Posts Tagged ‘127 hours’

The Movie Scoop’s Oscar Predictions

Academy Award nominations will be announced on January 25th. So, just so I can say “I told you so” later, I’m releasing my Oscar picks a few weeks early. No offense meant to my movie critic brethren, but generally speaking most movie critics are kinda nerdy and go for the obvious high brow choices at Oscar time. So, I’ll give you two picks in the major categories. One will be the obvious Oscar choice and the other will be my personal choice. Let’s begin with best movie.

My Choice: The Fighter with Mark Wahlberg. A great true story about a boxer seeking redemption. The fight scenes are the most realistic I’ve ever seen in a boxing movie.
Oscar goes to: The Social Network. The before mentioned nerds will go for this true “geek tragedy”. It’s about a college genius who starts the largest and most successful social network in the world just so he can meet a girl.

Best Actor:
My Choice: James Franco in 127 Hours. Franco plays a hiker who has to choose between dying trapped in a cave or hacking off his own arm to survive. Franco carries the entire movie on his shoulders with an incredible character study on courage and will to survive.
Oscar pick: Colin Firth in The King’s Speech. A very poignant story of an Englishman who overcame severe stammering to become the King of England.

Best Actress:
My Choice: Jennifer Lawrence in Winter’s Bone. She plays a 17 year old girl who has to track down her father or risk losing her family’s home, which was put up as collateral for his bail.
Oscar Winner: Natalie Portman in The Black Swan. She plays the kind of dark and tortured character that Oscar voters love.

Best Director:
My Choice: Danny Boyle for 127 Hours. He takes a very dark subject and relies heavily on one actor to tell an amazing story. Warning: the scene with Franco cutting off his own arm will make you sick, but it’s balanced with the story of this hero’s incredible will to survive.
And The Oscar goes to…David Fincher for The Social Network. Once again I attribute the Oscar win to “the nerd effect”.

So there you have it; my take on this year’s Oscar race. I’ll be back in the theater soon picking out the gems for you and steering you safely away from the stinkers. The Oscar’s air February 27th on ABC TV.

Golden Globe Nominee Reactions Show Humility, Hilarity & More

With the nominations for the 2011 Golden Globes now revealed, there’s been plenty of interesting buzz, both good and bad, surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s odd choices this year. From dual nominations for Johnny Depp (including one for a film being viciously panned almost across the board) to the complete ignorance of True Grit, people everywhere have plenty to say. But what about the nominees themselves? Thankfully, many of them have been very grateful, humble and even funny in their reactions to the praise from the HFPA and the nomination itself. So what did some of our favorite talents have to say?

While the nominees themselves are honored by the acclaim, the rest of the family may not be so impressed. Halle Berry, nominated for her performance in Frankie & Alice, recounted: “I told [my 3-year-old-daughter] Nahla about [the nomination] and she said, ‘That’s great. Where are my eggs?’” Personally, I think breakfast is a lot more exciting than the Golden Globes too, so Nahla is my kind of kid. If I had to choose between some limited edition Cap’N Crunch Oops! All Berries and a Golden Globe, you can bet I’ll be enjoying some cereal in minutes.

I think plenty of female fans of Pirates of the Caribbean and Love Actually wouldn’t mind getting caught up in a triumvirate of love with those two international talents as well. Other nominees will likely face a different kind of embarrassment and horseplay following their nominations. Director Alejandro González Iñárritu (whose film Biutiful received a nod in the foreign film category) revealed his celebration plans by simply saying: “A lot of tequila will run in our veins tonight.” This was something that happened a lot during my college days, but we often didn’t need a Golden Globe nomination as an excuse.

Meanwhile, director Darren Aronofsky is already anticipating the fun that the presenters and comedians will have with his nominated film Black Swan. “There will be a lot of ballet jokes. Last night Letterman made fun of the film. I think he said, ‘If you don’t want to celebrate Christmas, you can go see two Jewish girls make out.’” That in itself would be a tuly great Christmas miracle and could very well solve all the problems with political correctness between the holidays and religion, so maybe he’s onto something here. Only time will tell after Black Swan gets a wider release closer to Christmas. After that, we’ll all be waiting to see how the Golden Globes play out on Sunday, January 16th, 2011 at 5PM PST/8PM EST on NBC.

Let’s Take A Look At The Movie 127 Hours.

Man is very  inconsequential to nature. It’s a lesson the world teaches us from time to time, making it known that we aren’t necessarily the ruling class on the planet. It’s a lesson a young hiker, Aron Ralson, learned over the course of five days in May of 2003 when his right arm was pinned between a boulder and a rock wall. The struggle, pain, and ultimately, will to survive (which entails so much more pain) Ralston went through is now the basis of Danny Boyle’s new film, 127 Hours.

127 Hours is both a harrowing testament to Ralston and his overpowering continence that allowed him to walk away from that predicament not exactly unchanged. It’s also a vital look at the nature of things, the world as we know it or maybe don’t know it so well, and those instances where it might turn on us blindly no matter how much we might respect it. Above all else, 127 Hours is the closest to a flawlessly executed film to come across all year.

James Franco plays Ralston, an adventurer of all the far corners of the planet. Ralston is tired of the hustle and bustle of life, wants to drive past the mass marketing on every street corner to something a bit simpler. In May of 2003, he ventured to the desert near Moab, Utah. There, in Blue John Canyon, he found himself trapped. A boulder had come dislodged, both it and Ralston fell, and at the bottom of the canyon, the boulder came down on his arm. Ralston was trapped, unable to budge the heavy rock or himself no matter what he tried. That was the beginning of the five days, 127 hours, when Ralston had to overcome lack of water, lack of food, and exhaustion before resorting to drastic measures in order to free himself.

Boyle, never a director who finds himself in the spot of repeating himself, once again pulls of an incredibly accomplished piece of filmmaking. Put into the hands of someone who wanted to just make a straight forward narrative of Ralston’s tale of persistence, 127 Hours would still have been a commendable film based solely on its harrowing narrative. Boyle isn’t satisfied with convention nor does he ever take the path you might expect, cliche or not. From the basic structure of the film in which we never leave Ralston’s side to the way Boyle handles the hallucinations Ralston experienced due to his thirst and lack of sleep to even the way the film’s title presents itself, 127 Hours surprises and engages you with every fervid moment.

Those hallucinations in particular could have come across as hokey or ersatz. Boyle utilizes them to tell us more about Ralston, who he was as a child, what his family dynamic was like, and even who he could be if given the opportunity to live past this moment in his life. They grow increasingly emotional, as well, until they almost become Ralston’s life blood, his one connection still present to the world outside this canyon. They are also what probably forced Ralston to take those drastic measures to continue his life in this world.

That moment is extremely intense. The whole film rides a level of tension even before Ralston becomes trapped. Boyle shoots the environment Ralston has ventured to with as much respect as possible, pulling the beauty and might of the world off in each and every frame of film. The moment Ralston becomes trapped is shot passingly, comes in an instant that neither Ralston nor the viewer could have prevented. The ensuing five-day struggle to hold onto life and sanity is equally shot with a fervor that grasps your interest, never allowing the confined of the locale appear boring or minimalist. However, once Ralston determines he is going to live, once he takes out dull knife and begins the process of removing his own arm in order to free himself, literally like a fox in a trap, all else stops. Boyle doesn’t pull away from the bloody ordeal, something many viewers might not be able to watch, but that’s okay. There’s an understanding there that maybe not everyone will be able to sit and watch Ralston do this to himself, but the attention to detail given in what he does is both undeniable and necessary.

Of course, that moment, as well as 90% of the rest of the film, could have been left to boredom and dulling rubric were it not for the staggering portrayal of Ralston that James Franco has provided. His range of emotions fully on display, Franco is fearless here, never coming across as wanting to hold back on any of the emotions Ralston went through over the course of those five days. Franco pauses in the most ideal of moments, particularly in the scene where Ralston, video camera on hand, makes a tape for his family and friends to see in the case he doesn’t survive. It’s one of dozens of emotionally charged moments in 127 Hours, and it hits home everything this man went through in a few glances this highly gifted actor gives to the camera.

Telluride Interview: The Real-Life Aron Ralston of ‘127 Hours’

One of the most incredible and unforgettable experiences of the Telluride Film Festival was meeting and talking with Aron Ralston, the mountaineer whose real-life story is the basis of Danny Boyle’s riveting new thriller 127 Hours, which has lots of buzz coming out of the fest. I first met him at a party Fox Searchlight held one evening and the following morning, Peter Sciretta from SlashFilm and I interviewed him on video. When you see the film (watch the trailer) you’ll know why there’s just something so amazing about meeting the guy that actually went through all of that and it’s even more inspirational to hear from him personally.

Watch our video interview with the real-life Aron Ralston of Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours:

As a recap for anyone who doesn’t know, Ralston’s right hand was smashed under a boulder while hiking in Utah in 2003, and after surviving pinned there for over five days, he had to amputate his own arm to escape alive. If watching that interview doesn’t make you want to see 127 Hours, then I don’t think there’s anything else I can say or do to convince you. I was admittedly overly critical in my initial reaction to the film over the weekend, but after speaking with Ralston and Danny Boyle, as well as discussing the film further with Peter and other critics in town, I’ve warmed up to it and I can’t wait to see it again, as I expect to love it a lot more.

Fox Searchlight will be bringing Danny Boyle’s 127 Hours to limited theaters starting this November.

James Franco Cast in Danny Boyle’s Newest Film ‘127 Hours’

Could this be what that “General Hospital” appearance was all about? Just kidding. Production Weekly is reporting on Twitter that James Franco has been cast in Danny Boyle’s new film titled 127 Hours, which tells the story of a mountain climber in Utah who had to amputate his own arm when it got pinned beneath a boulder. We’ve heard plenty of early details about 127 Hours recently, primarily because it’s Boyle’s highly anticipated follow-up to the Oscar winning Slumdog Millionaire. Originally it was Ryan Gosling who was rumored for the role, but it looks like Franco landed it in the end. Shooting will start in early March in Utah.

Similar to the one-man stuck-in-a-coffin film Buried with Ryan Reynolds, 127 Hours is supposed be another one-man-show about mountaineer Aron Ralston. The title refers to the number of hours that Ralston was pinned (it calculates out to about 5 days) before he decided to cut off his own arm and escape before he died at that spot in the mountains. This will be a challenge for Franco to pull off, but with the exuberant Danny Boyle behind the lens giving him direction, I’ve got a feeling we have a true awards contender in the works. Franco has the acting chops to pull it off, it’s just a matter of making it happen. Can Franco pull it off?