What I disliked the most about the new film “Downhill” starring Will Ferrell and Julia Louise Dreyfus is the blatant trickery involved. In every trailer and talk show appearance, this movie marketed as a comedy, but it is a serious drama. Understanding that this is a serious drama, why did the producers market this film as a comedy? Why did the producers hire two very well known comedy actors to appear in this movie? My guess is that they knew this was a bad script and thought they could rescue this production by hiring and maybe even begging two famous comedy actors to star in this very bad movie. Ultimately, the marketing of this movie is nothing more than an example of false advertising.

This entire story, which is a remake of the Swedish film “Force Majeure”, released in 2014 has one of the strangest story ideas I have ever seen. While in a vacation at a ski resort a family consisting of a husband, wife and 2 boys, is sitting at an outdoor patio and is almost hit by an oncoming avalanche. This avalanche is triggered purposefully by the resort to prevent a major avalanche. The father, played by Will Ferrell, grabs his cell phone and runs away, leaving his wife and two boys behind. The rest of this story, is mostly about his family trying to adjust and understand why he ran away, rather than protect his family. Believe it or not, this is the entire idea behind this very strange film. The tragedy here is that this story could have been re-written to make it a real comedy, rather than a drama. As a comedy, considering the talents of both Dreyfus and Ferrell, perhaps this bad idea for a movie could have been saved, but instead the producers decided to trick the audience into believing that this is a comedy, to try and make this bad film profitable.

Will Ferrell has made many bad choices over the years with many of the movies he has been in, and this is a shame because he is one of the most natural comedic talents. With Ferrell, he can get a laugh with his eyes, or with just a subtle look or remark, but other than two or three movies over the years, he has yet to make a movie worthy of his talents. I hope this pattern of bad movie choices changes, because Ferrell can be extremely funny with the right script.

The reviews of this movie on Rotten Tomatoes and IMDB are very low 41% and 4.3 respectively. I agree with both of these very low marks and recommend that this film is skipped by everyone.

The movie “Incitement” is about the year leading up to the assassination of Israel’s Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995, from the point of view of the assassin. This film has subtitles and seems to be half a documentary and half a movie, with not much of a real story. The problem with this film is that most if not all of the events that lead up to this assassination are too boring to hold anyone’s attention for very long. I was thinking of leaving this movie early many times during the two hours along with the constant checking of my watch.

As far as the very high ratings of 100% on Rotten Tomatoes I have no idea why the critics liked this movie that much. More in line are the average ratings on IMDB of only 7.3. My rating is about 60% and I do not recommend this movie, mainly because it is too long and too boring. The only thing I found interesting about this story, was that main character who assassinated Rabin in 1995, Yehuda Nahari, only spent 16 years in jail for murdering the Israeli Prime Minister – which makes absolutely no sense. The reason why his sentence was only 16 years was never explained.

I disagree with Parasite being the best picture this year.  The Irishman, that did not win any of the 10 nominations was the best picture, followed by Marriage Story. 

Performance by an actor in a leading role nominees:

Antonio Banderas in PAIN AND GLORY

Leonardo DiCaprio in ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD

Adam Driver in MARRIAGE STORY

Joaquin Phoenix in JOKER – WINNER

Jonathan Pryce in THE TWO POPES

Performance by an actor in a supporting role nominees:

Tom Hanks in A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Anthony Hopkins in THE TWO POPES

Al Pacino in THE IRISHMAN

Joe Pesci in THE IRISHMAN

Brad Pitt in ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD – WINNER

Performance by an actress in a leading role nominees:

Cynthia Erivo in HARRIET

Scarlett Johansson in MARRIAGE STORY

Saoirse Ronan in LITTLE WOMEN

Charlize Theron in BOMBSHELL

Renée Zellweger in JUDY – WINNER

Performance by an actress in a supporting role nominees:

Kathy Bates in RICHARD JEWELL

Laura Dern in MARRIAGE STORY – WINNER

Scarlett Johansson in JOJO RABBIT

Florence Pugh in LITTLE WOMEN

Margot Robbie in BOMBSHELL

Best motion picture of the year nominees:

FORD V FERRARI

THE IRISHMAN

JOJO RABBIT

JOKER

LITTLE WOMEN

MARRIAGE STORY

1917

ONCE UPON A TIME…IN HOLLYWOOD

PARASITE – WINNER