Listomania Sunday: Best Nanny Movies

Well our Nanny starts this week and got me thinking about the Best Movies with a nanny in it.  Here is my list.

1.  Mary Poppins- Nothing else could be on top. Only the coolest nanny imaginable.  Not only does she have a magic bag but she sings too. 

2.  Mrs. Doubtfire- Well if you can’t have a magic bag you might as well have one of the funniest nannies. 

3.  The Hand that Rocks the Cradle-  Well if you are looking for your evil nanny this is the movie for you. Rebecca De Mornay give a chilling performance as a crazy nanny. 

4.  Adventures in Babysitting-While technically not a nanny movie it is one of the best babysitting movies. Although I wouldn’t want her to take my kid on that kind of adventure but when I was a kid it seemed like a lot of fun.

5.  The Pacifier- This also might be pushing what can be considered a nanny movie but for some reason Vin Diesel as a nanny was just fun to watch. 

The biggest debate I had with myself while making this list was about Arthur.  IMDB has the remake of Arthur listed as a Nanny movie but not the original.  Which got me thinking while technically Hobson in the original was a butler and not a nanny he definitely performed a lot of the same duties.  So if you consider Arthur a nanny movie that would definitely be high on the list. The original not the remake which I haven’t seen but looks really bad.    

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Slumdog Millionaire

Looking at the 2008 Best Picture nominations you would guess that there were not many good movies that year.  There was no movies that I absolutely loved out of the five nominated. I think Slumdog Millionaire was the best out of the nominated movies but Milk was also a very good movie. 

Slumdog Millionaire is about a lower class kid Jamal (Dev Patel) from the slums of India who goes on a “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?”  and is doing really well so the authorities think he is cheating.  During the interrogation he explains how he has come to know the answers to some of the questions.  The movie flashes back and forth between the game show, the interrogation, and his past.  His past is filled with violence and after his mother is killed he runs away with his brother Salim where they meet an orphaned girl Latika.  The three become very close and Jamal develops a crush on Latika.  After being taken in by a group of thieves they are forced to beg on the streets for money.  When Jamal and Salim are able to escape Latika doesn’t make it and is forced to stay behind.  As the years pass Jamal doesn’t forget about Latika and when he is older he sets out to find her again.  When they try to rescue her from the gang that has her Salim shoots and kills the boss.  Then Salim joins a rival gang and wants Latika as his own and kicks Jamal out.  After many years of wondering what happened to the both of them Jamal finally seeks out his brother and Latika.  Thinking the only way he can get Latika back is to make money he goes on the game show hopping she is watching. 

Danny Boyle's rapid editing and great storytelling really add the intensity to a movie that is ultimately a love story about a guy on a game show.  What could have been a boring story really was exciting.  What was unexpected was the mount of violence in the movie.  Especially the beginning you think you walked into the wrong movie as they torture Jamal trying to figure out how he is cheating.  What I love about the story is how it shows random things in someone’s life can lead to a wealth of knowledge.  And the kids in the movie really do a good job. Since half the movie is flashbacks they needed to be good so the love story was believable.  This is another movie where the ensemble cast is better than individuals which is one of the reasons this became only the 11^th movie to win Best Picture without having any acting nominations although I think Dev Patel should have been nominated.  The movie won 8 Awards out of its 10 nominations including Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing.  It also won Best Song for Jai Ho a Bollywood dance number at the end of the movie. 

The movie that had the biggest spotlight on it going into the Oscars was The Curious Case of Benjamin Button which had 13 nominations.  My least favorite David Fincher movie (Seven and Fight Club are my favorite), the big budget love story about a guy aging backwards ended up winning only 3 awards.  It was the smallest number of awards won by any movie that had that many nominations. 

The biggest story that year was not about what movies were nominated for Best Picture but the movies that were not nominated.  The biggest outcry came because one of the biggest movies of the year and most well reviewed movie The Dark Knight was left off the Best Picture and Best Director lists.  It did have 8 nominations in mostly technical awards but did win get Best Supporting Actor win for Heath Ledger in his last major role.  The omission of The Dark Knight was mostly viewed as snub against superhero movies but did cause the Academy to change their rules for the following year when they increased the Best Picture nominations to 10 movies.  A movie that got 5 nominations and 4 acting nominations but no Best Picture or Director nominations was Doubt.  The acting in Doubt just blew me away and the story was just captivating.  It was one of Meryl Streep’s best performances and her record 15 acting nomination and I think she should have won.  Going toe to toe with her was Phillip Seymour Hoffman who we never know if he is good or bad and when they are both in the room together you just feel like you are watching something special.  The last movie that very few people saw but everyone that did thinks it did get nominated for Best Picture was Gran Torino.  With great acting by Clint Eastwood and a story that is dark and hard to watch but very good. 

Listomania Sunday: Holiday 2011 Movie Preview

Thanksgiving is this week and this is the time of year when the movie studios release their big budget family movies and their small budget Oscar Contender movies. Here are the ones I want to see.

Young Adult 12/9 - Looking to repeat the Oscar success of Juno Screenwriter Diablo Cody and Director Jason Reitman reteam for this one. About at a divorced women (Charlize Theron) who wants to hook up with her old high school boyfriend who is currently married and has a kid. I loved Juno and can't wait to see if they can duplicate the fun and quirkiness of it. With Charlize Theron in the cast it has lots of potential. Some Oscar buzz generating all ready for Cody, Reitman, Theron, and Patton Oswalt who plays the old high school outcast.

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows 12/16 - With Iron Man and The Avengers it is hard to believe that Robert Downey Jr. has any time left to make another movie. A sequel to the 2009 movie this one has Holmes going up against his archenemy Professor Moriatrty. Directed again by Guy Richie I expect the same kind of fun action movie.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 12/21- The original Swedish version blew me away. It was very dark and violent. Now the American version is coming out and I am always a little skeptical but it is directed by David Fincher who directed Seven, Fight Club, and The Social Network so I have some high hopes. Probably not going to be nominated for any awards and kind of a dark subject matter for the holidays but I am looking forward to it.

We Bought a Zoo 12/23 - A feel good family movie from Cameron Crowe about the true story of a single dad who ends up buying a zoo. Crowe has made some pretty good movies like Almost Famous but has not had a good one in a while. Hoping with Matt Damon he can find his groove.

War Horse 12/25 - It is probably the most anticipated movie of the season. War Horse is Steven Spielberg's newest movie about a horse in WWI. It looks pretty emotional and could very well be his ticket back to Oscar night.

No Country for Old Men

The Best Picture nominations for 2007 were mostly dark and depressing movies. The only comedy nominated was Juno which was about a teenage pregnancy still not a real happy theme. The other movies nominated had to do with ruthless oilmen, lying siblings, and a corporate legal thriller. Then ultimate winner was No Country for Old Men by the Coen Brothers about a stealing and murder.

No Country for Old Men is dark tale about a guy (Josh Brolin) who finds money and drugs from a drug deal gone badly. After stealing the money he is hunted by a paid gunman named Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) who uses and an air gun as his weapon of choice. The sheriff (Tommy Lee Jones) is trying to piece everything together.

I hadn't seen the movie since I saw it in theatres and watching it again I forgot how good this movie really was. I love that the movie keeps you guessing and you're never really sure what will happen next. Javier Bardem won Best Supporting actor for his emotionless killer Chigurh, but it was Tommy Lee Jones' sheriff that I felt was the best acting in the movie. He really grounds the movie in some reality. While everything else is going horribly wrong he is trying to do his job and keep everyone safe. The Coen brothers are known for bizarre but great movies like Fargo and The Big Lebowski. But while this movie is good the ending is really strange. I felt the ending kind of took away from how great the rest of the movie was.

Even though I love The Coen Brothers I actually felt the movie that should have won Best Picture is the equally dark and odd movie There Will Be Blood. With great performances by Daniel Day-Lewis as oil man Daniel Plainview and Paul Dano as Eli Sunday a small time preacher. There is some amazing tension between the two as we see each one manipulate others one using faith and the other using money. There are no good guys in this movie as everyone has selfish motives. This is another movie that has a strange ending but I found it more satisfying than the ending for No Country for Old Men.
The biggest upset for me was that Into the Wild wasn't nominated for more awards. I loved the movie and totally expected it to get lots of nominations. In my opinion it should have been nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Director, Best Score, and Best Song for some of Eddie Vedder most haunting songs. Hal Holbrook did get nominated for Best Supporting Actor but there should have been way more nominations. The two biggest acting snubs in my opinion were for Tommy Lee Jones and Paul Dano being left off the Best Supporting Actor list. Both are amazing in their movies.

IMDB Top 250 rankings of 2007 movies
No Country for Old Men #130
Into the Wild #148
There Will be Blood #159
The Bourne Ultimatum #183
Ratatouille #195

Listomania Sunday: Best Remakes

This past week in my Best Picture Quest I saw The Departed which was a remake of the Japanese movie Infernal Affairs so I decided this weeks list would be the Best Remakes. After spending all of October doing horror movie lists I decided that I will not include any horror movies on this list so that leaves off The Thing (1982), The Fly(1986), and Dawn of the Dead (2004).

1.  The Departed (2006)- A remake of Infernal Affairs a Japanese cop drama.  It is the best remake. It improves on almost every aspect of the original. 
2.  Oceans 11 (2001)  -Although the original wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be the remake had a star studded cast and a much happier ending.    
3.  The Italian Job (2003)- A major upgrade from the original with lots of action and some awesome car chases.
4.  The Magnificent Seven (1960) - Another remake of a Japanese film. This one a remake of The Seven Samurai by Akira Kurosawa. One his best and most love movies seemed blasphemous to remake it into a Western but it worked and shows that a good story works in different settings.
5.  The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956)- The only one that should be allowed to remake a Hitchcock film is Hitchcock.  12 years after The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) he decided to remake it with much more money, talent, and locations.  The addition of James Stewart and Doris where major upgrades but the loss of Peter Lorre as the villain was a downgrade. 

The Departed

Martin Scorcese finally won a Best Picture and Best Director with the gritty, violent, and foul mouthed The Departed based on the Japanese film Infernal Affairs. Having lost Best Director 3 times to  actors (1980 Robert Redford, 1990 Kevin Costner, and 2004 Clint Eastwood) he finally won the rematch between him and Clint Eastwood who was nominated for Letter from Iwo Jima.

The Departed is about two cops on opposite sides of the Irish mob in South Boston.  Headed by the ruthless Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson) the mob is relentlessly hunted down by the police. To get inside information Costello grooms one of his guys (Matt Damon) from an early age to become a state police office.  On the opposite side the cops send one of their agents (Leonardo DiCaprio) undercover as a mob insider.  Each side senses there is a rat in their midst but are unable to figure out who it is. After everyone is double crossed at least once will the truth ever be revealed?

Filled with shoot outs and graphic fight scenes it is one of the edgiest and the most violent films to win Best Picture.  This movie is great for many reasons including the dark twisty tale, the great performances, and intense action.  Plus for me it was cool that it took place in South Boston since I used to work there and heard lots of stories about Whitey Bulger and the Irish mob there.  The use of the Dropkick Murphys song "Shipping up to Boston" was used to maximum effect.  Winning 4 awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing and only one nomination for the acting a Best Supporting Actor nomination for Mark Wahlberg as the foul mouthed agent Dingham.  The biggest question is how did none of the other actors get nominated.  Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon should have been nominated for Best Actor and Jack Nicholson should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor.  All were great performances. 

In my opinion no other movie that year stood a chance to win over this masterpiece and it seemed a forgone conclusion baring any surprise upsets like the previous year.  While Clint Eastwood's Letters from Iwo Jima was considered the closest competition for Best Picture (it would have been the first foreign language movie to win Best Picture if it had won) for me it was Little Miss Sunshine the quirky comedy that was a distant second.  The movie that I thought was grossly overlooked was Children of Men.  Nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay it is a great sci-fi movie that was one of the best movies of the year and should have been nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor for Clive Owen.  The most ridiculous nomination was Borat for Best Screenplay which was mostly ad-libbed. 

The other category that got lots of attention this year was for Best Documentary.  The controversial  Al Gore documentary An Inconvenient Truth won.  The movie was an extended version of his power point presentation on global warming.  I found the movie to be very boring and thought Jesus Camp was a much more compelling documentary.  About a controversial religious summer camp the movie follows the kids and manages to not take sides about what is taught in the camp. 

Listomania Sunday: Best Milwaukee Movies

Well this week was my 10 year anniversary of living in Milwaukee and what better way to celebrate then have a list of the best movies that take place in Milwaukee.  At first I didn't think there would be enough but I found 5.  Here it goes. 

1.  Bridesmaids - Well glad this movie came out this year othewise I am not sure if I would have had 5 movies for this list. The funniest movie of this year and one of the funniest in a long time. 
2.  American Movie - Before I moved out to Milwaukee someone I knew that had lived here told me that I had to watch this movie before moving here. A documentary about one of the craziest Milwaukee Filmakers. 
3.  Dahmer -A movie about Milwaukee's notorius serial killer. Starring two time Academy Award nominee Jeremy Renner.
4.  Dawn of the Dead - Has nothing to do with Milwaukee except that is where they decided to place the fictional mall. 
5.  Mr. 3000 - While the movie may not be that great I got to be in Miller Park as an extra while they were filming it so somewhere I am in the movie clapping away. 

Crash

2005 had one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history and one of the most hated movies by critics to win recently.  For some reason critics hated Crash and it was even a surprise nominee since it had won very few critic awards before the Oscars and wasn’t even nominated for a Golden Globe (only the Sting in 1973 won Best Picture without being nominated for a Golden Globe).

Crash is an ensemble movie about racial issues. It follows a diverse group (a racist cop, a Latino who people stereotype as a gang member, to a middle class white couple who are carjacked by two black guys, and a Muslim who is trying to protect his store) on an average day in Los Angeles. We see how everyone’s actions helps create racial stereotypes and tension as they all cross paths.

I loved this movie despite what all the critics seemed to think about it. There was an amazing and diverse cast. I think Sandra Bullock gave one of her best performances in this movie and she should have got a Best Supporting Actress. One of the few awards it did win before the Oscars was the SAG award for best ensemble cast. I think it was very fitting for this movie since there was not one main actor or actress but each person was a supporting player. While it was not subtle on its agenda (which is why I think a lot of critics did not like it) I found it very thought provoking and touched on some very difficult subjects. It ended up winning only 3 awards (Best Picture, Best Screenplay, and Best Editing) which is one of the lowest for a movie that won Best Picture.

The movie that had the most buzz going into the Oscars that year was Brokeback Mountain about two cowboys that fall in love and have to hide it from everyone. Another movie with some great performances especially by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal . The movie was an unconventional love story and marked the first time a story about homosexuals got such high praise. The movie won almost all the pre-Oscar awards including The Writer’s Guild, Directors Guild, and Producer’s Guild and was the first time that a movie had won all three but lost Best Picture. It did win Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Score. My problem with the movie is not that it is about gay cowboys but that it is a love story. I found the movie very boring and I am just not a fan of real dramatic love stories.

There are many theories on how Crash beat Brokeback Mountain and none of the theories has to do with the fact that Crash is a better movie as I believe it is. Of course the main theory is that a lot of the older members of the Academy are homophobic and wouldn’t vote for a movie about gay lovers. This point has been made over and over and now it seems like anyone that says they didn’t like it means they must be homophobic. Another theory why Crash won was the amount of money that Lionsgate put into promoting the film. The spend $4 million promoting a film that cost $6 million to make. But it was a movie that came out over the summer and very few people saw so they promoted it a lot. My theory on it is this. I think that the largest voting bloc in the Academy are actors and this was a movie that actors loved (as evidence by its win at the SAG Awards). While directors get to vote for Best Director and Screenwriters get to vote for best Screenwriting everyone votes for Best Picture. With the amazing and diverse acting in Crash I think it won over the actors and actresses more than critics or other people. But there is no telling what happened but it was a major upset and a lot of critics are still pissed, but you don’t hear any outrage over Shakespeare in Love beating Saving Private Ryan which I think is more egregious.

While there was a lot of press over these two movies there were actually other movies that came out that year. George Clooney had a big year. He was nominated for producing, directing and writing Good Night, and Good Luck (the last full black and white movie to be nominated for Best Picture) about Edward R. Murrow and for Best Supporting Actor in Syriana. With a total of 4 nominations for two separate movies his only win was for Syriana. Another one of my favorite films of the year was Memoirs of a Geisha which got 6 nominations but none for any major categories it should have at least won for John Williams Score. Walk the Line about the life of Johnny Cash was another good movie with some great performances by Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix both earning nominations and Witherspoon winning for Best Actress.

Other movies that got no love from the Academy was The Chronicles of Narinia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe and The 40 Year Old Virgin (my two favorite movies of the year).

The other big surprise win at the Oscars that year was for Best Song which went to “It’s Hard out there for a Pimp” from Hustle and Flow beating out favorite Dolly Parton for “Travelin’ Thru” From Transamerica.