If I Picked the Winners: Best Supporting Actor 1953

     Check out the idea behind this column here

     For the first two editions of my fantasy column, "If I Picked the Winners", I picked the relatively recent category of Best Actor 1997 and the extremely recent category of Best Picture 2009. For my third edition of this column, I thought I would go old-school and pick the oldest Best Supporting Actor category in which I had seen all the nominees, which ended up being 1953. I'm not sure if anyone old enough to remember 1953 reads this blog, but if you're out there, get ready for a trip down memory lane, and for everyone else, this is a good starting point for an education on the history of cinema.

     The year 1953 was all about "From Here to Eternity". The film was based on the popular book of the same name, written by James Jones, but was heavily edited and changed to get the cooperation of the U.S. Military. The changes did not seem to bother the movie-going public or the Academy though, as the film did gang-busters across the nation and the Academy nominated it for an impressive thirteen awards and rewarded it with eight Oscars, which tied "Gone With the Wind" for a record at the time. More pertinent to this column though, it resurrected the career of Frank Sinatra, who was desperate for the part, as his career was in the proverbial crapper at the time. Luckily for Sinatra, he did get the part and the film turned out to be the defibrillator he needed to jump-start his flat-lining career, as he won 1953's Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Did he deserve it though?

Review: The Town

  
     In the world of cinema, the 2000's were to the city of Boston what the 1970's were to New York City. In the 70's, you had a slew of famous films by great directors set in in the Big Apple. "The French Connection" by William Friedkin, "Taxi Driver" by Martin Scorsese, and "Manhattan" by Woody Allen are just a few examples of films where the city itself is practically a character of the movie. In this last decade though (a decade in which the New England Patriots dominated the NFL and the Boston Red Sox finally broke the "Curse of the Bambino"), Boston has taken the reigns from New York City as the auteur's favorite playground. From films such as Clint Eastwood's "Mystic River" and Scorsese's "The Departed" (as well as his last film "Shutter Island" that was set in a mental institution outside of Boston), to films like "Edge of Darkness" and "Gone Baby Gone" (another Ben Affleck film), this has been a golden age of cinema for Boston. It arguably all started though in the last decade, when two unknown actors wrote a screenplay called "Good Will Hunting". The film was a critical and box-office success and made its two writers and stars, Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, household names and industry leaders. Thirteen years later, even with all his fame and fortune, it is clear that at least one of the Boston Duo has not forgotten his hometown as his second directorial effort "The Town" uses Boston as its backdrop and continues the Hollywood's recent obsession with all things Boston.

News: 127 Hours Proving Too Much For Some to Handle

     "127 Hours", the newest film from Danny Boyle ("Slumdog Millionaire"), is the movie version of the real incident in 2003 where Aron Rolston got his arm stuck in a rock while hiking in the mountains. The 127 hours that the film is titled after refer to the amount of time Mr. Rolston was stuck there, until he finally freed himself by amputating his arm with a pocket knife. Well, apparently for some, watching a man amputate his own right-arm was a little too gruesome, because on three different occasions where the film has been shown, someone in the audience has fainted. I haven't seen the film myself, so I can't give you my personal warning on how graphic it is, but for the very squeamish, this may be one Oscar hopeful they will have to skip (or at least close their eyes on certain parts).

Retro-Review: The Shining

 
     As I confessed in my in article on five great movies for Halloween, I've been somewhat of a coward in terms of watching horror films. This means there are a lot of very famous films that, simply because they are in the horror genre, I have yet to see. Recently though, I have managed to muster up enough courage to view some of these fright flicks, and it being the Halloween season, it seemed like a perfect time to watch the more famous films of the genre. I still didn't feel like I had the nerve to watch probably the most famous horror film, "The Exorcist", but instead opted for two films I felt wouldn't give me permanent nightmares: the original "Halloween" and "The Shining". Against what would seem like the logical order, I watched "Halloween" the night before the actual holiday (read my review here) and "The Shining" on Halloween night, but even though there would be nothing more appropriately on the nose then to watch "Halloween" on Halloween, it turns out the scarier film was the one without the holiday for its title.

Retro-Review: Halloween

    
     How many holidays have films named after them? There are plenty of Christmas films, but I am not aware of any entitled "Christmas". There is a movie about the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, but that doesn't exactly qualify as a Valentines Day film (and from the reviews, this year's romantic comedy "Valentine's Day" doesn't qualify as an actual film). Of course there is "Groundhog's Day", a good movie starring Bill Murray, but the problem here is that Ground Hog's Day fails the pass the "real holiday" test. Halloween though, is lucky enough to have a film named after it, so it seemed rather appropriate as a horror film newbie to start the Halloween season off with John Carpenter's 1978 film "Halloween".

If I Picked the Winners: Best Pictue 2009

To get the idea behind this column, click here

     Okay boys and girls, it's time to put on your H.G. Wells hats, go down into the basement, and dust off the old handy-dandy time machine as we travel way back into the mysterious, mystical land that was 2009. It was a strange time with primitive customs and habits that are hard to understand for our sophisticated 2010 minds. It was a time when Lebron James was still universally admired by everyone, Geico had yet to run that annoying ad with a pig that says "wee, wee, wee" all the way home, and NBC had not yet approved a comedy that points out the hilarious clash of cultures that occurs when an American has to work in India (that last point was a bit of sarcasm, and yes, I'm well aware of how corny this opening is, but I could not help myself). It was also the first year since 1943 that the Academy Awards expanded its Best Picture nominees pool to ten. While I have to admit, I was initially very much against the idea, in the end it worked out great. Spurred on by 2008's criminal omission of "The Dark Knight", the Academy thought that if they expanded the Best Picture category to ten nominees they would be able to recognize a wider taste of films from all different genres, and at least in the first year, it was mission accomplished. Their were independent films, more traditional films, an animated film, and even two sci-fi films! The only downside of ten nominees is it means I have to write a longer article right now, but that's not your concern, so here we go to my ranking of last year's nominees for Best Picture.

5 Great Films for Halloween

     I have to admit it, when it comes to scary films, I am a wimp. As a child I was easily scared by horror films, and even as a teenager they bothered me enough so that I consciously avoided them. I am just now starting to view some of the most famous horror films, which makes the horror genre far from my expertise. In fact, there is probably no other major genre of film that I know less about than horror. Despite my lack of qualification though, this is a movie blog and it is near Halloween, so I am pretty much obligated to make a list about the best films to see for Halloween. The consequence of my ignorance of the genre though means that the list includes films that are definitely a stretch to be included as "Halloween films" (only one of the films would clearly qualify as a horror film), but all five films are great no matter what genre they belong in. Also, I want to clarify before hand that the ranking of the films reflect their appropriateness for Halloween and do not necessarily represent my view on how the films should be ranked overall. Now without further ado, here is my (unqualified) opinion on the five best movies for Halloween.