Review: Arthur Christmas (2011)

Starring:
                  James McAvoy, Hugh Laurie, Jim Broadbent, Bill Nighy, Imelda Staunton, Ashley Jensen, Will Sasso, Ramona Marquez, Marc Wootton, Iain McKee, Joan Cusack, Robbie Coltrane, Michael Palin, Dominic West, Andy Serkis, Miggie Donahue, Laura Linney and Eva Longoria.

Directed By:
                         Sarah Smith.

Review: Puss in Boots (2011)

Starring:
                  Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Zach Galifianakis, Billy Bob Thornton, Amy Sedaris, Zeus Mendoza, Constance Marie, Guillermo del Toro, Bob Joles, Robert Persichetti, Jr. and Mike Mitchell.

Directed By:
                         Chris Miller.

Screen Actors Guild Award 2012

So the Screen Actors Guild or SAG awards happened this morning with the whole predictable THE HELP sweep but with one big surprise, Jean Dujardin won Best Actor for The Artist for playing the character of George Valentine. It comes as a big surprise as George Clooney was suppose to win it for The Descendants. I knew they'll go for the much deserved The Help for Ensemble, Lead Actress and Supporting Actress followed by Christopher Plummer - Beginners but Dujardin win was a big shock.

I honestly doesn't want the same to happen at the Oscars because i honestly think George Clooney deserves it even though deep within my heart, i am rooting for Brad Pitt.

Below is the list of winners:

Directors Guild Award 2012

And the winner of Director's Guild Award 2012 (Movie) is:

Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist

Yes he won finally, no stopping now i guess??? (sarcasm) to be honest i don't see any other movie worthy of an Academy Award this year than The Artist. I saw it recently and it is a classic, glad that it came in a year when every other anticipated "Oscar Movie" turned out as a disappointment. The closest thing to The Artist or in the way of it is Hugo which even i thought might get the DGA but it didn't.

Oscars Nominations 2012 - Biggest Snubs

So i am making this list of the top 10 biggest Oscars 2012 nominations snubs according to me only.

Oscars Nominations 2012 - The Good and the Bad

                 So in this post i am just going to share what i think are the good and the bad surprises, i'll be individually posting about each category throughout these weeks till the Oscars. I am mainly going to point out the nominations that really were something i wsn't expecting rather than the most buzzed ones that everyone knew will get through somehow but the good surprises. And the most shocking nominations in the bad section.

The Good:

1. The Tree of Life getting nominated for both Best Picture and Director came to me as a happy and delightful surprise as i wasn't expecting it to happen but it definitely was one of my Oscars Wish that came true. Happy to see Academy giving respect to the person and a work that actually deserves it. Also Malick was snubed by DGA but he still got the nod which is great.

Oscars 2012 Nominations VS My Predictions

Lets see how i did predicting the Oscars.

Best Picture:

The Artist - correct
The Descendants - correct
The Help - correct
Hugo - correct
Midnight in Paris - correct
Moneyball - correct
The Tree of Life - correct
War Horse - correct
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Wrong

Extremely Loud wasn't even in my list anywhere.

Academy Awards Nominations 2012

Best Picture

The Artist
The Descendants
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Help
Hugo
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
The Tree of Life
War Horse

Review: We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)

Starring:
                  Tilda Swinton, John C. Reilly, Ezra Miller, Jasper Newell, Rocky Duer and Ashley Gerasimovich.

Directed By:
                         Lynne Ramsay.

My Academy Awards 2012 (Nominations) Prediction

                Well, being just a day away from the announcement of 2012 Academy Awards Nominations, i thought i will post my predictions. Note that all the nominees are placed in a preference manner, like a movie on 5 might be replaced by one of the alternates, i will put 2 or 3 Alternates again in the same way. At the end of every category i will also write a 'What I Want' which will be the nominees i want to see instead of what i think are going to get nominated. I am not quite sure about the technical awards but still i will try and i wont be doing the Short Movie, Short Documentary or Short Animation prediciton which will leave us only 21 categories overall so, here are my predictions.

Best Picture

1. The Artist
2. The Descendants
3. Hugo
4. Midnight In Paris
5. The Help
6. Moneyball
7. War Horse
8. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Producers Guild Awards 2012

Well the Producers Guild announced their winners today with no surprises, but still.

Best Picture: The Artist
Best Animated Picture: The Adventures Of Tintin

Review: Certified Copy (2011)

Starring:
                  Juliette Binoche, William Shimell, Jean-Claude Carrière, Agathe Natanson, Gianna Giachetti, Adrian Moore, Angelo Barbagallo, Andrea Laurenzi, Filippo Troiano and Manuela Balsimelli.

Directed By:
                         Abbas Kiarostami.

Review: Meek's Cutoff (2011)

Starring:
                  Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Tommy Nelson, Will Patton and Rod Rondeaux.

Directed By:
                         Kelly Reichardt.

Review: Another Earth (2011)

Starring:
                  Brit Marling, William Mapother, Jordan Baker, Robin Lord Taylor, Flint Beverage, Kumar Pallana and Richard Berendzen.

Directed By:
                         Mike Cahill.

Review: The Future (2011)

Starring:
                  Miranda July, Hamish Linklater, David Warshofsky, Isabella Acres, Joe Putterlik, Angela Trimbur, Mary Passeri, Kathleen Gati, Erinn K. Williams and Oona Mekas.

Directed By:
                         Miranda July.

BAFTA Nominations 2012

Well the British Academy or BAFTA announced its 2011 nominations for the movies and with no surprise, The Artist, TTSS and Hugo leads. Some interesting and some shocking choices i must say. They snubbed Midnight In Paris and The Tree Of Life but thanks for the love to Drive and We Need to Talk About Kevin. While Carey Mulligan nominated for Drive instead of Shame.

See the complete list of nominees below:

BEST FILM

THE ARTIST
THE DESCENDANTS
DRIVE
THE HELP
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

Golden Globe Awards 2012

             So finally the day came when Golden Globes 2012 hosted by Ricky Gervais took place, i'll be watching the recorded version in just few minutes. As far as i saw, many celebrities looked very good, stunning and a few disasters too.

             Read the full list of winners below but i'll comment a but about them here. So we all knew that The Descendants and The Artist will win Best Picture Drama and Comedy/Musical and were confident about it. I thought Scorsese had the best chance and it looked like he was going to win (which he did) but i still though Hazanavicius will. Happy for the actors too, everyone but i thought Viola Davis deserved it but we all knew the love for Streep from HPFA and also the character she played. i don't understand how Tintin won over Rango? Also the best Song should have went to The Help!

Best Picture (Drama)
The Descendants

Review: The Ides of March (2011)

Starring:
                  Ryan Gosling, George Clooney, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, Max Minghella, Jennifer Ehle, Gregory Itzin and Michael Mantell.

Directed By:
                         George Clooney.

Critics Choice Awards 2012

               Well here we go, Critics Choice Awards were today and i was really excited to see the winners. The ceremony happened when i was asleep obviously, i really want to see it now but anyway. I am really glad for all the winners, not much shocks or anything but there were some few of them.

             The Artist was destined to win and so were the cast of The Help. I thought Shailene Woodley deserved the young actor/actress award and no one else. Feeling confident about Mr. Plummer's future with the Oscars. Congratulations to all the winners.

Below is the full list:

Best Picture
The Artist

Review: Dolphin Tale (2011)

Starring:
                  Harry Connick Jr, Nathan Gamble, Ashley Judd, Kris Kristofferson, Morgan Freeman, Cozi Zuehlsdorff, Winter, Ray McKinnon, Austin Stowell, Jim Fitzpatrick, Austin Highsmith, Ashley White, Kurt Yaeger, Marc Macaulay, Rus Blackwell, Michael Roark, Juliana Harkavy and Richard Libertini.

Directed By:
                         Charles Martin Smith.

For Your Consideration 2012

               Okay so now that Academy Awards nominations announcement is coming near and with these other awards, not the critics one becuase most of the times they acknowledges the most deserving nominees but the Guild awards happening i am seeing some notable snubs that are really bothering me so here are some of my For Your Considerations.

Directors Guild Awards Nominations 2012

Well now this is a big surprise that David Fincher got in the nominees for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo which you may have guessed at a point but it still seems a surprise. I am not against him, he is one of my favorites but i think directors like Terrence Malick and Bennett Miller deserved that spot the most followed by Refn. Still, whatever but i really hoped Malick would make it but they movie is being snubbed big time. I didn't thought either Spielberg or Taylor will make it.

Below are the nominees for DGA 2012:

National Society of Film Critics Awards 2012

Now this is what makes me want to be a Film Critic when they actually appreciate the good cinema and award the actual worthy of the awards. Still, Melancholia winning best picture is nothing but a big surprise, something i didn't expected. Dunst won too which really makes me want to see her getting nominated for Oscar too. As for the rest of them, perfect winners. This National Society Of Film Critics has some of the best and most respected Critics so yes they always go for the best.

Below are the winners, the ones with most votes:

BEST PICTURE
*1. Melancholia – 29 (Lars von Trier)
2. The Tree of Life – 28 (Terrence Malick)
3. A Separation – 20 (Asghar Farhadi)

Golden Globes 2012 My Predictions

                      So the Golden Globes 2012 are just a few days away, though i don't much follow or look forward to these awards but they still provide us with a little bit early look of Oscars as well as some entertainment factor involved. I don't take them very seriously and in past, some of their choices were ridiculous. Well below are my predictions for every category without much explanation.

Best Motion Picture (Drama)

The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

My Prediction:

The main competition is between The Descendants, The Help and Hugo but War Horse may surprise. Eventually if i have to choose 2 movies, the winner is going to be either THE DESCENDANTS or HUGO.

Review: Margin Call (2011)

Starring:
                  Kevin Spacey, Paul Bettany, Jeremy Irons, Zachary Quinto, Penn Badgley, Simon Baker, Aasif Mandvi, Mary McDonnell, Stanley Tucci, Demi Moore, Ashley Williams and Al Sapienza.

Directed By:
                         J.C. Chandor.

Review: The Debt (2011)

Starring:
                  Helen Mirren, Sam Worthington, Jessica Chastain, Ciarán Hinds, Tom Wilkinson, Marton Csokas, Jesper Christensen and Romi Aboulafia.

Directed By:
                         John Madden.

Writers Guild Awards Nomination 2012

Oh yes i am really happy that Writers Guild nominated Bridesmaids screenplay, congratulations to Kristen Wiig and her screen writing partner for this win. Original Screenplay has all the nominees that are comedies, 50/50 being more of a dramedy. As much as you hate the fact that some of the major Oscar contenders weren't eligible per WGA rules including The Artist, Drive, Shame etc which is a sad thing but that happens. Still for me, i appreciate them nominating much of my favorites and basically very quality screenplays.

Below are the nominations:

Review: Warrior (2011)

Starring:
                  Tom Hardy, Joel Edgerton, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison, Frank Grillo, Kurt Angle, Jake McLaughlin, Noah Emmerich, Kevin Dunn, Denzel Whitaker, Maximiliano Hernández, Erik Apple, Vanessa Martinez, Nate Marquardt, Anthony "Rumble" Johnson, Josh Rosenthal, Bryan Callen, Sam Sheridan, Justin Berg and Rashad Evans.

Directed By:
                         Gavin O'Connor.

Review: Martha Marcy May Marlene (2011)

Starring:
                  Elizabeth Olsen, John Hawkes, Sarah Paulson, Hugh Dancy, Brady Corbet, Christopher Abbott, Michael Chmiel, Maria Dizzia, Julia Garner and Louisa Krause.

Directed By:
                        Sean Durkin.

Review: Tyrannosaur (2011)

Starring:
                  Peter Mullan, Olivia Colman, Eddie Marsan, Samuel Bottomley, Paul Popplewell, Sian Breckin, Julia Mallam, Natalia Carta, Ned Dennehy, Sally Carman, Paul Conway, Lee Rufford, Piers Mettrick, Archie Lal, Fiona Carnegie, Robin Butler, Makira Steele, Imdad Miah, Andrew Milburn and Paddy Considine.

Directed By:
                         Paddy Considine.

Producers Guild Award Nominations 2012

Now this is a big surprise when Bridesmaids, along with The Girl With Dragon Tattoo and The Ides Of March suddenly gets nominated for Producers Guild. I mean i am happy for all of them but not for Harry Potter, i really thought it had a chance. And why did they nominated Cars 2? Critically panned one of the worst and still nominated?

Darryl F. Zanuck Producer of the Year Award in Theatrical Motion Pictures:

Online Film Critics Society Awards 2012

Now this is great where all the winners are someone you really want to win. The Tree Of Life won 5 awards here including Jessica Chastain for supporting which is my choice for the category. Really great winners.

Best Picture:
The Tree of Life

Best Director:
Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life

Worst, Overrated and Overlooked Movies of 2011

Top 10 Worst Movies Of 2011

                  Now there have been a lot of bad movies, absolute worst movies and disappointments this year. Earlier this year, all you could see or mostly you could see were movies that looked so good from the previews but actually ended up being awful. I saw those movies only that were either a sequel to a movie that i have seen before, starring an actors or actress that i like or simply a movie that i just happened to watch. So in my worst movies of 2011 list i am only going to include the movies that i myself have seen but there are far more worst ones out there that i never even dare to watch, most of them are the ones released in the past month or two.

So here is the list in ascending order with some brief description of why i think its the worst movie of the year:

10. Scream 4