Ben Woolf
1980-2015 (age: 34)
(Image: IMDb)
Saturday, February 28, 2015
R.I.P. Ben Woolf
Ben Woolf, an actor known for his small but memorable roles in American Horror Story and Insidious, was injured Thursday, February 19, 2015 when he was struck in the head by a rear-view mirror by a car while jaywalking. He died Monday, February 23. He was diagnosed with pituitary dwarfism as a child, which caused his bones to shrink. He used acting as a side job, mostly taking smaller roles in documentaries and horror projects, as his primary occupation was as a preschool teacher. He donated his organs to three women, saving their lives, as he was a registered donor. Ryan Murphy, creator of American Horror Story among other series, has offered to pay for the funeral expenses to assist his family, and all of his AHS co-stars and fellow crew members have spoken very highly of him, sighting his kindness, innocence, and the inspiration he provided. Never has a relatively unknown actor's death left such an impact.
Ben Woolf
1980-2015 (age: 34)
(Image: IMDb)
Ben Woolf
1980-2015 (age: 34)
(Image: IMDb)
Friday, February 27, 2015
R.I.P. Leonard Nimoy
Today, the world lost Leonard Nimoy, perhaps best remembered for his portrayal of Mr. Spock on Star Trek: The Original Series and in many subsequent films. He had also appeared in Fringe, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978 remake), Get Smart, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Atlantis: The Lost Empire, Mission: Impossible (the original series), and the video game Civilization IV. His role as Spock is one of the most iconic roles of the 20th Century, and he has inspired many imitators, parodies, homages, etc. He will be surely missed by Trekkies and sci-fi fans. But he will also be missed because of his kindness and for inspiring a generation and generations to come to think rationally about the universe and explore it.
Leonard Nimoy
1931-2015 (age: 83)
(Image: Wikipedia)
Leonard Nimoy
1931-2015 (age: 83)
(Image: Wikipedia)
Friday, February 20, 2015
My Oscar Predictions 2015: Or at least, this is what I hope wins...
The Academy has lurched its' ugly head once again, and I figured I'd give my predictions (or, more accurate, hopes) on what will win this year.
Best Picture: Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Whiplash, The Imitation Game, or The Grand Budapest Hotel (I would be happy with any of these winning)
Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood (though I personally think it would be a bit of an overstatement to say "Best"), or Alejandro González Iñárritu
Best Actor: Steve Carrell, Foxcatcher, or Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game (Jake Gyllenhaal should have gotten the nomination for Nightcrawler)
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Emma Stone, Birdman
Best Original Screenplay: Alejandro González Iñárritu and friends, Birdman, or Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler
Best Adapted Screenplay: Damien Chazelle, Whiplash, or Graham Moore, The Imitation Game, or Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice
Best Animated Feature Film: How to Train Your Dragon 2 (though The LEGO Movie should have been nominated)
Best Foreign Language Film: Leviathan
Best Documentary Feature: Virunga, or Finding Vivian Maier
Best Original Score: Hans Zimmer, Interstellar, or Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Original Song: "Glory" by John Legend and Common, Selma
Best Sound Editing: Interstellar, or Birdman
Best Sound Mixing: Whiplash, or Birdman, or Interstellar
Best Production Design: Interstellar, or The Grand Budapest Hotel, or The Imitation Game
Best Cinematography: Birdman
Best Film Editing: Whiplash, or The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel, or Inherent Vice
Best Visual Effects: Interstellar, or Guardians of the Galaxy, or Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Best Picture: Birdman (or the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance), Whiplash, The Imitation Game, or The Grand Budapest Hotel (I would be happy with any of these winning)
Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood (though I personally think it would be a bit of an overstatement to say "Best"), or Alejandro González Iñárritu
Best Actor: Steve Carrell, Foxcatcher, or Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game (Jake Gyllenhaal should have gotten the nomination for Nightcrawler)
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Emma Stone, Birdman
Best Original Screenplay: Alejandro González Iñárritu and friends, Birdman, or Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler
Best Adapted Screenplay: Damien Chazelle, Whiplash, or Graham Moore, The Imitation Game, or Paul Thomas Anderson, Inherent Vice
Best Animated Feature Film: How to Train Your Dragon 2 (though The LEGO Movie should have been nominated)
Best Foreign Language Film: Leviathan
Best Documentary Feature: Virunga, or Finding Vivian Maier
Best Original Score: Hans Zimmer, Interstellar, or Alexandre Desplat, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Original Song: "Glory" by John Legend and Common, Selma
Best Sound Editing: Interstellar, or Birdman
Best Sound Mixing: Whiplash, or Birdman, or Interstellar
Best Production Design: Interstellar, or The Grand Budapest Hotel, or The Imitation Game
Best Cinematography: Birdman
Best Film Editing: Whiplash, or The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel, or Inherent Vice
Best Visual Effects: Interstellar, or Guardians of the Galaxy, or Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Thursday, February 12, 2015
American Sniper: Based on a true story... for the most part. (Also: Top Movies of 2014 List Update)
Today, I look at what is, in my opinion, one of the more overrated Oscar nominees this year.
American Sniper:
Chris Kyle is known as the most deadly sniper in American history, with 160 confirmed kills. The film chronicles his several tours in Iraq, trying to find a deadly enemy sniper named Mustafa, as well as just stay alive. The film also shows us his crumbling personal life and how it is negatively affected by the war.
This has to be one of the more divisive films of the past year. I was intrigued when I first saw the trailers, thinking it could be a comeback project for Clint Eastwood, who has been on the decline in terms of quality over the past few years. After Invictus, his films started to become needlessly slow and boring. J. Edgar and Jersey Boys are snoozers with little emotional appeal or anything special or memorable about them. American Sniper is only slightly better. After hearing all the controversy about the film, I deduced there were two distinct schools of thought about it: it is horrific wartime propaganda that idolizes a ruthless killer and general asshole, or: a breathtaking and harsh look at the horrors of war that presents a very human main character. I had to make my own decision, and although I feel both these opinions are extremes, I think I fall more into the first school of thought.
Now, I will not retread all the historical inconsistencies and inaccuracies here, but I will link a video below which covers all that stuff. To get the good stuff out of the way, Bradley Cooper's performance is impressive, and shows that he can do more than comedy and action films. His breakdown at the bar after finishing a tour of duty feels real and is gut-wrenching, and his general reactions to things after the war range from unsettling to just uncomfortable. One problem is that towards the end, the filmmakers decided to randomly "cure" Kyle's PTSD. They never say that, but he just randomly is able to be a better person. I also felt the ending could have been executed better, but I won't spoil it. The only problem is that I think people going into the film need to realize you need to treat Chris Kyle in the film as a fictional character; he is not an accurate representation of the man. The rest of the cast, including Sienna MIller and Luke Grimes, as well as cameos from Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, The Wire) and Brando Eaton (Jonah Mitchell from Dexter), are fine, but feel like they take a backseat.
The war scenes are very intense and realistic, which I appreciated. They never felt too confusing nor too exploitive, and they are filmed very smoothly and efficiently, although I didn't appreciate the "bad guys vs. good guys" level of complexity in them, nor the constant use of racial insults, like referring to citizens as "savages".
The cinematography isn't anything special, and a lot of the scenes are somewhat predictable (one PTSD moment at a barbecue was extremely cliche) and the music is very bland. There are many plot lines (one involving a fictitious terrorist called "The Butcher", and another involving Kyle's brother) that are set up and just go nowhere. I guess life is like that, too, but the entire film is building up to moments that just never happen.
American Sniper is an entertaining and sometimes gripping film that takes a realistic look at the Iraq War. Though it is a little sanitized as far as the characters go, I still found it better than Eastwood's last few films. I still recommend not taking the film as gospel and looking into the real story a little more; you may be shocked by what you find. Overall, it is an above average movie that I feel doesn't really deserve the hype or the nominations, except maybe for Cooper's performance. I'm going to give this film two ratings, one for accuracy and one for its' quality as a film.
Quality as a film: 3/5 stars.
Accuracy: 1/5 stars.
A video summing up my problems (Spoilers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej_SRJNz9ls
(Image: Wikipedia)
End of the Year List Update:
I usually do some "Top (Blank) Of The Year" lists around this time of year, but this time I am doing it a little differently. I decided since I still haven't seen many of the films I wish to see this year, I will take a page out of YourMovieSucks' book, and refrain from doing a list until I have seen said films. Just to show how many I have yet to see, here are a few I still have not seen:
The Imitation Game
Selma
Oculus
Snowpiercer
Leviathan
Magic in the Moonlight
Under the Skin
Top Five
St. Vincent
The Guest
Cold July
Chef
The Raid 2
Jadarowsky's Dune
This Is Where I Leave You
A Most Violent Year
Kill The Messenger
And that's not even the whole list. So it might be a while before you see any such list, although you may see a "Worst of the Year" list sooner.
American Sniper:
Chris Kyle is known as the most deadly sniper in American history, with 160 confirmed kills. The film chronicles his several tours in Iraq, trying to find a deadly enemy sniper named Mustafa, as well as just stay alive. The film also shows us his crumbling personal life and how it is negatively affected by the war.
This has to be one of the more divisive films of the past year. I was intrigued when I first saw the trailers, thinking it could be a comeback project for Clint Eastwood, who has been on the decline in terms of quality over the past few years. After Invictus, his films started to become needlessly slow and boring. J. Edgar and Jersey Boys are snoozers with little emotional appeal or anything special or memorable about them. American Sniper is only slightly better. After hearing all the controversy about the film, I deduced there were two distinct schools of thought about it: it is horrific wartime propaganda that idolizes a ruthless killer and general asshole, or: a breathtaking and harsh look at the horrors of war that presents a very human main character. I had to make my own decision, and although I feel both these opinions are extremes, I think I fall more into the first school of thought.
Now, I will not retread all the historical inconsistencies and inaccuracies here, but I will link a video below which covers all that stuff. To get the good stuff out of the way, Bradley Cooper's performance is impressive, and shows that he can do more than comedy and action films. His breakdown at the bar after finishing a tour of duty feels real and is gut-wrenching, and his general reactions to things after the war range from unsettling to just uncomfortable. One problem is that towards the end, the filmmakers decided to randomly "cure" Kyle's PTSD. They never say that, but he just randomly is able to be a better person. I also felt the ending could have been executed better, but I won't spoil it. The only problem is that I think people going into the film need to realize you need to treat Chris Kyle in the film as a fictional character; he is not an accurate representation of the man. The rest of the cast, including Sienna MIller and Luke Grimes, as well as cameos from Aidan Gillen (Game of Thrones, The Wire) and Brando Eaton (Jonah Mitchell from Dexter), are fine, but feel like they take a backseat.
The war scenes are very intense and realistic, which I appreciated. They never felt too confusing nor too exploitive, and they are filmed very smoothly and efficiently, although I didn't appreciate the "bad guys vs. good guys" level of complexity in them, nor the constant use of racial insults, like referring to citizens as "savages".
The cinematography isn't anything special, and a lot of the scenes are somewhat predictable (one PTSD moment at a barbecue was extremely cliche) and the music is very bland. There are many plot lines (one involving a fictitious terrorist called "The Butcher", and another involving Kyle's brother) that are set up and just go nowhere. I guess life is like that, too, but the entire film is building up to moments that just never happen.
American Sniper is an entertaining and sometimes gripping film that takes a realistic look at the Iraq War. Though it is a little sanitized as far as the characters go, I still found it better than Eastwood's last few films. I still recommend not taking the film as gospel and looking into the real story a little more; you may be shocked by what you find. Overall, it is an above average movie that I feel doesn't really deserve the hype or the nominations, except maybe for Cooper's performance. I'm going to give this film two ratings, one for accuracy and one for its' quality as a film.
Quality as a film: 3/5 stars.
Accuracy: 1/5 stars.
A video summing up my problems (Spoilers): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ej_SRJNz9ls
(Image: Wikipedia)End of the Year List Update:
I usually do some "Top (Blank) Of The Year" lists around this time of year, but this time I am doing it a little differently. I decided since I still haven't seen many of the films I wish to see this year, I will take a page out of YourMovieSucks' book, and refrain from doing a list until I have seen said films. Just to show how many I have yet to see, here are a few I still have not seen:
The Imitation Game
Selma
Oculus
Snowpiercer
Leviathan
Magic in the Moonlight
Under the Skin
Top Five
St. Vincent
The Guest
Cold July
Chef
The Raid 2
Jadarowsky's Dune
This Is Where I Leave You
A Most Violent Year
Kill The Messenger
And that's not even the whole list. So it might be a while before you see any such list, although you may see a "Worst of the Year" list sooner.
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