The YA Genre, Its Not Just for Young Adults

Jennifer Connelly as Josie McClellan in Career Opportunities

Yesterday I went to see the movie Southpaw, after that movie was over I saw that Mission Impossible was starting in about 30 minutes and decided that I wanted to see the opening scene with Tom Cruise hanging off the jet in IMAX and then I would go home.

I had already seen the movie and thought it was OK. Basically if you love any of the Mission Impossible movies, you will probably love this one. I am not a fan of the franchise but I have seen them all and despite finding them silly there is always at least one very entertaining moment, usually Tom Cruise doing some crazy stunt and, well, there is always at least one sexy woman in the movies. I am a straight guy, I love me a sexy woman.

So, I had some time to burn so I went and saw the end of the movie Paper Towns. Another movie I had already seen but I welcomed the chance to look at the pretty young women in this movie again.

I must admit, I have a soft spot for what is now called the YA, young adult, genre and I grew up on the great 80’s teen comedies, yes, John Hughes (RIP) was a teen comedy god. Sure, part of it is that I will soon be eligible for my DOM, dirty old man, membership, and I like looking at beautiful young women but the more important reason is that I live vicariously through these movies as I did not experience any of what you see in these movies.

While other kids were partying, dating, losing their virginity, making friends that last forever, or at least friends you never forget, going to proms, experiencing graduation and just being a young adult during middle and high school, I was having to be an adult.

Basically I went straight from 10 years old to manhood and missed all that fun stuff. Sure, I went to school but my off hours, when not studying, was dealing with serious issues such as family members in hospitals and nursing homes, deaths and funerals, basically lots and lots of emotional devastation. I survived.

I now and have always loved watching movies about teens and young adults, Pretty in Pink, Superbad, Ghost World, Risky Business, The Spectacular Now, Pump Up the Volume, Napoleon Dynamite, Meatballs, River’s Edge, The Virgin Suicides, Welcome to the Dollhouse, Heathers, Clueless, My Bodyguard, 10 Things I Hate About You, Juno, Rebel Without a Cause, American Graffiti, Boyz n the Hood, Election, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Lucas, Peggy Sue Got Married, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School, Dead Poets Society, American Pie, Hoosiers, Back to the Future, Bring It On, Kids, Brick, Fame, Can’t Hardly Wait, Sixteen Candles, Porky’s, Lean on Me, Stand and Deliver, The Outsiders, Weird Science, Never Been Kissed, Dope, The Lost Boys, Footloose, Class, The Last American Virgin, All the Right Moves, Valley Girl, Better Off Dead, Girls Just Want to Have Fun, Tomboy, School Ties, Angus, The Craft, Cruel Intentions, Splendor in the Grass, Grease, Carrie, Donnie Darko and many more I now forget, I watch them all and they all break my heart in some fashion.

My favorite is Say Anything…with Almost Famous a close second, and yes, both were written and directed by Cameron Crowe who will always be my bromance soul mate I probably never meet.

The character I most wanted to be, Ferris Bueller as played by Matthew Broderick, of course, but the character I most connect with is Lloyd Dobler as played by John Cusack in Say Anything… and, of course, I grew up to be Mike Damone as played by Robert Romanus in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. “Scalper? You call me a scalper? I perform a service, my friends. The service costs money. Now do you want the tickets or not?”

How about the girls? Jennifer Connelly as Josie McClellan in Career Opportunities is probably the sexiest character while I will give Cybill Shepherd as Jacy Farrow in The Last Picture Show second place.

As for the more romantic crushes, there are so many, Molly Ringwald as Samantha Baker in Sixteen Candles, Emma Watson as Sam in The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Heather Graham as Mercedes Lane, great name, in License to Drive, Meredith Salenger as Lainie Diamond in Dream a Little Dream, Joyce Hyser as Terry Griffith in Just One of the Guys, Amanda Peterson (RIP) as Cindy Mancini in Can’t Buy Me Love, Elisabeth Shue as Chris in Adventures in Babysitting, Kate Hudson as Penny Lane in Almost Famous and though I really want to say Ally Sheedy as Allison Reynolds in The Breakfast Club is my favorite, I really do love the weird loner girls, I have to go with an upset choice, Mary Stuart Masterson as Watts in Some Kind of Wonderful. I also love the sensitive sexy little tomboys, they always break my heart.

So what about the ladies in Paper Towns? Yes, Cara Delevingne as Margo is a sexy girl and a former Victoria’s Secret model but the young lady that stole my heart in this movie was Halston Sage as Lacey. You have to love the popular girl who turns out to be so sweet and has more depth than you would have ever expected.

What more can I say? Well, I guess a Matthew McConaughey as David Wooderson quote from Dazed and Confused sums it all up very nicely, “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age.”

Sometimes a Mozzarella Stick is More Than Just a Piece of Fried Cheese

Fried Cheese Sticks !!

I love going to the movies and I do it often. I treat going to my local Regal Theatre with 800 screens, no, 18 actually, like someone going to Six Flags. I basically buy a ticket and I leave when I am tired of watching movies.

I will go see a movie I have not seen and then go see a second movie and then even a third movie sometimes, or just go see a movie again that I liked and want to see again. Sometimes I go watch a movie just to see one scene I really liked or just to look at a pretty actress again for a few minutes and leave. Bye, bye, time for me to go home now, maybe I will see you again pretty girl that will never know I exist, I love you.

Today was one of my movie adventure days and I have several stories to tell so this is the first of possibly a few blog posts. Basically I am really in the mood to write.

The movie I went to see today was Southpaw starring Jake Gyllenhaal, and yes, I had to Google his name, can anyone other than a Gyllenhaal actually spell Gyllenhaal without help?

The movie was good, the movie could have been great but the screenplay let us down, regardless, the purpose of this post is not to review Southpaw.

By the way, Jake was robbed last year in not getting an Oscar nom for his performance in Nightcrawler and if you have not seen that film, stop reading this and watch it now, Jake is amazing. This is not as great a performance but hopefully the Academy makes it up to him this year as he is still really really damn good in this film.

OK, back to my story. The film was in one of the smaller theatres so I grabbed my preferred seating location, center back row where I can masturbate in privacy.

No, no, no, that was a joke, I have never masturbated in a theatre though it is on my bucket list and I will do it eventually. I also do not imagine it will be a Jake Gyllenhaal film, I prefer to masturbate to Matthew McConaughey films.

Again a joke, I am straight regardless of what you may have heard from my past girlfriends.

During the trailers a woman sat two seats down from me, the theatre was pretty empty so I consider that a bum rush but, as I mentioned, she was a woman so I was able to deal with it.

After a few minutes she said something to me and, at first, I did not realize she was talking to me. Again, excuse me, and I responded to her this time. She had something in her hand reaching it out to me, would you like these she said, they appeared to be cheese sticks. I asked her, do you not like them? She said, no, they are good, just too much. So, OK, sure, I took them, thanking her.

I know, who takes leftovers from strangers in a theatre?

I will admit it was my first time but since I have a long history of being drunk and asking people if they are going to finish “that” in restaurants and since I was hungry, today was a no eating day, and since I also have a hard and fast rule that I do not turn down free alcohol, free food or free vagina, my instinct was to take what she was giving.

As I finished my first stick of fried cheese, which came with a mini bucket of marinara dipping sauce, I suddenly thought, damn, I wonder if she doubled dipped in this already opened and already used mini bucket of marinara dipping sauce?

Then I thought, well, I do kiss strange women, I even welcome the chance to eat their pussy. Lets be honest, if this woman said, hey, would you like to take me home and eat my pussy and being that it has been such a long, long time since I have heard a woman ask that, I am probably saying yes.

So, bottom line, should I really be worried that she may have double dipped a cheese stick? I started in on the second stick of cheese.

By the way, if you did not catch this already, I have never ever heard a woman say, hey, would you like to take me home and eat my pussy but its a nice thought that it might have happened and if you thought it had actually happened. Thank you.

So, I am enjoying my cheese, but suddenly I think, fuck, she thinks I am some hungry homeless man that snuck in to the theatre to get some sleep. I only shave like once a week and since my beard now grows out white, add a ragged baseball hat and, well, I do look like a homeless guy.

Damn, I just went from eating her pussy to being a charity case. Screw it, I am hungry and this cheese is really hitting the spot, my ego will just have to get over it.

As I start in on the third stick, I have yet another thought. I watch way too much CNN which is basically, Trump, white people doing bad things to black people, missing plane, white people doing bad things to black people, Muslims shooting Americans, white people doing bad things to black people, you get the idea, so I suddenly think, is this some kind of bizarre undercover news story?

She is a black woman, we are in the south and I am white guy. Maybe they were thinking, after the white homeless guy refuses the black woman’s leftover cheese sticks, we have some kind of proof of universal racism and I just screwed it up.

Damn it Anderson, he is eating the cheese even though her black spit may be in the mini bucket of marinara sauce, quit filming, we will have to find another white guy in the theatre and blow our entire budget on some more Regal Theatre cheese sticks.

I quickly dismiss this theory. I may have a paranoid imagination but I am not yet quite that crazy that I actually really think that I am the subject of an undercover fried cheese racism sting.

So I finish my free snack accepting that she was just being nice….she simply made sure the old homeless white guy had something to eat today. Good for her, nice lady.

Wow, Shania Twain Sucked

Yesterday I had Shania Twain tickets for Philips Arena here in Atlanta. When I bought the tickets months ago I thought, this being her so-called farewell tour, that it would be a giant ticket. Boy was I wrong.

The show never sold-out and I had to go on the street with my last 6 tickets that I paid TicketMaster just under $158 a ticket. It was not pretty, I lost hundreds of dollars on this show, it happens, but I did have one fun moment.

It was a 7.30pm show and I decided I would leave as soon as I had sold all my tickets or at 9.30pm if they did not all sell. At about 9.10pm, I had three tickets left and up comes three guys looking for tickets. Unfortunately they were only there to meet girls and only wanted to spend $20 per ticket. 

One guy ended up getting a free ticket from three girls coming up that had an extra ticket. It was a woman with her daughter and a friend of the daughter. Mom was probably 55 and the other two were probably in their early 30’s. It was funny watching the guy convince them to give him the ticket as the women were definitely more interested in the guys than the guys were in them. I especially enjoyed watching the one girl put on a show of shaking out her hair and putting her hairband back on, leaning over and showing off her lovely cleavage, horny women are always fun.

I was not going to take $20 per ticket as you simply never know when you may get lucky with a late big spender. It happens, some of my all-time best deals have been really really late ones especially after the box office has closed. Deals such as I just paid someone $5 per ticket for their seemingly worthless tickets and then Mr Late Drunk Big Spender gives me $250 per ticket as I am the only option. In this case, I was the only option for tickets as the box office had just closed and all the other scalpers had left.

At 9.30pm I walked off telling the guys to have a good night. At this point my only hope was that I randomly got lucky walking home or that the guys would play my bluff and spend some more money. I did not get lucky with anyone showing up late as I headed home but two of the guys chased me down, I was literally about half the way home, a ten minute walk, when they came running up, yelling for me to hold up.

At this time I knew I was going to take their money, it was just a matter of how much I would get from them. They were actually nice charming guys that had graduated from the University of Kentucky and not the usual jerks looking for a deal. Sure, they did the, but what else are you going to do with them dance, but they were not assholes about it. Usually people for some unknown reason will also insult you as they try and buy your tickets for next to nothing but these guys were cool and kept pointing out that they totally understood me trying to get my money back.

After chatting about UK and UNC basketball for a bit, I finally made my move, OK guys, my bottom line and only because you have been nice about all of this, is $50 a ticket. They tried to stick to their guns but one guy finally cracked and offered $30 per ticket. His friend lost it on him but finally said fine, $30 per ticket. I said no and started to walk away, I then stopped, turned around, and said, fuck it guys lets split the difference, $40 per ticket and only because I have enjoyed our conversation, take it or leave it.

It was pretty funny, the one guy was, no way, no way, we have missed half the show and we are only going in to meet girls and we promised each other we would only spend $20 per ticket but the other guy said, fine, and reached for his wallet. After a minute or two of the one guy saying no way, no way, and telling his friend he was crazy, he finally pulled out the money.

After paying me this same guy just started laughing, shaking his head and excitedly telling me, you would have taken the $60, you did not care about the money, you you would have taken the $60, you just wanted to win, I get this, you just wanted to win.

Yes, at that point, it was simply all about the hustle, having fun, winning a tiny little battle over the price of a couple of tickets. I gave them all three tickets in case they wanted to sit with their buddy and then went home. Sure, I won, I got $80 instead of $60 or $40 but it was not much of a win, I lost almost $400 on those three tickets. Such is the life of a ticket scalper.

Deflategate and Tom Brady

I know, I know, you are sick of this story. I am too actually but I just have to get this out of my system so that I can move on.

Does this story really truly matter in the big scheme of life? Of course not, this planet and humanity has much greater issues to confront but I do think it is a perfect allegory for the narcissism, selfishness and triviality of humanity especially in the modern world.

So lets cut to the chase, do I think Tom Brady knew what was going on? Of course. Do I think Tom Brady can truly believe he did nothing wrong? Of course.

Huh, you ask?

Rationalization is one of the great powers of a human being. People do horrible things every day, millions of times a day and rarely does any of these people think they are bad and have truly done something wrong.

One of the great tools of behavior that allows us to rationalize the bad things we humans do is passive-aggression. It allows us to influence other people and have them do things without actually explicitly telling them to do something.

I think you know where I am going with this but this is how I imagine the relationship between Tom Brady and team equipment assistant John Jastremski led to Deflategate.

Tom : Nice to meet you John. I am sure you do a great job for the Patriots. If you ever need something, want me to sign something, just let me know. By the way, I like a softer football, it’s easier to handle. I know there are rules about that kind of thing and I would never ask you to do something to break the rules but I just thought you would like to know that is how I prefer my footballs. I think a softer football will help the Patriots win and I know you will always do your part to help the Patriots, the team that you work for, win. I know you are a smart guy, just figure out a way to get the footballs the way I like them without breaking any rules, I am sure you can figure out some magical solution. Nice to meet you and have a great day John.

Tom : John, sure I will sign a football for your grandfather even though I am pretty pissed those damn balls last week felt like rocks. I would never ask you to deflate a football, that would be against the rules but those balls actually felt like they were over-inflated. You really need to figure out a way to get those damn balls the way I like them.

Tom : John, I am just curious about what you plan to do after you are finished working in the NFL?

John : What do you mean? I hope to work in the NFL for a long, long time, it has always been my dream to make this a career.

Tom : Oh really, I did not realize that, week after week I can barely handle these crappy over-inflated footballs that I get handed in games, I just assumed you did not care about working in the NFL if you do not even care about how your quarterback plays.

Tom : John, I have no idea what happened this past week but I must say I think you have a great career ahead of you with the Patriots and in the NFL. Obviously we both know you would never break an NFL rule but whatever magic you have worked to make these footballs just the way I like them, let me just say, keep it up. They even feel like the ball has been deflated to the perfect PSI even though we both know that is not it, that would not be legal and there is no way for you to actually even do that, all I know is that I am a happy man and I am very happy with you. Keep up the great work John. By the way, you want me to sign a few footballs for you to sell on eBay, I mean to give to your friends?

Then the rationalization sets in, the mind kind of rewrites the memories as needed, and then suddenly we have Tom in a press conference saying, “I don’t believe so” when asked if he is a cheater.

This is what human beings do, we all witness it on a daily basis.

But let’s be honest, is Tom Brady the person you are looking to for guidance in how to live a moral life of great character? Sure, he is very pretty, rich, a heck of a football player and as charming as a two dollar bill but you already know this is not a man you should be looking to when looking for a role model.

Actually, that is exactly the problem, people do look to him as a role model, they want to be rich and married to a supermodel and in the Hall of Fame so they rationalize his behavior for him for their own benefit. The rationalization keeps their silly dream alive and just like a child being taught right or wrong without even knowing it they will copy this behavior when they want something that will make their life a bit better and one step closer to that Tom Brady type fantasy life.

So does this make Tom Brady evil? Of course not, it means he is simply a human being and hopefully one day he will admit to what wrong he has done not only to the world but more importantly to himself. At that time we then can forgive him as we should if we are human beings of any real character.

It’s just that until that happens, he has deflated the integrity of all humanity just a tiny bit and I am not sure how much air we have left in this great ball that is our integrity.

Imagine Dragons at Philips Arena in Atlanta Georgia on 02/26/2014

02/26/14 : Imagine Dragons at Philips Arena in Atlanta : A View From My Office

2014 Academy Awards : My Predictions in All 24 Categories

2014 Academy Awards

All right, all right, all right, it is Super Bowl Sunday for people who really love movies. Because I am one of them and because I have too much time on my hands (actually not true but who needs a life) here are my predictions and my favorites for the 2014 Academy Awards, the 86th Academy Awards.

BEST PICTURE :

Will Win : 12 Years a Slave
Could Win : Gravity
Long-shot : American Hustle
My Favorite : Nebraska

I was convinced that Gravity would win best picture but have since decided that the Academy is going to pick the more important film over the more entertaining film. With that said, I loved Nebraska more than either of those films.

BEST DIRECTOR :

Will Win : Alfonso Cuarón
Could Win : Steve McQueen
Long-shot : Alexander Payne
My Favorite : Alfonso Cuarón

As much as I love Nebraska and as much as the story and writing bored me to tears in Gravity the groundbreaking movie making especially visually (this is a movie, not a book) of Gravity is stunning and amazing. How can you say that and not reward the director?

BEST ACTOR :

Will Win : Matthew McConaughey
Could Win : Leonardo DiCaprio
Long-shot : Chiwetel Ejiofor
My Favorite : Matthew McConaughey

If the Oscar does not go to Matthew McConaughey I am hurting somebody. I was blown away, in shock, in tears, when I saw this movie I thought McConaughey was so good. How can one man in one performance be a total sleazeball that makes you laugh, makes your cry and before its over has you cheering for him as a hero with tears streaming down your cheeks. I think it is one of the best performances in film history.

BEST ACTRESS :

Will Win : Cate Blanchett
Could Win : Amy Adams
Long-shot : Meryl Streep
My Favorite : Meryl Streep

Unlike the rest of the world I was not that excited about the performance of Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine, good, yes, but it just felt contrived to me. My favorite is Meryl Streep but, to be honest, this category does not excite me, even the performance of Meryl felt a bit contrived. But Meryl made me feel more so that is why it is my favorite.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR :

Will Win : Jared Leto
Could Win : Barkhad Abdi
Long-shot : Jonah Hill
My Favorite : Jared Leto

Leto was simply sublime in his performance, like McConaughey I was shocked and surprised that he was just so damn good. Watch the movie and just focus in on Leto, can you find a moment that does not feel true? To be honest, after a few minutes I was thinking, is Jared a transsexual and I just do not know it, it felt that real.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS :

Will Win : Lupita Nyong’o
Could Win : Jennifer Lawrence
Long-shot : June Squibb
My Favorite : Lupita Nyong’o and June Squibb

Lupita’s performance simply breaks my heart, you just have to give the little gold man to her. With that said I loved June Squibb’s performance just as much for exactly the opposite reasons, she was hilarious.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY :

Will Win : Her
Could Win : American Hustle
Long-shot : Nebraska
My Favorite : Nebraska

People think the Her script was groundbreaking, I did not. I thought it just another take on the love triangle story but it seems to be what everyone wants to win. I semi-hated American Hustle as a finished film, I try and separate that from the script. Nebraska was great, subtle, but really good writing.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY :

Will Win : 12 Years a Slave
Could Win : Captain Phillips
Long-shot : Before Midnight
My Favorite : The Wolf of Wall Street

This goes to 12 Years a Slave simply because it is just so damn important. As a writer I am not that impressed with this category this year but I really, really want to believe that The Wolf of Wall Street was a great script that just got mangled by Scorsese.

BEST ANIMATED FILM :

Will Win : Frozen
Could Win : Frozen
Long-shot : Frozen
My Favorite : Who Cares

I do not go to see animated movies, other than the chance to maybe mack on some single moms in the theatre, as a single middle aged man I have no reason to be there, but everyone says Frozen is a lock.

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM :

Will Win : The Great Beauty
Could Win : The Broken Circle Breakdown
Long-shot : The Hunt
My Favorite : The Hunt

Everyone says The Great Beauty is looking like a lock. The Hunt is my favorite as it is the only film in this category I have seen.

BEST DOCUMENTARY :

Will Win : 20 Feet from Stardom
Could Win : The Act of Killing
Long-shot : The Square
My Favorite : Whichever one wins until I get the chance to see them.

I LOVE documentaries but have yet to see any of these. I do know 20 Feet from Stardom was a box office hit and a crowd pleaser so that means it will probably win.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY :

Will Win : Gravity
Could Win : Nebraska
Long-shot : Inside Llewyn Davis
My Favorite : Gravity

You thought you were watching people in space, need I say more.

BEST EDITING :

Will Win : Gravity
Could Win : Captain Phillips
Long-shot : American Hustle
My Favorite : Gravity

Most people do not understand that after the director, writer and actors, editing more than anything is what makes or breaks a film. But editors like writers will never be stars, oh well. With that said I think Gravity wins this one and deserves it.

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN :

Will Win : 12 Years a Slave
Could Win : The Great Gatsby
Long-shot : Gravity
My Favorite : 12 Years a Slave

Should Gravity win this? Maybe, you did feel like you were watching people in space but that seems to also make the design more one note. 12 Years should and totally deserves to win, you felt like you were in that time and everyone looked like they belonged in that time.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN :

Will Win : The Great Gatsby
Could Win : 12 Years a Slave
Long-shot : American Hustle
My Favorite : The Great Gatsby

Everyone looked fabulous in Gatsby but 12 Years was probably the toughest job and may deserve the Oscar. The costume design is totally overrated in American Hustle, I could have costumed that film with a day of searching Salvation Army’s. But man, did everyone look great in Gatsby.

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE :

Will Win : Gravity
Could Win : Her
Long-shot : The Book Thief
My Favorite : Who Knows

I simply do not remember a film this year that makes me feel like the score was another character in the film which is my standard for a great score. So with that I guess Gravity takes it.

BEST ORIGINAL SONG :

Will Win : Let It Go
Could Win : Ordinary Love
Long-shot : Happy
My Favorite : Happy

They say Let It Go is a lock so who am I to argue. Of course, you can never underestimate U2 to win any award but if you are looking for a long-shot to place a bet on, go with Happy. I love this song and never underestimate the power of a positive pop song and hit to snag some votes.

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING :

Will Win : Dallas Buyers Club
Could Win : Jackass Presents : Bad Grandpa
Long-shot : The Lone Ranger
My Favorite : Jackass Presents : Bad Grandpa

I truly believe that Jackass Presents : Bad Grandpa deserves this one but I also believe that at least half of the members of the Academy would be mortified to hear, “and the Academy Award goes to Jackass Presents : Bad Grandpa”.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS :

Will Win : Gravity
Could Win : Gravity
Long-shot : All The Other Ones
My Favorite : Gravity

As big a lock as locks get, back to that you felt you were watching people in space thing.

BEST SOUND EDITING :

Will Win : Gravity
Could Win : Captain Phillips
Long-shot : The Lone Survivor
My Favorite : The Lone Survivor

I really, really wish they would combine best sound editing and mixing in to one category and call it simply Best Sound but I guess the sound people have a strong union. OK, I have made my case. Gravity wins but I thought The Lone Survivor was amazing work, imagine recreating all those gun shots hitting all kinds of stuff with people sliding down mountains and so on and so on.

BEST SOUND MIXING :

Will Win : Gravity
Could Win : Captain Phillips
Long-shot : The Lone Survivor
My Favorite : The Lone Survivor

Read the last category and then replace the word recreating with the word mixing. And then go Google the definitions of sound mixing and sound editing.

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED) :

Will Win : Get a Horse
Could Win : Room on the Broom
Long-shot : Possessions
My Favorite : Really?

I am writing what I have read elsewhere on the Internet. I call it stealing.

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION) :

Will Win : The Voorman Problem
Could Win : Helium
Long-shot : Aquel No Era Yo (That Wasn’t Me)
My Favorite : I Will Get Back To You

I actually enjoy this category and have fantasies of winning an Oscar one day after I make my first short film. Unfortunately I seem to never see the shorts until after the awards show so what you read above is stolen from the Internets.

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT) :

Will Win : The Lady in Number 6: Music Saved My Life
Could Win : Facing Fear
Long-shot : Prison Terminal: The Last Days of Private Jack Hall
My Favorite : The Winner Until I See Them

Again, more plagiarizing on my part but combine old lady who just died with music and the Holocaust and you pretty much have a lock. Did I say, I DO LOVE documentaries.

Enjoy the show and go watch some movies.

2014 Academy Awards : The Best Picture Oscar Goes To…

I am a big fan of movies so I love the Academy Awards no matter how boring the show often gets. I will probably have another post or two before the show on Sunday but for now I figured I would go on and give my take on the Best Picture category.

2014 Academy Awards

Looks like it will be a big year for Gravity, it will probably win, and that sucks. I thought it was great movie making but not a great movie. Turn this story and script in to something on earth and no one is talking about it. The story was predictable and boring, if not for the effects and visuals I would have fallen asleep. (Update : I have since decided 12 Years a Slave takes this one and that is probably for the best.)

But for your entertainment here is my quick take on the nominees, feel free to discuss.

American Hustle : I thought it was a bad comedy, they will be showing this movie at midnight screenings some day with high school and college kids dressing up as their favorite characters and acting out the parts as badly as the actors.

Captain Phillips : solid storytelling, a really good movie, the nomination is their win.

Dallas Buyers Club : pedestrian storytelling with, of course, two of the best performances in movie history. Who knew McConaughey had the talent to be a sleazeball and a hero and make you laugh and cry and simply break your heart all in one performance. His and Leto’s performances are both simply sublime.

Gravity : wake me up after they collect the best picture statue.

Her : a sweet little movie that makes you think just a bit, that’s it, not a best picture nominee.

Nebraska : brilliant, sublime, movie making at its best, on my planet this wins best picture.

Philomena : have not seen it, will before Sunday night (and will update this post), but I am guessing the nomination is the win for them.

12 Years a Slave : a great and very important story makes for a good movie but not a best picture.

The Wolf of Wall Street : wow, I simply want to punch Scorsese in the face. This movie screams potential greatness at the top of its lungs but feels like Scorsese just gave up on it like a kid figuring out he can not put the puzzle together so he gives up and knocks the table over.

Enjoy the show, go see a movie.

Have Facebook? Looking for Love? What The Heck?

Have Facebook? Looking for Love? What The Heck?

Good Waste of 5 Minutes If You Love Movies

Good Waste of 5 Minutes If You Love Movies

Come On People Don’t Be An Idiot

Come On People Don’t Be An Idiot