S.K.o.S. Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Saw American Sniper yesterday- not getting a "best picture" buzz from it, but Cooper is phenomenal and Eastwood not even getting a Best Director nomination is pretty fucking criminal. The field for Best Director was fairly strong, but not enough to omit Eastwood or Ava DuVernay, IMO. Who do you take out from the nominees after Tyldum? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Saw American Sniper yesterday- not getting a "best picture" buzz from it, but Cooper is phenomenal and Eastwood not even getting a Best Director nomination is pretty fucking criminal. The field for Best Director was fairly strong, but not enough to omit Eastwood or Ava DuVernay, IMO. Who do you take out from the nominees after Tyldum? Purely subjective, but I am no fan of Wes Anderson's quirky humor, so i'd sub him out for Eastwood or DuVernay. That being said, Anderson should've won at least one Oscar by now for either The Royal Tenenbaums or The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I hate it when the Academy gets all guilty trippy and political and overcompensates for snubs and losses with future nominations. Denzel winning for Training Day and not for Malcolm X only makes not winning for Malcolm X all the more glaring. Denzel has far too much class to accept the award for Traning Day with a speech that starts off with, "Well, this is great, but my best work to date was in that Spike Lee Joint you passed over." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I like to think the Academy Awards only exist anymore to give Meryl Streep an excuse to go out for the evening. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 IMO, it was the wrong year to snub Selma. It was pretty much the only best picture nominee that is actually revelant to current events. I like Wes Anderson...but I'm not convinced there is actually much there in his films. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 IMO, it was the wrong year to snub Selma. It was pretty much the only best picture nominee that is actually revelant to current events. You snubbed Ava DuVernay for a Best Director nom for a movie about MLK during a period of time where racial tension is front page news whether it be Ferguson or the Sony e-mail hack and you do it right before the national celebration of MLK's birthday and Black History Month. Way to go, Academy! Only the Green Bay Packers committed more blunders in such a short timeframe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Comedian Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 There's more there in the tent scene in The Royal Tenenbaums than there is in most movies all together... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S.K.o.S. Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Ok. I would have said Anderson as the second weakest nominee too, but I didn't think other people necessarily would. Anyway, American Sniper was a good time, but I've seen enough valid non-political criticisms (PTSD too easily resolved, climactic scene was a mess with the sandstorm, fake plastic baby, sheep/wolves/sheepdogs scene that got laughs in my theatre) that I'm fine with Eastwood not getting a nomination. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Justice was served for American Sniper with Bradley Cooper getting the nom for Best Actor in. Cooper didn't just portray a character; the man transformed himself.. That nom cushions the blow of Eastwood not getting a nom for Best Director. And no disrespect intended to Wes Anderson or his work. His films are just not my thing. I am a pretty sophisticated horror movie fan but I am really dense when it comes to comedy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
muhammedboehm Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Not sure it this goes here or not but Lucy came out today is it worth 5.99 to rent on Amazon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 In fairness to Wes Anderson, he managed to get a good, three-dimensional performance from Gwyneth Paltrow. Which is more than 95% of directors can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chaos Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I blame Selma being snubbed 100% on the marketing for it. I think most Academy voters received their screeners for it after they had turned in their ballots. If it wasn't for that, I think that your actor and your director get nominated. Also, I think the flaw in these awards shows is that they try to force all of the prestige stuff out right before Award's season, which forces voters to binge watch so much stuff. It's like Critics that cover Sundance, Cannes, or TIFF. Once you've seen so many movies in a condensed period of time, you're kind of numb towards everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Not sure it this goes here or not but Lucy came out today is it worth 5.99 to rent on Amazon? Scarlett Johansson is suitably hot and trashy in the lead role and carries action scenes very well, but Lucy is a weird movie that tries to do hard sci-fi, philosophical claptrap, and formula action and fails at all of those things.. The talents of Morgan Freeman and Choi Min-Sik are totally wasted in this movie and we will not even start on the perpetuation of the 100% of your brain usage gives you psychic powers scientific inaccuracy. If you want to remember the reasons you loved Luc Besson, watch Leon, La Femme Nikita, or District 13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J.T. Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 For those of you hoping that Michael Mann would do for hacking what he did for heist movies, I am sorry. Blackhat is not good at all. Go see it if you are morbidly curious about the premise or are intrigued by Wei Tang's hotness.... Although if you are REALLY intrigued by Wei Tang's hotness you really should rent Lust, Caution, yo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burgundy LaRue Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I hate it when the Academy gets all guilty trippy and political and overcompensates for snubs and losses with future nominations. Denzel winning for Training Day and not for Malcolm X only makes not winning for Malcolm X all the more glaring. The 1992 Best Actor category was stacked--and Denzel still took everyone's lunch money. He was that good as Malcolm X. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 I still can't get over how much Denzel actually looked like the man. That was scary. Only James Franco as James Dean was better. And, unlike Denzel, he didn't really have the acting chops to pull it off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Blackhat looked like such a turd that I felt bad Michael Mann's name was on it. Then again, Public Enemies wasn't really any good either and that was the last film I'd bothered to watch of his since The Insider. (Well, I did see some of Collateral and still kick myself for never finishing it.) Did anyone watch/like Rob the Mob? It was a little sentimental about two really, really stupid people, but Andy Garcia was menacing and Ray Romano actually came off good in a serious role. And there's Michael Pitt, so what the hell. EDIT: Looking at the actual photos of Malcolm contrasted with Denzel is flat-out eerie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 EDIT: Looking at the actual photos of Malcolm contrasted with Denzel is flat-out eerie. His uncanny resemblance alone should have probably been enough to snag him the part. Thankfully, he turned out to be an amazing actor too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 20, 2015 Share Posted January 20, 2015 Denzel also hasn't aged one day since 1992. It might be time to further reseach my "Malcom X faked his death, became a famous Hollywood actor and discovered the key to immortality" theory. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 IMO, it was the wrong year to snub Selma. It was pretty much the only best picture nominee that is actually revelant to current events. You snubbed Ava DuVernay for a Best Director nom for a movie about MLK during a period of time where racial tension is front page news whether it be Ferguson or the Sony e-mail hack and you do it right before the national celebration of MLK's birthday and Black History Month. Way to go, Academy! One of the things that it's hard to remember about the Academy is that it's not a big board selecting films, rather a group of thousands of people (supposedly) voting independently. So, what you probably ended up with was a lot of people going "I SHOULD vote for 'Selma' but I'll throw a vote Wes Anderson's way, other people will vote for 'Selma', but few will vote for Anderson" and then afterwards got together and went "Wait, you didn't vote for 'Selma' either?! Uh-oh..." I know there's a feeling like the Academy is evil/white/bad but I think a lot of times it just comes down to people voting with their guts, listening to other people, rather than some awful white conspiracy. Not sure it this goes here or not but Lucy came out today is it worth 5.99 to rent on Amazon? Depends on your movie-watching tastes. Are you okay with turning off your brain to watch Scarlett Johansson look hot and fight dudes with super-powers and not roll your eyes every time the 100% of your brain myth comes up or the bizarre un-ending unfolds? By all means, give it a watch. Have you ever submitted a continuity error to the 'Goofs' section of IMDB? Don't watch it. I liked it, didn't love it. But there's a wonderful visual flair to this one that's missing in a lot of action flicks (I REALLY feel like Luc Besson watched 'Samsara' just before watching this and tried to ape it in parts) and some really great action-pieces. For those of you hoping that Michael Mann would do for hacking what he did for heist movies, I am sorry. Blackhat is not good at all. Go see it if you are morbidly curious about the premise or are intrigued by Wei Tang's hotness.... I'm torn because of your review and that the preview looks...kinda shitty. But, on the other hand, Michael Mann! In theaters with big booming speakers! I mean, I didn't love 'Public Enemies' but I'm still glad I saw it in theater because those tommy guns sounded incredible on the big speakers. This article really has me motivated to do an early Spring rewatch of everything Mann has done over the last 20 years, so I might still get out and see this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Comedian Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 And no disrespect intended to Wes Anderson or his work. His films are just not my thing. I am a pretty sophisticated horror movie fan but I am really dense when it comes to comedy. I think part of the problem with Anderson is that his movies are generally sold as comedies. They're really dramas with comical elements to them. I mean, calling Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums comedies is like calling the Lethal Weapon series comedies because of Riggs' mugging it up and Murtaugh saying, "I'm too old for this shit". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curt McGirt Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 I just read the review from Zoller-Seitz on Rogerebert.com that gave Blackhat 3 1/2*. He didn't try and cover any of its flaws but really dug it. It still sounds frustrating as hell to me. http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/blackhat-2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 The Academy does tend to be older and whiter and male, and I don't think you can ignore that while talking about Selma. But it was also a late release, picture didn't get locked until just before release, screeners were very late going out, it was a shorter nomination process than last year, and it got utterly blind sided by a historical accuracy controversy they clearly didn't see coming. And it still got a Best Picture nom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 The action scenes in American Sniper were amateur hour and things like the morning of 9/11 were downright laughable. The dialogue was terrible. Also, firefight while wife is on the phone? Come on. Hell, they didn't even take the time to get a real baby. Cooper is holding a doll, which would be fine if it wasn't ridiculously obvious. It's dreadful that this film was even nominated for Best Picture. They created a fictional Iraqi sniper villain and treated it like we were watching the movie Assassins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Reed Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 The action scenes in American Sniper were amateur hour and things like the morning of 9/11 were downright laughable. The dialogue was terrible. Also, firefight while wife is on the phone? Come on. Hell, they didn't even take the time to get a real baby. Cooper is holding a doll, which would be fine if it wasn't ridiculously obvious. It's dreadful that this film was even nominated for Best Picture. They created a fictional Iraqi sniper villain and treated it like we were watching the movie Assassins. Oh, God. Does Cooper walk slowly away from big explosions while being too cool to look back too? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted January 21, 2015 Share Posted January 21, 2015 More Sniper thoughts.. To be clear, there is some speculation that an Iraqi sniper existed because there are videos out there but most people believe it's several snipers. What the film does is show this sniper as a fact and every time he kills off one of Kyle's brothers, Chris runs around going WAS THAT MUSTAFA?!. Then of course at the end the big duel between the two and Kyle shoots him between the eyes from like a mile and a half. Such shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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