Monday, March 7, 2011

After further review...

I must admit, that if you watch it with a loved one, and tune out the poor secondary characters, the confusion of why they are even in the movie, and a lot of cliched jokes/situations spread throughout, then you might just find the heart of The Kids Are Alright.

Also, be warned that this movie has way too much Mark Ruffalo backside in it. I still question that Academy Award Nomination. Not the backside, but the whole character. Not that he did a bad job, but I think that his character was pretty ordinary and boring. There was nothing at stake for him, at least he acted that way. In the end, it all... well, you can watch it if you want to.

So, my overall decision? It could have been Best Picture material if more time was taken to raise the stakes for everyone involved, aside from the couple. Even though it was erroneously nominated for Best Picture, it would have stood a chance with a little more care. This was a very important subject, which a lot of people would respond to. I thought that they missed a golden opportunity to tell a touching tale, and instead seemed to expect people to be effected by it just because of the content. They assumed that it would work. They should have worked a little harder at it.

Still, upon further review, this is a worthwhile view. Though I must warn you that there is a lot of needless nudity and crude content.

And, once again, this is just my opinion.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

2011 Tom Hooper = 1990 James Cameron...

Seriously. Look it up!

I finally was able to watch the Oscars. I'm not sure if it was the hassle of finding it online combined with the lateness of the evening and the fact that Barbara and the boys are away for a few days, but I kind of got a little emotional while watching this one.

A couple thoughts:

- The hosts were good. James Franco seemed like he thought that everything was lame, but it was funny that way. The opening was cool; how they were in every movie inside Alec Baldwin's dreams. Then being "Inceptioned". Creative, entertaining stuff. The show could have used a bit more of that, actually.

- Was that Kirk Douglas on stage or my Grandpa Derman? Similar in a lot of ways, but not every. Kirk's a little closer to the finish line. Great comedy, though. I really thought that he was 'on', and it was great considering I had to hold my breath to make sure that he didn't die on stage.

- I thought that it was nice that a wide variety of films won awards. King's Speech was the big winner, but with 4 it wasn't a run away like other years. I mean, Inception won 3 or 4 as well.

- If you take a look at my previous post you will see that I was pretty much spot on for all of my picks. That helped me enjoy it a lot. I was really happy for the writers, especially David Seidler. I love writers!

- Again, Tom Hooper looks EXACTLY like James Cameron when he was younger. Crazy exactly!

- I was so happy that Portman won for Black Swan. That movie deserved a little more, but it was nice, and really, how do you pick a winner in some of the categories?

- Everyone must admit that Christian Bale is an amazing actor. Why? Because I bet half of the people watching the show found out for the first time that he is in fact not an American, but from the UK. Come on, admit it. I'll admit that I found that out about a year ago.

Seriously, watch The Fighter. It's a great movie.

- I vote that Timberlake sticks to singing and Paltrow sticks to acting.

- I also vote that Ryan Gosling gets nominated over Jesse Eisenberg.

And finally, for those people who think that it is stupid and wrong to have a bunch of famous and rich people pat themselves on the back while there is so much going on in the world I have a few things to think about:

1.) If you like the Superbowl then you are a hypocrite.

2.) These people work hard, and they make great movies. One of the goals for them is to win awards. If there are no awards, then that competitive spirit slowly fades and we are left with Transformers 8 and whatever else that makes 100 mil.

3.) It's a tradition, and it's cultural. That's the way the world works.

4.) Show's over. Back to hockey.