Oscar Predictions 2013

I TANKED IT!!!!!  I only hit 3 out of 6.  I am humbled.

I was right on Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Supporting Actress.

The ones I missed:



Best Actress:  I picked Emmanuelle Riva, but I didn't really expect to win that one. Still Jennifer Lawrence for "The Silver Linings Playbook"???? C'mon, it wasn't that good.  Her performance in the "Hunger Games" was far better.

Best Supporting Actor:  I picked Phillip Seymour Hoffman and it was Christoph Waltz.  Actually, I couldn't be happier about this one.  I'm glad that he won.  Well deserved.

Best Director:  This was the surprise of the night.  All the money was on Spielberg.  I think that "Life of Pi "was a good choice as, from a craftsman point of view, Ang Lee's "Life of Pi" was far superior.  I'm just suprised the Academy recognized it.

           Okay family and friends, once again I shall make my Oscar predictions.  I have had fairly consistent results over the years, usually hitting at least 5 out of the 6 categories that I predict.  Let's hope I don't break the streak.

This year is difficult as there are few stand outs to me, but as always, The Oscars are not about what is truly the best performance, rather the politics of Hollywood.  I will qualify my predictions that i choose what I think will win and not always the one I find most impressive

Best Picture: The mojo is all behind “Argo”.  

“Lincoln” has the only chance of upsetting Argo, but I feel it won’t happen.

• "Amour"
• "Argo"
• "Beasts Of The Southern Wild"
• "Django Unchained"
• "Les Misérables"
• "Life Of Pi"
• "Lincoln"
• "Silver Linings Playbook"
• "Zero Dark Thirty"

Actor In A Leading Role Here the mojo is with “Lincoln”.  I predict Daniel Day Lewis will win, although Denzel Washington gave an incredible performance. Joaquin Phoenix is a long shot, but I feel he has fallen out of favor with the Academy.

• Bradley Cooper, "Silver Linings Playbook"
• Daniel Day-Lewis, "Lincoln"
• Hugh Jackman, "Les Misérables"
• Joaquin Phoenix, "The Master"
• Denzel Washington, "Flight"

Actress In A Leading Role Everyone is thinking Jessica Chastain or Jennifer Lawrence.  I am going out on a limb and ignore my own advice.  My conscience will not let me choose anyone other than Emmanuelle Riva for “Amour”.  Truly the superior performance out of everyone and I don’t care if I’m wrong.  She deserves it.

• Jessica Chastain, "Zero Dark Thirty"
• Jennifer Lawrence, "Silver Linings Playbook"
• Emmanuelle Riva, "Amour"
• Quvenzhané Wallis, "Beasts Of The Southern Wild"
• Naomi Watts, "The Impossible"

Actor In A Supporting Role This is a tough one.  I think it is between Christoph Waltz again or Phillip Seymour Hoffman.  I want Christoph Waltz, but my gut tells me Phillip Seymour Hoffman

• Alan Arkin, "Argo"
• Robert De Niro, "Silver Linings Playbook"
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, "The Master
• Tommy Lee Jones, "Lincoln"
• Christoph Waltz, "Django Unchained"

Actress In A Supporting Role Anne Hathaway, no doubt in my mind.  A truly great actress. I will be embarrassed if i miss this one.

• Amy Adams, "The Master
• Sally Field, "Lincoln"
• Anne Hathaway, "Les Misérables"
• Helen Hunt, "The Sessions"
• Jacki Weaver, "Silver Linings Playbook"

Directing This one is between Steven Spielberg and Ang Lee.  “Life of Pi” didn’t make a big enough buzz when it came out.  I have to go with Steven Spielberg

• Michael Haneke, "Amour"
• Benh Zeitlin, "Beasts Of The Southern Wild"
• Ang Lee, "Life Of Pi"
• Steven Spielberg, "Lincoln"
• David O. Russell, "Silver Linings Playbook"

A Good Day to Die Hard

     ‘A Good Day to Die Hard’ is one of those films that actually made me angry after I finished watching it (and during for that matter).   The fifth installment of the Die Hard action film franchise that made Bruce Willis a movie Star in the 1980s, this film captures none of the magic, thrills, or wittiness that made the original film a classic.  It didn’t even capture a nostalgic tone that made films like Rocky Balboa watchable.  In fact, Bruce Willis’s character John McClain was so irrelevant to this story that he wouldn’t have been missed if they had left him out of the movie.  

      This time around John McClain’s adventures take him to Moscow.  The premise is that his estranged son has gotten involved in a sticky situation in Russia where he faces life imprison.  McClain goes over there to attend his trial.  McClain’s son, also named John (or Jack for distinguishing purposes), is played by Jai Courtney.  It comes as a shock to John when he learns that his delinquent son is actually a CIA operative.  He is in the middle of a war between a Russian billionaire and a high ranking Russian politician.  This is where the movie initially loses me.  Every good action film needs an epic villain.  Throughout the film, I was never sure who the bad guy was or why they were doing what they were doing.  Even when they did reveal the mysterious ‘file’ that everyone seemed to be after, it left more questions than it answered.  I can’t explain further than that without giving away plot points, but it was a very garbled and tangled story line that made no sense after it was unraveled.

So lets be honest, we go to the Die Hard films for the action and not the plots.  We want to see John McClain wade into a situation like a cowboy and blow everything up whilst smirking and delivering ironic quips.  As he does this he endlessly frustrates  sophisticated European villains with his blue collar American ways of thwarting ingenious plans.  This film tries to do that, but it just comes off flat.  McClain’s catch phrase in this movie; ‘I’m supposed to be on vacation’ (which technically isn’t true because he’s there for his son’s trial) is uttered so many times and inappropriately that it becomes tedious.  His police instincts kick in randomly and at odd times.  And the film is so determined to top the action scenes from previous Die Hards (which strained credulity to begin with) that it became eye rolling cartoonish as opposed to holding your breath exciting.  What gave the first Die Hard it’s level of greatness was it’s ability to have us suspend our disbelief during the mass chaos moments.

As I stated earlier, Bruce Willis was almost superfluous to this movie.  It felt like he was trying to insert himself into the storyline.  His trademark quips fell flat and seemed out of place.  The chemistry between McClain and his son is nonexistent.  Not sure what casting director thought they would be a good pairing. The true story was so obsessed with having one plot twist after another that it became lost in it’s own complexity and at the end, we did not understand the motivations of anyone.  Good guys included.  This was an awful film made 25 yrs after the original.  It should have never been made and it just felt like Bruce Willis collecting a paycheck.  

I give this film * star and that’s being generous.

  I’m a little angry at having wasted two hours of my life.

Warm Bodies

      I’m not going to gush over this film too much or try to over hype it.  That being said, I went into this film with low expectations and ended up thoroughly enjoying myself considering the genre this falls into.  ‘Warm Bodies’ is a zombie love story told from the point of view of the zombie.  The trailers play this up as a straight comedy, but it is also a film with a surprising amount of heart and was not filmed tongue-in-cheek.  It had the surprising depth and poignancy that reminded me of last year’s ‘Seeking a Friend at the End of the World’, but is more targeted at the teen age audience.

This is the story of ‘R’ (he can’t remember his name, started with an ‘R’ he thinks) played by Nicholas Hoult.  After the zombie apocalypse, R wanders the streets in search of meaning and connection even though he can’t think or feel those urges.  He has a sort of friendship with another zombie named ‘M’ (played by my comedic favorite, Rob Corddry), but they merely sit around and occasionally grunt.  He doesn’t know what is missing from his life because he can barely think, but he knows that his life of lurching around in packs and hunting humans  trying to eat their brains is an unfulfilling existence. The premise is eye-rolling comedic, but as I said surprisingly poignant in its’ execution.  

When R and his band stumble across a pack of armed humans foraging for supplies they attack.  During the violent battle, R kills a young man named Perry (played by James Franco’s better looking brother David) and as he eats his brains experiences some of his memories and feelings.  R immediately sees Perry’s girlfriend (now ex-girlfriend I suppose),the beautiful Julie (Teresa Palmer), who is still fighting, through a new perspective and becomes transfixed.  He saves her from the other zombies and takes her back to his converted airplane habitat where he can hide her.  Of course, Julie is terrified and can’t comprehend a zombie behaving like this.  She tries to communicate, but R is only able to communicate through grunts.  We understand what R is feeling through his narration, but Julie is left trying to understand why a zombie is protecting her.  R is equally confused because for the first time that he can remember (or the fact that he can remember) he feels something... a connection.

I’ve been watching Nicholas Hoult ever since his great and quirky performance in ‘About a Boy’.  He has grown up and I’m glad to see he’s made the transition from childhood actor.  Like I said, I’m not going to make this film anything more than it is.  Still, he shows his acting ability by being able to make a zombie sympathetic.  The film’s success rests on the audience empathizing with the zombie and rooting for him as he slowly wakes from his trance.  It is a silly premise and has cornball humor, but it also has truly touching moments that you wouldn’t think could exist in this type of film.  

Julie’s father (John Malkovich), who is the leader of the human resistance, comes out searching for his daughter.  His hatred for zombies is unparalleled and Julie finds herself in the strange position of trying to protect R from her father.  When Julie is safely rescued, R realizes that he cannot live without her (odd since technically he is already dead).  He realizes that his anguish and longing means that he is not truly dead.  He sets off to the human stronghold to reunite with Julie.  In a sense, Julie and R are star crossed lovers and you hope that the zombie and human can find a way to be together (as weird as that sounds).

This is a fun film in the midst of all the heavy Oscar season films and coming out right before the Jan -April slow period.  If you are just looking for an entertaining movie on a weekend night then go for it, otherwise it can wait until it comes out on DVD.  I wish the trailers didn’t portray it only as a comedy as it is a lot more and I think that will do it a disservice at the box office. A movie I dismissed before I went to see it, but I am glad that it was made.

http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi651536153/

I give this film ** 1/2 stars