| Underrated movies... |
[Apr. 15th, 2008|12:06 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  curious | ] |
 Would you look at that? Almost two months since my last entry... pfff... slacker! ;)
So I just saw Penelope and I noticed that it had a rotten 50% on Rotten Tomatoes... Not the first time this year that I disagree with the top dogs in the critics world... (just check back a few posts for my impression of Oscar winning movies). Sometimes it's cool to rave about a movie when the big guys have issued very favorable critics... Movie critics are not immune to herd instincts. They are after all human (there are some I suspect of being that damn last Cylon but that's another matter entirely ;p).
So anyway, being the independent thinker, I understand that I sometimes hate something others love. It's all relatove anyway. I have trouble understanding however the gang mentality that make critics gang up on movies that it's not cool to like. Penelope being one among at least two in the same vein that I loved these past few months and everyone paid to see movies seem to have hated even more than I hated No Country For Old Men!
My thoughts on Penelope... Not Oscar-worthy by any standard but a nice constant little fantasy flick that stays true to its principle and manage to both surprise and take the usual road at the same time. The cast does its job efficiently. Granted, the direction never gets out of minor league and the music sucks (!) but it does its job well. It gets a few chuckles here and there. And most importantly it doesn't dwell on the "love" element of the story... (No. I'm not a big fan of "romantic comedies" which are usually in my opinion neither romantic nor funny anymore and sport the worst cast available.) So why all the hatred? Is it not cliché enough to satisfy the bland-loving crowd? Is it too 'fantastic' with the curse element for the scifi haters? Your guess is as good as mine. Granted, there are not many romantic comedies that get above 50% on RT... and usually for good reason. Is it possible that the movie was dismissed because it was labelled as a genre that most people whose hormones level is next to normal love to hate?
I said Penelope was not the first movie I thoroughly enjoyed that seemed to gather more boos than aahs... One other major surprise for me was Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Talk about getting flamed! Not having liked Zach Elm's previous foray into the banal fantasy, Stranger than Fiction (unlike almost everyone I know who was able to bare with the bland corpse stare of Will Ferrel sans funny faces to see the movie) I watched Mr Magorium without any expectation in particular. I found the enthusiasm of the cast and director quite on par with the story. The cast was one of the best assembled for what was marketed as a kids story (quite unforgivingly so if you ask me) and the relationship between the characters was the most touching I have seen in a while... with no <gasp> hint of a romantic relationship between the two young good-looking leads. It was tender and quite unpretentiously funny. It was paced well and didn't hammer a moral lesson as do most kid flicks these days. It had charm and dared to be sad. And yet what did most of the critics focus on? Dustin Hoffman's lisp!
So again? Why all the hatred? Besides the apparently fashionable Dustin Hoffman bashing? Too much whimsy for some... Not enough for others. It seems to me, reading some of the worst critics that the main problem was it wasn't directed by Tim Burton and written by Roal Dahl! Yes, if you haven't been hammered as a genius of fantasy and you haven't been read to critics as kids, you have NO RIGHT to be fantastic or whimsical... all this from critics who gave an 83 score to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, one of Burton's latest "fantastic" CGI-and-music-enhanced turkey (no don't get me started on Burton... I used to like him you know... back when he was a genius of goth, not a genius of hype)...
So yeah... I know... critics are just people who are paid to watch movies and share their mostly subjective impression to us poor amateurs. But they can make or break a movie. So I'm just asking... now that it's most obvious I don't share what top critics think these days? How to chose movies? Trailers are just puff promotional tools. Directors and writers are almost as unreliable as casts these days... Books and play adaptation can be botched... Seriouly... How do YOU choose? I'm curious. |
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| Speaking of Oscars... a quickie |
[Feb. 26th, 2008|01:22 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  contemplative | ] |
Don't walk... RUN... to Porphyre's LJ and watch the exquisite collection of Oscar winning Animation Shorts that is exposed there...
A delightful experience for all amateurs of animation... the creme de la creme of animated short films.
Missing only one that I'll encourage you to watch... a regrettable omission by the Academy which failed to award the excellent, poetic and life-transforming More that I highly recommend you buy on DVD... you can watch it on the official site (where you can also buy the DVD)
Not your average animated movie... |
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| Oscars... |
[Feb. 26th, 2008|12:07 pm] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| |  aggravated | ] |
  Ah... Oscars... Oscars
Well... The strike is over so I thought I'd go back to sprouting nonsense for a time.
Predictably, I'm grumpy after last Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony... Why? Oh... NONE of my picks, save the Dashing and Talented Diablo Cody, actually won.
I know, I know... I'm a sore loser. And no I didn't have any money riding on the show... except that little fundraiser we do with friends for every major TV event.
Alright... for those who don't know already. Here's how it works...
A bunch of us gather at someone's place (most importantly someone with a big room and a BIG TV Screen! lol
We all have a hefty stack of one dollar bills and every time a category is announced, we call our champions. Those who lose put whatever amount they want in a nice little basket and at the end of the evening, we decide by vote which charity will get our money...
This year we raised a grand total of 350 bucks for Clothes Off Our Back... if you don't know what those guys do, check them out.
If you have money and are willing to buy some of the expensive clothes that some of the Hollywood Nobility were wearing last Sunday, check the site in a few days and you should score!
Anyway...
Sore then...
A few minor bumps here and there and then... Best Actress time... Let's summarize the nominees, shall we?
- Julie Christie... stellar even legendary actress... spectacular in a once-in-a-lifetime part in this little flick that noone heard about until Award Season... she won every major acting and critics award this season, by the way... with her 4th Nomination (including one win in 1966 for Darling, a forgettable flick that relied entirely on her solid performance)
- Laura Linney... incomparable, underrated if ever there was an underrated actress in Hollywood... with an amazingly dark-and-funny movie that noone except me and a couple of friends saw... The Savages... her 3rd Nomination with not yet one win to claim.
- Cate Blanchett... ethereal... other-worldly... chameleon actress who managed to rise above that poor excuse of a sequel for Elizabeth... which already drew a blank against... Gwyneth Paltrow(!)... with her 4th Nomination (including one... "let's give it to that great Aussie actress to compensate for our ridiculous choice last time around" win for her Supporting role in The Aviator... which she got only because she was playing a dead celebrity... but I'm getting there.
- Ellen Page... refreshing... genuine... Queen of the Indies... a major talent in her generation and one not to be triffled with that everyone found out about with this year's excellent little flick that surprised every major critics and Hollywood media whore because it's a success they never anticipated and publicized. Her first (probably of many now that she's on the critics' radars) Nomination. I must point out that if you haven't seen her in more serious and chilling parts and just discovered she existed with Juno... before saying she's overrated, watch Hard Candy, Mouth to Mouth, An American Crime (if you can find it) and the more recent the Tracey Fragments before you open your mouth!
well... that's it... oh right yes... who else?
Well... I guess you can understand how I feel about the winner!
When? When? When... will the Oscars FINALLY have a Best Performance by an Actor or Actress in the Role of a Dead Celebrity Oscar? How about it? That way we can reward the mimes and start giving the Oscars back to Actors and Actresses who deserve it for their creation of a role! I'm not saying that an actor necessarily is bad because he/she plays in a biopic. Not at all...
But what I'm noting is that most if not ALL the actors who were awarded for such roles were either passed on before for much better parts or never even noticed before! Oh and also... I can't imagine how poor Angela Bassett must feel after her snub for What's Love Got to Do with It! well... of course it was long before the biopic era and the Halle Berry era (which proudly states that actors are on equal ground in Hollywood and that black actors can win like the others... when they are nominated and by pair please). Also Tina is not dead so... sorry Angela... better luck next time... maybe for What's Love II when Tina has joined the Angels of Soul?
Nevermind... so now we proceed through a dull evening of one failure after the other and we finally get to the BIG one...
No Country For Old Men. Not only was that one of the worst movie I have seen this year but the Coen Bros deserved their a$$es to be kicked to the curb just for adapting such a silly book in the first place. Bardem's acting nonwithstanding, it was Terminator meets Fargo in the worst possible way. So this sociopathic killer goes around killing everyone during the whole movie and at some distance follows (quite remotely and sedately) this nearly retired Sheriff. WOW! Quick, give them an Oscar, it's so deep!
No I'm not bitter! I'm disappointed. The Coen Bros were not at their best for a couple of years but to hear that this piece of junk is their prodigal return makes me want to stop reading reviews forever. I love those guys, I do, really... and that's why I was so disappointed... only to find out that they won the Oscar! Goodnight! |
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| Activism couldn't be that far ahead... |
[Dec. 12th, 2007|10:59 am] |
| [ | Tags | | | wga strike | ] |
| [ | Current Mood |
| | pissed off | ] |
| [ | Current Music |
| | We Will Rock You - Queen | ] |
yeah... a picture is worth a thousand words so I won't be long (although in Sorkin's words, anyone who uses one word when they could have used ten just isn't trying hard enough)...
The studios have done it again. They walked out on the negotiations. They are not interested in talks because they have money to last to the end of time unlike the writers... why? Advertisers...
You want to get your TV back? You want the writers to gave their fair share? Easy: Stop watching TV NOW! Send the message loud and clear that you won't watch reruns, reality TV, displaced TV shows like Galactica or Jericho while the WGA is striking!
If people keep watching TV, advertisers will keep buying ads, the studios will keep making money and nothing will happen. You have the power to get some change right now by not being the studios' fools.
STOP WATCHING NOW... I'm not kidding... every tool is a weapon is you hold it right! |
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| (no subject) |
[Dec. 7th, 2007|11:12 am] |
 Hellooooo friends...
It's been a while... I know I know. You all know what it is, life gets hectic, your "real" life becomes overwhelming and you forget about your online life... so boo to the "real life"!
What is "real" anyway? is Tyler Durden real or is it this other guy? lol... yeah ok... here we go... second paragraph in and I'm already in MovieBuff mode!
Speaking of Tyler... if I try to make this work, you might see a post or two with my Tyler persona every once in a while... sleep deprivation can do that to you but not to worry, he probably won't start a revolution or anything... just rant against the world for some reason...
If that happens, don't hesitate to tell him to shut up, Homer!
Now let's talk about something reaaaaalllly important: LOOKS... well, not mine, obviously... the journal's [let's whisper for a while because it's feeling self-conscious right now... it sucks! I know... I'll improve here and there as I go along but for the moment I'll ask you to bear with me]
Sooo... game on! I'll post more today... probably about movies or clouds... in the meantime...
SING OUT LOUISE! |
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