Milkduds

Seabiscuit (10/10)

June 28th, 2004

I have had my in-laws copy of Seabiscuit on my dvd player for months and haven’t watched it yet because I hadn’t found 2 and a half hours to watch it without the fear of falling asleep. I am NOTORIOUS for falling asleep even during the best of movies if I’m watching them at night. So, yesterday was a slow day and I decided to watch it early - around 7:30PM. Boy, was I ever glad I did!

Before writing this up, I checked Rotten Tomatoes for the reviews and to get an image link. I was quite surprised that the movie didn’t get better reviews than it did. Most of the bad reviews were in regards to it not living up to the hype and bad adaptations of the book (which I didn’t know there was one). I think critics and movie buffs sometimes take films too seriously. This movie had an excellent story, in my opinion, and had some great acting - particularly by Tobey Maguire and Chris Cooper. But one of the things that really struck me were the absolutely stunning cinematography and landscapes that were shot. The look of the film just really took me for a loop.

So, the only 2003 Best Picture nominee I have left to see is Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, and I plan to see it ASAP. As far as my personal ranking of the nominees, I will leave that until I watch the last movie. But, I will say that Seabiscuit and Last Samurai are in a dead heat for 2nd place behind LotR: RotK.

Entry Filed under: Movies