Oscar 2013 Best Picture Nominees

Oscar has decided to come up with only nine films to compete for Best Picture trophy this year. While most award-giving bodies have unveiled their best movie of the year, The Oscars has yet to name their's come February 24th.

Let's take a look at the nine films that made it to the standard of the Academy Awards and the odds of taking home the gold as we compare these films to nominated films for past years.

1. Amour  - A French-language drama from Austria. The only non-English speaking film nominated, in fact the first since Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon nominated last 2000. Like 'Crouching Tiger', Amour also nominated for 'Best Foreign Film' which is also expected to win in the said category. What makes the film a strong contender is that it's nominated for three other major awards; Best Actress for Emmauelle Riva, Best Original Screenplay and Best Director for Michael Haneke. Only four other films among the list received that type of nominations and for past ten years Best Picture winners emerge from list of films with acting, directing and writing nods.

2. Argo - a rescue movie from director Ben Affleck. Expectations for this thriller to win this year's Best Picture is very high as it won almost all the best picture awards there is. The only disadvantage of the film from winning is Affleck missing on Directing category and the last film recognized by the Academy without directing nod is Driving Miss Daisy and that was 1990. The film also scored a writing nod, a supporting role for Alan Arkin and a couple of technical awards. While these don't necessarily add up, still Argo is a winning piece from Affleck and with best picture trophies it collected, winning The Oscar is not really surprising.

3. Beast of Southern Wild - Grand Jury winner of Sundance Film Festival reaching its ultimate success as a finalist for this year's Oscar Best Film. While Winter's Bone reached the same point last 2011 it failed to win the gold. But with acting nod from amazing young Quvenzhane Wallis, an adapted screenplay and a directing nomination 'Beast' might be the first festival winner to win the Oscar's grand prize. 

4. Django Unchained. This is Quentin Tarantino's third entry as Best Picture finalist following Pulp Fiction and Inglorious Basterds both written by him. With the same gory-style and filled with humor and wit,  Django Unchained might be his first best picture movie. Like Argo, the film is also missing in Directing category, but garnered nods for screenplay and acting award for Christoph Waltz.







5. Les Miserables - Exact ten years ago musical film Chicago won Best Picture and before that Oliver! in 1969. Moulin Rouge tried last 2001 but musical is really not an Oscar movie, at least after 1960s. Surely Tom Hooper's last film The King's Speech won but Oscar is not ready yet to give him another statuette this year. Acting award for Anne Hathaway is a sure bet and it might get some technical awards too but that's should be it.

6. Life of Pi - The only nominated 3D film this year and fourth since Avatar in 2010. This is Ang Lee's fourth Best Picture nominated movie following Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain. This child-friendly movie 'Pi' is like Hugo of last year that ended up with technical awards but it might pull up some surprises too. Chances are really slim that even Avatar didn't triumph a few years ago, but who knows Oscars might favor Lee and go for a 3D film this year.

7. Lincoln - Biopic movie is really an Oscar-prone movie, The King's Speech and A Beautiful Mind are enough proof. The film's boxoffice success helped a lot pushing this Spielberg's latest movie to a strong contender for this year's Oscars. It just has to climb a bit higher enough to knock down Argo though from the looks of it Lincoln is more of a showcase of Daniel-Day Lewis' talent. The movie leads this year with 12 nods including Directing job for Steven Spielberg (and will probably win), Screenplay and a couple for technical categories.




8. Silver Lining Playbook - Rom-com movie shows up rarely in the Oscars as among the best film finalists. Juno in 2008 and As Good as it Gets in 1998 both nominated for most major awards and 'Playbook' is most likely to end up with the same fate. The film seems to be locked in for acting award for its main star Jennifer Lawrence and maybe for director David O. Russell but that's gotta be it.








9. Zero Dark Thirty -the success of The Hurt Locker three years ago made this film a strong contender for this year best film, no to mention that the same people, director and writer made it. Kathryn Bigelow's absence from directing category hurts the movie a lot, and was overtaken by Lincoln and Argo in Best Picture race. The film's theme however is really important for most Americans and Oscars might consider it.




My top 3 movies to win this year's Best Picture are: Argo, Lincoln then Zero Dark Thirty

2012 Movies That I'll Watch In Cinemas

There are hundreds of movies being shown in cinemas a year but only a few of them that really invite you to go to cinemas to watch them. Most of them are just good for your own couch and TV Set at home while others are good for both, others probably just in HBO or local channel or not at all. There are movies that even deserve a second watching (in cinema) which happened to me with Marvel: The Avengers this year. I watched it in IMAX 3D then watched it again with friends in regular screen a week after and I can't wait to get a copy of it in video. Then there is this re-release and 3D conversion of your favorite classic movies which has become the trend for Hollywood films lately like Toy Story/Toy Story 2, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Star Wars and the Phantom Menace, and Titanic and expect a lot more to come. I was able to watch Titanic 3D this year though I'd seen it like over 20 times since 1998 and it was still worth it. 

I just arrived home from watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter which is just the third film that I've seen this year so far. It wasn't crowded inside the cinema and there were hardly no people reacting to the scenes because most of the viewers were lining up for The Amazing Spiderman, I don't have anything against the new spidey movie and I love Emma Stone in it but I think I feel like it's not anymore for me to watch. Maybe because I've adored Sam Raimi's trilogy too much and  I wanted the film to stop from there. It's not that I don't like watching films in cinemas that much, I just would like to make sure that they deserve to be watched in cinemas to start with because they are clearly a lot ways to catch them so make your money worth it. 

It's just July and a lot of great movies are coming up that are worth the admission tickets. Here are the list of movies that I'll for sure catch in cinemas. 

1. The Dark Knight Rises (July 19) - I just literally purchased a ticket online for IMAX screening. There is no way that I'll miss this final film from the Batman Trilogy. I have never liked any superhero movie before like Christopher Nolan's version and I despise the old Batman films. The film starred by Christian Bale, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine, Marion Cotillard, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Liam Neeson. 

2. Total Recall (August) - A remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's 1990 sci-fi action movie of the same title. This time will be starred by Colin Farrell (SWAT, Phone Booth). But my primary reason of watching the film is Jessica Biel which I last seen in her last film A-Team last 2010. She has been my favorite actress since 7th Heaven tv series. Kate Beckinsale also starred in the movie and her husband Len Wiseman directed the film who also directed Underworld 1 & 2 and Die Hard 4. 

3. The Bourne Legacy (August 8) - the fourth movie from Robert Lodlum's Bourne Series. Jeremy Renner has become one of favorite actors since the Oscar Best Picture The Hurt Locker. I admire him for always choosing the right roles and working with great directors. His movies are critically praised and box-office hits which include The Town, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Avengers. The latest spy-film also starred Oscar Nominees Edward Norton (American History X, The Incredible Hulk) and an  Oscar winner Rachel Wiezs (The Mummy, Constantine). Directed by another Oscar nominee Tony Gilroy who has written the first Bourne Trilogy and directed similar films like Duplicity and Michael Clayton. Above all reasons, the film was partially shot here in the Philippines and I couldn't get more excited than seeing our own country featured in a Hollywood film.

4. The Expendables 2 (August) - Whether Sly has not recruited other action veterans successfully or not I'm still going to watch this action film. I enjoyed watching the action scenes of the first movie and was one of my favorite film of 2010. All original casts are back plus Van Damme, Chuck Norris and extended role for Bruce Willis and Schwarzenegger. Sly didn't direct return in director seat for the sequel and has passed on to Con Air director Simon West. 

5. Resident Evil: Retribution (September)  - The fourth and maybe the final film from the series, still starred by Mila Jovovich still fighting zombies and the Umrella Corporation. I have become a fan not because I play the games it's because I have this crazy obsession about zombies and the last film which I watched in 3D kept me hanging all this time so I want to see how everything ends I guess. Still directed by Jovovich husband Paul W.S. Anderson who directed the first film in 2002 and the last film in 2010.  Michelle Rodriguez is also back on the fourth film after her character died on the first film which will add twist to the whole story.  

6. Flight (November) - Two-time Oscar winner Denzel Washington starred in this Robert Zemeckis drama which might receive Oscar nominations because of the release schedule. Washington is the obvious reason why I wanna watch this film but Zemeckis comeback as the director is also one of the reasons why I look forward for the film. This is his first live-action movie after directing three animated films since 2004 (Polar Express, Beowulf, and A Christmas Carol). Zemeckis is an Oscar Best Director winner for Forrest Gump and also directed the Back to the Future Trilogy. 

7. Skyfall (November) - this 23rd James Bond film is probably the most anticipated action movie of the year. I haven't watched any of the Bond films in cinema so I'll make sure that I won't miss this one. Skyfall is Daniel Craig's third film as Agent Bond. 

8. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (December) - Peter Jackson relives the LOTR with another adventure film this time focusing on a Hobbit of the Shrine, Bilbo Baggins. The film is the prequel of the LOTR films which is adapted from another J.R.R. Tolkien novel. Several actors will reprise their roles Ian McKellen, Cate Blanchet, Elijah Wood, Hugo Weaving, Orlando Bloom and Andy Serkis as Gollum. The film is going to be released in IMAX 3D.

9. Django Unchained (December) - Western-drama film from writer/director Quentin Tarantino. A promising cast lining up for the film including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jamie Foxx, Samuel L. Jackson, and Seth Rogen. Tarantino's last film was with Brad Pitt's Inglorious Basterds in 2009 which is one of my favorite movies along with Kill Bill 1 & 2.

10. Les Mesirables (December) - A potential Oscar winner next year from an Oscar winner Best Director Tom Hooper (The Kings Speech). This musical drama starred one of my favorite actors Russel Crowe with Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway.

Other movies that most likely won't be granted a local release but still worth watching in the big screen are Lawless, Robot and Frank, Gangster Squad and Liberal Arts.

The Quest for '1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die (2011 Edition)' - Part 1

            I started sorting out the list of 1001 films along with additional 88 titles (click here for the list of the 1001 films) and only 99 of them I have actually watched and most of them are from the years 90s and 2000s. I have started looking for these titles before but I didn't know what happened and I just completely lost track. So I visited my list again and so far I found 38 titles more which are saved on my hard drive and a couple of them in DVDs that I got on sale a few months ago.  Here are the movies that I have watched from the list so far. (descriptions for the rest of the titles will come soon)

1. A Trip To The Moon (1902) -  a black-and-white short film which can probably be considered as the father of all sci-fi movies. The film running time was just less then 15-mins but it felt like watching a full-length 90-min movie. The film was adapted from Jules Verne's Novel who also wrote Around The World in 80 Days and Journey To The Center Of The Earth. The film was directed by Georges Méliès whose life story was featured in Martin Scorcese's Oscar-nominated film Hugo. (Rating: 5/5)

2. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) - this Walt Disney's classic film doesn't need any description as no kids haven't heard or watched this all-time favorite animated film which I just recently found out as Adolf Hitler's favorite film. (Rating: 5/5)

3 Gone With the Wind (1939)
4 From Here to Eternity (1953)
5 The Godfather (1972)
6 Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
7 Annie Hall (1977)
8 Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
9 E.T.: The Extra-Terestrial (1982)
10 Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi (1983)
11 The Terminator (1984)
12 The Breakfast Club (1985)
13 Back to the Future (1985)
14 Aliens (1986)
15 Top Gun (1986)
16 Rain Man (1988)
17 Batman (1989)
18 Goodfellas (1990)
19 Edward Scissorhands (1990)
20 Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
21 Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
22 Jurassic Park (1993)
23 Schindler's List (1993)
24 Forrest Gump (1994)
25 The Lion King (1994)
26 The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
27 Casino (1995)
28 Toy Story (1995)
29 Braveheart (1995)
30 Seven (1995)
31 Independence Day (1996)
32 Scream (1996)
33 L.A. Confidential (1997)
34 Titanic (1997)
35 Saving Private Ryan (1998)
36 Ring (1998)
37 There's Something About Mary (1998)
38 The Blair Witch Project (1999)
39 Three Kings (1999)
40 Fight Club (1999)
41 Being John Malkovich (1999)
42 American Beauty (1999)
43 The Sixth Sense (1999)
44 The Matrix (1999)
45 Gladiator (2000)
46 Meet the Parents (2000)
47 Memento (2000)
48 Amelie (2001)
49 The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
50 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
51 A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
52 Gangs of New York (2002)
53 The Pianist (2002)
54 Chicago (2002)
55 Kill Bill: Vol. 1 (2003)
56 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
57 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
58 Lost in Translation (2003)
59 The Passion of the Christ (2004)
60 Collateral (2004)
61 The Aviator (2004)
62 Million Dollar Baby (2004)
63 A Very Long Engagement (2004)
64 Brokeback Mountain (2005)
65 Crash (2005)
66 Little Miss Sunshine (2006)
67 The Prestige (2006)
68 United 93 (2006)
69 Children of Men (2006)
70 Pan's Labyrinth (2006)
71 Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (2006)
72 Babel (2006)
73 The Queen (2006)
74 Apocalypto (2006)
75 The Departed (2006)
76 No Country for Old Men (2007)
77 Into the Wild (2007)
78 There Will Be Blood (2007)
79 Atonement (2007)
80 The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)
81 Paranormal Activity (2007)
82 Wall-E (2008)
83 The Dark Knight (2008)
84 The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
85 Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
86 Let the Right One In (2008)
87 The Hurt Locker (2008)
88 The Hangover (2009)
89 Precious (2009)
90 Avatar (2009)
91 Inglourious Basterds (2009)
92 District 9 (2009)
93 Monsters (2010)
94 Black Swan (2010)
95 Four Lions (2010)
96 The Social Network (2010)
97 Inception (2010)
98 The King's Speech (2010)
99 True Grit (2010)

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

I heard about this book a few years back and at first I thought it's impossible to watch all of these films listed because most of them are now hard to find until I read some sites and blogs online that there are actual people who were able to complete the list and some are almost done watching them so I thought I can just do the same. I can start this little quest of mine finishing all these films before dying. It may sound silly but I think it's a good motivation for me to hope to live for couple of years more, I guess. 

To those who haven't heard of it here is the little description of the book from Wikipedia.

1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die is a film reference book edited by Steven Jay Schneider with original essays on each film contributed by over 70 film critics. It is a part of a series designed and produced by Quintessence Editions, a London-based company, and published in English language versions by Cassell Illustrated (UK), ABC Books (the publishing division of Australian Broadcasting Corporation), and Barron's (USA). The first edition was published in 2003; the most recent edition was published in 2011. Contributors include Adrian Martin, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Richard Pena, David Stratton, and Margaret Pomeranz. 

The book is now on its 7th edition which includes latest films like The Hurt Locker, Avatar, and King's Speech. I don't have the actual list on this post but you can go to the website by clicking here to check it out.

The following are the cover of the 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

Janet Leigh of 1960's Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho was featured on the book's first edition released in 2003.The film was nominated for four Oscars including Best Actress for Leigh and Best Director for Hitchcock. The Apartment won the Best Film that year which is also included on this list and its director Billy Wilder named as Best Director. 

   Samuel L. Jackson featured in 2nd edition based from Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction in 1994. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars and went home with one for  Tarantino and Roger Avary for Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. Tarantino was also nominated for directing the film and three acting nomination for lead actor John Travolta, supporting actress Uma Thurman and Jackson for supporting actor. Forrest Gump which won the Best Film that year is also included on the list for this edition including the three other Best Picture nominees,The Shawshank Redemption, Four Weddings and a Funeral, and Pulp Fiction. 

Jack Nicholson from the 1980's Stephen King Shining featured on 2006 edition. The film was not an Oscar-nominee but rather a Razzie finalist for director Stanley Kubrick and actress for Shelley Duval. However the film is certified fresh from Rottentomatoes.com with 88% approval rating from critics and rated as one of the top movies on imdb.com with 8.5 user rating. 

George Lucas' 1977 Star Wars character Darth Vader featured on the 2007 edition. The film was a major world-wide box office hit and was nominated for 11 Oscar and took home 5 awards including Best Visual Effects. Lucas was nominated for Best Director and Best Screenplay. After focusing on just writing two films from the first trilogy, Lucas returned to director seat after 22 years and completed the saga with another trilogy but only his first film and 1983 Return of the Jedi were included on the list.

Harrison Ford's alter ego Indiana Jones was featured in 2008 edition but the film can be no longer be found on the latest edition. 

One of the latest addition on the list is Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight for the 2009 edition. The film shattered tons of box-office records and ended up with $1 billion for world-wide box office gross. Heath Ledger's Joker character  was highly praised by critics and the fans of the film and won an acting award posthumously for the film, as Best Supporting Actor. 

James Cameron's 3D film Avatar was featured on 2010 edition. Cameron broke his record as being the highest grossing film which earned more $2.8 billion and took over Titanic's record. The film was nominated for 9 Oscar awards and won 3 including Visual Effects and Cinematography. The Hurt Locker which won the Best Film that year is one of the ten films added on the list for this edition along with surprised hits like The Hangover and District 9.

Natalie Portman's performance in Black Swan that earned her an Oscar trophy as Best Actress also landed her as the last year's edition cover for the book. The film was not just a box-office success but a critic's favorite as well and earned 5 Oscar nods including Best Director for Darren Aronofsky.

My Oscar 2012 Prediction

A few hours from now, American Academy of Motion Pictures Arts or Sciences (AMPAS) or simply called the Oscar will be recognizing the movies of 2011 from directing, writing, acting to technical achievements. Oscar Award has been an annual gathering of known actors and movie personalities since 1929 and since then it has been dubbed as the mother of all the film awards. For movie geek like me it is just too hard to miss the show or not be informed about the winners. Due to US simulcast I often time miss the live award, but thanks to online blogs and news that feature the result real-time. So without further ado here is my own list of Oscar Winners.

Best Picture is "Hugo"

This is the first Oscar that I was able to watch all the Best Picture Nominated films before the actual award. I took time watching all of them and despite the mixed reviews of critics and movie-sites users I still fine all the nine films nominated worthy of the award (yes even the least favorite Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). Due to other awards given the multi-awarded nearly-silent French film "The Artist" is most likely to run home with the biggest award, but I'd still like Martin Scorsese's Hugo to win. It's because I like the entirety of the film, a real output of Scorsese's passion in film making can be seen. It touches the important aspects of life; purpose, change, love and passion. No other film from the list that has shown what Hugo presented. Here is my ranking of the all the nine films: 1. Hugo 2. Midnight In Paris 3. The Artist 4. War Horse 5. The Help 6. The Descendants 7. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 8. Moneyball 9. Tree of Life

Best Director is Martin Scorsese

Best Actor is George Clooney

Best Actress is Viola Davis

Best Supporting Actor is Christopher Plummer

Best Supporting Actress is Octavia Spencer

Best Original Screenplay is A Separation

Best Adapted Screenplay is Hugo

Best Animated Film is Rango

Best Foreign Film is A Separation

Best Cinematography is War Horse

Best Editing is The Artist

Best Art Direction is The Artist

Best in Costume Design is The Artist

Best in Makeup is Albert Nobbs

Best in Original Score is War Horse

Best in Original Song is The Muppets

Best in Sound Mixing is Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Best in Sound Editing is Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Best in Visual Effects is Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Hugo Is A Precious Gift From Martin Scorsese

At last for quite a while now a movie has finally inspired me to write a full review again. I just couldn't let all the positive thoughts about this film pass me by without sharing it. I'm talking about a splendid creation of a movie legend Martin Scorsese called Hugo. Unlike his other movies, Scorsese took another path of making magic in film creation and he did it with dashing style, something panache as the word even uttered in the movie itself.

The story centers on a little boy Hugo Cabret (starred by Asa Butterfield) as he finds the message of his deceased father (Jude Law) from a broken automaton. He spends his day searching for the missing piece of the machine while winding the clocks on the train station where he lives and met Isabelle (Chloe Grace Moretz), the granddaughter of a toy shop owner George Milies (Ben Kingsley). Hugo and Isabelle soon discovered something extraordinary that lead to his father's work.

Besides the mystery of the automaton, the movie features another great piece of work that made the whole thing more than a masterpiece. It's the story of a person behind the acclaimed 1902 film A Trip To The Moon which I actually watched several months ago. I appreciate the classic film more after watching this movie and made me admire Scorsese even more. Everything in this film will really linger, each character even the small ones will be remembered as it served its purpose, big or small just like what the whole message of the film is all about. Just what Isabelle said in the film "Thank you for the movie today, it was a gift", Hugo is a precious gift that we always be thankful of, and for hundred of years the magic of this film will always remain.