Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

It's that time again: The Snubby Awards!  For those of you who don't know, the Snubby Awards take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees from a given year and determine if the best film won or if one was snubbed.  If that's the case, they win the coveted Snubby Award! This time we'll be taking a look at the 2004 Oscars, which was a mostly solid selection of films including two masterpieces.  The nominees were:  Lost in Translation, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, Mystic River and Seabiscuit  with the winner being  The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King .  Did The Return of the King  deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Let's find out! #5. Lost in Translation This was the only nominee that I didn't care for.  It focuses on two Americans who find themselves staying at the same hotel in Tokyo and the relationship they form.  They are played by Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson.  I was real...

 "There's a sort of evil out there.  Something very, very strange in these old woods." -Sheriff Harry Truman "Rest in Pain" pain begins with Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn) meeting Agent Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) for breakfast.  Cooper figures out that Audrey is the person who slipped a note under his door.  She also informs him that Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) worked at the perfume counter of Horne's department store along with Ronette Pulaski (Phoebe Augustine). Cooper meets with Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) and Lucy (Kimmy Robertson) and tells them about his dream.  He no longer remembers the name of Laura's killer, but if they can figure out the code of his dream, they will discover the killer.  They get called over to the morgue to break up a fight between Dr. Hayward (Warren Frost) and Agent Albert Rosenfield (Miguel Ferrer), who wants to do more tests on Laura's body instead of letting her be taken to the funeral.  Sheriff Truman ends up pu...

 "Mom, this is Facetime." -June Allen Grace Allen (Nia Long) goes on a trip to Columbia with her boyfriend, Kevin (Ken Leung), but never returns.  Her teenage daughter, June (Storm Reid), is left to try and figure out what happened to her.  As the media catches wind of the story, June discovers that her mother has secrets and her disappearance isn't all it seems. What Works: I really like this style of movie.  It works really well in the previous movie in this series, Searching , and the Unfriended movies.  It's an interesting medium to tell a story through and it forces the filmmakers to get creative.  It gives the audience a unique experience, for better or for worse, but usually for the better. Storm Reid is the best part of the movie.  She gives an excellent performance and carries the film on her back.  A lesser actor in this role could have ruined the movie, but she gets to show off a wide range and does an excellent job in all of it. I love...

 "I like this guy." -Scarsdale When his plane his struck by lightning, Captain Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) barely manages to land on a remote island in the Philippines.  One of his passengers is a recently captured fugitive wanted on a murder charge and the island is controlled by a violent militia.  Unable to wait for help, Brodie has to find a way to keep his passengers safe and get them off the island. What Works: I love stories about people who get stranded on an island.  My favorite TV show and my favorite book are about people who survive a plane crash on a mysterious and dangerous island.  Plane is right up my alley.  It's very straightforward, maybe even too much so for some people, but I like watching people try to survive this kind of situation.  I found this movie to be a lot of fun. I was expecting the plane crash sequence to be dumb and over-the-top, but it wasn't at all.  It's less of a crash and more of an emergency landing....

"That gum you like is going to come back in style."  -The Man from Another Place "Zen, or the Skill to Catch a Killer" picks up with Jerry Horne (David Patrick Kelly), the brother of Ben (Richard Beymer), arriving at the Great Northern after a business trip.  Ben informs Jerry of the failure of their business deal with the Norwegians and the murder of Laura Palma (Sheryl Lee), which depresses Jerry.  To cheer him up, Ben takes Jerry across the border to Canada to a casino and brothel, One Eyed Jacks.  They flip a coin to decides who gets to have sex with the new girl first and Ben wins. Bobby (Dana Ashbrook) and Mike (Gary Hershberger) go out into the woods to pick up a supply of cocaine, but not all of it is there.  They are confronted by Leo (Eric Da Re) who demands the rest of his money and reveals that he knows someone is sleeping with Shelley (Mädchen Amick), but he isn't sure who.  He then scares Mike and Bobby away.  Bobby goes to visit Shelley ...

 "This is the part where you run." -M3gan After her parents die in a car accident, Cady (Violet McGraw) goes to live with her aunt, Gemma (Allison Williams), who isn't used to having kids around.  Unsure of how to properly care for Cady, Gemma invents a toy that can.  Meet M3gan (Amie Donald and Jenna Davis): the new hit toy with artificial intelligence whose purpose is to protect Cady, no matter who else gets hurt in the process. What Works: I love horror movies, but I usually don't find them scary.  More often than not, I find myself laughing at them even when they're not supposed to be funny.  I found M3gan to be genuinely unsettling because it features so many things I can't stand.  Children, uncanny valley robots, artificial intelligence, and technology in general.  All of these elements combined perfectly to make my skin crawl almost nonstop.  I was throughly uncomfortable and throughly entertained. The movie is a horror-comedy and it defini...

 "There was a fish in the percolator!" -Pete Martell "Traces to Nowhere" picks up with Dale Cooper (Kyle MacLachlan) waking up at the Great Northern Hotel, where he meets Audrey Horne (Sherilyn Fenn), who tells him Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee) used to tutor her brother. Dr. Hayward (Warren Frost) tells Cooper and Sheriff Truman (Michael Ontkean) the results of Laura's autopsy.  She died from blood loss and had sex with at least three men that day.  They then question James (James Marshall) who admits he shot the video of Laura and Donna (Lara Flynn Boyle) at the picnic.    He reveals that Laura had just started recently using cocaine again because something had happened to her.  He tells them how Laura jumped off his motorcycle and ran off into the night before dying later that night, but doesn't tell them about the necklace.  They release James and his Uncle Ed (Everett McGill) picks him up.  Ed, who was at the bar fight at the Roadhouse the previou...

Normally, I do a 10 Worst Movies of the Year post, but I actually only saw 8 movies that I would consider bad.  So we'll do an 8 Worst Movies instead.  From Best to Worst, here is my list! #8. Clerks III I really like the first two Clerks movies, so this one was a bit of a letdown.  Some of it works, especially the more dramatic elements.  When it gets darker near the end, and with the stuff involving Rosario Dawson, it works very well.  And some of the comedy is funny, especially Justin Long's cameo, but most of the comedy falls flat.  The movie relies too much on references to the first movie, which I find distracting.  Stop reminding me of better movies and do your own thing!  This movie was also directed, written, and edited by the same person.  The worst movie of the year also shares that quality.  If you're going to do that, you have to be willing to cut material you love in service of the story.  Kevin Smith failed to do that...

2022 is finally over and it's time for me to put my Top 10 list together.  This was a great year for movies, especially in the horror genre.  It was hard for me to pick just 10 movies to put on here and I know at least 1 will be very controversial.  Let's do this! #10. Thor: Love and Thunder Let's just get the controversial one out of the way.  Yes, Thor: Love and Thunder made my Top 10.  Yes, this is my favorite Thor movie.  Yes, I'm aware most people aren't fans of this movie.  Do I care?  No.  I loved this movie.  I've been wanting Marvel to get weird in the aftermath of Endgame and Love and Thunder delivered.  This movie swings back between being very funny and very dark.  The weird tone works for me, though I recognize it won't for a lot of people.  This is the 1st time I actually cared about the relationship between Thor and Jane, Christian Bale is incredible as the villain, and there are some astounding visuals....