12.5 Hours of Academy Award Nominated Movies.
Yesterday, I sat through all five Academy Award Best Picture nominated films in one sitting. Yes you read that right, five films in one sitting, for over 12.5 hours of Hollywood entertainment.
I thought about writing a full review of each movie, but that is boring, so here is a play-by-play recount of the day:
- 1030 Arrive at the movie theater, choose seats; not to far back, and not too much in the middle; a battle of wills begins on whether to sit in a central location to better enjoys the films, or sit toward the sides for easy egress over the 12.5 hours of film.
- 1035 Compromise is struck with a central-right position, 4 seats from the aisle.
- 1045 Fill up 1.5 liter cup with Sprite & fill up Bag #1 of Buttered Popcorn.
- Babel begins playing.
- 1100-1330 Babel. Pretty good movie, with beautiful effects and brilliant use of sound; storyline is tenuous, but the overall picture is enjoyed. 1.5 liters of Sprite is consumed, as well as 1/2 bag of popcorn.
- 1330 Run for bathroom break #1. Decline free refill of soda.
- 1345 The Queen begins.
- 1345-1530 I enjoyed The Queen more than I thought I would. As one of two period pieces nominated, this is the most contemporary. As evenhanded as an American can judge a foreign monarchical government, the portrayal of the royal family could have devolved into royal-bashing; but rather, the movie tried to humanize a family so reserved from the public.
- 1530 Bathroom break #2 & Homemade ham sandwich
- 1545 The Departed starts
- 1545-1830 The Departed. Beautifully shot movie with great characters. Alec Baldwin steals the show along with Mark Wahlberg. Well paced movie with great dialogue, cinematography and action; if you haven't seen this yet, you should.
- 1830 Another 1.5 liters of Coke finished, one banana & one apple.
- 1845 Bathroom break #3.
- Letters from Iwo Jima begins
- 1900-2115 Letters from Iwo Jima is a beautifully shot movie, which employs every war cliche known to man. I've been told that to appreciate Letters, Flags Of Our Fathers, but I'm not so sure.
- 2115 Bathroom break #4.
- 2120 Sandwiches from the Port Authority.
- 2145 Little Miss Sunshine begins.
- 2145-2330 Little Miss Sunshine. What a great little movie. In the form of a movie cliche, the road trip, this film inverts the form on itself. A film of joy,
- 2330 Bathroom break #5
- 2345 Fin.
All told, the day was a success.
Comments
sweetchuck says:
Don't forget the store bought sandwich! And the drinks after, perhaps.
In regards to Letters From Iwo Jima, yes it has cliches, but it was also a fairly accurate film. I appreciated it more later when I learned that the battle, and a lot of the overall war, are barely taught within Japan. This is due to Japan switching to a more pacifist ideal, and more than a little shame. Ken Watanabe has said he knew nothing about Iwo Jima before preparing for the role.
Also, The Departed kicked butt. And not just due to the Dropkick Murphys song used, or the nearby neighborhood location shot.
Posted by: sweetchuck at February 25, 2007 11:33 PM #
Arno says:
Don't forget to invite your friend Arno next time!! Thanks for that everyone......jerks. Also, why the military time? I would assume that watching a movie at 230 in the morning at a theatre would be slightly out of the question....
Ten-HUT
Arno
Posted by: Arno at February 26, 2007 1:03 PM #
Jeff says:
On a different note, I just got done reading that "Escape to New York" article in yesterday's NYT that GK linked to. For the first time ever, I agree unconditionally with GK on something, that being the general turdliness of that article. So, some girl gets sick of the city, puts on a short dress, flashes some "psuedo-hipsters" and sells her crappy used books for $10 a pop after they see her junk? What a sad day for the Gray Lady...
Posted by: Jeff at February 26, 2007 2:12 PM #
sweetchuck says:
She was grey?! Eeewwww.
Posted by: sweetchuck at February 26, 2007 2:52 PM #
Arno says:
Maybe instead of showing her "junk" as Jeff has so eloquently stated she simply INVITED them to help her? An invitation to partake in an activity seems like an appropriate measure one would take....just sayin.
Posted by: Arno at February 26, 2007 4:46 PM #
Arno says:
Seriously though, a freaking invite to watch the movies with you guys would have been nice. I'm like an elephant y'all, I'll never forget.
Posted by: Arno at March 5, 2007 4:59 PM #
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