Sunday, August 17, 2014

1969, 1968 and 1967 winners are...

1969- Oliver!



I was absolutely bored with movie. I was so bored I ended up calling my mom to talk to her about how boring it is. While I was talking to her about it my dad came in and he asked what we were talking about. My mom told him that I was watching Oliver! and that I was bored. He then said "I don't know why it won". I am glad someone agrees with me. I have no idea why it won. If any one knows what it is about that movie that made it win please tell me because I am still trying to figure it out. This is one movie I will not be watching again.

1968- In the Heat of the Night



I really liked this this movie. It was really interesting and there were some funny parts. The movie is about an African-American police detective from Philadelphia, who becomes involved in a murder investigation in a racist town in Mississippi. I would recommend this movie to anyone.

My mom was telling me a little about this movie and one of the actors in it named Rod Steiger. She told me that he might look familiar to me. I looked him up on IMDB and he didn't look familiar so I decided to look through the movies that he had done. As I was looking through it, I noticed that he was in my all time favorite musical, Oklahoma! He played the horrible Jud Fry. Once I learned that whenever Rod Steiger would speak I could hear Jud in his voice. He is much older in this movie than he was in Oklahoma and he also was creepy in this movie. He was a tad bit creepy in Oklahoma.

There is a scene in the movie where Sidney Poitier and Rod Steiger's characters are arguing about who the killer was cause the chief (Rod) was sure they got the right person but Sidney's character Virgil is saying that they have the wrong person. The chief then says that Virgil is so sure of himself about who killed the person and that Virgil is a funny name for someone who came from Philadelphia and says what do they call you up there? Virgil then says "They call me MISTER Tibbs." I laughed when I heard that quote because there is a scene in The Lion King where Pumbaa says "They call me MISTER Pig" I just think it is funny that they used it after changing it to Pig from Tibbs.

1967- A Man for All Seasons



I have never heard of this movie and even though it dragged on at some spots I still like it. The movie is about Thomas More who stood put to King Henry VIII when he (the King)  rejected the Roman Catholic Church so that he could obtain a divorce from Catherine of Aragon so that he could marry Anne Boleyn.

Towards the end of the movie I was ready for it to be done because it was just dragging. At  the end of the film the narrator said " Thomas More's head was stuck on Traitor's Gate for a month, then his daughter, Margaret, removed it and kept it till her death." If for some odd reason my dad got beheaded I would not be keeping his head with me until I died. If you are reading this Dad I love you lots and lots but not enough to keep your head with me. I would bury your head but keeping your head is not going to happen.

Coming attractions: 1966 and 1965 Best Picture winners


Friday, April 25, 2014

1972, 1971 and 1970 Best Picture winner is...

It's been a while since my last post and I also never got around to blogging about the 2014 Academy Awards. To be honest this years Academy Awards was so so. There were not any movies or even actors/actresses that I really was hoping to win. There were a few people that I didn't want to win but there was really no one that I really wanted to see win and that also goes with the Best Picture nominees. I still have not watched the 2014 Best Picture winner but it is on my list to do so.

 I felt like there were way too many movies nominated for Best Picture this year. I think 9 pictures is too many to pick from. I think the academy should just have the top 5 movies for this category. I really think I should be in charge in deciding what movies are nominated for Best Picture. If it was up to me the following movies would not have been nominated: The Wolf of Wall Street, Her, Gravity, American, Hustle, Nebraska, and Philomena and Dallas Buyers Club. I have my reasons for picking pretty much every film that was nominated and my reasons may sound silly to others so I am not going to explain them. Also I don't think many people even read this blog so I guess I won't have to worry about people questioning my reasons.

For the Best Actor/ Actress and Best Supporting Actor/Actress there was no one that I was really hoping to win. If I had to pick someone from those categories their names and reasons are listed below.

Best Actor:
Christian Bale: I didn't like any of the other nominees so that is why I picked him. I like the Leonardo DiCaprio from Titanic but I don't like who he has turned out now. I also don't think he is as cute as he was in Titanic. And yes I know that Titanic was made 20 years ago and of course he is going to be better looking then. I REALLY can't stand Matthew McConaughey so I was a little upset when he won. I also don't think he is that great of an actor.

Best Actress:
Sandra Bullock: I like her and I think she does a great job. I didn't see her in Gravity and to be honest I plan to never watch it. It just looks so incredibly boring even though I heard a lot of people liked the film.

Best Supporting Actor:
Barkhad Abdi: I really didn't like the other nominees and I had to pick some one. We both have birthdays in April and I am exactly 1 day older than him. I was a little upset when Jared Leto won cause he is just weird and crazy and I don't think he is anything special.

Best Supporting Actress:
Julia Roberts: I have always liked Julia Roberts and I think she does a great job. There are some movies of hers that I don't care for but I still like her. Can we also say HALLELUJAH that Jennifer Lawrence didn't win. I CAN NOT STAND her. I don't understand all the hype going on about her. I don't think she is all that great.

Well I better stop talking about this years winners and nominees and get into the early 70's Best Picture winners

1972- The French Connection



I was so bored watching this movie. I actually fell asleep during the movie but I didn't realize I did until I woke up and saw that the movie was over. I seriously groaned (maybe cried a little too) when I realized I had to re-watch it so that I could write about it. The only interesting thing about this film is that it is based on a true story. To me it was very slow pace movie. I guess growing up in a time where everything is so fast paced in movies that anything slower than what I am used to seems boring. I had a hard time watching and seeing why this movie won for Best Picture. Fiddler on the Roof was nominated for Best Picture with this movie and I would have rather watched that movie than this one. It was a so so movie to me. If this movie was on T.V. I would find anything else to watch. Some people might actually like this film but I am not one of them.

1971- Patton



This is another movie that I was bored watching. I think if I was interested in this type of movie genre or even in history/military/WW II I  might have enjoyed this movie but since I am not interested in those things I was pretty bored. I fell asleep watching this movie as well and had to re-watch it. There are some movies about WW II that I liked such as Saving Private Ryan and Schindler's List. Yes I know both these movies are about a horrible time in our history but I believe they were made very very well. I can say that I have seen Patton but believe me I will never watch it again.

1970- Midnight Cowboy

 
I wouldn't say that I liked this movie but I wouldn't say that I hated it either. It was just so so. Jon Voight plays a cowboy from Texas who moves to New York to become a hustler. I know that it is a movie and not real but who on earth decides that they are going to grow up and become a hustler? I want to know what made this character decide to go into that type of "field". Dustin Hoffman is in this movie and he plays a crippled con man and even though he plays a sleazy character I kind of liked his character. I couldn't stand Jon Voight's character. I thought he was a buffoon. There is a scene in the movie that these two characters are talking and Dustin Hoffman's character says that all cowboys are gay and Jon Voight tells him that cowboys are not gay and would he (Dustin's character) say that John Wayne is gay. I thought that was interesting cause Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman were nominated along with John Wayne for Best Actor in 1970 and John Wayne won for Best Actor. I know that the saying was put into the movie way before they were nominated but I still thought it was interesting trivia.

There have been 86 Academy Award shows and I have watched 44 Best Picture winners. I just have 42 movies left to watch. It has been a lot of fun blogging about these movies.

Coming Attractions: 1969, 1968 Best Picture winners.



Sunday, January 5, 2014

1975, 1974, 1973 Best Picture goes to...

It has been so long since I have done a post. I guess that is what happens when you have a full time job and just living your life. I am going to try and be better at posting on here.

So without further ado here are the winners.

1975- The Godfather Part II


I did not like the first movie and I did not like this one. I am just so incredibly happy that the third movie did not win a Best Picture award. I am still trying to figure out how this movie and the first one won Best Picture. I feel like both movies are very violent and if I was the one who decided if they won or not I would make sure that they would not win. 

This is not my type of movie to go out and watch. It has been fun doing this blog because it has made me watch movies that I would not normally watch and some of them I have been pleasantly surprised that I like and then there are a lot of them that I have just hated and will never watch again. To be honest I thought this movie was really boring and once the movie was over I was so happy to watch something else. Just like the first movie, I want those 3 hours that I had to sit through back in my life. I will never watch this movie again because I didn't care for the violence and the language and did I already mention that it was boring? If people ever ask me if I have ever seen this movie I can tell them that I have but there is no amount of money in the world you could give me to make me watch this movie again let alone the first one again. 

As my family knows I love to read the trivia about movies. So some interesting trivia I found out about this movie was that the director was actually thinking of having Marlon Brando come back and play the younger version of Vito Corleone before he became the Godfather because he thought Marlon Brando could play any part. But then the director remembered that Robert De Niro auditioned for the lead role in The Godfather that he chose him instead of Marlon Brando to play Vito Corleone. Another interesting fact was that Robert De Niro lived in Sicily to prepare for his role and he also spent 4 months learning to speak the Sicilian dialect to play Vito Corleone. 

1974- The Sting


I LOVED this movie. I don't want to spoil the movie so a quick summary of the movie is this: When a mutual friend is killed by a mob boss, two con men, one experienced and one young try to get even by pulling off the big con on the mob boss. The story unfolds with several twists and last minute alterations. I would recommend this movie to anyone. It was fun watching this with my mom. She has seen this movie before so if I was confused about something she would explain it to me or she would tell me to just watch and my question would be answered because she didn't want to spoil it for me. I wish the reason she was in Yakima watching this with me  was for a fun time of hanging out with me but sadly it was because I had the flu and she was taking care of me. Thankfully I feeling a lot better when we watched this movie.

Robert Redford and Paul Newman play the main con men. Paul plays the more experienced con man and Robert plays the young con man. Both are pretty good looking in this film but I have to say that Paul is the better looking one. His eyes are an amazing blue color and they just make you melt. He has always been good looking. I even think he was good looking when he got really old before he died.

I will totally watch this movie again and I might just have to put it on my birthday wish list :) I would totally recommend this movie to anyone who wants to see it.

1973- The Godfather


To be honest I was not that excited to watch this movie but I don't know if anyone would be excited to see The Godfather. I have heard this movie being quoted so many times from people or from other shows that I wasn't really impressed by them when I actually heard them in the movie because I could actually say it along with the actor. When I see a movie for the first time I don't want to be able to quote along with it. I was a little intrigued to see why most guys like this movie. After watching the movie I wanted my 3 hours back and still had no idea why guys like the movie.

I was talking to my parents about this movie and my dad made the comment that he doesn't like it when people say that this film shows the American dream, which is "wealth at any cost". In the movie there are 18 deaths and if you really believe that saying "wealth at any cost" then it seems to me that they are saying it is ok to go out and kill people that are in your way. I know that they are not really saying that but in a way I feel like they are.

My family knows that I love reading the trivia about movies. I was reading the trivia about this movie and one of the things that I thought was interesting but also really disgusting is that the scene with the horse head in the bed is that it is a real horse head. In rehearsals a fake horse head was used but for the actual scene the real head was put there. The reaction that the guy has to it is real because no one told the actor that they were going to use a real head. I just feel like that was really mean for them to do. I think they should have told the actor.

Marlon Brando won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of Don Vito Corleone. He decided to boycott the ceremony and sent Sacheen Littlefeather in his place to explain why he would not be accepting the award. Because of this incident the Academy of Motion Picture of Arts and Sciences decided that a proxy will no longer be allowed to accept an award for an actor.

This will be a movie I am more than happy to never watch again. If people ask me if I have ever seen this movie then I can tell them that yes I have but will never watch it again.

The following video shows why proxies are no longer allowed.


I was reading on Wikipedia about this and it said that Marlon Brando had written a 15-page speech for her to read on stage but when the producer met her backstage he threatened to physically remove her or arrest her if she goes longer than the 60 seconds. Everything she says on stage is improvised but once she got backstage she read the entire 15-page speech to the press. I am really curious to see what he wrote but I don't want to read 15 pages. 


Coming Attractions: 1972, 1971 and 1970 Best Picture winners.