The Ocsar Predictions Wrap Up

Okay, I swear that this is the last Oscar prediction post. I just wanted put down my final thoughts about who will win, who could win, and the nominees that snubbed i.e. Andrew Garfield, Chris Nolan, The Town. So here they are:

Best Picture: The King's Speech

Dark Horse: The Social Network

Should Have Been Nominated: The Town

Best Actor: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Dark Horse: James Franco (127 Hours)

Should Have Been Nominated: Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine)

Best Supporting Actor: Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Dark Horse: Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Should Have Been Nominated: Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)

Best Actress: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Dark Horse: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)

Should Have Been Nominated: Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right)

Best Supporting Actress: Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Dark Horse: Hailee Steinfeld or Helena Bonham Carter

Should Have Been Nominated: Mila Kunis

Best Animated Feature: Toy Story 3

Dark Horse: None

Who Should Have Been Nominated: Despicable Me or Tangled

Best Art Direction: Alice in Wonderland

Best Cinematography: True Grit

Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland

Best Director: David Fincher (The Social Network)

Dark Horse: Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Should Have Been Nominated: Christopher Nolan (Inception)

Best Documentary Feature: Inside Job

Dark Horse: Exit Through the Gift Shop

Best Documentary Short Subject: Killing in the Name

Best Film Editing: The Social Network

Best Foriegn Language Film: In a Better World

Dark Horse: Incendies

Should Have Been Nominated: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

- Technically Sweden didn't send Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to the Academy for competition, which is a shame. The film could have really stood a chance in this category, and possibly could have gotten nominations in other categories.

Best Makeup: The Wolfman

Best Original Score: The Social Network

Dark Horse: Inception

Should Have Been Nominated: Tron Legacy

Best Orginal Song: "We Belong Together" (Toy Story 3)

Best Short Film (Animated): Day and Night

Best Short Film (Live Action): Na Wewe

Best Sound Editing: Inception

Best Sound Mixing: Inception

Best Visual Effects: Inception

Dark Horse: None

Should Have Been Nominated: Tron Legacy

Best Adapted Screenplay: The Social Network

Dark Horse: Toy Story 3

Should Have Been Nominated: The Town

Best Original Screenplay: The King's Speech

Dark Horse: Inception

Should Have Been Nominated: Black Swan

The Oscars Are Here!!! (Part III)

Finally we reach Best Picture, which is the most prestigious award of the night. This is the second year that the Academy has expanded Best Picture nominees to ten. I’m still split on this issue because now films that have snubbed by voters all these year can finally get some attention. For example nominees like Toy Story 3 and Inception would have never been nominated for Best Picture if this change hadn’t happened. However, it still doesn’t really mean anything in the end. There are always going a few films that truly have a shot at winning the big prize.

The films that absolutely have no chance in winning are The Kids Are All Right, Winter’s Bone, 127 Hours, Inception, and Toy Story 3. The Kids Are All Right is a comedy that has solid action and heart. It has a good mix of drama and comedy, but I do not think this is Oscar worthy at all. I really didn’t see what all the hype was about. Comedies rarely win at the Oscars and this wouldn’t be the comedy to win the award.

Winter’s Bone was the surprise nomination for Best Picture. It’s a well done independent drama film that won the top award at the Sundance Film Festival. It even got nominations for acting and writing. However, some voters thought The Town should have been nominated in place of this. That may put some voters off.

127 Hours seemed like excellent fodder for the academy. It’s a biopic about a rock climber who overcomes the odds to survive after his arm gets crushed in between a boulder. James Franco’s performance elevated this film and managed to get the best reviews of his career. So what went wrong here? It certainly wasn’t the reviews as they are at 93% positive on RT. The film’s director, Danny Boyle, did not get a directing nomination so this film. That is vital for a film to win, so 127 Hours is out of the picture.

Inception is a big summer blockbuster that actually engages the audience instead of throwing non stop explosions in your face. Along with great writing and directing from Christopher Nolan, it was one of the smartest blockbusters in a while. Unfortunately, this film did not get a directing or editing nomination, which really hurt its chances. Despite all of the support from the Christopher Nolan fanboys, the voters still don’t think this is an Oscar worthy film.

Some people have already stated that Toy Story 3 is the greatest animated movie of all time. That’s a really bold statement as it was great, but it wouldn’t even crack my top 10 list of the greatest animated films. It is still the best animated film of the year though. However, if this was the year for an animated film to win this wouldn’t be it. I thought Wall-E and Up were more deserving of the big prize. Plus it’s a sequel and the Academy rarely gives sequels Best Picture. Plus it has its own category, which is Best Animated Feature.

Black Swan was a powerful and beautiful film. The movie is anchored by Natalie Portman’s marvelous performance. The director of the film Darren Aronofsky has made an intense, passionate psychological thriller. The problem with the film is that the film may be too obscure for many voters and that alienates them from voting best Picture.

True Grit has been an amazing success as it is one of highest grossing westerns of all time and it gained ten nominations. Plus it was directed by The Coen brothers, who are worshiped by Academy voters. Plus the Coens didn’t do a conventional remake. They went based the remake more like the original book, which made the film grittier and edgy. Plus there are outstanding performances by Jeff Bridges and newcomer, Hailee Steinfeld. This seems like a best Picture winner to me. However, remakes are rarely rewarded and it was great, but is it really Oscar worthy? Plus the Coen Brothers already won best Picture for No Country for Old Men, which was no less than four years ago.

The Fighter is packed with powerful performances and it has plenty of heart. It’s predictable, but it could pull a surprise win just like Rocky did back in 1979. However, the film’s just not as good as the last two nominees and it has already peaked.

At this point the real competition is between The King’s Speech and The Social Network. For a long time it seemed like The Social Network would sweep the awards. It earned outstanding reviews for David Fincer’s flawless directing, Aaron Sorkin’s brilliant screenplay, and excellent performances from Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield. It’s a film that defines a generation and a film that has high replay value. It’s a modern classic and some call it a 21^st century version of Citizen Kane. It swept so many critics awards and won the Golden Globe award for best Picture. However, something happened along the way and it stopped the momentum of the film. Despite coming out in October the film peaked by the end of the year. To add insult to injury it lost the DGA, PGA, and BAFTA to The King’s Speech.

The King’s Speech didn’t come out until December, but it gained momentum very quickly. The film has everything that the Academy loves. It’s a period piece dealing with historical figures. In the film King George, played by Colin Firth, has to overcome a debilitating stutter. Critics have called this Firth’s best performance along with other good performances by Helena Bonham carter and Geoffrey Rush. In addition, to all of that it robbed the social Network of the DGA, PGA, and BAFTA awards. Even the SAG got onboard. Once again, The Weinstein brothers have worked there magic with an effective ad campaign and excellent word of mouth. The only thing that can stop this film is The Social Network. There is also the slim chance of the King’s Speech and Social Network splitting votes, and The Fighter or True Grit could emerge as a dark horses. Nevertheless, this is highly unlikely. The Social Network was my favorite film of the year, but The King’s Speech pretty much has this wrapped up.

Well, that’s about it moviegoers. It has been a decent awards season, but not the greatest one. I still pulling for The Social Network to win the big one. The 83^rd Academy Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday February 27^th on ABC.

The Oscars Are Here!!! (Part II)

The nominees for Best Supporting Actor are Christian Bale for The Fighter, John Hawkes for Winter’s Bone, Jeremy Renner for The Town, Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right, and Geoffrey Rush for The King’s Speech. Christian Bale has won every critic award out there, so he will win. The dark horse here is Geoffrey Rush, but that’s unlikely.

The Nominees for Best Supporting Actress are Amy Adams for The Fighter, Helena Bonham Carter for The King’s Speech, Melissa Leo, for The Fighter, Hailee Steinfeld, True Grit, and Jacki Weaver (Animal Kingdom). Melissa Leo is the favorite to win, but watch out for Hailee Steinfeld. Personally she’s my pick for the award, because she gave a wonderful performance and her own against veteran actors like Jeff Bridges and Matt Damon. However, she is still young and the academy doesn’t tend to give out awards for first time actors. The only way Melissa Leo would lose is if vote splitting occurs between her and Amy Adams. If that happens then it could be Steinfeld’s name called on Oscar night.

Stay Tuned for Part III

Xavier News on channel 14/An alligator broke into my house?

Here is the latest edition of Xavier University News. This includes my news story on the Oscars featuring my super special awesome voice. Enjoy!

The Oscars Are Here!!! (Part 1)

It's that special time of year folks. It's the Academy Awards! The nominations have been up since January, but I have not been able to post anything until now. I think I'll get most of my predictions correct this year. There are a couple categories that are troubling me, but hopefully I'm right about them.

Just like last year there are ten nominees for Best Picture. The nominees for Best Picture are Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are All Right, The King’s Speech, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter’s Bone. The King’s Speech gained the most nominations as the film received twelve of them. True Grit followed with ten and then The Social Network and Inception, with eight each. Now let’s get on with the predictions.

The Best Actor nominees are Javier Bardem for Bitiful, Jeff Bridges for True Grit, Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network, Colin Firth for The King’s Speech, and James Franco for 127 Hours. Jeff Bridges won last year so unless he can pull a “Tom Hanks” win, he won’t get the award. Jesse Eisenberg did a great job in the Social Network, but he’s young and the Academy will most likely make him wait. Colin Firth has got this one all wrapped up. The main is that he is in a period piece playing King George, who has a stuttering problem. He must overcome this problem in order to deliver important message during World War 2. The Academy eats this stuff up. Historical figure plus overcoming the odds to succeed equals Oscar win. In my opinion, I though Franco’s performance was the best one of the year. However, there are two reasons why he will not win. He’s the host of the Oscars this year and some Academy voters might think it’s a tacky to have a host win an Oscar. Secondly, it just wasn’t his year. However, he will be back at the Academy and hopefully the next time he will win.

The Best actress nominees are Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right, Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone, Natalie Portman for Black Swan, and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine. It’s nice to see newcomer Jennifer Lawrence because she did such a fantastic job in Winter’s Bone, that I expect her to do well in the future. She is a newcomer though so the Academy will make her wait. The real competition is between Natalie Portman and Annette Bening. At first it looked like this would be a tight race, but Portman really amazed people with Black Swan. Portman has nearly won every award in the awards season, so she is a lock. However, this Bening’s fourth nomination so the academy may feel the need to reward the veteran for their past snubs. They’ve done this before with other nominees it may happen here. I highly doubt it though.

That's Part one. Stay tuned for Part two (Best Supporting Actor and Actress categories). Peace out.

Operation: Dynamite - Xavier University Lip Dub

Here is Operation Dynamite! This is Xavier University's first ever lip dub. We did it to the Taio Cruz song "Dynamite". I suggested Cee-Lo's song "Fuck You, but I guess that wouldn't be really appropriate. Anyway thanks to the producers of this film, Jake Lutz, Anna Reid, and Katelynn Barlett. They did a fantastic job producing this lip dub from the beginning. Peace out.

Japanese McDonald's Ad

Mmmm i want a happy meal now.

XU News for February 11, 2011

Xavier University's news show from Friday. There's no super special awesome movie review this week, but it's still worth a view. Enjoy!!!

You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger Film Review

You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger comes out DVD/blu-ray today. Here is my review of the film I did last year. It's one of Woody Allen's weaker films, but it's much better than the critics make it out to be. Since this is a Woody Allen film there are no extras and that really hurts the replay value. If you're a hardcore Woody allen fan then this will a good addition. This is a rental for me, but I'll buy it once the price goes way down. I don't think it's worth $20, or $26 for the Blu-ray.

http://www.amazon.com/Will-Meet-Tall-Dark-Stranger/dp/B003UESJCY/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1297822934&sr=1-1

Morning Glory Movie Review

Morning Glory was a pleasant comedy. It was definitely better than expected, but it didn't find an audience, as the $40 million film only grossed $31 million. It's coming out on March 8 and is available for Pre-order on Amazon.

Morning Glory (DVD): http://www.amazon.com/Morning-Glory-Rachel-McAdams/dp/B002ZG98FU/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1297119913&sr=1-1

Morning Glory (Blu-ray): http://www.amazon.com/Morning-Glory-Blu-ray-Rachel-McAdams/dp/B002ZG98G4/ref=sr_1_2?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1297119913&sr=1-2