Shingster wrote:Eternal Sunshine was overlooked by the Academy because it was released really early in the Oscar year in America IIRC, not long after the previous year's oscars.
It's weird how films only released shortly before the Oscars get nominated.
Probably because in the month(s) before the Oscars all the sucking up and all that BS is taking place....
But man, it's just such an amazing acting performance by Carrey. If you only need 1 reason to not take the Oscars seriously (and who does?), it's the fact that this performance didnt get the recognition it deserves.
I was there, the big BNB blackout of november, 2008. We lost many that day...
Yi-Long wrote:Probably because in the month(s) before the Oscars all the sucking up and all that BS is taking place....
Too true.
Yi-Long wrote:But man, it's just such an amazing acting performance by Carrey. If you only need 1 reason to not take the Oscars seriously (and who does?), it's the fact that this performance didnt get the recognition it deserves.
I don't recall it being anything special.
Now Angelina Jolie getting passed up for even a nomination for A Mighty Heart was a travesty.
Yi-Long wrote:If you only need 1 reason to not take the Oscars seriously (and who does?), it's the fact that this performance didnt get the recognition it deserves.
Ray - Jamie Foxx
The Aviator - Leonardo DiCaprio
Finding Neverland - Johnny Depp
Hotel Rwanda - Don Cheadle
Million Dollar Baby - Clint Eastwood
I am from Liverpool and I understood Trainspotting (movie) perfectly! What a great movie, I remember going to the cinema back in the day.
Denzel got the oscar for being a class act for all these years, and not just Training Day. I used to follow the oscars, but I am a bit bored by them these days.
In Her Shoes 4/5
Very good chick flick from Curtis Hanson.
Blood Diamond 3/5
I thought this was decent, although the issue of illegal/conflict diamonds seemed to be rammed down your throat at every opportunity. Think product placement and replace that with a "conflict diamonds are bad" message every 5 minutes. Having said that, I did think it provides educational insight to the kind of things that happens in 3rd world countries, and I have to admit that I never really thought this stuff when looking at diamonds.
DiCaprio and Honsou are on good form, but I could see the ending coming.
Stranger Than Fiction 4/5
This was top notch. Will Ferrell plays it relatively straight, and it is easily one of his best roles. I loved the exchanges between him and Maggie Gyllenhaal (Sp?). Emma Thompson is also excellent as the nutcase author with unorthadox researching methods. If you don't think Marc Foster is a good director - I haven't seen Quantum of Solace yet, but I've read stuff with people slagging him off on the net - then see this.
"We do not train to be merciful. Mercy is for the weak. A man confronts you, he is the enemy. The enemy deserves no mercy."
Weird movie to judge. It looks nice, it's pretty original and mature and funny, moves along at a nice speed, has some memorable characters, and it will appeal to young and old....
... and still it misses something. Maybe it's 'heart', whatever that means, but for all the stuff it does good, it fails in pretty much the most important aspect of any movie: I didnt care for the lead character or his goal.
Surfer Penguin 'dude', with all the surfer slang and attitude, wants to 'get away from home, out into the world, and proof himself.
Now, we've had movies like that many times before, where the lead feels he has to proof something, and goes for it. Many times, it makes for interesting cinema, and it's hard to pinpoint why here it doesnt!?
I'll throw some arguments at it though.
First of all, the main character, Cody, isnt 'someone' you will feel automatically drawn to. When you watch Wall-E for the first time, within minutes you KNOW and LOVE the litte square robot on wheel, in a way you wouldnt imagine you would when you first only saw the stills.
In Kung Fu Panda, you have Po, an instantly lovable big lump of ...well.... a lump I guess... who is just extremely likeable and funny and you want him to succeed.
Cody is the 'I'm too good for this crap' kinda kid, and TBH, I couldnt give a shit about him or his goal. Maybe it was just poor writing, or maybe it was the poor voicecasting by Shia LeBouf, but I just didnt care.
Secondly, there's hardly a struggle to speak of. Cody lives with bunch of other penguins, talent scout drops by, Cody demands he can get a shot, gets beaten once, sulks and pouts, learns from the best, makes a glorious comeback without hardly any practice at all (Ow... but he's having 'FUN', which automatically means you turn into a pro athlete apparently(!)), and you can pretty much guess the rest.
And although there are memorable characters in this movie, some pretty funny, and the jokes are at times funny, the interaction and relationships between the characters isnt as deep or interesting as you would want.
Cody befriends a chicken (for whatever reason) and later 'kinda' befriends his doctor/mentor (although Cody is still being a bit of a self-indulged dick), and eevryone just loves Cody for no reason whatsoever, which seems more than a little weird.
Yeah, we ARE talking about an animated movie aimed at a relatively 'young' audience here, so some might feel I'm being overly 'harsh', but compared to other movies that were aimed at 'the kids' and who did manage to be touching and interesting and memorable and worthwhile, I beg to differ.
It's a shame really, cause as I said, it looks great (the water looks amazing), and it's original (it presents itself a bit as a documentary) and has some funny jokes and memorable, well designed characters, but it deserved better writing and a more likeable and believable lead character.
I was there, the big BNB blackout of november, 2008. We lost many that day...
I really enjoyed Stranger Than Fiction too Bruce, it was very good and funny I think it would have been even better though if the author hadnt changed the ending of her book. It reminded me of The Truman Show.
This is an Uwe Boll film and despite that it isn't that bad. Set in the Vietnam war, the film focuses on the people who were charged with the mission of scouting out the numerous Vietnamese tunnel systems that had been dug. Allegedly there were 100s of km of tunnels dug, housing the vietnamese soldiers and in some cases their families too. I quite liked the different approach this took to other films in that you see very early who you think the cannon fodder people are, and who the sensible, careful, more likely to survive people are. They fit all the usual film conventions. Then *bang* or *stab* - someone you didn't expect to die so early is dead! With people being killed rather unexpectedly it was interesting seeing if you could predict who was going to die next...
None of his films are "That" bad anyway, people just think they are and hype them up to be that bad, when in fact most people have never even seen a Boll film in their lives. Yet still say he sucks.
Yup, £2 and worth every penny, I gave it 2.5 out of 5 (I think), far from that bad I thought
Its not BloodRayne bad! now that was nasty (Bolls worst film so far for me) yet I still own that as again it cost a few quid.
The commentaries alone are classy on his dvds, he really is the mastermind of the entire world! He knows he makes crap, but he is in it for the cash so does not care at all It is nice to hear someone speak their mind on a dvd and not pretend what before them is the greatest film ever made like 99% of commentries, and he is not affraid to slag off everyone who did a poor job or to call people nasty names when they deserve it.
Its also great to hear how the film industry acctually is ran, as he tells it as it is, as again he does not care what they do to him.
Nope it depends on how much you paid for it, if I paid £10 I would not be happy. It was worth keeping for the price I paid for many reasons, its not like I will make my cash back anywhere.
Hence why I sell all HD discs that I dont think are worth owning for the price I paid, like Dragon Wars (haha what a film). You can still always get your cash back and more in HD.
I think it would have been even better though 
yet I still own that as again it cost a few quid.