Movies

[madupont]

Harrie, did you hear of this one?

http://www.ivillage.com/sacha-baron-cohen-pulled-oscars/1-a-121329?par=ivillage%3Aentertainment%3Aoutbrain&obref=obnetwork

Sacha Baron Cohen Yanked from Oscars Telecast

[nytempsperdu]

Having trouble with the idea that director (not writer) Bigelow was remiss for not putting a female in The Hurt Locker--was there one in the source material?  Is there a reason a female director should go beyond the director's role because of her gender?  What about a male director of a movie all about women? (Examples too numerous to mention.)

Vietnam movie not mentioned (unless I missed it in skimming very long post(s): Coming Home

I thought Syriana was well done--and Damon was un-Bourne-like in it.  Speaking of whom, has anyone seen The Informant!?

[Gintaras]

NYT, Mark Boal adapted the screenplay from an article (The Man in a Bomb Suit) he wrote for Playboy magazine in 2005.  Seems the real life bomb expert is suing because he felt "left out" of the process.  And here is more on Sgt. Sarver's claims, including the use of his expression "the hurt locker" as the title of the movie.  I think this is a case that Summit Entertainment will settle.  I wonder if they paid Chris Hedges for the use of "war is a drug?"

[Gintaras]

Odd that Boal and/or Bigelow chose to name their bomb expert William James.  

Here is the real William James on war,

We inherit the warlike type; and for most of the capacities of heroism that the human race is full of we have to thank this cruel history. Dead men tell no tales, and if there were any tribes of other type than this they have left no survivors. Our ancestors have bred pugnacity into our bone and marrow, and thousands of years of peace won't breed it out of us. The popular imagination fairly fattens on the thought of wars. Let public opinion once reach a certain fighting pitch, and no ruler can withstand it. In the Boer war both governments began with bluff, but they couldn't stay there; the military tension was too much for them. In 1898 our people had read the word "war" in letters three inches high for three months in every newspaper. The pliant politician, McKinley, was swept away by their eagerness, and our squalid war with Spain became a reality.

more ...

So maybe Boal and Bigelow were "embedding" a few comments in their script?

[barton]

I didn't catch that the bomb guy was William James -- nice catch. 

Harrie, I had heard about Winslet's separation and was actually quite sorry to hear about it -- they seemed like a good match, from what I had heard.  As for Al Payne, don't know if he will be doing location shoots in these parts -- that does sound like a good cast -- Judy Greer is also a Nebraskan.
At the risk of overexciting Jbottle, I'll also mention that Debra Winger maintains a soft spot for Nebraska (after her dalliance with our governor, Bob Kerry, back in the 80s) and came to Omaha to talk about film and her work in some mini-festival at Filmstreams (Omaha's arthouse). 

[MrUtley]

Saw the Wrestler playing guitar---er--Crazy Heart...

Mickey Rourke and Jeff Bridges give the same performance.


Music was good, though.

[jbottle]

I hope they will make 10 more great movies this year where the person is going, maybe we should make it 20, because each one of the 10 movies from last year was such a fucking gem. 

I hope they make one good movie this year, I really do, but I don't think they made a good movie last year, and when I say "good," I mean a movie that is good.

[jbottle]

Not a believer that every year there is a good movie made, but most of the time there is...I guess Best Picture has about an 80% chance of being a good (and now I mean great) movie, and I think this year there wasn't a better movie than any two episodes of "
Deadwood" or "The Wire."

Who cares, but movies sucked this year, and I will defend anything defensible, but "The Hurt Locker" is no big deal I'm reckoning, I'm venturing to guess that "The Party Animal" was a better movie, but that, like some kind of well-heeled gal with a cool mouth and straight teeth and a smart-alecky way her dad likes is beyond reproach, there's no there there really, it's a hard case to make when you're at dinner or at the Oscar's but sometimes there's just a BIG ASSED TRY, and sometimes ten, fuckit, I could be wrong, but I haven't seen a good movie since "The Big Lebowski."

[kidcarter8]

And, barton, if Alexander Payne still shoots in your 'hood, keep an eye out for these people.  (from Gawker)

Alexander Payne, one of our all-time favorite directors, is making a movie called The Descendants with George Clooney that has just added some new cast members. Joining Salt 'n Pepa in the flick will be perky-sad stalwart Judy Greer, non-Oscar winning Beau Bridges, the rumpled Robert Forster, and, strangely, Matthew Lillard. Yes, the villain from Scream who is not Skeet Ulrich. (Spoiler alert?) Oh he was also in Without a Paddle, that Noel Coward comedy of manners starring Seth Green and Dax Shepard. Pretty sure this is a promotion. [Variety]

I'd be there for Beau Bridges and Robert Forster alone, never mind the others.

Matt Lillard is SHAGGY and also the catcher in that great baseball movie SUMMER CATCH (oh well - J Biel was in it)

[Gintaras]

Personally, I thought A Serious Man was a much better movie than The Hurt Locker, but it doesn't seem the academy took the latest Coen Bros. movie seriously.

[redweather]

I liked A Single Man.  It had some of the same ambience as A Serious Man, which I also liked.  Does anyone who has seen The Hurt Locker believe it is Best Picture worthy?

[harrie]

I have not yet seen The Hurt Locker -- but based on some backlash here and other places, I'm beginning to wonder if in retrospect it will be the new Crash (a movie I liked for its ambition, but Best Picture candidates should be judged on results, not ambition).

[harrie]

Matt Lillard is SHAGGY and also the catcher in that great baseball movie SUMMER CATCH (oh well - J Biel was in it)

Did I say I'd be there for Mr. Lillard?  I believe Gawker addressed his career fairly appropriately; I mean, compared to Without a Paddle, the Scooby Doo movies are like Citizen Kane.  I've got to admit -- and this is based on what I've seen of Lillard, which is not much -- I think part of his appeal is that no matter what stinkin' piece of dreck he might be in, he commits to doing his job.  I heard somewhere he's pretty nice on and off set, too, which doesn't make him Olivier or anything, but it does seem to break the Hollywood mold.

[whiskeypriest]

I liked A Single Man.  It had some of the same ambience as A Serious Man, which I also liked.  Does anyone who has seen The Hurt Locker believe it is Best Picture worthy?

Well, I thought A Serious Man was the best movie of the year, but, yeah, that said The Hurt Locker was Oscar Worthy.

I think that's a question that gets asked about every movie after it wins an Oscar.

[barton]

"Hurt Locker was Oscar-worthy"  -- I respectfully disagree, and by "respectfully" I mean I don't really have a dog in this fight or really anything more than a half-formed opinion that makes its parent brain wish it had used birth control.  But....this was an interesting niche film that took the faux-docu approach to a bomb squad and had some competent acting that, for me, fell short of a truly award-winning character study.