Final Oscar predictions

The Oscars are always a bittersweet time for me.  It's always fun to see who will win, but ultimately my pick almost never gets the top prize of Best Picture. The Social Network lost to the King's Speech. My least favorite film of the nominees won last year: The Artist. So, it is with a sad heart that I write this final prediction list, for a superior film will lose to a less memorable one.

There are some categories that I am not familiar with, so I will not predict them.  If you want to skim (not sure why you would), then you can see my predictions in Red.  So, without further fanfare, here we go!

Best Animated Feature

I am not absolutely positive on this one, but I think that Wreck-it Ralph will end up taking it home.  This brings joy to my heart that it's in a position to win this prestigious award.  It is cinematic perfection along the lines of Toy Story 3.  It was my favorite movie of 2012 and I think it deserves every accolade it gets.  If it doesn't win, it's likely that Brave will, or possibly even Frankenweenie (which I despised).  

Best Animated Short

There's no doubt in my mind that the masterpiece known as Paperman will win in this category.  It is brilliant to watch and is everything that these voters like.  It is also my pick. If you haven't seen it, click here.

Best Cinematography

This is a difficult category for me to choose my favorite in, but there's little doubt about who will win: Life of Pi.  I really didn't like Life of Pi.  However, I will admit that the cinematography was great.  My pick is probably Lincoln, although Skyfall was amazingly shot.  

Best Actor
This is one of the surest bets of the night: Daniel Day-Lewis will become the first actor in academy history to take home the gold for a third time. Many have done it twice in this category, but never a third. And it is well deserved. His depiction of arguably the greatest President is the best performance of any actor in recent memory.

Best Actress
This is a toss up between Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Lawrence, although I really think Lawrence will ultimately win. She's my pick and my prediction. She is the one of the most talented and beautiful actresses in Hollywood right now.

Best Supporting Actor
This is the most volatile race of the acting categories.  Tommy Lee Jones is likely to give Lincoln another win. However, Robert De Niro just might pull it off for his amazing performance in Silver Linings Playbook.  I don't feel really strongly about it, but in the end De Niro is my pick. 

Best Supporting Actress
The easiest prediction of the evening is Anne Hathaway winning Best Support Actress.  Her performance in Les Miserables was the only thing that made said movie tolerable.  Kudos to whichever publicist successfully marketed her performance.  It worked.

Best Director

Because Ben Affleck was not even nominated as directory of Argo, Steven Spielberg will no doubt take home the award for only the second time in his career.  It's a tragedy that he hasn't gotten more gold over the years.  He is the finest director since Frank Capra. 

Best Picture

If Argo doesn't win this category, I will eat my hand.  If you are looking to bet on Best Picture, you have to put down $5,000 to win even a $100 on Argo.  I really had hoped that Lincoln would pull it off, but there's really no hope of that happening at this point.  Know this: although Argo was a great movie and is definitely near the top of my list of the year, it will win because of protest votes over the 'snub heard round the world.'  If Ben Affleck hadn't been left out of the Best Director category then I really think that we would be heading into Sunday night with much less clarity than we currently have. Argo is a very tight movie.  But It will be forgotten 10 years from now, whereas Lincoln will live in infamy as the definitive movie about not just Lincoln, but ANY President.  

Review: Beautiful Creatures

It seems that every studio is trying to replicate the success of the Twilight Saga at the box office by adapting a teen-supernatural-romance into a film franchise (fun fact, that will make you lose faith in humanity: you can now find a 'Teen Paranormal Romance' section in your local Barnes & Nobles).  I can't blame them.  The first movie only cost $37 million to make and made...wait for it...$392 million worldwide.  I saw the first three Twilight movies at the urging of my mother, and I will never do that again.  I despise them.  They are awful cinema, bad romance, and sparkly.  However, I was intrigued by Beautiful Creatures, both by the story and the actors involved.

THE GOOD
I was warned that the acting was going to be over-the-top and campy, so I actually appreciated the acting.  It is never a bad experience to see Emma Thompson on screen, and this is no different.  Also, the male lead (Alden Ehrenreich) is really good, adding a surprising amount of depth to what could have been a simple character.

The story was somewhat cookie-cutter, but veered off the path enough that it was as intriguing as the trailer teased.

THE BAD
I know I'm always critical of the score of a movie, but this one was bad.  In fact, it was almost on the level of Eragon, which was another Jeremy Irons movie.

Viola Davis was ridiculously out of place.  Pretty much every scene she's in feels awkward.  If she doesn't start picking better movies to suit her style, she's going to go the way of Kevin Costner (i.e. an actor with an Oscar that now lives in obscurity).  There was a scene involving the town library that was so confusing and forced.

One of the main message of the film is that 'Small Towns have Small Minds.'  I am sympathetic to that view because of my own upbringing.  However, the film went overboard in demonizing people of faith.  It could have been more temperate.  But, I guess that's what we should expect from Hollywood.

CONCLUSION
In comparison to other teen-paranormal-romance movies, this one is the best of the bunch.  And when compared to the other movies released so far this year (all of 2 months), it stands up pretty well.  But, it's not going to be making anyone's "Best of the Year" list.  It's pure popcorn, which was what I expected, and therefore I enjoyed it.  3/5 Stars.

As a side note, if the movies released thus far are an omen of the quality of this year's films, we are in trouble.  Most in the critical community regarded 2012 to be an exceptionally good year for movies.  It looks like this year might be as bad as 2011.

#13 Singin' in the Rain

I didn't see this movie until college when a girl I was dating introduced it to me as her favorite movie of all time.  I think it's probably better that way, because I couldn't have appreciated Gene Kelly and his amazing dancing in the same way.

REVIEW
This movie was way ahead of its time and is the only movie made before 1975 that is on my list.  Most who see it don't realize it was a period piece when it was made in 1952.  It is also a prime example of how ridiculously out of touch the Academy Awards are: it wasn't even nominated for Best Picture in its year.

The music of this film is a joy.  It is performed masterfully on all accounts.  And as brilliant as the music is, the dancing is even better!  Gene Kelly steals every scene he is in and comfortably outshines all his co-stars in singing AND dancing.  He was the original (and best) triple threat: an amazing singer, dancer, AND actor.

The writing is so witty and ages so well.  The story is relatable even now. In my humble opinion, The Artist (2011 Best Picture) was a huge rip-off of Singin' in the Rain, and wouldn't have experienced as much success as it did if it hadn't stolen its plot.

CONCLUSION
My family and I can watch this movie over and over again.  My daughters love it.  My wife loves it.  I love it.  It's very family friendly.  If you haven't seen it, I cannot recommend it enough!

TRIVIA

• The female lead, Debbie Reynolds was only 20 years old when she got the part.  She is also the mother of Carrie Fischer, AKA Princess Leia. 
• Gene Kelly stared in, co-directed (the Directors Guild of America has outlawed co-directors since), and also did all the choreography for it. 
• This movie was originally intended to be a 'Greatest Hits' of MGM's movie songs over the years.  So, the writers had to write a plot around the songs, rather than the other way around.
• The first day of filming (the 'Good Morning' number) Debbie Reynolds had such a difficult time keeping up with Gene Kelly that her feet started bleeding. 

Review: Looper

I was thoroughly heartbroken when Looper was given an R rating, about a month before its release. Outside of Lincoln or Wreck-it Ralph, it was probably my most anticipated movie for the fall of 2012.  As most know, I don't usually see R rated movies without my trusty Clearplay to filter the language, sex, and violence out of it.  So, with nothing worth seeing this weekend, I finally went to Redbox and rented it.

There should be a disclaimer that the filtering of the movie left out many key scenes (i.e. I'm told that there was significant character development during a sex scene which was cut out entirely), so my review is probably incomplete.

THE GOOD
The cinematography (camera work, lighting, etc.) was pretty good.  Not Skyfall or The Dark Knight Rises good, but good.

It was a very well written story, very well written characters, and great dialogue.  It had a pretty good payoff, although I was left slightly uneasy and unsure, which I think was the intent.

This is Joseph Gordon-Leavitt's best acting I've ever seen him do.  He was essentially doing an impression of  a younger Bruce Willis while still providing a very deep performance.  Character acting WHILE giving depth is very difficult to do.  Even gifted actors like Leo Decaprio can't do it.

THE BAD
It is a very dark movie and didn't uplift me at all, at least not in the way it could have.  It was an interesting twist at the end, but the supposed theme didn't come through as strong as it could have.  I usually don't like movies that provide a bleak view of humanity, which is what this movie does.

CONCLUSION
Overall, I will recommend this to people.  However, be warned that watching it unfiltered is very unfriendly to the Mormon eye.  3.5/5 Stars.

Wreck-it Ralph 8-bit credits