This review contains massive third-act spoilers: I was fairly to moderately pleased with much of Spike Lee‘s Oldboy (FilmDistrict, 11.27), which I saw a couple of weeks ago. It seemed to me a vigorous, well-disciplined, good-enough remake of Park Chan-wook‘s audacious, same-titled original. I realize that I’m expected to hate or at least disapprove of Lee’s version and ask why did he remake it and that no one can touch the original, etc. But it’s not half-bad, really. Josh Brolin shoulders the lead role of Joe Doucett (a nod to original character Oh Dae-su, played by Choi Min-sik) with a fittingly grim, terse, low-key attitude. And the extended warehouse fight sequence (which lasts four or five minutes) is grippingly staged, I thought. And thank God Lee doesn’t go in for tongue-severing, which struck me as completely needless in Chan-wook’s original.

My problem with Lee’s Oldboy is all about the rewriting of the big “surprise” ending, which of course isn’t a surprise to tens of thousands as it’s basically the same used in the ’03 film, which every fan of extreme Asian action cinema is totally up on. I’m nonetheless declaring for the second time that what follows blows the big third-act reveal all to hell.

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In this Inside Llewyn Davis clip, John Goodman‘s drug-addled character declares that the Brooklyn Bridge is the most traditional New York City-area place to commit suicide from, and that anyone jumping instead from the George Washington Bridge is some kind of confused loser. He means that the Brooklyn Bridge has acquired more notoriety as a suicide spot, most likely due to Steve Brodie having jumped off the bridge 127 years ago (7.30.86) and lived. A site called Dark Destinations claims that the Brooklyn Bridge “has more suicides than any of the other bridges in the city, including the George Washington and Verrazano-Narrows, which are actually much higher from the water.” But the GW bridge is no slouch. It averages about six deaths a year. 18 people died from GW jumps in 2012, 13 in 2010 and 10 in ’04. There’s also that story told by William Holden‘s Max Schumacher character in Network, the one about him oversleeping and throwing on his raincoat and jumping into a cab and saying “Take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge!’ and the cabbie turning around and pleading, “Don’t do it, buddy…you’re young, you have your whole life ahead of you.” I don’t know about 1961 (i.e., when Inside Llewyn Davis takes place), but by today’s standards the GW and Brooklyn bridges are fairly evenly matched.

Congrats to 12 Years a Slave, Nebraska and All Is Lost for landing seven, six and four Spirit Award nominations, respectively. Congrats to Nebraska‘s Bruce Dern for landing a Best Actor nom, which obviously adds a measure of heat to his Best Actor Oscar campaign. Congrats also to Inside Llewyn Davis and Frances Ha for landing Best Feature noms, and to Davis‘s Oscar Isaac for his Best Male Lead nomination. Ditto to Best International Film nominee Blue is the Warmest Color, which I’m presuming will take the cake.

A Best Cinematography nomination went to Inside Llewyn Davis‘s Bruno Delbonnel — good for that and all artfully desaturated color schemes. It seems curious that the black-and-white cinematography from both Nebraska‘s Phedon Papamichael and Frances Ha‘s Sam Levy were overlooked.

Somehow or some way Richard Linklater‘s Before Midnight, which snagged a Best Screenplay nom and a Best Actress nom for Julie Delpy, should have been nominated for Best Feature.

Spirit Awards rules forbid nominations for non-American films except in the Best International Film category, otherwise Blue‘s Adele Exarchopoulos would surely be among the Best Female lead nominees.

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Yes, more early ’60s, JFK-related historical-myth interweaving with mutant superheroes. Watchmen (’09) went to this well four years ago, and then two years ago X-Men First Class had fun with the Cuban Missile Crisis. And now here we go again with the non-Moody Blues-related X-Men: Days of Future Past. When the legend becomes truth, print the legend.

Last night’s August: Osage County cast discussion included an interesting comment from playwright/screenwriter Tracy Letts about Meryl Streep‘s Violet Weston character, an abrasive, drug-addled matriarch who is based on his real-life maternal grandmother. Since the 2007 stage debut of Letts’ Pulitzer Prize-winning drama, Violet has been routinely referred to as one of the most caustic and abrasive female characters ever depicted, but Letts said last night that she’s actually a toned-down version of the Real McCoy. When he first showed August: Osage County to his novelist mom Billie Letts, she told Letts that “you’ve been very kind to my mother.”

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American Hustle was screened for elite journos last night and again this morning, and the rumble so far is that Jennifer Lawrence might be a Best Supporting Actress lock, and that Amy Adams is….well, some say she’s terrific and others not so much. One viewer told me that Christian Bale pretty much owns the movie. The ABSCAM-related plot involves a lot of lying and grifting and film-flammery, and is fairly entertaining. A friend of one of my sources was laughing in the beginning but then he stopped. The source also claims that the room felt a bit flat and cold when the lights came up.

“What’s the personal or emotional through-line?” I asked this person. “What’s this film about in 25 words or less?” He/she couldn’t say. “So it’s not Best Picture material?”, I said. “Nope…it might get nominated but no way will anyone mark it down as a #1 choice,” the friend replied. “But it’s got some great performances…the actors’ branch loves this stuff…and the music is great. It’s entertaining.” This person added, “You might really like it because you liked The Counselor.” To which I said “what?” He/she also described it as “a higher quality Ocean’s 11 type film.”

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Compare the two voices of Vanessa Hudgens in this just-posted trailer for Ron Krauss‘s Gimme Shelter (1.24.14). As the troubled Apple Bailey, Hudgens not only looks but sounds like a raw, frazzled gutter rat. Her voice is somewhere between a howl and a moan. But in the introduction that begins the trailer, a prettied-up Hudgens speaks in that chirpy, “sexy baby” Minnie Mouse mallspeak voice that all young 21st Century women have been taught to adopt. I’m sorry but I can’t take any actress seriously who sounds like that. It negates whatever chops she might deliver within a performance.

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Created earlier today by HE reader “Jery October.”

Five hours before my Seoul-to-LAX flight landed at 9 am, I dropped a couple of Ambien. I think they were 10 milligrams each. I didn’t feel much at first so I eased the seat back a tad, closed my eyes and hoped for the best. The next thing I knew we had landed and people were standing up and gathering their stuff. It was all I could do to stand up. Ambien had never hit me like this before. My sense of balance wouldn’t kick in. I felt like a woozy steer being pushed through the pen. It felt like a dream. I knew we were at LAX and that that I was walking along the hallway like a drunk. I tried like hell to stand up straight and look people in the eye and think clean thoughts. Coming down the escalator and looking at that gelatinous, shape-shifting, waterfall-like object d’art didn’t help. It took me a good hour to feel awake and attuned again.

There are movies you’ll enjoy for any number of reasons and movies you may not “enjoy” but which you really need to see and will always feel grateful for having done so. Lasting, nutritious, not conventionally entertaining but a wallop all the same, good for your soul, essential viewing. These used to be known (and perhaps still are known in in some circles) as broccoli movies. I don’t feel 12 Years A Slave is a broccoli movie as much a stunning, flat-out masterpiece, but I know some people do. Anyway I’m posting because I’m looking a list of the greatest broccoli movies of all time. Naahh, let’s say the last 43 years (i.e., beginning with 1970). Movies you were maybe a little reluctant to see at first and perhaps had to be dragged to, but once you saw them you were totally sold and you’ve been glad ever since. The other question is how many times has the Academy given its Best Picture Oscar to a broccoli movie? The answer, of course, is that broccoli movies don’t win Best Picture Oscars, unless you want to count Schindler’s List or The English Patient or A Man For All Seasons. I’ve never seen The English Patient more than once, but the other two I own and have watched several times. Well, a few.

Last June I posted a couple of shots taken during my brief stint as a mediocre drummer. Okay, a fair drummer but no Ginger Baker. Anyway, the original photographer (i.e., an old friend) sent me another shot today.

Deadline‘s Pete Hammond likes to wait until mid-November to start picking his Best Picture Oscar faves (i.e., most likely to win). So I was excited yesterday when I saw he’d finally posted a 2013 Best Picture handicap piece. My pulse quickened when I read his observation that 2013 has been a high-quality year…yeah. And that the leaders of the pack right now are Gravity, 12 Years A Slave and Captain Phillips. And that the last two not-yet-seen contenders, American Hustle (which screens in Los Angeles this evening) and Wolf of Wall Street, could re-order the situation. He also said that the recent tendency to give Best Picture Oscars to softball audience movies (The King’s Speech, The Artist, Argo) over critical favorites could help mainstream feel-gooders like Disney’s Saving Mr. Banks, the Weinstein Co.’s Philomena or Paramount’s Nebraska (which could turn out to be, Hammond believes, “the little engine that could for Paramount”). I’m not saying Hammond is wrong about this stuff, but I was hoping he’d stick his neck out like Variety‘s Tim Gray recently did when he declared that Peter Berg‘s Lone Survivor is looking like a big Best Picture breakout. Or something like that.