come on now, sugar (bring it on bring it on yeah)
All right. Where did I leave off? Oh right - last Thursday, I went for a double feature (of sorts): the matinee of The Fighter, and then in the evening, the 7:30 showing of 127 Hours.
sidebar: I just started up iTunes, and the first song it chose was the theme song to Veronica Mars, who is the star of my lovely icon. Oh Sydney, some days I adore you.
The Fighter
Holy crap, this movie. This movie, you guys! I didn't think I'd love it as much as I did. Don't get me wrong: it's rough, and hard to watch at times, but in the end, it's totally worth it.
Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale play half-brother boxers Micky Ward and Dickie Eklund. Dickie's pretty much washed up, but still acts as trainer for his younger brother Micky, and both are managed by their mother, Alice. A camera crew is following Dickie around, filming from HBO about his 'comeback' to the boxing world, via Micky. There's this big fight in Atlantic City that they go to, but the boxer they were going to fight comes down with the flu. Dickie and Alice both tell Micky to fight the guy's replacement, who turns out to be twenty pounds heavier than Mickey (a big deal in the boxing world). He ends up almost beat to a pulp.
He kind of loses his way for a bit, but forms a relationship with ... oh crap, I can't remember her character's name, but she's played by Amy Adams. She and a couple of other people in his circle recommend he pick a new trainer and manager, but he refuses at first. But then his brother is arrested for multiple counts of impersonating a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer, and CHARLENE, that's Amy Adams's character. ANYWAY, the jist of Dickie's arrest is that he was trying to raise money to help Micky train by prostituting his Asian girlfriend.
Also, that movie crew that was following him around? Not for his comeback. I'm still not sure if it was revealed to Dickie or if he was just ignorant or if he was lying to Alice about the purpose, but he was actually being filmed as part of a documentary on crack addicts in Lowell, Mass. And Dickie is a big-time crack addict.
What impressed me was the fact that the movie drew me in as much as it did. In one of the fights I remember flinching - a lot. And I totally got emotional when Micky triumphed in the end.
I think it's a shame that Mark Wahlberg didn't get nominated. I mean, really? He was great. Christian Bale will most likely win -- unless Geoffrey Rush or Jeremy Renner pulls an upset (*note: I haven't seen either of those movies yet). I've read that he studied with the real Dickie Eklund and practically lived in Lowell, but man, his accent is down. I've lived in Maine all my life, and a Maine accent is pretty much an exaggerated (God, that is an annoying word to spell) version of a Boston accent, and that's pretty much what the Lowell accent is, and I couldn't even reproduce it that well. And Christian Bale's from Wales, for cripe's sake!
Melissa Leo is a strong contender for Best Supporting Actress. My personal preference is still for Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit, but as I've mentioned before, these are the Oscars, not the Alainas. But she's won the Golden Globe and the SAG Award, so odds are she's walking away with the statue. This would make Amelia happy, as she has loved Melissa Leo since her days on Homicide.
Best Picture? Right now, it's at the top of my list. Yes, even above Toy Story 3. And here's the thing with that: The Academy is not going to reward an animated film with Best Picture. That's what the Best Animated Feature award is for. And they're certainly not going to reward a threequel with Best Picture, even if it is for a Toy Story movie, because I can't think of a single film series that is as beloved as Toy Story please don't talk about Batman or Harry Potter or Iron Man or Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings won because the first two didn't come back with squat, and it was rewarding Peter Jackson for his tremendous effort. The others are far from perfect, and you know it.
So, to sum up: Christian Bale wins, Melissa Leo most likely wins. Director (David O. Russell)? Uh, toss-up. Best Director usually gets paired with Best Picture, and while this is currently in the running Alaina-wise for Best Picture, I think it's far from guaranteed. Best Original Screenplay? I like it for this, but it's also up against The King's Speech.
127 Hours
I was not looking forward to this movie. Not at all. I like James Franco (loved him on Freaks and Geeks, and he's an awesome mini-Green Goblin in Spider-Man I), but the idea of an hour and a half with practically just James Franco, and as if that weren't enough, ending with a self-amputation scene? Well, gee golly whiskers, where do I sign up? :/
So I went, and let me tell you, it's a trippy film. You should expect this, as it's directed by Danny Boyle, he of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire fame. The whole trapped-by-a-rock thing isn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be -- there are diversions into Aron's mind, and after the first blush, I didn't feel any empathy pain.
Until the amputation scene. Which I didn't watch.
Well, let me put it this way. You've been sitting for over an hour, and he's still trapped by the rock. You're sitting there, antsy, because you know what's coming, and you can feel he's about to snap. Your water bottle hasn't been touched, because he's been drinking his urine because he ran out of water over a day ago and you feel super guilty for having almost a full bottle of organic, filtered chilled bottled goodness by your left elbow, so your mouth is dry. And then he realizes that if he doesn't do this crazy god-awful thing, he's going to die, so he pulls out his godforsaken multi-tool, for Christ's sake, and you tend to be a bit squeamish when it comes to huge cuts and large amounts of self-inflicted pain in movies (you still have to wince and hold your wrists together when you watch that scene with Luke Wilson in The Royal Tenenbaums). So you close yourself up and cover your eyes with your hands.
And all you hear is the crazy music A.R. Rahman is known for and a couple of grunts, and you try so damn hard to not watch any of it, but you can't help it -- you're human.
So you peek.
And then you whimper, because holy crap those are the innards of his arm and there's blood everywhere and holy shit is he twisting that thing can't look can't look and your eyes close again. Another minute or so of you breathing deeply and trying valiantly not to look, but it's got to be close now, right? So you peek again, but no, that is definitely twisting the goddamn multi-tool, and you know it's all movie trickery and that he's not doing it to his real arm, but still and so you close your eyes again and your legs can't stay still and finally, finally, with a large scream and screeching of whatever musical instrument that is, you open your eyes just in time to see him pull himself free of his arm.
And then you breathe.
Do I think he'll win Best Actor? Hard to say. Again, I'm kinda saving The King's Speech, and I'm totally rooting for Colin Firth, because it's fucking Colin Firth, who never ceases to be hot. (Also, James Franco is hosting the Oscars -- how would that even work? Does he get to sit in the audience for that moment?) It was an amazing performance, I'll grant you that. If James Franco would just relax and focus on one career, he could eventually win an Oscar.
Then this afternoon, I caught one of the last showings of Rabbit Hole in the area.
Nicole Kidman was Rabbit Hole's only nomination, to my knowledge. My first reaction is that it's a shame Aaron Eckhart didn't get nominated. His performance and his role was more gut-wrenching to me than Kidman's was. Do I think she'll win over Natalie Portman? Not a chance in hell.
And I've just finished watching How to Train Your Dragon. What a cute movie! I was pleasantly surprised. Granted, I did doze off for about twenty minutes in there, and the disc skipped a few times in the second act (damn you, Redbox), but I thought it was very well-done. Doesn't stand a chance against Toy Story 3 mind you, but I'm thinking of buying a copy when I see it for less than ten bucks.
Next on my list: tomorrow night will be The Social Network. I've sat through 127 Hours and Rabbit Hole, a movie about greiving parents. Why am I dreading two hours of an emotionless Jesse Eisenberg more than watching James Franco cut off his 'arm'?
sidebar: I just started up iTunes, and the first song it chose was the theme song to Veronica Mars, who is the star of my lovely icon. Oh Sydney, some days I adore you.
The Fighter
Holy crap, this movie. This movie, you guys! I didn't think I'd love it as much as I did. Don't get me wrong: it's rough, and hard to watch at times, but in the end, it's totally worth it.
Mark Wahlberg and Christian Bale play half-brother boxers Micky Ward and Dickie Eklund. Dickie's pretty much washed up, but still acts as trainer for his younger brother Micky, and both are managed by their mother, Alice. A camera crew is following Dickie around, filming from HBO about his 'comeback' to the boxing world, via Micky. There's this big fight in Atlantic City that they go to, but the boxer they were going to fight comes down with the flu. Dickie and Alice both tell Micky to fight the guy's replacement, who turns out to be twenty pounds heavier than Mickey (a big deal in the boxing world). He ends up almost beat to a pulp.
He kind of loses his way for a bit, but forms a relationship with ... oh crap, I can't remember her character's name, but she's played by Amy Adams. She and a couple of other people in his circle recommend he pick a new trainer and manager, but he refuses at first. But then his brother is arrested for multiple counts of impersonating a police officer, aggravated assault on a police officer, and CHARLENE, that's Amy Adams's character. ANYWAY, the jist of Dickie's arrest is that he was trying to raise money to help Micky train by prostituting his Asian girlfriend.
Also, that movie crew that was following him around? Not for his comeback. I'm still not sure if it was revealed to Dickie or if he was just ignorant or if he was lying to Alice about the purpose, but he was actually being filmed as part of a documentary on crack addicts in Lowell, Mass. And Dickie is a big-time crack addict.
What impressed me was the fact that the movie drew me in as much as it did. In one of the fights I remember flinching - a lot. And I totally got emotional when Micky triumphed in the end.
I think it's a shame that Mark Wahlberg didn't get nominated. I mean, really? He was great. Christian Bale will most likely win -- unless Geoffrey Rush or Jeremy Renner pulls an upset (*note: I haven't seen either of those movies yet). I've read that he studied with the real Dickie Eklund and practically lived in Lowell, but man, his accent is down. I've lived in Maine all my life, and a Maine accent is pretty much an exaggerated (God, that is an annoying word to spell) version of a Boston accent, and that's pretty much what the Lowell accent is, and I couldn't even reproduce it that well. And Christian Bale's from Wales, for cripe's sake!
Melissa Leo is a strong contender for Best Supporting Actress. My personal preference is still for Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit, but as I've mentioned before, these are the Oscars, not the Alainas. But she's won the Golden Globe and the SAG Award, so odds are she's walking away with the statue. This would make Amelia happy, as she has loved Melissa Leo since her days on Homicide.
Best Picture? Right now, it's at the top of my list. Yes, even above Toy Story 3. And here's the thing with that: The Academy is not going to reward an animated film with Best Picture. That's what the Best Animated Feature award is for. And they're certainly not going to reward a threequel with Best Picture, even if it is for a Toy Story movie, because I can't think of a single film series that is as beloved as Toy Story please don't talk about Batman or Harry Potter or Iron Man or Lord of the Rings. Lord of the Rings won because the first two didn't come back with squat, and it was rewarding Peter Jackson for his tremendous effort. The others are far from perfect, and you know it.
So, to sum up: Christian Bale wins, Melissa Leo most likely wins. Director (David O. Russell)? Uh, toss-up. Best Director usually gets paired with Best Picture, and while this is currently in the running Alaina-wise for Best Picture, I think it's far from guaranteed. Best Original Screenplay? I like it for this, but it's also up against The King's Speech.
127 Hours
I was not looking forward to this movie. Not at all. I like James Franco (loved him on Freaks and Geeks, and he's an awesome mini-Green Goblin in Spider-Man I), but the idea of an hour and a half with practically just James Franco, and as if that weren't enough, ending with a self-amputation scene? Well, gee golly whiskers, where do I sign up? :/
So I went, and let me tell you, it's a trippy film. You should expect this, as it's directed by Danny Boyle, he of Trainspotting and Slumdog Millionaire fame. The whole trapped-by-a-rock thing isn't as uncomfortable as I thought it would be -- there are diversions into Aron's mind, and after the first blush, I didn't feel any empathy pain.
Until the amputation scene. Which I didn't watch.
Well, let me put it this way. You've been sitting for over an hour, and he's still trapped by the rock. You're sitting there, antsy, because you know what's coming, and you can feel he's about to snap. Your water bottle hasn't been touched, because he's been drinking his urine because he ran out of water over a day ago and you feel super guilty for having almost a full bottle of organic, filtered chilled bottled goodness by your left elbow, so your mouth is dry. And then he realizes that if he doesn't do this crazy god-awful thing, he's going to die, so he pulls out his godforsaken multi-tool, for Christ's sake, and you tend to be a bit squeamish when it comes to huge cuts and large amounts of self-inflicted pain in movies (you still have to wince and hold your wrists together when you watch that scene with Luke Wilson in The Royal Tenenbaums). So you close yourself up and cover your eyes with your hands.
And all you hear is the crazy music A.R. Rahman is known for and a couple of grunts, and you try so damn hard to not watch any of it, but you can't help it -- you're human.
So you peek.
And then you whimper, because holy crap those are the innards of his arm and there's blood everywhere and holy shit is he twisting that thing can't look can't look and your eyes close again. Another minute or so of you breathing deeply and trying valiantly not to look, but it's got to be close now, right? So you peek again, but no, that is definitely twisting the goddamn multi-tool, and you know it's all movie trickery and that he's not doing it to his real arm, but still and so you close your eyes again and your legs can't stay still and finally, finally, with a large scream and screeching of whatever musical instrument that is, you open your eyes just in time to see him pull himself free of his arm.
And then you breathe.
Do I think he'll win Best Actor? Hard to say. Again, I'm kinda saving The King's Speech, and I'm totally rooting for Colin Firth, because it's fucking Colin Firth, who never ceases to be hot. (Also, James Franco is hosting the Oscars -- how would that even work? Does he get to sit in the audience for that moment?) It was an amazing performance, I'll grant you that. If James Franco would just relax and focus on one career, he could eventually win an Oscar.
Then this afternoon, I caught one of the last showings of Rabbit Hole in the area.
Nicole Kidman was Rabbit Hole's only nomination, to my knowledge. My first reaction is that it's a shame Aaron Eckhart didn't get nominated. His performance and his role was more gut-wrenching to me than Kidman's was. Do I think she'll win over Natalie Portman? Not a chance in hell.
And I've just finished watching How to Train Your Dragon. What a cute movie! I was pleasantly surprised. Granted, I did doze off for about twenty minutes in there, and the disc skipped a few times in the second act (damn you, Redbox), but I thought it was very well-done. Doesn't stand a chance against Toy Story 3 mind you, but I'm thinking of buying a copy when I see it for less than ten bucks.
Next on my list: tomorrow night will be The Social Network. I've sat through 127 Hours and Rabbit Hole, a movie about greiving parents. Why am I dreading two hours of an emotionless Jesse Eisenberg more than watching James Franco cut off his 'arm'?