The Take Three

Flickr/Las Valley 702

Oscar season can often be a problem for the non-crazy movie people out there: Those Oscar lovers are such elitists, after all. “Coco Before Chanel,” a film about fashion (and nominated for costume design)? No, you didn’t see it– we know. “An Education,” a 1960’s-coming-of-age story that’s grossed less than $9 million in the U.S.? We know you haven’t caught that one either– yet it’s earned top praise as a best picture nominee. And how about “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”? Despite being Heath Ledger’s true last film, we’re pretty sure you haven’t seen it. And yet it was nominated for not one, but two Academy Awards this year. Who do these movie snobs think they are? You don’t know anything about these Oscar movies, and neither does any other normal person. Makes it feel like the award show isn’t even worth watching.

Don’t worry– The Take Three has come to your rescue. You’ll be surprised to realize that you have in fact seen some of this year’s Oscar nominees. Hmm…makes you think maybe you should tune in on March 7 after all… In the meantime, check out our list of five of this year’s Oscar nominees we’re sure are regular-Joe slam dunks.

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Flickr/Dave_B_

The big day has finally arrived! Feast your eyes on this year’s big Oscar nominees:

Best Picture
Avatar
The Blind Side
District 9
An Education
The Hurt Locker
Inglourious Basterds
Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire
A Serious Man
Up
Up in the Air

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Emily Blunt stars as a teenage Victoria taking the throne as queen. (Flickr/i heart him)

We don’t have a problem with period pieces. We love the beautiful costumes and the English accents, and we’re always intrigued by old-timey, Victorian love. But we’ll lay this one out to you plain and simple: Don’t see “The Young Victoria.” In one hour and 45 minutes, absolutely nothing happens.

Emily Blunt has always been a charmer. She flew into moviegoers’ hearts as Miranda Priestly’s beautiful but bitter first assistant in 2006’s “The Devil Wears Prada.” Since then, the 26-year-old actress has landed roles in “Dan in Real Life,” “Charlie Wilson’s War” and “Sunshine Cleaning,” and she’s up again next month alongside Benicio Del Toro in “The Wolfman.” Exposure is not her problem, but perhaps choosing the right roles is.

“The Young Victoria” dramatizes the true story of a 17-year-old girl in line to be the queen of the United Kingdom in the 1830’s. Continue reading →

Tobey Maguire and Jake Gyllenhaal star with opposite personalities in "Brothers." (Flickr/Alessandra Ogeda)

Jake Gyllenhaal has been in serious movies– let’s get that out right from the beginning. “Donnie Darko” and “Jarhead” showed the actor in disturbing and man-on-the-edge-type roles, and let’s not forget he was Oscar-nominated for “Brokeback Mountain.” But for some reason in Hollywood, if you’re just a little too pretty or have a private life that’s just a little too public, your actual talent can sometimes be overlooked, even by extremely observant movie bloggers. But in the current release “Brothers” when we were expecting Tobey Maguire or Natalie Portman to steal the show, Gyllenhaal rose to the top with the best performance to show for the trio.

It’s a heart-wrenching and at-times scary, real story of marriage and family, and not every moviegoer will enjoy “Brothers.” But it’s the real life performances that all of its actors give that make it a solid movie, and also what will certainly lead to multiple Oscar nominations next week. Continue reading →

Zoe Saldana plays Neytiri in "Avatar," but she is never portrayed in the human form. (Flickr/k-ideas)

When James Cameron set out to make “Avatar,” we wonder if he really thought he might ever be able to break his own record. Since 1997, “Titanic” has reigned supreme as the highest grossing movie in the U.S. (fast forward to 1:00 to see how we may have to eat our words from five months ago). At $600 million in box office sales, it seemed like no other film would be able to touch it. When Health Ledger passed away in 2008, “The Dark Knight” became incredibly hyped, and with its tremendous box office success, it appeared that it might…just…finally…surpass… “Titanic”… But no. It stopped short at $533 million. And then came “Avatar.”

Around the world, “Avatar” has already earned $1.8 billion (yes, we said BILLION). To give you some perspective on that, the GDP of Bhutan was $3.8 billion in 2008, and that’s a 15,000 square mile country with a population of 700,000 people living and working every day. Continue reading →