Yes, it is that time of year again, when Hollywood gets to pat itself on the a✭✭ and spread around statues of little gold men who are in no way anatomically erect. Having recently viewed a few of the nominated films, and finding the reviews that had originally inspired us to be woefully out of touch with the "common man" (we occasionally like to think of ourself as such), we felt we had no choice but to weigh in.
We used the "Netflix" system of 1-5 stars in our ratings.. and perhaps because of this, have felt compelled to use each ranking once.
✭✭✭✭✭ The Lives of Others-- Last year's Foreign-Language Oscar winner got us good. This despite the fact that it has subtitles.
✭✭✭✭ Juno-- We found this little ditty severely grating at the outset, but by the end we had to acknowledge it as part of the plan to break us down to the point where we were willing to accept what we would normally classify as cheesy. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that we related to the Michael Cena character. The music-video montage at the end should go, however.
✭✭✭ No Country For Old Men-- Brilliant cinematography and scenery-- we're sure a lot of film buffs felt compelled to praise it for the technical work alone-- but the story is dark and depressing, the acclaimed Javier Bardem's performance one-dimensional, and the movie itself largely unfulfilling.
✭✭ There Will Be Blood-- An overlong and, at times, excruciating film, designed to tell you in 2 and a half hours what we could have told you in 2 and a half seconds... "Greed, for lack of a better word, is bad." Daniel Day Lewis never lets you forget for a minute that he is acting, which we don't feel is something he should be rewarded for. In fact, we must admit that we would rather have seen Sr. Sly Stallone amidst those oil fires.
Spoiler alert-- In the end, oh yes, there is blood.
✭ Charlie Wilson's War-- How they could screw this up is beyond us. The real story is even better than what the lawyers allowed on screen, and they had Aaron Sorkin writing the script. Wethinks that Sorkin should have partaken more of his dubage beforehand, and that someone, anyone (John Travolta. Keanu Reaves. Cate Blanchette.), would have been better than Tom Hanks in the title role. Is it that hard to pretend you are having fun in the company of strippers, booze, and coke?
Philip Seymour Hoffman is, as usual, brilliant, and is thus far our leading candidate for Best Supporting Actor... but even he wasn't enough to hold Hanks' bloated a** up (we didn't want to waste any stars here).
