My Oscar Picks

So, yeah. I wouldn't change any of the nominations. I haven't seen a few of them, so I'll try and do that and post reviews on them.

For Best Picture, I've only seen three of the nominated films (Black Swan, True Grit, and Inception).  Inception was intriguing and visually stunning. Black Swan was one of the best dramatic movies I've ever seen. Natalie Portman gave probably one of the best performances I've ever seen. I will be shocked if she doesn't go home with the Best Actress statue. True Grit was an all around great movie as well. It was humorous, sad, exciting, and inspiring. Jeff Bridges was great, but Hailee Steinfeld, who played the young girl, stole the show. Brave, spirited, wise beyond her years, she held her own.

My personal choice for Best Picture:

Out of all the nominee's for Best Actor, I've only seen Jeff Bridges. I'm excited that James Franco and Colin Firth are both nominated; I absolutely adore both of them. Jesse Eisenberg seems like the dark horse to me. I honestly can't remember what other movies he's been in, so I can't really judge his acting abilities. Javier Bardem seems to get nominated every other year, but I don't really like him, so I'm going to say he's in there as a courtesy and isn't really a contender.

My pick for Best Actor: I can't really. I'd be happy if either Bridges, Firth or Franco walked away with the statue on this one.

I'm excited about the Best Supporting Actor nominees as well. Mark Ruffalo is a decent actor, probably not Oscar worthy, but I have this feeling that he's going to be in the business and making good movies for the rest of his life. I like him and am excited that he's nominated, but I don't think he'll win. Jeremy Renner has been one of my favorite actors for a long time now. I can't say he's got the range and skill of Christian Bale, but he's still one of my favorites. Speaking of Christian Bale, I think he's got this award in the bag. The dude is one of the best actors in Hollywood. He changes nearly every aspect of himself for every role. In Batman he was a big hulking dude with swagger, in American Psycho he was insecure, psychotic, and almost always on the verge of a break down. In The Fighter he is physically unrecognizable. He's a chameleon.

My pick for Best Supporting Actor:

Best Actress better go to Natalie Portman. Hands down, flat out, period, the end. I will be shocked, astonished, totally outraged if she doesn't get it.

I suppose those are the nominations I really care about. Director is another biggie but it could go to any and I'd be happy.

Until next time!

Oscar Nominations!

Here are the nominations. I'll discuss my picks in the next post.




Best Picture

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids Are All Right
• The King's Speech
• 127 Hours
• The Social Network
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter's Bone

Best Actor

• Javier Bardem in Biutiful
• Jeff Bridges in True Grit
• Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network
• Colin Firth in The King's Speech
• James Franco in 127 Hours

Best Actor In A Supporting Role

• Christian Bale in The Fighter
• John Hawkes in Winter's Bone
• Jeremy Renner in The Town
• Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right
• Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech

Best Actress

• Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right
• Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole
• Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone
• Natalie Portman in Black Swan
• Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine

Best Actress In A Supporting Role

• Amy Adams in The Fighter
• Helena Bonham Carter in The Kings Speech
• Melissa Leo in The Fighter
• Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit
• Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom

Best Animated Feature Film

• How To Train Your Dragon
• The Illusionist
• Toy Story 3

Best Art Direction

• Alice In Wonderland
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows
• Inception
• The King's Speech
• True Grit

Best Cinematography

• Black Swan
• Inception
• The King's Speech
• The Social Network
• True Grit

Best Costume Design

• Alice in Wonderland
• I Am Love
• The King's Speech
• The Tempest
• True Grit

Best Director

• Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan
• David O. Russell for The Fighter
• Tom Hooper for The King's Speech
• David Fincher for The Social Network
• The Coen brothers for True Grit

Razzies Are Here!!!

Every year, before the Oscars, there are the Razzies. The worst film/actors/directors get nominated and the worst of the worst "win." I always love to see who and what get nominated.

Here's the link to the actual nominations page.

http://razzies.com/history/31stNoms.asp

However, the website itself is kind of obnoxious to sit and read because of it's black background, so I'll reprint the list here. And then I'll comment. Because honestly, how could I not!?

Worst Picture

• The Bounty Hunter (Gerard Butler, Jennifer Aniston; directed by Andy Tennant)
• The Last Airbender (directed by M. Night Shyamalan)
• Sex and the City 2 (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis, Cynthia Nixon; Directed by Michael Patrick King)
• Twilight Saga: Eclipse (Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Robert Pattinson; Directed by David Slade)
• Vampires Suck 

Worst Actor

• Jack Black (Gulliver's Travels)
• Gerard Butler (The Bounty Hunter)
• Ashton Kutcher (The Killers AND Valentine's Day)
• Taylor Lautner (Eclipse AND Valentine's Day)
• Robert Pattinson (Eclipse AND Remember Me)

Worst Actress

• Jennifer Aniston (The Bounty Hunter AND The Switch)
• Miley Cyrus (The Last Song)
• All four women of Sex and the City 2 
• Megan Fox (Jonah Hex)
• Kristen Stewart (Eclipse)

Worst Supporting Actor

• Billy Ray Cyrus (The Spy Next Door)
• George Lopez (Marmaduke AND Valentine's Day AND The Spy Next Door)
• Dev Patel (The Last Airbender)
• Jackson Rathbone (Eclipse AND  The Last Airbender)
• Rob Sneider (Grown-Ups)

Worst Supporting Actress

• Jessica Alba (The Killer Inside Me AND Little Fockers AND Machette AND Valentine's Day)
• Cher (Burlesque)
• Liza Minnelli (Sex and the City 2)
• Nicola Peltz (The Last Airbender)
• Barbra Streisand (Little Fockers)

Worst 3D

• Cats and Dogs 2
• Clash of the Titans
• The Last Airbender
• Nutcracker 3D
• Saw 3D (Saw VII)

Worst Couple/Ensemble

• Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler (The Bounty Hunter)
• Josh Brolin's Face and Megan Fox's Accent (Jonah Hex)
• The entire cast of The Last Airbender
• The entire cast of Sex and the City 2
• The entire cast of Eclipse

There's more but, they aren't as interesting, and honestly, they're just repeats of what's already been listed.

I think the noms are pretty good. I haven't seen a lot of them (mainly because I thought they looked bad, but also because they might not have appealed to me).

I definitely want to add to the list though. 

My nominations:

Clash of the Titans for Worst Movie, Worst Actor, Worst Ensemble, and Worst Screenplay.

Legion for Worst Movie, Worst Actor, Worst Supporting Actor, Worst Actress, Worst Supporting Actress, Worst Ensemble, Worst Director, and Worst Screenplay (it was definitely one of the worst movies I've ever seen).

Who do I think will win? Hard to say, simply because I've seen so few of the nominees. 

I think it'll be a tight race between Kristen Stewart and Megan Fox for Worst Actress. Neither can act. Kristen Stewart has the emotional range of a pancake and Megan Fox is only eye candy. Poor Kristen can't even claim that much. But at least Ms. Fox's face moves from time to time.

The Razzies are handed out the night before the Oscars, so I'll do a follow up post on who "won." 

Until next time!

The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet
Principle Actors: Seth Rogen, Jay Chou, Cameron Diaz
Directed by: Michel Gondry
My Rating: 3/5

I was actually quite disappointed in this movie. I gave it a higher rating than it probably deserves, mainly because of Jay Chou. He played his character well, had depth and timing. By far the best acting in the entire movie.

Seth Rogen was a major disappointment. Almost all of his attempted humor relied on latent homosexual Freudian slips. There were so many of them that one began to wonder if the character was actually a closeted gay. Rogen's character was also totally unlikable. First, he was a total idiot. Second, he was a major chauvinist. His treatment of both Chou's and Diaz's character were atrocious. And the worst part of it is, they apparently thought it was funny.

There was one scene in which Kato and Reid got into a fight. I found myself thinking, "Yeah! Give it to him Kato! Beat the crap out him! Teach him a lesson!" And this character is supposed to be the hero of the movie, the one everyone is rooting for! If the movie had focused more on Kato, it would have been much better.

The action was.... pretty good. Could have been better. The finale, which takes place in the building where the newspaper is run, was absolutely ridiculous. And not in a good way. I actually hung my head in shame for everyone involved in that particular scene.

I suppose the finale struck a nerve that's been bothering me for some time with regards to action scenes. There's no reality left in them anymore! There's no thought of collateral damage, no rational thinking. If you've got a character, based in the real world, shouldn't they be constrained by real world thinking? For example, if someone is trying to escape in a car, would they really make the decision to drive through glass windows and through the lobby of a building? Or put that car on an elevator? Or try to drive said car after the back end was chopped off by the rising elevator?

I love action movies. I do. I love the explosions, the car chases, the gun fights, the fist fights, sword battles, and ninja-ike skills of the heros and villains. But, there is a point when it goes from really awesome (something that's totally crazy but still in the realm of possibility), to just laughably ridiculous (a la The A-Team and The Green Hornet).

What I would love to see is a totally new Green Hornet. One with a main character that isn't such a douchbag. Failing that, it could focus more on Kato. And please, more reality less stupidity in the action sequences.

My recommendation: Skip the theater, maybe rent it or just wait for it to hit the small screen.