2015 Oscar Nominated Film Review

So.. I know I am in the middle of telling of my trip to Salvador but since the Oscars are right around the corner this post is time sensitive so I will sneak it in here.  Hope you enjoy. Comment and let me now your thoughts.

OK.. I have officially finished watching all of the 2015 Oscar nominated movies. I must say that this is the first year that when the nominations were publicized I had not seen any of the movies. Before I spoil my review I will get right to it.
BOYHOOD.. The story of a boy growing up.  Just an ordinary boy with with a mom who attracts dead beat men and his sister.  It never got deeper then that and I never quite got a purpose for the movie.  I did find it interesting how the kid grew up in the movie almost as if they had been filming it for years but I did not even find the acting believable and .  I have no idea why this was nominated.

BIRDMAN. This was the first movie of the group I watch and again I have no idea how it got nominated.  Although the acting was good I actually never got into the movie, stopping it to go to sleep and reluctantly finishing it the next day.   I found it to be depressing and was not impressed with the story.  I don’t see a purpose to the film and I am left wondering if I missed something but I will not go back and put myself through it again to see if I did.

THE IMITATION GAME.. The third movie in the list I watched and after the first two I began wondering if something was wrong with me.  This movie was a little better as it was a good story and one worth telling.  However,  once again nothing about the knocked my socks off. I think the relationships in the movie were shallow and underdeveloped.  At times I found it slow and I just wanted it to end.. I never got into the movie 100%.

SELMA ..Finally,  I had heard some good things about this film and was excited to watch it as the first three I had not heard of prior to their nomination.  Maybe that is what was wrong?  Of course a good story about Dr Martin Luther King should be told over and over again.  But half way through I realized that I was not impressed with the acting and once again the story line did not grab my attention.  I guess in the end I compare it to 12 years a slave and for me it was so inferior to that movie.. again.. isn’t there anything else out there with some wow.

AMERICAN SNIPER. Of course only those who do not watch tv and have no internet have not heard of this film.  With so much posturing going on, I was anxious to see what it was all about.  In the end the movie was good, very patriotic I guess if you believe war is justified. Not making a comment on my commitment to that issue. I did not think it dove in deep enough to explore the moral struggle the sniper went through. The story toggled between his family and deployments and never really made me understand who he was.  I felt like it needed to tell more but I would also not be willing to sit through more. Again, another movie that I just did not see why it got an Oscar nod for best picture.

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL..quirky and I expected it to be funny from the trailers I had seen.  The only suggestion I have about not really loving this move is that maybe I was not in the right mood.  I thought it was supposed to be funny and only a couple of time did I catch myself laughing out loud but I had done that in some of the previous movies.  I had a hard time following and maybe it was a little to a.d.d. for me.  The story was predictable and nothing real earth shattering.  

THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING ,, again .. nice story.. I felt the main actor did a great job portraying Steven Hawking but again.. something was missing for me. Nothing about the story of the film wowed me.  It spent some time developing the relationship between his wife and his caretaker but then that just felt like it dropped into nothing.  Again,  maybe I have different expectations this year than previous years but the so many movies from previous years so outshine this one.  

WHIPLASH ..believable story.. again maybe I am just over all the story movies in the group when I saw this one as it was the last one I watched. I found it slow in spots and never really got involved in the story. I ended up turning it off late one night because I was tired and watched the rest the next day.  Previous years I would have never done with the other Oscar nominated films as I seemed to get involved and then would not have been able to sleep wondering what was going to happen next.  

In the end I am not sure it was worth my time to do my Oscar run this year.  I was not impressed with the movies the academy has put forward as contenders.   This past year there were movies like Big Eyes, Gone Girl, Into the Woods, The Hobbit, Hunger Games.. heck even Maze Runner had a better developed story then some of these films and they all kept my attention better.  Honestly,  I felt the movies I just listed  were more entertaining, better stories, and better movies than any of the films nominated.  I guess I am not a member of the academy for some reason.  

Comment and let me know what you think.. Did you see any of the movies?  Have a different perspective that I missed?  Have another movie you would have picked for a nomination?