The Password is Swordfish

With some new voting rules to consider, and a number of races with several worthy parties vying for a fifth slot, here are my best guesses for tomorrow’s Oscar nominations. I’m trying my best to leave my personal bias out of the equation (my personal Top 10 lists in the major categories will be posted shortly), but certain snubs seem so cruel– *cough* Michael Shannon *cough*– that I can’t imagine a world in which they happen. So without further ado, my predictions on tomorrow morning’s Oscar nominations.

Continue reading ‘Predicting the 2012 Academy Award Nominations’

Posted in Listmania, The Thoughts of Russell Hainline, Awards Season
Tags: 2012 Academy Awards, 50/50, A Separation, Academy Award nominations, Academy Awards, Albert Nobbs, Anonymous, Bridesmaids, Drive, Hugo, Michael Shannon, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Oscar buzz, predictions, Rango, Take Shelter, The Artist, The Descendants, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Help, The Iron Lady, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Tree of Life, War Horse, We Need To Talk About Kevin, Win Win

The Artist is destined to be a victim of high expectations. I’m not referring to audiences who will see it inevitably clean up at the Golden Globes this weekend (and quite possibly the Oscars), but to those enticed by the allure of a return to the silent film era. I’m a big fan of silent film stars like Keaton, Chaplin, and Fairbanks, along with being a big fan of Astaire, Kelly, and Busby Berkeley– this film’s trailer was like cat nip for me. Ultimately, the constant allusions to great films like Citizen Kane, Vertigo, and Singin’ In The Rain (among others) serve mostly to inform the audience that this film isn’t great. It’s a charming, fun, but slight pastiche of cinematic history, with great performance, great production design, and a patchwork script.

Continue reading ‘The Artist: Not A Best Picture, But A Charming Picture’

Posted in Film Reviews
Tags: A Star Is Born, Academy Awards, Berenice Bejo, Best Picture, Busby Berkley, Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Citizen Kane, Douglas Fairbanks, Film, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, James Cromwell, Jean DuJardin, John Goodman, Kim Novak, Malcolm MacDowell, Michel Hazanavicius, Missi Pyle, movies, Oscar buzz, silent film, silent movies, Singin in the Rain, The Artist, Vertigo

The Golden Globes are awarded every January by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, and it’s considered an important stepping stone in achieving Oscar buzz– win the Golden Globe, increase your chances at taking home an Academy Award. Tonight’s ceremony, hosted by Ricky Gervais, will likely serve as a precursor to some degree for what we will see come February 26th. I have provided within a helpful guide for who will likely win at tonight’s show, and perhaps more importantly, who deserves to win. (I’ll even throw in TV predictions at the end.)

Continue reading ‘The Golden Globes: Who Will Win (And Who Should Win)’

Posted in The Thoughts of Russell Hainline, Awards Season
Tags: Oscar buzz, Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, Woody Allen, Martin Scorsese, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Kate Winslet, Michael Shannon, Brendan Gleeson, Michelle Williams, Viola Davis, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, Idris Elba, Zooey Deschanel, Albert Brooks, Christopher Plummer, Matt LeBlanc, Elton John, Maggie Smith, Kelsey Grammer, Amy Poehler, Peter Dinklage, Claire Danes, Octavia Spencer, Rooney Mara, Golden Globes, Golden Globe nominations, Hollywood Foreign Press, HFPA, Best Original Song, Best Screenplay, Midnight in Paris, Jessica Chastain, Beginners, Bryan Cranston, The Guard, Drive, Moneyball, 50/50, Alexander Payne, The Descendants, Shailene Woodley, The Muppets, Bret MacKenzie, 2012 Golden Globes, My Week With Marilyn, Hugo, We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, War Horse, John Williams, Best Score, The Artist, Michel Hazanavicius, Jean DuJardin, Rooney, The Iron Lady, The Help, Berenice Bejo, A Separation, In The Land Of Blood and Honey, Gnomeo and Juliet, Madonna, W.E., Game of Thrones, Homeland, Boardwalk Empire, Modern Family, Boss, Episodes, New Girl, Jessica Lange, American Horror Story, Downton Abbey, Luther, Mildred Pierce

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy serves as a terrific reminder to American audiences just how inferior their government thrillers are. Usually our heroes make lame quips as increasingly frenetic action gives way to uncontainable explosions. The Brits, meanwhile, have Gary Oldman: silent, sophisticated, sly. The violence takes place in the shadows, off-camera. The explosions are nowhere to be found. Here, dossier files and telegraphs are the weapons in life-or-death pursuits. Think it sounds boring? Far from it– films like Transformers attempt to overwhelm audiences into feeling tension. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy quietly and intelligently earns it.

Continue reading ‘Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: The Thrills of Realistic Spy Depiction’

Posted in Film Reviews
Tags: BBC, Benedict Cumberbatch, British, British movies, Ciaran Hinds, Colin Firth, Film, Gary Oldman, George Smiley, John Hurt, Mark Strong, movies, spies, spy, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Toby Jones, Tom Hardy, Tomas Alfredson

As an enormous Spielberg fan, and a fan of the Tony-winning Broadway adaptation of War Horse, it pains me to say that Spielberg’s film version War Horse neither moved me to tears nor impressed me as much as it has others. Perhaps my familiarity and admiration of the play’s plot points led to disappointment when the script changed a number of the most interesting and complex elements of the play into facile and overtly manipulative ingredients for consumption by the lowest common denominator audience members. The visuals are astonishing, the music soars, and the horses’ performances are first-rate among all-time animal performances. However, though the film successfully gallops in its visual moments, it slows to a trot when the script’s dialogue is spoken.

Continue reading ‘War Horse: A Poor Script Halts This Stallion In Its Tracks’

Posted in Film Reviews
Tags: Albert, Benedict Cumberbatch, Celine Buckens, David Dencik, David Thewlis, Eddie Marsan, Emily Watson, Film, horses, Janusz Kaminski, Jeremy Irvine, Joey, John Williams, Liam Cunningham, Lincoln Center, Michael Morpungo, movies, Niels Arestrup, Peter Mullan, Steven Spielberg, Toby Kebbell, Tom Hiddleston, Topthorn, War Horse, West End, World War I

For the first half of Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Guy Ritchie’s sequel to 2008′s blockbuster franchise reboot, fans of the first will likely feel the familiar pleasures: the stylized action, the witty repartee, the homoerotic flirting between the two leads. However, the second half devolves into muddy, noisy slow-motion too often– the script never really disappoints, but if the action in your action blockbuster is annoyingly incomprehensible, that’s a problem. Ritchie succumbs to “sequelitis”: that inevitable desire to top the first one that then clutters up the very things that made the first one so enjoyable in the first place. It’s a fine sequel with many fun moments… it just doesn’t all gel.

Continue reading ‘Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows: This Game’s Players Take A Small Step Backward’

Posted in Film Reviews
Tags: 221B Baker Street, Eddie Marsan, Film, gay superhero, Guy Ritchie, homoeroticism, Jared Harris, Jude Law, Kelly Reilly, Moriarty, movies, Noomi Rapace, Paul Anderson, Rachel McAdams, Robert Downey Jr., Sequels, Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes 2, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, steampunk, Stephen Fry, The Final Problem, Watson

If you’ve never seen an episode of Criminal Minds or Cold Case, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo has a good shot at being one of your favorite movies of the winter. It is shot in a typically gorgeous and cold Fincherian fashion, its score is moody and tense, and it boasts one of the best female performances of the year in Rooney Mara as the titular character. I can’t speak on its faithfulness to the books or its comparison to the original Swedish film, as I’m familiar with neither. However, I can say anyone familiar with thrillers and procedurals will find nothing new here– it’s a well-executed but not especially original genre piece every time Mara is off-screen, and its imagery and events left my mind fairly shortly after leaving the theater.

Continue reading ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo: This Film’s Effect Is Merely Temporary’

Posted in Film Reviews
Tags: Christian Coalition, Daniel Craig, Daniel Fincher, hackers, Henrik Vanger, Joely Richardson, Lisbeth Salander, Mikael Blomkvist, Millennium series, Noomi Rapace, rape, Robin Wright, Rooney Mara, Rooney Mara nude, Stellan Skarsgård, Stieg Larsson, Sweden, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, Trent Reznor

Tintin is the most fun I’ve had in a movie theater all year. I’ve seen it twice, and both times, as the closing credits rolled, I felt myself longing to immediately see a sequel. That never happens. Steven Spielberg has accomplished what the fourth Indiana Jones movie should have been: an earnest pulpy adventure with a clever script, easy-to-like characters, and non-stop action. Most impressively, this film breaks new ground in both 3D filmmaking and motion-capture animation. The 3D is as bright, colorful and fluid as any film that has ever been made, and every problem that anyone has ever had with mo-cap characters has been solved by this effects team. It’s Indiana Jones meets Pirates of the Caribbean meets eye-popping technology.

Continue reading ‘The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn- Don’t Keep This Fantastic Film a Secret’

Posted in Film Reviews
Tags: Andy Serkis, Captain Haddock, Daniel Craig, Film, Herge, Indiana Jones, Jamie Bell, mocap, Morocco, motion capture, motion capture animation, movies, Nick Frost, Peter Jackson, Pirates of the Caribbean, Red Rackham's Treasure, Simon Pegg, Snowy, Steven Spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin, The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn, The Crab With The Golden Claws, The Secret of the Unicorn, Thompson, Thomson, Tintin

If Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol had been released this past summer, critics and audiences alike would have named it the best film of the season. It’s genuinely exciting, clever, and full of stunts executed with such technical prowess that I couldn’t tell what was a practical stunt and what was assisted by computer graphics. Brad Bird, who is now a perfect four-for-four in creating brilliant cinematic entertainment, has created a world that showcases the strengths of its star, Tom Cruise, who at this point has to be considered the greatest action movie star of all time because of his remarkable consistency in selecting terrific vehicles to headline. Furthermore, it deserves to be seen in IMAX, not because of the underwhelming Dark Knight Rises prologue, but because no filmmaker has utilized so many epic shots that merit the IMAX ticket price. The Dubai sequence alone is worth the price in this case.

Continue reading ‘Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol- Accept This Mission In IMAX’

Posted in Film Reviews
Tags: Brad Bird, IMAX, Jeremy Renner, JJ Abrams, Josh Appelbaum, Josh Holloway, Lea Seydoux, Mission: Impossible, Mission: Impossible- Ghost Protocol, Paula Patton, Simon Pegg, The Incredibles, Tom Cruise