Freedomland

This turned out to be a pretty decent movie. It was bit of a different story than I was expecting it to be based on the previews. That was a good thing though, it means they didn't give to much away in the preview.

The story was pretty tight so it kept moving nicely. The acting was good, which is to be expected with the cast. The interaction between Samuel L. Jackson and Julianne Moore was the key to this whole movie and it was perfect.


Spoilers Ahead!


In the final act of the movie when everything comes together there were two great scenes. One was when Edie Falco's character was trying to get the truth out of Julianne's character. The way she used her own story and desire to basically lul her into breaking was amazing and genius. And the delivery of that had to be perfect to pull it off and it was, from both actresses. I was holding out hope that they were wrong about Julianne's charcater and she held out for awhile against that but she eventually cracked.

And then the scene when she confessed what had really happened. Wow, that was a powerful scene. Julianne nailed that. (There is only one other actress I think could have pulled that off as well.) It was not an easy scene, not just because of the subject but, because she has to do it just right so while you hate her and want to smack her one minute you also feel a tiny bit of sympathy for her. Playing that line between sanity and madness is one of the trickiest things to do and only a handful of people can do it properly.



I went to a matinee showing but it would have been worth full price.

Oscar Nomintations

With Oscar night fast approaching I figured I better get this post up. I will list the nominees in the order I rank them with the best being first. Any nominees I have not seen will come last and be noted that I haven't seen them.

Best Original Screenplay
Crash - This is by far one of the best screenplays in years. It should win hands down

Match Point - The overall movie wasn't very good but it did have some great dialogue that had really good flow, which says a lot considering how slow the movie was.

Good Night, and Good Luck - What the hell is this doing in the original category. At least 30% of David Straathairn's dialogue is direct copy of Edward R. Murrow's actual reports so how the hell can you say that it didn't come from material previously published or produced?

The Squid and the Whale - Haven't seen.

Syriana - Haven't seen but again what is it doing in this category? I thought it was based on or inspired by a book.

Best Screenplay Adapted
Brokeback Mountain - Really nice writing. The writing actually gave all the primary actors a chance to shine, even if some of them didn't take the opportunity.

Capote - The only reason I don't give the edge to this one is some of the supporting characters, and a couple of scenes that I really didn't feel necessary to the overall movie.

The Constant Gardener - This movie could have had a bigger impact with some better dialogue. It's visuals weren't to my liking and the story was let down even more by the writing.

A History of Violence - Simply put, no way should this even be nominated. If they would put some of those "original" screenplays in the category they belong in this crap wouldn't happen and other worthy stuff would get nominated.

Munich - Haven't seen.

Best Supporting Actress
Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener - This is a rather hard to devine performance. It's one of those ones where you can't pin point what makes it so good, you just know that it is. To tell you the truth when I saw the movie I really didn't think it would have the staying power to get nominated. I'm glad I was wrong.

Frances McDormand -North Country - Now this is a fine performance. She doesn't have ton of screentime but she makes the most of what she has. I wasn't moved by Charlize's performance but I was moved by Frances. I wouldn't be surprised if she pulled an upset.

Michelle Williams - Brokeback Mountain - Hell no, she does not deserve this nomination. Do not even get me started on how Anne deserved the supporting actress nomination for this movie more than Michelle did. I read that Michelle said she was just going to enjoy this because it won't happen again. That's right honey because it shouldn't have even happened now.

Catherine Keener - Capote- Seriously what movie were the voters watching when they marked her name on their ballots? There was nothing there she did nothing. I just can't believe they actually threw away two nominations in this category that could have gone to serveral more deserving people.

Amy Adams - Junebug- Haven't seen.

Best Supporting Actor
Jake Gyllenhaal - Brokeback Mountain- It's so annoying how much attention Heath gets and how little Jake gets. Jake's performance was so much better and he was the heart of the story in my opinion. They got it right last week at the BAFTA's lets hope they get it right at the Oscars and stop giving this award to all the wrong people.

Matt Dillion - Crash- At least someone got recognized for their acting in this movie. It is a really large cast and it is an ensemble but, what's important here that it gets attention. Seriously, if there is one movie from last year that you have to see it's Crash.

Paul Giamtti- Cinderella Man- He wasn't good in Sideways (a horrid movie by the way) and he wasn't that great in this. I really don't think he deserved this nomination.

William Hurt- A History of Violence- This is just out of control. The man was in one freaking scene in the whole movie, and he was so over the top I wanted to throw something at the screen.

George Clooney - Syriana- Havent' seen.

Best Actress
Reese Witherspoon -Walk The Line- Hands down the best performance of the year. Reese came through in a big way showing the nay sayers what her true fans have known for years, she is the real deal and is far more than a perky, funny blonde.

Keira Knightly - Pride & Prejudice - What a fabulous performance. I've know since I saw her in Bend It Like Beckham that she had this in her but I had no idea that it would happen so soon or that it would happen in a comedy. I thought she would have to get a real powerhouse performance in a drama to get to this point. There were dramatic moments and that probably put her over the top here. Very well earned.

Judi Dench - Mrs. Henderson Presents - Excellent performance. I was ready to argue that if they wanted to give her another nomination they should have given her a supporting on for Pride and Prejudice but I was wrong this is highly deserved. She did a nice job of mixing the comedy with drama and especially making the drama seem funny.

Felicity Huffman - Transamerica - She did do a nice job and the nomination is not all together unwarranted. But, if she pulls an upset it will be the biggest disaster since, well I don't know when but it will be bad. This is not the performance people want you to think it is and it doesn't deserve to win.

Charlize Theron - North Country - This was not the nomination I thought I would be saying should have gone to someone else but it is. This movie just didn't come together the way it should have and while her performance was good it did not transcend the movie like say Diane Lane did in Unfaithful.

Best Actor
Joaquin Phoenix - Walk The Line - Just remarkable the transformation he made. It is completely unexceptable to think he won't win and he did his own singing. This performance had everything it takes to be the big winner.

Terrance Howard -Hustle & Flow - Terrance had an amazing year and this was the icing on the cake. The movie was good and his performance was fantastic. That wasn't an easy character to make you root for but he managed to make you do just that.

Phillip Seymour Hoffman - Capote- Good performance, it just needed a little something more. I'm afraid he's going to win and I really don't think he should.

Heather Ledger- Brokeback Mountain- It was nice but it wasn't as moving as people want it to be. And yes some cowboys grow up to be like that where they barely open their mouths when they speak and he got that down the problem is it's a movie and I really need to be able to understand what he is saying. That's really where he lost me a couple of the smaller moments in the film I don't know what he said and I'd really like to know what he said, but I can't rewind the movie in theaters.

David Straithairn- Good Night, and Good Luck- So boring and just not at all what a nomination worty performance should be, in my book.

Best Director
Paul Haggis- Crash- It was well constructed from the script all the way through to the credits. I think Paul did a remarkable job. Especially considering how many actors, stories, and locations he had to work with.

Ang Lee -Brokeback Mountain- He's probably going to win and that's fine. I probably wouldn't vote for him.

Bennet Miller -Capote- Okay nomination. There were somethings that could have made the movie a little better but those weren't things that killed the movie so he did a good job.

George Clooney- Good Night, and Good Luck- Hell no, this was completely unwarranted.

Steven Speilberg -Munich- Haven't seen.

Best Picture
Crash- Hands down just the best movie of the year. Totally deserves this nomination and it would be fantastic if it could pull off the upset.

Brokeback Mountain- Good movie, deserves the nomination and attention, and if it wins it's just as good as Crash winning.

Capote- Good movie just not good enough to deserve winning.

Good Night, and Good Luck- Totally should not be nominated. The fact that this is nominated and Walk The Line isn't is just insane.

Munich - Haven't seen.

Good Night, and Good Luck

What the hell is this movie doing getting all these big time nominations for any award? It is not that good. Over the last few years there has been this disturbing trend amoungst all people who give out awards and that is to give all kinds of attention to boring "slice of life" movies. In the previous two years this was made evident by all the kudows for boring crap like Lost In Translation (the only thing worthy in that was in fact Scarlett Johanson) and Sideways. This year the trend took a slight turn in that the boring movie in question is actually a bit of a biopic.

The interesting thing here is that Good Night, and Good Luck tried to do the samething as Capote, which was to reveal a person through a very pivitol time in their life/career. However, where Capote worked so marvelously, Good Night, and Good Luck crashed and burned. There's just so much missing to keep it from being the movie it could have been. While I totally admire the people involved in for taking the risk of making this particular politically charged movie at this moment in time, they should have worked harder to make a more engaging story.

I'll discuss the unwarranted Oscar nominations in another post.


I will discuss a few things that some might considers spoilers so skip it if you don't want to know:


The stuff with Patricia Clarkson and Robert Downey Jr's characters was completely unnecessary. It's like it was there soley to emphasise the era in which the story took place and that was clear enough with out the whole thing of them being married but, hiding it because the company didn't allow it's employees to be married to each other. The part at the end when there were going to be lay-offs and the guy basically asked one of them to quit and save someone elses job was a waist of time and again not necessary.

The subplot with the character of Don Hollenbeck was also a bit of a distraction. While fine that guy killed himself and it happened at that time it didn't play out well. There were a couple reasons for this one it didn't really seem to impact the main players in the story enough to need so much screen time. And two since a lot of his issues came out of some newspaper guy named O'Brien it only caused more questions. It seemed like this O'Brien guy was out to get Hollenbeck for some reason but that reason was never disclosed and that became a distraction to the overall story.

The number onething that keeps this movie from being what it wanted to be is that there is no direct interaction between Murrow and McCarthy. Clearly that isn't something they could have just made up and thrown in the movie but, it is what is truly missing from the movie. When the hero and the villian don't come face to face in a movie it just doesn't work.



This was a movie that had all the right intentions but didn't come together right. The story itself would have been better served if they had just done it has a documentary. I saw it at a matinee and it definitely wasn't worth more than that. And really I'd recommend waiting for video if you really want to see it.

Imagine Me & You

Most people probably haven't heard of this movie. You probably need to be very in touch with not only the indie movie world, but with those movies that come from other countries and the ones that have a lgbt angle to them. This is a fabulous little romantic comedy from London focusing on the relationship between a bride and the woman her mother hires as the weddings flourist. I did see some previews for this on tv and it looked cute but what hooked me was Piper Perabo. Most people probably know her from Coyote Ugly. Hell that's where I first saw her and I've tried to see all of her stuff since then.

Imagine Me & You though peaked my interest because of another movie Piper had done called Lost & Delirious. She gave a stunning performance as a heartbroken teenage slipping into madness when her girlfriend leaves her. In Imagine Me & You she had the opportunity to play the opposite side of that coin. Not only is it a lighter movie in spirit but here she gets to play the confused one and she did it every bit as well as she has done anything else to date. People don't really see her as a lead and I know they don't see her as a romantic lead but this is not the only romantic comedy she's done and let me tell you the girl is a romantic lead, dramatic or comedic she can old her own.

The movie has an excellent story that is very well written. Some great onliners. I'm still laughing about some of them. The other actors were tops as well. Lena Heady playing the love interest nailed it. She had to play that character just right or she would come off badly and throw the whole story out of whack. (I'm also wondering how much work she's going to get offered that Keira Knightly turns down. Holy crap if you watched the movie with your eyes closed you'd swear that was Keira.) Anythony Stewart Head was a laugh riot as Rachel's (Piper) father. All those years of playing a proper Englishman on Buffy The Vampire Slayer it was great to see him really let loose in this.

While I did see this at a matinee the theater I saw it at only has matinee pricing for the first showing of the day so I paid full price. It was well worth it. If you like romantic comedies and lesbian storylines don't offend you check it out.

Mrs. Henderson Presents

This movie was not one that was on my list of movies to see until Judi Dench pulled in her Oscar nomination. I had seen some previews and it just wasn't anything I was rushing out to see in theaters. But, I am so glad she got that nomination and I went to see it. It is and excellent movie. Well written, execellently acting, good directing, everything was top notch. Which means yes Judi Dench absolutely deserved her nomination.

I'm sure people have heard that it's about a woman who wants to have nudity in her theater in London in the early part of the 20th century. Which it is but it's not the kind of nudity you would expect. It's actually quite remarkable what they did back then. It would be quite interesting to see a small theater company do something like it today.

Do to where I had to see this movie and needing to see another movie the same day I did see this at a matinee. I would have gladly paid full price to see it and would totally see it again. I highly recommend it.

Capote

Last weekend I went to see the multi-Oscar nominated Capote. Of all the things that I need to see because of nominations this is the one I wanted to see before all the awards started rolling in. It is an excellent film. Instead of doing your normal long drawn out bio-pic they focus on what is the most significant portion of his life. I really like how his working on In Cold Blood was not only the focus of the film but the events that lead to the book became an interesting sub-plot of the moive and also probably is the most interesting film adaption of the events to date.

Going in I knew it was about his life while he was writing In Cold Blood (a book which I have not read). However, I was not aware of how much time was spent on the killers. Not having read the book and being only vaguely aquainted with the subject matter of it I did not realize he himself had spent so much time with the killers. More precisely one of the killers Perry Smith. The film could have come off as nothing more than a glimpse into a man writing what is viewed as one of the greatest and most significant works of American literature ever. Yet somehow they managed to make it a deep character study of not only Capote but of Smith as well. I believe that to be the greatest achievement of the film.

As for all it's nominations. At first, even after seeing it, I wasn't sure about the best picture nomination but this is one of those movies that it takes a little while to feel the full impact of. And it's best picture nomination is warranted and it wouldn't be out of the question for it to win. The best adapted screenplay nomination very appropriate. I hope it wins. Best Actor is well earned by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. However, while I agree with him winning the Golden Globe for actor in a motion picture drama, I'm really not sure why he won over Joaquin Phoenix at the SAG awards. It was a good performance but it wasn't as powerful as Joaquin's performance. I know people won't agree and yes I know that they are vastly different. Joaquin's performance is very outward and overt while Phillip's is subtle and inward. But, to me there was just something lacking. The nomination for best director is a good one. The one that makes absolutely no since what so ever is the nomination for Cathrine Keener. I can think of at least three people more deserving of this nomination. And it is nominations like this that make people think there really are no good parts for women. If anyone deserved a supporting nomination for this movie it was Clifton Collins Jr. for his portrayal of Perry Smith.

I went to a matinee showing and I would have gladly paid to see it at night for full price.

Annapolis

So much potential and no development of that potential. That doesn't mean it was a bad movie it just wasn't nearly as good as it could have been. At times it seemed like it wanted all the subplots to be as central as the main plot. This is a problem that has surfaced in a lot of movies of late and it kills the main plot in most cases. On the upside it the acting was pretty good. Tyrese Gibson was as good as always. Jordan Brewster was as good as she could be with what she was given. She was in a lot of scenes but they didn't give her a lot of dialogue, which is a shame. There's more than just good looks in that package. James Franco was good for once. While it's not going to make me a big fan yet it was the first time I actually thought he might have some talent.


Spoilers coming up:


Well there was the primary story between Jake (James Franco) and Cole (Tyrese Gibson) which was your standard instructor picks one guy. And no one around them is sure if it's because he wants to drum the guy out or toughen him up. But there are a lot of areas where they let the story down. Like when everyone goes home for break at Christmas and Jake thinks about not going back. It doesn't seem to fit because while he has struggled it hasn't been anything that bad and considering how he's spent his whole life wanting to go to the Naval Academy it's odd that he would give up so easily.

Of course he does go back and eventually things lead to him wanting to prove himself by fighting Cole in a boxing tournament. Problem is he isn't in Cole's weight class so Jake's roomate helps him find ways to gain weight while Jake helps his roommate "Twins" (the name given to him by a superior officer) get through the obstacle course. These are the two cadets that Cole would be happy to see go as would some of their fellow cadets. Jake barely makes it to the weight he needs to hit to be in the same class as Cole. While "Twins" doesn't make it through the obstacle course. Now this was clearly done because the writer was wanting to go against the norm of these movies which would be "Twins" making it and not getting kicked out. Which I really didn't like at that moment in the movie and I came to like it even less shortly there after. "Twins" then tries to kill himself and Jake attacks Cole. (This still isn't where the problem comes in.) Cole also wants his shot at Jake so he makes sure the disiplinary hearing is moved until after the fight. A fight that Cole ends up winning by decision. And thus the problem with this main storyline. If Cole wins that's fine because Jake put up a good fight and by the end everyone was cheering for him. But Cole needed to have it stuck to him at some point, either "Twins" completes the course in the required time and stays in or Jake beats him in the ring. He should never have come out on top with both parts of the story. It's not like Jake really needed any extra incentive to get in that ring with Cole.

Yes, the writer and director did a good job of staying away from the cliches of these movies but those cliches are there for a reason. That reason is it makes for a better more satisfiying movie.


Due to all my movie veiwing this weekend I also saw this one at a matinee and while, for me, there are things that would make it worth paying more for, I wouldn't recommend paying more than that to anyone else.

Match Point

First off I must say I make a point of not seeing Woody Allen films. He's creepy and his movies are boring. There was two real reasons for seeing Match Point those being, Woody isn't in the movie and it stars Scarlett Johansson. If Woody had been in this one like most of his other films even Scarlett wouldn't have gotten me to the theater. And just like all other Woody Allen films it was slow. Luckily it had a good enough story to keep it from being boring. And the only thing that even made it worth the money to see it were the performances of Scarlett and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. The story was not at all what I thought it was from the previews.


Spoiler Alert:


So from the previews I thought it was about a married guy who has an affair. Turns out that isn't quite how it goes.

Chris (Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) actually meets Nola (Scarlett Johansson) not long after he's met Chloe (Emily Mortimer) and before they have really started dating. But Nola is dating Tom (Matthew Goode) who is Chloe's brother. Well of course Chris is immediately taken with her and the two couples begin hanging out and he really only wants to spend time with Chris and Nola so he can see Nola. He doesn't really love Chloe he just loves what her father can give him which is a big time job to make lots of money. So he goes ahead and marries her. I wouldn't much like his character for having an affair after they were married but I absolutely loathed him when it turned out that it started before they were married.

After Chris and Nola break up she disappears for awhile and then reappears one day. He runs into her at an art gallery and soon their affair takes off in full. Being the awful man that he is he wants to blame the affair on Chloe's desire to have a kid and thus their bland and scheduled sex life. Next thing you know of course Nola is pregnant. He keeps saying he's going to leave Chloe and we all know that he won't and you know Nola knows it too. This does lead to the best scene in the whole movie when Nola shows up one morning outside of Chris and Chloe's building having discovered he lied about being out of the country and she starts screaming about wanting to see Chloe and he's trying to get her in a cab. It's pretty sad that in a drama/thriller the best scene is actually rather comical. She of course threatens to tell Chloe. Leading to suspenseful ending.

Actually it's neither suspenseful or an ending. Chris plots to kill Nola and as part of his plan kills her elderly neighbor. As if I didn't hate his character enough already. This is a moment when things get a little more lame. He kills them with a shot gun. But he kills the neighbor a good hour or more before he kills Nola but no one seems to have heard the shot gun blast since no one called the cops. Yeah I'm really buying that one. There is a bit of an investigation into the murders but he managed to make it look like a robbery so with the exception of one cop that's what everyone thinks it is. At this point the ending just begins to drag and drag. It's probably a good 15 minutes longer than it needs to be. The damn thing would have had a much better ending if it had ended when he had his little breakdown with Nola and the neighbors ghosts talking to him and Nola telling him he did a sloppy job. I would have preferred the open ended ending of wondering if he'd get caught and how to the one where he got away with it and goes on to have a child with Chloe.



Went to a matinee of this one and that is all it is worth.

SAG Awards

Not a lot to say about this one because it went pretty good. Not really happy with Sandra Oh winning this time but that's what happens when they refuse to have supporting categories for television. And again the best speech of the night went to S. Epatha Merkerson. I think the best part of the night was when Crash won for best ensemble motion picture cast (or whatever it is). If you have not seen that movie you need to.

A History of Violence

Almost missed seeing this one in theaters but luckily it popped back up at our local discount theater this week. It has a good story or at least a good story idea unfortunately it didn't seem to come together quite as good as it could have. It never seemed to find the right balance between the primary story of Tom Stall (Viggo Mortensen) and his new normal life and his back story. Other than the fact that he didn't like the mob life I didn't give a defining moment for why he left it behind. I did like the visual feel of the film. It also could have been served better with some better pacing. It held my interest but just barely because it was so slow. Sadly with the exception of Maria Bello the acting was not that great. Ed Harris was good too at least he wasn't over the top with his villian. Viggo never seemed like he bought into his character completely. And William Hurt was so horridly over the top I wanted to throw something at the screen so I have no idea what people where thinking nominating him for best supporting actor for that crap.


Spoiler Time:


The part with the two guys Tom kills in his diner is really weird. The movie opens with them at some hotel in the middle of nowhere and they kill the manager, a maid, and some little girl. Apparently they've been driving across the country doing this and stealing different cars. It made no sense and while the stuff between those two bad guys was slightly funny it really just wasted time and helped in hurting the overall pacing of the movie.

When Ed Harris shows up you think things are really going to pick up but they don't. It's more about his character, Carl, messing with Tom's head. Making him think he's going to do something to his family. He never does, he just lets his opportunity come to him. Which is a nice change from how these movies usually go but it didn't move fast enough. When Carl finally gets his opportunity it's because Tom's son ran off and Carl snatches him as leverage. He never does hurt him and boy I did not see the son blowing a hole through Carl coming at all. Figured he would just do the standard you shoot him I shoot you thing. And you might think the movie would be over at that point but you would be very wrong.

See it's after that, that Tom gets a call from his brother who actually sent Carl. And it's off to Philadelphia for Tom. Yet another part of the movie that is drug out to long. And for some very odd reason he can't go straight to his brothers house. He has to stop and some sports bar and meet one of his brothers lackeys and then be taken to his brother. His brother being Richie played by William Hurt. And thus the bad acting ensues. This is 10-15 minutes that is pretty unnecessary and leads to Tom single handily killing four or five mob goons plus his brother.

He returns home and finally the damn thing ends.


Saw this at the discount theater for $2 and I would have been okay paying up to matinee price for it.