Movie Review #46 Django Unchained (2012)

- The wild west and the savage south clash

While I'm not a huge Quentin Tarantino fan unlike, seemingly the rest of the world, I understand he has a huge following and I always try to see his movies (I believe Jackie Brown stands as the only full feature film of his I have not seen). Before you start the lynch mob, I'm not hating his films, they usually garner between 6 and 8 from me, but from the fans I speak to, I am missing something that is so profound and life altering that I just don't get his films like everyone else. But finally Tarantino is hitting up the west and a story that I can fall for and so begins my trial with Django Unchained.

Movie Review #45 Lincoln (2012)

- My hat is off to you

Steven Spielberg is back yet again bringing another movie to the eyes and hearts of fans everywhere. It's hard to pick a movie of his and say that it is bad, but if I had to pick one, it would be War Horse (2011) which was nominated for an Oscar and I thought to be utterly ridiculous at many points throughout the movie. But this is a more historical factual movie than War Horse and is a serious contender for Best Film of the year, so I came into this movie with an open heart, hoping to put Lincoln safely in there for safe-keeping until perhaps another best film nomination kicked it out.

Movie Review #44 Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

- War gets results with loss of self-worth

I'm really not surprised that this movie was nominated for Best Picture. The hunt for Osama Bin Laden was one that was very real and always in the foreground of public consciousness for so many years. The movie is up for five different Oscars: Sound editing, Editing, Original Screenplay, Leading Actress and of course, the most important Oscar, best film. Looking at the other nominated films in all of those categories – though I haven't seen them all yet, I am very doubtful it will win any of them although it could steal one. I'll go into more detail below with my problems of the film, but one of the categories it was nominated for was in my opinion one of the very reasons the movie was not satisfactory. I admit maybe I'm reading too much into the well-known fact that most of the jury for nominations is over the age of 50 and many are known to be Republican but I do feel American-based war films are getting nominated very often due to some sort of jingoistic reason that feeds their collective nationalist ego. Not that it didn't bring forth a greater good but the film story pats itself on the back too much.

Movie Review #43 The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012)

- Thirteen dwarves, a hobbit and a tall fella

I'll start by saying I watched this in normal 2d, 24 fps, so I have no comment on the quality of 3d use or high frame rate. This is also the first review after the release of the Oscar nominations and for the remainder of reviews until the Oscars I'll be mentioning the awards they are nominated for as well. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is up for three awards: Production Design, Makeup and Design, and Visual Effects. I can see the movie taking home at least one of these, though it is a toss up between Makeup and Visual Effects. With that said, we're back to the shire in J.R.R. Tolkien's fantasy world, and a prequel to the Lord of the Rings (LotR) series, and they've made this rather lengthy book into three movies! As per usual with book to movie productions, I haven't read the book. Even if I had, it would have no bearing on my review since I review movies (I think I've made this pretty clear in other book to movie reviews) so my judgement is on the movie not what was left out, put in or how faithful it is. It is its own medium and judged accordingly to this.

Movie Review #42 Les Misérables (2012)

- I dreamed a dream about a lot of sadness and suffering

Here is something I don't usually watch, live action musicals. I admit that often the idea of a live action musical bothers me, far more than say an animated one. For instance, a lion singing to a pig and cat? Totally fine. A guy singing while trying to avoid capture from the police? Utterly ridiculous, but every so often I dive back into live action musicals and give it the old college try. It has a star-studded cast based on the novel by Victor Hugo, which then evolved into various different stage plays, theatrical versions, and ultimately the book by Claude-Michel Schönberg and musical by Alain Boublil. The 2012 version is another attempt.