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After two years of participating in this blog I can’t help but think about the Oscars even when in the midst of the summer blockbuster season. It’s a curse.
We’ve seen plenty of nominations from summer movies in recent years: Borat, Pirates of the Caribbean, Poseidon, and Transformers for example. The Bourne Ultimatum even managed to take home three (undeserved) trophies. These are usually in technical categories, but there’s no other way Norbit would be an Oscar nominee. So there will be a spark of Oscar thought in the back of my mind as I take in 2009’s summer slate of action flicks and sequels.
So apparently I’m one of only like five people in the world who didn’t like Star Trek. While moderately fun, it felt like one cliched vignette after another with a poor overall vision. Here’s the scene where our heroes, along with us, meet an important character at precisely the right moment. And here’s the scene where Kirk has to convince Spock to relinquish control in a conveniently-timed battle of wits. In a lot of ways it felt like a pilot to a TV show where everything and everyone are introduced without a lot of depth. I imagine the sequels will be better and less superficial.
But Star Trek is a big film with a hugely positive critical reception (95% on Rotten Tomatoes) that made a ton of money (pushing $250 mill). Combined with its action sequences and special effects, this really could have a Bourne-type impact on the Oscars.
Naturally I’m going to start whining now. The visual effects are fine if not spectacular. But lord did I hate the sound effects. Sound should be one of those things the casual filmgoer doesn’t notice while watching but I definitely noticed it in Star Trek. Specifically the punch sound effects that seemed like they belonged in a cartoon or an old Batman episode. I didn’t mind the lens flares but those horrible smack sounds during punches drove me nuts.
So this is one guy who won’t be happy if Star Trek ends up on the Sound Editing nomination list. And thus ends an important Sound Editing post 8 months before the next Oscars.
Why are all these posts concentrating on little categories like “Best Actor” and “Best Director” when what we all really care about is Art Direction and Costumes? In the course of seeing all of the films nominated for the big eight I ended up seeing most of the films nominated for all those other categories they hand out awards to in the middle 2 hours of the Oscar telecast. Since you obviously care about my make-up preferences, please, read on!
Best Song
“Falling Slowly” Once, “Raise it Up” August Rush, “Happy Working Song” Enchanted, “So Close” Enchanted, “That’s How You Know” Enchanted
For some reason I feel like I already covered this category. But since the Academy stupidly ignored my recommendations, let’s take a look at these inferior choices.
The clear winner for me is “Falling Slowly.” It’s the central song in the wonderful musical Once that embodies the heartbreak and loneliness of the main characters. “Raise it Up” is actually fairly offbeat and I imagine it works well in the film, schmaltzy as it surely is. Nothing against Enchated, but if one of its triumvirate wins it better be “That’s How You Know,” a clever take on the Disney fairy tale tune set in modern times. “Happy Working Song” is a cute but uninspiring ditty while “So Close” is a toothless and unmemorable love song.
Snubs: See my breakdown of the eligible songs to find about a dozen songs I liked better than all the non-Once songs. Read the rest of this entry »
So it took me a long while to figure out first, if I liked the movie, second, how much I liked it, and third, why I liked it. End conclusion: I liked it a lot, but I’m still not even sure why, so please excuse the stream of consciousness nature of this post.
As you can tell from some of my other reviews, I kind of like comparing movies to other movies. Except There Will Be Blood is the most original movie I’ve seen in a long while, and the closest comparison I can make is Citizen Kane, which is unfair to both Paul Thomas Anderson and Orson Welles.
Ah, finally. I’ve been waiting oh so long to take Brian to task. He writes in his No Country post how “endings aren’t that big a deal to [him].” He then goes on to some tortured math, equating the final Sopranos scene and the closing shots of The Departed to 10% of a movie. Dear oh dear. I think even the argument that each X percent of a movie should be weighted equally is flawed, though I’m not fervently opposed to it.
A somewhat appropriate analogy might be a gymnastics routine. Like the floor exercise, a movie can be filled with Celine Dion songs and flips and never ever leaving the mat (oh, and if you are Brian, 15 year old girls), but if you don’t stick the landing, the judges are going to dock you like crazy. Oh, um, I might be a bit of an Olympics junkie. Read the rest of this entry »
I’m going to throw this out there to start things off: endings aren’t that big a deal to me. I see a movie’s ending as just one small part in the larger sum in weighing whether or not I liked it. I think Signs is a great movie; it’s thrilling, funny, and has shades of Hitchcock’s The Birds, which I also love. But I understand when people say the ending sucked…and while I half-heartedly agree with them, I really don’t care that much.
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