A Batch Of Cumber, Murdering Apollo Creed And Jamie Foxx’s Junk

On Monday night I took part in the rather fabulous podcast, Raging Bullshit. The results are now up and it’s fair to say their first show of 2013 covered rather a lot of cinematic (and anatomic!) ground.

Discussion topics include Rosamund Pike’s insanely distracting cleavage in Jack Reacher, what we’re most looking forward to in 2013 and who’s been grossly overlooked in Awards Season.

Please listen to the results here and give them a cheeky little subscribe on iTunes – just search ‘Raging’. You won’t regret it.

Dear Papa Oscar…

The Academy. AMPAS. That there group of old, white men. Whatever you choose to call them, it’s fair to say we all have a pretty tumultuous relationship with the Oscars and the way each respective year’s ‘Best of Film’ is represented. Someone’s always left out, certain films are never pushed and, let’s face it, if it’s backed by the Weinsteins, that movie’s chances are skyrocketed by about a billion percent.

Yet I find myself oddly fascinated by the whole bizarre nature of Awards Season and how it ultimately appears to be a bit of a numbers game. Last year I pretty much called all the winners apart from Meryl’s cheeky little deprivation of Viola Davis’ glory and that wonderfully unexpected Best Editing win for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. But this year’s feeling a little different. A bit more wide-open. Although Zero Dark Thirty has had an incredible run, Argo is looming ever greater behind Bigelow and Life Of Pi’s huge BAFTA nomination haul is certainly not to be ignored.

Though the acting quartet of Chastain, Day-Lewis, Hathaway and Jones seem pretty sturdy in their respective runs thus far, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Sally Field are Academy heavyweights who have had more than their fair share of success with individual Critics groups, with Jennifer Lawrence and Emmanuelle Riva also making their mark.

But I have a few wishes of my own this year, Papa Oscar. A few things I’d like to see and a few people I’d like to see left out. Watch the nominations live here at 13:30 UK time and check out what I have to say (along with my predictions for the big eight categories) below:

Thanks For The Shivers, Mr. Nolan

With The Avengers already a success story both critically and commercially, this summer is once again chock-full of superheroes – we mustn’t forget Sony’s Spidey reboot due in July. But out of the three, it is only this new trailer which gives me goosebumps. Yes, I adored The Avengers and came out feeling like a giddy three year-old who had eaten too many blue Smarties, and sure, the Spidey trailer has its moments, but they’re not a patch on the feeling of dread and stunning silence that enshrouds Nolan’s latest puzzle piece.

Far quieter than the viral run up to 2008’s The Dark Knight, Bane still feels almost entirely alien – a stark difference to the vast use of the Joker’s face. We have barely seen anything of Selina Kyle in either guise other than photos and, as for Marion Cotillard and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, well, what they’ll be up to beyond the allusions of their character names is anyone’s guess.

But where Nolan succeeds is with his phenomenally loyal fanbase. Though the viral marketing may seem sparse and cryptic and only readily available to those ‘in the know’ (yep, that’s us, fellow nerd), he never needed to present a trailer that provided any explicit storyline or character info. And this makes me so much hungrier for July 20th.

Rewatching the trailers for The Dark Knight, they may seem significantly more epic, but I have no doubt this third and final trailer for Nolan’s Batman bow out is only a meagre taste of the impact Bane and co. will have once they hit our screens.

In Nolan We Trust.

Trailer Talk: My Big Fat Marvelgasm, Claymation Ghosts, The Hoff And Disney’s Attempt At Dubstep

I love this week’s selection of trailers, which you may find surprising seeing how I’ve actually been a little harsh towards some – very unlike me, I know. But there’s such a brilliant mix to choose from, including some great animation, thrillers, comedy and some not so great ones. But hey, that’s all part of the fun. This week Nadine and I look at (deep breath please) The Stath, the supernatural, that pesky John Carter again, more Marvel characters than you can shake a stick at, David Hasselhoff, Snoop Stiller, Adam Sandler’s weird career, a resurrected canine, little yellow minions, morticians, American Football, claymation ghosts, John McClane and Superman, coming of age indie quirkiness and Norwegian murders. Let’s talk trailers:

Forget The Artist Winning Best Picture Last Sunday – Here’s My Top Ten Films Of 2011

I am well aware that everybody else posted their ‘Best Of 2011’ lists at, well, the end of 2011 or back in January, but I wanted to be a little different. Mainly because I still had a fair few films to catch up on and because I wanted to compare my list to what the Academy deemed ‘fit’ and what eventually won.

So, finally, I present to you my Top Ten Films Of 2011. And when I say ‘Top Ten’, I mean what I enjoyed most as opposed to what I think I should say to be congratulated on. No, this is my Top Ten and simply that. And I’m pretty sure a lot of you won’t see my #1 coming – unless you follow me on Twitter (@iamnotwaynegale) in which case you’ve probably known for a while!

So, as usual, please leave comments if you want to argue this thing out – you’ll definitely realise I’m a sucker for big performances as opposed to big films – and check out my Top Ten below, starting with the films that didn’t quite make the cut:

Trailer Talk: High School Reunions, Scottish Princesses, Pregnancy And A French Romance

The end of the world, Bollywood Bond, Stifler returns, confused teens, Scottish princesses, sexual fetishes, French romances, really rubbish horror, really amazing fight scenes, high school papers, sleeping around, pregnancy, lots of Gods and stunning child’s play – let’s talk trailers:

Pencils Down: My 2012 Oscar Predictions

There comes a point where I have to stop tinkering with my predictions and make my peace with, what is this year, a rather unexciting affair. The categories I feel a little uncertain on are those that depend on an Artist sweep and the Short Film and Documentary categories where I haven’t seen all the nominees. I’ll admit I chose The Shore as it has the most clout and I’m well aware my choice to vote against A Morning Stroll may come back to haunt me.

So I’m going to cover my back quickly by mentioning a War Horse/Hugo sound split, the potential of Hugo taking Cinematography if the Academy don’t finally pay their dues to Lubezki and The Artist maybe even snatching Original Screenplay off Woody Allen after its BAFTA win. And yes, I am still gunning for Rise, even after silly BAFTA went for Hugo. And surely Hugo will prevent The Artist from taking Art Direction, right?! It did have 11 nominations after all!

Oh, and lastly, we know how the Academy likes to award period pieces for their costumes. So maybe that’s one The Artist won’t take. But I still doubt it.

I’m going to be tweeting through the whole thing tonight (follow me @iamnotwaynegale), so join me there, or let me know if you disagree with anything I have to say in the comments section. I just strongly disagree with the ‘tick box’ theory. But we all know it happens – we only have to look back to Slumdog.

My predictions are obviously based on the way things have gone throughout this whole Oscar Race, so unless there are any big surprises, which I can’t see happening, this hopefully shouldn’t be too far off the mark.

It also excites me that I won’t have to write the word ‘Hazanavicius’ quite so many times after tomorrow. Check out my predictions below and make sure to check out the tally of how many Oscars I think each film will get right at the bottom of the post:

Trailer Talk: Orgies, Sperm Donation, Drug Heists And Vampire Presidents

These should have been up at the beginning of the week, but as I’ve moaned about my laptop enough already, I won’t do it again….! Dance machines, sperm donation, a trip to the 1960s, Abraham Lincoln, drug heists, mind heists, sharks, tap dancing, orgies, Keira Knightley impressions and babies – let’s talk trailers.

Trailer Talk: Spidey Rebooted, Wheelchair Dancing, Doctor Who And The Apocalypse

Yes, yes, yes, I apologise again for my laptop not loving me. As I posted a while back, it gave up on me, so I haven’t been able to post anything! So I’m sorry they’re so late, but I wanted to put them up anyway! So, soldiers, spiders, Jeremy Renner, Doctor Who, crazy Nazis, wheelchairs, Osama Bin Laden and the apocalypse – let’s talk trailers.

Trailer Talk: Killing The Kardashians, Turtle On A Plane, Lots Of Gangsters And David Bowie

Gangsters, Turtle on a plane, cows, Mel Gibson in Mexico, the end of reality TV, improv and drugs, the Welsh and Bowie, a double helping of Sigourney Weaver and Dexter Fletcher’s directorial debut – let’s talk trailers: