Best Picture Nominee Catch Up Movie: Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood

Once Upon a Time in... Hollywood (2019)

Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

Stars: Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Margaret Qualley, Austin Butler, Dakota Fanning, Bruce Dern, Mike Moh, Luke Perry, Rafal Zawierucha, Julia Butters, Emile Hirsch, Timothy Olyphant, Damian Lewis and Al Pacino

This is the only Tarantino film that I did not see. I am very glad that I did not see this at the movie theater, because I would have walked out.

During the waning days of the Golden Age of Hollywood, the movie follows, an aging television star Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and his stunt double Cliff Booth (Pitt) as they meander throughout a couple of days in their lives.

I never thought these words would come out of my mouth, but this Quentin Tarantino film is boring. It's understandable that he wanted to encapsulate the heyday of Hollywood. There are better films that have done it better.

I paused the movie, did things that were more enjoyable than sitting through this. I yawned multiple times watching this. Nothing happens through most of this bloated movie. I didn't care about any of the characters. Why does this story need to be told? Tarantino did revisionist history before with greater success. 

There have a been noticeable decline in the quality of his movies as of late. I did not care for The Hateful Eight nor this film. I'm not that excited for supposedly Tarantino's tenth and final film, because I don't care to see it.

Rating: 3/10

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

The 2013 Omie Award Winners

 

I am sure that twenty of you are eagerly anticipating the winners of the 2013 Omie Awards. Without further ado, here are the winners:

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Picture goes to…

for creating a story about innocent love between two boys,

"North Sea Texas." Producers: Luc Roggen and Yves Verbraeken

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Director goes to…

for bringing the coming of age story to the screen,

Bavo Defurne, "North Sea Texas"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Actor goes to…

for portraying a police detective that moonlights as a contract killer, Killer Joe Cooper,

Matthew McConaughey, "Killer Joe"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Actress goes to…

for portraying the titular Tolstoy heroine torn between wifely duty and forbidden love, Anna Karenina,

Keira Knightley, "Anna Karenina"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Supporting Actor goes to…

for portraying a dastardly slave owner that wants to keep his "property", Calvin Candie,

Leonardo DiCaprio, "Django Unchained"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Supporting Actress goes to…

for portraying a girl that professes her love to a boy that doesn't reciprocate, Éponine,

Samantha Barks, "Les Misérables"

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Original Song goes to…

  

for making a song about lost love into a song to find another love,

"The Big Machine" from "Safety Not Guaranteed"


The Omie Award for Most Deserving Foreign Language Film goes to…

a film about the epic clash between mobsters and the policemen trying to stop them, 

"The Raid: Redemption". Director: Gareth Evans.

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Animated Feature goes to…

a animated retelling of classic fables into an action hero team,

"Rise of the Guardians". Director:  Peter Ramsey

 

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Original Screenplay goes to…

a film that poses fun of typical horror movie tropes with a twist,

"The Cabin in the Woods." Written by Joss Whedon and Drew Goddard

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Adapted Screenplay goes to…

winning their third Omie Award,

"North Sea Texas." Written by Bavo Defurne and Yves Verbraeken. Based on the novel,
"Nooit gaat dit over" by André Sollie

The Omie Award for Most Deserving Documentary goes to…

(another four way tie)

for showing the blunt reality of millions of students lives every day,

"Bully". Producers: Lee Hirsch and Cynthia Lowen

for shedding light on a young Frenchman preying on a grieving Texas family,

"The Imposter". Producer: Dimitri Doganis

for showing the precision skill of sushi master, Jiro Ono,

"Jiro Dreams of Sushi". Producer: Kevin Iwashina and Tom Pelligrini

for bringing the life of AIDS activist, Vito Russo to the masses,

 "Vito". Producer: Jeffrey Schwarz

And for the granddaddy of them all, The Suck-It! Award goes to…

for a boring movie about a guy on the lam for stealing fucking bread,

"Les Misérables" nominated for Best Picture

And there you have it folks. I want to thank everyone for voting, especially for Bernardo from The Movie Rat for the nomination of North Sea Texas that it could dominate the awards. Until next year...

Django Unchained

Django Unchained (2012)

Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino

Stars: Jaime Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo DiCaprio, Kerry Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Dennis Christopher, Walton Goggins, James Remar, Don Johnson, and Jonah Hill

Happy New Year, everyone. I know that I haven't been posting for awhile. I had to deal with a death in the family. I know that life goes on and you have to move on. I wanted to get that out of the way before I start my review, which will contain coarse language where I delve into the "controversy" of the subject matter and language. Be forewarned.

Tarantino is one of my top five favorite directors of all time. His way of filmmaking is alike anyone. Before you say anything, yes, he gets ideas from other movies and pop culture references, but he makes his films in such way that are fresh and new. His last effort, Inglourious Basterds was one of my top ten films of 2009. My anticipation of his latest feature was at a fevered pitch. This movie is Tarantino's take on the spaghetti western of Sergio Leone, but setting it in the pre-Civil War South circa 1860.

Django (Foxx) is walking across the plains of Texas with other slaves that were recently purchased at auction. The action stops where Dr. King Schultz (Waltz), a bounty hunter masquering as a traveling dentist, rides up to try to find a particular slave that knows a trio of wanted men. The only person that knows who they look like is Django. Schutlz buys his freedom in order for Django to travel with him to collect a bounty. There is also another reason why Django wants to stay with Schutlz. He wants to find his wife, Broomhilda (Washington) who was sold separately because they tried to run away.

Before the film came out, the film swirled with controversy because the frequent use of the word "nigger" throughout the movie. People have to take into account that the movie is set in the Deep South in the late 1850s, nothing was PC back then. The slave owners or white townsfolk can't say, 'look at that African American there." No. Slaves were considered property to their owners like livestock. Nobody cared about what the right word was. They referred to a black person, "boy", "negro" and most of the time, "nigger." Nobody says anything when rappers say "nigga" is their lyrics or when two black people say "nigga" in passing. You cannot have it both ways.

I have to say that I was disappointed in the way that Spike Lee criticized the movie for "disrespecting his ancestors" even though he had never seen a single frame of the film when he made that statement. Coming from a man that dealt like racism like Do the Right Thing or Bamboozled, it's the pot calling the kettle black. Slavery is a touchy subject that few will address. It is a part of the African American experience. I came from strong willed people who survived being ripped from their homeland, packed into slave ships like sardines, living under hazardous conditions, suffering beating, rapes and other awful things to survive. We need to have a dialogue about our dark past.

Now that is out of the way, I want to talk about the film on its own merits. I thought was going to pull an IB and not be what it was advertised in the TV spots. Nope. It was exactly what the ad were saying, which wax disappointing. That doesn't matter that the movie was awful. It was enjoyable to watch. Blood spurting out of wounds that hasn't been seen since Kill Bill: Vol. 1. The violence is over the top, because the movie's plot was never happen in real life. Bring on the blood splattered walls.

I have to give a special shout-out to Leo, because his portrayal of Calvin Candie was nuanced and subtle, but he turn on a dime on you. Sam Jackson was the comedy relief in such a heavy subject. His presence in the movie was what the movie the needed. I like everyone else. Nothing remarkable about them. Django was good when he was kicking ass or outsmarting whitey, but he seemed to fall shout of being a well rounded character.

My Rating