Mac asked me what my favorite movies of 2011 were and I couldn't come up with one that I thought was OUTSTANDING. Which ties into me watching the Oscars. As I watched, I kept thinking that I didn't see these movies.
And those must've been the good ones. Because the best I could come up with as really good is The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. I saw 176 movies last year and of course some of these are old movies but seriously, I could only come up with one title that made me think "wow." Now, I did see lots of movies that entertained me and I enjoyed quite a bit, but to come up with a title of a film that really changed my life is just not possible.
Now, I did see The Help and I thought it was really good but it didn't bowl me over. The book knocked my socks off but the movie was just good to me, not HOLY CRAP WOW! Same with Moneyball- good but not astounding. I saw Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and it was so sad I couldn't wrap my mind around "good". I also saw Bridesmaids- and it wasn't my style of movie.
I guess I need to see more movies in the theater. Or maybe I need to see better movies when I do go to the theater. One issue I have is where I live. We don't live where we can see "artsy" movies; we don't have a theater that caters to that genre. If it's not big budget, popular, where stuff blows up or with kid appeal, it's hard to find a place to see "smart" movies, or however we classify movies that are USUALLY nominated by the Academy. And after the nominees come out, our local theaters are scrambling to get a copy of a movie out if it hasn't already been released on DVD. For example, I was just dying to see My Week with Marilyn but the closest it was to me was 2 hours away until the week before the Oscars and then it was 45 minutes and my schedule didn't let me get there.
Now the Descendants was near for 1 week only, as was The Iron Lady, both I want to see by the way. And The Artist was in my hometown but in all honesty I said when it came out I would have to wait for the DVD because I don't think I could sit through a silent movies in black and white for 2 hours. I'm sorry; right now in my life I don't think I have what it takes to do that. It was here for 2 nights only, by the way.
I really do want to see the 3 aforementioned movies as well as Albert Nobbs, Tree of Life, Midnight in Paris (another I wanted to see but wasn't near me; I love Woody Allen; I think I'm Annie Hall), Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (never heard of it until Oscar nomination but looks good), and Beginners (not near me).
I didn't have a big desire to Hugo nor War Horse but I might DVD them just because.
My other issue is that in the Midwest in the Bible belt, I'm not exactly 'in the loop' of what's hot or not in Hollywood so I usually don't know what's going to be Oscar worthy until near the end of a year when the big push happens to get votes and nominations.
This is not to say that only Oscar movies are good. I don't think that at all. There are lots of good movies that I love that have never won awards (Twister, Armageddon, Gone in 60 Seconds to name a few). But last year there are no movies that just stuck out in my head as being AWESOME, that I want to run out and buy on DVD or watch over and over again, regardless if they won awards or not.
Maybe 2012 will be a better year at the movies for me. Maybe not. Guess I'll see you at the movies to find out!
Mags
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