MattMaroon.com

Every year I make it a point to watch the movies that do well in the Oscar nominations. This year I got an early jump on it, watching a number of them in the last month or so. I have to say that overall it was a good year for movies. Here are my thoughts, ordered by number of nominations, along with my rankings.

1. No Country For Old Men (9/10, 8 nods): Best movie I’ve seen in a long time, and a return to form for the Coen Brothers, who seem to have done mostly comedies since Fargo. I might even call this their second best picture, behind The Big Lebowski. The acting is great, especially Javier Bardem’s performance as Anton Chigurh. Nominated for 8 Oscars, I’ll take a guess and say it will win 6, including Best Picture, Cinematography, and Supporting Actor. It might have some competition for Adapted Screenplay from the next movie on the list. It’s in 2 sound categories, and remains to be seen whether the extremely minimalist soundtrack will go over well. It definitely did with critics so the movie could take home quite a few.

2. There Will Be Blood (8/10, 8 nods): The only one I saw in the theater. Probably would win a nice chunk in any other year, but is up against No Country For Old Men in 6 categories. The Academy likes to award people for their careers as much as their nominated movie, and I think the Coen Brothers win on both fronts. Anderson got ripped off on Magnolia though (which ran into American Beauty) so maybe he’ll get 3, but I’d guess 1 or 2. If I had to set an over/under, it would be 2.

3. Atonement (7/10 7 nods): Mostly good movie with what I thought was a terrible, cheesy ending. Going to have a rough time in the categories where it’s against the first two on the list, but Original Score and Costume Design might be easy. I can’t guess with any certainty because I haven’t seen the competition.

4. Juno (6/10, 4 nods): Unlike most, I found the writing to be pretty subpar. It just sounded too much like an adult trying to write through a teenager’s voice. The acting was a little hokey, the dialogue tried too hard to be witty and often failed, and the soundtrack made me long for deafness’s sweet embrace. It wasn’t a terrible movie, and it might take the original screenplay category (I haven’t seen any of it’ competition there) but it seems a longshot to win more than one.

5. Bourne Ultimatum (7.5/10, 3 nods): About as good as action movies really get. Lots of fast paced punches and explosions, acting that isn’t laughably bad, coherent plot exposed at just the right times. It’s basically a relative 10 in its genre, but that doesn’t count for much with the voters. Still it has a good shot in the categories it’s up for (Film Editing, Sound Editing and Mixing) so I’ll be surprised if it goes home empty handed.

6.Transformers (3/10, 3 nods): For my thoughts on that movie, here’s a snippet from a conversation I had with my friend Keith, who couldn’t believe I hated it:

Me: It was like watching someone ass-rape my childhood.

Keith: They brought your childhood to life.

Me: Yeah, and then they ass-raped it.

Still it’s probably going to be tough to beat for Visual Effects.

American Gangster (0/10, 2 nods): In fairness I watched this movie for about 20 seconds until I realized Denzel was in it, then I stopped and deleted it. Every movie he does is hacky, cliché, overacted, and makes me cry about the two hours of my life wasted on it. So it’s a knee-jerk 0/10, but one I’m sticking by.

I still haven’t seen Ratatouille (and won’t) but it’s up for 5 and it’s by Pixar so it must be a shoe-in for at least Best Animated. And I haven’t seen Michael Clayton but probably should since it’s up for 7 in big categories. But barring any surprises I think the Coens will finally have the year they deserve, and a few other movies will duke it out for a distant second.

 

This entry was posted on February 10, 2008 at 8:55 pm and is filed under TV, Movies, Music, and Why They All Suck . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed Both comments and pings are currently closed.