Snow Set Move Marathon Awards Part 2

Every awards ceremony must come to an end.  At the conclusion of this blog entry, the Snow Set Movie Marathon will have reached its completion with all of the movies watched and the awards having been given out.  It is now time to continue the awards that began yesterday.

The first award for this portion is the worst actor.  This is a category that I don’t like to take pride in.  It’s not because it’s not deserved, or that I dislike the category.  My problem is that I had to watch these performances.  That was the bad part.  I’d like to tell you the honorable mentions first.  Both Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chris O’Donnell are here for their work in Batman and Robin, though Chris might only be here because his part was written poorly.  I’m going to toss Kevin Zegers in here as well.  His performance in Frozen was kind of overacted.  Just a little bit.  But there is only one winner and I thought I would never have to say this about the man.  Morgan Freeman gets Worst Actor for his performance in Dreamcatcher.  That is the single performance that brings the movie down for me.  Everyone else is solid to good, in my opinion, but Morgan Freeman overacts and overacts very poorly.  It bugs me to no end.

Before I go into the best actor, I want to do the award for the Best Use of the Snowy Setting.  I’m going to have four honorable mentions for this, and a winner.  The Great Silence is an honorable mention because it is one of the few westerns that I have seen with the setting, and it uses the snow in a way that any westerns don’t use snow.  Dreamcatcher is an honorable mention because of the wonderful camera shots of the snowy scenes.  Some of those shots are quite beautiful.  I also quite like the use of a snowy setting in The Shining.  The way that it is used in the plot, as well as to create a claustrophobic atmosphere is quite a great use.  Finally, the last honorable mention is Quintet.  That setting is always present and makes for a different look at a post-apocalyptic setting.  However, I have to give the win of the Best Use of the Snowy Setting to a documentary called Touching the Void.  This wins it out for the same reason that Dreamcatcher ended up in the honorable mentions.  There is beautiful scenery that is shown throughout the film.  The way that the viewer is presented with the mountain and the different areas upon the mountain was breathtaking.  I was in awe at what I was seeing.  There was nothing else like it in the marathon.  That is why Touching the Void had the Best Use of the Snowy Setting.

Now it is onto the Snow Set Movie Marathon award for Best Actor.  The first honorable mention is Damien Lewis for his work in Dreamcatcher.  There are moments when he changes his character’s personality on a dime that show his potential.  Paul Newman is an honorable mention for Quintet.  He kept me in the movie, however bored I had gotten from everything else.  I have to also mention Klaus Kinski for what he did in The Great Silence.  As the antagonist, he was a perfect mixture of friendly and menacing.  And the final honorable mention is Ian Holm for his work in The Sweet Hereafter.  The winner is a little bit obvious though.  I thought he’d be the winner going into the marathon, and he’s still the winner now.  Jack Nicholson was brilliant in The Shining.  He was perfectly cast in the role of Jack Torrance, a man who goes insane while shut off from society in a hotel.  I don’t think that anybody else could play the part as well as Jack Nicholson.  He’s the winner for this marathon’s Best Actor award and it was completely and thoroughly earned.

Now it’s time for a few quick honorary awards to be shot off.  This is where the fun comes in.  Here are the winners for:

Most Suspenseful Bathroom Scene goes to Dreamcatcher for the Beaver and the toothpick scene

The Ending that Stuck With Me Most goes to The Great Silence

Best Use of a Snow Based Vehicle goes to Dead Snow for their use of a snowmobile throughout

The Award for Worst Costumes goes to Batman and Robin

The Most Offensive Name For A Dog goes to The Eiger Sanction for naming a dog “Faggot”

Now it’s time to get onto the final award.  This is what people may have been waiting for.  What is going to win Best Picture for the Snow Set Movie Marathon?  First I must go through the honorable mentions.  The Great Silence is a movie that I loved.  It was a spaghetti western set during a blizzard.  Its ending was one of the best endings that I have seen in a long time.  Great film.  The Sweet Hereafter is a haunting talk that I will always remember.  The acting is solid throughout the movie and the story is gripping.  It was tough for me to put the next honorable mention as an honorable mention and not the winner.  Touching the Void is an honorable mention.  I want it to win but the winner is...well, I’ll get to that in a second.  Touching the Void is the best documentary that I think I’ve ever watched.  It kept be glued to my seat.  Any pain felt in the film, I felt as well.  It was real, it was frightening.  I needed something to win and something to lose though, so I had to make it an honorable mention.  Why?  It’s because The Shining is the winner of Best Picture of the Snow Set Movie Marathon.  The direction, the visuals, the acting by Jack Nicholson.  All of that combines to create an experience unlike any other movie.  I had to give it the top spot.

The awards are now over.  I don’t know what to say now.  It was a good time.  Ten movies all involving snow or icy conditions.  They may look cold, and some of them are, but others are movies that make you feel warm.  Actually, scratch that.  None of them are really heart-warming movies.  It was a fun marathon though and I wouldn’t change a thing about it.  Except maybe Batman and Robin.  I could switch that one out.

I hoped you enjoyed it as much as me.  There are not going to be any marathons for a few months now as I am back in school and don’t have as much time to watch and write.  Hopefully I can get back to marathons when school is out.  Until then, you’ll have to put up with other stuff.  Okay?  Okay.  Enjoy.