What I’m Watching – January 2014

This list only includes films I watched for the first time this month. My most recent viewing is the top entry.

The Croods (Dir: Kirk DeMicco, Chris Sanders, 2013) **

Inside Llewyn Davis (Dir: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, 2013) ****

The Wolf Of Wall Street (Dir: Martin Scorsese, 2013) *****

Only Lovers Left Alive (Dir: Jim Jarmusch, 2013) ****

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (Dir: Kenneth Branagh, 2014) **

Out Of The Furnace (Dir: Scott Cooper, 2013) ***

Dallas Buyers Club (Dir: Jean-Marc Vallée, 2013) ****

12 Years A Slave (Dir: Steve McQueen, 2013) *****

American Hustle (Dir: David O. Russell, 2013) *****

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (Dir: Ben Stiller, 2013) *****

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (Dir: Adam McKay, 2013) ***

What I’m Watching – September 2013

This list only includes films I watched for the first time this month. My most recent viewing is the top entry.

The Cable Guy (Dir: Ben Stiller, 1996) ***

Project Nim (Dir: James Marsh, 2011) ****

Bridge To Terabithia (Dir: Gabor Csupo, 2007) ***

Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind (Dir: George Clooney, 2002) ****

Hope Springs (Dir: David Frankel, 2012) ***

The Talented Mr. Ripley (Dir: Anthony Minghella, 1999) *****

Senna (Dir: Asif Kapadia, 2010) *****

This Is 40 (Dir: Judd Apatow, 2012) ***

Four Things That Won’t Suffer From The Watch

Costco.

Rosemarie DeWitt and Billy Crudup.

Ben Stiller’s pocket.

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:

My 75% Success Rate And The 2012 Oscar Winners

After a very long and very predictable run-up, the 2012 Academy Awards are finally over, The Artist and Hugo winning five statues apiece. With Billy Crystal charming enough as host, I have to admit that I found myself wanting more of Chris Rock and that inspired Stiller/Stone pairing.

The night went without too many surprises, The Artist getting five out of the six I predicted after Editing went to The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which was a truly fantastic moment. As expected, Michel Hazanavicius’ name was pronounced a hundred different ways during the evening and Hugo pretty much cleared up in the technical fields. But trust Lady Meryl Streep to throw a spanner in the works and deprive Davis of what most people thought was a mortal lock by this point. She looked as surprised as we all felt, but you just can’t hate her, can you.

As I laid out in my predictions yesterday, I’d gone with my heart for Visual Effects and Cinematography, with Hugo taking both when I was hoping Lubezki would finally get what is so ridiculously overdue. Luckily, I was spot on with my two Short Film predictions as well as Documentary Short Subject, so that made up for my wrong choices there.

The Weinstein Effect paid off for Undefeated, the group dropping the only F-bomb of the night and consequently getting played off, but that was one of the only real interesting parts of the night. Don’t get me wrong, it was great seeing The Muppets take something home and I rather enjoyed Ferrell and Galifianakis being, well, Ferrell and Galifianakis, but the Oscars as a ceremony could be so much more. And I kind of longed to see what sort of carnage Brett Ratner could have brought.

Also, kudos to Christopher Plummer for getting up the stairs faster than Octavia Spencer and to McCarthy and Byrne for playing Shot Scorsese.

Next year, get Michael Bay on board. He’ll have the nominees shot out of a cannon.

See my predictions here (I need to beat 75% next year) and Becca’s predictions (if you want a bit of a laugh – let’s just say she’ll need to beat 16% of pure guess-work next year) here, both of which were posted before the ceremony yesterday and check out the full list of 2012 Academy Award winners below:

The Great Trailer Debate – Week 6

What a week! With the insane amount of Awards and nominations over the last two days it’s taken me a little longer than usual to post this. But this is definitely a nice break for me and one that doesn’t include having to write out Michel Hazanavicius’ name over and over and over…… The sad thing is that I can write his name without thinking now. Anyway, back to the trailers. This week Nadine and I (check out her blog here) bring you The Five-Year Engagement, The Lorax, The Darkest Hour, The Cabin In The Woods, Lockout, This Means War, Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted, Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close (TRAILER OF THE WEEK), The Three Stooges, The Iron Lady, The Lucky One, What To Expect When You’re Expecting and Battleship. Wowzer. Next week brings us something that makes me want to (and I probably will) cry – The Dark Knight Rises.