Category: Movie Dramas (Page 178 of 188)

Oscar recap: We need a montage, or Cate was jobbed

February 25, 2008 /

I was having a chat with Film School Reject and Fat Guys at the Movies co-host Kevin Carr last Friday about the Academy Awards. I naively thought that, because of the writers’ strike, this year’s show should be pretty brisk because they won’t have time to prepare any elaborate bits. But Kevin set me straight: he said, because the producers are doing the majority of heavy lifting, the show will be filled with self-congratulatory, back-slapping puff pieces.

Smart guy, that Kevin Carr.

I had an All-Star lineup of writers at my house last night, including Carr, fellow BE critic Jason Zingale, Film School Rejects editor in chief Neil Miller, Nights and Weekends EIC Kristin Dreyer Kramer, and From the Balcony EIC Bill Clark. About 20 minutes into the broadcast, all of us were singing Trey Parker’s “We Need a Montage” song. Holy cow, are the members of the academy proud of themselves. Here are some wacky moments from Oscars past. Here are a bunch of Best Actress winners. Here are a bunch of Best Actor winners. Here are ALL of the Best Picture winners. Thank goodness, then, for Jon Stewart’s tribute to periscopes and binoculars.

As for the awards themselves, there were some pleasant surprises and some pleasant non-surprises. I was thrilled to see Brad Bird get an Oscar for “Ratatouille,” likewise Javier Bardem getting the Supporting Actor award for “No Country for Old Men.” Marion Cotillard snagging Best Actress was a nice shocker too, as was “Falling Slowly” beating three songs from “Enchanted” for Best Song. Mega-bonus points to Stewart for bringing Marketa Irglova back out on stage to say her thank-yous after the orchestra drowned her out.

Something must be done, though, about the academy’s tendency to vote for someone in a category just because they liked the movie and want to make sure it gets some kind of recognition, even if the person in question doesn’t exactly deserve it.

Tilda Swinton, I’m looking at you.

My jaw hit the floor when Entertainment Weekly listed her as the favorite to win. Did they see the movie? She wasn’t all that memorable. Not that she was awful or anything, but between her, Clooney and Tom Wilkinson, she was easily the weakest link in “Michael Clayton,” and she sure as hell was no Cate Blanchett in “I’m Not There.” This isn’t grade school, people; if someone doesn’t deserve an award, you don’t give them one just because you don’t want the movie to get shut out. Really, Swinton winning is a joke. It’s like Votefortheworst.com took over Price Waterhouse for a day. I would rather have seen Ruby Dee win than Swinton, and Dee had no business even being nominated. How many lines did she even have in “American Gangster,” six?

By the way, the group and I casted three biopics last night. Casey Affleck should play David Byrne, Amy Adams is the perfect person to play Kirsty MacColl, and Tilda Swinton as…David Bowie. Admit it, you were thinking it too when you saw her fiery red hair.

The producers of the Academy Awards know that their show has a reputation for being unnecessarily long. The strike gave them the perfect opportunity to correct that. They didn’t take it. They made montages. Lots and lots of montages. And in their “honor,” I present them with “The Montage Song.” Boneheads.

Action Movies, Actors, Actresses, Humor, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies

The worst lines in film history…?

February 3, 2008 /

Probably not, given that there’s only one film from prior to the ’80s (and the line they’ve cited is, while a little cheesy, still one of the most immortal in cinematic history), but if you’re curious to see EW’s personal favorites, you can find there right here.

I don’t agree with all of them – I actually quite like some of the lines they’ve called out as being awful – but I sure as hell agree wholeheartedly with at least this one:

“You know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else.”

Recognize it…?

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Humor, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, Movies

A Chat with Rory Cochrane

February 2, 2008 /

You probably know Rory Cochrane, even if you don’t think you do. His longest and most high-profile gig was serving as a member of the “CSI: Miami” team as Tim Speedle, but prior to that, he’d already earned the status of cult icon by playing the stoned-as-shit Slater in “Dazed and Confused,” as well as the monetarily-challenged Lucas in “Empire Records.” Since departing “CSI: Miami” of his own free will, Cochrane has kept busy with the occasional film; we spoke to him on the occasion of the DVD release of the disconcertingly-real thriller, “Right At Your Door,” and we took the opportunity to ask him about how much of a toll the filming of the movie took on him, why he left a sweet gig on a weekly TV series, and…well, frankly, we spent most of the time just trying to get him to give us answers of more than a word or two. (Nice guy, that Rory, but not one to give you essay-length responses.)

Rory Cochrane: Hello?

Bullz-Eye: Hi, may I speak to Rory?

RC: Yes.

BE: Hey, this is Will.

RC: How are you doing, Will?

BE: Pretty good. How are you?

RC: All right.

BE: Actually, I tried you a few minutes ago, but I figured you were still on the last interview maybe,

RC: Oh, yeah? I didn’t hear it beep.

BE: Not a problem. So…”Right at Your Door.” Very intense flick. I hadn’t actually seen it until they sent me the DVD – it never played in my area – but it’s great.

RC: Oh, well, I’m glad you liked it.

BE: Definitely. It’s part disaster movie, part horror movie, with a thread of romance running through it. How was it to shoot?

RC: Very grueling…and intense, you know? I’m sort of glad that it was only…that we shot it in twenty days. Which is a good thing, because I would probably have had to check myself into some sort of institution afterwards if it had went any longer.

BE: Yeah, it’s a little dark.

RC: Yeah.

BE: How did you get involved in it in the first place?

Continue reading »

Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Horror Movies, Interviews, Movie Dramas, Movie DVDs, Movies, Reviews

Heath Ledger: dead at 28.

January 22, 2008 /

I’ll just write here what I wrote to the other Bullz-Eye editors when I first read that Heath Ledger had been found dead of a presumed (but not confirmed) drug overdose:

* My first thought was a general, all-purpose “omigod.”

* My second thought was, “What an idiot,” which is invariably what I think when I hear about anyone dying from a drug overdose.

* My third thought was a more specific “omigod,” namely, “Omigod, his poor little daughter…”

And, lastly, I thought, “Somewhere at Warner Brothers, some suit has already said, ‘Goddamn motherfucking Heath Ledger! Oh, wait: this’ll be probably actually be good for box office. Never mind!”

Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, External Movie DVDs, External Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies, News

Oscars ’08: The show must go on

January 22, 2008 /

The Academy Award nominees were released this morning, and if nothing else, they only further proved just how worthless this year’s Golden Globes really were. Most of the categories filled out as expected, but there were a few surprises, including Best Picture and Best Director nods for “Juno,” a Best Actor nod for Tommy Lee Jones, and Sean Penn’s crapfest “Into the Wild” getting almost completely shut out; save for the deserved nomination of Hal Holbrook in the Best Supporting Actor category.

Check out the nominees in all of the major categories, and then click below to read the full list. I’ve also attached stars to my predicted winners, so come back and let me know what you think.

BEST PICTURE
“Atonement”
“Juno”
“Michael Clayton”
(*) “No Country for Old Men”
“There Will Be Blood”

BEST DIRECTOR
Julian Schnabel (“The Diving Bell & the Butterfly”)
Jason Reitman (“Juno”)
Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”)
(*) Joel and Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men”)
Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood”)

BEST ACTOR
George Clooney (“Michael Clayton”)
(*) Daniel Day-Lewis (“There Will Be Blood”)
Johnny Depp (“Sweeney Todd”)
Viggo Mortensen (“Eastern Promises”)
Tommy Lee Jones (“In the Valley of Elah”)

BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”)
Julie Christie (“Away from Her”)
Marion Cotillard (“La Vie en Rose”)
Laura Linney (“The Savages”)
(*) Ellen Page (“Juno”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Casey Affleck (“The Assassination of Jesse James”)
(*) Javier Bardem (“No Country for Old Men”)
Philip Seymour Hoffman (“Charlie Wilson’s War”)
Hal Holbrook (“Into the Wild”)
Tom Wilkinson (“Michael Clayton”)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett (“I’m Not There”)
Ruby Dee (“American Gangster”)
Saoirse Ronan (“Atonement”)
(*) Amy Ryan (“Gone Baby Gone”)
Tilda Swinton (“Michael Clayton”)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Christopher Hampton (“Atonement”)
Sarah Polley (“Away from Her”)
Ronald Harwood (“The Diving Bell & the Butterfly”)
(*) Joel Coen & Ethan Coen (“No Country for Old Men”)
Paul Thomas Anderson (“There Will Be Blood”)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
(*) Diablo Cody (“Juno”)
Nancy Oliver (“Lars and the Real Girl”)
Tony Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”)
Brad Bird (“Ratatouille”)
Tamara Jenkins (“The Savages”)

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
“Beaufort” (Israel)
(*) “The Counterfeiters” (Austria)
“Katyn” (Poland)
“Mongol” (Kazakhstan)
“12” (Russia)

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
“Persepolis”
(*) “Ratatouille”
“Surf’s Up”

ACHIEVEMENT IN ART DIRECTION
“American Gangster”
“Atonement”
“The Golden Compass”
(*) “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”
“There Will Be Blood”

ACHIEVEMENT IN CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins (“The Assassination of Jesse James”)
Seamus McGarvey (“Atonement”)
Janusz Kaminski (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”)
(*) Roger Deakins (“No Country for Old Men”)
Robert Elswit (“There Will Be Blood”)

ACHIEVEMENT IN COSTUME DESIGN
Albert Wolsky (“Across the Universe”)
Jacqueline Durran (“Atonement”)
(*) Alexandra Byrne (“Elizabeth: The Golden Age”)
Marit Allen (“La Vie en Rose”)
Colleen Atwood (“Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street”)

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
“No End in Sight”
“Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience”
(*) “Sicko”
“Taxi to the Dark Side”
“War/Dance”

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM EDITING
Christopher Rouse (“The Bourne Ultimatum”)
Juliette Welfling (“The Diving Bell and the Butterfly”)
Jay Cassidy (“Into the Wild”)
(*) Roderick Jaynes (“No Country for Old Men”)
Dylan Tichenor (“There Will Be Blood”)

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
(*) Dario Marianelli (“Atonement”)
Alberto Iglesias (“The Kite Runner”)
James Newton Howard (“Michael Clayton”)
Michael Giacchino (“Ratatouille”)
Marco Beltrami (“3:10 to Yuma”)

BEST ORIGINAL SONG
(*) “Falling Slowly” (“Once”)
“Happy Working Song” (“Enchanted”)
“So Close” (“Enchanted”)
“That’s How You Know” (“Enchanted”)
“Raise It Up” (“August Rush”)

ACHIEVEMENT IN MAKEUP
“La Vie en Rose”
“Norbit”
(*) “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND MIXING
“The Bourne Ultimatum”
“No Country for Old Men”
“Ratatouille”
“3:10 to Yuma”
(*) “Transformers”

ACHIEVEMENT IN SOUND EDITING
“The Bourne Ultimatum”
“No Country for Old Men”
“Ratatouille”
“There Will Be Blood”
(*) “Transformers”

ACHIEVEMENT IN VISUAL EFFECTS
“The Golden Compass”
“Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”
(*) “Transformers”

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