Tuesday 25 January 2011

Oscar Nominations 2011 List and the Razzie Nominations

Hello my blog. Don't feel as if I've been abusing you lately, I haven't been on the internet properly in a few days down to lots of revision. I have an exam tomorrow that I will spend all evening and night revising for no doubt but I had to come to blog about the Oscar Nominations!
Instead of me posting the full list of nominations click here to see the list.

James Franco and Anne Hathaway are the hosts for the 83rd Academy Awards


I personally think this year the nominations are mostly good choices, most predictable, a few that I don't think should be there but most of which I haven't been lucky enough to see, for example I haven't yet seen The Fighter, True Grit, Tangled, due to them not being released in the UK yet. Then others like, The Kids Are All Right, How To Train Your Dragon, Winter's Bone, which I unfortunately missed at the cinema.

Lets start with the big categories.

Best Actor 
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King's Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours


Out of the 5 films mentioned, I've only seen 3 to which I thought Jesse Eisenberg was good in The Social Network but James Franco and Colin Firth were amazing and incredible and with the results from The Golden Globes I wouldn't at all be surprised if Colin Firth wins it. He deserves it so much and I think everyone agrees.

Best Actress
Natalie Portman  – Black Swan
Annette Bening  – The Kids Are All Right
Jennifer Lawrence  – Winter's Bone
Michelle Williams  – Blue Valentine
Nicole Kidman  – Rabbit Hole

I'm a bad egg. I've only seen one of these films and that was Black Swan last Friday. To which, Natalie Portman was flawless, beautiful and amazing. The other 4 are sure to do well as I've heard such good reviews from all four- especially Winter's Bone which I am dying to see so much.

Best Director
David O. Russell – The Fighter
Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
David Fincher – The Social Network
Joel And Ethan Coen – True Grit
Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
Only three of these five I've seen and I can't call it. The King's Speech is fantastic, brilliant but Darren Aronofsky's development with Black Swan is stunning. And how good is The Social Network? Fantastic most of us would say and for David Fincher to create a film about Facebook and make it more than brilliant deserves an Oscar surely? But then the Coen Brothers and David O.Russell could win too and just..uggghhh I can't even go on..

Unfortunately I can't and don't have time to go through every category so for now I'm going to just mention 3 other important ones for me.

Best Animated Film
Toy Story 3
The Illusionist
How To Train Your Dragon


Now, I am setting myself a challenge to definitely watch How To Train Your Dragon by February 27th. I will watch the film because I wanted to see it in the cinema but never got the chance. (It has nothing to do with my Jay Baruchel obsession I once had). If I do watch it very soon I will watch The Illusionist too and make my decision but I have such a strong feeling Toy Story 3 will win it. Almost definitely just because nearly everyone's seen it, everyone loves it But you never know..

Best Score
How to Train Your Dragon – John Powell
Inception – Hans Zimmer
The King's Speech – Alexandre Desplat
127 Hours – A.R. Rahman
The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross 


My love for Film Scores has increased hugely over the last 3 or 4 years and everyone knows my love for Hans Zimmer. The Inception Score is brilliant and for anyone who hasn't listened to it, youtube some of the tracks now, especially 'Dream Is Collapsin', 'Half Remembered Dream', and if you can't listen to the whole Soundtrack, just listen to 'Time' and the last 30 or so seconds. The impact these seconds has on me is phenomenal. (Though you might have to see the film to see why in case you haven't)
But Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross with The Social Network score was just as good. 127 Hours has an impressive score and I downloaded all the tracks from it, but for me I think it's a competition between Inception and The Social Network. But again, obviously they are all worthy of winning the Oscar, hence why they are nominated.


Sadly I don't have to time to go through everything.
But here's the noms for Best Picture:

Black Swan
The Fighter
Inception
The Kids Are All Right
The King’s Speech
127 Hours
The Social Network
Toy Story 3
True Grit
Winter’s Bone


I've only seen 6 of these :( Hope to see them all soon but that's a bit of a stretch for me with exams and school work, but I'll try my best to see some.
I can't call it, no one can. I can't even tell you who I want to win because I don't know.
I guess, it's out of Inception or The Social Network. But honestly, who knows.


So that's the nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards this year. I will post all the winners after and will be sure to give my view. I just know that I'm more excited than ever and cannot wait to see everyone's lovely faces, beautiful dresses and happy smiles.


The 83rd Academy Awards will be held of 27th February 2011.


Sorry for the long and boring post.
I will be sure to blog again soon with something less boring and more exciting very very soon.






PS: If anyone didn't see, here are the nominations for this years Razzie awards
Cannot wait. I hope so much that Twilight wins and they go to collect their award.
There is a slim chance of this happening but let's all remember Sandra Bullock's marvellous speech for her Razzie last year because of All About Steve

She then went on to win Best Actress from The Blind Side, so it anything it's good luck!
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Friday 21 January 2011

Black Swan (2011)






Running Time: 108 Minutes
Directed By:
Darren Aronofsky
Starring: Natalie Portman, Mila Kunis, Vincent Cassel, Winona Ryder
Screenplay: Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John J. McLaughlin
UK Release Date: 21st January 2011

Quick Plot: Nina Sayers lives the perfect life for a ballerina, according to her over protective ex- ballerina Mother. Taking over Beth for the role of the Swan Queen, Nina has to show her director, Thomas, that she can dance the White Swan- innocent, fragile and everything she knows to be. But the title also requires to dance the Black Swan- dark, rebellious and sinister. When replacement member to the ballet company, Lily arrives, Nina's thirst for being the perfect Swan Queen starts to turn very psychological

Review: 
I'm still not fully sure what I think of the film. At the end of the film I turned to my cousin and said the words, 'What the f- just happened?' and not in the good way like I did with Inception.
Yet I didn't rate this film the 3 Stars I was going to instead raised it to 4 because it's beautiful, stunning and Natalie Portman has won me over in possibly one of her greatest roles I have ever seen her play. I've never seen a film like Black Swan, so I think it's left more of a mark on me than it will on most people because I'm not use to getting this mucked up and scarred. It's not getting the whole 5 out of 5 because I think the story messes up often and I don't mean it messes up the audience. I think there are some gaps that needed have been filled with something more and it's definitely without a doubt not for everyone.
Natalie Portman was fantastic nonetheless with no faults at all- but I am slightly biased as Miss Portman has been one of my role models since the minor age of 4 from when I watched Star Wars I: Phantom Menace at the cinema. Mila Kunis was marvelous and perfect and has a big future ahead of her now after this role
This is the first film I've seen from Darren Aronofsky and can see that he's a dedicated Director with beautiful ideas. Once he finished Film School, he knew he wanted to make two specific films: One about Wrestling (The Wrestler 2008) and Ballet. The ballet and choreographer in this film is beyond gorgeous and I think Natalie Portman did a great job with her ballet skills. Losing 20 pounds and training every day for more than 3 months, it's clear that the role meant a lot to Natalie. The story meant a lot too, after work on it for 10 years. After watching her acceptance speech more than about 4 times now, I must agree that Natalie's Golden Globe is thoroughly deserved. I have to agree with Claudia Winkleman on Film 2011 on Wednesday night when she said that the camera angles really get you 'behind Nina so that you feel uncomfortable and claustriphobic', because you really do see everything for Nina and you yourself start to loose your mind. I don't want to give anything away in this review because I hate spoilers so I'm not going to go into detail of the plot, but there are difference scenes with mirrors, trains and many other scenes which are perfect and so different to the normal side of films you often see. Ok I'm blabbering now and this review is hardly good because it's so hard to explain. I guess you have to see it to know what I mean..



All this has made me realise it's not a bad film per say. But I think I got far too much excited than I should have and then maybe I would have enjoyed it more.
I recommend Black Swan to anyone who likes Ballet- be aware Ballet is merely the little story that keeps the plot together. Anyone who likes to be left wondering what they've just seen and having their mind played with would enjoy this a lot. But it's probably not for the faint hearted and anyone who doesn't like awkward scenes when watching a film with family a friends (you know the scenes I mean)

Black Swan official trailer 1 HD


And in case anyone hasn't seen and would like to watch Natatlie Portman's acceptance speech for her Golden Globe last Sunday here it is:
Notice her kiss with boyfriend is the dancer for the Prince in the Black Swan. Notice her gorgeous dress and adorable baby bump. And notice her dorky laugh ♥
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Monday 17 January 2011

Golden Globes 2011

I'm not really meant to be on here, I should be revising but I needed to post about this.
So last night was the 68th Annual Golden Globes at the Beverly Hilton hotel

Because I have no time I've copied the winner list from @empireonline

MOTION PICTURE CATEGORIES

BEST MOTION PICTURE, DRAMA
The Social Network

BEST MOTION PICTURE, MUSICAL OR COMEDY
The Kids Are All Right

FOREIGN LANGUAGE PICTURE
In A Better World, Denmark

BEST DIRECTOR
David Fincher, The Social Network

BEST DRAMATIC ACTOR
Colin Firth, The King's Speech

BEST DRAMATIC ACTRESS
Natalie Portman, Black Swan

BEST ACTOR, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Paul Giamatti, Barney's Version

BEST ACTRESS, COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Annette Bening, The Kids Are All Right

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale, The Fighter

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Melissa Leo, The Fighter

ANIMATED FILM
Toy Story 3

SCREENPLAY
Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network

ORIGINAL SCORE
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Social Network

SONG
‘You Haven't Seen the Last of Me’ (music and lyrics by Diane Warren), Burlesque

TELEVISION CATEGORIES

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A SERIES, MINISERIES OR MOTION PICTURE MADE FOR TELEVISION
Chris Colfer, Glee

BEST ACTOR, TV MUSICAL OR COMEDY
Jim Parsons, The Big Bang Theory


I've only mentioned 2 categories from the Television Categories because they are the only ones I care about- but above that are all the winners from the Golden Globes for Motion Pictures.

I haven't been able to witness a lot of the show, but I've watched the Ricky Gervias opening monologue. Chris Colfer and Jim Parons's Winning Speech. I've seen lots of Andrew Garfield and Jesse Eisenberg Bromancing clips. I've seen most of tha suits and dresses and everyone looked so gorgeous and flawless.

I'd like to give my opinion in the fact that I'm totally over the moon about The Social Network winning 4 awards! The Screenplay, the Directing and the film is just wonderful, but the Soundtrack was my favourite and as a matter of fact I'm listening to it now.
I'm even more happier about Natatlie Portman and Colin Firth winning the Globe for Best Dramatic Actor and Actress.
Christian Bale won best Supporting Actor which I hope he deserves.
I haven't yet seen The Fighter or Black Swan, but I'm hoping both performances are worthy of their award. (Though I'm sure they are)

Just a quick post on lots of pictures of the people and their beautiful dresses for everyone to see!

James Franco and Anne Hathaway at the Golden Globes 2011.

Jim Parsons with his Golden Globe 2011.

 
Natalie Portman, her globe and her baby bump at the at the Golden Globes 2011.

Kaley Cuoco at the Golden Globes 2011.


Andrew Garfield at the Golden Globes 2011. (looking handsome I must say)


Because I really have to go and I can't put much else and I didn't watch all of the globe awards, I'll just quickly mention this is all spelt and worded wrong as I couldn't re read it through!
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Saturday 15 January 2011

The Kings Speech (2011)


Running Time: 118 Minutes
Directed By: Tom Hooper
Starring: Colin Firth, Helena Bonham Carter, Geoffrey Rush, Guy Pearce
Screenplay: David Seidler
UK Release Date: 7th January 2011 
 
Quick Plot: It's 1925 and Prince Albert is speaking at Wembely Stadium in front of a great audience but with one problem, his lack of confidence with his stutter. With the sad passing of the King, a reluctant older brother and many countries to rule, Prince Albert seeks help with his speech from Australian Therapist, Lionel Logue. 

Review: Well my quick plot was terrible, it's hard to put the plot line into words. The King's Speech has many earned award nominations including Best Picture at tomorrows Golden Globe Awards. I already had many high expectations of this film which I was correct about, all the performances in The King's Speech are spectacular but most of all Colin Firth's portray of Prince Albert is fantastic. 
Queen Liz and King George
One of the first things I said to my friend after the film had finished is that it's a good 'bromance' film. Prince Albert befriends Lionel Logue and while at first the relationship has it's ups and downs, you find yourself totally taken by the relationship between them. To which Geoffrey Rush was tremendous too. I'm slightly biased in the sense that I admire Helena Bonham Carter a lot, but I did think she did a great job of portraying the Queen Mum in this and in some emotional scenes her performance teamed with Firths was remarkable. 
Bertie and Albert
The funny thing I have to mention is that my friend and I were the only people in the screen under the age of about 20. Everyone else was older, but that made the experience of watching this film much better because everyone laughed at the jokes in the film which I think not many people aged 16 would today. I thought the film was so very well written, more emotional than I thought and just excellent. I only gave it 4 stars in MY review because I don't think it's for everyone. There's many people that if they saw this film they would think it was a waste of time which is certainly is not. I'm not going to say I hope it wins Best Picture tomorrow because I would be lying because I want The Social Network to win, but if it does win, it's fully deserved and I'll be happy for Tom Hooper and Colin Firth.
Right that's the end of this really, quite pointless review.

 The King's - Official Speech Trailer HD


I hope to do more soon and hopefully I see a bad film soon, cause this string of really good films makes me look like I just think every film is good.
If not I'm going to have to review Skyline or even Racing Stripes.
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Friday 14 January 2011

Two new official images: Andrew Garfield as Spider Man and Chris Evans as Captain America

I had a dream about 2 weeks ago an image of Andrew Garfield as Spider Man got released.
Then set pictures of Andrew and Emma Stone were released and I thought I was half physic.
Turns out I'm fully physic and this beauty was released.
It's beautiful- no other words.
As all my friends and most of my followers know I'm basically in love with this film even though it's not even 1/4 of the way through filming.








I thought it couldn't get much better and this image of Chris Evans was released as Captain America.
I've been lucky enough to see Chris Evans in the flesh and my goodness he's a beauty.
I'm also excited for this film, but I'm a sucker for everything Superhero to be honest.


The untitled Spider Man Reboot is due for release: 4th July 2012 (UK)

Captain America: The First Avenger is due for release: 29th July 2011 (UK)
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Tuesday 11 January 2011

Orange Rising Star Nominations for BAFTA Award 2011

Hi blog. This isn't a review of a film, just a post about something to do with film. I apologise, but as I haven't been to the cinema since 127 Hours all I've done is revision for upcoming exams so I thought I would take a break to write about The Orange Rising Star award for the BAFTA's this year.

Orange Rising Star Nominations for BAFTA Award 2011


Last year, my vote for Jesse Eisenberg didn't make it and Kristen Stewart won instead. Which is perfectly fine she's a good actress (if she won it for Adventureland, but no she wont it for Twilight instead) it's cool..I'm over it..no honestly I am she kind of deserved it. But I'm more excirted for this year because the nominations are Actors which I've seen lots of their work.

To my delight all 5 nominee's are Actors who I adore, I either fancy them like mad or I've enjoyed their performances over the last few years too.
For anyone who knows me personally or knows me a little bit online knows I have an extreme fondness of Andrew Garfield and Gemma Arterton. Both are two of my favourites Actors and I adore their films they've starred in. My admiration of Aaron Johnson, Emma Stone and Tom Hardy is still pretty strong but I had compare it to Andy and Gem- so I had to let them go.
Now it's taken many hours to get my head together and decide on who to vote for one and after much debate which myself I've finally voted.
My vote might not be that important, but for me it's a peace of mind knowing who I would like to win. I guess I could have used two mobile numbers and voted for each one, but that would have cancelled out each vote and there would be no point.
I wanted to take this time on my blog to mention the greatness of both Andrew Garfield and Gemma Arterton and write about why I adore them both so much.

Andrew Garfield
Andrew first caught my eye in  The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) and unfortunately it being quite awful, he was one of the only good things about it. I thought he was the cute British boy in in it and I was angry at Lily Cole for not fancying him because I thought he was completely gorgeous. He was confirmed to play Spider Man in the reboot about a 1/4 of the way through 2010 and I was over the moon because I had heard lots of positive feedback that he was a good Actor and remembered him from Dr Parnassus. Then I saw him in The Social Network, Sugar Rush (TV) and a short film called I'm Here in 2010. The Social Network was in my top 5 favourites of 2010 because of it's brilliance, some of which was all down to Andrew.
Andrew as Eduardo in The Social Network (2010)
He stars in Never Let Me Go due for release in a few weeks in the UK, which I'm excited for mostly because I'm reading the book and am thoroughly enjoying it. Andrew Garfield is also a complete gentleman, he's super talented- he's proved he can play many roles already. He's too exceptionally gorgeous. He's been nominated for many other awards already from his previous performances, most of which are his role of Eduardo Saverin in The Social Network and Tommy in Never Let Me Go.

Gemma Arterton
Gemma Arteron as Tamara Drewe
Gemma Arterton is one of my top ladies ever. She's one of my role models and she's an inspiration to me. She's starred in Prince Of Persia, St. Trinians, Clash Of The Titans, The Disappearance of Alice Creed, Tamara Drewe and I'm sure she's going to have a great future. Even though Clash Of The Titans was a complete let down, a disaster of a film, Gemma made it worthwhile and I thought she played her character of Io very well. Though it's been brought up she plays lots of similar roles from Clash Of The Titans and Prince Of Persia- Tamara Drewe and The Disappearance Of Alice Creed prove that theory wrong- though I have yet to see both of them, I've heard good reviews from many people and have faith in their review.

It was such a  tough choice in voting for this-you wouldn't believe.
Especially if you know me well, you would know the effect it has had on me picking out of two of my favourite people in the whole entire world. But I've voted now and I hope either one of them wins to be totally honest.

Emma Stone, Tom Hardy and Aaron Johnson
But I should mention, Aaron Johnson, Emma Stone and Tom Hardy have had a good year too. If you haven't seen any of the films I've listed above, at least watch one of these: Kick Ass or Nowhere Boy (starring Johnson), Easy A or Zombieland (starring Stone), or Inception and Bronson (starring Tom Hardy)

When the winner is announced, if I'm not busy during that week, I'll do a post about the result which should be short.

Hope everyone is well and having a nice week! :D
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Saturday 8 January 2011

127 Hours (2011)

Running Time: 94 Minutes
Directed By: Danny Boyle
Starring: James Franco, Amber Tamblyn, Kate Mara, Clémence Poésy
Screenplay: Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy (Based on the true story "Between A Rock And A Hard Place"- Aron Ralston
UK Release Date: 7th January 2011

James Franco on set of 127 Hours
Quick Plot: Aron Ralston finds his arm stuck between a rock and the Utah Canyonlands National Park after taking an adventure without telling anyone where he's going. With his arm crushed by a boulder, stuck down a 65 ft wall, little water supply and no food, Aron realises he will have to face death- unless he figures something out quick.

Review:
Well, this is slightly embarrassing. My first ever review and I've given it 5 stars! It looks like I'm one of them people who thinks every film is good and always rates them high (which I use to be until I watched more and more films growing up!).
  This is the first film I've seen at the cinema in 2011 and it is one I have waited for, for many months now so I already had many high expectations with this film especially because of Danny Boyle and James Franco. I got too excited but was positive the film would be good with great reviews circlating.

One of my favourite scenes of the film
  Empire and Total Film both gave 127 Hours 4 Stars which is brilliant because being big film reviewers, they have to be honest which they are. But the only reason  127 Hours got 5 Stars from me is because of the fantastic Soundtrack and Editing. The opening scenes are so fast and quick cut, the scenes were all bright and fast montages that went exactly with the soundtrack behind it was brilliant. It gets you right into the story and you learnt a lot about Aron Ralston I thought in the opening scenes. The story takes you into the plot straight away and before you know it, you're holding your hand over your mouth because a massive boulder has landed on James Franco's right arm.

There's been tons of reports of people having to be taken out of the screen or even fainted while watching because of the 'scene' that I don't think I'll go into detail of. Though it's well known what happens, I don't want to ruin it for anyone when I say, there was a part of me that was covering my eyes at only one point, but I think I was actually meant to cover my ears instead. I was quite happy that I wasn't at all put off by the horror of Aron's decision and if anything, thought the sound and editing on that scene was particularly fascinating. 
Director Danny Boyle on the set of 127 Hours
Obviously with the success of Slumdog Millionaire everyone knew Danny Boyle's next film was going to be a masterpiece which is no doubt is. But let's not give Mr Boyle all the credit here, James Franco connected so well to the character of Aron Ralston, maybe because Franco and the real Aron Ralston created a bond over filming, but nonetheless, Franco's performance is definitely Oscar Worthy and seeing as I've only seen two of the films in the Best Actor category, James has got it for me with his dedication to the role.(Sorry Jesse Eisenberg.) The parts of the film in particular I found the best by Franco were the scenes of him starting to loose 'it', realising the state he's in and looking back on his life. Not many people have been in that situation I don't think, so for James Franco to make you actually feel for him, feel that he's genuinely on the brink of death to me was one of the best parts of the film. Another point I should make before I forget are the beautiful scenes of the landscape. On more than one account there are lots of long shots of the Utah Canyonlands National Park and the view is simply stunning.



Right that's enough of my rambling, this is ever so boring and rubbish, but if you've read it- thanks very much!
I'll leave the first trailer below but a link to the second trailer because I don't want to give too much away.

127 Hours - Official Trailer HD
 
127 Hours - Trailer 2 HD





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