Continuing on with my look at previous Best Picture nominees with the nominees from 2010.
'127 Hours' (R)
Based on a true story, mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive. From Danny Boyle, the Academy Award winning director of 'Slumdog Millionaire'.
This is one I rented from Redbox almost a month after the Oscars because that's when it finally became available. So by then I already knew about how James Franco bombed as co-host of the Oscars. Watching this did I think of all that? Perhaps, because while it is based on a true story I had a very hard time trying to take this seriously. From Franco hallucinating a giant blown up Scooby-Doo, doing his own "radio show" trying to keep his spirits up, drinking his own urine, the 'Operation' sound effects during the amputation scene....yeah. I could go on and on. It's not a bad movie by any means.
OSCARS WON: None
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Actor - James Franco, Best Adapted Screenplay - Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy, Best Original Score, Best Original Song - "If I Rise", Best Film Editing
Based on a true story, mountain climber Aron Ralston (James Franco) becomes trapped under a boulder while canyoneering alone near Moab, Utah and resorts to desperate measures in order to survive. From Danny Boyle, the Academy Award winning director of 'Slumdog Millionaire'.
This is one I rented from Redbox almost a month after the Oscars because that's when it finally became available. So by then I already knew about how James Franco bombed as co-host of the Oscars. Watching this did I think of all that? Perhaps, because while it is based on a true story I had a very hard time trying to take this seriously. From Franco hallucinating a giant blown up Scooby-Doo, doing his own "radio show" trying to keep his spirits up, drinking his own urine, the 'Operation' sound effects during the amputation scene....yeah. I could go on and on. It's not a bad movie by any means.
OSCARS WON: None
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Actor - James Franco, Best Adapted Screenplay - Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy, Best Original Score, Best Original Song - "If I Rise", Best Film Editing
'Black Swan' (R)
A ballet dancer (Natalie Portman) wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan.
This is a very good movie. It's very well acted by Natalie Portman, well shot, and often it's just downright creepy and messes with your mind. It makes you question if certain things are actually happening or if it's all just in Natalie Portman's head. She deserved her Oscar for this performance. Yep, that's pretty much all I've got to say about 'Black Swan'.
OSCAR WON: Best Actress - Natalie Portman
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Director - Darren Aronofsky, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing
A ballet dancer (Natalie Portman) wins the lead in "Swan Lake" and is perfect for the role of the delicate White Swan - Princess Odette - but slowly loses her mind as she becomes more and more like Odile, the Black Swan.
This is a very good movie. It's very well acted by Natalie Portman, well shot, and often it's just downright creepy and messes with your mind. It makes you question if certain things are actually happening or if it's all just in Natalie Portman's head. She deserved her Oscar for this performance. Yep, that's pretty much all I've got to say about 'Black Swan'.
OSCAR WON: Best Actress - Natalie Portman
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Director - Darren Aronofsky, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing
A look at the early years of boxer "Irish" Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and his brother Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale) who helped train him before going pro in the mid 1980s.
The first movie I've seen directed by David O. Russell, who has movies that I'll be talking about for the 2012 nominees and my wrap-up of 2013's nominees after the Oscars on Monday. So what did I think of 'The Fighter'? The acting in this movie is great. Christian Bale constantly gains and loses weight for roles, and in this he's so skinny he really does look like the crack addict that his character is supposed to be. Mark Wahlberg and Amy Adams are also great too. And honestly the acting is the only thing I really liked about it. It's slow and I just couldn't really get invested in the story.
Bale deserved his Oscar. I still believe that Hailee Steinfeld from 'True Grit' should have win over Melissa Leo in this movie.
OSCARS WON: Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale, Best Supporting Actress - Melissa Leo
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Director - David O. Russell, Best Original Screenplay - Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson, Best Film Editing
'Inception' (PG-13)
Skilled extractor Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio) is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible.
Christopher Nolan's follow up to 'The Dark Knight' brought us to the world of dreams. It's very well acted, shot well, the score by Hans Zimmer is now copied in almost every trailer for any blockbuster I've seen since, and the special effects look extremely realistic. It gets complicated amid all the "dreams within dreams", but for the most part it's easy to follow along to...until the final 20 seconds of the movie that makes you question everything that you just saw previously. In the theater there was one big collective groan right as the movie cut to black and the credits started rolling.
OSCARS WON: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay - Christopher Nolan, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction
Skilled extractor Dom (Leonardo DiCaprio) is offered a chance to regain his old life as payment for a task considered to be impossible.
Christopher Nolan's follow up to 'The Dark Knight' brought us to the world of dreams. It's very well acted, shot well, the score by Hans Zimmer is now copied in almost every trailer for any blockbuster I've seen since, and the special effects look extremely realistic. It gets complicated amid all the "dreams within dreams", but for the most part it's easy to follow along to...until the final 20 seconds of the movie that makes you question everything that you just saw previously. In the theater there was one big collective groan right as the movie cut to black and the credits started rolling.
OSCARS WON: Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay - Christopher Nolan, Best Original Score, Best Art Direction
'The Kids Are All Right' (R)
Two children (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) conceived by artificial insemination to two lesbian parents (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) bring their biological father (Mark Ruffalo) into their family life.
Rented this one from Redbox shortly after the nominations came out. I chuckled every now and then and thought that overall it was okay but I had two thoughts in my mind:
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Actress - Annette Bening, Best Supporting Actor - Mark Ruffalo, Best Original Screenplay - Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
Two children (Mia Wasikowska and Josh Hutcherson) conceived by artificial insemination to two lesbian parents (Annette Bening and Julianne Moore) bring their biological father (Mark Ruffalo) into their family life.
Rented this one from Redbox shortly after the nominations came out. I chuckled every now and then and thought that overall it was okay but I had two thoughts in my mind:
- This got nominated for all these awards? Really? Honestly, I didn't think it should've been nominated at all.
- If it was about a straight couple instead of a lesbian couple, this would not have gotten as much acclaim as it did.
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Actress - Annette Bening, Best Supporting Actor - Mark Ruffalo, Best Original Screenplay - Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg
The story of King George VI (Colin Firth) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, his impromptu ascension to the throne and the speech therapist Lionel Logue (Geoffrey Rush) who helped the unsure monarch become worthy of it.
Saw this shortly after the nominations came out and awards momentum had begun starting to build in favor of 'King's Speech'. I thought it was very good, with a strong lead performance by Colin Firth. Sometimes it gets a bit heavy handed with it's more dramatic scenes, but those didn't bother me a whole lot. But between that it is an inspirational story. And sometimes the movie is quite funny, particularly the scene where King George has to shout a barrage of f-words and other British vulgarities after Lionel Logue notices that King George doesn't stammer when he swears. That scene alone is why this movie is Rated R with no other objectionable content other than that scene of profanities.
I'll probably mention this again for the next movie, but 'The Social Network' was winning awards left and right until the Director's Guild of America awarded Tom Hooper as Best Director for 'King's Speech' and then the momentum swung in this movies favor for the rest of awards season. As soon as 'King's Speech' won I immediately thought that it was overrated and that 'Social Network' should have won.
I'll have another Tom Hooper movie to talk about for the 2012 nominees.
OSCARS WON: Best Picture, Best Director - Tom Hooper, Best Actor - Colin Firth, Best Original Screenplay - David Seidler,
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Supporting Actor - Geoffrey Rush, Best Supporting Actress - Helena Bonham Carter, Best Original Score, Best Sound Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing
'The Social Network' (PG-13)
Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers (Armie Hammer) who claimed he stole their idea, and the cofounder (Andrew Garfield) who was later squeezed out of the business.
Sure some people might scoff at the fact that this is a movie about the creation of Facebook. But those people really should give this movie a chance. It is a great movie. Sure it is about the creation of Facebook, but it goes a lot deeper than that. Twisting and turning themes of greed, friendship, and betrayal as one man (allegedly) puts himself at the top and discards those who he feels he's better than and no longer needs after he's done with them.
This was getting critical acclaim and was winning awards left and right throughout late 2010 and early 2011. That is, until late January came along and 'The King's Speech' then started to pick up awards left and right and as stated earlier won Best Picture. I knew it was probably going to lose to 'King's Speech''s sudden awards momentum, but I was still a bit mad when it won over this movie. I even bought this on DVD because of frustrated I was.
OSCARS WON: Best Adapted Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Director - David Fincher, Best Actor - Jesse Eisenberg, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography
Harvard student Mark Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisenberg) creates the social networking site that would become known as Facebook, but is later sued by two brothers (Armie Hammer) who claimed he stole their idea, and the cofounder (Andrew Garfield) who was later squeezed out of the business.
Sure some people might scoff at the fact that this is a movie about the creation of Facebook. But those people really should give this movie a chance. It is a great movie. Sure it is about the creation of Facebook, but it goes a lot deeper than that. Twisting and turning themes of greed, friendship, and betrayal as one man (allegedly) puts himself at the top and discards those who he feels he's better than and no longer needs after he's done with them.
This was getting critical acclaim and was winning awards left and right throughout late 2010 and early 2011. That is, until late January came along and 'The King's Speech' then started to pick up awards left and right and as stated earlier won Best Picture. I knew it was probably going to lose to 'King's Speech''s sudden awards momentum, but I was still a bit mad when it won over this movie. I even bought this on DVD because of frustrated I was.
OSCARS WON: Best Adapted Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin, Best Original Score, Best Film Editing
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Director - David Fincher, Best Actor - Jesse Eisenberg, Best Sound Mixing, Best Cinematography
The toys are mistakenly delivered to a day-care center instead of the attic right before Andy leaves for college, and it's up to Woody to convince the other toys that they weren't abandoned and to return home.
Only the third animated movie to be nominated for Best Picture, after 'Beauty and the Beast' and 'Up'. It is Pixar's highest grossing movie to date, and the only animated movie to gross over $1 billion worldwide. What can I say that already hasn't been said about 'Toy Story 3'? You'll laugh out loud, you'll cry, it's a great conclusion to honestly one of the better film trilogies out there. It was my favorite movie from 2010, and I can watch it constantly and never get tired of it. And to be perfectly honest, with how I feel about this movie combined with how the ending of the movie plays out, I don't want a 'Toy Story 4'. This trilogy is perfect as is.
OSCARS WON: Best Animated Feature, Best Original Song - "We Belong Together"
ALSO NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay - Michael Arndt, Best Sound Editing
A tough U.S. Marshal (Jeff Bridges) helps a stubborn young woman (Hailee Steinfeld) track down her father's murderer (Josh Brolin).
The first western to have been nominated for Best Picture since 1992's 'Unforgiven'. This was a great movie that in my opinion belongs with other classic westerns. Great cinematography, great performances...The Coen Brothers knock this one way out of the park. I'll have more about this when I do my post about remakes.
OSCARS WON: None
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Director - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Best Actor - Jeff Bridges, Best Supporting Actress - Hailee Steinfeld, Best Adapted Screenplay - Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design
An unflinching Ozark Mountain girl (Jennifer Lawrence) hacks through dangerous social terrain as she hunts down her drug-dealing father while trying to keep her family intact.
I got this from Redbox after the Oscars had already happened and simply put I severely disliked this movie. It was BORING. Glaciers move at a quicker pace than this movie. Since I was bored to tears, it was awfully hard to get invested. Is anything really all that bad about it? Not really. I mean the acting is fine and it has the potential to be an interesting...but man is it hard to sit through. On the plus side, it was Jennifer Lawrence's breakout role. Not her first, but it's the one that put her on the map.
OSCARS WON: None
NOMINATED FOR: Best Picture, Best Actress - Jennifer Lawrence, Best Supporting Actor - John Hawkins, Best Adapted Screenplay - Debra Granik and Anne Rosellini
No comments:
Post a Comment