Saw the FLOW trailer before WILD ROBOT the day after the election and have never in my life felt the urge so strongly to ask if they could put it on after the feature I paid for. Can't wait.
Our timeline is faulty for many reasons but being denied the opportunity to see LAST DUEL on a big screen and see it disappear from cultural thought only to get carpet-bombed with the sequel to one of my least favorite living-memory Best Pictures (it can thank CRASH and AMERICAN BEAUTY for not being at the bottom of my list), that is somehow already an Oscar contender is one of its glaring errors.
There have been some truly dubious Best Picture winners this century: A BEAUTIFUL MIND, CRASH, BIRDMAN, and GREEN BOOK all come immediately mind. I'd rank the perfectly fine GLADIATOR alongside CHICAGO, THE KING'S SPEECH, CODA, and THE ARTIST. These are pretty good movies but, come on.
Fair points. I'm not sure why I still carry such enmity for the original. Probably some unexamined (more) youthful rage I had at the time. Happens all the time here. Connecting it to THE ARTIST is more apt. A perfectly entertaining thing that got way too much tangible adoration. When the industry rewards itself for still making them like they used to, or whatever that is. Your rogues gallery is far more egregious, though the pretentious writing student in me that refuses to die still has some affection for BIRDMAN and I continue to have never seen GREEN BOOK. BEAUTIFUL MIND remains the movie I have to remember exists and usually only when I think Crowe won for GLADIATOR and remember that Ron Howard has a directing Oscar.
Still would love to see LAST DUEL on a big screen with a big crowd.
I do think GLADIATOR's Best Picture win gives it a sheen of respectability it doesn't quite deserve, and I say that as someone who loves it. It's a pulpy sword-and-sandals actioner with incredible production values, and I think it's more fairly judged on those terms; the BP win does it no favors by putting it in the same room with Lawrence of Arabia.
I fully cop to my original sentiment being a combination of first cup of coffee, natural pretention, and a smidge of truth. Even looked over a list of BP winners to confirm I was going too far, and it helped me identify another category of BP: a choice made worse relative to its competition.
The GreenBooks, Crashes, American Beautys, and Oliver!s are poor choices regardless of year. (Maybe if Green Book had been released in 1954, but even then.)
The Artist is a dull choice in a relatively weak year. I would take Moneyball, Tree of Life, or even Hugo or War Horse over it, but none of them is a clear "what were they thinking?" (The answer to that question is the same every year: They weren't really, based on the Hollywood Reporter anonymous voter interviews.) The Departed is still an odd BP (that I love), but the other four contenders- which include some fine films- don't cry out for justice to this day.
For me, Gladiator belongs with Argo, Out of Africa, English Patient, Miss Daisy, or- a movie I hate on a granular level for a bunch of reasons- Braveheart. It's professionally made with varying degrees of achievement that won over at least two glaringly obvious better choices (imo and sometimes in history’s opinion. Depending on your mood, you could put Rocky here. I think it's a great movie, but it's no Taxi Driver or Network nor any of the President’s Men. Dances with Wolves owns an Italian villa on on this list.
Then I look them all over and realize that this is more or less the default setting of the BP win. So I shouldn't begrudge G1 because I like Erin, Traffic, or especially Chocolat (I kid) Crouching Tiger a whole lot more (or that not picking Brocovich robbed us of a rare year where BP and director were the same person but for different movies). I have to chalk it up to the Academy doing what the Academy does and solid work often wins out over outliers. On a regular year, it wouldn’t be La La Land vs Moonlight because Hidden Figures or (ugh) Hacksaw Ridge would already have the award.
This is too many words to say "it's not my tempo," but Oscars are what I had instead of sports. I fully regret putting G1 the same bunk with Crash and Beauty. It deserves better and Ridley should have one of his own by now. What else does he have to do?
(If you read this far and haven't muted, there's a singular category for Return of the King, whose win I can't begrudge though it's not my favorite of the trilogy. If ever there was a call to do a Snow White Special Oscar with two extra Oscars for all three, it was that. The trilogy deserves the recognition, even if it encouraged Jackson to follow up with things ranging from disappointing to "The Lovely Bones?!" give or take parts of Kong. But doing that wouldn't have cleared the runway for a Master & Commander win. We'd have gotten Mystic River most likely and that's just as well avoided.)
I am seeing SWORD HUNKS: A GLADIATOR STORY this evening. I'm tremendously excited. The original is the historical fiction equivalent of candy corn: easy to eat, kind of orange for some reason, and probably bad for you. But candy corn rules, and I'm amped as fuck to get more of it tonight. Abstaining from reading the review until then, but my heart tells me Denzel is gonna scream at some dudes while they fight rhinos.
I love FLOW so so much. It's such a special movie - that sense of exploration and discovery with the beautiful animation just pushes exactly the right buttons for me. I would not characterize the animation as crude; to me it felt painterly.
I have an issue with Gladiator that must just be a personal thing with me, because I don’t see others complaining about it: the fight scenes are poorly choreographed and shot. Closeups of a guy swinging a sword, no sense of the larger action, lots of quick cuts to another shot that doesn’t give you any real perspective. One of the best parts of a pulpy gladiator film should be the fights, and they kind of suck.
But yes, a perfectly fine movie that shouldn’t get anywhere near a Best Picture win.
Random question. I just saw that Josh Brolin says he will quit acting if Villaneuve doesn’t get nominated for Dune 2 this year (I don’t believe him, think Villaneuve will get nominated though).
I am one of the rare weirdos who did not like Dune 2, for all the reasons I don’t particularly like Villeneuve in general (looks great, feels cold, like a beautiful person with nothing behind their eyes). So I would give it to Gladiator any day, if only because it has the better Zimmer score.
Someone (maybe one of you) once wrote that there are two kinds of sequels: Rocky II, which is remake of Rocky I with more crowd-pleasing ending, and Godfather Part II, which expand and give depth to world of original film by continuing story instead of rehashing it.
Gladiator II is first kind of movie that seem like it trying to pass self off as second kind.
“This is GLADIATOR, too.” I love that you ended your paragraph with that, Keith. You’re throwing some shade. It inspired me to find the following, as I could not remember:
I didn’t see linked article immediately, but it is clearly the source for my list. Also, it’s a well written 2014 item by Christopher Campbell from the Film School Rejects site.
I'm not going to suggest that you watch the whole thing, but check out the opening scene of Deathstalker 2 to witness this idea carried to it's logical extension.
PS You should actually watch the whole thing. Deathstalker 2 is pretty great.
Saw the FLOW trailer before WILD ROBOT the day after the election and have never in my life felt the urge so strongly to ask if they could put it on after the feature I paid for. Can't wait.
Our timeline is faulty for many reasons but being denied the opportunity to see LAST DUEL on a big screen and see it disappear from cultural thought only to get carpet-bombed with the sequel to one of my least favorite living-memory Best Pictures (it can thank CRASH and AMERICAN BEAUTY for not being at the bottom of my list), that is somehow already an Oscar contender is one of its glaring errors.
There have been some truly dubious Best Picture winners this century: A BEAUTIFUL MIND, CRASH, BIRDMAN, and GREEN BOOK all come immediately mind. I'd rank the perfectly fine GLADIATOR alongside CHICAGO, THE KING'S SPEECH, CODA, and THE ARTIST. These are pretty good movies but, come on.
Fair points. I'm not sure why I still carry such enmity for the original. Probably some unexamined (more) youthful rage I had at the time. Happens all the time here. Connecting it to THE ARTIST is more apt. A perfectly entertaining thing that got way too much tangible adoration. When the industry rewards itself for still making them like they used to, or whatever that is. Your rogues gallery is far more egregious, though the pretentious writing student in me that refuses to die still has some affection for BIRDMAN and I continue to have never seen GREEN BOOK. BEAUTIFUL MIND remains the movie I have to remember exists and usually only when I think Crowe won for GLADIATOR and remember that Ron Howard has a directing Oscar.
Still would love to see LAST DUEL on a big screen with a big crowd.
I do think GLADIATOR's Best Picture win gives it a sheen of respectability it doesn't quite deserve, and I say that as someone who loves it. It's a pulpy sword-and-sandals actioner with incredible production values, and I think it's more fairly judged on those terms; the BP win does it no favors by putting it in the same room with Lawrence of Arabia.
I fully cop to my original sentiment being a combination of first cup of coffee, natural pretention, and a smidge of truth. Even looked over a list of BP winners to confirm I was going too far, and it helped me identify another category of BP: a choice made worse relative to its competition.
The GreenBooks, Crashes, American Beautys, and Oliver!s are poor choices regardless of year. (Maybe if Green Book had been released in 1954, but even then.)
The Artist is a dull choice in a relatively weak year. I would take Moneyball, Tree of Life, or even Hugo or War Horse over it, but none of them is a clear "what were they thinking?" (The answer to that question is the same every year: They weren't really, based on the Hollywood Reporter anonymous voter interviews.) The Departed is still an odd BP (that I love), but the other four contenders- which include some fine films- don't cry out for justice to this day.
For me, Gladiator belongs with Argo, Out of Africa, English Patient, Miss Daisy, or- a movie I hate on a granular level for a bunch of reasons- Braveheart. It's professionally made with varying degrees of achievement that won over at least two glaringly obvious better choices (imo and sometimes in history’s opinion. Depending on your mood, you could put Rocky here. I think it's a great movie, but it's no Taxi Driver or Network nor any of the President’s Men. Dances with Wolves owns an Italian villa on on this list.
Then I look them all over and realize that this is more or less the default setting of the BP win. So I shouldn't begrudge G1 because I like Erin, Traffic, or especially Chocolat (I kid) Crouching Tiger a whole lot more (or that not picking Brocovich robbed us of a rare year where BP and director were the same person but for different movies). I have to chalk it up to the Academy doing what the Academy does and solid work often wins out over outliers. On a regular year, it wouldn’t be La La Land vs Moonlight because Hidden Figures or (ugh) Hacksaw Ridge would already have the award.
This is too many words to say "it's not my tempo," but Oscars are what I had instead of sports. I fully regret putting G1 the same bunk with Crash and Beauty. It deserves better and Ridley should have one of his own by now. What else does he have to do?
(If you read this far and haven't muted, there's a singular category for Return of the King, whose win I can't begrudge though it's not my favorite of the trilogy. If ever there was a call to do a Snow White Special Oscar with two extra Oscars for all three, it was that. The trilogy deserves the recognition, even if it encouraged Jackson to follow up with things ranging from disappointing to "The Lovely Bones?!" give or take parts of Kong. But doing that wouldn't have cleared the runway for a Master & Commander win. We'd have gotten Mystic River most likely and that's just as well avoided.)
I am seeing SWORD HUNKS: A GLADIATOR STORY this evening. I'm tremendously excited. The original is the historical fiction equivalent of candy corn: easy to eat, kind of orange for some reason, and probably bad for you. But candy corn rules, and I'm amped as fuck to get more of it tonight. Abstaining from reading the review until then, but my heart tells me Denzel is gonna scream at some dudes while they fight rhinos.
I regret to inform you all that I fucking loved this stupid movie, and that I was sort of right about the rhino thing.
I love FLOW so so much. It's such a special movie - that sense of exploration and discovery with the beautiful animation just pushes exactly the right buttons for me. I would not characterize the animation as crude; to me it felt painterly.
I have an issue with Gladiator that must just be a personal thing with me, because I don’t see others complaining about it: the fight scenes are poorly choreographed and shot. Closeups of a guy swinging a sword, no sense of the larger action, lots of quick cuts to another shot that doesn’t give you any real perspective. One of the best parts of a pulpy gladiator film should be the fights, and they kind of suck.
But yes, a perfectly fine movie that shouldn’t get anywhere near a Best Picture win.
there are two of us! That's exactly how I felt about Gladiator!
Random question. I just saw that Josh Brolin says he will quit acting if Villaneuve doesn’t get nominated for Dune 2 this year (I don’t believe him, think Villaneuve will get nominated though).
https://variety.com/2024/film/news/josh-brolin-denis-villeneuve-win-oscar-dune-2-quit-acting-1236215468/
Do people feel that Dune 2 would be a more deserving BP winner than Gladiator, in a similar class, or less deserving?
I'd like to see it nominated, even if it doesn't win. the Academy could stand to recognize hard sci-fi.
I am one of the rare weirdos who did not like Dune 2, for all the reasons I don’t particularly like Villeneuve in general (looks great, feels cold, like a beautiful person with nothing behind their eyes). So I would give it to Gladiator any day, if only because it has the better Zimmer score.
Someone (maybe one of you) once wrote that there are two kinds of sequels: Rocky II, which is remake of Rocky I with more crowd-pleasing ending, and Godfather Part II, which expand and give depth to world of original film by continuing story instead of rehashing it.
Gladiator II is first kind of movie that seem like it trying to pass self off as second kind.
And then there's The Exorcist 2, in a class of its own...
“This is GLADIATOR, too.” I love that you ended your paragraph with that, Keith. You’re throwing some shade. It inspired me to find the following, as I could not remember:
TEEN WOLF TOO (1987)
LOOK WHO’S TALKING TOO (1990)
Also,
THE JERK, TOO (1984, TV movie)
SPLASH, TOO (1988, 2 part TV special)
Just waiting for a second sequel to take it further. TEEN WOLF TOO, TOO.
That would be Teen Wolf too, too, Awoo!
https://filmschoolrejects.com/the-confused-history-of-sequels-that-use-too-instead-of-2-bac3dbb40fb2/
I didn’t see linked article immediately, but it is clearly the source for my list. Also, it’s a well written 2014 item by Christopher Campbell from the Film School Rejects site.
I'm not going to suggest that you watch the whole thing, but check out the opening scene of Deathstalker 2 to witness this idea carried to it's logical extension.
PS You should actually watch the whole thing. Deathstalker 2 is pretty great.
Deathstalker 2 rules so, so much. Also, Slash resurrected Deathstalker in comic book form, and they’re apparently making a new movie!
Yep, and it's the bloke who made Psycho Goreman directing it! Marvelous stuff.