Oscars 2014 Nominations

The Oscar time of the year has come around again. I keep talking about the Oscars every year because it's really the only tradition on this blog. Every year I talk about the Oscars that I don't really care about. But I continue to do so because it's one of the few stable things in my life.

This year I'm trying a different format. I will list a movie title, the poster (if I can find one), italicize what it's being nominated for, and then giving a comment or two if I have one. If there is any award that I would like a movie to win I will bold that specific nomination.

So let's get started!

American Hustle

Best Picture/Best Actor (Christian Bale)/Best Actress (Amy Adams)/Best Supporting Actor (Bradley Cooper)/Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Lawrence)/Best Costume Design/Best Directing/Best Film Editing/Best Production Design/Best Original Screenplay

This film has seemed to go wild with getting a bunch of nominations. Like most movies being nominated, I haven't seen it. However, I am intrigued by it merely because of the cast. I really do hope this movie does well at the Oscars this year.




Nebraska

Best Picture/Best Actor (Bruce Dern)/Best Supporting Actress (Jane Squibb)/Best Cinematography/Best Directing/Best Original Screenplay



Captain Phillips

Best Picture/Best Supporting Actor (Barkhad Abdi)/Best Film Editing/Best Sound Editing/Best Sound Mixing/Best Adapted Screenplay

Something seem a little off in the nominations? To me the lack of Tom Hanks being nominated is very confusing. All the posters (and I think trailers, too) boast Tom Hanks being in the movie and yet he doesn't get nominated?



Philomena

Best Picture/Best Actress (Judi Dench)/Best Original Score/Best Adapted Screenplay


12 Years a Slave

Best Picture/Best Actor (Chiwetel Ejiofor)/Best Supporting Actor (Michael Fassbender)/Best Supporting Actress (Lupita Nyong'o)/Best Costume Design/Best Directing/Best Film Editing/Best Production Design/Best Adapted Screenplay

Before any of you get up in arms about what I did and didn't bold: I didn't see this film and so can only go on the actor or actress I am familiar with.


Dallas Buyers Club

Best Picture/Best Actor (Matthew McConaughey)/Best Supporting Actor (Jared Leto)/Best Film Editing/Best Makeup and Hairstyling/Best Original Screenplay


Gravity

Best Picture/Best Actress (Sandra Bullock)/Best Cinematography/Best Directing/Best Film Editing/Best Original Score/Best Production Design/Best Sound Editing/Best Sound Mixing/Best Visual Effects

Now I would love for Gravity to walk away with wins for all its nominations (it's my favorite movie of 2013), but there are some I will be okay if it doesn't win. Bullock should win an Oscar as she basically carried the entire movie. If she had failed the movie wouldn't have been worth that much of a damn.


The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Picture/Best Actor (Leonardo DiCaprio)/Best Supporting Actor (Jonah Hill)/Best Directing/Best Adapted Screenplay

I am just hoping that DiCaprio FINALLY wins an Oscar. He more than deserves it. Hell, he wasn't even nominated for Inception! Give the man an Oscar already!


Her

Best Picture/Best Original Score/Best Original Song ("The Moon Song")/Best Production Design/Best Original Screenplay

When I first saw a trailer for this movie I thought it was creepy. There's an episode of The Big Bang Theory where Raj falls in love with Siri and I can't help but think of that when seeing trailers for this movie.


Blue Jasmine

Best Actress (Cate Blanchett)/Best Supporting Actress (Sally Hawkins)/Best Original Screenplay


August: Osage Country

Best Actress (Meryl Streep)/Best Supporting Actress (Julia Roberts)


The Croods

Best Animated Feature Film


Frozen

Best Animated Feature Film/Best Original Song ("Let It Go")

I am very well aware of the controversies surrounding this film. As I am not a PoC (and this post isn't really the place to go into detail about them anyways), I won't talk about them here. However, the two nominations seem well deserved from what I've heard (the latter more than the former).


Despicable Me 2

Best Animated Feature Film/Best Original Song ("Happy")

The first film is one I will watch anytime, anywhere. This one just...fell flat for me. If it was good as the first, or tried to reach that same level, I would hope for it to win Best Animated Feature Film.


The Wind Rises

Best Animated Feature Film


Ernest and Celestine

Best Animated Feature Film


The Grandmaster

Best Cinematography/Best Costume Design


Inside Llewyn Davis

 Best Cinematography/Best Sound Mixing


Prisoners

Best Cinematography


The Great Gatsby

 Best Costume Design/Best Production Design


The Invisible Woman

Best Costume Design


The Act of Killing

Best Documentary Feature


Cutie and the Boxer

Best Documentary Feature


Dirty Wars

Best Documentary Feature


The Square

Best Documentary Feature


20 Feet From Stardom

Best Documentary Feature


CaveDigger

Best Documentary Short


Facing Fear

Best Documentary Short


Karma Has No Walls

Best Documentary Short


The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life

Best Documentary Short


Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall

Best Documentary Short


The Broken Circle Breakdown

Best Foreign Film


The Great Beauty

Best Foreign Film


The Hunt

Best Foreign Film

Because I haven't seen the film I must be a Fannibal for wanting it to win? Maybe...


The Missing Picture

Best Foreign Film



Omar

Best Foreign Film


Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

I haven't seen this movie but from the trailers the makeup for Knoxville seems very well done.


The Lone Ranger

Best Makeup and Hairstyling/Best Visual Effects


The Book Thief AND Saving Mr. Banks

Best Original Score


Alone Yet Not Alone

Best Original Song ("Alone Yet Not Alone")


Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Best Original Song ("Ordinary Love")

  

Feral/Get a Horse!/Mr. Hublot/Possessions/Room on the Broom 

 Best Animated Short Film

Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn't Me)/Avant Que De Tout Perdre (Just Before Losing Everything)/Helium/Pitääkö Mun Kaikki Hoitaa? (Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?)/The Voorman Problem

Best Live Action Short Film


All is Lost

Best Sound Editing


The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Best Sound Editing/Best Sound Mixing/Best Visual Effects

Like many good fantasy movies, the visual effects in this movie are amazing. Big HUGE kudos for Smaug himself. I just adore dragons and am glad Smaug was able to look menacing (with big thanks to Cumberbatch for the performance).


Lone Survivor

Best Sound Editing/Best Sound Mixing


Iron Man 3 and Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Visual Effects

I haven't seen Iron Man 3 yet (you can ask why via the comments or Twitter), but I would be happy if either of these two won. I know Star Trek Into Darkness got a lot of hate but I, personally, loved it.


Before Midnight

Best Adapted Screenplay


FOR ALL YOU WHO GOT THIS FAR: THANKS FOR READING!

Supernatural "Road Trip" Review

I'm getting into writing these reviews instead of filming them. Don't worry, though, I will still film vlog reviews. For the one or two of you that give a damn.

In this episode we pick up soon after Kevin Tran died.

Throughout the episode Dean questions himself. At the start he is angry and starts throwing around objects. By the end of the episode he decides he has to go away from other people or else he'll hurt those he cares about.

I adore the moments between Sam and Dean that show the brothers do care about each other. Not just a normal caring, but something deeper. Something more. Dean doesn't usually question the fact that to kill a demon or angel you usually have to kill the vessel/meatsuit. But when that vessel is Dean's brother, he suddenly gets concerned.

I also think this episode had some of the best Destiel moments that I have seen in awhile. A bunch of those moments were just how the pair looked at each other aka how they showed their concern and appreciation for each other with just glances at times. That Castiel is well aware that Sam will always come first, but that Dean appreciates him nonetheless.

The part where Cas, Dean, and Crowley are around Sam to try and figure the angel out was hard for me to watch. I don't want to imagine what things my face did that I couldn't see during that scene.

Crowley proved himself to be more than a one note villain. He seemed to care about Sam, though that might have been merely to get himself in the good graces of the Winchesters for whatever reason. He also seemed concerned for Kevin, but that might have been because he had some plan for the prophet.

A scary thing that was revealed in this episode was that Metatron has killed all the prophets. HOLY SHIT!

The only really stupid thing that happened this episode was when the demon Crowley had spoken to earlier basically reveals her allegiance later to Abaddon. That line was just plain awkward.

Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. "Seeds" Review

This is the episode after Coulson's world has been shaken. He has learned that he was brought back to life after days of being dead. So I was happy to see that he didn't have a quick recovery from that fact. That he was still reeling from the information from the previous episode.

Through May's dialogue we find out that Coulson has become obsessed with what he found out in last episode. It's so bad that May decides to help Coulson find out about Skye's parents. So something May had no interest in she suddenly finds interest in when Coulson needs a distraction.

We find out that Skye's heritage is still unknown but that she was being protected by SHIELD agents. Skye is something dangerous and she was found amongst carnage.

What made my eyes tear up, but not to the point of full blown tears, was the speech Coulson gives at the end of the episode. He remarks to May that when he told Skye the truth that the girl was strong. She took something good out of the horrible truth. That, in turn, seems to have given Coulson some strength.

I also love how when May tells Coulson that she's sleeping with Ward he doesn't care. He has faith that May will know how to react if things go bad in the relationship.

And this is probably just my shipper mind, but: is May shy with telling Coulson the truth because she thinks she's cheating on him or that she thinks she's not acting like a good agent?

The main focus of this episode, the mystery in other words, is who is attacking the academy. With this plot we get to find out that the different departments of SHIELD are sort of in competition with one another (something Ward exploits to figure the mystery out).

The culprits turn out to have faked a danger so that Fitz and Simmons would help them solve a problem.

The surviving culprit (of the two) is Donnie Gill who I hope to see more of, especially with the creepy last shot we had of him. On imdb his character is listed as Donnie Gill/Blizzard so I have high hopes we'll see him again.

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Inbetween: The Incredible Burp 9

Every place I went to after I had parted ways with Ax weren't always safe places. Sometimes they were places with danger everywhere. I know that's a strange thing for me to say since, well, I knew about the Yeerks. I knew anyone could be an enemy.

But that didn't change the fact that I could still be stabbed to death by a regular human.

The thought of that kind of death had a sad sense of hope to them tonight. Rain was starting up as the full moon was high in the sky. I didn't spend time looking up as the danger from the stars wouldn't come screaming in on a Bug fighter, but from a Controller on the ground.

I tried to keep myself calm as I walked down the alley. The stink from trash and possible piss was overwhelming. I wanted to be walking down the alley as a hyena and have no fear that anyone would attack me.

And if someone did, they would most likely be drunk or Controller. One I could kill and the other wouldn't be a bother to me at all.

I listened for any sound and hid when I thought I heard footsteps. Part of one of the walls jetted out slightly and I hid behind it. When I made sure I was calm I turned to see who was sneaking up on me.

I had to hold back a laugh as I saw some of the rain had made a bottle tip over. Maybe I did need the other Animorphs to help me. If I was getting so scared by simple things I did need others to watch over me.

That hurt me to think since I didn't like to think about telling one of them that. I didn't like to think about telling the group that I needed them now.

Some movement in the sky made me look up and I saw an owl. It looked like a Barn Owl and I got a little scared.

A few of the Animorphs had that morph. One day Rachel and myself had had the bad fortune to be alone together and she had told the story about how Jake had been infested for three days. She had told the story to prove I shouldn't start thinking too highly about myself.

Some of the Animorphs had used the Barn Owl morph to make sure the Yeerk didn't escape.

For a few precious moments I hoped that it wasn't one of them and then it landed on the roof and said, Amanda?

I didn't move but knew that was useless. Owl eyesight was supposed to be amazing, so whoever had found me would already know I was there. I was guessing Cassie since I thought I recognized her thought-speak.

When I stepped away from my hiding spot, that probably didn't even hide me, the Animorph flew down and started demorphing.

I could tell it was Cassie as none of the others could morph as well as she could. Ax had called her an Estreen which basically meant she was extremely good at morphing.

"Cassie?" I asked when she had finished demorphing.

I was worried that she was going to reprimand me but then I saw the concerned look on her face. It had started to form once she had finished demorphing.

"You're wondering if I'm me?" I asked. "If I'm a Controller again?"

"You'd have made it easier for us to find you." Cassie replied and then answered the obvious unasked question. "Ax told us."

I had figured Ax would tell them at some point. Him and the other Animorphs had had a rocky relationship at first. He had to deal with how not to break Seerow's Kindness and, at the same time, he also had to help his fellow Animorphs.

So Ax felt bad about hiding things from the group and I didn't expect him to keep my secrets.

"So what are you here for?" I asked, my courage returning to me. "To tell me that you'll keep me safe? Or that you've found some miraculous cure for me?"

"We have found a cure." Cassie said and there was a moment of silence.

No way could they have found a way to cure my Hereth illint. Unless Ax had remembered something, there wasn't a way to fix me. I was broken beyond repair. It was foolish to think otherwise.

"What's this cure?" I asked, pretending to take the bait.

Cassie paused as though figuring how to tell her lie.

"This is a secret that must not be known to anyone outside of us Animorphs." Cassie said. "There are androids on Earth that no species knows about. They are called the Chee and were made by the extinct race called Pemalites."

I felt my pride tugging at me as I realized I was being let in on a secret of the group. I was being treated like a full-fledged member.

"One of them, Erek King, has helped us in the past." Cassie continued. "He can't fight as Chee are programmed against violence."

"Why doesn't he find a way to change that?" I asked.

"He did reprogram himself but then reverted back to his original programming a short time later. A Chee's memory remains forever and he did not like the memories he made while he fought."

I thought that was a stupid move for him to make. Then I wondered what it'd be like if I had to remember in detail every experience of my Hereth illint. Could I keep it together if I had to remember, in detail, being infested by a Yeerk?

Erek did make the right choice, but I still didn't agree with it.

"So why bring him up?" I asked.

"He has a way that he believes will heal you." Cassie said. "The others do miss you. Especially Ax."

Could there really be a cure? What could the Chee do? Part of me wanted to run in the right direction and get the cure now, but part of me didn't. Part of me didn't want to see the others' pity for me.

That fear, the fear of pity, had made me run off in the first place. But would it really be wise to give up a shot of being cured for a life hiding in fear?

At some point I'd have to learn to not let pity bother me. Maybe that time was now.

"I don't care if the group misses me." I lied since I did care about Ax. "But, if possible, I'd like to be able to fight against the Yeerks again. If the cure doesn't work you will allow me to live out my remaining days in peace."

Cassie didn't bring up that I would never have peace with the Yeerks continuing their invasion of Earth. She was the peace maker of the group and so she wouldn't bring up that point to convince me.

"Do you really want to live like this forever?" She asked and I was silent.
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