The Oscar Awards Winners Are…

Because like the Grammy’s the awards will be evenly divided between the films that showcase Hollywood’s best faces. Expect to see Martin Scorsese and the folks of Hugo make several trips.  Why don’t they call the Oscars the “yearly celebration of one film and the ‘thanks for coming’ participation awards of a few others.” It will never be anything more.

So here we will have no singing, no horrible skits, and no crappy host.  And best of all this will take you 5 minutes tops, I have under cut the Academy by 3 hours and 6 minutes run time.

Michael Emerson presenting for Best Actor – In a year with no real stand out performances it was an easy choice to select

Making a Stop at the Super 8… again (Blu-Ray Version)

Frankensteined from my Big Screen review, edited for look-backs and 6 month later views.

Seeing this movie last night in the theater on Blu-Ray still made me feel 15 all over again.  Stephen Spielberg almost found that magic he had in the 80’s along with JJ Abrams….. almost.  Don’t let me take anything away from the film, I loved it, 9 9.5 out of 10 in first second watching.  I was only left confused in the final closing moments as to why the resolution took an hour and 40 minutes longer then it really needed.  But the ride sure was fun.

In the 80’s Spielberg created these epic “Kid Adventures” with the Goonies, Gremlins, ET, and Back to the Future where it was a teen (usually a virtual nobody in Hollywood) in the lead role taking on the hero’s role and burden on a mission to save the town/friends.  When I say he almost reclaimed the magic there is a fair amount of JJ Abrams sprinkled into the story.  JJ is a wonderful storyteller with a knack for creating mystery around a far from benign creature that we only catch glimpses of as it passes just out of sight.  And with that keeping the monster’s appearance a secret till it is only necessary.

Making a Stop at the Super 8

Seeing this movie last night made me feel 15 all over again.  Stephen Spielberg almost found that magic he had in the 80’s with JJ Abrams….. almost.  Don’t let me take anything away from the film, I loved it, 9 out of 10 in first watching.  I was only left confused in the final closing moments as to why the resolution took an hour and 40 minutes longer then it really needed.

In the 80’s Spielberg created these epic “Kid Adventures” with the Goonies, Gremlins, ET, and Back to the Future where it was a teen in the lead role taking on a heroes role and burden on a mission to save the town/friends.  When I say he almost reclaimed the magic there is a fair amount of JJ Abrams sprinkled into the story.  JJ is a wonderful storyteller with a knack for creating mystery around a far from benign creature that we only catch glimpses of as it passes just out of sight.

I was not surprised by this, I saw the preview, but in front of my at the theater was a family with a maybe 13 and 9-year-old who really should not have been there in the first place.  The film has some fairly intense moments that had me questioning the PG-13 rating as the Spielberg name might confuse too many parents to bring kids along.

The cast was reminiscent of many 80’s films with the hero, who I could not help but see Elliott (Henry Thomas) in him all film, the fat kid who is the but of jokes, the nerdy kid who freaks out and cries at the drop of a pin, the hooligan, and the female love interest who falls for the hero.  It had all of the ingredients sprinkled just right to make a classic.

I won’t say much as I don’t want to spoil any of the fun, I suggest just seeing the trailer and going from there.

Not seeing this film would be a disservice to yourself.