Sticking with the music theme this week, only these aren't musicals in the strictest sense.
Once is a beautiful love story that isn't a love story. Two people meet on the street, one a street performer, the other a immigrant from somewhere, I don't remember. Did I mention this take place in Ireland. The two form a bond over his music and they both end up helping each other through their problems. Great music and a great story, you should see this with your significant other.
Across the Universe is an interesting way of taking beautiful music, putting a story to it and making a sweeping film that makes your heart soar. The story is simple. Several friends trying to live and survive through the turbulent sixties. The twist comes that the story is told with the help of Beatles songs. Not only do they break out in song but the dialogue is rife with lyrics from their songs. A beautiful movie with a great story. Again, see this with your sweetie.
Alright, next week I will try to get back into some gore and mayhem. Until then... go, watch, enjoy!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Friday, January 6, 2012
Weekend Recommendations!!!
Thought I start doing these from here, maybe get a little more in-depth with what I recommend. Actually this week was a little hard for me. I couldn't think of a theme. God bless The Child. (For those of you who don't know, The Child is my 14-years-old daughter.) She recommended Musicals as the theme. She even gave me one to recommend; Newsies. It is one of the only musicals that Disney produced that didn't make any money. Enjoy!
I, on the other hand, would like to recommend Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Not your typical musical, instead of breaking into song during a scene, they break into fights. Video Game-style fighting to be exact. Don't get me wrong, there is some great music in the film, they just don't spontaneously burst into song.
Newsies and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; Go, watch, enjoy.
I, on the other hand, would like to recommend Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. Not your typical musical, instead of breaking into song during a scene, they break into fights. Video Game-style fighting to be exact. Don't get me wrong, there is some great music in the film, they just don't spontaneously burst into song.
Newsies and Scott Pilgrim vs. The World; Go, watch, enjoy.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
2011 Oscar Reviews
The Oscar season is heating up, so I thought you, Faithful Reader, would want to read my reviews of last year's Oscar nominated best pictures. Enjoy!
Toy Story 3- Pixar hit it out the park again. Beautiful movie, beautiful story, this one deserves an Oscar nod, just not a best picture nod. The Academy has a category for this one already; it is called Best Animated Feature. It is the same with foreign films. There is a category for that as well. Anyway, TS3 has us following the toys on a new adventure when Andy has grown up and no longer plays with them. I think Kevin Smith puts it best as describing it as Schindler’s Toy Box. If you don’t tear up at the end, you are dead inside. A must see.
127 hours- Danny Boyle is amazing. He takes a story of a young man who gets trapped in a ravine for 5 days and makes it into the most interesting character study I have seen in a long time. James Franco is good as the hiker, Aron Ralston, and deserves his nomination as best actor. The movie never gets boring and is actually quite harrowing throughout. If you like stories about struggles between man and nature as well as man within, then you need to see this movie.
The Kids Are Alright- Ok, I didn’t go into this one as something I really wanted to see, so maybe that skewed my opinion. I don’t know, maybe I just don’t get lesbians. A lesbian couple has two children by the same sperm donor and the boy child is curious about the father, you could feel he needed a man in his life. The boy and his sister contact the donor and hilarity ensues… not really. The story goes places that felt weren’t genuine and maybe they were and that is why I say I don’t get lesbians. Everyone in the cast was great and the writing was good. I just couldn’t get behind the story nor the ending. They were so many more deserving movies that could’ve been nominated. Why this one.
True Grit- I can’t help it, I have to say it, this movie is much grittier than the original. With that said, The Coen brothers didn’t bring anything new to the film. I love Joel and Ethan Coen. They have made some of the best movies over the last 20 years, bringing freshness to many different genres. I want to say something negative here, but it is hard because the film is good. They were able to get wonderful performance out of the lead characters, which is great considering one is Matt Damon. I just had a problem with the storytelling. This is an adaptation of a book and we were told it was to be a true adaptation of the book, which tells me that the original movie wasn’t a true adaptation of the book. So, if this is true, why are the two movies extremely similar? I’m just saying. See it if you like westerns, Coen brothers films, and/or remakes.
The Fighter- Based on a true story. I love that saying. It means that although it is a Hollywood movie, there is a nugget of truth in the story somewhere. That being said, this turned out to be a pretty typical “Hollywood” story. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good movie, in spite of Mark Wahlberg, it just ends up being a typical “man triumphs over all odds” movie. The shining point in this movie is Christian Bale. He again transforms himself and puts on a performance worthy of an Oscar, not just the nomination. There are other good performances in this and the movie is put together beautifully. The story was way too typical for me to get into.
That is it for now, so far nothing Oscar worthy. I am seeing the rest of the nominees today and should have my reviews up before the show Sunday night. Let me know what you think about the movies and who you think deserves the win. Until next time, enjoy yourself, just don’t make yourself sore.
Toy Story 3- Pixar hit it out the park again. Beautiful movie, beautiful story, this one deserves an Oscar nod, just not a best picture nod. The Academy has a category for this one already; it is called Best Animated Feature. It is the same with foreign films. There is a category for that as well. Anyway, TS3 has us following the toys on a new adventure when Andy has grown up and no longer plays with them. I think Kevin Smith puts it best as describing it as Schindler’s Toy Box. If you don’t tear up at the end, you are dead inside. A must see.
127 hours- Danny Boyle is amazing. He takes a story of a young man who gets trapped in a ravine for 5 days and makes it into the most interesting character study I have seen in a long time. James Franco is good as the hiker, Aron Ralston, and deserves his nomination as best actor. The movie never gets boring and is actually quite harrowing throughout. If you like stories about struggles between man and nature as well as man within, then you need to see this movie.
The Kids Are Alright- Ok, I didn’t go into this one as something I really wanted to see, so maybe that skewed my opinion. I don’t know, maybe I just don’t get lesbians. A lesbian couple has two children by the same sperm donor and the boy child is curious about the father, you could feel he needed a man in his life. The boy and his sister contact the donor and hilarity ensues… not really. The story goes places that felt weren’t genuine and maybe they were and that is why I say I don’t get lesbians. Everyone in the cast was great and the writing was good. I just couldn’t get behind the story nor the ending. They were so many more deserving movies that could’ve been nominated. Why this one.
True Grit- I can’t help it, I have to say it, this movie is much grittier than the original. With that said, The Coen brothers didn’t bring anything new to the film. I love Joel and Ethan Coen. They have made some of the best movies over the last 20 years, bringing freshness to many different genres. I want to say something negative here, but it is hard because the film is good. They were able to get wonderful performance out of the lead characters, which is great considering one is Matt Damon. I just had a problem with the storytelling. This is an adaptation of a book and we were told it was to be a true adaptation of the book, which tells me that the original movie wasn’t a true adaptation of the book. So, if this is true, why are the two movies extremely similar? I’m just saying. See it if you like westerns, Coen brothers films, and/or remakes.
The Fighter- Based on a true story. I love that saying. It means that although it is a Hollywood movie, there is a nugget of truth in the story somewhere. That being said, this turned out to be a pretty typical “Hollywood” story. Don’t get me wrong, it is a good movie, in spite of Mark Wahlberg, it just ends up being a typical “man triumphs over all odds” movie. The shining point in this movie is Christian Bale. He again transforms himself and puts on a performance worthy of an Oscar, not just the nomination. There are other good performances in this and the movie is put together beautifully. The story was way too typical for me to get into.
That is it for now, so far nothing Oscar worthy. I am seeing the rest of the nominees today and should have my reviews up before the show Sunday night. Let me know what you think about the movies and who you think deserves the win. Until next time, enjoy yourself, just don’t make yourself sore.
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