Blockbuster Blog

Posts tagged ‘Oscars’

2013′s Oscar Winners’ Best Past Movies

Wednesday, March 6th, 2013 at 9:49 AM | Posted by:
Category: Movies | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Now that the smoke has cleared at the Oscars and Argo, Daniel Day-Lewis, Jennifer Lawrence, Christoph Waltz, Anne Hathaway, and Ang Lee have all taken home their trophies for the major awards, it’s natural not to want to let the moment end. But except for Argo, none of the winning movies are out on VOD yet, so if you need a little more J-Law or A-Hath or, uh, D.D.-Lew? D-Day-Lew? (not every name really works for that), we’ve assembled some of the best past work by the 2013 Oscar winners, all available to watch instantly at Blockbuster On Demand!

Daniel Day Lewis, Best Actor for Lincoln

“I drink your milkshake!”

 

We don’t know about you but we were struck during DDL’s unprecedented third Best Actor acceptance speech by what a diminutive, unassuming, small-voiced, slightly effeminate fellow he is, in stark contrast to his other two Oscar-winning performances: in My Left Foot, where he played a sclerotic poet either drinking, verbally abusing someone, or convulsing (usually more than one at a time); and even more so, in There Will Be Blood, where he played deep-voiced, imposing, intimidating oil baron Daniel Plainview. Has anyone else ever actually been able to make their eyes gleam with evil? DDL does it here, and it’s the most impressive transformation into a character we can think of.

Jennifer Lawrence, Best Actress for Silver Linings Playbook

Could this gal have stolen America’s heart any more decisively than she did Sunday night? Did you see her meet Jack Nicholson? Is there anyone not on board with Jennifer Lawrence right now? Her performance in Silver Linings Playbook was great: manic and charming at the same time (not an easy combination to pull off), so if you’re hankering for more, her Oscar-nominated turn in Winter’s Bone as a young girl taking care of her siblings and mentally ill mother in dirt-poor Missouri meth country should get you over the hump. It’s a very different performance from Silver Linings, but then that’s why they hand out trophies for this kind of thing. Likewise, Lawrence provided a welcome shot of both pathos and charisma in the role of shapeshifting alien Mystique in X-Men: First Class.

Anne Hathaway, Best Supporting Actress for Les Miserables

In the whole field of Oscar nominees, the easiest one to bet money on to win was Anne Hathaway for her role in Les Mis. It’s hard to find anything as intense or as soul-baring as that in her previous work — or anyone’s, for that matter — but to show how much range she has, don’t forget she was a shining bright spot in The Dark Knight Rises, the super intense, perhaps too grim capper to Christopher Read More

Things Learned During the 2013 Oscars

Sunday, February 24th, 2013 at 8:26 PM | Posted by:
Category: Movies | Tags: , , , , , ,

Below is a short summary of the things I learned while watching this year’s Oscars Awards show.

 

Beards are the “in thing” for male actors.  They were sported by George Clooney,

Missing, the Duck Dynasty boys.

Joaquin Phoenix, Paul Rudd, Hugh Jackman, Chris Pine, Ben Affleck, and more.

Seth MacFarlane does funny bits and sketches, but his stand up comedy needs a little bit of work.  The opening monologue was rough until Captain Kirk came in, but to Seth’s credit, he got better as the night went on.

The Academy implemented the Jaws music to play people off-stage when their acceptance speech is going too long.  This controversial move is considered rude by some pundits.  We recommend maybe going with the Keyboard Cat.

It’s awesome that the Academy supports short films, but has anyone seen any of the nominees.  Where would you even go to view them if you wanted to see them before the awards?

Paul Rudd and Melissa McCarthy acted like they had never been on stage before as presenters.  What happened there?

I’m terrible at predicting Academy Award winners.

There hasn’t been a major entertainment/pop culture event in the past few years where someone hasn’t made a Kardashians joke.  Despite prefacing it with “I thought we cut this joke,” MacFarlane delivers and the crowd loves it.  Kardashians jokes = always funny.

Even some well-traveled and one would think very learned people such as John Travolta still can’t pronounce “Les Miserables” correctly.  The “les” at the end is silent.

Even at awards shows with the most talented actors in the world, “One Day More” brings people to a standing ovation.  It’s a powerful song from one of the great musicals of all time.  If you haven’t seen the live musical, you absolutely should see the film.

The James Bond franchise is one of the most iconic movie franchises in history and the video tribute helped prove it. Moonraker, however, was terrible.  Also, they just don’t make villains like Oddjob anymore.

Oddjob and his killer hat are still awesome.

Even during live performances, Ted is hilarious.

And apparently, yes you can tie for an Academy Award. It has happened five times in history before tonight, the last time being in 1995 for Best Live Action Short.

Daniel Radcliffe will never EVER live down his original role of Harry Potter.  He was introed with the Harry Potter theme when he walked on stage as a presenter with Kristen Stewart.

The awards start out fast, hitting us with a major category out of the gate (Best Supporting Actor) and going through some minor categories in rapid succession for about an hour.  Then they slow way down and do a lot of songs and special tributes to draw out the last half of the show.

Adele is truly an amazing artist. Ok, we all knew that already, but even when performing a song live on TV, she is just riveting through the screen.

If you win a major category or you just happen to be a pretty big deal yourself, they seem to fudge the time limit on acceptance speeches and let you go longer than lesser-category winners.

That being said, in most cases, the best speeches are the short ones.  The shortest one of the night clocked in at 8 seconds.

Surprisingly, Zero Dark Thirty only won one Award, and it was a tie.

Trying to perform a song for the losers as a closer is a bad idea.  The audience is already prepared to be done with the show and making fun of great talent for losing close competitions, not cool.

 

Oscar Night Academy Awards Trivia

Sunday, February 24th, 2013 at 5:37 PM | Posted by:
Category: Movies | Tags: , ,

The Oscars begin in just a little more than an hour and to prepare for Hollywood’s biggest night, here’s a little bit of interesting Academy Award trivia to tide you over until the show starts.

  • Legend has it that the Oscars got their nickname from Margaret Herrick, an executive director at the Academy in the 1930s.  When she first saw the golden statuette, she stated that it resembled her Uncle Oscar Pierce.
  • The Oscar statue weighs 6.75 pounds and stands at 13.5 inches tall.
  • In the history of the Academy Awards, only one person named Oscar has actually won the award.  Oscar Hammerstein for Best original song in 1941 for Lady Be Good and 1945 for State Fair.
  • 3 films are tied for the record of winning the most Academy Awards. Ben-Hur (1959), Titanic (1997), and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King all won eleven awards.
  • Walt Disney is the record holder for most overall Academy Award wins with 22 over the course of his lifetime.
  • John Williams, Best Original Score nominee for Lincoln, is the 2nd most nominated person in the history of the awards with 48 Oscar nominations.  Behind only Walt Disney himself who had 64.
  • Katharine Hepburn has won the most Best Actress awards, winning four golden statuettes (1932, 1967, 1968, 1981) over the course of 49 years.
  • Eight different actors share the honor of winning the most Best Actor Academy Awards: two each for Spencer Tracy, Gary Cooper, Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Fredric March, Dustin Hoffman, Sean Penn, and Tom Hanks.
  • Meryl Streep has the most overall Academy Award nominations for acting with 17 total nominations, yet only three wins (two for Best Actress and one for Best Support Actress).
  • John Ford holds the record for the most Academy Awards for Best Director, winning four times for films The Informer (1936), The Grapes of Wrath (1941), How Green Was My Valley (1942), and The Quiet Man (1953).
  • The longest acceptance speech ever given at an Academy Awards show was given by Greer Garson in 1942.  Although the show wasn’t televised back then, when she gave her speech for winning the Best Actress award for her role in Mrs. Miniver, many sources claim the speech went on for 5 ½ – 7 minutes.
  • The youngest person to ever win a standard Academy Award (Shirley Temple won an honorary Academy Award at the age of 5) was Tatum O’Neal who won the Best Supporting Actress award in1974 for Paper Moon.  She was 10 years old at the time.
  • Amour is the 5th foreign language film to ever be nominated for Best Picture.  The other four were Z, Life Is Beautiful, The Emigrants, and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
  • For whatever it’s worth, John Wayne is the tallest person to ever win an Academy Award for acting standing at 6’4” (True Grit, 1969).

1999: The Biggest Year of Academy Awards Upsets

Friday, February 22nd, 2013 at 3:44 PM | Posted by:
Category: Movies | Tags: , , , , , , ,

1999 was a weird year at the Academy Awards (the Awards were held in 1999, but the movies were all from 1998).  It’s famous because it holds perhaps the most Oscar upsets of any year, and they all revolve around two films: Saving Private Ryan and Shakespeare In Love.

Which one of these films do you remember anything about?

The biggest movie of 1998 was Steven Spielberg’s incredible World War II epic starring Tom Hanks, Saving Private Ryan.  It won over movie critics, war veterans, and the general public to amass more than $200 million domestically with its incredibly realistic portrayal of combat, camaraderie, and the effects of war on the soldiers that fought during World War II.

Saving Private Ryan picked up 11 Oscar nominations and many believed that it would become the overall Awards champion of the year by predicting victories in 3 major categories: Best Actor in a Lead (Tom Hanks) Role, Best Director, and Best Picture.

However, this was not to be as the romantic comedy Shakespeare In Love remakably surpassed the Spielberg’s war epic in not only Academy Award nominations, but incredulously in Academy Awards wins!  The dark horse of 1998 went on to win seven Oscars beating out Saving Private Ryan (which surprised everyone by only winning five) and every other movie of the year.

Read More

Blockbuster’s 85th Annual Academy Awards Live Blog

Friday, February 22nd, 2013 at 10:11 AM | Posted by:
Category: Movies | Tags: , , , , ,

awardsbanner

LIVE BLOGGING NOW! Make sure to follow #BBAwards on Twitter from here on out, too! All times are Mountain.

10:05 p.m.: Here’s to the losers. Finally, a song I can get behind.

9:54 p.m.: Penny for your thoughts, woman standing behind Michelle Obama on her right, staring at her somewhat… longingly.

9:50 p.m.: Daniel Day-Lewis also wins for best joke.

9:48 p.m.: Ironically, Denzel is one of the only people who’s NOT drunk right now.

9:36 p.m.: Jane Fonda’s dress just burned itself into my LED screen.

9:24 p.m.: The older Dustin Hoffman gets, the more I’m convinced he was born in Jim Henson’s workshop.

9:16 p.m.: How can you not like Adele?

9:12 p.m.: Renee Zellwegger’s been spending too much time with Kristen Stewart.

9:07 p.m.: Arnold Horshack and Juan Epstien just got snubbed during the In Memoriam segment. At least you’re in good company, Ben Affleck.

9:02 p.m.: Surprise Babs appearance singing “Memories” to celebrate Marvin Hamlisch during the In Memoriam segment of the show. I guess this makes more sense than trucking a P.T. boat out for Ernest Borgnine. But just marginally.

8:48 p.m.: Does Kristen Stewart always look completely strung out?

841 p.m.: Random thought — why hasn’t Tom Selleck hosted the Oscars yet? I vote for that.

8:39 p.m.: Adele just killed. First, her manicurist, then the audience.

8:35 p.m.: Jennifer Lawrence just did the most amazing bit where she was a living person with rigor mortis.

8:32 p.m.: Reminder to self: Stop confusing the movies 28 Days and 28 Days Later.

8:24 p.m.: Anne Hathaway’s exit music was the theme to Godfather. I don’t even know what that means.

8:20 p.m.: Pretty sure MacFarlane just wanted to force someone to walk around the Oscars in a Nazi uniform, and that’s all that joke was.

8:18 p.m.: This was the third tie in Oscar history.

8:17 p.m.: What’s with all the blonde guys with long hair?

8:13 p.m.: Les Miserables just got their sound mixing Oscar from a CGI talking stuffed bear. And Marky Mark. #ThatJustHappened.

8:10 p.m.: Sure, you get an Oscar, but we’re gonna do that thing where we don’t actually let you get the award in front of everyone. Bully for you.

8:03 p.m.: Wolverine does show tunes. With Borat and Gladiator. What?

7:58 p.m.: Skinny Jennifer Hudson still kinda creeps me out.

7:53 p.m.: And apparently time travel is the theme of the evening — A musical number from 11 years ago. One of nominees for best actress wasn’t alive when this movie was released.

7:51 p.m.: The dad from Family Ties just won for best foreign film. And he’s also now apparently a Bond villain.

7:50 p.m.: How did Seth MacFarlane just not turn that into a Jewish joke? Shatner get involved again?

7:37 p.m.: Wait, Liam Neeson’s an American?

7:34 p.m.: Best Live Action Short went to Curfew. Everyone he’s thanking is in the balcony. Except Daniel Day-Lewis.

7:29 p.m.: I still think writing “dame” as a title is kinda funny, though.

7:28 p.m.: Dame Shirley Bassey just killed. Standing O.

7:23 p.m. Bond retrospective, and thank God they left Timothy Dalton off… er, nope. He’s there, too. Damn.

7:20 p.m.: Makeup and Hairstyling award goes to Les Miserables. Which is only because Nicholas Cage wasn’t in anything this year.

7:17 p.m. Anna Karenina wins for costume design. Best speech of the night. Clocked in at :08 seconds.

7:12 p.m.: We have our first “play ‘em offstage!” moment of the night… Followed by Keith Urban’s slow, sad headshake. When you’ve been pitied by Keith Urban…

7:08 p.m.: Life of Pi wins for Best Cinematography and the bad guy from Die Hard is doing the acceptance speech. Not Alan Rickman, that other dude.

7:05 p.m.: The Avengers are Assembling. YES.

6:58 p.m.: Paper Man wins animated short, Brave wins animated feature film… and apparently someone used their plantation mansion curtains to make a dress.

6:51 p.m. Christoph Waltz wins Best Supporting Actor. Tarantino looks completely hammered, 20 minutes in.

6:42 p.m.: Racism in sock puppet form. What is happening right now?

6:38 p.m.: The L.A. Gay Men’s Chorus singing about seeing every actress’ boobs. That. Just. Happened.

6:36 p.m. Well, No Ross, but they found Shatner.

6:34 p.m. It’s a roast. Chris Brown joke… and a Mel Gibson shot, too. The only thing missing is Jeffrey Ross.

6:32 p.m.: First shot at the Academy for Affleck’s snub.

6:31 p.m.: MacFarlane takes the stage. Tommy Lee Jones smiles for the first time in history.

6:25 p.m.: That’s it for Red Carpet. Next up: Awards, and my third glass of scotch.

6:17 p.m.: Daniel Day-Lewis is so method, he just refused to go near the balcony.

6:14 p.m.: Anne Hathaway just won Dorothy’s Ruby Slippers, and Chenoweth totally “psyched” her. No slippers for you, Anne.

6:13 p.m.: Chenoweth just copped to sporting a mullet in her youth. This surprises no one.

6:05 p.m.: George Clooney tied with Walt Disney for nominations in different categories. #FascinatingStat

6:02 p.m.: Adele is photobombing Jennifer Aniston’s red carpet interview.

5:53 p.m: ABC finally finds a British accent – Daniel Radcliffe.

5:51 p.m.: Kristin Chenoweth’s playing Let’s Make a Deal with Hugh Jackman and his wife. What’s in the box? WHAT’S IN THE BOOOX?

5:45 p.m.: Flipping between E! and ABC’s red-carpet coverage. ABC needs more British accents on their commentators. Also: purple hair. Also: Tim Burton-designed dresses. Point(s): E!

5:39 p.m.:  Bradley Cooper’s mom is bored with Kristin Chenoweth. Also, Bradley Cooper is a giant, comparatively. Did not mention A-Team 2, which is a bummer. Not really.

5:00 p.m. – Stars have been walking down the red carpet, speaking to interviewers like Ryan Seacrest.  Favorite part so far was hearing about how Daniel Day-Lewis sent letters and text messages to Sally Field and Joseph Gordon Levitt prior to the filming of Lincoln, signing them as Lincoln.

LIVE TWEETING!

From @Blockbuster

And follow #BBAwards, too!

Watch the 2013 Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film Nominees

Wednesday, February 20th, 2013 at 4:29 PM | Posted by:
Category: Movies | Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Some of the Oscar categories are hard to make a good guess at which film will win because the films aren’t easily available to view.  Well, the Internet has helped change that in the past few years, so let’s take advantage of it to review one of lesser talked about categories:

BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

2013's Academy Award Nominees for Best Animated Short Film

2013′s Academy Award Nominees for Best Animated Short Film

Below are the five nominees for 2013’s Best Animated Short Film.  Watch and review them to make your best prediction on which one will take home the Oscar this year.  You can watch all the films in about 35 minutes to help you decide which one you think will take home the Oscar this year, plus you seen some pretty great short films.

Paperman

Of all the nominees, this is the film that you’re most likely to have already seen as it played before Wreck-It Ralph in movie theaters during the past few months.

Fresh Guacamole

This may be considered abstract film, but it’s short and sweet and the idea is fun to watch.

 

Head Over Heels

This claymation short tells a beautiful story of two people overcoming a unique difference between the two so that they can be together.

 

Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare”

THE-SIMPSONS-THE-LONGEST-DAYCARE-Poster-535x783

Certainly the animated short with the most name recognition,Matt Groening’s Maggie Simpson must survive a difficult day at her daycare after making a new friend.

UPDATE 2.21.13: The original embedded video has been removed so you will have to click here to watch Maggie Simpson in “The Longest Daycare.”

Adam and Dog

The longest of the animated shorts at about 15 minutes, this short film tells the story of how a dog became “man’s best friend.” Yes, it is that Adam.

 

Now that you’ve seen all the movies up for Best Animated Short Film, be sure to cast your vote for the winner at BlockbusterAwards.com.  Take advantage of your new found knowledge and invite your friends to foolishly compete against you in your own Academy Awards online voting pool and then let it automatically track the results so you can rub it in their faces come Sunday night.

Melissa Rivers: Secret Sauce for Academy Awards Picks

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013 at 12:29 PM | Posted by:
Category: Movies | Tags: , , , , ,

PMelissa Rivers is a professional. That much is certain, and when it comes to choosing your Academy Awards League picks, good luck finding someone with a better track record. Wanna know how she does it? Check out this Neil DeGrasse-level scientific approach she uses.

Blockbuster Awards Night Current Stats and Figures

Tuesday, February 19th, 2013 at 11:50 AM | Posted by:
Category: Movies, Updates | Tags: , , , , , , ,

awardsbanner

With thousands of people participating in the new online Academy Awards “Fan”-tasy Leagues at BlockbusterAwards.com, we’ve been seeing some interesting trends develop. Bookmark this page and come by daily, as we’ll keep it updated with how the picks are trending.

Last Updated Feb. 22, 9:08 a.m. Mountain Time

Best Picture
Amour: 1%
Argo: 40%
Beasts of the Southern Wild: 2%
Django Unchained: 5%
Les Misérables: 12%
Life of Pi: 6%
Lincoln: 21%
Silver Linings Playbook: 9%
Zero Dark Thirty: 5%

Best Director:
Ang Lee: 14%
Behn Zeitlin: 5%
David O. Russell: 17%
Michael Haneke: 2%
Steven Spielberg: 61%

Actor In a Leading Role
Bradley Cooper: 9%
Daniel Day-Lewis: 67%
Denzel Washington: 9%
Hugh Jackman: 13%
Joaquin Phoenix: 2%

Actress in a Leading Role
Emmanuelle Riva: 6%
Jennifer Lawrence: 47%
Jessica Chastain: 29%
Naomi Watts: 9%
Quvenzhané Wallis: 8%

Actor in a Supporting Role
Alan Arkin: 11%
Christoph Waltz: 30%
Phillip Seymour Hoffman: 7%
Robert DeNiro: 19%
Tommy Lee Jones: 33%

Actress in a Supporting Role
Amy Adams: 4%
Anne Hathaway: 66%
Helen Hunt: 4%
Jacki Weaver: 5%
Sally Field: 21%

Best Original Song
“Before My Time,” J. Ralph: 1%
“Everybody Needs A Best Friend,” Walter Murphy and Seth McFarlane: 6%
“Pi’s Lullaby,” Mychael Danna and Bombay Jayashri: 4%
“Skyfall,” Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth: 65%
“Suddenly,” Claude-Michael Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer and Alain Boulil: 24%

Adapted Screenplay
Argo, Chris Terrio: 38%
Beasts of the Southern Wild, Lucy Alibar and Behn Zeitlin: 7%
Life of Pi, David Magee: 8%
Lincoln, Tony Kushner: 23%
Silver Linings Playbook, David O. Russell: 23%

Original Screenplay
Armour, Michael Haneke: 9%
Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino: 36%
Flight, John Gatins: 9%
Moonrise Kingdom, Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola: 16%
Zero Dark Thirty, Mark Boal: 30%

Foreign Language Film
A Royal Affair – Denmark: 15%
Amour – Austria: 61%
Kon-Tiki – Norway: 8%
No – Chile: 6%
War Witch – Canada: 11%

*Not all votes in a category will add up to 100% due to rounding

 

BB Awards Screenshot

The voting screen from BlockbusterAwards.com

BlockbusterAwards.com: Academy Awards online pool tool

Saturday, February 9th, 2013 at 10:04 AM | Posted by:
Category: Updates | Tags: , , , , ,

awardsbanner

It’s that time.

The Academy Awards are the Hollywood-o-phile’s answer to the Big Game. It’s the capstone of a “playoff” series of awards shows ranging from MTV Kids’ Choice awards to the Golden Globes, and Blockbuster’s now the premier destination online for those who like to get involved on a more personal level. Enter BlockbusterAwards.com, where you can put your picks online, print out your choices and drop the hammer on your friends as you prove your prognosticative prowess.

Host a league yourself – maybe for that party you were planning? – or join one already started. Now’s a good time to get the office buzzing and we’re pretty sure you’ll dig the functionality we’ve got in store for you:

A rich collection of trailers and bios
Not sure which Lincoln movie we’re talking about (hint: Not the vampire one)? Click on the trailer for a memory jogger. What else has John Williams scored (seriously, you should know this one)? We’ve got the low-down on all of it.

Private, semi-private and public leagues
Make it a closed pool for your house party, or open it up to all your friends on Facebook and their friends’ friends. We have you covered.

Real-time, live scoring
Don’t worry about having to rewind your DVR because you forgot who won best Sound Mixing. We’re updating these in real time for you, and we’ve even handled weird mathematical permutations to ensure weighted scoring. You don’t have to invite the guy from accounting no one likes just to make sure someone’s keeping track.

The only way to be more in-the-know on the Academy Awards nominees is to see every movie and couple it with a few semesters of humanities courses.  Register for a free account (just need a name and email address) and you’re live.

Challenge your office.  Invite all your Facebook friends. Tweet out an invite to your followers. Play against your family spread across the country.  Create teams: your college buddies vs. your mom’s book club.  You can make as many pools as you like.

No need to wait any longer: Get over to BlockbusterAwards.com and sign up now; we’ll post updates as we see the stats evolve over the next few weeks.  Stay tuned…

Five favorite Nicolas Cage roles

Monday, January 7th, 2013 at 4:37 PM | Posted by:
Category: Movies | Tags: , , , , , , ,

Whose birthday is it? NOT. YOURS.

It’s Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew’s birthday, and in that honor, we present our top 5 favorite Nic Cage roles. Why? Because: Nic. Cage.

Movie: Kick-Ass (2010)
Role: Damon Macready/Big Daddy
Why it rocked: This ultra-violent comic book adaptation about a kid who happens to have a really high pain threshold was an instant cult classic. Cage played “Big Daddy,” a Batman-stylized vigilante who had also trained his daughter to be the most lethal 11-year-old on the planet. While we LOVED the movie, Cage gets a tip of the hat for his channeling of 1970s Adam West in this role.
Best line: “Mindy, no more homework, Babydoll. Time for Frank D’Amico to go bye-bye.”

Movie: Vampire’s Kiss (1989)
Role: Peter Lowe
Why it rocked: The story centers around Cage’s Lowe, a literary agent becoming completely unhinged over the course of the movie. Believing himself to have been bitten by a vampire, he spends the rest of the film alternately torturing his secretary, Alva, (Maria Conchita Alonso) and hiding under his couch. It’s pinnacle Cage-Craziness at its finest.
Best line: “Alva, there is no one else in this entire office that I could possibly ask to share such a horrible job. You’re the lowest on the totem pole here, Alva. The lowest. Do you realize that? Every other secretary here has been here longer than you, Alva. Every one. And even if there was someone here who was here even one day longer than you, I still wouldn’t ask that person to partake in such a miserable job as long as you were around. That’s right, Alva. It’s a horrible, horrible job; sifting through old contract after old contract. I couldn’t think of a more horrible job if I wanted to. And you have to do it! You have to or I’ll fire you. You understand? Do you? Good.

Movie: Raising Arizona (1987)
Role: H.I. McDunnough
Why it rocked: Cage plays McDunnough, a parolee petty robber who marries a cop (Holly Hunter), finds out they can’t have kids, then decides to steal one from a family of quintuplets (since they have so many and all). It’s arguably the funniest movie in the Coen Brothers’ canon.
Best line: “…This whole dream, was it wishful thinking? Was I just fleeing reality like I know I’m liable to do? But me and Ed, we can be good too. And it seemed real. It seemed like us and it seemed like, well, our home. If not Arizona, then a land not too far away. Where all parents are strong and wise and capable and all children are happy and beloved. I don’t know. Maybe it was Utah.”

Movie: Leaving Las Vegas (1995)
Role: Ben Sanderson
Why it rocked: Cage plays Ben Sanderson, a depressed alcoholic who has decided to cash in his chips, head to Las Vegas and drink himself to death. Along they way, he falls in love with a hard-hearted prostitute (Elisabeth Shue). It’s not exactly a feel-good movie, but this plummeting descent into an existential tragedy is Cage at his best: ugly, deranged and frenetic.
Best line: “We both know that I’m a drunk. And I know you are a hooker. I hope you understand that I am a person who is totally at ease with that. Which is not to say that I’m indifferent or I don’t care, I do. It simply means that I trust and accept your judgment. “

Movie: Wild at Heart (1990)
Role: Sailor Ripley
Why it rocked: Director David Lynch’s twisted homage to the Wizard of Oz centers on star-crossed lovers Sailor Ripley (Cage) and Lula (Laura Dern), on the run from a succession of hit men hired to kill Ripley. It’s Lynch at his theatre-of-the-absurd finest.
Best line: “This jacket represents a symbol of my individuality, and my belief in personal freedom.”

Page 1 of 3Previous123Next