« Immigration This Week | Main | American Gunfight »
April 25, 2006
2001 Movie Rant
So here is a rant for 2001 movies.
All in all a decent year for the best picture nominees A Beautiful Mind, Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, and Moulin Rouge. A Beautiful Mind won and although not a terrible choice, it was not that creative and I have little desire to see it again. I do not like watching movies I have seen before, so I am discovering that rewatchability is one of my criteria for rating a movie highly. The acting in a Beautiful Mind was good and it was a good depiction of a descent into madness with an intriguing main character. Gosford Park was fairly interesting, but not that memorable. In the Bedroom was ok. I just watched that last night and the acting and setting were good, but the plot was not very convincing and the ending was predictable. Moulin Rougue was a very creative melodrama and I liked the pop songs and I really liked the way they did the backdrops and scenery, which is especially impressive since it was filmed entirely on a soundstage. However, the fast paced editing was overdone and my wife and her friend almost walked out because the first half hour was too overwhelming. It is one of the few movies where it is more pleasant to watch on TV than on a full size theater screen. Which leaves the movie I think should have won, LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring. I thought Fellowship was the best of the three LOTR movies, even though it is my least favorite Tolkien book. The first scenes in the Shire were excellent and other parts like the Mines of Moria were very well done.
This was also the first year with best animated film getting its own category, which was a cheap way for the academy to honor animated films which they consistently shut out of best picture nominations for decades until Beauty and the Beast a few years earlier. Of the three nominees (Shreck, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, and Monsters, Inc.) they correctly picked Shreck. This is about the only major category where I have not had many problems with any of the winners.
Denzel Washington won for Training Day partly because the competition was not that tough and he did do a pretty good job playing a villain. He did a better job in Malcolm X and he was not even nominated for that. I Am Sam looked terrible and I heard mostly bad reviews for it so I will not watch it. Crowe was very good in A Beautiful Mind, but then I think he is always pretty good and takes on a wider range of roles than almost any actor. Will Smith was good in Ali and that is saying something since I do not like Ali that much and never thought of Smith as a good actor. Tom Wilkinson was very convincing in In the Bedroom, which is impressive since the last act was hard to believe.
Best actress had several deserving nominees. I really do not think Halle Barry is a very good actress, which made me even more impressed with her in Monster's Ball where she was very good. Judi Dench was very convincing in Iris, where she played a woman who lived for words, but slowly lost her mind and her ability to use words. Her performance was very good and, along with Jim Broadbent who won for best supporting actor, almost saved Iris from being a boring and predictable movie with dull directing and so so screenplay. Almost was not good enough. Nicole Kidman was decent in Moulin Rouge, but not that memorable. Sissy Spacek was very convincing as a bitter and selfish old woman coping with grief in In the Bedroom. Renee Zellwegger was very entertaining in Bridget Jones's Diary and was very convincing as a dumpy single woman who makes bad choices.
Jim Broadbent was the best part of Iris. He did the elderly, awkward, and devoted nerd role very well. Did I mention that Iris was very bad? Ethan Hawke in Training Day was decent and was actually on the screen more than Washington who got the best Actor nomination. I never saw Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. Ian McKellen was very good as Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, although I liked him even more the year before as the insidious Magento in X-Men. Jon Voight was very good and you almost forgot it was an actor. He really seemed to be having fun. Too many good choices to pick from!
There were no strong nominees in best supporting actress, but Jeniffer Connelly was fairly good in A Beautiful Mind, where she won. Helen Mirren in and Maggie Smith were both good in Gosford Park, but it was hard to remember who was who with all the characters. Poor Marisa Tomei was good in In the Bedroom, but there is no way she will even win another Oscar no matter how well she acts. Plus her character was not given much to do except look hot and then look sad. Kate Winslet was very naked in Iris. Seriously, can you wear a freaking swimsuit already? We get the point. You are fine being naked on camera. At least we did not have to see Judi Dench naked in the intermingling flash back scenes. And Kate Winslet being naked a lot did not make Iris a good movie.
Ron Howard won best director for A Beautiful Mind. He was competent enough, but there was nothing too special about it. That is how I feel with most of the movies Ron Howard directs. Good, but not special. Ridley Scott did a better job with Black Hawk Down than he did with Gladiator, but nothing too special there and I found following the movie more confusing than the book, which I had read beforehand. Robert Altman was competent in Gosford Park, but just because people talk over each other in real life does not make that a good idea for a movie. I am not a big David Lynch fan, but Mullholland Drive was definitely creatively made. However, the most memorable and daring of all the nominees was Peter Jackson for LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring. He easily should have won for making something that epic and for convincing the studio to let him do it.
Posted by Pete at April 25, 2006 05:28 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.petetheelder.com/mt-tb.cgi/791