According to the Oscars, there are 9 films that have a chance of being nominated for Best Foreign Film. Here is the information, posters, and reviews of each.
A Separation:
Country: Iran
Rotten Tomatoes: 99% (74 Critics)
Expectations: Winner
Rating: PG-13
Run Time: 120 Minutes
Genre: Drama
IMDb: 8.6/10
I know it's a little late, but hey, it's better late than never!
Honorable Mentions (No Order):
The Kings Speech:
Great Movie, but lacks anything extraordinary to make it on the list.
The Social Network:
Same thing as The Kings Speech, except it's not exactly timeless.
The Fighter:
The main character lacks personality, but the film itself is very enjoyable and well written.
10. Ip Man 2: Legend of the Grandmaster
A film with such great action and character development, this HAS to make the list!
9. The Illusionist
Well animated, and very mature, but with a sense of humor.
8. The Beast of Bottomless Lake
A brilliantly hilarious film, with one of the best endings of 2010.
7. Black Swan
Disturbingly elegant. Best two words to describe this movie right there.
6. Tron: Legacy
The most entertaining movie of the year, with a good story to go with it.
5. How to Train Your Dragon
Inspirational and with some great flying scenes. Also, an outstanding story.
4. Toy Story 3
The best animated movie this year. Great characters, great plot, so simple yet so dramatic.
3. 127 Hours
Very emotional and it all comes in at you at once. Danny Boyle, you done it again.
2. True Grit
One of the first westerns I've ever seen, and I loved it. Great action, great story, great performances, just all around awesome.
1. Inception
It's like The Matrix except way more fun, with way better characters and actors, and one of the best endings in the history of film. Ladies and gentlemen, Inception is our #1.
Well, the Oscars are almost upon us, and late last year, I predicted 10 movies that would most likely be nominated. Well, an official list of 9 films that have a chance of being nominated very recently. Here's my predictions earlier on:
1. A Separation
2. Once Upon a Time in Anatolia
3. Monte Video: God Bless You
4. Elite Squad: The Enemy Within
5. Pina
6. Bullhead
7. Le Havre
8. Tilt
9. Black Bread (A.K.A, the reason "The Skin I Live In" wasn't Spain's foreign film this year)
10. Jose and Pilar
Here's the 9 movies, in no order, that now have a chance:
Movies I Predicted:
A Separation
Pina
Bullhead
Movies I Didn't Predict:
Monsieur Lazhar
SuperClasico
Footnote
Omar Killed Me
In Darkness
Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale
So, with the 9 films announced, here's my updated list:
1. A Separation (Iran)
85% Chance of Winning
2. Pina (Germany)
6% Chance of Winning
3. Bullhead (Belgium)
3% Chance of Winning
4. In Darkness (Poland)
3% Chance of Winning
5. Footnote (Israel)
1% Chance of Winning
6. Monsieur Lazhar (Canada)
1% Chance of Winning
7. Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale (Taiwan)
0.4% Chance of Winning
8. Omar Killed Me (Morocco)
0.4% Chance of Winning
9. SuperClasico (Denmark)
0.2% Chance of Winning
My Final Opinion:
A Separation is definitely the best one to pick, with such acclaim to it. Pina is in second, almost as popular and almost as liked as A Separation. If they won't pick those, Bullhead and In Darkness should have a chance at taking the prize. Footnote and Monsieur Lazhar should only have a chance if one of the better movies get's disqualified. The rest shouldn't even have a chance at nomination.
What movies missed the cut:
The Skin I Live In should have had a chance, but Spain picked Black Bread instead. Also, Once Upon a Time in Anatolia should have been there instead of SuperClasico. Finally, Le Havre instead of Omar or Warriors.
The Nominees and Winners I Want:
Winner:
A Separation (Iran)
Other Nominees:
Pina (Germany)
Bullhead (Belgium)
In Darkness (Poland)
Footnote (Israel)
(And if one of these get's disqualified, Monsieur Lazhar should be the other nominee)
What do you think about the 9 films that will have the chance of being nominated? Leave you opinions down below!
This has got to be one of the most dazzling, likable, extraordinary, fun, life changing, and well made musicals of all time. It's entertainment at it's finest, with excellent songs, brilliant choreography, cool story, likable and creative characters, excellent editing, and just overall best experience of classic cinema that I know of. The movie is basically a biography of Florenz Ziegfeld, played by William Powell. It shows his days as a small entertainer, all the way to his final breaths. On screen, Ziegfeld is just as interesting as he is on paper. It develops the characters well, giving everyone a colorful personality, so you're never bored with any scene that's just characters speaking to each other. Also, the musical numbers make the stage seem much more bigger, with so many people on the stage dancing and singing at the same time. In fact, more than 120 people were used in one musical number alone, with only about 100 even visible! You can tell this movie is detailed when there are people you can't even see on the stage. Also, in another musical number, they actually have DOGS on stage with the dancers, and they even trained the dogs to move at the whim of the dancers. In fact, I did some research, and the whole movie cost 2 million dollars! For the time, that was a LOT, and what's even more shocking is that the same musical number that had 120 people in it cost $250, 000! So, as a technical film, it passes with flying colors, but it also does excellent with entertainment values as well. You love watching the colorful characters interact, and when the musical numbers start coming fast than ever... Oh boy. So, I can't just sit here blabbing about why I love this film, let's get to "The Best and Worst of The Great Ziegfeld". The best is obviously the musical number I've been talking about all night, costing $250 000 and having 250 people, yup, that one. The title is called "A Pretty Girl Is Like A Melody". When I was watching this for the first time, I thought "Oh, this is pretty cool, you get a singer, some dancers, singing clowns, people playing piano - OH MY GOSH IS THE STAGE RISING??? IT'S GETTING HIGHER!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!" So yeah, it got me pretty excited. It has so much work put into it, and the song and dancing itself is outstanding, so it works in both the technical aspect of film and the entertainment aspect. The worst for me would probably be the female lead, Myrna Loy. No, wait, she did great, but the writing for here made her seem almost like a teenager! Sure, she has some great scenes, but she just seems extremely needy and whiny, and I didn't care much for her. But besides that, nothing is flawed. This is an outstanding picture that shall stand as a classic throughout the ages, no matter the opinions of thy critical reviews or thy haters. I would recommend this to anybody who has a decent opinion of film, so basically everyone who's not a 12 year old that hates black and white and/or silent pictures.
This was a good film, with the writing being some of the best I've seen EVER, but the plot has a lot of filler, and the most the characters do for the length of the movie is whine and whine and WHINE! So yeah, this movie can get very annoying at times, but it still has some great acting, great writing, and great direction. First let me explain the plot. It's about the children of two women of the same gender, as the children seek out the sperm donor. After that, it just shows the life of these people. It leads to lots of filler and very long and pointless scenes, where whining is mostly what the main characters do during these scenes. It gets boring after a while and really becomes a major flaw. So yeah, the plot is a little to simple, but what about the acting? Well, Moore, Ruffalo, Wasikowska, and Hutcherson all do well, but Bening steals the show. She delivers her lines very well and the relationship between her and her wife almost seems real. Look, I don't care that Portman really did well and that she was amazing in Black Swan, BENING DESERVED BEST ACTRESS. Also, the characters were pretty good, even though I felt Mark Ruffalo's character deserved a little bit more development and/or personality. Well, since I can't think of anything else to mention, I guess it's time for "The Best and Worst of The Kids are All Right". The best is obviously the writing. It's not over dramatic, in fact at times it seems comical, and it makes the movie seem more like an experience. The worst is, no doubt, the characters whiny attitude towards everything. "Oh, Paul said something egotistical, we should complain about it for the next 20 minutes to fill up time"! Enough said there. But seriously, this movie may have some major flaws, but does that mean you should skip out on it? No. The flaws are annoyances, sure, but the overall experience itself is memorable and enjoyable. Sure, it's not a great movie, but you will not forget the cleverness and experience of this film. I would recommend it to everybody that's both old enough and mature enough to watch it.
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace is probably the weakest of the main 6 Star Wars movies. It seems to only focus on minor aspects of a film, like the special effects, the atmosphere, etc, but it fails horribly at things like story, characters, action, and memorability. It's a shame too, as it was directed by George Lucas himself, who directed the original film, which is my favorite of the entire series. Also, I'm stumped to say THIS was the first Star Wars movie released in 3D. Come on, what happened to the originals? Aren't they some of your best films, Lucas? Surprisingly though, there were some things I liked that everyone else hated, but I'll get into that later. First, the story... It sucks. It's confusing, yet not in a good way that makes you think, just horribly put together. OK, Obi-Wan and this one guy nobody cares about go to some weird thing called Jar-Jar Binks, and then something happens, which leads them to a slave kid and his mother, and then they try to free him... That's my best explanation. It's impossible to follow and many questions are never answered. It's a mess of a story and you should just ignore it. The acting was not very good. McGregor sucked, Neeson sucked, Portman sucked, you get the picture. The only two people I really thought did a good job was Frank Oz as Yoda and Pernilla August as Anakin's mother. Now, I shall say my most controversial quote in any of my reviews ever, so stand back, you might just explode..... I thought Jake Lloyd did OK. He's a child, what do you expect? But FOR a child, he pulled off a decent amount of emotion and in my opinion, he wasn't all that bad. Well, except for when he says "This is Tense"! That was horrible. Now, what about the characters? Well, Anakin is a good character, and so is his mother, Yoda had some good lines, but Obi-Wan wasn't all that good, and everyone else was just AWFUL. Oh, and Jar Jar Binks. Ugh. I mean, he's not the worst character I've seen in a film, but he's just annoying and unnecessary. So, with all that said, "The Best and Worst of Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace". The best is probably the special effects. Sure, they're not nearly as amazing as the Star Wars of the past, but as CGI goes, they look pretty cool, especially on Blu-Ray. Surprisingly, I thought the special effects in here were better than Episode II! Now, the worst. Well, Liam Neeson sucked, Jar Jar sucked, but the story is the worst. Like I said, it's just so uninteresting, I find it hard to call it a Star Wars film, as the story in the original three were planned out so well, and so easy to follow, it's outstanding. This is just a mess. So, final verdict: It's a bad movie, but it at least adds a few cool plot points to the Star Wars universe, the special effects are nice, a few action scenes, like the pod race, are decent, and a few actors actually do well. So, even though it's a bad movie, because of the special effects and action scenes, when the 3D release comes out, I do recommend watching it, as long as it's cheap and you don't expect much.
