Oscar Predictions...

Image borrowed from Screenrant.

This is my first time blogging about the Oscars. In previous years I’ve sat back and waited for the results to turn up on the morning news, but this year I thought it was time to take a stab and guess who might win some of the awards.

There is no doubt that The Kings Speech will sweep the board, but there is some hope for Inception and True Grit.

I’ve made my predictions with a mix of guesses and people who I think should win.

Anyway, please find my predictions below:
Best Film - The Kings Speech
Actor in a leading role - Colin Firth (or Jeff Bridges)
Actor in a supporting role - Geoffrey Rush
Actress in a leading role - Natalie Portman
Actress in a supporting Role - Hailee Steinfeld (or Helena Bonham Carter)
Animated - Toy Story 3
Art Direction - Guy Hendrix Dyas (Production Design); Larry Dias and Doug Mowat (Set Decoration), Inception
Cinematography - Danny Cohen, The Kings Speech
Costume Design - Jenny Beavan, The Kings Speech
Directing - Tom Hooper, The Kings Speech
Documentary Feature - Exit Through the Gift Shop
Documentary Short Subject - No Idea so going to say Sun Come Up
Film Editing - Tariq Anwar, The Kings Speech
Foreign Language Film - Biutiful
Make Up - Adrien Morot, Barny’s Version
Music (Original Score) - Hans Zimmer, Inception
Music (Original Song)- We Belong Together" Music and Lyric by Randy Newman Toy Story 3
Short Film (Animated) - Day & Night
Short Film (Live Action) - Another guess - Wish 143 as I heard an interview about it the other day.
Sound Editing - Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague, Tron Legacy
Sound Mixing - Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick, Inception
Visual Effects - Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips, Alice in Wonderland
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - The Social Network, screenplay by Aaron Sorkin
Writing (Original) - The King’s Speech, screenplay by David Seidler

What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

If you want to see some predictions from some great bloggers, check out these guys:
HeyUGuys:http://www.heyuguys.co.uk/2011/02/27/2011-oscar-predictions/
Kelly Aylse @ The Film Obsession:http://the-film-obsession.blogspot.com/2011/02/kellys-oscar-award-predictions.html
Diegetic Sound:http://www.diegeticsound.com/2011/02/oscar-picks-2011.html
Eternity of Dream:http://eternityofdream.blogspot.com/2011/02/ultimate-oscar-predictions.html

What happened to fun?

The other evening while I sat there waiting for Never Let Me Go to start (review coming soon) the trailer for Sucker Punch came on. The girl next to me told her friends that it looked rubbish...but I sat back and thought, wow this looks good!


A film about a group of girls trying to escape from their reality buy living in this dream world, battling dragons and soldiers with massive guns and skimpy outfits, what is there not to love about it?

Which got me to thinking. How depressing the last couple of months have been in movie land?

Ok, ok before you start. The Kings Speech was amazing, I cried and laughed, but still it was a serious film. True Grit had a great story and acting, but it was still hard going. Chatting to friends and reading reviews revealed that Black Swan is another scary and depressing piece. Never Let Me Go made me feel quite emtpy inside!

I know there has been a few films that have tired to lighten the mood, but with little success. I mean, I really didn't want to (and thank god I didn't have to) sit through The Dilemma and I didn't get around to seeing Morning Glory, which might have lifted the mood.

I mean, This is one of the darkest points of the year. Most of us who haven't been able to escape the grey and cold UK are suffering from S.A.D. And I know we are in awards season, with the Golden Globes, BAFTA's and the Oscars praising some truly great masterpieces, can we not have some fun please?

After seeing the trailer for Bad Teacher today, I saw that there was light at the end of this tunnel. This film is going to amazing, with Cameron Diaz back to her best since The Sweetest Thing, I think.
Also, more than The Hangover 2, I'm really looking forward to Bridesmaids, which could be amazing.

With this in mind, I'm thinking, "roll on Spring and Summer!" Bring us some films to make us laugh! It's time for the fun times (and films) to begin!

Review - True Grit

True grit is a great film, a good story, some supurb acting and amazing cinematography. I'm not usually a big fan of westerns in general, but this one was great. Either am I a big fan of the Cohen brothers after their last couple of films which I found really hard to get into. But, they got it right with True Grit!

After seeing Jeff bridges in tron, it's nice yonder him do some propper acting and play an amazing character. Matt Damon was great too, he usualy seems a little dead behind the eyes, but you can really see his talent in these films. Hailee Steinfield should be proud for such doing a great job for her first major Hollywood picture!

Even though I did enjoy the film, I'm not sure of it is really as good as the King's Speech, which had me laughing and crying throughout, so not convinced that it lives up to it's Oscar hype.

Anyway, a great film that makes me want to go and watch some westerns!

4 stars

Review - Remember Me.

To be honest, I’m still trying to decide why I wanted to see this film. The trailers made it look ok and I mean, I do love the the Twilight films...mmm

Anyway, I’m going to state it now that I wasn’t a great fan of this film:
1. It took me about 25mins to get into, I know that isn’t as long as Last Kiss, but still, that is a while.
2. Robert Pattinson acting was a little off. He seemed like he was trying sooo hard not to be Edward Cullen. His character cracked in parts of the film and the soppy, strong, frown-y vampire teenager just came out.
3. Pierce Brosnan seemed to have a very wierd accent.
4. What was with the story? It seemed to be a love story, showing connections that ended up with the lead character getting killed in the Twin Towers disaster, which I was not expecting. The basis seemed to be that it was all about being remembered as a person. But a person who touches others, but doesn't do anything significant. There was lots of little story lines, that were never that, deeply explored and just sat there.
5. What is it with films trying to make out that all students are quirky, closeted, sulky individuals who have no sense of life.

In conclusion, I really wasn’t a fan of this film. It was trying to hard to be something and ended up being nothing at all.

I give it 0.5 stars.

Oscars - Ones to watch...

It's been quite interesting getting into the Oscars buzz this year, it's something I've never done before. I was actually quite surprised to find out I've watched most of the films in the top nominations. Some of them I had missed, but have planned to catch up on in the next couple of months.

So these are the films that I'm going to be keeping an eye on:

The Kings Speech - as you would have read, I have seen this film and bloody loved it! If you haven't seen it, it would be something that I would recommend. I think it will walk away most of the awards this year, but who knows.

Black Swan - Quite looking forward to seeing this at some point in the next couple of weeks. Heard mixed reviews, but quite excited.

The Kids are All Right - A film I missed when it was out. Quite looking forward to the DVD/Download, so defiantly one to catch up on. It's won Golden Globes and been nominated for a few Bafta's..must be good right?

Inception - Loved this film, hope it wins something, even though it hasn't got many nominations.

The Social Network - One that I did catch in the cinema, thought it was good, not sure if it is Oscar worthy though.

Toy Story 3 - One of my favourite films of 2010! Big winner!

True Grit - Wasn't sure when I first saw the trailer, but I think it will be awesome. Its on my list to see when released.


These are the ones I won't be watching:

The Fighter - I'm not a fan of boxing films, I couldn't watch Rocky.
127 Hours - Watching a film about a man who cuts his own arm off...no thank you.
Winters Bone - Wasn't sure from the trailer...could be convinced.


I will be making some predictions nearer the time...watch this space!

Review - The Kings Speech.

From Filmfetish.com

I know that this film has had a lot of hype recently. Colin Firth winning a Golden Globe, the film being nominated for a grand total of 14 Bafta’s, four nominations for the Screen Actors Guild Awards, another win at the Producers Guild Awards and with the Oscars on the way I think this film could be a the film of 2011.

I mean, my mum has also seen it and loved it! She liked it soo much that she is even heading back to the cinema to see it again!

I have to say, this is a great film. I don’t know much about this period in British history, but after spending Christmas watching Upstairs Downstairs on the BBC, I had a brief idea of what was going on. It made me want to find out more about this iconic period.

At moments, the film was making the whole cinema laugh out loud. At others, I found myself with tears rolling down my face. You felt really engaged with the story with the amazing British cast bringing the whole thing to life in such a great way. Colin Firth plays King George VI exceptionally well and Helena Bonham Carter brings new life to the Queen Mother. Even Ramona Marquez (from Out Numbered fame)was brilliant, you were waiting for her to be Karen at points though.

So if you get the chance, go an see this great British masterpiece, it will make you proud to be from this great nation.

I give it 5 stars

Quick Little Dinner...Chicken, cheese and mushroom pasta.

I know the picture isn't very representative of the food that I made, but it was bloody delicious!

Anyway, at this time of year, I am trying to save the pennies! So, I’ve been doing as much cooking as I can at home and making food to take to the office for lunch (It's amazing how much you can save by not spending £5+ a day on Lunch.) Also, being a busy bumble bee, I haven't got time to create a feast every night. I want to spend my evenings letting my head relax and not spent in the kitchen.

Over the weekend, I put some of the culinary skills to the test and tried to use what was left in my fridge. It's amazing what you can do when you only have a couple of ingredients to work with.

So, if you fancy trying it. Here is the recipe for chicken, cheese and mushroom pasta..<

Pasta
1 clove of garlic
2 chicken breasts - one per person you are cooking for
Half a tub of mushrooms - add more, less or none at all
Tub of soft cheese
Olive oil

1. Slice up the garlic, mushrooms and chicken.
2. Put a teaspoon of olive oil in a frying pan, once hot, start to fry the garlic
3. After about 1 min add the chopped chicken to the pan
4. While this going on, put your pasta on to boil and leave to cook for the recommended time
5. Once the chicken has been cooking for about 6-7 mins, add the mushrooms to the pan
6. Let the chicken, mushrooms and garlic fry until you are happy that the chicken and mushrooms are cooked through
7. About 3-4mins before the pasta is finished, add the the soft cheese to the pan with the chicken, mushrooms and garlic
8. Stir this until the cheese melts
9. Drain the pasta
10. Once the cheese is melted, add some salt and pepper and serve with the pasta

Very simple and filling dinner. Doesn't take long to make and you can enjoy it watching your fav TV program!