Movies This Week/Hannah's Movie Awards

Since I have only seen two movies this week (oh, the shame) I figured I'd compile it with my starting-a-new-month movie award thing! (If you don't know how my fake movie awards works, check out this entry.)

First, the new movies:

Barnyard (2006). A kids' movie about a barnyard. That's all I remember. This movie is so boring that when I left and came back to it, I accidentally rewatched 15 minutes of it because I didn't remember where I'd left off. Easily forgotten even when I was in the middle of the movie. Nothing worth seeing here. 0.5/5.

Mother (2009). South Korean drama about a woman whose son is accused of murder. Impressive and interesting but I never connected emotionally, so it ends up getting the "admired but didn't like" rating of 3.5/5.

And now on to the awards for movies I saw in August.

Best Story

- Heavenly Creatures

- The Majestic

- Brothers

- After the Fox

No question about this one. Heavenly Creatures is easily the most interesting story of these four, at least to me, although I do have a fondness for stories about people going crazy.

Best Characters

- Best in Show

- After the Fox

Not really any question about this one either - it's Best in Show. Although After the Fox was great fun (enough to pop up in both awards so far), the characters were what made Best in Show funny.

Most Enjoyed

- After the Fox

- Love and Death

- Fright Night (the 2011 remake - every time it's mentioned in this post that's the one it's referring to)

- Limitless

- Ponyo

- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead

Oh, those are some fun movies right there. Take out Limitless and Ponyo, and you have four movies I greatly enjoyed, all for very different reasons. After the Fox and Love and Death are snarky, quick-witted, and absurd, while Fright Night and R&GAU are so campy and over-the-top that I just had a blast watching them. I think I'm going to have to give it to Love and Death, though. That one was most consistently fun - I can only think of maybe one or two moments I didn't really enjoy.

Most Interesting

- Source Code

- Brothers

Jake Gyllenhaal vs. Jake Gyllenhaal! And he wins with Source Code.

Cheesiest

- The Majestic

- The Lost Boys

Fright Night and R&GAU should be on this list, for sure... but I enjoyed those movies, as opposed to Lost Boys, which had so much cheese but seemed so be so bored by it. It wins. Or loses. Whatever that means in this category.

Blandest (Most Bland?)

- Barnyard

- The Lion King 2

- Anything Else

I have already mentioned how boring Barnyard was in this post. It absolutely deserves this award. IT. WAS. SO. BORING.

Most Over-the-Top

- Fright Night

- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead

- ...And Your Name Is Jonah

Well, I'm thinking Fright Night wins this one. The other two have a few long stretches where people seem relatively normal and laidback, but every character in Fright Night is insanely hammy, and it's wonderful.

Best Acting

- Marvin's Room

- Brothers

- Opening Night

Opening Night, without a question. Even though I wasn't really captured by the movie as a whole, I was constantly impressed by the quality of the acting.

Best Actor

- Fright Night (Colin Farrell)

- Fright Night (David Tennant)

- Marvin's Room (Leonardo DiCaprio)

- Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead (Jake Hoffman)

- After the Fox (Victor Mature)

- The Man Who Wasn't There (Billy Bob Thornton)

Wowww. That's a bizarre list. Much as I liked the guys hamming it up in my silly over-the-top comedies of the month, this one's going to go to Leonardo DiCaprio. Billy Bob Thornton was a close second, but I think Leo deserves it because there were so many ways that character could have been done wrong. He turned in a subtly realistic performance without overacting or pushing for big emotional breakdowns. He just seemed like a real character looking for... whatever he's looking for. I've always been pretty impressed with Leo's acting, but he really managed to shine there.

Best Actress

- Heavenly Creatures (Melanie Lynskey)

- Heavenly Creatures (Kate Winslet)

- Marvin's Room (Meryl Streep)

- Brothers (Bailee Madison)

- Opening Night (Gena Rowlands)

As much as I raved about the acting in Opening Night, this one has to go to Melanie Lynskey, who was wonderful in Heavenly Creatures. Terrifying, but wonderful. I've seen her in one or two other movies but she made this character so entirely her own that I completely forgot she was an actress playing a part and was swept up into the bizarre world of this imaginative girl. Fantastically done.

The Hannah Movie Awards: June 2011

I watched 28 movies throughout the month of June. So here are some pretend awards.

Best Actor

-All That Jazz (Roy Scheider)

-Buried (Ryan Reynolds)

-I’m Not Scared (Giuseppe Cristiano)

-Marooned (Gene Hackman)

-Midnight in Paris (Owen Wilson)

-New York, New York (Robert De Niro)

-Peeping Tom (Karlheinz Bohm)

-The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane (Martin Sheen)

-The Third Man (Orson Welles)

-Yojimbo (Toshiro Mifune)

There are a bunch of contenders this month, and it's rather hard to choose, because I honestly loved every single one of these performances. Sometimes they were the best part of an uninteresting movie (Martin Sheen and Orson Welles) and sometimes they were just part of what made the movie great (Giuseppe Cristiano and Owen Wilson).

I think in the end although I'd love to give it to Wilson, I have to give it to Welles for The Third Man. I wasn't enjoying the movie at all (couldn't stand Joseph Cotten's character), when along comes Orson Welles for just a few minutes of screen time, and he made the whole movie interesting again. The fact that that small role captured my attention really stands out, so I think he has to get that award this month.

Best Actress

-Another Woman (Gena Rowlands)

-New York, New York (Liza Minnelli)

-War and Peace (Audrey Hepburn)

No contest here. Gena Rowlands made that movie.

Best Character

-Another Woman (Marion)

-I’m Not Scared (Michele)

-Peeping Tom (Mark)

-The Big Lebowski (Brandt)

Again, although I really enjoyed all these characters, Another Woman got a rating of 4.5 stars from me because of that main character.

Most Disappointing

-Blue Valentine

-Raging Bull

-Splice

Blue Valentine gets this one. I should have liked that movie. I can't put my finger quite on what fell apart, but I wanted to like it. With Raging Bull I knew there was a chance I wouldn't get into a boxing movie, even one by Scorsese. And Splice was never good enough to be that disappointed by.

Best Scene

-Let the Right One In (the pool scene)

-M (the town's paranoid citizens accuse everyone of being the murderer)

-Yojimbo (the samurai approaches the whole group at the end)

Those are definitely some interesting scenes, but I'm pretty sure Let the Right One In has to take this award. When I think of the movie, that is the one moment that comes to mind. It's a visually fascinating scene. And a horrifying one.

Best Script

-Another Woman

-Closer

-Grave of the Fireflies

Another Woman has swept a couple other awards, and I would love to give an award to Grave of the Fireflies, which broke my heart, but Closer definitely gets this one. It holds very true to the play script (not surprising, since the playwright also wrote the screenplay). There's not a lot of fancy plot points or visual elements to Closer. It's held up entirely by the actors and the script.

Looks like those are all the ones I'm handing out this time around.

I will probably be watching not nearly as many movies this month, since I'll be working at a camp for 3 weeks out of it, so I'll be without as much free time or as many resources.

The Hannah Movie Awards: May 2011

I watched a TON of movies this month. A lot for me, anyway: 32. So we'll see what kinds of awards I get to give out.

Best Acting Overall

- In the Bedroom

- Megamind

- Sex, Lies, and Videotape

- Tangled

Although I enjoyed all these movies, this one has to go to In the Bedroom, hands down. Near perfect performances from everyone involved, and that's really hard to achieve in a movie. Usually there's at least someone who drags it down. That just wasn't the case here.

Best Actor

- Color Me Kubrick (John Malkovich)

-

Dear Frankie (Jack McElhone)

-

The Detective (Alec Guinness)

-

Evil (Henrik Lundstrom)

-

Rabbit Hole (Miles Teller)

-

Tangled (Zachary Levi)

-

Water for Elephants (Christoph Waltz)

-

Water for Elephants (Robert Pattinson)

-

Wilde (Stephen Fry)

Wow. Some of these people obviously deserve this more than others (what are YOU doing here, Robert Pattinson? You were just acceptable, not award-worthy). It's worth noting that three of the people here played children or young teenagers - kudos to McElhone, Lundstrom, and Teller for not making me hate their characters. But this award obviously has to go to Stephen Fry, who was so perfectly cast as Oscar Wilde.

Best Actress

- ‘Night, Mother (Anne Bancroft)

- ‘Night, Mother (Sissy Spacek)

- Tangled (Donna Murphy)

- Tangled (Mandy Moore)

Well, I enjoyed Tangled, but obviously one of the two from 'Night, Mother should have this one. Although it's awfully difficult to choose which one, I think Sissy Spacek ever so slightly gets the edge in this one. Very well played.

Best Adaptation

- ‘Night, Mother

- Lolita (1997)

- Lord of the Flies

Awarding Lolita anything for adaptation feels ridiculous, as I haven't ever read the original novel and have nothing to base it on. So I think I'm going to disqualify it and give it to 'Night, Mother instead, which was really well done.

Most Cliched

- Something’s Gotta Give

- Tangled

Not even a contest. Tangled only had a moment or two of clichedness, while Something's Gotta Give had nothing BUT cliches from beginning to end.

Best Dialogue

- ‘Night, Mother

- Sex, Lies, and Videotape

Er, well, while I feel like I'm just giving everything away to this movie, I'm pretty sure this has to go to 'Night, Mother again. Everything just works.

Most Disappointing

- Color Me Kubrick

- Wilde

I think the more disappointing of the two was probably Wilde, which I was so looking forward to, and then it just ended up being kind of... meh. I didn't have such high expectations of Color Me Kubrick, so it didn't disappoint as much.

Most Enjoyable

- Do You Like Hitchcock?

- The Detective

- The Tourist

OK, I know it got huge amounts of flak... but I liked The Tourist. It's complete nonsense, but it somehow got me to have a good time watching an action movie, which is rather an enormous achievement. Although I liked the other two pretty well, I enjoyed The Tourist from beginning to implausible end.

Most Entertaining

- Caddyshack

- Do You Like Hitchcock?

- Tangled

- The Lost Skeleton Returns Again

- White Nights

Ooer. This is kind of a tough one for me. I think of these five, Tangled was the most consistently entertaining, although Lost Skeleton is a close second. So... Tangled takes it. (Good job, Disney.)

Best Final Scene

- Au Revoir Les Enfants

- Lord of the Flies

...Two movies about kids. Who'd'athunk it? I'm pretty sure Au Revoir Les Enfants takes this one, though, because it's the ending that really turned it into something special rather than a nice generic little boarding school movie.

Most Moving

- ‘Night, Mother

- Au Revoir Les Enfants

- The Virgin Spring

OH THIS IS A DIFFICULT CHOICE. Okay. Au Revoir Les Enfants is out. I saw 'Night, Mother more recently so it's fresher in my mind, but I really liked The Virgin Spring. And I really do feel like I've been giving awards to 'Night, Mother left and right. Not that that should be the thing to sway my judgment... But I'm torn enough on this one to let it make my decision. Take it, The Virgin Spring. You deserve it.

Most Surprising

- Dear Frankie

- The Virgin Spring

I think this one has to go to Dear Frankie, which really did surprise me. I expected to hate it and, turns out, I didn't.

Least Funny

- Color Me Kubrick

- Something’s Gotta Give

NO QUESTION, it's Something's Gotta Give. CMK made me chuckle a couple times. SGG just made me stare at the screen and go, "Really? Really?"

And those are the awards this month. I'm a bit saddened that my other favorite movie of the month, Evil, wasn't nominated for anything it could win. I guess that's what happens when you make the nominations based on rather weird rationale. :-)

The Hannah Movie Awards: April 2011

My apologies, this is a bit late in the month getting here. Last week of school, all that jazz.

I have quite a few awards to give out today. I watched 23 movies in April, and while some of them were fantastic, others were very... not. So I'm also including some Razzie-like awards given out to the movies that greatly disappointed me.

Without further ado, let us start the awards!

Best Actor

- Les Miserables (Alfie Boe)

- Les Miserables (Norm Lewis)

- Les Miserables (Ramin Karimloo)

- Les Miserables (Matt Lucas)

- Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Christopher Lloyd)

Was that really the ONLY movie where I was impressed with the guys in it? Well, I think I'm going to have to give it to Matt Lucas, who stole the show as the sleazy innkeeper Thenardier.

Best Actress

- Les Miserables (Samantha Barks)

- The Other Boleyn Girl (Natalie Portman)

Well, much as Samantha Barks was a lovely Eponine, Natalie Portman as Anne Boleyn was easily the best part of that movie. The award goes to her.

Best Ensemble Cast

- Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

- Les Miserables

Hmm. This is actually kind of a tough one. I was impressed with CWACOM's cast because they were all famous people whose voices I could have recognized, but none of them were distracting. Les Mis, as you can see by the acting categories up there, had a lot of great individual performers... I think I'm going to have to say Cloudy, though, because their cast really did all work together very well to create a convincing world.

Best Character

- The son from Vera Drake

- Sol from Soylent Green

Wow, I was pretty strapped for interesting characters this month, it seems. These are both the highlights of some pretty uninteresting movies. Whoever the son on Vera Drake was wins this one, I guess. He was the only one in the movie who I felt actually dealt with the plot points.

Best Cast of Characters

- Easy A

- Angels in America

- Seven Samurai

This is an easy one for me. Although the characterization was what I liked most about Seven Samurai, I was absolutely blown away by the characters in the TV miniseries Angels in America. (Maybe it shouldn't count as a movie, but in my mind it is. Just six hours long.) They're all distinct, fascinating, and beautifully portrayed by the actors in question.

Most Disappointing Movie

- Neighbors

- Soylent Green

- Twist of Faith

- Born Into Brothels

- Interview

For me, this is measured by how much I WANTED to like a movie versus how much I ended up liking it. And this award goes, hands down, to Interview. It's got a wonderful premise, actors who should have been much better than they were... It just completely fell apart.

Most Enjoyable

- Easy A

- The Other Boleyn Girl

- Who Framed Roger Rabbit

I have no idea what The Other Boleyn Girl is even doing in this category, but choosing between the other two is surprisingly difficult. I think I'm going to go with Easy A, because it was consistently funny (far more than I would have expected).

Most Entertaining

- Aliens

- Bedknobs and Broomsticks

- Easy A

- Seven Chances

These last two categories are kind of similar in what they should mean... Yet I have almost two completely different lists for them. Interesting. I think I'm going to have to go with Easy A again on this one, although Bedknobs and Broomsticks was also pretty darn entertaining.

Funniest

- Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

- Seven Chances

...Erm. What a weird, tiny selection of choices. Cloudy wins this one, hands down, because although I liked Seven Chances, it was really only a few moments that were that funny.

Worst Characters

- Apocalypto

- Suez

- Interview

This was for worst ensemble cast. Apocalypto wasn't THAT bad, I just didn't care about them. And Interview was SO CLOSE. So disappointing. I think Suez wins for writing just truly outlandish characters. They're all extremely naive and end up getting in trouble for it, to which I kept saying, "HA!"

The Hannah Movie Awards: March 2011

For the past couple years, I've been trying to keep a consistent record and write mini reviews for all the new movies I see. I thought I would have some fun with that and at the end of every month, do a little awards post. But as far as deciding how these awards are given out, they have to be referencing things I said in my reviews.

That's a really awkward way of saying it, because it's 2:17 in the morning and I really should be sleeping, but for example, if I mentioned that a movie was "fun" in 3 different movie reviews from March, those three movies are all nominated for the "Most Fun" category. This means I will have slightly different categories each month. Then I'll make an actual decision on which was the most fun out of those 3. Any category with only one nominee gets no award handed out, because that is no fun.

This is probably going to be more for my entertainment than anyone else's. But if nothing else, maybe I can use it to recommend some movies to people. So let's see what oh so prestigious Hannah Awards we can hand out.

I saw 24 movies this month, but I know a few of them didn't get nominated for anything because there was just nothing redeeming in them.

Best Acting

(This is best acting throughout the cast - best actors and actresses have their own categories)

- Quills

- Talk Radio

- Interiors

Those are some pretty interesting ensemble casts. But looking back on them, the one that stands out the most to me as far as acting was Talk Radio. Eric Bogosian was really really good, and he had a really good supporting cast.

Best Actor

- Geoffrey Rush (Quills)

- Robert De Niro (Taxi Driver)

- David Tennant (Hamlet)

- Walter Matthau (I'm Not Rappaport)

- Shawn Hatosy (Borstal Boy)

- Robert Downey Jr (Chaplin)

- Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke)

Holy cow. That's a pretty long list. There are some classic performances in here, as well as some that were just plain fun, and one that was the only high point of a not-very-good movie. This is really tough for me, actually. I really want to give it to Tennant, just because I loved his Hamlet, but I'm pretty sure I would have to denounce my claim of liking movies if I didn't go with De Niro on this one. Not that he doesn't deserve it.

Best Characters

- Talk Radio

- Single White Female

- The Grapes of Wrath

Like there's any contest here. The Grapes of Wrath takes it. It even being in the same category as Single White Female is amusing to me.

Most Enjoyed Watching

- Taxi Driver

- Wayne's World

With just two nominees, it becomes a lot like a FlickChart battle. Wayne's World was funnier (good for it, being a comedy and all), which you'd think might mean more enjoyable, but it had a lot of "eh" moments. Taxi Driver was far more consistent. So it gets the award.

Most Fascinating

- Quills

- Catfish

I've been having problems lately with watching movies all in one sitting on my own. I get antsy, get up and get a snack, check my Facebook, and come back. But I didn't do that once while watching Catfish. It totally gets this one.

Most Fun

- As It Is In Heaven

- The Witches of Eastwick

That's a silly one. I described As It Is In Heaven as "fun" when "pleasant" would have been far more accurate. Witches of Eastwick is so much more fun. Even when it goes crazy at the end.

Favorite Scene

- The Grapes of Wrath: Ma wants to share their food with the starving children

- Chaplin: Opening, where Chaplin removes his makeup

- The Meaning of Life: The "marching up and down the square" sketch

Wow, those are three pretty different scenes. Heh. Since these awards are doled out solely by me and I'm allowed to use my biased personal preferences, I am going to go ahead and give it to Chaplin. It drew me into the movie instantly as a scene and just... struck me. Most likely because I'm involved in performing arts stuff. But it was such an oddly gripping scene for just being a quiet opening to music.

This concludes the Hannah Awards for March 2011.

Some weird awards that had a single nominee: Most Entertainingly Terrible (Hamlet 2), Best Line (Cool Hand Luke - and it wasn't "failure to communicate," it was "I can eat fifty eggs") and Most Surprising (Wayne's World). Who knows? Maybe some of these will show up in the future.