Oscarwatch 2010 - The Hurt Locker

As the days tick by and we get closer to the night of Oscars, I am hurriedly trying to accomplish my yearly task of seeing all the Best Picture nominees before the ceremony. This year the Academy has made this task doubly harder, by changing the number of nom’s in this category from 5 to 10. But alas, I have stood up to this challenge and find myself with only two films remaining for consumption before March 7. I figured I’d do a little write up about each Best Picture nom since I’m taking the time to watch them. And everyone values my opinions on movies. I just feel like doing this, okay. Sheesh, leave me alone about it.

So without further chatter, let’s get to our first movie. The Hurt Locker. Watched it the other night on DVD, and thought it was very good. Very intense, but I mean that’s to be expected when you’re watching a movie about an elite bomb diffusing Army squad in Iraq. Jeremy Renner delivers a great performance as SFC William James, new team leader of Bravo Company who thrives on adrenaline, putting himself and team members in danger to get the thrill of dismantling IEDs.

As we watch James butt heads with others on his team, specifically Sergeant JT Sanborn, a by the books guy who’s just trying to make it through the 39 days left in Bravo Company’s deployment. A third team member, Specialist Owen Eldrige seems to be a less experienced solider, who quickly becomes shaken in tense situations. Watching these three men go about missions, life and death situations, or get wasted together tells a lot about what going to war can do to men and their minds.

This movie keeps you on the edge of your seat with scenes so intense you don’t know when or if another bomb will explode, a shot will be fired, or what SFC James will do next. It is also shot beautifully, with Director Kathryn Bigelow giving us an authentic feeling view into the lives of soldiers in Iraq. We see what it’s like to be in cities filled with civilians, and not know if one of them is about to detonate a bomb, or if they are merely watching what’s going on. You start to feel how uneasy these soldiers feel every day, on every mission. Specific slow motion shots are used to accentuate the gravity of certain situations in the movie, making the film that much more effective.

Overall, this is a must see of the year. Jeremy Renner delivers a wonderful, believable performance as adrenaline seeking SFC James, constantly conflicted between the need for thrills and the safety of himself and others.


Rating:

4 out of 5 on the ever-popular Marci scale.

Nominations: 9, including Director (Bigelow), Actor (Renner), and Best Picture. Don’t be surprised if this one takes home Best Director and Best Picture.

update 1: WWTS

i don't want to bone tiger woods! i was joking around. apparently i differ from about 12 other women who have boned him in the past few years, but I don't really want to break me off a piece of Tiger. ever...

WWTS?

Tomorrow morning at 11 AM, it's all about WWTS - What Will Tiger Say? Tiger's gonna make his first public appearance since all the crazy (and crazier, and craziest) shiz has gone down. Starting with the car crash heard 'round the world, continuing with the emergence of over 10 biddies who say Tiger's had his way with them, this circus has been oddly mesmerizing to the general public as the clean cut golfer's bad boy side was revealed.



But, what now? Why does Tiger want to address us? Is he returning to golf? Issuing a statement that he is now single and ready to mingle with any willing parties? Revealing the ending to the last season of LOST? I guess we can only wait until tomorrow to see.

Some golfers on the pro tour think this is a rude move by Tiger, making a statement during the first big tournament of the year. Stealing the spotlight from the sport he abandoned.

Ernie Els told Golfweek magazine, "It's selfish. You can write that. I feel sorry for the sponsor. Mondays are a good day to make statements, not Friday. This takes a lot away from the golf tournament."

Yeah, Tiger, come on. What could you possibly have to say that is more interesting than a golf tournament without you in it? (If Tiger were here, he'd reply, "Anything." And I would agree. And then we'd probably bang because he would seduce me with his Blasian ways and smooth, playa style. Just kidding. He's not my type. I'm not his type.)

So keep refreshing espn.com tomorrow morning around 11 as Tiger's statement pours out. I'm hoping for a running list of all biddies banged. But if I can't get that, I'll take a return to golf. Then we can ponder other important questions - like if people will be quiet during his putts anymore, or if feminists in the crowd will scream during his backstrokes.

this just happened.

I just rock paper scissored with a coworker in front of our supervisor to see who had to do this project neither of us wanted to do. I won.

awesome.

winning combo?
paper (covered rock)
scissors (tied scissors)
rock (killed scissors)

funny looking animal of the week!

Vancouver Opening Cere... zzzzzzz

Last night was the Opening Ceremony for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. I'm going to be quite honest with you, I was pumped up. I remember in 2002 watching the Opening Ceremony with R. Kelly singing "I'm the World's Greatest" and thinking "this is something special." That became a really weird and uncomfortable memory when all the R Kelly shiz went down, but nonetheless it's the OLYMPICS! It only happens every 4 years. You gotta love it.

But alas, the ceremony, while adequate, was a bit lackluster. I mean, you can't really compare it to Beijing, where the budget was somewhere between $300-400 million, while this one only had a budget of $30-40 mill. But you can't help comparing it to the crazy over the top Beijing Ceremony, and it does fall quite short.

There were some kind of cool parts, like when the WHALES SUDDENLY SWAM ACROSS THE BOTTOM OF THE FLOOR! But for a lack of a better way to put this... it seemed... a little ... boring. Who am I kidding? I stopped watching and started playing Rummy 500 halfway through. Then I drank a vodka rocks, called my grandchildren, and called it a night.

You gotta give it up to all the Canadian superstars who were there though, including Sarah Mclachlan, K.D. Lang, Bryan Adams, Nelly Furtado, Opera Singing Lady, and Beat Poet Guy who talked for about 5 minutes too long. They supplemented the tap dancing fiddle players very well for a nice well rounded night of weird entertainment.

The March of Nations was one the better parts of the night I thought. At least for me, because I got to comment on who all the athletes looked like - "hey! A Jonas brother!", judge the attire of all the Olympic teams (please give me the US Team's outfits minus the chunky turtlenecks), and we got to see really funny named people from other countries carrying flags - Björgvin Björgvinsson anyone?

When it came down to it, the most touching part of the night was the minute of silent that was shared for 21-year-old Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who died Friday morning after an accident during a practice run. This was a real tragedy, and you could it see on the faces of the Georgian team when they did the March of Nations and it brought the crowd to a standing ovation.

This is the thing about the Olympics. Through triumphs and tragedies, it brings the world together.

footnotes!

I'm currently reading The Book of Basketball by Bill Simmons, courtesy of the Library of Cordes. So far I'm on page 354 (out of a whopping 697), and I am enjoying it far more than I thought I ever could enjoy a book that is solely about the NBA, it's history, and it's greatest players of all time.

Mostly because Bill Simmons is hilarious. And he has SO MANY FOOTNOTES! So far, my favorite one was on page 258 when he was trying to explain why Utah suddenly became a "juggernaut in the West" in 1997. Here it is:

I'm springing one of my favorite theories here: the Tipping Point Friend. Every group of female college friends goes between eight and twelve girls deep. Within that group, there might be three or four little cliques and the backstabbing is through the roof, but the girls get along for the most part and make a big deal about hanging out, doing dinners, having special weekends and everything else. Maybe two of them get married early, then the other ones start dropping in their mid-20s until there's only five left—the cute blonde who can't get a boyfriend because she's either a drunk, an anorexic, or a drunkorexic; the cute brunette who only attracts assholes; the 185-pounder who'd be cute if she lost weight; the not-so-cute one with a great sense of humor; and the sarcastic chain-smoker with 36DDs who isn't quite cute enough to land anyone but hooks up a lot because of the 36DDs. In this scenario, the cute brunette is the Tipping Point Friend—as long as she's in the group, guys will approach them in bars, clubs or wherever. Once she settles down with a non-asshole, now all the pressure is on the drunkorexic and if she can't handle it, then the girl with the 36DDs has to start wearing crazy shirts and blouses to show off her guns. My point is this: the Jazz were the sarcastic chainsmoker with 36DDs who hooked up often but never found a serious suitor. By 1997, their competitors had dropped out and they were suddenly the hottest friend in their group. Does that mean they were hot? No!!! No!!!!!!! For the love of God, no!!!!!!

mills

I missed the show last night due to extreme exhaustion, but our friends over at jerseyisbest left us a nice performance of Dan Mills singing a crowd favorite, "cell phone clip man."

and check out Dan Mill's site here - you can even get his latest album FOR FREE. and it's awesome.