Reruns: The Sopranos

Welcome back to, the newly renamed segment, Reruns. On this installment we will be looking at another television series that is considered by many, me included, as possibly the best. Known for its language, violence, brilliant writing and directing, gabbagool, and Italians. Lots and lots of Italians. I am of course talking about the HBO series The Sopranos.

The Sopranos spawned from the mind of David Chase. Before he created the New Jersey mafia show he was sort of vaguely known in television for some mediocre kinds of shows that for the most part were short lived. Though in the 90s he came to HBO with and idea that no one had any faith in,  not even himself. But when the Sopranos debuted in 1999 it was an instant hit.

The series centers on New Jersey mafia boss Tony Soprano as he deals with business, personal life, and the struggles of balancing both. Right off the bat the show was different from any other mafia project ever done. For one thing it showed the in struggles and turmoil that a mafia boss actually goes through and it gets very personal. The series is also unbelievably well written with a lot of depth to it.

I got into The Sopranos in only this past year and one of the first things I noticed was the similarities to Breaking Bad. Both shows are probably the best of their times and go way beyond your average television drama. They're made more like films and each are made with visuals and dialogue that have much deeper meanings than what they construe on the surface. One aspect of this that is very interesting is from season two on Tony experiences different visions and dreams of remorse for killing his long time ally Salvatore "Big Pussy" Bonpensiero. They are done in very subtle ways and it's not just about Big Pussy... Ahem. One thing the show is known for is it's very cryptic dream sequences as well, and I could spend hours talking about those and the meanings of them so just know that they are brilliant and that they alone are worth watching the show for.

On to the cast. Being that this is a mafia show obviously people die. This allowed for a lot of characters to be featured and they all deserve to be talked about so I'll try to touch upon most of them shortly.Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) is the main focus of the show. His "family" family consists of Carmela (Edie Falco) his loving and sometimes troubling wife, A.J. (Robert Iler) his son who I despise, Medow (Jamie-Lynn Singler) his smart and attractive daughter, and his over baring mother Livia (Nancy Marchand). Unfortunately Nancy Marchand died in 2000 so obviously her character was killed off as well but I'll talk about that more later.

As far as Tony's "business" family there are tons of colorful and entertaining characters. There are a few who spill over from his actual family into this category as well. Junior Soprano (Dominic Cianese) is Tony's uncle and for a time was the boss of the family, Janis Soprano (Aida Turturro)
Tony's sister who always somehow got involved in the business one way or another, Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli) who is considered Tony's nephew even though he's actually a cousin by marriage. Tony's actual gang consists of Paulie (Tony Sirico), Silvio (Steve Van Zant), Big Pussy (Vincent Pastore), Bobby Bacala (Steve Schirripa), and for a time Ralph (Joe Pantoliano). There is also one more key person in Tony's life that is his therapist through out the series Dr. Jennifer Melfi (Lorraine Bracco).

The cast as a whole is phenomenal. They all have great chemistry with each other and are hilarious and threatening when ever they need to be, but on top of that every character in the show truly is endearing. You really care about each and everyone of these characters, even the scumbag ones like Ralph. By the way the episode entitled "Whoever Did This" is one of the best of the series and has a terrific performance by Pantoliano in it. Lorraine Bracco is also extremely good throughout the series and has some of the best parts of it. And of course James Gandolfini is perfect in the lead role.

One other thing about the series that's pretty fascinating is the very odd choices it often makes. For as many of the brilliant moments in writing and directing shown in the series there are some bizarre things going on too. This brings me back to Nancy Marchand. I mentioned that she had died in 2000 and before that the producers of the series seemed to have no intention of killing off her character any time soon. So naturally when she died in real life her character died as well. One would assume that the producers would just have the character die off screen in the next season and have a nice send off to the actress and character. However they took a very weird turn and instead CGI'd her into one last scene with Tony where they use old dialogue clips that made no sense to be in that scene. The end result was eerie, weird, confusing, a bit insensitive, and bizarre.  A few other wierd moments like this pop up in the series during it's run.

The Sopranos ran for six seasons with the last one being split into two parts. As a whole the entire series is one of the greatest television shows of all time. It was one of the first to really go beyond just being a T.V. show and was very smart, inventive, and utterly brilliant. Every other cable drama on afterwards was based on this. Not only was it one of the first of it's kind but in my opinion it's the best drama series ever created.

Thank you once again for joining me on Reruns. When we return we will take a look at show involving a weird magic island, black smoke that kills people, and a shit ton of questions with a few answers.

Netflix Reviews: The Watch

Okay so I've finally seen the critically panned comedy The Watch. When this first came out I was actually looking forward to seeing it. I mean it starred some of the funniest guys in the business today plus it was the first prominent American film role for Richard Ayoade who some may know from the British comedy show The IT Crowd. What I'm saying is, it had potential.

The Watch stars Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughn, Jonah Hill, Richard Ayoade, and Will Forte. The plot centers around a small town that has been invaded by aliens that kill people and wear their skin to blend in. Ben Stiller's character, Evan, takes it upon himself to form a neighborhood watch to protect the town from the alien invaders.

In all honesty, I didn't think this movie was that bad when I was watching it. It had some funny lines and the cast was decent enough. Probably the biggest problem is it doesn't leave a lasting impression really. It's not a quotable kind of film either like Anchorman or Dodge ball, though it does aspire to be. 

It kind of reminds of the movie Role Models. Both have some good ideas and both got some laughs out of me. Not huge laughs, mind you, but a few here and there. Both also don't live up to their full potential and could be really hilarious but just end up being okay.

It's definitely not as bad as all the reviews for it say but it could've been better. The characters are likeable enough, though Vaughn can get a bit annoying after awhile. Do I recomend it? Not exactly but if you're a fan of the cast and debating on whether or not to see it, I say go for it. You come away with a few laughs at the very least. If you want a hilarious comedy though I'd go with 21 Jump Street which was the funniest comedy of the year.

FINAL GRADE: C

The Cinema Lounge: Mama

 Before going into this movie I decided I was gonna have a little drinking game going while I watched. The game was very simple, take a drink every time the word mama was said or seen on screen. Now unfortunately for me I had no alcohol on me at the time so I just used water instead to see how long it would take for me to finish my drink. Took about a little over half the movie for one water bottle. However if I had come prepared and brought a large bottle of whiskey with me it would've been gone in the last thirty minutes. Anyway, let's dive in.

Mama is a horror film produced by Guillermo del Toro and is directed by Andres Muschietti in his first feature length directorial effort. The film came about when del Toro saw Muschietti's short film that the movie is based on. Del Toro being impressed he decided that the short film was worthy of a feature length counter part. Now I've seen the short film and if that alone impressed del Toro, than the man is easily impressed.

The cast is a pretty decent one. Jessica Chastain stars in the lead role hot off the success of her Oscar nominated performance in the, over- hyped, Zero Dark Thirty. She does a fantastic job here as well playing a rather different part from any previous roles. She's accompanied by Nikolaj Coster- Waldau who plays her... boyfriend? fiancee? husband? I don't know it's not exactly clear but he does a fine job as well. Or at least until he's sidelined for most of the movie. Seriously, what's with these Jessica Chastain movies where the lead male has a big presence in the first thirty minutes but then just leaves for most of it and then pops back up at the end? I'm seeing a pattern here.

As far as the two little girls in the movie go, they do an okay job. Although they do stretch the boundary between cute and annoying a little to often. The older one, the character's name is Victoria, does most of the talking while the the younger one, Lily, is just there to creep everybody the fuck out.

Now on to Mama herself, or itself or whatever. Mama is basically just a ghost. One of the big problems with the film is that it's more of the same. It just copies every other modern ghost movie in ideas and images. Her design is where this is most apparent. I think back to The Woman In Black, a film that I very much enjoyed, and I remember the look of the ghost. In that it wasn't so much how vivid in detail or how great the effects were, cause they were maybe only a little better than Mama's, but it was how it was shot and it really created great fear and tension when ever the ghost was looming over a scene. In Mama, however, the ghost is reduced to nothing but shitty jump scares and effects that aren't good enough to show for long periods of time like they do.

The film does have a few good things going for it though. Jessica Chastain is great in this and she keeps the movie watchable. A few of the scares are decent enough, but only a few. The rest of the film is either average or just down right idiotic and lame. And the ending is so dumb, it was honestly hard for me not to get up, give the screen the finger, shout "Fuck you movie.", and leave.

It suffers from not only being a horror movie rated PG-13 but also from living in an age where CGI is over used. Now I personally do like CGI but only when it needs to be used and is so good you can barely believe it's not real i.e. 2009's Star Trek. CGI in a horror movie just doesn't work when the villain is all computer. Not only does it look bad but psychologically it's just not scary because you know for a fact that there's nothing there. I also feel CGI blood is a sin against nature, but one step at a time.

I felt that the movie deserved about a C for most it, but the ending brought it down enormously. It's kind of a shame cause I haven't seen a good del Toro produced horror movie in a long time. Here hoping that the awesome looking Evil Dead remake is as good as that trailer for it is. If you haven't seen it yet, get on over to Youtube and watch it cause you're in for a good time.

FINAL GRADE: D

The Cinema Lounge: The Last Stand

Well it's been about a decade since the governator has been in the role as lead action hero. His last true outing in the genre was in Terminator 3 then he went on to bigger things when he became the governor of California. Now he's back in the Jee-woon Kim directed action movie, The Last Stand.

The Last Stand centers around a sheriff from a small town on the Texas/ Mexico border. Along with him are his three deputies who are used to a simple life as far police work goes being that nothing ever really happens in their quaint little town. The sheriff is on his weekend off while most of the occupants of the town go with the high school football team to an out of town game. Meanwhile, the FBI lose a captive fugitive who steals an insanely fast sports car and plans to cross the Mexican boarder. But he makes a big mistake when he tries to cross through Arnold's town.

So the movie basically plays out how you'd think. Bad guy is smart enough to out smart the FBI, bad guy goes through small town, bad guy meets Arnold, Arnold beats the shit out of him. It's a simple enough premise and in theory it works pretty well as a return movie for Schwarzenegger. But let us keep in mind that this is, after all, A SCHWARZENEGGER MOVIE. So obviously this has some very bad and very dumb moments in it, with some fun action and gun play.

The main thing that brings down the movie is Arnold himself. He hasn't been front and center on screen in awhile and boy does it show. I mean the guy was no Gregory Peck, but in  my opinion he was never cringe worthy bad or anything. Unfortunately here, he's just that. Part of it has to do with the dialogue I must admit but I think he still needs some time to get back into the swing of things.

As far as supporting cast goes there are some familiar faces along with Arnold. The most prominent, or at least the most prominently made by the trailer, the poster, and every single T.V. spot I saw for this movie, would be Johnny Knoxville even though he's only in it for about 20 minutes altogether (thankfully). Forrest "If- there's- a- paycheck- involved- I'll- take- the- part" Whitaker does an over the top, but at times hilarious, job of being the FBI agent in charge of the situation, who also sucks at his job. The other two notables are Peter Stormare (Fargo) who plays one of the over the top villains and Luis Guzman... You know, that one guy who was in a bunch of stuff. Yeah him.

This was Jee-woon Kim's American directorial debut, though he does have a sort of cult following for his foreign films like "I Saw The Devil" and "A Tale of Two Sister", mostly horror work. For his first American movie, welllllllll, hey it could've been worse. I still have to see his other work but it does look promising.

The one interesting thing the film has going for it, is the fact that this is basically a western. Now not in the complete and utter literal sense but when you really analyze the film there are a lot of western elements to it. It was obviously heavily influenced by them at least. The film also has a weird theme through out between old verses new. For example, Arnold has a gun fight with one of the villains. The villain is holding an old timey Smith and Wesson looking gun, while Arnold uses a more modern day version of that. It's a bit odd and the message that they would seem to be conveying is "New good. Old Bad." which doesn't really favor kindly to Arnold when you think about it.

All in all the movie is along the lines of Commando. It's bad but it's not BAD. If anything it's at least enjoyable and that's really all you could want from a Schwarzenegger movie. The biggest problem with the film, aside from technical things that don't really matter in an Arnold movie, is that it isn't very memorable and doesn't leave a lasting impression really.

While this wasn't the mega success most people thought it would be, it was a decent enough starting point for Arnold to return to acting. And while it may not make the big bucks like it was predicted to, one thing's for sure, Arnold is back.

FINAL GRADE: C

Reruns: Seinfeld

Welcome to Reruns. On this segment I will be going into detail on television shows and their impact on pop culture, the general public, and how television is made. On this first installment I'll be discussing arguably the greatest sitcom ever made, and my personal favorite show of all time, Seinfeld.

Seinfeld was created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David in the late 80s. The original idea was to follow two stand- up comedians in New York through a normal day in their lives as friends. It would also feature a short stand- up act at the end of each episode which would have material that had to do with the events in the episode. The concept pretty much stayed the same except for the two comedians, it was brought down to just following one comedian and his non show biz friends.

The show debuted in 1989 with the pilot episode "The Seinfeld Chronicles" which was the second idea for the title of the whole series, the first being "Stand- Up". When the pilot aired there was little faith from the network, and Larry David, that it was going to be a success, and it was far from what it would one day become, but it did well enough for NBC to order four more episodes for season one. Hardly an outstanding start but the first season ended up growing a following that started the phenomenon of the series.

The show starred Jerry Seinfeld as himself, Jason Alexander as Jerry's unbelievably selfish and hilarious best friend George Costanza, Julia Louis- Dreyfus as Jerry's ex- girlfriend turned platonic friend Elaine Benes, and Michael Richards as Jerry's wacky "hipster doofus" neighbor Cosmo Kramer. Through out the series there are a couple episodes in which Jerry and Elaine's relationship becomes a bit more intimate but it was only limited to those two episodes.  Eventually Wayne Knight was introduced to the series as a mail man who lives in Jerry's building, Newman. He's also the arch nemesis of Jerry, and my favorite character. Fun- fact: Newman is considered one of the greatest T.V. villains of all time.

Seinfeld is the sitcom that changed sitcoms. For it's time, the subjects it tackled were very controversial. It also was revolutionary for a show to have a story arch that was about the actual creation of the show itself. This happened in season four which is considered the breakout season of the series when it went from being a cult hit to a worldwide phenomenon. This season also included the series most popular episode entitled "The Contest".

"The Contest", arguably the most popular and most controversial, centered around the gang partaking in a contest to see who can go the longest without self pleasuring themselves. The episode itself garnered Larry David an Emmy for Outstanding Writing in a comedy series, and was the most watched episode in syndication when it was first repeated.

 
Another episode from season four called "The Outing" is my personal favorite episode of the entire series. In it, a journalist believes that Jerry and George are gay and publishes the story in the newspaper. It has the funniest lines in the entire series and the scenario is just hilarious. It also utilizes every character in just the right way. I highly suggest the episode if you haven't seen it.

After the series ended it went into syndication where it still stays strong today. Jerry Seinfeld continue to do stand- up comedy and appear every now and than on T.V. in cameo roles. Jason Alexander went on to continue acting in movies, television, and stage plays. Julia Louis- Dreyfus continued a successful career of acting and had another hit show called The New Adventures of Old Christine. Michael Richards attempted to have his own show called The Michael Richards Show but it was unsuccessful and was canceled. He also tried his hand at stand- up comedy but was met with much controversy when he made outlandish and racist comments on stage.

Larry David left the show after season seven but came back every now and then to voice the character of George Steinbrenner and write the finale. In 1999 he made an HBO special called Curb Your Enthusiasm which shortly after airing was turned into a show. Curb is still on the air and has had eight successful seasons. It is expected to come back for a ninth season, perhaps it's last, but that is up to Larry David.

Seinfeld went on to have nine seasons, in total, and win 3 Golden Globes and 10 Prime-time Emmys in it's entire run. The show is now recognized by many as one of the best shows, if not the best, of all time and it is shown at least seven times a day on various channels in syndication. It's a cherished show by many and is my personal favorite show of all time.

Thank you for joining me in this installment of Reruns. Tune in next time when we dive into the show that followed the exploits of one of the most beloved Jersey citizens of all time, Tony Soprano.

Netflix Reviews: Ghost Rider Spirit of Vengeance

The picture above basically sums up the movie, but I'll go into further detail I suppose. So there was this movie back in 2007 called Ghost Rider. It starred Nic Cage and was directed by Mark Steven Johnson aka the guy who directed Daredevil. Oh joy. The movie was a product of the early attempts of Marvel to develop movies. And most of them sucked. Including Ghost Rider. Jump to 2012 when, for some reason, the sequel/ reboot comes out. I guess there was and alarming number of people protesting to get this sequel made. For this installment the Cage is back as the title character but filling the directing chair, or chairs I should say, is the team of  Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, known by most simply as Neveldine/ Taylor.

Before getting into the movie I must first give some background on the directors. Neveldine/ Taylor first came onto the film making scene in 2006 with the, in my opinion, fantastic action film Crank. This immediately established the teams crazy out-of-the-box-thinking style that would only get crazier with each new installment in their career. They followed up Crank with Crank 2: High Voltage and Gamer, both of which came out in 2009. Even though Crank 2 made back it's budget it wasn't as successful as Crank and Gamer was just an outright box office flop.

While both Crank 2 and Gamer had huge problems they also had moments in each which showed the genius behind Neveldine/ Taylor. One that comes to mind is the end fight of Gamer where Michael C. Hall does a choreographed dance number with his henchmen. It was so wrong and yet so right, and moments like that are what show that the directing duo can be brilliant. Unfortunately, those moments were far and in-between in those two films and it's pretty much the same for their take on Ghost Rider.

Ghost Rider: Spirit Of Vengeance stars Nicholas Cage, Idris Elba, Johnny Whitworth, Violante Placido, and Ciaran Hinds. The sort of reboot sequel follows Johnny Blaze, now hiding out in Eastern Europe because apparently he thinks he's The Hulk now, as he is called upon by monks to help stop The Devil from taking human form.

The plot is one that has been done before and doesn't really make a whole lot of sense considering that Blaze explains early on that The Devil is weaker in human form. The way he tries to do it is by using a little boy who is also his spawn. Apparently the script was originally written by David S. Goyer and was intended to be a crazy hard "R" rating but the studio wanted it to be PG-13 so they gave it to two other writers, Scott M. Gimple and Seth Hoffman, to tone it down. Then once Neveldine/ Taylor were hired they rewrote it a well. It's another obvious case of too many writers with to many different styles and ideas.

As far as the directing is concerned, there were plenty of awesome bad ass moments but unfortunately they were overshadowed by the excruciatingly dumb moments that have often plagued the directors' movies. I did however enjoy how they saw Ghost Rider as more of a creature than a human, and the moments with the character Blackout killing people was done very well and close to the source material.

The acting as a whole was about as good as your average B movie with the outlier being Idris Elba who is constantly sold no matter what movie he's in. And of course Nicholas Cage is as enjoyable as always and he even mentions bees at one point. Elba and Cage keep the movie at least a little enjoyable and they keep you at least a little interested to see how it all turns out, which is a good thing cause the last fight scene is pretty damn awesome.

All in all, the movie is a crazy mess with a few enjoyable parts peppered in and a good fight scene at the end. If I had to pick which was better, and I don't know why I would, I'd say this is the better Ghost Rider movie compared to the original but that's not that hard of an accomplishment. I'd only recommend this if you're a fan Nicholas Cage cause watching him act crazy is the only thing that would really get you through it.

FINAL GRADE: D+

2013 Oscar Picks and Predictions

Well it's that time of the year again and what better way to celebrate the mediocrity of  the
Academy Awards than to pick my own winners? So in this segment I'm going to be predicting who the winners will be and who I think SHOULD win, many of them will be different. Now as of now I've seen 7 of the 9 films nominated for best picture, the two I didn't see are Life of Pi and Amour, so obviously I can't account for those two. I'm also not gonna be covering the Best Short Films categories or Documentaries being that I haven't seen any of them. Okay, on to the ballot.

Best Visual Effects:
The Avengers
Prometheus
Snow White and The Huntsman
Life of Pi
The Hobbit
-What Should win: The Avengers
-What Will Win (probably): Life of Pi
Avengers definitely had the best effects and deserve to win for The Hulk alone. Life of Pi is a safer choice for the Academy and is also nominated for picture so this is kind of a shoo-win.

Best Original Song:
Chasing Ice (Before My Time)
Les Miserables (Suddenly)
Life of Pi (Pi's Lullaby)
Skyfall (Skyfall)
Ted (Everybody Needs A Best Friend)
-What Should Win: Skyfall
-What Will Win (probably): Skyfall
It already won the Golden Globe and out of everything it was the best original song. The only real competition it has is from Les Miserables.

Best Original Score:
Lincoln (John Williams)
Argo (Alexandre Desplat)
Life of Pi (Mychael Danna)
Anna Karenina (Dario Marianelli)
Skyfall (Thomas Newman)
-What Should Win: Lincoln
-What Will Win (probably): Life of Pi
Every year the Academy seems to pick a movie that is nominated for picture but won't win and give it all the technical awards. I have a feeling it's gonna be Life of Pi this year even though I feel the score in Lincoln was tremendous and John Williams hasn't won since Schindler's List, even though he's deserved it in several cases in my opinion.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling Design:
Les Miserable
The Hobbit
Hitchcock
-What Should Win: The Hobbit
-What Will Win (probably): The Hobbit
I'm giving the Academy credit here and hope that they're not complete idiots, even though they'd probably pick one of the other two.

Best Costume Design:
Les Miserables
Lincoln
Anna Karenina
Mirror Mirror
Snow White and The Huntsman
-What Should Win:Les Miserable
-What Will Win (probably): Les Miserables
 I don't really care either way what wins but if I had to guess it would be Les Miserables

Best Production Design:
Les Miserable
Life of Pi
Lincoln
Anna Karenina
The Hobbit
-What Should Win: Les Miserables
-What Will Win (probably): Life of Pi
Again, it's technical so Pi will probably get it.

Best Editing:
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty
Lincoln
Life of Pi
Silver Linings Playbook
-What Should Win: Sliver Linings Playbook
-What Will Win (probably): Argo or Life of Pi
Silver Linings Playbook was very well put together and out of these is the best choice. Argo will probably give it a run for it's money and Life of Pi is a big contender for the technical as well.

Best Cinematography:
Skyfall
Lincoln
Anna Karenina
Life of Pi
Django Unchained
-What Should Win: Skyfall
-What Will Win (probably): ???
Personally I feel that Skyfall was, not only the best looking film of the year, but the best film of the year overall. This is a very tough category and I don't really think I could guess what will win. It would be awesome for Skyfall to get recognition but Django Unchained had some amazing cinematoraphy as well and Pi is always a tough contender too as is Lincoln. Could be anything.

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Argo
Beasts of The Southern Wild
Lincoln
Silver Linings Playbook
Life of Pi
-What Should Win: Beasts of The Southern Wild
-What Will Win (probably): Silver Linings Playbook
Now a movie like Beasts of Southern Wild isn't really my thing but I can admit that it was done beautifully and that the writing was very well done. Silver Linings was great as well but Beasts had that extra something that really made the world, dialogue, and characters very memorable and fully realized.

Best Original Screenplay:
Zero Dark Thirty
Amour
Django Unchained
Flight
Moonrise Kingdom
-What Should Win: Django Unchained or Moonrise Kingdom
-What Will Win (probably): Zero Dark Thirty or Django Unchained
Both Django Unchained and Moonrise Kingdom were the most unique and well written works this year and they both deserve to win. However  Zero Dark Thirty is the safer, regular route that the Academy goes for. But Django did get the Golden Globe for writing and the last time Tarantino got the Globe he also went home with the Oscar for Pulp Fiction.

Best Supporting Actress:
Sally Field (Lincoln)
Anne Hathaway (Les Miserables)
Helen Hunt (The Sessions)
Jacki Weaver (Silver Linings Playbook)
-Who Should Win: Anne Hathaway
-Who Will Win (probably): Anne Hathaway
She was one of the shining gems in the otherwise just- slightly- above- average Les Miserables and everyone has acknowledged it. She's a shoo-win.

Best Supporting Actor:
Christoph Waltz (Django Unchained)
Alan Arkin (Argo)
Phillip Seymour Hoffman (The Master)
Robert De Niro (Silver Linings Playbook)
Tommy Lee Jones (Lincoln)
-Who Should Win: Christoph Waltz
-Who Will Win (probably): Christoph Waltz
Now the Academy could surprise us and give it to Robert De Niro, who rightfully deserves it as well but Christoph Waltz was just fantastic and he really was the best of the year.

Best Actress:
Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty)
Quvenzhane Wallis (Beasts of The Southern Wild)
Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook)
Emmanuelle Riva (Amour)
Naomi Watts (The Impossible)
-Who Should Win: Jessica Chastain
-Who Will Win (probably): Jessica Chastain
Her performance has been raved and she carried that entire movie herself, plan and simple.

Best Actor:
Bradley Cooper (silver Linings Playbook)
Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables)
Daniel Day- Lewis (Lincoln)
Joaquin Phoenix (The Master)
Denzel Washington (Flight)
-Who Should Win: Hugh Jackman
-Who Will Win (probably): Daniel Day- Lewis
Jean Valjean was easily Hugh Jackman's best role and he finally deserves some recognition in his career. Daniel Day- Lewis was tremendous as always but it should really go to Jackman this time around.

Best Director:
Ang Lee (Life of Pi)
Michael Haneke (Amour)
Steven Spielberg (Lincoln)
David O. Russell (Silver Linings Playbook)
Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of The Southern Wild)
-Who Should Win: Steven Spielberg or Benh Zeitlin
-Who Will Win (probably): Steven Spielberg
As I said before, Beasts of The Southern Wild wasn't necessarily my cup of brandy, however there are certain elements that definitely outshine every other film on this list namely writing, supporting acting, and directing. Now I wanted to recognize Zeitin because if I had to choose I would go with Spielberg personally even though technically Zeitin did a better job considering everything he had to do. But Spielberg is the master and it is completely clear in Lincoln just how good he is, and why he's my favorite director of all time.

Best Picture:
Amour
Life of Pi
Django Unchained
Lincoln
Argo
Zero Dark Thirty
Beasts of The Southern Wild
Les Miserables
Silver Linings Playbook
-What Should Win: Lincoln or Django Unchained
-What Will Win (probably): Lincoln
-What Truly Is The Best Movie Of 2012: Skyfall
I can't begin to describe how disappointing it is that Skyfall got snubbed for Picture, Director, and Supporting Actor because it deserved all three of those. Skyfall was a masterpiece and was able to shift the Bond franchise from fun action movies to deep internal conflicts of a character that was finally shown his full potential. And it's a crime that Javier Bardem wasn't recognized as Best Supporting because he was magnificent. But enough of my griping. Out of the films nominated Lincoln seems to be leading the race with good reason though I must say I would prefer to see Tarantino finally fully recognized by winning Best Picture.

Well those are my picks and Predictions for this year's Oscars. We shall see come February if I'm right on any counts.  

The Cinema Lounge: Silver Linings Playbook

Take an award winning director, an independent film actress turned mega star franchise actress, a comedic actor trying to branch out into dramas, a comedic-romantic story line containing thoughts on mental illness, and Chris Tucker dancing and you'd get Silver Linings Playbook. Directed by David O. Russell hot off the critical and commercial success of the Oscar nominated film The Fighter. Silver Linings Playbook itself is nominated for 8 Oscars including Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director.

The film stars Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, and Chris Tucker. The plot centers around Patrick (Cooper), a former substitute teacher in Philadelphia who, after spending time in a mental institution, moves back in with his parents and attempts to reconcile with his ex-wife. His life is turned upside down when he meets a girl by the name of Tiffany (Lawrence), who also has a few issues as well.

The cast is pretty stellar with everyone having a chance to shine. Bradley Cooper finally gets a more dramatic role that can show just how good he is. Jennifer Lawrence is wonderful as Tiffany and out of the list of nominated actresses this year, definitely deserves to get recognized as best actress at the Oscars. It's refreshing to see De Niro in a role that's actually worthy of him for once instead of something like New Year's Eve, and he really does a fantastic job here. It's a shame De Niro is up against the likes of Christoph Waltz this year for Best Supporting because this is the best I've seen him in years but compared to Waltz's performance I doubt he'll get it, though if he did it would be wholeheartedly deserved. I must admit it was also nice to see Chris Tucker pop up in something again after a few years of living under a rock somewhere. He plays a friend of Patrick's from the mental institution who consistently finds ways of breaking out to come hang out with his pal.

The plot of the film isn't necessarily anything special but the dialogue and reactions of characters with each other is really where it takes form. Cooper and Lawrence have excellent chemistry together and have many humorous and even sometimes outright hilarious moments, although their relationship felt eclipsed by the relationship between Cooper and De Niro. The father son relationship really went through a lot with De Niro having to deal with Cooper's health problems and even his own OCD and superstitions that mirror his son's mental problems. By the end of the film it was that relationship that felt completely fleshed out and that it truly went through a sort of metamorphosis.

The film is great and barely falters until the very end. There were a few ways it could have ended to truly make it great, but unfortunately the film plays it safe and it really suffers from that. Though I do very much like how it ends with Copper's father and wife. If Russell could have just taken a chance and maybe even leave the end a bit ambiguous  it would have really improved it and maybe even made this the best film of the year as a whole. But as it stands it's an enjoyable, way-above-average, rom-com with a talented cast and some truly funny moments.

FINAL GRADE: B+

Netflix Reviews: Killer Joe

 When I first heard about Killer Joe I was immediately intrigued. What drew me in was mainly one thing. The director William Friedkin. For those who don't know, Friedkin is the man who helmed such classics as The French Connection and The Exorcist. In the past few years Friedkin hasn't really made anything notably good, mainly mediocre projects such as 2000's Rules of Engagements and 2003's The Hunted, but in 2006 he teamed up with playwright Tracy Letts to bring Letts's play, Bug, to the big screen. The critical reception of the film was slightly above average for the most part and that must have been good enough for the two because they teamed up once again for for the adaptation of Letts's other play, Killer Joe.

Killer Joe stars Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, and Matthew McConaughey. Hirsch plays a redneck drug dealer in Texas who gets in deep with some wrong people and ends up owing them money. Not seeing any other option he and his father (Church) decide to hire a hit-man, known as Killer Joe (McConaughey), to kill  his mother so that he can collect the life insurance and pay of the people he owes.

The film's strength is also it's weakness at points. The fact that it was a stage play first shows and that can drag it down at points, though it also gives the film some pretty good dialogue. The story has various twists and turns throughout along with some horrifying while at the same time darkly hilarious moments, one that comes to mind involves a piece of fried chicken and a blowjob. The only other major problem with the film is the ending, which ends very abruptly and a tad unsatisfying.

The cast is all around pretty solid with the stand out being McConaughey. He steals every scene he's in by being charming, scary, hilarious, twisted, and intimidating all at the same time. This part really proves that the guy can act and out of the films I've seen him in, this is definitely his best role.

Killer Joe is not for everyone. With it's NC-17 rating it is a dark and oddly funny film with good dialogue and a good cast, lead by McConaughey's fantastic turn as the title character. It was definitely refreshing, however, seeing William Friedkin back in form. Altogether Killer Joe is a solid film that is engaging and was a bit over looked in 2012 due to its NC-17 rating, but it definitely deserves recognition.

FINAL RATING: B+