Rapidfire Reviews: Scott Does The Oscars pt 1

       Its been a while since I did a movie review, so I decided to go big and tear the Oscars a new one.  I'm not going to review any of the movies I haven't seen, which sadly is a couple of the Oscar-Bait movies, but honestly these are usually overrated.  These are in my rapidfire format so about 1-2 paragraphs each, starting with best picture nominees.

Argo

       Argo is about a fake film crew in Iraq sneaking American diplomats out of the country.  Its based on a true story and is the winner of the Best Picture award.  The movie itself is full of historical inaccuracies, though to be honest it is understandable because the original event was quite frankly, a little boring.  The Acting is great, the plot is great, and Ben Affleck is an incredible director.  If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it for everyone but it is a great movie.  However if I personally was in charge of selecting the winner, this one would be the runner up, because their is another on this list that I enjoyed even more.  I rate this movie a solid A.

Django Unchained

       Django Unchained is about a former slave who teams up with Dr. King Schultz to track down the Brittle brothers, in return Schultz helps Django track down his wife who was sold to another plantation and tries to free her.  I took my father to this one for his birthday because his favorite movies are Spaghetti Westerns, and one done by my favorite director had to be awesome.  And it was, the movie manages to balance humor, action, and drama far better than any other movie on today's list.  The only issue here is the outrageous use of profanity, which is standard for a Tarantino movie, but can turn a lot of viewers away from it.  This is my favorite movie from the list, because of my father I grew up as a huge fan of cowboys, and this one has many historical accuracies you don't usually see.  On top of that it also makes some changes that are so obvious there is no question that they never really happened.  I give this movie an A.

Life of Pi

       In Life of Pi a man is telling a writer the story of when he was lost at sea as a boy with a tiger.  That's about it, nothing really happens in it.  Honestly I didn't like it.  There was a few twists at the end that actually made the movie even more ridiculous.  It was also praised for how visually amazing it was, which I personally didn't see, the reflective water was cool, but all other effects were painfully obvious.  The Tiger for example was far more fake looking than television animals.  Though I'm the only person I know who didn't think this movie was amazing.  But because this review is based on personal opinion, and mine is this movie is mediocre, so I rate it a C+.

Lincoln

       Lincoln is about the 13th amendment becoming a reality.  The movie is oddly compelling considering how boring the premiss is and the fact nothing happened.  There is also one major historical inaccuracy that as a history major kinda pissed me off.  Overall however I really enjoyed the movie, but if I was the one who made it there are a few changes I'd make, the first would be to fix the inaccuracy I mentioned earlier.  Next I would add more footage of the civil war, considering the whole plot centered around the civil war I found it a bit odd that it was only shown for roughly 30 seconds.  Lastly I would fix the ending, for those who don't know their history; Lincoln was murdered while at the theater, in the movie they show the wrong theater.  I would have ended it the scene before when he is walking away to dramatic music, or showed Lincoln at the theater and have Boothe walk up behind him, fade to black or raise the camera so they're out of view, then gunshot.  However I still loved the movie and I give it an A-.

Zero Dark Thirty

       This movie is about the hunt for Osama Bin Laden, from September 11th, to a little after his execution.  The main character is fictional and meant to simply give us a face to follow over the 10 year timespan.  The movie can be hard to follow at times, but it's mostly because of the timespan.  The movie had some controversy because it depicts realistic torture, which honestly I enjoyed seeing because it added realism...not because I'm a psycho, it was actually hard to watch.  This movie also doesn't have much action, but the suspense more than makes up for it.  The ending also has a bittersweet feel to it, the main character, after spending her entire career, and a large amount of her life hunting down the same man is done, and has no idea what to do next.  All things considered I give this movie an A-.

       I realize I didn't have all the movies here, but I haven't seen a few of them, though I'm going to see Silver Lining Playbook soon.  If you have anything to say about my reviews today, feel free to leave a comment below.