So Anyway, Who Is Running For Best Picture?

    A strange revelation has been made known to us recently, the fact that not only the number of people that know about the Academy Awards has gone down but the amount of people that watch all the movies selected has gone down as well, which means that we are going to have an award show for movies that many people have not seen. This concept puzzled us for a few minutes but in light of last year the answer was simple, there weren't many good movies that came out last year, the Academy worthy talent of last year is minimum at best, which explains why the Academy had to chose some of these movies to compete this year. This is not a reflection on all the movies selected thus we decided to be honest about our perspective on who was picked this year. We understand that opinions may vary, and that you might disagree with us completely on our opinions about these movies, but that is the beauty of  of mutual respect, the ability to disagree with one another and still retain friendship between two people, with that said here we go.

  Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close

   No doubt this was a tear jerker, this movie told of a story about a boy searching for family and changing the lives of various different type of people along the way, it was a sweet story and a job well done. Now does this movie deserve to be in the Academy, no, it does not. This movie's plot is so simple that if you watch the preview for it you will have seen the whole movie, this is not a bad movie, it just isn't up to par when it comes to best picture. We can think of ten different movies that carry this same style of plot, have better acting and didn't run for best picture, rightly so might we add, movies like "Simon Birch", or "August Rush". We do love these type of movies but we cannot stand behind this choice, it was a last minute addition and one that should not have been made.

   The Artist

   This was a great movie, it wasn't your main stream hit, not many people have seen this movie which is unfortunate, for it is a good one. This was a correct selection for this years Academy Awards, here is a movie trying to do something different, trying to introduce something from the past with something from the present, it was a good watch. This was not our favorite movie but we cannot deny that this movie deserves to be nominated and even win. It is difficult talking about a movie without giving too much away, specially with these type of movies, just know that the movie centers around an actor who is coming off being in silent movies and is facing the very real concern and challenge of doing talking pictures, think a more serious non musical "Singing In The Rain" concept, and it is done well.

    The Descendants

    Let us start this off by saying that we love Clooney, we think he is a fantastic actor deserving of respect, having been in many great movies in the past Clooney has stolen our hearts over the years, but though he has been in many great movies this is not one of them. Don't misunderstand us here, this was a good movie, but it is not good enough to run for best picture, that is the issue here. This movie follows a father trying to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife suffers an accident, it is a good story, it was well written and it is a movie worth watching for sure, but it still does not have that extra magic that we find in movies deserving to be running for best picture, again it is a good movie, but not a great movie thus again the Academy disappointed us here.

  The Help

  We have said this before and we will say it again, "The Help" was a fantastic movie, this movie deserves to win as many awards as possible this year. It was tough choosing between Woody Allen's movie or "The Help" for best movie, for this movie stole our hearts. "The Help" tells of the racist past that existed in America, and how unity and courage can bring people together to fight injustice. Anyone that has seen this movie can attest to how you end up hating the housewives and loving the maids, this movie depicts a very real picture of how things used to be, and it rocked our world. Here is a movie deserving of being considered the best movie of last year, this was an obvious choice for sure and one that is deserving of victory.

 The Tree Of Life

   This movie was bad, we can't back this at all, there was big hype about this movie from everyone until everyone saw the movie and the hype died a slow and painful death. This movie had the potential to be great, it had a good cast, a good concept but every time the movie was about to get good the director made sure that it did not. We are biased against this movie, true, maybe it was the hype, or maybe it was the fact that it just wasn't that good of a movie, either way it should not be running for best picture. We know this is a harsh critique of this movie, but it just so happens that this was one of those movies that we just didn't like, it happens, if you loved this movie props to you, but we feel that we all can agree on one thing at least, this movie does not deserve to be considered the best movie of last year. How could this movie be nominated and "Drive" not be, it just makes no sense.

  Hugo

   Martin Scorsese is brilliant so when we heard he was releasing a new movie we knew that it was going to be a great one. This was Martin's attempt at creating a movie that his young daughter could see, while retaining a deep story line and fantastic acting. "Hugo" gives us everything you could want from a movie, it is "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" done right, though both movies have different plots, the main theme is very similar, with "Hugo" obviously standing out as the victor between the two. This is a great movie, one you should watch with your whole family, Martin outdid himself, we don't know if we would consider it the best movie of the year, but it was definitely part of our top ten movies of last year.

  War Horse

   This movie follows the story of a horse and a boy who loves said horse, the boy has to sell the horse and throughout the movie he is trying to get the horse back, that's about it when it comes to plot. The movie does depict a very interesting picture of the war, it shows us the perspective from both sides and the journey the horse goes through, from him making and losing friends to trying to find the boy who loves him, which in turn makes it a good movie but not a great one. This movie does not deserve to be in the list for best picture, it was good movie, but again it does not have what it takes to stand up to the other great movies that came out this year, it was a poor choice by the Academy.

  Midnight In Paris

 We've said so much about this movie already, this is our clear choice for this year's Academy Award. We've been vague about what happens in the movie for good reason, for it is one of those movies that the least you know about it the better it is, for it gives us pleasant surprises throughout it. It came to no surprise to us that this movie stole our hearts, Woody Allen rarely does a mediocre film, thus when we heard he was releasing this one we couldn't wait to go see it. We were also very curious as to his choice for main actor, though we like Owen Wilson we have never thought of him as a great actor, but here Woody makes Wilson glow, Wilson does a fantastic job, one that made us look forward to the future of his career.

   Moneyball

  Jonah Hill deserves to win for best supporting actor, that is a fact, and Brad Pitt always delivers a great performance that is another simple fact, but this movie as a whole does not deserve to run for best picture, that is a simple conclusive truth. "Moneyball" was a great movie, with a horrible ending, not the fact that the ending wasn't 'nice' but that the way it was filmed was poorly done. The story builds up brilliantly, the middle holds our attention but the end just drops off out of nowhere, it was poor story telling and for this reason it does not deserve to be part of the list of best movies, though Jonah does deserve the award, that fact remains true for sure. 

   And there you have it, this concludes our opinions on all the movies running for best picture this year, you might disagree with us, you might agree with us, you might be undecided, and that is the beauty of opinion. When thinking about what movies deserve to run for best movie, and what are the qualifying characteristics of what a good movie looks like, the best way to go about it is to look at past choices for best movie, here are few that might help shed some light into this quandary, "Patch Adams", "The Godfather", "Dead Poets Society", "Pulp Fiction", "Shawshank Redemption", "American Beauty", "Silence Of The Lambs", "Forrest Gump", "Milk" and so forth. When thinking about what movies should be selected for best picture think how it compares to some of these titles and then make your choice of discerning what movies deserve to be on this list and what movies should not. 

 We hope you have had a great week, and may this weekend be a glorious one,

Love from your humble blogger,

Who Is Woody Allen?

    We live in a world where more people know who Michael Bay is than who Woody Allen is and have seen more brash movies from Bay than intelligent movies from Allen, we find this to be unfortunate. With the Academy Awards just a few days away we felt that doing a story on Woody would only be fitting being that to us the movie that deserves to win this year happens to be a Woody Allen film, so sit back and read on, Woody is someone you should get to know, he is a brilliant writer and director, and deserves our attention.

    If we were to list all the movies Woody Allen has either written, directed, or been part in, this post would take up countless pages for Woody has had a long career with many great successes. One of his first movies that became an instant classic was "Sleeper" which he wrote, directed and stared in, it was released in 1973 and depicts what the future might look like, it was very imaginative and won our hearts. We could talk about a lot of other movies here, but we've decided to focus on a few recent ones you might have heard of and if not should check out. Before we do though, here are some movies you should take a look at as well: "Annie Hall" (1977), "Manhattan" (1979), "The Purple Rose of Cairo" (1985), "Hannah And Her Sisters"(1986), "Mighty Aphrodite" (1995), "Everyone Says I Love you" (1996), "Small Time Crooks" (2000), "The Curse of Jade Scorpion" (2001), and "Anything Else" (2003), we could put all his movies within this list, but alas this is our selection.

   Woody Allen has always had this motto of pushing the audience to see the world in a different light, to embrace someone else's perspective on life, and of course he also gives a cultural critique within most of his movies. One could argue that all of his movies offer social critiques about life, love, the meaning of living, the purpose of work and the delight of creativity, which are all great topics rarely discussed by others and thus is addressed by our friend Woody. This is what sets him apart from other writers and directors, Woody will have a very real philosophical theme throughout the movie that will be expertly sown in within the story, so that the story in itself will be engaging but the philosophy and questions that the story sprouts forth will catch you by surprise and thus Woody's brilliance is seen.

      A few of his latest movies that show this phenomenon are "Match Point" (2005), "Scoop" (2006), "Cassandra's Dream" (2007), "Vicky Christina Barcelona" (2008), "Whatever Works" (2009), and "You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger" (2010), all of which are brilliant and should be watched. Not all of these movies will win your heart, that's a simple fact, to us the best three up there are "Match Point", "Vicky Christina Barcelona" and "Whatever Works". The cast within all these movies are amazing, and are sporting big names here like, Jonathan Ryes Meyers, Emily Mortimer, Scarlet Johansson (she's been in a lot of his movies as of late), Hugh Jackman, Ewan McGregor, Collin Farrel, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, Larry David, Evan Rachel Wood, Antonio Banderas, Anthony Hopkins, Josh Brolin, and Naomi Watts, this does not even begin to cover the amount of good actors that have worked for him, but here are a few so that a picture of Woody's awesomeness begins to take focus.

     It is said to be a high honor to be within a Woody Allen film, very few actors have turned down an invite to be within one of his pictures, being able to be in one of his films is a career making choice and all those that have been a part of the magic have never regretted it. One thing to note if you haven't already is that Woody has released a movie per year since 1982, meaning not only does this guy write and direct his own movies, he also does it once a year and does it well. He has done this so well in fact that he has been nominated to various awards throughout his life, to the point of being nominated by the Academy around 23 times, here is a man that deserves your attention.

    This Academy Awards has put Woody's latest movie "Midnight In Paris" on the race for best movie, art direction, directing, and writing (original screenplay), all of which he could win. The movie takes place in Paris just in case you didn't get that from the title, and shows a story about a man who is about to get married and thinks that he is happy, a man who cannot see beyond what he has always known, but is taken up and his eyes opened, to the beauty that life possesses. A story about a struggling writer played by Owen Wilson, his fiance played by Rachel McAdams, and an incredible cast consisting of many fantastic actors including Kathy Bates, Adrien Brody, Carla Bruni, Michael Sheen, Tom Hiddleston, and Corey Stoll. This is a movie that everyone should see, a great movie about thinking outside the box, loving life and recognizing the beauty around you.

    If you get a chance to watch some of Woody's work we recommend that you do, and if nothing else do take a look at "Midnight In Paris", it is a delightful movie with something for everyone in it.

   We hope this week has been going well for you, and pray that it might finish even better,

Love from your humble blogger,