Tag Archives: the revenant

Jan 20 2016
Leave a comment
Movies

BQB’s Oscar 2016 Predictions

BEST ACTOR

NOMINEES:

Bryan Cranston – Trumbo

Leonardo DiCaprio – The Revenant

Matt Damon – The Martian

Michael Fassbender – Steve Jobs

Eddie Redmayne – The Danish Girl

WHO WILL WIN: Leonardo DiCaprio for The Revenant

WHO SHOULD WIN: Leonard DiCaprio.  He’s young and still has plenty of time to win an Oscar ahead of him, but he also started his career young and has been working on Oscar worthy pictures for what seems like forever now.

Bryan Cranston is great and his Breaking Bad shot to super stardom late in life is a great Little Engine That Could story.  We all feel time’s hand on our shoulders, reminding us that we’re not here forever and if there’s something we want to do, we’d better do it.  Thus, we love Cranston because he reminds us its still always possible.  BUT – no one saw Trumbo.

Matt Damon was great but he’s already got an Oscar.  Even if its for screenwriting and he’d like one for acting, precedence should go to the guy who doesn’t have one yet, i.e. Leo.

Michael Fassbender – He’s great.  I didn’t see Steve Jobs but…how many Steve Jobs movies   have there been now?  He’ll have his chance.

Eddie Redmayne – I didn’t see the Danish Girl but…he won last year.

BEST ACTRESS 

I’m going to skip this one because I didn’t see any of the movies they were nominated for. I’ll just go with fan favorite Jennifer Lawrence for Joy until I get around to seeing the others’ movies.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale – The Big Short

Mark Rylance – The Bridge of Spies

Tom Hardy – The Revenant

Sylvester Stallone – Creed

Mark Ruffalo – Spotlight

WHO WILL WIN AND WHO SHOULD WIN – Sylvester Stallone for Creed. He’s 70 years old. His Rocky movies have been fan favorites since the 1970’s, entertaining one generation after the next.  They’re all pretty much have the same message – life’s attempts to knock you down are unavoidable.  It’s not about whether or not you’ll get knocked down because you will.  It’s about whether you get up and keep going or lie down for the count that matters.

The original Rocky won best picture and Stallone’s been big in the movie business for years, though mostly as an action hero and we all know what the Academy thinks about action.  Its now or never and the Academy will reward him here.

Plus, I’ve seen Creed and given Rocky’s still the same old Rocky as always, its still not a bad movie.

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE

Totally not intentional, but I don’t know much about the movies and/or performances by the supporting actresses either.

I’m going to root for Jennifer Jason Leigh for Hateful Eight as we haven’t seen her in anything for awhile, but she was great back in the day.  I want to see Hateful Eight but haven’t gotten around to it.  She looks great in the previews though.

BEST ANIMATED FILM

I’ll go with Inside Out because I didn’t see the others and it was good.  Did anyone see Peanuts?  Was it any good? I’m surprised that one didn’t get a nomination.

BEST DIRECTOR

I’m going to go with George Miller for Mad Max: Fury Road.  His original Mad Max films are sci-fi classics and he pretty much invented the post-apocalyptic genre.  All these movies and TV shows about people wandering around in drab, post-society wastelands are thanks to him.  (Or, maybe thanks for giving us depression about the future, as the case may be.)

Plus, it couldn’t have been easy directing all those people in leather speedos jumping around willy nilly.

Which brings me to…

BEST PICTURE

NOMINEES

The Big Short – Haven’t seen it.

Bridge of Spies – Saw it.

Brooklyn – Haven’t seen it.

Mad Max: Fury Road – Saw it.

The Martian – Saw it.

The Revenant – Saw it.

Room – Haven’t seen it.

Spotlight – Haven’t seen it.

WHICH MOVIE WILL WIN – The smart money seems to be on Spotlight, a film about the Boston Globe investigative journalism team that uncovered child abuse allegations in the Boston area Catholic Church, which had major ramifications worldwide.  Critics seem to like it and it casts light on how journalists are the last resort to protect the public when government and social institutions fail.

If the Revenant won, I would not be surprised.  I liked it and it did have the feel of an Oscar winner.

WHICH MOVIE SHOULD WIN – Mad Max, Mad Max, and Mad Max.  I went into it thinking, “Oh boy, Hollywood’s cashing in on a remake of an old movie yet again.”  But it was so much more than that.  Messages about the future, how people interact with one another, mans’ primal instincts, women standing up for themselves (it’s called Mad Max but he’s pretty much Furiosa’s sidekick in this movie).

Great writing in that the story is told in many parts where no words are even spoken.  Amazing action, stunningly awesome special effects – a really great visually pleasing movie that overcomes a drab desert landscape.

But it won’t win.  It won’t win because the Oscars have always been to boost movies that Hollywood makes to get a message across or discuss a difficult subject.  Spotlight might be great but more people lined up on Saturday nights in December to watch lightsabers get swung around in Star Wars.  Not as many people lined up to watch actors pretend to be journalists in the middle of discussions as to how expose priests for wrongdoing.  (Not that that wasn’t important, but if we’re talking about what entertains people on a Saturday night…)

In other words, big blockbuster movies already got their reward in the form of a payday.  Lesser known but important message movies need the nominations and awards to get publicity so more people will see them and the studios make their money back so they can keep making less popular important message films.

That, and its action.  And sci-fi.  Action movies and sci-fi movies don’t get Oscars.  At least not for best picture.  They’ll never let something so comic book-ish win.  They’ll worry it will open the floodgates for every damn Avengers movie to sweep the Oscars in the future.  They can’t have that.

I could see some of these other movies and change my mind but IMO, of the ones I saw, Mad Max was the best, and not just on action but in story as well.

The Martian was also great.  If that won, I wouldn’t mind but hey, it was nominated.

Let that be an inspiration for you, 3.5 self publishing readers.

 

 

 

 

Tagged , , , , , , , , ,
Jan 16 2016
4 Comments
Movies

Movie Review – The Revenant (2015)

The Old West. Beautiful landscapes. Bitter cold. Dangerous animals…

…and men wearing various hollowed out animal carcasses as hats and coats.

BQB here with a view of the Oscar frontrunner, The Revenant.

Be forewarned there are SPOILERS ahead, so don’t come after me for revenge if you read on and the movie’s ruined for you.

You know, 3.5 readers, I’m not sure the average person grasps the concept of time.

To think, two hundred years ago, men were trudging through the frozen wilderness, fighting for their lives just to skin some beasts and sell their fur for a few measly bucks.

You’ve got it pretty good today in comparison now, don’t you?  Yeah. Think about that the next time you start yelling at Siri for giving one of her bullshit answers to your clearly pronounced question.

Our story begins with a band of fur traders.  Domhnall Gleeson plays their boss, Captain Andrew Henry.  Leonardo DiCaprio is the company’s scout, Hugh Glass and Tom Hardy? He’s Fitzgerald, the villainous douche of the film.

Tom may be stuck playing villainous douches forever because he plays them so well, just as he did with Batman’s Baine.  Oh wait, then again, he did play Mad Max, so I stand corrected.

I won’t spoil the details so….yadda yadda yadda…long story short, Glass has the ever loving shit mauled out of him by a bear, Fitzgerald, villainous douche that he is, leaves Glass behind and Glass hauls his horribly wounded body across the wilderness to seek his revenge.

There’s a bit more to it than that, but I don’t want to spoil it, even though I warned you about spoilers.

Great use of a CGI bear. I’ve had mixed feelings about CGI for awhile now.  It can provide amazing effects, or it can make a movie look cartoonish and silly, depending on how it was use.

Here, it was used in such a way that I really believed that a damn Grizzly bear was beating the shit out of a Hollywood leading man.

Great performances all around.  Hardy, as Fitzgerald, is a douche, but you’re also left with an understanding of how horrible the frontier was.  Would you have done the things that Fitzgerald did to survive or is there a limit to the depravity you’d take part in just to save your skin?  Fitzgerald didn’t have a limit and none of us will ever really know unless we’re put in a life or death situation.  Let’s hope we’re never put in one.

Domhnall Gleeson had a banner 2015. Ex Machina.  Brooklyn.  Shit, he’s even friggin General Hux in Star Wars.  And now The Revenant.  And before all this he was what?  Ronald Weasley’s brother in those Harry Potter movies???

Holy Crap, someone get me that guy’s agent.

Finally, let me just say as an avid movie buff, it’s been a pleasure to see Leonardo DiCaprio grow up on screen over the years.  He was the extra add on cute kid in the Growing Pains when all the other Seaver children started getting older.  Then he was Jack in Titanic.  Then his career could of gone anywhere but he put on some muscle, started getting movies like Blood Diamond and so on.

I think the best role he ever had was as Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street.  That scene where he takes too many drugs and his body ends up like a pile of useless jello but he tries to move around at the same time…hilarious and horribly tragic at the same time.

He deserved an Oscar for that but that wasn’t his year.  Hopefully, this one will be.

I mean, not that his life is lacking or anything.  He probably sticks his head out the front door every morning and gets mauled by a hundred hot chicks but still.  He’s overdue for an award.

A thumbs up from BQB and consider seeing it on the big screen, just so you can get a full view of the mountains and scenery and nature and shit.

The movie itself is also worthy of winning Best Picture.  It’ll be great to see a deserving film take home the prize after that pile of crap Birdman walked away with it.

STATUS: Shelf worthy.

Tagged , , , , , , , ,