One Year --> One Movie

This is sort of stupid because if you only watched one movie every year you'd be missing out on some of the best movies of all time, also, a year can have 10 better movie than the following year so its all a bit pointless, anyways, if you really must make sure you watch these ones:

1919 - Broken Blossoms

1920 - The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari

1921 - The Phantom Carriage

1922 - Nosferatu

1923 - Safety Last!

1924 - Greed

1925 - The Gold Rush

1926 - Faust

1927 - Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans

1928 - Passion of Jean d'Arc

1929 - Un Chian Andalou

1930 - All Quiet on Western Front

1931 - M

1932 - Freaks

1933 - King Kong

1934 - It Happened One Night

1935 - Top Hat

1936 - Modern Times

1937 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarves

1938 - Bringing Up Baby

1939 - The Wizard of Oz

1940 - The Philadelphia Story

1941 - Citizen Kane

1942 - Casablanca

1943 - Shadow of a Doubt

1944 - Double Idemnity

1945 - Brief Encounter

1946 - It's a Wonderful Life

1947 - Out of the Past

1948 - Ladri di Biciclette

1949 - The Third Man

1950 - Sunset Blvd.

1951 - A Streetcar Named Desire

1952 - Singing in the Rain

1953 - Tokyo Story

1954 - Seven Samurai

1955 - The Night of the Hunter

1956 - The Searchers

1957 - Le Notti Bianchi

1958 - Touch of Evil

1959 - North by Northwest

1960 - L'Avventura

1961 - Last Year at Marienbad

1962 - Lawrence of Arabia

1963 - 8 1/2

1964 - Band à Part

1965 - Pierre Le Fou

1966 - Andrey Rublyov

1967 - The Jungle Book

1968 - Once Upon a Time in the West

1969 - Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

1970 - Le Cercle Rouge

1971 - Harold and Maude

1972 - The Godfather

1973 - El Espíritu de la Colmena

1974 - Chinatown

1975 - One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nes

1976 - Network

1977 - Annie Hall

1978 - The Deer Hunter

1979 - Manhattan

1980 - StarWars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

1981 - Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

1982 - Blade Runner

1983 - Sans Soleil

1984 - Paris, Texas

1985 - Brazil

1986 - Stand By Me

1987 - The Princess Bride

1988 - Nuovo Cinema Paradiso

1989 - Dekalog

1990 - Goodfellas

1991 - Beauty and the Beast

1992 - Reservoir Dogs

1993 - The Schindler's List

1994 - The Shawshank Redemption

1995 - Se7en

1996 - Fargo

1997 - LA Confidential

1998 - The Big Lebowski

1999 - Fight Club

2000 - Almost Famous

2001 - LotR: Fellowship of the Ring

2002 - Cidade de Deus

2003 - LotR: Return of the King

2004 - A Love Song For Bobby Long

2005 - Brick

2006 - El Labirinto del Fauno

2007 - The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

2008 - Martyrs

2009 - Inglorious Basterds

Just out of curiosity: the hardest years to decide, mostly because two (or more) of my favourite movies of all time were in them, were:

1968 - Once Upon a Time in the West over 2001: A Space Odyssey

1980 - Empire Strikes Back over The Shining

1985 - Brazil over The Goonies

1990 - Goodfellas over Edward Scissorhands

1993 - The Schindler's List over Jurassic Park

1994 - The Shawshank Redemption over the Lion King

1995 - Se7en over Toy Story

1998 - The Big Lebowski over American History X and Saving Private Ryan

2002 - Cidade de Deus over Road to Perdition

2004 - A Love Song for Bobby Long over Garden State, A Very Long Engagement and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

2007 - The Assassination of Jesse James over Into the Wild

2008 - Martyrs over The Dark Knight

Oscars 2010

Really I don't know why I keep watching the Oscars. Once again I think the academy screwed up.

Lets take a look at the categories...

Best Documentary

I've only seen Food Inc and The Cove which are both about food industry. One pokes the finger at the chinese and another at both Europe and America. Who is worse? Can't really tell, both movies raise very important issues about the food industry, whereas food inc is a reserach effort, the cove is more like an undercover operation so I supposed the last makes up for a more entertaining movie thus yeah its a worthy win.

Best Foreign Movie

This was really a surprise. I haven't seen the winer (Secret in their eyes) but I doubt it is better than the white ribbon or even a prophete. I can't really judge as I haven't seen the winner but my vote would have gone to Haneke's masterpiece the White Ribbon.

Best Animated

This is the hardest one to choose. I haven't seen Secret of the Kells (has anyone??) but I have seen all the others and they are all great. Up has the best opening sequence of any movie this year and it's one of the finest animated moments of all time, the rest of the movie was quite funny but definatly not Pixar's best (not even top5). The Princess and the Frog was a surprise to me a real return to form from the Disney studios, great characters and the music was great, definatly one for the ages, as good as early stuff. Fantastic Mr. Fox was awesome and had the best comedy timing of any movie this year, some really fantastic characters and some cool stop motion. Coraline was also another stop motion masterpiece, yeah maybe not as good as Nightmare Before Christmas, but nevertheless the 3D was fantastic... In the end I might have given the vote to Fantastic Mr Fox, but Up is a worthy winner.

Best Special Effects

Avatar is a revolution, enough said right?

Best Origin Song

The songs from the Princess and the Frog were great and there should have been more nominations for that movie, but The Weary Kind is a truly fantastic song. The academy got it right

Best Score

Up had by far the most memorable music from any of the movies this year so well done Academy for giving Giacchino the oscar.

Best Art Direction

All the movies deserved the win really, but its become a cliche that a period piece wins this (and costume design for that matter) so I was glad to see a Sci-Fi movie like Avatar taking home the award. Then again all the other movies deserved it too.

Best Editing

I thought District 9 should have won this.

Best Cinematography

Avatar is a worthy winner. Ok, so all the cinematography was done with computers but does that diminsh the fact that the movie looks gorgeous??

Best Adapted Screenplay

I would have given the gold man to District 9 but i suppose Precious is a worthy winner.

Best Original Screenplay

What??? The Hurt Locker? Not in a million years. Tarantino (alongside with Woody Allen, he should have been nominated for Whatever Works) is the best script writer cinema has and since his movie wasn't going to win anything else tonight it should have at least won screenplay. Shame on the academy really.

Best Director

Katherine Bigelow won because she's a woman, that is the only reason I can think of for the academy to give her the oscar. They wanted to make history but even if you hate James Cameron you'll gave to admit that Bigelow directed a few dozen people whereas Cameron directed a fuckin army, and came up with the entire Pandora's world by himself, and was on the forefront of the development of a technology that will be the future of cinema, oh and Avatar has made 2.5b worldwide... Really, help me find a reason Cameron should not have won!! Katherine wouldn't even be my second choice, Tarantino would (she would have been my third choice)

Best Supporting Actress

Penelope shouldn't have been nominated, Cotilard was much better in that movie. Gyllenhall had a fine performance but really it was Jeff Bridge's movie. The girls from Up in the air were average at best. Mo'Nique was a tour de force, so yeah there was no what she wasn't going to win this.

Best Supporting Actor

When I watch Inglorious Basterds I was thinking “wow this guy is great, I bet he's going to win the Oscar”. Guess what... he did and it was really deserved. Waltz was funny and menacing and a joy to watch. His win left a smile in my face and what a speech.. a true legend (also he basically had no competition...)

Best Actress

Sandra Bullock is lovely but her role is a straighforward one... nothing special. Meryl is, alongside with Kate Winslet, the best actress in movies today. Helen Mirren is also a classy choice but neither of them were really in the competition. Carey Mulligan is cute and her movie is actually quite good but she was just there to fill the group. Bullocks main competition was Gabourney Sibile and in the end she should have taken home the award. It's a depressing role, I mean she is raped, has a kid, has AIDS, can't read... fuck me that requires some acting... Bullock was just playing an interesting yet simple woman... The Academy got it wrong I think, still it was quite funny that last night Bullock won a Razzie and tonight she won an oscar.

Best Picture

Finally the main category. If it were me these would have been the 10 nominees:

Avatar

Inglorious Basterds

The Hurt Locker

Watchmen

Star Trek

(500) Days of Summer

Fantastic Mr Fox

Sherlock Holmes

Where the Wild Things Are

Distric 9

Out of these 10 the only ones worthy of the Oscar, in my humble opinion, were Inglorious Basterds or Avatar. The first one had the best story, best screenplay, best acting and it was perhaps Tarantino's masterpiece (yes it might even be better than Pulp Fiction). The second had amazing cinematography, special effects, sound, art direction and a tour de force director who, like I said above basically directed a small army of people, granted storywise it could have been better, but it was still one of the best cinematic experiences ever. There is no way the Hurt Locker should have won this, don't get me wrong, it's a fine fine movie but is just not a “best picture winner” and it only won because people think its cool to hate everything that is popular (like Avatar). If I had to vote I would have probably gone for Inglorious Basterds but Avatar would have been a close second and is definatly a much better cinematic experience than the Hurt Locker.

Alice in Wonderland Review

ALICE IN WONDERLAND

2010

Tim Burton

Imdb: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014759/

RT (54%): http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/10009599-alice_in_wonderland/

Tim Burton is one of our great directors. He doesn't have the storytelling skills of Spielberg, the cinematic craft of Scorsese, the coolness of Tarantino or the epic vision of Peter Jackson, but he is probably the greatest visual craftsmen cinema can offer, a direct descendent from people like Rober Wiene and Murnau, the masters of German expressionism. And Lewis Carrol, well he wrote what is by far the best children's book of all time. So when I heard that Tim Burton was doing an adaptation of Alice in Wonderland I was really excited, I mean this should have been a match made in heaven. And I still belive it would have been, had Burton addapted Carrol's story from the actual books and not done a sequel like he did, and definatly not one with an epic scale. Carrol's tale is supposed to be low key, not epic... That being said I still found myself really enjoying the movie.

First of all the characters are all perfectly imagined, especially some of the minor characters. Also, the actors playing them are fantastic, such as Stephen Fry as the Cheshire cat, Alan Rickman as the Blue Catterpillar, Crispin Glover as the Knave of Hearts, Barbara Windsor as the Doormouse, Michael Sheen as the White Rabbit, Matt Lucas as the Tweedels, Paul Withouse as the March Hare and Christopher Lee as the Jabberwocky. Most of the main characters are also quite good, Anne Hathaway is lovely yet creepy as the White Queen, Bonham Carter is very weird as Red Queen and despite not being as memorable as the one from the Disney's animated movie does her job well. Then there is Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, he crafted another fantastic character, and while not as good as Jack Sparrow (then again, what is?) he is very funny to watch and his little dance at the end is one of the movie's quirkiest and funniest scenes. Newcomer Mia Wasikowska as Alice is however as flat as a wooden board and the character deserved better.

The cinematography and production values are gorgeous and the 3D is some of the most beautiful I have ever seen, also some of the darker scenes (like when Alice has to hop on decapitated heads to get to the Red Castle) will creep the kids out and have Burton fans salivating. The score, by Danny Elfman, is not memorable as the work he did on basically every other movie he's done with Burton, but it still works. It is in the story and mostly in the scale that this movie fails.

First the story is a very simple one (yet told on an epic scale): basically Alice, now a teenager, returns to Wonderland, and has to help everyone to bring down the Red Queen. I really don't see the need for a sequel, and the 2009 Syfy channel special is a much more interesting take on it to be honest, but I would have been okay with it since all the characters are amazing and by far the best we have ever seen in any of the books adaptations.

What is really wrong with the movie is the scale, and who do we have to blame for this? I would say Peter Jackson and his Lord of the Rings trilogy. You see like every single other fantasy movie that has come out since and tried to be epic Alice just feels flat. There are numerous examples: Chronicles of Narnia, the Golden Compass or even the Harry Potter movies, they all try to be epic and fail and whislt they are still enjoyable (some more than the others) they never feel has big as Lord of the Rings. Smaller scale flicks have been much better, like the Bridge to Terabithia or last year's Cirque du Freak and they are better because they avoid comparisions with Lord of the Rings.

Also Tim Burton, as good a director as he is, just doesn't have an epic vision, take a look at his back catalogue... Do you prefer Planet of the Apes or Edward Scissorhands?? Tim Burton is at his best when he does low key dark fantasy flicks such as the above mentioned Scissorhands, Big Fish, Sweeney Todd, Beetljuice, Corpse Bride or Nightmare Before Christimas (even though he didn't direct this one), just to name a few. What's really annoying here is that Lewis Carrol book, as great as it is, is not an epic one, there is no need for big battles (that will only feel small due to the Lord of the Rings scale). It is a simple, lowkey story, about a girl who dreams of the weirdest world you could possible imagine.

Having read the book numerous times, having seen all of Burton's movies and after having seen some of the brilliant character designs in this movie it pains me to know that if Burton had kept to the two original stories, like I thought he was going to when it was anounced, this would have been one of my favourite movies of all time, insted it became just another Chronicles of Narnia, enjoyable and gorgeous to look at yet somehow flat.

I would still recommend it, if only for the the special effects and characters, then go home and watch the Disney movie and the 1999 Hallmark TV special, then wonder why in over 100 years of cinema noone has yet been able to properly adapt Carrols masterpiece, then read the book, then think how great this movie could have been if only Tim Burton had made the right decisions, then go and watch Edward Scissorhands and forgive the man because he is still, undeniably, one of the finest directors we have!

Direction – 6

Story – 4

Cinematography and Special Effects – 9

Score – 6

Acting – 8

Overall – 7.5