Movies

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

From the main screen move the cursor right to "Starz on the Set" and then move the cursor up. The arrow will appear in an empty part of the boat pointing upwards. Press enter to watch a continuous video of takes while they try to create a scene in which Bill Murray tries out a new pair of shoes. It is hard to explain, but they have him keep jumping and running and dancing around as his character, Steve Zissou, might do to test the merit of such a pair of shoes. Ok so I can't explain what it is, but I can say that it is hilarious.

1. Dumb & Dumber

2. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

3. Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

4. Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls

5. Me, Myself & Irene

(Honorable Mention: Bruce Almighty)

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Whale Rider

A small Maori village faces a crisis when the heir to the leadership of the Ngati Konohi dies at birth and is survived only by his twin sister, Pai. Although disregarded by her grandfather and shunned by the village people, twelve-year-old Pai remains certain of her calling and trains herself in the ways and customs of her people. With remarkable grace, Pai finds the strength to challenge her family and embraces a thousand years of tradition in order to fulfill her destiny.

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1. Braveheart

2. Glory

3. Full Metal Jacket

4. The Deer Hunter

5. Saving Private Ryan

(Honorable Mention: Apocalypse Now, Gettysburg)

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With Johnny Depp, Leonardo DiCaprio, Juliette Lewis and Mary Steenburgen. Gilbert Grape is a young man in a small Iowa town who must oversee his mentally disabled brother and seriously obese mother. When he meets a girl passing through town, he realizes that a normal life could be his.

Gilbert had a difficult time just getting by on a daily basis; things were never easy for him. His father was gone so he was left as man of the house. He had two sisters who did a fair share with the responsibilities around the house and in caring for their mother, but their mentally-disabled-brother Arnie was mainly in Gilbert's charge. The doctors said he would not live past 10, but the story picks up as Arnie neared his 18th birthday. Various distractions made Gilbert's life more tolerable, though after he meets Becky (Juliette Lewis) his life took on new focus.

Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Arnie Grape. When the movie came out in 1993, Leo's competition for the accolade was Ralph Fiennes (Schindler's List), Tommy Lee Jones (The Fugitive), John Malkovich (In the Line of Fire), and Pete Postlethwaite (In the Name of the Father). That is pretty stiff competition for a 19-year-old DiCaprio, though I thought he was fantastic in his role.

I liked this movie. There was nothing in particular that stood out about it aside from the performance by Leonardo. I try not to let movies like Titanic taint my opinion of him and focus more on other roles like The Beach and Gangs of New York, two movies that were not fantastic in my opinion, but he was good in them.

I was even slightly touched by the devotion Gilbert Grape (Depp) showed towards his family and enjoyed the way he and his siblings came together under the circumstances at the end of the movie.

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Best Motion Picture of the Year: Crash
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Philip Seymour Hoffman for Capote
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: George Clooney for Syriana
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Rachel Weisz for The Constant Gardener
Best Achievement in Directing: Ang Lee for Brokeback Mountain
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen: Crash
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published: Brokeback Mountain
Best Achievement in Cinematography: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Achievement in Editing: Crash
Best Achievement in Art Direction: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Achievement in Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score: Brokeback Mountain
Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song: Hustle & Flow
Best Achievement in Makeup: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Best Achievement in Sound: King Kong
Best Achievement in Sound Editing: King Kong
Best Achievement in Visual Effects: King Kong
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Best Foreign Language Film of the Year: Tsotsi
Best Documentary, Features: Marche de l'empereur, La
Best Documentary, Short Subjects: A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin
Best Short Film, Animated: The Moon and the Son
Best Short Film, Live Action: Six Shooter

Here are a few thoughts I have on the Oscars, focusing, primarily, on the 78th annual awards given out last night.

Jon Stewart, though hysterical, is too...rough around the edges...for a big time award-show-hosting gig. His opening monologue received maybe three giggles from the crowd, and I think they all came from the same person. I do not think he had the mass-market appeal. I hate to say it, since I am such a fan of his work, but his show is most likely still on cable for a reason...
The crowd did warm up to him a bit as the night progressed, though a few of his jokes were met with chirping crickets. He seemed to begin a few of his speeches with unscripted remarks taking jabs at his being Jewish and a Jewish peer (Ben Stiller); it was those jokes more than any that were greeted with silence from the crowd. I wonder if anyone finally told him to just stick to the script.
Does anyone else think he has a pretty serious man-crush on George Clooney?

I had almost completely sworn off watching the Oscars. I was teetering on the edge when it became apparent that if a Peter Jackson movie is nominated in any category, it will win the award. "Congratulations, you have been nominated. So was a Peter Jackson movie, though. So I am sorry you do not have a chance at winning." Why do they torture the other nominees? Do they feel the need to humiliate them publicly? "Sure, we'll put your face on screen, but we both know you won't win." I guess before you know it the nominees in the category will be, "The people who worked on Peter Jackson's latest movie, and some other potentially more talented individuals, but we won't waste your time with their names."

In case you had not noticed, I am still quite bitter over three years of monopolized awards by the Lord of the Rings team. I did not feel the movies merited all of the awards they won. Some, sure. All, no. I still adamantly believe that the Academy voted for Return of the King for so many of the awards simply because Fellowship and The Two Towers won them. Return of the King was the best of the three movies, but it was also up against the most competition for the Oscars. Shame, really. I will try to get over it in time.

The Academy did redeem itself some in my eyes with voting Crash as the Best Film in 2005. Congratulations to everyone associated with that movie. It was truly one of the best movies I have ever seen, and definitely the best in 2005. I think that they really got one right in that category.

I had been too worried that Brokeback would take home the "important" awards. I had a bad premonition that it would receive 2 of 3 of Best Actor, Best Male Support and Best Picture (in no particular order). The only award I would have given to Brokeback was Best Female Support for Michelle Williams's performance, but I have not seen enough of the other nominated films to speak to that category intelligently. (You needn't tell me that you don't think I am talking about the other categories intelligently either...)

Even though I would have liked to have my cake and eat it, too, "life isn't fair" rings in my mind. My picks for the other awards did not turn out as I would have liked, but I rationalize that as political. For instance, I feel that Terrence Howard delivered the Best Performance by an Actor in 2005 for his work in Hustle & Flow. The movie, however, did not have the mass appeal compared to...oh, say a movie based upon Truman Capote. And since I am ever so conveniently on the topic of Capote, which was my 2nd place pick for Best Film, I think Phil Hoffman won Best Actor so the Academy could give recognition to the movie since it was not going to win Best Film.

That same line of thinking led me to the silly lesser-anticipated awards that Brokeback did take home last night. The movie that got that so much attention could not go home empty handed, so the voters gave it some pity awards.

I am glad to know that 36 Mafia has a hard time selling records, yet they can still get an Oscar. I guess the irony there is how their sales will go through the roof this week as a result of the award. Good for them, I guess. It really did take the show down a peg or two when the members of the group were accepting their statues and one had to be bleeped out, but I thought they were pretty gracious otherwise. Jon Stewart, if I can get back to him for a moment, really did not do a good job about hiding his reaction to the rappers for winning the award, which did not seem to be the most positive.

So I guess all listed above and the fact that I think more creativity went into Oscar commercials than Super Bowl commercials this year are how I feel about last night's 78th Annual Academy Awards.

S.W.A.T.

From the Main Menu select "Special Features". On the Special Features menu select the arrows signaling more features. With the top item highlighted (6th Street Bridge - Achieving the Improbable) press right, right, down, down. This will highlight the logo on Sam Jackson's hat. Or from your computer, use your mouse and hover over the logo, it should turn red. Selecting the hidden feature will take you to a video from the S.W.A.T. golf outing that has some pretty hilarious commentary.