Up

The joyful music begins to play. The drums begin to roll. I march out onto the stage and heroic music floods the stadium and I bow to it. But then I open my eyes and realize that just because I have now completed all ten Best Picture nominees don’t really mean that much. Am I glad that I’m finished with them? Yes, I really truly am, I can get back to my regular watching now that I’ve watching the finest films 2009 had to offer (apparently).

Tonight, I watched the Best Picture nominee Up for about the millionth time, but the brilliant part about this movie is that I don’t think I can get sick of it. I know that this is just my opinion, and I know that people will agree, but others won’t, but I truly think that Up is Pixar’s best, which is saying something when I think of the Toy Story movies, and Monsters Inc. and The Incredibles, I truly love their movies, but there was just something more that Up has to offer.

The movie begins and we’re introduced to Carl Fredrickson, played perfectly by the great Ed Asner. We meet him when he’s a little boy and we see that he worships his hero, Charles Muntz, who is a pilot and an adventurer who finds a creature’s bones in Paradise Falls, South America. But, no one believes Muntz that it’s a real animal’s bones. So, Muntz boards his zeppelin and goes back to Paradise Falls, exclaiming “Adventure is out there!”.

So, Carl wants to go to Paradise Falls and he meets a young girl who shares the same dream. We then get a beautiful montage (one of the best I’ve ever seen) of their lives together passing, never getting to go to Paradise Falls, but always trying. I'm not ashamed to say that it makes me cry every time. Finally, his wife dies of old age and Carl lives alone in grief and memories.

Well, the house that Carl and his wife, Ellie, lived in their whole life is in the way of a construction project and he keeps getting offers to have the house be bought, but he refuses. He then assaults a worker and he is sent to court and has to go to a retirement home. He then attaches balloons to his house and flies to Paradise Falls with a young scout named Russell who was under the porch at the time looking for a ‘snipe’ as per the request of Carl.

So, they land on the opposite side of the canyon of Paradise Falls and they have to walk the house the rest of the way, meeting talking dogs, Charles Muntz and a giant bird named Kevin along the way.

Well, I’m sure that you’ve probably watched this film before; it’s a wonderful movie that makes me cry several times, and makes you laugh just as much. You really feel for Carl and his quest, and he learns a wonderful lesson by the end of the movie.

Like I mentioned earlier, the casting was practically perfect. Ed Asner plays Carl perfectly and makes the character loveable, even though he’s a jerk most of the movie. The plot was really good, it certainly wasn’t the greatest, but it was fantastic just the same. It’s a perfect family movie, everyone can enjoy it. The animation was amazing, and I really wish that I had gotten to see this movie in theaters, or even better, in 3-D. Oh well.

So, do I think this should be up for Best Picture? Most definitely. It deserves its place amongst the other ten films, and ranks above a lot of them. I would love to see it win.

So, overall, you know, I keep thinking about it, and I think it deserves it. I’m going to give this film a perfect 10 out of 10.

Up next is Moon, then (500) Days of Summer as per your choice.

Up in the Air

So, last night I went for a drive. I drove and I drove and I drove, simply trying to find a theater playing the Oscar nominated Up in the Air. Finally, I found one, about fifty miles from my home, and I was quite relieved. I paid my admission, got some popcorn, and sat on my butt in the nice comfortable theater seat.

I sat there for several minutes, doing a checklist in my head, wondering how hard it would be to see all of these films in one month, and even if it kills me, I’ll do it. I’ve made a promise to you that I will see all of these films, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do. We’re five down, five to go.

Well, I am a fan of George Clooney, even though, as my girlfriend puts it, he seems to play the same role over and over again, so I wasn’t expecting anything different from what he usually does, and to be honest with you, that’s exactly what I got, but I got so much more than I was expecting.

To be honest with you, still to this day, I have yet to see a trailer for this film. I had never really even heard of it until I saw that it came to theaters, and at that point, I heard George Clooney was in it, so I planned to see it sooner or later.

So the movie begins and literally within five minutes, I knew that I was going to love this film. It had great names in the opening credits such as Zach Galifianakis, J K Simmons, Danny McBride, Sam Elliott, Jason Bateman and even the Reitman brothers. All around a spectacular cast, and it definitely showed, but I’ll get more into that later.

We’re introduced to Ryan Bingham played by George Clooney, a man who is always flying from city to city for his job as a, well I’m not sure what the official title would be, but he’s a guy who companies hire to fire people. Well, we get to know his character a little bit, and at first, you love him, at least I did. He made me laugh at several points, but he makes you think at several points as well.

So, Ryan is told early on in the movie that to save on costs for the company, they’re going to start doing digital firings, and this is the idea of a new woman to the company named Natalie, played flawlessly by Anna Kendrick, who really hasn’t been in anything good (sorry Twilight fans, but its true).

Ryan then explains to Natalie that firing people digitally wouldn’t work, and he gives her several reasons why. So, they are then sent on the road, or the sky as you could say, and he shows her that firing people in person is much more feasible. So, basically, that’s the plot, it’s about them firing people, but getting to know the characters themselves. This truly is a character movie. We find that Ryan has a hard time connecting to people, that Natalie is too soft and that Alex (Ryan’s girlfriend whom he meets at an airport) is more than she seems to be.

You know, this movie was really well done. I do believe that it deserves its place amongst the other 9 Best Picture films. Do I think it could win? Yes, actually, I think it could. Will it? Well, I’ll make a special post talking about all 10 films after I’m done and give you my opinion, so you’ll just have to keep reading.

The casting was very well done, and I wouldn’t be surprised if George Clooney took home the Best Actor Oscar however. The editing was superb. Much like District 9, it had a documentary feel at points and really made you think, and thus you would forget that it was a movie. The running time was perfect in my eyes, at about an hour and forty minutes, it was perfect.

So yeah, overall this film is definitely one I would recommend, to anybody. It will make you laugh, it will make you cry and it will make you think. It sets out to accomplish all of those and it succeeds with, no pun intended, flying colors. I give it 9 out of 10.