Oscar Predictions!

Best Picture - The Artist

The Artist has been the front runner for months now and I don't see any reason why that would change.

Best Director - Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist

Of the 85 films that have won Best Picture at the Academy Awards, 62 of those have also won Best Director. I don't see any reason to go against the odds on this one. Though, if Hazanavicius doesn't win, Martin Scorsese will surely end up with the gold for Hugo.

Best Actor - Jean Dujardin - The Artist

This one is close between Dujardin and George Clooney of The Descendants, but my gut is telling me The Artist is going to rake up the three biggies this year. 

Best Actress - Viola Davis - The Help

Great performances in not so great movies seems to be the theme of the Best Actress category this year. Viola Davis gives a performance of great emotional depths in a movie that doesn't live up to her acting, but is still perfect Oscar bait. I'd be shocked if Davis doesn't win. 

Best Supporting Actor - Christopher Plummer - Beginners

This is the lockiest lock in this years Academy Awards. Plummer will finally win his first Oscar at the age of 82.

Best Supporting Actress - Octavia Spencer - The Help

I personally didn't love this performance, but everyone else seems to. She's almost as much a lock as Plummer is for his award. 

Original Screenplay - Midnight in Paris

Woody should and will finally win his first Oscar since 1987 for writing Hannah and Her Sisters. Does he care? No. Will he be at the show? I wouldn't bet on it. 

Adapted Screenplay - The Descendants

I hate using the term "overrated" to describe films, but that is exactly what The Descendants is. It will win this award though, even though Moneyball should. 

Foreign Language Film - A Separation

Animated Feature - Rango

Animated Short - The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore

Editing - The Artist

Cinematography - The Tree of Life

Art Direction - Hugo

Costume Design - The Artist

Makeup - The Iron Lady

Original Score - The Artist

Original Song - "Man or Muppet" - The Muppets

Visual Effects - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Sound Mixing - Hugo

Sound Editing - Hugo

Documentary Feature - Paradise Lost 3: Purgatory

Documentary Short - Incident in New Baghdad

Live Action Short - Raju

Chronicle (2012) and This Means War (2012)

Chronicle - 3 cookies
A pretty entertaining entry into the "found footage" genre that is frankly getting a little warn out. Chronicle works because of its truly spectacular special effects, a good story, fine performances from an unknown cast, and a running time, that at 83 minutes, doesn't over stay its welcome.

This Means War - 2 cookies
I thought I was going to absolutely hate this movie, and I didn't, so that's a plus. It's actually a pretty funny  buddy comedy with good leading performances by Tom Hardy and Chris Pine. Reese Witherspoon does the best she can do with her shallow role, but all she really has to do is look hot and stand around. There are a few laugh out loud sequences, including a hilarious paint ball scene. Unfortunately, the director McG (stupid name, stupid director) doesn't seem to know how to make an actual film and the final product feels like a two hour music video with good looking movie stars.

Haywire (2012) Review

Director: Steven Soderbergh
Writer: Lem Dobbs
Genre: Action


1.5 Cookies

                     The main problem with Steven Soderbergh’s Haywire is that there isn’t enough of a story to excuse the lack of action. Also, when there isn’t fighting going on, all you want is for the characters to stop talking and start punching. Soderbergh, who has directed such films as Traffic, Ocean’s 11, and Contagion is a really interesting, occasionally brilliant visual director but with Haywire I felt like he was trying way too hard to be cool, and it makes him look like a fool.

            The incoherent and unnecessarily confusing story deals with a very tough female spy or something named Mallory and her quest to get revenge on Ewan McGregor after he double crosses her and tries to have her killed. Gina Carano, who is an actual Mixed Martial Arts fighter, plays Mallory and this makes sense because she’s good at fighting, but not so good at acting. When she’s beating up Channing Tatum or random police officers, it’s fun to watch but when she has to deliver a line of dialogue instead of a kick, it’s cringe worthy. The plot unfolds in a way that you don’t really know what’s going on until the end, and in this case that is not a good thing. Ewan McGregor, who I usually like, was simply annoying in Haywire, along with most of the other cast members like Antonio Banderas and Michael Douglas. It’s hard to act well when you don’t have a good script to work with, I guess.

            There was one sequence that did stand out though, and raises the movie from a 1 cookie rating to a 1.5 cookie rating alone. Michael Fassbender, who I think ranks just a notch below Ryan Gosling on the coolest actors list, has an awesome fight scene with Carano that is so good I wish it was in a better movie so I would want to watch it again. Unfortunately, Fassbender only has about 10 minutes of screen time and the other 80 minutes are dull and repetitive and disorderly. If someone makes a cut of Haywire that edits out everything but the fight scenes, it might make a cool 20 minute short, but the version is theaters now is definitely not worth the price of admission, or the time, or the gas money to get to the theater.