My Top Ten of 2006

APOCALYPTO
THE DEPARTED
CASINO ROYALE
THE PROPOSITION
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
OMKARA
AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
INSIDE MAN
THE ILLUSIONIST
BABEL

There are quite a few films I missed this year, and still others that I have yet gotten a chance to see. This list will change sometime in late Feburary. Crappy movies may be released in January and February, but so do all the other films that everyone is talking about now, really I love it, I will finally get to see all the stuff that only screen on the coasts. So I look forward to catching DREAMGIRLS, LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA, THE PAINTED VEIL, CHILDREN OF MEN, NOTES ON A SCANDAL and of course my most anticipated film of 2006, PAN'S LABYRINTH.

I wonder what my list would look like had I seen everything....

Pan's Labyrinth
Apocalypto
Children of Men
United 93
The Departed
The Queen
Volver
Half Nelson
The Good Shepherd/Little Children
Letters from Iwo Jima

Movie Notes for "Apocalypto"

This is the longest I've gone without going to the movies in a very long time (more than two weeks!) My stress level was at a breaking point and I was so depresed, I never needed a movie more. But I finally caught Mel Gibson's Apocalypto on Sunday. I don't care what Mel has done, I believe he is a crazy bastard anyway, but he is also one hell of a filmmaker. Apocalypto offers what I like best about movies, it takes you places unimagineable. This ancient world was mesmerizing and wonderful. The cinematography was wonderful. This is a man who makes movies as if he would never get the chance to make them again. He puts everything into it, and the result is fantastic.

Oscar site update

Check out Rotten Tomatoes new 'Awards Tour' page. They have out done themselves this time. Way to go guys, I like it.

I know what I want for Chistmas

My Golden Globe Predictions

I have never choosen Golden Globe picks before the nominations come out. In fact I only try and guess the winner just before their name is called during the show. But I was bored today, I didn't put much thought to this, it took more time to type them out than to come up with the list, so here they are:

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Babel
The Queen
The Departed
Children of Men
Flags of Our Fathers

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Little Miss Sunshine
Dreamgirls
The Devil Wears Prada
Thank You for Smoking
Stranger than Fiction

Best Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama
Forest Whitaker
Peter O’Toole
Will Smith
Ryan Gosling
Leonardo DiCaprio

Best Actress in a Motion Picture – Drama
Helen Mirren
Judi Dench
Kate Winslet
Cate Blanchett
Penelope Cruz

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy
Jamie Foxx
Eddie Murphy
Steve Carell
Sacha Baron Cohen
Will Ferrell

Best Actress – Musical or Comedy
Beyonce Knowles
Jennifer Hudson
Meryl Streep
Annette Bening
Abigail Breslin

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture
Jack Nicholson
Brad Pitt
Allen Arkin
Ben Affleck
Michael Sheen

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture
Cate Blanchett
Rinko Kikuchi
Carmen Maura
Adriana Barraza
Shareeka Epps

Best Director
Martin Scorsese
Stephen Frears
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Bill Condon
Clint Eastwood

Best Screenplay
Babel
Thank You for Smoking
The Queen
Dreamgirls
Little Miss Sunshine

Best Original Song
“Listen” –Dreamgirls
An Inconvenient Truth
Shut Up & Sing
Bobby
Charlotte’s Web

Best Original Score
Babel
The Good German
Notes on a Scandal
Little Children
The Queen

Best Foreign Language Film
Volver
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Lives of Others
Days of Glory
Water
Curse of the Golden Flower

Movie Notes

A couple of disapointments, good films but not great.

Flags of Our Fathers
was such a disappointment, it had a complete lack of focus, there was no clear direction for the purpose or meaning of the film, it tried to be and do too much. It was not clear which story Eastwood was trying to tell; what happened on Iwo Jima (that was done loudly, dramatically, and graphically), or what happened to three survivors from that famous picture(only briefly heart renching at the end, and only well acted by Adam Beach), a son’s search for his fathers unknown war experience(which should have been edited out of the picture, or it should have been the core plot of the film.), the propaganda of selling heroism for profit (the hardest part to watch a bit of history that, I'm sure is little known to viewers).
There are moments in the film that rang true which were quite moving, which is usually the same in every war film made, about actual events. But still something was lacking, and one is confused after viewing the film about what heroism actually is and what we thought it was and what we want it to be. I was just more confused than when I went in there and disappointed. B+

Babel
As soon as Babel was over I felt a sense of satisfaction that comes from seeing a good film, I liked it very much. But someone brought up some things about the film that I felt were valid criticisms that had me rethinking my opinion. There was no meaning to the story, he said, it meant nothing, it was about nothing, it does not resolve anything, and he said that he didn’t care about anyone, there was not enough character development to make him want to care. I totally have to disagree with him on this, I thought there was enough, at least for one story, I was able to get enough for only one character, and that was enough for me. I felt moved by the story in Japan and the two young brothers in Morocco. Both outstanding performance by But it makes the rest of the characters almost insignificant. I did not like the story line in Mexico, that hit too close to home for me and I found it to be almost unbearable. I could have done without the whole sequence. I also do not appreciate the anti-American slant of the film. Sadly I am afraid that is how the world views us already and I feel ashamed, because I tend to believe that the American press and American foreign agents helping people like the Joneses in Morocco and the boarder patrol could all be a form of reality that is or could be horribly true. Technically there was nothing wrong with the film other than Brad Pitts’ makeup, which was sometimes just horrible. Other than that it was a very well made film, it just didn’t have enough significance to be a great film. A-