Noah Review

Noah is about Noah’s ark from the Bible.  Noah is a descendant from Seth, one of Adam’s and Eden’s children. Cain and Abel were the other two children of Adam and Eve. Cain killed Abel causing his descendants to become murderers and vicious. The Watchers are fallen angels who protected Adam and Eve. Cain’s descendants hunt the Watchers down and built an industrial civilization that has destroyed the Earth. Noah has a vision about the Creator destroying the Earth by flooding it. He seeks his Grandfather, Anthony Hopkins. Noah, Russel Crowe, and his wife, Jennifer Connelly, find an injured girl, Emma Watson, who can’t bare children from her wound. They find themselves in the hands of the Watchers, and one of the Watchers helps Noah and his family find the mountain where his grandfather lives.  His grandfather gives Noah a potion to see God’s vision of building an ark. His grandfather also has a seed from the Garden of Eden. Noah plants the seed and it spawning a forest. The Watchers are convinced that Noah was sent by God and decide to help him. 8 years passes and Noah’s family are young adults or teenagers. Noah sees Tubal-Cain, Ray Winstone, and his army coming to take the ark. Noah tells him to leave because he’s the reason for humanity’s upcoming destruction.  Noah and his family have disagreements about having descendants and it causes his second oldest, Hamm, to leave to find a wife. Noah’s wife begs her father in law to use his power that her daughter could be fertile. He grants her wish. Noah’s second oldest finds a woman who he falls in love with. She dies when the flood comes and Noah doesn’t save her. He doesn’t forgive his father. The flood comes wipes out all of humanity besides Noah’s family. Waston’s character gives birth to twin girls. Noah believes he’s supposed to kill the twins. He’s feels the love from the children and refuses to kill his granddaughters. He feels that he has failed the creator goes into self exile.  He comes back to be a grandfather, father, and husband again.

Noah has very few negatives. The movie is bit long. They could have taken out about ten minutes worth of screen time. The dialogue is sometimes doesn’t cover everything.  The score is weak for a epic.  I liked the score at the end but with epics scores can drive the intensity of scenes. The film score failed to do that in my eyes.

The film has quite a few positives. Crowe, Watson, Winstone, Hopkins, Connelly, and Logan Lerman (Hamm) give dynamite acting performances. Crowe’s Noah is more a driven character. He’s vengeful and spiteful. The man is willing to kill his grand kids to fulfill the wish to wipe out humanity.  Watson and Lerman both a great job of representative Noah’s philosophical differences within himself. Watson wants to survive and is willing to leave the ark to protect her children. Lerman wants to save a few others from Cain’s tribe because he sees good in them.  Connelly plays a devoted mother and shows that her instinct to protect her children will conflict with Noah’s wishes. Hopkins is a sweet old wise man like always. Winstone is really an asshole. He continues to play the perfect villains in movies. The visuals and story telling of the movie are flawless. I teared up the animals began to roll into the ark.  Aronofsky also logically explain how the animals were able to live on the ark for 40 days. He built a world and created rules for the world in a two hour epic. His use of visuals give an epic feel to Noah. He would set his camera on a scene and speed it up to give the impression days or years went by. The premonitions in the film were amazing.   However, the main positive of the film was its theme.

The Bible is a book full of themes. I don’t necessary believe it’s 100% true but only 5% to 10%. Historians have found evidence that were was a great flood at one time. In the film, all the continents are still connected which scientists know that wasn’t true. Man’s view of the world was very limited back then. We judged on what we could see with our eyes and what we were told with our ears. Noah is a contemporary take on current society. The major two themes of Noah are free will and the destructive tendencies of human beings.  Noah has free will throughout the movie. Free will is the freedom of choice to make decisions for ourselves in Christianity. Noah was asked to kill his grand kids and he said no. They hit land soon after that like God was rewarding Noah for his choice.  Hamm decided to go find a woman that he could have kids with after the flood was over. He found a good one but Noah made a choice to leave her to the flood. He kills her and his son wants revenge. Humanity has the choice to become something more than people living their lives.  The filmmakers were trying to get the message through that human have choices and our choices currently are destroying the planet.  This leads me to my second point; this film portrays man’s greed, self involvement, and destructiveness accurately. Humans have become greedy and materialistic. I want an X-box one but I’m going to wait until I know i have the means to get one. I’m trying not to preach but this world is so beautiful. Things are changing, species dying, and more catastrophes are happening killing millions. I’m afraid if people keep living the way they do then humanity can never accomplish what we could. In Noah, it was the flood killing millions that spark for humanity to change, and we need that spark currently to change the way we are.

Noah overall is a brilliant film. It feels epic for an two hour movie. I would give Noah a 4.5 because the film struck a chord with me.

The Grand Budapest Hotel Review

Grand Budapest Hotel characters

The Grand Budapest Hotel is the story of as writer, (Tom Wilkinson (older author), Jude Law (younger writer)  who interviewed the owner of the Grand Budapest Hotel, F. Murray Abraham. The owner, the former lobby boy of The Grand Budapest, tells the story about his mentor, Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fienes), was framed for murder.  Gustave is the hotel’s concierge and daily operator of The Grand Budapest. Zero Moustafa, Tony Revolori, describes his mentor as an lonely man, however, only a few people knew that. He has numerous lovers that come to the hotel for him in his public imagine as hotel’s conceirge.  Gustave’s main lover is a 84 years old elderly woman . She dies and leaves the painting “Boy with Apple” her most  expensive item to Gustave . Her children are blood sucking hounds and frame Gustave for murder. Gustave gets sent to prison and escapes. Zero has fallen in love with a girl named Agatha,  Saorise Ronan. He tells her that Gustave and he stole the painting known as “Boy with Apple” and hid it in the hotel.  Madame D’s son Dmitri Desgoffe-und-Taxis, Adrien Brody,  and his bodyguard J.G. Jopling, Willem Dafoe, try to recover the painting. They killed Madame D. and her lawyer Deputy Kovacs, Jeff Goldblum, to prevent their fortune to pass onto Gustave.  In the end, Gustave, Zero, and Agatha find a second will from Madame D. giving her fortune to Gustave. He, a few years later, ends up being shot by the military and his fortune goes to Zero and Agatha, who dies a year later.  Jude Law, the author writes the story and it becomes a successful hit while Zero’s fate is unknown.  The film is directed  by Wes Anderson.

Wes Anderson has a film genre all to his own like Quentin Tarantino.  My only main problem with this movie are the time jumps. The timeline of the narrative is: present day of a girl reading the Grand Budapest Hotel novel, to 1985 of the author telling his readers that author’s write stories that they see or hear about, to the author interviewing Zero in 1962, to Zero’s days as Lobby Boy in 1932, back to 1962, to 1985, and finally to present day again.  I thought the time jumps are clever but it took me away from the main storyline. The movie takes about 5 to 7 minutes to get into the story Gustave and Zero.  Other than that, Willem Dafoe’s character kills a cat which the first time i saw it took me away from the enjoyment of the movie. I’m being pretty picky on that. The movie overall is so enjoyable and funny.

The Grand Budapest Hotel has a lot of positives to me. It’s so hilarious and so much dark comedy. Adrien Brody calls Ralph Fienes a “fucking faggot and a con man.” Fienes has so many hilarious lines and calls Dafoe’s character “a murderous pyschopath.” Fienes’ character goes in depth why he prefers older women because “they’re more seasoned and when you get older beggars can’t be choosers.” The film score and the interaction between characters are amazing. Edward Norton’s character looks up to Ralph Fienes’ character as does Zero. Goldblum is perfect as the lawyer. Harvey Keitel plays a character like his character from Pulp Fiction, the Wolf. The score has soft moments for the lighten funnier moment but grand operatic notes for the intense moments. My three favorite characters  are Adrien Brody’s, Willem Dafoe’s, and Ralph Fienes. Wes Anderson is a character director which means he gets character actors to play certain roles in his films. It might be the main reason why people love his movies so much.

Overall, The Grand Budapest Hotel is a dark comedy drama. It’s filled with funny moments and intense action scenes which don’t involve explosions. I personality think it could be an Oscar nominated film but it’s too early to tell. My rating for the Grand Budapest hotel is 4.7 out of 5. The time jumps give me a bit of a headache thinking about them.

Arrow (Birds of Prey Review) Spoilers

Black Canary and the huntress

The Huntress comes back to kill her father. She takes hostages in the courthouse. Sarah Lance, Black Canary, breaks in to save her sister, Laurel Lance. Laurel gets rehired to prosecute the Huntress’ father. Laurel joins the hostages and becomes the number 1 hostage for a trade. Her father, Detective Lance, agrees to the a trade for the Huntress father . Huntress and Laural sneak out and swat comes to get the hostages. Their leader leaves the scene to go get the Huntress.  Arrow, Black Canary, Huntress, Detective Lance, and Laural are about to make a trade but the swat leader shows up to spoil the party with bullets. Arrow takes him out and Black Canary and Huntress fight. Canary wins the fight sparing Huntress’ life. Huntress sees her father dead and is sad that she didn’t kill him to avenge her late fiance’s murder.  Arrow and Canary and Laural accepts the vigilantes. Shes also black mails the District Attorney to get job back. Another plot line was Roy and Thea breaking up. Oliver tells Roy to end it with Thea. He does and Thea is taking a walk home and meets Slade Wilson.  She gets in the car with Slade.

My negative about this episode was the Roy and Thea usual CW teenage romance.  Oliver tells Roy to break up Thea and he does by kissing some girl. She storms off and gets herself into trouble. It’s the standard break up plot line. My other tiny problem was Detective Lance hearing Oliver’s cellphone ringing when he was calling the Arrow. Oliver states that his mom is calling. Come on dude, you never can tell that he’s the Arrow.

My positives about the episode are plenty. They fights between Canary and Huntress is pretty cool. Huntress feeling sorry that she didn’t kill her dad was good. Laural blackmailing her former boss was amazing. The story focused on redemption for Sarah and Laural and them over coming their demons.  The episode focused on Sarah and Oliver as  a team. I also could see Huntress becoming a member of the Suicide Squad.

Overall this episode was intense, cleverly written, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I would rate this episode a 4.3 out of 5. The CW teenage romances need to stop. This is a superhero show.

Arrow Review (Suicide Squad) Spoilers

Suicide Squad (left to right)
Bronze Tiger, Sharpel, Amanda Waller, Deadshot, Lyla Michaels, and John Dingle.

Years prior in Afghanistan, Diggle and Lyla are leading a group of Afghan villagers when one identifies a wanted man, Gholem Qadir, among the group. During an ambush, Diggle saves Qadir’s life. In the present, Diggle and Lyla are called upon by Amanda Waller to lead her “Task Force X”, also known as the “Suicide Squad“, which consists of Deadshot, Bronze Tiger, and Shrapnel. Waller has several other cells that have occupants in it.  The Squad is sent after Qadir, who was released from prison and has developed a deadly nerve agent. Waller wants to use Diggle’s past relationship with Qadir to get close to him and steal the weapon. After saving Qadir’s life again, through a faked assassination attempt, Diggle is invited to Qadir’s home for a party. Once there, Deadshot locates the nerve agent and is expected to be used as a targeting reference for a drone strike on the house. Diggle decides to save Deadshot; as a result, the drone misses the house coming after Suicide Squad. Waller sends a seal team to destroy the nerve agent. Meanwhile, Oliver continues to try and deal with the threat of Slade Wilson. Oliver is forced to go to Amanda Waller for help, revealing he has interacted with her before. At first not believing that Slade is alive, Waller tells him that A.R.G.U.S. has been tracking a new mercenary is named “Deathstroke.”

The episode only has a few positives.  The first positive is the interact between John Dingle and Deadshot. The pair have a heated history on the show, however, the verbal sparring between Dingle and Deadshot was awesome. Dingle reveals that he knows about Deadshot’s daughter. The conversations between Deadshot and Dingle focus on Deadshot’s attempt of redemption.  Another positive was Amanda Waller played by Cynthia Addai-Robinson. She is a menacing bitch in the comics, and Cynthia portrayed that accurately. The show writers did a good job with revealing little about Waller besides that she has a plan for the suicide squad. Waller also detonates a device in Sharpel’s head causing his death.  The last positive was Harley Quinn brief cameo. It was a good nod to the current Suicide Squad in the comics. Harley is the Joker’s girlfriend but i don’t think the Joker will appear on Arrow.  I found a lot of negatives in this episode.

My problem with this episode can be listed into 4 negatives.  These negatives took away my enjoyment of this episode. They are Oliver’s storyline in this episode, lack of focus on the Suicide Squad, lack of action and intensity, and the story outline.  Oliver Queen is the main character of the show. However, every once in awhile main characters of television shows need a break. Oliver has fears and problems of Slade Wilson are apparent. We know that Deathstroke is a force to be reckon with. However, his plot took screen time away from the main focus which is the Suicide Squad. He was useless in this episode.  My second big issue was the lack of focus on the Suicide Squad. Sharpel doesn’t do anything but get killed. Bronze Tiger has no main role.  Deadshot is the only villain to have a big role in this episode. Diggle’s and Lyla’s relationship took away from the intensity of the episode. My third problem was the lack of action, intensity’s, and this includes my final problem with this episode’s story outline. Previous episodes have been very intense but this episode i couldn’t wait for it to end.  I felt like i lost an hour of my life watching this episode.  Oliver’s story took away from the episode and all of the subplots. Suicide Squad are master assassins at least have them fight someone or have Sharpel blow up something or someone instead of dying. There was a lack of creative screen writing for this episode. Seriously Bronze Tiger can go to toe with Green Arrow. At least do more with his character then stabbing someone in the back and have him driving a getaway car. The story was too focused on Oliver, Dingle and Lyla, and every other character besides the three assassins and one of them dies. It was overall a bad story.

My final verdict on this episode is this episode was a waste of television time and an hour of my life. Arrow fans know Slade Wilson is a bad ass. He’s one of the best reasons to watch the show.  I love this show but, damn, it was an horrible introduction to the Suicide Squad. I’ll give this episode 1.5 out of 5. It was one of the worst episodes of the show and it was the worst episode of the season.

3 reasons why you should watch Arrow

Green Arrow and Black Canary

Arrow is a show on CW is about the Green Arrow, secretly Oliver Queen, a wealthy playboy millionaire, who fights crime. He  modeled his persona after Robin Hood hence he wears a hood and uses a bow.  He and Batman are similar in their persona as heroes except Oliver Queen is flamboyant and Bruce Wayne is a recluse.  This is one of the best shows on television and the fact that 3 million people watch it about every week is unsettling to me.  We live in age where comic book movies reign supreme at the box office. The reason why people go see comic book movies is the action with the fight scenes, story lines, menacing villains such as Loki,  and the special effects.  “Batman Begins”, “The Dark Knight,” and “Iron Man” took superhero comic book movies to a new level.  Marvel and Warner Bros are creating movies that tie into big cinematic universe that keep movie going audiences wanting more. Well, my friends on the internet, this TV show is a lot like the superhero movies that you love to see. The three reasons everybody should watch Arrow are the characters, the story lines, and the action/ special effects/ tone of the series.

Arrow has unbelievably amazing characters and excellent actors who portray them. The main character is played by Stephen Amell. His supporting cast includes David Ramsey as Dingle (his Alfred), Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity (his computer wizard), and Caity Lotz as Black Canary (his wonder woman without the super strength and the ability to fly).  Oliver has recently taken on a partner named Roy Harper played by (Colton Haynes) who is like his Robin (Robin from the comics not the corny 60s TV Burt Ward or 90s movie Robin).  The cast is full of stellar actors, and they portray their character realistically. I always feel like this show could be real like I felt the Christopher Nolan Batman movies could be real.  Amell does a wonderful job every week portraying Oliver Queen’s eccentric nature; however, in a moment’s notice can he shift into ass kicking mode.  Black Canary has only been on the show this season but I’m in impressed with the actress who plays her. She can turn into a bad ass at moments notice and her nature is very reclusive. David and Emily are great as Dingle and Felicity.  David’s character is an Afghanistan war veteran so he trains with Oliver. Oliver actually lets Dingle know more secrets about him than any other character. Dingle also doesn’t take any of Oliver’s bullshit. Dingle has secrets of his own and Oliver doesn’t even know them all.  Emily makes Felicity, who is a total nerd, look so confident, cool, and sexy for a girl in glasses.  Her character is still a mystery to the audience.  Roy Harper is a character who is finding himself. He’s angry a lot of the time and doesn’t trust anybody. He means well but really shows how young adults feel they can do everything themselves without any help.  There are many more characters in Arrow including some actors as villains such as John Barrowman (Doctor Who, Torchwood), Kevin Alejandro (True Blood), Summer Glau (Firefly), Michael Jai White (The Dark Knight, Black Dynamite), and Manu Bennett (Spartacus).  The names I listed before lead me into my next point the show’s storyline.

People like a good narrative that keeps expanding and adding layers to the story. Arrow has succeeded in accomplishing this. The plot of season one was Oliver Queen coming back from being shipwrecked for 5 years to clean up Starling City using a list of names that his father gave him. Each episode adds layers to the plot  and it makes for compelling television. The writers of Arrow keep adding onto the Green Arrow’s enemies list by introducing the League of the Assassins and taking other notable comic book villains and throwing them into the mix for more than one episode. It’s possible in a few seasons that we could see a team of villains to combat the Green Arrow and his allies. This season’s main villain is Deathstroke, played by Manu Bennett. John Barrowman (Captain Jack Harkness from Doctor Who and Torchwood) played, Malcolm Merilyn, the main villain in season 1. The writers of the show have introduced several back stories for the characters. I would also say each character has his own villain. Dingle and assassin named Deadshot have a past history because Deadshot killed Dingle’s brother. Deadshot tells Dingle in one episode; i never miss, and I always kill my target (hinting at Deadshot was supposed to kill Dingle’s brother).  Each week’s episode has new storyline or it’s an episode that deals with the main storyline. The writers of the show haven’t restricted themselves by sticking to a main storyline and a few sub plots like other shows on television. They continuously start new story lines that keep the viewing public on their seats wanting more compelling television. My last thought on the narrative for Arrow is that we could be seeing the Flash within in the next 4 episodes. We could also see a Flash TV show connected with Arrow. For a television show; Arrow is loaded with cool action sequences and has a dark tone.

My final reason why you need to watch Arrow is because of the action, special effects, and tone of the show. Arrow has a lot of cool fight sequences and the fight choreography is astonishing for a television budget. It’s better then the Nolan Batman movies and but not as enjoyable as seeing the Hulk smash up Loki in the Avengers.  I have several links to show the fight sequences.  Youtube is full of Arrow fights and scenes that you can look up. Here’s a fight between Green Arrow and Nyssa Al Ghul and it’s only a minute long because we are dealing a TV budget after all.  Another one of my favorite fight scenes on Arrow is this one between Green Arrow and Deadshot. The fight scenes are short but have a wonderful thrilling, exciting, intense, and feeling while watching them.  The special effects are pretty good for a TV show. There are usually explosions and car chases every few episodes.  Television budgets are limited and the director has a say on what to film. The tone of the show is redemption, good in humanity vs. greed of humanity, family issues, vigilante vs. rule of law, dark and gritty, and revenge. Every Arrow episode has an underlying theme.  It will be impossible to explain every character, every theme, and all of the plot or story lines of Arrow but it’s really damn good show.

Arrow is about a superhero crime fighter. The show itself is infused more than a guy dressing up as Robin Hood to fight crime. It’s about one man, Oliver Queen, trying to clean a city that is full of greed and crime.  Every episode ends or introduces a plot line or more information on existing plot line. The show it’s self has pretty awesome fight sequences and special effects. The show has a dark tone to it but there are some fun light episodes every once in awhile. Arrow comes on Weds at 8 pm eastern or pacific on the channel CW.

Arrow The Promise Review (Spoilers).

Slade Wilson play by Manu Bennett

Arrow Episode 15; season 2 review (spoilers)

He’s back!!!! Slade Wilson is an animal but damn the writer’s did hell of a job of bringing this character to life for television.  Deathstroke, Slade Wilson,  is an assassin. He’s probably one of the most noble characters in all of DC Comics; however, he’s difficult to defeat.

Slade Wilson throughout Arrow has been Oliver’s friend on the island. He’s also been behind the Brother Blood experiments.  Oliver Queen comes home after an 911 emergency call from his sister and discovers Slade Wilson sitting on the couch talking to Mrs. Queen, his mother. Oliver goes from panic mode to how can I  kill this guy mode? We, the audience, know Oliver put an arrow through Slade’s eye. We know also that Slade wants to hurt Oliver allowing Shado to die and Sarah Lance to live.  This episode covers the island history of Slade’s hatred. I wanna get the island flashbacks out of the way in a few sentences. Sarah knows how Professor Ivo will interrogate Oliver so she mixes a drug for his immune system to counteract the effects if a truth serum. She and Slade will parachute onto the boat and start a riot by releasing prisoners. Oliver gets captured and helped the prisoners escape that Ivo has been experimenting on to create a super solider serum. Oliver finally confronts Ivo but Ivo confesses that Oliver was the cause of Shado’s death by Oliver stepping in front of the gun to protect Sarah. Slade hears this and fights and captures Oliver. He becomes the ship’s captain when he promises Oliver that he will suffer for his betrayal.

Back to the present, Oliver tries to murder Slade in the back by back stabbing him which fails. Oliver’s mother makes Thea, Oliver’s sister, to give Slade an art tour of the house. Slade bugs everything by hiding micro-cameras. Oliver calls his gang, on and they come to rescue Oliver’s family from Slade but fail. Dingle has a sniper rifle pointed at Slade’s head outside Oliver’s house but gets knocked unconscious. Oliver and his mom fight about his resentment towards Slade.  Slade is watching this fight his monitor that he using to spy on the Queen household.  There might be one negative of the episode that pacing might be a tad slow and there’s not a lot conflict between Slade and Ollie in the present. Its a more of a cat and mouse game but that’s one of the positives.  This episode is loaded with positives.

Slade’s, Oliver’s, and a little bit of Sarah’s back stories are revealed during island flashbacks.  First, Sarah had a brief moment on the island where she told Oliver if she dies then she died on the boat . Oliver does that in the first season. The audience sees Oliver and Slade wear their iconic costumes in their characters’ history . Oliver takes up Shado’s hood and her bow and arrow while Slade puts on the Deathstroke mask. Shado has a cameo in the episode. Oliver is dreaming before the attack on the boat. Shado is talking to him and starts to stab him repeatedly saying “you killed me, you killed me, you killed me.”  This sequence reminded me of a Scarecrow attack in a Batman comic.  Ivo is huge positive. The creators of Arrow have created a huge universe of characters with multiple story lines. Ivo is one of these storylines. His deception and ruthlessness allowed him to become a great villain; however, a greater villain over takes his place. My favorite Ivo scene is when he is about to take out the Russian prisoner’s  eye  to run some tests on it.

I liked seeing Roy being trained and the Arrow team coming to help Oliver. They didn’t help because Slade shook Roy’s hand and they had a pissing contest for a second. Sarah was going to stab Slade in the back but couldn’t get near him. Oliver calls her off. Dingle gets captured by Argus which I think Slade is running the organization secretly . I will discuss that point after the next episode.  My favorite scenes in this episode was the tension, banter, and consequences of Oliver’s choice, to save Sarah instead of Shado, with Slade Wilson.  First of all, I loved the banter between Slade and Oliver. Slade rubbed salt in Oliver’s conscious wound about his choice to protect Sarah over Shado. The choice dynamically ends their friendship and relationship throughout the season. Oliver lies to Slade and said Ivo cold bloody killed Shado.  He’s right but he never told Slade the truth.  Every present day scene with Slade and Oliver showed their tension.  The tension came to a climax when Slade told Ivo to shoot Ollie like he did to Shado. Slade cuts off Ivo’s hand for retribution. Several consequences that Oliver will have to deal with throughout the remainder of the season. First, Oliver will have to try to protect his family. Second, Oliver will have to defeat Slade again; however, he will facing Deathstroke instead super human Slade Wilson. Deathstroke has some killer weapons.  Finally, Oliver will have to prove the city that he’s there to help; however, Slade will add obstacles. I can’t wait to see how this season ends.

Overall, Deathstroke is here to stay and play.  I believe the Oliver will become a known hero as a  vigilante type like Batman after the season.  I want to wait  until next season when  Roy gets a nickname from the Arrow team.  Deathstroke was bad ass in this episode because he just killed people. He loved doing it too.  This episode is the climax of this season. Every episode  after this is building to the resolution of the finale. I give this Arrow episode a 5/5 because of Slade Wilson returned to glory in his big reveal.

 

86th Academy Awards picks from a avid movie fan

Oscars are tomorrow night and I gave a list of the major categories and the nominees for each category.  For each category: I give my choice, who will win, and the dark horse is the nomination who could over take the favorite.  Read my list and leave your comments below.

Best Picture
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
Philomena
The Wolf of Wall Street

My Choice: American Hustle
Will Win: 12 Years a Slave
Dark Horse: American Hustle or Gravity

My personal favorite film of the year was American Hustle. It’s the best film in my opinion based on the tension and performances by the actors in the movie. 12 Years a Slave will win probably it deals with the standard conversational issue that makes Hollywood studios money. I thought the movie was fantastic but Dallas Buyers Club so much better.  Gravity has a outside shot because it was a revolutionary film. However, having sad that Gravity and 12 Years a Slave have such rabid voting bases that they could split the vote. American Hustle wins then.

Best Actor
Christian Bale (American Hustle)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
Leonardo DiCaprio (Wolf of Wall Street)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

My Choice: Christian Bale, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Matthew McConaughey.
Winner: Matthew McConaughey
Dark horse: Chiwetel Ejiofor

This is the toughest category for me; I think Bale, Ejiofor, and McConaughey deserve an oscar because the nature of their role showed what these three men do to give a great performance and make a character come to life.  Christian Bale gained 40 pounds, developed a New York accent, had a comb over, and acted like a man who his world crashing on him to make Iriving come to life. Ejiofor had to whip another slave on screen and work in cotton fields. McConaughey lost weight, from self involved individual to a loveable character, and his performance made his character discover his humanity.  Leo no way deserves an Oscar and if he does I will revolt.

Best Actress
Amy Adams (American Hustle)
Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Meryl Streep (August: Osage County)

My choice: Amy Adams
Will win: Cate Blanchett
Dark Horse: Amy Adams

Cate Blanchett is the one who will win because the character’s story is one that over comes a lot of hurdles on screen. She is a very gifted talented actress. Amy Adams put on a wonderful performance and she will get Oscar in the future.

Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)
Jonah Hill (Wolf of Wall Street)
Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

My Choice: Fassbender or Leto
Will Win: Leto
Dark Horse: Fassbender

Leto was a cross dressing gay man in Dallas Buyers Club. His performance made me love the character and cried when he died (Spoiler Alert).  His character had this innocent about him and he was drug addict. He deserves to win.  Fassbender deserves seriously consideration because he played a racist, religious, and despicable character so well that I thought he was going to win until I saw Leto’s performance. I don’t care if he or Leto win because I loved both performances.

Best Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
June Squibb (Nebraska)
Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

My choice: Jennifer Lawrence
Will Win: Lawerence
Dark Horse: Lupita Nyong’o

Lupita Nyong’o wasn’t that great. I know she was getting rapped by the white slave owner and had her children taken away from her. I felt she was more a nuisance to Ejiofor’s character and his ability to stay hidden until he could gain his freedom. Lawrence’s actions nearly get Bale killed and she’s a psycho. She has depression, alcoholic, and her character holds Bale’s by the balls to make him stay with her. She deserves it and seriously it shouldn’t be that close.

Best Director
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street) 
David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Alexander Payne (Nebraska)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)

My choice: David O. Russell Will win: Alfonso Cuaron
Dark horse: Steve McQueen

My choice is David O. Russell because he had 5 main characters that gave all Oscar worthy performances. They drove the story in American Hustle and made the film so enjoyable for me. The dialogue was so great and the music was brilliant.  Cuaron will because his film was revolutionary. He had one main character and George Clooney’s voice. He also created a compelling story in space and made space to life. Steve McQueen could win because his movie is brilliant. I love 12 Years a Slave and like Gravity’s a character driven story.

Best Adapted Screenplay
John Ridley (12 Years a Slave)
Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke & Richard Linklater (Before Midnight
)
Terence Winter (The Wolf of Wall Street
)
Billy Ray (Captain Phillips)
Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope (Philomena)

My choice: John Ridley
Will Win: John Ridley
Dark Horse: Philomena

12 Years a Slave great movie and it’s the best screenplay out of the brunch. It would be difficult to write because there’s 12 years of history of Solomon Northrop from a freeman to slave that Ridley had to cut. Philomena deserves praise because of the conversational issue that book deals with.  This choice isn’t close like the best original screenplay.

Best Original Screenplay
David O. Russell and Eric Singer (American Hustle)
Bob Nelson (Nebraska)
Spike Jonze (Her)
Craig Borten & Melisa Wallack (Dallas Buyers Club)
Woody Allen (Blue Jasmine)

My choice: David O. Russel and Eric Singer
Will win: Spike Jonze
Dark Horse: David O. Russell and Eric Singer

Her will probably win because it’s the underdog story of a writer who isn’t famous but made a script so great that images on screen of man falling in love with computer is to great to ignore for voters. I didn’t like the movie. I think the concept is pathetic but it could happen and it will probably happen in the future. People might marry robots because there are individuals in society that stay from socialization with other people for fear of rejection. David O. Russell, you rewrote a historical script and made a drama driven by characters and dialogue. He’s deserves to win and I hope he does.

Best Animated Feature
The Wind Rises
Frozen
Despicable Me 2
The Croods
Ernest & Celestine

My choice and will win: Frozen

Frozen is the best film of the year of all animated movies. It’s made about a billion dollars. People love it and more importantly parents love it.

Best Song
“Alone Yet Not Alone” (Alone Yet Not Alone)
“Happy” (Despicable Me 2)
“Let It Go” (Frozen)
“The Moon Song” (Her)
“Ordinary Love” (Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom)

My choice: Happy (Despicable Me 2)
Will Win: Let it Go (Frozen)
Dark Horse:  Happy (Despicable Me 2)

Happy is the better song but Let it Go is so inspirational that you sing along with it. However, Happy is upbeat tune that you can dance to and it’s made a Grammy award winning artist, Pharrell Williams. I dance to Happy but I sing along with Let It Go. I enjoyed Happy more and I hope it wins.

Best Original Score
John Williams (The Book Thief)
Steven Price (Gravity)
Alexandre Desplat (Philomena)
Thomas Newman (Saving Mr. Banks)
William Butler and Owen Pallett (Her)

My Choice: Hans Zimmer for 12 Years a Slave or Man of Steel.

He wasn’t nominated and i think Saving Mr. Banks might be the only choice i like. So no comment. I actually like scores because they make or break movie in elite status. He wasn’t nominated for 12 Years of a Slave and i remember the score more than anything about the movie.

Visual Effects
Gravity
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
The Lone Ranger
Star Trek Into Darkness

My Choice: The Hobbit: The Desolation of SmaugWill Win: Gravity
Dark Horse: The Hobbit

I will be surprised if Gravity doesn’t win. The damn movie makes you feel like you’re in space. However, the Hobbit does deserve so much praise for the Smaug. Smaug was amazing to look at on screen.  I also believe Star Trek Into Darkness would have had bigger chance if JJ Abrams didn’t love his damn lens flares.  I can tell probably will be nominated next year from seeing several trailers: The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Godzilla, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Hobbit: There and Back Again. I say Dawn of the Planet of the Apes could get nominated. It will be very interesting next year to see who wins the Oscar for Visual Effect, Sound Editing, and all of those categories.

Guardians of the Galaxy: 3 reasons why you need to see it in 5 months!

Why the hell would you go see these guys? Who are they?

Guardians of the Galaxy is a comic book series formed in 2008 which has become a popular series. Marvel studios decided to announce a movie based off the comic at 2012’s comic con and the release date is August 1st, 2014. The movie is about a rag tag outlaw space team who come together to fight a threat that could end the universe. The main character Peter Jason Quill know as Star Lord.  Marvel released a trailer for the movie last week, and I have 3 reasons why you need to go see it.

The first reason was the trailer.  The trailer showed an action science fiction movie with a lot of comedy. It starts off with Peter Quill, Star Lord, entering a temple and retrieving a sphere shaped item. He gets confronted by mercenaries and gets sent to prison.  His rap sheet and the other guardians get read by John C. Reily’s character. The last 30 seconds of the trailer action shots with a great comedic line at the end of a trailer. Reily’s character tells his fellow guardsman “They call themselves Guardians of the Galaxy.” His reply  is “What a brunch of Aholes.” The song “hooked on a feeling” plays at the end of the trailer.  The video for the trailer is here.   My second reason is that I’m going to introduce the main characters of the movie.

The Guardians of the Galaxy are made up by five main members, a human, a female assassin, a warrior, a talking tree and raccoon.

The main character, hero, of the story is Peter Jason Quill. He’s play by Chris Pratt. He’s was abducted from Earth when he was a child. His harsh childhood turns him into a criminal. He stars calling himself Star Lord and steals valuable items. He finds something that threatens the cosmos and decides form a team of misfits to help him retrieve it. Star Lord is a egomaniac, humorous, and a strategic leader.  Marvel released a video about Star Lord.

Drax, the destroyer, was a loving husband until his family were killed in front of him.  He has been a mission of vengeance and wanting to find his family’s killer.  His powers include superhuman strength, stamina and resistance to physical injury as well the ability to project concussive blasts of cosmic energy from his hands. He can also travel at high speeds in outer space and hyperspace without air, food, or water. I don’t know if the movie will have the traveling without air or water aspect but it would be cool if they did. He’s played by Dave Batista.  He’s the muscle of the gang and here’s his marvel video featured about him.

Gamora, played by Zoe Saldana, is adopted by Thanos, a super villain. Her powers include superhuman strength and agility and an accelerated healing factor. She also has cybernetic implants and had a falling out with Thanos. She has become an assassin for hire. She meets Peter Quill and the other guardians find they share a common enemy, Thanos. Her video is right here.

Groot is voiced by Vin Diesel. He’s a talking and walking tree.  His powers are sort of unlimited but he’s the most heroic caring member of the guardians. His personality is a lot like Flash from the DC Comics. He’s always there for any member or any friend of his like Flash will be there for Batman, Superman, or etc in a heart beat. You can see his video here.  Groot’s signature line is “I’m Groot.”

Rocket Raccoon, or know as Rocket, is voiced by Bradley Cooper.  Rocket is probably my favorite character. His personality which is confrontational and foul mouth make him so special. He’s a genetically engineered raccoon who will flip you the bird and spit in your face. Rocket Raccoon possesses the normal attributes of an Earth raccoon, including speed (which has been additionally amplified by his training) an acute sense of smell, sight, hearing and touch. He is an accomplished star ship pilot, an excellent marksman with the two laser pistols he carries as well as having an affinity for heavy weapons. He is also an excellent military tactician and leader, attributes that help him take charge of the Guardians of the Galaxy when Star-Lord is unavailable. You can watch his video here.
Those are the heroes let me introduce you to the two main villains.

Thanos featured at the end of the Avengers.  I don’t want to talk about him because we don’t know if Marvel will show him in the movie.  Another villain who i think is the main villain is Ronan the Accuser but they haven’t show him yet.  He’s a super strength villain that wears a more bad ass armor like Iron Man. It has a ton of powers and I will give you the link to his page on Wikipedia.

The Collector played by Benicio Del Toro. He is employed by Thanos who is collecting the infinity stones for him. These stones have, like the Tesseract in the first Avengers movie or the ether in Thor: The Dark World,  different powers. He’s immortal but has the ability to increase his mass size on will to fight if he has to.  Nebula is the next villain.

Nebula, played by Karen Gillian (Amy Pond to Doctor Who),  is a cyborg who is a gifted female assassin. Nebula uses blasters worn on her wrists that fire concussive blasts of unknown energy or heat blasts that can incinerate a human being almost instantly. She also apparently wears a device that enables her to disguise her appearance, either through illusion-casting or through actual molecular rearrangement of her body and clothing. She works with Thanos and has a close relationship with him. She has a personal relationship to Gamora but they had a falling out.  I introduced to the characters who you will see as the main players throughout the story.  My final reason is why you need to go see this movie because the story is a lot like Star Wars and Indiana Jones combined.

Remember as a kid the first time you watched Indiana Jones and Star Wars.  The scope and size of the story drew you into a world where the action was fun and the adventure felt epic. Guardians of the Galaxy reminds me or other people of a cross between Indiana Jones and Star Wars.  Star Lord is more like Han Solo then Luke Skywalker. He has Han’s arrogance and humor. Groot would be most like Luke but there’s no Luke Skywalker which is a plus in my eyes. I hated Luke Skywalker as a character. Gamora is very beautiful and reminds me of grey area type of character like Princess Lea.  Rocket would be Chewbacca but with a dirtier mouth.  The characters have a lot of qualities of the Star Wars heroes. Ronan, the Accuser, in the comics is a malevolent villain. He wants to rule the universe side by side with Thanos. Thanos is a lot alike Hitler who wants to control everything and wipe out inferior species. I don’t know much or if he will be featured in this movie.  I also believe that is movie will give the marvel movie fan audience an idea about where this Marvel Cinematic Universe is going in the future in explain the infinity stones.  I will give you another video about Guardians of the Galaxy. This video features Team Amasian who are Ann Campea and Kaori Takee and the links are two their twitters.