Saturday, March 6th, 2010
Award Season is Crazy Season. If you follow these things at all, you have been bombarded by information about the superiority of one film above another for months now. If you blissfully ignore all that stuff, you might even not have heard that a producer on The Hurt Locker is in trouble for trying to convince Academy voters to vote for his film instead of Avatar. His crime: sending an e-mail to his friends. Yes, things are crazy. So it is a good thing that with the Oscar telecast on Sunday, Award Season will be over. Until May or so, when the first discussions for next year’s favourites and winners will begin once more.
But before the Oscars, the most important of all the meaningless awards, are handed out on Sunday, it is time for my annual Oscar predictions. Last year, I picked 19 of the 24 winners. This year, let’s try to improve on that. But unlike last year, this year I actually feel like I am entitled to my own opinion, having seen 20 of the 58 animated films, 18 of the 38 feature films, and actually having seen all nominated films in three categories. So not only will I now predict the Oscar winners as promised, I will also tell you who should win. (Yes, my opinion constitutes objective truth in these matters.) The following list is ordered rather randomly and incomplete, an alphabetical and complete breakdown of all categories and predictions follows at the end.
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Tags: 2009, 2010, A Matter of Loaf and Death, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Aardman Animations, Ajami, Alessandro Camon, An Education, Anastasia Masaro, Anna Kendrick, Armando Iannucci, Avatar, award season, Bob Peterson, Carey Mulligan, Caroline Smith, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Coen Brothers, Colin Firth, Coraline, Crazy Heart, Das Weisse Band, Dave Warren, Disney, District 9, El Secreto de Sus Ojos, english, Ethan Coen, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Faubourg 36, Gabourey Sidibe, Geoffrey Fletcher, George Clooney, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Helen Mirren, Henry Selick, In the Loop, Inglourious Basterds, Instead of Abracadabra, Invictus, James Cameron, Jason Reitman, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, Jesse Armstrong, Joel Coen, Kathry Bigelow, La teta asustade, Lee Daniels, Logorama, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Marion Cotillard, Mark Boal, Matt Damon, Mauro Fiore, Meryl Streep, Mo'Nique, Morgan Freeman, Movies, Neill Blomkamp, Nick Hornby, Nine, Oren Moverman, Oscar, Paris 36, Penélope Cruz, Pete Doctor, Pixar, Precious, Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire, Quentin Tarantino, Randy Newman, Sandra Bullock, Sheldon Turner, Sherlock Holmes, Simon Blackwell, Stanley Tucci, Star Trek, T-Bone Burnett, Terri Tatchell, The Blind Side, The Door, The Hurt Locker, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The Messenger, The Princess and the Frog, The Secret of Kells, The White Ribbon, Tom McCarthy, Tony Roche, Un Prophète, Up, Up in the Air, Vera Farmiga, Wallace & Gromit, Wes Anderson, Woody Harrelson
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Tuesday, February 9th, 2010
Review:
When I first read that Guy Ritchie, the guy behind the vastly overrated gangster comedies Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, was making a Sherlock Holmes movie that would focus on the action hero aspect of the character, I expected something terrible. But due to great casting (Robert Downey Jr., Jude Law AND Mark Strong? You wouldn’t even need to add Rachel McAdams, I’m in!) and good advance word, I actually wanted to see this film. A big mistake. The film is every bit as horrible as expected, a generic action thriller with nary a good moment. Holmes detecting mostly consists of smelling stuff, hitting men bigger than him and being outsmarted by every second person in the film. There are 60 original Holmes stories, so there really was no reason for the film to create some crazy conspiracy story that barely makes sense and is riddled with plot holes. That Ritchie’s directing is at best mediocre I expected, but it was actually painful to watch how he managed to reduce the great cast to horrible actors. No matter how you feel about the real Sherlock Holmes, avoid this film. How it ever came to be successful is a mystery that would have even intrigued the great detective.
Random Observations:
Sherlock Holmes at the IMDb
Hans Zimmer’s score is nominated for an Oscar. It was certainly very effective in calling attention to itself, but I wouldn’t consider that a good thing. If you notice that the music does not fit the scene, you are taken out of it. Also: who the hell thought that some Irish folk music would be good for the end credits?
I have to admit that there was one redeeming factor to the film: the exchanges between Holmes and Watson were often quite entertaining. But that was not nearly enough to save the film from being horrible.
There are many more bad things about this film I want to address, but I fear that I might have a heartache if I continue thinking about the film. So for now, be warned to stay away.
Tags: 2009, action movie, American Film, Anthony Peckham, Arthur Conan Doyle, based on previously published material, British Film, Comedy, Eddie Marsan, english, franchise film, Geraldine James, Guy Ritchie, Hans Matheson, Hans Zimmer, James Fox, Jude Law, Kelly Reilly, Lionel Wigram, Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Mark Strong, Michael Robert Johnson, minute movie review, movie review, Movies, Oscar, Rachel McAdams, Robert Downey Jr., Robert Maillet, Sherlock Holmes, Simon Kinberg, Snatch, Thriller, William Hope, William Houston
Posted in Minute Movie Reviews, Movie Reviews, Movies | No Comments »
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