Oscar Resutls

Best Picture:
It went to spotlight, i still haven't seen it, so i can't make any judgement about it other than saying ill watch it soon. I honestly don't see how it beat out some of the other movies but oh well.

Best Actor:
LEO FINALLY DID IT! Sorry but its sort of exploding all over online. People are excited. I like that. He deserved it. He's deserved it for years and finally got it, good for him. Revenant was amazing and so was he. Well earned. I wish Revenant did better but i can't complain.

Best Actress:
Brie Larson got it for Room, she was the clear choice. Not much surprise for me there, good for her. Movie was interesting and she was amazing.

Supporting Actor:
This went to Mark Rylance in bride of spies. Again, still haven't seen it. I get no appeal to go see it. I might not, I'm kind of eh about it. I was hoping for Tom Hardy but that's okay.

Supporting Actress:
Alicia Vikander from the Danish Girl got it. Good for her. I honestly had no preference in this category. 

Director:
The Revenant finally got another one with this, Alejandro Iñárritu brings one home. He was my pick and I am happy with it.

Animated Feature:
It went to Inside out and i think that's great. Its really cute and it'll make any parent cry. All the other nominations suck so im glad it went to the one that makes sense. 

(i should note that im leaving out categories that i dont care about)

Score:
The Hateful 8 took this home. I loved the movie but I didn't actually notice the score. I'll have to check it out soon.

Thats all im going to talk about. I know a lot of the other stuff went to Mad Max. I've already expressed my opinion on it. I liked it, i just didn't think it was serious. I should re watch and see if i get something more.

Racism at the Oscars

So shortly after the nominations came out, someone noticed that almost everyone was white. Suspiciously non diverse. And accusations of racism quickly started movements in social media.
So here is my take on it:

Of course they academy is racist! All the nominations are decided by a bunch of old white guys. Many aren't actively racist. They don't say anything racist or express that they are superior in any way. But everyone has that grandpa, or uncle, or someone who constantly makes racist slips but denies any prejudice. They don't think themselves superior and would never made a comment based on someones race. But because they were raised in an environment where it was acceptable and even encouraged, they subconsiously factor race into decisions, and sometimes its enough to make a difference. For example, who gets the job? who do you accept into the college? who do you trust? and most relevant, who do you nominate for an award?

I personally know several people who have a hidden prejudice. They are good people and only want whats right, but their judgement is clouded. I feel like that is what has happened in the academy. Collectively, enough of them expressed a slight preference towards white people and that was reflected in the official nominations. That's what I pin this up to. No one did it with malice in their heart.

So the next step is what to do about it. Well, i can tell you this much, you will never change the world on twitter. You actually have to do something in the real world at some point. Tweeting and hash tagging that you are upset isn't going to fix anything.

I'm not saying that social media movements aren't useful. They can be critical to the start up of something and can bring lots of awareness to it. But being aware isn't going to solve anything and at some point you have to put your phone down and do something.

But in this particular situation, there isn't much that anyone can do. The academy is only for awards as far as we're concerned. You have no power over them, none of us do. Any real change would have to come from the inside. From someone important enough to kick people out and bring new people in. As it stands no one can do anything. Honestly, the best thing we can do is wait for the old racists to die out. It sounds horrible and slow, but its sometimes the fastest that change can happen.

But what about in the mean time? All the poor black people not getting the awards they deserve! This is a dick thing to say but.. suck it up. If the Academy is racist then why do you care if they like you? In the end its just a dumb award. It's important but it really doesn't matter in the scheme of things. You're a damn movie star, you're set for life, chill about the award. And compared to other race related issues in America right now, a little golden trophy doesn't count for jack shit. Police shoot unarmed black men at 4 times the rate as white men. That matters a hell of a lot more than not getting nominated for an Oscar.

Fury

I've been talking a lot of war movies lately and im going to continue this trend for as long as i see fit. The next war movie im going to talk about is Fury.
Fury is the story of an American tank crew in the closing days of world war two. It stars Brad Pitt, Shia LeBeouf, and Micheal Pena. The n in pena should have a tilde over it which makes it sound like pen-ya but i cant figure out how to do that. It also has that guy from "The Walking Dead" and Clint Eastwood's hot son.

In my opinion, Fury is one of the most under appreciated movies of the past few years. It is a thrilling, gritty, realistic, and well made movie and it deserves more credit. This film covers some of the things that we dont like to talk about in regards to war and it does it very well.

Brad Pitt delivers an outstanding performance as do all of the actors. There isn't really one main character, although they do follow some more than others. The movie really centers around the messed up family of brothers that is the tank crew. The actors mesh well with their characters and with each other. Chemistry is there and it shows.

The special affects in this movie are also outstanding. When making a war movie, there is a difficult decision to make, "Do we use practical affects or animated ones?" Honestly, i almost always choose the first option. I think real explosions are great.  However, Fury made a good call with faking the battles, for the most part.
Some of it was real, the tanks and soldiers were all real and all outstanding, but the tracers and shells and explosions were made on a computer. It turned out awesome. They were able to show things way clearer and more accurately with the fake stuff than they ever could with the real. My only complaint is the use of animated squibs.
For those who don't know, in the old days, when you got shot in a movie, an explosive on your chest that was full of fake blood would go off and squirt everywhere. These are slightly dangerous and many have traded them for putting in the blood spirt in post production. Fury does this. It looks fake, you can see it from a mile away and it stand out against the very real and gritty movie. It really can take you out of it.
But other than the squib, i really like everything about this movie. i highly recommend you watch.

Unbroken: or how Angelina broke an unbreakable story

Let me start this off by taking a moment to recognize all POW and soldiers who are MIA. You are heroes and deserve the deepest respect this nation can bestow. Any comments I make in this post are directed to the makers of the movie, not Louis Zamperini or any of the actual people who experienced this firsthand.

I never actually finished the book, Unbroken, but I have read parts and I know the story. It is truly an inspiring one. The hardships he endured and his triumphs over them could motivate anyone. And even more inspiring was his ability to overcome the events of the war after struggling with it after the war. That’s like, half the book. I guess Angelina didn’t like that enough.

This movie should’ve had three times the content and been 30 minutes longer. That being said, this movie has serious pacing issues. There are also several scenes that I don’t thing add to the movie and could’ve been cut. This is one of the few movies that I think would benefit from more montages. The movie spends a lot of time making you stare at similar things over and over. It makes for a boring movie.

Unbroken the movie focuses on his experience as a POW and while he’s adrift. The movie ends when the war ends and he comes home. They touch on his early life and his running briefly and in weird flashbacks at odd times and only for the first part of the movie. It’s actually really weird and I absolutely hated the inconsistency.  They only cover his PTSD and recovery from it and life after the war in the end credits. I think that’s possibly the biggest injustice this movie does.

Here is how they should have done it:

*Caution- High School movie idea ahead (it might suck, but at least not as bad as the movie they already made*

Start the movie with the search mission that lead to the crash, cover all of it just like in the movie, but have short flashbacks to his childhood throughout. After the crash, you can have the cast away parts but shorten it to 2-3 scenes at most and cover most of it in a montage. Continue the childhood flashbacks during this time, the childhood flashbacks should be getting into the track parts now, but he should still be young.

Show his capture and cover the places he was held but we can cut out most of the scenes of him sitting on an island. A more interesting aspect to cover would be the things that happened immediately after his capture and the many places he was taken. Think short concise bits here, not long drawn out bits. The flashbacks should be into his high school track career.

After he gets to Tokyo they should keep it mostly the same as the movie, but they should cut out some of the pointless beating scenes and replace them with, you guessed it, a montage. A 15 minute section of the movie is devoted to one incident when the entire camp was forced to punch him in the face. Yes that’s horrible and a point you want in the movie but it doesn’t need to take up that much time.

Another thing, this move is rated PG-13. It shouldn’t be. This is a movie about the horrors of being a POW and PG-13 makes it feel like a family friendly version. The reality is that horrible things happened and they should show it, not hide it.

The flashbacks should lead up to the Olympics now and the climactic point with the wooden board should parallel his finish at the games. After that there should be an acceleration of the flashbacks to the point where the end of the war when they think they will be executed should match up with the cancelation of the Olympics in Tokyo.

After that I don’t have much to say other than, at this point we should be around and hour and 40 minutes into the movie, spend the next thirty minutes on his PTSD and difficulty recovering from the war (including flashbacks to earlier in the movie), from there to the end (another 30 minutes at least) it should cover his recovery and acceptance. After that you can end it.

Thanks Angelina, I’m probably never going to watch another movie you make.

American Sniper

Here’s another opinion you might not like- American Sniper is a great movie and Chris Kyle is a hero.

Now I would leave it at that but my blog posts have to be 400+ words to count so here you go. (Caution, I’m probably going to fucking swear in this post)

American Sniper was nominated for a shit ton of Oscars and won like, one. And it was a shitty Oscar that no one cares about. That’s the first injustice I see. The film is amazing. I don’t care about all the other stuff going on, you have to admit that the acting, directing, everything, was amazing. To deny it an Oscar for the subject matter is an atrocity to the producers, director, actors, and everyone involved in the making of the movie.

There is something you should probably know… movies aren’t all sunshine and rainbows. Some films take on tough subject matter. So judge the film on itself and not what it’s based around. American Sniper is racist. So is Chris Kyle. That’s really not a big shocker. Read the fuckin book and you’ll see just how much Kyle hated Islam. But to punish the movie for being centered on the actions of a man with prejudices is just stupid. By that logic we should burn the movie “Shindler’s List’ and “12 Years a Slave” and “Roots”.

History isn’t pretty but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t tell the story. Judge it by its relevance. I’d say the “American Sniper” story is pretty relevant.

Now on to real life, the man and the actions themselves. Should we remember Chris Kyle as a hero? Let me just pull apart some of your shitty arguments against him.

1.       He was a sniper, snipers are cowards.

This argument isn’t very common but it still comes up. It was more common back in the day. Traditional American culture wants our heroes to be the lone cowboy that stands in the middle of the street at high noon. A snipers tactics are the exact opposite of that. But snipers have been used in literally every single American war so if you still think they aren’t the American way, you should read a history book.

2.       He fought in the Iraq war

Iraq was bad, I agree. Most people think we shouldn’t have been there. And it’s okay to have that stance. But applying that stance to men who were following orders to defend their country isn’t. Oppose the war, not the troops.

3.       He was racist

This is the big one, and I’ll give it to you. Chris Kyle was racist. I already said that. He help prejudices against any Islamic person. If you read his book it’s very clear. He thought the Iraq War was a holy war. Literally, he went out and got a crusader’s cross tattooed on his arm. But there is one thing you have to remember. He never killed a person based on their religion. He didn’t like the religion of the people he killed, but he didn’t kill because of it. The reason he killed 160+ people is to save the lives of his brothers. That’s it. That’s why they called him “The Legend” and that’s why he should be a hero. Oh, and by the way, if you want to eliminate racists as heroes in American culture you are going to have to get rid of most of the founding fathers, Babe Ruth, Walt Disney, John Wayne, every single confederate soldier, Dr. Seuss, Henry Ford, and many others.

So he’s racist, and I disagree with him on that. But if you think for a minute that I wouldn’t have dropped to my knees to thank that man for all the lives he’s saved, you’re wrong. Because of him, countless mothers and wives and sisters and brothers get to see their loved one again. If we can overlook Babe Ruth being racist for some home runs, we can certainly get past Chris Kyle for saving our boys lives. 

Best Picture

"The Big Sort"
I liked it, an interesting idea but i think it would've had more impact if it came out in '09 or '10. We still feel the effects 8 years later but its almost a part of history.
"Bridge of Spies"
I honestly didn't watch this one. From the trailers it looked like a B rate film so i passed it up.
"Brooklyn"
Its just so damn cute it hurts. I really like it and its very good all around. I'd make it a contender for my own personal best picture.
"Mad Max"
Wait... that was serious? I mean i liked it but it was far from serious. There was a painted dude with a guitar flame thrower.
"The Martian"
Again, haven't seen it yet, but its on my list. I'm hopeful for this one to do well though, its got a good idea.
"The Relevant"
 http://thebestschoolspirit.blogspot.com/2016/01/the-revenant.html   A top contender for personal best picture.
"The Room"
Really good. I can't think of anything they could've done better but I know it would lose so i wont even bother putting it on my list.
"Spotlight"
Haven't seen it yet. It's on the list. I also have high hopes for it.

Currently, i have two movies on my list for personal best picture. i might have two more but ill have to watch them first. It will be awful hard to compete with the two i have though.

Netflix

So "Full Metal Jacket" is on Netflix...... I know what I'm doing during school tomorrow....

Avatar in the Hurt Locker

Okay here it goes…. Everyone and their brother is going to hate me for this…. “Avatar” kinda sucked…..

Hey now, put down your torches and pitchforks and let me explain first. For those of you who are lost, I’ll explain. At the 82^nd Oscars in 2009 the nominations for best picture were rather slim. Almost everyone had the blockbuster hit “Avatar” picked to win it all. The academy instead decided that “The Hurt Locker” was the best picture that year.

There was immediate public outcry and many people who hadn’t even seen “The Hurt Locker” were saying that it sucked and shouldn’t have won. Due to the angry mob that was forming at the time I kept my opinions about the nominees to myself. But after re watching both movies in the past few months I remembered my stance and decided to declare it, once and for all.

“The Hurt Locker” is one of the best movies of all time. All the technical factors are amazing, acting, directing, special effects, ect. But what really sets this apart is the connection to the real world and its story. This movie came out in 2008, just as the Iraq War was coming to a close. Many were beginning to question the war. This movie reminded the United States about the other costs of war. Beyond the money and wasted time. The very real human cost that almost no one saw. It shows you American soldiers die, be wounded, and become mentally unstable. All of the surviving characters are mentally scared by the war. Unfortunately, this film didn’t do very well at the time, in fact, it’s the lowest grossing movie to win best picture. But the message and meaning behind it are still strong. There is a real human cost that thousands are paying and have paid, and that needs to be a factor when talking about the war.

As for the story, I just have to tell you to watch it. You won’t regret it. There’s a good chance you’ll get chills more often than not and a guarantee that if you aren’t gripping the edge of your seat it will be because you are sitting back, contemplating what you just saw.

I will say this, the opening has a quote, “War is a Drug”

Now on to “Avatar”

Guys…. It’s Pocahontas. That’s all it is. A slightly adapted story with a futuristic slap. That’s about it. Everything in the movie is kind of average. It does have a HUGE upside though. The special effects are the best ever. I’ll give that to them. It’s a beautiful movie, even if it was made on a computer it is still really beautiful and the fact it was made, not found, it’s enough to get it pretty high. But that’s one category. So give them an Oscar for that. But we have to stop pretending like this is some amazing film that should be cherished forever. It was alright and it was a step forward in the CGI world. That’s one Oscar nomination. And it’s far from best picture.