For those who hate reading subtitles for any foreign language film, the new movie “Cold War” is not for you.

I found this film highly unusual as its based mostly in Russian occupied Poland some years after the end of World War 2. Cold War is a love story between a woman who is a singer who travels around Europe in various musical troops and a man who did not have a defined profession in this story. The problem with this film as I saw it, were the reasons why the couple was not able to stay together were not portrayed clearly enough. The hardships and the aftermath of World War 2 was one obvious reason for their many breakups, but perhaps the real reasons were all lost in translation. I thought the quality of the film-making was very high, including some impressive black and white photography. There are some scenes of very good musical numbers in this film, all sung in Polish and Russian.

The ratings for Cold War are a very high 95% and this film has received three Oscar nominations this year including best Foreign Language film, but for me this story was too boring in many spots to give it a rating any higher than 75%.

Movies like “Serenity” that are described by some critics as “January junk” are the kind of films that come out early in the year because they have no chance for any kind of an award and are essentially just early year filler until much better movies are released. Unfortunately Serenity is another example of January junk.

One reason why screenplays are so difficult to write is that when you are trying to trick the audience, everything along the way has to have plausibility. The story has to make sense and the way people react to what is going on, also has to make sense. In all my years of watching and writing about movies, this movie has probably the stupidest idea yet to trick the audience and in conclusion none of the entire 2 hours makes any sense. Movies like this anger audiences much more than entertain them, because a person would have to throw out all levels of common sense to buy into the insane high level idea that controls all of the action that happens for the entire movie.

Serenity stars Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane and Djimon Hounsou and I thought it was very hard to believe that 4 actors who have won and been nominated for Academy Awards, still agreed to act in this movie after reading the script. Serenity is probably another example of deal making and Hollywood favors that have to be honored. Considering the large number of better scripts that will never be made into a film, this bad script being produced is another example of one that should have been thrown into the trash. I have seen worse movies than this one, but I cannot remember a more inane high level idea that does nothing more than try to trick an already bored audience. The last ditch effort to save this bad film was the heads up to US audiences about a few McConaughey nude scenes, but this will not save the box office for an idea this bad.

The Rotten Tomatoes reviews for this movie are a very low 22% and I agree with this rating and recommend that everybody runs from this 2 hours of mess.

Best Picture:

“Black Panther”
“BlacKkKlansman”
“Bohemian Rhapsody”
“The Favourite”
“Green Book”
“Roma”
“A Star Is Born”
“Vice”

Lead Actor:

Christian Bale, “Vice”
Bradley Cooper, “A Star Is Born”
Willem Dafoe, “At Eternity’s Gate”
Rami Malek, “Bohemian Rhapsody”
Viggo Mortensen, “Green Book”

Lead Actress:

Yalitza Aparicio, “Roma”
Glenn Close, “The Wife”
Olivia Colman, “The Favourite”
Lady Gaga, “A Star Is Born”
Melissa McCarthy, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”

Supporting Actor:

Mahershala Ali, “Green Book”
Adam Driver, “BlacKkKlansman”
Sam Elliott, “A Star Is Born”
Richard E. Grant, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”
Sam Rockwell, “Vice”

Supporting Actress:

Amy Adams, “Vice”
Marina de Tavira, “Roma”
Regina King, “If Beale Street Could Talk”
Emma Stone, “The Favourite”
Rachel Weisz, “The Favourite”

Director:

Spike Lee, “BlacKkKlansman”
Pawel Pawlikowski, “Cold War”
Yorgos Lanthimos, “The Favourite”
Alfonso Cuarón, “Roma”
Adam McKay, “Vice”