Gladiator

The first Best Picture of the new millennium Gladiator was a throwback to the classic sword and sandal movies. And caused some of the most arguments about a movie I have had. The first time I saw the movie I didn't really like it and almost everyone else loved it.


Gladiator is an action/political thriller about a general in the Roman Army Maximus (Russell Crowe) whose many victories has made him a hero to the Emperor. But when the Emperor's son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) kills his own father he orders Maximus and his family killed. Maximus escapes but not in time to save his family. Severely injured in the escape he is picked up as a slave by a group that do not know who he is. At this point he is sold as a gladiator to Proximo (Oliver Reed). He goes on to become a famous gladiator and he goes to Rome to fight in the Gladiator games and seek his revenge on Comodus who is trying to win over the people with the games and weaken the senate. When he finds out that Maximus is alive he has to find a way to kill him without having the people turn on him.


After watching it again it still didn't win me over. For some reason I just can't seem to care about Maximus. I just think Russell Crowe was not very convincing and think his performance was overrated. It seemed to me that a lot of people thought he should have won the previous year for The Insider and since he lost they gave it to him this year. Joaquin Phoenix was just annoying and always whining about not being loved he really didn't come across as a real menacing bad guy. Considering I love action movies this movie should have been one I loved but it did nothing for me and I never understood why it was praised so much. Winning 5 awards including Best Actor, Special Effects, Costumes, and Sound but losing Best Director and Best Screenplay making it one of the few movies to win Best Picture and lose the other two. And maybe that says something that it lost Best Screenplay since I like movies that are well written and the two movies that won Best Screenplay (Traffic for Adapted and Almost Famous or Original) were two of my favorite movies of the year. Maybe since it was after the big 2000 election controversy voters felt the political aspect of the movie was more relatable. 


Traffic was the other big winner with 4 wins for Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay and Best Editing. Stephen Sodeberg was nominated for Best Director for two movies Traffic and Erin Brockovich making him one of only three people to be nominated for Director against himself. Both movies were also nominated for Best Picture and Best Screenplay.


My favorite movie of the year was Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon a foreign language action/love story. No foreign language movie has ever won Best Picture and I was hopping that this would be the first but I guess voters felt that if it won Best Foreign Language Movie it shouldn't win Best Picture. But the visuals and the story were just amazing and breathtaking. It was the first foreign language film that I saw in the theatre and I am glad I did. The biggest snub in my opinion was Almost Famous which did win Best Original Screenplay but should have been nominated for Best Picture and Best Director. It also should have won Best Supporting Actress for Kate Hudson who was amazing in that movie as Penny Lane.

Two Cent Tuesday: Red State

Two Cent Tuesday where I review a movie I recently saw.
This week I got to see Red State on Video on Demand.

Red State is the newest movie by Kevin Smith the writer and director of movies like Clerks, Chasing Amy, and Dogma.  The story about the making of the movie has almost as much drama as the movie itself.  From the start the movie was filled with controversy. Then at the premiere at Sundance the movie had protesters and Kevin Smith decision to self distribute was more of the talk of the festival then the movie himself.  After taking it on tour to different states the movie was finally released on VOD before a limited release in theatres later this month. 

The movie is about an ultra religious cult who decide that they need to do more then just protest gay funerals.  Led by a charismatic preacher Albin Cooper (Michael Parks) who everyone calls father.  When three teenagers go on the internet to find a women to have sex with they get lured into a trap set up by the cult.  After being taken captive they realize that they have to fight for their lives.  They witness someone else that was taken captive executed for being a homosexual then they realize they are next.  Meanwhile the  ATF is called in after a sheriffs deputy is shot.  The head of the unit is Joseph Keenan (John Goodman) who wants to take down the compound peacefully, but gets orders to take it with force so the ATF does not get embarrassed again.  An all out firefight ensues with an ending that is unexpected. 

As my friend told me before I saw it the movie is like Mallrats in Waco.  This is not your typical Kevin Smith movie. Some consider it a horror movie but it was more of an action thriller.  Which was pretty well written and directed for a guy who usually makes really ridiculous comedies.  The movie starts off as a typical Smith comedy about these three teenagers looking to score.  But takes a drastic turn to craziness.  The movie has some big stars including Academy Award winner Melissa Leo, John Goodman, and a small but great role for Kevin Pollak.  A lot of talk was given to Michael Parks for his crazy preacher I think John Goodman stole the movie with his ATF agent who is forced to question his morals and follow a direct order.  And of course the ending is something I never saw coming.  I love it when endings surprise me and love it even more when good endings surprise me. 
Overall: B+

Listomania Sunday: 1999 Movies

 
This past week on my Best Picture Quest I watched American Beauty.  1999 was one of my favorite years especially for movies.  It was also the first year that I actually made a Top 10 list.  I was trying to find the original list but didn’t.  But here is my Top 5 movies from 1999 which I am pretty sure is very close to my original list. 
 
1.  The Matrix-One of the most original movies I have ever seen. Completely blew me away with the stunning visuals and crazy fight scenes.
2.  Fight Club- Violent and gruesome. Also a cool ending that I didn’t see coming.
3.  The Sixth Sense-Talk about endings I didn’t see coming. This movie was a complete surprise.
4.  Boys Don’t Cry-Never heard of Hilary Swank before this movie but it was a great movie made even more stunning by the fact it was based on true events.
5.  American Beauty- Something about this movie really spoke to me.  The dark story and superb acting made it one of the best of 1999 even if my dad hated it.
 
Like I said there were a lot of movies that year that I loved so here are a few others that didn’t quite make the top 5.
10 Things I Hate about You, The Blair Witch Project,  Cruel Intentions, Dogma, The Mummy, and Galaxy Quest. 
 

American Beauty

Well I am a little late posting this one but I have had a lot going on with the birth of my baby and all.

1999 was one of my favorite years. I had a lot going on that year and it was a great year for me, music, and movies. Yet a lot has been said about the nominees for Best Picture of that year. Many people disagreed with the 5 nominees and American Beauty the ultimate winner is considered by some as one of the worst movies to win Best Picture. I on the other hand disagree while American Beauty was not my favorite movie of that year it was in my top 5.   

American Beauty is a complex dark family drama.  Finally getting away from the romantic movies that won the past three years this one shows the decline of a relationship.  It starts with what could be the typical American family but as the tag line says "look closer".  The Burnham family consists of the father Lester (Kevin Spacey), mother Carolyn (Annette Benning) and Daughter Jayne (Thora Birch) who live in a quiet suburban neighborhood.  But as we learn none of them are happy.  Lester tells us in the opening voice over that he will die soon but as a viewer we are left wondering how.  What we do learn is that Lester is unhappy with his life.  Nothing gives him joy anymore.  We watch as he goes through a midlife crisis and tries to recapture the joy of his youth by quiting his nice job to work in a burger joint, smoking weed, buying a fancy car, and working out to impress one of his daughters friends.  Meanwhile Carolyn is putting on a show that everything is perfect and that nothing is wrong.  Trying to project confidence to sell houses the whole time beating herself up on the inside.  She starts having an affair and going to a shooting range to release tension.  Jayne on the other hand is struggling with self image issues and fitting in at school.  She falls in love with the new neighbor boy who has his own family issues but is able to look past the exterior to her inner beauty.  In the end everyone has their own meltdown but can they find the joy they are all looking for. 

I remember having a big discussion with my dad why this movie is so good and deserved to win Best Picture.  He claimed it was boring but I claimed it felt realistic.  I still feel that way.  I only found out recently what the title is referring too. American Beauty is a type of rose who looks beautiful on the outside buy whose roots are rotten.  I think that is a fitting symbol for this movie.  The movie works for me on many levels. There visuals are great, there is the great nuanced performances, and the great script from Alan Ball which touches on a lot of issues in today's society.  To start the performances by every one is amazing.  Kevin Spacey was the only one that won an Oscar for his performance (Annette Benning was nominated but lost to Hilary Swank for her amazing performance in Boys Don't Cry) but all around it was great. Without saying much all the actors are able to communicate what they are feeling and thinking with how they look and act.  Benning performance might have be the most nuanced because even as she is pretending everything is perfect you can see underneath how low she really feels.  The script covers a whole lot of ground and yet still has the down to earth feeling.  Ball manages to deal with depression, self image, the strive to be perfect, and homophobia in a way that just flows and neither one feels overly preachy.  While I can see why some people can be a little creeped out by the Lolita like subplot I still think it works.  I think the overall message in the movie is just to be comfortable with who you are. 

Like I said that year there were a number of great movies that came out and the Oscars were spread over numerous movies.  While American Beauty got 5 win (Picture, Director, Screenplay, Actor, and Cinematography) and just missed sweeping the top five by one  Best Actress.  Out of the other four movies nominated for Best Picture (The Cider House Rules, The Green Mile, The Sixth Sense, and The Insider) only The Cider House Rules won any awards winning for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor.  The other three went winless the rest of the night.  Besides American Beauty the other big winner of the night was The Matrix which swept the four technical awards it was nominated for (editing, sound effects, sound, and visual effects).  Also notable was the Angelina Jolie winning Best Supporting Actress for Girl, Interrupted.

The other big movies of that year that many people thought should have received more nominations include Magnolia, Being John Malkovich, Three Kings, Election, and Man on the Moon.  As far as I am concerned the biggest snub of that year was no nominations for Fight Club. But I am still not sure why the critics all hated on this movie. Every year when Enterainment Weekly comes out with their list of worst movies to win American Beauty always makes the list.  I think it is a great movie and should be the winner. 

According to IMDB Top 250 here are where some of the movies from 1999 stand
Fight Club - 14
The Matrix - 21
American Beauty - 40
The Green Mile - 74
The Sixth Sense - 136
Magnolia - 225

Two Cent Tuesday: Netflix

Update: I write these posts ahead of time and within 12 hours of  finishing this post Netflix came out with some big news.  Basically everything I wrote is still the same but the CEO of Netflix did admit that he did not communicate well and he was arrigant.  Of course the big news was that they are splitting into two companies Qwikster for DVD by mail and Netflix for Movie streaming. Good idea or bad idea what is your opinion?  Check out the CEO's post on the Netflix Blog.

The new Netflix prices has caused a lot of controversy and I recently read an article from theWashington Post Horror Show: Netflix Losing More Customers then Expected about the mass exodus out of Netflix. For those of you that don't know starting on September 1st Netflix increased their price of subscription from about $10/month to $16/month.   After the announcement many people left Netflix and apparently this took Netflix by suprise.  While Netflix was caught off guard by the mass exodus they don't seem to care.  Their reasoning is that with the higher prices even the fewer subscribers they will still the same amount of money.  While this seems like a stupid business model to me I guess it works. 

It appears Netflix says what they did wrong was not rasing the price but not explaining their new price structure better.  Netflix offers two services. DVD by mail and streaming movies to your computer, TV, or IPad.  Under the old pricing structure you paid the $10 for both services but now they are going to charge $8 for each or $16 for both.  Netflix is saying that people are canceling both services because they didn't know they could keep one or the other.  Which everyone I talked to had known and didn't seem confusing to the people I know.  But thats the story they are stiking too. 

The big question is what services are people going to keep if any?  The few people I talked to the concensus seemed to be keep the DVD by mail because that has the larger selection.  But according to Netflix that is no longer going to be their focus.  They want to focus on their streaming product which they see as the way of the future.  This I found surprising since the big complaint I have heard all along was that there are not enough selection on their streaming services which is going to get worse when Starz ends their contract with them the begining of next year.  Most of Netflix newer movies are ones that are available of Starz and with them pulling out they will lose a large part of their selection. 

What Netflix is counting on is their selection TV shows that stream, and they have added many new TV shows to their streaming content.  I guess since I am a movie person and not a TV person the TV content never had much appeal to me.  But what they say is true why wait week to week when you can watch full seasons all at once.  I know many people that watch huge blocks of TV shows that way.  In this respect I see the appeal of the streaming service.  You can watch a whole season fairly quickly. 

So, my question is this: What are people out there doing?  Are you watching more movies or TV on Netflix Streaming? If you had Netflix did you cancel one or both of their services?  If you canceled your services how do you plan on renting movies?

I had a thought of having a forum for Netflix streaming where people can give their suggestions on what to watch since one of the hardest things to do is find the small films on streaming that are worth watching.   But that might not be worth it at this time. 

After the Netflix price increase what did you do?
	Cancel Streaming service
	Cancel DVD by Mail Service
	Canceled Netflix Subscription
	Nothing kept both Services
pollcode.com free polls

Listomania Sunday: Worst Movies I made my wife watch

 
So tomorrow is my wedding anniversary and I thought I would dedicate todays list to my wife.  When we were in college together I had a reputation of picking the worst movies.  So here is the list of the worst movies that I made my wife watch.  This list does not include movies that we saw at Sundance because there were some really bad ones that we saw there. 
 
1.  Buffalo 66 – This movie was so bad I couldn’t even watch it.  I fast forward through some of it because of how boring and mind numbing it was.
2.  Limbo – As I was getting into independent films this was one of the first ones I rented.  It was extremely boring. In fact I am not even sure she watched the whole thing, I think she went and took a shower came back and asked what happened and I had to tell her nothing.  Nothing happened at all.
3.  I Still Know What You Did Last Summer – This was actually the first movie I saw with her before we started dating. We went with a large group of friends.  And the movie was pretty bad. Not sure how we got her to go because she refuses to see horror movies with me now. 
4.  Rules of Attraction-Figured my wife being a big fan of Dawson’s Creek we would check out one of James Van Der Beek’s first post Dawson’s movies.  But I guess being based on a book by the same author as American Psycho I should have known it was going to be weird, but I had no way of knowing it was going to be bad. 
5.  Ravenous – Between Buffalo 66 and Limbo Ravenous completed the string of really bad movies in a row.  What sounded like a cool concept was just really bad.  Not sure if it would have made the list if it wasn’t part of the memorable string of really bad movies. 
 
These are the ones I consider some of the worst ones we have seen.  There are movies that I thought were great that she hated. The most notorious one is Fight Club.  Also, Crash from 2005 she hated but I loved.  I was trying to get her to write her own list but so far have not been able to convince her. 
There are tons of other bad movies I made other people watch (especially my mom, sorry for all the bad ones I made you watch) so if any of you are reading this post what ones you consider bad that I made you watch. 
 

Shakespeare in Love

After watching Shakespeare in Love I know have seen every movie that won best picture. I had seen pieces of this movie before but it was on a red eye flight from Phoenix to Boston. So between falling asleep and it being edited for content and time I didn't see the full movie. In fact after Gwenyth Paltrow won Best Actress some one said she had nude scenes and I was surprised since I it wasn't in the version I saw.  But now I have seen the official version and have now seen every movie that won best picture but my quest isn't over yet, still 12 more movies to see to see all the movies in order. 

Shakespeare in Love is a fictional telling about William Shakespeare's (Joseph Fiennes) writing of Romeo and Juliet.  As a struggling playwright he is paid in advance to write a comedy called Romeo and Ethel the Pirate's Daughter. Having writers block he begins looking for a new muse.  When he meets Viola De Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow) he falls in love and finds his muse.  Viola is a huge fan of plays and disguises herself as a man so she is able to act.  Shakespeare casts her as Romeo in his play.  The problem is that Viola was promised to marry Lord Wessex (Colin Firth).  As Shakespeare continues to write the play he uses the problems they face with their relationship as inspiration for his play.  In the end instead of writing a comedy he writes a tragedy. 

Shakespeare in Love is the last romantic comedy to win Best Picture and the third romantic movie in a row to win Best Picture (after The English Patient and Titanic).  Romantic comedies are not  my favorite type of movies so I did not have high hopes for the movie.  The movie did have it's funny parts and the romance kind of worked.  Overall the movie was not bad.  Joseph Fiennes did a good job although I think his brother Ralph Fiennes is a better actor. And Gwyneth Paltrow was good but not sure she deserved the Best Actress Award.  Also while Judi Dench had some of the funniest parts her 8 minutes of screen time should not have been enough to win Best Supporting Actress.  Actually the funniest people in the movie were Geoffrey Rush and  Ben Affleck who was dating Gwyneth Paltrow at the time. 

The biggest problem I have with Shakespeare in Love was the fact that it beat Saving Private Ryan for Best Picture and Best Screenplay.  This has to be one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history.  No one was expecting a little romantic comedy to beat a action packed war drama.  Saving Private Ryan did win 5 Academy Awards including Best Director for Steven Spielberg which is a little surprising because usually the winner of Best Director wins Best Picture.  The other movie that had surprise wins was Life is Beautiful which won Best Actor for Roberto Benigni beating Tom Hanks for Saving Private Ryan. Benigni also became one of the firs foreign language performers to win an acting award and the second person to direct himself to a Best Actor Award (Laurence Olivier was the first to do it for Hamlet in 1948).  Beningni was also the fourth person to be nominated for Best Actor, Best Director, and Best Screenplay Orson Welles, Woody Allen and Warren Beatty were the other three. Life is Beautiful also upset Saving Private Ryan for Best Score beating favorite John Williams. 

The biggest snub of the year in my opinion was The Big Lebowski did not get any nominations specifically for writing and Jeff Bridges for Best Actor.  Other snubs was Jim Carrey for The Truman Show and even though Edward Norton was nominated for American History X it should have been nominated for Best Picture. 

Random Fact: All the movies nominated for Best Picture this year had two subject matters. Three were about WWII (Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line, and Life if Beautiful) and two were about Elizabethan England (Shakespeare in Love and Elizabeth).  Also the first time that two people were nominated for playing the same person in two different films. Judi Dench played Queen Elizabeth in Shakespeare in Love and Cate Blanchett played Queen Elizabeth in Elizabeth (1997 was the first year that two people were nominated for playing the same person in the same film when Kate Winslet and Gloria Stewart were nominated for playing young Rose and Old Rose). 


       

Two Cent Tuesday: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Two Cent Tuesday where I give my review of a movie I have seen recently

My mom was still in town and this time instead of seeing a Best Picture Oscar contender I dragged her to see Rise of the Planet of the Apes. When I first heard that this movie was coming out I thought great another Planet of the Apes movie and thought it sounded stupid but when I saw the first preview I changed my mind and knew I had to see it. The movie won't be nominated for Best Picture but might get a nomination for special effects.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes or ROTPOTA as I like to call it is a direct sequel to the original Planet of the Apes. Although if you never saw the original this movie is a spoiler to the end. But if you saw the original and ever wondered how the apes conquered Earth this movie explains it. While trying to find a cure for Alzeimers Diesese a scientist (James Franco) test a new drug on some apes. It turns out the drug works too well and not only reverses the diesese but increases cognitive function in normal brain cells. He brings home Ceasar a son of one the chimps the drug was tested on. He shows incredible intelligence a becomes like a pet. When something happens and Ceasar is placed in a ape refuge he is mistreated he organizes an uprising that grows to more then just the refuge and they end up taking over San Francisco. At the same time a deadly virus is released that only affects humans. Leading to what will probably be another sequel.

The movie was pretty good despite being a little slow in the beginning. Of course you are waiting the whole movie for the apes to actually rise up. But once they do it is a treat to watch. The action is amazing and the apes look cool. It is one of the best action movies of the summer. The motion captured actors playing the apes did a great job especially Andy Serkis as Ceasar. I also liked how they tied it in to the original except for the part when the guy says the most classic line from the original "take your hands off me you damned dirty ape" no one can say it like Charlton Heston.
Overall Rating: B+

Titanic

When I first started my Best Picture Quest one of the first things people always said to me was "your going to have to watch Titanic again". Well I finally got up to Titanic. It is the 70th movie to win Best Picture and the movie broke and tied all kinds of records. Not only was it the highest grossing movie of all time but also tied All About Eve with 14 Oscar Nominations and tied Ben-Hur with 11 Oscar wins.  It also was the first time two people were nominated for playing the same character in the same movie when Kate Winslet and Gloria Stewart were nominated for playing young Rose and Old Rose. 

A brief synopsis for the few people who have not actually seen this movie.  Titanic is a love story set aboard the doomed ship.  Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young painter (from Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin) who wins tickets on the ship in a poker game. Having very little money he stays with lower class folks on the lower decks.  Rose (Kate Winslet) comes from a wealthy family and is engaged to a well off business man is on the ship with her fiancee and mother.  Since they have money they get to stay in all the best accommodations on the ship.  Jack and Rose meet one night when Rose contemplates suicide and Jack talks her out of it.  Rose's fiancees gets extremely jealous and Rose's mom does not like Jack because he is lower class.  But despite all that Rose and Jack form a bond and fall in love.  After the ship hits the iceberg and begins to sink Rose and Jack stay together till the end while her fiancee tries to bribe his way on to one of the life boats. 

I remember not liking this movie when it first came out but I was a 19 year old guy and this was more of a chick flick. So, I was curious how I would feel about this movie now.  Well it turns out that I still don't like it, and for some of the same reasons.  Not because it is a chick flick but because I think it is poorly written. The dialogue is pretty bad and some of it is just silly.  I think this is reflected in the fact that out of the 13 nominations it did not receive one for Best Screenplay.  Making it one of the few Best Picture winners that didn't even have a Screenplay nomination.  While writer/director James Cameron can't write love stories his direction of the action sequences during the last hour are pretty exciting. Also, the stars Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio have gone on to become multiple Oscar Nominees and very popular stars so it was interesting to see them in one of their earlier movies (both had one previous nomination before this DiCaprio for Whats Eating Gilbert Grape and Winslet for Sense and Sensibility).  But while Winslet gives a good performance DiCaprio is not very good in this one which is surprising since he has turned out to be a great actor.  But Winslet did get her second nomination while DiCaprio would have to wait a few more years for another nomination (Winslet eventually won Best Actress in 2008 for The Reader while DiCaprio has still not won an Oscar). 

Of course the other big win that year for Titanic was Best Music and Best Song for My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion, which if you were alive that year made you heard thousands of times. The win for Best Song marks the first time that a non-musical winner of Best Picture also won Best Song.  Also, the last time a popular song won.  Lately there has not been any song to win Best Song that has been in heavy rotation on the radio. Not sure the reason for that but the Academy has changed the rules for the nomination of Best Song but still seem odd that a popular song hasn't won. 

Besides Titanic pretty much sweeping the technical awards (Editing, Sound, Art Direction, and Cinematography) there were other winners that year.  My favorite movie of the year and the movie I think should have won Best Picture was Good Will Hunting.  Nominated for 9 awards and winning 2. It's win for Best Screenplay was a bit of a surprise because Ben Affleck and Matt Damon were two relatively unknown actors and this was their first screenplay.  But it was smart and funny something that Titanic didn't have.  It also won Best Supporting Actor for Robin Williams in one of his best performances.  The other big movie that year was As Good As it Gets.  Nominated for 7 awards and winning 2.  The movie had some of the best acting in it with great performances by Jack Nicholson, Helen Hunt, and Greg Kinnear.  All three were nominated and Nicholson and Hunt both won becoming only the seventh time that a movie won for both Best Actor and Best Actress.  The movie was also nominated for Best Screenplay and just missing being nominated for the Top 5 awards by one Best Director nomination which is should have received also.  Today most people will pick L.A. Confidential as the movie that should have won best picture.  A complex crime drama with lots of great acting it was nominated for Best Picture and did win Best Supporting Actress for Kim Bassinger and Best Adapted Screenplay but was one of the least seen movies nominated.  The only other movie nominated for Best Picture that was smaller was The Full Monty which was one of the funniest movies of the year but not necessarily Best Picture material. 

The other interesting fact about this movie is that it is one of the reasons that I have become so obsessed with the Academy Awards. It was 1997 and I couldn't believe that this was the best movie of the year so I made it a point to see all the movies nominated for Best Picture. Making this year the first year I had seen all movies nominated for Best Picture before the awards were announced. Also, I remember watching the box office records fall and it is when I started paying more attention to the box office. So, while I might not have liked the movie a whole lot it is one of those movies that changed my life. 

Two Cent Tuesday: The Help

Two Cent Tuesday where I review a movie I have seen recently.

My mom and I have a tradition to go see a movie every time she comes out and visits. The past couple of times we have seen a movie it has gone on to be nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. So this year when she wanted to go see The Help I thought that might continue our streak because it has been getting some Oscar talk.

Based on the book of the same name The Help is about black maids in the South during the 50’s. When Skeeter (Emma Stone) comes home from college and gets a job at the local newspaper she gets assigned to the cleaning column. Not knowing much about cleaning she starts to ask Aibileen (Viola Davis) the maid at her friend’s house for tips. As Skeeter starts talking to Aibileen she begins to see things differently and realizes how badly the help is treated. As the racial tensions increase and blacks are more and more segregated Skeeter decides to write a book from the perspective of the help. She asks Aibileen to share some of her stories for the book. At first reluctant Aibileen realizes that the book could make more people aware of the situation in the South when it is published. With the help of her friend Minny they begin to compile stories about raising white kids and being forced to use separate bathrooms. To help get the book published they convince more maids to tell their story and they get a large group of maids to tell their stories. After the book is published they are forced to deal with the fall out even though it was published anonymously. Their biggest nemesis and Hilly (Bryce Dallas Howard) wants to get revenge for them writing the book since there is a particular story in there that she knows is about her.

Seems like my mom and I might be continuing our track record as this is a great movie. I love all the acting and wouldn’t be surprised to see a few acting nominations come from it. Emma Stone, Viola Davis, and Bryce Dallas Howard are all amazing. The story itself seems fresh even if the theme is familiar. The movie balances the humor with seriousness very well a balancing act that is often difficult to do. There has been some controversy surrounding the movie. Anytime a white person writes about the lives of a black person it is going to create some controversy but I think the fact that it is creating a dialogue about race relations is a good thing. I also think that the controversy will help people keep talking about it and it will get nominated for Best Picture but the same controversy will keep it from winning.
Overall Rating A

Listomania Sunday: Fall 2011 Movie Edition

It’s Labor Day weekend and it is the official end of the Summer Movie season and Entertainment Weekly already came out with their Fall Movie Preview. It’s time to review and decide the 5 movies I want to see this fall season. The problem I have with Entertainment Weekly’s list is that they include movies coming out from September to December. But, I consider the Fall Movie Season from Labor Day to Thanksgiving. Anything after that I consider the Holiday Movie Season which Entertainment Weekly will have another preview for before Thanksgiving.

So here are the 5 movies I want to see this Fall Movie Season.

1. Contagion- 9/9-a sci-fi horror movie about a deadly virus from Director Steven Soderbegh. Sounds Good.
2. Moneyball -9/23 –A baseball movie written by Aaron Sorkin and based on a true story.
3. 50/50- 9/30- Looks like both a funny and serious movie about cancer. Written by a cancer survivor.
4. Ides of March- 10/7-A political thriller directed by George Clooney. Looks like great intrigue.
5. J. Edgar-11/9-Clint Eastwood has been in a little slump lately but this looks like it will be a great movie.

Contagion

Moneyball

50/50

 
Ides of March

 
J. Edgar

The English Patient

The late 90’s was apparently a very romantic time for the Academy because this is the first of three romantic movies to win in a row. This is also the first movie on my Best Picture Quest that I finally got somebody to watch with me. My mom was in town so I made her watch it with me. I had started it before she came but watched from the beginning after she got here which worked out better since the beginning is a little confusing.

The English Patient is about a man who is badly burned in a plane crash in an African desert during WWII. After being found he is brought to a Canadian Military Hospital where he is taken care of by a nurse Hana (Juliette Binoche). When there caravan drives into a mine field in an Italian town Hana decides since there is no hope for her patient it is best just to let him die in piece and she takes him into a nearby deserted monastery. Claiming he has no memory of who he is or what happened to him he begins to have flashbacks of his life. We learn that he was a map maker on an expedition in Africa. After falling in love with his partners wife begins a secret affair with her. But as Hana is taking care of him she begins to fall in love with a soldier on the bomb squad who is trying to disarm all the mines in the area. Then there is also a mysterious visitor who stays with them and claims he knows her patient from before his accident.

At over 3 hours it is just long, boring and confusing. The confusion comes from all the back and forth between flashbacks and present day. Ralph Fiennes who plays the patient is very good in the flashback scenes(he doesn’t have much to do in the present day scenes except lay in bed with makeup on). The problem is that the flashback scenes are not as interesting as the present day scenes. The story of Hana and Kip and the mysterious David are more compelling that the love story of the flashbacks. To me it was like watching a movie with a split personality one good and one bad. The best things about the flashback scenes were it was beautifully filmed and the scenery was great. The movie ended up winning 9 Academy Awards tying it for third most at the time. Most of the awards it won was technical awards including Cinematography, Art Direction, and Costume Design. Juliette Binoche won Best Supporting Actress and Anthony Minghella won Best Director but it lost Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

Winner of Best Original Screenplay and Best Actress (Frances McDormand) was the movie I think should have won Best Picture Fargo. The Coen Brothers black comedy about a Midwestern kidnapping that goes all wrong is both funny and violent. I was glad it won Best Original Screenplay since it was one of the more original written movies. It is actually one of the reasons why I started paying more attention to the Best Original Screenplay category. It turns out that a lot of the more original movies that don’t fit the usual Academy fare gets nominated (but doesn’t always win) Best Original Screenplay. Other winners that year included Billy Bob Thornton for writing Sling Blade (he lost Best Actor) and Cuba Gooding Jr. in a surprise win for Best Supporting Actor for Jerry Maguire. And one of my favorite movies of 1996 Independence Day won Best Special Effects.