Unicorn City

So yeah - this is totally geared towards a niche audience so if you are not a gamer or do not know gamers you will likely be totally lost. I wasn't sure if I was actually laughing at what was happening in the movie or laughing at funny memories hanging out with my geek gamer friends ten years ago. I would have passed on this movie altogether if my daughter hadn't wanted to see it so bad....I worry for her. Since this was an independent local film I am going to post the trailer for those of you who may not have heard of it:

Also here is an article about the movie - kinda cool that it was produced by a film company from Utah. :)

Academy Award Update

So....I did horribly on guessing the Academy Award winners. I only got Music (Original Score) , Visual Effects, Costume Design, Directing, and Best Picture correct. Two of the picks I had down for SHOULD win  DID win yay! Writing (Adapted Screenplay), and Animated Feature film. Considering I hadn't seen most of the nominated films this year I feel I did okay. Last year I had seen all but two of the films and I accurately guessed all but two of the winners so that's probably a pretty good ratio. Anyway...another movie related blogpost coming soon. Unicorn City! :)

Award Winners - My Picks

Okay  - it's time for me to list who I think will win the Academy Awards on Sunday before it's too late! I will list two winners for each category. Who/Which Film I think WILL win and Who/Which Film I think SHOULD win.

Best Picture: Unfortunately I haven't seen alot of these this year so this is a stab in the dark.
Will: The Artist
Should: The Help
Actor in a leading role:
Will: George Clooney - The Descendants
Should: George Clooney - The Descendants
Actress in a leading role:
Will: Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Should: Viola Davis - The Help
Actor in a supporting role:
Will: Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Should: Nick Nolte - Warrior
Actress in a supporting role:
Will: Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Should: It's a toss up between Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids and Octavia Spencer - The Help
Animated Feature Film:
Will: A Car in Paris
Should: Rango
Cinematography:
Will: The Artist
Should: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Art Direction:
Will: War Horse
Should: Midnight in Paris
Costume Design:
Will: The Artist
Should: The Artist
Directing:
Will: The Artist
Should: The Descendants
I am skipping Documentary short and feature because I know NOTHING about these categories.
Film Editing:
Will: The Descendants
Should: The Descendants
Also skipping foreign language film as I have not seen ANY of them.
Makeup:
Will: Albert Nobbs
Should: Albert Nobbs
Music (Original Score):
Will: The Artist
Should: The Artist
Also skipping Music (Original Song) , Short Film (Animated) , and Short Film (Live Action)
Sound Editing:
Will: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Should: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Sound Mixing:
Will: War Horse
Should: War Horse
Visual Effects:
Will: Hugo
Should: Real Steel
Writing (Adapted Screenplay):
Will: Moneyball
Should: The Descendants
Writing (Original Screenplay):
Will: The Artist
Should: Bridesmaids

Now - to see how well I predicted. Join me on Sunday for the awards show. I know I can't wait!!! :)

Moneyball, Contagion, Ghost Rider 2, This Means War

Moneyball - Okay so this one is up for a few Academy Awards. best picture, best actor in a leading role, best actor in a supporting role, film editing, sound mixing, and writing (adapted screenplay). I am not going to pretend I know enough about the technical categories to make any commentary there...but as for the first three awards? Okay it was a somewhat interesting storyline. Seemed to be in the fashion of Clint Eastwood films - SLOW! I hardly think this will make it for best picture, the academy likes serious films but generally they don't cross over to the boring...I could be wrong. I guess we'll find out on Sunday. Also as for the two acting roles up for awards? I am not entirely sure Brad Pitt or Jonah Hill either one were acting in this film. You can't nominate Jonah for an award solely based on the fact that this is his only semi-serious not bordering on the ridiculous role - ever. Brad's character was just a normal working class guy trying to do something out of the ordinary which happens every day. So I guess if you consider that in real life Brad Pitt is a multi-millionaire and not an average everyday guy at all then okay he was acting...but that still doesn't mean his performance was anything riveting or award worthy. As far as the film itself on a non-award consideration level...what was with that random scene where he goes to pick up his daughter and sits awkwardly in the living room with his ex-wife and her new husband for 5 minutes....couldn't that have been edited out and saved us a few minutes in an already too long film? Plus if they had taken that out they could have saved some budget money and not had to pay Robin Wright for her appearance in the movie. Any woman's voice could have been used later in the film for her tide turning phone call that encouraged him to go watch the 21st game. Seriously - she did not need to be in that movie....such a weird casting choice.

Contagion - Well  - the story has been done a billion times. It was an interesting movie overall but too many storylines with not enough follow up to completion on any of them. Did they even make up the money they paid all those big name actors in box office sales??? Why did any of them agree to do that movie? It was an easy paycheck I guess. Thank goodness for overly dedicated scientists that are willing to try out vaccines on themselves. Everybody wash and sanitize your hands alot while traveling - that's all I have to say about this movie.

Ghost Rider 2 -  First of all I LOVE Nicolas Cage and in my mind he is probably the only actor quirky enough to pull off the cheesy character of Johnny Blaze and not make you want to punch him in the face every time he opens his mouth. I understand that the whole premise of the movie is over the top, cheesiness and camp, but without Cage it would be wholly intolerable. Other than being a pretty face I don't see Violante Placido making it into mainstream movies or high in demand for female lead characters, and thank goodness they didn't try to force too much of a relationship element between her and Nicolas Cage! If you liked the first movie you will like this one as well. If you are not a comic book fan, or don't understand the background story on Ghost Rider you will likely not enjoy this movie. Oh - and if you have ever seen The Prophecy 3: The Ascent you've pretty much already seen this movie.

This Means War  - So - once again Hollywood thanks for setting women's lib back ten years....okay maybe 5. But men wonder why the nice guy never wins - this movie pretty much sets up that dynamic again perfectly. I am still wondering why because Reese Witherspoon's character certainly never gives any legitimate reason for her decision but she chooses the myoginistic, cocky, take the girl for granted, playboy character over the sincere, better looking (in my opinion) courteous, gentleman. I get so tired of Hollywood trying to make us believe that if we as women are just as amazing, beautiful and have a great personality like Reese's character we're going to turn that bad boy around - dream on! Okay so we can pretend that both those guys wouldn't have gotten totally fired for the first crazy antic they pulled on the other guy, but that whole scene where they sneak into her house to investigate her interests while she is dancing around apparently oblivious....c'mon! I would have noticed those guys in my house the first time they crawled behind a couch or jumped up against a wall. Did anyone else notice how all the information their spy teams gave them was in direct correlation to the items they had already noticed in her house? Couuldn't the script writers come up with some original information to throw in there for the teams to supply? Maybe they just got their film sequencing out of order but it was weird. Okay so I totally liked this movie but once again it's one of those rom-coms that you just have to turn off your brain and sit through it on cruise control otherwise it;s utterly perturbing. Tom Hardy = super yummy. Chris Pine = furry man

Drive, 50/50, The Vow, Journey 2: The Mysterious Island,

Drive - What exactly was this movie trying to accomplish? I have to say first of all being a dedicated Camaro owner I was disappointed in their choice of car to epitomize this movie. Second of all - where was all the driving? I think the entire movie consisted of silent stares/ awkward exchanges (approx. 114 minutes) and driving (approx. 6 minutes) I'm not sure existentialism and adrenaline fueled movies mesh very well. Being a fairly dedicated fan of Ryan Gosling and the enormous talent he shows the potential to express I was epically disappointed in this movie overall.
50/50 - In contrast to the movie above, this movie was one of the best I have seen in YEARS!! It was funny,  touching, honest, and thoroughly entertaining. I honestly could not find anything to critique about this movie. Now a word to the conservative, there is some sexual talk and some language in it, but considering it's Seth Rogen and how entirely offensive he has the potential to be he was actually very mild in this movie and I think the rest of the posiitve aspects about it more than make up for his occassional inappropriate comment/discussion. Focus on the amazing journey that Adam (Played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) goes through and the up and coming talent that Anna Kendrick is displaying and you should be very impressed by this movie.
******SPOILER ALERT****The Vow - I can't pick on this movie very much because I love Rachel McAdams too much. I can ask however, why do they keep giving Channing Tatum acting roles? Newsflash - He can't act! (And no his appearance does not make up for that fact.) I was not even close to convinced at any point in time during this movie that he was crazy in love with his wife. I also think the whole premise of "The Vow" was destroyed when he actually gave up and proceeded with the divorce. Did that suck the romance out of the entire movie for anyone other than me?
Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - So I got sucked into this one because I have a 12 year old daughter and my boyfriend has a 9 year old son. Guiltily I also have to admit I gave into the opportunity to stare at The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) for two hours as well. This movie is exactly what you would expect from a kids movie, cheesy, overdone on the special effects and incredibly brilliant (completely sarcastic of course) dialog such as: "Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...The Mysterious Island." Immediately followed by the character standing completely within earshot of quoted comment saying "Where are we?" really?!?!?! Didn't they just tell you they were on the Mysterious Island??? Your kids will love it - most adults will suffer through it. Another actor that they really need to stop giving acting roles to....Josh Hutcherson....I was soooo excited for the Hunger Games until I found out he had a leading role in it.... :( Thank goodness for long time actor Luis Guzman for some entertaining comical relief. He can always use more recognition for his acting talent.
Moneyball and Contagion coming up!!

One for the Money and Anonymous

I got out to two movies this last week. I went and saw One for the Money just for kicks and giggles. I also saw Anonymous - partly because I saw the preview and thought it looked really interesting and partly because it is nominated for an Academy award. So - here's my take on each movie:

One for the Money - I am still trying to figure out why Katherine Heigl or any self respecting woman for that matter would take on the role of Stephanie Plum. The fact that the book on which the movie was based on was written by a woman goes to further baffle me. The role of Stephanie Plum was the most outwardly degrading role towards women that I have seen in a LONG time! Either Katherine Heigl got a boob job for the movie or they were doing some pretty nifty camera tricks. The entire movie sexualized and objectified her character and she never even seemed offended when the two main male characters in the movie continually insisted on calling her misogynistic nicknames like "cupcake"

I am saddened to realize that we still live in a society so completely degrading towards women. After all - no smart, capable woman would ever choose to be bounty hunter because that's a mans job and she would much rather be selling lingerie in a department store right? This movie makes it abundantly clear that Stephanie Plum only chose to be a bounty hunter out of desperation and only lived to see the end of the movie out of sheer luck and brazen stupidity. I mean  - who else gets handcuffed to a tension rod for a shower curtain and instead of just pulling the rod down and reattaching it after sliding off the cuffs needs to call a man to come "rescue" her? The only saving grace I can give this movie is that at least when they gave the men Katherine Heigl's enhanced chest to ogle they threw in some male eye candy for the girls to appreciate as well. Thank goodness for Daniel Sunjata!

Anonymous - Since this movie didn't get very good marketing I have included the trailer so you can understand the premise. Also pay close attention to the costumes as this movie is up for an Academy Award for best costume design. I honestly thought it should have been up for best original screenplay as well. It was hard to keep facts seperated from speculation in this excellently written proposal of history. I am always fascinated by anything to do with the Tudor era and so this movie had me entranced from start to finish. The acting was well done, the story was intriguing and if you took every piece of information in it proposed as fact you would be utterly convinced that Shakespeare was not only a complete fraud but a buffoon as well. A Shining performance by Rhys Ifans who took on a role completely outside anything he has attempted before and did an outstanding job - keep an eye on him for great things to come. All around a great movie and I trully could not find much of anything to pick on so I will just leave it at the comments made and off I go to watch another movie!!!