By Brett Blake Brenton Thom and Breanne Brennan have once again joined me for an exhaustive and comprehensive examination of this year’s Oscar nominations, just in time for this weekend’s big show! We thoroughly discuss each category, picking what we think will win, what we think should win (often very different than what will win), and what we think should have been nominated, as well as our general impressions and thoughts about the awards season and the movies of 2014 in general! Click HERE to download a list of all the categories and nominees if you’d like to follow along with our discussion. Notes - The 87th Academy Awards will be broadcast on Sunday, February 22nd at 7:30pm (central time) on ABC. - In the podcast, we make reference to some hilariously spot-on videos from the folks at Red Letter Media regarding the film BOYHOOD, and you can find these videos below! The language is somewhat NSFW. Disclaimer: The Cinematic Confab is a non-profit entertainment and analysis podcast. All audio clips and music cues used are the property of their individual copyright holders. They are presented here under the banner of “Fair Use,” for the purpose of analysis, criticism, and/or humor. No infringement of copyright is intended.
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If you're looking to find the Star Wars teaser on this list, then you've come to the wrong place. However, if you want my opinion, I will simply say it's one of the most underwhelming trailers of the year, yet it's earned a spot on many people's top lists. Anyhow, here’s my belated list of 2014’s best trailers.
1. American Sniper - No trailer this year does tension as great as this. Focusing on sound effects and the opening of the film interspersed with flashbacks to Chris Kyle's life make an incredibly effective trailer, and the best of the year. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MItGoIxoVGk 2. Whiplash – What starts off as a straightforward music-based film turns into a driving and rhythmic look at the main character’s desire to be the best and how far he’s pushed. The increasing tap of the drum resonates long after the trailer ends. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7d_jQycdQGo 3. Guardians of the Galaxy – The first trailer released captured the tone of the film perfectly with a serious opening followed by the reveal of the not-so-well-known Starlord. It's a great example of a character-driven trailer that also showcases the humor and action of the film. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d96cjJhvlMA 4. Avengers: Age of Ultron – Now that the stakes have been raised, how do you amp up anticipation for what will most likely become one of the highest grossing movies this year? Make it bleak. We see our heroes pushed to the brink with an haunting rendition of “I’ve Got No Strings,” while Ultron's voice over toys with them in a way similar to how another villain did in an equally great trailer—THE DARK KNIGHT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmeOjFno6Do 5. Selma - It's something that's been done before, and not relatively groundbreaking, but what I like about this one is the use of driving anachronistic music from Public Enemy. It fuels the passion of Martin Luther King and the tumultuous years of Civil Rights movement exhibited in this trailer so effectively that you just want to jump up and “take a stand.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6t7vVTxaic 6. In the Heart of the Sea -- This trailer is based on imagery and voiceover and that’s what makes it so intriguing. The ethereal opening music, selection of shots, as well as the informative title cards are enough to leave you wanting to see more. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs-JfPjgiA4 7. Inherent Vice--there's something I like about this bizarre and borderline nonsensical trailer that I like. Whether or not it's the rhythm of the cutting or the period-appropriate music, I simply get a groovy/humorous vibe from it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUZgOQ186-A 8. Point and Shoot – It can be tough to sell a documentary, but this trailer does it the best. We’re introduced to a guy who’s been raised on action films, desensitized to violence, and looking to make something of himself. It is a concise trailer that captures everything might find out about Matt Van Dyke in two and a half minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNT8mnOSoHs 9. The Double—It’s a great example of using repetition of sound effects to drive a trailer. The incessant clicking sound in the beginning to the gradual sinister tone change of the background music make for a provocative and interesting trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XG8qATRtNuU 10. Tomorrowland - terrific teaser that gives us a glimpse of a strange new world without giving away too much. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k59gXTWf-A Honorable Mentions: 50 Shades of Grey – Say what you want about the subject matter, the trailer itself isn't bad at all. The music choice compliments the shot choices perfectly, and there’s enough at the tail end to tease the viewer into becoming curious about the story. Jurassic World-- If it weren't for that damn end tag spoiling the piano theme, this would've made the top ten, but on the whole, it’s a very effective trailer for getting audiences hooked back into the series. Mad Max: Fury Road—The Verdi Requiem, though an overused piece, still works here. However, the whole trailer feels like overload by the end with its giant text and crazy car crashes…maybe that was the intent, though. Birdman—It starts of brilliantly with Birdman’s VO, but becomes tonally wrong at the end with the Norton/Keaton fight. By Brenton Thom KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE January, February and March are generally the months where movie studios release the garbage they don’t know what to do with... the cheap, bad movies that earn a quick dollar outside the summer and winter season. That's the the reason this movie is such a surprise. KINGSMAN is a story about a secret organization that fights terrorism and the professional gentleman assassins that work for it. They are a private organization and don’t answer to any government. When a member is killed off, they need a replacement, so operative Harry Hart, played by Colin Firth, recruits our main character, Eggsy, played by Taron Egerton. Eggsy is an urban kid with great potential due to his IQ and prior military background, but gets into trouble with the locals in his town and lives in a bad neighborhood. Eggsy believes Harry’s life was based around him having money and doesn’t understand the hardship. Harry goes on to prove him wrong. Okay, I’m starting to get into too much detail, but basically, while Eggsy is training and competing against other candidates, our villain, Richmond Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson, slowly develops an evil scheme to ‘save’ the world and take out a large percentage of the human race. The thing I love about this movie is that it FEELS like a James Bond movie. We’ve got these characters (who are real people and not stopping bullets with their hands) who are trying to stop a semi-realistic evil plan. The villain feels like a Bond villain, there are funny jokes, witty banter, and they even poke fun at the Bond-esque elements of it. The movie is a lot of fun, and to top it off, there is an incredible cast of great players. I already mentioned Colin Firth and Samuel L. Jackson, but there is also Mark Strong, and even Michael Caine! Valentine’s sidekick is a woman with prosthetic legs with razors in them that can slice her enemies. The odd thing is Samuel L Jackson’s acting choice to talk with a lisp, and I guess he was was trying to hone in on the idea that Valentine's a big nerd with a speech impediment. But there are a lot of little things that make the movie a lot of fun. Little details, humor, and even cute animals. This movie is a straight-forward comedy-action movie. There are plenty of big set pieces, lots of locations around the world, and most of the characters, especially Colin Firth, kick serious ass! The only flaw would be the use of the female lead in the climax. Although she has an important role in the film and realistically couldn’t be there for the ‘final fight’ I wish they had used her more. For most of the movie is male dominated, with the exception of Valentine’s assistant Gazelle, played by dancer Sofia Boutella. Overall, I highly recommend this movie to people who want to have a good time and enjoy a fun movie. This would be tongue-in-cheek like some of the Roger Moore-era 007 movies, and it's up there in story and action. It's KICK-ASS meets James Bond, and a definite must-see in theaters. SEVENTH SON I had heard rumors of this movie being pushed back and it's release date rescheduled for a long time, which really surprised me, because while the movie is not fantastic, it is very charming. SEVENTH SON stars Jeff Bridges as Master Gregory, a Spook (which is basically a knight that deals with demons, evils, and witches in a foreign old land). It has the visual look of the medieval era which can be seen in LORD OF THE RINGS or GAME OF THRONES. The movie is basically a fantasy story, with dragons, sword fights, and plenty of beautiful scenery. The movie is fun. I like the setting and universe. The characters are good and even funny! Jeff Bridges steals the show as a drunken knight who deals with ghostly things and the aide of a troll-like creature sidekick, Tusk, who - as Bridges states it – is “as loyal as he is ugly.” The plot unfolds as a younger Gregory cages Mother Malkin (Julianne Moore), a witch, inside a mountain top. Over years the cage weathers with age and during the start of a red moon, she escapes in the form of a dragon. 10 years pass and she is out to seek revenge and enslave the world for ostracizing her and others like her from society. She calls upon others to join her. In another village, Gregory is called upon to remove a demon from a little girl and during the process, he discovers it to be Malkin. In a fight, she kills Gregory's apprentice in the process and flees. Gregory now looks for a new apprentice, and we then meet Tom Ward (played by Ben Barnes), a young farmer wanting to do more with his life. Gregory takes Ward in and tries to teach him the ways of being a Spook, but their time is short because they have a week to get to her fortress on the mountain before the blood movie is full, giving her unstoppable power. The plot is pretty straight-forward and what this movie mostly has going for it are the fantastical locations. None of the places are real, but they are quite inventive, creative, and very beautiful. The characters are interesting and funny, too. I’d also like to point out, this is another movie Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore have done together, outside of THE BIG LEBOWSKI, so their chemistry here is great. They play off each other quite well. Overall, this movie has some great visuals, sound mixing, and atmosphere. However, it isn't worth seeing in 3D. As much as I have praised the movie so far, as a story it is kind of dull. I guess what I would have wanted were more twists or things you wouldn’t see coming, because going into the movie, you kind of know how it’s going to end. It would have been nice if things were different. But in the end, if you’re a fantasy fan, I’d check it out in theaters, otherwise you could wait until home box office. By Brett Blake JUPITER ASCENDING - the latest film from directors Andy and Lana Wachowski - is a lot of things. Visually stunning, unbelievably silly, packed with energy, and narratively underwhelming… It’s a classic mixed bag case, and a person’s own feelings towards movies that can only be described as “all over the place” will no doubt dictate just how much enjoyment he or she can derive from it. There are some undeniably great things about the film, just as there are other elements that are nothing less than head-scratchingly strange. The plot (a convoluted one with a very complex mythology and backstory) defies my ability to distill it down into a coherent synopsis, but the basic thrust involves Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis), a young woman from Chicago who finds herself embroiled in a galactic dispute between the three heirs of the Abrasax family (chief among them Balem, portrayed by newly-minted Oscar nominee Eddie Redmayne) over the ownership of Earth (a planet with supposed strategic value to these space rulers). She’s aided by Caine Wise (Channing Tatum), a kind of space cop whose genes have been cross-bred with those of a wolf, and as the pair try to stay one step ahead of those who need Jupiter (for various reasons), they find themselves falling for each other. Royal birthrights, natural resource conflicts, kidnappings, and double crosses all figure into the plot at various points, as well. If you think that sounds complex, trust me when I tell you that the way the plot unfolds in the context of the movie itself is even more labyrinthine than that. It’s difficult to really dive into a discussion of JUPITER ASCENDING because it really is a tale of two films: the good one and the goofy one. At its best, the movie is packed full of some incredibly stunning visuals; the amount of creativity on display - from the very, very cool designs of the myriad creatures, spaceships, and exotic “alien” locales - is superb and kind of staggering. Every non-Earthbound frame of the movie is populated by either a neat character, or a jaw-dropping space vista, or fascinating costumes and sets. On top of the impressive visual work, the movie’s action sequences are absolutely tremendous, as well; the Wachowskis apparently handed down a directive to both the visual effects and stunt crews that when at all possible, the participants in the action were to be captured on camera “for real,” in lieu of using digital recreations. While there are surely some moments where that was not possible, to my eye it sure looks like a TON of practical stuntwork went into the creation of these scenes, and it pays off in a big way, lending a sense of weight and believability to the goings-on. This is never more apparent than in the movie’s best sequence, a truly spectacular and thrilling chase in the pre-dawn skies over Chicago. Not only is it imaginatively staged, but it feels all the more exciting because we’re clearly watching Tatum and Kunis (and their stunt doubles, no doubt) being hoisted around on (invisible) wires over Chicago’s streets. It’s a remarkable setpiece, one that is among the very best I’ve seen in a long time. The movie’s biggest stumble - aside from its sometimes strange tonal shifts, including a far-too-goofy-for-its-own-good sidetrip into Space Bureaucracy Land - is in its implementation of a narrative device that has been termed “The Chosen One” by those who study story structure; it basically describes a story where the protagonist somehow has some kind of special, pre-ordained destiny that he or she must fulfill. One of the clearest examples of this can be found in the Wachowskis’ own THE MATRIX, where Keanu Reeves’ Neo is explicitly called “The One” because of his special destiny. We get more of that sort of thing with Kunis’ Jupiter Jones here, a woman who ends up - through no direct action she herself takes - being of enormous importance to the entire galaxy. Personal mileage may vary, but I find that kind of character story to be increasingly lazy, it makes characters less relatable, and its usage here makes some of the proceedings feel truly ridiculous. As with the whole movie itself, the acting is a mixed bag of sorts. Channing Tatum is actually very good, and he somehow manages to sell all the silliness of the plot with an earnest and straight-forward sensibility that is really appealing. Mila Kunis fares just slightly worse, though that’s not really the fault of her performance; as written, Jupiter is almost entirely a reactive (not proactive) character. For nearly all of the running time, she is operating almost solely based on the whims and desires of - or ultimatums from - other characters, and she often finds herself in “damsel in distress” mode, needing to be saved by Tatum’s character. Kunis has an innate likability and charm that helps to counteract this a bit, but the script truly doesn’t do her many favors. The key supporting roles are all executed with various degrees of professionalism, and it’s certainly fun to have Sean Bean playing another elder badass type, even if it’s the kind of thing he could play in his sleep at this point. And that brings us to Eddie Redmayne as the main villain of the story. All hoarse whispers, occasional high-pitched screaming outbursts, and stretched lips, I can honestly say I have no idea what Redmayne was going for here. It’s a performance that - at every turn - threatens to cross over into high camp because of how affected it is. There is nothing approaching naturalism, only pure scenery chewing; there are whole dialogue scenes that go by where Redmayne appears intent on keeping his face as still as possible, and the result of this - in conjunction with his strained, “my voice box has been damaged” line deliveries - is truly bizarre. I give Redmayne credit for going all the way with it, and surely he was directed in a fashion that allowed him to do so, but it is a performance that can only be described as ultra-peculiar. If nothing else, the cumulative effect of all of the movie’s best (quick shout-out to Michael Giacchino, contributing another great musical score) and worst elements is that JUPITER ASCENDING is nothing less than a fascinating movie. It’s never boring, and it is often enormously entertaining… though, admittedly, for reasons both intentional and not. Some will probably hate it, others might love it, others still might regard it as a curious, ambitious misfire. Personally, I think there’s more good in it than bad, and it’s worth seeing for both the boundless visual creativity and the pure love for science fiction that are on display. By Breanne Brennan
It's that time of year again! Oscar Death Race time! For those of you scratching your heads and wondering what I’m talking about, allow me to explain in 4 easy steps: 1.) Read list of movies below. 2.) Watch all movies from list before Oscar night. 3.) Cross off movies that you watch and congratulate yourself for watching these award-winning cinematic achievements. 4.) Gloat about it and tell your peers to follow suit. The Death Race came about by Sarah D. Bunting. Read about her quest here. (Ones I have seen currently are marked with an asterisk) American Sniper Aya *Begin Again Beyond the Lights Big Hero 6 The Bigger Picture *Birdman Boogaloo and Graham *The Boxtrolls *Boyhood Butter Lamp *Captain America: Winter Soldier Citizenfour Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press One The Dam Keeper *Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Feast Finding Vivian Maier *Foxcatcher Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me *Gone Girl *The Grand Budapest Hotel *Guardians of the Galaxy *The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies *How to Train Your Dragon 2 *Ida *The Imitation Game *Inherent Vice *Interstellar *Into the Woods Joanna *The Judge Last Days in Vietnam *The Lego Movie Leviathan *Maleficent Me and My Moulton Mr. Turner *Nightcrawler Our Curse Parvaneh The Phone Call The Reaper The Salt of the Earth *Selma A Single Life Song of the Sea Still Alice The Tale of Princess Kaguya Tangerines *The Theory of Everything Timbuktu Two Days, One Night Unbroken Virunga *Whiplash White Earth Wild Wild Tales *X-Men: Days of Future Past |
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