Big Short was not
considered the Oscar front-runner, this has thrown the Oscar race a big
curve. Making it even more unsettled is
that if The Big Short were to win it would be the most comedic film to do so
since at least American Beauty (1999).</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
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Unlike The Martian, which the Golden Globes put in the
comedy category despite being a drama with occasionally humorous moments, The
Big Short <i>is</i> an out an out comedy
with a few dramatic moments regarding the impact of the financial downturn it
covers.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The humor in The Big Short is more the “dark humor” kind
because the subject of the film is the collapse of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> housing
and financial markets in 2007. We see it
from the perspective of a few individuals who predicted that the always rock
solid, never had a problem mortgage market was completely out of control and
was ready for an implosion.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The first person to figure it out was Dr. Michael Burry
(Christian Bale – who received a Best Supporting Actor nomination), a metal
listening, t-shirt wearing, actual for real medical doctor, who managed a
mega-billions money fund in California.
He “shorts” (bets the mortgage market will go down) to the tune of over
a billion dollars of fund money. His
bosses think he is nuts. For reasons
unknown to me, Dr. Burry is pretty much the only person whose real name is
used.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While Burry is getting banks to accept his money for
shorting the mortgage market trader Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling) gets wind of
it. His character also functions as the
occasional narrator of the film. Vennett
can’t get anyone to go in on the same kind of short with him until a smaller,
semi-independent firm within one of the larger ones finally bites. That firm is run by Mark Baum (Steve Carell),
an abrasive, not-a-people-person kind of guy.</div>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
Baum won’t buy in until he’s had a chance to look into the
mortgage market himself and what he finds he sums up as “everyone is an idiot”,
giving out mortgage loans to people not remotely qualified to receive them.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also getting wind of this are two smalltime traders literally
running an “investment firm” out of their garage. They are very proud of the fact that they
have turned $100,000 into 30 million dollars and want to buy their way into
direct trading. They are given a reality
check when they are told that they are “one billion, four hundred and seventy
million dollars” away from the minimum 1.5 billion dollar threshold needed to
get that license. They then enlist the
help of former Wall Street bigwig Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt, who produced the
movie).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are a number of other familiar faces in smaller roles
from Marisa Tomei to Melissa Leo to a handful of celebrities cameoing as
themselves. The latter are among the
highlights of the film. There are a
number of financial terms used in the movie, and the screenwriters knew that
they had to make it so the average person could understand them, so they turned
each one into a comedic, yet still informative, section with “a real celebrity”
explaining the concepts. “And now, here
is Margot Robbie in a bubble bath to explain shorts.” The movie also has fun
with the concept that the average person will only pay attention to important
matters if someone famous and/or good looking is saying it. Chef Anthony Bourdain and entertainer Selena
Gomez also cameo explaining financial topics.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The result of all of this is that it’s actually pretty easy
to follow what is going on, why a particular financial event is good or bad for
the protagonists, and how the banks try to cover up the collapse. Don’t avoid this movie thinking you have to
be an expert in investing to understand it.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Big Short received five Oscar nominations, including
Best Picture, Director, and Adapted Screenplay.
It is based on the book by Michael Lewis (whose earlier book Moneyball
Brad Pitt also produced a movie version of).
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Director and co-adapter Adam McKay may be one of the least
likely multiple Oscar nominees of all time.
He’s best known for doing a series of movies where Will Ferrell plays an
idiot. I know that doesn’t narrow it
down much, so do the names Anchorman, Talladega Nights, Step Brothers, and The
Other Guys ring a bell? And just to show
what really drives studios they would not give McKay the go ahead to make possible
Best Picture winner The Big Short until he agreed to do an Anchorman sequel for
them first.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Don’t worry about The Big Short, though; the protagonists
are all smart, very smart, in fact. It’s
the banking industry that are morons.
Don’t think of this as an Anchorman kind of movie, because it’s
not. Think of it more as a funny version
of Margin Call (2011). It’s definitely
one of the more entertaining Best Picture nominees this year. If I gave half star ratings this would be 3.5
stars. I definitely recommend you give
it a try.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-25778437210780102762016-01-22T18:51:00.000-05:002016-02-10T19:01:42.558-05:00Movie – The Martian (2015)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdoFBXYyyiAr4oKOyTlvzi-BszZoCqJwgkrqtBpwfhyphenhyphenLMJe534-MGUphEBbDSyaRR8V_CPwH4DYYqjXSAIu70B4pLbkgxuyV1LyHy786_4EqFIWE7eZRovSJASzTNuooYMOKs0IDMqoQI/s1600/The+Martian.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtdoFBXYyyiAr4oKOyTlvzi-BszZoCqJwgkrqtBpwfhyphenhyphenLMJe534-MGUphEBbDSyaRR8V_CPwH4DYYqjXSAIu70B4pLbkgxuyV1LyHy786_4EqFIWE7eZRovSJASzTNuooYMOKs0IDMqoQI/s320/The+Martian.jpg" width="264" /></a>I have seen five of the eight Oscar nominees for Best
Picture so far and among them The Martian is my favorite. It combines the best aspects of Apollo 13,
Castaway, and Gravity. And I’ll address
this right up front – despite the Golden Globe wins for the film and star Matt
Damon in the comedy categories, this is a drama with some lightly humorous
moments, not a comedy. It’s also a great
story.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">I like movies
where smart people deal with issues by being smart, or to paraphrase a line
from the film - by sciencing the shit out of it. We have far, far too many movies about idiots
being idiotic, so it's nice when every once in a great while a film like this
gets made. This is easily Director
Ridley Scott's best movie in quite some time. Drew Goddard (who got his start with Joss
Whedon writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer) delivered a great
script, too. It’s all based on a
book that started out as free, serialized posts on the blog of writer Andy
Weir. He got so many requests to turn it
into an e-book that he finally did and was selling it for 99 cents. It attracted <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place></st1:city>’s attention and the result was this
film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN"></span></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">The movie opens
with a manned mission already on Mars.
Storms threaten the return ship and the order is given to do an
emergency evacuation of the planet just as the storm comes down hard. Astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) is hit by
debris and his life signs flatline. It’s
impossible to find his body in the storm, and any further delay jeopardizes
everyone’s lives so Commander Lewis (Jessica Chastain) orders the ship to
launch and head back to Earth. This all
occurs in the first ten minutes.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Of course, Watney
is still alive or there wouldn’t be much of a movie. His biggest problem, and he’s got many, is he
doesn’t have enough food to survive the four years that will elapse before the
next manned mission to Mars. He has to
figure out how to grow food in dead Martian soil. He is recording everything he does on cameras
there for whoever eventually finds the site again, so he holds up a botany
manual with his name as the author on it, and says, “Luckily, I’m a botanist”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">The movie
continues with Watney speaking to the camera, explaining what he is doing. So even though he is talking a lot, it never
feels like boring exposition, nor does it feel unnatural. I learned that you can actually <i>make</i> water, and afterwards I had an “of
course” reaction. It’s simple chemistry,
just dangerous to do.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">The book’s writer
Weir used his serialized approach to present Watney with an issue and then
proceed to write about how he overcomes it, or at least tries to. As the character says, he’s going to have to
“science the shit out it.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">In case you are
wondering, the communications array was destroyed during the storm so he has no
way of informing anyone that he is still alive.
However, a NASA worker examining satellite pictures of the abandoned
site notices that objects seem to be moving.
From that they figure out that Watney is still alive, but they have no
way to let him know they know. They also
withhold this information from the other astronauts who are on their months
long journey back to Earth since NASA feels they would be so distraught over
leaving Watney behind it could jeopardize their return.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">There are many
familiar faces in the cast with Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA, Sean Bean as
the Mission Control Flight Director, Kristen Wiig as the NASA publicist,
Chiwetel Ejiofor as the Director of Mars Missions, Benedict Wong as the head of
JPL, and Michael Pena, Kate Mara, Sebastian Stan, and Aksel Hennie as the other
astronauts who left Mars.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">The science is
mostly accurate in this film, with the biggest exception being the storm that
precipitated the entire crisis. Mars’
atmosphere is so light that even though it does have dust storms they would not
remotely approach the damaging strength shown in the film.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Your ability to
predict how Watney might receive help may depend on how much science you know,
or how much science fiction you have read.
As I was watching the movie I kept thinking, “Why don’t they do X” and
that is what was finally tried. In
addition, if you’ve seen enough films you get a sense for how certain people
getting cast impacts their screen time, so that also might give away the ending
for you.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Figuring out what
was going to happen didn’t affect my enjoyment of the film in the
slightest. In fact, it gave me something
to look forward to since I wanted to see it happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">Damon does a
great job at playing the character. He
is both matter of fact on his grim situation, and occasionally funny in a
gallows humor sort of way. A running
joke is how the other crew had to leave most everything behind when they
abandoned the site, and that includes Commander Lewis' extensive collection of
disco music, which Watney just hates.
But there’s nothing else to listen to, so he plays it in spite of that. The joke is capped off by the song that plays
as the cast credits start to roll.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">There are also a
couple of quick meta references with a scene (that includes Sean Bean’s character)
discussing the Council of Elrond from The Lord of the Rings, as well as a
separate reference to the famous “In space no one can hear you scream” tagline
from Ridley Scott’s own film Alien.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN">The Martian is a
smart movie with a terrific script. It is
well-acted and has real emotion in it.
It’s an all-around winner as far as I’m concerned. I watched it for a second time last night and
it not only held up; it was even better.
This is a must see for everyone, even if it sounds like something you
might not like.</span></div>
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Chip’s Rating: 5 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-73410980076723171272016-01-20T19:35:00.000-05:002016-01-20T19:35:30.794-05:00Movie – The Revenant (2015)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHPVc3BSJ6JrzcD7UkzwIOsTngbivDYnldkmTty36Qnhxz1E_SeNVnb4WMpyWw8v43ieOoonMIln9AMo1h5nhQPPy3SDaiHDDR_VbH_csHOgcLR_XAPe1T-prGdld1n9juEu1LpiTBrDY/s1600/The+Revenant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdHPVc3BSJ6JrzcD7UkzwIOsTngbivDYnldkmTty36Qnhxz1E_SeNVnb4WMpyWw8v43ieOoonMIln9AMo1h5nhQPPy3SDaiHDDR_VbH_csHOgcLR_XAPe1T-prGdld1n9juEu1LpiTBrDY/s320/The+Revenant.jpg" width="235" /></a>As I write this The Revenant appears to be the emerging
favorite to win Best Picture at the 2016 Oscars. That is still more than a month away, though,
so we will have to see if it keeps its momentum or if it starts to fade. It is a simple tale of survival and revenge
very loosely based on the story of Hugh Glass, a frontiersman in the 1820s who
was attacked by a bear, left for dead, but managed to make his way back to a
fort. It stars Leonardo DiCaprio in what
might finally be an Oscar winning performance for him. It’s got a lot of good things going for it,
but The Revenant also has some flaws.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
First things first, this is an absolutely beautiful film to
see. It should easily walk away with the
Oscar for Cinematography. And they shot
almost the entire film using only natural light, which limited them to only a
few hours a day. This caused problems
because they went so far over schedule shooting in <st1:country-region w:st="on">Canada</st1:country-region>
(80 days ballooned to 9 months) that all the snow melted and they had to
relocate to southern <st1:country-region w:st="on">Argentina</st1:country-region>
to complete the film. It was also shot
chronologically. All of these things
caused the budget to more than double during the shooting.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hugh Glass (DiCaprio) is a frontiersman hired to accompany a
group of trappers in 1823 in what is now <st1:state w:st="on">South Dakota</st1:state>
in the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region> He knew the land because he had married a
Pawnee woman and they had had a son together.
His wife had been killed, but his now teenage son is still with him on
this expedition. At the opening of the
film this expedition is attacked by a tribe of Arikaras. Only a few men get away, and with only a
fraction of the pelts they had collected.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While heading down a river Glass warns that the Arikara will
be waiting to ambush them and that they have to leave the river and travel
overland if they want to survive.
Captain Andrew Henry (Domhnall Gleeson), the leader of the expedition,
agrees with him despite the strong protests of one of the men, John Fitzgerald
(Tom Hardy). To travel overland they
will have to leave even more of the pelts behind, meaning months of work is
going to earn them almost no pay.
Fitzgerald targets Glass as the cause of all his problems. He probably already had an issue with Glass
because there is a story that Glass might have killed a white man while he
(Glass) was living with his Pawnee wife and child.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While traveling overland Glass is attacked by a grizzly
bear. It’s a triumph of practical and
cgi effects because DiCaprio and the bear were never together. It’s a stunning scene to watch. Glass manages to kill the bear, but is too
wounded to move. The other men find him
and try to tend to his wounds, but they figure he’s only got hours to
live. A few days later he’s still
hanging on, though, unable to move or speak.
Captain Henry orders the men to carry him, but they have to travel over
steep mountains and it’s just not practical.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They still all figure Glass will die, but the Captain orders
that he get a proper burial. Glass’ son
Hawk (Forrest Goodluck) stays with him, as does a young man named Bridger (Will
Poulter). Captain Henry asks for one
more volunteer, and after Hawk and Bridger offer up their shares of the money
Fitzgerald offers to stay, too.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fitzgerald obviously has no intention of doing much for
Glass other than kill him, but the Captain takes the coward’s way out and
pretends not to know. Fitzgerald does
try to smother Glass but Hawk stops him.
Fitzgerald kills Hawk and covers it up when Bridger returns. Fitzgerald then makes up a story about a
large group of Indians nearby and that they have to abandon Glass to get to
safety. Fitzgerald and Bridger lie when
they catch up to Captain Henry and say that Glass died from his wounds and that
they gave him a proper burial. Again,
the Captain pretends to believe them.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the meantime, Glass does not die. He slowly forces himself to move, hide from
unfriendly Indians and French trappers, get food, a horse (which he rides off a
cliff, as seen in the trailer), and generally be the manliest man you may have
ever seen. The movie then spends a
considerably amount of time alone with him as Glass makes his way across
cinematically beautiful landscape. When
Glass finally makes his way back to the fort where Captain Henry, Fitzgerald,
and Bridger are at things come to a head.
DiCaprio does a great job in the role, much of which is silent
expressions since he is either too injured to speak, or he is alone. Hardy has also received praise for his work
in the movie.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The film takes a lot of liberties with both the story and
what life is like in winter. In reality
Glass never had a son, he wasn’t the enemy of the French, there was no specific
Arikara attack, he didn’t seek revenge for being left behind, and the bear attack
and abandonment took place in warm weather in August in relatively flat
territory – hardly the frigid, rugged, snow covered mountains shown in the
film.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The movie also assumes that hypothermia does not exist. There are many scenes where men and horses go
into water that would be not much above freezing and they simply get out and
continue on. In one scene Glass shrugs
off his outer clothing (the bear pelt) and he’s fine. None of the men ever seem to have a problem
with their gunpowder being wet from being in the water. (They still used muskets at this time.) These
are artistic leaps done because running water is a lot more interesting
cinematically.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And it’s the “pretty images above all” philosophy that is
the biggest flaw in this movie. Much
like a Terence Malick film, for the first hour or so you just sit in awe of the
imagery, but eventually you become a little immune to it, and you realize that
you’re more than an hour into the movie and not a whole lot of story has
actually happened. And then you further
realize that there’s more than another hour and a half to go like this. (It’s a 2 hour, 36 minute long movie.) As it kept dragging on and on my enjoyment of
the film kept dropping. The story could
have (and has) fit easily into an hour long episode of any western TV show.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Director Innaritu has a chance to go back to back at the
Oscars since his movie Birdman won last year.
(And cinematographer Lubezki very likely will go back to back to back
with Gravity, Birdman, and this film.) Birdman,
however, had multiple stories in it and was just under two hours long. The Revenant is 40 minutes longer and with
about one third the story of Birdman.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you’re the kind of person who isn’t concerned with story
or plot, and who loves beautiful images, then this is absolutely the film for
you. If you’re like me and expect something
more from your top films, including that they have a fully developed story in
them, then you may find this lacking. I
still recommend it, and if I gave half star ratings this would get 3.5 stars. Just don’t expect the greatest movie ever
made.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-36874110768510605832016-01-16T16:26:00.000-05:002016-01-16T16:26:42.219-05:00Observations on the 2016 Oscar Nominations (with No Bitching About What Didn’t Make It) <div class="MsoNormal">
The 2016 Oscar
nominations were announced Thursday. Going down through them there are a
few eyebrow raisers, but no out and out WTFs like a few years ago when Ben Affleck
didn’t even get nominated for Best Director for the movie that ended up winning
Best Picture (Argo).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Here are the eight Best Picture nominees:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Big Short<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Room<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spotlight<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I will post reviews
for as many of these movies as I would recommend prior to the Oscar telecast on
February 28<sup>th</sup>. At this point I have seen five of the eight and
would recommend all five. I will also post my predictions in the days
leading up to the ceremony. And I may have my yearly Oscar quiz.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="more"></a><b>Most nominations among the Best Picture
nominees:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant – 12 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street> – 10 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian – 7 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bridge of Spies – 6
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spotlight – 6 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Big Short – 5 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Room – 4 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place> – 3 <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Multiple nominations among other “Oscar
bait” films:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Carol – 6 (Actress,
Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Score, Costume Design)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Danish Girl – 4
(Actor, Supporting Actress, Costume Design, Production Design)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sicario – 3
(Cinematography, Score, Sound Editing)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steve Jobs – 2
(Actor, Supporting Actress)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not sure if any
of these will win an award. My best
guess would be Carol for Costume Design.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mainstream movies with nominations:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street> – 10
(Picture, Director, Cinematography, Editing, Costume Design, Production Design,
Makeup/Hairstyling, Visual Effects, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian – 7
(Picture, Actor, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Visual Effects, Sound
Editing, Sound Mixing)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Star Wars: The
Force Awakens – 5 (Editing, Score, Visual Effects, Sound Editing, Sound Mixing)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hateful Eight –
3 (Supporting Actress, Cinematography, Score)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ex Machina – 2
(Original Screenplay, Visual Effects)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cinderella – 1
(Costume Design)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fifty Shades of
Grey – 1 (Song)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spectre – 1 (Song)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Straight Outta
Compton – 1 (Original Screenplay)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two years ago there
was only the usual assortment of technical nominations. Last year,
however, Interstellar received five nominations. And this year is a bonanza for popular films
with three getting at least five nominations, two of those even for Best
Picture.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Animated, Foreign Language, or
Documentary nominees with any other nominations:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Inside Out – 2
(Original Screenplay, Animated Feature)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Last year
not one of the nominees for Best Animated Feature received a Best Original Song
nomination and that continues this year.
In fact, no animated film was nominated in the Best Song category this
year (last year had one – The Lego Movie).
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Surprisingly,
though, not one but two documentaries were nominated for Best Song this year –
The Hunting Ground and Racing Extinction – but neither was nominated for Best
Documentary. The only other docs I
remember having a Best Song nominee were the recent Chasing Ice (2012) and An
Inconvenient Truth (2006). Maybe this is
a new tactic to get more people to watch documentaries.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Movies Nominated Only for Acting:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steve Jobs (Michael
Fassbender – Actor, Kate Winslet – Supporting Actress)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Trumbo (Bryan
Cranston – Actor)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
45 Years (Charlotte
Rampling – Actress)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joy (Jennifer
Lawrence – Actress)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Creed (Sylvester
Stallone – Supporting Actor)<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">The
fact that two of the Best Actor nominations come from films with no other Oscar
support is a little surprising. It’s
relatively common for Best Actress nominees.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>No film was nominated in all five major
categories:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last year saw three
films nominated in four of the five categories (Birdman, The Theory of
Everything, and The Imitation Game), but this year only the little seen Room
managed that feat (Picture, Director, Actress, Screenplay; missing for
Actor). And it received only those four
nominations and no others.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like Boyhood last
year, Spotlight had a “mini-five” by receiving nominations for Film, Director,
Screenplay, and then Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Other observations:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
AMPAS expanded from
five <b>Best Picture</b> nominees to ten
for the 2010 Oscars. They must have felt that was going to be too many
because it only lasted that way two years then they changed it to be “up to
ten” nominees. Nine appeared to be the magic number for them after that
because the next three years saw that many.
Then came 2015 and 2016 where they have gone with eight. Maybe they are slowly working their way back
down to five nominees.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The increased
nominations were done primarily to include at least one big, popular film,
and/or a film dealing with minority issues.
Most years it has achieved that goal (Precious in 2010, Inception in
2011, The Help in 2012, Django Unchained in 2013, Gravity in 2014, and <st1:city w:st="on">Selma</st1:city> in 2015.) This year has seen a bonanza with Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street>, The
Martian, The Revenant, and even to a certain extent The Big Short, all getting <b>Best Picture</b> nominations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Looking at the
“real” Best Picture nominees (those that also received one of the five <b>Best Director</b> nominations) two of the
remaining three – <st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename> and <st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place> –
are not really surprises for not being nominated for Best Director. The
Martian is a bit of a surprise since it is Ridley Scott’s best film in many
years. Unlike last year, there are no Best
Director nominees that did not also receive a Best Picture nomination.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last year fully
half of the <b>Best Picture</b> nominees were
about real people/events and that continues this year with The Big Short, <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place>, The Revenant, and Spotlight.
And The Danish Girl, which many expected to be nominated, was also based on
actual events.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once again the
Oscars look to other countries to fill out the nominations for <b>Best Animated Feature</b>. They rarely do this in the Best Picture
category, but it’s almost common in this one.
The result, though, is that some American animated films that were
expecting nominations did not receive them.
The Peanuts Movie being left out this year is probably the biggest
surprise here. (As was The Lego Movie
last year).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Two of the five <b>Foreign Language Film</b> nominees (Embrace
of the Serpent from <st1:country-region w:st="on">Colombia</st1:country-region>
and Theeb from <st1:place w:st="on">Jordan</st1:place>)
are the first Oscar nominations for those two countries.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last year all eight
of the Best Picture nominees also received <b>Screenplay
</b>nominations.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This year The
Revenant and Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street>
– the two films with the most nominations – did not receive any. If you think about it, though, it makes sense
since neither actually has much story in them when you get right down to it.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street> is also
the only <b>Best Picture</b> nominee
without a single acting nomination.
While that also happened last year with <st1:city w:st="on">Selma</st1:city>, that film only received two overall
nominations. Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street>
received ten.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The amount of
nominations among the <b>Best Picture</b>
candidates is more spread out this year.
Last year only <st1:city w:st="on">Selma</st1:city>
had less than five nominations and no film had more than nine. This year we have 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 7, 10, and
12 nominations apiece.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The <b>Best Actress</b> category pits two former
winners (Cate Blanchett and Jennifer Lawrence) against three first time
nominees (Brie Larson, Charlotte Rampling, and Saoirse Ronan). Rampling is receiving her first at the age of
70, while Ronan and Larson are 21 and 26, respectively. Hell, <st1:city w:st="on">Lawrence</st1:city>
is still only 25 and she’s already received four Oscar nominations. For comparison, Kate Winslet did not receive
her fourth nomination until she was 29.
And I don’t think I’m going too far out on a limb here when I say that I
am pretty sure Rampling is the only Oscar nominee to have ever played a lover
of a chimpanzee in a film (1986’s Max Mon Amour – and no, it’s not a comedy).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the <b>Supporting Actor</b> category Sylvester
Stallone is nominated for playing Rocky Balboa, a character he first played 40
years ago. He was also nominated for
that first performance at the 1976 Oscars, although he didn’t win. I cannot think of any other performer who
received Oscar nominations for playing the same character so many years
apart. (If you can think of one, please
let me know.) Paul Newman was nominated for playing Fast Eddie Felson in The
Hustler (1961) and The Color of Money (1986) – a gap of 25 years. Like Stallone, Newman lost the first time
around. Newman won the second time. Maybe this bodes well for Stallone.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On the other hand, Stallone’s
competitors include Batman (Christian Bale), Bane (Tom Hardy), and the Hulk
(Mark Ruffalo). Can even the Italian
Stallion defeat all of them?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the <b>Supporting Actress</b> category we’ve got Rooney
Mara who probably had more screen time in Carol than co-star Cate Blanchett who
was nominated for Best Actress. I have
not seen The Danish Girl yet, but I had read that Supporting Actress nominee
Alicia Vikander is actually a co-lead in that one, too. Kate Winslet has now received her seventh
Oscar nomination. Amazingly, this is the
first one ever for Jennifer Jason Leigh, who has had many great performances
over the last 35 years. Rachel McAdams
is also a first time nominee. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last year I wrote
how Roger Deakins was nominated for a 12<sup>th</sup> time for <b>Best Cinematography</b> and how he had not
yet won despite shooting such movies as The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo,
Skyfall, and many others. He even received two nominations in 2008 for
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and Best Picture
winner No Country for Old Men, but did not win for either. Guess
what? He received a <b>13<sup>th</sup></b> nomination this year for Sicario. And the bad news is he’s probably going to
lose again to current golden boy Emmanuel Lubezki who is nominated for The
Revenant, a film that is trending upward, while Sicario is already falling by
the wayside. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Speaking of
Lubezki, he is nominated for <b>Best
Cinematography</b> for the third consecutive year. He has also won the prior two years (Gravity,
Birdman) so he has a chance to achieve a very rare feat if he wins again.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The 100 Year Old
Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared is nominated for <b>Best Makeup and Hairstyling</b>. At 63 characters its name is one longer than
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which won,
coincidentally, for Best Makeup. If The
100 Year Old Man wins I think it will be the longest titled film to win an
Oscar. Dr. Strangelove or: How I Stopped
Worrying and Learned to Love the Bomb is 67 characters long, but it didn’t win
any of the four Oscars for which it was nominated. And if you’re wondering about last year’s
Best Picture winner Birdman, its full title is “only” 47 characters long –
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just like the last
two years (and many other years) AMPAS swaps out a single nominee from the <b>Best Sound Editing </b>and <b>Best Sound Mixing</b> nominations to try to
show that they should remain separate categories, which then allows them to
continue to freeze out a Best Stunt Production category. This year Sicario
is in the Sound Editing category while <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place>
is in the Sound Mixing category. Last year it was The Hobbit and
Whiplash. Two years ago it was All Is
Lost and Inside Llewyn Davis splitting them.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Oscars to Golden Globes observations:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among the ten
Golden Globe nominated films four of them did not receive a similar Oscar
nomination – Carol from the Drama category and Joy, Spy, and Trainwreck from
the Comedy/Musical category. However, both winners – The Revenant (Drama)
and The Martian (Comedy/Musical) – were nominated.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Among the six
acting winners from the Globes – Leonardo DiCaprio, Matt Damon, Brie Larson,
Jennifer Lawrence, Sylvester Stallone, and Kate Winslet – all received Oscar acting
nominations. Last year the winner for Best Actress in a Comedy or Musical
– Amy Adams – was left out.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Like the Oscars,
the Globes only have five nominations for Best Director. They included Ridley
Scott for The Martian and Todd Haynes for Carol. AMPAS swapped them out
for Adam McKay (The Big Short) and Lenny Abrahamson (Room).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Across all the
Golden Globe film categories the only winner not to receive an Oscar nomination
is Aaron Sorkin for his screenplay for Steve Jobs. And the Globes do not even divide between
Original and Adapted with their five nominees, so the Oscars had twice the
number of films nominated and still didn’t find room for Sorkin on the ballet.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Here is the complete list of nominations in
all twenty-four categories.</b>
I will list my picks for all of them just prior to the Oscars:<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Picture<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Big Short<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Room<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spotlight<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Animated Picture<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Anomalisa<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Boy & the World<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Inside Out<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shaun the Sheep
Movie<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
When Marnie Was
There<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Foreign Language Picture<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Embrace of the
Serpent<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Colombia</st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mustang<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Turkey</st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Son of Saul<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Hungary</st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Theeb<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Jordan</st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
A War<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Denmark</st1:country-region><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Documentary<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Amy<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Cartel</st1:placename> <st1:placetype w:st="on">Land</st1:placetype></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Look of Silence<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
What Happened, Miss
Simone?<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Winter on Fire<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Actor<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Bryan Cranston<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Trumbo<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Matt Damon<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Leonardo DiCaprio<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Michael
Fassbender<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steve Jobs<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Eddie Redmayne<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Danish Girl<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Actress<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cate Blanchett<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Carol<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Brie Larson<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Room<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jennifer Lawrence<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Joy<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Charlotte
Rampling<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
45 Years<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Saoirse Ronan<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Supporting Actor<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Christian Bale<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Big Short<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tom Hardy<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mark Ruffalo<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spotlight<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mark Rylance<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sylvester
Stallone<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Creed<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Supporting Actress<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Jennifer Jason
Leigh<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hateful Eight<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rooney Mara<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Carol<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Rachel McAdams<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spotlight<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alicia Vikander<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Danish Girl<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Kate Winslet<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steve Jobs<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Director<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Lenny Abrahamson<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Room<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Alejandro
Inarritu<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Tom McCarthy<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spotlight<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Adam McKay<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Big Short<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
George Miller<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Original Screenplay<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ex Machina<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Inside Out<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spotlight<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Straight Outta
Compton<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Adapted Screenplay<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Big Short<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on">Brooklyn</st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Carol<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Room<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Original Song<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-padding-alt: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-yfti-tbllook: 480;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Earned It<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Fifty Shades of
Grey<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Til It Happens to
You<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hunting
Ground<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Manta Ray<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Racing Extinction<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Writing’s on the
Wall<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spectre<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 167.4pt;" valign="top" width="223">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Simple Song #3<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
<td style="padding: 0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; width: 2.5in;" valign="top" width="240">
<div class="MsoNormal">
Youth<o:p></o:p></div>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Original Score<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Carol<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hateful Eight<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sicario<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Star Wars: The
Force Awakens<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Cinematography<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Carol<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Hateful Eight<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sicario<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Editing<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Big Short<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Spotlight<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Star Wars: The
Force Awakens<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Production Design<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Danish Girl<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Costume Design<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Carol<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cinderella<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Danish Girl<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Makeup and Hairstyling<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The 100 Year Old
Man Who Climbed Out the Window and Disappeared<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Visual Effects<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ex Machina<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Star Wars: The
Force Awakens<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Sound Editing<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sicario<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Star Wars: The
Force Awakens<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Sound Mixing<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placetype w:st="on">Bridge</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">Spies</st1:placename></st1:place><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mad Max: <st1:street w:st="on">Fury Road</st1:street><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Martian<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Revenant<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Star Wars: The
Force Awakens<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Animated Short<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: #222222; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Bear
Story<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Prologue<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sanjay’s Super Team<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We Can’t Live Without
Cosmos<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
World of Tomorrow<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Documentary Short<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Body Team 12<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Claude Lanzmann:
Spectres of the Shoah<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Girl in the
River: The Price of Forgiveness<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last Day of Freedom<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
War Within the
Walls<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Best Live Action Short<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ave Maria<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Day One<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Everything Will Be
Okay<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Shok</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stutterer</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-59232772303268729972016-01-11T17:47:00.000-05:002016-01-11T17:47:55.891-05:00Steve’s Selections #13 – Went the Day Well? (1942)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUWuGCwjXer3sFxmDefPM2yzU55CeEU-i-h5b1pN8wE33VBlSgKLuhrjVx-0WXO9fRVUTmOCOjmM44YfYuXdyPVQE-sGDhI6n1jjUK7WHWxL3r_bdFFjcuPCAu3iYWkChXtdcF6XiMs9m/s1600/Went+the+Day+Well.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSUWuGCwjXer3sFxmDefPM2yzU55CeEU-i-h5b1pN8wE33VBlSgKLuhrjVx-0WXO9fRVUTmOCOjmM44YfYuXdyPVQE-sGDhI6n1jjUK7WHWxL3r_bdFFjcuPCAu3iYWkChXtdcF6XiMs9m/s320/Went+the+Day+Well.jpg" width="225" /></a>Steve Honeywell at <a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">1001plus </a>and I agreed to continue to do a
monthly review of a film the other picked for us. We did 12 in 2015 and we will do 12 more in
2016. The first one I chose from Steve’s
list for me this year is a British war film from 1942. It’s also on the list of the 101 War Movies
You Must See Before You Die, and I am slowly working on those entries, so it
seemed like a good place to start.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I called this a “war film” and it is to a certain extent,
but it’s more accurate to call it either a thriller or a war propaganda
piece. The events do not take place on a
battlefield, but rather in a small village in <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region> that gets infiltrated by
Nazis in preparation for a full-scale invasion.
The Nazis have disguised themselves as British soldiers that are in the
village to inspect its readiness for home defense and to conduct some
training. For the most part they speak
perfect English and have all the mannerisms down.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
We know right from the beginning who they are, so this
increases the tension as they move about among the villagers. On the other hand, we also know right from
the beginning that they will be defeated, so while the overall outcome is not
in doubt, it’s the fate of individuals that drives the tension.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is also a Nazi sympathizer among the villagers who is
coordinating with them. This adds
another element of suspense as he is among the townsfolk when they are talking
about their plans to try to escape or fight back once the plot is exposed.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I mentioned this is a propaganda piece. It was made in 1942 when there was a constant
concern that the Germans were going to invade <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>. Everyone was supposed to remain vigilant and
always keep an eye out for enemy infiltrators.
This movie shows a couple of small things that the villagers first shrug
off, but later come to learn were signs of Germans (i.e. how the number 7 is
written). It reminded me of the scene in
Tarantino’s Inglorious Basterds where the way an American masquerading as a
German orders three beers, but holds up the wrong fingers.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Once the plot in Went the Day Well is exposed the Nazis
round up the villagers, but there are going to be certain visitors coming in
from out of town (i.e. a paperboy), so the villagers are released to their
homes, but each has a soldier with them.
They have to appear normal, but still somehow try to get word out. Several attempts fail, and not everyone makes
it through alive. It is perhaps more
shocking to see a little old village lady we’ve come to know die than a young
soldier on a battlefield in a conventional war film.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Because everything was revealed to the viewer right up
front, even the traitor among the villagers, I kept waiting for another twist
of some sort to happen. In fact, I had
pegged a second villager as another sympathizer that had not been revealed to
us yet because her actions were, in my mind, questionable. As it turns out I was wrong and I was simply
reading too much into things.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One other note on the story – the opening introduction
refers to this as a real event that “you will have all heard of”, but they ran
the usual disclaimer at the end that all events and people were
fictitious. The other thing from the
introduction that threw me a little was the person referring to Hitler being
defeated. I paused and checked IMDB to
confirm this was a 1942 film. The
opening and closing are apparently supposed to be happening post-war and we are
then seeing an incident that occurred “back in 1942.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The movie is based on the short story The Lieutenant Died
Last by Grahame Greene. The movie’s
title comes from part of a WWI epitaph written by John Maxwell Edmonds and it
appears in the opening.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I didn’t recognize any of the actors or actresses in the
film, and there were at least a couple dozen folks with parts. Leslie Banks is top billed, if that name is
familiar to you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The movie acknowledges the help from one of <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>’s
military regiments in the making of it.
I couldn’t help but remember a scene from a modern British film set
during WWII where people in <st1:country-region w:st="on">England</st1:country-region>
come upon a film crew making a war movie and exclaim over the waste of time and
money it was when those men and material could be fighting Hitler instead.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Overall this is a good movie, which while a piece of propaganda,
still functions as a tense in places thriller.
It can be a little hard to find, from what I’ve read in the IMDB
comments, but Turner Classic Movies shows it from time to time. If I gave half star ratings this would be 3.5
stars. I definitely recommend the movie
if it sounds interesting to you.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-16626571718981709952016-01-04T18:08:00.000-05:002016-01-04T18:08:59.110-05:00A Look Back at 2015 and a Look Ahead to 2016<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2015:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Circumstances were such in 2015 that my contract as a
Project Manager continued throughout the year, with some time off in
November. The hours continued to be full
time plus, and when combined with my commute time, it meant my hours for movie
watching and post writing were still curtailed.
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As the year went on my movie watching took priority and I
posted less and less often. Writing
reviews started to feel more like homework assignments. I find I write short “reviews” on Letterboxd
now and those seem to mostly satisfy my desire to get some words down on a
movie. That may change (see 2016).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Major lists I completed during 2015 were the They Shoot
Pictures Don’t They (2015 Edition), Roger Ebert’s Great Movies, and all the
Oscar Best Picture Nominees. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Other lists completed in 2015 include Empire Magazine’s Top
100 World films (2010 edition), the top 301 films of all time (2014 edition),
and the top 500 films of all time (2008 edition). Also completed were Entertainment Weekly’s
2013 list of the top 100 films, the BBC’s 2015 list of the top 100 American
films, and the 101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die (put out by the
same people who do the 1001 Movies books.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the year 2015 I saw a total of 345 movies that were new
to me. I also re-watched another 9
films. (Note: I don’t count watching a DVD/BD with the commentary track as
being a re-watch or my number would be higher.)
And I watched/re-watched 10 full seasons of various TV shows on DVD/BD/Streaming.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
During 2015 I saw 41 films that I would rate at least four
stars (14 more than in 2014). They are,
in chronological order within ranking:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">5
stars:</span> The Orphanage (2007), (and
a special mention for the TV show Orphan Black, which I would also give five
stars to – especially the first season).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">4.5
stars:</span> Inside Out (2015), Twinsters (2015), The Martian (2015)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">4
stars:</span> Life Itself (2014), The Imitation Game (2014), American Sniper
(2014), Boyhood (2014), Birdman (2014), Citizenfour (2014), Interstellar
(2014), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 (2014), The History of Future Folk
(2012), The One I Love (2014), Nightcrawler (2014), Dinosaur 13 (2014), 30 for
30: Four Days in October (2010), Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Avengers: Age of Ultron
(2015), Samurai Rebellion (1967), Only Lovers Left Alive (2014), The Grey Zone
(2001), Predestination (2015), Kingsman: The Secret Service (2015), 30 for 30:
Unguarded (2011), Looney Toons Golden Collection Vol 1 (2003), Mad Max: Fury
Road (2015), Muppets Most Wanted (2014), The Train (1964), The More the Merrier
(1943), Furious Seven (2015), David Ortiz: In the Moment (2014), Tomorrowland
(2015), Riley’s First Date? (2015), Mr. Holmes (2015), Trainwreck (2015), Star
Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), The Peanuts Movie (2015), <st1:city w:st="on">Mission</st1:city> Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015),
Spotlight (2015), The Hateful Eight (2015)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As always, I will post my Top 10 films for 2015 after the
Oscars are chosen (which allows me time to see many of the films others picked
as the best.)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>2016:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Barring sudden incompetence on my part (or large budgeting
changes) my job should continue throughout the entire year.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In regards to movies, right now I am trying to play catch up
on recent, popular films (primarily 2013-2015) that I have missed, rather than
working my way through any “official” list.
I am watching a few films from the five remaining 101 [Genre] Movies You
Must See Before You Die lists as I get the DVDs from Netflix. These will very likely be the next large set
of movies I complete, and since I have just under 100 left I hope to do them
all in 2016.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Assuming I have the time and/or inclination my next large
set of movies after the 101 Genre ones may be Top British films or the movies
that have been preserved by the U.S. National Film Registry. Mixed in may be some “low hanging fruit” –
lists where I have only a few entries left to complete.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There are also lists that change or expand every year. I just updated my consolidated and weighted
IMDB Top 250 list with the 2015 year end, as well as old lists from 1996 and
1997. As a result I have 15 new films to
watch to once again be complete. In
February the newest version of the TSPDT list should be coming out and I intend
to knock off whatever new ones appear.
In the fall there will be a new edition of the 1,001 Movies You Must See
Before You Die with the resultant dozen or so additions to watch.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And of course, coming up shortly are the 2016 Oscar
nominations and my goal is to watch and review (if worthy of recommendation)
all the Best Picture nominees, just like I have in all prior years I’ve had
this site. That will mean posting more
frequently than I have been in recent months.
I do wonder if this might get me back into the swing of things again,
and make me feel like reviewing categories of films like I used to. We shall see.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Regardless, in 2016 Steve Honeywell and I have agreed to
continue to do once a month reviews of films the other has selected. And I will also do my monthly status posts
with mini-reviews, so there will still be some activity here, even if it
doesn’t turn out I continue with full movie reviews after the Oscars are over.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’d like to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year and I
hope you have a great 2016.</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-5984542082716892582016-01-01T12:20:00.000-05:002016-01-01T12:20:58.718-05:00December Movie Status<div class="MsoNormal">
Note: like last year I will be doing two separate year end
posts – a regular one for the month of December and one for 2015 in review that
will also look forward into 2016.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In the month of December I saw 49 new films. I did not re-watch any, nor did I watch any
seasons of TV shows.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In my last monthly movie status post I wrote that I had 19
films left to finish seeing all available Oscar Best Picture nominees and that
my goal was to achieve that before the end of the year. I’m happy to say that I did do that. I wrote a post on completing it which you can
<a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/12/i-finished-watching-all-oscar-best.html" target="_blank">read here</a>. Once the 2016 Oscar
nominations are announced in a few weeks I may have more to see, but for now I
am done.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
After finishing off that list I shifted gears and started playing
catch up on recent films I had not yet seen, especially ones from 2015. This means I have likely already seen some of
the movies that will receive Best Picture nominations in 2016. I don’t know which ones, of course, so these
are just in the Other category in this post.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<a name='more'></a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back in October I ended up watching a bunch of horror films
from the 101 Horror Movies You Must See Before You Die list. In early November I finished off all but one
of the remaining. The one left was The
Bad Seed (1956), which I had to get from Netflix on DVD. It had been sitting on my coffee table for
weeks, so yesterday I finally took the time to watch it. This means that in December I also completed
that one (Horror) of the six 101 Genre films lists (the others being Action,
Cult, Gangster, Sci-Fi, and War).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Here are the 49 films I saw in December. Ones I would recommend (give at least a three
star rating to) are highlighted.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Oscar (19):</b> Alice
Adams (1935), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Broadway
Melody of 1936 (1935)</span>, A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Naughty Marietta (1935)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Barretts of Wimpole Street
(1934)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Cleopatra
(1934)</span>, Flirtation Walk (1934), Here Comes the Navy (1934), The House of
Rothschild (1934), Imitation of Life (1934), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Viva Villa (1934)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Smilin’ Through (1932)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Big House (1930)</span>, The Divorcee (1930), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">East Lynne (1931)</span>, Skippy
(1931), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Arrowsmith (1931)</span>,
The Champ (1931), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Five
Star Final (1931)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>101 Genre (2): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Taking of Pelham One Two
Three (1974)</span>, The Bad Seed (1956)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Other (28): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Crimson Kimono (1959)</span>,
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Marriage Circle (1924)</span>,
300: Rise of an Empire (2014), Spring Breakers (2012), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Trainwreck (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Slow West (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay
(2006)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">About Time
(2013)</span>, A Perfect Man (2013), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Peanuts Movie (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
(2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Twinsters
(2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Martian
(2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Steve Jobs
(2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Spotlight
(2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Good
Dinosaur (2015)</span>, The Intern (2015), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Spectre (2015)</span>, Jodorowsky’s Dune (2013),
Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Creed
(2015)</span>, Frank (2014), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The
Hateful Eight (2015)</span>, Joy (2015), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Concussion (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Grudge Match (2013)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Alice Adams (1935)</b>
– This is the 1930s version of a movie for tween girls. The entire first third
is spent with a girl who, tragedy of tragedies, has to, I can't believe I'm
typing this, WEAR THE SAME DRESS SHE'S WORN BEFORE TO A PARTY. God, the horror,
the horror. And her mother bitches at her father for not making enough money so
she can have new dresses every time she goes out, bitches about not having a better
social standing, bitches at him about wanting him to screw his boss over - a
man who's been nothing but good to him. And all the while the daughter is
putting on airs, pretending to be someone she's not, all to try to impress
people who are not looking at her. To sum up, the two main female
characters display pretty much every negative trait associated with their
gender - something that assures that I'll hate the movie. <b>1
star</b></div>
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<b>Broadway Melody of
1936 (1935)</b> – The reason to see this movie can be summed up in two words:
Eleanor Powell. Who's that, you ask? I was right there with you as I watched
this. She's a fantastic dancer, especially tap. She also does a dead-on
impersonation of Katherine Hepburn at one point that is a comic highlight. I
looked her up afterwards to find out why I didn't know more about her even
though I've seen my fair share of 1930s and 1940s movies. It turns out she got
married and stopped working in the early 1940s. That's too bad for us. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>A Midsummer Night’s
Dream (1935)</b> – I've now seen what can only be described as pure 1930's
psychedelia. For those of you old enough to get the reference, I would have
sworn this was a Sid and Marty Krofft production. The director was a big
stage director and this is his one and only movie. It shows. He has his
performers overact to the point of absurdity. They can't just laugh; they have
to do so as if they are insane, maniacal, or both. And the then 14 year old
Mickey Rooney is so friggin' annoying as Puck that it kills the movie every time
he's onscreen, which is very often. There's a difference between
"mischievous" and "make people want to punch you" and
Rooney goes WAY over that line. I put this back on the director, though, who
also seems to think that Puck is the lead character of the play. On the plus side the costumes, sets, and
cinematography are very interesting. In fact, this movie produced the first,
and only, write-in winner of an Oscar in cinematographer Hal Mohr. <b>2
stars</b></div>
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<b>Naughty <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:city w:st="on">Marietta</st1:city></st1:place> (1935)</b> –
Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy have great chemistry together on film. In
the 1700s she's a runaway French princess who ends up captured by pirates near <st1:city w:st="on">New Orleans</st1:city>. He's a
he-man Davy Crockett-type soldier who rescues her, sings opera together with
her, and then cleans up really well when they get to civilization. He smart
enough to know she's hiding something and so she tries to avoid him. You can
guess where it's going. <b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Barretts of <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Wimpole Street</st1:address></st1:street>
(1934)</b> – This is a biopic about how poets Elizabeth Barrett and Robert
Browning met and fell in love. What makes it different is that <st1:city w:st="on">Elizabeth</st1:city> is dominated by a truly tyrannical
father - not "I don't want you dating", more like "I shall kill
your dog if you displease me". Norma Shearer does a good job as <st1:city w:st="on">Elizabeth</st1:city>. And Charles
Laughton plays a truly hateful character with a gleam in his eye. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>Cleopatra (1934)</b> –
This is a lot more compact than the 1963 version, but it certainly has the sets
and costumes. It is a DeMille production after all. It stars Claudette Colbert
and a bunch of people whose names you won't know. Apparently the Code was still
not being enforced so they took advantage of it with some of her outfits. And
there's an opening shot of what is either a topless woman or one wearing a very
thin cover over herself in the shadows.
<b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>Flirtation Walk
(1934)</b> – There’s no real reason that I can think of to watch this movie
unless, like me, you are working your way through all the Oscar Best Picture
nominees. The plot is generic, and when it's not that's because it's completely
nonsensical. The songs are generic, too. Both Ruby Keeler and Dick Powell were
in better movies, even with each other. Watch <st1:street w:st="on">42nd Street</st1:street> instead of this film. <b>2
stars</b></div>
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<b>Here Comes the Navy
(1934)</b> – Man, watching Flirtation Walk and this film back to back was not a
good idea. They are both pretty much the same story - asshole gets pissed off
and decides to join the military for completely stupid reasons. In this film's
case it's the Navy. James Cagney plays the kind of guy that would probably end
up getting shot by "friendly fire" at some point in his military
career just because he's such an asshole. He's also so stupid that to try to
get to an officer he fought with he joins the Navy, goes through training, gets
assigned to the same ship, and only when he gets there realizes that he's a
Yeoman and has to follows whatever orders the officer gives. Oops. And even
then he's so stupid he thinks he can just quit the Navy because he doesn't
like it. What gives this film any significance at all is that much of it
takes place on the USS Arizona - one of the ships sunk when the Japanese
attacked <st1:place w:st="on">Pearl Harbor</st1:place>. It adds an eerie
quality to what are attempts at comedy. And I read afterwards that a dirigible
shown late in the film was also destroyed, in this case a year after the film
when it crashed into the Pacific. <b>2 stars</b></div>
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<b>The House of
Rothschild (1934)</b> – This is one serious propaganda piece for the Rothschild
family. This movie shows us how they single-handedly saved Europe from Napoleon
not once, but twice, saved the British economy, and made life safe for Jews all
across the continent. Right. The fact that this was made only a few years
before Hitler started sending them to be killed adds a peculiar filter to
the movie. <b>2.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>Imitation of Life
(1934)</b> - I saw the 1959 version first and I feel it is the better of the
two. In this one they probably spend less than 30 minutes of the 110 minute
running time on what is supposed to be the main point - the conflict between
the black mother and her daughter who looks white. Instead we get tons of
scenes of Claudette Colbert's character's love life. In addition, in this
version everyone wanting the light skinned daughter to stop pretending to be
white came across as she should "know her place" or "accept her
lot in life", rather than how the 1959 version made it more about her
disrespecting her mother and her heritage. <b>2.5
stars</b></div>
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<b>Viva Villa (1934)</b>
– This is both a whitewashed bio of Pancho Villa and an almost wholly made up
one. Much of what we see on screen never happened. It didn't take me long to
give up on the historical record and instead just shut my brain off and treat
this as a sort of Mexican Robin Hood story. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>Smilin’ Through
(1932)</b> – This film opens with a man pining for his dead love. Okay, that's
fine. Then we learn she died 30 years ago. Jesus, let it go man. Then the movie
quickly forwards another 20 years as a young girl grows up to look just like
the lost love and starts dating the son of the man responsible for the woman's
death. The now old man not only forbids the romance, he is extremely adamant
that it end, to the point of destroying all his relationships with others. It's
now been 50 years - Jesus Christ, let it go. He's the kind of person who will
die a bitter lonely old man, and richly deserve it. Because this is 1932,
though, you know things will more or less work out. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>The Big House (1930)</b>
– Decent prison flick (and possibly the oldest one I’ve seen). The riot in the third act was quite something
for a film of this era. <b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Divorcee (1930)</b>
– This is the kind of film that couldn't be made a few years later. A woman's
husband gets drunk and has sex with a divorcee. His wife finds out about it and
spitefully sets out to get back at him. She gets his best friend roaring drunk
and has sex with him. She then tells her husband, who understandably wants a
divorce. She then starts crying, saying she's forgiven him why can't he forgive
her? Right. If she'd forgiven him she wouldn't have deliberately tried to
destroy him (which she succeeds in doing). She then plays the field, getting
lots of expensive jewelry from rich men, all while the husband is in a downward
spiral of drink. Then for her coup de grace, she takes up with a married friend
and gets him to decide to leave his wife for her - a woman he disfigured while
driving drunk, no less. The circle is now complete: she is now the divorcee
wrecking other marriages. Now just
imagine any of these things taking place in a movie made in the late 1930s. <b>2.5
stars</b></div>
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<b>East Lynne (1931)</b>
– It's too bad the final reel of this is missing because it cuts off right at a
very important point. Having seen my fair share of films I can extrapolate what
is going to happen, but it is annoying. The story is decent - a woman with
crappy taste in men marries and regrets it when the battleaxe of a
sister-in-law makes her life miserable at her new home. After being cast out
she takes up with another man who ends up disappointing her, and all the while
she pines for her young son who she is never allowed to see. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>Skippy (1931)</b> –
This one's a bit of a head scratcher in that 9 year old Jackie Cooper got a
Best Actor nomination and the director actually won the Oscar for Direction -
still the youngest winner in the category. I'm guessing that these were more
for the novelty than anything else. Maybe they figured working with all those
kids was worth getting the Oscar. The first two thirds of the film are
kind of annoying as it's just a bunch of kids acting like they think adults
act. Then something does happen and I was impressed by Cooper's ability to
express it...until I read the trivia and found out what they did to him to get
the reaction they wanted. Let's just say it's about as far removed from
Spielberg dressing in a gorilla suit to make the kid laugh in Close Encounters
as you can get. <b>2.5 stars<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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<b>Arrowsmith (1931)</b>
– I know John Ford directed a ton of silents all the way back to the late
teens, but this 1931 talkie is the oldest of his films I've seen. The story is
a little uneven and the ending feels very rushed. Reportedly, and it's too good
a story not to believe, the studio barred Ford from drinking while he was
filming so he cut out whole sections of the script in order to get done sooner
and lift the ban. One thing I want to note is that this is also the
earliest film I've seen that had a real black character in it. What I mean by
that is he isn't presented as shuffling, speaking in pidgin English, having the
intellect of a child, or any of the other false stereotypes movies of the time
perpetuated. In fact, the character is a doctor with a university degree and
speaks perfect English. There's even a scene where he's treating some white
characters - something a lot of people wouldn't even allow in real life in some
backward parts of the country at the time. Of course, three years later John
Ford would make the movie Judge Priest and put the actor Stepin Fetchit in it,
and that more than cancelled out any progress this movie may have made. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>The Champ (1931)</b> –
It’s interesting how perceptions and times change. When this film was made
presumably what mattered most is that the son loved his father and wanted to be
with him. The fact that the father was either spending all his money getting
drunk, or losing it gambling, was just something to deal with. We're obviously
supposed to sympathize with father and son, but watching it now all I could
think was what a crappy father he was and how someone needed to rescue
the kid. <b>2.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>Five Star Final (1931)</b>
– This was the final film I watched to finish off seeing all of the Oscar Best
Picture winners (not counting one that is lost and another that exists only as
a single print in an archive). Thankfully, this was a good film. I've seen a
bunch of bad ones on my way to completing this quest. The story it tells
is still very relevant today with tabloid journalists digging up a 20 year old
murder case for which the woman never paid for her crime, then raking her and
her family over the coals, including a daughter who is about to be married and
who has no idea what her mother did. It shows that muckraking isn't something
that TMZ invented. <b>3.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Crimson Kimono
(1959)</b> – This was recommended to me quite a while back when I was doing a
series of reviews of films with interracial relationships in them. I finally
got around to seeing it. For the time it was made it's both quite lowbrow in
its content yet progressive in its racial attitudes. It stars Glenn
Corbett and James Shigeta as <st1:city w:st="on">L.A.</st1:city>
detectives on the trail of a killer. It was the first film for both of them and
it does show sometimes in the acting. Shigeta is best known to modern audiences
as the unfortunate Mr. Takagi, head of the Nakatomi Corporation in
Die Hard. Director Samuel Fuller included a lot of content specific to
Japanese culture, but not in a "shove it in your face even when it doesn't
belong" kind of way. And since there is a subplot of a white woman and
Shigeta's character falling in love it also addresses head on the controversy
at the time around such a relationship, and not just from white attitudes.
However, it also shows the two detectives quite naturally as not only as the
best of friends, but also roommates and soldiers who served together in the
Korean War. <b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>The <st1:street w:st="on"><st1:address w:st="on">Marriage Circle</st1:address></st1:street>
(1924)</b> – A silent "sex comedy" from Ernst Lubitsch that has
plenty of pre-Code naughtiness in it. A husband (an immediately recognizable
Adolph Menjou with his trademark moustache) is married to a crappy wife. She
threatens to divorce him and his face lights up. She happens to share a cab
with a stranger and is immediately attracted to him. The husband notices and is
happy because maybe now she'll leave him. The stranger is, of course, the
husband of a friend of hers who has just come to town. The friend is the
unknowing recipient of an as yet unrequited love from her
husband's partner. There are identity mix-ups, misunderstandings, correct
understandings, misplaced affections, innocent behavior that looks suspicious,
suspicious behavior that looks innocent, and quite a bit of kissing. Lubitsch
would reuse some pieces from this when he later made the sound film One Hour
with You which starred Maurice Chevalier.
<b>3.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>300: Rise of an
Empire (2014)</b> – This just doesn't have half the impact of the first one.
The lead (never seen him before and already have forgotten his name) had zero
screen presence and the attempts to give him the "Big Speech" scenes
just fell flat. And watching ships ramming into each other is kind of boring
after the first time. Finally, I'm guessing this was also a 3D movie since the
almost rookie director had dozens of scenes of blood spraying directly at the
screen in slow motion. <b>2 stars</b></div>
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<b>Spring Breakers
(2012)</b> – I avoided this film for quite a while. Sure, pretty much everything
connected to promoting the movie showed the four actresses running around in
bikinis, but I also knew it was from Harmony Korine, the "creative"
mind behind such pieces of crap as Gummo. I finally gave in to hope that there
would be something approaching entertainment to be found in it.
Big mistake. The first half is marginal at best, but when Franco's
character shows up the movie becomes unwatchable. He plays the worst kind of
poser - one who's too stupid to even realize deep down he's a poser. This is
a one star movie; it gets an extra star for the partying extras. <b>2
stars</b></div>
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<b>Trainwreck (2015)</b>
– I get now why people called this a star-making turn for Amy Schumer. In
addition to starring in the film she also wrote the screenplay - the first time
Judd Apatow has not insisted on writing his own movie. (And that's probably a
good thing with the way his stories have been going in his movies.) Oh
sure, Trainwreck is a little too long for the kind of movie it is; it could
lose 15 minutes without missing much. On the other hand, it actually has some
depth to it, which is something I was not expecting. From what I've read,
the biggest knock against this film is some people did not like Schumer's
character. That's pretty much the point of the movie folks - she's NOT a good
person. She's the one who screws up, not the man (hence the title.) <b>4
stars</b></div>
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<b>The Man from
U.N.C.L.E. (2015)</b> – This is a light, breezy, fun spy movie and I liked it.
I hope they make another. I should state that I have never seen the TV
show, so I don't know how close or how far from it Guy Ritchie may have
strayed. I know his Sherlock Holmes films are about as far from the real Holmes
as you can get, and that caused me to dislike them, so maybe a fan of the show
will have the same reaction to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie. I do have to
wonder about the casting with a Brit playing an American, an American playing a
Russian, and a Swede playing a German who speaks with an English accent. The
three did have good chemistry together, though. <b>3.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>Slow West (2015)</b> –
This is a tough one to rate. On one hand it has great scenery and a downbeat
ending that critics will love. On the other hand, it's got lazy writing (i.e.
the kid just magically knows where to find his lost love) and a glacial pace.
The title is a literal description. I'll give this three stars, which
means I recommend it if it sounds like something you might be
interested in. <b>3 stars</b></div>
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<b>I’m a Cyborg, But
That’s Okay (2006)</b> – This is Steve’s Selection for this month. You can read my review of it <a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/12/steves-selections-12-im-cyborg-but.html" target="_blank">here</a>. <b>3
stars</b></div>
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<b>About Time (2013)</b>
– Appealing fantasy movie from the writer/director of Love Actually. They tried
and failed to make Rachel McAdams look dowdy in order to lessen the huge gap in
attractiveness between her and the male lead. It's interesting that in a movie
where time travel is possible for some people if they just really want it to
happen that the least believable aspect was the pairing of the two. <b>3.5
stars</b></div>
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<b>The Taking of Pelham
One Two Three (1974)</b> – Decent action flick which later got remade a couple
of times. Matthau and Shaw play well against each other verbally even though
they only share the screen for a minute or so. It was interesting to see
Hector Elizondo in an early in his career role. <b>3.5
stars</b></div>
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<b>A Perfect Man (2013)</b>
– First things first, the trailer makes this look like a comedy. That's serious
false advertising. Second, they somehow managed to make a boring movie
about infidelity AND make the two leads as uninteresting as possible.
Third, I found out afterwards that this film sat on the shelf for TWELVE years
after filming completed. You'd think somebody somewhere would have realized
there was probably a pretty good reason for that. It should have
stayed there. <b>1 star</b></div>
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<b>Star Wars: The Force
Awakens (2015)</b> – To sum up: better than Episodes 1 and 2, not as good as
episodes 4 and 5, about on par with episodes 3 and 6. Abrams did the same
thing with this Star Wars movie that he did with his last Star Trek movie - he
did a semi-remake of an earlier, popular entry in the franchise. For Star Trek
it was The Wrath of Khan. For Star Wars it was the original film. I had
two major concerns going into this - was Abrams going to shoot it in extreme
shakycam like his Star Trek movies and are the three major stars from the first
trilogy going to only have glorified cameos or are they going to be important
to the movie. I can report that thankfully Abrams left his paint mixer/camera
stand at home and that at least Harrison Ford has as sizable a part as the new
characters. Carrie Fisher has a few scenes, while Mark Hamill just has a cameo
with no lines (for good reason, though, at least in regards to
the story.) <b>4 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Peanuts Movie
(2015)</b> – This is an absolutely faithful adaptation of Charles Schulz's
creations and Bill Melendez's TV specials. Even the 3D animation is done in a
way to still make it look a little like the TV animation - call it "2
1/2 D". There is a great message in the movie, small moments from the
comic strips and TV specials are sprinkled in now and then, and the new
animation does a fantastic job with Snoopy's daydreaming about fighting the Red
Baron. The dogfights were actually pretty damn good. And yes, there is a
bit of wish fulfillment in the movie that Charles Schulz may have objected to,
but the film was made in close cooperation with his family, including his son
and grandson as co-writers on the script, so I don't have a problem with it. In
fact, this grown up man got a little misty eyed at the end of the film. If
you like Peanuts at all then do yourself a favor and watch this film. <b>4
stars</b></div>
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<st1:place w:st="on"><b>Mission</b></st1:place><b> Impossible: Rogue Nation (2015)</b> –
Another winning entry to follow the fourth one. There are a bunch more stunts,
although the plane one was watered down by having seen it so many times in the
promos. Rebecca Ferguson is a great antagonist/ally for Hunt in the film. <b>4
stars</b></div>
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<b>Twinsters (2015)</b> –
I do genealogical research and have published a couple of books so I tend to
hear about things related to it. A couple of years ago I came across the story
of two Korean adoptees, one an American movie actress (Memoirs of a Geisha, 21
& Over), the other a French fashion designer, who discovered each other
over the internet and eventually learned they were identical twin sisters
separated at birth. What I didn't know until recently is the American had
been recording herself starting a couple days after her sister first contacted
her. She and another person then filmed their first meeting, as well as other
times they got together. It's a very personal recording of both how bizarre and
how wonderful it was to suddenly find out that you have a twin. The reactions
of both sisters are a joy to see. The first 50-60 minutes were fantastic -
very emotional and touching as the two of them start to connect, finally meet,
and to also see their friends and families also meet and get to know
each other. The final 30-40 minutes chronicle their trip to <st1:country-region w:st="on">South Korea</st1:country-region>
both to experience more of their heritage, but also to try to find out more
about their adoptions. This was obviously very important for both of them, but
it was a bit of a step down emotionally for me. It felt like the documentary
faded a bit towards the end. That's the only thing keeping this from being a
five star film for me. I think that unless you are dead inside you will be
touched by the story of these two sisters. I highly recommend
this film. <b>4.5 stars</b></div>
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<b>The Martian (2015)</b>
– Take the best aspects of Apollo 13, Gravity, and Castaway and you've got
The Martian. I like movies where smart people deal with issues by being
smart, or to paraphrase a line from the movie - by sciencing the shit out of
it. We have far, far too many movies about idiots being idiotic, so it's nice
when every once in a great while a movie like this gets made. This is easily
Ridley Scott's best movie in quite some time. Drew Goddard (who got his start
with Joss Whedon writing Buffy the Vampire Slayer) delivered a great
script, too. But to address the Golden Globes, no, this is not a comedy
(or a musical) despite the running joke about disco music. <b>4.5
stars</b></div>
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<b>Steve Jobs (2015)</b>
– The best thing about this movie is that it accurately represents just how
much of a complete and utter shit of a human being Steve Jobs was. Prior movies
have alluded to it, or addressed one or two things (like adamantly denying that
his daughter was his so he could avoid paying a few hundred dollars a month in
child support), but this movie pretty much addresses it from beginning to end.
It must be extremely upsetting to the many members of his cult of personality
who prefer to pretend he was a helpful man out to make their existences better
by selling them gadgets. And yes, I realize I am speaking ill of the dead, but
if it matters, I was saying the same thing back in the 80s when the cult was
already strong and growing. Even though Michael Fassbender and Kate
Winslet (who I didn't even recognize for a while) are in it, the performer who
impressed me the most was actually Seth Rogen. He does a great job in a
dramatic role as Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple and the brains behind their
successful computers, in case you didn't know). If anyone gets a nomination
from this film it should be Rogen (an opinion, not a prediction.) <b>3.5
stars</b></div>
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<b>Spotlight (2015)</b> –
This is a solid, well made film about journalists exposing the Catholic Church
in Boston for covering up molestation of children by its priests for decades.
It is much in the vein of All the President's Men. This movie may be tough
to watch for parents of younger children. It thankfully doesn't show any
molestation, but there is much talk about the sheer volume of it. I've seen
some complaints that this movie is boring, but the best thing it does is NOT
make it sensationalistic (like some Lifetime movie.) It focuses on the legwork
and drive of the reporters following the story, not the much more lurid aspects
of what was going on. <b>4 stars</b></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Good Dinosaur
(2015)</b> – This is lesser Pixar, but still watchable. Inside Out is
definitely the better of the two movies they released this year. And what is with movies now representing
cavemen as acting like dogs (The Croods and this one)? <b>3
stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Intern (2015)</b>
– The first two thirds of this film was pretty good, but the last section
really dragged. And it became all this big drama with women crying and men
cheating and two minute long monologues about not wanting to be buried in the
"singles section" of the cemetery. Yeah. This more than 2 hour
long movie could have easily lost 20-30 minutes (most of it towards the end)
and been much better for it. <b>2.5 stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Spectre (2015)</b> –
Spectre is the eighth and latest of the Jason Bourne films to come to theaters.
This one is overlong and takes far too long to get the main villain involved.
It does have some good action sequences and it opens with a faked single
tracking shot that looks almost real.
But this is only the fourth best spy movie from 2015 that I’ve seen
(after Kingsman: The Secret Service, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, and The
Man from U.N.C.L.E.). <b>3 stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Jodorowsky’s Dune
(2013)</b> – The doc is flawed in that it never communicates WHY this film not
getting made is supposed to be such a tragedy, other than the fact the director
wanted to make it (despite never having read the book). It also goes to
Cuckooland when it tries to say all these other movies that did come out were
influenced by Jodorowsky. That would be a neat trick since none of those other
directors ever saw Jodorowsky's book. (And do you REALLY want to claim Flash
Gordon and some of those other films as being influenced by you anyway?) <b>2.5
stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Fantastic Mr. Fox
(2009)</b> – The stop motion animation was interesting and a little different
from some other movies. Other than that, though, I don't have much good to say
about it. The story was very basic and not that engaging. The pace was slow, to
the point that it felt much longer than 87 minutes. And the main character is
very unlikable, making it hard to sympathize with anything happening to him. At
best, this movie was just okay. <b>2.5 stars</b><span class="MsoHyperlink"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Creed (2015)</b> –
Star Wars: The Force Awakens is a semi-remake of the original Star Wars, and
coming out about the same time is Creed, a semi-remake of the original Rocky.
In both cases the remakes are good films, and better than some in the series,
but not as good as the ones they are trying to copy. <b>3.5
stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Frank (2014)</b> –
Much like the title character himself, this film desperately wants to be liked,
but doesn't know how to go about doing that and instead settles for just being
randomly weird. I suspect that a large part of the popularity of this
movie stems from the actor playing the title character who never removes a
large fake head. I won't be spoiling his name here, even though Letterboxd
seems to have gone out of its way to do so on the movie's main page. All
of the songs are intentionally bad, except for the one used in the final scene.
That one is catchy, and it's played with real emotion. This scene is easily the
best in the movie, but it also left me feeling as if the first 90 minutes were
just the setup for it and not really of much importance themselves. If you
want to see a much more entertaining movie about a music act that's a little
different then try the film The History of Future Folk. <b>2.5
stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Hateful Eight
(2015)</b> – This film is 2 hours 45 minutes long, but didn't need to be. While
they are not huge individually, there are a number of scenes running a minute
or two that are essentially pointless (such as the one with the men driving the
stakes in the ground and running a rope to the outhouse.) Cutting those could
have easily gained back 15-20 minutes and not been missed. As for the
content of the film, it's Tarantino. He does like his blood and violence. Those
with gentle dispositions may want to think twice before watching this. The
story itself kept me engaged despite the running time. You can see several
westerns rolled into this one, most especially Stagecoach. <b>4
stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Joy (2015)</b> –
Russell, Lawrence, DeNiro, and Cooper have had a good run, but this film was a
big swing and a miss from them. The movie just dies every time her family is on
screen. Unfortunately, that's all the first 50 minutes consists of. And even
once it focuses more on the business side and Cooper's character appears, it
keeps going back to the family and the film just loses any momentum it started
to have. Oh, and don't believe the Golden Globes. This is another film
that isn't remotely a comedy that they have shoehorned into
the category. <b>2 stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Concussion (2015)</b>
– This should have been a better movie, but the studio chickened out. The Sony
hack revealed a script that was going to not pull any punches on the NFL. By
the time it made it to theaters, though, it was watered down and a whole
romance subplot was pumped up to fill the time. It's disappointing, but I guess
I shouldn't be surprised. It’s still worth seeing, though. <b>3
stars<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Grudge Match (2013)</b>
– I'm kind of on the fence with this, but I'll tip it toward<br />
"recommended" just based on the concept - get Stallone and DeNiro to
play competing boxers. It's billed as a comedy, but unless you're one of
the few people who don’t find Kevin Hart annoying as hell, there aren't really
many big laughs. There are little jokes on Rocky here and there ("don't
punch that meat - it's unsanitary"), and it was amusing to see the fight
being sponsored by Geritol, but for the most part it's really a light drama
with some humor. The scene with both of them trashing MMA was both amusing
and satisfying. The biggest laugh is from a scene in the credits, so don't
shut the movie off when the credits start to roll. <b>3
stars</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><br /></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Bad Seed (1956)</b>
– I was all set to give this film a recommendation because the ending was going
to what I felt were some dark places and I was impressed that a mid 1950s film
would do that...then they completely undid it all, apparently even changing the
original story to do so. So I'm left with my original impressions I had
throughout the movie - it drags in some places and the performances are WAY
over the top. I have no clue how they got Oscar nominations. Apparently the
director retained most of the cast from the successful Broadway play - many of
whom had never been in a film - and he even specifically instructed them to
still act as big as they did on stage. The result is some incredibly
overwrought emoting. Imagine a 1920s melodrama, but with sound. <b>2.5 stars</b></div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-1257261120892591362015-12-21T21:40:00.000-05:002016-01-11T17:49:20.597-05:00Recapping Steve’s Selections for 2015<div class="MsoNormal">
As you may know Steve Honeywell at <a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">1001plus </a>and I selected
twelve films for the other to watch and review in 2015. We have completed those and so I am doing
this post to recap and rank those selections.
I have also included links to Steve’s twelve reviews of the films I
picked for him.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Steve’s Selections - ranked:</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The Orphanage (2007) – 5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If you had told me going in that a horror movie would end up
being the one I picked as the best I would have had a lot of doubts. As it turns out, The Orphanage is far more
than “just a horror film.” In addition
to having great suspense, it has fully developed characters, a terrific story,
and a reveal that I did not see coming.
<a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/10/steves-selections-10-orphanage-2007.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The History of Future Folk (2012) – 4 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This one was the most fun of the twelve. It may be too “weird” for some, or too nice
for those who are grumps, but for everyone else it should bring lots of smiles
to your face. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/03/steves-selections-3-history-of-future_9.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The Train (1964) – 4 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is some great action as Burt Lancaster tries to stop a
Nazi train loaded with valuable and historic art from making it to <st1:country-region w:st="on">Germany</st1:country-region>, while
also avoiding attacks from the Allies.
<a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/09/steves-selections-9-train-1964.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->My Favorite Year (1982) - 3.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Peter O’Toole carries this film and it rests entirely on his
shoulders as he plays a version of Errol Flynn in the 1950s who is supposed to
appear on a TV show and whose drinking and womanizing causes lots of havoc for
them. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/07/steves-selections-7-my-favorite-year.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The Changeling (1980) - 3.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is some great suspense in this movie as George C.
Scott moves into a haunted house. The
ending is a little too over the top for the rest of the film, but it’s a good
journey before that. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/06/steves-selections-6-changeling-1980.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Seven Psychopaths (2012) - 3.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a very “meta” movie – perhaps the biggest example
I’ve seen since Adaptation (2002). A
character reveal is pretty obvious, but it doesn’t detract from the film. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/08/steves-selections-8-seven-psychopaths.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->7.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay (2006) – 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a sweet, albeit off-kilter love story that is let
down some by an ending that is not very clear.
<st1:city w:st="on">Reading</st1:city>
up on it afterwards showed me that if I had understood what the director was
trying to convey then I would have liked it a lot more. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/12/steves-selections-12-im-cyborg-but.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->8.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert
Ford (2007) – 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There is some great cinematography in this, especially with
the opening scene of a train at night.
The story could use some trimming, with less time spent on fringe
characters. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/01/steves-selections-1-assassination-of.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->9.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span><!--[endif]-->Eight Diagram Pole Fighter (1984) – 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As you might expect there are tons of great fight scenes in
this martial arts film. They even had
some pole fighting styles and weapons that I had never seen in a movie
before. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/02/steves-selections-2-eight-diagram-pole.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->10.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Auto
Focus (2002) – 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is a perhaps more fictional than true look at the life
of actor Bob Crane from his rise to stardom on Hogan’s Heroes to his still as
yet unsolved murder in the late 1970s.
In between is lots of filmed sex with groupies and swingers. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/11/steves-selections-11-auto-focus-2002.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->11.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Jesus
Camp (2006) – 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is an unvarnished look at what far Right Christians do
to indoctrinate their children into their core beliefs. It’s a little sad when you realize how messed
up it’s going to make some of these kids as they get older. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/04/steves-selections-4-jesus-camp-2006.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<!--[if !supportLists]-->12.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span><!--[endif]-->Elevator
to the Gallows (1958) – 2.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This was the only one I did not give a recommendation rating
to, although it still works out to “it was okay”. I’m in the minority in not liking it. It just didn’t connect with me and I didn’t
know why at the time I reviewed it.
Thinking back now I believe it’s because it started with the heist. While that was different for a noir and
probably got it some praise, it didn’t allow me to connect with the characters
since there was no build up or getting to know them. The result, for me, was that I didn’t much
care what happened to them. The film
still had a good impression on me in some areas, especially the jazz score from
Miles Davis. <a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/05/steves-selections-5-elevator-to-gallows.html" target="_blank">My review.</a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And here are the
ones I chose for Steve and his reviews of them (click on the titles):<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/10/picks-from-chip-3-idiots.html" target="_blank">3 Idiots (2009)</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/05/picks-from-chip-and-then-there-were-none.html" target="_blank">And Then There Were None (1945) </a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/12/picks-from-chip-brick.html" target="_blank">Brick (2005) </a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/03/picks-from-chip-death-at-funeral-2007.html" target="_blank">Death at a Funeral (2007) </a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/07/picks-from-chip-jean-de-florette-manon.html" target="_blank">Jean de Florette (1986)/Manon of the Spring (1986) </a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/09/picks-from-chip-man-from-earth.html" target="_blank">The Man from Earth (2007) </a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/11/picks-from-chip-mary-and-max.html" target="_blank">Mary and Max (2009) </a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/02/picks-from-chip-much-ado-about-nothing.html" target="_blank">Much Ado About Nothing (2013)</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/01/picks-from-chip-once-were-warriors.html" target="_blank">Once Were Warriors (1994)</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/06/picks-from-chip-ong-bak.html" target="_blank">Ong-bak (2003) </a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"><a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/08/picks-from-chip-pom-wonderful-presents.html" target="_blank">POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold (2011)</a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
<a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/2015/04/picks-from-chip-safety-not-guaranteed.html" target="_blank">Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)</a><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, Steve and I have agreed to continue this for
2016. We’ve each chosen twelve more
films and we’re taking a few more chances this time.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Here are the ones
Steve selected for me:<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Collector (1965)<br />
Exit Through the Gift Shop (2010)<br />
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)<br />
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist (2002)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Nighthawks (1981)<br />
Quadrophenia (1979)<br />
Rollerball (1975)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:placename w:st="on">Stake</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype w:st="on">Land</st1:placetype></st1:place> (2010)<br />
Testament (1983)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? (1969)<br />
<a href="http://tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2016/01/steves-selections-13-went-day-well-1942.html" target="_blank">Went the Day Well? (1942)</a><br />
<!--[if !supportLineBreakNewLine]--><br />
<!--[endif]--></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Here are the ones I
picked for Steve:</b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another Earth (2011)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Departures (2008)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
House of Flying Daggers (2004)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Incendies (2010)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Iron Sky (2012)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ondine (2009)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The One I Love (2014)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ruby <st1:city w:st="on">Sparks</st1:city>
(2012)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<st1:country-region w:st="on">Scotland</st1:country-region>,
PA (2001)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Stoker (2013)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Way We Get By (2009)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Widow’s Peak (1994)</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-35953636239744652372015-12-14T20:05:00.000-05:002015-12-14T20:05:56.688-05:00Steve’s Selections #12 – I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay (2006)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZDELBOf_kDj2hJgq7TENe3TyziPJa8RlG6Rwk8f9BURC7zdaJmMWWAJ5BTGLUmN3NlPtVNU6utdePrsP5JiI5RJfDePySxqbdlgDIZOw30uFfaDvMUD1Ibv47jAcdcG6Mz7ZTHhechNt/s1600/I%2527m_a_Cyborg_film_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPZDELBOf_kDj2hJgq7TENe3TyziPJa8RlG6Rwk8f9BURC7zdaJmMWWAJ5BTGLUmN3NlPtVNU6utdePrsP5JiI5RJfDePySxqbdlgDIZOw30uFfaDvMUD1Ibv47jAcdcG6Mz7ZTHhechNt/s320/I%2527m_a_Cyborg_film_poster.jpg" width="224" /></a>We have come to the last of twelve movie selections Steve
Honeywell at <a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">1001plus</a> has made for me for 2015.
This one is I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay, a South Korean film that is
decidedly different. When Steve
finalized his list this was one selection I had never heard of, but the title
alone amused me so going in I was predisposed to like it. I have to admit that I was undecided on it while
watching until it had, of all things to encounter in a Korean film, a
yodeling section that was simultaneously funny and touching. (Don’t worry, it makes sense in the context
of the film – well, as much sense as anything else.) I ended up liking this movie, although the
ending was a letdown until I read up on it afterwards (more on that below).</div>
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A woman named Young-goon (Su-jeong Lim) works assembling
radios, but hears instructions telling her to first slice her wrist then attach
a wire and plug it into a socket. Her
suicide attempt lands her in a mental ward.
It turns out there’s a history of mental illness in the family with her
grandmother thinking she was a mouse and eating only radishes until she was
also taken away. This traumatized
Young-goon and she has spent the rest of her life to this point wondering how
to get her grandmother back, and worried because her grandmother didn’t take
her false teeth with her, a possession Young-goon still has and that she holds
more dear than anything else.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
For at least half the running time the film then becomes an
ensemble piece and we meet several of the mental patients and a couple of
doctors. We get to see the world through
their eyes, whether it’s a woman who will only look at others through a
handheld mirror or a man who walks backwards so as to not offend others by
showing them his back.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Young-goon’s illness is that she thinks she’s a cyborg. She’s actually thought that for years, but
when she confessed it to her mother she was told to keep it to herself. The mother was afraid that what had happened
to her own mother (Young-goon’s grandmother) was now manifesting itself in her
daughter Young-goon. Consequently,
Young-goon does not tell the doctors of this.
They do notice that she doesn’t eat, which is a result of her illness –
she thinks food will foul up her insides since she’s a cyborg. Instead, she spends her time licking batteries
to try to charge herself.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Also in the facility is a man named Park Il-sun (Korean pop
star Rain). He wears masks all the time
and is a kleptomaniac, although often what he “steals” is insubstantial because
he uses the particular delusions of each patient to convince them that he has
taken away from them something related to that illness. This is an early sign that he understands the
others far better than the doctors do.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Young-goon is fascinated by him and he eventually is taken
by her, too. All the time the doctors
are trying to get Young-goon to eat by trying to get her to be rational, he has
come to understand her delusion and works with it to try to do something none
of the doctors has been able to do – get Young-goon to eat. If she doesn’t eat soon, she will die. One problem if she gets better, though, is
she thinks it’s her cyborg mission to get revenge on all the “white ‘uns”
(doctors and nurses) because they’re also the ones who took her grandmother
away.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This is the largest section of interaction between the two
main characters and they take over the film for the last major section of
it. Without spoiling anything I will say
that the resolution to the eating comes at least 15 minutes before the end of
the movie and after that it felt like it just sort of petered out. The last two scenes of the film are ones
where I did not see something onscreen that were very subtle clues as to what
the director was saying. I watched this
on a computer screen and apparently it simply wasn’t big enough to see the two
things that are keys to the ending. I
guess this is an endorsement for seeing the film on a big movie screen in the
theater.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
However, if an ending is so obscure or subtle as to require
having to read up on it afterwards then that is a failure on the director’s
part, not the viewer’s. I’ve seen several
thousand films, I know to watch for clues, and I was paying full attention to
it while watching, yet I still did not see these two things that are absolutely
critical to understanding the ending. I
read one comment on IMDB that a person had finally noticed ONE of these two
things on their <i>seventh</i> viewing of
the film.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So, we’ve got an off kilter sort of love story that takes
place in a mental ward with a woman who thinks she’s a cyborg out to kill the
doctors and nurses. It has a number of
interesting scenes that we see as the mental patients perceive things. But it does have an ending that harms the
movie some. Overall I liked this – I
just wish the ending was more apparent on a smaller screen. If this sounds like an interesting film then
I recommend you give it a try.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Chip’s Rating: 3 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-24526452531419285812015-12-09T22:27:00.000-05:002015-12-09T22:27:15.326-05:00I Finished Watching All the Oscar Best Picture Nominees<div class="MsoNormal">
I need to qualify the title of this post: one nominee
(1928’s The Patriot) is presumed to be lost and another nominee (1934’s The
White Parade) exists only as a single copy in the UCLA film archive. Reportedly, if you arrange an appointment and
physically travel there they will allow you to watch it – not a very practical
way to see a movie. I have seen the
other 518 (as of this writing) nominees that can be watched.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I started this effort a few years ago after completing the
1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die list.
Actually, that’s sort of misleading.
I partially started long before that.
</div>
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Back in 1988 I had just gotten HBO and Cinemax and I was barely
into watching movies. I noticed at some
point that I had seen three or four of the Best Picture nominees from 1987 and
that the remaining one or two (there were only five per year then) were coming
to HBO/Cinemax. I then made the effort
to watch the remaining ones so that I had seen all the Best Picture nominees
and could then decide for myself which one I felt should have won Best Picture.
</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I liked being able to do that and in the subsequent years I
kept it up. I didn’t always see all
nominees, but I probably had five or fewer I had missed from 1987 through 2010
when I started this blog where I have specifically watched and written about
every Best Picture nominee from that point forward.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So when I started to look at the Best Picture nominees I had
not seen (fyi - I had already seen all Best Picture <i>winners</i>), I had unofficially been checking them off for more than
20 years without thinking about it. I
started with the most recent ones I had missed and then worked my way back
through the 1980s, 1970s, 1960s, 1950s, and into the mid 1940s when the Academy
had changed from ten nominees down to only five.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
At that point I put a hold on my watching of this and pretty
much all other lists as I simultaneously ended my professional sabbatical and
worked on publishing a new genealogy book in my spare time. When I completed the book that freed up some
time, but I ended up picking the They Shoot Pictures Don’t They list instead to
work on. That took me another year or
so, and when I got done that I finished off a few lists where I had only a few
entries remaining (including Roger Ebert’s Great Movies list).</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Finally, it was this fall and I decided I needed to get back
to these Oscar nominees and watch the remaining 50 - 60, all from 1927 through
1945. I came into December with 19 left
and since I wanted to get this done by the end of the year I bit the bullet on
them. From Noon last Friday through
Sunday night I saw all but two of them.
I watched those last two Monday night, ending with Five Star Final
(1931) more because of the name than anything else.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
While I questioned if I would recommend doing my last big
list (TSPDT) to others, I would recommend this one. To be sure, there are certainly films that I
watched and my reaction was “THIS was nominated for Best Picture?” (especially
from the early years when they had ten and even twelve nominees in a single
year). However, I would say that easily more
than half of the films would be ones I would recommend, and many of them
were truly great. I had seen most of the
biggest names already from doing other lists, but here are some of my best
surprises from this endeavor among the non-winners (including ones from the
late 80s up to the start of this blog that I first watched only because they
were nominated):</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Madame Curie (1943)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The More the Merrier (1943)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Johnny Belinda (1948)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Sayonara (1957)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Elmer Gantry (1960)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Dresser (1983)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
A Soldier’s Story (1984)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Hope and Glory (1987)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
My Left Foot (1989) – “Hey, who’s this Daniel Day-Lewis guy?
He’s pretty good.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Pianist (2002)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Aviator (2004)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
There Will Be Blood (2007)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Up in the Air (2009)</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what’s next? I
think for now I won’t really concentrate on any specific lists. In fact, I need to do some catching up on
2015’s movies (I’ve only seen 25 so far).
The next lists I will probably do at some point will be the 101 Genre
lists from the same people who produce the 1,001 Movies books.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As for any other Oscar related endeavors I’m not going to
dive as deep as my fellow blogger Steve Honeywell at <a href="http://1001plus.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">1001plus</a>. He’s reviewing every film nominated for Best
Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Original Screenplay,
Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Animated Film, and then each Friday he does a
post on one year of one of these categories with his thoughts on how well the
Academy did picking the nominees and the winners. If you have any interest in the Oscars at all
then you should definitely be reading his site.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I *have* put together a checklist of every film with a Best
Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, or Supporting Actress
winner in it. There are 50 or so of
these I have not yet seen. I have
already watched all the winners for Best Animated Film, but I have not seen all
the nominees, so I might finish those off.
I might also take a look at the Oscar winners for Best Documentary and
Best Foreign Film at some point, although I know many of those are difficult to
find. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I haven’t decided on any of these right now and I’ve got
time before I will be searching around for something new to work on
anyway. Even after the 101 Genre lists
I’ve then got lists of top British films, the New York Times’ list of the top
1,000 movies, and a list of all the films preserved by the U.S. National Film
Registry.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We will never run out of movies to watch, and that’s a good
thing.</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-69454173259767020742015-12-01T20:42:00.000-05:002015-12-01T20:42:37.120-05:00November Movie Status<div class="MsoNormal">
In the month of November I saw 24 new films, plus re-watched
1 film, plus watched three seasons of one TV show and one season of another.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I had a lot of time to devote to watching movies, if I
chose, in November because I had most of the month off. As it turns out I had a more even mixture of
activities. And I did watch a bunch of
TV show seasons, so that took time away from movies.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As I write this I have seen 499 of the 520 Oscar Best
Picture nominees. (Had I looked for the
number yesterday I would have found a way to squeeze one more movie in before
the end of the month, but oh well.) Two
of those nominees do not exist to watch, so I have 19 left to finish them off. They are all from the 3<sup>rd</sup> through
8<sup>th</sup> Oscar ceremonies (Nov 1930 to 1936). 1935 and 1936 had twelve
(!) nominees apiece; 12 of the 19 films I have left are from those two years
alone. My goal is to get all 19 done
this month so I can end the year on a high note.</div>
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Here are the 24 films I saw in November. Ones I would recommend (give at least a three
star rating to) are highlighted.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Oscar (14):</b> Anthony
Adverse (1936), Bad Girl (1931), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Citadel (1938)</span>, The Long Voyage Home (1940), One Night of
Love (1934), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Our Town
(1940)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Foreign
Correspondent (1940)</span>, Pygmalion (1938), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Front Page (1931)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Story of Louis Pasteur (1936)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">One Hundred Men and a Girl
(1937)</span>, Four Daughters (1938), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Test Pilot (1938)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">A Star is Born (1937)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>101 Genre (4): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Daughters of Darkness (1971)</span>,
The Hunger (1983), A Tale of Two Sisters (2003), <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Anderson</st1:place></st1:city>
Tapes (1971)</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Other (6): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">San Andreas (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Lava (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Riley’s First Date? (2015)</span>,
<span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Auto Focus (2002)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Ant-Man (2015)</span>, <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Mr. Holmes (2015)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Re-Watches (1): </b><span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">The Professional (1994)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>TV (4):</b> <span style="background: yellow; mso-highlight: yellow;">Orphan Black Seasons 1, 2, 3</span>,
Marvel’s Jessica Jones Season 1 </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Just a note on TV – Orphan Black is simply fantastic. I blew
through all three seasons in three days and wanted more. I wrote a post on it that you can <a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/11/orphan-black.html" target="_blank">read here</a>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Daughters of Darkness
(1971)</b> – On the one hand there are no likable characters, none of the cast
does a very good job with the acting, and the ending feels tacked on. On the
other hand it has lesbian vampires that don't have a problem with nudity. All
in all, we'll call this a slight win.
3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Hunger (1983)</b>
– I wouldn't have thought it was possible, but Tony Scott managed to cast
Catherine Deneuve and Susan Sarandon as lesbian vampire lovers yet somehow
managed to make a boring film. When he wasn't shooting scenes for smoking
fetishists he was shooting footage from bad 80s music videos (complete with
blowing translucent curtains and doves flying in slow motion.) Scott definitely
made the right career change when he went into action films after this. 2 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>A Tale of Two Sisters
(2003)</b> – I'm not sure how much credit I should give this film and how much
I should downgrade it - for the same thing: deliberately trying to make it as
hard as possible to tell which scenes are real, real in flashback, unreal,
unreal in flashback, dreams, or delusions from mental breakdowns, not to
mention at least one scene that actually does have a ghost in it whereas every
other scene with a ghost can be explained as a delusion. I'll split the
difference and call this one "just okay.”
2.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>San Andreas (2015)</b>
– This delivers exactly what you'd expect from a big budget earthquake disaster
flick - lots of buildings coming down and a number of "oh shit!"
moments. There are quieter sections as they try to work in a subplot about a
loss the family had prior to the start of the movie, but they probably could
have cut those out and just concentrated on the action. And once again Alexandria Daddario shows that
you can spend however many millions of dollars you want on cgi and the best
visual effect in one of her movies will still be her eyes. 3.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Lava (2015)</b> –
This was a short that played before the Inside Out movie in theaters. It is included on the BD. I liked the style of music played with this.
It fit it well and the song stuck in my head afterwards (which, thanks to
Inside Out, we now know why that happens.) 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Riley’s First Date?
(2015)</b> – This is a new short included on the Inside Out BD. It was pretty funny, especially the kid and
dad air guitaring to AC/DC. 4 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Auto Focus (2002)</b>
– This was Steve’s Selection for November.
You can read my review of it <a href="http://www.tipsfromchip.blogspot.com/2015/11/steves-selections-11-auto-focus-2002.html" target="_blank">here</a>.
3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Ant-Man (2015)</b> - This
is a reasonably entertaining superhero film, but it's not among Marvel's best.
It's still a lot better than many of the non-Marvel-owned Marvel character
movies, though. 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The <st1:city w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Anderson</st1:place></st1:city> Tapes (1971)</b> – If you are
paranoid that you're being spied on by other people who have you under
surveillance then this is NOT the movie for you. It's interesting how even back
in 1971 a movie got made about the constant filming and audio recording that
was going on by security, police and any number of branches of the government.
I had to laugh when they had a scene of police detectives listening to a secret
recording of a suspect and there on the wall behind them is a picture of the
President - Richard Nixon. 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Mr. Holmes (2015)</b>
– I should preface this by saying that I really like Sherlock Holmes stories
and I had read everything Sir Arthur Conan Doyle had written about him before I
left high school. This means I was predisposed to like this movie. If, however,
your knowledge of Sherlock Holmes comes from the Guy Ritchie movies (which are
about as non-Sherlock Holmes as you can get) then you will likely be
disappointed and/or bored by this movie.
Sir Ian McKellen does a great job at playing Holmes in two stages of
life - in his 60s during his last case and in his 90s, retired in the country
and starting to lose his faculties. In fact, we are seeing his last case
because he is desperately trying to remember it. He knows that it must have
gone differently from how Dr. John Watson wrote it up because if everything had
turned out okay it would NOT have been his last case. He believes something so
horrible happened that it must have broken his resolve to ever try to help
others again. 4 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Anthony Adverse
(1936)</b> – This has got to be among the most overdramatic melodramas I've
ever seen. It's almost a parody with the opening 40 minutes or so with the evil
rich man stealing away with a young, pretty bride who loves another man, who
follows them, dies in a duel, and then she dies in childbirth. Cue tears, sobs,
gasps, etc......except that it's so over the top that you can't take
it seriously. Then we get about 20
minutes of actual story, followed by another waste of screen time as the main
character kicks around Cuba and Africa for 40 minutes for no apparent advance
to the story other than to keep him from the woman he loves. Then there's a
whole other section in <st1:city w:st="on">Paris</st1:city>
about him trying to claim his inheritance. This is a 140 minute long movie,
fewer than 30 minutes of which are pertinent to the main story and all the rest
are tangents. I have no clue how this got a Best Picture nomination. 1.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Bad Girl (1931)</b> –
This is one of those movies that's kind of frustrating because the two main
characters never tell each other what's going on so they keep screwing up with
each other and causing themselves all kinds of problems. Of course, if they did
talk to each other then the movie would be a 10 minute short. Just fyi - the title (and the poster image)
have nothing to do with the movie. I think it was just a cheap attempt to sell
more tickets by making people think they'd see something lurid. 2.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Citadel (1938)</b>
– The film runs a disclaimer at the beginning that it is not intended to be
disrespectful of the medical profession, but considering that it then shows
most of them being unconcerned with anything other than billing patients as
much as possible while doing as little as possible that disclaimer is hard to
take seriously. Of course there is
one righteous man, even though he loses his way for a while. And being a
British film it shows the Welsh as the biggest lot of ignorant, superstitious,
violent, lazy people you can imagine, and the worst possible patients for a
doctor. There was no disclaimer that the film was not intended to insult the
Welsh, though. :-) 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>The Long Voyage Home
(1940)</b> – I had never heard of this John Ford/John Wayne film and now I know
why. It's about a bunch of unlikable, angry, idiots who become even more so
during the many drunken scenes they have in the movie. Those are interrupted a
few times by killing someone off to try to insert some drama. It's the kind of
movie where they give someone a ten minute long deathbed scene. Although top-billed, <st1:city w:st="on">Wayne</st1:city>
hardly appears in the movie and even when he does he says little, probably
because Ford cast him as a Swede and while <st1:place w:st="on">Wayne</st1:place> tries to do the accent it's obvious
it's not real. The only reason to
watch this is to see Gregg Toland's cinematography before he did
Citizen Kane. 2 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>One Night of Love
(1934)</b> – This is a very generic (even for 1934) tale of boy meets girl, boy
and girl hate each other at first, boy and girl eventually realize they love
each other, but miscommunications ensue. The selling point for it is all the
opera singing from Grace Moore (within the first 15 minutes she had already
sung three songs). Unfortunately, it did nothing for me. 2 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Our Town (1940)</b> –
This is a slow moving film that may not be for everyone. It is various slices
of life in the lives of people in a small town. Suspension of disbelief is
required for the 28 year old female lead playing a 14 year old girl in most of
her scenes. Apparently they changed the ending from the play. If so, the movie
is better for it. And I realize
this only bugged me because I live in the state in question, but how exactly
does one go "down to Maine" from a town on the Massachusetts/New
Hampshire border? 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Foreign Correspondent
(1940)</b> – Not one of Hitchcock's best, but still entertaining. For some
amusement go read the IMDB message boards for the adolescent boys posting what
amounts to "Ewwwwwww! Kissing! Yuck!" Apparently you're not supposed
to have that in a movie about foreign spies and intrigue. 3 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Pygmalion (1938)</b> –
If you've seen My Fair Lady then you've seen a better version of this film. In
this non-musical original Henry Higgins is just as much an asshole, if not even
more so. Eliza Doolittle is less appealing, although ultimately has a little
more backbone. And the ending is still changed from the play to put two people
together who have no rhyme or reason to be that way based on everything we've
been shown (hence why the play has them not end up together.) So, still a big asshole, plus less appealing
student, minus all the classic songs, equals not as good
an experience. 2.5 stars</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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<b>The Front Page (1931)</b>
– This is the original version of His Girl Friday. It has the same basic story
and the rapid fire dialogue. There is one big difference, though. In this
version Hildy Johnson is a man. That eliminates any romantic interplay with the
editor (even for a pre-Code film). Overall, this isn't as good as His Girl
Friday, but it's still entertaining.
One note - the version I saw had audio that was in very poor condition.
Combine that with the very fast dialogue and I didn't always understand
all exchanges. 3 stars</div>
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<b>The Story of Louis
Pasteur (1936)</b> – I was surprised how short (less than 90 minutes) this
biopic was, and I was also surprised that it did not cover the process that
modern people most closely associate with the name of Pasteur. Instead, this
film shows him working on a vaccine for anthrax and a treatment for rabies, all
while suffering the fools in France's Medical Board who not only willfully refuse
to look at any of his research because he's a mere chemist, but they in some
cases actually try to sabotage him.
3.5 stars</div>
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<b>One Hundred Men and a
Girl (1937)</b> – I first saw Deanna Durbin in the movie Three Smart Girls, but
it didn't do much for me. This is her follow-up and it works a lot better. Oh
sure, the plot is as predictable as most any other movie from this time period,
but Durbin is hard to dislike. She's practically a force of nature in this film
as she tries to save her father's job as a musician, along with an entire
orchestra's worth of out of work players.
This is a star vehicle for Durbin who had a hell of a soprano opera
voice for anyone, let alone someone who was 15. There's a great visual with a
multi-level orchestra setup late in the film that impressed me. 3.5 stars</div>
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<b>Four Daughters (1938)</b>
– Forget about a love triangle, here we've got four sisters all in love with
the same man, men in love with one each of two of the sisters and two other men
in love with a third sister.
Despite all this, as well as some scenes obviously intended to be tear
jerkers, the movie was just sort of there to me. It wasn't horrible, but it
wasn't particularly interesting, either.
2.5 stars</div>
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<b>Test Pilot (1938)</b>
– Great cast: Clark Gable. Myrna Loy, Spencer Tracy, Lionel Barrymore, Marjorie
Main - in a story that starts out comic, but turns serious. Gable is Gable and
Loy matches him. <st1:city w:st="on">Tracy</st1:city>
provides the "been there, done that" voice of reason and experience
to Loy as he represents essentially the “first wife” to Gable (in a 1930s bromance
way). 3.5 stars</div>
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<b>A Star is Born (1937)</b>
– Having seen the 1954 version first sapped some of the impact of this
one. The 1954 movie seems to have been a
very close remake. I don’t remember any
big differences, other than the singing.
March overacts some of the early drunk scenes, going for slapstick
comedy which feels a little out of place.
Other than that I have no real complaints with this film. 3 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4564277570960354470.post-10196672985621256372015-11-22T10:13:00.001-05:002015-11-22T10:13:50.205-05:00In Defense of the Movie Tomorrowland (2015)<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3-5J84oSOUdtdTbTQryddv-YuoRjyncUiEyLnJj2MpDi_6aG2fCRILJCbcZGzzP0jekZbvVCU_h_utEq3jD68TPWs9VHgGPAEGpJO8h_P2pBsSn3ZOCN0PMTu6RmQCcHm31iYGBjRkZ3F/s1600/Tomorrowland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh3-5J84oSOUdtdTbTQryddv-YuoRjyncUiEyLnJj2MpDi_6aG2fCRILJCbcZGzzP0jekZbvVCU_h_utEq3jD68TPWs9VHgGPAEGpJO8h_P2pBsSn3ZOCN0PMTu6RmQCcHm31iYGBjRkZ3F/s320/Tomorrowland.jpg" width="294" /></a>Note: this is a revised and expanded version of the comments
I left on Letterboxd after seeing this film a few weeks ago.</div>
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Back in 1999 parents were crying out for a well done
animated movie they could take their kids to, one that wasn't incredibly stupid
and/or made primarily to sell toys. Brad
Bird answered that call and came out with The Iron Giant. The result? It was a blip at the box office and quickly
went to video. I saw it when it came to
VHS and loved it. I couldn't get anyone
to watch it, though. “No
singing? No toys for my kids to play
with? What kind of animated movie is
that?”</div>
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Some who saw it even denounced it as nothing but twaddle
from liberal <st1:place w:st="on">Hollywood</st1:place> elites. A few people did recognize how great it was,
though, and Pixar was among them. They
snapped up Brad Bird and he did The Incredibles for them, among others. It was only after that came out that people
started looking into what Bird had done before and then The Iron Giant was
finally discovered and appreciated by more people.</div>
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Fast forward to 2015. People are crying out for some big, original
movies, ones that aren't sequels, reboots, or based on comic books. Brad Bird answers that call. He comes out with Tomorrowland, a big movie with
a great message as well as several intelligent concepts being presented. The result? It was pretty much ignored at the box office
in favor of sequels, reboots, and comic book adaptations and it quickly left
theaters.</div>
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It’s not the kind of movie that can be summarized in a few words
(perhaps another reason why some have rejected it), but I will try. In the 1960s a young boy is an inventor and
gets pulled into a century old plan by the greatest thinkers to improve the
world. Then in the present we see a
teenage girl (Britt Robertson) also get pulled in. She visits the now 50-something inventor
(George Clooney) for answers. The common
bridge between them is an android (Raffey Cassidey). The antagonist is played by Hugh
Laurie, but as happens in the better movies, he’s not pure moustache twirling
evil. He wants the same thing they do –
a better world. At one point he actually
makes a very good case for why he is doing what he is doing.</div>
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When I watched Tomorrowland I found it to be a really good
film. It harkens back to the time when
people looked forward to the future, when people were constantly striving to
improve themselves and the world around them, when hope and optimism were par
for the course. (Perhaps some
people feel that’s out of place in today’s cynical, instant negative
tweet/comment world.)</div>
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In addition, Tomorrowland brings up some great questions to
think about. If you could know the exact
moment of your death would you want to be told? (Robert Heinlein's short story Lifeline
explored this same concept, but probably relatively few movie goers have read
this 76 year old short story.) Another
is what is the nature of cause and effect? Does knowing the future become the cause of it
or does it give a chance to prevent it? How
predetermined is the future? Would
knowing about the dangers to society allow people to work to prevent them, or
would it instead make them give up hope and/or even embrace their downfall? These are just a sample of the questions this
film raises. Hell, the entire
central question of Ex Machina (2015) – whether an AI is only the sum of its
programming or can it be something more – is just one of the subplots in
Tomorrowland.</div>
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After reading through the IMDB message boards, though, it
appears the vast majority of folks completely missed anything other than the
visuals that were on display in the film. You'd think that after the Matrix films people
would understand that just because there is a lot of cgi that doesn't mean that
there isn't also something more than that going on. Recent films such as Sucker Punch (2011),
which asked questions about the nature of reality, Cloud Atlas (2012), which
asked questions about time, space, gender, and race, and this film, discussed here,
all seem to have been dismissed as nothing more than big cgi spectacles with
pointless plots in them.</div>
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Tomorrowland presents the concept that the hyperbole and
negativity that are so prevalent today are harmful and that to address it will
take people who think bigger, who have hopes and dreams and who want to help
others. The irony is that the film is
being torn down by that very same hyperbole and negativity. (Some of it is the same "liberal
twaddle" charge that The Iron Giant received.)</div>
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An example of the negative hyperbole that this film has
attracted is that it presents an innocent, chaste, and very touching connection
between two characters yet there are tons of comments on IMDB screaming
"this movie promotes pedophilia!!!!!!" That's just utterly ridiculous. Any negativity such as that is not in the
film; it's in the minds of the people making those charges. Hell, the movie is rated PG, for
God's sake.</div>
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It's sad that people will avoid this film because of the
negativity it has attracted. It's also
too bad for the young actress Raffey Cassidy because this should have been a
star-making role for her. She plays a
decades old android that is in the guise of an adolescent girl. In a few scenes she gets to play a dignified
girl of that age. In fact, when she
first appears she's practically a mini Audrey Hepburn from Roman Holiday. For most of the film, though, she has to
display a maturity and depth that comes with decades of life experience - all
while holding her emotions mostly in check. She also gets to kick some serious ass in a
couple of scenes. She did most of her
own stunts, too.</div>
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Unfortunately, most people aren't going to see this
performance from her. I am not
exaggerating when I say that if this movie had been celebrated instead of torn
down I feel she would have been getting talk about a Best Supporting Actress
nomination. She's that good in
this film.</div>
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Unfortunately, most people ignore all of the above. They just look at the bright, shiny images and
get amused by seeing Dr. Doug Ross and Dr. Gregory House try to beat the crap
out of each other in one scene.</div>
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But....I am going to embrace the message of this movie and
I'm going to have hope that given time people will discover this film just as
they did The Iron Giant. Unless you
blindly buy into the negativity this movie has generated then I highly recommend
it to you.</div>
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Chip’s Rating: 4 out of 5 stars</div>
Chip Laryhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00787403805554027107noreply@blogger.com0