The B-radley's

It is now finally time for me to give out my picks for the best movies of last year. Kind of like the oscars but not gay and slightly less anticipated. It took me a while to see all of the movies that were nominated for awards but I have now done it with the exception of Vicki Christina Barcelona, and I really don't have any desire to see that movie. Penelope Cruz is not that talented in my opinion and Scarlett Johanson has potential but picks stupid movies to do. So that one will not be counted. So here it goes.

Best Supporting Actress
- Amy Adams (Doubt)
-Viola Davis (Doubt)
- Tariji P. Henson (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
- Marissa Tomei (The Wrestler)
- Frieda Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire)

And the winner is........ Viola Davis for Doubt. She is only in the film for less than ten minutes but her five minutes overshadows the two power houses of Phillip Seymore Hoffman and Meryl Streep.


Best Supporting Actor
- Heath Ledger (The Dark Knight)
- Phillip Seymore Hoffman (Doubt)
- Michael Sheen (Frost/Nixon)
- Josh Brolin (Milk)
- Brad Pitt (Burn After Reading)

And I give the B-radley to...... Heath Ledger of course. But I will note that both Michael Sheen and Brad Pitt were deserving in their roles. I did not include Robert Downy Jr. in Tropic Thunder like the Academy Awards- it was a dumb movie, and his role was not that great, or Michael Shannon in Revolutionary Road (Because I haven't seen it yet.)

Best Actress
- Kate Winslet (The Reader)
- Meryl Streep (Doubt)
- Angelina Jolie (The Changeling)
- Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married)
- Frances McDormand (Burn After Reading)

And the winner is . . . . . I will give it to Kate Winslet. The Reader wasn't as good as I thought it was going to be, but she was great in it. I have thought about this one long and hard (that's what she said) and at first I wasn't going to give it to her I was going to go with Angelina Jolie or Frances McDormant (who unfortunately wasn't even nominated by that other award show, which is a shame) but went with Kate Winslet because she really was great in a mediocre film. I would much rather her have won this for Eternal Sunshine or Finding Neverland but she is due for a win, I just wish I would have liked the movie better.

Best Actor
- Sean Penn (Milk)
- Brad Pitt (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
- Frank Langella (Frost/Nixon)
- Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire)
- David Kros (The Reader)
or instead Clint Eastwood (Grand Torino)

And the winner is.......... I have to give it hands down to Frank Langella for Frost/Nixon. Frank Langella was amazing as Richard Nixon. I was amazed. Sean Penn's acting in Milk was good but way too reminiscent of his performance in I am Sam. Harvey Milk was gay, not mentally handicapped. He was good but not good enough. Brad Pitt was really good and I am mad that Dev Patel wasn't even nominated for his job in Slumdog by the Academy. I did not find Mickey Rourke's performance to be that great in The Wrestler. I was really disappointed with the movie. Maybe I was so distracted by Rourke's weird looking face to pay attention his acting, but I think it was over-exaggerated. David Kros was great in the mediocre film The Reader.

Best Film
- Frost/Nixon
- Slumdog Millionaire
- Doubt
- Milk
- The Dark Knight

And the winner is . . . . . . . Slumdog Millionaire. Yes it really was as good as everyone made it out to be. Followed closely by Frost/Nixon. Almost nominated was The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. See last post. But Slumdog wins it.

Best Flick
A flick is in no way a typical award winning movie but is still awesome and deserves some recognition.
- Role Models
- In Bruges
- Pineapple Express
- Kungfu Panda
- W.

And the winner is. . . . . . . . Role Models. It really was hilarious and probably the funniest movie of last year.

Well that is it for the first annual B-radley's. Let me know what you think and what I missed or should have changed.

The Great Debaters

I went and saw this movie back when it was in theaters and really enjoyed it so I bought it earlier and just got done watching it. I know in an earlier post I put it as I think my number 3 favorite movie of 2007, but it could be even higher. It is not as artistic as Juno or Atonement, but it delivers a message that makes you feel. I think it tells a story that needs to be heard by everyone. I know that there will be some that obviously will not or have not enjoyed it as much as I have and will continue to do but I strongly encourage everyone to see it.


It involves two things that will forever be linked to my heart. The first as the title gives away debate. I will admit that in high school I was on the debate team, and for a year I helped run the team with our coach Shulz. Now I know what you are thinking......Nerd Alert Nerd Alert..... which is only slightly true. I do play and watch about every sport there is, but I think it is that I like organized competition and debate introduced me to a new type of competition that required me to do more than physically outlast my oponent. In debate I had to out think, be able to come up with a quote from Locke, Rousseau, Thoreau, Shakespeare, Gandhi, Kennedy, Roosevelt, Mandela, Dr. King, Helen Keller or Mark Twain at any given moment with an accompanying historically or personally true story to equate with the quote and relate both to the topic assigned and be able to speak on that topic for five to ten minutes without any notes. It was a rush of adrenaline for me, it felt the same as standing across the net waiting for my opponent to serve the tennis ball at me, or to be tossed the basketball and have to take it down the court and initiate a play, or waiting for my turn to begin a tumbling pass. It has helped me not to be afraid to stand up in front of a large crowd and give a speech and it has helped me to control my nerves because it was easier to see I was nervous while giving a speech than returning a serve or a myriad of other sport analagies I could use. I am really glad I took the class and am glad that there is finally a movie that sheds some light on what is done in debate.


Second reason why I love this movie, and much more important, it is a movie about racial equality. For those of you who know me you most likely know how important this issue is for me. I believe that everyone on this planet is a child of God and that God is no respector of persons. This means that God does not care what the color of your skin is and therefore no one else should either. I do not think that any anyone is better than anyone else because they have lighter or darker skin than I do. I hate racist stereotypes, racial jokes, and any derrogatory term given to a racial group. I believe that race is a social concept created by man out of greed and laziness. It was a way to establish that one group of people were inferior to another and therefore deserved less. I hate it when someone is describing someone else and the second thing they refer to after their gender is generally their race. I hate living in a world where race is so central to everyone. Me being the race I am does not define who I am or the moral fortitude that I have or how I should treat anyone else. I get tired of people who say: why does there need to be a black history month because there is no such thing as a white history month. To this I say, you are taught white history, almost always from a white perspective, for every history class you have from kindergarten up. That is why you do not learn about the genocide of American Indians, the true horror of slavery and the continued shady treatment blacks receive today, or internment of Japanese Americans or the horrible treatment of Mexicans in the Southwest, in any depth whatsoever. You learn that the United States had slavery, but that thanks to Abraham Lincoln you don't anymore. Sometimes you will hear a little about Harriet Tubman and the undergroud railroad, but again no depth. You are taught that Manifest Destiny is a great and noble idea and that American expansionism west was great but you do not hear about what the cost was to American Indians. Sorry I could go on this for a very long time, it is just a topic that makes me a little irate. Racism just makes me a little sick.

In the Valley of Elah

This was a really interesting show. I had heard a lot of good things about it from the Radio from Hell show I listen to every morning. I am pretty sure I reccomend it. It does have some language in it but it is a really good murder mystery. Tommy Lee Jones is a really good actor and he does a good job in this movie. He is more understated then he usually is. Charlize Theron does a good job as well. I don't know why they list Susan Sarandon on the cover of the movie, she is only it it for less than ten minutes. I think it is an indie film despite having big names in it. It was made by an indie company at least. Anyways I will give it a solid 3 and half. It made me think for a while after it was over and that is always a good thing for movies to do.

Across the Universe. Gone Baby Gone, and In Bruges

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE


I watched this movie with my friends Christa, Amber, and Gregg and I think I was the only one who stayed awake for it all. It is a long movie but I really liked it. It is movie that is based off of Beatles songs. I believe that the Beatles is the greatest band of all time. I love their music and everything that they have contributed to the music industry. This movie does their music justice. Basically everyone in the film has a good voice and does a great job singing Beatles songs. I liked the soundtrack so much I went out and bought it the next morning after watching it and really haven't listened to too much else. One of the songs from the soundtrack is on my the bottom of my blog. It is I wanna hold your hand by T.V. Carpio. It rocks. I will own this movie soon because I really think that it is a movie that I could watch a few times a year and not get sick of it. Now as a warning it is a musical, I think that is the correct term for it, and I hate musicals as a general rule but it was a pretty solid movie. I give it a very solid 4 stars, and the soundtrack 4 and a half.


GONE BABY GONE


This movie was a disappointment for me. I was really excited to see it because it has a pretty good cast. Casey Affleck is great, at least he was in The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford, but in this one not so much. The same goes for Ed Harris and Michelle Moynahan. And the saddest part of it all was that Morgan Freeman was not up to par. For those of you who don't know I think Morgan Freeman is the best supporting actor of all time. He rocks every movie he is in.....until this one. I guess everyone has to have a bad one sometime but it was sad to see such a great fall into such a sad role. It could have been a great movie but the acting seemed forced and the story a little too unbelievable. There a few parts that were really suspenseful and a little disturbing but for the most part I was disappointed. I watched it with Wes, Jesse, and Jeff and I think they would all agree with my review. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great. A mediocre film that will get a 2.75 star rating from me.







IN BRUGES

This was such a funny movie. I went and saw it over the weekend with Wes, Jesse, A.J. and a few other people. It is one of the most vulger movies I have ever seen. But it is so ridiculously funny that I can look past it. I never really thought of Collin Ferrill as a comedic actor before but he was really really good. There were so many funny parts to it. I really don't know how to describe it without giving away too much about it but if you don't mind hearing more f words than the departed with a few more vulgarities than I reccomend this flick. It is a British film I think that is why it was so vulgar. Swear words here aren't as bad there. Anyways I will give it 3 and a half stars. Not a movie I will own but one I will definately rent and watch it again.