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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