2010 ACADEMY AWARD NOMINEES

The Academy Award nominees were announced this morning.  Unfortunately, there weren’t many big surprises.  Most of the films and actors expected to be nominated all were.  However, the Best Picture category was expanded to 10 films this year rather than the usual 5.  Here are the nominees in the most important category:

Avatar 

The Blind Side

District 9

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Precious

A Serious Man

Up

Up in the Air

Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Precious, and Up in the Air were the expected front-runners.  It was the other 5 that people weren’t sure about previously.  I’ve seen all but 2 of these films and from what I’ve seen, I can say that only Up in the Air and Avatar are deserving of winning the prestigious award.  Up in the Air received 6 nominations while Avatar leads the way with 9.  It was nice to see District 9 and The Blind Side get nominated as well though.  The Blind Side was maybe the only big surprise of the nominations.  Sandra Bullock was expected to receive a nomination for her acting, but the movie was not.  It just barely missed the cut for my top 10 movies of the year.  Though it’s a movie full of cliches, it did have enough heart to make it interesting and worthwhile.

Snubs:                                                                                                                                            Of course, I’m disappointed that (500) Days of Summer got completely shut out of the nominees.  The Golden Globes had some more interesting nominations as they had nominated that film in a couple of categories along with other worthy nominees like Tobey Maguire for Brothers (also snubbed here).  Some people were hoping for The Hangover to make the list now that Best Picture was expanded to 10 films, but the Oscars are known for completely overlooking comedies.  They continued that tradition this year.  I think Zoe Saldana deserved some more recognition for her acting in Avatar, but that movie has not received any acting nominations since many people feel that the motion-capture technology used in the film hinders any true acting.  I disagree.  Well at least that piece of crap Where the Wild Things Are wasn’t nominated.

DAYBREAKERS

It seems like vampires have been everywhere lately… in the movies, on TV, and in books as well.  Daybreakers has a unique story though and is certainly more violent and gory than the other vampire stuff that has been coming out.  We all know the story of how vampires feed on human blood to survive.  Well doesn’t it make sense than that if the vampires are successful in feeding off humans, eventually the vampires would become the majority of the population?  That’s the premise of this film.

Since vampires have been turning humans into vampires, the humans now only make up about 5% of the population.  But here’s the really interesting aspect.  With less humans around, how can the vampires survive without their blood?  When humans are everywhere, it’s easy for the vampires to prey on whoever they want.  But now humans are scarce, and the vampires are rotting into disgusting-looking creatures due to the lack of blood.  These creatures are very aggressive, like monsters.  Even the regular vampires see them as a problem and begin to dispose of the creatures.

So not only is the human population endangered but now so are the vampires.  The vampires live their lives just like humans.  They ride on trains and wait at bus stops and so forth.  They even have subways called “subwalks” for them to walk through in the daytime when they can’t be exposed to sunlight.  Ethan Hawke plays a vampire who is a scientist.  Unlike most of the vampires, he is concerned about the extinction of the human race.  His company has been trying to develop a blood substitute so that vampires won’t depend on humans anymore.  That way they can survive when there are no humans left.

There’s a lot of trouble when others realize that he is trying to help the humans.  He’s also trying to come up with a cure to prevent the vampires from turning into those aggressive creatures.  He feels that a blood substitute would only help for so long.  There’s a lot of blood in this film, not just from biting necks but from decapitations and all sorts of violence.  If you like that kind of stuff, this is a pretty good film that puts an interesting twist on an old genre.

2 1/2 stars

UP IN THE AIR

George Clooney plays a man whose job is to fire people in Up in the Air.  The title refers to where he spends a great deal of his time.  He travels about 300 days out of the year all across the country.  He’s on airplanes so much that he has those special gold cards that get him immediate access on those long lines everyone hates at the airport.  His name is Ryan Bingham.  He actually enjoys spending all this time in airplanes, airports, and hotel rooms.  It’s when he is at home that he is bored.

Ryan is one those loners who doesn’t feel the need to get married or start a family.  He likes being independent and on his own.  People sometimes ask him why he lives such an isolated life, but he denies that, saying “I’m surrounded”.  This is true.  He’s around many people while in these airports and long flights.  What Ryan doesn’t really want is a true connection with someone, a lasting relationship of any kind.  He barely even sees his own family.

As I said, Ryan gets paid to fire people.  Bosses who don’t have the guts to fire people on their own, or maybe fear the employee’s immediate reaction, hire him to come in and do the dirty work for them.  Jason Bateman plays his boss who brings in a much younger new employee (Anna Kendrick) who has some ideas on how to better fire people.   She has come up with firing people through a sort of webcam.  You fire them while speaking to them through a computer screen.  This will save Ryan and his co-workers from doing all that continuous traveling.    Of course, he is not pleased about this sudden technological idea which they plan to use.  He would now be at his own home all year and not enjoying the life he has come to love.  Ironically, Ryan seems to feel like those people who have just been let go from their own jobs.  He may still have a job, but if this new advancement succeeds then the lifestyle he has become so accustomed to is over.

There is a woman (Vera Farmiga) who Ryan met at an airport recently and seems to travel almost as much as him.  She leads a very similar life, at least in regards to her job.  Neither one of them knows what the other’s life is like outside of their business trips.  He begins to click with her; soon you wonder if he has found just the right person to connect with.

A great aspect of the film is watching the various reactions of people getting fired.  The movie even intersperses actual people giving their summation of how they felt when losing their jobs.  With today’s economy the way it is, this film couldn’t be timelier.  It captures the modern era of downsizing and unemployment not only showing what it feels like to lose your way of making a living, but also what it’s like to be on the other side of that situation… to be the one who has to bear the often heartbreaking news.  The story of Ryan’s solitary lifestyle mixed with the interesting job that he has makes for one compelling piece of cinema.  This is one of the best films of the past year.

3 1/2 stars

INVICTUS

Invictus tells the story of Nelson Mandela, not long after being released from his 27 years in prison.  Wait, did I just say it tells the story of Nelson Mandela?  It really doesn’t.  It tells of how he rallied around South Africa’s rugby team in hopes of uniting the blacks and whites together post-apartheid.  The movie doesn’t really say anything about who Mandela is or what political standings he takes.  Sure, he wants to unite his people and end racism, but what actions does he want to take while in office?  Invictus will not help those who don’t know much about Mandela learn anything about him.

Morgan Freeman plays Mandela and Matt Damon plays the captain of the rugby team.  Their acting is fine but there is not much for the actors to do since there really isn’t an intriguing story here.  Clint Eastwood has directed some great movies in the last 10 years but this is probably the worst film he’s made out of all that I’ve seen from him.  I love Freeman and had higher hopes for this film, so it is quite a letdown.

It would have been interesting to see what happened after the rugby team’s run towards the World Cup.  Did the people of South Africa start to get along better?  Did racism really decline?  All we get to see is Mandela following each game the team plays.  He might as well be one of those big sports fans with a giant foam finger on his hand, not the president of a country.  There are no politics in this film at all.  We just see a peaceful old man with good intentions.  Supposedly,  the reason for his arrest was that he advocated violence and acts of sabotage against the ruling white majority of South Africa.  He certainly wasn’t always a man of peace if this is true.  Wouldn’t this have made a much more fascinating story?  I would like to learn of his earlier struggles, and then maybe what he learned all that time in prison.  All we get here is a man following rugby.  Not to mention, most Americans have no clue about how to play rugby and will be completely lost in the final rugby scene which is supposed to be a big climactic moment.  Others I’ve spoken to who have seen this film had no idea what was going on in that game either.  Did Eastwood think about that at all, or consider trying to explain the game so it would be easier to follow?  I really can’t recommend this movie to anyone who is not a big fan of rugby.

1 1/2 stars

AVATAR

I’m happy to say that the much-hyped Avatar does live up to expectations.  It’s the first movie in 12 years by director James Cameron.  His last feature film was Titanic, another movie which certainly met expectations of all the hype surrounding it.  This film is a bit different in that it’s science-fiction and not based on a real event, but it’s another spectacular adventure with a great love story sewn into it.

The premise to the film involves another planet called Pandora.  There is a substance on that planet which is very valuable to us on Earth, so scientists create “avatars” for humans to inhabit which look just like the beings that inhabit Pandora.  They are known as Na’vi.  In essence, we’re sending humans undercover to act as the Na’vi in hopes to steal the precious substance found in their land.  Sam Worthington plays Jake Sully who is one of the men sent to find this substance.  While on Pandora, he gets separated from the rest of his group and finds himself on his own.  There are many wild creatures that he must protect himself from in this strange new land, but a Na’vi female named Neytiri soon comes to Jake’s aid.

Neytiri is played perfectly by Zoe Saldana.  She plays her with a ferocity that a warrior would need to survive in such a land, but she also injects a sweet and caring side to her character that looks after Jake as she gets to know him.  Though she finds him to be quite foolish at first, they grow closer and closer to each other.  This is where the love story kicks in.  But the movie keeps an action/adventure feel to it as the group who sent Jake needs him to obtain the precious commodity and will do whatever it takes to get it.  You see, Jake is a soldier working for a very tough colonel who is ready to send in the troops.  The military think the Na’vi are a hostile group because they live like tribes with bows and arrows.  This is simply to protect themselves.  Of course, the military sees them as enemies though they have done nothing wrong or harmful to humans in anyway.

Just as in other movies like The Last Samurai and even Donnie Brasco, the main character begins to like the people he is supposed to be infiltrating.  He learns their way of life and soon becomes one of them.  One key element here is that Jake has no use of his legs due to being a soldier.  He starts the film in a wheelchair.  But in his avatar, he has full use of his legs.  He has been promised that if he is successful in his mission, he will get his “real” legs back.  So the question is whether he will fulfill his duties to those who sent him and get back to a normal life or if he will now fight for the other team. 

The movie is pure spectacle as it feels as if you are truly in another world.  We get to see creatures we’ve never seen before and other interesting sites such as mountains that float.  It also has the best use of motion-capture acting to date.  All of the avatars’ movements are made by the actors themselves, facial expressions and all.  This has been done in some other movies but usually came off a bit hokey looking or even freakish such as in The Polar Express.  The film is a very lengthy one though.  It’s over 2 1/2 hours due to the extent of the story and showing us a whole new world, literally.  Aside from that one setback of it being a bit drawn-out, it’s quite a groundbreaking film.  It’s certainly a must-see in the theatre, you do not want to miss the eye-popping visuals on the big screen that suck you into its intriguing story.

3 1/2 stars

2010 GOLDEN GLOBE NOMINEES

The nominees for the Golden Globes were announced this morning and some things I was excited about, others not so much.  Up in the Air, Precious, and The Hurt Locker have been leading the list of nominees with most award groups so far this year.  Precious certainly had some good acting, so the actors who got nominated deserve their nominations, but the movie overall was just okay.  I actually watched The Hurt Locker online since I never got a chance to see it in theatres.  This was another case of good acting, but the story just wasn’t that interesting to me.  InGlourious Basterds was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Drama along with these films (and Avatar), as well as Quentin Tarantino for Best Director.  I gave the movie 2 1/2 stars when I reviewed it which was a slightly positive review due to it being something different than the average movie fare, but I cannot imagine sitting through this dragged-out film again.  I am glad, however, that the one standout in the film, Christoph Waltz, got nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role.  He’s the only one who deserves to win for this movie.  Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs is up for Best Animated Feature Film and I gave it my worst review of anything I saw this year.  I imagine it’s hard to come up with 5 nominees for this category as there are not many worthy animated films that appeal to both kids and adults alike.  Plus, it has the least chance of winning in that category.  At least the overrated Where the Wild Things Are (the other lowest-rated movie I reviewed) only received a nomination for Best Original Score and nothing else.

What I’m very happy about is (500) Days of Summer being nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and its star, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, being nominated as well.  I don’t know if I’ve ever related to a character in a film more than the one he plays.  I also said that Sandra Bullock gave the best performance of her career in The Blind Side, so naturally she got nominated.  The same goes for Tobey Maguire in Brothers which I just reviewed.  I was glad to see him get nominated for his best performance too.  It was also a pleasant surprise to see a nomination for this year’s big comedy hit The Hangover.  Usually the Golden Globes only recognize highbrow comedies as they’ve snubbed movies like Knocked Up and Superbad in the past.  District 9 is up for Best Screenplay which I agree with for being one of the most original films of the year.  It was only the onslaught of action thrown in at the end that I didn’t care for.  Finally, it’s always great to see one of my favorite actors, Morgan Freeman, get nominated.  His nomination is for Invictus.  As of the time of this entry, I have yet to see Invictus, Up in the Air, and Avatar (which hasn’t even been released yet) but I plan on seeing them all.  Hopefully I’ll enjoy them a lot and agree with their nominations.

Here’s a link to all the nominees:        http://www.goldenglobes.org/nominations/

BROTHERS

Brothers is the best film regarding the dynamics of family relationships I’ve seen in a while.  It starts off by showing one brother who is a captain in the military, and the other brother who is just being released from prison.  You get a clear sense of which brother has taken the right plan in life and which hasn’t.

Tobey Maguire plays Captain Sam Cahill and Jake Gyllenhaal plays his ex-con brother Tommy.  Sam leads a noble life.  He’s a military man and a good family man as well.  His wife Grace, played by Natalie Portman, adores him as does their children.  Tommy, on the other hand, has no job obviously and no place to live.  So he stays with Sam and his family.  Sam is getting ready to be deployed to Afghanistan.  They have a family dinner with their father and stepmother since one brother is being welcomed home and the other is preparing to leave for a while.  Their father is a retired marine sergeant himself and he makes it quite clear that his military son is the one he is proud of.  This brings some inner-family tension but Sam doesn’t take sides with his father; he loves Tommy for who he is.  After all, he had no problem taking him in after his stint in prison.

Sam takes off to Afghanistan and his mission turns tragic.  Grace is informed of her husband’s death.  She then lets Tommy know as well.  His immediate reaction is anger, not sadness.  He wishes Sam never went into the military.  You also feel that he resents his father for paving the way down that road.  Suddenly, Tommy starts to become the man of the household.  He begins to look after Grace and her two daughters.  The children take a strong liking to Tommy now that they see this caring side of him.  Grace had a genuine dislike of Tommy before, but now they begin to bond.

If you’ve seen any trailers for this movie, you already know that Sam is not really dead.  He was either mistaken for dead or assumed to be, but he in fact became a prisoner of war.  Scenes of Sam held captive along with another soldier are interspersed with scenes of Tommy back home with the family.  Sam goes through a harrowing ordeal of torture while his family is trying to move on without him.  Eventually, he is rescued and returns home.

He comes home a changed man.  He does not want to speak of what he has gone through and pretty much keeps to himself.  His family senses the change and slowly becomes more and more worried about him.  There is now tension between the two brothers as well since Sam now suspects Tommy of sleeping with his wife.  Tobey Maguire shows much more range here than in previous work and it’s intriguing to watch this once loving family man become a distant and closed recluse of a person.  There’s a lot of good acting here, even by the two children who play the daughters.  The film moves at a good pace and builds up to some intense suspense as you wonder what will become of Sam Cahill.  How will his family adapt to his new persona, and can they be the family they once were?  See this film if you want something different and don’t mind that it’s not one of those feel-good movies simply spreading cheer to the audience.  It’s moving and makes you wonder what you would do in similar situations.

3 1/2 stars

EVERYBODY’S FINE

Everybody’s Fine is the first movie in a while that Robert De Niro has starred in which showcases him as a real actor.  Over the past few years, he’s been slumming it a little in films that don’t measure up to his earlier work.  This is a Christmas movie about family, and De Niro is the patriarch.  He plays a widower named Frank Goode who used to rely on his wife to stay in touch with his children.  Not only does he have to do that on his own now, he must also take care of his house and do everything else he counted on his wife for.  He seems to get by fine except for the fact that he’s not connecting with his grown-up children.

Frank decides to call each of them to invite them over for Christmas.  However, each one of them winds up backing out due to various restrictions.  So Frank decides to travel across the country to surprise each one of them with a visit.  Afterall, he’s not really leaving anything or anyone behind.  Kate Beckinsale, Sam Rockwell, and Drew Barrymore play the children.  With each one of them, you sense the disconnection that has built up between them and their father.  They’re all happy to see him but feel a bit lost and not sure what to do with him.  De Niro does a good job playing a father who genuinely cares about his kids yet seems to feel that he hasn’t done everything right over the years.  The film can be a bit slow at times but De Niro carries it by playing a very realistic father that many people can relate to.  Everything comes together at the end as Frank learns about each child’s present situation.  They may have kept some things to themselves but it was only because they were looking out for him.  If you want to see a film about the complexities of family relationships and communication, this is a decent but not great one.

2 1/2 stars

THE BLIND SIDE

The Blind Side is based on the true story of Michael Oher who now plays in the NFL for the Baltimore Ravens.  This film tells how he became a football player and who helped give him the chance to become one.  Michael has exactly the huge frame of a person meant to play football, but he could have been a case of unrealized potential if it weren’t for the Tuohy family.  He grew up on the rough side of town to a mother who was a crackhead with tons of other kids.  Obviously, he was not a child who got the proper attention one should get from his mother.  It seemed, however, that Michael didn’t want to be a typical product of his environment.  He didn’t get involved with drugs or become like the others who grew up around him.  He still had it rough though.  It got to the point where he had no home.

When Leigh Anne Tuohy (played by Sandra Bullock) spots him walking in the cold rain by himself with a t-shirt on, she asks her husband to pull the car over so she can go talk to him.  Next thing you know, she’s letting him stay at her family’s house.  As she realizes that he has nowhere else to go, the stay becomes a permanent one.  It takes a while before the film even gets to Michael playing any football.  This is because it focuses on his mild-mannered nature as the Tuohys gradually help him open up and feel like a part of the family.  On screen, the character of Michael Oher is one of those gentle giants that the audience loves… kind of like a more human version of John Coffey in The Green Mile.  You can’t help but like when someone who can easily inflict harm upon you with his size and strength winds up being such a caring and respectable person.  Leigh Anne Tuohy isn’t exactly to be judged by her appearance either.  She’s a dainty woman with lots of money but obviously has a very caring heart.  She also knows when to play tough in order to get her way.  She uses her southern sass and a tough attitude to get people to accept Michael rather than pre-judge him.  Even when Michael begins to play football, he doesn’t want to use his full strength and harm people.   Leigh Anne has to convince him otherwise.   I’ve never been a fan of Sandra Bullock, but this is easily the best acting of her career.  Altogether, this is quite an uplifting sports movie and it doesn’t rely too heavily on the sports part.  It’s somewhat of a rags-to-riches story in terms of Michael Oher but thanks to Leigh Anne Tuohy and her supportive family, the riches show they can be there for the rags.

3 stars

PRECIOUS: BASED ON THE NOVEL “PUSH” BY SAPPHIRE

Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire is the story of a young girl who’s had nothing but strife and heartache her whole life thus far.  Newcomer Gabourey Sidibe plays “Precious”, a 16 year-old obese mother with more problems than you can imagine.   The movie begins with Precious being called into the principal’s office at school where she is questioned about being pregnant for the 2nd time at such a young age.  At first, it seems that she is being asked this question out of disdain for not being responsible.  Then we soon learn that both pregnancies are a result of incest by her own father.

That’s bad enough; then we meet her mother.  This is one of the most vile, reprehensible mothers ever seen on screen.  The comedian Mo’Nique plays her mother Mary, but there is nothing funny about this role.  Mary treats Precious like garbage, and the reason is actually because she feels that Precious has taken her man from her by having more children with him than Mary had.  The fact that Precious was raped by this man is of no relevance to Mary, she’s jealous of her own daughter getting the attention of this despicable person.

Luckily, when Precious enrolls in an alternative school she finally comes across a person who seems to care for her.  Her teacher is a woman named Blue Rain who truly cares for her few students.  They’ve all had problems in their previous schools and Ms. Rain tries her best to give these kids hope while showing them the way to achieve an education.   It is at this school that Precious also starts to feel a camaraderie among her peers for the first time.  She finally begins to feel like someone valuable.  She didn’t even seem to realize the value of her own child beforehand, but now she does thanks to the insight of Ms. Rain.

The film is well-acted. It features a great supporting cast such as Paula Patton as Ms. Rain along with musicians Lenny Kravitz and a completely deglammed Mariah Carey showing that she can actually act unlike in the infamous Glitter.  Some may say this is an uplifting movie… which it eventually is, but there is a lot of nastiness and sadness witnessed along the way.  Women like Mary exist, it’s just an ugly truth in our society.  At least this film shows that there are also people like Precious who should simply not give up hope and seek whatever alternatives they can.

2 1/2 stars