Your best and worst movies of the year?

[[FnG] Da Kril]

• I've since seen Avatar, Hurt Locker, Moon and Zombieland.

Avatar is a stunning experience (3D is definitely the way to go, if you can), a transporting visual feast of eye-candy.
Certainly new effects territory, raising the bar for showing you another world. I'd absolutely recommend seeing it.
However, I thought the story wasn't very new — just cobble together the marines part of Aliens with Dances With Wolves and you have your Avatar script.
(Some are calling it Dances With Smurfs, which is a bit harsh, but I see what they mean)
It got nine Oscar nominations, but notably not for screenplay (thank you, Academy).
Some of the characters were, uh, less than fleshed out. The marine sergeant was awful.
And Sigourney Weaver (great actress who I love) had to be given a cigarette to give her a personality.
Still, all the stuff outside on the alien moon was enthralling, super fun.
Really though, it was too long. Cameron could've cut 15-20 minutes out of that easily. imho
I would've preferred more of the film's middle scenes, and less of the final battle.

Hurt Locker is simply an awesome suspense thrill-ride. Wow.
I'm still on the edge of my seat, watching parts of it a second time. Exquisite acting, direction and editing.
This is clearly the tough competition for Best Picture Oscar.

Moon was well made and well worth a look, but more of a (well-polished, pro-looking) film school project.
It's really aimed at sci-fi mavens, and it's the director's first film.
He borrows from many other sci-fi films — both visuals and ideas — and mixes them together to create what is essentially an extended Twilight Zone episode.
(in a good way)

Zombieland was good fun, but I was expecting a bit more, considering all the hype.
With the exception of the (hilarious) segment at Bill Murray's mansion, it was meh +.


+++++++++++++++++++

Meanwhile,
The 82nd annual Academy Award
nominations are out!

<— = frontrunner
= my pick

Best picture (field expanded to 10 nominees)

• Avatar <—
• The Blind Side
• District 9
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker <—
• Inglourious Basterds
• Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
• A Serious Man
• Up
• Up in the Air

Best director

• James Cameron, Avatar
• Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker <—
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
• Lee Daniels, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
• Jason Reitman, Up in the Air

Best actor

• Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart <—
• George Clooney, Up in the Air
• Colin Firth, A Single Man
• Morgan Freeman, Invictus
• Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Best actress

• Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side <—
• Helen Mirren, The Last Station
• Carey Mulligan, An Education
• Gabourey Sidibe, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
• Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Best supporting actor

• Matt Damon, Invictus
• Woody Harrelson, The Messenger
• Christopher Plummer, The Last Station
• Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones
• Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds <—

Best supporting actress

• Penelope Cruz, Nine
• Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air
• Maggie Gyllenhaal, Crazy Heart
• Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air
• Mo’Nique, Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire <—

Best animated feature

• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr. Fox
• The Princess and the Frog
• The Secret of Kells
• Up <—

Best original screenplay

• Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker <—
• Quentin Tarantino, Inglourious Basterds
• Alessandro Camon and Oren Moverman, The Messenger
• Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man
• Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Up

Best adapted screenplay

• Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell, District 9
• Nick Hornby, An Education
• Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Tony Roche, In the Loop
• Geoffrey Fletcher, Precious
• Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner, Up in the Air <—

Best cinematography

• Mauro Fiore, Avatar
• Bruno Delbonnel, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• Barry Ackroyd, The Hurt Locker <—
• Robert Richardson, Inglourious Basterds
• Christian Berger, The White Ribbon

Best art direction

• Avatar — Art direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set decoration: Kim Sinclair <—
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus — Art direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set decoration: Caroline Smith
• Nine — Art direction: John Myhre; Set decoration: Gordon Sim
• Sherlock Holmes — Art direction: Sarah Greenwood, Set decoration: Katie Spencer
• The Young Victoria —Art direction: Patrice Vermette, Set decoration: Maggie Gray

We'll see what's what on March 7,
--kril out--

[[FnG] 7uh]

"The Great Sausage Caper" is my vote for "wurst movie of the year."

[[FnG] ParanoiDinHELL]

• I've since seen Avatar, Hurt Locker, Moon and Zombieland.

Avatar is a stunning experience (3D is definitely the way to go, if you can), a transporting visual feast of eye-candy.

Too true, the depth in the image is in extreme contract with the depth of the story (or the fact that that's lacking and awfully predictable, but well, can't have it all)

Anyway, worst blockbuster was probably 2012 last year, they shot an hour too much and the quality of the movie is best described by it's opening scene. The toy boat getting sunk in a pool of water due to a car driveing by. No opportunity was missed to hint towards the destruction comeing later in the movie, an overdose of characters that add absolutely nothing to the story and predictable from beginning to end... Either that or Watchmen, tough that may be worthwhile if one would be familiar with the comics. Transformers 2 was quite dreadfull too, after a nice and easy to watch first half of the movie, after the break things turned sour and it became worse by the minute.

The Hangover surprised me, probably not the best, but I didn't expect it to be this solid. UP was great as always with pixar's, Inglorious Bastards was one of the finer Tarantino's (tough, he gets a tad repetitive and it was a bit slow at points, but kudo's to the german inspector, excellent acting to flesh out a great character ).
District 9 was great too, very authentic, reminded me a bit of "La Haine" (different circumstances obviously, but also a faked documentary that is shot in an authentic manner)

I'm probably forgetting some here and there, but you can't have it all

Also - not a "Best" movie, but a nice watch and I expected less of it, but Sherlock is fun to watch.

[[FnG] 7uh]

Well, I've seen a couple of these since last we chatted, and by and large, I gotta (as usual) agree with Kril's spot-on assessments.

Hurt Locker is simply an awesome suspense thrill-ride. Wow.
I'm still on the edge of my seat, watching parts of it a second time. Exquisite acting, direction and editing.
This is clearly the tough competition for Best Picture Oscar.

Agreed. It's not often I watch parts of a movie (or the whole movie) again directly after seeing it, but I did with this one. Really excellent stuff. The long scene when they're out in the desert with the bounty-hunting contractors ... How can you make that so tense and exciting, when there's virtually no action? The pacing, the acting, the visual power ... just great.

Moon was well made and well worth a look, but more of a (well-polished, pro-looking) film school project.

Yeah, I wasn't really super-impressed with this - at least not compared to what everyone was saying about it. I thought it was ... good. Not super-amazing. Good.

[[FnG] Da Kril]

...and the results are in!

82nd Annual Academy Awards Oscars go to:

• Best Visual Effects: Avatar
• Best Art Direction: Avatar
• Best Cinematography: Avatar
• Best Editing: The Hurt Locker
• Best Screenplay (adapted): Precious
• Best Screenplay (original): The Hurt Locker
• Best Animated Film: Up
• Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, Precious
• Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds
• Best Actress: Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side
• Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart
• Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker
• Best Picture : The Hurt Locker

That's what the Academy thought, anyway.
No real surprises, although I'd have preferred District 9 to win for adapted screenplay and Inglourious Basterds to win for original screenplay.
But it's hard to knock The Hurt Locker's script — it was fantastic and it's obviously Hurt Locker's night.

The show was OK. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were super as co-hosts. Quality jokes, timed right and told well.

The only sort of stray film I wonder about (nomination-wise) is Spike Jonez' Where the Wild Things Are.
Haven't seen it yet (will soon; it's on DVD), but critics were lavish with praise for the spooky childhood adventure.
What happened there, I wonder?

Of the winners above, and the flicks we've been talking about,
several are about to hit the DVD shelves:
Up in the Air, Mar. 9
Precious, Mar. 9
The Blind Side, Mar. 23
An Education, Mar. 30
Sherlock Holmes, Mar. 30

Avatar and Crazy Heart are still in theaters, no DVD release date yet.
Everything else is already out on DVD, Amazon, Netflix, whatever.

Enjoy,
--kril out--

[[FnG] Lambik]

Funny note:
Bullock did also get the Raspberry award for being the worst actrice(in 'All about Steve')
And she actually went there to receive it in person(what a character showing there )

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Razzies- ... 6769.shtml

I didn't see the movie, but from the reading it's supposed to be a comedy thing.
Now we all have seen Arnie Swarzchwalderkirschtorte being funny in his movies, but every one of his 'comedy' things failed.
Might be the same case with Sandra Bullock, but as I said I didn't see the movie yet.(I never wanted to see that movie, but now I have to )

[[FnG] ParanoiDinHELL]

Hurt Locker is simply an awesome suspense thrill-ride. Wow.
I'm still on the edge of my seat, watching parts of it a second time. Exquisite acting, direction and editing.
This is clearly the tough competition for Best Picture Oscar.

Agreed. It's not often I watch parts of a movie (or the whole movie) again directly after seeing it, but I did with this one. Really excellent stuff. The long scene when they're out in the desert with the bounty-hunting contractors ... How can you make that so tense and exciting, when there's virtually no action? The pacing, the acting, the visual power ... just great.

I watched Hurt Locker yesterday (not coincidentally before the oscars) and I'll have to admit it failed to interest me at any point. Maybe the circumstances were off, maybe it's not my cup of tea. Anyway, I'm happy that Avatar didnt win best movie, because unlike Cameron himself, i'm guessing that most people watch it again because it's the first time they've seen 3d in the cinema like this, not because the story or movie itself is actually worth while.

Anyway, it's good to see Waltz won

[[FnG] Da Kril]

Bullock did also get the Raspberry award for being the worst actrice(in 'All about Steve')
And she actually went there to receive it in person (what a character showing there )

Yeah, that's an interesting story — won worst actress one night, best actress the next night. She took a little red wagon full of All About Steve DVDs with her and passed them out at the Razzie awards. She told them she'd return next year, but they had to promise to watch the movie and consider whether it was really the worst actress performance of the year, and she would give the award back.

I didn't see the movie, but from the reading it's supposed to be a comedy thing.

Yeah, I saw it. It's an OK-to-bad comedy. The script is truly awful. Her performance is OK, nothing special. It's the film itself which is, overall, so bad. At no time did I get the feeling her acting was making it bad. It was already bad. Trailer here.

Now we all have seen Arnie Swarzchwalderkirschtorte being funny in his movies, but every one of his 'comedy' things failed.
Might be the same case with Sandra Bullock, but as I said I didn't see the movie yet.(I never wanted to see that movie, but now I have to )

Well, see it, and I think you'll feel like, meh, that was pretty stinky. But at the same time, SURELY there are worse actress performances last year more deserving of a Razzie? Did Paris Hilton make anything? Auto-winner. What about Megan Fox in Jennifer's Body — sexy to look at, but the reviews say her struggling performance pulled down what might have been a good horror flick. How about whoever starred in Miss March? Eww.

Bullock is sharp and funny, and she can do comedy. Rent/watch The Proposal — she's great in that, and it's quite funny.




Hell, her acceptance speech last night was friggin' hilarious.


Meryl Streep's lover!

I watched Hurt Locker yesterday (not coincidentally before the oscars) and I'll have to admit it failed to interest me at any point.

Holy crap! Somebody check his pulse!

Your mileage may vary, void in Wisconsin,
--kril out--

[[FnG] pyxie.T32]

Hurt Locker is simply an awesome suspense thrill-ride. Wow.
I'm still on the edge of my seat, watching parts of it a second time. Exquisite acting, direction and editing.
This is clearly the tough competition for Best Picture Oscar.

Agreed. It's not often I watch parts of a movie (or the whole movie) again directly after seeing it, but I did with this one. Really excellent stuff. The long scene when they're out in the desert with the bounty-hunting contractors ... How can you make that so tense and exciting, when there's virtually no action? The pacing, the acting, the visual power ... just great.

I watched Hurt Locker yesterday (not coincidentally before the oscars) and I'll have to admit it failed to interest me at any point. Maybe the circumstances were off, maybe it's not my cup of tea. Anyway, I'm happy that Avatar didnt win best movie, because unlike Cameron himself, i'm guessing that most people watch it again because it's the first time they've seen 3d in the cinema like this, not because the story or movie itself is actually worth while.

Anyway, it's good to see Waltz won

I am 100% with the 'noid on this one, it's consistant attempt to be so real flawed it and for my opinion turned it into a farce. The whole premise seemed mis-judged to me. Not my sort of film anyway as such but certainly not deserving of so much hype. (But at least it wasn't Avatar which was jst Pocohontas with blue cats.

[[FnG] ParanoiDinHELL]

I'm guessing it works best when watched by americans since it's your boys and for that reason i'm guessing you identify more easily with the characters (at least, that's what i'm thinking) ... Since I couldn't care less for the characters in the movie, it didn't really touch me either... or I was still affected by the awesomeness of zombieland (well, that one was more decent then expected).

Also - fun quote from the foreign film winning saying that theyr happy the academy didnt concider Na'vi a foreign language .

[[FnG] Da Kril]

I'm guessing it works best when watched by americans since it's your boys and for that reason i'm guessing you identify more easily with the characters (at least, that's what i'm thinking) ...

No, it's not about whether they're American or not — it's the tension of whether the bomb blows up or not.
They could be German, Hindu, Armenian, whatever, and the tension and drama would still work for me.
(and the Academy Awards folks, too, apparently)

I didn't relate, really, to any of the characters, but certainly felt, viscerally, their plight when their lives were in danger from an explosion or being shot. Maybe since a lot of the bombs didn't go off, this flick is no good for hard-core gamers? ("where's the boom? meh")

I think your Zombieland explanation is probably a better fit.

YMMV, Void in Zimbabwe,
--k o--