Frankenweenie

Frankenweenie, Tim Burton’s newest film is nominated for animated feature film. Tim Burton returns to stop motion animation similar to his well-loved Nightmare Before Christmas. I have heard several people not like this film simply because it’s in black and white, which I agree lost some younger viewers just because they don’t like black and white films(which I don’t find to be a good enough sole reason to not like a movie). I think the decision to make Frankenweenie black and white added to the film’s more dark feeling of death and science experiments gone wrong (or right).  Victor who is voiced by Charlie Tahan, which some may know from Charlie St. Cloud, loses his dog Sparky and brings him back to life like Frankenstein. Frankenweenie is a great family film (PG-13 rating) and for the dog owner’s out there, I’m sure you’ll see parts of your dog throughout the movie. To win the animated feature film Oscar, Frankenweenie will have to beat out Brave and ParaNorman both of which have been winning animated awards across the board.

Frankenweenie is now available on Redbox.

Zero Dark Thirty

Zero Dark Thirty is directed by Catherine Bigelow, the same woman who brought you The Hurt Locker.This two and a half hour film is nominated for best picture, film editing, sound editing, and original screen play. Actress Jessica Chastain who plays Maya, the films main character, is nominated for lead actress. There were two things that really bothered me about this movie, the first being the title. As anyone who grew up in or around the military knows, the saying is Oh dark thirty not zero. The second is that the film is broken up into labeled sections where at some point in that section a character will say the label that appeared on the screen minutes before. In my opinion, the movie would have been just as good if each segment wasn’t labeled and they just let it flow continuously. Other than those two reasons, Zero Dark Thirty is a pretty good movie. The beginning can be a little slow and there is way more talking than action but the last thirty minutes or so are intense. Chastain’s performance definitely earned her the Oscar nomination but throughout the movie I kept remembering her role in The Debt where she played another intelligence officer. For those of you who saw Act of Valor (available on Netflix instant watch) one of the main Navy Seal’s is the leader of Seal Team Six, which isn’t very surprising. Zero Dark Thirty is a great movie but I doubt it will win the best picture award against Django.

Zero Dark Thirty was recently released in theaters so you have plenty of time to go see it.

Django Unchained

      I haven't posted anything in a long time but I've decided to do an Oscar Nominee thing this year. So far I have prepared five reviews of movies that have been nominated for several Oscars. I will post them throughout the coming weeks and continue to write more reviews of the nominated movies as I see them and as always feedback is appreciated. First up is Django!

      As many of you have heard or seen, Django Unchained directed by Quentin Tarantino, is one of the best movies of the year. Django has been Oscar nominated for best picture, cinematography, sound editing, original screenplay and actor Christoph Waltz had been nominated for supporting actor. Django is not only a great revival of western movies but it also makes you laugh at silly one-liners and once again brings attention to slave life. While Jamie Foxx is the main character in this southern western about slavery, Christoph Waltz steals the show with his quirkiness and portrayal of Dr. King Schultz. Jamie Foxx plays the slave Django (the D is silent) who is on a quest to save his Broomhilda from a large plantation owner (Leonardo DiCaprio), with the help of bounty hunter Dr. Shultz. As can be expected from a Tarantino movie, Django gets rather gory throughout the movie although not as gory as say, Pulp Fiction or most other Tarantino films for that matter. Django Unchained is definitely worthy of its best picture Oscar nomination, as is Christoph Waltz for is supporting actor nomination. If you haven’t already seen Django in theaters, I highly suggest it as it definitely won’t be the same on your TV.

     You can still see Django in theaters.