Friday, January 17, 2014

Descending into Oscar madness again…

Last year I blogged about the Oscars, or rather, the attempt made by my friend and I to see all of the Oscar-nominated films for 2013 before the Academy Awards aired.

You might not have picked up on this already (seriously, though?), but I love movies. I mean I LOVE movies. I’m not picky either. I’ll watch anything and give it a fair chance.  Well, almost anything. I don't watch a lot of porn. Or movies with "devil" in the title. But “Plan 9 From Outer Space” is one of my favorites, if that tells you anything.

Anyway.

Yesterday, the nominees were announced, and picture me doing a Snoopy dance over here. My friend and I have gotten a good jump on seeing them, thanks to getting prepared for the Golden Globes — much better than we’d done last year, that’s for sure.

So I thought I’d share my opinions so far on the nominees in case anyone who reads this is crazy enough to attempt Oscar-movie marathons with me, even if it’s only in spirit.

Best picture

"12 Years a Slave" — Fantastic movie. Definitely deserves the honor.


"American Hustle" — LOVED it. Excellent cast, great story, good directing. Overall, highly entertaining.

"Captain Phillips" — Eh. I thought it was overrated. Tom Hanks did a great job, but the story was stressful and depressing in a very non-entertaining way. Basically, too gritty for my tastes.

"Dallas Buyers Club" — Haven’t seen it yet!

"Gravity" — (ashamed) Haven’t seen it yet, even though Sandra Bullock is my favorite actress.


"Her" — Surprised me. I didn’t think I’d like it AT ALL, but it was very thought provoking. Definitely didn’t hate it. I can see why it was nominated.

"Nebraska" — Incredible movie. Funny. Poignant. It’s my second favorite on this list, second only to…

"Philomena" — By far the best movie on this list, in my opinion. It’s a touching, funny, poignant film. Honestly, I already think it should win this category.

"The Wolf of Wall Street" — Haven’t seen it. Kinda don’t want to, but I will for the sake of this task.

Other Oscar nominees I need to see: Blue Jasmine, August: Osage County, Ernest & Celestine, The Wind Rises, The Grandmaster, The Great Gatsby, The Invisible Woman, Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa, The Book Thief, Alone Yet Not Alone, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, All is Lost, The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, Before Midnight, all of the documentary films, all of the foreign films and short films. Basically, a LOT of movies. Gosh, I'm already tired.

Other nominees and my thoughts on them:

“Saving Mr. Banks” — Surprised it didn’t get a best picture nomination, and even more surprised Emma Thompson got snubbed. She’s incredible in this role.


“Prisoners” — It got a nom for cinematography, but why didn’t Hugh Jackman get picked for this movie? I thought he did a better job in this than in Les Miserables, which he did get nominated for last year.

“Inside Llewyn Davis” — I hated this movie. Seriously, I don’t know why everyone thinks it’s so great. I mean, if you're going to have a movie with zero plot, okay. Character-driven films are awesome. But make sure your character is likable and not someone 90 percent of the audience can't connect to.

“Frozen” — Totally deserves the best-animated film award. I’m calling it now.

Are you as crazy about the Oscars as I am? What are the best movies on this list that you’ve seen?

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