Movie Review #58 12 Years a Slave (2013)

- My guilt runs deep

Oscar nominated film from Steve McQueen 12 Years a Slave. A movie based on a true story of a black man who was free by the laws of the time and quickly became a slave under the servitude of the white men down in the south of the USA. Well I've only seen one other McQueen movie which I actually reviewed for this blog (Shame (2011)) and I really liked it, it didn't hide much emotionally or physically in a sexual fashion; thus I come into 12 Years a Slave with the idea that the movie won't hide much of a brutal time for African Americans.

Movie Review #57 The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)

- white collar crimes always payout

Another Martin Scorsese film up for an Oscar. It doesn't feel that long ago I was sitting down watching my first Scorsese film. Oh right. It wasn't. Everyone has a gap in their knowledge or hobbies and Scorsese was certainly mine. It was only a few years ago I guess I watched my first one, I think I wrote out the actual day in a previous blog post(?). I of course had a fill of Scorsese as I just sat down and watched his films one weekend so I can't say for sure what one was first, but I can say I did enjoy all of them immensely. I am completely guilty of brand loyalty, so it should come as no surprise that I went into The Wolf on Wall Street with my arms open wide to embrace the movie.

Movie Review #56 Gravity (2013)

- “f=(gm1m2)/d2”

Ah, the science fiction-y movie for the Oscars. The rare genre for Best Picture. I certainly consider Gravity (2013) one of those movies where you get a lot of viewership of the movie over some of the other contenders as the market for science fiction is the same market for people who more often than not go see movies (and multiple times). For most of the nominations that Gravity received, I completely agree with. I do think it should be up for best picture, it won't win; I don't think it has the strong emotional lasting appeal that the 'Best Of' should have, nor does it have a strong enough story, but it's good and probably the best science fiction movie of 2013 (unless you're looking for fantasy science fiction, where Star Trek Into Darkness should win). I suspect the movie will grab a lot of the technical ones. Visually the movie is stunning from start to finish, which no exceptions. On technical visuals alone the movie is just darn perfect.

Movie Review #55 Ernest et Célestine (2012)

- The fairy odd animal couple

Whew, sorry for that brief if not funny throw away review. I just had to review it, all these good movies, I had to put it all into perspective. Thursday will always be Oscar nominated films, but as we'll run out of Thursdays, some Tuesdays will also be Oscar nominated films. Next up a movie nominated for best animation! I'm glad to see the Oscars always pick an animated film that isn't Pixar, Disney, Dreamworks or a high profile Japanese anime. Not that any of them are bad, just I'm sure everyone knows that there are a lot of other animated movies around and we just aren't seeing them. I hope that my review pushes someone into seeing these underrated movies because they are worth it.

Movie Review #54 Dracula: The Dark Prince (2013)

- Bit(e) of love

I just caught Dracula: The Dark Prince (2013) and was spurred to imagination of a review for it, so here I am typing up a storm at 6:00AM. I'm not sure what it is about Vampire movies, I just have to watch them. There hasn't been a good vampire movie in my books in a very long time. I know who to blame, but I think that might get me off topic too much so I'll jot that down for another time.

Movie Review #53 American Hustle (2013)

- Who hustles and who gets hustled?

The deal is, I'm going to be watching movies from now till Oscar time. The movies I'll be reviewing will be the ones nominated in the Best Picture category, though with a bit of luck I'll review some films that are just up for other Oscars. Maybe. So I'll be doing 9 reviews for sure prior to March 3^rd - Oscars night, and one more to make the even 10. Other than that it'll be hit or miss for other nominated movies, but I'd like to touch one at least one animated film just to spice things up, and maybe a foreign film, as one of my favourite film reviews on this blog was the foreign film Jodaeiye Nader az Simin (aka: A Separation (2011)). Whatever happens, here is your first review of 2014 and the Oscar nominated American Hustle (2013).

2013: My journey from January 1st to December 31st

I started the year off really strong with my film watching. January and February were really great months. Busy watching all the Oscar nominees alone was a fast paced ride for me. Catching all the movies before Oscar night I missed in 2012 is always a race. I kept the pace up for awhile but it all died down in April and I didn't really pick up again until midsummer and kept that up till my October horror fest. November and December were a wash as I only watched 6 movies in 60 days. Grand total I watched 215 movies in 2013, down by more than 50 from last year I'm afraid.

Quick update before 2014 rolls in

Hello readers...

Game Review #3 Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch (2010) JP / (2013) NA

- When Anime meets video game

Here we are finally back again after a month-long break. This will be my new format, one a month till 2014. I'll re-evaluate then. My thought process is that I'll say more per post but they will be less often. I'm also going to be adding in other categories than Games and Movies, but more on that in the coming months. I found that in a few movie reviews I was unable to properly say everything I wanted to in the time restraint that I gave myself along with my one page maximum limit. So away with the page limit and now with a month between. Oooh, so many words.

Movie Review #52 A Good Day To Die Hard (2013)

- If you're going to die, die hard

After the lengthy artistic and thought-provoking films I've reviewed in the past month I thought it might be time to do something a little lighter. Well, what could be lighter than a fifth movie in a long standing action series known for good one-liners with a bumpy ride of hits and misses through the series? Yes, my last review before my review format changes will be the latest installment of Die Hard.

Movie Review #51 Argo (2012)

- a true story turn book turn movie about the making of a fake movie to save lives.

Are you still with me? Argo, the final Oscar nominated film for Best Picture that I will be reviewing is based on the true story about six Americans staying in the Canadian Embassy in hiding due to political turmoil between USA and Iran. This was the last nomination I watched out of all the nominated films so I would think it had the hardest time to prove itself to me. It’s also based on a true story which is always a way of saying lots of stuff was made up and if you research the true story, you’ll know that quite a bit is changed. Nothing new with that information though, as always, the question is did the differences help the story to make it more suspenseful and enjoyable?

Movie Review #50 Life of Pi (2012)

- Rub-a-dub dub, a boy and a tiger in a tub

Coming down to the wire with a few days left till Oscar night. I actually watched Life of Pi awhile ago but wanted to wait to release this review till now. I was unsure about many films getting enough attention to get enough hits and wanted some higher profile reviews for the end. This and Argo tomorrow I figured would be a solid choices having already reviewed Django and Zero. Now I’m not for heavy-handed religiously preachy films and was rather wary of this film from what I (unintentionally) heard. While I'll touch on this later, it certainly wasn't insultingly over religious as I had previously thought. My review for Life of Pi is as follows.

Movie Review #49 Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012)

- Down in the bayou fantasy and reality collide

I’ll start off by saying I’m doing a special three in three days review extravaganza to finish off the remaining films nominated for best film so stay tuned tomorrow and the next day for the final two film reviews.

I had heard quite a bit of positive buzz about the lead actress in Beasts of the Southern Wild before viewing the movie, although it’s hard to not have a lot of buzz when your lead role is a just a five year old child and whom is nominated for best lead actress. It’s not something that happens every year... or ever. As always I started this film with open arms hoping to be whisked away to a brand new fantasy. Perhaps I was too hopeful for a fantasy by the title, unfortunately the movie isn’t as fantasy driven as I had hoped nor is it a children’s movie as I had also entertained prior to watching. Really what this blog should have taught you readers by now (and certainly myself) is my idea of what a movie might be about by knowing the title alone is atrocious. But what can you do? On to the Oscars...

Movie Review #48 Amour (2012)

- Life can end before you die.

I delve into foreign films on a pretty regular basis, and Amour is one of those. After the Artist's success last year in the Oscars, one can easily see that the Foreign film category isn't contained. Films can transcend this label and be up for and get the best film nod as well. I often run into coincidences when watching movies from my backlog of films in quick succession. This one would be I watched Cache two days earlier from when I watched Amour, having no idea they had the same director in Michael Haneke. He certainly has a strong grasp of the metaphorical and a fine touch for the little things. I think that's what can draw you into these movies: the details, the foreshadowing that isn't slapped in your face and, in the case of Amour, the no-holds-barred view of the slow decline of someone's health.

Movie Review #47 Silver Linings Playbook (2012)

- Awkward love at every turn 

Silver Linings Playbook is at its core a love story.  I've said it before and I’ll say it again.  Hollywood love movies don’t need to be fluff pieces. They can be well-written, well-acted and show quite a bit of acting.  Not to get ahead of myself, but I feel as if this is exactly that.  I mean every genre has its thorns but I have always felt that romance comedies get beaten up by the branch of the ugly tree come review time, and sure, sometimes they deserve it.  The chemistry to create true love on screen isn't just about getting the two biggest stars of the time and throwing them together every year - though that is often what happens.  Silver Linings Playbook is vastly different from the rest.

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.