MEDIOCREMOVIE.CLUB
  • Reviews
  • Side Pieces
  • Shane of Thrones
  • Podcast
  • About
  • Archives
  • Game of Thrones Fantasy

2016 Mediocrities

10/16/2016

1 Comment

 
Best Picture

2001: A Space Odyssey
Amadeus
Inside Out - Winner
The Princess Bride
Room
We Need to Talk About Kevin


Best Actor

​F. Murray Abraham, Amadeus - Winner
Abraham Attah, Beasts of No Nation
Oscar Isaac, The Two Faces of January
Choi Min-sik, Oldboy
Jason Mitchell, Straight Outta Compton

Best Supporting Actor

Benicio del Toro, Sicario
Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation - Winner
John Houseman, The Paper Chase
Tom Hulce, Amadeus
Mandy Patinkin, The Princess Bride
John C. Reilly, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Writing

Amadeus - Winner
Chi-raq
Four Lions
Inside Out
We Need to Talk About Kevin
World of Tomorrow

​Best Review

Bobby on Straight Outta Compton
Bobby on We Need to Talk About Kevin
Jon on A Trip to the Moon
Jon on Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Jon on World of Tomorrow
Lane on The Paper Chase - Winner
Lane on White God






Best Jefe

Blair
Bobby
Bryan
Jon - Winner
Shane

​Worst Movie

Escape From Tomorrow
Jane Eyre
Meet the Patels
Pee-wee's Big Holiday
The Ridiculous 6 - Winner

​Worst Female Performance

Clair Danes, Stardust
Julia Jones, The Ridiculous 6 - Winner
Michelle Pfeiffer, Stardust
Elene Schuber, Escape From Tomorrow
Robin Wright, The Princess Bride


Nonsense Award #1 - House of Coddle Award (overly-forgiving characters)

Timothy Bottoms, James Hart, The Paper Chase
Kang Hye-jung, Mi-do, Oldboy
Synnove Macody Lund, Diana, Headhunters
John C. Reilly, Franklin, We Need to Talk About Kevin - Winner
Vinessa Shaw, Dierdre Banks, Side Effects

Nonsense Award #3 - Dingo Award (best pet)

Faisal's crows - Four Lions
Bing-Bong, Inside Out - Winner
Egg Snake, Room
Gerbil that Kevin kills, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Hagen, White God
Best Director

Lenny Abrahmson, Room
Milos Foreman, Amadeus
Cary Fukunaga, Beasts of No Nation
Stanley Kubrick, 2001: A Space Odyssey - Winner
Park Chan-wook, Oldboy
Lynne Ramsay, We Need to Talk About Kevin
Steven Spielberg, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

Best Actress

Emily Blunt, Sicario
Brie Larson, Room - Winner
Teyonah Parris, Chi-raq
Kate Siegel, Hush
Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Supporting Actress

Joan Allen, Room
Drew Barrymore, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial - Winner (Tie)
Angela Bassett, Chi-raq
Elizabeth Berridge, Amadeus
Kirsten Dunst, The Two Faces of January
Phyllis Smith, Inside Out - Winner (Tie)

Best Scene

Unplugging HAL, 2001: A Space Odyssey - Winner
One-take home invasion, Beasts of No Nation
Hallway hammer fight, Oldboy
Westley and Inigo fence-off, The Princess Bride
Abner Doubleday improvises the rules to baseball, The Ridiculous 6

​Best Line

"I speak for all mediocrities in the world. I am their champion. I am their patron saint,"  Amadeus - Winner
"Can ten years of imaginary training be put to use?", Oldboy
"My name is Inigo Montoya.  You killed my father.  Prepare to die," The Princess Bride
"Just because you're used to something, doesn't mean you like it. You're used to me," We Need to Talk About Kevin
​​"I am very proud of my sadness because it means I am more alive," World of Tomorrow

Gamemaster

Bobby
JR
Phil - Winner
Sean
Shane

Worst Jefe

Ashli
Cook - Winner (Tie)
JR
Sean
Topper - Winner (Tie)

​Worst Male Performance

Roy Abramsohn, Escape From Tomorrow
Charlie Cox, Stardust
Taylor Lautner, The Ridiculous 6 - Winner
Spike Lee, School Daze
Adam Sandler, The Ridiculous 6
Vanilla Ice, The Ridiculous 6

​Nonsense Award #2 - Sean Riley Award (best barf-inducing moment)

Seeing the blind and limbless neanderthal women, Bone Tomahawk
Split balls to brains, Bone Tomahawk
Hiding in the outhouse, Headhunters - Winner
Oh Dae-su eats an octopus, Oldboy
Lil Pete is fellated by a donkey, The Ridiculous 6
​


​Nonsense Award #4 - Drew and Joe Award (most uncomfortable moment)

Pruitt's speech about his dead wife, The Invitation
Greg shows Rachel his awful film, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl
Oh Dae-su's incest is revealed, Oldboy
Oh Dae-su takes out the warden's teeth, Oldboy
Kevin doesn't flinch when Eva catches him masturbating, We Need to Talk About Kevin - Winner
1 Comment

2001: A Space Odyssey

10/8/2016

10 Comments

 

B+
3.24

Primate progress is tracked from tool use to interplanetary travel.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick
Starring Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood, and Douglas Rain
​Initial Review by Bobby Schmidt

Picture
​I need to stop picking Kubrick movies that I rate so highly. I'm never quite sure how to review them without just simply gushing and rambling. But, if any Kubrick flick deserves that... it's 2001: A Space Odyssey. 

I like to think that there's no such thing as a perfect movie, that there has to be some flaw, be it technical, plot based, directing, acting... something. But, 2001 may be as close to perfection as there is, at least in my likely biased eyes. I'm not going to go on as long as I probably could here, but want to simply touch on a few things that make the movie so worthy of praise. When I get to the plot, I will absolutely be leaving a ton out, as there is just a ton to unpack... even if the movie wasn't two and a half hours! 

I'll start where 2001 does... with music. I love the overture intro, as it essentially prepares you for what's to come (more on that later). I won't pretend to know much at all about classical music, but the importance and fit of 2001's score is undeniable. The music always worked along side the visuals, adding to the immersion in any given scene. Since most of the film goes without dialogue, it's vital to have such a powerful score. The film won a well deserved BAFTA for best Soundtrack


Read More
10 Comments

The Two Faces of January

9/28/2016

6 Comments

 

C-
​1.67

An expat amateur conman helps out a pro and his wife in Greece.

Directed by Hossein Amini
Starring Oscar Isaac, Viggo Mortensen, and Kirsten Dunst
Initial Review by Sean Riley

Picture
Netflix describes The Two Faces of January as “A tour guide and part-time con artist finds himself caught in a dangerous arrangement when he meets a wealthy couple sightseeing in Greece” Genres: 20th century period pieces, thrillers, crime thrillers. Suspenseful.
​

Based on that description I added to my list and was excited. I loved Oscar Isaac in Ex Machina, Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst are recognizable so I was expecting a combination of excitement and beautiful scenery. We start strong. Oscar Isaac is very charismatic as tour guide conman Rydal and you can see all the girls on his tour swooning over him and his quick exchange rate swindles over lunch establish who he is.  Viggo and Kirsten as Chester and Collette are introduced as the typical rich American tourists heavy on the cash and light on the local knowledge and language. The exchange in the bazaar when they overpay for the bracelet is brilliant. Rydal begins with throwing out a price that is more than enough then “negotiates” it down while tacking on a chunk for himself to the delight of the salesman as he gets paid and a couple American fat cats get screwed because they don’t know any better.  So far I’m feeling like we’re getting a version of The Talented Mr Ripley.


Read More
6 Comments

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

9/20/2016

8 Comments

 

B-
​2.83

A budding cinephile is guilted into spending time with a cancer-stricken classmate.

Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
Starring Thomas Mann, RJ Cyler, and Olivia Cooke
Initial Review by Phil Crone

Picture
“Me and Earl and the Dying Girl” might pander to critic sensibilities with the famous movie parodies and decidedly hipster references early on, but it’s a great story with a lot of heart built around three likable characters.
​

The movie lives and dies with its characters, and most of all with Greg.  I could see Greg being polarizing, but I found him likable.  He’s got a dry sense of humor, rattling off several great lines throughout the movie, and he’s the type of painfully-stunted introvert that I think is easy to root for.  We’re getting the story through his eyes, and it’s interesting to see how the story morphs as Greg tells it.  His opening line winds up being all we think we need to know about his ruined senior year and terrible movie that killed a girl.  As we go along, we feel Greg soften to his situation of being forced into an awkward friendship with Rachel and how it helped him grow as a person.  This gave me the sense that Greg didn’t realize how much he cherished his time with Rachel until he’s actually telling the story.  This impression is only reiterated by the details as the story progresses.  Early scenes feel very stiff, as they should, given the situation Greg and Rachel find themselves in.  By the end, I get the sense that Greg began to soften and present a more distorted, lighter side to the affair.  He even goes so far as to retract his opening statement of Rachel dying, attempting to convince himself more than the audience that the ending isn’t already written.  Ultimately, this gives me the sense that we don’t know the whole story about Earl or Rachel, but in Greg’s version at least, they’re impossible to dislike.


Read More
8 Comments

The Invitation

9/13/2016

7 Comments

 

C+
​2.43

Old friends reunite at the home of an estranged member of their group, who may or may not have ulterior motives.

Directed by Karyn Kusama
Starring Logan Marshall-Green, Tammy Blanchard, and Michiel Huisman
Initial Review by Lane Davis

Picture
​“The Invitation” is a slow simmering pot of a film that rewards the patience of those that stay to watch it boil over. It’s a film that relies on mood, shadow, and atmosphere; sticking with it may be hard, because like any terrible party, you might want to find an excuse to leave. I resisted the urge to break the watching of the film up into two or more segments and I’m glad I did. Once the final port was poured, the uncomfortable dysfunction of the first hour and twenty minutes finally erupted into the chaos you knew had been brewing at the molecular level. Suspicions are confirmed and the viewer finds a perverse satisfaction in finally being able to say, “I knew that was going to happen!”


Read More
7 Comments
<<Previous

    Authors

    JUST SOME IDIOTS GIVING SURPRISINGLY AVERAGE MOVIE REVIEWS.

    Categories

    All
    2017 Catch Up Trio
    80s
    Action
    Adventure
    AI Trio
    Author - Blair
    Author - Bobby
    Author - Bryan
    Author - Chris
    Author - Cook
    Author - Drew
    Author - Joe
    Author - Jon
    Author - JR
    Author - Lane
    Author - Phil
    Author - Pierce
    Author - Sean
    Author - Shane
    Author - Tom
    Best Of 2016
    Best Of 2017
    Best Of 2018
    Best Of 2019
    Best Of 2020
    Best Of 2021
    Best Of 2022
    Comedy
    Culture Clash Trio
    Denzel Trio
    Documentary
    Drama
    Foreign
    Historical
    Horror
    Internet Docs Trio
    Mediocrities
    Movie Trios
    Musical
    Podcast
    Romance
    Round 3.1
    Round 3.2
    Round 3.3
    Round 4.1
    Round 4.2
    Round 4.3
    Sci Fi
    Season 10
    Season 2
    Season 3
    Season 4
    Season 5
    Season 6
    Season 7
    Season 8
    Season 9
    Shorts
    Sports
    Thriller
    Western
    Women In Men's Worlds

    RSS Feed

    Archives

    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Click to set custom HTML