Eight Oscar nominations, including one for Jones, and three wins. The wins were for songs (the title song was a huge hit), score and costumes. Fortunately for your mission, Jones did deserve her oscar for The Song of Bernadette.

Prometheus

Given all the talk on this film, it was easily one of my most anticipated. Unlike many others, it isn't because I'm a big Alien fanboy. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy both of the first two films but haven't seen the second in years and never saw any entry beyond that. I went into this film hoping to get some connection to the world of Alien but unlike many, I didn't need it to answer all of my burning questions. I walked away feeling mostly satisfied with my two hours. It was far from perfect and the storytelling was more than a little sloppy but damn was it a gorgeous looking film. James called it "pure" science fiction and I would agree. The shame of it is that it could have been truly great but failed to grab hold of the opportunity. Overall, after one viewing, and this could and probably would fluctuate after another, but I'll give it a 7.5/10.

The Expendables - a generous * out of *****

I can't remember the last time I facepalmed this much while watching a film. What really made me do this was the sickening thought that this was the film that more people went to see on the same weekend than Scott Pilgrim vs The World. Yeah, I realize that this film wasn't exactly supposed to be high cinema and that it is what it is, but the reason that the producers would even think that shit like this is still relevant outside of the 1980's is beyond me. What are their thought processes like? You know what? I really don't want to know in the end.

The sad thing is that had the makers of the film decided to play it tongue-in-cheek (re: not take itself so seriously), this could have been a more enjoyable film. I'm watching Scott Pilgrim again in an attempt to wash the figurative bad taste of this piece of crap out of my brain.

The Kid

Charlie Chaplin vehicle about, you guessed it, a kid. Made in 1921, this one marks the first appearance of Chaplin's notable Tramp character. This is also the first film Chaplin wrote, directed, and produced, so an argument can be made that this one of (if not the) first auteur film ever made.

Oddly enough, the film itself isn't exactly vintage Chaplin. It's still good, but there's quite a bit more drama than you usually expect from him. The story concerns an abandonded child who is eventually found, and raised, by Chaplin's Tramp. The movie feels kind of Dickensian in how it portrays the lives of the poor, and there's some slight social commentary about social status and class. There are a few slapstick scenes that really work (especially the ones with the police officer), but the mesh of comedy and drama, while a noble, ambitious effort in 1921, doesn't feel the slightest bit special today.

At around an hour long, the movie moves pretty quickly. That's favorbale for the comedy, but not so much for the drama. Overall, it's an entertaining, pleasant hour that's more notable within Chaplin's filmography than it is as a stand alone movie.

Breaking Away

Four recent high school graduates slum around in a small town, wondering what to do with the rest of their lives. Three of them don't seem to have much of a clue, but one wants to become a champion bike racer. Breaking Away mixes elements of comedy and uplifting drama pretty well; I can see why it became a sleeper hit back in 1979. For me, it is good but falls short of greatness.

Not only do I love this movie, I hear Mendellsohn's Symphony #4 in A Major as I bike. It started out for me as a bicycling movie. The first time I saw it, I felt that the whole "Cutters" plot was tacked on as a synthetic ooo-rah, root-for-the-home-team and I was unaffected/unmoved by the father-son talk amongst the college buildings.
"I was proud of my work. And the buildings went up. When they were finished the damnedest thing happened. It was like the buildings were too good for us. Nobody told us that. It just felt uncomfortable, that's all."

and the exchange:
Dad: "You guys still go swimmin' in the quarries? "
Dave: "Sure. "
Dad: "So, the only thing you got to show for my 20 years of work is the holes we left behind?"

Later, I learned to love this element of the plot and have come to appreciate it even moreso than the cycling aspect. There's a wonderful poignance to this talk that shifts "dad" character from the incorrigible grump who doesn't understand his son to a man who loved and lost an identity as a "cutter"; something now regarded as an insult.

The dad is one of my favorite dads in cinema, right up next to "The Old Man" in "A Christmas Story".

have you seen In Which We Serve? just saw it, think you'd like it.

I have not, in fact. Noel Coward right? I'll have to check it out.

Cube: For reasons I can't explain, the canadian sci-fi horror movie is considered a cult hit. Either I saw a different movie, or the majority of filmgoers have absolutely no taste in film. This movie sucks. It's badly acted, horribly directed and terribly scripted. I hated this movie. I tried to go JB's route and cleverly insult it, but you'll have to decide for yourself if i succeeded.

You should start a thread documenting your best pic nominee journey. Be nice to have that list in one place(maybe others will join in)

Hmmm... I didn't think it was any masterpiece of cinema but I didn't think it was that bad and had a couple of interesting subtexts. I would have given it 2.5 stars.

Hmmmm decent idea. I'm working on it right now. It's going to take a while and be an epic post.

I liked The Expendables a lot better than Scott Pilgrim. Expendables was no masterpiece, but Scott Pilgrim was WAY too hipster. Not quite as irritating as Wes Anderson, but I don't expect anyone who doesn't shop religiously at urban outfitters to find much to like here. The characters were far too quirky and misanthropic (I remember likening Alison Pill's character to Enid from "Ghost World.").

I did like the premise though.

Expendables certianly appealed to me, it knew it's target audience and it worked pretty well IMO, Scott Pilgrim on the other hand tried to please too many different demographics all at once and didn't really succeed at pleasing any of them, so i'm not the least bit surprised that it flopped, Michael Cera being the star couldn't have helped since people were getting pretty sick of him by that point.

Soylent Green

So, you probably already know the zinger, but I won’t ruin it anyway. 1973 Soylent Green looks ahead to the future of 2022 and the future is bleak indeed. Overpopulation is rampant and global warming has turned Earth into a sauna. For most of the 40 million people in New York, nothing works and food is scarce.
One of the 130+ murders occurring on one sweltering day is a certain high-ranking individual with “Soylent” Corp, and Detective Thorn (Charleton Heston) suspects this was an assassination. His investigation is stymied from every direction, including his commanding officer, and his only assistance comes from his good friend Saul (Edward G. Robinson), an old man with an affinity for books and the-way-things-used-to-be.
While considered “sci-fi”, we’re not bowled over with futurism, new gadgets* or automation. The atmosphere (figurative and literal) is simply a distressing vision of the future as projected forward from the early 1970’s. I’m tempted to consider this 80% noir and 20% sci-fi, and I think I’m being conservative.
While the final ‘zinger’ has become a punchline, that only attests to the breadth and depth of this film. To miss this movie, is to be missing a prerequisite for society gone awry films.
I enjoyed it, but not in the way I thought I would. I expected a Sci-Fi mystery, as the movie was from the top 100 sci-fi films of all time, but I got a film that certainly would qualify for top 100 noir films.
If there is any weakness, it’s that I didn’t enjoy Heston as much in the lead role. I found him a bit hammy at times, but this was only a slight gripe on an otherwise decent film.
3.5 out of 4

*Okay, so there is a phone with no cord and an in-home video game console…

I just rewatched Scott Pilgrim last night. Great movie.

The creators have an obvious sincere affection and understanding for mid-80s video game tropes, which is why it's not hipster.

Pilgrim actually requires the audience to use its brains at times, whereas Expendables requires the audience to turn its brain off. I almost wish it was worse than it was, because then it could at least fall into the "So bad that it's funny" category, but no.

I really don't see what was so "smart" about Scott Pilgrim, what exactly do audiences have to use they're brain for in that film besides recognizing the video game references? If you;re expecting a film like The Expendables to be "smart" then you're in the wrong place, this entry on the TvTropes page AudienceAlientatingPremise explains perfectly why Scott Pilgrim failed:

+100 cool points for Ken!

+500 brain points for Ken for knowing that sincerity is not something in a hipster's vocabulary

Perhaps to recognize how the references were appropriated into a very cinematic, very effective visual vocabulary unlike anything else in movies.


The stuff written on TV Tropes isn't guaranteed to be anymore valid or any less speculative than anything written here.

And why should those three particular niches be so poles apart? Why should that particular person be so rare?

I usually go out for a drink with my college friends on Thursday nights. While I'm there, I'll throw a rock. I'll probably hit someone who fits the description in the TV Tropes article. And then I'll probably get arrested for assault.