Blog Archives

True Romance, A Valentine’s Day Post

Well, it’s Valentine’s Day again. Some people love this day. Some people hate this day. Some people have no feelings. I’m not sure how I feel about Valentine’s Day, personally. I will say, I do love romance. In that respect, every day might as well be Valentine’s Day in my world. But I figured since this is the traditional day to celebrate it, I’d do some sort of post. Basically, what I did was take a long hard look at my DVD collection and pick out ten scenes that I find insanely romantic. This is not my “top ten” most romantic scenes or anything. This is in no way a complete and definitive list. It is simply ten scenes from ten films that I own that tug at my heartstrings.

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82 Years of Oscar, 10 Favorites and 5 Films I Could Have Done Without

So I recently completed one of my life goals: watching every single film that won the Academy Award for Best Picture. I would say it took me 24 years, because that’s how old I am and the Academy Awards have been my favorite hobby as long as I can remember. However, it was in the last six weeks or so that I’ve been really hitting the list hard because I realized I only had twenty left and that seemed like a very doable task. All but two of these films are available on DVD. Sadly, one of my Top Ten Winners isn’t. You can, however, get it on VHS and find it on YouTube if you’re wily. It’s been a wonderful experience watching all 82 films. Most are really quite wonderful, others are so-so and a handful I thought were downright boring. My next goal is to watch all of the films that were nominated for Best Picture. There are 474 films that have been nominated and I’ve seen 257 of those films already, which only leaves 217. I’m figuring on some of the earlier films to be a little hard to come by and I also plan on taking a few years to try to complete this goal. I’m sure I’ll write something about that when I do finish it! But now on to my favorite and least favorite Best Picture winners.

Movie Quote of the Day – The English Patient, 1996 (dir. Anthony Minghella)

Hana: [reading] Betrayals in war are childlike compared with our betrayals during peace. New lovers are nervous and tender but smash everything, for the heart is an organ of fire.
[beat]
Hana: For the heart is an organ of fire. l love that. l believe that.

15 Breakthrough Performers of 2009

2009 was a good year for cinema. So good I had to have a Top 15 instead of a Top Ten (and now, after I’ve seen a lot of the End of the Year fare, I feel like I’d need a Top Twenty). There were some newcomers who blew us away and some actors/actresses who have been kicking around Hollywood for years waiting for That Movie that makes them a household name, and for them 2009 was that year. I’m going to do this list in alphabetical order by last name.

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Miramax Offices Close – The End of An Era

I hear on the grapevine though that the Weinsteins, who were bought out of Miramax years ago and started their own company – The Weinstein Company, are still trying to get the name back. I hope they do.

All through the 90s and early 00s Miramax, under the Weinsteins, pretty much dominated the Academy Awards.

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The Hurt Locker – Can A Good Old-Fashioned War Movie Win Best Picture?

I finally got to see The Hurt Locker today. I absolutely loved it. I am a big fan of War films and I’d put this one up there with my favorites, namely The Thin Red Line and The Longest Day

Although I’ve yet to see Avatar, I do not want it to win Best Picture. I know I should reserve judgement until I’ve seen it. But I do not see how it can be as good as either The Hurt Locker or Up In The Air. To quote Quentin Tarantino “This CGI bullshit is the death knell of cinema. If I’d wanted all that computer game bullshit, I’d have stuck my dick in a Nintendo.”

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20 Years of Best Supporting Actress nominees

Continuing my countdown of favorite Academy Award nominated performances, I now present my top ten favorite performances nominated for Best Supporting Actress since 1989. If you’re interested in buying any of the films listed below, click here.

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20 years of Best Actor nominees

Much like my earlier post featuring my ten favorite performances nominated for Best Actress at the Oscars since 1989, I bring you my top performances nominated for Best Actor. However, there was no way I could limit this list to ten, even paring it down to fifteen was pretty hard. So here goes nothing. If you’re interested in buying any of the films listed below, click here.

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20 years of Best Actress nominees

Inspired by this post @ awardsdaily I’ve gone through the Best Actress nominees from 1989-2009 and picked by favorite nominated performances. Only two of my ten favorite performances went on to win the Oscar. Granted, I haven’t seen every Best Actress winner, let alone nominee, from the last 20 years, I’ve seen a lot of them. If you’re interested buying any of the films discussed below, click here.

My list after the cut.

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