Blog Archives
Movie Quote of the Day – The Hurt Locker, 2009 (dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
Staff Sgt. William James: You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your mommy, your daddy, your nature pajamas. You love everything, don’t you? [beat] Yeah. But you know what, buddy? As you get older, some of the things that you love might not seem so special anymore, you know. Like your jack-in-the-box. Maybe you realize it’s just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal. But the older you get, the fewer things you really love. And by the time you get to my age, maybe it’s only one or two things. [beat] With me I think it’s one.
Guest Post: Disconnected – Public Opinion, Critical Acclaim, and The Academy
Nicola, who’s runs Uncultured Critic, has written a special guest feature for Cinema Fanatic about “the disconnect between public opinion, critical acclaim, and The Academy.” I hope you enjoy it! And while you’re at it, y’all should follower her on Twitter, too!
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The Economist recently released an article with the following title:
A World of Hits: Ever-increasing choice was supposed to mean the end of the blockbuster. It has had the opposite effect
Ever-increasing choice? Not anymore! Since the advent of the latest 3D boom (-and-hopefully-bust), choices have dwindled considerably.
The Oscar Locker – The Results of the 82nd Academy Awards Are In
I ended up getting 18/24 categories right, which is one of my best years of predicting in awhile. For the most part I am very happy with the results of tonight’s ceremony. Really the biggest disappointment for me was Sandy over Meryl. Someday will be Meryl’s day again, I just know it.
But boy was it Kathryn Bigelow’s night. Two Oscars in five minutes and one glass ceiling shattered forever.
2009 Academy Awards – Final Predictions
Alright you guys, I’m sorry I haven’t updated in awhile, life’s gotten a bit stressful. That being said THE OSCARS are tomorrow. This has been one of the most stressful awards seasons since I started following the Oscars all those years ago. These are my final predictions and, as always, I’ll be live-blogging the show on my tumblr. So here goes nothing.
Jeremy Renner and the Best Actor Race
I’ve yet to see A Single Man or Crazy Heart, mostly due to living in the middle of nowhere, and thus can only comment on the three performances I have seen. I enjoyed George Clooney in Up In The Air, but he was better in Michael Clayton. My opinion on Morgan Freeman in Invictus will come up later on in this post. That leaves Jeremy Renner in The Hurt Locker. And of the three I’ve seen, he has my vote. It’ll be a difficult race for him, but I think he has a chance of pulling it off. He had perhaps my favorite reaction to his nomination when interviewed on Good Morning America yesterday. When asked about his competition, he replied, “I’ve gotta break some serious legs.”
My Oscar Nominations Predictions
The Academy Award nominations will be announced at 5:30AM PST tomorrow, February 2nd. I’ve got predictions for 10 of the 24 categories. I’m also going to supply some alternates. I love being able to predict what the nominations will be, but at the same time, it would be nice for some surprises to sneak in there too!
Best Picture:
- (500) Days of Summer
- An Education
- Avatar
- District 9
- The Hangover
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglourious Basterds
- Precious
- Star Trek
- Up In The Air
(Alternates: Up, Invictus, A Serious Man)
Bigelow Wins DGA
KATHRYN WON YOU GUYS. SHE WON. I am so happy about this. SO HAPPY.
So what does this mean for Oscar? Well, the winner of the DGA has gone on to win Best Director at the Academy Awards 58 of the last 60 years. This is one of the few precursors that tend to accurately predict how Oscar will go.
Avatar – Visually Stunning, But Ultimately Boring and Predictable
I really did go into this film with an open mind. After about 30 minutes I was pretty sure I knew how I’d feel about the rest of the film. Why? Because I could see exactly how it was going to play out and all I really wanted was for it to end.
Avatar Surpasses Titanic at Worldwide Box Office
This is a big feat and it’s taken a film 12 years do it. It’s no surprise, really, that James Cameron would be at the helm of the movie that finally surpasses Titanic–his last film.
This number is only going to go up as Titanic got to this number through a re-release after it won Best Picture. I remember seeing it when it first came out in December 1997 or maybe January 1998 and then seeing it again for my birthday in June. I don’t really see a re-release of Avatar in its future. Although, it could be a possibility since there still isn’t a home release technology that can preserve the film’s 3D self.
the diary of a film history fanatic 