Best Picture Hall of Fame

I actually hated Cast Away, although that's around the time I stopped enjoying going to the movies. My wife hated it too though.

I thought Cast Away was decent but mostly forgettable. Gump is at least memorable but I agree that it shouldn't have won.

__________________

I loved Cast Away, it's one of the few films that made a lasting impact on me. I think about it from time to time as it made me think, 'what would I do in a situation like that'. What did you hate about it?

I thought it was incredibly dull, I got sick of him by himself, and thought the whole thing with the volleyball was ridiculous.

All the King's Men (Robert Rossen, 1949)
Imdb

Date Watched: 01/14/18
Cinema or Home: Home
Reason For Watching: Best Picture Hall of Fame
Rewatch: No.

This film chronicles the rise and fall of an idealistic - or so he claims to be, at least - politician who becomes the very sort of person he rails against. The story itself is intriguing - the man's ideals get polluted until they give way to corruption and abuse of power that knows no limits and he drags down with him all that surround him and believe in him - but ultimately I didn't much like the movie.

Here's the problem: I didn't care. The performances are overly dramatic and they take me completely out of the film. These characters don't behave like normal people. Their mannerisms and speech are unnatural and exaggerated. I simply don't believe them. Making matters worse was the not infrequent narration (I don't want to be told what's happening in a movie!) and the intrusively loud score. Now I'm sure I'll get people criticizing my dislike of it because the film is simply of its time and these elements are typical of that era, but I don't care. If I can't engage emotionally, and I couldn't with this film, the experience is ruined for me.

I'll give credit where it's due for tackling such an important and still very much relevant issue, but that's about all the praise I can give it.

+

I'll probably rewatch On the Waterfront tomorrow. I've only seen it once and respected it far more than I actually liked it. So we'll see what happens this time.

After that, there's only A Beautiful Mind, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and Gladiator left to rewatch - all of which I've seen many times and know I like.

Forrest Gump



I have seen this approximately a billion times, mostly because when I lived at home with my parents, this was one of the few movies everyone in my family could agree on to watch. (Now I live with my kids and one of the few movies we can all agree on to watch is The Lego Movie. Times change.)

Rewatching is a funny thing because your opinion of a movie can go up, or down, or up in some ways and down in others, you can appreciate things you didn’t appreciate before, and things that thrilled or amused you can wear thin. Certainly there were things I didn’t properly understand at 14 that I do now. This was a good one to rewatch after a break because I had forgotten how funny and astute it was. So many of the lines have just been adopted into popular culture (“Run, Forrest!”) and Bubba Gump is now a genuine restaurant (apparently). The way the lines are delivered paired with the visual, particularly in terms of the narration makes it funnier, because there’s often an irony there that doesn’t come across quoted out of context.

I like Forrest Gump. It’s a good movie. It balances the comedy and drama really well. (I always particularly liked, “Sometimes, I guess there just aren’t enough rocks.” which is amusing but also sad because we get why Jenny is upset but Forrest doesn’t.)
Of course it’s contrived and unbelievable, it’s meant to be. That’s part of the joke. (The only part I thought stretched it too far was smiley face t-shirt). It’s a potted history of American history filtered through the mostly accidental rise of an idiot. “And then I met the president. Again.” But it’s not as mean spirited as that sounds, Gump himself, with his sunny outlook on life is both funny and sympathetic and his love for his mother and Jenny and his friendship with Lieutenant Dan is meaningful and changing for both sides. It does get a little corny and sentimental, the ‘life philosophy’ (life is like a box of chocolates) is a little cringy but it’s mostly balanced out by the comedy, and I enjoyed the history lesson.

Usually I find Tom Hanks is pretty much Tom Hanks in everything, but he’s got good comic abilities which are deployed to good effect here. Gary Sinise is good as Lieutenant Dan too, although he missed out on the Oscar to Martin Landau (actually I think I would have picked Paul Scofield or Samuel L Jackson that year, all good performances - as an aside, Bullets Over Broadway was massively overrepresented in nominations).

Did it deserve to win best picture? Maybe. Four Weddings, Quiz Show and Pulp Fiction are all really good as well. (And Interview With the Vampire. And Three Colours Red.)

A Beautiful Mind is one of those movies that hit's you hard the first time you watch it. I saw it in the Theater thought it was pretty good, then it was replayed in the dorms (they would rotate out 10 films a week) and it didn't really hold up now watching it 15 years later I think I hate this movie.

The film is the definition of empty calories you realize you are watching something and you think it's good, it looks good the story is interesting the acting is fine the music is great and it's really pretty but then you start thinking about what they didn't do.

See the story of John Nash is an interesting one, this is a man who struggled with his sanity, sexuality, and fidelity to his wife. He's a man who won his battle with mental illness without medication but after years of treatment. But A Beautiful Mind gives you a glossy pretty love story, the drama is in the schizophrenia coming out not with the character dealing with his issues. Which is good for a 2 1/2 star movie...not so much for a BP. It also doesn't help that the movie is anchored by two movie stars and that's the second big issue I have with this film.

Russell Crowe is awful in this....

Part of it's not his fault he's miscast it's very hard to take a character from grad school to elderly and make it convincing. Taking an action hero and giving him a slight west Virginia accent and calling him a genius...it doesn't work. See Crowe is believable as a 50 year old whistle blower, as a Sea Captain, and as a Gladiator but a nerd...not so much.

Ron Howard also loves his limited use of CGI to represent the characters intelligence, and Howard loves the pristine Ivy League period setting and man does Ron Howard love his scenery chewing ensemble. But looking at it 15 years later it just feels really gimmicky. There is a great scene in Waynes World 2



They do that three times in this movie with Austin Pendleton, Judd Hirsch, and Christopher Plummer. At no point do these men feel like real people just props to give out exposition in a well acted form. It might have worked then but years later it just feels cheap and hollow.

Did the movie deserve Best Picture...

I guess, this was such a strong year for film and you have this battle between the safe prestige and the new wave. Sort of like the Grammy's best new artist where you pick the wrong choice and you get Starland Vocal Band. You could have gone Peter Jackson and Lord of the Rings or Wes Anderson with Royal Tennenbaums or David Lynch with Mulholland Drive. A Beautiful Mind was the safest of safe choices.

A Beautiful Mind

Rocky



Still a good movie, but not as good as I had remembered it. I wish the story was a little stronger in that it feels like not a lot really happens in the film. We see Rocky go from rags to riches but he really doesn't deal with too much adversity in the film. I do really like the final fighting scene vs. Creed and I agree that it was cool that Rocky didn't much care about the actual result of the fight. I go back and forth on just how much I like Talia Shires character too, but I think it's cool that they didn't make her character over the top for Rocky. I can get how people would be agitated by Stallone as an actor but he does a good job of playing the role that was given to him. Overall I like the movie just not as much as I did the first time around.

I stopped reading the Beautiful Mind review after "Russell Crowe was awful in this"

I didn't care for A Beautiful Mind or Gladiator the one time I saw them, odd since I love Russell Crowe.

You want to compare John Nash to Rusell Crowe and how badly he messed that character up.

Was that John Nash the day after Beautiful Mind was released in the theater?

@Siddon

What about Crowe makes him not believable as a nerd?

From what I saw of the film (as I said I wasn't able to finish it because the DVD was bad), there was something that just irked me. I understand the reason why it was in the film (I figured the reason for the inclusion was exactly as I see the filmmakers said it was - I looked to see if anything had been said online about it and lo and behold it had been talked about). But at the same time I didn't think it was all that necessary of a scene. Not at all, in fact. I'll go more into it later on.

Basically, I have read the book. And what was in the book is actually some pretty damn good history. Very interesting stories. And from what I understand there has been some changes in the film. I don't really care for that. The history of this man's story was so good by itself that Hollywood didn't need to take some liberties with it or change any of it. Sometimes the actual history of an event is interesting enough that it should be good enough for filmmakers to use. They shouldn't feel that they always have to alter it for more dramatic effect. After all, a lot of history is pretty damn dramatic.

But I won't go on any of that now. I'll wait until my review.


I have half of these watched. The only one that I don't have sitting here is Mutiny On the Bounty. I had to request that one.

Anyway, I should have most, if not all, of my thoughts posted by this coming weekend. I have only read the reviews of my nomination. I will catch up with all of that this weekend, also.

__________________
I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity - Edgar Allan Poe

5 years later...your right maybe he lost his accent in his 60's

35lbs of muscle mass, you can't play a schizophrenic shut in and still have the physique of a going to the gym four times a week.

Some folks in their minds have a hard time picturing people in certain parts just due to their looks. Just last night my wife said she didn't believe Ryan Reynolds as an astronaut, and it was based on his looks. I think it's just human nature.

So because he had too much muscle he was "awful." Okay.

Who would you have cast?

Silence of the Lambs



An all timer for me that I never grow tired of rewatching. Awesomely enough, this was the last best picture winner to win the big 5 and one of only 3 films to do so. At the top of the list is Anthony Hopkins performance as Hannibal Lector. It's completely insane how he is barely on the screen but you really don't feel like he is missing. Every scene he is in is pure gold and is at the heart of the greatest scenes in the film itself. Also spectacular was Jodie Foster as Clarice Starling, as an FBI in training handpicked to pick the brain of Mr. lector.

The screenplay is splendid. Every single scene is well thought out and there really are no scenes that seem unnecessary in the entire film because it is all pieced together beautifully. Sometimes it feels like a crime drama, other times like a horror, and other times like a thriller. But it keeps my eyes glued to what is going on at all times.

Buffalo Bill is a truly insane and scary man, and that what struck me on this watch is just how despicable yet brilliantly made for the screen he was. They made him out to he as creepy as they could and it had a great effect especially with that ending scene. The real end as well with Lector on the phone gives the film an eerie exit but it works oh so well.

I give the academy props for going unconventional. This truly is the best film of 1991 with Barton Fink and Terminator 2 the next two in line for me.

+

Anyone who was willing to make the physical sacrifices to make the role believable.

Chris Hemsworth in RUSH for example dropped the weight, to play an athelete because it wouldn't be realistic to see a 250lb driver





As for who could have played John Nash...

Cruise, Depp, Cusack, Downey, Fiennes(Joseph Fiennes would have also been good), Guy Pearce, Gary Oldman(would have been perfect) but I would have taken Matthew Broderick