Before I started my own entertainment-related blog, my Top Tens had to whore themselves out on my friends’ pages. This one was originally posted on Justin Plus One.
As usual with my Top Tens, I have preserved them as they were, even if, in hindsight, I may disagree with some of my own choices. (Did I really exclude a Darren Aronofsky movie in favor of Iron Man? Gosh.)
James Cameron’s new film Titanic is quite a spectacle! It stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet as star-crossed lovers named Jack and Rose. He’s a poor guy, she’s a rich girl, but they buck class conventions clearly delineated by the ship (and the world at large) and decide to hook it up in an old-timey car anyway. But it’s bad timing, because — spoiler alert! — the ship hits an ice berg. Now, I won’t say whether or not the Titanic actually sinks or if Jack and Rose survive and make babies together, because you should probably see this for yourself before I go and ruin the ending.
I will say, however, it’s an epic mix of action and romance featuring the winsome Winslet reunited with her Revolutionary Road costar DiCaprio (who has clearly had some work done recently — he’s much more visibly baby-faced here than he was recently in Inception or Shutter Island). The movie is probably too long to have a huge impact at the box office and too focused on the shipwreck peril to do well during awards season. Plus, it was released in April, so it’ll be forgotten by December, surely. Still, I recommend you see it now, in theaters, to ensure good sound and picture quality. Because it’s not like movies get released in theaters more than once, now, do they?
The Screen Actors Guild has chimed into awards season, with at least one fairly surprising surprise.
(Here were the nominees.)
Ah, bad kids. Where would the movies be without them?
From ghostly dead youngsters in The Ring and The Shining to the bloodthirsty (but still breathing) tykes of The Bad Seed and The Good Son, there’s a long-standing storytelling tradition in Hollywood to use sinister children as the Ultimate Evildoers — the juxtaposition between innocent faces and malicious intent gets us cinematically wet, I guess.
Recently (“ripped from the headlines” in Law & Order fashion), the movies have added a subgenre to this category with school shootings, like the current release We Need To Talk About Kevin. That’s not a horror movie, per se, but it does deal with a mother’s horrified reaction to the bad, bad thing her baby did.
It’s the Golden Globes! And because I currently have nothing better to do, I am watching and blogging about them. (Nominees here, FYI.)
I’ll be doing some sort of live-blogging/recap as we go on, so… enjoy!
(Films discussed in this post: The Skin I Live In, Contagion, and The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.)
There are two kinds of filmmakers in this world: those that suck, and those that do not. And when it comes to taking risks, the former group tends to play it safe, while the latter category pushes the envelope.
Ah, The Golden Globes. What can I say about The Golden Globes that hasn’t been said before?
The Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations were announced this morning — in which the actors applaud their peers for the finest performances of the year.
Last year’s winners were Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Christian Bale, Melissa Leo, and The King’s Speech. Sound familiar? The winner of the Best Ensemble award is virtually guaranteed a Best Picture nominations at the Academy Awards.
Yes, all eyes will be on the SAG Awards this year.
Where were you when it happened?
Not when the Titanic sank, of course. That was almost 100 years ago!
But where were you when you first saw the James Cameron movie?
Okay. Now hold that thought and skip ahead fifteen years, because Titanic is being re-released on the 100th anniversary of the ship setting sail — April 6, 2012. (Because I guess the 100th anniversary of the ship’s sinking was tacky?) And I have a confession to make, that I will pose in the form of a question:
Am I the only one who stumbled upon the trailer for Titanic 3D and got a little misty?
