The Bloodbath Started On A Whim...

I was watching an interesting documentary the other day about grindhouse films.

These movies almost by nature are of poor quality in almost every way. They find a topic (gore, sex, black inner-city life) and just (for a lack of a better term) exploit the heck out of it.

It got me thinking….”How difficult would it be to make an exploitation movie?”

With that in mind, I have decided I want to make a very low budget grindhouse/exploitation flick! I even went so far as to design and shoot a poster for said film:

Obviously it’s title is “He Decide To Kill”.

I can’t say much about it’s plot right now other than it’s gonna be bloody and crappy. Very crappy.

Wastin' Time With Oscar: The English Patient (1996)

Movie Description: At the close of WWII, a young nurse tends to a badly-burned plane crash victim. His past is shown in flashbacks, revealing an involvement in a fateful love affair.
Starring: Ralph Fiennes, Juliette Binoche, Willem Dafoe, Kristin Scott Thomas, Naveen Andrews, and Colin Firth
Directed By: Anthony Minghella

My Thoughts: I’ve been sitting here for about 15 minutes staring at the laptop screen trying to think of what I should/need to write here.

Like The Last Emperor I went into viewing The English Patient expecting it to be a huge labor to watch all the way though. I had seen (or seen most of) The English Patient many many years ago when I was still a teenager, and the three things I remembered about it were it had an airplane, there was a scene that took place in a cave, and it was super duper boring.

I’m happy to report The English Patient wasn’t as boring as I remembered. That being said, it was still very boring.

I think I understand the romance story much more now that I’m older, but I never really felt the romance between the two main characters. I can’t help thinking how much this movie and their romance could benefit from a beautiful piece of reoccurring theme music added to the film. I know this thought makes it seem like I can’t recognize love on screen unless there’s a music cue to tip me off, but I remain a firm believer that a good piece of music can sell anything. Especially love.

I guess the acting was good, I know Juliette Binoche won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role, so that has to mean something.

All in all, The English Patient was okay. In my opinion it wasn’t really bad, it wasn’t really good, it just didn’t make me feel anything. And that makes it okay.

Which leads to…

Should This Movie Have The Academy Award For Best Picture?: Let’s look at the other Best Picture Nominees for 1996…there’s Shine (which was good but forgettable), Secrets & Lies (which I doubt anyone has watched since 1996), Jerry Maguire (which is a classic), and Fargo (which is a ultra classic).
Jerry Maguire and Fargo are excellent films…memorable films…films that you can watch any time. They make you feels something and they entertain you. I know no one who watches The English Patient on a whim. I kinda get the feeling no one watches The English Patient unless they have to write a book report on the the novel.

So “No”, The English Patient should not have won The Academy Award for Best Picture in 1996. That honor should have gone to either Jerry Maguire or Fargo.*

*I’d have voted for Fargo.

Wastin' Time With Oscar: The Last Emperor (1987)

Movie Description: Recounting the last years of China’s Ching Dynasty, this Oscar-winning epic charts the life of Pu Yi, who ascended the throne when he was 3 years old.
Starring: John Lone, Joan Chen and Peter O’Toole
Directed By: Bernardo Bertolucci

My Thoughts: Alright, I’ll admit I chose to watch and review The Last Emperor first because it looked pretty boring and I wanted to get it out of the way. Well, it turns out I shouldn’t judge a movie by it’s Netflix description.

While the movie was a little long, and maybe one or two of the accents were a little thick, I found myself enjoying the movie the entire time. I am a firm believer that any movie that attempts to tell the life story of a real person who actually lived should never be under 2 hours, and in this case The Last Emperor did not disappoint. The version I watched had a run time of 2 hours and 42 minutes, and I hear legend there’s also a version that runs well over 3 hours (in my opinion the 2 hour 42 minute is sufficient).

Unsurprisingly, the mostly Asian lead actors in this film aren’t famous faces to the American general movie going public, but this isn’t a problem. Some of the acting was so good it really makes you wish you could saw more of these actors in today’s movies. One actor most will recognize though is Peter O’Toole. In the movie he plays the child emperor’s Western tutor and friend. Needless to say O’Toole is fantastic in the role as he is in most of his acting roles.

All in all, I have to say I liked The Last Emperor a lot.

Which leads to…

Should This Movie Have The Academy Award For Best Picture?: In 1987 The Last Emperor was up against Broadcast News, Hope and Glory, Moonstruck, and Fatal Attraction. At the risk of sounding uninformed I have never seen Hope and Glory. I wasn’t crazy about Broadcast News, I think James L. Brooks has done much better work. Fatal Attraction was good, but I’m not sure I feel it as an Oscar winner. The same things with Moonstruck, I like the movie (which is hard to type because usually I hate Cher), but when it comes right down to the gut truth it wasn’t as good as The Last Emperor.

So “yes”, The Last Emperor should have won the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1987.

I Should Get An Award For Doing This

So folks, lately I’ve been giving a little thought to maybe adding some new “features” to the ol’ Soviet Science blog…some new regular updates and the like. After much brain racking and sleepless nights of soul searching I finally came up with a few good ideas.

This is one of them.

Over the course of the next 6 (six) months I will attempt to view and review every movie that has won the Academy Award for Best Picture dating back to the year of my birth (1981).
Mind you, this is no easy task…for every “The Departed” and “Braveheart” there is also an “The English Patient” and “The Last Emperor”. Also some Academy Award winning movies are rather hard to find on DVD (“Out Of Africa” I’m looking at you…).

With that in mind, I hereby solemnly swear to watch  and review every single one of these movies in under six months or face the grim penalty of never seeing another movie again. So say I.

A few quick notes: I won’t be watching these movies in any specific order, I’m just going to watch them in what ever order I can get my hands on them. I own a few of these movies, but there are others that I’ll going to have to track down in order to watch them. Also, why am I giving myself six months to watch 31 movies? Plain and simply I want to give myself a little breathing room when it comes to watching them (a.k.a. So I can watch other movies too and not just these only). Lastly, for those who are keeping track at home, I’ll cross out the moves on the list below once I’ve seen and reviewed them.

For your enjoyment here’s a complete list of movies I’ll be watching along with the year they won their Academy Award for Best Picture:

1. Chariots of Fire, 1981
2. Gandhi, 1982
3. Terms Of Endearment, 1983
4. Amadeus, 1984
5. Out Of Africa, 1985
6. Platoon, 1986
7. The Last Emperor, 1987
8. Rain Man, 1988
9. Driving Miss Daisy, 1989
10. Dances With Wolves, 1990
11. The Silence Of The Lambs, 1991
12. Unforgiven, 1992
13. Schindler’s List, 1993
14. Forrest Gump, 1994
15. Braveheart, 1995
16. The English Patient, 1996
17. Titanic, 1997
18. Shakespeare in Love, 1998
19. American Beauty, 1999
20. Gladiator, 2000
21. A Beautiful Mind, 2001
22. Chicago, 2002
23. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2003
24. Million Dollar Baby, 2004
25. Crash, 2005
26. The Departed, 2006
27. No Country for Old Men, 2007
28. Slumdog Millionaire, 2008
29. The Hurt Locker, 2009
30. The King’s Speech, 2010
31. The Artist, 2011

2012 Is A Good Year For Archery

Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games

 2012 Summer Olympics in London*

 Merida from Pixar’s Brave

 Hawkeye from The Avengers

Green Arrow gets a new TV show on The CW

*I pulled this photo from the inter-web. I don’t know who he is, if he made the cut for the US Olympic team, or if he was even trying out for the Olympics. I would venture to guess he is an American though based on patriotic sleeves.

I'm Kinda Sad, Man

I GUESS I SHOULD SAY “SPOILER” HERE BEFORE YOU READ SOMETHING YOU DON’T WANT TO KNOW…

I’m really gonna miss Lane Pryce. Both the character and Jared Harris who played him (the dude can’t keep a job…first killed off on Fringe and now on Mad Men).
Anyway, like most of you I saw the possibility of suicide coming early on last night, but when it actually happened I was still a little shocked…I was hoping he wouldn’t go through with it.
But the moment that secretary mentioned Lane’s door was locked and he hadn’t shown up at the office yet I knew it was a done deal.
You know a show is good when it sticks with you awhile after watching it. All last night I was dreaming about Mad Men and Lane’s death…my first thought when I woke up this morning was about Lane…I still can’t help but to picture his body hanging there from the ceiling looking all sad and spooky (the make-up team who did his dead make up deserves an award, it was top notch). Once again, the true mark of great TV.
But still…it’s sad to see Lane go…