Did anybody care about the Oscars, really? I didn’t watch them; not even five minutes. I work in an office that features more than one person who watches every episode of American Idol. Nobody that I worked with watched. Well, one girl had them on in the background, but she couldn’t tell me who won any of the awards, besides the big ones that I had already heard on NPR on the drive in to work. I wanted to know if Pan’s Labyrinth won best foreign film – it didn’t – but besides that one, I didn’t see any of this year’s nominated movies in the theatre. The only other one I saw at all was Little Miss Sunshine, which I liked well enough, but didn’t love – everyone says its so funny, but I found it kind of sad; and a poor man’s Wes Anderson (quirky characters doing borderline nonsensical things in a deadpan manner), sans a Wilson brother.
Pan’s Labyrinth aside, on the rare occasion when I do spring for a movie in the theatre, I go to some inevitably disappointing “blockbuster,” instead of seeing the movies that I know will actually be good. I tell myself that I will watch the “good” movies on Netflix, because the drama of a well scripted and acted movie does not need the 80 foot screen to make it come alive, whereas King Kong, or Spiderman, or Harry Potter will only be good on the big screen – where the special effects can shine. But you know what? The Harry Potter movies are letdowns no matter where I watch them, because they aren’t as good as the books. King Kong would be crap on an Imax (or my TV) just as much as it was in a regular theatre.
I am totally sucked in by marketing – I make the effort only to see the truly huge spectacle movies, because I don’t want to be the only one who doesn’t see it – even though the vast majority of these blockbusters aren’t very good. Even the Lord of the Rings movies, Oscar winning or not, were weak (and got consecutively worse). And while I would like to say that I catch up on all the smaller quality films on DVD, I don’t. We just cancelled Netflix because we found we weren’t watching enough to make it a worthwhile expenditure, but even when we were doing it, we watched mainly television shows because there just weren’t that many movies I wanted to see (and there were lots of TV shows that I missed out on cause we don’t have cable and our reception is terrible: everyone should watch Veronica Mars Season 1!).
So my question is, does anybody out there go to the movies on a regular basis? What do you see? Are there any great movies from this year that I missed? Did anybody give a crap about the Oscars, and if so, why?
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Best movie I saw this year--far and away--was "Children of Men". Absolutely stunning, and ridiculous that it was not up for best picture. Nota Bene: this movie is INTENSE. A fantastic movie, but very heavy, and very emotional. Case in point--I went to see this movie with some friends and as the credits rolled and house lights came up, the person sitting next to me, silent for a moment, suddenly started sobbing. Two hours worth of pent up emotion came out in a rush. (Note: this person was not me, I swear.)
Also, other movies that I want to see:
The Departed
Pan's Labyrinth
The Queen
Little Children
The Lives of Others
Anyone seen these? Thoughts?
I would suggest renting Children of Men so you could burn Children of Men. Not unsurprising that old Penitent Man mistakes British accents for good acting. It features Julianne Moore, for chrissakes. It's entertaining if you've had a botched labotomy.
The Departed and Pan's Labyrinth were good. The Queen looks horribly boring. Anyone else remember Helen Mirren from Caligula? I do. I only saw a small bit of it, as I had to turn it off when in one scene Malcolm McDowell approached a prone prostitute with what appeared to be a fistful of Crisco.
Wasn't "A Fistful of Crisco" an old Clint Eastwood film?
I actually really loved Little Miss Sunshine in that cliched It-Made-Me-Laugh-It-Made-Me-Cry sort of way. I nearly peed myself a few times because I was laughing so hard at times, and soaked the front of my shirt with tears at others.
We did head to the movies this weekend to see Breach which I would recommend. It may be a DVD flick, as there are no effects that require the big screen. It may also be that it was hyped more in DC than in other regions given the topic, but I was wrapped up in it completely. It is also strange to hear people talking about Hanssen (the bad man) so personally...a woman I work with taught his kids, another's uncle was the priest that heard his regular confessions, someone else's Dad lived with him in college...small world.
That said, my family really liked the Queen. I didn't think as highly of the Departed as everyone else. Overall, I I just have a hard time justifying the expense of movies these days. And I don't think the movies that are being produced are all that great. If only Paul Newman and Robert Redford circa hot could put out more movies...
for the record, and as most of you probably expected, i watched almost every minute of the oscars! i know i will never get those 3 hours of my life back, but really its not worth dwelling on that, i should just remember all the good times... for example the comedy in just seeing martin scorcese, just to look at him makes me laugh. the fact that someone made a movie short called west bank story i found terribly entertaining, apparently about two rival falafel stands in the west bank. genuis!
i was also reassured that tom cruise is an odd little man, not sure even why, but somthing about him creeps me out.
i knew nothing about most of the movies, i had only seen little miss sunshine (which i enjoyed) but really the oscars are about the red carpet and acceptance speeches, i could care less about the actual movies.
well that may be a lie, as i'm gong to see Pans Labrynth tonight with some friends.
glad to be able to post such an insightful comment. :)
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