There Will Be Daniel Day Lewis

Wow, I have seen A LOT of movies in the past few days. Some Oscar related and some not.

Hot Fuzz: YYYGood times. It was more of an action movie than I thought it would be. Good movie.
The Reaping: YYYWow. This was a lot better than I thought it would be. I really liked it.
Resident Evil Extinction:YY It would probably have been better if it hadn't been so long since I saw the last one. It was good. Not great, but good. It did seem as though this will not be the last RE movie coming our way.
The Night Listener: Y It was ok. It's a good story, (based on a true story) but it was just a little slow.

Now for the Oscar movies:
Atonement: YRiiiiiigght. So, it started off really good. James McAvoy is hot and Keira is beautiful so they make a really nice looking couple and they had great chemistry. However, there was a lot that could have been edited out (the never ending war/beach scene for example!) and it felt like the movie lasted for hours. I was really disappointed. I really thought I was going to like it in the beginning. It really is too bad that the last half of the movie ruins it. (To be fair my Mom and my GMa were with me and they both loved it. Whatever.)

There Will Be Blood: YYYYShould have been called "There Will Be Daniel Day Lewis". This was a great movie, but had it not been for DDL it would not have been nearly as good. He is such an amazing actor and that is a good thing for this film. He is in almost EVERY scene. Other than the preacher in the movie hardly anyone else even has lines in the movie. It is an entirely DDL driven vehicle. It really felt like a play to me, in the sense that it was so one-character-focused. What a great character. He is such a complex guy, and I liked the fact that I didn't hate him through the whole movie. I hoped for him to be a better man, and had faith that he had good intentions deep down inside. So, watching this character go through his life was quite the journey. The score was a little much. It felt as though the music was a character in the film sometimes, responsible for telling us something about the story. The trouble is that I'm not sure it did that very well. It was so dramatic and grating at points in the movie when nothing was happening at all. Then at times when such drama was happening with the characters there would be no music at all. Just silence. It was different. This music almost ruined the movie for my Mother, and I can see why. It didn't bother me as much as her, but it was definitely a strange choice for the movie I think. Anyway, I think DDL will win the Oscar and he should. He was amazing. See this movie for his performance alone.


No Country For Old Men: YYYYYThe more time that passes the more that I love this movie. It is just SO Coen brothers. If you liked Fargo, you'll like this movie. The two movies remind me a lot of each other. NCFOM has the same quiet, subtle feeling that Fargo had. The characters aren't big, loud, flashy, hyped up characters. That is what makes it so tense and enthralling I think. There is a scene in which a gas station owner gets into a conversation with Javier Bardem's character and it makes you almost want to jump out of your skin waiting for the kill to come. You can feel it there, coming for this old man, and you can see that he knows something isn't right and you just want to scream at him to RUN or something. It's a great scene. I will agree with some of the controversy about the end of the movie, to a point. I can see how some would be disappointed but I wasn't. I thought the end was true to the story. I don't see how it could have ended any other way. I don't want to give too much away and potentially ruin the end for any who haven't seen it, so I'll leave my thoughts on it at that. I loved this movie and Javier Bardem just HAS to win the Oscar. If you haven't seen this movie yet, you really have to.

So, in the next week before the Oscars I'm going to try and watch Michael Clayton, Away From Her, Juno, Eastern Promises and La Vie en Rose. I want to try to see as many movies that are nominated as I can. When I was at the theatre this weekend I saw that all AMC theatres are doing an Oscar marathon. This Saturday (the 23rd) they are showing all 5 Best Picture nominees in a row. It costs $30 and you get tickets to all 5 movies, a free Large Popcorn (with refills) and a "collectible pass". That's a great idea. I would totally go and do that but now I only need to see 2. So, if you're interested check it out here.