Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Bridges’

Here are our assessments on this year’s nominees for the 83rd Academy Award category of Best Actor in a leading role.

Javier Bardem

Biutiful

Bardem is known for completely embodying his characters, and his turn in Biutiful as a divorced father of two dying of testicular cancer feels very lived in.  He endows Uxbal with a quiet sadness that gives the character’s desperate need to provide for his children after his death a devastating tragedy.  Bardem’s performance is so layered, so deeply felt that it doesn’t really seem like acting, which might be its greatest weakness in the Oscar race.  Unlike some of his competition, Bardem’s performance is a bit understated and it might be less memorable.  Because Bardem won an Oscar for his intensely frightening performance in 2007’s No Country for Old Men, which was much more sensational, and because his competition this year has offered showier performances, the Academy will not likely award him again soon.

Odds of Winning: Unlikely

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Director Joseph Kosinski at Comic Con 2009

For those of you who missed it, ComingSoon.net published the first of three articles documenting their visit to the set of Tron Legacy this past week, which is the long anticipated sequel to the sci-fi cult classic Tron (1982). This first piece covers a number of elements about the project but mainly focuses on detailing the circumstances which have led the film to being made at this point in time.

One such detail is Disney’s (who owns the rights to the franchise) decision to hire Joseph Kosinski to direct the movie. For starters, he is a first-time director with a background primarily in commercials and his studies are rooted in architecture (he has a Masters from Columbia University in the field), which make him a peculiar candidate for the job. Nevertheless, everyone seems convinced that he withholds a great vision for the film. Steven Lisberger, the director of the original film, is fulfilling a consultant’s role on set and also is encouraged by the work Kosinski’s doing.

Actor Jeff Bridges, also from the original, is reprising his role as programmer Kevin Flynn. His role here wont be very big because his character’s son is the main protagonist this time around, but it is nevertheless integral to the story and helps bridge the gap between the two stories.

“Joe, our director, was an architect,” says Bridges. “That’s where he’s coming from. It’s interesting, different filmmakers, where they come from and what they bring to the film and he’s an architect and so the film has a very heightened design feel to it. By the way, this is his first film. Can you imagine? I don’t know if it’s the most expensive ever made but it’s right up there. To have a first-time guy… Got to give Disney credit for taking that risk. They were smart because he’s such a calm, can-do guy. He’s gonna pull this off. He’s out of commercials, and I saw some of the technology that he had available to him that he could use. It was basically the same reason that I did the first one.” – ComingSoon.net

For those interested in keeping up with Tron Legacy until its eventual release in mid-December, this set visit article series is definitely something to check out and keep checking up on. This opening article steers clear of spoilers, and because ComingSoon.net is publishing it you can feel pretty safe that you wont run into them later on.

Walt Disney Productions has released a teaser trailer for their film Tron Legacy, scheduled to be released into theaters December 17th.

Click here to see it.

“Sam Flynn, the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn, looks into his father’s disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin’s loyal confidant, father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.” – IMDb.com

The film will be released in 3-D as well as 2-D.

Kathryn Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker" won Best Picture, but she was also the first woman to win Best Director

Well the Oscars are now over, so it’s time to recap how we did in predicting the winners. All in all we didn’t do too bad. But who out there guessed all of them correctly? Did you? Tell us about how you picked the winners to win, and we might seek you out for your opinions next year!

Here is how things shaped up.

Picks:

Best Picture: Avatar or The Hurt Locker

Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker

Best Original Screenplay: Joel and Ethan Coen for A Serious Man

Best Leading Actor: Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

Best Leading Actress: Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer for The Last Station

Best Supporting Actress: Mo’Nique for Precious

Winners:

Best Picture – The Hurt Locker

Best Director – Kathryn Bigelow   (*she is the first woman to receive this award)

Best Original Screenplay – Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker

Best Leading Actor – Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart

Best Leading Actress – Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side

Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds

Best Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique for Precious

View all of the winners here.

It’s been a fun Oscar season for sure, but it’s almost sad to see it all over and done with. Here at Movie-Thoughts we’ll soon switch gears to get you all ready for the upcoming summer blockbuster season, which is shaping up to be a good one. Be sure to stay tuned with all the news, reviews, and various articles we’ll be posting to keep you informed and thinking. See you around!

Jeff Bridges, who has four nominations under his belt, is this year's front-runner for Best Lead Actor for his powerful performance in "Crazy Heart"

Continuing our analyses of the top categories for the upcoming Academy Awards, here is an in-depth look at the nominees up for Best Actor in a Leading Role by our own Marisa Carpico. Tell us what you think!

Also see Best Supporting Actress

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Jeff Bridges already won the Screen Actor’s Guild Award and the Golden Globe for his role in Crazy Heart, so he’s expected to win the Oscar as well.  However, he faces some strong competition from Jeremy Renner, who won an award from the National Board of Review, for his role in The Hurt Locker.  If Bridges and Renner don’t win, the next most likely candidate is George Clooney for his charismatic performance in Up in the Air.  Surprisingly, Colin Firth’s powerful performance in A Single Man gives him an advantage over Oscar-veteran Morgan Freeman, whose portrayal as Nelson Mandela is impressive, but his nomination wasn’t exactly a considered a sure thing so he is the least likely to win.
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Short Take: A comedy with layers, but none so interesting as the jokes within them

Director: Grant Heslov

Screenwriter: Peter Straughan, Jon Ronson (book)

Cast: George Clooney (Michael Clayton), Ewan McGregor (Angels and Demons), Jeff Bridges (Iron Man), Kevin Spacey (Superman Returns, Moon)

Length: 1h 34m

Synopsis: A journalist eager to gain entry into Iraq to cover the ongoing war on terror (McGregor), bumps into a man (Clooney) who can grant him his wish. On a secret mission of his own, it turns out this mysterious man was once part of the U.S. military. His job: to help build a superhero army equipped with psychological powers. This man’s story becomes the one really worth telling. Read the rest of this entry »

Maryl Streep as Julia Child in "Julie and Julia"

An article on HollywoodReporter.com, written by Steven Zeitchik, talks about how up to this point in time in the Oscar race very few actresses have made much of an impression. Maryl Streep will likely be nominated (yet again) for her role as Julia Child in Julie and Julia, and Zeitchik claims that only two other leading actresses (Carey Mulligan and Gabourey Sidibe for An Education and Precious) have a shot at taking home the gold statuette.

One possible reason that Zeitchik postulates deals with the kinds of roles available for women in mainstream Hollywood. Independent films (such as An Education and Precious) offer many more dynamic, “serious” leading roles for women than Hollywood does (the reasons for which are up for speculation), but being in an independent flick doesn’t downgrade one’s performance in the eyes of the award voters. The Academy is not averse to giving the Best Leading Actress award to a “new face,” so-to-speak (ex. Jennifer Hudson, Marion Cotillard, etc.). Zeitchik later argues that unless you’re the likes of Angelina Jolie or Hillary Swank it’s hard for a woman to land a “serious” part in mainstream Hollywood. So shallow is the Oscar nomination pool for leading actresses, Zeitchik says, that Sandra Bullock is getting award buzz (for her role in The Blind Side).

Those who don’t think much of this year’s lack of standout performances by leading actresses chalk the issue up to the cyclical nature of each category, while some others speculate that it relates to bigger (supposed) issues like Hollywood making less award-worthy films. Zeitchik attempts to debunk such a speculation by noting that the Best Leading Actor category is overflowing with quality nomination possibilities (ex. George Clooney, Colin Firth, Jeff Bridges, Jeremy Renner, etc.).

You can read the full article here, which includes other related topics such as the possibility for three women to be nominated for Best Director, which is an unprecedented feat.

Quick Opinion: I can’t be certain that the number of quality leading roles for women in Hollywood is going down, if for no other reason than because it’s a more complex issue than one might think at first. Sure, maybe this year’s crop isn’t all that extensive, but last year saw 5 great actresses in the nomination pool, which led to hugely diverse speculation before the awards show about who was going to win. And being that Hollywood is still a big supporter of patriarchal ideology (for better or worse), there is and probably always will be plenty of quality leading roles available for men. Who’s to say, though, that there simply aren’t a lot of good scripts with great leading roles for women making the rounds around Hollywood? Script ‘X’ may have a dynamite female lead character, but if its overall story stinks then it doesn’t matter. Studios don’t typically buy works-in-progress. In any case, why would they take a chance on a lousy script just to satisfy a male/female ratio of leading roles? I’m all for equal representation of the sexes in the arts, but the film industry is a business (the biggest financial risk-takers being Hollywood studios) and if it were to adopt some brand of affirmative action to assure such equality I would speculate that the industry would suffer both financially and artistically. Simply put, you can’t tell an industry dealing in creativity what to create.

George Clooney...staring at a goat.

The Men Who Stare at Goats debuted this weekend, and for those who may have missed it ComingSoon.net published an interview with the film’s director, Grant Heslov. The site makes apologies for the brevity of the interview because it was done over the phone and in a time-crunch, however they were able to squeeze in a number of interesting questions.

Overall the interview is of the same standard quality that most of the sites’ are. It has some simple, obvious questions, but for the most part it steers the interviewee into providing generally insightful responses. For anyone interested in seeing the film but hasn’t yet for whatever reason, or if you’ve seen it and would like to know more about it, I recommend reading this piece.

Also, expect to see us post our review of The Men Who Stare at Goats sometime this week.

Joel and Ethan Coen ("No Country for Old Men")

The Coen brothers are planning to film a remake of 1969′s True Grit, which Paramount will work to release for late 2010, and actors Matt Damon and Josh Brolin are currently in final talks to join a cast that already includes fellow well-known actor Jeff Bridges.

Reportedly, Damon is to be cast as Bridges’ fellow lawman trying with the help of a 14-year old girl to catch a killer, to be played by Brolin. The Coen brothers claim that their completed script is more loyal to the Charles Portis novel of the same name which the original film is based from.

Source: Variety

Quick Opinion: Western fans should be very excited just from knowing the directors and short list of known cast members attached to this project. Bridges, Brolin, and Damon are all fine actors and have shown the ability to mold themselves into their parts time and again. I believe we can trust them to continue their streaks. What may be just as exciting as finding out that the Coen brothers are writing and directing is realizing that big, respected names like theirs are being attached to the western genre. Westerns have not been the most popular genre in Hollywood over recent decades, but they’re hardly dead. 2007′s 3:10 to Yuma was considered by most to be a solid effort, and had moderate box-office success by at least breaking even (cost – $50million, gross – $53million). The status of the western should get a boost from having Oscar-winning talent in the directors’ chairs, which if the genre is to make some sort of cultural revival is a darn good place to get started.