Tag Archives: Life of Pi

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Life Of Pi – Review

4/5 – Ang Lee earned his Best Director Oscar

With less than eight hours to go before the start of the Oscars, I upped the number of Best Picture nominees I had seen by one by catching an early afternoon showing of Life of Pi. It’s good we showed up early, because it looked like everyone in the vicinity of Brooklyn’s Cobble Hill Cinemas had the same idea.

Before the movie began, the old lady sitting behind me decided to walk her husband through the entire story of the movie in her loud old lady voice. Thanks, lady, you rock. I haven’t read the book, so I thought about turning around and yelling “Dobby dies in book 7!” at Madame de Spoiler. Instead, headphones went in, Foo Fighters came on, and spoilers were avoided. I have to admit, I considered keeping Foo Fighters going a little longer when I saw the first trailer was for the latest  Fast and Furious movie.

Life of Pi started, and despite the constant running commentary from the old lady behind me (She loves meer cats! Tigers are scary!), it was a really good movie. First off, it’s beautifully shot, and the 3D looks awesome. This is the best 3D I’ve seen in a live action movie since Avatar. But unlike Avatar, everything doesn’t look like it’s CGI. Oh, a lot of this movie is CGI, but it doesn’t have that telltale fake look that CGI usually has. I was surprised to find out that the tiger in Life of Pi, Richard Parker, was a CG creature throughout the entire movie. I thought they used an actual tiger for at least some of the scenes.

Cesi n’est pas un tigre.

Life of Pi walks the line between endearing and tragic so well, and that’s what I think is the main reason why I liked it so much. Pi goes through an experience that rivals Job’s, but the movie never turns into maudlin naval gazing. Instead, it’s lifted by by its heartwarming and humorous parts.

I’m glad Ang Lee won the Best Director Oscar for Life of Pi. With Kathryn Bigelow and Ben Affleck both snubbed for Zero Dark Thirty and Argo, I was happy to see it go to Ang Lee for Life of Pi over Steven Spielberg for Lincoln.

See Life of Pi in the theater, and see it in 3D. The shots of the movie during the Oscars didn’t look quite as magical in 2D on my home TV as they did in 3D in the theater.

Parting thought: Gerard Depardieu is a jerk.

Jerk.
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Oscars 2013 Predictions

The Oscars are only about an hour away. Need some help winning your party’s pool? Here are my predictions.If you win, feel free to treat me to a movie! 

Best Picture – Argo. I’m going with my head this year instead of my heart for my picks, but I’m glad they match up here. I think the Academy feels like they made a mistake for not bothering to nominate Ben Affleck for Best Director and will give Argo the best picture as retribution.
Leading Actor – Daniel Day Lewis. If you pick anyone else, don’t even both reading the rest of this post. You’re losing your pool.
Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz. Waltz and Tommy Lee Jones are in a dead heat according to the Vegas odds. I’d like to think Waltz’s performance in Django can beat out Tommy Lee Jones playing Tommy Lee Jones in a wig.
Leading Actress – Jennifer Lawrence. But Jessica Chastain deserves it.
Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway
Animated Feature – Wreck-It-Ralph
Cinematography – Life of Pi
Costume Design – Anna Karenina
Directing – Stephen Speilberg – Lincoln
Documentary Feature – Searching for Sugarman
Documentary Short – Open Heart
Film Editing – Zero Dark Thirty
Foreign Language Film – Amour
Makeup and Hairstyling – Les Miserables
Original Score – Life of Pi (Toss up between this and Lincoln)
Original Song – Skyfall
Production Design – Les Miserables
Animated Short Film – Paperman
Liver Action Short Film – Curfew
Sound Editing – Life of Pi
Sound Mixing – Skyfall
Visual Effects – Life of Pi
Adapted Screenplay – Argo
Original Screenplay – Argo
Good luck!