JMG’s Oscar Reviews 2007 (1433 hits)
Category: Movies & TVRating: 1.29 on 32 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by JMG114 (View user info) at 2007-02-23 09:58:49 EST
Greetings, greetings. Oscar season is upon us, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has once again seen fit to recognize the best films of the year with golden statuettes, likely enveloping a soft, fondant chocolate center.
Shall we begin?
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
Written by: Iris Yamashita, Paul Haggis, Tadamichi Kuribayashi (book "Picture Letters from Commander in Chief"), and Tsuyoko Yoshido
Directed by: Clint Eastwood
My favorite of the five films nominated for Best Picture would have to be Eastwood's latest opus, "Letters from Iwo Jima." The companion piece to his "Flags of Our Fathers," Iwo Jima shows the fateful Pacific theater battle from the point of view of the vastly outnumbered and outgunned Japanese. A theme in this year's Oscar race is the exhibiting of rarely seen points of view to the audience (see "Babel," "The Queen"). Iwo Jima bravely and stunningly shows us that the enemy was not a faceless monster, but men who were intelligent, men who were frightened, and men who held onto their honor. Look for a great performance from Ken Wantanabe (Former Oscar nominee, "The Last Samurai"). The score is also particularly haunting and worthy of special mention. Although its odds of winning are a long shot, Iwo Jima is my pick for best film of 2006.
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Written by: Michael Arndt
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Imagine what a movie called, "Little Miss Sunshine" is about, and you're probably at least halfway to guessing the plot. Little Olive (Abigail Breslin. You may have last seen her wearing a tin-foil hat in Shyamalan's "Signs") aspires to be a child star via the children's beauty pageant/talent show circuit. With a colorful family at her side, each with a different major life issue, she remains the bastion of hope and happiness as she forges her own path and brings everyone together. The movie is not as vanilla as it may seem at first glance, mostly because of Alan "Cuss Like a Sailor" Arkin's Grandpa character, which is a necessary addition to what otherwise would've been shelved as a "fun-filled romp for the whole family" type of movie that you would've bought on VHS to watch once before placing it alongside your old Disney movies. It's certainly worth a watch, and the ending is fun, if not slightly predictable.
THE QUEEN
Written by: Peter Morgan
Directed by: Stephen Frears
Last year had Philip Seymour Hoffman's Capote. The year before had Jamie Foxx's Ray. This year's golden acting performance belongs to Helen Mirren, who portrays an intensely likable Queen Elizabeth II during the days following the untimely death of Lady Diana Spencer. I usually find it rather difficult to sympathize with the wealthy, much less the hideously wealthy. However, The Queen not only paints a remarkably human portrait of Queen Elizabeth, but it does the same justice to those of influence around her, from her mother to her husband to her son to Prime Minister Tony Blair, played gracefully by Michael Sheen. Archival footage is blended seamlessly with the action, and it transforms a period of history we all remember into something experienced for the first time through the eyes of one of its most influential players. Best picture? No. Worth a watch as a character study? Or as a character ensemble study? Absolutely.
BABEL
Written by: Guillermo Arriaga
Directed by: Alejandro González Iñárritu
This year's "Crash," Babel is three interconnected stories that attempt to show us that there is no good or evil, only different points of view. However, it seems as if there are a few too many points of view for this movie to handle. Law enforcement personnel (regardless of personal opinion) are routinely exhibited as barbaric, single-minded monsters. There were plenty of shocking moments, but not enough reasons to support their inclusion into the film, at least from a storytelling perspective. The film does have many powerful moments, and each step into darkness makes you want to hit the brakes before you see the awful inevitabilities that play out. Watch for Oscar-nominated Adriana Barraza's powerhouse performance as a hapless Mexican nanny. A vague feeling of dissatisfaction can hit the viewer once he/she realizes that not all questions posed by the movie are answered. One could make the argument that not all questions needed to be answered, but one could make the counter claim that some questions did not even need to be asked by the movie in the first place. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett's roles come across very well. The United States government plays a rather shadowy, villainous role throughout. It's good. Not great.
THE DEPARTED
Written by: William Monahan, (adapted from Siu Fai Mak and Felix Chong)
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Scorsese's latest celebrity fest reads like a who's who of Hollywood. Despite the solid performances all around, it's a little too easy to forget that you're watching a movie and a little too easy to remember that you're watching an entire cast of A-list actors. For better or worse, The Departed delivers a one-two knockout complete with double, triple, and quadruple crosses, fake Boston accents, and a hefty body count. In fact, if you like watching people be shot, then this movie is perfect for you. Some of the actors don't seem to fit their roles, almost as if the actors were picked out for the film even before a script was complete. It's a modern, urban fable of bad people doing bad stuff and how this makes bad things happen to everyone. When you see a movie like, "The Shawshank Redemption," you realize that certain things occur in the timeframe of the movie that would be impossible to accomplish today. In The Departed, the impossible things still happen even though it IS today. It's not a bad movie. The directing is well-done and the acting is what you'd expect out of DiCaprio, Damon, Baldwin, Sheen, and, the best actor in the film by far, Mark Wahlberg (a nominee for best supporting actor). This is not Nicholson's best role by a long shot, and his character becomes hard to believe as the grand master of a Boston-based crime syndicate. The final shot is also rather heavy-handed, lacking the subtlety of Spielberg's "Munich" and makes me wonder if a particular producer had called in a favor to let some relative choose the last shot. Bottom line, it lacks the internal and external emotional breadth exemplified in Iwo Jima.
It should be an interesting awards night, and it really could be anyone's game. Good times, good times.
User Reviews
Submitted by d_prime (user info) at 2007-06-14 05:44:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
lord of the rings should have won everything again
Submitted by ryandonovan (user info) at 2007-03-01 12:51:52 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
Dammit, you've gotta stop putting up your Oscar post before me (but it would help if I posted more then 3 hours before the show started). Good stuff, even though I disagreed with much of it. And no offense, but I'm afraid your praise of Mark Wahlberg is idiotic. With the exception of Entourage and I HEART Huckabee's, his existence is an insult to his father's unfertilized sperm.
Submitted by d_prime (user info) at 2007-02-26 02:55:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Oh no, this country we initiated attack against out-numbers us! Imperialist bastards!
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2007-02-25 19:41:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2007-02-23 16:49:23 (#)
Ranking: 1
i didn't see the other two, but i saw departed.
i liked it, but abso-fucking-lutely hated the stupid shrink chick. she is the worst actress of all time, and does the absolute worst fake boston accent i've ever heard.
not on ly was it bad, it was inconsistant. she alternated between shitty fake boston, shitty fake irish, and shitty new jersey. i hate her.
thats all. hope all's well.
-tim
-------
She's from Passaic NJ, one of the hot cousins of a guy at my school.
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2007-02-24 05:40:30 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
I dont know why I +2ed this, this was a terrible review.
wheres donovan when you need him?
Submitted by rad1101 (user info) at 2007-02-24 05:38:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I didnt see babel but after flacks review Im going to watch it this weekend.
Submitted by Flack (user info) at 2007-02-24 04:14:35 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I don't see why everyone like "Babel" so much. It was boring and stupid. I especially hated the part where that one Morrocan kid was jerking it to his own sister.
"The Departed" was pure awesome. Nuff said.
"Flags of Our Fathers" was much better that "Letters From Iwo Jima."
Didn't see "The Queen" because it looked stupid, and, according to friends and family, it was.
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2007-02-24 03:48:43 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I am sorry to say that the only film on this list that I actually saw was "The Departed" and frankly, I didn't like it.
Guess that's why I'm not on the committee.
Submitted by beeltea (user info) at 2007-02-23 19:54:26 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Stage 3: When they come back and their return is greeted with song and dance.
My vote is Iwo Jima, although lil ms ss still has a special place in my heart.
Submitted by TheUniter (user info) at 2007-02-23 19:20:03 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Submitted by MyNameIsTim (user info) at 2007-02-23 16:49:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
i didn't see the other two, but i saw departed.
i liked it, but abso-fucking-lutely hated the stupid shrink chick. she is the worst actress of all time, and does the absolute worst fake boston accent i've ever heard.
not on ly was it bad, it was inconsistant. she alternated between shitty fake boston, shitty fake irish, and shitty new jersey. i hate her.
thats all. hope all's well.
-tim
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2007-02-23 15:07:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
If you want to see Helen Mirren when she was hott, check out Caligula.
Submitted by bob (user info) at 2007-02-23 15:07:49 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
My favorite films of 2006:
The Fountain
Letters of Iwo Jima
Pan's Labryinth
The Last King of Scotland
Babel
Submitted by Mort (user info) at 2007-02-23 14:46:20 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I like what you had to say.
Submitted by ubetidid (user info) at 2007-02-23 13:35:06 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
i'd really like to see Forrest Whitaker win.
Submitted by loki (user info) at 2007-02-23 13:33:28 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I had no idea Olive is the same kid from Signs.
Submitted by Zebra (user info) at 2007-02-23 13:18:54 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
Brad Pitt was initially going to play the Matt Damon role in The Departed and Tony Scott was going to direct.
He only bowed out because his age didn't match up with Leonardo when Scorcese came on board and brought his favorite guy with him, since their characters were supposed to have gone to the academy at around the same time.
The guy that wrote Little Miss Sunshine was working as Matthew Broderick's assistant on a film (I forget which) and that was his first script, which was in development at Universal Focus for five fucking years, during which time they tried to turn it to shit, failed, and the independent that picked it up just let it revert back to the original script (pretty much) and voila! Seven years later the guy is an overnight success.
In case you like that trivia shit.
Submitted by rob_berg (user info) at 2007-02-23 13:08:51 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:00:56 (#)
Ranking: 2
Didn't see any of them. Don't really care.
Submitted by firefly (user info) at 2007-02-23 12:48:23 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2007-02-23 12:24:45 EST (#)
Ranking: -1
I didn't know you were gay...until this post.
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2007-02-23 11:59:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Donovan?
Submitted by sicosemen (user info) at 2007-02-23 11:45:04 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
ALL WOMEN ARE CHEATING WHORES!
Submitted by tiaprae (user info) at 2007-02-23 11:06:02 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Grandpa: Listen to me, I got no reason to lie to you, don't make the same mistakes I made when I was young. Fuck a lotta women kid, not just one woman, a lotta women.
Submitted by c1ndy (user info) at 2007-02-23 11:02:34 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
bart! do the thing where we have to pick the winners!
or is that the superbowl?
Submitted by The_Drake (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:58:05 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Army of Darkness takes the Oscar in a landslide victory.
Submitted by rorrim (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:55:18 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Nice post .
Submitted by DudeThatsBOSH (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:25:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I haven't seen them except for 'The Departed', and I feel the same way about it. It gets bonus points though because its Boshton based.
Submitted by Amontillado (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:17:44 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I've only seen Little Miss Sunshine. I hate living in bumblefuck sometimes.
Submitted by DesolateMisanthrope (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:14:46 EST (#)
Ranking: -2
Have you ever seen the previews for 'the day after tomorrow?
I think that movie should win the oscars for the next ten years. I especially enjoy the part where the hollywood sign is annihalated by a twister.
Submitted by BuckeyesTHEGAME (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:08:13 EST (#)
Ranking: 1
I love you like I love big titty hoes (minus the sexual implications), but sadly you're not Ryan Donovan. He's the Oscar guy, but where the fuck is he?
Submitted by Caulaincourt (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:02:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
the oscar mattered when i was 13.
Submitted by BLITZKREIG_BOB (user info) at 2007-02-23 10:00:56 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
Didn't see any of them. Don't really care.