Re: What movies have you seen recently? Part 1
The Hurt Locker
I just downloaded this from the PlayStation Store a couple of hours ago, my first movie rent download ever. To start off with the quality in case anyone was wondering, I don't know if all movies are in 16:9 (as this movie already is) or if it preserves the aspect ratio, but it all looked decent except for some night scenes having pretty heavy mosquito noise. I'm not sure if that's video compression or if that's just the movie, but that was really the only picture issue. Sound was only decent; I didn't have it on full blast but it was loud enough. Bass would sometimes kick in more than I felt it needed to (not powerfully, just low) and there wasn't much crackle and pop from gunshots, but it was 5.1 though it never said whether it was lossless or not, so I can't confirm. But again, sound was good enough... just not the best of the best that you'll hear on Blu-ray.
As for the movie itself, I obviously picked this out because it won the Best Picture Oscar. Normally it seems that I don't hear of half the movies nominated for Best Picture. In this case, I still have not seen half of them (haven't seen District 9, A Serious Man, Precious, An Education, or The Blind Side). From the five that I've seen so far though, Up In the Air still gets my vote for what I considered to be the Best Picture. I'm not sure what the criteria is exactly to win an Oscar, though frankly I'm more perturbed that Inglourious Basterds didn't get a Best Original Screenplay Oscar.
Now, about the movie. It's centralized around three soldiers enlisted in the Bravo Company with a little more than a month to go stationed in Iraq, and Sergeant Will James replaces the former leader of an army explosives unit. He's a cocky bastard pretty much from start to finish and rolls the dice on many procedural calls that are life-or-death, though he has heart. It's tough to tell really where his heart leads him to though, but the end gives enough resolution to figure out why he does what he does. The movie opens with a quote that I think many people would have forgotten to retain after five minutes of watching this movie, though I encourage that those who watch it, remember it: "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug." I did not look up the source of this quote, but I'm guessing it's from a novel of sorts. Anyway, this very much sums up the main character's vice, and his only Kryptonite is a bullet through his skull. He will stop at nothing, and he enforces his team to follow through the battle lines.
This is what is drawn from the actions and dialogue, mostly all that this movie is composed of. It's not heavy with a musical score, it doesn't have a narrative, it's not preachy, it's not quotable... and most of all, it is scene after scene of real-time unfolding events with no real sense of a climax or falling action. Think of it like the show 24, with the exception that many days can pass by in a simple scene transition. The tension is built up in a way that you never know what's going to happen at any given moment for the sheer fact that it's in this real-time direction, and there are a lot of red herrings and decoys for the audience's sake so that they'll have to hold their breath for the entire ride. I will give that nod to the director, though it's the case where after you have seen it once, there isn't much to hold your breath for. The lasting appeal is stale at best, yet at the same time you can't hark the direction if it is top-notch in its form (the cameramen could have left their finger off the "quick-zoom" button a little more, though).
Not exactly a weak point, but the screenplay was nothing worth noting in the same way that The Departed or Inglourious Basterds shared their excellent screenplay. Again, this was all real-time. You have many moments of silence (and nothingness), many commands, and many times repeating the same lines over and over (i.e. "Drop your weapon!"). This isn't bad, it's just real. I don't know why it is that you can credit somebody for being "real" with their script, that's just a form of saying that the action controlled the dialogue, and that's not normally something that you hear from critics to be a good thing in movies. Again, it wasn't a bad thing for this movie's sake, but Best Original Screenplay? Honestly, I think not.
So, in closing I certainly can't disregard this movie for being very good. I don't think I can say that I haven't seen other movies like this, so in the end I'm left scratching my head and wondering exactly what it was that separated this one from the rest. They were able to stretch it past two hours with the real-time factor, and it was like we watched a documentary follow three soldiers unharmed through a war zone. We've seen it in Black Hawk Down, though this is less Hollywood-ized in many ways. I'm just saying that I will accept the Best Picture nod it got, but I'm getting the same feeling as I did with Slumdog Millionaire last year. The only difference is that I wasn't a huge fan of any of the five movies nominated last year, so at least the Academy has upped their game with not only ten nominations, but the movies they've nominated as well.
For what would probably be considered a war movie (though it's a post-invasion period), it wasn't very daunting nor was it too emotionally riveting. As I've already said many times, it was just real. I credit the actors for their performances, and I appreciate this movie keeping politics out of the equation. But there were three serious snubs in the screenplay, director, and picture categories of the Oscars (where Inglourious Basterds, Avatar, and Up In the Air should have won respectively). I just hope that people still give the other movies a rental and a chance to see what they're made out of and how they stand up with this one, as they all stand tall, though comparatively around the same height in their own unique ways. I think this was of the most diverse BP groups I have seen at least, so I'm glad that movies like this are getting a shot at it, though I'd like to get a little more reasoning as to why it does. In a way I feel that it's unfair I have to hold this movie on such a high pedestal while ranking it, but in doing my best to remove the Best Picture factor from my viewing, this movie is a solid 8.2/10. I mean it was good, but nowhere could I stand up and cheer, giving it a BP nom before I had even heard the nominations myself (meanwhile I could do so for IB and UItA).
By the way, I have no idea what the title means. I can take a few shots in the dark and I may land on the right answer, but I just wanted to throw that out there.
The Hurt Locker
I just downloaded this from the PlayStation Store a couple of hours ago, my first movie rent download ever. To start off with the quality in case anyone was wondering, I don't know if all movies are in 16:9 (as this movie already is) or if it preserves the aspect ratio, but it all looked decent except for some night scenes having pretty heavy mosquito noise. I'm not sure if that's video compression or if that's just the movie, but that was really the only picture issue. Sound was only decent; I didn't have it on full blast but it was loud enough. Bass would sometimes kick in more than I felt it needed to (not powerfully, just low) and there wasn't much crackle and pop from gunshots, but it was 5.1 though it never said whether it was lossless or not, so I can't confirm. But again, sound was good enough... just not the best of the best that you'll hear on Blu-ray.
As for the movie itself, I obviously picked this out because it won the Best Picture Oscar. Normally it seems that I don't hear of half the movies nominated for Best Picture. In this case, I still have not seen half of them (haven't seen District 9, A Serious Man, Precious, An Education, or The Blind Side). From the five that I've seen so far though, Up In the Air still gets my vote for what I considered to be the Best Picture. I'm not sure what the criteria is exactly to win an Oscar, though frankly I'm more perturbed that Inglourious Basterds didn't get a Best Original Screenplay Oscar.
Now, about the movie. It's centralized around three soldiers enlisted in the Bravo Company with a little more than a month to go stationed in Iraq, and Sergeant Will James replaces the former leader of an army explosives unit. He's a cocky bastard pretty much from start to finish and rolls the dice on many procedural calls that are life-or-death, though he has heart. It's tough to tell really where his heart leads him to though, but the end gives enough resolution to figure out why he does what he does. The movie opens with a quote that I think many people would have forgotten to retain after five minutes of watching this movie, though I encourage that those who watch it, remember it: "The rush of battle is a potent and often lethal addiction, for war is a drug." I did not look up the source of this quote, but I'm guessing it's from a novel of sorts. Anyway, this very much sums up the main character's vice, and his only Kryptonite is a bullet through his skull. He will stop at nothing, and he enforces his team to follow through the battle lines.
This is what is drawn from the actions and dialogue, mostly all that this movie is composed of. It's not heavy with a musical score, it doesn't have a narrative, it's not preachy, it's not quotable... and most of all, it is scene after scene of real-time unfolding events with no real sense of a climax or falling action. Think of it like the show 24, with the exception that many days can pass by in a simple scene transition. The tension is built up in a way that you never know what's going to happen at any given moment for the sheer fact that it's in this real-time direction, and there are a lot of red herrings and decoys for the audience's sake so that they'll have to hold their breath for the entire ride. I will give that nod to the director, though it's the case where after you have seen it once, there isn't much to hold your breath for. The lasting appeal is stale at best, yet at the same time you can't hark the direction if it is top-notch in its form (the cameramen could have left their finger off the "quick-zoom" button a little more, though).
Not exactly a weak point, but the screenplay was nothing worth noting in the same way that The Departed or Inglourious Basterds shared their excellent screenplay. Again, this was all real-time. You have many moments of silence (and nothingness), many commands, and many times repeating the same lines over and over (i.e. "Drop your weapon!"). This isn't bad, it's just real. I don't know why it is that you can credit somebody for being "real" with their script, that's just a form of saying that the action controlled the dialogue, and that's not normally something that you hear from critics to be a good thing in movies. Again, it wasn't a bad thing for this movie's sake, but Best Original Screenplay? Honestly, I think not.
So, in closing I certainly can't disregard this movie for being very good. I don't think I can say that I haven't seen other movies like this, so in the end I'm left scratching my head and wondering exactly what it was that separated this one from the rest. They were able to stretch it past two hours with the real-time factor, and it was like we watched a documentary follow three soldiers unharmed through a war zone. We've seen it in Black Hawk Down, though this is less Hollywood-ized in many ways. I'm just saying that I will accept the Best Picture nod it got, but I'm getting the same feeling as I did with Slumdog Millionaire last year. The only difference is that I wasn't a huge fan of any of the five movies nominated last year, so at least the Academy has upped their game with not only ten nominations, but the movies they've nominated as well.
For what would probably be considered a war movie (though it's a post-invasion period), it wasn't very daunting nor was it too emotionally riveting. As I've already said many times, it was just real. I credit the actors for their performances, and I appreciate this movie keeping politics out of the equation. But there were three serious snubs in the screenplay, director, and picture categories of the Oscars (where Inglourious Basterds, Avatar, and Up In the Air should have won respectively). I just hope that people still give the other movies a rental and a chance to see what they're made out of and how they stand up with this one, as they all stand tall, though comparatively around the same height in their own unique ways. I think this was of the most diverse BP groups I have seen at least, so I'm glad that movies like this are getting a shot at it, though I'd like to get a little more reasoning as to why it does. In a way I feel that it's unfair I have to hold this movie on such a high pedestal while ranking it, but in doing my best to remove the Best Picture factor from my viewing, this movie is a solid 8.2/10. I mean it was good, but nowhere could I stand up and cheer, giving it a BP nom before I had even heard the nominations myself (meanwhile I could do so for IB and UItA).
By the way, I have no idea what the title means. I can take a few shots in the dark and I may land on the right answer, but I just wanted to throw that out there.
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