Cast:
Ralph Fiennes
Tony Revolori
Jude Law
Edward Norton
I saw this movie for the first time on a flight from JFK to Shannon, Ireland. I had heard so many good things about it I really wanted to see it. However, I ended up unable to stay awake to pay attention to the entire film. I blamed it on the fact that it was the middle of the night, and I was on a plane.
Since The Grand Budapest Hotel was nominated for an Oscar I decided I needed to give it another chance, since I couldn’t fairly review it for my blog if I hadn’t even been awake throughout the entire movie. I discovered that I honestly wasn’t much more interested in it the second time around than I had been the first. Maybe I just don’t get Wes Anderson, but I just did not enjoy this movie nearly as much as the people writing all the reviews I had read. I felt the exact same way about The Darjeeling Limited when I finally watched that as well.
There were some very humorous moments, and the cast was terrific. It just felt jumpy and hard to follow at times. Anderson does some great things with setting up comedic shots – scenes that are funny without any word of dialogue – such as when Zero visits the prison for the first time and the audience expects the huge gate to slide open, when instead a small door to the left opens. Little moments like that are great. But on the whole I just had a hard time getting into this film and I don’t understand it’s Oscar nomination.
Rating: 7/10
Favorite Moment: My favorite moments were the subtle humor moments like the one described above, as well as the shootout in the hotel, where everyone just starts shooting.
Ranking:
1. The Theory of Everything
2. The Imitation Game
3. American Sniper
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
Not Another Dumb Blonde 
Seems like you’re either a Wes Anderson fan or you’re not. I’ve never been able to get into any of his stuff, but my brother worships the guy.
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I loved this movie! We saw in while we were on vacation in Bar Harbor in this adorably quirky theater where you sit on couches and eat really good pizza during the movie (Reel Pizza Cinerama). It was the perfect place to see a movie like that, so maybe that has swayed my thinking. Did you see Moonrise Kingdom? I loved that movie too 🙂
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I really wanted to love this movie, but I just had trouble getting into it, and I usually love quirky movies. Perhaps I just didn’t see it in the right setting; if I had seen it in a theatre where I was definitely paying attention to the entire movie (instead of watching at home and getting distracted) maybe I would have liked it more. I haven’t seen Moonrise Kingdom yet, though I’ve been wanting to. I’m just afraid it’ll end up like this one and Darjeeling Limited, where everyone else loves it and I just don’t see why.
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The setting in which one sees a movie does make a huge difference, I think. I saw Argo in the theater initially, and I swear I held my breath for the whole movie. Recently, I watched it again in sort of a distracting setting, and it just didn’t grip me like it did in the theater.
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Argo is one that I’m not sure I could go back and watch again, simply because it was so good the first time. I literally held my breath through the film as well. Now that I know how it ends though, I’m not sure the suspense would be there. But it was a great movie.
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Yeah I thought the movie was more quirky and funny than anything else. It’s nomination is bizarre but nice review.
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Yes, it definitely had it’s funny moments. And I didn’t feel like my time was wasted by watching it; I enjoyed parts of it. I just don’t think it lived up to the hype and I’m puzzled by the nomination.
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