Tag Archives: Film

What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1999

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

After the return of Pixar turned out to be a bit of a disappointment at the 71st Academy Awards, eyes turned to 1999, and the hotly anticipated Toy Story 2.  When it was announced that the original cast would be returning for the sequel, people immediately began speculating that the Oscars might see a rematch of the most exciting duel that the category saw.  No one could forget the competition between Tom Hanks and Tim Allen, and the possibility that both might score nominations drove all other predictions to the sidelines. Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Performance – School of Rock

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Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

I’m not particularly a fan of Jack Black.  Sure, I like Kung Fu Panda, he wasn’t bad in Tropic Thunder, and admittedly his extended cameo in The Muppets was fantastic, but otherwise I generally avoid his movies.  However, he has one performance that I think is truly fantastic, and that is as Dewey Finn in School of Rock.  I realize that there’s not a lot of heavy acting required for the role, as Jack Black is basically playing himself, but I was struck by something when I caught the film on TV recently that I hadn’t noticed before.

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What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1998

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

Fresh off another controversy at the 70th Academy Awards regarding original vs dubbed voice performances, movie fans looked to the films of 1998 to bring some stability back to the category.  1998 would turn out to be a solid year for animation, including the return of Pixar to the big screen, a solid entry from Disney, a wider variety of studios producing animated films and some strong competition between two movies with similar settings.

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What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1997

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

Following the general confusion of the 69th Academy Awards, no one knew what to expect for 1997.  Pixar had yet to reassert itself following the success of Toy Story, but the slate of feature length animation for the year was considered to be much stronger than that of 1996.  What was not anticipated was the new controversy that was about to crop up.
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Friday Favorites: Favorite Character – The Fifth Element

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Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

Last week in part 1 of my Friday Favorites devoted to characters from The Fifth Element I talked about how much I enjoy Ruby Rhod as played by Chris Tucker.  However, there’s one other character in the film that holds my attention every time he’s onscreen, and that is Gary Oldman’s villainous Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg.  Zorg would probably go in my top 10 most memorable film villains of all time.  Much like with Ruby Rhod, Zorg is the perfect combination of writing, styling and performance that makes him hard to forget.

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What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1996

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

There was a lot of excitement to see what 1996 would hold, given the huge success of the 68th Academy Awards.  Toy Story had energized the industry, and while Pixar’s next film was still several years away people remained hopeful for a battle for the Best Voice Performance Oscar that matched the one between Tom Hanks and Tim Allen.  When no clear frontrunners emerged, talk about the award started to die down, and industry analysts marked the category as one to ignore this year.  They were wrong, because when the nominations were announced the category was one again at the forefront of conversation.  However, instead of excitement the overwhelming tone of the discussion was one of confusion. Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Character – The Fifth Element

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Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

The Fifth Element is a divisive film.  People either love it or can’t stand it, and considering how often it gets shown on TV, it’s probably safe to assume that most people have seen at least part of it.  I’m on the side that loves it, as it’s right up my alley.  I love the style of the film, with some truly unique costumes and set designs and it’s unusual musical selections.  I like it’s tone, which blends humor and action in interesting ways, but also has some real pathos to the story in its emotional core.  And it’s super cheesy, which appeals to me immensely because there’s nothing I love more than a cheesy film that wears its heart on its sleeve, and it doesn’t get any cheesier than love being the ultimate power capable of defeating evil.  What I love most of all, however, is the film’s odd cast of characters, beyond just Korben and Leeloo, so this week’s and next week’s Friday Favorite will each focus on one of my favorite characters from the film.

The Fifth Element spends its first third as a quirky, bizarre sci-fi action comedy, telling the story of a mysterious perfect being who, through a chance encounter, ends up with a former special forces officer who now drives a cab for a living.  The two are sent on a mission to gather a weapon to stop an ultimate evil, and Korben is sent undercover as a contest winner in order to gain access to the flying hotel where he needs to pick up some magical stones.  As goofy as that sounds, the movie switches in an instant from silly to batshit crazy and fascinating in an instant, when this happens: Continue reading →

Trailer Tuesday (on Wednesday): Captain America: The Winter Soldier

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Welcome to “Trailer Tuesday” where I talk about trailers for upcoming movies, since I’ve always found them to be endlessly fascinating.

I’m sorry this post is a day late.  I was going to come up with something creative about being out doing my Love Pirate duties, but the reality is that I just didn’t get around to it in time.  However I finally got it done.  As the release of Thor: The Dark World approaches, it’s time for Marvel to start promoting the next film in their Cinematic Universe.  Behold the trailer for Captain America: The Winter Soldier, which takes things in a drastically different direction than 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger.  Take a look below, and read on for my thoughts:

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What if there was a Best Voice Performance Oscar? – 1995

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(Note: This is a fictional creative writing exercise, inspired by hours of contemplation of which animated performances have been most worthy of attention over the years.  This feature imagines that a Best Voice Performance category was added to the Oscars following Beauty and the Beast’s nomination for Best Picture at the 64th Academy Awards.  Each week I’ll cover the hypothetical nominees and winner from one year of animated performances.)

When Jeremy Irons won the award at the 67th Academy Awards, the general consensus was that the category had finally produced a winner that represented the dramatic performance quality that the award had been created in order to recognize.  There was still some grumbling over the fact that the nominees were largely dominated by one film, but The Lion King had been so impressive that it was hard for people to complain too much about any of the individual nominees.  Disney was set to release another animated film in 1995, Pocahontas, based on a time period and series of events ripe for drama, and featuring the voice of Mel Gibson, who would go on to have a huge year with Braveheart.  But what no one could have predicted was Toy Story and the emergence of Pixar. Continue reading →

Friday Favorites: Favorite Scare – The Exorcist

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Welcome to “Friday Favorites” which highlight some of my favorite movie-related things.

I have a bit of a complicated relationship with Halloween when it comes to movies.  I’m not big on “scary” movies, where things are designed to jump out and get the audience to scream.  However I do love suspenseful movies that create a sense of dread that hangs with you for days afterwards.  I love the films of Hitchcock, the classic monster movies of the 30s, and other films that set out to create more of an atmosphere than to get simple scares.  I’m also a fan of “spooky” settings and the macabre in film, but I don’t watch movies to be spooked.  Slasher movies have no interest to me, I don’t want to see creepy children climbing out of TV sets, and the trick of loud bangs and things jumping out is just annoying to me.

However, there are exceptions.  Continue reading →