We soon meet the neighbors, a very WASPish family made up of a whitebread wife, obnoxious and rude 10 year old boy and a bigoted Army reservist father/husband Mr. Vuoso (Aaron Eckhart, who plays Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight , in a very risky ro

So here's the thing: This movie has a ton of what I think is really good stuff as far as script, acting, humor and drama. So why the relatively low rating? As much as I enjoyed the individual moments in the movie, for me it just didn't gel as a whole. I really wish that the film had picked a course and stayed on it. Personally, when a movie starts out funny and then suddenly changes course into tragedy I just feel like I'm being manipulated, and it's jarr

They run into an interesting cast of characters in town including the tough and beautiful pregnant woman who owns the hotel where they're staying, a beautiful drug-dealing young woman who catches Ray's eye, and a midget (sorry, dwarf) who has a taste for prostitu

Eventually he violates her, with her at first going along but then being physically hurt by him. She is confused and doesn't know what to do with her feelings, both physical and emotional, and she cannot turn to her cold father for comfort or adv

Directed by Martin McDonagh, In Bruges stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as Ray and Ken, two Irish hitmen sent to Belgium to carry out an assignment for their boss Harry, played by Ralph Fiennes. When a previous botched mission leads Harry to give Ken unexpected orders regarding Ray, the two find themselves at odds with each other and must decide how to proc

Also appearing later in the film (although his expletive-laced voice is heard early on) is Ralph Fiennes as the man who is in charge of telling them who they need to kill and when. Fiennes did a great job in the role with an intensity that would unleash itself with great ferocity. I also enjoyed both Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson. Gleeson was just peaceful to watch, if that makes any sense, and Farrell was the polar, manic opposite. His face was a rubber mask of expressions that was very entertaining to

Again, DiCaprio's in fine company in this category, but none of his competitors delivered a performance that has gotten as much attention as DiCaprio's work playing the rugged mountain man Hugh Glass. Plus, he has a long resume of credible work under his belt, so DiCaprio winning for The Revenant could be as much in recognition of that as anything e

The other issue that some will raise is the bloated nature of the telecast. Beginning at 8:30 p.m. EST, Sean Penn didn't announce that Birdman had won Best Picture until 11:48 p.m. In between all the awards being handed out, viewers were expected to slog their way through comedy bits that arguably fell flat, musical performances, and several commercial breaks. In this day and age, fans can find out who wins in real time via social media and see any speeches they're interested in watching online shortly after the original telecast. The need to see the show live has decrea

It turns out that the two fellows are British assassins just coming off a job, and have been ordered to go to Bruges to hide out for a couple of weeks. While older Ken enjoys the beauty and history of the town, Ken is completely and utterly uninterested. While Ken seems to be as much a mentor as a partner to Ray, the younger half of this duo reminded me of a pesky five year old boy - kind of like Dennis the Menace after too much su

When we meet her father (played wonderfully by Peter Macdissi ) we immediately get a sense of how detached and odd he is. When she gets off the plane, after not having seen him for who knows how long, the first thing he says is "Your plane was late." Jasira, not knowing how to respond to that says "I'm sorry" - to which he replies "Why? Where you flying the pla

And, honestly, it's difficult to say what exactly can be done to fix this. The obvious answer is "nominate films people have seen," but that is a little disingenuous to the acclaimed movies that did get nominated. Whiplash , Boyhood , Birdman , and The Grand Budapest Hotel may not have become mainstream hits, but they all have their passionate supporters among cinephiles and received a boost in awareness thanks to the Oscar label. Maybe if studios made these awards contenders more readily available , they'd attract a wider audie

There are several noteworthy performances in Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight , but the film festival Games missions|https://moviefestivalhub.com/ once again demonstrates that there are few actors who know how to deliver Tarantino dialogue just right like Samuel L. Jackson does (for more proof of that, see that SLJ monologue from The Hateful Eigh

Although Transparent season 2 focused more on the Pfefferman clan as a whole than on Maura, this year it still feels like Jeffrey Tambor's award. The performance for which he was nominated is as good, if not better, than season 1 and with the show having been praised so much this year, it would be surprising if that trend didn't continue at the Golden Glo