Connected

Oscar Review programming will resume shortly. I've been very busy with school lately so I haven't had as much time to write. However I have had time to check out this incredible post-apocalyptic short from Denmark http://www.ov43.com/ It tells the story of two people living in a ruined world breathing from the same oxygen tank. It's only about six and a half minutes long so go check it out!

127 Hours

Based on a true story. That's a theme at the Oscars this year. Four of the ten best picture nominees, including both of the front runners and one of the two spoilers are based on a true story. The front runners are, of course, The King's Speech and The Social Network. The spoiler that I referred to is The Fighter. Finally we come to the fourth "Based on a True Story" film. 127 hours. If The Social Network was "the movie about Facebook", then 127 Hours was "the movie about the guy who cuts his arm off". You know going into the movie how it will end. How, you might ask, can any director tell an interesting story set mainly in one location when the pivotal ending is common knowledge? Like this.

Black Swan

Black Swan is a film about a ballet dancer who is set to be the star of swan lake. She is a perfect choice to play the sweet and innocent white swan, but has trouble with its alter ego, the black swan. A new dancer joins the company who is a natural black swan and soon the star of the show begins to lose her mind to the stress of the performance, her tough as nails director, and her control freak mother.

The Kings Speech

Watch this.




This is honestly everything I was going to say about this film in a nutshell. It's a formula workhorse film that does its job. It never aspires to be anything more than a formula film. I don't care if this was word-for-word how it happened in real life. If you don't make an effort to make a special film, you don't deserve the Best Picture award. While we're at it, if your only purpose is to get an Oscar for Harvey Weinstein then you sure as hell don't deserve the Best Picture award.
Once again, I'm going to agree with Bob on this one. It's a three star film. It's only flaw is that it never tries to be a four star film. It has its moments, mostly when Bertie is talking to his brother, but it's just pandering to much for me.

If this wins best picture I'll....be very sad.

3/4 Solid but unremarkable

True Grit

          Last night I finally got out to my local small town theater to see a movie. The last movie I saw in theaters was Megamind, back in October. Most of the movies I watch are watched on my computer, or on the smaller laptop. Even when I watch a dvd on my television it's still underwhelming because of my relatively small t.v screen. So it's good to get out and experience the majesty of the movie theater. It really is an experience that can't be equalled, not even by huge home theater systems and surround sound and whatever else. There is something magical about going to the movies. I love it. I love sitting in the dark with a bunch of strangers. I especially love sitting through the coming attractions trailers. Not necessarily because of the trailers themselves, I've usually seen them already. But usually because in my theater there's no guarantee that any particular film will ever come to our town. However last night heralded the arrival of two films I'm interested in, Tron Legacy and Sanctum. Finally, I love the experience of waiting for a few days to see a movie, getting excited and then finally arriving and seeing it on the huge screen with surround sound, seeing the movie the way it was meant to be seen. Last night, that movie was True Grit.
   

Inception

                 So, update on my quest to actually know what I'm talking about when I make posts about the Oscars. So far I have seen seven of the ten films nominated for best picture. All that remains are True Grit, The Kid's are All Right, and...sigh... The King's Speech. I only haven't seen True Grit yet because I'm planning to see it with friends on Monday or Tuesday. The King's Speech is a film I've been avoiding for all the reasons I've detailed in various other posts, and I just watched the trailer for The Kids Are All Right and it looks like the kind of movie I have less than no interest in watching. However in the interest of being fair I will go and watch every movie nominated for best picture, as well as the films that have actors and actresses nominated for those relevant awards. So let's get this show on the road. This review is for one of my favorite movies this year, Christopher Nolan's Inception.

The Social Network

             I recently wrote a piece about my Oscar picks and why I think The King's Speech shouldn't win best picture. I felt kind of odd while writing it because I had to say after every movie I talked about that I hadn't actually seen the movie yet. Well, I've decided to change that. I have now seen six of the ten best picture nominee's and I plan to see all of them. I'm going to write an official review for every film, as well as a final list putting the nominees in order of my personal preference. This is the first of the best picture reviews and I thought I'd start off with the movie I think will win best picture: The Social Network