I'm stunned this is getting such strong ratings at Rotten Tomatoes. Apparently no one has a problem that the whole relationship between Pat & Tiffany is founded on a lie (the letters between Pat and Nikki, and telling Pat that Nikki would attend the dance competition, to make him stick to his...
The other obvious reason an animated film won't win: it doesn't "showcase" acting at all, just voice-acting, so the whole acting wing of the Academy would NEVER admit an animated film was better. (Avatar had a little of this problem too - it is too close to having CGI replacing acting.)
My picks for the 8 major awards:
Best Picture.......THE HURT LOCKER
Best Director.....KATHRYN BIGELOW
Best Actress....SANDRA BULLOCK
Best Actor.......JEFF BRIDGES
Best Supporting Actor....CHRISTOPH WALTZ
Best Supporting Actress.....MO'NIQUE
Best Original Screenplay......INGLORIOUS BASTERDS...
"Precious" is the kind of movie I normally would have no interest in seeing, based on just the story synopsis. But it's gotten such rave reviews and I'd seen an interview with the lead actress, Gabourey Sidibe, that made me change my mind.
There are truly terrific acting jobs by both Gabourney...
No love for the limo scene between Costner & Sean Young in No Way Out?
Agree with Body Heat; Kathleen Turner was incredibly hot back then.
Agree with Out of Sight between Clooney & Lopez (before Lopez was such a big deal, too) - there's the trunk scene and a bathtub scene later - both are...
I liked it better than either Patrick or Ryan, but it has flaws, for sure. I think it tries a bit too hard to be "smart", which I liked in general, but the plot twists and time jumps are hard to follow at first. Later, I looked forward to more "jumps" to "fill in" what gaps there still were -...
A friend of ours is doing a family room/HT. They're not serious audio or HT folks, so they just want a reasonable setup, as hassle-free as possible - so I'm recommending what we did in our "everyday" rooms, not our dedicated HT (which has more serious/expensive gear). My surround speakers we...
Well, that's the best explanation I've heard for her 30 crack-whore-ish look appealing to 20s and 30s guys - it also explains why I like her best in her 50s.
She looks best as a 50 year-old - which also works for me, since I'm in my 50s. ;) That 30 year-old look is just awful, IMO - crack-whore-ish at its worst - do guys in their 20s and 30s really find that appealing?
If you think the yellow is ugly, you should have seen the gold they used in prior years - that was really fugly, IMO. We had warm & sunny the latter part of the week, thank goodness, but these riders suffered mightily earlier in the week - cold, windy, rain for 4-5 hours on the bike is no fun...
Here's a few images I got of the top guys in the Tour of California, all in the Solvang time trial: Levi: Lance: David Zabriskie (US national time trial champion, 2nd overall in ToC, using his tongue on the climb of Ballard Canyon): Michael Rogers (Aussie national time...
My wife and I saw this yesterday. It's a bit simplistic at times, and some points are made in a little heavy-handed fashion, but it was one of those films that I think will grow on me. It made me think about issues like forgiveness, redemption, and salvation. It's also a very interesting...
I may be biased, b/c this film depicts my exact "coming of age" timeframe, so I was fascinated by this confrontation (I told my 19-year-old son after we watched this, the Watergate/Nixon situation prompted my very first published letter to the editor of my hometown newspaper, when I was only a...
I saw this tonight. If Penn isn't nominated for best actor, I'll be stunned. I also thought Josh Brolin was terrific as Dan White - he should get a best supporting nomination (though one of the movie's flaws is, there could have been a bit more exposition of White's issues or why he was wound...
IMO, this tries to be 3 films in one, in order to be both epic and "something for everyone": the first 20-30 minutes is a farce about manners/culture between the crude outback cowboy (Jackman) and the prude/proper/snooty Brit woman (Kidman). The next hour+ is an Aussie Western, and the last...
The Wall St Journal reported $47M for the opening weekend; maybe disappointing by Pixar standards (where I guess a home run for its opening weekend would be $50-60M), but pretty strong otherwise. I think word of mouth on this should really give it some serious box-office legs. It's...
This shot, framed and autographed by both Brad Bird and John Lasseter, was my Father's Day gift this year. (My wife obviously scored it at a charity auction - am I lucky or what?) Having seen the movie last night and loved it, that's now easily my favorite, coolest movie memorabilia. I...
Janice's new house is Johnny Sack's old house, not Livia's house (which did look almost the same as Uncle Junior's, to my mind). Tony "arranged" for Bobby & Janice to buy that house when Johnny had to liquidate assets.
We saw that again tonight; Christopher couldn't get any understanding or compassion anywhere - all Tony's crew wants to do is "bust his chops"; JT meant well, but he paid the ultimate price for not giving Chris enough compassion. For all the "good times" fronts the mob guys each put up...
My theory is, we saw a lot of Junior and his situation last night for 2 reasons: to honor Dominic Chianese, for his portrayal of Junior all these seasons, AND as a metaphor for what's happening to the family, the mob. Junior has just lost complete control: of his own bodily functions, of his...
great episode. The office pools were all hilarious (Kevin going through March Madness withdrawal set it off). Michael to Dwight: "what's the biggest killer?" Dwight: "wolves" Michael: "depression" Dwight's "un-shun"....."re-shun" with Andy (Drew) was funny. And the funniest, when...
...except if you haven't seen them, there's no way you can legitmately say " he's sold out" JUST b/c it's big-budget. You'd have to see it to determine "he mailed it in for the check", or "he still showcased a range of skills I admire and expect from him", etc.
I did a search and was shocked to find not a single thread on this foreign film Oscar winner (I know it's not in very wide release yet, and only available in major market arthouses now, but still...). Set in the 1980s, "The Lives of Others" tells the story of a secret service agent in East...
Loved all the items being "blocked out" in the sex shop. Michael "confessing" to Jan about the stripper was funny, especially her response: "I'm closer to firing you than I am breaking up with you", and especially that Michael was relieved that she only wanted to fire him, not break up with...
Great list. The only thing you've left out is something single homebuyers often overlook, bc/ they won't be consumers of this: school district. Good public schools will really support property values. In my neighborhood, the same house goes for 20-25% less if it's in the ""bad" public school...