Academy Award Nominations 2010 (Best Picture)

[JuniperWoolf]

*sigh* Alright, I read your review of Inglorious Bastards. You kind of didn't get it, but that's okay.

[Drkshadow03]

Heh. I really liked the new Star Trek film. I have my own review of it on my blog, not posted yet since I'm following your (mortalterror) format, and haven't reached 50 films yet since I started to write a review of each film I watch.

[OrphanPip]

I agree that Star Trek wasn't that bad. It captures the kitsch of the TV show, and I think that was their goal.

Any opinions on best foreign language films?

Of those nominated I've only seen the German one, The White Ribbon; it's so hard to catch foreign films in theaters sometimes. I really liked that film, but I feel like I can't fairly say it deserves the Oscar over the other four nominees.

[Drkshadow03]

Movie Bob gives his take on this year's Oscars. Movie Bob always amuses me.

[mortalterror]

Movie Bob gives his take on this year's Oscars. Movie Bob always amuses me.

I agree with that point for point. But I like the Smodcast review of Avatar even better. http://www.smodcast.com/ #105 Love Cats. You might also like #90 Forgeticus! where they spend an hour talking about how much they enjoyed the last Harry Potter movie.

My thoughts, I'd be surprised if Avatar didn't sew up half the awards just like Titanic did. And I know, I'm like the only person on the planet who didn't like the new Star Trek movie.

My beef with Avatar is that it feels very Phantom Menace to me. Whenever critics can't talk about direction, cinematography, acting, or dialogue and they still want to recommend the movie they mention how technologically innovative the picture was. Technological innovation is not a selling point of truly great films like 8 1/2, Gone With the Wind, 2001 A Space Odyssey, The Bicycle Thief, Pulp Fiction, Casablanca, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Fanny and Alexander, Seven Samurai, Goodfellas, Wild Strawberries, Rashomon, Dr. Zhivago, Schindler's List, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Citizen Kane, Apocalypse Now, Solaris, La Dolce Vita, Full Metal Jacket, M, Raging Bull, The Shawshank Redemption, To Live, or the Fellowship of the Ring.

There are things I liked about Inglorious Basterds, but it's still way overhyped and not as good as other classic war films: All Quiet on the Western Front, Apocalypse Now, Band of Brothers, Full Metal Jacket, Lawrence of Arabia, Master and Commander, Paths of Glory, Patton, Black Hawk Down, The Blue and the Gray, Breaker Morant, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Das Boot, Downfall, Fires on the Plain, The Guns of Navarone, Kanal, Kelley's Heroes, The Longest Day, Platoon, Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, Saving Private Ryan, Stalag 17, Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War, The Thin Red Line, or Zulu. That's what a great war film looks like and I don't think this new one measures up. That's all I'm saying.

[Drkshadow03]

I agree with that point for point. But I like the Smodcast review of Avatar even better. http://www.smodcast.com/ #105 Love Cats. You might also like #90 Forgeticus! where they spend an hour talking about how much they enjoyed the last Harry Potter movie.

My thoughts, I'd be surprised if Avatar didn't sew up half the awards just like Titanic did. And I know, I'm like the only person on the planet who didn't like the new Star Trek movie.

My beef with Avatar is that it feels very Phantom Menace to me. Whenever critics can't talk about direction, cinematography, acting, or dialogue and they still want to recommend the movie they mention how technologically innovative the picture was. Technological innovation is not a selling point of truly great films like 8 1/2, Gone With the Wind, 2001 A Space Odyssey, The Bicycle Thief, Pulp Fiction, Casablanca, The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, Fanny and Alexander, Seven Samurai, Goodfellas, Wild Strawberries, Rashomon, Dr. Zhivago, Schindler's List, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Citizen Kane, Apocalypse Now, Solaris, La Dolce Vita, Full Metal Jacket, M, Raging Bull, The Shawshank Redemption, To Live, or the Fellowship of the Ring.

There are things I liked about Inglorious Basterds, but it's still way overhyped and not as good as other classic war films: All Quiet on the Western Front, Apocalypse Now, Band of Brothers, Full Metal Jacket, Lawrence of Arabia, Master and Commander, Paths of Glory, Patton, Black Hawk Down, The Blue and the Gray, Breaker Morant, The Bridge on the River Kwai, Das Boot, Downfall, Fires on the Plain, The Guns of Navarone, Kanal, Kelley's Heroes, The Longest Day, Platoon, Pretty Village, Pretty Flame, Saving Private Ryan, Stalag 17, Tae Guk Gi: The Brotherhood of War, The Thin Red Line, or Zulu. That's what a great war film looks like and I don't think this new one measures up. That's all I'm saying.

Heh. Actually I mentioned Phantom Menace in my review of Avatar. Well, I mentioned the SW prequels. Here is a cut-and-paste of my thoughts on Avatar from my movie review page that isn't up yet:

Avatar (2009) - Pretty blue furry creatures based off racist stereotypes of Native Americans, check. Simple plot we've seen a hundred times before where the white dude infiltrates the natives and falls in love with their culture and then saves them from complete destruction, check. Heavy-handed environmentalist and colonialist themes, check. In theory there are so many flaws with this film that it should be irredeemable. Even the idea of the avatars themselves seem forced into the movie. After all, the story reveals later on that the Navi banned avatars from living among and closed the education schools they ran, so how does it make any sense that the corporate-sponsored military would be holding out for a diplomatic solution when the original diplomatic efforts already failed by the opening of the movie? Nevertheless, I still must credit to my visceral reactions rather than just my logical reactions to the film. When I do that I not only enjoyed watching the movie, but found myself entranced by its world. To claim that the setting epitomizes the word "gorgeous" is an understatement. The simplistic plot in many ways works to the advantage of this type of film, allowing a stronger immersion into the beautiful world. Nor is the world merely eye-candy as it functions as a significant part of the plot so there is a reason for this intense immersion. It's like being sucked into a lush Rococo painting, except the coquettish French girls are transformed into blue furry warriors. Certainly special effects aren't everything, but this is one of the few films where special effects manage to raise the film to another level. Other special effect heavy films like the Star Wars prequels fail to meet the standards of Avatar because of other mitigating factors like the horrendous dialogue and awful plot (not just a simple and unoriginal one), thus the special effects cannot save such a film. Avatar, on the other hand, while sporting mediocre and predictable dialogue still never quite degenerates into the horrendous dialogue exemplified by the painful love scenes found in the Star Wars prequels. To put it another way, none of the dialogue in Avatar ever stood out as being particularly abysmal the way it did in the SW prequels, while at the same time none of it ever felt like anything I hadn't heard before either. Other reviews I have read pointed out how unbelievable it is that the corporation at the end of the flick didn't retaliate against the Navi by nuking the planet. While this complaint proves valid if one judges the film with the cynical eye of a person living in the modern world, I have to admit that I still appreciated that the natives win in the end. Despite its flaws, I was entertained and the pretty world gave my eyes orgasms. In other words, an average film (if judging by traditional elements like plot, character, dialogue, etc.) made above average by the special effects.

[Delta40]

Avatar (2009) - Pretty blue furry creatures based off racist stereotypes of Native Americans, check. Simple plot we've seen a hundred times before where the white dude infiltrates the natives and falls in love with their culture and then saves them from complete destruction, check. Heavy-handed environmentalist and colonialist themes, check. In theory there are so many flaws with this film that it should be irredeemable. Even the idea of the avatars themselves seem forced into the movie. After all, the story reveals later on that the Navi banned avatars from living among and closed the education schools they ran, so how does it make any sense that the corporate-sponsored military would be holding out for a diplomatic solution when the original diplomatic efforts already failed by the opening of the movie? Nevertheless, I still must credit to my visceral reactions rather than just my logical reactions to the film. When I do that I not only enjoyed watching the movie, but found myself entranced by its world. To claim that the setting epitomizes the word "gorgeous" is an understatement. The simplistic plot in many ways works to the advantage of this type of film, allowing a stronger immersion into the beautiful world. Nor is the world merely eye-candy as it functions as a significant part of the plot so there is a reason for this intense immersion. It's like being sucked into a lush Rococo painting, except the coquettish French girls are transformed into blue furry warriors. Certainly special effects aren't everything, but this is one of the few films where special effects manage to raise the film to another level. Other special effect heavy films like the Star Wars prequels fail to meet the standards of Avatar because of other mitigating factors like the horrendous dialogue and awful plot (not just a simple and unoriginal one), thus the special effects cannot save such a film. Avatar, on the other hand, while sporting mediocre and predictable dialogue still never quite degenerates into the horrendous dialogue exemplified by the painful love scenes found in the Star Wars prequels. To put it another way, none of the dialogue in Avatar ever stood out as being particularly abysmal the way it did in the SW prequels, while at the same time none of it ever felt like anything I hadn't heard before either. Other reviews I have read pointed out how unbelievable it is that the corporation at the end of the flick didn't retaliate against the Navi by nuking the planet. While this complaint proves valid if one judges the film with the cynical eye of a person living in the modern world, I have to admit that I still appreciated that the natives win in the end. Despite its flaws, I was entertained and the pretty world gave my eyes orgasms. In other words, an average film (if judging by traditional elements like plot, character, dialogue, etc.) made above average by the special effects.[/QUOTE]

I agree wholeheartedly. When I stopped and thought about it, the film themes are cliched and timeless but I was blindsighted by the environment that I was plunged into and so relished the themes as typical human behaviours. Its like a breath-taking roller coaster ride in the middle of a concrete jungle - you just don't notice the grey bits till its over

[Mortis Anarchy]

Ferngully? Anyone...?

Avater=Ferngully. Effects really cool and I pretty much agree with previews posts about this film. If you haven't seen Ferngully...watch it. Haha

Keeping my fingers crossed for The Hurt Locker!!!

[Hurricane]

Avater=Ferngully.

The first time someone told me this, before I saw the movie, I was really confused.

This? Really?



Now that I've seen the movie, I get it though.

[mortalterror]

Avatar, on the other hand, while sporting mediocre and predictable dialogue still never quite degenerates into the horrendous dialogue exemplified by the painful love scenes found in the Star Wars prequels. To put it another way, none of the dialogue in Avatar ever stood out as being particularly abysmal the way it did in the SW prequels, while at the same time none of it ever felt like anything I hadn't heard before either.

Trey Parker and Matt Stone did an audio commentary to South Park episode 804 The Passion of the Jew which I think could shed some light on this phenomenon:

But actually the more that I think about it... Yeah, this movie's success was this weird fluke; but it kind of was genius. The idea of taking that story, making it basically a blood bath, but then doing it all in that Aramaic. Because, you know that they were saying the cheesiest lines that if they were in English you'd be laughing at the ****ing screen, but it's like "Rolo va'sha go'va!" You just couldn't laugh at it. It's that perfect. It kind of bullet proofs your movie.

I remember seeing this interview that Cameron did for the film and he was talking about how he had to give the film the appearance of depth and background which it actually lacked. His model was The Lord of the Rings with it's fake languages and decades of cultural embroidery. He's making up religions and rituals and hiring exobiologists. By the way, did anyone else have trouble getting into that manhood initiation thing, where he has to catch the bird thing? I was instantly thrown back into the real world and was like "So, what? Now he's going to tame a horse but we're supposed to be all impressed because it doesn't look like a horse?"

I will give props were props are do, and the set design is very pretty. But as I told my friends back when Halo 3 came out, "Some cats dig lush tropical rain forests with bright shiny colors, and others want to play Gears of War with it's cityscape full of washed out grays, blacks, and browns." I'm more of an urban guy myself. I love cool architecture, and I didn't care when the primitive smurfs lost their giant hollow mushroom house. Like Kevin Smith said on Smodcast, "In a year, like the place that tree was is like a Starbucks and they're all standing around going 'I don't even miss it.'" As far as the setting goes though, I give more credit to Peter Jackson's production company than Cameron himself.

By the way, good review.

[DanielBenoit]

Oscars tomorrow!!

The Hurt Locker baby come on!!! Go Katherine Bigelow for best director!!



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GxSDZc8etg

[JuniperWoolf]

I saw Precious just now. Holy balls. That was depressing.

[DanielBenoit]

But wasn't it great?

[qimissung]

I was glad to see Kathryn Bigelow and Hurt Locker win. I was disappointed Tarantino did not win for Best Screenplay, and I hoped that either Meryl Streep or Gabourey Sidibe would win for Best Actress. I guess I was surprised that Jeff Bridges won, but I'm glad. He's good and long overdue. I really enjoyed him in Cutter's Way; it's old. Has anybody here ever seen that one, or read the book, Cutter and Bone, that it's based on?

[Drkshadow03]

I was glad to see Kathryn Bigelow and Hurt Locker win. I was disappointed Tarantino did not win for Best Screenplay, and I hoped that either Meryl Streep or Gabourey Sidibe would win for Best Actress. I guess I was surprised that Jeff Bridges won, but I'm glad. He's good and long overdue. I really enjoyed him in Cutter's Way; it's old. Has anybody here ever seen that one, or read the book, Cutter and Bone, that it's based on?

Although I didn't see some of the other movies, I saw Crazy Hearts, and Jeff Bridges rocked in that movie. He was also the front-runner for the award in all the buzz I read. Ditto Sandra Bullock for best Actress. Great performances in an okay movies.