The Movies of 1991!

Continuing my new series where I am looking back at my favorite movies from every year since my birth, I have arrived at 1991, which was a much better year for movies than 1990.  This was the year that Beauty and the Beast proved that The Little Mermaid was no fluke and that a new Disney Golden Age was beginning, while movies like The Silence of the Lambs scared people crazy to the point that it won the five biggest Oscars (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay) for only the third time in Academy history.  On top of that was Arnie's Terminator becoming a hero in Terminator 2, Robin Williams knocking an adult Peter Pan out of the park in Hook, and Kevin Costner still marvelous (sans the British accent) in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.  All in all, 1991 was the first year to really solidify all of the trends of Nineties movies, with special effects driven blockbusters reigning at the box office alongside romantic comedies and some of the finest animated movies ever made.  So with all that said, let's take a look back at my favorite things about the movies from 1991!

****

Best Song - "Beauty and the Beast" from Beauty and the Beast 
For me this was a no-brainer choice.  Alan Menken and Tim Rice's songs for Beauty and the Beast are still some of the most catchy Disney tunes ever penned, and the title song is pure Disney movie magic.
Runners-Up
2.) "Ninja Rap" from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
3.) "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You" from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
4.) "Be Our Guest" from Beauty and the Beast
5.) "Gaston" from Beauty and the Beast

Best Score - Beauty and the Beast
As I said above, the music for Beauty and the Beast is just top notch, with Alan Menken's score utilizing all of the themes introduced in the hummable songs in such an emotionally resonant way, that listening to the score alone tells the whole story of the movie.
Runners-Up
2.) Hook
3.) Father of the Bride
4.) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
5.) The Rocketeer

Best Make-up and Hair - Hook
The transformations of Bob Hoskins into Smee and Dustin Hoffman into Captain Hook are two of the most remarkable actor transformations I've ever seen done by make-up work, but it's the work done to age Maggie Smith into Granny Wendy that is the true standout work from Hook.
Runners-Up
2.) The Silence of the Lambs
3.) Robin Hood: The Prince of Thieves
4.) Cape Fear
5.) The Rocketeer

Best Costumes - Beauty and the Beast
There is a bias with the Oscars only honoring live action movies in pretty much every category, but even though the costumes designed in Beauty and the Beast are not real, that does not mean that their designs are any less stunning.  The costumes in this movie are iconic, with Belle's ball gown being the most breathtaking accomplishment.
Runners-Up
2.) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
3.) The Rocketeer
4.) Hook
5.) The Silence of the Lambs

Best Sound - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
On the technical side of things, Terminator 2 was a huge step forward in creating the modern blockbuster as we now know it.  The sound work is really effective here with the sounds of the transformations for Robert Patrick's T-1000 being appropriately organic and mechanic at the same time.
Runners-Up
2.) The Silence of the Lambs
3.) Beauty and the Beast
4.) Backdraft
5.) The Rocketeer

Best Special Effects - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Hands down, Terminator 2 was such a huge leap forward in the art of special effects that there was no contest here.  The CGI work done on the T-1000 still holds up to this day and paved the way for the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park just two years later.
Runners-Up
2.) Backdraft
3.) The Rocketeer
4.) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
5.) Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country

Best Production Design - Beauty and the Beast
Similar to what I said about costumes, just because this movie is animated does not mean the production design is less astonishing.  The look of the Beast's castle is very unique, and yet classic all at once.
Runners-Up
2.) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
3.) The Rocketeer
4.) Terminator 2: Judgment Day
5.) Hook

Best Editing - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
Terminator 2 is just a juggernaut of a movie, it is quite possibly the biggest and most explosive chase movie ever made, and keeping that propulsive energy going for two and a half hours is no small feat.  Thankfully, the editors here managed to do just that.
Runners-Up
2.) The Silence of the Lambs
3.) Cape Fear
4.) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
5.) The Rocketeer

Best Cinematography - The Silence of the Lambs
This movie is all sorts of creepy and a lot of that is due to the dread that is created by the images.  Add on top of that the well realized finale utilizing nightvision in Buffalo Bill's lair, and you have a masterfully shot thriller.
Runners-Up
2.) Cape Fear
3.) Father of the Bride
4.) Only the Lonely
5.) Regarding Henry

Best Supporting Actress - Maureen O'Hara, Only the Lonely
In one of her finest, and yet lesser seen performances of her storied career, Maureen O'Hara shines as the doting Irish Catholic mother of John Candy in Only the Lonely.  She is absolutely the funniest aspect of the whole movie, always upstaging Candy himself with her staunch manner.
Runners-Up
2.) Geraldine McEwan, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
3.) Angela Lansbury, Beauty and the Beast
4.) Maggie Smith, Hook
5.) Kimberly Williams, Father of the Bride

Best Supporting Actor - Alan Rickman, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
There do not seem to be enough words in the English language to describe how great of an actor Alan Rickman was.  He will always be one of the greatest chameleons to grace the silver screen, and as the Sherif of Nottingham he managed to make a devilish character charming and funny.  That is a near impossible feat, even for the best actors, and Alan Rickman proved here that he was better than all the rest.
Runners-Up
2.) Ted Levine, The Silence of the Lambs
3.) Martin Short, Father of the Bride
4.) Dustin Hoffman, Hook
5.) Bill Nunn, Regarding Henry

Best Actress - Jodie Foster, The Silence of the Lambs
As Clarice Starling, Jodie Foster manages to be both strong and naive at the same time.  It is through her eyes that The Silence of the Lambs plays out, and she is the main reason this movie works.  When she is frightened, you feel it.  When she is grossed out, so are you.  It takes some genuine talent to be able to do that with a role, and she's got it.
Runners-Up
2.) Annette Bening, Regarding Henry
3.) Linda Hamilton, Terminator 2: Judgment Day
4.) Diane Keaton, Father of the Bride
5.) Paige O'Hara, Beauty and the Beast

Best Actor - Harrison Ford, Regarding Henry
From Anthony Hopkins (who actually won the Oscar for his creepified role as Hannibal Lecter in The Silence of the Lambs), to the surprisingly soulful performance by John Candy as a man trying to break out from under his doting mother's thumb in Only the Lonely, all the way to Steve Martin being the perfect personification of fathers everywhere in Father of the Bride, 1991 was such a great year for actors, however only one performance can be my favorite and that one is Harrison Ford in Regarding Henry.  Ford has never been more vulnerable in a role, with the titular part of Henry he goes from being a suave businessman to essentially being like a child after a shot in the head.  There is a playfulness that Ford brings to the part that I have never seen from him in any other movie, and I would argue this is one of his finest acting performances he's ever given.
Runners-Up
2.) Anthony Hopkins, The Silence of the Lambs
3.) John Candy, Only the Lonely
4.) Steve Martin, Father of the Bride
5.) Arnold Schwarzenegger, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Best Ensemble - Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Kevin Costner's non-British accent aside, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves had the best cast from 1991.  Costner was as likable as ever as Robin Hood, while Alan Rickman was devious and delightful as the Sherif of Nottingham, and Morgan Freeman had all of the best lines as Azeem.  From top to bottom, you can't beat this cast.
Runners-Up
2.) The Silence of the Lambs
3.) Father of the Bride
4.) Regarding Henry
5.) Only the Lonely

Best Movie Moment - Sean Connery's Cameo, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
My parents have always told me the story of seeing this movie in the theaters and how everyone was just shocked, I mean literally shocked, when Sean Connery showed up as King Richard at the end.  He was not credited in the movie and his cameo was not publicized before release, so this is one of those rare instances in movie history where a surprise managed to go unspoiled.  What makes this cameo all the more awesome is the fact that Connery had played Robin Hood in the movie Robin & Marian, making it a funny, full circle kind of thing.  Bottom line though is that this would not, and probably could not, happen today, thanks to the internet, making it all the more memorable of a movie moment.
Runners-Up
2.) The Ninja Rap, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze
3.) Nightvision Hunt, The Silence of the Lambs
4.) Belle and Beast Dance, Beauty and the Beast
5.) The Terminator Sacrifices Himself, Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Best Screenplay - Only the Lonely
Writer Chris Columbus (who also directed the movie) wrote a marvelously funny script that weaves in great one-liners with some genuine heart.  The greatest thing about Only the Lonely is the fact that it is not a farce, like so many of John Candy's other movies, it is a genuinely touching story about one lonely man's romantic woes and his doting mother trying to intervene.  While the movie is chock full of funny moments, it's in the more serious moments where the movie touches your heart, and it is bar none the best written movie from 1991 for that reason.
Runners-Up
2.) The Silence of the Lambs
3.) Regarding Henry
4.) Terminator 2: Judgment Day
5.) Father of the Bride

Best Director - James Cameron, Terminator 2: Judgment Day
You really have to give it to James Cameron for this one.  With Terminator 2 he created one of the most propulsive chase movies ever made, managing to also create an emotional bond between the audience and Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator that wasn't there in the first movie because he was the bad guy, not the hero.  The fact that Cameron was able to make the audience actually care about a hunk of metal, proves why his work on Terminator 2 was the best directing from 1991.
Runners-Up
2.) Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs
3.) Joe Johnston, The Rocketeer
4.) Chris Columbus, Only the Lonely
5.) Steven Spielberg, Hook

Best Movie - Terminator 2: Judgment Day
1991 was full of great movies, with the adventurous likes of The Rocketeer and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves nearly claiming my number one spot, but I have to give it to Terminator 2: Judgment Day instead.  There was no other movie from 1991 that was as awesome as Terminator 2, hands down that is the only reason I feel I need to give.  Terminator 2: Judgment Day still is one of the finest action movies ever made, and no matter how many great action movies come in the future, this will be one that will always be referenced and fondly remembered.
Runners-Up
2.) The Rocketeer
3.) Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
4.) The Silence of the Lambs
5.) Father of the Bride
6.) Only the Lonely
7.) Regarding Henry
8.) Beauty and the Beast
9.) Hook
10.) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II

Reactions to the 2016 Oscars!

So I'm a day late here, but that's because I was still having fun with my brother and sister-in-law all Monday morning and then had to drive back home from Nashville to Birmingham that afternoon.  All of that to say, I just didn't get around to writing out my reactions to the 88th Academy Awards till now.  So what did I think?  Well, it was a better show than I thought it would be.

I think Chris Rock handled the controversy as well as any host could, and I was genuinely surprised at how he didn't point fingers or turn it into a massive soap box, everyone got ripped at some point throughout the night (and it definitely helped that a lot of the jokes were genuinely humorous).  While I do feel they should have just gone to business as usual after the opening monologue, instead of constantly dredging the controversy back up with more gags and bits, it's all water under the bridge now and hopefully next year can just be about the movies and nothing else.  For me personally, my favorite bit of the whole night was Chris Rock's girl scout cookies' bit.  It was the only non-controversy gag done the entire night, and I found it a refreshing breather that was just sweet, funny, and reminiscent of Ellen Degeneres ordering the pizzas a couple of years ago.  All in all, this year's Oscars were enjoyable with far less controversy and animosity than I expected, though I do have to call out the Academy for one of their choices in producing the show.

Every single year all of the Best Original Song nominees sing their songs on the show before the award is given out.  Well, this year the producers cut two of the five songs from the program, citing they didn't have time in the show for them, but that seems to be a silly excuse to me.  They could have cut the funny, but time consuming bit where Chris Rock went and interviewed people in Compton about the nominated movies, or the bit about Black History Month being about Jack Black.  Sure, those were both enjoyable, but to not perform two of the nominated songs was just a slap in the face to the people who made them.  One reason why so many people are refusing to buy the Academy's story that they simply didn't have time for them, is mainly because they did and they chose to only have the three songs performed by the more well known artists on the show.  While I have never heard of Sumi Jo and Anohni, the two artists who didn't get to perform their songs at the Oscars, everyone has heard of Lady Gaga, The Weekend, and Sam Smith.  There's something wrong with that picture and I think the Academy should be ashamed of themselves for basically playing favorites for ratings.  Alright, now that I am done with my soapbox, how did I fare in my predictions?

Overall I went 19 of 24 in my predictions.  That's a respectable number, but three shy of my personal best from two years ago.  My thought that The Big Short's PGA win would hold more clout than Spotlight's SAG Ensemble win, was really a coin toss kind of thought process.  I seriously almost changed my prediction to Spotlight before I posted, but I stayed with The Big Short because the PGA has the exact same balloting system as the Academy, choosing to let that be more telling than the fact that actors make up majority of the Academy.  In truth, the only real surprises of the night for me were Sam Smith trumping Lady Gaga for Original Song and Ex Machina deservedly winning Best Visual Effects.

While Sam Smith was the only other person I thought stood a chance of winning Original Song, I really thought Gaga had it sewn up, and clearly everyone else did too, considering how many people were shocked by it.  As for Ex Machina, no one in a million years thought this small, British sci-fi Indie could topple four blockbusters to win for Visual Effects, and yet it did.  I read somewhere that Vegas had it at an 80-1 odd, that's really quite impressive that it managed to win.  As for other perceived surprises in the media -- Spotlight's win, Mark Rylance trumping Stallone, or Mad Max dominating The Revenant in the tech categories -- I was not surprised by any of them.

Rylance was super deserving of his win, being the best part of Bridge of Spies, a movie the Academy loved a whole lot, as is evidenced by its many nominations.  While I would have loved to see Stallone win, Rylance is a hard-working character actor who did a phenomenal job in the movie that he was in, so to say he didn't deserve it and Stallone did is just petty.  It's an apples and oranges argument, pure and simple.  Speaking to the other perceived surprises, Mad Max winning the most Oscars of the night with 6 total did not surprise me in the slightest.  It won everywhere I thought it would, save for Visual Effects.  It had just dominated too much in all of the precursor awards leading up to Sunday night that there was no way it was going to be toppled by another movie.  And what about Spotlight coming out on top?  Well a lot of people were hedging all of their bets on The Revenant to win Best Picture because it had the most nominations and Spotlight ultimately won only one other award for Original Screenplay (which is rare in-and-of itself), but those people weren't looking at the fact that it's clearly been a critical and industry favorite all season long.  Spotlight was never snubbed by any of the award shows in regards to nominations and triumphed with the Best Ensemble award at the SAG Awards, speaking to genuine love and support from the largest branch of the Academy.  Simply put, Spotlight was a quiet frontrunner that people weren't paying any mind because of its unshowy manner, which is what probably got it the win, because it was a movie that relied solely on its script, its acting, and a deft directorial hand to keep the movie from being stale.  So that's that for this year's Oscar.

Sitting here at the end of this year's Oscar race, I am personally glad for the first time ever that an awards season is all over.  All of the controversy around this year's awards season, and in particular the Oscars, really detracted from a lot of the joy for me.  Add on top of that a bunch of movies that I am sure were well made, but just did not appeal to me enough to warrant shelling out $10 and the gas money to drive to the other side of town to see, just kept me from being as excited as usual.  I hope next year's crop of movies will be more appealing to me, and I hope like always that more blockbusters will be recognized by the Academy.  Just because something is popular doesn't mean that it's bad, typically that means it's good and to snub every superhero movie or whatnot is rather ridiculous in this fanboy's mind.  Of course, if it were up to me, just about every movie nominated would have some sci-fi or fantasy element to it, so I am biased, but hey...  A fanboy can dream, can't he?

Predicting the 2016 Oscars!

Tonight is the night!  The biggest night that the movie industry has every single year.  While I am excited about tonight (partly because I am going to a special Oscars viewing event with my brother and sister-in-law), as for the show itself, this is the least excited I have been for any Oscars ceremony my entire life.  Here's the thing, not only has this year's Oscars been mired in controversy and have a host that will assuredly be too political in Chris Rock (just my opinion), I also had no desire to see majority of the movies nominated this time.  It's not that a lot of the movies probably aren't well made movies, their subject matter just didn't intrigue me enough to warrant spending $10 to see.  With all that said, I have kept up with the race closely, as I always have, and while I haven't seen half of the movies nominated for Best Picture, I know enough about the movies and their awards chances to make good educated predictions.

So what are the things you should expect to see tonight?  Leonardo DiCaprio winning Best Actor and Brie Larson winning Best Actress are the two surest bets of the entire night.  Also, if anyone thinks Inside Out wont win Best Animated Feature, they're probably kidding themselves.  Aside from that, other pretty solid bets are Mad Max: Fury Road cleaning up in the crafts categories.  While I personally am pulling for Star Wars: The Force Awakens any chance I can get (which should have been nominated for Best Picture, and also win if it were), realistically Mad Max has been the token blockbuster favorite with critics and the industry all awards season and I don't expect that to change tonight.  Why critics and the industry seem to always single out just one blockbuster every year to lavish all of their accolades on and then give everything else to a dozen or so dramas, I'll never get that kind of pretentiousness, but that's the way it goes.  Now the real question marks of the night are in arguably the two biggest categories.

Best Director and Best Picture are really up in the air this year.  The Revenant won the Director's Guild Award for its directing, as well as the BAFTA and Golden Globes for both Picture and Directing, but The Big Short won the Producer's Guild Award, which has been the most accurate predictor of Best Picture the past few years because it's the only other award that uses the same voting system as the Academy.  However, there's also the potential spoiler in Spotlight which won the Screen Actor's Guild Award for Best Ensemble, which traditionally is a harbinger for Best Picture glory.  So the race is really split three ways between these three movies for Best Picture, and while I don't think neither Big Short director Adam McKay, nor Spotlight director Tom McCarthy, have a shot at winning Best Director, The Revenant director Alejandro G. Inarritu could find himself upset by Mad Max: Fury Road director George Miller.  There's a lot of support for Miller in the industry, so don't discount that.  If Best Film Editing (a good indicator for Director and Picture) goes to Mad Max, we might see this as a possibility.  As well, look for Emmanuel Lubezki to be the first cinematographer ever to win three Oscars in a row for The Revenant, and if Inarritu does win Best Director for the same movie, he will be the first director to win two years in a row since Joseph Mankiewicz in 1951, and the first director to direct two Best Picture winers in a row.  Is Inarritu going to be immortalized by the Academy?  Time will tell, but for now here are my predictions for 2016's Academy Awards!  And for a full list of nominees, check this link.

Best Documentary Short:  Claude Lanzmann: Spectres of the Shoah

Best Short Film - Animated:  Bear Story (Historia de un Oso)

Best Short Film - Live Action:  Stutterer

Best Sound Editing:  Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Sound Mixing:  Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Visual Effects:  Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Makeup and Hairstyling:  Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Costume Design:  Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Production Design:  Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Film Editing:  Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Cinematography:  The Revenant

Best Documentary Feature:  Amy

Best Foreign Language Film:  Son of Saul

Best Animated Feature Film:  Inside Out

Best Original Song:  "Til it Happens to You" from The Hunting Ground

Best Original Score:  The Hateful Eight

Best Adapted Screenplay:  The Big Short

Best Original Screenplay:  Spotlight

Best Supporting Actress:  Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

Best Supporting Actor:  Sylvester Stallone, Creed

Best Actress:  Brie Larson, Room

Best Actor:  Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

Best Director:  Alejandro G. Inarritu, The Revenant

Best Picture:  The Big Short

As always, check back tomorrow for my full reactions to this year's Academy Awards!

Movie Review: "Deadpool"

If you like your movies violent and vulgar, then Deadpool is right for you.  Based on the Marvel Comics character, Deadpool is about Wade Wilson aka Deadpool, a masked merc with a mouth who is on a mission to find the jerks who physically scarred him, and that's about the whole movie right there.  Deadpool is essentially one long chase movie with flashbacks thrown in to give the chase context.  Ultimately, how much you enjoy the movie simply boils down to how funny you find Ryan Reynold's filthy-mouthed portrayal of Deadpool.  Don't be fooled into thinking this is a fun superhero movie for the whole family, this movie has a hard R-rating, and deservedly so.  While I personally found a lot of the violence, nudity, and language unnecessary, we live in a day-and-age where so many are desensitized to these things, I know I'm in the minority.  Bottom line, if you enjoy movies that are as rude, crude, and socially unacceptable as possible, Deadpool is right for you.

I give Deadpool a 5 out of 10!

Movie Review: "Hail, Caesar!"

I am not really sure where to begin here.  Hail, Caesar! was a movie I wanted to love, but just couldn't.  The thought of not liking a Coen brothers comedy still horrifies me, but that's exactly the case here.

Hail, Caesar! stars Josh Brolin as a Hollywood fixer for a fictional movie studio in the Fifties, and it is his job to privately resolve issues between stars, directors, and the media.  This idea seems to be perfect fodder for the Coens to mine, but the movie just never really seems to click into place.

George Clooney portrays a buffoonish movie star who is kidnapped by Communist screenwriters.  Why?  The movie never really makes that clear.  Then there are all of the well produced, but overly long stretches showing the various movies in production at the studio, from a biblical epic to a Gene Kelly-type song-and-dance movie.  I wanted to enjoy everything this movie was doing, but I never got why we were spending so much time with characters who literally only show up for one scene and then are done.

The only real saving grace for this movie is the very funny performance from Alden Ehrenreich as a singing cowboy movie star who helps Brolin rescue Clooney.  I personally would have watched a whole movie about Ehrenreich's character and had been more satisfied.

At the end of the day, I still think there was a great movie idea in here somewhere, but Hail, Caesar! never quite finds it, nurtures it, and brings it to the forefront.

I give Hail, Caesar! a 5 out of 10!