Best Picture Reviews 2011

While I'm on the subject of movies that were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards....here is the list with our ratings.

Black Swan: A+. Natalie Portman won for Best Actress

The Fighter: A+. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo won for Best Supporting Actor and Actress

Inception: A.

The Kids are All Right: ? The netflix DVD is sitting on our table right now.

The King's Speech: A. Colin Firth won for Best Actor. Best Picture

The Social Network: A.

127 Hours: A. James Franco nominated for Best Actor. (and probably should have won)

Toy Story 3: ? Haven't seen it, but heard good things....we don't really watch kids movies. sorry. Won Best Animated Picture.

True Grit: B. Not really sure why this was nominated. Good movie, but not like the others.

Winter's Bone: ? Haven't reviewed yet, but HATED the movie. Strange choice. Just...yeahh.

So there you go. We did pretty good huh? Those movies were almost all watched BEFORE they were nominated. Want a good movie to watch....here is your list, minus a few.

The Kings Speech

Sorry, we're still really far behind with our reviews. Oops.

But, here's a good one for you. We actually saw most of the movies that were nominated for an Academy Award for "Best Picture" as soon as they were released in theaters. This one was an exception for a few reasons.

1. There wasn't a lot of talk about it at first.

2. It looked boring. (to me)

This, is The Kings Speech. (which eventually did win an Oscar for Best Picture) Now, let me just say this.....sorry, I'll get to the movie in a bit. Like I said, we've seen all of the Best Picture nominees, and now we own most of the DVD's. These really are the best movies of the year, besides one or two. It's always annoying when people say, "I don't listen to what the critics say, the best picture movies are always dumb" or "they're always rated R and stupid". Wrongggg!!! These literally are the best movies of the year.

All of the awards season, I was cheering for Black Swan (and still think it was the best). But time and time again, The King's Speech would win all the awards. It drove us nuts at the time b/c we hadn't seen it yet and we just thought it was that boring British movie. So finally, we got around to seeing it. We were wrong. This movie is great.

The movie centers around King George during the 1930's and 40's. World War II is approaching and England is in need of a leader who can bring the entire country together....someone to inspire them and build confidence. The only problem is, George stutters. Sooo, his wife arranges for him to meet with a therapist to help him learn how to speak. The whole movie revolves around their relationship. See why it didn't sound so interesting? I was thinking, "who wants to see a movie about a guy with a speech problem?" But really, it was good, and it really was one of the best movies of the year. (although I still favor Black Swan). So rent it when it comes out next month!

A

PS: Emily just reminded me. This movie is rated "R", but really should not be. There are 2 (say that number out loud again), 2, scenes in the movie with "inappropriate language".....if you want to call it that. I call it a day at work where the construction workers actually try NOT to swear. There are literally 2 scenes where the therapist tries to get the King to loosen up by yelling all the swear words he knows. It's actually 2 of the funniest scenes in the movie, it's done in a classy way, and it's not bad at all. Seriously, you'll hear worse at a day at Wal*Mart. That is the ONLY thing that gave this movie the "R" rating. Otherwise, this is a PG movie and completely acceptable for teens or 2 year olds. Ummm, i don't know ages. The End.

Buried

Back to one of my favorite genres.....thrillers. Buried stars Ryan Reynolds in what you could call a one man show. In this movie he plays a truck driver who is working in Iraq. He's a civilian, but obviously it's an extremely dangerous place to work. But we don't see any of that in the movie. Oh no. This movie takes place entirely in a coffin under the ground. Let me say that again so you aren't surprised or confused when you watch this.

This movie....the entire movie.....is of Ryan Reynolds inside a coffin. The movie begins with his character waking up (tied up no less) in the coffin. He's not sure why he is there, but throughout the movie he figures it out. It turns out, terrorists have kidnapped him for ransom. He wakes up with a cell phone, lighter, candle, and that's about it. The movie is intense b/c it feels like you're in the coffin with him. (because well, you are) When he makes phone calls, you only hear the voices on the line. Seriously, who knew you could make a movie that's completely a guy in a box.

Will he make it out before he runs out of air? How will he get out? Who will help him? What is going onnnnnnn???? Muah ha ha ha ha.....see why I like this movie? It really is crazy. The whole time we were screaming at the tv what we would do.

I will say, I didn't looovvvve the ending. It was just okay. BUT....it's getting there that makes this movie fun to watch. Rent it today.

B-

Catfish

Ummm, it's been a while.....sorry. But never fear, we have been watching tons of movies (as usual). So we'll be doing our best to catch up on all of them. Here goes.....this is Catfish. We originally saw a short preview for this movie sometime last year. It's a indie documentary that I believe debuted at Sundance. The film follows 3 friends, 2 of which are brothers. The main Character, Nev, is a 24 year old photographer from New York. One of his pictures is featured in a newspaper, and shortly after that, he gets a message on facebook from an 8 year old girl in Michigan named Abby. Abby is an artist who asks if she can paint Nev's pictures. An online friendship begins between the two, as Abby begins to send more and more paintings to Nev.

And that's where the documentary starts....it's all about this little girls friendship with this photographer.....or at least that's how it starts. I really can't say too much more about the plot b/c things get interesting. Let's just say, it's fun to try to figure out the twist of this movie...

Good thing is, we get to figure it out WITH the main characters as the documentary progresses. You'll be interested, trust me. Check. it. out.

B+