Best Picture opinions

Inception - Inventive, entertaining, popcorn action drama thriller. That's how I would describe the movie. Sometimes it gets tripped up on it's own bullshit, but as complicated as it was I found it to be pretty straightforward. To be honest I probably couldn't tell you exactly what happens in the movie in fear of confusing myself like I so happily tried to avoid. The big question is do I think this deserves the best picture Oscar? No, unfortunately. It was a great movie and in my top 5 of the year, but it felt rushed in spots and long-winded in other which shouldn't be case for an almost three hour movie. This could have been paced a little better, and that might have been the tipping point for me.

The Fighter - This is more than a boxing movie, as most boxing movies are, but this is a different case. In most movies like this the main character would ditch his drug-dealing brother, controlling money hungry mother, and bitchy family members. Maybe that's what he should of done, but in this film (based on a true story of course), he doesn't and still makes it to the top. I think that's a refreshing angle in a film like this. There's nothing storybook about this story and it doesn't really hit any of the storybook notes along the line, but at the end I still cared if he won and was excited that he did. Out of all the movies of the year this one was the most surprisingly good for me, and I can't think of a damn thing I didn't like, but the Oscar does not go to The Fighter.


True Grit - It was said beforehand that this wasn't the typical Coen brother movie, and that much of their signature humor was lost in this film. I completely disagree. This was the Coens brothers take on a western, and even if you have to read between the lines, all their signatures are there. I laughed my ass off throughout this movie, and when I wasn't their was plenty of human drama, action, or even scenery to enjoy. I think the scenery is really the last thing I loved about this movie which says a lot. Usually westerns are visual feats, and sometimes the characters play backseat to it. In this movie the scenery was beautiful, but you really had to quit listening and watching the characters to enjoy. Anyways, it's really a testament to their talent that they can make a western in 2011 a box office hit AND best picture contender. Do I think it should win the statue? No.

The Kids Are All Right - This is a good comedy/drama bogged down by weird story choices. I don't want to spoil the movie too much, but in the end you're supposed to want to see the two women together, but with the way the other characters played out, and the way they just brush them off in the end, I didn't. As much as I did like this movie, when I'm sitting there unsatisfied with a happy ending there are a lot of problems with your movie. I felt Annette Bening's character was underdeveloped and underused, almost a background character in this film, and her Oscar nod is surely based on past work. There were times were you could clearly see her struggling to act out the scene. You could take my criticisms as being frustrated the narrative wasn't cliche, but usually the cliches are there so the story is well rounded instead of lopsided. A little more time in the oven and this could have been a contender, but the way it turned out the damn thing shouldn't even be nominated.

Toy Story 3 - Why is this nominated? I liked it, but the emotional impact just wasn't there. It almost felt like the tearjerker scenes were thrown in there out of expectation and not in any organic way. The characters themselves FEEL like toys this time around instead of actual character. Let me explain; this movie is mostly typical kids move shenanigans. The few scenes meant to make you cry feel out of place with the rest of the film, and are actually relying on your emotional attachment to the character from the previous movies. I'm sorry, but you can't expect me to give a damn about these toys because of Toy Story 1 and 2. I wanted to feel the attachment to them in Toy Story 3. If you cut out every scene in the movie except for the heart wrenching tearjerker scenes you'd feel the exact same impact (had you seen the other two). To me, that means this movie failed, and mostly mostly an experiment in making movie.


As you can see I haven't seen all of the movies nominated. From what I've seen I wouldn't give any of them Best Picture, but I wouldn't be unhappy with a Fighter or True Grit win. My prediction is the Social Network though.

Uruguay is awesome.

As much as I love lucha libre, I never thought it would get this awesome-

Cubsfan posted this on deathvalleydriver. If you don't read the lucha blog over at www.luchablog.com, do it. Also, watch this.

TheDenizen talks Big Muscles and Body Slams

Early Happy New Year, fellow ninjas.

It's been a few months but TheDenizen is back from the wilderness to serve up the goods on some more awesomely bad flicks.

Today I'm going to review a selection of wrestling movies. Pro wrestling is something that most of us like, even if it isn't really accepted by mainstream culture (I know it has had it's heydays, but it's definitely on a long downswing at the moment). Wrestling is generally seen as a niche interest of rednecks and trailer trash, and any references to it are usually mocking in tone. It's considered low brow, low budget entertainment.

It's not surprising then, that most wrestling films are cheap, low budget affairs made for the grindhouse market. They're also usually from Mexico or Japan (where the purists know the best pro wrestling is anyways)...there were dozens of movies starring Mexican luchador Santo in the 60s and 70s. Anyways, here's a handful of capsule reviews for some of my favorite wrestling flicks.

Calamari Wrestler - Cheesy wrasslin action from Japan, this one is a pretty formulaic underdog/sports movie kinda like Rocky, with the catch that the main character is a guy in a big, fake looking rubber squid costume. All the other actors treat him as though he were a real giant squid, and ignore the inherent strangeness of it. Very dry humor as the whole cast just plays every scene completely straight faced opposite a massive cephalopod. Hilarious.

Enter Zombie King - Gloriously campy lucha libre flick from Canada that features a group of technicos led by Ulysses fighting against evil rudo Zombie King and his undead hordes. Pretty much everyone in the movie wears a wrestling mask at all times, and Ulysses is constantly spouting ridiculous nonsense philosophies. It's got hot chicks, a great surf soundtrack, a Jim Neidhart cameo, and tons of dudes beating up zombies with snapmares and huracanranas. You could do a lot worse.

The Wrestler - Despite being a low budget indy film, this movie is the exception in that it's a serious drama about a washed up pro wrestler, and not just some schlocky junk. This is a really great flick and Mickey Rourke gives an amazing performance as the pathetic and broken down Randy the Ram. It won awards and deservedly revitalized his career. Some of the overwrought emotional stuff with the daughter came off as a little hokey, but it's just a crushing experience. Every pro wrestling fan should see it.

Oh! My Zombie Mermaid - Real life grappler Shinya Hashimoto stars as a pro wrestler whose wife is severely injured in an explosion and begins to transform into a mermaid. Unable to pay the medical bills, he is forced to accept a big money death match against a faction of rogue killer wrestlers called DDD. The first half hour or so is just set up but the last hour is solid insanely over the top wrestling action in a series of escalating battles. It's like a bad anime come to life, in a good way.

3 Dev Adam - Granted, this film is only tangentially related to wrestling, but it's such a great flick I relish any opportunity to talk about it. It's a Turkish superhero film in which knockoff versions of Captain America and the famous luchador Santo are brought in by Turkish police to help them stop evil knockoff Spiderman who is on a terrible crime spree. It's seriously insane watching a paunchy Spiderman climb up a drainpipe and stab a woman to death in the shower. Spidey terrorizes people with hungry gerbils. A woman gets killed with an outboard motor in the first minute. If you haven't seen this flick, find it. It's gold.

There's a bunch of other wrestling flicks to be had as well...I've got a few of the authentic Santo films on my "to-watch" pile. Plus there's a Japanese film called Rikidozan, a biopic about pioneering Korean wrestling star of the same name that is excellent by most accounts. And if you can stomach Jack Black's particular brand of "humor", I suppose Nacho Libre is a technically a lucha film too. Of course there's also Hulk Hogan's terrible movies, but other than No Holds Barred, his movies weren't really about wrestling anyways.

Happy viewing.

Whoops

I posted this by accident.

Use the comment section to call me nasty names.

Great Week for Cartoons

So the last week was great for Cartoons. There was not one, but two really good animated features on Cartoon Network. Firebreather and Young Justice.

Firebreather was a very solid program. It's loosely based on the comic book by Phil Hester and Andy Kuhn. The basic premise is a high school kid who is the son of a dragon and a human. The only real negatives about the entire feature was that in the not so action oriented scenes, the animation is weird. The move like the old animatronic band at Chuck E Cheese. This also was not an issue during the fight scenes. The other negative was an extremely out of place parkour scene which was stupid and unnecessary (like every Parkour scene in every movie ever). Those two things aside, Firebreather was very entertaining. I don't know if they have any future plans for it, but I would certainly hope so.

The other new cartoon was Young Justice. This got a little bit of noise a while back when they revealed the black Aqualad. He still looks goofy as hell, but at least he looks cooler than the Aqualad from the Teen Titans cartoon. This was only the pilot for the series that is planned, and the show really knocked it out of the park. Every character has a great introduction to the viewer (which is important in a show about several characters). It was bound to ruffle nerd feathers when they didn't follow the old Young Justice series (which is an amazing comic in it's own right), but it was really great. Everything was executed perfectly and there was nothing to change. Well except for Aqualad's blond hair. Sisqo looked stupid 13 years ago, and it looks just as dumb today as it did back then.

Both of these can be found fairly easily online (although when I was looking for Young Justice, I came across quite a few scame sites so don't go to a website you don't trust while looking for it) and I would recommend watching both of these if you have some time to spare (both are less than an hour each).

XBOX Indie Game Worth Buying: ZP2KX

If you haven't played the $1 XBOX Live Indie Game, ZP2K9, you're a doofus. There's a sequel coming. That's the trailer. It has online multiplayer and radical suits that give you powers. It's like Soldat... if Soldat wasn't so fucking bland.

This game is going to rock, and it's going to be worth your money.

EYE GAIRAWNTEE

I made another commercial.