1. Gyllenhaal 2. Yelchin 3. Liu 4. Carrey 5. Ledger
I’ve actually seen Carrey. Good performance, though with the film Daranbont bites off more than he can chew trying to emulate Capraesque plotting and sincerity with a modern lens. He’s definitely worth reviewing, though.
1. Gyllenhaal 2. Yelchin 3. Carrey 4. Liu 5. Ledger
Out of curiosity, Louis (seeing how you haven't watched Spirited Away yet) which would be your current choice for Best Animated Film of 2001? Please say Shrek.
Michelle Pfeiffer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kathleen Turner (who sort of did do that type of role properly in Romancing the Stone) or Lesley Ann Warren I think could've pulled off that part far more effectively.
Emi Grant:
Probably Shrek, but I don't know Oscar nominee Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius seems pretty tempting....okay okay I haven't actually even watched that.
If thought Shrek was aged, Jimmy Neutron makes it seem downright timeless. (Shrek is my extremely guilty pleasure film that nostalgia has poisoned me into always enjoying, God help me.)
Robert: I don't blame you. I've always felt it has its own charm and it's undeniably one of my eternal favorites despite everything (especially since Dreamworks did an amazing job for the dubbed version, which I grew up with).
At last, a line up that I'm somewhat familiar with. I'll predict:
5) Ledger 4) Yelchin 3) Ye 2) Gyllenhaal 1) Carrey
By the way, has anyone looked into Noah Baumbach's upcoming film "Marraige Story"? It's premiering for the Venice Film festival pretty soon, and has a very interesting cast, including a dramatic venture from Scarlett Johansson (I mean, I know those haven't always worked out BUT she did just deliver a strong turn in "Endgame", so the potential is there.)
Films To Watch Band Of Brothers Conspiracy (Branagh/Tucci) Anne Frank: The Whole Story (Ben Kingsley) James Dean (James Franco) Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows (Judy Davis) Training Day (Re-Watch for Washington) The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Possible Upgrade for Sean Bean) The Man Who Wasn't There (Possible Upgrade for Thornton) Spirited Away Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr) The Others (Nicole Kidman) The Piano Teacher (Isabelle Huppert) The Deep End (Tilda Swinton) Lantana Hedwig And The Angry Inch Failan (Choi Min-Sik) Legally Blonde Bridget Jones's Diary Hannibal (Ridley Scott) No Man's Land Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India Son Of The Bride (Ricardo Darin) Last Orders (Caine/Hoskins/Courtenay) Millennium Mambo Pandaemonium (Linus Roache) Under The Sand (Charlotte Rampling) Vanilla Sky (Re-Watch for thoughts) Enemy At The Gates (Re-Watch for thoughts) Atlantis: The Lost Empire Spy Kids Kate & Leopold (Hugh Jackman) The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo Del Toro) Pearl Harbor Waking Life (Linklater/Hawke) Tape (Linklater/Hawke) Millennium Actress Brotherhood Of The Wolf Ichi The Killer (Tadanobu Asano) Blow (Depp) Wit (Emma Thompson) Time Out Behind The Sun The Lady And The Duke Read My Lips (Audiard/Cassel) Intimacy (Rylance) Liam (Stephen Frears) Pulse The Grey Zone Nowhere In Africa Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchett) Enigma Shaolin Soccer Cowboy Bebop: The Movie Session 9 Trouble Every Day K-Pax Serendipity The Affair Of The Necklace Suicide Club Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius Visitor Q Lovely & Amazing Joy Ride (Paul Walker/Steve Zahn) What Time Is It There? Behind Enemy Lines He Died With A Felafel In His Hand (Noah Taylor) The Son's Room Heist (Gene Hackman) The Shipping News Manic To End All Wars Fulltime Killer Invincible (Tim Roth) The Parole Officer (Steve Coogan) Greenfingers (Clive Owen) Elling Monsoon Wedding
Tahmeed: I don't think he's going up for Moulin Rouge!. He couldn't bear watching those first 30 minutes again and as far as I know, his favourite McGregor performance is The Ghost Writer.
RatedRStar: That's probably one of my favourite Oscar nominations just in terms of pure awesomeness. Other nominations that made me feel like that were South Park's nomination for Best Original Song, and Morita's nomination for The Karate Kid.
Louis: Honestly, I get the feeling that you would have actually preferred if Henriksen had played the Terminator instead of Arnold. If anything, it makes more sense since the Terminator was supposed to be an infiltration unit and I don't think most people would have suspected him of doing anything wrong.
Anonymous: Personally, I'm still glad Arnold wound up playing the role. As funny as it is to see Mr. Olympia trying to blend in with the average joe, Schwarzenegger's signature presence worked very well for the part, and helped to mask his inexperience at the time.
Lets just be thankful that Henriksen gave a great robot performance in "Aliens", of course.
The trailer for Marriage Story just came out and I'm mildly pissed, because I had the idea of two trailers from different character perspectives for a screenplay I wanted to write.
Anyway, it feels...yeah, interesting. Although I feel that the second trailer doesn't manage to add much.
Yes technically speaking, as I think it would have been more of a horror film with such an infiltrator. Of course I liked Schwarzenegger as well in the role, so they hardly made a bad choice.
Bell - 3.5 Madden - 3 Howard - 1 Mackintosh - 2.5 Jones - 3
Emi Grant:
Keep at it. So many ideas have already been done in the broad strokes, arguably even that one with The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, as long as you have your own unique perspective for that idea, or sometimes if you just have great idea on how to execute it.
Emi: I'll be damned..not even a full day after I express my interest of the project.
Well the decision to split the trailers up was a unique one, even though they weren't all that different from each other in terms of content. The fact that it's being released on netflix also intrigues me; If you said even three years ago that a netflix film would be nominated for best picture, I would've severely doubted it. After "Mudbound" and "Roma", however, it's not all that implausible for this movie to still garner the same kind of attention.
Performance wise, both leads look promising, and I'm actually pretty hopeful that Johansson will give an authentic turn. Naturally I'm a little more certain about Driver who seems to a found himself another strong role, but again, both actors look quite good.
Louis: Thank you for the kind words. I'll keep that in mind.
Mitchell: Yep. That's a curious coincidence, and it is indeed surprising to see Netflix's progress in the awards game. Going from Idris Elba's brutal snub for Beasts of No Nation to Roma walking away with 3 awards including Best Director and Mexico's first win for Best Foreign Language Film.
Perhaps my initial reception for the trailer was somewhat muted by my natural reaction at the existence of people with similar artistic ideas, but I'm really into Driver and Johansson's dynamic.
Emi Grant: Well just to add on everyone’s thoughts, the screenplay you’re devising is pretty timeless and I’m sure your variation on it will be very different to Baumbach.
Shazam is more than a bit of goodhearted fun. It doesn't truly reinvent any wheels however I liked that it at least found stylistic inventions with the powers of Shazam and the Seven Deadly Sins. It also found the right type of fun as really BIG as a superhero film. It wasn't anything revelatory, but I enjoyed it.
Angel - (He borders on bland occasionally as sort of just the "tough kid", but I'll give him credit for really hitting the emotional moments. Most importantly the crux moment with Billy's mom that he manages to find the right low key heartbreak to.)
Levi - (Finds the right type of fun for the role particularly in terms of the constant sense of discovery, with a bit of fear, he brings into someone finding a new thing about themselves every five seconds in a very strange circumstances. It's purposefully lightweight but very much works as such.)
Strong - (I felt he was a little miscast here as the picked on Doctor, though I also think the part was originally going to be Black Adam, but they did a quick swap out due to complications with the Rock. Anyway though he's a decent enough villain as usual, and I'll give him credit for at least finding a hint of pathos in the moment in the elevator.)
Grazer - (Just a delight once again as he was in It, though I'm glad it did not feel as though he was just copying what he did there. His comedic timing however was once again on point, though now with sort of playing effectively in this attempted confidence.)
Hounsou - (Strange casting, and not due to his ethnicity. I just don't know why they didn't get an actual old man rather than having that ridiculous wig. I feel there would've been more gravitas in the role then. Hounsou is fine as is, but I think the character ends up being a bit more of a joke than was even intended.)
Godzilla I thought was too much of a mess. I'm fine with it just being a goofy monster movie, but the whole plot felt just random. The tone felt random. The characters were all paper thin. I mean so many things felt arbitrary as though there were just throwing ideas in there like the Oxygen destroyer, the alien invasion and Atlantis. The visuals were fine, but the monster battles didn't have the impact I was hoping for. It also felt strangely low stakes as you didn't grant any real sense of destruction, despite the overabundance of it, particularly since it felt like half the cast was just hanging around a single set the whole time.
Chandler - (I'll give him credit for using every ounce of his being to try to sell some actual human element to the film. He doesn't completely fail even though he is working with extremely thin material.)
Farmiga - (I'll admit she mostly suffers from the writing not really making a whole lot of sense. Given that her early action of being apparently complicit in the cold blooded murders of her co-workers yet this never quite gets mentioned. In the end you can't grasp the sense from her performance or the writing even, if she is suppose to be a raving fanatic who gains a conscience or if she always had one.)
Brown - (Really has a non-character but it's a testament to her talent that she manages to eek something out through hitting at least the emotional moments given to her.)
Whitford - (I wished this performance worked but it didn't. This is a major problem with the film that tonally just is all over the place, particularly his character who is riffing on the film itself. This could've been hilarious, but comes off as more out of place than anything.)
Dance - (Eh just doing a riff on Tywin again, it does not help that the character is randomly written though.)
Middleditch - (Well for one test of his range, this is a failure. Felt mostly out of place and just didn't really work as a comedic presence nor a believable character.)
Watanabe - (Pours his heart out once again to grant a bit of gravitas to it all. Doesn't fail, but is undeserved by such random path for his character.)
Zhang - (If she's Watanabe's replacement, that's not too good. Her comfort with English just doesn't seem to be there yet still, and in turn her sort of exposition lines are more than underwhelming.)
Well with how well Bohemian Rhapsody did with the academy than Rocketman should sweep the Oscars, as it is at the very least considerable better than that film. I'd also say that this film suggests Dexter Fletcher's contribution to that film probably was just to fulfill a DGA requirement, and probably didn't do much actual directing. Rocketman story wise is pretty standard musical biopic as well, hitting many of the expected beats, though I'll say more effectively than BR in that respect, it still falls into many Dewey Coxisms, though never too badly. I'll actually say it does fairly well for itself for about half the film, but like others it does become a touch repetitive as it starts hitting the expected notes more than once. Having said that what sets it apart is the visual style and use of John's music. The choice to make it a musical offers something new, particularly in the various inventive sequences. I won't say all of them are great, but many work very well, and at the very least I appreciate the effort. This to do something with the music rather than just have "here's a song" "here's a song" of BR or even Ray. In fact I'd probably say I prefer this the most out of all the Cox style films, other than Cox itself, that is over Walk the Line, Ray and especially BR.
Bell - (Does a fine job as sort of the calm sense of reason within the film. This offering just a quiet warmth and support, while also creating the right underlying sense of concern and occasionally disappointment.)
Madden - (Well I'll say if compared to his BR equivalents, that is both the man he plays, played by Aidan Gillen, or the abusive boyfriend/manager played by Allen Leech, then Madden is a major upgrade. The role still is a touch thin, but I'll give Madden credit though in realizing a more honest sense of both the manipulative charm and insidiousness of his character.)
Howard - (Okay, why was she cast? I thought I guess if she just looks like John's mom than that would at least make a little sense, but she looks nothing like her. This just leaves her churning through a often wonky accent with often an over the top quality as the horrible mother.)
Mackintosh - (Really I guess I'm more favorable because he is considerably better than Howard as the bad parent. He doesn't get to do much more than be cold, but at least he does that well enough.)
Jones - (As the supportive family member she at least offers a nice bit of warmth and offers a bit of contrast to the caricature that Howard is delivering.)
Louis: I figured that's what your reaction to Godzilla would be once I saw the ratings for the cast.
Who do you think would've been a better choice instead of Howard in Rocketman? Kristin Scott Thomas perhaps? Or to keep with the same age group, Felicity Jones?
Louis: I was just revisiting some of your old reviews. What are your rating and thoughts for Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern and Jeanne Crain in A Letter to Three Wives?
Louis: what was your favourite cover from Rocketman? I’d say Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or I’m Still Standing, though I’m also partial to the version of the titular song.
The Report - Another Adam Driver trailer so soon...it's almost like the promotional teams of the films couldn't decide which to show first. In any case, I'm always interested in stories such as the one presented here. I mean, the content is bound to be provocative right out the gate, but hopefully the movie will handle it with the right nuance and sincerity. Driver, as per usual, looks quite promising, and it just occurred to me how fitting he would've been for the part of Edward Snowden. The supporting cast looks strong as well.
Motherless Brooklyn - It has all the markings of a passion project, and with all the clout and drawbacks that might suggest. Still, its nice to see the likes of Norton and Willis in such notable roles, and hopefully they'll bring the needed commitment on their parts. Norton's performance concerns me a bit only because of the physical ticks he seems to be doing (at least, in his early scenes supposedly), but I'm hopeful that he will incorporate them well enough in his turn without feeding his own ego. The premise is one we've obviously become familiar with by now, but as I said before, the inspired nature of the casting, by itself, is worth a notice.
Luke: What would be your rating for Christopher Cazenove in A Knight's Tale? I always think he has more screen time than he actually does, because of what he did with what was given.
Tahmeed: A 4. The reunion scene gets to me everytime.
Bryan: Having liked Attack The Block, TKWWBK is a fun adventure film with a terrific performance from Andy Serkis' son and quite entertaining work from Angus Imrie. I enjoyed the whole cast really and despite it's underperformance at the box-office, I hope it won't prevent Joe Cornish from making even greater projects.
1. Jim Carrey 2. Jake Gyllenhaal 3. Heath Ledger 4. Liu Ye 5. Anton Yelchin
Also just wanted to add in defense of The Majestic: It's definitely not a perfect film, but there's something about it that I find uniquely watchable. I agree with Robert and others that Darabont doesn't always succeed in invoking that certain Frank Capra tone, but I'd argue he doesn't always fail either.
Carrey, on the other hand, always hit that tone for me. He tapped all the way into the film's sentimentality and sold it from beginning to end.
Luke: Bad news: Fox Searchlight is releasing The Personal History of David Copperfield to theaters..in 2020, despite having its' festival premiere next month in Toronto.
I mean anyone really, but Thomas certainly would've been a better choice.
I mean in a general since, yes, though I'm not a mega fan or anything.
Michael P.:
Good to hear from you again.
Darnell - 3.5(Her performance is the best and her story the most interesting. This in particular creating the frustrating dynamic with Douglas, of the Paul variety, where they creating a certain consistent distance and bitterness in their interactions. Darnell though finds the right just very beaten down warmth within that finally comes out in the ending in a very effective moment for both her and Douglas.)
Sothern - 3.5(She gives a nice charming turn that works well in creating the sense of internalized frustration that bubbles up both as she fails to sort of live up to her husband expectations and in turn thinks about her possible failures.)
Crain - 2.5(Crain is never a terribly compelling performer, however I'd say this is better than her Oscar nominated turn from that year. In that she at least hits something in her final scene though there is a typical blandness from her.)
Calvin:
"I Want Love" "Rocketman"
Luke:
The Report looks to be something very much in the vein in Spotlight, aka a more than solid procedural. Nothing looks exactly beyond that, though everyone looks equally solid performance wise, so hopefully it will be just that at the very least.
Motherless Brooklyn certainly shows the ambition both in terms of Norton's foray into directing again and his performance. His performance, portraying tourettes, is a challenge in itself, and hopefully the performance will completely work in full context. Not entirely sold on it here. The aesthetic though looks good, though I wouldn't say extraordinary, and it seems to be a lot of plot, hopefully Norton maneuvers it well. I'm definitely looking forward to it, but this trailer suggests it could go either way. Side note Dafoe looks poised for a banner year.
‘I Want Love’ was actually the nadir of the film for me, the singing just wasn’t strong enough to sustain it. Really I was sideeyeing most of the songs until Egerton came in for ‘Saturday Night’s Alright’
I liked the creativity of using the other characters actually, which was limited beyond that, I think they might've become too reliant on Egerton for me as the film went on just because I thought the sequences became a bit more repetitive in nature.
Louis: What are your rating and thoughts on Crain in Pinky? I haven't seen the film, but even Kazan wasn't happy with her performance. Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge were considered to play Crain's role, but Zanuck felt audiences would be more accepting of a white actress than a black one.
Louis: Also, what are your thoughts on Willem Dafoes' narration in Vox Lux? I felt that he understood what the film was trying to accomplish better than most of the actual cast...which I'm still not quite sure what that was myself.
Louis: Zanuck must have be high when he thought a white person playing a black person was more accepting than a black person playing a black person, Jeanne Crain I think alongside Mary Pickford in Coquette have to be the 2 worst ever best actress nominees I have seen.
1. Jim Carrey in The Majestic 2. Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums 3. Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko 4. Tom Wilkinson in In The Bedroom 5. Billy Bob Thornton in The Man Who Wasn't There 6. Liu Ye in Lan Yu 7. Ryan Gosling in The Believer 8. Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind 9. Ethan Hawke in Training Day 10. Jack Nicholson in The Pledge
Just been watching a curiosity called The Mind of Mr Soames. Not a particularly good film but an interesting performance from Terence Stamp as a 30 year old man who has been comatose since birth and is then awakened as essentially an adult baby.
Louis: Is it too much to hope for a possible re-assessment of Denzel in Training Day, or are your thoughts there set in stone? You don't have to review him again, but is it possible your opinion of that performance could improve at all?
Probably, but I'll give a brief mention. Balsam gives good, if rather brief, turn there. This bringing a certain edge to his role as proper dogged investigator. He takes on the role as though he has his whole backstory to the point he becomes a proper lead himself, though briefly. This is as he accentuates a nice personality in his sort of combination of affable and incisive method of interrogation. This making his early departure also especially effective, and well acted it must be said.
Anonymous:
Crain - 1(She's a bland actress typically anyways, here's she bland and absolutely atrocious due to the miscasting. Every time she says her ethnicity it is laughable and Crain couldn't come off as more false in the role. It honestly would be hard for anyone to really make up on the role, but Crain utterly falters again and again in her underwhelming and poorly thought out turn.)
Tahmeed:
"Don't Stop Believin" "Take Me On" "Eye of the Tiger" "Sweet Dreams" "I'm Still Standing" "Flying Dreams" "True Colors" "Bette Davis Eyes" "All Out of Love" "Under Pressure" "Let's Dance" "Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
Bryan:
Gorgeous work to be sure, as this slight alteration from the "assemble" theme, by just emphasizing the triumphant by upping the heavy horns to maximum. Quite the effective approach, if almost Elgaresque as the Avengers graduate to the next level, and sounds almost like a theme of a classic Hollywood epic.
Dafoe's does a fine job, as to be expected, granting more gravitas than the film deserves as his work attempts to grant any sense of understanding to the film's delusions of grandeur. Dafoe seems to be on to something, but the film has no substance in its connection between horrors and art beyond his vocal performance offering weight in in of itself.
1. Jim Carrey in The Majestic 2. Selton Mello in To the Left of the Father 3. Tom Wilkinson in In The Bedroom 4. Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko 5. Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums 6. Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind 7. Billy Bob Thornton in The Man Who Wasn't There 8. Ethan Hawke in Training Day 9. Liu Ye in Lan Yu 10. Rodrigo Santoro in Behind the Sun
95 comments:
1. Carrey
2. Gyllenhaal
3. Liu
4. Yelchin
5. Ledger
Haven’t seen Carrey yet, but my personal ranking for the other four would be:
Liu (5)
Yelchin (5)
Gyllenhaal (4.5)
Ledger (4.5)
Louis: I was actually referring to Robert Duvalls' role in the film for the 2010s, not the actual director haha
And speaking of, any actresses you think would've been better instead of Kate Capshaw?
1.Carrey
2.Lie
3.Gyllenhaal
4.Yelchin
5.Ledger
1. Gyllenhaal
2. Yelchin
3. Liu
4. Carrey
5. Ledger
I’ve actually seen Carrey. Good performance, though with the film Daranbont bites off more than he can chew trying to emulate Capraesque plotting and sincerity with a modern lens. He’s definitely worth reviewing, though.
1. Gyllenhaal
2. Yelchin
3. Carrey
4. Liu
5. Ledger
Out of curiosity, Louis (seeing how you haven't watched Spirited Away yet) which would be your current choice for Best Animated Film of 2001? Please say Shrek.
Bryan:
Michelle Pfeiffer, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kathleen Turner (who sort of did do that type of role properly in Romancing the Stone) or Lesley Ann Warren I think could've pulled off that part far more effectively.
Emi Grant:
Probably Shrek, but I don't know Oscar nominee Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius seems pretty tempting....okay okay I haven't actually even watched that.
If thought Shrek was aged, Jimmy Neutron makes it seem downright timeless. (Shrek is my extremely guilty pleasure film that nostalgia has poisoned me into always enjoying, God help me.)
1. Carrey
2. Gyllenhaal
3. Yelchin
4. Liu
5. Ledger
Robert: I don't blame you. I've always felt it has its own charm and it's undeniably one of my eternal favorites despite everything (especially since Dreamworks did an amazing job for the dubbed version, which I grew up with).
TIL Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Feature
At last, a line up that I'm somewhat familiar with. I'll predict:
5) Ledger
4) Yelchin
3) Ye
2) Gyllenhaal
1) Carrey
By the way, has anyone looked into Noah Baumbach's upcoming film "Marraige Story"? It's premiering for the Venice Film festival pretty soon, and has a very interesting cast, including a dramatic venture from Scarlett Johansson (I mean, I know those haven't always worked out BUT she did just deliver a strong turn in "Endgame", so the potential is there.)
Mitchell: I now always look into whatever Adam Drive is in, so, yeah. Definitely seems interesting.
*Driver
Films To Watch
Band Of Brothers
Conspiracy (Branagh/Tucci)
Anne Frank: The Whole Story (Ben Kingsley)
James Dean (James Franco)
Life With Judy Garland: Me And My Shadows (Judy Davis)
Training Day (Re-Watch for Washington)
The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring (Possible Upgrade for Sean Bean)
The Man Who Wasn't There (Possible Upgrade for Thornton)
Spirited Away
Werckmeister Harmonies (Bela Tarr)
The Others (Nicole Kidman)
The Piano Teacher (Isabelle Huppert)
The Deep End (Tilda Swinton)
Lantana
Hedwig And The Angry Inch
Failan (Choi Min-Sik)
Legally Blonde
Bridget Jones's Diary
Hannibal (Ridley Scott)
No Man's Land
Lagaan: Once Upon A Time In India
Son Of The Bride (Ricardo Darin)
Last Orders (Caine/Hoskins/Courtenay)
Millennium Mambo
Pandaemonium (Linus Roache)
Under The Sand (Charlotte Rampling)
Vanilla Sky (Re-Watch for thoughts)
Enemy At The Gates (Re-Watch for thoughts)
Atlantis: The Lost Empire
Spy Kids
Kate & Leopold (Hugh Jackman)
The Devil's Backbone (Guillermo Del Toro)
Pearl Harbor
Waking Life (Linklater/Hawke)
Tape (Linklater/Hawke)
Millennium Actress
Brotherhood Of The Wolf
Ichi The Killer (Tadanobu Asano)
Blow (Depp)
Wit (Emma Thompson)
Time Out
Behind The Sun
The Lady And The Duke
Read My Lips (Audiard/Cassel)
Intimacy (Rylance)
Liam (Stephen Frears)
Pulse
The Grey Zone
Nowhere In Africa
Charlotte Gray (Cate Blanchett)
Enigma
Shaolin Soccer
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
Session 9
Trouble Every Day
K-Pax
Serendipity
The Affair Of The Necklace
Suicide Club
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
Visitor Q
Lovely & Amazing
Joy Ride (Paul Walker/Steve Zahn)
What Time Is It There?
Behind Enemy Lines
He Died With A Felafel In His Hand (Noah Taylor)
The Son's Room
Heist (Gene Hackman)
The Shipping News
Manic
To End All Wars
Fulltime Killer
Invincible (Tim Roth)
The Parole Officer (Steve Coogan)
Greenfingers (Clive Owen)
Elling
Monsoon Wedding
1. Jim Carrey
2. Lie Ye
3. Jake Gyllenhaal
4. Anton Yelchin
5. Heath Ledger
Luke: What about "The Score (De Niro/Norton/Brando)" for that list as well? :o
And The Score (De Niro/Norton)
1. Carrey
2. Gyllenhaal
3. Lie
4. Yelchin
5. Ledger
Louis: Could you rewatch Moulin Rouge, for McGregor?
Tahmeed: I don't think he's going up for Moulin Rouge!. He couldn't bear watching those first 30 minutes again and as far as I know, his favourite McGregor performance is The Ghost Writer.
1. Carrey
2. Gyllenhaal
3. Liu Ye (name is spelled wrong on the lineup)
4. Yelchin
5. Ledger
Courage the Cowardly Dog was an Oscar nominee, how cool is that? lol
I hope Ledger will be reviewed first.
Louis: I've changed my mind slightly, watch the theatrical cut but please add this scene from the extended cut to Bettany's review.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6lac59xKEH8&t=247s
1. Carrey
2. Gyllenhaal
3. Liu
4. Yelchin
5. Ledger
RatedRStar: That's probably one of my favourite Oscar nominations just in terms of pure awesomeness. Other nominations that made me feel like that were South Park's nomination for Best Original Song, and Morita's nomination for The Karate Kid.
RatedRStar: Pretty cool I'd say. That cartoon also had a great sense of atmosphere from what I remember when it aired back in the day.
Louis: Honestly, I get the feeling that you would have actually preferred if Henriksen had played the Terminator instead of Arnold. If anything, it makes more sense since the Terminator was supposed to be an infiltration unit and I don't think most people would have suspected him of doing anything wrong.
1. Gyllenhaal
2. Lie
3. Carrey
4. Yelchin
5. Ledger
Anonymous: Personally, I'm still glad Arnold wound up playing the role. As funny as it is to see Mr. Olympia trying to blend in with the average joe, Schwarzenegger's signature presence worked very well for the part, and helped to mask his inexperience at the time.
Lets just be thankful that Henriksen gave a great robot performance in "Aliens", of course.
1. Carrey
2. Gyllenhaal
3. Liu
4. Yelchin
5. Ledger
The trailer for Marriage Story just came out and I'm mildly pissed, because I had the idea of two trailers from different character perspectives for a screenplay I wanted to write.
Anyway, it feels...yeah, interesting. Although I feel that the second trailer doesn't manage to add much.
Louis, did you see any 2019 releases recently.
Emi: Write it anyway, but add something that'll make it a little different. Although that's easier said than done, I'll admit.
5º Heath Ledger
4º Anton Yelchin
3º Liu Ye
2º Jake Gyllenhaal
1º Jim Carrey
Bryan: Well, yeah. It is the passion project I have the most passion for, so, I'll figure it out. Hopefully.
1. Carrey
2. Ye
3. Ledger
4. Yelchin
5. Gyllenhaal
Tahmeed:
He won't go up for that.
Anonymous:
Yes technically speaking, as I think it would have been more of a horror film with such an infiltrator. Of course I liked Schwarzenegger as well in the role, so they hardly made a bad choice.
Anonymous:
Shazam!
Angel - 3
Levi - 3.5
Strong - 3
Grazer - 3.5
Hounsou - 2.5
Liked the rest of the family as well, even though they didn't have too much to do.
Godzilla King of Monsters:
Chandler - 3
Farmiga - 2.5
Brown - 3
Whitford - 2
Dance - 2.5
Middleditch - 2
Watanabe - 3
Ziyi - 2
Rocketman:
Bell - 3.5
Madden - 3
Howard - 1
Mackintosh - 2.5
Jones - 3
Emi Grant:
Keep at it. So many ideas have already been done in the broad strokes, arguably even that one with The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, as long as you have your own unique perspective for that idea, or sometimes if you just have great idea on how to execute it.
Louis: Thoughts on those films and the casts?
Emi: I'll be damned..not even a full day after I express my interest of the project.
Well the decision to split the trailers up was a unique one, even though they weren't all that different from each other in terms of content. The fact that it's being released on netflix also intrigues me; If you said even three years ago that a netflix film would be nominated for best picture, I would've severely doubted it. After "Mudbound" and "Roma", however, it's not all that implausible for this movie to still garner the same kind of attention.
Performance wise, both leads look promising, and I'm actually pretty hopeful that Johansson will give an authentic turn. Naturally I'm a little more certain about Driver who seems to a found himself another strong role, but again, both actors look quite good.
Louis: Thank you for the kind words. I'll keep that in mind.
Mitchell: Yep. That's a curious coincidence, and it is indeed surprising to see Netflix's progress in the awards game. Going from Idris Elba's brutal snub for Beasts of No Nation to Roma walking away with 3 awards including Best Director and Mexico's first win for Best Foreign Language Film.
Perhaps my initial reception for the trailer was somewhat muted by my natural reaction at the existence of people with similar artistic ideas, but I'm really into Driver and Johansson's dynamic.
Louis: I hope you'll watch The Kid Who Would Be King sometime this week.
Really hope you liked Rocketman, Louis.
Emi Grant: Well just to add on everyone’s thoughts, the screenplay you’re devising is pretty timeless and I’m sure your variation on it will be very different to Baumbach.
Bryan:
Shazam is more than a bit of goodhearted fun. It doesn't truly reinvent any wheels however I liked that it at least found stylistic inventions with the powers of Shazam and the Seven Deadly Sins. It also found the right type of fun as really BIG as a superhero film. It wasn't anything revelatory, but I enjoyed it.
Angel - (He borders on bland occasionally as sort of just the "tough kid", but I'll give him credit for really hitting the emotional moments. Most importantly the crux moment with Billy's mom that he manages to find the right low key heartbreak to.)
Levi - (Finds the right type of fun for the role particularly in terms of the constant sense of discovery, with a bit of fear, he brings into someone finding a new thing about themselves every five seconds in a very strange circumstances. It's purposefully lightweight but very much works as such.)
Strong - (I felt he was a little miscast here as the picked on Doctor, though I also think the part was originally going to be Black Adam, but they did a quick swap out due to complications with the Rock. Anyway though he's a decent enough villain as usual, and I'll give him credit for at least finding a hint of pathos in the moment in the elevator.)
Grazer - (Just a delight once again as he was in It, though I'm glad it did not feel as though he was just copying what he did there. His comedic timing however was once again on point, though now with sort of playing effectively in this attempted confidence.)
Hounsou - (Strange casting, and not due to his ethnicity. I just don't know why they didn't get an actual old man rather than having that ridiculous wig. I feel there would've been more gravitas in the role then. Hounsou is fine as is, but I think the character ends up being a bit more of a joke than was even intended.)
Godzilla I thought was too much of a mess. I'm fine with it just being a goofy monster movie, but the whole plot felt just random. The tone felt random. The characters were all paper thin. I mean so many things felt arbitrary as though there were just throwing ideas in there like the Oxygen destroyer, the alien invasion and Atlantis. The visuals were fine, but the monster battles didn't have the impact I was hoping for. It also felt strangely low stakes as you didn't grant any real sense of destruction, despite the overabundance of it, particularly since it felt like half the cast was just hanging around a single set the whole time.
Chandler - (I'll give him credit for using every ounce of his being to try to sell some actual human element to the film. He doesn't completely fail even though he is working with extremely thin material.)
Farmiga - (I'll admit she mostly suffers from the writing not really making a whole lot of sense. Given that her early action of being apparently complicit in the cold blooded murders of her co-workers yet this never quite gets mentioned. In the end you can't grasp the sense from her performance or the writing even, if she is suppose to be a raving fanatic who gains a conscience or if she always had one.)
Brown - (Really has a non-character but it's a testament to her talent that she manages to eek something out through hitting at least the emotional moments given to her.)
Whitford - (I wished this performance worked but it didn't. This is a major problem with the film that tonally just is all over the place, particularly his character who is riffing on the film itself. This could've been hilarious, but comes off as more out of place than anything.)
Dance - (Eh just doing a riff on Tywin again, it does not help that the character is randomly written though.)
Middleditch - (Well for one test of his range, this is a failure. Felt mostly out of place and just didn't really work as a comedic presence nor a believable character.)
Watanabe - (Pours his heart out once again to grant a bit of gravitas to it all. Doesn't fail, but is undeserved by such random path for his character.)
Zhang - (If she's Watanabe's replacement, that's not too good. Her comfort with English just doesn't seem to be there yet still, and in turn her sort of exposition lines are more than underwhelming.)
Well with how well Bohemian Rhapsody did with the academy than Rocketman should sweep the Oscars, as it is at the very least considerable better than that film. I'd also say that this film suggests Dexter Fletcher's contribution to that film probably was just to fulfill a DGA requirement, and probably didn't do much actual directing. Rocketman story wise is pretty standard musical biopic as well, hitting many of the expected beats, though I'll say more effectively than BR in that respect, it still falls into many Dewey Coxisms, though never too badly. I'll actually say it does fairly well for itself for about half the film, but like others it does become a touch repetitive as it starts hitting the expected notes more than once. Having said that what sets it apart is the visual style and use of John's music. The choice to make it a musical offers something new, particularly in the various inventive sequences. I won't say all of them are great, but many work very well, and at the very least I appreciate the effort. This to do something with the music rather than just have "here's a song" "here's a song" of BR or even Ray. In fact I'd probably say I prefer this the most out of all the Cox style films, other than Cox itself, that is over Walk the Line, Ray and especially BR.
Bell - (Does a fine job as sort of the calm sense of reason within the film. This offering just a quiet warmth and support, while also creating the right underlying sense of concern and occasionally disappointment.)
Madden - (Well I'll say if compared to his BR equivalents, that is both the man he plays, played by Aidan Gillen, or the abusive boyfriend/manager played by Allen Leech, then Madden is a major upgrade. The role still is a touch thin, but I'll give Madden credit though in realizing a more honest sense of both the manipulative charm and insidiousness of his character.)
Howard - (Okay, why was she cast? I thought I guess if she just looks like John's mom than that would at least make a little sense, but she looks nothing like her. This just leaves her churning through a often wonky accent with often an over the top quality as the horrible mother.)
Mackintosh - (Really I guess I'm more favorable because he is considerably better than Howard as the bad parent. He doesn't get to do much more than be cold, but at least he does that well enough.)
Jones - (As the supportive family member she at least offers a nice bit of warmth and offers a bit of contrast to the caricature that Howard is delivering.)
Louis: I figured that's what your reaction to Godzilla would be once I saw the ratings for the cast.
Who do you think would've been a better choice instead of Howard in Rocketman? Kristin Scott Thomas perhaps? Or to keep with the same age group, Felicity Jones?
IT: Chapter Two is getting positive to slightly mixed reviews, but many of them are singling out Bill Hader as a standout. Interesting...
Louis: Also, if you don't mind me asking, are you a fan of Elton Johns' music?
Louis: I was just revisiting some of your old reviews. What are your rating and thoughts for Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern and Jeanne Crain in A Letter to Three Wives?
I also want to say hi to everybody. I've been out for nearly 2 years now I think. Mental health and all that. Hoping everybody is doing great.
Michael Patison: It's been too long my friend. :)
Been too long Michael P! Glad to have you back.
Louis: what was your favourite cover from Rocketman? I’d say Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or I’m Still Standing, though I’m also partial to the version of the titular song.
Calvin: Mine were Tiny Dancer and I'm Still Standing.
Calvin: I went nuts for Pinball Wizard. Also, thanks for your comment.
Michael Patison: Welcome back friend hope you are doing great =D.
Michael Patison: Good to see you back, Michael :)
Michael: Great to have you back, man.
Thoughts on The Report trailer.
And Motherless Brooklyn.
On that note, what's everyone's favourite Elton John song? My top 2 are personally "Candle in the Wind 1997" and "Sacrifice".
Tahmeed: Candle In The Wind (Both Versions) and Your Song.
Michael McCarthy: Your Ratings (Aside from Ledger & Bettany) and thoughts on the cast of A Knight's Tale.
Luke:
The Report - Another Adam Driver trailer so soon...it's almost like the promotional teams of the films couldn't decide which to show first. In any case, I'm always interested in stories such as the one presented here. I mean, the content is bound to be provocative right out the gate, but hopefully the movie will handle it with the right nuance and sincerity. Driver, as per usual, looks quite promising, and it just occurred to me how fitting he would've been for the part of Edward Snowden. The supporting cast looks strong as well.
Motherless Brooklyn - It has all the markings of a passion project, and with all the clout and drawbacks that might suggest. Still, its nice to see the likes of Norton and Willis in such notable roles, and hopefully they'll bring the needed commitment on their parts. Norton's performance concerns me a bit only because of the physical ticks he seems to be doing (at least, in his early scenes supposedly), but I'm hopeful that he will incorporate them well enough in his turn without feeding his own ego. The premise is one we've obviously become familiar with by now, but as I said before, the inspired nature of the casting, by itself, is worth a notice.
Luke: What would be your rating for Christopher Cazenove in A Knight's Tale? I always think he has more screen time than he actually does, because of what he did with what was given.
Luke: Your expanded thoughts on The Kid Who Would Be King? You sound pretty positive on the film, and I'm contemplating on checking it out myself.
Tahmeed: The two songs that I mentioned would be my favorites from Elton John. Although I haven't heard too much of his music, I'll admit.
Tahmeed: "The Bitch is Back", I guess, if I had to pick.
Tahmeed: A 4. The reunion scene gets to me everytime.
Bryan: Having liked Attack The Block, TKWWBK is a fun adventure film with a terrific performance from Andy Serkis' son and quite entertaining work from Angus Imrie. I enjoyed the whole cast really and despite it's underperformance at the box-office, I hope it won't prevent Joe Cornish from making even greater projects.
1. Jim Carrey
2. Jake Gyllenhaal
3. Heath Ledger
4. Liu Ye
5. Anton Yelchin
Also just wanted to add in defense of The Majestic: It's definitely not a perfect film, but there's something about it that I find uniquely watchable. I agree with Robert and others that Darabont doesn't always succeed in invoking that certain Frank Capra tone, but I'd argue he doesn't always fail either.
Carrey, on the other hand, always hit that tone for me. He tapped all the way into the film's sentimentality and sold it from beginning to end.
Michael: Your ratings for Gyllenhaal, Liu and Yelchin.
Luke: Bad news: Fox Searchlight is releasing The Personal History of David Copperfield to theaters..in 2020, despite having its' festival premiere next month in Toronto.
Bryan: Uh, I am disappointed from an anticipation point of view but at least it'll help others get into Alternate Lead and Supporting.
Bryan: Though a UK release in 2019 is still possible.
Motherless Brooklyn tonally looks a bit different to the book, more serious for sure, but Norton seems perfect in the role. Hope it pans out.
Well, I'm psyched about Norton's performance. This might just be for him what Fences was for Denzel.
Louis: I'm curious, have you ever seen any of Kubrick's work as a photographer?
Bryan:
I mean anyone really, but Thomas certainly would've been a better choice.
I mean in a general since, yes, though I'm not a mega fan or anything.
Michael P.:
Good to hear from you again.
Darnell - 3.5(Her performance is the best and her story the most interesting. This in particular creating the frustrating dynamic with Douglas, of the Paul variety, where they creating a certain consistent distance and bitterness in their interactions. Darnell though finds the right just very beaten down warmth within that finally comes out in the ending in a very effective moment for both her and Douglas.)
Sothern - 3.5(She gives a nice charming turn that works well in creating the sense of internalized frustration that bubbles up both as she fails to sort of live up to her husband expectations and in turn thinks about her possible failures.)
Crain - 2.5(Crain is never a terribly compelling performer, however I'd say this is better than her Oscar nominated turn from that year. In that she at least hits something in her final scene though there is a typical blandness from her.)
Calvin:
"I Want Love"
"Rocketman"
Luke:
The Report looks to be something very much in the vein in Spotlight, aka a more than solid procedural. Nothing looks exactly beyond that, though everyone looks equally solid performance wise, so hopefully it will be just that at the very least.
Motherless Brooklyn certainly shows the ambition both in terms of Norton's foray into directing again and his performance. His performance, portraying tourettes, is a challenge in itself, and hopefully the performance will completely work in full context. Not entirely sold on it here. The aesthetic though looks good, though I wouldn't say extraordinary, and it seems to be a lot of plot, hopefully Norton maneuvers it well. I'm definitely looking forward to it, but this trailer suggests it could go either way. Side note Dafoe looks poised for a banner year.
Anonymous:
Yes I have.
‘I Want Love’ was actually the nadir of the film for me, the singing just wasn’t strong enough to sustain it. Really I was sideeyeing most of the songs until Egerton came in for ‘Saturday Night’s Alright’
Calvin:
I liked the creativity of using the other characters actually, which was limited beyond that, I think they might've become too reliant on Egerton for me as the film went on just because I thought the sequences became a bit more repetitive in nature.
I liked that too but I preferred Yellow Brick Road and Honky Cat in that regard.
Louis: Have you ever given your thoughts on Martin Balsam in Psycho? Because I kinda love the way he plays his questioning of Norman Bates.
Louis: What are your rating and thoughts on Crain in Pinky? I haven't seen the film, but even Kazan wasn't happy with her performance. Lena Horne and Dorothy Dandridge were considered to play Crain's role, but Zanuck felt audiences would be more accepting of a white actress than a black one.
Louis: I know this might be incredibly difficult to narrow down, but could I have an unranked approximation of your favourite songs from the 1980s?
Louis: Your thoughts on "Main on End" from the Avengers: Endgame score?
Louis: Also, what are your thoughts on Willem Dafoes' narration in Vox Lux? I felt that he understood what the film was trying to accomplish better than most of the actual cast...which I'm still not quite sure what that was myself.
Louis: Zanuck must have be high when he thought a white person playing a black person was more accepting than a black person playing a black person, Jeanne Crain I think alongside Mary Pickford in Coquette have to be the 2 worst ever best actress nominees I have seen.
If I was Louis Morgan, Gene Hackman lost and the winner of best lead actor in 2001 is Jim Carrey.
If Jeff Daniels has already won one, Carrey can also have a win on this blog.
The Mandalorian looks fucking awesome.
1. Carrey (Would be interesting to see Carrey win a line up)
2. Gyllenhaal
3. Liu
4. Yelchin
5. Ledger
Louis: My request i got from 1963 lead, is Hal Holbrook for That Evening Sun in 2009 lead.
My Overall Rank:
1. Jim Carrey in The Majestic
2. Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums
3. Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko
4. Tom Wilkinson in In The Bedroom
5. Billy Bob Thornton in The Man Who Wasn't There
6. Liu Ye in Lan Yu
7. Ryan Gosling in The Believer
8. Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind
9. Ethan Hawke in Training Day
10. Jack Nicholson in The Pledge
Just been watching a curiosity called The Mind of Mr Soames. Not a particularly good film but an interesting performance from Terence Stamp as a 30 year old man who has been comatose since birth and is then awakened as essentially an adult baby.
Louis: Is it too much to hope for a possible re-assessment of Denzel in Training Day, or are your thoughts there set in stone? You don't have to review him again, but is it possible your opinion of that performance could improve at all?
Matt:
Probably, but I'll give a brief mention. Balsam gives good, if rather brief, turn there. This bringing a certain edge to his role as proper dogged investigator. He takes on the role as though he has his whole backstory to the point he becomes a proper lead himself, though briefly. This is as he accentuates a nice personality in his sort of combination of affable and incisive method of interrogation. This making his early departure also especially effective, and well acted it must be said.
Anonymous:
Crain - 1(She's a bland actress typically anyways, here's she bland and absolutely atrocious due to the miscasting. Every time she says her ethnicity it is laughable and Crain couldn't come off as more false in the role. It honestly would be hard for anyone to really make up on the role, but Crain utterly falters again and again in her underwhelming and poorly thought out turn.)
Tahmeed:
"Don't Stop Believin"
"Take Me On"
"Eye of the Tiger"
"Sweet Dreams"
"I'm Still Standing"
"Flying Dreams"
"True Colors"
"Bette Davis Eyes"
"All Out of Love"
"Under Pressure"
"Let's Dance"
"Everybody Wants to Rule the World"
Bryan:
Gorgeous work to be sure, as this slight alteration from the "assemble" theme, by just emphasizing the triumphant by upping the heavy horns to maximum. Quite the effective approach, if almost Elgaresque as the Avengers graduate to the next level, and sounds almost like a theme of a classic Hollywood epic.
Dafoe's does a fine job, as to be expected, granting more gravitas than the film deserves as his work attempts to grant any sense of understanding to the film's delusions of grandeur. Dafoe seems to be on to something, but the film has no substance in its connection between horrors and art beyond his vocal performance offering weight in in of itself.
Matt:
As I've mentioned before, yes.
My Overall Rank:
1. Jim Carrey in The Majestic
2. Selton Mello in To the Left of the Father
3. Tom Wilkinson in In The Bedroom
4. Jake Gyllenhaal in Donnie Darko
5. Gene Hackman in The Royal Tenenbaums
6. Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind
7. Billy Bob Thornton in The Man Who Wasn't There
8. Ethan Hawke in Training Day
9. Liu Ye in Lan Yu
10. Rodrigo Santoro in Behind the Sun
Post a Comment