Saturday, December 28, 2019

Clara Awards May Likely Pick These Films

Best Picture of the Year: Joker, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Ford v Ferrari

Best Fantasy of the Year, Avengers, Infinity War/Endgame

Best Action Film of the Year, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Spider Man Far From Home, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Avengers Infinity War/Endgame

Best Mock Doc of the year, Rocket Man, the Elton John story

Best Drama of the Year, Joker, Dark Waters

Best Horror of the Year: Joker

Best Comedy of the Year: Dora and the Lost City of Gold

Best TV Adaptation of the Year, Starship Chimera, the Destiny Device, Downton Abbey

Best In House Fan Film, Starship Chimera, The Destiny Device

Worst Picture of the Year: Cats, Last Christmas, Rambo Last Blood, X Men Dark Phoenix, Dumbo, Terminator Dark Fate, Men in Black International


Monday, December 16, 2019

Slow Year for Awards Contenders at Kal Kat reviews 2019

Back in 2009 when this went online, it was a simpler time, with less blockbuster candor, but now in the age of Marvel and DC movies, there are really few outside contenders anymore.

Last year seemed pretty dismal for movies, with Oscar going for five films nobody saw, even when rereleased, and weren't even on bargain bins come Black Friday this year. Green Book was there, but with a layer of dust on it. That was it. And it was only 8 bucks. I did not even get tempted to buty that poor excuse for a movie. How dare it claim that whitey told a black dude how Jazz worked, (which was similar to La La Land). Yeah sure, A Star is born was essentially a version of La La Land, but at least Lady GaGa can actually sing. Stone is not known for her singing.


The nominees for the 2019 Clara Awards are bold. 

Out of the gate last February and March, Shazaam and Captain Marvel, which were both excellent despite net trolling. But note the names are interchangeable as comic book characters that copied each other years ago. Now DC and Marvel literally could have crossed over, but didn't. You see, originally Shazaam was Captain Marvel, but then they changed the name long ago to Shazaam, so then they made up another Marvel. The average person need not know the back story. DC owned the character, but upstart Marvel wanted to have their own, so a battle of names came out some time ago. They got over it.
Best Picture, Captain Marvel films
Fantasy

April stuck to Avengers Endgame, the longest Marvel movie ever, winning for being the epic finale to the first through third timeline.
Best Picture
Fantasy

But in the same month, Disney also completely lost it doing a Dumbo remake in live action and making it Burton's snark at Disney itself. How meta.
Worst Picture
Adaptation of a Previous Work

Then on into the summer, comedy like The Long Shot had but one or two funny jokes, hearkening back to When Harry met Sally, but with a more blunt snark.

Detective Pikachu was cute, but not at all a Pokemon origin movie. Guess one had to stick to the classic films.

Godzilla King of the Monsters relied too much on human characters acting illogical while monsters went about crushing things, but it was okay for monster fights.

The Disney farted out another live action movie, with a blue Wil Smith that was just cringe worthy.
Worst Picture
Worst Actor: Wil Smith
Adaptation of a Previous Work'

Rocketman came out, heavily changed because of Bohemian Rhapsody, to not include Live Aid at the end, and others also played it safe also.
Best Picture
Drama or Documentary

Secret Life of Pets 2 really didn't need to happen, save for it ripping off Toy Story, and the plot of an old Christian cartoon series for the farm scenes.
Worst Picture
Animation

Dark Phoenix tried to mirror the 1990s cartoon series, and succeeded in about the first third, but blew it in the last act, because Captain Marvel's ending was very similar, so they reshot it on a boring train chase. Didn't help that the leads didn't want to be in it, and it showed.
Worst Picture
Fantasy

Men in Black International got a lot of troll hate, but for different reasons than it really deserved a ribbing. The problem was that the leads had no chemistry when they weren't in a Marvel film together, but were in someone else's film.
Worst Picture
Fantasy
Comedy

Toy Story 4, another Disney Pixar movie, attempted to reboot the story with a different outcome that ultimately disappointed fans. It was merely okay, and that's just not okay. I thought a lot of it did work, but more as a TV movie sequel than a reboot.

Spider Man Far from Home was very good, not excellent, but very good, and mostly this was because of the leads and the chemistry, and the villain who had a twist you did see coming, but didn't mind.

Somewhere in there I did see the live action Lion King, and it was not good. It made the cats look like cats, not lions. It had a lot of issues.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was Tarantino's love letter to the horrible Manson murders, as if that was a thing that needed to happen, still starring Pitt and DeCaprio having more bromance chemistry than Brokeback Mountain was awesome. Those two need to get a room. Ha.
Best Picture
Drama
Thriller or Horror
Actor: Brad Pitt, Leo DeCaprio

Dora and the Lost City of Gold had the girl from the scifi movies in it, playing to type as a teenage Dora from Dora the Explorer of the preschool Nick shows. Actually this thing worked surprisingly well. The characters were just fun.
Best Picture
Comedy
Adaptation of a Previous Work

It, Chapter 2 didn't quite have the appeal of the first act, because really adult versions of the kids, and the flashbacks, were just a little off, but it was fine.

In October, Downton Abbey proved to be delightful and sweet, an old time mystery and festive occasion and a nice nod to the show.
Best Picture
Adaptation of a Previous Work

Rambo, Last Blood was what a remake of Cobra should have been, and it was not Rambo, but it did have gory kills.
Worst Picture
Worst Actor: Sylvester Stallone
Horror or Thriller

The dark and twisted Joker was a nod to Taxi Driver and King of Comedy, the Joker, was perhaps the most uncomfortable and best drama of the year thus far, because it didn't really do those other films so much as improve on them, and make it so the irony was fairly obvious.
Best Picture
Best Actor: Juakeem Phoenix
Horror or Thriller

Jay and Silent Bob Reboot should get a look because nobody saw it, and yet it was good, and also Oscar loves giving films that nobody saw the awards.
Best Picture
Comedy

Terminator Dark Fate was lackluster and did away with all sense and continuity, in a twist at first I liked, as it was really all they could do, but later upon reflection they didn't need to do.
Worst Picture
Worst Actress, Linda Hamilton

Now into November and December, not much came out to give a look.

Frozen 2 tried so hard to recapture the original that their main song played a total of 4 times, but none of the lyrics stuck, unlike the Let it Go song from the first, which only played once in the first film. It made a good TV movie. It should not have been in theaters.

A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood was a love letter to Mr Rogers the PBS kids show pastor from the 1980s, but set in the 90s. The story was uncanny and Hanks was great, even if it at times was much more serious than the show.
Best Picture
Best Actor, Tom Hanks
Drama

Ford vs Ferrari was a racing film about Pitt playing Carroll Shelby, and was pretty darn good.
Best Picture
Action

Last Christmas was only noted for the song you can't get out of your head, and the awful twist from a mile off.
Worst Picture

Deep Water was an excellent drama film about the DuPont chemical spill of the late 1990s, surely Oscar bait.
Best Picture
Drama
Actor, Mark Ruffalo

Honorable in house to YouTube mention. 
Starship Chimera: The Destiny Device, released September 8, 2019, has gone on to be a sleeper hit on YouTube, without profit.  They can't make a profit. They are working on the game and future stories. For the film it required well over 6 years of filming, but it took 13 years to make.
Best Picture
Fantasy, In House Production as part of On Location
Actors
Adam Browne
Jon Yeager
Best cameo, Brian Storey

The annual Clara Movie Awards will be posted Christmas Eve and the results will be posted New Year's Day, 2020.











Sunday, December 8, 2019

Some Movies Till December Reviews

"Frozen II" PG
Sequel to mega hit Disney film Frozen from some years ago, caught up with Elsa, Anna, Sven and the cast, but was missing something in the telling. It seemed there was a little too much Olaf the clown like snowman and not enough of the two other stories, the search for the parents, and the wedding engagement tomfoolery. It would have made a fine TV movie for the Disney plus channel, but not a sequel to such a groundbreaking original.

"A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" PG 13
Tom Hanks was uncanny as iconic everyman Fred Rogers from PBS back in the legendary days of 70s through 90s children's television. Mr. Rogers was a staple of any X Gen kid's day growing up. His moral lessons didn't talk down to or pander to children, and his simple moral allegories worked, even though he was a counselor, but because he was also a pastor. The religious side was never a strike against it, but added to the stories. Now, as for the film adaptation, the director went for a single episode plot concerning a fictionalized magazine reporter who learned the value of family in 1990s America, even if his family was damaged goods. Oscar bat for sure. Best Actor. Best Picture.

"Ford Vs Ferrari" PG 13
It didn't need to be PG 13. Anyway, a race movie about Pitt and Bale as a former racer and his best bud driver going to Le Mans could have worked as a movie, and seemed to be pretty good. The dialog between most of the corporate people at Ford, who planned to beat rival Ferrari in a special car race, was kind of slow, but when Pitt showed up it got better, as he played legendary Carrol Shelby. They didn't show enough of the opposition, so they had forced the two pit crews to be in similar spots in the film, even though they would not have bee, so there could be some tension. Also some of the double crosses probably were Hollywood. Still it was okay.

"Last Christmas" PG 13
A rather obvious and blatant twist brought a Christmas movie about a girl who had a heart transplant who met a charismatic man that knows her a little too well. She also happened to be a cheeky selfish shop clerk, who learned the meaning of Christmas, well some of it. Although the initial review this seemed a little better than it was, on second though, not really. Also it should be PG. Nothing remotely bad happens.

"Deep Water" R
The DuPont case movie was told in this long law flick about a man who is asked by his Grandmother to investigate her friend's farm cows being poisoned, only to lead to his uncovering the greatest man made chemical spill disaster in recent history. It is surely Oscar bait and deserves to nab some Oscars, including Best Picture, because it's a dreary drama. It's very good, so sure, but earns it's rating, for intense images of damaged environment, animals and people.