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Excellent: National Lampoon's Animal House Good: Old School Okay: Revenge of the Nerds Bad: PCU No stars: National Lampoon's Dorm Daze
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[Ibarra'spicks]
BEST PICTURE
Should win: The Aviator
Will win: The Aviator
This Martin Scorsese film set from the 1920s to the 40s catches the viewer through the new colors presented. The film, based on the life of Howard Hughes (Leonardo DiCaprio), offers the charm of the era without trying too hard to have an old feeling to it.
DIRECTOR
Should win: Clint Eastwood Will win: Clint Eastwood
Clint Eastwood directs and acts in this hitmovie, Million Dollar Baby. Judging by its seven Oscar nominations and by the good acting and picture, Eastwood excelled when directing this movie.
ACTOR:
Should win: Jamie Foxx Will win: Jamie Foxx
Jamie Foxx, known for working with the Wayans brothers, steps out of the box and gets rid of the comedian stereotype by performing flawlessly as Ray Charles. Not only did this ground-breaker sing marvelously but Foxx also captures Ray Charles' essence by imitating his gestures.
ACTRESS
Should win: Annette Bening
Will win: Hilary Swank
Annette Bening captures the eccentricities of actress Julia Lambert. From creating drama to enjoying love, Bening shows Lambert's complex personality. However, Hilary Swank from Million Dollar Baby also performs well and has the advantage of forming part of a movie which has gotten much attention.
SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Should win: Jamie Foxx
Will win: Morgan Freeman
Jamie Foxx demonstrates his acting skills once again working alongside Tom
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Should Win: The Motorcycle Diaries
Will win: Finding Neverland
Cruise in Collateral. Foxx complements Cruise to make Collateral an exciting story. Neverthless, Morgan Freeman from Million Dollar Baby is known to be an excellent actor and demonstrates it again in his role as Eddie "Scrap-Iron Dupris.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Should Win: Cate Blanchett
Will Win: Cate Blanchett
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
In The Aviator, Cate Blanchett plays one of Howard Hughes' (Leonardo DiCaprio) love interests, Katharine Hepburn. Blanchett captures Hepburn's essence not to mention her voice. Through the scenes of love and "hate," Blanchett and DiCaprio contribute to make the film interesting despite its length.
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Should Win: Hotel Rwanda
Will Win: The Aviator
The Motorcycle Diaries tells the story of Argentinean revolutionary, Ernesto "Che" Guevara before becoming a rebel. The chronicle has not been exaggerated but rather uses images and story to give a human side to a character often portrayed negatively.
—Alaide Vilchis Ibarra
Hotel Rwanda tells the story of the Sudanese Massacre and Paul Rusesabagina (Domin Cheadle) who attempts to help persecuted Tutsis by offering them shelter. This film contains strong images which puts in perspective the immensity of the massacre. The story is complemented by good picture as well as direction.
Constantine
(★★)
R, 121 minutes. South
Wind 12
Movies about Satan and Hell are not uplifting. The subject matter is so dark and
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evil that it's hard to actually like a movie about it. The latest is Constantine, based on a comic book and filled with some interesting and flat-out cool moments which make it not all that bad.
Eight years ago, Keanu Reeves faced off against Satan, played by Al Pacino, in The Devil's Advocate. Here he plays John Constantine, a spiritual detective who has literally been to Hell and back. Constantine, not unlike Batman, has elements of being an antihero. Constantine's outfit isn't anything fancy like the Dark Knight's, though: His wardrobe consists only of a dark jacket, dress shirt, loosely tied black tie that never comes off and a lit cigarette that seems to be permanently stuck in his mouth. The cigarette leads to one of the most interesting things about the character. Early in the film we learn that Constantine has lung cancer and is constantly hacking up blood or something nasty. Tell me the last
comic book hero who's had cancer and will die within the year?
The plot of the movie has Constantine teamed up with a cop (Rachel Weisz) who is investigating the apparent suicide of her twin sister. Strange clues
lead her to Constantine's door step, and he informs her that humans are caught up in a bet between Heaven and Hell regarding the souls of mankind. Constantine's job is to make sure that the rules of the bet are enforced — that the demons of Hell don't influence the wager by making direct contact with humans.
One of the things that drags Constantine down is that the Devil and demons make such uninteresting villains. They're just evil — plain and simple — and Constantine has an easy time of disposing of them, especially for personifications of evil. It's easy to say "I'm evil. Be afraid of me." It's hard to make Satan a full-bodied character. Constantine isn't all bad, and for a movie with such a dark subject, it has enough bright moments to balance it out. Too bad the devil is so two-dimensional.
Son of the Mask (Zero stars) PG,86 minutes, Southwind 12
Jon Ralston
Son of the Mask joins such films as Home Alone 3 and Dumb and Dumberer as one of the worst bastard sequels of all
time. "What is a bastard sequel?" you ask. A bastard sequel is a remake of a relatively successful film that contains absolutely none of the talent or imagination that made the original a success. I can only attempt to picture what the studio execs at New Line Cinema were thinking when they approved this project:
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"You remember that movie The Mask that came out more than 10 years ago? That was pretty funny; let's do a remake. What? We can't get Jim Carrey? We can't get Cameron Diaz? We can't get the director or the screenwriter or the editor or the gaffer to come back? Well, what can we get? A dog and the original mask prop? Well, that's enough! Now lets cobble together some asinine plot, cast a lot of
unknown actors and market it to a bunch of unsuspecting pre-teens in February!
There might have been a plot, but I'm not really sure. I think it has something to do with a talentless Jamie Kennedy (as Tim Avery) finding "the mask" and putting it on. Later, Avery and his wife have a son, but because Avery was wearing "the mask" when his son was conceived, the
kid is now imbued with all the CGI powers of Odin himself. Well actually Odin's son Loki. It seems that Loki, the Norse god of mischief, created the mask and now wants it back. I can't imagine what hijinks ensue.
A handful of worthwhile performers, such as Alan Cumming, Ben Stein and Steven Wright compromise their talents, but ultimately they take
backstage to a load of unconvincing and unappealing computer animation. At one point during this mess of a film, a quote from Kennedy struck me as the perfect summation of the movie: "It's the crappiest piece of crap in craptown."
—Will Lamborn
02.24.05 Jayplay
17