What the Beck???
Bucket List Update
Academy Award Nominated Movies
2007 There
will be Blood
starring: Daniel Day-Lewis,
Martin Stringer, Matthew Braden Stringer,
Jacob Stringer, Joseph Mussey, Barry Del Sherman, Harrison Taylor, Stockton Taylor
plot – Daniel Day-Lewis
plays Daniel Plainview, a miner. He and
his son discover oil on a property and they begin
to buy up all of the property to build a pipeline for shipping. This was a brilliant idea for
his time. His greed begins to take over and causes personal problems.
This was a pretty good movie. The storyline was well developed and
well acted by Day-Lewis. The choices he makes in his personal life enhance this
story.
2001 A
Beautiful Mind
starring: Russell Crowe, Ed
Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg
plot – A
movie based on the life of John Forbes Nash Jr. He was
a great mathematician who made an astonishing
discovery. Later in life he struggled
between reality and schizophrenia.
This was a really good movie. He was such a gifted man, but it was
hard to watch his delusions.
2008 The
Reader
starring: Ralph Fiennes, David
Kross, Jeanette Hain, Kate Winslet, Susanne Lothan, Alissa Wilkms
plot – A
teenager named Michael Berg has an affair with a woman named Hanna Schmitz in Germany. The relationship grows until Hanna disappears. Michael
doesn’t understand what happened when
he learns she was a guard at a Nazi prison.
This was a movie that irritated me. To me, Hanna Schmitz was a
pedophile, who led a boy into a total mess and then left him. She went to
prison for her war crimes, and they met later in life and he helped her out.
The reviews make it sound like a love story, but I totally disagreed.
2009 Up
in the Air
starring: George Clooney, Very
Farmiga, Anna Kendrick, Jason Bateman,
Amy Morton, Melanie Lynskey, J.K. Simmons
plot – George
Clooney plays Ryan Bingham, a corporate man
who fires employees for other companies. His
company hires a young woman who wants to
change the entire way he works.
This was a really good movie. I could not understand how anyone
could fire people for a living. Clooney is fabulous, as usual. The story was
something new and fresh.
2007 Atonement
starring: Saoirse Ronan,
Ailidh Mackay, Brenda Blethyn, Julia West, James McAvoy, Harriet Walter
plot – This movie is based
on a book about two lovers who are
torn apart by a vindictive younger sister. The
outcome of that lie effects all three of them,
but the young man goes to jail because of
the sister’s lies. The young lovers do meet again.
This was a really good movie. Jealousy is a harmful thing when it
is directed at anyone, but especially a family member.
2007 Michael
Clayton
starring: Arthur Edens,
Michael O’Keefe, Sydney Pollack, Danielle Skraastad, Tilda Swinton, George Clooney
plot – Clooney plays
Michael Clayton a man who fixes the problems of his big time law firm. He tries to help
a fellow worker who appears to have had a
mental breakdown of some sort. The fellow worker
is in charge of a major class action lawsuit
that the firm is handling. Clayton tries to help this man return to his former state of mind
and solve the law firm’s problems at the same
time.
This was a pretty good movie. I like that the viewer has to try to
figure out who is working against Michael Clayton.
2009 Avatar
starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe
Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi,
Joel Davis Moore
plot – In Pandora live the
Na’vi tribe. The environment is poisonous,
so for humans to exist, they must become
an Avatar which is connected through the
mind. Sam Worthington plays Jake Scully, a wounded
Marine. He becomes an Avatar and falls
for a tribe woman. The human's battle with
the Avatars.
This was a really good movie, which is shocking for me to say. I
have never liked cartoons or movies with violence, but this movie was
absolutely amazing. There was a violent part, but for some reason it wasn’t as
gory as the other movies I have seen. I would love to understand how the movie
people created the Avatars. Is this considered a cartoon? An animated
movie? How did the characters look
so like the actual people? Was it makeup??? I love that I actually had this
many questions after viewing this film.
2009 An
Education
starring: Carey Mulligan,
Olivia Williams, Alfred Molina, Cara Seymour, William Melling, Connor Catchpole
plot – This film is shot in
England. It is the story of Jenny, a
really naïve teenager who wants to go to Oxford
University. She is groomed by a man who
lures her to become his lover, and it all ended
badly.
This was a bothersome movie for me. This is the second movie in a
week about what I consider a pedophile luring a teenager into early
adulthood. I know this actually
happens, but it is so sad that the kid’s lives are changed forever.
2009 A
Serious Man
starring: Michael Stuhlbarg,
Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus
plot – This is the story of
the life of Larry Gopnik. Larry is an average man who works as a physics professor.
His wife wants a divorce, his son orders
expensive items on line, and his brother moves
in with the family. Larry is very stressed throughout this movie.
This was a strange movie. I began by feeling sorry for Larry, but
became irritated with how he handled his problems. Larry was a mess!
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