Best Picture Nominee Catch Up Movie: Nebraska

Nebraska (2013)

Directed by Alexander Payne

Screenplay by Bob Nelson

Stars: Bruce Dern, Will Forte, June Squibb, Bob Odenkirk, Stacy Keach, Mary Louise Wilson, Rance Howard, Tim Driscoll, Devin Ratray, and Angela McEwan

As I am slowly but surely going through this long blog-a-thon, I wanted to all the nominees on Amazon Prime before my membership expires. This was the last one available at this current time. I was not expecting to love it like I did.

Woody Grant (Dern) believes that he won a million prize and has to go to Lincoln, Nebraska to claim said prize. His family thinks that it is a scam, but Woody would hear none of that. His youngest son, David (Forte) agrees to drive him from their home in Billings, Montana to Lincoln.

The premise of the movie has been done before with an elderly father going on a road trip for some odd reason. I didn't know that the movie was a comedy until I laughing at the line delivery that Bruce Dern or June Squibb when they call out people's stupidity.

There is a hesitation when a modern movie is in black and white. It can be an artistic choice. Sometimes I could feel inauthentic. Alexander Payne wanted to harken to family road trip movies from the 60s and 70s. I understood why he did this. Bravo.

Rating: 8/10

Evil Dead

Evil Dead (2013)

Directed by Fede Alvarez

Screenplay by Fede Alvarez & Rodo Sayagues

Based on the movie, "The Evil Dead" written by Sam Raimi

Stars: Jane Levy, Shiloh Fernandez, Jessica Lucas, Lou Taylor Pucci, and Elizabeth Blackmore 

I completely forgot that there was a re-imagining of Evil Dead that came out almost a decade ago. Is this "the most terrifying film I will ever experience?" Not really.

After a frightening drug overdose, Mia (Levy) is taken by her brother, David (Fernandez) and his friends to their family long neglected cabin in the woods to help her through withdrawal. When one of the friends, Eric (Pucci) discovers the Book of Dead, he unleashes a force that will takeover.

I went into this movie trying to distance my knowledge of the "Evil Dead" series with this. After viewing the Sam Raimi trilogy, it's hard not to compare.

I understood why Alvarez wanted to make he own version of Evil Dead while paying homage to the original movies with the chainsaw, the hacking of the arm or why the way that David dressed like Ash. I get it. He probably had a deep love for the movie, and wanted to make his own version for modern audiences. When you do that, you have to be faithful to the spirit of the original. It felt like a picked and choose what to leave in or out and ran with it.

It felt like Alvarez tried to make a movie about a bunch of young adults thrust into a messed up situation that they are trying to deal with it. The problem with that is when one of the characters, mainly Eric was the mastermind of setting said things into motion, then you lost any semblance of sympathy for the character.

What I will say is that the makeup was very good. The gore was fine. A bit over the top to point that this person should have died from blood loss already. There was a section of the movie that didn't need to be there. I understood that it was needed for the ending of the movie, but Alvarez/Sayagues could have put another character in with the core friends.

I felt like Elizabeth Blackmore who played David's girlfriend, Natalie had nothing to do in the movie. I forgot that she was there. I have one last gripe with the movie. On what Earth do you think that David and Mia are remotely related? Look at them to see.

Rating: 6/10

Best Picture Nominee Catch Up Movie: The Wolf of Wall Street

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Screenplay by Terence Winter

Based on the book by Jordan Belfort 

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner, Jon Bernthal, Jean Dujardin, Jon Favreau, Joanna Lumley, and Matthew McConaughey

I am a sucker for satirical films that poke fun at excess wealth, people having a King Midas complex and hedonistic debauchery. I didn't know that this movie was comedy.

The movie details the meteoric rise and disastrous fall of Jordan Belfort (DiCaprio). He is an ambitious stock broker that wants to have everything in life; the money, cars, women and drug. Jordan gets his wish as he teams up with Donnie Azoff (Hill) to find their own firm, Stratton Oakmont, Inc.

Let's get this out of the way. I thought it was weird that Jordan would talk to the camera one minute, and in the next he would talk in voice-over. This choices took me out of the movie. There is also the runtime of three hours. It didn't need to be three hours longs. Cut out the first thirty minutes of the movie was have sufficed.

I never knew what I expected out of this movie. I was not expecting to laugh as much as I did. Scenes of snorting copious amounts of cocaine that would make Scarface jealous. I have seen so many tits. Not my thing, but I had my fill.

I didn't think that I would root for a guy that is essentially embezzling money from investors to line his pockets, snort up his nose or used to screw random hookers. DiCaprio's performance was very good. I think the Academy was afraid to give it to a comedic performance. The same goes for Hill. The unnaturally bleached white teeth of Don was on par with DiCaprio. I am surprised that the movie didn't get much love at the Oscars.

Rating: 9/10

Prisoners

Prisoners (2013)

Directed by Denis Villeneuve

Screenplay by Aaron Guzikowski

Stars: Hugh Jackman, Jake Gyllenhaal, Viola Davis, Melissa Leo, Maria Bello, Terrence Howard, Paul Dano, Wayne Duvall, David Dastmalchian, Kyla-Drew Simmons, and Erin Gerasimovich

This is the first English language movie from Denis Villeneuve. It is highly rated on IMDb. I can see why.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, two girls; Anna and Joy (Gerasimovich, Simmons) go missing. Keller, Grace, Franklin and Nancy (Jackman, Bello, Howard, Davis) try to find the girls. Detective Loki (Gyllenhaal) is tasked to find the girls. When a person of interest in the case, Alex (Dano) is let go, Keller decides to put matters in his own hands.

I love a good crime thriller. This one is very solid. If I was in the same situation that the parents were, I would do the same thing to find my child. Not the lengths that Keller does, but I was try anything. The parents were going through it. I can understand. Gyllenhaal, Jackman, and Dano were very good in the movie. I wish this movie got more love when it was released.

The thing that bothered me was the pacing of the film. The movie was too long. I understand that Villeneuve wanted to have the tension build over time. I get that. If the movie could have been trimmed twenty to thirty minutes-- a tight two hours-- I would have loved it more.

I knew the ending of the movie a good hour into it. I was waiting for the characters to catch up. It felt frustrating that the film meandered along I wanted to scream that "X" did this with the help of "Y", because you found "Z".

Rating: 9/10

Pride Month Movie - Day Thirty: The Kings of Summer

The Kings of Summer (2013)

Directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts

Screenplay by Chris Galletta

Stars: Nick Robinson, Gabriel Basso, Moises Arias, Nick Offerman, Megan Mullally, Erin Moriarty, and Alison Brie

Wow! This blog-a-thon has took me on a bumpy journey. I have seen some great movies and terrible shit piles. I've had a great time.

To close out Pride Month, I wanted to watch a movie that had a non-binary person in it. I happened upon a list on Letterboxd that suggested this movie. I have one question. Was this movie supposed to be a comedy?

High school is out for the summer. Joe (Robinson) is having trouble connecting with his father, Frank (Offerman). He tries to bring his best friend, Patrick (Basso) and the "weird boy in the school" Biaggio (Arias) to build and live in a house in the middle of the woods.

Again, I pose the question; was this film supposed to be a comedy? The "humor" in this movie went down like the Titanic. Talk about clunkers. I guess the movie was supposed to be a coming of age film, but it didn't quite achieve that in my eyes.

Being as Nick Robinson's big screen debut, I found that his Joe was just like Simon in Love, Simon-- which I did not care for. Both characters were stubborn assholes that didn't care about the people around them.

Was the movie trying to be them "growing up" and "being men," because they ran away from home so they don't have to deal with their weird families? 

The ending of this movie was a huge "fuck this movie" for me. Trying to wrap up everything in a nice little bow. I did not care for it.

Rating: 4/10

Pride Month Movie - Day Twenty Nine: Dallas Buyers Club

Dallas Buyers Club (2013)

Directed by Jean-Marc Vallée

Screenplay by Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack 

Stars: Matthew McConaughey, Jennifer Garner, Jared Leto, Denis O'Hare, Deneen Tyler, Michael O'Neill, Steve Zahn, Dallas Roberts and Griffin Dunne

This was a big deal at the time of its release. McConaughey was on an upswing in his career with The Lincoln Lawyer, Mud, and Killer Joe. This movie nabbed him the Best Actor Oscar along with Jared Leto for Supporting. Did I love this movie? No.

Ron Woodroof (McConaughey) is a down on his luck electrician that finds out that he has tested positive for HIV. He doesn't beleive it at first, because it was a gay disease. Then, he has a change of heart and researches everything about it. The CDC, FDA are trying to control a trial of AZT to treat AIDS symptoms. Woodroof circumvents the red tape to provide medicine for people not on the trial.

I have some thoughts. I was not rooting for Woodroof. In the context of the movie, he was extremely prejudiced and homophobic. The slurs that were coming out of his mouth would make you blush. You expect me to root for this awful man. Was he trying to make a difference in treating AIDS? Sure. Should I clap for him? No. He was the main character of the movie. That does not bode well for me. I wanted him to fail. I didn't care about him.

This movie was trying to be so deep with the wailing, "oh, look at me, I lost all this weight so I can get an Oscar" and all that. I wasn't falling for it. Why did this story need to be told? I read up that one of the screenplay writers put a whole bunch of misinformation in the initial script with conspiracy theories that HIV do not develop into AIDS or how the early drugs like AZT worked in human body.

I have to get this off my chest. There were too many characters in this movie. I was confused who from whom. I didn't know who was Tucker,  T.J. or Clint. They all looked the same; white men with mustaches. Get rid of them. I don't care.

Did McConaughey and Leto give good performances? Sure. Oscar winning? Not really. It did not elevate the material in my eyes.

Rating: 5/10

Pride Month Movie - Day Sixteen: Freier Fall

Free Fall (2013)

Directed by Stephan Lacant

Story by Cooky Ziesche

Screenplay by Stephan Lacant & Karsten Dahlem 

Stars: Hanno Koffler, Max Riemelt, Katharina Schüttler, Attila Borlan, Stephanie Schönfeld, Oliver Bröcker, Luis Lamprecht and Maren Kroymann

I was looking at the movie poster. I saw the name Max Riemelt. Something triggered in my brain. I know that name. Turns out he was part of the cast of Sense8. I thought that I was gonna like the movie. I was wrong.

A soon-to-be father, Marc (Koffler) meets Kay (Riemelt) during police academy orientation. They begin have an affair.

I have never had a movie that made me so angry as this movie has. Were Marc and Kay supposed to be rivals-to-lovers? I didn't see that. The film made Kay the aggressor. A stalker. He was everywhere Marc is and I don't like that. I don't see the connection between them. It seems they have to, because the screenplay told them. No chemistry. 

Kay is not a good person. He basically assaults Marc in the woods. He keeps showing up at family nights or his police department. I don't get it. Marc fucks Kay with no preparation or anything. What the hell is happening? My brain shut down. I mute the movie and eventually, stopped it altogether.

 Rating: 1/10

Short Term 12

Short Term 12 (2013)

Written and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton

Stars: Brie Larson, John Gallagher Jr, Kaitlyn Dever, Rami Malek, Stephanie Beatriz, LaKeith Stanfield, and Frantz Turner

This movie was recommended for me from Film Twitter. So, thank you for turning me onto this movie. I have never heard of it until earlier this month.

This movie tells the story of at-risk youth counselors Grace and Mason (Larson, Gallagher Jr)  as they try to navigate keeping their relationship private and helping the kids in their care.

LaKeith Stanfield was a standout in this movie. He was nominated for an Independent Spirit Award for his supporting performance.

The unlikely friendship between Grace and Jayden (Dever) was the heart of the film.

The performances across the board were solid. I had a problem with the third act of the film. It seems like Malek's character, Nate didn't have that much to do. I thought he would have a substantial role in the movie.

Rating: 7.5/10

Terrible Movie Thur - Friday - Dead Walkers: Rise of the 4th Reich

Dead Walkers: Rise of the 4th Reich (2013)

Written and directed by Philip Gardiner

Stars: Philip Berzamanis, Jane Haslehurst, Bob Lee, Nathan Head, Rudy Barrow and Jack Burrows

There is a reason why this review is coming out in the wee hours of the morning on Friday. I was watching this "movie" and I was so bored that I fell asleep 45 minutes into this 77 minute "movie."

Where do I start? The plot of this "movie" is a British agent, Alpha One (Berzamanis) discovers a plot that some members of the 3rd Reich survived WWII as they are intertwined with occult forces to make a 4th Reich. I guess?

The movie was trying to be like a Jason Bourne movie, but not. Maybe a Splinter Cell game, but failing spectacularly.  It was part Sopranos, but only the therapy scenes with Dr. Melfi. There was random bullshit was on the screen whether it was numbers, yellow or blue god rays, lenses flares galore or anything.

You cannot hear the actors most of the time, because the sound was inaudible. The royalty free music that was used overpowered the speech in this. I tried to put on closed captioning, even the dictation gave up trying to figure out this garbage. I did know what was happening. The fighting choreography was atrocious. The plot was nonsense. Maybe the sleep fairy was sparing me from enduring anymore of this abysmal experience.

The only good thing about this movie is you saw Berzamanis shirtless. That's it.

Rating: .5/10

2014 Omie Nominations

Hello, everyone. I have put together the nominees for the 6th Annual Omie Awards. I decided to do things a little different this year. There will be up to ten nominees in each category. You are allowed one vote in each category. This year, I will not have write-in votes in the major categories. You can only write in a vote for The Suck-It Award only. Happy voting everyone!

The polls are not casting the vote. Take a look at the nominees and e-mail me your choices at brenfro30@gmail.com. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Most Deserving Picture?

Inside Llewyn Davis

The Butler

August: Osage County

Rush

Blue Jasmine

Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Prisoners

The Way, Way Back

Before Midnight

free online polls

Most Deserving Director?

Woody Allen, "Blue Jasmine"

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, "Inside Llewyn Lewis"

Lee Daniels, "The Butler"

Stephen Frears, "Philomena"

Paul Greengrass, " Captain Phillips"

Ron Howard, "Rush"

Spike Jonze, "Her"

Richard Linklater, "Before Midnight"

Jean-Marc Vallée, "Dallas Buyers Club"

Denis Villeneve, "Prisoners"

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Actor?

Idris Elba, "Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"

Tom Hanks, "Captain Phillips"

Tom Hanks, "Saving Mr. Banks"

Oscar Isaac, "Inside Llewyn Davis"

Hugh Jackman, "Prisoners"

Michael B. Jordan, "Fruitvale Station"

Joaquin Phoenix, "Her"

Robert Redford, "All is Lost"

Forest Whittaker, "The Butler"

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Actress?

Veerle Baetens, "The Broken Circle Breakdown"

Bérénice Bejo, "The Past"

Julie Delpy, "Before Midnight"

Adèle Exarchopoulos, "Blue Is the Warmest Color"

Greta Gerwig, "Frances Ha"

Brie Larson, "Short Term 12"

Julie Louis-Dreyfus, "Enough Said"

Emma Thompson, "Saving Mr. Banks"

Marine Vacth, "Jeune & Jolie"

Kate Winslet, "Labor Day"

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Supporting Actor?

Daniel Brühl, "Rush"

Dane DeHaan, "Kill Your Darlings"

Will Forte, "Nebraska"

Ben Foster, "Ain't Them Bodies Saints"

James Franco, "Spring Breakers"

James Gandolfini, "Enough Said"

Jake Gyllenhaal, "Prisoners"

Ray McKinnon, "Mud"

Sam Rockwell, "The Way, Way Back"

Keith Stanfield, "Short Term 12"

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Supporting Actress?

Melonie Diaz, "Fruitvale Station"

Jennifer Garner, "Dallas Buyers Club"

Scarlett Johansson, "Her"

Carey Mulligan, "Inside Llewyn Davis"

Léa Seydoux, "Blue Is the Warmest Color"

Octavia Spencer, "Fruitvale Station"

Oprah Winfrey, "The Butler"

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Adapted Screenplay?

"August: Osage County"

"The Butler"

"Labor Day"

"Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom"

"Blue Is the Warmest Color"

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Original Screenplay?

"Inside Llewyn Davis"

"Rush"

"Prisoners"

"Frances Ha"

"The Way Way Back"

"Gravity"

"Fruitvale Station"

"Saving Mr. Banks"

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Foreign Language Film?

Blue Is the Warmest Color (France)

A Touch of Sin (China)

Gloria (Chile)

The Past (France, Italy)

Two Lives (Germany)

Wadjda (Saudi Arabia)

The Grandmaster (Hong Kong)

Bethlehem (Israel)

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Documentary?

Blackfish

Stories We Tell

Bridegroom

Blood Brother

We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks"

The Last of the Unjust

The Armstrong Lie

Lion Ark

Gasland: Part II

Poll Maker

Most Deserving Original Song?

Young and Beautiful (The Great Gasby)

Sweet Than Fiction (One Chance)

Atlas (Hunger Games: Catching Fire)

Please, Mr. Kennedy (Inside Llewyn Davis)

So You Know What It's Like (Short Term 12)

In the Middle of the Night (The Butler)

Last Mile Home (August: Osage County)

Shine Your Way (The Croods)

Amen (All is Lost)

My Lord Sunshine [Sunrise] (12 Years a Slave)

Poll Maker

The Suck-It Award

The Lone Ranger for Viz FX/Makeup

Jackass: Bad Grandpa for Makeup

The Croods for Animated Feature

The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug for Viz FX/Sound Mixing

Alone Yet Not Alone getting nominated then disqualified for Original Song

Star Trek Into Darkness for Viz FX

Iron Man 3 for Viz FX

The Wolf of Wall Street for... anything!

Other

Please Specify:

Poll Maker

Voting will be open until February 13th. The winners will be announced on March 1st. Happy voting!