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I just finished watching this today. For a best picture winner- what a disappointment. If you take out the fact he was a king (and not even that for half of the movie), What are you left with?
A guy with a speech impediment gets some life lessons from a speech therapist and goes on to deliver a good speech at a critical event.
This is a best picture? You have to be kidding me.
Follow Ups:
In fact, far inferior to most of them. They just had the nerve to make if a movie and thereby impressed a lot of ignorant people.
his first public speech at the stadium you have no human genetic traits. That was such a humiliating experience it poured out of the screen by the gallon. That's what gets Oscars.
Their great marketers. They got people into see that useless headache "Blair Witch Project". They did that in part by planting a story that was a big lie.That being said, Kings Speech was no Blair Witch.
Edits: 04/27/11
fds
He said that people are always talking about how Blair With was made for only $60,000. Blair Witch? Only six thousand dollas? Someone's walkin' around with fifty-nine thousand dollas in their pocket!
This is a classic example of how Tin will fall for any Emperor's clothes type non-art.
/
Like his audience, I laughed hard at this one. Rock was making the point that the movie did NOT look like all the money was up on the screen. People marvelled that this POS was made for only $60,000. Rock was pointing out that it doesn't look like it could have taken more than $1000 to film, therefore someone was walking around with $59,000 in their pocket.
Jokes are always better when you have to explain them. Of course, I've never come across anyone who needed an explanation for this one.
EOS
J.B.
as was "paranormal activity"...I couldn't see anything groundbreaking there except the boredom that set in..:-)
AP
*
I think the whole movie was amazing. I didn't care for the story, the performances alone were Oscar winning performances. Geoffrey Rush outdid himself this time and I felt he put a lot of effort into his role followed by Colin Firth and the ever charming Helena Bonham Carter.
AP
of the actors, high schmaltz. It is played for maximum effect, with no subtlety, and with very careful construction to dramatic peaks. Were there any surprises, at all, in the performances? Yes, many films follow such formulas, the troubled person that resists help from a plucky and slightly crusty character, and I see nothing particularly witty in this one. Mind you, I'd rather watch this film whilst sitting on hot coals than sit through 99.9% of Hollywood crap.
I think you, like many here, are reacting to the emotional reaction the film caused in you. Nothing wrong with that, but I wouldn't think that's necessarily art. As Hitchcock once said about horror films, it isn't difficult to get a reaction out of an audience: all you have to do is have a guy jump out from the shadows, unexpectedly, with a knife. Similarly, a character with a deformity is an easy way to connect with audiences. "Rainman" and many that followed, and their ridiculously easy way with awards, demonstrated that the "differently-abled" genre is a treasure trove.
you're a tough nut for a lurker to crack
fd
It's everywhere now. I don't see it as a positive thing.
and Star Trek's childishness (this is one film that has some serious violence), it boasted a true artist for director: Paul Verhoeven. It really is a Western, updated and improved for the "modern age." It's like no other film--- and though it's self-conscious and campy, it's a non-stop joy-ride wherein "good guys" suffer and die--- the violence itself is realistic.
if you enjoyed his stuff, go wild. Just don't try to pretend that all your tastes have the strength to stand up to close critical scrutiny. Lights out.
for hit films of a more than passing interest. They have an adult quality not seen in Star Trek or Star Wars, anyhow.
...I thought Rush did an excellent job of playing himself.
He was a little over the top at times.
They all did a marvelous job IMHO. I just enjoyed Geoffrey's portrayal more despite being a bit over the top at times.
AP
dfs
I'm not saying 2010 was a landmark year for movies in any language but it was a year that's been rather underrated IMO. How many high water years can you have anyway? Ebb and flow, ebb and flow.
In fact, there were some terrific indies and more than a couple quality commercial releases, which is a "good" year in my book. And that's exclusive of several terrific foreign language movies.
Consider these five outstanding and compelling English language films from 2010: 1 American, 1 British, 1 Irish and 2 from Oz. I believe the first three are among the absolute top 10 films of this or any year. All five of these could be considered "genre" movies but that doesn't lessen their excellence one whit:
Winter's Bone (Debra Granik USA)* * * * * (5* of 5)
Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, UK) * * * * * (5* of 5)
Animal Kingdom (David Michod, Australia)* * * * * (5* of 5)
The Square (Nash Edgerton, Australia) * * * * (4* of 5)
The Eclipse (Conor McPherson, Ireland) * * * * (4* of 5)
Here's the thing about the films above: they are all, with the exception of The Eclipse, directed by first or second time feature directors. (Eclipse is Irish playwright McPherson's 3rd feature film.) Yup...4 out of 5 are from relative NEWBIES. If there's any justice in this world, we'll be seeing more from this talented group. May they all find financing/distribution for their next projects and stay far, far from Hollyweird.
Then there's these interesting English language films from last year that hardly anyone saw:
The Killer Inside Me (Michael Winterbottom)
Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)
Ondine (Neil Jordan)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)
All Good Things (Andrew Jarecki)
Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek)
Get Low ()
Cyrus (Duplass Brothers)
...and everyone already has an opinion on these widely distributed notables (which I find good to very good indeed):
True Grit
The Social Network
Black Swan
The Ghost Writer
127 Hours
Toy Story 3
The Secret Of Kells
How To Train Your Dragon
...and The King's Speech. (We're up to 22 now.)
The British Red Riding Trilogy is really good but was originally made for TV so mentioned but not included.
Then there are several critics' faves - The Kids Are Alright, Blue Valentine, Rabbit Hole etc - but which didn't grab me (YMMV of course). That makes 25, not inlcuding some popular big releases some inmates liked such as Shutter Island and Inception.
So there you have it.
Not an interstellar year but hardly a desert. A year like a lot of years and better than some.
I'm sure there's some good flicks from the festival circuit I overlooked or that didn't get national distribution. My list also doesn't take into consideration some truly fine docs such as Restropo, The Inside Story, Exit From The Gift Shop (if this on is truly a doc), 45635, Waste Land, The Art Of The Steal and The Tillman Story. We are still in a golden age of documentaries, let's enjoy while we can.
Not a terrible year for English language films at all.
Here's my first tip for 2011: English animated film My Dog Tulip. You heard it here first.
there were several excellent documentaries and animated films from the English-speaking world: Restrepo; Exit through the Gift Shop; Book of Kells; Pat Tillman Story; How to Train your Dragon.
But foreign films really dominated drama: Enter the Void; White Ribbon; Secret in their Eyes; Carlos; Mesrine; Dogtooth; Mother--- and this is off the top of my head w/only one of many Asian films represented. Chinese-speaking countries, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, S. Korea, Thailand, Hungary--- they've moved beyond the Hollywood dominated ideas that have overwhelmed and consumed the English-speaking market. The veteran English directors mostly are deadly bores, long on cinematic lectures about the woes of the proletariat concealed in depressing and decadent films. Enough, already.
...what did you really think about The Square, Animal Kingdom, The Eclipse and Fish Tank? Or did you really see them?
I agree with you on the foreign language films you cited, and some others unmentioned as well.
like a seamy, squalid little film. Eclipse, sorry to say, looked silly. I don't believe in ghosts and find their being taken seriously.... well, silly. I will see it because of Ciaran.
Animal Kingdom was good, brutal entertainment, but certainly NOWHERE near the level of Mesrine. I did admire it's toughness, non-romantic portrayal of a vicious family. The Square I saw some time ago. Didn't impress me, but several people recently have mentioned it so I'll watch it this week, again.
Again, originality largely is absent from our English-language films: the weight of tradition, perhaps, is too heavy? The exciting, different films, like, "Let the Right One In," are not being made here. I forgot to mention, earlier, Russia as a trove of good film, also.
I totally agree with your assessments. Indies have almost always been great. Many of them are definitely Oscar material, I don't know why they never make it though.
AP
that film was not only good, it was enjoyable!
Edits: 04/27/11
One of the better films of its type.
You gotta remember that the movie that wins the Best Pic Oscar has no relationship to the actual "best" film of any given year, whatever the heck that is. There really is no such thing IMO, but if I were giving out that award it would've gone to Winter's Bone. So it goes.
As a film geared to appeal to Oscar voters, I found The King's Speech to be far from mere Oscar bait and an entirely honorable effort(albeit a bit small scale). Good script. Excellent acting. Fine production values.
I'm OK with "personal struggles against physical handicap" movies when they're done this well...which they seldom are.
I do not take such pleasures as lightly as I once did. Not least among its virtues is TKS illustrates the frightening proposition of what England might have had to endure had Edward NOT abdicated (shudder).
The one Oscar it didn't deserve was for directing. It was not especially brilliant in that department, but then, I suspect less is more with this type of film. Let the actors take center stage.
A film for the ages? No, hardly, but a nice movie expertly executed and MADE FOR ADULTS. Let's be thankful someone is still making them in English.
Buddy and I were dragged to this by our wives (not our kind of movie). We came out all in agreement, one of the best films last year, if not the best. We also all thought the therapist played the best part.
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