I wouldn't like this guy if I was actually hurt...
Monday, February 28, 2011
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Oscar Predictions...
Here are my pics from the films that I have seen.
Best Motion Picture of the Year
Nominees:
The King's Speech (2010): Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin: This film was really made for the Oscars but it was an excellent movie.
Toy Story 3 (2010): Darla K. Anderson
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
Nominees:
Javier Bardem for Biutiful (2010)
Jeff Bridges for True Grit (2010)
Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network (2010)
Colin Firth for The King's Speech (2010): I think Colin has stuttered his way in to that one. I know, not very clever.
James Franco for 127 Hours (2010)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role
Nominees:
Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole (2010)
Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone (2010)
Natalie Portman for Black Swan (2010): Haven't seen this one but I think she will win.
Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine (2010)
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role
Nominees:
Christian Bale for The Fighter (2010): It is amazing how many different types of roles Bale can play.
John Hawkes for Winter's Bone (2010)
Jeremy Renner for The Town (2010)
Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech (2010)
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role
Nominees:
Amy Adams for The Fighter (2010)
Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech (2010)
Melissa Leo for The Fighter (2010): I think a lot of these nominees are deserving but Melissa played her character excellently. I absolutely haaated her in the film. She did a great job.
Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit (2010)
Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom (2010)
Best Achievement in Directing
Nominees:
Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan (2010)
Ethan Coen, Joel Coen for True Grit (2010): I'm pretty sure this won't win but I think it is deserving.
David Fincher for The Social Network (2010)
Tom Hooper for The King's Speech (2010)
David O. Russell for The Fighter (2010)
Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen
Nominees:
Another Year (2010): Mike Leigh
Inception (2010): Christopher Nolan: A lot of people have knocked this but I think it was an amazing original story. Super creative.
The King's Speech (2010): David Seidler
Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published
Nominees:
The Social Network (2010): Aaron Sorkin: I didn't really like this movie but I think this is the award it is going to win.
Best Animated Feature Film of the Year
Nominees:
The Illusionist (2010): Sylvain Chomet
Toy Story 3 (2010): Lee Unkrich: I personally like How to Train Your Dragon better but there is no way that Toy Story 3 isn't winning.
Best Achievement in Cinematography
Nominees:
Black Swan (2010): Matthew Libatique
Inception (2010): Wally Pfister
The King's Speech (2010): Danny Cohen: The camera work was something that actually caught my eye quite a bit during The King's Speech. I could also easily see Inception winning this.
The Social Network (2010): Jeff Cronenweth
True Grit (2010): Roger Deakins
Winter's Bone and The Fighter
I have been watching a lot of movies lately. Last night I watched Winter's Bone and today I watch The Fighter. I am kind of tired of writing movie reviews so these will be a bit shorter.
Winter's Bone is amazingly depressing. Just when you think it can't get any sadder they sucker punch in the gut and step up the depression even more. Great acting all around. I also very much enjoyed the large Deadwood cast reunion. Winter's Bone is like a movie version of a Drive-By Truckers song. Great story but terribly sad where everyone loses.
It is pretty hard to make a good boxing movie but The Fighter certainly accomplished that. Christian Bale's performance was extremely impressive and certainly should be considered the favorite for best supporting actor. I am a bit surprised that Mark Wahlberg hasn't gotten more attention for his work as he also did a great job. The whole time I was waiting for everything to fall apart like in The Winter's Bone but surprisingly, and happily, there was some kind of a happy ending.
Winter's Bone and The Fighter, two really good movies. Boom, I'm done.
Winter's Bone is amazingly depressing. Just when you think it can't get any sadder they sucker punch in the gut and step up the depression even more. Great acting all around. I also very much enjoyed the large Deadwood cast reunion. Winter's Bone is like a movie version of a Drive-By Truckers song. Great story but terribly sad where everyone loses.
It is pretty hard to make a good boxing movie but The Fighter certainly accomplished that. Christian Bale's performance was extremely impressive and certainly should be considered the favorite for best supporting actor. I am a bit surprised that Mark Wahlberg hasn't gotten more attention for his work as he also did a great job. The whole time I was waiting for everything to fall apart like in The Winter's Bone but surprisingly, and happily, there was some kind of a happy ending.
Winter's Bone and The Fighter, two really good movies. Boom, I'm done.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
The King's Speech
My next Oscar nominated review. This is going to be short, which is unjust, for such a great movie but I am about to watch Winter's Bone.
When I first heard about this movie I was not interested, at all. To me the typical British Oscar bait film either has to do with forbidden love during the Victorian age, a British teenager falling in love with a 40 year old, or something to do with the King and Queen (which may involve the last two mentions topics). The King's Speech obviously involves the King and Queen so I was not interested at first. I had already gotten burned by watching 'An Education' last year (see British film plot number 2) and was not going to do it again.
After all of the Oscar hype, especially about Colin Firth's acting job I felt I had better see it. I am very glad that I did.
Colin Firth's performance of a King with a speech impediment was amazing. Also amazing? Geoffrey Rush's performance as Lionel Logue, the speech therapist. The interaction between the two was top notch with great dialogue.
Part of what made the movie so enjoyable to me was that I really didn't care about the story at all in the beginning but I was totally sucked in while watching and became very invested by the end.
To summarize, The King's Speech is a great movie with superb acting. It totally changed my opinion of what I thought would be another typical British film. I had my prejudices against Colin Firth but he put on an amazing performance.
When I first heard about this movie I was not interested, at all. To me the typical British Oscar bait film either has to do with forbidden love during the Victorian age, a British teenager falling in love with a 40 year old, or something to do with the King and Queen (which may involve the last two mentions topics). The King's Speech obviously involves the King and Queen so I was not interested at first. I had already gotten burned by watching 'An Education' last year (see British film plot number 2) and was not going to do it again.
After all of the Oscar hype, especially about Colin Firth's acting job I felt I had better see it. I am very glad that I did.
Colin Firth's performance of a King with a speech impediment was amazing. Also amazing? Geoffrey Rush's performance as Lionel Logue, the speech therapist. The interaction between the two was top notch with great dialogue.
Part of what made the movie so enjoyable to me was that I really didn't care about the story at all in the beginning but I was totally sucked in while watching and became very invested by the end.
To summarize, The King's Speech is a great movie with superb acting. It totally changed my opinion of what I thought would be another typical British film. I had my prejudices against Colin Firth but he put on an amazing performance.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The Social Network
The last Academy Award nominated film that I watched was True Grit and I wrote a review so I felt compelled to write one for The Social Network.
It seems like every review of TSN is very complimentary and many people are considering it the best film of year. To be honest, I didn't really want to watch it but the wife rented it so I partook.
I am definitely in a minority here but I was not that impressed. The movie was well made and the acting was good but nothing about it really stood out to me. I never at any point while watching had a 'this is a great movie' moment. I don't get the hype. The story was obviously way over sensationalized, which the creators of the film have admitted, but some parts were down right ludacris. In one night, they push out their CFO, get a million users, and Justin Timberlake gets busted for cocaine? I understand that the story needed to move along but that was just dumb. To make scenes more intense it was like the director told everyone to just try and talk as quickly as possible. It was almost hard to understand what some of the characters were saying at times. Thats just nitpicking but it got annoying. Maybe I just don't speak nerd.
Jesse Eisenberg did put out a good performance but Oscar worthy? I think not. I actually thought he reminded me quite a bit of Abed from the show Community.
Ok I will confess that I couldn't find a good example of Abed but if you watch the show at all then you should understand what I'm talking about.
I was surprised with the acting job of Justin Timberlake. He did a pretty good job of playing a quick talking entrepreneur. All of the acting was well done, even if reminiscent of a certain Community character. I was also surprised with Andrew Garfield's performance. He could turn out to be a good Spider- Man.
This last paragraph is kind of a spoiler so if you care to see the film don't watch it or whatever...
One major thing about the film that bothered me was the cliche line of having money and fame but if you don't have any love then it is all for nothing. Throughout the movie he is motivated by his feeling of guilt towards his ex-girlfriend and his inability to get over her. At the end of the film when he sends her a friend invite and is sitting there refreshing the page over and over again waiting for her to respond it was ridiculous. That sort of thing has been done so many times and it immediately made me think of this as an example. Maybe I have just proved myself wrong in stating that TSN is not a great movie yet at the same using an example from one of the highest critically acclaimed films of all time. Oh well, it's just like, my opinion maaaaan. I think it would have been cooler if it ended something like this...
To summarize, it is a decent movie that I do not need to see again but it definitely should not be nominated for any Academy Awards. I know that I am in the minority on this.
Thank you Tanner, I forgot to mention this...The Winklevoss Twins.
It seems like every review of TSN is very complimentary and many people are considering it the best film of year. To be honest, I didn't really want to watch it but the wife rented it so I partook.
I am definitely in a minority here but I was not that impressed. The movie was well made and the acting was good but nothing about it really stood out to me. I never at any point while watching had a 'this is a great movie' moment. I don't get the hype. The story was obviously way over sensationalized, which the creators of the film have admitted, but some parts were down right ludacris. In one night, they push out their CFO, get a million users, and Justin Timberlake gets busted for cocaine? I understand that the story needed to move along but that was just dumb. To make scenes more intense it was like the director told everyone to just try and talk as quickly as possible. It was almost hard to understand what some of the characters were saying at times. Thats just nitpicking but it got annoying. Maybe I just don't speak nerd.
Jesse Eisenberg did put out a good performance but Oscar worthy? I think not. I actually thought he reminded me quite a bit of Abed from the show Community.
Ok I will confess that I couldn't find a good example of Abed but if you watch the show at all then you should understand what I'm talking about.
I was surprised with the acting job of Justin Timberlake. He did a pretty good job of playing a quick talking entrepreneur. All of the acting was well done, even if reminiscent of a certain Community character. I was also surprised with Andrew Garfield's performance. He could turn out to be a good Spider- Man.
This last paragraph is kind of a spoiler so if you care to see the film don't watch it or whatever...
One major thing about the film that bothered me was the cliche line of having money and fame but if you don't have any love then it is all for nothing. Throughout the movie he is motivated by his feeling of guilt towards his ex-girlfriend and his inability to get over her. At the end of the film when he sends her a friend invite and is sitting there refreshing the page over and over again waiting for her to respond it was ridiculous. That sort of thing has been done so many times and it immediately made me think of this as an example. Maybe I have just proved myself wrong in stating that TSN is not a great movie yet at the same using an example from one of the highest critically acclaimed films of all time. Oh well, it's just like, my opinion maaaaan. I think it would have been cooler if it ended something like this...
To summarize, it is a decent movie that I do not need to see again but it definitely should not be nominated for any Academy Awards. I know that I am in the minority on this.
Thank you Tanner, I forgot to mention this...The Winklevoss Twins.
ANOTHER dancing video
It seems like all we have been posting lately are videos of people dancing. So here's another one that my brother recommended. Enjoy!:
I still can't figure out if the dude in the video is Charlie Murphy or not and don't care enough to research.
I still can't figure out if the dude in the video is Charlie Murphy or not and don't care enough to research.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, February 18, 2011
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Put a Bird on It
The video is from Hulu but this comment is from youtube
Initially I wasn't sure how this had anything to do with Portland, but then I realized I had a tote bag with birds on it... that I got from donating to public radio. **** me.
3 weeks ago 107 
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Ra Ra Riot
My favorite band to listen to right now. Stefan does this all the time, so indulge me:
BONUS: The cello player is uber sexy.
BONUS: The cello player is uber sexy.
Monday, February 7, 2011
One of my favorite ads from the Super Bowl
This one hasn't gotten much attention but I think it was funny.
Saturday, February 5, 2011
Chat Roulette
Our number one reader is a fan of chat roulette so this is for him.
chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
chat roulette from Casey Neistat on Vimeo.
Friday, February 4, 2011
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Francis and the Lights
Don't miss the sweet dance solo at the end. How 80s does this song sound?
Wanna see more of his dancing? Check out the video for his song "The Top" , his moves are really impressive. It's amazingly bad but so bad it starts to look cool.
Wanna see more of his dancing? Check out the video for his song "The Top" , his moves are really impressive. It's amazingly bad but so bad it starts to look cool.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Guilty Pleasure #2
Eliza Doolittle
I haven't written a guilty confession post since 2008 (it was about Chris Brown, BEFORE all of the domestic violence stuff came out) but I think that Eliza Doolittle qualifies for me to write number 2.
I'm not generally into this kind of pop but Eliza is the exception. There is something very catchy about her music. Trying to revive ragtime music from the 20s? Big fan of the whistling hook. I'm not sure what is supposed to be happening in this video but it doesn't look very Christian. Catchy tune though.
The rest of her album "Eliza Doolittle" is just as catchy.
I cant embed this video but here is another one if you are interested..."Pack Up"
I haven't written a guilty confession post since 2008 (it was about Chris Brown, BEFORE all of the domestic violence stuff came out) but I think that Eliza Doolittle qualifies for me to write number 2.
I'm not generally into this kind of pop but Eliza is the exception. There is something very catchy about her music. Trying to revive ragtime music from the 20s? Big fan of the whistling hook. I'm not sure what is supposed to be happening in this video but it doesn't look very Christian. Catchy tune though.
The rest of her album "Eliza Doolittle" is just as catchy.
I cant embed this video but here is another one if you are interested..."Pack Up"
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