Random Vlog about some thoughts of mine.

2011 Oscar Nominations

Alright the 2011 Oscar nominations are up. I've highlighted in pink who I think will win in each category.

 

 

Best motion picture of the year

• Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) A Protozoa and Phoenix Pictures Production
  Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver and Scott Franklin, Producers
• The Fighter (Paramount) A Relativity Media Production
  David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman and Mark Wahlberg, Producers
• Inception (Warner Bros.) A Warner Bros. UK Services Production
  Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan, Producers)
• The Kids Are All Right (Focus Features) An Antidote Films, Mandalay Vision and Gilbert Films Production
  Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte and Celine Rattray, Producers
• The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company) A See-Saw Films and Bedlam Production
  Iain Canning, Emile Sherman and Gareth Unwin, Producers
• 127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) An Hours Production
  Christian Colson, Danny Boyle and John Smithson, Producers
• The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) A Columbia Pictures Production
  Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca and Ceán Chaffin, Producers
• Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) A Pixar Production
  Darla K. Anderson, Producer
• True Grit (Paramount) A Paramount Pictures Production
  Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen and Joel Coen, Producers
• Winter's Bone (Roadside Attractions) A Winter's Bone Production
  Anne Rosellini and Alix Madigan-Yorkin, Producers 

 

 

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Javier Bardem in "Biutiful" (Roadside Attractions)
• Jeff Bridges in "True Grit" (Paramount)
• Jesse Eisenberg in "The Social Network" (Sony Pictures Releasing)
• Colin Firth in "The King's Speech" (The Weinstein Company)
• James Franco in "127 Hours" (Fox Searchlight)

 

 

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

• Christian Bale in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
• John Hawkes in "Winter's Bone" (Roadside Attractions)
• Jeremy Renner in "The Town" (Warner Bros.)
• Mark Ruffalo in "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features)
• Geoffrey Rush in "The King's Speech" (The Weinstein Company)

 

 

Performance by an actress in a leading role

• Annette Bening in "The Kids Are All Right" (Focus Features)
• Nicole Kidman in "Rabbit Hole" (Lionsgate)
• Jennifer Lawrence in "Winter's Bone" (Roadside Attractions)
• Natalie Portman in "Black Swan" (Fox Searchlight)
• Michelle Williams in "Blue Valentine" (The Weinstein Company)

 

 

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

• Amy Adams in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
• Helena Bonham Carter in "The King's Speech" (The Weinstein Company)
• Melissa Leo in "The Fighter" (Paramount)
• Hailee Steinfeld in "True Grit" (Paramount)
• Jacki Weaver in "Animal Kingdom" (Sony Pictures Classics)

 

 

Best animated feature film of the year

• How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) Chris Sanders and Dean DeBlois
• The Illusionist (Sony Pictures Classics) Sylvain Chomet
• Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Lee Unkrich

 

 

Art Direction

• Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney), Robert Stromberg (Production Design), Karen O'Hara (Set Decoration)
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Bros.), Stuart Craig (Production Design), Stephenie McMillan (Set Decoration)
• Inception (Warner Bros.), Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design), Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration)
• The King's Speech (Paramount), Eve Stewart (Production Design), Judy Farr (Set Decoration)
• True Grit (Paramount), Jess Gonchor (Production Design), Nancy Haigh (Set Decoration)

 

 

Achievement in Cinematography

• Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Matthew Libatique
• Inception (Warner Bros.) Wally Pfister
• The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company) Danny Cohen
• The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Jeff Cronenweth
• True Grit (Paramount) Roger Deakins

 

 

Achievement in costume design

• Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) Colleen Atwood
• I Am Love (Magnolia Pictures) Antonella Cannarozzi
• The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company) Jenny Beavan
• The Tempest (Miramax) Sandy Powell
• True Grit (Paramount) Mary Zophres

 

 

Achievement in directing

• Black Swan (Fox Searchlight), Darren Aronofsky
• The Fighter (Paramount), David O. Russell
• The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company), Tom Hooper
• The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing), David Fincher
• True Grit (Paramount), Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

 

 

Best Documentary Feature

• Exit through the Gift Shop (Producers Distribution Agency) Banksy and Jaimie D'Cruz A Paranoid Pictures Production
• Gasland Josh Fox and Trish Adlesic A Gasland Production
• Inside Job (Sony Pictures Classics) Charles Ferguson and Audrey Marrs A Representational Pictures Production
• Restrepo (National Geographic Entertainment) Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger An Outpost Films Production
• Waste Land Lucy Walker and Angus Aynsley (Arthouse Films) An Almega Projects Production

 

 

Best documentary short subject

• Killing in the Name Nominees to be determined A Moxie Firecracker Films Production
• Poster Girl Nominees to be determined A Portrayal Films Production
• Strangers No More Karen Goodman and Kirk Simon A Simon & Goodman Picture Company Production
• Sun Come Up Jennifer Redfearn and Tim Metzger A Sun Come Up Production
• The Warriors of Qiugang Ruby Yang and Thomas Lennon A Thomas Lennon Films 

 

 

Achievement in film editing

• Black Swan (Fox Searchlight) Andrew Weisblum
• The Fighter Paramount Pamela Martin
• The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company) Tariq Anwar
• 127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) Jon Harris
• The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter

 

 

Best foreign language film of the year

• Biutiful - Mexico
• Dogtooth  - Greece
• In a Better World - Denmark
• Incendies - Canada
• Outside the Law (Hors-la-loi) - Algeria

 

 

Achievement in makeup

• Barney's Version (Sony Pictures Classics) Adrien Morot
• The Way Back (Newmarket Films in association with Wrekin Hill Entertainment and Image Entertainment) Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng
• The Wolfman (Universal) Rick Baker and Dave Else

 

 

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original score)

• How to Train Your Dragon (Paramount) John Powell
• Inception (Warner Bros.) Hans Zimmer
• The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company) Alexandre Desplat
• 127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) A.R. Rahman
• The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross

 

 

Achievement in music written for motion pictures (Original song)

• Coming Home from Country Strong (Sony Pictures Releasing (Screen Gems)) Music and Lyric by Tom Douglas, Troy Verges and Hillary Lindsey
• I See the Light from Tangled (Walt Disney) Music by Alan Menken Lyric by Glenn Slater
• If I Rise from 127 Hours (Fox Searchlight) Music by A.R. Rahman Lyric by Dido and Rollo Armstrong
• We Belong Together from Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Music and Lyric by Randy Newman

 

 

Best animated short film

• Day & Night (Walt Disney) A Pixar Animation Studios Production Teddy Newton
• The Gruffalo A Magic Light Pictures Production Jakob Schuh and Max Lang
• Let's Pollute A Geefwee Boedoe Production Geefwee Boedoe
• The Lost Thing (Nick Batzias for Madman Entertainment) A Passion Pictures Australia Production Shaun Tan and Andrew Ruhemann
• Madagascar, carnet de voyage (Madagascar, a Journey Diary) A Sacrebleu Production Bastien Dubois

 

 

Best live action short film

• The Confession (National Film and Television School) A National Film and Television School Production Tanel Toom
• The Crush (Network Ireland Television) A Purdy Pictures Production Michael Creagh
• God of Love A Luke Matheny Production Luke Matheny
• Na Wewe (Premium Films) A CUT! Production Ivan Goldschmidt
• Wish 143 A Swing and Shift Films/Union Pictures Production Ian Barnes and Samantha Waite

 

 

Achievement in sound editing

• Inception (Warner Bros.) Richard King
• Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney) Tom Myers and Michael Silvers
• Tron: Legacy (Walt Disney) Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague
• True Grit (Paramount) Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey
• Unstoppable (20th Century Fox) Mark P. Stoeckinger

 

 

Achievement in sound mixing

• Inception (Warner Bros.) Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick
• The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company) Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley
• Salt (Sony Pictures Releasing) Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin
• The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing) Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten
• True Grit (Paramount) Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland

 

 

Achievement in visual effects

• Alice in Wonderland (Walt Disney) Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (Warner Bros.) Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi
• Hereafter (Warner Bros.) Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell
• Inception (Warner Bros.) Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb
• Iron Man 2 (Paramount and Marvel Entertainment, Distributed by Paramount) Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick

 

 

Adapted screenplay

• 127 Hours (Fox Searchlight), Screenplay by Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy
• The Social Network (Sony Pictures Releasing), Screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
• Toy Story 3 (Walt Disney), Screenplay by Michael Arndt. Story by John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton and Lee Unkrich
• True Grit (Paramount), Written for the screen by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
• Winter's Bone (Roadside Attractions), Adapted for the screen by Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini

 

 

Original screenplay

• Another Year (Sony Pictures Classics), Written by Mike Leigh
• The Fighter (Paramount), Screenplay by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson. Story by Keith Dorrington & Paul Tamasy & Eric Johnson
• Inception (Warner Bros.), Written by Christopher Nolan
• The Kids Are All Right (Focus Features), Written by Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg
• The King's Speech (The Weinstein Company), Screenplay by David Seidler

Bane and Catwoman Casting.

I just really wanted to make a video and figured this was as good a topic as any to talk about.

Highlander: The Source - Mini Rant

Highlander: The Source, a lot of people look at this movie as the lowest point of the Highlander series although I feel much differently. I'm not saying this was a good movie by any standards but it also was no where near as bad as 'Highlander: Endgame'. I have a personal hatred for that movie and I really think it has a lot to do with the constant adding and changing of the story, plus the complete ruining of Connor MacLeod. Anyways back to 'The Source'. This movie has what is probably the smartest guy in the entire series in it. The Guardian of the Source, now as stupid as his character acts, he actually made the movie for me, I was always able to get a good laugh outta him. He wears a piece of armor around his neck, and ya know what that armor does? I'll tell you. It PREVENTS anyone from being able to cut his head off....now think about that for a second. In a universe where there exists people who are immortal and can only die by having their heads chopped off, it took this dumb mother fucker to get the idea to wear neck armor, thus making him the smartest character in the series. Although only seconds after using his armor he does the stupidest thing in the series when he removes his armor to go and take on the rest of the immortals. Really though if he hadn't taken off his armor then I probably wouldn't have liked him as much for it was his facial expressions along with his voice that made him so funny. And if he had kept the armor on it would've made the ending at least make a little more sense, since Duncan wouldn't have been able to chop his head off and would've had to do something to stop him. Just for the record I'm not saying that I condone Duncan using the Bugs Bunny trick and spinning the Guardian into the ground, I'm just saying that if he had on his armor then it would've made sense to do something like that, kind of. Now for the ending, the biggest piece of bullshit in this movie besides the way Methos is taken out of the movie. The end of this movie completely changes and tries to retcon the entire series by changing the meaning of the films' motto, "There can be only one." In the original movie that phrase meant that only one immortal could be alive and in this movie it is changed to being that there can be hundreds of immortals but that there is only one who is of pure heart and can have a child....bullshit! If that was the case then why the fuck did Connor get all old in the second movie and then get young again when those porcupine twins showed up. Well actually that already didn't make sense if you look at the third film. This series doesn't make any sense at all, I think their purpose with these movies are just to fuck with every single fan who cares about this series. OK now that I got that off of my chest I feel a little better although the movie is still bad. Actually I think talking about it makes me hate it even more. Whatever, I'm done for now.

Top 10 Movies of 2010

Man 2010 was filled with so many great movies. I could've easily turned this list into a top thirty list without much thought and with that said, here are a few honorable mentions for some movies that were phenomenal but just didn't quite make the cut into my top ten list.

• How to Train Your Dragon
• Shutter Island
• Black Swan
• Karate Kid
• The Town 

Those five movies were all really good and I just had to get the word out on how good they were even though they're not in my final list.

10.  The Last Exorcism -
This is probably the most over looked movie on my list. Even I brushed it to the side as just another lame exorcism movie, until I saw it. This movie really should be seen by more people. The cast does an amazing job of really making you care about there (very interesting) characters. I'd also like to point out that even though the movie is done in a documentary style, were we kinda see what they see. It doesn't, I repeat DOES NOT have the stupid shaky camera or annoying jumps to sounds and other stupid stuff. They really did an awesome job with this movie and all I can say after seeing it, is that I feel sorry for that sound lady.

9. 127 Hours -
This is and hour and a half of James Franco at his finest. Now I'll say a lot of people kind of over hyped the movie in my opinion. I mean Franco does an awesome job but it's really just him being him and not much more. The story, if you don't already know, is about a hiker or whatever you would call him, that goes off with out telling anybody were he's going and gets his arm stuck under a boulder and tries to survive. It's also based on a true story, that I some how had heard nothing of until this movie.

8. Tron: Legacy -
Yea yea, everyone hated this movie, it could've been so much better, blah blah, shut up. This movie rocked and most people didn't notice how awesome it was thanks to the twenty-seven year build up most had in their head before seeing it. This movie had so many great action / fight scenes in it and my favorites usually involved Rinzler. Words can not describe how bad ass this guy is, in fact because of him, I was rooting for Sam and Flynn to get caught most of the movie. And no, I'm not oblivious to the fact that the story had some pretty major plot holes in it but if you do like I did and just go with it, instead of breaking down every little detail during the movie, then I guarantee that you will enjoy yourself.

7. Kick-Ass -
An awesome comic turned into an even better movie. That pretty much sums this up. I'll say my only real problem with this movie was that there weren't more scenes with Big Daddy messing people up. I'm not sure what else to say about this one that hasn't already been said. It's basically about a guy who decides he wants to help people and so he becomes a super hero (Kick-Ass) and starts fighting crime. Along the way he meets some other heroes and bad guys, and then eventually does to his town what Batman did to Gotham...only with comedy.

6. The Expendables -
All (Most) of the greatest action stars (and some other guys) in one movie together kicking ass, what could go wrong? That first sentence made this movie sound like it could be really bad but honestly it wasn't, it just made some big mistakes that I think kept it from becoming an instant classic. The biggest and most brought up mistake was the lack of screen time for most of the characters. You never really know who any of them are with the exception of Sly, Statham, and Rourke. I would use there screen names except they didn't really do a good job of letting you know what those are. I think Statham's name is Christmas, but I could be wrong. This movie is your typical blow 'em up, over the top, action movie where pretty much anything goes and the use for the poorly written story is to give the characters a reason to blow shit up. There's a lot bad that can be said about this movie but overall it's such fun movie to watch and it perfectly captures the charm of classic '80's action movies. Oh and Bruce Willis is in the movie for maybe one to two minutes, tops. I don't know why the hell he's on the cover but it really pisses me off.

5. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World -
This is kinda the same as Kick-Ass in that it's an awesome comic that made an even better movie. It's about a guy who wants to date the new girl in town but they can't be together until he defeats her seven evil exes. The comedy is great and Michael Cera is finally not quite the same character he always is. The movie's also filled with some of the best action scenes all year. Also they changed the ending of the movie since the comic wasn't finished when they were filming and I gotta say I read the comic first and still liked the movies ending so much better.

4. The Fighter -
This movie has Oscar written all over it...wait scratch that. Christian Bale in this movie has Oscar written all over him. The movie's about a boxer (Wahlberg). ( Hmmm...something happened while I was posting my list and I don't have another copy of it. ) Let's see, it's about a boxer and his family but it's not really a boxing movie. Also the boxing matches aren't that great like they bolstered them out to be but still a great movie.

3. The Social Network -
This movie will change the way you look at Facebook in way that I can't even describe. Jesse Eisenberg stars in this gripping tale of the creation of Facebook. Okay so maybe it's not quite that epic but it's pretty cool non the less. Eisenberg does a great job portraying Mark Zuckerberg (Attack of the Bergs!) You immediately like him right as the movie opens and you see the break up of him and his girlfriend and inevitable creation of Facebook. Although I found that throughout the movie I had very mixed feelings about him, on the one hand I was rooting for him to win his lawsuits against the lawyers and his friends but then on the other hand I wanted him to go broke because what he did to his friends was just wrong.

2. Iron Man 2 -
It's everything the first movie was plus a little something extra. It picks up right where the first movie left off with Stark now enjoying fame as Iron Man. The government is trying to take his suit away from him and Whiplash is trying to kill him, ya know, typical comic book stuff. There are a lot more action scenes in this one and you get to see Happy Hogan kick some ass too. Overall an awesome movie. I'll say I didn't really care for the fact that they mashed together Crimson Dynamo and Whiplash though. I think Dynamo could've done better with his own movie but from the studio's perspective, I kind of get it.  And I definitely see why they couldn't have some bare chested guy running around going toe to toe with Iron Man, still though, it bugs me.

1. Inception -
The best movie of the year hands down, bar none, whatever other clever phrases you can think of. This movie is so great that I don't even want to talk much about it, because I don't want to spoil anything about it. Honestly the best movie since "The Dark Knight", and dare I say it, it may be better, or on par with it. If you haven't seen it then go to the store right now and buy it. Don't worry about the price or anything, just buy it. Then watch it and tell me what you thought about it and spread the word of this movie's epicness to everyone you see.

Green Hornet Review

Just got back from seeing Green Hornet and wow. That movie was really good and an awesome one to kick off 2011. Honestly I had kinda low expectations going into it, having never seen the original and knowing next to nothing about The Green Hornet. I'm pretty sure the original wasn't this comical, although I could see Bruce Lee in the role of Kato pretty easily, it just fit. I'll say the movies story isn't that solid. Rich snobby kid decides to fight crime with his insanely talented "oriental" friend. Of course there are a few plot holes like Green Hornet getting shot and going to the hospital the next day for a wound that's supposed to be fresh and a few other moments I won't get to into. Also I haven't seen the laws of physics broken so many times since 'The A-Team'. There now the bad's outta the way. I didn't really care for the villain in the movie, I liked him as a kinda dull guy that nobody found scary until he started killing but then his character tries way, way to hard to become a masked villain to take on Green Hornet and I was just ready to see him die. Oh and one of my favorite parts was the short (But non the less awesome) appearance of James Franco as a club owner. I marked out like crazy when I saw him on screen. Matter of fact seeing him die was probably my biggest complaint of the movie. Well not seeing him die necessarily but seeing him die so early in. Speaking of complaints again, and this has nothing to do with the movie itself but man the heat in that theater was cranking. And leave it to me to get there right before the crowd but pick the seat directly under the vent but that's the theaters fault not the movies, I just wanted to get that out. Also my theater has the coolest movie posters and cardboard cut out things I've ever seen in a theater, so I'll let the temperature thing go this time. Anyways back to the movie, it was a great movie, go see it. But when you see it, go in looking to be entertained, not to see the next Oscar winner if you get what I'm saying. It's a fun, really funny action movie that's definitely worth checking out. Oh and I saw it in 2D, not 3D. I didn't see the point of paying the extra ten clams for the 3D effect in a movie that I was seeing mostly for the comedy. One more thing, even though Kevin Smith didn't write it, Green Hornet still hides behind a rock...Hell yea!

Top 10 Games of 2010

10. Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 -
Oh this game, such a disappointment. I had such high hopes for this to be the next epic thing in gaming but it wasn't even close to that. Now don't get me wrong, it's a great game but the expectations of mine killed it for me. Well that along with a shody and extremely short story. In fact, if it wasn't for this game being a Star Wars game, it probably would be one of the worst games of the year for me but I have an extremely soft spot for it and try to only look at the (few) amazing things that this game does have. Maul-killer FTW.

9. MAG -
Take Modern Warfare 2 and minus the annoying people and hackers. Then add in another 238 players per match, people who know what they're doing and want to win WITHOUT cheating, and extremely customizable characters and you have MAG.

8. Split/Second -
The best racing game since Need for Speed Underground 2. Yea I said it, that was an awesome game, and so is this one. The only downfall of this game is what I refer to as the "Mario Kart syndrome." Meaning, it doesn't really matter how good at racing games you are, all it takes is for the person behind you to get a power up and you could be in last place. 

7. Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions -
Four completely different Spider-Man universes and all of Spidey's greatest enemies. That's the formula for the best Spider-Man game since Spider-Man 2. Now how many more times can I say Spider-Man in my mini year ending review for Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions...Spider-Man.

6. Mega Man 10 -
Didn't really do anything new, with the exception of some characters to play as and adding an easy mode. But even still, a solid Mega Man game, which is better then a lot of other games out there.

5. UFC: Undisputed 2010 -
Awesome game, with an even better career mode. Controls are a little rough to learn and get used to, but at the same time they're very simplistic. This game would be much higher on my list, possibly  number one or two because I really had a lot of fun playing it but the online mode killed it for me. It's easy to get into a match and everything but it's the community, they're probably on par with the MW2 people.

4. Super Meat Boy -
 This game is so much fun. That's the best way to describe it. The game is the love child of N+ and Donkey Kong, and the reason you're thinking that sounds pretty awesome, is because it is.

3. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker -
 The spiritual successor to Metal Gear Solid 3 and considered by some to be Metal Gear Solid 5. It gives you everything you could ask for from a Metal Gear game; amazing cut scenes, awesome game play, espionage, Big Boss, CQC, cigars, and confusion. Since this game is on the PSP, the levels are a lot shorter and sectioned off so you can quickly get in a level on the go. It also brought in a lot of RPG elements, with recruiting a team to help you in missions and create weapons for you. Also giving your weapons and team members levels and stats to max out for the ultimate tactical espionage operations.

2. Mass Effect 2 -
Following the classic trilogy format, Mass Effect 2 does NOT disappoint. The game builds off of the foundation the first game built and expands on it. Putting all the new and old heroes in the shittiest situations and setting up the final installment in the trilogy.

1. God of War 3 -
 EPIC. That's all that needs to be said about this game. This game bleeds epic-ness. It took everything from the first two games and improved on them and perfectly ends the story of Kratos.

I would also like to add in that there were a few games that I didn't get the chance to play that I think may have made this list.

• Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood
• Fable 3
• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
• Super Mario Galaxy 2

So there you have it, my "Top 10 Games of 2010." Check back for my "Top 10 Movies of 2010" real soon.