Snugglecub – Page 13 – Academy Award Best Picture Winners

Doctor Strange

14 – Doctor Strange

Alright, new characters, new actors, new costumes, new visual effects, new sub-franchise. Here is where we are introduced to magic in the MCU. We are introduced to a new villain, in the form of an inter-dimensional demon named Dormamu. And we get a fantastic new hero, Doctor Strange, brought to life by Benedict Cumberbatch. He was so perfectly cast. It’s like the character came right of the pages of the comic books and became a living person. I have to say, that is one of the MCU’s biggest strengths. They have brought together an amazing cast of actors who really do the source material justice.

So Doctor Stephen Strange starts out as an arrogant, high-profile surgeon, an ass, even to his only real friend, fellow doctor, Christine Palmer, played by Rachel McAdams. Then, through personal injury and struggle, finds his true calling as the Sorcerer Supreme. He has a natural talent for the mystic arts. He learns this skill from an order of magicians in Tibet, at a place called Kamar-Taj. There he meets The Ancient One, perfectly played by Tilda Swinton, and fellow student, though, at the beginning, much more advanced, Karl Mordo, played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Wong, played by Benedict Wong. They teach him how to use his talent to create teleportation gates, and shields and weapons made of mystic light. And of course we have to have a down-to-earth bad guy for him to fight. For that, we get Mads Mikkelsen playing Kaecilius, the rogue sorcerer who serves Dormamu. Incidentally, it was an intentional decision to have the CGI Dormamu voiced by none other than Cumberbatch, himself, like an evil reflection of the hero.

So here, the filmmakers took the visual effects to a whole new level. They created realistic images on the screen, the likes of which the world had never seen before, except maybe a much simpler version, in the 2010 film, Inception. They bent and warped reality so much that it was like a living, moving M. C. Escher fantasy. The buildings turned and twisted, fractured and morphed, multiplied and shifted. And there were live actors funning and fighting their ways through the chaotic and gravity-shifting landscapes. And as strange as the images were, there was a beauty to them that was amazing to watch. They really outdid themselves and I loved every minute of it. And the astral projection stuff worked really great on the screen.

And that brings me to the exciting action. The scene where Kaecilius attacks the New York Sanctuary was fantastic. Doctor Strange is still only learning to use his magical powers, but he is the only man available to defend the building. It is there that he meets the silent character in the movie, the Cloak of Levitation. Not only does it become an ally in the battle, but it ultimately shows Strange how to win. I particularly loved the magical fetters with which Kaecilius is captured. So cool! Mikkelsen was so awesome in that whole scene. There were battles fought with glowing mandalas and ropes, and magical artifacts and portals. It was fast-paced and thrilling to watch how creatively the film used the new dimension of sorcery to drive the story.

And what’s more, the characters had arcs. They were developed and once again, in the short space of this one movie, we learned to love the hero, who, after all, was the focus of the plot. But more than that, even other characters like The Ancient one and Mordo, had arcs of their own. By the end of the movie we are questioning whether they are good or bad, whether their motives are moral or not. Well, actually, Mordo ends the movie by really turning into a bad guy, which is a complete reversal from where he started. And now we have a great new cast of actors joining the MCU, ready and primed to appear in more films in the future. And boy, do they ever! Doctor Strange is now one of the pillars of the franchise and even characters like Wong and Mordo show up later on. I remember seeing this movie in theatres when it came out, and I knew, right away, that I wanted to own this movie. It is always so fun to watch!

Top 10 Favorite Parts

The car accident. Came out of nowhere!
The Ancient One knocks Strange’s astral projection out of his body to show him how much he doesn’t know.
Strange is taken to the Mirror Dimension for practice.
Strange steals books out of the Kamar-Taj library behind Wong’s back.
Strange discovers and practices with the Time Stone
The fight in the New York Scnctuary. Strange gets the Cloak, and Kaecilius is captured.
The fight in the hospital.
The Mirror Dimension fight in New York, and the death of The Ancient One.
The reversal of time to restore the Hong Kong Sanctuary, and the city surrounding it.
Strange traps Dormamu in a time loop, and Dormamu takes Kaecilius and his followers.

1940 – Barbara O’neil

1940 – Barbara O’Neil

All This and Heaven Too

Barbara O’Neil played her part and she played it well. The problem is that at the end of the film, I didn’t have a very comprehensive sense of who the character was. And I don’t think that was the actress’s fault. It was the script. But what was wonderful about O’Neil’s performance was that she made the character memorable and strangely believable, despite the over-the-top performance.

You see, the character of Françoise, duchesse de Praslin was just crazy. She was an emotional roller-coaster. She had so many negative qualities that were written into her, it was hard to keep track of them all, or put reasons behind any of them. She was arrogant, over-privileged, entitled, self-centered, cruel, spiteful, jealous, suspicious, antagonistic, and constantly angry. She had the unfounded idea that the world was out to hurt her, and so she made a point of hurting others first. And that was about the totality of the character, as it was written.

But O’Neil put a shred of humanity into her performance that made her interesting to watch whenever she was in a scene. And she was able to hold her own against the two Hollywood powerhouses, Bette Davis and Charles Boyer, without ever getting lost in the background. There was once a pop song written about Bette Davis’s eyes, but in this movie, O’Neil’s eyes were just as expressive, if not more so. They had the emotionally unstable gaze, the frantic glimpse, the suspicious glance. They had the fire of anger that was often softened by an uncertain sanity.

Because that was most of what the role required, the moments of calm, of wholeness, stood out more than they might have, otherwise. O’Neil did a pretty good job of transcending the script that might have made a lesser actress into a one-note character. This includes her… slightly ridiculous death scene. Spoiler alert! So her husband has finally had enough. He advances on her slowly with murder in his eyes. There is a slow zoom in on her terrified face as she pleads, “No! No! You couldn’t! Please, no!” Like something out of a silent movie, she mugs for the camera, raising her hands to her face in fear. Ok, that was a little over-the-top. But I’m blaming that on the script and the director. O’Neil was fine.

1940 – Albert Basserman

1940 – Albert Basserman

Foreign Correspondent

Now here’s a name I’ve never heard of before, but I have to say, he did such a great job. His part in the film was small but mighty. So, he played the character of Van Meer, a Dutch diplomat. The actor was actually German, but his accent sound foreign and convincing enough. And he really looked the part.

There were a number of things that really made his performance stand out as incredible. There were several facets to his character that Basserman played to perfection. On the one hand, a slightly dotty old man, masking a politically evasive diplomat, on the other, a fully aware politician. On the one hand, a recently sedated captive, on the other, a fully drugged victim of brainwashing. And it was in these later scenes, where his mind has been worn down, where Basserman’s acting skills really shined.

I’ve said before that acting believably drunk is not easy. But here, the actor had to be sober, and then slowly lose it as the sedatives take effect. He was really good. Watch his eyes as they lose focus. You can see his head start to swim. Then in his last scene, he is being brainwashed as his captors try to get him to tell them secret information, he is fully drugged. He doesn’t know where he is, or what is real. He barely recognizes his friend, Fisher. Basserman was so good in this scene. But then, when they give up and a thug starts to murder him, off screen, he begins to spill his secrets.

But before that he gives a little anti-war/anti-violence speech that I’m sure went a long way to earning him his Best Supporting Actor nomination. He says “You can do what you want with me. That’s not important. But you’ll never conquer them, Fisher. Little people everywhere who give crumbs to birds, lie to them. Drive them. Whip them. Force them into war, where the beasts like you will devour each other, then the world will belong to the little people.”

That was a pretty powerful speech that spoke to more than just that other characters in the movie. It spoke to the movie-going audiences. And it was very intentional by the film’s director. Basserman did a great job delivering the message from Hitchcock.. I almost might have awarded him the Oscar instead of Walter Brennan, but I’m not sure. It must have been a tight race.

Captain America: Civil War Character Posters

Captain America: Civil War Cast Photos

Chris Evans as Captain America / Steve Rogers

Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man / Tony Stark

Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow / Natasha Romanoff

Sebastian Stan as The Winter Soldier / Buckey Barns

Don Cheadle as War Machine / James Rhodes

Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther / T’Chala

Tom Holland as Spider-Mann / Peter Parker

Frank Grillo as Crossbones / Brock Rumlow

Captain America: Civil War

Cast Photos

Character Posters

13 – Captain America: Civil War

Ok, I know I’m way past the point of sounding like a broken record, but I don’t know how they keep doing it. They hit another home run. It is amazing, and it is why the MCU is one of my favorite franchises. So this one is a Captain America movie, but really, this probably should have been called and Avengers movie. It delved into the complex relationships between the members of the Avengers, set against the backdrop of the fallout of the events of Avengers: Age of Ultron. The Avengers are split down the middle as the United Nations draws up a document that places a measure of control over the vigilante group of un-registered superheroes, any one of whom is a potential danger to the public.

And that’s the main conflict of the movie. Some of the team agree that there needs to be a measure of accountability and oversight to such a powerful force as the Avengers. Other see it as an unconstitutional and un-moralistic infringement on their personal freedoms and liberties. What makes the conflict so interesting, is that both sides are right. But when an actual villain, played by a simple human, whose life was destroyed by the disaster in Sokovia, finds a way to tear the super team apart from the inside. That villain is Helmut Zemo, played by Daniel Bruhl. He finds a way to re-activate the sinister brainwashing of the Winter Soldier, aka: Bucky Barns, and chaos ensues.

What made Civil War so fantastic, was not just those complex moral issues, but that the filmmakers were able to pull out all the stops and bring back all the great characters we have been following in all the preceding earth-bound MCU films. The extra-terrestrial characters like Thor and the Guardians of the Galaxy were excluded.And they even brought in two significant new characters in their MCU debut: Spider-Man and Black Panther, played so awesomely by Tom Holland and Chadwick Boseman, and setting both of them up for their own solo movies.

Once again, the directors, the brothers, Anthony and Joe Russo, did so many things right. They gave us a cohesive story, they stayed true to the characters and their places in the overall tapestry of the Infinity Saga, they gave us incredible action, great drama, and even a few well-placed moments of humor. The film is engaging from the beginning to the end. There were a few moments in the film that always stand out to me as phenomenal are the airport battle, and the climactic fight between Captain America and Iron Man. In both cases, they pitted hero against hero, making it hard to know who to root for. The airport battle was just a chaotic special effects extravaganza as all the unique powers of combatants like Wanda Maximoff, Ant-Man, Vision, and Spider-Man went head to head less-fantastical, but no less incredible heroes like Black Widow, Falcon, Hawkeye, and War Machine.

But the final fight was both intense and heartbreaking. Cap and Iron Man go toe-to-toe. Tony Stark finds out the Bucky had murdered his parents as the Winter Soldier, and tries to kill him. Cap knows that it was not his friend’s fault, and tries to defend him. It is here that we get that iconic comic book cover brought to life of Rogers and Stark facing each other, Iron Man firing his repulse beam directly into Captain America’s shield. Man, that was an awesome shot! The battle is brutal, each man trying to defeat his friend. And they do beat the crap out of each other. They beat each other to the brink of killing each other. But in the end, Captain America wins and nearly murders Stark with his shield. But when he knows he has won, he walks away, leaving his opponent to call after him, “That shield doesn’t belong to you. You don’t deserve it!” So he drops it and leaves. So over-the-top dramatic, and it worked! The Russo Brothers really knew what they were doing! And you have to wonder… where do they go from here? Just wait. For a clue, make sure to watch the post-credit teaser scene. Thanos is coming!

Top 10 Favorite Parts

The fight against Brock Rumlow in Lagos
The meeting introducing the Sokovia Accords – Asking all the right moral questions. And the heroes’ discussion later.
The talk between Natasha and Steve after Peggy’s funeral – showing that though they are on opposite sides, they still care for each other as friends.
The UN Bombing – T’Chaka’s death
The introduction of Black Panter and the street chase.
Bucky gets reprogramed and Cap keeps his helicopter from leaving – Holy S…T! Those biceps!
Hawkeye comes to free Wanda from her house arrest.
The Airport Battle! I loved it when Spider-Man stops the Winter Soldier’s punch like it was nothing!
Iron Man finds out about his parents.
The fight between Cap, Iron Man, and Buckey, especially that iconic comic book cover shot. Also – Buckey loses his metal arm.

1940 – Walter Brennan

1940 – Walter Brennan

The Westerner

Here we are once again with Walter Brennan. I never really saw him as a big name in Classic Hollywood. But I’m seeing his name pop up year after year in the Best Supporting Actor category. Maybe I have to reconsider him as a recognized name from the late 30s and early 40s. Part of that is that he is never the lead, only a supporting character. Another part is that he doesn’t really have a recognizable face, partly because he seems to change his appearance for each role he takes on.

In The Westerner, he plays the bad guy, Judge Roy Bean. He is a cowboy who is the leader of a cattle-ranching community in the old West. He wears the badge of Judge, and uses it to bully the men of Vinegaroon, TX into doing whatever he wants them to do. He is also the owner of the only saloon in town, and that’s also part of his power. He who controls the alcohol, controls the men. But he has a strange quirk that ends up being his downfall. He is madly obsessed with the English actress, Lillie Langtry, so much so that if men do not honor her, he refuses to allow them into his bar.

Playing the villain was a bit of a different role for Brennan, but of course, he did a good job. He always did. The movies he was nominated for previously saw him as a comical sidekick, or a kind-hearted grandfather. But here, we see him as a drunk, vindictive bully. But oddly enough, he was almost a sympathetic character because of that overwhelming obsession with Lillie Langtry. His desire for her was almost pure and authentic, somehow, and that was all due to Brennon’s acting. In fact, he was good enough to steal scenes from the film’s lead actor, Gary Cooper, and that’s saying something.

I especially liked the climax of the movie when Roy dresses up in his old Confederate Civil War uniform to go see Lillie perform in a neighboring town. While there, he has his final gun battle with Cooper, and is shot and fatally wounded. But cooper, being the hero with the heart of gold, carries him back stage at the theatre, so he can stare at his beloved Lillie as he passes on. And they actually treated the bad guy’s death as a tender moment. Brennan did a great job, as always, and I think he deserved his Oscar win. Impressive that this was his third nomination, and his third win, don’t you think?

Ant-Man Character Posters

Ant-Man Cast Photos

Corey Stoll as Darren Cross / Yellowjacket

Ant-Man

Cast Photos

Character Posters

12 – Ant-Man

I’ll start this off by saying that this was such a fun movie! It had a great cast, great visual effects, great action, and most of all, great comedy. You see, a superhero movie can have all the special effects in the world, but if it isn’t a good movie first, nobody’s going to want to see it. Ant-Man had a cool story, fun, relatable characters, and absolute significance to the great tapestry of the MCU. Not only that, but it was fresh. They style of comedy was fresh. We were introduced to new characters for the first time. And for those of us who are fans of the original comic books, we got to see them come to life on the big screen, with great costumes that were based on the source material, and yet updated to a more realistic and practical standard.

First, let me talk about the fantastic cast. Paul Rudd played the lead, master thief, Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man. He is handsome with a kind-of goofy, loveable puppy-dog personality. We get Michael Douglas, who is just an incredible actor, playing Hank Pym. And we got Evangeline Lilly playing Hank’s no-nonsense daughter Hope van Dyne. Also on the good guy’s side was Michael Pena, playing Scott’s best friend Luis, who turned out to not only be one of the funniest parts of the movie, but also a slightly pivotal character to the plot. And of course, we have to have a great villain. In And-Man, we get Corey Stoll as Darren Cross / Yellowjacket. Also, we have Bobby Cannavale, Tip “T.I.” Harris, Judy Greer, Abby Ryder Fortson, and David Dastmalchian rounding out the supporting cast.

So in Ant-Man, they were actually able to, once again, pull off the impossible. Not only did they introduce a completely new cast of characters, but they did so believably and at a good pace, and still had enough time to give us action that actually meant something because we were able to learn who they were. And they did it all in the space of a single film. And as you might suspect, that action’s schtick was about a hero who could shrink to the size of an ant. Other movies have been based on the concept in one form or another, but it has never been done in quite the same way. But this movie took the name even further and developed a way for our hero to communicate and control huge armies of ants, which is really cool because as we know those little annoying insects actually vastly out number human beings. I looked it up, and there are estimated to be 2.4 million times more ants than humans.

And it wasn’t just Ant-Man who could shrink. They had a tank shrunk to the size of a keychain until it was needed. The blew up Cassie’s toys to gigantic size. They use the growing and shrinking effects so creatively. And now, they have the technology to make it all look so real. There was a little fight sequence that took place inside a brief case that was really cool. Yellowjacket ended up destroying a green Lifesaver candy with a laser! And speaking of fights, there was a really fun fight between Ant-Man and Falcon, played by Anthony Mackie that was pretty awesome, too.

But overall, when I think of Ant-Man, I think of the humor. Paul Rudd and Michael Pena were great. But it was Pena’s Luis that really stood out to me. He is such a great character. He is like a hyper-active, ADD, super-street, Latino, goofball. He was so cool! But the laughs were so much more than that. It was the miniaturized fight where Yellowjacket is getting run over by a toy train that just anti-climactically topples over like the toy that it is. Or during the brief case fight, the villain shouts, “I’m going to disintegrate you!” and a cell phone in the case says, “Playing Disintegration by the Cure.” It was when a giant ant runs past a policeman who calls it a messed up dog. This was a great addition to the MCU Franchise. But even if it wasn’t part of that larger picture, it was a movie that could have stood on its own as just a good, fun movie. I don’t know how they kept hitting so many home runs, but they did!

Top 10 Favorite Parts

Scott gets fired from Baskin Robins
The opening sequence for Darren Cross – Actually quite charming for a psychopathic villain.
Luis’s first story – hilarious! (Second story at the end, too!)
Scott Shrinks for the first time.
Training montage / Scott explains to Hope that he is expendable.
Ant-Man fights Falcon
The Heist at Pym Research Facility / And-Man inside the computer hardware.
The brief case fight & the bug zapper.
The fight on Cassie’s train set.
Ant-Man goes sub-atomic and Yellowjacket’s death.