Todd’s Movie Blog

Spoiler Alert!  If you haven’t seen Shutter Island ( or have not read the book) and don’t wnat to know what happened at the end, skip this rant.

There has been a lot of back and forth over the twist ending the Shutter Island, many, like Roger Ebert, think it is brilliant and fits well with the dark tone of the film, while others dislike it’s coming completely out of left field.

Personally it pissed me off.  I don’t mind a twist ending that you don’t see coming, like in The Sixth Sense, Memento or The Book of Eli, but it does have to play fair to a certain extent, and having it revealed at the end that everything you saw before wasn’t real, like in Jacob’s Ladder, is a cheat.  Now I know that some of you out there will argue that if you go back over what happened in Shutter Island, the clues are there.

Maybe, but I don’t feel like rehashing such a depressing and aggravating film.  For me, when you invest time and interest in a film you want a better resolution than the one given here.

I was over reading Jim Emerson’s blog, Scanners, this weekend and he had an interesting article on Quinten Tarantino where he stated he wanted to get Inglorious Basterds out quickly because he wanted to have a masterpiece out before the end of the decade.  That got me thinking, is Basterds a masterpiece?  I’m not sure.  To be honest I’m not even sure it is best picture Oscar worthy.  Not to say Basterds isn’t enjoyable to watch, because it is.  But rewatching the film recently I’ve come to opinion that I am completely at odds with film critics and fans alike.  Tarantino doesn’t make great films, he makes great scenes.  Pulp Fiction, Kill Bill and Inglorious Basterds are collections of great scenes with wonderfully quotable dialog, but they lack a cohesiveness that allows the scenes to flow together into a whole. His movies tend to be disjointed with scenes all being stand alone and jumbled together out of linear time line for their kinetic impact.  Visually exciting but I prefer Steven Spielberg and Kevin Smith.

Even though I pretty much picked every Oscar win completely wrong, I’m going to go ahead and shoot out some predictions for this year’s Academy Awards.

Best Picture–The Hurt Locker

Best Actor–Jeff Bridges in Crazy Heart

Best Actress–Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actor–Christopher Waltz in Inglorious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress–Mo’Nique in Precious

Best Director–Katheryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

Best Animated Film–The Princess and the Frog

Best Documentary–Food, Inc.

Best Song–Almost There from The Princess and the Frog

Best Score–James Horner for Avatar

Best Screen Play–Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker

Best Adapted Screen Play–Geoffrey Fletcher for Precious