Gopher Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 (edited) Thanks to all who voted! Best Thread: Monday Numbers I The Hobbit- 6.9M Best Forum Moment: Avengers Opening Weekend Funniest Forum Member: Fishnets Most Valuable Forum Member: ShawnMR Most Disappointing Box Office Run: Cloud Atlas Most Impressive Box Office Run: The Hunger Games Most Annoying Fanboy: BKB Best TV Show- Drama: Breaking Bad Best TV Show- Comedy: Parks & Recreation Worst Picture: That's My Boy Best Score: Johnny Klimek, Reinhold Heil, and Tom Tykwer, Cloud Atlas Best Cinematography: Roger Deakins, Skyfall Best Visual Effects: Bill Westenhofer, Life of Pi Best Horror Film: Cabin in the Woods Best Animated Feature: Wreck-It Ralph Best Comedy: Moonrise Kingdom Best Ensemble: Cloud Atlas Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained Best Adapted Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Lincoln Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables Best Supporting Actor: Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master Best Director: Andy and Lana Wachowski and Tom Tywker, Cloud Atlas Best Picture: THE MASTER Edited February 3, 2013 by Gopher 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJohn Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Do it before the SuperBowl please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Nevada Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Awww yiss Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 First, a tribute to a Best Picture nominee: ZERO DARK THIRTY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtB99IjVZj4 "From the very beginning, when the audience is bombarded with phone calls made by 9/11 victims in their final moments, Zero Dark Thirty makes it clear what the stakes are, what the motivation is, and what the continual, looming shadow over the proceedings is. Much has been made of the various attempts to make a 9/11 film and their varying degrees of success with critics, audiences, and others, with detractors thinking that 9/11 casts too big a shadow for a film to deal with its subject matter. Zero Dark Thirty takes this head-on, stating in those opening seconds that it is wrapping itself in that shadow, because this is a film about 9/12. 9/13, and all the days that followed. And it is because of this shadow, this dark day, that everything we see unfold happened. The torture controversy for this film, while containing nuggets of genuine and legitimate discussion, remains overblown and disconnected from the context of the film. What the film’s alleged opinion of torture is irrelevant, what is relevant is why the depiction of torture happened and it goes back to those opening seconds and moving from there straight into a black-bag CIA interrogation. The film, if nothing else, tells us that 9/11 changed the game, and covered in the shadow of those events, the CIA did what it did in the hope it would keep the game from changing even further. The emotions run high for every character in this film, but it’s all buried deep, repressed, covered-up, because as emotional as the stakes and the past are, they’re playing a game where to let emotion shine through, to affect your judgment, only results in grief (as shown when Jennifer Ehle’s Jessica is so exuberant and pleased about her informant coup that she doesn’t for a second suspect he has come to kill her). Zero Dark Thirty’s nature is even more curious in that it melds two distinct sub-genres together: the historical war epic and the police procedural. For 157 minutes, across several years of history, we follow one of the most determined manhunts of the past century, and yet only sparingly does the focus or the perspective widen beyond intimate, close-quarters settings. We may be taken along on a journey that overall is sweeping and grand, but the film walks us through that journey step by step, collecting every painstaking detail along the way. We are watching a detective story cloaked in the narrative of the grand epic and the result is a masterpiece of dramatic tension. We are reminded how much time is going by, how many lives are being lost, how major the implications are, but to get to each revelation we must plow and grit through low-key, small-scale, even sometimes mundane work done by CIA operatives to unravel the clues. To steal a quote from another film: Big things have small beginnings. Zero Dark Thirty is a film about completing a jigsaw puzzle, about an effort that looks minor and narrowly-focused every piece along the way, but when it finishes and you step back, you see how large and how dominating the work really is. Though the film is an ensemble piece, with over 100 speaking parts, it goes without saying that the backbone of the film is Maya, the CIA agent played by Jessica Chastain who makes it her mission, no, her raison d’etre. When asked by Leon Panetta what else she has done working for the CIA, Chastain, with an almost incredulous look on her face, replies she has done nothing else. For Maya, Bin Laden is all that matters, it is what gets her up in the morning, it is what sustains her during her long, lonely nights, her obsession and absorption is so complete, she thinks of nothing else, especially after her one attempt at forming a social connection ends in death. Chastain delivers the intensity, the rigid robotness, and the almost messianic conviction with tremendous effort. She sells the self-righteousness of the character perfectly, because Maya is one who believes that her theories MUST be true, because if they aren’t then so much of her life has been completely wasted. While an emotionless performance for almost all of the film, it is not a case of no range, but a case of suppression, as discussed earlier. As Maya tells Jessica early in the film, the Al-Qaeda terrorists are driven by ideology, no other feelings or wants. This is what makes her final moment, tearing up on the plane, so moving. To kill the world’s most wanted terrorist, she embraced the same ideological model as his brood, hollowing herself out. But once the task is done, she sits there realizing that she has nothing else, nothing to hold onto. She killed Bin Laden, and in doing so might have killed herself. The ensemble cast supporting Chastain is deep, diverse, and effective. From Jason Clarke’s grim, cynical torturer-turned-bureaucrat to Jennifer Ehle’s bubbly, optimistic analyst to Mark Strong’s steely authority figure, we find ourselves surrounded by actors and actresses giving it their A-game in small to medium parts, fading in and out of the story as needed as they do their little parts in bringing it to completion. Matching the ensemble is the technical aspects, with expert cinematography and editing selling the procedural aspects perfectly and then ratcheting up the scale and the drama when the final act arrives and the helicopter assault begins. A couple people at the Forums complained about the switching between normal lighting and night vision during the assault but their complaints avoided any substance and simply were a matter of personal vision preference. In reality, it’s one of the best decisions the film makes, going back and forth between the detached, omniscient perspective the audience has of the actual event and the first-person, subject perspective of the SEAL Team 6 commando viewing his world in shades of green night-vision. Alexandre Desplat’s score is minimalist for the most part, but when it needs to be it summons forth tense energy, simple yet effective tones and pulses. It works its best magic during the helicopter ride into Pakistan, as the choppers slip by air defense detection networks and slip towards Abbottabad for their mission. I could go on about Zero Dark Thirty but I’ll decide to wrap it up here with a few final words. Zero Dark Thirty is not an easy film to sit through at start, the opening phone calls followed by waterboarding ensure that, but in many ways that is the point. We the audience are subjected to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the CIA manhunt but how we judge it all is left to us. The film merely says that this is what happened, this is why it happened, and this how it happened. And it is by its presentation of these things that Zero Dark Thirty is the best film of the year." By 4815162342 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Nevada Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 ZDT was so good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travod Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Good thing I just got on... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Nevada Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 Goddamn, Numbers is a great writer 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 BEST THREAD OF THE YEAR The nominees are... The Amazing Spider-Man (Predictions on page 1) (PLEASE USER SPOILER TAGS..STRICTLY ENFORCED)http://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/220-the-amazing-spider-man-predictions-on-page-1-please-user-spoiler-tagsstrictly-enforced/"]http://forums.boxoff...ictly-enforced/ May 4, 2012 Weekend (AVENGERS Opening Discussion): ACTUAL 207.4 mill!!!! http://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/3394-may-7-10-2012-weekday-numbers-avengers-125-thurs-pg-61/"]http://forums.boxoff...25-thurs-pg-61/The Miranda Otto/Eowyn appreciation (ONLY) societyhttp://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/4864-the-miranda-ottoeowyn-appreciation-only-society/"]http://forums.boxoff...n-only-society/Monday Numbers | The Hobbit - 6.9Mhttp://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/7928-monday-numbers-the-hobbit-69m/"]http://forums.boxoff...the-hobbit-69m/TDKR Weekend: $160.89M - #3 ALL TIME HIGHEST OWhttp://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/4694-tdkr-weekend-16089m-3-all-time-highest-ow/"]http://forums.boxoff...ime-highest-ow/ And the winner is... Monday Numbers | The Hobbit - 6.9M http://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/7928-monday-numbers-the-hobbit-69m/ "Great, CJohn, we managed to kill this thread. Mission accomplished" - Jack Nevada, page 5 This 56-page monstrosity encapsulated the wonders of life, love, and Michael Fassbender's dick. Let's do this again every Christmas, guys. 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Nevada Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 SWEET VICTORY 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 BEST FORUM EVENT The nominees are... 2013 Oscar NominationsThe Amazing Spider-Man Opening WeekThe Avengers Opening WeekendThe Hobbit Opening WeekendThe Hunger Games Opening Weekend And the winner is... The Avengers Opening Weekend- May 4, 2012 Weekend (AVENGERS Opening Discussion): ACTUAL 207.4 mill!!!! http://forums.boxoffice.com/index.php?/topic/3338-may-4-2012-weekend-avengers-opening-discussion-actual-2074-mill/ "I'm loving this Friday number. I'm really loving it, because it makes perfect sense. There is just not enough sellouts to make 70M+ Friday possible." - RTX, page 2 300+ pages, thousands of freakouts. A box office weekend like no other. 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Nevada Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 So far so good. Keep em coming, Gopher! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChD Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I hope you got someone else to do a secondary write-up on Perks since mine's terrible compared to Numbers... I'll have to wear a bag on my head for the rest of my life! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 (edited) FUNNIEST FORUM MEMBER The nominees are... CoolioD1 Fishnets Noctis Jack Nevada Jim Shorts And the winner is... FISHNETS "This bitch can go stick her sword replica into her ass and wank" - Fishnets in the Miranda Otto/Eowyn appreciation (ONLY) society Please never change, Fishnets. We love you. Edited February 3, 2013 by Gopher 7 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Nevada Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gopher Posted February 3, 2013 Author Share Posted February 3, 2013 MOST VALUABLE MEMBER The nominees are... baumer Jack Nevada RTH ShawnMR Telemachos And the winner is... ShawnMR There is a man THERE IS A MAN A certain man A CERTAIN MAN Who created these here forums and gave peace to all the land You know his name! YOU KNOW HIS NAME It's ShawnMR! IT'S SHAWNMR! Enjoys the flicks Scores with the chicks! HA HA HA HA WE LOVE THE BO FORUMS AND WE THANK YOU SHAWN M RRRRRRRRRR! 11 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Nevada Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJohn Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I just saw that Monday Numbers thread won!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Nevada Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 I just saw that Monday Numbers thread won!!! We did it, CJohn! WE DID IT! The fruit of our loins flourishes and prospers! AAHAHAHAHAH 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CJohn Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 (edited) I just want to thank Jack, ChD, Iceroll and all the others that helped and a special thanks to Fassbender's massive junk. Without it, it would have been impossible to do what we have done in that thread. Edited February 3, 2013 by CJohn 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolioD1 Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 FUNNIEST FORUM MEMBER The nominees are... CoolioD1 Fishnets Noctis Jack Nevada Jim Shorts And the winner is... FISHNETS "This bitch can go stick her sword replica into her ass and wank" - Fishnets in the Miranda Otto/Eowyn appreciation (ONLY) society Please never change, Fishnets. We love you. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
