The chick won an oscar!

[danny_galaga]

  to Kathryn Bigelow for being the first female to win an Academy award for directing. Saw Hurt Locker a few days ago. Excellent acting from (to me) unknowns. Good cameos by Guy Pierce and Ralph Fiennes. Very modern style of film making.

Contrasts to another movie i really enjoyed, a few days before Hurt Locker. Shutter Island. This is total Film Noir goodness  

Both rate 4.5/5 from me

Edit: just occurred to me that i've seen one of her movies before- Strange Days. An alternate reality set on new years eve, 1999. If you haven't seen it, you must. It's awesome and still holds up now.

my score for recent movies you may have seen:

  5/5 - Michael Clayton, In Bruges, Gran Torino, Mary and Max

4.5/5 - Taken, Iron Man, Reign Over Me

  4/5 - Traitor, Bedtime Stories, Sunshine, pineapple express

3.5/5 - 300, Max Payne, You dont mess with the Zohan, Yes Man

  3/5 - That new Indiana Jones flick, Disturbia, That new TMNT flick,

2.5/5 - Angels and Demons

  2/5 - The Love Guru. Note: My 2 is probably someone elses 1. Just leaving room for worse!

[patrickl]

Yeah, I liked the Hurt Locker too. The weird combination of the horror of war combined with the black humor keep you on your toes all the time.

I felt that it ended a bit sudden though.

I'm glad Avatar only got the oscars they deserved (for the pretty pictures) so hopefully they learn that they still need to make a good movie even if the pictures look nice.

Christoph Waltz really deserved that Oscar too. He singlehandedly made that movie.

[gavkiwi]

I've been a fan of Kathryn Bigelow for almost 20 years, 'Point Break' anyone? Great Movie!!!!

Yeah, well she directed that too, the executive producer was James Cameron 

[massive88]

I'm glad Avatar only got the oscars they deserved (for the pretty pictures) so hopefully they learn that they still need to make a good movie even if the pictures look nice.

Depends on how you measure success.  Oscars or profits.  Seems to me Avatar was made to entertain and rake in money, both of which it seemed to do pretty well at.  Oscars were icing.

[Ginsu Victim]

I have been reading since before it came out what a great movie Strange Days was... and I've been confused for ~14 years as to why anyone would think that.

I didn't care for it, either.

[BobA]

Oscars are awarded by parts of the film industry and the industry as a whole.  There is alot of they deserve it because they have paid their dues and gawd I am jealous.  I guess James Cameron will just have to settle for the money.  Entertainment and Oscars do not necessarily share the same goals.

[patrickl]

I'm glad Avatar only got the oscars they deserved (for the pretty pictures) so hopefully they learn that they still need to make a good movie even if the pictures look nice.

Depends on how you measure success.  Oscars or profits.  Seems to me Avatar was made to entertain and rake in money, both of which it seemed to do pretty well at.  Oscars were icing.

Yeah true.

Still, Titanic actually got "critical acclaim" with a ton of oscars even though it was a big heap of dung, apart from the effects.  I'm glad they didn't fall for that again.

[DrumAnBass]

Edit: just occurred to me that i've seen one of her movies before- Strange Days. An alternate reality set on new years eve, 1999. If you haven't seen it, you must. It's awesome and still holds up now.

Hehe funny; I remember that movie because I was technically an extra in it... When needing to shoot the big New Years eve scenes with 1000s of extras, the producers had the brilliant idea of throwing a rave in downtown LA, and charging money for the tickets. So I think about 5,000 people paid $40 to see headliners Dee-Lite & Aphex Twin, along with a slew of DJs etc. Unfortunately the producers & the police tried to shut it down as soon as they got the shots they needed, and a near riot erupted.

[Dartful Dodger]

Do kids these days even know what a tape is?

I remember seeing Robo Cop in the theater and talking to my friends about the reality of movies on CDs.