Oscar Movies – Best Picture Run Down

The month of February is commonly considered a dark period for movies. Nick mentioned that it is the graveyard for film. New releases are basically overshadowed by the award season. In fact, Oscar nominated films get a distribution boost in February in order to milk the buzz they get from the nomination.

So, we know that you are not going to hit up the theaters for new releases. Instead, we know that you all are going to try to catch up on the Oscar movies that you didn’t get to see the first time around. Get this, “An Education” went from 100 theaters before being nominated for the award, to over 700 after receiving the nod for Best Picture. However, Summit’s “The Hurt Locker” was sent to DVD, which went from being in theaters to being completely removed. Theaters will not show movies that get sent to DVD FYI. So, Summitt messed up.

As we are in the Oscar season, there is trophy talk everywhere. We have a year where 10 films got nominated and lots of movie hooplah to go through. Since we know you all are trying to play Oscar catch up, we wanted to help you out. Here are the 10 films nominated for Best Picture and our review for each one.

1. The Hurt Locker

2. Avatar

3. Up in the Air

4. Precious

5. Inglorious Basterds

6. The Blind Side

7. District 9

8. An Education

9. UP

10. A Serious Man

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Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Movie Reviews, Oscars | Tags : A Serious Man,An Education,Avatar,District 9,Inglorious Basterds,Precious,The Blind Side,The Hurt Locker,UP,Up In The Air

SAG Got it Right

Posted by Matt Rosenberg on January 26, 2010 at 7:00 am

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This past Saturday night, while I was stuck on Martha’s Vineyard (“MV”) with no ferry going back to Cape Cod, I caught the end of the SAG’s at the steamship authority. I crowded around the only TV there along with all the authority attendants, and we all watched Inglorious Basterds take home the top prize for Best Ensemble. If you don’t know by now I am a huge Hurt Locker fan, and being loyal to my fanhood, I was pulling for Kathryn Bigelow’s masterpiece to take this trophy. One of the attendants was screaming for Nine and another was clearly pulling for Precious but wasn’t so overly emotional about it.

After the Basterds was announced as top dog, I immediately felt a sigh of defeat. At this point, I’m pretty emotionally invested in the Hurt Locker. However, being stranded on MV allowed me to really think about this. Hey, I had nothing better to do. Hurt Locker really had 3 people in it, Precious had only a handful, An Education was dominated by Carey Mulligan, and Nine wasn’t going to win. Let’s just be honest, that attendant was going nuts for basically nothing. The Basterds had lets say between 12-15 people that all had fairly important roles in the movie. The star of the movie wasn’t Waltz, as much as it was Tarantino. The Basterds was a true ensemble movie.

Christoph Waltz, who will win Best Supporting Actor, was still supporting. He’s as much a lock as Brett Favre’s dramatic tussle with whether to return or not next season. Sure, he had the best performance of the movie but his screen time did not dominate the film. Only those scenes where he actually was in, did his presence really dominate. Each personality in this film played an important role and added to the dynamic and wit that made the Basterds great. I think that handling such a large cast and producing such a great result was what put this movie over the top from the SAG voters. Clearly actors know good acting, and I think they got it right here.

Judging from results alone, it is apparent that actors clearly think that managing a cast of 15 people is a lot harder than managing a 3-5 person cast. I’m not taking anything away from The Hurt Locker or Precious but managing a large cast has got to be straight tough. While I think The Hurt Locker is a better movie than the Basterds, the top prize at the SAG is best Ensemble performance, not Best Movie. The ensemble performance for Basterds was second to none and deserved the trophy. SAG got it right.

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Comments : Post a Comment | Category : Rants | Tags : Inglorious Basterds,Precious,SAG,The Hurt Locker

Film Unknown to be Nominated for an Oscar?

Posted by Matt Rosenberg on August 25, 2009 at 11:58 pm

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The Journeyman divx

Those who flocked to the theaters this weekend to see the new Tarantino film, Inglorious Basterds, know what I’m talking about. Cristoph Waltz, who plays ‘Colonel Hans Landa a.k.a. The Jewhunter’ in INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, could be nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Most of the feedback I have been hearing is that Waltz stole the show. In addition, I have been hearing from friends and critics that he deserves to be there come Oscar time. Can a Summer blockbuster lead someone down the path of Oscar nomination, or even glory? The last time we saw evidence of that was “Gladiator.” Not to take anything away from Gladiator, because I truly think it’s one of the best films ever made, but that year was a bad year for movies. Gladiator was a Summer blockbuster that led Russell Crowe and the film itself to Oscar glory.

Will Waltz’s performance as “the Jew killer” lead him down a similar path?

Who saw Inglorious Basterds this weekend, and wants to share some thoughts? Let us know

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Comments : 3 Comments | Category : Rants | Tags : Brad Pitt,Christoph Waltz,Inglorious Basterds

Early Snap Review of Inglorious Basterds

Posted by Craig Kessler on August 19, 2009 at 2:30 am

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