Zero Dark Thirty (2012)

Director: Kathryn Bigelow

Rated: R
Length: 157 min.

I am beginning to think that this was yet another mediocre year for Best Picture nominees, for as I watched Zero Dark Thirty for the very first time this afternoon, I was once again disappointed. This action-thriller portrays a very realistic depiction of the events leading up to Osama Bin Laden's capture; however, it took a little too long to get to that point. With the vivacious acting skills of Jessica Chastain playing the role of the obsessive feminist CIA operative, this film was somewhat intriguing.  On the other hand, the dramatic elements of this film seemed to be underplayed and there was a need for more background information to support the placement of characters in the film. Not to mention the fact that every member of Al-Qaeda seemed to have a name that started with "Abu," and the majority of the rest were impossible to understand. This film could have been condensed to an hour and 45 minutes and reached the same conclusions. For one of this year's best, I was only mildly impressed, and I still think Django Unchained is highly under-appreciated in the world of film. Overall, not a bad film by any means, and most definitely patriotic; but hardly worthy of a Best Picture nomination in my eyes.

Argo (2012)

Director: Ben Affleck

Rated: R

Length: 120 min.

 

Taking home both the Golden Globe and Oscar for Best Picture, I expected more from this highly decorated film. Although this film displayed a very accurate depiction of the events that played out in history, it failed to reach me on a personal level. Now, I have a lot of respect for Ben Affleck as both an actor and filmmaker, but I feel as though The Town, was far superior to his most recent "juggernaut." The realistic qualities of this film weren't shown in a fashion that made it believable, even though I knew that this film depicted the historical events extremely well from the real-time photographs shown at film's end. Maybe it's the fact that I hold films to the highest standard these days, but in all honesty, this was just plain boring. The action sequences were premature, and the hostages didn't seem to be at all scared of their impending plight. I was not convinced. All in all, not a bad film, but definitely undeserving of Best Picture of the Year. Come on now Argo, you can do better than that.