Zero Dark Thirty

   I'm so glad the Emma Stone hype is finally over because now people can focus on another actor from The Help, Jessica Chastain.  You know, the good one?  With all the films she's been in lately this girl is on fire.  A character actor she is not.  I've only seen a few movies that she has been in, and all were very different causing her to be able to portray many different characters in a believable way.  Her performance as a C.I.A. agent actively involved in the manhunt for Osama Bin Laden in Zero Dark Thirty has brought her her first nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role.  I haven't witnessed the other women nominated for this award in their current films yet so I can't quite judge.  However, I do believe that she has a long acting life ahead of her, and if she doesn't get the Oscar this time, I don't doubt she will eventually.
    There has been controversy with this film, not only with the amount of torture being portrayed, but the fact that there is any torture at all.  Senators are furious with Kathryn Bigelow's (Oscar winner for Best Director-The Hurt Locker) decision to show audiences that torture was used to lead the C.I.A. to Osama's hiding spot. They insist torture was not used during the post 9/11 events.  Whether or not this is true (I leave my opinion out as this is not a political blog but a movie review blog), I do believe that Kathryn Bigelow was robbed for an Oscar nom for Best Director again.  However, that didn't stop the Academy for nominating Zero Dark Thirty for Best Picture.  A well deserved nomination, however I don't think it will win with all the controversy (even though I personally don't think it's as bad as the controversy following Django Unchained).
   Other nominations this film received were:  Best Achievement in Editing, Best Achievement in Sound Editing, and Best Original Screenplay.  Yeah I got nothing.  No one really cares about Editing or Sound Editing, plus my vote goes to Life of Pi which is a totally different blog yet to come.  As for writing, it was pretty good.  Sorry I don't have much else to say, but I was really excited to type this blog so I can praise Jessica Chastain, and now that I've done that I have nothing left to say.  See the film.  It was good!

Django Unchained

I had thought I'd seen the worst of Quentin Tarantino by just watching parts of his movie.  Boy was I wrong.  This was by far the grossest, most inappropriate, and offensive films I have ever seen.  It's like the douchebag said "I don't want to make a film, I just want to make people feel uncomfortable".  It worked.  I felt like I was watching an Eli Roth film.  I don't want to spend too much time discussing this movie because it still gives me nightmares.  I only watched it because it's nominated for Oscars, but it helped me discover my hate for Tarantino films is more powerful than my love for my future husband (Leonardo Dicaprio).

Thoughts on nominations:

Best Film (Not!  This was only nominated because it helps the old folks of the Academy reminisce on the times of the Spaghetti Western and original Clint Eastwood and John Wayne movies. Oh yeah it's modernized!  We're old men, we love violence and swearing.  And why not throw in a fake penis.)

Best Cinematography ( I don't know.  My eyes were closed during most of the movie so I couldn't really tell how good it was)

Best Sound Editing (Oh yeah. It was loud.  And even though I had my eyes closed, I could still hear the realistic sounds of a man being eaten alive by dogs, or another man having his eyes poked out, or whatever clever ways we can think of to torture someone that wasn't featured in a Saw movie)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz (Water for Elephants; Inglorious Basterds) (Yeah he did a good job playing the complete opposite of his Water for Elephants character.  I don't really want to know about the latter film I mentioned he was in but he was a good good guy in this terrible movie)

Best Writing, Original Screenplay (If it was written sans violence and swearing and nudity, then yes it deserves this award.  But knowing the sicko that Tarantino is, I highly doubt he left anything out in the script.)

If you're like the rest of America and like watching disgusting movies, then go see it.  If, like myself, you don't like overly disturbing images then please avoid it!  

Another Year of Not Watching Any of the Nominees

• Best Picture

• Amour Nominees to be determined 
• Argo Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck and George Clooney, Producer*
• Beasts of the Southern Wild Dan Janvey, Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, Producers 
• Django Unchained Stacey Sher, Reginald Hudlin and Pilar Savone, Producers *
• Les Misérables Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward and Cameron Mackintosh, Producers*
• Life of Pi Gil Netter, Ang Lee and David Womark, Producers*
• Lincoln Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers 
• Silver Linings Playbook Donna Gigliotti, Bruce Cohen and Jonathan Gordon, Producers* 
• Zero Dark Thirty Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow and Megan Ellison, Producers*

• Actor in a Leading Role

• Bradley Cooper Silver Linings Playbook* 
• Daniel Day-Lewis Lincoln 
• Hugh Jackman Les Misérables* 
• Joaquin Phoenix The Master 
• Denzel Washington Flight

• Actress in a Leading Role

  • Jessica Chastain Zero Dark Thirty*
  • Jennifer Lawrence Silver Linings Playbook* 
  • Emmanuelle Riva Amour 
• Quvenzhané Wallis Beasts of the Southern Wild 
• Naomi Watts The Impossible 

• Actor in a Supporting Role

  • Alan Arkin Argo*
  • Robert De Niro Silver Linings Playbook* 
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman The Master
  • Tommy Lee Jones Lincoln 
  • Christoph Waltz Django Unchained* 

• Actressin a Supporting Role

  • Amy Adams The Master 
  • Sally Field Lincoln 
  • Anne Hathaway Les Misérables* 
  • Helen Hunt The Sessions 
  • Jacki Weaver Silver Linings Playbook* 

• Animated Feature Film

  • Brave Mark Andrews and Brenda Chapman 
  • Frankenweenie Tim Burton 
  • ParaNorman Sam Fell and Chris Butler 
  • The Pirates! Band of Misfits Peter Lord 
  • Wreck-It Ralph Rich Moore 

• Cinematography

  • Anna Karenina Seamus McGarvey 
  • Django Unchained Robert Richardson* 
  • Life of Pi Claudio Miranda*
  • Lincoln Janusz Kaminski 
  • Skyfall Roger Deakins 

• Costume Design

  • Anna Karenina Jacqueline Durran  
  • Les Misérables Paco Delgado* 
  • Lincoln Joanna Johnston 
  • Mirror Mirror Eiko Ishioka 
  • Snow White and the Huntsman Colleen Atwood 

• Directing

  • Amour Michael Haneke
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild Benh Zeitlin 
  • Life of Pi Ang Lee* 
  • Lincoln Steven Spielberg 
  • Silver Linings Playbook David O. Russell*

• Documentary Feature

  • 5 Broken Cameras Emad Burnat and Guy Davidi 
  • The Gatekeepers Nominees to be determined 
  • How to Survive a Plague Nominees to be determined 
  • The Invisible War Nominees to be determined 
  • Searching for Sugar Man Nominees to be determined 

• Documentary Short

  • Inocente Sean Fine and Andrea Nix Fine 
  • Kings Point Sari Gilman and Jedd Wider 
  • Mondays at Racine Cynthia Wade and Robin Honan 
  • Open Heart Kief Davidson and Cori Shepherd Stern 
  • Redemption Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill 

• Film Editing

  • Argo William Goldenberg* 
  • Life of Pi Tim Squyres* 
  • Lincoln Michael Kahn 
  • Silver Linings Playbook Jay Cassidy and Crispin Struthers* 
  • Zero Dark Thirty Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg*

• Foreign Language Film

  • Amour Austri
  • Kon-Tiki Norway 
  • No Chile 
  • A Royal Affair Denmark 
  • War Witch Canada 

• Makeup and Hairstyling

  • Hitchcock Howard Berger, Peter Montagna and Martin Samuel*
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Peter Swords King, Rick Findlater and Tami Lane 
  • Les Misérables Lisa Westcott and Julie Dartnell* 

• Music

  Original Score
  • Anna Karenina Dario Marianelli 
  • Argo Alexandre Desplat* 
  • Life of Pi Mychael Danna* 
  • Lincoln John Williams 
  • Skyfall Thomas Newman

• Music

  Original Song
  • "Before My Time" from Chasing Ice Music and Lyric by J. Ralph 
  • "Everybody Needs A Best Friend" from Ted Music by Walter Murphy; Lyric by Seth MacFarlane*
  • "Pi's Lullaby" from Life of Pi Music by Mychael Danna; Lyric by Bombay Jayashri*
  • "Skyfall" from Skyfall Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth  
  • "Suddenly" from Les Misérables Music by Claude-Michel Schönberg; Lyric by Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boublil* 

• Production Design

  • Anna Karenina Sarah Greenwood (Production Design); Katie Spencer (Set Decoration) 
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Dan Hennah (Production Design); Ra Vincent and Simon Bright (Set Decoration) 
  • Les Misérables Eve Stewart (Production Design); Anna Lynch-Robinson (Set Decoration)* 
  • Life of Pi David Gropman (Production Design); Anna Pinnock (Set Decoration)* 
  • Lincoln Rick Carter (Production Design); Jim Erickson (Set Decoration) 

• Short Film

  Animated
  • Adam and Dog Minkyu Lee 
  • Fresh Guacamole PES 
  • Head over Heels Timothy Reckart and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly 
  • Maggie Simpson in "The Longest Daycare" David Silverman 
  • Paperman John Kahrs

• Short Film

  Live Action
  • Asad Bryan Buckley and Mino Jarjoura
  • Buzkashi Boys Sam French and Ariel N
  • Curfew Shawn Christensen 
  • Death of a Shadow (Dood van een Schaduw) Tom Van Avermaet and Ellen De Waele 
  • Henry Yan England 

• Sound Editing

  • Argo Erik Aadahl and Ethan Van der Ryn* 
  • Django Unchained Wylie Stateman*
  • Life of Pi Eugene Gearty and Philip Stockton* 
  • Skyfall Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers 
  • Zero Dark Thirty Paul N.J. Ottosson*

• Sound Mixing

  • Argo John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff and Jose Antonio Garcia* 
  • Les Misérables Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson and Simon Hayes* 
  • Life of Pi Ron Bartlett, D.M. Hemphill and Drew Kunin* 
  • Lincoln Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom and Ronald Judkins 
  • Skyfall Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell and Stuart Wilson

• Visual Effects

  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White 
  • Life of Pi Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer and Donald R. Elliott* 
  • Marvel's The Avengers Janek Sirrs, Jeff White, Guy Williams and Dan Sudick
  • Prometheus Richard Stammers, Trevor Wood, Charley Henley and Martin Hill 
  • Snow White and the Huntsman Cedric Nicolas-Troyan, Philip Brennan, Neil Corbould and Michael Dawson 

• Writing

  Adapted Screenplay
  • Argo Written by Chris Terrio* 
  • Beasts of the Southern Wild Screenplay by Lucy Alibar & Benh Zeitlin 
  • Life of Pi Written by David Magee* 
  • Lincoln Written by Tony Kushner 
  • Silver Linings Playbook Written by David O. Russell*

• Writing

  Original Screenplay
  • Amour Written by Michael Haneke 
  • Django Unchained Written by Quentin Tarantino* 
  • Flight Written by John Gatins 
  • Moonrise Kingdom Written by Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola 
  • Zero Dark Thirty Written by Mark Boal*

The Amazing Spider-Man

Although it wasn't amazing, The Amazing Spider-Man was pretty damn good.  When I heard rumors about 4 years ago that they were making a fourth Spider-Man, but with different actors and a different director, I was very worried.  Spider-Man is by far my favorite superhero, and the only superhero movie I'll watch (with the occasional Greens just because of their cast though), and I grew to love Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, and obviously James Franco.  So, naturally, I would be worried when told those actors were taken out of the equation.  Fast forward a few years.  I'm actually kind of excited to find out that Andrew Garfield (The Social Network) would be playing Peter Parker.  I figured if Batman and Superman can have multiple actors playing the same protagonist, then Spider-Man can too, and it did help that Garfield is smokin'!  Of course Emma Stone (Superbad; Crazy, Stupid, Love; The Help; and pretty much every other movie) had to be in it as Gwen Stacy because apparently her and those bug eyes are the hottest thing right now.  She made a good Gwen Stacy; I think this was one of her more believable characters.  I only hate her because she's dating Andrew, but it made the chemistry in their scenes that much better.  I'm not worried though, because I'm sure once this slew of Spidey movies is done filming they'll break up like everyone else does.  My favorite scene with them is when Parker grabs her ass with his web and spins her toward him so they can have a hot make out scene.  Mmm, what I wouldn't give to have a hot superhero lure me to him with his web!  Anyway on to the review....

The Amazing Spider-Man directed by Marc Webb (500 Days of Summer, great movie) actually follows the comic book a little more closely than the first three Spider-Man films.  Parker spends a good part of the movie trying to figure out the disappearance of his parents, which his parents are never mentioned in the first three.  It also goes about showing how he ended up with Aunt May (Sally Fields, Brothers & Sisters Forrest Gump);  and Uncle Ben (Martin Sheen, The Departed; The West Wing) in the first place. At first I thought Fields and Sheen were an unlikely match, and I was a little thrown off about how much younger Fields looks than Sheen, but I guess they're closer in age than I realized.  In this version, the audience got to see more of Uncle Ben and Peter's relationship, making it sadder than the first film when he gets shot.  We also see Peter grieve more.  Garfield's Parker goes more overboard with the revenge than Maguire's Parker.  A good part of the film shows Spidey trying to get revenge by trapping several men that look like Uncle Ben's killer without actually finding him unlike the first film.

 This film also sticks to the comic book by having the character of Dr. Curt Connors (Rhys Ifans, The Five-Year Engagement; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1), although they add a villain The Lizard, again not recognizing Doc Ock as the first villain.  

Its hard to say which Peter Parker is better because Maguire and Garfield put their own "spin" (pun intended) on the spider in spandex.  Tobey is more of the smart, nerdy Parker who's love for photography is very prominent in all 3 of his films.  Garfield, however is more of the smart yet awkward Parker, who hardly ever has his camera in his hands, but his love for skateboarding and Gwen Stacy are pretty prominent in this film.  The film also shows Garfield making his own webbing device, much like in the comics, while Maguire's Parker just gained that power after being bitten. (Speaking of being bitten, the cheesiest line in the movie was when Stacy responds to Parker's "I've been bitten" with a "Me too".)   Despite being different Parkers, the differences worked for each actor and still did the character justice.

I highly recommend this film.  I mean, there's the obvious $35 million it raked in, which proves right there it's a great movie, but I'm also telling you it's a great movie.  But you don't have to take my word on it, see for yourself.  Or take my word on it, otherwise, why would you be reading this blog?

Jeff, Who Lives at Home

I went into this movie thinking I was going to be constantly laughing, and although there were several laughs, Jeff, Who Lives at Home had a really great story line to which I feel I can relate.  Jeff (Jason Segel; The Muppets, How I Met Your Mother) lives in his mother's (Susan Sarandon; Mr. Woodcock, Thelma & Louise) basement and begins his journey, physically and metaphorically, to The Home Depot to pick up wood glue for his mother.  After a person calls the wrong number, looking for a Kevin, he believes its his destiny to find this Kevin.  After running into a Kevin (Evan Ross; 90210, According to Greta; little known fact-he's also the son of Diana Ross!) an unfortunate event leads him to run into his older brother Pat (Ed Helms; The Office, The Hangovers).  They continue the rest of the day tracking down Pat's wife, Linda (Judy Greer; The Descendants, Love and Other Drugs) who may or may not be committing adultery.

Jeff, Who Lives at Home is directed by Jay and Mark Duplass (Cyrus, Baghead) who do a lot of award winning independent films.  I can relate to the character of Jeff because he is a strong believer in signs and finding out what is his destiny.  He follows what he believes are signs to lead him closer to finding answers.  He is misunderstood from his cynic brother who doesn't really believe in signs and is among those people that think the universe is random.  It was those signs, however, that lead him to his brother twice and helped solve the mystery of his sister in law.  Those signs also lead him to the major event that happened in a surprising ending.  I'm not trying to be vague, but I don't want to give anything away. 

I believe the lesson of this story is that everything happens for a reason, and that is one of my favorite lessons.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Of course I have to compare both versions of the movie to the book.  Surprisingly, the American version is more like the book than the Swedish version.  I thought it would be the other way around.  Personally, I think all the books in the Millennium series are boring.  I'm finding it difficult to get through the third novel.  Its not really a concept I like or relate to, and I don't really like the films either.  As an art piece they were good, but the storyline was boring.  So I'll just discuss the two films in this entry.

Now here's where the first difference begin.  Playing Mikael Blomkvist in the Swedish version was Michael Nyqvist.  Now excuse me for being rude, but either they don't have attractive people in Sweden (which based on the actors in the first and second film seems to be true) or he's considered attractive in Sweden.  For being such a slut, I thought Blomkvist had to be good looking.  Then you have Daniel Craig playing him in the American version.  I don't see it, but apparently women here love him and find him extremely good looking.  So there's the first huge difference.  Who's the better Kalle Blomkvist:  creepy old guy or just old guy?

The opening credits for the American version was very artsy, and it gave me the impression that they were trying too hard.  Luckily, it stopped at that.  In the first Swedish movie, they didn't make Blomkvist seem as much as a slut as he really is.  They completely took out the affair with Erika Berger (although they included it in The Girl who Plays with Fire) and Cecilia Wagner.  In the American version, they not only show their affair, but Lisbeth Salander also explains it while discussing what she found out about him.  They also omit the relationship he has with Cecilia. 

I am kind of curious as to why the Swedish version decided to omit the fact that Blomkvist has a daughter.  They decide to have Lisbeth figure out the Biblical references and send it to him, blowing her cover.  In the book and the American film, she isn't still hacking into his computer and reading his work.  Making him able to suddenly drop by her apartment unannounced once he is told who she is.  That was actually my favorite scene in the book.  I enjoyed reading that first conversation when they met, and I was upset the Swedish version took it out.

The American version included the part when Lisbeth finds her guardian Holmer Palgren after his stroke, but they also continue to show her visiting him at the hospital when she's supposed to think he's dead until the second book.  The Swedish version doesn't include Palmgreen, but has her visiting her mother in the hospital in said.  American version doesn't mention her mother.  Both movies leave out the funeral.
It was interesting that both movies decided to write out Anita Wagner.  They still spoke about her but she was dead in both films.  I thought she played a pretty important role in the novel.
I didn't like how both films went in to the second novel (The Girl who Played with Fire)even if it was for a brief time.  The Swedish film showed 13 year old Lisbeth lighting a man on fire, though the audience doesn't know who either characters are.  That didn't bother me as much as the American film having Lisbeth tell Blomkvist that she lit her father on fire.  It goes against her character, who is very private, and it also takes away from the big secret discovered in the second book.  Unless the American's don't plan on making the rest of the Millennium films, I don't understand why they had her tell him that story.
There were plenty of other minor differences between the two films and the novel, but one last big one, that I don't quite understand, is the how Harald Wagner is perceived.  In the novel and the Swedish film, Harald is a nasty, old man.  His attitude made him a possible suspect of the murder of Harriet.  I don't why they decided to make him a completely different type of person in the American version.  Harald was very nice to Blomkvist and even let him look through his photo albums, which is how he discovered the picture of Henrik.  If I ever meet the screenwriters, I'd like to ask them why they went that route.  There's a lot of writers of adapted screenplays for whom I have a lot of questions.

All in all, the films were okay.  Not sure which ones I like better.  So far, I think the second Swedish film was more similar to the second novel.  The books suck though, just my opinion.

The Tree of Life

I think some films should come with cliff notes. This is true for Terrence Malick's (The New World, The Thin Red Line) film The Tree of Life. Since I'm too dense to understand this film for its true meaning, this will be a short entry. Now I haven't seen any of his other films (although my love for the Disney movie Pocahontas makes me want to see The New World) so I don't know if this is something different for him, but for lack of a better term, The Tree of Life is artsy. I remember seeing a trailer for it months ago, and even though I wasn't sure what it was about, I knew I really wanted to see it because it had so much artistic elements to it that films are lacking today. The toymaker in Hugo use to be a director, but before that he was an artist and a magician so he decided to bring art and magic into films, and I thought that was so wonderful. The Tree of Life had such amazing cinematography that I kept forgetting it was probably mostly CG, even though the dinosaurs look so much more realistic than the Jurassic Park ones. I get the ones in JP were supposed to be robots, but still. Maybe if they remade it today, it would look better. But let's not get any ideas, the last thing we need is a remake. What happened to being original? Malick has that originality, at least in this film, that other films lack. Even though I didn't totally get the story, it was amazing watching these colors in everyday nature unfold before my eyes.

The Tree of Life is nominated for three Oscars. Best Film, Best Achievement in Cinematography, and Best Director. I honesty believe that it deserves Best Cinematography, and I've seen about half of the nominees. However, it's a tough decision on Best Director or Best Film. I think too many people didn't understand it enough to appreciate it to make it become Best Film. Also, I heard even some people walked out. Looking around the theater today, I saw that the majority of the audience (only a couple handful of people) were viewing the film alone. I think it's better appreciated alone because then you're not tempted to either explain it or have it explained to you. It's like a painting where everyone has their own interpretation of it, or at least that's what I think. I'm glad I was encouraged to see it in the theater because it's definitely more enjoyable on the big screen.

The Tree of Life stars Brad Pitt, Sean Penn aka Dustin Hoffman because I confuse the two a lot, and Jessica Chastain (who for some reason got nominated for The Help but not Tree of Life). So that's my comment on it, short and sweet.

The Oscars are tomorrow, and unfortunately I didn't see as many nominees as I wanted, but I saw some good ones. It's hard to decide who will get Best Picture, probably The Help, but hopefully not, and I guess that's why I'm not on the Academy. Good luck tomorrow nominees. May the odds be ever in your favor.