The 2008 "Best Picture" Ronald goes to "The Bucket List", a 2007 Rob Reiner film starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. Nicholson plays Edward Cole, a wealthy hospital-acquiring magnate, whom imposes a number of cost-saving measures, such as two patients per room, no exceptions. Morgan Freeman is Carter Chambers, a Trivial Pursuit genius and auto mechanic. Chambers becomes a cancer patient and ends up in one of Cole's hospitals. Cole, a healthy gentleman all his life, coughs up blood at a board meeting and ends up sharing Chamber's room, also diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Cole, a womanizing atheist, and Chambers, a married man of deep faith, make an unlikely pair. Chambers' obsession with details leads to the creation of a "bucket list", i.e., a list of unique challenges to do before "kicking the bucket". Cole is intrigued and starts adding items of his own, e.g., skydiving. Cole offers to bankroll both of them completing the list together. Mrs. Chambers hates Cole, accusing him as wasting away her husband's remaining moments on a wild goose chase instead of being home with his family.
The movie has powerful moments which are deftly directed by Rob Reiner. My favorite moments: Chambers' reaction when a beautiful young woman, sharing his interests, offers to spend the night with him; the eulogy delivered by the survivor at the funeral of the first man to die; and (my favorite) what motivates Cole to scratch out the bucket item "kiss the most beautiful girl in the world" (sic). [But fair warning: my heart melted when Julie Roberts in Notting Hill pleads to Hugh Grant, "I'm just a girl loving a boy asking him to love me." Or when Renee Zellweger exuberantly declares her love for Jerry McGuire (Tom Cruise) as (unknown to Zellweger) a stunned Cruise listens in disbelief. And whoever created the Jerry McGuire mix of Bruce Springsteen's "Secret Garden" with the movie's signature quotes is sheer genius.]
The "holiday" Ronald goes to "Joyeux Noel", a 2005 foreign film about the famous 1914 Christmas Eve truce in World War I, when particpants in trench warfare for a few hours fraternized with the opposing side and what happens to the soldiers. War is tragic, and sometimes courage is defined by taking the initiative to make peace, even in a small way, not knowing if the other side will reciprocate or how one's own supervisors will respond to something that just isn't done. This is one of the few movies I've rented, watched once and knew I needed to buy a copy.
The Blagos
I had to initiate a new type of award: the political counterpart to Hollywood's Razzies. I've decided to call them the Blagos after our favorite corruption-tainted Illinois politician. So many in Hollywood are already eligible for Hall of Fame membership based on their existing works of propaganda: Michael Moore, Al Gore, Oliver Stone, etc.
My award this year goes to Ronnie Howard, sitcom actor and movie director whom produced a spot capitalizing on his involvement with the Andy Griffith Show and Happy Days. Apparently Ronnie Howard drank too much of the Koolaid while acting in the series, and this shows in the series' shameless promotion of Obama:
ANDY GRIFFITH, ACTOR: Hey, Ope. You look like you got something on your mind, son.HOWARD: Pa, why are people so set on staying on the same road that's been messing us up for so long?GRIFFITH: Well, Ope, people are funny. Sometimes, change scares them, and they would rather keep doing the same old thing that's been messing them up than change to the thing that can help them.HOWARD: Oh, gee, Fonz, I sure hope our country gets itself back on track.HENRY WINKLER, ACTOR: You know, I will tell you something. Eight years ago, I thought to myself, OK, we have got these president of the United States, Cheney, Bush, we should give them a shot. Was I wr-I was so wr...HOWARD: You were wrong, Fonz?WINKLER: OK. That's the word.
