“WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN” (Tilda Swinton & John C. Reilly)
I can’t decide if this is a poignant, impressive film, or just an exploitive piece of junk. Seriously, I can’t make up my mind – the more I lean toward the junk side, the more disturbing images flash in my mind from the film and I then start leaning toward the impressive angle simply because I can’t get the darn thing out of my head.
“We Need To Talk About Kevin” concerns a mother (Eva K., played by Tilda Swinton)
a father (John C. Reilly as Eva’s husband, Franklin) & their first born – the title character, Kevin. Later, when Kevin is around 9 or 10, his little sister, Celia enters the dysfunctional ‘K’ family.
The film opens with Eva on vacation in India, presumably prior to Kevin’s birth, since she appears to be carefree and happy. The reason for the sight of a large group of people playfully smearing each other with what appears to be salsa is never explained – but by film’s end, I assumed the movie opens with this as being ‘Eva’s last pleasant memory’.
In the next few scenes, the mood becomes darker and Eva doesn’t look so playful anymore. A glass door that opens out onto a patio is shown in darkness with the light coming from outside shining on the white curtains that billow as a breeze blows them inward. And then Eva awakes with a start. She is pale and looks hollow – nothing at all like the woman enjoying her splooshing experience in India.
Eva opens the door to her small house to find it splattered with red paint - her car has had a bucket of red paint splashed across the front of it as well. She waves at a neighbor across the street as he mows his lawn. The man reluctantly waves back. Eva acts as though nothing out of the ordinary has taken place. She gets into her car and goes to a job interview. Eva is shocked and excited when she lands a position for a travel agency. She rewards herself by going out to lunch where she is approached by a woman she obviously knows, but doesn’t want to encounter. The woman calls her a horrible person and slaps her hard in the face. A man comes to Eva’s aid, offering to call the police as a witness to the assault but Eva begs him not to do anything. Eva rushes away wiping the blood from her face. Her joyful moment was fleeting indeed.
A blur of scenes ensue; it’s dark out but there are several people gathered outside a school gymnasium. Police and firemen keep the crowd at bay as they demand to know what has happened. The woman that attacked Eva is seen among the crowd. Eva appears and tells the police, "My son goes to this school." She sees what is on the door to the gym and freezes.
“We Need To Talk About Kevin” does something that I normally hate – It bounces around in time without any reference as to what moment in time we are actually watching. I’m sure it would be easier to decipher the timeline should I watch this film again, but I’d have to be in the right frame of mind to want to take on this disturbing heavy duty drama one more time. The reason for the bouncing around in time becomes apparent about a quarter of the way thru the story – What we’re seeing are Eva’s drug induced/alcohol impaired memories of what led her son to do the horrific thing he does. Eva K. raised a monster. What I believe this movie tries to tell us is that – in Kevin’s particular case – he was BORN a demon, it wasn’t his upbringing. He wasn’t mistreated, except when his mother accidentally breaks his arm by shoving him during one of his extreme brat-attacks. This scene is introduced by Kevin, in prison garb, telling his mother, “It was the only time I got an honest reaction from you.”
Eventually the film starts to make sense, even though it continues to bounce around in time. We discover that when they’re living in the big fancy mansion that Franklin purchased we are in 'pre-whatever it is that Kevin did' era and if they’re in the dilapidated shack with the red paint splattered across it, we are in 'post-whatever it is that Kevin did' time.
Eva and Franklin are a loving couple until the baby comes along.
The problem is Mom can’t stand being around her baby because the child is constantly screaming. She stands on a street corner next to a group of construction workers using jackhammers just so they’ll drown out the sound of Kevin’s bawling.
Franklin comes home and heads for the basinet. “Oh please don’t wake him, “ Eva begs, “I just got him down for his nap.”
Too late – Dad is already cradling the baby in his arms. Kevin doesn’t make a sound, except for the occasional ‘coo’. “See?” Franklin tells his wife, “You just have to rock him & he’s fine.”
As Eva watches television she is jolted by the image of her son glaring into the camera as he says, “You think you’d be watching me on TV right now if all I did was get an ‘A’ in geometry?”
Eva searches her memory again, wondering where she went wrong.
Kevin is now a young tyke about 5 or 6, but still wearing diapers. He is joyless and morose until Daddy comes home and he gives him a hug and a kiss.
As Mom cooks dinner Kevin and Dad play a video game and all Eva can hear is Kevin repeatedly yelling, “Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die Die!” as he presses the buttons on his game player.
There was one moment where mom trumped dad in Kevin’s eyes; She decided to try reading to him at bedtime and selected ‘The Tales Of Robin Hood’. Dad peaks into the bedroom and Kevin tells him to “Go away.” He then crawls into his mother’s lap & says “Keep reading, mommy.”
Eva looks up at Franklin and beams a bright smile as she telepathically tells her husband, “This is the break thru we’ve been waiting for!”
Not to be outdone, dad buys Kevin a plastic bow & arrow set for his birthday. As they play with the plastic suction-cup tipped arrows in the back yard Kevin turns to see his mother peering at them from the kitchen window. He picks up an arrow and shoots it in her direction – the suction cup tip sticking to the glass beside her face.
When Kevin was 9 or 10, his baby sister Celia is created.
With Kevin in his teens & Celia a small tyke, it is obvious that Celia loves her big brother no matter how big of a jerk he is toward her. She brings him a Mountain Dew when he comes home from school & he says, “No, you retard, I want a Root Beer!”
His mother reprimands him for talking to his sister that way, but Kevin just grabs the can of soda from his sister and stalks off.
He belittles the little girl every chance he gets and yet she just keeps on smiling adorably at him. Kevin does something horrible to Celia’s pet and then to Celia herself – though I have to chastise the film for not explaining exactly why Celia is suddenly wearing an eye patch after being left alone with her big brother. Which also begs the question, why would Eva leave her trusting, loving little girl alone with what she knows is a sadistic creep?
It isn’t difficult to figure out why Kevin is in prison, and I won’t reveal what happens at the end, but it sickened me. If the film had ended the way I wanted it to, I’d be hailing it as a masterpiece, but it has one of the worse final scenes of all time and because of that, I’m not sure how much I should regale this film. IT IS MEMORABLE, I’ll grant you that.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Monday, March 19, 2012
WANDERLUST
“WANDERLUST” (Paul Rudd & Jennifer Aniston)
This raunchy R-rated comedy looked to be a comeback for Paul Rudd (from “How Do You Know?”) and a continuation of Jennifer Aniston’s breaking free of generic dumb comedies (from the promise of “Horrible Bosses”) Although it isn’t nearly as bad as “How Do You Know?” it isn’t even in the same galaxy as “Horrible Bosses”. For an R-rated comedy featuring my least favorite reason for an R rating (full frontal male nudity) “Wanderlust” is actually kind of tame; almost like a regular Jennifer Aniston movie, except with ‘F’ bombs and penises. “Wanderlust” even uses that old ploy of showing flubs and out-takes as the end credits roll – which usually means – ‘Sorry, we put forth such a bland effort so here are some out-takes so you’ll leave the theatre with a grin’...
“Wanderlust” has a decent beginning; Paul and Jen are married couple George and Linda. Living in New York and looking to buy an apartment – something they can call their own, instead of adding to someone else’s nest egg by paying rent. George is on the cusp of landing a big promotion at his job and Linda has produced a documentary she’s sure HBO will want to buy, so they invest in a tiny ½ bedroom apartment. George not only doesn’t get his promotion, his boss is arrested and the business goes under and Linda’s documentary on penguins with testicular cancer is deemed too depressing.
A promising opening, but after setting up the plot – where this ‘big city couple’ end up in rural Georgia at a commune called Elysium (or something like that) which changes both of their lives but in opposite directions – “Wanderlust” loses all momentum and turns into a run of the mill fish(es) out of water tale with very few humorous lines.
Part of the blame I felt came from the poorly thought out characters; George’s brother and sister-in-law being the most objectionable. They were totally unbelievable.
The wine making nudist that desires to be an author doesn’t lend much to the story, except his ever present penis, which of course he has to display for that hysterical never-before-seen sight gag of a man waking up to find a dong just inches away from his face. It’s that stooping to Adam Sandler-style comedy that runs “Wanderlust” into the ground.
Malin Ackerman plays virtually the same role she had in the original “Harold & Kumar” movie who wants to make ‘free love’ with George and for some unexplainable reason, George turns into a babbling incoherent a—hole after receiving permission from his wife to go ahead and nail her.
When one of the commune dwellers turns out to be a greedy sell-out, the film lost all credibility as far as I was concerned – It went from being an amusing idea with anticipation of bigger and better laughs to come to something you’ve seen before and didn’t care for the first time around.
And if you heard that Jennifer does a nude scene – it’s another cruel joke – she’s only topless – and because it’s shown as part of a newscast, her chest is pixilated...
I wanted to love “Wanderlust” because most of the comments I read and heard about it were positive, but I only liked it. And it made me wonder why everyone seemed to be raving about it. Is it just because it’s so early in the year everyone’s expectations are low? But then again, “Paul” came out early in 2011 and finished in my Top 10. I hate to think it, but I’m beginning to feel that Paul Rudd’s magical touch of making mediocre material work is wearing off. If his next project doesn’t pan out he’ll have 3 strikes in a row... I didn’t have a problem with the Rudd-Aniston pairing so I wouldn’t mind seeing them try it again with better material – or it could just be that the Rudd’s style of comedic acting is wearing thin on me...
This raunchy R-rated comedy looked to be a comeback for Paul Rudd (from “How Do You Know?”) and a continuation of Jennifer Aniston’s breaking free of generic dumb comedies (from the promise of “Horrible Bosses”) Although it isn’t nearly as bad as “How Do You Know?” it isn’t even in the same galaxy as “Horrible Bosses”. For an R-rated comedy featuring my least favorite reason for an R rating (full frontal male nudity) “Wanderlust” is actually kind of tame; almost like a regular Jennifer Aniston movie, except with ‘F’ bombs and penises. “Wanderlust” even uses that old ploy of showing flubs and out-takes as the end credits roll – which usually means – ‘Sorry, we put forth such a bland effort so here are some out-takes so you’ll leave the theatre with a grin’...
“Wanderlust” has a decent beginning; Paul and Jen are married couple George and Linda. Living in New York and looking to buy an apartment – something they can call their own, instead of adding to someone else’s nest egg by paying rent. George is on the cusp of landing a big promotion at his job and Linda has produced a documentary she’s sure HBO will want to buy, so they invest in a tiny ½ bedroom apartment. George not only doesn’t get his promotion, his boss is arrested and the business goes under and Linda’s documentary on penguins with testicular cancer is deemed too depressing.
A promising opening, but after setting up the plot – where this ‘big city couple’ end up in rural Georgia at a commune called Elysium (or something like that) which changes both of their lives but in opposite directions – “Wanderlust” loses all momentum and turns into a run of the mill fish(es) out of water tale with very few humorous lines.
Part of the blame I felt came from the poorly thought out characters; George’s brother and sister-in-law being the most objectionable. They were totally unbelievable.
The wine making nudist that desires to be an author doesn’t lend much to the story, except his ever present penis, which of course he has to display for that hysterical never-before-seen sight gag of a man waking up to find a dong just inches away from his face. It’s that stooping to Adam Sandler-style comedy that runs “Wanderlust” into the ground.
Malin Ackerman plays virtually the same role she had in the original “Harold & Kumar” movie who wants to make ‘free love’ with George and for some unexplainable reason, George turns into a babbling incoherent a—hole after receiving permission from his wife to go ahead and nail her.
When one of the commune dwellers turns out to be a greedy sell-out, the film lost all credibility as far as I was concerned – It went from being an amusing idea with anticipation of bigger and better laughs to come to something you’ve seen before and didn’t care for the first time around.
And if you heard that Jennifer does a nude scene – it’s another cruel joke – she’s only topless – and because it’s shown as part of a newscast, her chest is pixilated...
I wanted to love “Wanderlust” because most of the comments I read and heard about it were positive, but I only liked it. And it made me wonder why everyone seemed to be raving about it. Is it just because it’s so early in the year everyone’s expectations are low? But then again, “Paul” came out early in 2011 and finished in my Top 10. I hate to think it, but I’m beginning to feel that Paul Rudd’s magical touch of making mediocre material work is wearing off. If his next project doesn’t pan out he’ll have 3 strikes in a row... I didn’t have a problem with the Rudd-Aniston pairing so I wouldn’t mind seeing them try it again with better material – or it could just be that the Rudd’s style of comedic acting is wearing thin on me...
MAN ON A LEDGE
“MAN ON A LEDGE” (Sam Worthington & Elizabeth Banks)
I liked this movie. I think the reason I liked it was due to the fact that it was a ‘crime caper’ without any car chase scenes & a minimal amount of weapons fired (Until the final scenes)
Was it far fetched? Sure, what crime caper movie isn’t? Did it get a little mundane with the ‘phew, that was a close call’ moments – Of course it did. But I liked the fact that the bulk of the movie concerned Sam Worthington’s Nick Cassady standing on the ledge outside of the hotel room he checked into as Joe Walker and his conversations with detective Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) as she tried to talk him off the ledge and he used her to stall for time while his accomplices robbed a safe in a building across the street.
Nick is an ex-cop who claims he was set up by billionaire David Englander (Ed Harris) by making Nick the fall guy for the theft of the Monarch Diamond. Nick’s defense was that Englander stole his own jewel but no one on the jury saw any sense in that. Harris, who normally plays a terrific bad guy seemed rather bland to me in this role – he actually showed more life playing bland John McCain than he did as a despicable billionaire.
When Nick’s father dies he is allowed, under armed guards to attend the funeral. During a heated skirmish with his younger brother, Nick escapes and sets his ‘man on a ledge’ diversion into action.
Ed Burns, one of the purveyors of bland acting to the point where he might as well use the same name for every character he plays since they all seem to act alike, is Jack Dougherty – the detective that is first called to the scene. Nick tells Jack the only person he’ll talk to is Lydia Mercer. Mercer, infamous for not talking down a depressed cop enters the film by crawling out of bed to answer the phone. It is one of the hottest non-nude scenes I’ve seen in a long time as Elizabeth looks smokin’ hot in just a wife-beater tee shirt and shorts.
Anthony Mackie plays Nick’s ex-partner Mike Ackerman and his uneasy facial expressions tell you that he’s hiding something, but yet he seems to care about what happens to Nick.
Add Kyra Sedwick as a bothersome news reporter and “Man on a Ledge” has a nice, easy to follow group of characters – It doesn’t get bogged down with too many exponential characters that only exist to complicate matters for the viewer.
Still, calling this plot ‘simple’ would be a misnomer; what goes on in the building across the street is where all of the ‘phew, that was close!’ scenes occur.
I wouldn’t discount anyone for disliking this film because of how easily Nick’s accomplices get inside a heavily guarded building and blow things up inside it without being detected. Plus, there’s only two people carrying out this elaborate scheme which makes it all the more unbelievable.
The surprise twist of revealing a supporting character’s true identity at the end wasn’t way off the wall like most surprise twists – this one made me smirk instead of roll my eyes... So there were some clever moments and some dopey moments, but over-all I liked the film because of the interplay between Worthington and Banks.
I liked this movie. I think the reason I liked it was due to the fact that it was a ‘crime caper’ without any car chase scenes & a minimal amount of weapons fired (Until the final scenes)
Was it far fetched? Sure, what crime caper movie isn’t? Did it get a little mundane with the ‘phew, that was a close call’ moments – Of course it did. But I liked the fact that the bulk of the movie concerned Sam Worthington’s Nick Cassady standing on the ledge outside of the hotel room he checked into as Joe Walker and his conversations with detective Lydia Mercer (Elizabeth Banks) as she tried to talk him off the ledge and he used her to stall for time while his accomplices robbed a safe in a building across the street.
Nick is an ex-cop who claims he was set up by billionaire David Englander (Ed Harris) by making Nick the fall guy for the theft of the Monarch Diamond. Nick’s defense was that Englander stole his own jewel but no one on the jury saw any sense in that. Harris, who normally plays a terrific bad guy seemed rather bland to me in this role – he actually showed more life playing bland John McCain than he did as a despicable billionaire.
When Nick’s father dies he is allowed, under armed guards to attend the funeral. During a heated skirmish with his younger brother, Nick escapes and sets his ‘man on a ledge’ diversion into action.
Ed Burns, one of the purveyors of bland acting to the point where he might as well use the same name for every character he plays since they all seem to act alike, is Jack Dougherty – the detective that is first called to the scene. Nick tells Jack the only person he’ll talk to is Lydia Mercer. Mercer, infamous for not talking down a depressed cop enters the film by crawling out of bed to answer the phone. It is one of the hottest non-nude scenes I’ve seen in a long time as Elizabeth looks smokin’ hot in just a wife-beater tee shirt and shorts.
Anthony Mackie plays Nick’s ex-partner Mike Ackerman and his uneasy facial expressions tell you that he’s hiding something, but yet he seems to care about what happens to Nick.
Add Kyra Sedwick as a bothersome news reporter and “Man on a Ledge” has a nice, easy to follow group of characters – It doesn’t get bogged down with too many exponential characters that only exist to complicate matters for the viewer.
Still, calling this plot ‘simple’ would be a misnomer; what goes on in the building across the street is where all of the ‘phew, that was close!’ scenes occur.
I wouldn’t discount anyone for disliking this film because of how easily Nick’s accomplices get inside a heavily guarded building and blow things up inside it without being detected. Plus, there’s only two people carrying out this elaborate scheme which makes it all the more unbelievable.
The surprise twist of revealing a supporting character’s true identity at the end wasn’t way off the wall like most surprise twists – this one made me smirk instead of roll my eyes... So there were some clever moments and some dopey moments, but over-all I liked the film because of the interplay between Worthington and Banks.
CONTRABAND
“CONTRABAND” (Mark Wahlberg, Ben Foster, Kate Beckinsale & Giovanni Ribisi)
This is one of those early in the year hits that doesn’t have any reason to be a hit. I seriously doubt that most of the people that paid full price to see this did so for the same reason I shelled out $6 (total) for me and my wife to check it out – the supporting cast; I knew Foster and Ribisi were included, but an added surprise was J.K. Simmons, who turned out to be the best part of the movie... something he’s been lauded for many times in my reviews.
A plotline that stretches the boundaries of realism to begin with goes overboard with multiple complications that make the entire film impossible to take seriously.
Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, an ex-criminal gone legit by starting a successful home security business. He has a pretty wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale) who has a low-life younger brother, Andy, that gets caught smuggling drugs and has to throw a duffel bag full of cocaine overboard to prevent going to prison. The man he was working for, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) doesn’t have much sympathy for Andy and tells him he’s responsible for paying back what he threw off the ship.
Chris pays Briggs a visit to try and work out a deal, but Briggs is nonplused – He tells Farraday that if his skanky brother-in-law fails and he has to kill him that Chris then inherits the kid’s debt and if he doesn’t come through then he’ll go after his wife and kids and, well, that’s when Chris lets Briggs know that threatening his family wasn’t a very bright thing to do. Chris does agree to help Andy raise the money to repay what he lost by going back into the dirty business of smuggling, but this time the bounty is going to be counterfeit currency and a deal is struck with an old contact in Panama or Paraguay or somewhere south of the border.
Ben Foster plays Sebastian, Chris’s best friend and ex-partner in crime. While Chris sets sail to make the counterfeit score, Sebastian’s job is to watch over Kate and the couples’ two young sons.
J.K. Simmons shines as the stoic captain of the ship that’s carrying Chris and his crew to their destination. He’s aware of Chris’s sullied past and so he keeps a watchful eye on the ex-criminal. Making what Chris and Co. pull off even more far-fetched.
Everything that can go wrong goes wrong in a barrage of bullets and car crashes.
In a plan that left no room for error, there are errors galore and still the plan comes off without a hitch... Well, there are hitches aplenty as well but they kind of work themselves out without that bothersome plot getting in the way. Every move Chris and his boys make works in their favor and ALWAYS just in the nick of time. Whew! That was a close one, I wonder what would have happened if the scriptwriter added a little logic into the scenario.
There are a few plot twists as well but almost all are as predictable as a two horse race where one of the horses scratches. The one that really threw me for a loop was when Briggs and his two henchmen – loaded with automatic weapons and proving time and time again that they are not opposed to discharging them – simply give up when the cops surround the house where they’re enjoying the fruits of their labours. Sorry for the ‘spoiler’, but I’m sure those of you who’ve already seen this epic were shaking your heads at the same I was.
I always wonder – when dozens of characters die in such a short span of time in a movie like this – How did these airheads ever survive long enough to make it into the film? Were they smart criminals before the screenplay came along – or did the screenplay just cause them all to have massive brain farts and suddenly decide that firing their machine guns at the police while standing out in the open was a good idea?
This is one of those early in the year hits that doesn’t have any reason to be a hit. I seriously doubt that most of the people that paid full price to see this did so for the same reason I shelled out $6 (total) for me and my wife to check it out – the supporting cast; I knew Foster and Ribisi were included, but an added surprise was J.K. Simmons, who turned out to be the best part of the movie... something he’s been lauded for many times in my reviews.
A plotline that stretches the boundaries of realism to begin with goes overboard with multiple complications that make the entire film impossible to take seriously.
Mark Wahlberg plays Chris Farraday, an ex-criminal gone legit by starting a successful home security business. He has a pretty wife, Kate (Kate Beckinsale) who has a low-life younger brother, Andy, that gets caught smuggling drugs and has to throw a duffel bag full of cocaine overboard to prevent going to prison. The man he was working for, Tim Briggs (Giovanni Ribisi) doesn’t have much sympathy for Andy and tells him he’s responsible for paying back what he threw off the ship.
Chris pays Briggs a visit to try and work out a deal, but Briggs is nonplused – He tells Farraday that if his skanky brother-in-law fails and he has to kill him that Chris then inherits the kid’s debt and if he doesn’t come through then he’ll go after his wife and kids and, well, that’s when Chris lets Briggs know that threatening his family wasn’t a very bright thing to do. Chris does agree to help Andy raise the money to repay what he lost by going back into the dirty business of smuggling, but this time the bounty is going to be counterfeit currency and a deal is struck with an old contact in Panama or Paraguay or somewhere south of the border.
Ben Foster plays Sebastian, Chris’s best friend and ex-partner in crime. While Chris sets sail to make the counterfeit score, Sebastian’s job is to watch over Kate and the couples’ two young sons.
J.K. Simmons shines as the stoic captain of the ship that’s carrying Chris and his crew to their destination. He’s aware of Chris’s sullied past and so he keeps a watchful eye on the ex-criminal. Making what Chris and Co. pull off even more far-fetched.
Everything that can go wrong goes wrong in a barrage of bullets and car crashes.
In a plan that left no room for error, there are errors galore and still the plan comes off without a hitch... Well, there are hitches aplenty as well but they kind of work themselves out without that bothersome plot getting in the way. Every move Chris and his boys make works in their favor and ALWAYS just in the nick of time. Whew! That was a close one, I wonder what would have happened if the scriptwriter added a little logic into the scenario.
There are a few plot twists as well but almost all are as predictable as a two horse race where one of the horses scratches. The one that really threw me for a loop was when Briggs and his two henchmen – loaded with automatic weapons and proving time and time again that they are not opposed to discharging them – simply give up when the cops surround the house where they’re enjoying the fruits of their labours. Sorry for the ‘spoiler’, but I’m sure those of you who’ve already seen this epic were shaking your heads at the same I was.
I always wonder – when dozens of characters die in such a short span of time in a movie like this – How did these airheads ever survive long enough to make it into the film? Were they smart criminals before the screenplay came along – or did the screenplay just cause them all to have massive brain farts and suddenly decide that firing their machine guns at the police while standing out in the open was a good idea?
Wednesday, February 22, 2012
MY OSCAR PICKS & PREDICTIONS
MY 2011 . . . IF I PICKED THE OSCARS LIST...
BEST PICTURE (At least 5 & up to 10, if deserving of nomination)
I’ve got 5 because there were only 3 I thought deserving...
The BEAVER
The DEBT *
50 / 50
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
WAR HORSE
Apes & Beaver barely beat out- Horrible Bosses, Paul & We Bought A Zoo!
BEST ACTOR
DANIEL CRAIG (Dragon Tattoo)
MEL GIBSON (as The Beaver)
BRENDAN GLEESON (The Guard)
RYAN GOSLING** (Ides Of March)
JOSEPH-GORDON LEVITT** (50/50)
ACTRESS
VIOLA DAVIS (Help!)
ROONEY MARA (Dragon Tattoo)
HELEN MIRREN** (Debt)
EMMA STONE (Help!)
MERYL STREEP (Iron Lady)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
KENNETH BRANAGH (My Week With Marilyn)
JESPER CHRISTENSON** (The Debt)
GIOVANNI RIBISI (The Rum Diary)
ANDY SERKIS (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
SAM WORTHINGTON (The Debt)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
JENNIFER ANISTON (Horrible Bosses)
JESSICA CHASTAIN** (The Help! & The Debt)
ELLE FANNING (Super 8)
NAOMI WATTS (J. Edgar)
SHAILENE WOODLEY (The Descendants)
Keeping in mind I have not seen ‘Tree Of Life’, ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ or ‘Beginners’ I would have liked to but they never came to the South End.
OF THE ACTUAL NOMINEES...
Of the 9 Best Pictures, I’ve seen 6; loved 1, really liked 1, liked, but was disappointed by 1 was less-than-thrilled by 1, was annoyed by 1 & hated 1.
The only one I know I’ll never see is the so-called favorite, “The Artist” – This, & “Hugo” are the type of movies Hollywood likes to embrace because they’re about making movies when movies were sh--ty.
I’m hoping ‘Tree Of Life’ comes on HBO before the Oscars so I’ll know if it’s as bad as Sean Penn claims, or a masterpiece, as the snooty critics call it.
I have little desire to see ‘Midnight In Paris’ but will if it comes to HBO.
Why ‘The Debt’ & ‘50/50’ were not nominated baffles me about as much as ‘Moneyball’
& ‘Extremely Loud’ getting in instead.
‘The Help’ & ‘Descendants’ are good flicks, I have no problem with them being here.
Surprised that ‘Girl With Dragon Tattoo’ didn’t get a nod.
Glad that ‘Bridesmaids’ didn’t – if a pure comedy were to make it, ‘Horrible Bosses’ or
‘Paul’ should have been the choices.
My pick among the nominees; ‘War Horse’ is clearly the best.
MY PREDICTION, however, is ‘The ARTIST’
ACTOR; Saw 3 & have mixed feelings – I like Clooney but he was so MUCH BETTER in Michael Clayton that it seems a shame that he’s favored to win for ‘Descendants’. In fact, I would have preferred he get a Supporting nod for ‘Ides OfMarch’...
& Gary Oldman has NEVER been nominated??? But they give him one for what has to be his dullest performance ever? I guess I’m glad he’s in it because he’s long
deserved to have ‘Academy Award nominee’ next to his credits, but I can’t root for such a boring film... & Brad Pitt... REALLY? I’ve been warming up to him lately – ‘Benjamin Button’ was a deserved nomination & I liked him in ‘Burn After Reading’, &, of course, my favorite of his, ‘Seven’, but ‘Moneyball’ is a bottom 10 piece of yawn inducing junk. The only thing that would be more mystifying is if they nominated Jonah Hill for his extremely bland supporting role...
I don’t plan on ever seeing the other 2 nominees, ‘A Better Life’ or ‘The Artist’.
Me? I don’t have a strong choice here – any one of my 5 choices (none of which were nominated) would be deserving in my eyes. Heck, of my next 5 choices, only George Clooney is among the actual nominees (For the record they are; Clooney, Matt Damon (Zoo) Johnny Depp (Rum) Leonardo DiCaprio (J.Edgar) & Jake Gyllenhaal (Source Code)
My choice would be to call it a tie between Ryan Gosling & Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
My PREDICTION is The French guy that doesn’t say anything in ‘The Artist’
ACTRESS; I haven’t seen ‘Albert Nobbs’, don’t plan to – it just looks creepy. Surprisingly, I have no qualms with any of the nominees (3 of the 5 made my list)
The only reason Michelle Williams didn’t is because I saw Michelle, not Marilyn; though as I said, she had the mannerisms & voice down pat, so I’m okay with her getting a nod.
& honestly, Rooney Mara made my list only because my other selection was Jodie Foster for ‘The Beaver’ and I felt that she wasn’t in the film enough to warrant a Best Actress selection.
My selection here is Helen Mirren for ‘The Debt’.
MY PREDICTION is Viola Davis – but Meryl Streep wouldn’t be a shock.
SUPPORTING ACTORS; I wished I’d seen ‘Beginners’. Since I did not, my selection is Jesper Christenson (The Nazi doctor in ‘The Debt’) with a runner-up nod to Andy Serkis (Rise of Planet of the Apes) Neither of them were nominated.
MY PREDICTION one one Sure bet is Christopher Plummer for ‘Beginners’ – a revered 82 year old actor that’s only had one nomination? (also for Supporting) Add that he was pretty good in ‘Dragon Tattoo’ this year & he’s a shoe-in.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS; This category is almost always a farce because there never are 5 deserving performances. This year I at least found 5 performances that I liked, but
would I have called them Oscar caliber? Elle Fanning impressed me as a CHILD actress in ‘Super 8’, but I don’t normally recognize child actors because they are children. I also gave credit to Shailene Woodley for being the most impressive actress in ‘The Descendants’ & Jennifer Aniston for finally playing someone other than Rachel Green in ‘Horrible Bosses’. So that leaves the under appreciated Naomi Watts (‘J. Edgar’) & the busiest little actress of 2011, Jessica Chastain (they say ‘The Help’, but I’m adding ‘The Debt’ to the mix because she was superb in both) so Jessica is my pick.
MY PREDICTION is OCTAVIA SPENCER (Help!) I loved how she sang ‘Ticket To Ride’ while skiing down the Alps...
DIRECTOR; I’m going with non-nominated Steven Speilberg (“War Horse”) which is funny because I’m not a big fan of his – well, he’s made some good films but he’s also made a lot of crap that for some unreasonable reason became massively popular.
MY PREDICTION ... this is a tough one – will they heap the majority of awards upon a black & white silent film, or give some love to the ‘other’ film about crappy movies, “Hugo”? Martin winning his first recently might throw some votes in another direction...
All right, I’ll say they continue the lovefest for ‘The Artist’ & say Michael Hazanavicius.
NOTABLE SNUB; ‘J. Edgar’ NOT nominated for MAKE-UP? Sure Armie Hammer’s was crap, but Leonardo’s & Naomi’s were perfect!
BIGGEST MISTAKE; ‘The Debt’ not being nominated for Best Picture.
BIGGEST JOKE; A silent movie, ‘The Artist’ being nominated for BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY . . . & Hollywood wants us to take them seriously???
BEST PICTURE (At least 5 & up to 10, if deserving of nomination)
I’ve got 5 because there were only 3 I thought deserving...
The BEAVER
The DEBT *
50 / 50
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
WAR HORSE
Apes & Beaver barely beat out- Horrible Bosses, Paul & We Bought A Zoo!
BEST ACTOR
DANIEL CRAIG (Dragon Tattoo)
MEL GIBSON (as The Beaver)
BRENDAN GLEESON (The Guard)
RYAN GOSLING** (Ides Of March)
JOSEPH-GORDON LEVITT** (50/50)
ACTRESS
VIOLA DAVIS (Help!)
ROONEY MARA (Dragon Tattoo)
HELEN MIRREN** (Debt)
EMMA STONE (Help!)
MERYL STREEP (Iron Lady)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
KENNETH BRANAGH (My Week With Marilyn)
JESPER CHRISTENSON** (The Debt)
GIOVANNI RIBISI (The Rum Diary)
ANDY SERKIS (Rise of the Planet of the Apes)
SAM WORTHINGTON (The Debt)
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
JENNIFER ANISTON (Horrible Bosses)
JESSICA CHASTAIN** (The Help! & The Debt)
ELLE FANNING (Super 8)
NAOMI WATTS (J. Edgar)
SHAILENE WOODLEY (The Descendants)
Keeping in mind I have not seen ‘Tree Of Life’, ‘Martha Marcy May Marlene’ or ‘Beginners’ I would have liked to but they never came to the South End.
OF THE ACTUAL NOMINEES...
Of the 9 Best Pictures, I’ve seen 6; loved 1, really liked 1, liked, but was disappointed by 1 was less-than-thrilled by 1, was annoyed by 1 & hated 1.
The only one I know I’ll never see is the so-called favorite, “The Artist” – This, & “Hugo” are the type of movies Hollywood likes to embrace because they’re about making movies when movies were sh--ty.
I’m hoping ‘Tree Of Life’ comes on HBO before the Oscars so I’ll know if it’s as bad as Sean Penn claims, or a masterpiece, as the snooty critics call it.
I have little desire to see ‘Midnight In Paris’ but will if it comes to HBO.
Why ‘The Debt’ & ‘50/50’ were not nominated baffles me about as much as ‘Moneyball’
& ‘Extremely Loud’ getting in instead.
‘The Help’ & ‘Descendants’ are good flicks, I have no problem with them being here.
Surprised that ‘Girl With Dragon Tattoo’ didn’t get a nod.
Glad that ‘Bridesmaids’ didn’t – if a pure comedy were to make it, ‘Horrible Bosses’ or
‘Paul’ should have been the choices.
My pick among the nominees; ‘War Horse’ is clearly the best.
MY PREDICTION, however, is ‘The ARTIST’
ACTOR; Saw 3 & have mixed feelings – I like Clooney but he was so MUCH BETTER in Michael Clayton that it seems a shame that he’s favored to win for ‘Descendants’. In fact, I would have preferred he get a Supporting nod for ‘Ides OfMarch’...
& Gary Oldman has NEVER been nominated??? But they give him one for what has to be his dullest performance ever? I guess I’m glad he’s in it because he’s long
deserved to have ‘Academy Award nominee’ next to his credits, but I can’t root for such a boring film... & Brad Pitt... REALLY? I’ve been warming up to him lately – ‘Benjamin Button’ was a deserved nomination & I liked him in ‘Burn After Reading’, &, of course, my favorite of his, ‘Seven’, but ‘Moneyball’ is a bottom 10 piece of yawn inducing junk. The only thing that would be more mystifying is if they nominated Jonah Hill for his extremely bland supporting role...
I don’t plan on ever seeing the other 2 nominees, ‘A Better Life’ or ‘The Artist’.
Me? I don’t have a strong choice here – any one of my 5 choices (none of which were nominated) would be deserving in my eyes. Heck, of my next 5 choices, only George Clooney is among the actual nominees (For the record they are; Clooney, Matt Damon (Zoo) Johnny Depp (Rum) Leonardo DiCaprio (J.Edgar) & Jake Gyllenhaal (Source Code)
My choice would be to call it a tie between Ryan Gosling & Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
My PREDICTION is The French guy that doesn’t say anything in ‘The Artist’
ACTRESS; I haven’t seen ‘Albert Nobbs’, don’t plan to – it just looks creepy. Surprisingly, I have no qualms with any of the nominees (3 of the 5 made my list)
The only reason Michelle Williams didn’t is because I saw Michelle, not Marilyn; though as I said, she had the mannerisms & voice down pat, so I’m okay with her getting a nod.
& honestly, Rooney Mara made my list only because my other selection was Jodie Foster for ‘The Beaver’ and I felt that she wasn’t in the film enough to warrant a Best Actress selection.
My selection here is Helen Mirren for ‘The Debt’.
MY PREDICTION is Viola Davis – but Meryl Streep wouldn’t be a shock.
SUPPORTING ACTORS; I wished I’d seen ‘Beginners’. Since I did not, my selection is Jesper Christenson (The Nazi doctor in ‘The Debt’) with a runner-up nod to Andy Serkis (Rise of Planet of the Apes) Neither of them were nominated.
MY PREDICTION one one Sure bet is Christopher Plummer for ‘Beginners’ – a revered 82 year old actor that’s only had one nomination? (also for Supporting) Add that he was pretty good in ‘Dragon Tattoo’ this year & he’s a shoe-in.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS; This category is almost always a farce because there never are 5 deserving performances. This year I at least found 5 performances that I liked, but
would I have called them Oscar caliber? Elle Fanning impressed me as a CHILD actress in ‘Super 8’, but I don’t normally recognize child actors because they are children. I also gave credit to Shailene Woodley for being the most impressive actress in ‘The Descendants’ & Jennifer Aniston for finally playing someone other than Rachel Green in ‘Horrible Bosses’. So that leaves the under appreciated Naomi Watts (‘J. Edgar’) & the busiest little actress of 2011, Jessica Chastain (they say ‘The Help’, but I’m adding ‘The Debt’ to the mix because she was superb in both) so Jessica is my pick.
MY PREDICTION is OCTAVIA SPENCER (Help!) I loved how she sang ‘Ticket To Ride’ while skiing down the Alps...
DIRECTOR; I’m going with non-nominated Steven Speilberg (“War Horse”) which is funny because I’m not a big fan of his – well, he’s made some good films but he’s also made a lot of crap that for some unreasonable reason became massively popular.
MY PREDICTION ... this is a tough one – will they heap the majority of awards upon a black & white silent film, or give some love to the ‘other’ film about crappy movies, “Hugo”? Martin winning his first recently might throw some votes in another direction...
All right, I’ll say they continue the lovefest for ‘The Artist’ & say Michael Hazanavicius.
NOTABLE SNUB; ‘J. Edgar’ NOT nominated for MAKE-UP? Sure Armie Hammer’s was crap, but Leonardo’s & Naomi’s were perfect!
BIGGEST MISTAKE; ‘The Debt’ not being nominated for Best Picture.
BIGGEST JOKE; A silent movie, ‘The Artist’ being nominated for BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY . . . & Hollywood wants us to take them seriously???
SAFE HOUSE
“SAFE HOUSE” (Denzel Washington & Ryan Reynolds)
This was disappointing. I expected a more intelligent thriller. I don’t really care what a film is rated; R, PG-13 or whatever, because I now realize that all I need to know is – How many car chases are there and how many weapons are fired (Total # of bullets fired will suffice) In ‘Safe House’ the answers are too many and too many. With Denzel in the cast, I was hoping to see something much more intriguing and much less ‘Vin Diesel-ish’.
They had a pretty good premise; Matt Weston (Reynolds) works for the CIA, but he doesn’t have a glamorous job. He basically baby-sits a facility in Cape Town, South Africa where nothing ever happens. He constantly begs his superior (Brendan Gleeson) to get him into the real world of being an agent.
Denzel plays Tobin Frost; a rogue agent that’s wanted for selling information to the highest bidder. When Tobin gets his hands on some incriminating data, he is immediately set upon by a gang of thugs with automatic weapons that don’t seem to care how many people they have to gun down as long as one of them is Frost. Tobin’s only escape route seems to be to turn himself in and is whisked to Matt’s safe house. When the facility is compromised by the thugs and the men that brought Frost in are gunned down one by one, Tobin tells Matt, “They want me alive, but you?They’ll kill.”
We later learn that's a lie because the number of bullets the thugs fire at Tobin runs well into the hundreds of thousands.
The story then becomes an hour long chase scene as Matt & Frost attempt to elude the thugs in one reckless car chase scene after another – with hundreds of thousands of bullets being fired from the windows of speeding cars and into Cape Town neighborhoods. I had to laugh out loud when at one point the thugs come to a screeching halt and stop firing their weapons at the sight of a singular police squad car.
Vera Farmiga virtually copies the same role she had in the much more interesting “Source Code” as she plays a CIA agent that stands in a control room, takes phone calls from CIA head Sam Shepherd and argues with Brendan Gleeson.
The one thing ‘Safe House’ offers that most shoot ’em up’s don’t – most of the characters actually get shot during the 14,872,693 bullets that are fired.
This was disappointing. I expected a more intelligent thriller. I don’t really care what a film is rated; R, PG-13 or whatever, because I now realize that all I need to know is – How many car chases are there and how many weapons are fired (Total # of bullets fired will suffice) In ‘Safe House’ the answers are too many and too many. With Denzel in the cast, I was hoping to see something much more intriguing and much less ‘Vin Diesel-ish’.
They had a pretty good premise; Matt Weston (Reynolds) works for the CIA, but he doesn’t have a glamorous job. He basically baby-sits a facility in Cape Town, South Africa where nothing ever happens. He constantly begs his superior (Brendan Gleeson) to get him into the real world of being an agent.
Denzel plays Tobin Frost; a rogue agent that’s wanted for selling information to the highest bidder. When Tobin gets his hands on some incriminating data, he is immediately set upon by a gang of thugs with automatic weapons that don’t seem to care how many people they have to gun down as long as one of them is Frost. Tobin’s only escape route seems to be to turn himself in and is whisked to Matt’s safe house. When the facility is compromised by the thugs and the men that brought Frost in are gunned down one by one, Tobin tells Matt, “They want me alive, but you?They’ll kill.”
We later learn that's a lie because the number of bullets the thugs fire at Tobin runs well into the hundreds of thousands.
The story then becomes an hour long chase scene as Matt & Frost attempt to elude the thugs in one reckless car chase scene after another – with hundreds of thousands of bullets being fired from the windows of speeding cars and into Cape Town neighborhoods. I had to laugh out loud when at one point the thugs come to a screeching halt and stop firing their weapons at the sight of a singular police squad car.
Vera Farmiga virtually copies the same role she had in the much more interesting “Source Code” as she plays a CIA agent that stands in a control room, takes phone calls from CIA head Sam Shepherd and argues with Brendan Gleeson.
The one thing ‘Safe House’ offers that most shoot ’em up’s don’t – most of the characters actually get shot during the 14,872,693 bullets that are fired.
The VOW
“The VOW” (Rachel McAdams & Channing Tatum... or is it Tatum Channing?)
Every year I VOW to have more tolerance for chick flicks my wife wants to see and every year I break that vow in January or February...
There were two reasons I didn’t get up and let my spouse watch the second half of this pseudo-tearjerker alone while I waited in the car; One, Rachel McAdams is just so darned cute and Two – Channing Tatum didn’t attempt to sing “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” a second time. I even warned my wife after the first infuriating chorus, “If he does that again, I’m leaving.”
This based-on true facts story begins with the accident; Paige (Rachel) decides she’ll have a better chance of getting pregnant if she and husband Leo (Tatum) have sex in their car while parked at a stop sign during a Chicago snow storm late at night. Shortly after unbuckling her seatbelt to get the action started they are rammed from behind by a truck, sending Paige thru the windshield. The resulting damage to her brain causes Paige to forget the last 4 or 5 years of her life and so her hubby goes about the task of trying to make her fall in love with him all over again. Leo does everything wrong; he brings her home to a large crowd of people shouting ‘Surprise!’ She doesn’t like that this guy claiming to be her husband would think that’s the kind of reception she would want on her first day out of the hospital. The next morning, Mr. Duh walks into the bedroom completely nude. When Paige freaks out at the sight of his package, he smirks and offers, “Well, it’s not like you haven’t seen it before.” . . . Duh, Mr. Duh – she’s suffered brain trauma – the fact that you’re entirely insensitive to that makes you a jerk.
During her first outing alone, Paige becomes lost – she can’t remember where Mr. Duh lives – so she calls her mother (the queen of bad actresses, Jessica Lange) to come and take her ‘home’ – to her parents house. Sam Neill plays dad, a highly paid successful lawyer that wanted his daughter to follow in his footsteps. Much to his dismay, she dropped out of law school to become a sculptor.
In Paige’s mind, she’s still in law school and engaged to a smarmy cheeseball named Jeremy (Scott Speedman) Jeremy’s gel stricken hair is the only reason I started hoping Mr. Duh would come around and start behaving like a decent guy instead of an airhead.
Leo’s attempt to win back his wife’s affection creates some sparks, but in the end they are futile because Paige is unnerved by this stranger who is madly in love with her.
Does Paige regain her memory and return to Leo’s arms? Does she succumb to Jeremy’s attempt to reconnect with her since she doesn’t remember why she dumped him the first time around? Does she figure out what it was about her family that drove her away from them in the first place? Do we actually care about the answers to these questions? Well, only because Rachel McAdams is just so darn cute we kinda do, but whatever happens it doesn’t stir enough emotion to call this a worthy chick flick – it’s got that typical soap opera formula; Amnesia, men behaving like pigs and pushy parents. If that's your idea of a winning formula - go for it, but you could see similar fare on the Lifetime network...
Every year I VOW to have more tolerance for chick flicks my wife wants to see and every year I break that vow in January or February...
There were two reasons I didn’t get up and let my spouse watch the second half of this pseudo-tearjerker alone while I waited in the car; One, Rachel McAdams is just so darned cute and Two – Channing Tatum didn’t attempt to sing “I’d Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That)” a second time. I even warned my wife after the first infuriating chorus, “If he does that again, I’m leaving.”
This based-on true facts story begins with the accident; Paige (Rachel) decides she’ll have a better chance of getting pregnant if she and husband Leo (Tatum) have sex in their car while parked at a stop sign during a Chicago snow storm late at night. Shortly after unbuckling her seatbelt to get the action started they are rammed from behind by a truck, sending Paige thru the windshield. The resulting damage to her brain causes Paige to forget the last 4 or 5 years of her life and so her hubby goes about the task of trying to make her fall in love with him all over again. Leo does everything wrong; he brings her home to a large crowd of people shouting ‘Surprise!’ She doesn’t like that this guy claiming to be her husband would think that’s the kind of reception she would want on her first day out of the hospital. The next morning, Mr. Duh walks into the bedroom completely nude. When Paige freaks out at the sight of his package, he smirks and offers, “Well, it’s not like you haven’t seen it before.” . . . Duh, Mr. Duh – she’s suffered brain trauma – the fact that you’re entirely insensitive to that makes you a jerk.
During her first outing alone, Paige becomes lost – she can’t remember where Mr. Duh lives – so she calls her mother (the queen of bad actresses, Jessica Lange) to come and take her ‘home’ – to her parents house. Sam Neill plays dad, a highly paid successful lawyer that wanted his daughter to follow in his footsteps. Much to his dismay, she dropped out of law school to become a sculptor.
In Paige’s mind, she’s still in law school and engaged to a smarmy cheeseball named Jeremy (Scott Speedman) Jeremy’s gel stricken hair is the only reason I started hoping Mr. Duh would come around and start behaving like a decent guy instead of an airhead.
Leo’s attempt to win back his wife’s affection creates some sparks, but in the end they are futile because Paige is unnerved by this stranger who is madly in love with her.
Does Paige regain her memory and return to Leo’s arms? Does she succumb to Jeremy’s attempt to reconnect with her since she doesn’t remember why she dumped him the first time around? Does she figure out what it was about her family that drove her away from them in the first place? Do we actually care about the answers to these questions? Well, only because Rachel McAdams is just so darn cute we kinda do, but whatever happens it doesn’t stir enough emotion to call this a worthy chick flick – it’s got that typical soap opera formula; Amnesia, men behaving like pigs and pushy parents. If that's your idea of a winning formula - go for it, but you could see similar fare on the Lifetime network...
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