Jessica and Manuel at the Movies

Well, we're done seeing all the movies nominated for Best Picture. It feels good to be done, especially when we didn't want to see a few of them to begin with. In this post both Manuel and I will give our opinions on the movies. Here we go in the order we saw them...

Munich
J: I'm tired of Steven Spielberg. All of his movies lately are the same - epic length, gratuitous violence, pro Jew. The length - whatever. If it takes you that long to tell your story, fine, but parts of Munich were slow. It probably would have gotten the same point across if he cut those parts out. The violence - it seems he does it just for shock value. I am by no means a violence prude (Pulp Fiction is my favorite movie) but it seems like he does it because he can. Graphic stuff too. Pro Jew - He's Jewish and I can appreciate that, but does he have to use his films as a platform to preach about it? I know and understand the hardships Jews went through, but really. Who made him the leading authority on Jewishness? The comments he made in regard to Life Is Beautiful totally made me lose respect for him.
Movies that exemplify my point: Munich, Saving Private Ryan (not so much the Jew part) and Shindler's List.
So, overall, it was pretty good. It was a good story and I thought Eric Bana did a good job portraying what it did to him, the things he had to do in the movie. Not, however, my pick for Best Picture...

M: This was an absolutely great film. I actually never once thought it was long and drawn out. It is almost 3 hours and I never felt the need to look at my watch. The movie is a drama but parts of it felt like a really good action movie. How can you go wrong with a movie about assassins with a hit list? I felt that Eric Bana did an awesome job and you really feel for the characters in this story. I dislike Steven Spielberg personally, but I thought he made a great film.

Capote
J: I had no idea what this movie was about, and going into it, I had no idea who Truman Capote was, besides and author. As it turns out, I really liked it. I really got into the relationships formed in the movie and I cared about the characters. I was pleasantly surprised. Not my pick for Best Picture, although I wouldn't be completely devastated if it won.

M: Blegh! I just didn't care about this movie or the characters. I know you were supposed to feel for some of the characters and get emotionally attached but I couldn't care less. I'm sure that Philip Seymour Hoffman did a great job in accurately portraying Truman Capote, but I just saw it as another example of the Academy's love of giving nominations to actors who portray retarded/weird individuals. And even if he had the absolute best performance of the year, I thought the story was still craptacular and didn't deserve to be nominated. I believe that one good performance does not make a whole movie.

Brokeback Mountain
J: I LOVED IT! Loved it loved it loved it!!! Jake Gyllenhaal and Heath Ledger are both beautiful men who portrayed beautifully two people in love. It's simply a love story, only it's between two men. The scenery was beautiful, the story was beautiful, overall, just a super super super movie that really touched my heart. I cried at the end. I really developed a caring for the characters. And I know everything I have to say is all scattered and jumbled, but this movie really touched me and I can't really put into words how I feel about it. My pick, overwhelmingly, for Best Picture.

M: It kills me to say this, but this was a really really good movie. I figured it would be pretty good based on all the rave it's been getting, but I didn't think I would like a movie about two gay men quite so much. Most of the time, I think ANY love story is quite boring, let alone this one being about two guys. However, the way this movie is done just really makes you feel for the characters and feel their pain and everything they're going through. There are a couple of scenes that could be potentially quite hard to watch for someone who is homophobic, but you just have to get past that and see the movie for how good it is. I did not cry at the end.

Crash
J: It took a second time for me to really appreciate this movie. It's good. The story is good - how everybody's life is linked and how one thing effects so many other people. It's touching, the things that happen to each person, each little life. The working, the heartache, the fear, the prejudices, the life, the death. I really liked it. Not my pick for Best Picture, but I'd be ok if it won.

M: I'm really torn about this movie. The movie has a good story and it's easy to get emotionally attached to the characters, but there were other things I just didn't like. I didn't like how every single person in this movie was just so easily connected storyline wise. It's like you just got a bunch of random people and just had them run into each other in a 36 hour period. You can't have THAT many people having THAT bad of a day, meeting up all at once in a ginormous city. It's just not realistic, which is something a drama like this should be. I know you have to stretch the imagination to believe something like this could happen to make the story work, but it was almost too contrived. It was a good movie and I could even watch it again, but I did find some faults.

Good Night, and Good Luck
J: Just like Capote, I had no idea what this movie was about going into it, nor did I know who Edward R. Murrow was. And, unlike Capote, I was not pleased when it was over. It was boring. It was a history lesson. I paid $7 to go to school for an hour and a half. The lesson was interesting, but I didn't care about the characters. The story was told using real clips from the events of the time, with actors inserted between. If that's all it takes to make an Oscar nominated movie, I can friggin' do that! Nowhere near my pick for Best Picture.

M: I had read about what this movie was about before I saw it so I was mildly intrigued. I think McCarthy-ism is an interesting subject in history so I figured I would be pleased with this movie. Unfortunately, the movie just didn't do it for me. I didn't care about any of the characters and I thought the plotline was actually pretty thin. The subject matter is fairly interesting, but I just thought it was presented poorly.


Jessica liked the movies in this order, from best to least:
Brokeback Mountain
Crash
Capote
Munich
Good Night, and Good Luck

Manuel liked the movies in this order, from best to least:
Brokeback Mountain
Munich
Crash
Capote
Good Night, and Good Luck