Last movie you watched......

This is how I wanted (and expected) to feel when I saw it, but I didn't.

Please go see "50/50" when it opens this weekend. Great movie. You'll laugh, you'll cry. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives a great peformance.

 

I had a group of friends who went to see Drive last week. I would say that all five are big movie fans and I usually agree with their opinions. Three of them hated it. Two of them thought it was one of the best movies they'd seen in ages.

I see both sides of the argument. It was just so different and Gosling and Mulligan did such a great job of acting, even if there was very, very, very little to say.

 

I love Ryan Gosling and thought he was great and I could have gotten on board with the vibe of the movie, but there were things about the plot that really bugged me and all the visual shenanigans bugged me, too. Plus, it was, as Shawn Ryan (creator of "The Shield") tweeted, "needlessly gory."

 

Is "Drive" going to be the runaway Best Picture winner? It's starting to sound that way.

 

I don't think so. Among other things, it will have competition from Ryan Gosling's other fall movie, Ides of March.

 

Ides of March looks great.

I don't think "Drive" is an Academy Award type movie. I'd love to be proven wrong.

 

I agree on all three points.

I might check out "Drive" tonight. It's Matinee-All-Day prices at the local theater.

Designing the movie page with "Drive" as the centerpiece was a fun one to do. Saturday movie pages are usually the highlight of my week unless we get a good news package for A1 to design.

 

Finally got around to watching "The Book of Eli" and it was very good.

 

I saw a preview for Eastwood's J. Edgar Hoover biopic, starring DiCaprio. I'll be stunned if that's not the Oscar frontrunner.

I'd love to see DiCaprio get an Oscar. He doesn't get much love from the Academy, but I think he was clearly robbed for Gilbert Grape, which was one of those all-time great performances. I remember thinking he should have won for Aviator, but I don't remember who he lost to...

 

Jamie Foxx won that year. For Ray.

 

Obviously, there is a lot of time to go, but right now this would seem to be a good guess list for some of the Best Picture nods:

"Drive"
"Ides of March"
"J. Edgar"
"Moneyball"
"Contagion"
"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"
"Midnight in Paris"
"The Help"

 

"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy" and "The Descendants" are two others with the Oscar vibe.