As the awards season reaches its climax, recess offers our picks for the best in acting, writing and directing. This is the first of seven installments covering the 79th Academy Awards, presented Sunday, Feb. 25.
The glitz, glamour and gloss of the movie award red carpet is thrust upon us once again. While Sacha Baron Cohen may be appreciating his Golden Globe, recess knows that the 92 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press have nothing on the 6,500-plus industry members who hand out the prestigious Oscar. What better way to discuss who will win a golden statuette than to point out those who won't? We weigh in on the most disappointing films of the season.
Bobby: One would automatically assume that an all-star cast featuring William H. Macy, Martin Sheen, Demi Moore, Anthony Hopkins, Laurence Fishburne and more could not fail, but they have obviously not met Emilio Estévez. This obsequious tribute to Robert Kennedy fell short of the Robert Altman Nashville-esque ensemble drama it attempted to emulate.
All the King's Men: Maybe people were tired of Sean Penn and his shotgun-toting, canoe-driving antics or it may have been the lack of interest in a film about early 20th-century Louisiana gubernatorial campaigns, but despite heavy buzz this flick flopped. Messy and overwrought, it featured lukewarm performances from the likes of Jude Law, definitely nothing to attack Chris Rock about.
The Good German: After grabbing a statue for Good Night and Good Luck, speaking in front of the U.N. about Darfur and being named the sexiest man of the year for the second time at the age of 45, it seemed that George Clooney could do no wrong. However, his second foray into black and white in the past two years was a disaster of Batman and Robin proportions. Steven Soderbergh managed to perfectly execute noir, but ignored the lessons of Filmmaking 101 with flat characters and a forgettable plot.
Man of the Year: The trailer for this political-comedic-satire thriller-yes, I said satire thriller-basically asked the question, "What would the world be like if John Stewart were president?" Unfortunately for audiences, it dropped that question within the first 20 minutes, as the film moved from interesting comedy to alarmist thriller. Barry Levinson missed a chance to exercise his developed satirical muscles and instead decided to attack electronic voting machines with a plot device worthy of Danielle Steel.
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