Oscar Special: Posters of All 81 Best Picture Winners

Every year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science will select one film to be named Best Picture of the Year. And this is a title I really take seriously. Each film represents a moment in time in the history of cinema. It's really quite beautiful looking back at the past winners and see how much they have changed the way movies are made today.

So for this post, I'm paying tribute to the 81 movies that has had the honor to go down in history as the Best Picture of the year they were made. Might also give ya'll a nice little Film 101. Enjoy!

1929

 1930                                                       1931

  
 1932                                                      1933

 1934                                                    1935

 

 1936                                                    1937

 

 1938                                                    1939

1940

 

 1941                                   1942                                 1943

1944

 

1945                                                          1946

 

 1947                                                   1948

 

1949                                                    1950

1951

 

 1952                                 1953                                  1954

1955

 

 1956                                                    1957

 

 1958                                                     1959

1960

1961

1962

1963

1964                                                      1965

1966

 

 1967                                                   1968

 

1969                                                    1970

 

1971                                                            1972

1973

 

1974                                                      1975

 1976                                 1977                                  1978

 1979                                                      1980

 1981                                                    1982

1983

1984                                                     1985

1986                                  1987                                  1988

1989                                                    1990

1991

 1992                                                     1993

1994

1995

 1996                                                     1997    

1998

 

1999                                                        2000

2001

 

2002                                                      2003

2004

 

2005

 

2006

2007

2008

2009

Personally I've only seen 53 of them, it's hard to find the older movies especially in Malaysia. So tell me how many Best Picture winners have you seen? And which are your favorites? Comment comment comment!

New Toy Story 3 Poster... And Alice In Wonderland Sucked

Yahoo News just posted up a brand new poster for Disney Pixar's Toy Story 3! Check it out!

The poster features all the old characters from the previous two Toy Story movies and of course the new characters like Buttercup, Mr. Pricklepants, Peas-In-A-Pod, Lotso Huggin Bear and Ken. The movie's premiering here in Malaysia in June!

And in other related Disney news, the reviews for Tim Burton's premiere of Alice In Wonderland in America have been posted up and whoah! Shockingly they were all strongly negatively bad across the board. Wow.. And some critics whom I hold in really high regard really felt offended watching the movie. So ain't so sure Imma gonna be looking forward to Alice In Wonderland anymore..

The Road: Review

The Road... or the most difficult movie you might ever see in your life.

The Road is a lot like The Book Of Eli without the religion and the bad assness and more on humanity and the will to live in a world where everything has gone to hell. We follow the story of a father and son who are basically just wandering the post-apocalyptic world and are just trying to survive by any means possible while still trying to hold firm to being the good guys, to being humane in an inhumane world. And along the way they meet other people, who are pretty much trying to kill and eat them.

The Road was originally a book written Cormac McCarthy who also did No Country For Old Men and I'm so happy the Coen Brothers weren't here to fuck this movie up because I loved and loathe this movie so so much. Because this film is hella dark.

It sets up this post-apocalyptic world where everything is so fucked up that the only logical thing to do is suicide. There is a scene in this movie where Charlize Theron is trying to convince her family to kill themselves because "all the other families are doing it." The Road is like one of those movies you like a lot but never ever want to watch again because it is such agony watching the characters in this movie.

I'm just going to level with you now so that you're prepared when you watch this. There are two versions to this movie. The theatrical version which everyone in the US saw was a shorter version of the movie with all it's cannibalism scenes cut out. The movie I downloaded was the full movie. And it was horrifying. There were moments in the film that I was so ready to just turn off the TV and cry because it was so horrible.

One particular scene that was a big controversy in the book and the reason why it was taken out of the original cut was a scene where two parents were roasting their baby over a fire. Disturbing, gut-wrenching, powerful. You could still see the baby's nose, fingers, ears, everything even when it was charred. Another scene they called the meat market scene was a gang keeping a bunch of weak people and harvesting their organs for food. I'm not going to say anymore.. If you want to see it, I warn you it will shake you to your core.

And while it was dark and disturbing, there was also such a beauty to this film. Maybe it's just me but I found the destruction and this bleak world of emptiness to be incredibly gorgeous. The Road was so dark to the point that it was poetic. Yeah that's what it was, the movie was like some sort of epic lyrical poem about none existence and the end of the world and humanity.

And the movie does have some moments of heart in it particularly with the two characters and how this father is trying to impart wisdom and morals to his son even when all seems lost. There is that glimmer of hope that comes with the tribulations of the two main characters who were fantastically portrayed by Viggo Mortensen and Kodi McPhee.

Viggo Mortensen looks....... ugly in this. I don't know what the hell the make up department did with him but he looked so awful, Christian Bale from The Machinist would have looked like a friggin stud if he was standing next to Viggo Mortensen. And he has announced that he's retiring after The Road. What a role to end a career with. His character was broken down in this movie, he was the embodiment of the hopeless situation of mankind but still has that glimmer of hope in his eyes which were gorgeous to look at for some reason. Forget Aragon man, this father is the greatest hero character in the last decade of film.

Other great performances worth mentioning are Robert Duvall who plays a dying wanderer who encounters the father and son and get's invited to have dinner with them in one of the most heartwarming scenes of 2009 in my opinion. I also loved Molly Parker who is only in this for 10 seconds but said volumes and volumes in her eyes just like Viggo Mortensen's character. And also Charlize Theron who proves you can still be unbelievably hot during the apocalypse. 

I have absolutely no complaints for this movie, everything was powerfully endearing in all it's destruction and darkness. I presents a great message, had phenomenal acting from every possible speaking role in the movie and some of the most soul provoking images in any post-apocalyptic film I've seen. The Road could very well be the most important post-apocalyptic film ever made.

Wait.. WHAT? It didn't even get one Oscar nomination? Booooo!

RATING: 9/10

The Book of Eli: Review

You lay that hand on me again, you ain't gone get it back *shing* *slice* *bloooood*

So The Book of Eli is about a lone man named Eli in this post-apocalyptic world, who's carrying this sacred book that has the secrets to save humanity. But there are other people who are after the book so Eli has to protect it from falling into the wrong hands.

Basic storyline, highly unoriginal and not to mention that said book is just a Bible.. But I really really really love this movie man. There was not a moment in this film that I didn't have my attention completely glued to the cinema screen. The opening 10 minutes of Eli just has him wandering around the wasteland looking for shoes and had no dialog and it was still as gripping and captivating as anything else in the movie.

The film was directed by the Hughes Brothers who did Menace II Society and my God, this is their peak. Eli is by far the best film they've made. The world they created in this movie is so captivating, so beautiful and so depressing to see at the same time. These guys really know how to direct action, even when there is nothing going on in the scene, the tension they bring is really remarkable.

And Denzel Washington man.. it's awesome to see him being a bad ass again. While I won't say he wasn't the best performance in here, he was the most interesting character. What we have here with Eli is the same thing we have with Clint Eastwood's The Man With No Name where we have this character that has so much depth and so much story to him but we know nothing about him.

Another thing I loved the hell out of Book of Eli was that if you thought about it, this is kind of like a classic Western. The setting is in this barren wasteland, main character comes to this town that has a whole lot of Western influences in it, there's the usual classic bar fight, there's the dispute between the main character and the evil sheriff of the town. I mean, everything you love about Western movies is in here. The Hughes Brothers took all the elements of a Western film and put it into a modern, violent, post-apocalyptic story.

And there are tonnes of homages Eli makes to classic Western movies that had me in geekgasms throughout. Folsom Prison, Showdown at Oak Carrol, Once Upon A Time In America and it has hella lots of references to A Boy and His Dog. These guys really know Western movies so I give them respect for that.

And I absolutely adore the art direction of Eli's post-apocalyptic world and dare I say it, it is one of the most nicely done post-apocalyptic environment I've seen in a film. And I've seen lots of Post-apocalyptic movies. Everything in Book of Eli was perfect.

I love the discoloration of the sky and how it makes everything look so bleak and dull. And keep in mind that this movie takes place in the desert and the sky colour had some sort of weird illuminating effect on the sand that was so beautiful and yet so uncomfortable to watch. And I kid you not, a few hours after I got home from the movie.. I fell sick. I don't know what it was about this movie but it really took a toll on me.

I enjoyed the hell out of this movie for the most parts and I could tell the audience I was watching it loved it to. It was only until they got to the end of Eli when it turned into a big ass Christian sermon. Hahahaha and I'm not joking okay, you could literally feel the energy get sucked out of the theater the moment Denzel began quoting from the Bible. Like you know how in churches where they have a nice Christmas play that was enjoyable but at the end the pastor comes out and starts preaching and you can't leave??

But you know what? If anyone was going to make a Christian movie, this is how they should make it. With that negro bad ass from Training Day slicing heads off bad guys with an African machete and have a tonne of cars blowing up all over you're face while negro bad ass quotes from the Bible. Now that's how you make a Christian movie!!

Just enjoy the movie for what it is and if you're not big on religion like I am, just tolerate it on that part, it doesn't go that far like other Christian movies I've seen.

RATING: 7/10