2016 Academy Award Winners & Round-Up

It is easy, as a member of an unofficial community of online film lovers, to forget that the majority of America and some parts of the rest of the world tune into the Oscars in order to see some of the most famous movie stars on the planet act like normal people and reward themselves or better yet, recognize the best of what they had to offer from the previous year, and not because they've actually seen many of the films. In talking to a co-worker in the office this morning about the ceremony they commented they'd only seen The Revenant, The Martian, and Mad Max: Fury Road and so they were happy to see some of what they recognized take home a fair amount of awards. Naturally, I was inclined to tell them that Brooklyn, Room, and Spotlight were essential viewing given they were each already on or will be coming out on home video soon while also stressing the entertainment value of The Big Short despite some clear hesitance based on the complicated subject matter. In short, it is a strange dynamic between what general audiences expect given the types of films nominated and the hope that seeing so many nominations for films not widely known will make some if not all of them gravitate toward the ones they might have previously disregarded once the films can viewed from the comfort of their own home. As for the actual show, it was a rather entertaining three and a half hours given the lackluster energy of last year's ceremony if not at least an hour too long. The best part about this year's awards though is that there were in fact some uncertainties going in, especially in the biggest category of the night. After the jump I go through my predictions and what I guessed right and wrong, where I wished I would have been wrong, why I was happy to be wrong a few times as well as highlight the full list of the winners.

Initial Reaction: Video Review - GODS OF EGYPT

With the three new wide releases this weekend underperforming, it seems this was not the weekend to try our first hand at two reviews, but oh well...here we are. Not only did we review this weekend's box office bomb (and deservedly so) Gods of Egypt, but we also took on Eddie the Eagle which came in fifth place to the tune of $6.3 million on a budget of $23m. While that may not seem great, it was more or less what was expected of the film while GOE has more explaining to do as it only conjured up an estimated $14m on a $140m budget plus a $30m marketing budget. This will be an interesting story to see play out as the movie is generally horrible (receiving a B- cinemascore from opening day audiences) and will cost its multiple financers and distributor a ton of cash. While the whitewashing of an ancient Egyptian story has been the main focus of complaint around the film since its trailer premiered back in November, that is the least of the films problems. While I hope Hollywood doesn't take away the wrong lesson from this flop (there is no room for big budget, original films with spectacle) I do hope they consider the quality of their product from now on and know that a CGI-filled world of transforming Gods and conventional storylines isn't enough to persuade audiences to spend the amount of money IMAX 3D theaters are charging to see such schlock. GOE has a few moments where it seems to want to be daring enough to try something different, but it doesn't hold to those innovations throughout and besides that, it's generally something of classic heroes journey masquerading as an aberration. For more, hit the jump to see our full video review and be sure to subscribe to our channel to get the latest video reviews! We'll hopefully have two more reviews for you this weekend as Zootopia and London Has Fallen premiere in theaters.

TRIPLE 9 Review

There is as much a vibrancy to Triple 9 as there is a subdued sense of dread. It's not hard to tell something bad or suspicious is lurking around every corner in this Atlanta-set cop drama from director John Hillcoat (The Road, Lawless, The Proposition) and yet, at the same time, you can't help but to want to turn those corners in anticipation of seeing the story develop. First time feature writer Matt Cook gives us a rather complex plot to comprehend, but that his script dives into the key characters head first and we come to know them and their circumstances almost immediately gives us reason to invest and want to understand these present complexities. From moment one, where we see a four man team robbing a bank with The Walking Dead's Norman Reedus serving as the lookout in an inconspicuous vehicle, I was into the dirty, grimy narrative that Hillcoat and Cook would be weaving to presumably get at bigger themes and larger statements about race, justice, and the gray lines that divide honor and disdain. The film accomplishes as much by not just being about bank robbers and corrupt police officers, but rather Triple 9 utilizes the unaccounted for details of emotion and other human elements to disturb the strict proceedings some, if not most, of its characters attempt to operate within. There is no room for emotions or a softened mental state within the Atlanta police department, especially for detectives. We see this in the toll that has clearly been taken on Woody Harrelson's character, Jeffrey Allen, while there is certainly no room for as much under the rule of Irina Vlaslov (Kate Winslet) a Russian Jew looking to free her powerful husband with the help of a few hired hands. Through each of these characters Cook enlists some type of inherent emotional attachment though, making things never as clear cut as the puppet masters would like them to be. While this may not be to the characters advantage though, it makes things all the more savory for the audience member waiting to see what decisions will be made and how such decisions will reverberate through to other aspects of the story. That said, Triple 9 is not a perfect film (far from it, really), but more times than not I was on the edge of my seat anxious to see where the film and more importantly, its characters, would take me.

GODS OF EGYPT Review

Gods of Egypt is one of those movies that is so bad that even the inherent campiness of it can't make things the slightest bit fun. At the very least, given the extravagance of the visuals and the outlandish reaches director Alex Proyas (I, Robot, Dark City) goes for here I expected the film to be a good ole' slice of pure entertainment value for the sake of nothing else, but even under these minimal expectations Gods of Egypt fails to be anything but conventional; which is saying a lot for a film that has gigantic flying beetles and Egyptian God transformers dismantling one another. There is seemingly no point to the construction of this universe as far as financial reward goes and the idea of whitewashing these ancient mythological idols is the least of the films problems. Sure, we have Gerard Butler, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and Geoffrey Rush all doing variations on their European accents, but none are as distracting as the fully CGI backdrops that look as if they were "completed" in a rush two days before the film's release. Beyond all of the obvious complaints there are to make about this movie though, there was certainly some ambition behind the attempt as well. Unfortunately, these strides end up counting for very little. Still, there are risks taken in the way the Gods are portrayed as being larger and more looming than the mortals who worship them, there is an effort to take the historical context of the film and blend in elements of weird science fiction and fantasy, and the actual world building of this strange universe can be immersive, but more times than not these attempts fail to be what they should be and that is to be cool and appealing. Instead, the ugliness of the shiny yet granular images and the fight scenes that look as if they were ripped from a video game circa 2001 reek of a director out of touch and a storyteller too far removed from these adjectives that everything going on here feels as if it's trying too hard to please too broad an audience. Proyas has always been one to try something outside the box or at least be up for going after the unexpected, but with Gods of Egypt there is no amount of CGI that could cover up the scars it leaves.

SON OF SAUL Review

There is hardly an utterance of dialogue in Son of Saul so the fact it is a foreign film should matter little. Sure, there are subtitles and one must pay close attention if they are to grasp the full impact of the film at large, but simply taken on the images it projects the film is an unnerving achievement. From the opening, uninterrupted shot that follows the titular prisoner through one of the more horrific experiences one could ever imagine comprehending there is a bleak, but gripping nature to the film. One that, despite any caution the viewer might feel given the circumstances of the film and its Holocaust subject matter, is worth witnessing. What is at first a look inside the horrific daily routine of what were referred to as "Sonderkommando's" quickly becomes a story of one man in particular wrestling with the internal conflict of being forced to commit terrible acts while at the same time dealing with the torment of his own persecution. Saul is the harbinger of his own, inevitable death in many ways and it is through the desperate act that the film chronicles that a type of quest for redemption is attempted so that he may not only atone for the daily injustices to human life that he is going along with, but that he might somehow feel a purpose one last time in this existence the Nazi's have all but forced out of him. Son of Saul is, at the same time, both a simple film in that it once again portrays the appalling nature of how we can treat one another through the events of the Holocaust while naturally being a very complex and layered piece of filmmaking due to those same aforementioned factors. Most thoughts having to do with what people were forced to deal with when it comes to Auschwitz are easier to deal with when pushed to the back of one's mind, but Son of Saul puts these crimes against humanity front and center and forces the audience to feel the immense complications of having to do nothing more than follow the commands of your captors while simultaneously dealing with how those orders make you hate yourself and the world/time you live in.