Best of the Year...So Far

Now I haven't seen all the great movies you other bloggers have, but I will be getting to them eventually. I have a specific order of the movies I'm going to watch, but enough of that. Best of the year so far:

Bold = Gold Italic = Silver * = Bronze

Best Picture

The Brave One
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Knocked Up
The Simpsons Movie
Spider-Man 3*

Best Director

Ben Affleck - Gone Baby Gone
David Fincher - Zodiac
Neil Jordan - The Brave One
Paul Verhoeven - Black Book*
David Yates - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Casey Affleck - Gone Baby Gone
Chris Cooper - Breach
David Duchovny - The TV Set
Ryan Reynolds - Smokin' Aces
Seth Rogen - Knocked Up*

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Jodie Foster - The Brave One
Katherine Heigl - Knocked Up*
Carice van Houten - Black Book
Christina Ricci - Black Snake Moan
Sigourney Weaver - Snow Cake

Best Supporting Actor

Jeff Daniels - The Lookout
Morgan Freeman - Gone Baby Gone
Ed Harris - Gone Baby Gone
Terrence Howard - The Brave One*
Paul Rudd - Knocked Up

Best Supporting Actress

Leslie Mann - Knocked Up
Sidney Tamiia Poitier - Grindhouse
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Meg Ryan - In the Land of Women*
Sharon Stone - Alpha Dog

Best Actor in a Limited/Cameo Role

Jason Bateman - Smokin' Aces
Bruce Campbell - Spider-Man 3
Ralph Fiennes - Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix*
Ryan Seacrest - Knocked Up
J.K. Simmons - Spider-Man 3

Best Actress in a Limited/Cameo Role

Elizabeth Banks - Spider-Man 3
Cate Blanchett - Hot Fuzz*
Zooey Deschanel - Bridge to Terabithia
Rosemary Harris - Spider-Man 3
Emily Hampshire - Snow Cake

Best Original Screenplay

Black Book*
The Brave One
Knocked Up
The Lookout
The TV Set

Best Adapted Screenplay

Bridge to Terabithia
Freedom Writers
Gone Baby Gone
The Simpsons Movie*
Zodiac

The 10 Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen: #9

Raise Your Voice, dir. Sean McNamara

The only movie I could tolerate Hilary Duff in was The Lizzie McGuire Movie. That is not saying much. She seemed comfortable in that role because she had been playing it on TV for a while. She was wasted in Agent Cody Banks and merely okay in A Cinderella Story. In Raise Your Voice, she is abysmal. Definitely the worst performance of her career and the worst movie she has appeared in. Duff overacts every scene she's in. The most horrifying scenes are the ones where she is crying. They go way over the top and if the memories of her brother dying cause her to go into rage filled crying fits, every-fucking-time, she should be submitted to a psychiatrist or become institutionalized. Another horrifying scene is where Duff tries to act "street." Holy shit. That has to be one of the most cringe inducing moments in movie history. The absolute only good part in this movie is when she sings at the end. That is the Hilary Duff seen in The Lizzie McGuire Movie. She lets her natural charisma shine through. Everything before that moment and after it is dreadful. This film is a load of crap.

Oscar Predictions

Best Picture

Atonement
Juno
The Kite Runner
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Director

P.T. Anderson - There Will Be Blood
Tim Burton - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Joel & Ethan Cohen - No Country for Old Men
Marc Forster - The Kite Runner
Joe Wright - Atonement

Best Actor in a Leading Role

John Cusack - Grace is Gone
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones - In the Valley of Elah
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
James McAvoy - Atonement

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Julie Christie - Away From Her
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose
Keira Knightley - Atonement
Laura Linney - The Savages
Ellen Page - Juno

Best Supporting Actor

Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James By the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Philip Bosco - The Savages
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Best Supporting Actress

Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Kelly Macdonald - No Country for Old Men
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Best Original Screenplay

Todd Haynes & Oren Moverman - I'm Not There
Diablo Cody - Juno
Judd Apatow - Knocked Up
Brad Bird, Jim Capobianco & Jan Pinkava - Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins - The Savages

Best Adapted Screenplay

Christopher Hampton - Atonement
Sarah Polley - Away From Her
David Benioff - The Kite Runner
Joel & Ethan Cohen - No Country for Old Men
P.T. Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Best Cinematography

Atonement
The Kite Runner
Lust, Caution
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Art Direction

Atonement
The Golden Compass
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Costume Design

Atonement
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Hairspray
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Film Editing

American Gangster
Atonement
I'm Not There
The Kite Runner
No Country for Old Men

Best Original Score

Atonement
The Golden Compass
The Kite Runner
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood

Best Foreign Film

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Romania)
Days of Darkness (Canada)
Exiled (Hong Kong)
The Orphanage (Spain)
Persepolis (France)

Best Sound Mixing

Beowulf
No Country for Old Men
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Transformers

Best Original Song

Enchanted
Hairspray
Into the Wild
Once
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Visual Effects

The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Best Make-up

Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Hairspray
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Best Sound Editing

Beowulf
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Ratatouille
Spider-Man 3
Transformers

Best Animated Film

Persepolis
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie

Golden Globe Predictions: Update

Best Motion Picture - Drama

American Gangster
Atonement
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood

(Alternates: I'm Not There & Into the Wild)

Best Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy

Hairspray
Juno
Once
The Savages
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

(Alternates: Enchanted & Knocked Up)

Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Drama

George Clooney - Michael Clayton
Tommy Lee Jones - In the Valley of Elah
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
James McAvoy - Atonement
Denzel Washington - American Gangster

(Alternates: Josh Brolin - No Country for Old Men, John Cusack - Grace is Gone & Emile Hirsch - Into the Wild)

Best Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy

Don Cheadle - Talk to Me
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Ryan Gosling - Lars and the Real Girl
Glen Hansard - Once
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Savages

(Alternates: Jack Nicholson - The Bucket List, Seth Rogen - Knocked Up & John Travolta - Hairspray)

Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Drama

Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie - Away From Her
Jodie Foster - The Brave One
Angelina Jolie - A Mighty Heart
Keira Knightley - Atonement

(Alternates: Halle Berry - Things We Lost in the Fire & Tang Wei - Lust, Caution)

Best Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical/Comedy

Nikki Blonsky - Hairspray
Helena Bonham-Carter - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Marion Cotillard - La Vie en Rose
Laura Linney - The Savages
Ellen Page - Juno

(Alternates: Amy Adams - Enchanted, Katherine Heigl - Knocked Up, Markéta Irglová - Once & Nicole Kidman - Margot at the Wedding)

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture

Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem - No Country for Old Men
Philip Bosco - The Savages
Hal Holbrook - Into the Wild
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

(Alternates: Russell Crowe - American Gangster & Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War)

Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture

Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Kelly Macdonald - No Country for Old Men
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

(Alternates: Jennifer Jason Leigh - Margot at the Wedding & Vanessa Redgrave - Atonement)

Best Director

P.T Anderson - There Will Be Blood
Tim Burton - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country For Old Men
Ridley Scott - American Gangster
Joe Wright - Atonement

(Alternates: Sidney Lumet - Before the Devil Knows You're Dead & Mike Nichols - Charlie Wilson's War)

Best Screenplay

Atonement
Juno
No Country for Old Men
The Savages
There Will Be Blood

(Alternates: American Gangster, Charlie Wilson's War, Enchanted, Knocked Up & Michael Clayton)

Best Original Score

Atonement
Beowulf
The Golden Compass
The Kite Runner
Ratatouille

(Alternates: Enchanted, Michael Clayton & There Will Be Blood)

Best Foreign Language Film

4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days (Romania)
The Kite Runner (U.S.A)
Lust, Caution (Taiwan)
The Orphanage (Spain)
Persepolis (France)

(Alternate: The Diving Bell and Butterfly & La Vie en Rose)

Best Animated Film

Beowulf
Ratatouille
The Simpsons Movie

(Alternates: Bee Movie & Shrek the Third)

Best Original Song

Enchanted
Hairspray
Into the Wild
Once
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

(Alternates: Hairspray & Love in the Time of Cholera)

The 10 Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen: #10

Mr. Baseball, dir. Fred Schepisi

I had the unfortunate pleasure of watching this with the rest of my Tourism class. We had to watch it because our teacher wanted to us to see a different culture's take on a certain sport. The sport portrayed in this movie is, obviously, baseball. The culture: Japan. That plot could have been put to good use. Instead, this film decides to poke fun at the Japanese way of playing baseball and incorporate a bunch of stereotypes into the proceedings. I liked Tom Selleck in Friends, he was funny and a good match for Courteney Cox. Here however, he's dreadful, along with everybody else. There's not much else to say. The script is horrible and the direction is lame. The whole thing is just a mess.

The 10 Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen: Runner Up

The Unbearable Lightness of Being, dir. Philip Kaufman

Never has a movie with so much sex in it bored me to tears as much as this one. Not only was The Unbearable Lightness of Being incredibly long, but there was nothing to it. The sex scenes had no emotion whatsoever. Daniel Day-Lewis, Juliette Binoche and Lena Olin are all stale and cold here delivering nothing but empty performances. The film didn't seem to have much of a point. Just a bunch of people lusting after one another and eventually teaming up to have sex. Sex can be done very well in a movie (as we all know) and actually have some life to it. And sure, the Soviet Invasion was a part of the movie; I didn't care for it either. The first and last time I watched this was at a friend's birthday party (yes, a very weird choice for a birthday movie.) She said the book was really good, so I was willing to give the movie a chance instead of protesting against it. I can safely say that I never want to sit through this sluggish film again. Unbearable is what it is.

The 10 Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen: Honourable Mention

Because I Said So, dir. Michael Lehmann

This is a horrible, cringe inducing "mother-daughter cutsey Valentine's Day" chick flick. Some chick flicks have substance and those are the ones I don't mind and actually like. This is just a sad excuse for a film. Diane Keaton is so screechy and annoying; I wanted to cut my ears off after 10 minutes of listening to her scream her lines. She is overacting to the extreme here and even when her mouth is shut, I still found her annoying. This role made me lose a bit of respect for her. And what the hell is Mandy Moore doing in this movie? She is no doubt the best thing in it, but she's still bad. After giving an extraordinary performance in Saved!, she shouldn't have become involved with this crap. Michael Lehmann should be ashamed of himself.

Old Grades 16

Alice

, dir. Allen A-

Air Force One

, dir. Petersen B+

Minority Report

, dir. Spielberg A

Saw IV

, dir. Lynn Bousman A

In the Land of Women

, dir. Jon Kasdan A-

Hot Fuzz

, dir. E Wright A

Cursed

, dir. Craven A+

Fracture

, dir. Hoblit A-

The Apartment

, dir. Wilder A

Annie Hall

, dir. Allen A

Weeds: The Complete First Season

, dirs. Various A

Gone Baby Gone

, dir. Affleck A-

All About Eve

, dir. Mankiewicz A+

Slow Burn

, dir. Beach B

Top 10 List of the Worst Movies I Have Ever Seen

It will start tomorrow. =)

Requiem for a Dream

(Ellen Burstyn as Sara Goldfarb, Requiem for a Dream)

The best performance I have seen anyone give

Minority Report: Samantha Morton

[Agatha]

Dr. Hineman once said, “The dead don’t die. They look on and help.” Remember that, John.

[John Anderton]

Agatha…

[Agatha]

Sean…
He’s on the beach now, a toe in the water.
He’s asking you to come in with him.
He’s been racing his mother up and down the sand.
There’s so much love in this house.
He’s ten years old.
He’s surrounded by animals.
He wants to be a vet.
You keep a rabbit for him, a bird and a fox.
He’s in high school.
He likes to run, like his father.
He runs the two-mile and the long relay.
He’s 23.
He’s at a university!
He makes love to a pretty girl named Claire.
He asks her to be his wife.
He calls here and tells Lara, who cries.
He still runs.
Across the university and in the stadium, where John watches.
Oh God, he’s running so fast!
Just like his daddy.
He sees his daddy.
He wants to run to him.

But he’s only six years old,
and he can’t do it.
And the other men are so fast.
There was so much love in this house.

[John Anderton]

[sobbing] I want him back so bad.

[Agatha]

So did she. Can’t you see? She just wanted her little girl back. But it was too late. Her little girl was already gone.

[John Anderton]

She’s still alive.

[Agatha]

She didn’t die, but she’s not alive.

[John Anderton]

Agatha, just tell me, who killed your mother? Who killed Anne Lively?

[Agatha]

[whispering] I’m sorry John, but you’re gonna have to run again.

[John Anderton]

What?

[Agatha]

[screaming]

RUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!

(Agatha & John Anderton, Minority Report)

This is one of the best scenes in the film. A passionate monologue by Samantha Morton, detailing the future of Sean if he was still alive. The emotion evoked by Morton (and Tom Cruise) feels extremely palable. One word: Amazing