Invictus yay or nay? Maybe a bit of both.

I talked to a friend who'd seen Clint Eastwood's Invictus this week. He's much more of an Clint fan than I am (I know that describes 90% of the population) but he wasn't too impressed. He sees a mixed Oscar response coming... although a big hit. He calls it "super commercial" but thinks it's rather clunky with exposition and lots of “I just showed you, but in case you didn’t get it, now I’ll TELL you” moments. Morgan Freeman's star turn he describes as "oratory and noble" and also "pretty boring". Ouch.

"Let's keep on making pictures with Clint." "Shake on it!"

Despite his reservations about the quality of Invictus he still thinks it'll sneak in as a Best Pic nominee because there’s ten slots. He capped off our conversation with the following confession

I didn’t think it was very good, but maybe I cried a couple of times...don’t judge.

Hee. Hey, I'm never judging tears in a movie. I choked up once during My Sister's Keeper and I thought it stunk. My best friend cried buckets at Casper (1995) of all things. And we were at a drive in! We still tease him about it 14 years later... but in a loving way.

Do you have faith that Oscar will want Eastwood back in a big way this year after the muted awards response last year. Or are you doubtful? Either way there's always next year. The iconic actor/director is already filming his next project Hereafter scheduled for (YOU GUESSED IT!) a December 2010 release. Matt Damon stars in that one, too.
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