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).