Oscar - Movie Reviews - 2006

Oscar season is here and I’m told that I need to go see some of the Best Picture movies and give my warped perspective on them. I’ll be honest; I wasn’t thrilled at the prospect since the movies I like aren’t generally nominated for anything other than special effects awards. See, I don’t like to have to think during my movies… action/adventure and comedies are more my style.

I accepted the challenge, however, and Googled to see what my choices were. The infamous Brokeback Mountain? I’m not into cowboy movies in the first place, and … well… no. What’s next? Capote? Yeah, I don’t think so. Crash? You know, I actually rented it about a month ago, because it had Brenden Fraser in it, but could only stomach about 30 minutes of it before turning it off to watch a repeat of Austin Powers. That leaves Good Night, and Good Luck, detailing the real-life feud between Edward R. Murrow and Joseph McCarthy; and Munich, about the hunt for the people responsible for the killing of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Olympics. So, I’m off to the movies….

Munich was almost 3 hours long, (but it still didn’t seem quite as long as Good Night, and Good Luck felt!) Our “hero,” played by Eric Bana, the Hulk from a couple of summers ago, leads a band of men, including Daniel Craig, the next James Bond, to track down the terrorists responsible for the Munich killings. With that for a premise, the movie was very violent, almost brutal. We got to see the terrorists shot and blown to bits… literally in one case. This movie certainly earned its R rating with graphic violence alone. The movie was suspenseful and despite the violence, I really liked and cared about the characters, especially the Hulk. Two thumbs up!

Good Night, and Good Luck was shorter, less than 2 hours, and filmed in black and white and used actual news footage to supplement the scenes. Capturing the 50’s very well, it gave me a sense of watching a movie from that time. As for the “feud” between Murrow and McCarthy, while it may have been a very real thing in real life, it was almost non-existent in the movie. You don’t even see McCarthy, played by the real McCarthy through actual footage, until the second half of the movie. Murrow’s character was cold, even the suicide of a colleague didn’t seem to phase him. Despite an all-star cast, the only characters I really cared about were in a side story having to do with two married co-workers having to hide their marriage from their employer. I didn’t really care for this movie, didn’t care for the main character. No thumbs up for Good Night, and Good Luck.