Oscar Movie Review: "A Few Good Men" (1992)

Image Source

Movie: "A Few Good Men"
Year Nominated: 1993
Director: Rob Reiner
Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hours, 18 minutes
Did It Win?: No.

Two marines, Lance Cpl. Harold W. Dawson (Wolfgang Bodison) and PFC. Louden Downey (James Marshall), stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, are accused of murdering a fellow Marine named PFC. William Santiago. Despite the request of Internal Affairs Special Agent Lt. Commander JoAnne Galloway (Demi Moore) to defend the accused marines, a young naval lawyer Lt. Daniel Kaffee (Tom Cruise), who has a history of plea bargaining, is assigned to defend them instead. As this seems like an open and shut case for the prosecution, Kaffe is initially focused on striking a plea deal, but Galloway has her own theories and believes the marines were acting under orders to give Santiago a "Code Red." After Dawson and Downey claim that is in fact what happened, their statement convinces Kaffee to take the case to trial. Kaffe now has to find a way to prove it and convince the jury.

A couple of days ago, we reviewed "Anatomy of a Murder" for Oscar movie month and mentioned that, while it was a fine movie, the courtroom drama genre had been executed better by other films since then. "A Few Good Men" is a perfect example of what we meant when we said that. This film is a fantastic military courtroom drama that, like many other court case movies, is not a whodunit. The audience knows who purported the crime from the beginning. In this case, we are aware that Dawson and Downey did in fact attack Santiago, which lead to his death. It also isn't kept a secret that they were ordered to do so and that certain facts are being covered up. The greatness of this film comes from watching the characters on screen and their interactions with one another, as well as the defense attorneys' struggles in finding ways to get around the cover-ups and to prove their clients were acting under orders. The military has its own set of rules, this is no secret, but how far we're willing to know the truth is a different matter entierly. Since they operate within their own code, in this film, it all comes down to always following orders versus listening to ones own true moral compass, even if it means getting into trouble by disobeying said direct orders. The ideas and themes presented in this movie are just as relevant today as they were in 1992.

So much of this film is anchored on good dialogue and strong performances from its cast, though the details of the movie can be somewhat predictable. Tom Cruise is great in this film and invokes a good balance between wonderful passion and carefree, charming arrogance. His quibbles with Demi Moore are really something and she is good in her own right as the morally driven and idealistic Galloway. As has been said a million times before, what really pushes this movie over the top are Cruise's interactions with Jack Nicholson, who plays Col. Nathan Jessup, the commanding officer at the Guantanamo Bay marine base. You can't talk about "A Few Good Men" without talking about the absolutely brilliant performance of Jack Nicholson. His intensity is scary as the career military man, who is passionate about his job and goes about it in the best way he knows how. He believes everything he does is for the greater good of not just his unit, but his entire corps, his career, his country, and even his God. He believes that the security he provides as a military man makes him a patriot, even if it means sacrificing the health and safety of one of his own men and being an all around asshole, and he will do whatever it takes to provide that safety. He hits every note perfectly and though there are many great performances in the movie that have more screen time than he does, Nicholson completely overshadows everyone else. His testimony scene at the end of the film is legendary and his performance alone is full of iconic, quotable lines. In the end, this movie still gives us goosebumps every time we watch it.

My Rating: 9/10
BigJ's Rating: 10/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.6/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 81%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

Oscar Movie Review: "Bonnie and Clyde" (1967)

Image Source

Movie: "Bonnie and Clyde"
Year Nominated: 1968
Director: Arthur Penn
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 51 minutes
Did It Win?: No.

Bonnie Parker (Faye Dunaway) and an ex-con named Clyde Barrow (Warren Beatty) meet and start a life of crime together, robbing many banks and stores. After a short time, they add a few members to their gang and increase their crimes to murder and kidnapping as they continue to evade the police in order to keep robbing banks.

America has always had an almost obsessive fascination with outlaws and criminals, especially those in the early part of the 20th century in the Great Depression era. There is almost a poetic folklore surrounding criminals like John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson, "Pretty Boy" Floyd, and of course, Bonnie and Clyde themselves. The media certainly had a hand in creating that folklore, especially with a movie like this one. Films about criminals often romanticize versions of their lives of criminal activities and paint them in a relatively positive light. We wouldn't go as far as saying their circumstances glorify the criminal lifestyle since thye are constantly on the run, having to evade police, and are forced to stay in run-down or abandoned houses just so they don't get caught. In the case of "Bonnie and Clyde," though filmmakers show that being a criminal isn't the best thing to be since it isn't all that glamorous, the people themselves are certainly glorified. They show Bonnie and Clyde robbing banks and letting customers keep their money like they are attacking big businesses, but in reality, they often knocked over rural markets and gas stations and even murdered several police officers, as well as civilians. There is one scene where a kid yells "I have been following you in the papers!"as if the duo were celebrities whose virtues needed to be extolled. The filmmakers also felt is was necessary to make Clyde sexually impotent, which seems unlikely based on the account of one of their gang members. We're not entirely sure what their reasoning in implying that Bonnie and Clyde had no physical relationship was, but we figure it was only added to drive drama between the two, and/or in an effort to either garner sympathy for them or to simply humanize them. Needless to say, they took a lot of liberties with their story as filmmakers often do, but in this case, it just didn't do it for us all the time.

This is another one of those films that was groundbreaking at the time of its release. It had a strong depiction of graphic violence, which actually seems tame by today's standards but was not common back then. In a historical context, it's rather important to allow filmmakers to start to push the boundaries in terms of violence, since this film eventually paved the way so that, almost 30 years later, "Casino" could show Joe Pesci put a guy's head in a vice and squeeze it until his eyeball popped out of his skull. Even some 45 years later, the hubbub that was caused when a man got shot in the face in "Bonnie and Clyde" is small potatoes compared to another Best Picture nominee, Quentin Tarantino's alternate version of WWII in "Inglorious Basterds," where a movie theater full of nazis and nazi supporters burns to the ground in a blazing inferno. So, thanks "Bonnie and Clyde" for your addition of groundbreaking violence. As far as entertaining stories go, this isn't the most enthralling film ever. The fact that a film broke new ground almost 50 years ago doesn't mean its story stands the test of time today, especially since the shock factors of those groundbreaking achievements have since lost their effect. All of the mundane and dramatized details really only serve to get audiences to the very end of the movie, the ambush scene, which is still by far the best and most iconic part of the film and is such a spectacular sight even today that it surely had to have been jaw-dropping at the time. I dropped my jaw even today, what a wonderful ending to the movie. This ending doesn't carry the entire film, though, and the rest of it apart from some decent performance by Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway is only fine, but nothing special.

My Rating: 6/10
BigJ's Rating: 7/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.9/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 90%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?

Movie Review #223: "The DUFF" (2015)

Movie: "The DUFF"
Ticket Price: $12.50
Director: Ari Sandel
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 1 hour, 99 minutes

Image Source

Bianca (Mae Whitman) is your average high school senior who enjoys hanging out with her best friends Jess (Skyler Samuels) and Casey (Bianca A. Santos). One evening at a party, Bianca's neighbor and childhood friend Wesley (Robbie Amell) informs her that she is a DUFF, or, Designated Ugly Fat Friend, to her two prettier best friends. The DUFF is someone who is more approachable and the person that others can pump for information about her more attractive compatriots. This changes Bianca's whole outlook on her life and she doesn't want to be a DUFF anymore. She makes a deal with Wesley: she will help him pass science if he helps her be the girl guys want, not just the approachable gateway. Madison (Bella Thorne), the hottest and meanest girl is school, doesn't like Bianca hanging out with her on-again off-again boyfriend Wesley and does everything she can to make Bianca's life hell. 

ALLISON JANNEY IS TAKING OVER THE WORLD!!!

When we first heard the concept and saw the trailer for "The DUFF," we must admit, we feared the worst. It sounded like a horrible movie placing a strong emphasis of superficiality, and we all know that in high school, this can be deadly. When we finally sat down to watch the movie, we have to say, we didn't hate it! Despite its name and its emphasis, it turned out to be your basia teen comedy that tries to convey a message about accepting who you are. In not being the first film to do so, it borrows from many other movies that came before it. There is a little bit of "Can't Buy Me Love" mixed with some of "She's all That" and a dash of "Revenge of the Nerds," plus some sprinkles of "Easy A" and a big heaping spoonful of "Mean Girls." Put 'em all together and you get "The DUFF". Mae Whitman, who is actually in her late 20's, could pass for a high school student being that she is 5 feet 1 inches tall. Knowing her from both "Arrested Development" (her?) and "Parenthood," I was looking forward to seeing her step into a more substantial film role. Her character Bianca, the DUFF, loves horror films, is a really loving person with a lot of intelligence and is an off the beaten path oddball. Sounds like anyone to you? *points to self* As Bianca, she is able to garner some laughs and displays an attitude that just right to fit the part. We must emphasize that, regardless of what the acronym sounds like, Mae Whitman is in no way fat or ugly, and the movie clarifies in its first few scenes that being fat or ugly isn't required to be a "duff," and even people like Tom Brady (their example) is someone else's DUFF (I'm looking at you, Gronkowski, you sexy, sexy beast). Beyond Whitman, Bella Thorne, who plays "that boy" in "Blended" portrays a really good bitchy character! Pretty much everything we have seen her in, she has been at least a little bitchy and that's probably because of her age (she is one of the few people in the film who is actually high school aged). Her character Madison is kind of one-dimensional jerk without much screen time. In fact, she only exists in the movie to serve as Bianca's antagonist and to be rude and nasty to her. Like we said, though, while she plays this part just fine, she's no Regina George. Robbie Amell, Bianca's childhood sort of friend and neighbor, is decent as Wesley. Wesley is a stereotypical dumb jock/"bro" type of guy, but manages to get in a few laughs with some pretty stupid jokes. Amell definitely does not look high school aged, but this isn't really a glaring knock on the film since most TV shows and movies about high school feature actors much older than 14-18. There are some decent supporting roles from Ken Jeong, who plays the more low-key, far less obnoxious character we prefer to see him play. As we have mentioned in movie reviews before, when he acts like a normal, awkward character, we enjoy him a lot more, and it's not until his "wacky" and "zany" voices come out that we begin to dislike him. Allison Janney plays Bianca's mom, who channeled the sadness from her divorce into becoming a motivational speaker. Unfortunately, she also always gives her daughter advice in catchphrases, and until the end of the film, they lack any kind of true mother/daughter spark. Romany Malco is critically underutilized as the school's principle. You could have cast any two "hotter" young actresses to play Jess and Casey and it wasn't until I scrolled up on this very review that I learned their names.

The biggest thing this film has going against it is its plot. While it's not a bad movie by any stretch, the plot is even more than entirely predictable. Audiences can see the end coming a mile away. With the plot in mind, "The DUFF" doesn't do anything truly new to distinguish itself as this generation's 'high school experience' comedy. The only difference between "Can't Buy Me Love" in the 80's, "She's All That" in the 90's, "Mean Girls" in the early 2000's and this film is the age in which we live when it was made. When I was at the tail end of my high school experience, cell phones and even the internet weren't as prevalent as they are today, and we sure as hell didn't have the internet on our phones! BigJ didn't even get a cell phone until we started dating seriously! This is the one place where this film separates itself from its predecessors and really stands out, its integration of social media and cyber-bullying as ways of perpetuating the age-old tweens making fun of other tweens problem. We also like how this movie mentions right at the beginning that high schools aren't fragmented into cliques like they show in other movies. The lines are blurred between groups of friends within a school now, which is also what BigJ and I both knew to be true in our high school experiences (of course, there are always exceptions to this, but generally speaking). In the end, "The DUFF" tries really hard to be the next "Mean Girls," but ends up just short of its perfection and brilliance. Even though it has a good message, eventually, this will be another movie in a long line of pretty fun but pretty forgettable teen-centered comedies.

My Rating: 6.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 6/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 64%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?

Oscar Movie Review: "Moonstruck" (1987)

Image Source

Movie: "Moonstruck"
Year Nominated: 1988
Director: Norman Jewison
Rating: PG
Running Time: 1 hour, 42 minutes
Did It Win?: No.

Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello) has just proposed to his girlfriend Loretta Castorini (Cher). Loretta doesn't really love Johnny but is a widow in her late 30's so she accepts. Before they are married Johnny must fly to Sicily and visit his dying mother. While he's gone, Johnny asks Loretta to invite his brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage) to their wedding for him since he and Ronny haven't spoken in five years. Loretta agrees, but upon meeting Ronny and spending just a short time with him, they quickly fall in love. She tries to break it off with Ronny knowing she doesn't want to hurt Johnny, but her feelings may be too strong. 

Anyone who says Cher didn't deserve her Best Actress trophy for her role in "Moonstruck" can kiss my grits.

I grew up with "Moonstruck" in my blood. Hell, do you know what an eggy in the hole/egg in a basket is? My mom would call them "Moonstruck Surprises" because that's what Olympia Dukakis was making in the film! I still look forward to watching it every few years or so because it just puts me in a such a great mood. I absolutely adore this movie and don't care who knows it. Sure, it's sort of corny and a little bit cheesy, but the chemistry between and performances of both Cher and Nicolas Cage are so wonderfully delightful. Cher, a widowed 37-year old living in her family's house, has a large, loud Italian family who are always in each others business. Graying hair and not in love, she agrees to marry Johnny Cammareri, played expertly by Danny Aiello, a sweet, kind man who her father dislikes because he's a "crybaby," but she's not getting any younger. You really get the sense based on Cher's portrayal that Loretta is almost trapped in her life, stuck living at home and without many prospects. Her views on romance are jaded as she feels like she is cursed when it comes to love. On the way out of town to see his dying mother, in a last ditch effort to make peace with his brother Ronny, Johnny asks Loretta to call and invite him to their wedding. From the second they are on screen together, you can tell that Nicolas Cage's Ronny, who is still relatively crazy in this movie, is smitten with Cher's Loretta. Between the full moons and an opera date, Loretta and Ronny fall in love, and though it's sort of sordid, their story together still manages to be charming and more sincere than the relationship between Loretta and Johnny. In between their blossoming love, we also get a look inside the love of Loretta's parents, Loretta's grandparents, and other extended family members and friends who bicker and argue and do or say things they might regret, but always come back around to happiness and mutual respect with one another. Olympia Dukakis is also fabulous in this movie as Rose, a woman who has seen better days in her romantic relationship with Loretta's father, Cosmo, who is cheating on her with that two-bit hooker Mona. Desperate in her own way, Rose knows something is going on behind her back, so she does the only thing she knows how: she prays. Eventually, her strength is shown and we see that it's not always what the man of the house says and does that goes.

Though this is one of those "big family" types of romantic comedies with a boisterous New York feel, "Moonstruck" is still unique in its own way. As we mentioned above, some of its themes and dialogue might be cliche or corny from time to time, but when added to a stellar cast, a great story and a ton of one-liners that I try to incorporate into my vernacular whenever possible, you have the recipe for a fantastic, unforgettable love story that I like much more than BigJ.

My Rating: 9/10
BigJ's Rating: 7.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

Oscar Movie Review: "The Greatest Show On Earth" (1952)

Image Source

Movie: "The Greatest Show On Earth"
Year Nominated: 1953
Director: Cecil B. DeMille
Rating: NR
Running Time: 2 hours, 32 minutes
Did It Win?: Yes.

A struggling circus, determined to stay in the black, signs a new headlining act known as The Great Sebastian (Cornel Wilde). Sebastian is a bit of a ladies man and starts to cause drama behind the scenes with former headliner Holly (Betty Hutton). The head of the circus Brad (Charlton Heston) has to do his best to keep things running smoothly so the show can always go on. 

Have you ever wanted to know how the circus is run?....no?... neither did we, but you will certainly get a detailed look into the day to day lives of circus folk in "The Greatest Show on Earth." How good the movie is depends directly on your love of it and/or how badly you want to acquire knowledge of the goings-on of a circus with an emphasis of the behind the scenes. Sure, there are acrobatics and animals, but most of this movie focuses on the drama behind the scenes and it's mostly boring as hell. A voice-over tells how the people involved load and unload animals on a train and how they roll out the big top, as well as how they drive spikes into the ground. This voice-over drones on and on about the ins and outs of the circus ad nauseum as if someone in 1950 asked "please tell us in very slow, boring detail every single thing that happens at a circus!" and then Cecil B. DeMille proceeded to make a 2 hour and 32 minute long movie about it...oh wait, that's exactly what happened! Really, when you think about it, the opening sequence of "Dumbo" shows the same thing except in much less time and in a much more entertaining manner. 

Sure, there is a minor story in this film that mainly revolves around the love triangle between Sebastian, Brad and Holly, as well as a small professional rivalry between Sebastian and Holly, which helps kindle the aforementioned romance. Beyond this romance, there is a little mystery about the past of a clown named Buttons, played by Jimmy Stewart, which gets brought up every hour or so in an effort to keep this drudgery interesting. There is also a brief but major plot point about Brad and a scuffle with a small-time criminal who wants to hustle people on the circus midway. Apart from these three or so things, the rest of the film's run time is filled with circus acts: clowns tumbling, trapeze artists, animal tamers, little people, big people, etc. The director could have easily cut at least 45 minutes to an hour out of the film and would have been able to tell the same story just as effectively, if not more so. But, determined to make this movie his way, DeMille wanted to put the circus element at center stage (pun intended). What we are left after his artistic vision is said and done is a 150 minute over-bloated commercial spectacle and product placement for Ringling Bros. Barnum and Bailey rather than an actual interesting and enthralling film. The biggest slap in the face to the viewer is that this spectacle managed to win Best Picture! This leaves us wondering, nay, knowing that it was because of its sheer grandeur because it certainly doesn't hold up very well today, especially with the many controversies about the circus that have come to light since the time that this film was made.  

My Rating: 5/10
BigJ's Rating: 5.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 6.7/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 44%
Do we recommend this movie: Meh.

Oscar Movie Review: "Ordinary People" (1980)

Image Source

Movie: "Ordinary People"
Year Nominated: 1981
Director: Robert Redford
Rating: R
Running Time: 2 hours, 4 minutes
Did It Win?: Yes.

A family is trying to find ways to cope after their youngest son Conrad's (Timothy Hutton) suicide attempt. Conrad is, in turn, trying to deal with depression from the guilt he carries over the death of his older brother. 

More like "(Not So) Ordinary People," amirite??

BigJ and I watched this movie several years ago and we distinctly remember disliking it a lot. When we saw it was going to come off of Netflix in a couple days, we decided to give it another try and I am really glad we did. This is a deeply personal and heartfelt story that deals with the serious subject matters of both survivor's guilt and suicide. It is extremely emotionally moving and even gut-wrenching at times as we understand and empathize with the pain that this family has had to deal with after the loss of a son/brother. Timothy Hutton is excellent as Conrad and took home the much deserved Best Supporting Actor trophy for his role. The only thing that is odd and sort of confusing to us is that it is a supporting role accolade, and while Donald Sutherland plays his father, Hutton is clearly the main actor and the leading part in the film. The vast majority of the story focuses on him and his guilt, him after his suicide attempt and his attempt at trying to return to normalcy, as well as his relationship to and with his parents. His father Calvin is played by the fabulous Donald Sutherland, who is a kind man and wants to understand his son and do all he can to help him. Though it is obvious that he may coddle him from time to time, we as the audience believe that Calvin wants the best for his son, even if it means including him when he'd rather not. His mother, Beth, played wonderfully and tragically by Mary Tyler Moore, is a distant and cold person and it even seems that she dislikes her son Conrad from time to time. Even if she does love him, she is at least uncomfortable around him. When they are in the same room together, the tension rises and the level of awkwardness is palpable to us as the audience watching them try to have even a minor exchange with one another. Moore is able to exert this distress and the sense of being uncomfortable so beautifully, yet we feel bad for how she is reacting to an already bad, sad and stressful situation. Beth seems more concerned with the family's image and their social status than she actually does about actual people and her family. Every single emotion she projects to other people, whether on the phone or in person at a party, is all a facade to hide her feelings as she tries to convince all of their friends that they are just ordinary people. In a way, the title of this film is breathtakingly poetic. After experiencing such tragedy, Calvin, Beth and Conrad will never be without the sorrows of what they have gone through, and over the course of the movie, we slowly see each character begin to unravel, revealing their true thoughts, feelings and emotions. This is one of the most intimate films I think I have ever seen. After it was all said and done as the credit were rolling, I turned to BigJ and said, "I am so confused as to why we didn't like this movie the first time we watched it." His reply was, "maybe we have been through enough pain in life to understand it better now." Maybe he is right.

BigJ also feels like the movie was a little slow moving, but I do not agree. I think all of the elements come together just right to make a well crafted, engaging, flawlessly executed and heartbreaking movie. Robert Redford, the director of this movie, made a true masterpiece here.

My Rating: 9/10
BigJ's Rating: 9/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.8/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

Movie Review #222: "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" (2015)

Movie: "Hot Tub Time Machine 2"
Ticket Price: $12.50
Director: Steve Pink
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 33 minutes

Image Source

A few years have passed since the guys changed their futures with their hot tub time machine. Lou (Rob Corddry), who is perpetual asshole, has  made a lot of enemies. One night at a party, Lou is shot in the genitals, and in attempt to save his life, Nick (Craig Robinson) and Jacob (Clark Duke) try to take Lou back in time to prevent his  assassination. However, they wind up in the future in the year 2025 on an alternate timeline and have to solve Lou's murder.

Holy shit, ladies and gentlemen....we have now seen a movie that has literally made us dumber.

The first "Hot Tub Time Machine" was fine enough. We know a lot of people like it, but to us, it was an average to slightly below average comedy with only moderate laughs. Basically, it's as middle of the road as comedies come. It didn't exactly tear up the box offices when it came out, either, so we have to wonder (and now that we've seen it, we have to wonder hard), why was a sequel to this bastion of mediocrity was ever made at all? At some point, the knee-jerk answer of "because movies like this are relatively cheap to make" is a cop-out, especially here.

Now, after seeing part two of this franchise, we really wish they had stopped at one because average is as good as it's going to get for the makers of this movie. We had hoped the sequel would be at least as mediocre as the original, or maybe even reach the level of decent, but unfortunately, it was bad, really bad. In fact, it was far worse than we had initially thought was possible for this franchise. Filmmakers took the absolute worst part of the first movie and made it the focal point of the sequel! We don't what it is about Rob Corddry, but we don't find him funny in this franchise, or maybe it's just his entire Lou character we don't like because we swear we have seen him in something in the past that we liked, though nothing it popping into our minds at the moment. Lou is an obnoxious asshole in every sense of the word and somehow, this self-centered attitude of using people and treating people like they are pieces of human garbage is supposed to be funny. We get it, it's a joke, don't take it too seriously, right? Well, to us, his attitude and him as a character are not funny. At all. Really, nobody in this film is all that humorous! Craig Robinson's character Nick gets in some good name calling during a "you look like some insulting object" bit, but when it comes down to it, only about one out of a dozen of these insults actually hits their mark. The rest of the insults come off as a cheap, third-rate recycle of the "you know how I know you're gay" argument from "The 40-Year Old Virgin," and while we do not condone the use of the word "gay" as a synonym for something negative, really, this bickering bit has been done before and done in a better fashion elsewhere. It's pretty much all the characters in this movie do for an hour and a half, cut each other down with lame insults. Beyond this, there are the endless pop culture references, like mentioning a gazillion time travel movies and shows like "Back to the Future," "The Terminator," "Looper" and "Fringe," which is not only meant to be funny for some reason, but we also think this was done in an attempt to legitimize "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" as one of the time travel greats. Trust us, it's not. Simply pointing out these movies and television shows exists only to make us laugh at the comparison, and yet, IT'S NOT FREAKING FUNNY.

Also, one of the plot points surrounding Nick is that he stole a Black Eyed Peas song in the original and has now continued to lift songs from 90's pop artists in the sequel with much success as a recording artist. This is a running joke for his character as he takes credit for the songs and butchers them, but secretly always wants to make his own music and has boxed himself in by stealing songs in the first place. Now, this film supposedly takes place in the 2010's, though if he had been allowed to steal these song, would that mean the movie automatically assumes the audience knows that Nick, Jacob and the missing Adam character also went back in time with Lou at the end of the first movie? We don't want to pick apart the time travel aspect since it's stupid and inconsistent to begin with, but the movie doesn't ever explicitly state that's what they did, so when the real joke is just to have Craig Robinson perform and claim Lisa Loeb's song "Stay" as his own only to have Lisa Loeb herself do a cameo as a cat wrangler, wouldn't she knowingly realize that he stole her song since they don't explicitly state that they went back in time with Lou in the first place? Are we over-thinking this waaaay too much? I feel like we are, but hey, it's something we noticed.

At least John Cusack had enough good sense to not reprise his role of Adam Yates in this bombtastic sequel. In his place is Adam Scott, playing Adam Yates Jr., the illegitimate son of Adam from the future. Just like John Cusack in the original film, Adam Scott seems completely out of place in this group, though he isn't really part of their group at all, so it's more understandable. Unlike Cusack, Scott is a far more uneven character who seems to change personality regularly whenever the script requires. Beyond this, he is more than willing to stoop to the low-brow level of anal rape humor. You read that right: anal rape humor. I never thought we would have to say this out loud since it should generally just be understood, and please understand that there are a lot of "funny" things we can take and have accepted throughout the course of a movie, including but not limited to: gay jokes, poop and pee jokes, dick and fart jokes, body humor jokes, physical pain jokes, the whole nine, really. We're not sensitive little flowers who need to have our hands held throughout a movie to make sure our "offense radar" goes off. What we cannot and will not accept are jokes that are completely and massively offensive no matter what way you slice them, like rape jokes against women, rape jokes used in passing but are not a huge point to a story and just used in a mocking fashion, rape jokes that are passed off as humorous in social and friendly settings, or gay rape jokes that are meant to be funny but are so wholly offensive that we considered walking out of this movie because they made us so mad. We can take a lot of crap, but "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" goes above and beyond the offensive scale on more than one occasion.

Using shock humor and verbal diarrhea and hoping it will be funny is not the way to make a movie. Simply saying f-bombs, showing penises and balls on screen or using gay rape jokes as the focal point for the sake of humor is the quickest way to isolate an audience and we're not wrong because this movie bombed this week. It made even less than we thought it would make. Raunch is fine and dandy, but only in the right setting, and in a movie that shouldn't have even been green-lit in the first place, well, it straight-up stinks. It should have been called "Heaping Pile of Toilet Jokes and a Sorry Excuse for a Time Machine Story 2."

My Rating: 2/10
BigJ's Rating: 2/10
IMDB's Rating: 5.4/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 14%
Do we recommend this movie: AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!!

Oscar Movie Review: "The Great Dictator" (1940)

Image Source

Movie: "The Great Dictator"
Year Nominated: 1941
Director: Charles Chaplin
Rating: G
Running Time: 2 hours, 5 minutes
Did It Win?: No.

World War I is coming to an end and an unamed soldier known only as The Jewish Barber (Charlie Chaplin) fights for his country of Tomania. During the battle, he assists a fatigued Tomanian pilot named Commander Schultz (Reginald Gardiner). After their plane crashes, The Barber is left in the hospital with amnesia. Years pass and a dictator named Adenoid Hynkel (Charlie Chaplin) rises to power and has dreams of a global conquest. Hynkel also persecutes the Jews, who are forced into ghettos and live in fear for their lives. When The Barber leaves the hospital, he has no idea of the changes to his home country, and when he inadvertently stands up to Tomanian soldiers, he becomes a wanted man. His old army friend Commander Schultz keeps him out of trouble for a while, but when the power hungry Hynkel decides Schultz is a traitor for standing up for the Jews, he and The Barber are quickly arrested and left to find a way to escape. 

"The Great Dictator" is a wonderful comedy satire that pokes fun at Hitler and the Nazi movement in Germany. It's extremely important to note that this film was released in 1940, which is more than a year before the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the United States' entering into World War II. Even more importantly, production started many years earlier before even the United Kingdom had even entered the war and was trying to remain in Hitler's good graces. They actually threatened to ban the film, but by the time of its release, political situations had changed and the film was more than welcome in England. Needless to say, it was not so welcome in Germany, as it was banned in all German occupied territories until long after the second World War had ended. So, when Chaplin produced this film, it was not one done in hindsight where he was already fully aware of all the atrocities the Nazis had committed or had yet to commit, it was done in the thick of the conflict involving Germany and Hitler, and managed to be both powerful and successful anyway. In fact, Chaplin rewrote the end of the script to include the famous speech that closes the movie after he learned that Germany had invaded France in real life, and what a wonderful ending speech that is, probably one of the best in film history. It's an amazingly powerful speech that is just as true and relevant today as it was when it was first spoken 75 years ago.

That being said, this is a hilarious movie and holds up very well. Chaplin had a flowing yet bumbling way of moving that worked great for physical comedy, which was very apparent from his time making silent era films, and he still uses many of his silent film comedic techniques in this, his first full-fledged "talkie" and the biggest, most successful film of his career. This being his first talking picture, we learned that he had quite the gift of verbal comedy as well. There is some funny dialogue in the film that almost has a Marx Brothers type of feel to it, a type of comedy we completely love and admire. Hynkel's little spat with Napoloni is also a classic, especially their "dueling" barber chair scene where one always tries to be a little higher than the other. We really enjoyed this movie a lot. BigJ saw this film as a child and remembers enjoying it then, especially for Chaplin's slapstick gags, but as adults, we now enjoy it even more as we can understand the political satire element behind it, one that we overlooked as kids. We can truly appreciate the inspiring message the final scene presents, and for it to have such a lasting power is a testament to the film's greatness. This is a "must watch" for film buffs, especially considering the courageous effort Chaplain exerted to get it made, as well as for the cultural and historical controversy it contains. It is also a must-see for those who want to view the work of one of the earliest, most genuinely great on-screen comedic performers, Charlie Chaplin, in one of his best movies.

My Rating: 9/10
BigJ's Rating: 10/10
IMDB's Rating: 8.5/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 92%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

Lolo's Lists: (LIVE UPDATES) 2015 Oscars Winners!!

Here are the winners of the 2015 Oscar, which will be updated LIVE as they get announced!!
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Picture

-American Sniper

-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

-Boyhood

-The Grand Budapest Hotel 

-The Imitation Game

-Selma

-The Theory of Everything

-Whiplash

**WINNER: BIRDMAN!!!!!!!!!
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Director
-Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Richard Linklater – Boyhood
-Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher
-Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game

**WINNER: Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Actor
-Steve Carell – Foxcatcher as John Eleuthère du Pont
-Bradley Cooper – American Sniper as Chris Kyle
-Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game as Alan Turing
-Michael Keaton – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) as Riggan Thomson
-Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything as Stephen Hawking

**WINNER: Eddie Redmayne for The Theory of Everything
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Actress
-Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night as Sandra Bya
-Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything as Jane Wilde Hawking
-Julianne Moore – Still Alice as Dr. Alice Howland
-Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl as Amy Elliott-Dunne
-Reese Witherspoon – Wild as Cheryl Strayed

**WINNER: Julianne Moore for Still Alice
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Supporting Actor
-Robert Duvall – The Judge as Judge Joseph Palmer
-Ethan Hawke – Boyhood as Mason Evans, Sr.
-Edward Norton – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) as Mike Shiner
-Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher as Dave Schultz
-J. K. Simmons – Whiplash as Terence Fletcher

**WINNER: J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Supporting Actress
-Patricia Arquette – Boyhood as Olivia Evans
-Laura Dern – Wild as Barbara "Bobbi" Grey
-Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game as Joan Clarke
-Emma Stone – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) as Sam Thomson
-Meryl Streep – Into the Woods as The Witch

**WINNER: Patricia Arquette
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Original Screenplay
-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Boyhood
-Foxcatcher
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Nightcrawler

**WINNER: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Adapted Screenplay
-American Sniper
-The Imitation Game
-Inherent Vice
-The Theory of Everything
-Whiplash

**WINNER: The Imitation Game
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Animated Feature Film
-Big Hero 6
-The Boxtrolls
-How to Train Your Dragon 2
-Song of the Sea
-The Tale of the Princess Kaguya

**WINNER: Big Hero 6
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Foreign Language Film
-Ida (Poland) in Polish
-Leviathan (Russia) in Russian
-Tangerines (Estonia) in Estonian and Russian
-Timbuktu (Mauritania) in French
-Wild Tales (Argentina) in Spanish

**WINNER: Ida (Poland)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Documentary – Feature
-Citizenfour
-Finding Vivian Maier
-Last Days in Vietnam
-The Salt of the Earth
-Virunga

**WINNER: Citizenfour
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Animated Short Film
-The Bigger Picture
-The Dam Keeper
-Feast
-Me and My Moulton
-A Single Life

**WINNER: Feast
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Live Action Short Film
-Aya
-Boogaloo and Graham
-Butter Lamp (La Lampe au beurre de yak)
-Parvaneh
-The Phone Call

**WINNER: The Phone Call
~~~~~~~~~~
Best Documentary Short Film
**WINNER: Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1!
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Original Score
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Interstellar
-Mr. Turner
-The Theory of Everything

**WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Original Song

-"Everything Is Awesome" from The Lego Movie – Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson

-"Glory" from Selma – Music and Lyric by John Legend and Common

-"Grateful" from Beyond the Lights – Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

-"I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me – Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond

-"Lost Stars" from Begin Again – Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois

**WINNER: GLORY from Selma
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Sound Editing
-American Sniper
-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
-Interstellar
-Unbroken

**WINNER: American Sniper
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Sound Mixing
-American Sniper
-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Interstellar
-Unbroken
-Whiplash

**WINNER: Whiplash
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Production Design
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Interstellar
-Into the Woods
-Mr. Turner

**WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Cinematography
-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Ida
-Mr. Turner
-Unbroken

**WINNER: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
-Foxcatcher
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Guardians of the Galaxy

**WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Costume Design
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Inherent Vice
-Into the Woods
-Maleficent
-Mr. Turner

**WINNER: The Grand Budapest Hotel
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Film Editing
-American Sniper
-Boyhood
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Whiplash

**WINNER: Whiplash
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Visual Effects
-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
-Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
-Guardians of the Galaxy
-Interstellar
-X-Men: Days of Future Past

**WINNER: Interstellar
~~~~~~~~~~

Oscar Movie Review: "The Graduate" (1967)

Image Source

Movie: "The Graduate"
Year Nominated: 1968
Director: Mike Nichols
Rating: PG
Running Time: 1 hour, 46 minutes
Did It Win?: No.

Recent college graduate Ben Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is seduced and begins a love affair with a married friend of his mother's, Mrs. Robinson (Anne Bancroft). Their affair lasts for a few months, but Ben is growing tired of their simple sexual encounters and wishes for a deeper relationship. When Ben's parents set him up on a date with Mrs. Robinson's daughter Elaine (Katharine Ross), Mrs. Robinson forbids Ben from seeing her. Ben disobeys his former lover and quickly falls for Elaine. When Elaine finds out he was once her mother's lover, however, she breaks up with him. Wanting to spend his life with Elaine, Ben follows her to Berkeley determined to win her back. 

Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson! This film is an offbeat, atypical romantic comedy, even though Dustin Hoffman's Ben can be a real creep sometimes. You know, it's the typical "boy meets mother's married friend and then meets and falls for mother's married friend's daughter causing massive turmoil in the family" movie we all know and love. That old hat! It is also a coming of age film in that Ben is at a crossroads in his life. He just graduated from college and is unsure about what he wants to do with his future. Really, a huge reason why this film works as well as it does is because of Dustin Hoffman. His character is so awkward and so uncomfortable in his own skin, and Hoffman portrays this role with such a resounding conviction. You can feel how uneasy Ben is when Mrs. Robinson is initially coming on to him, as well as how unsure he is when they have their first sexual encounter. It starts off as both really sad and extremely pathetic, and these situations are also sort of hysterical and make for some good laughs. We both felt a huge sense of second-hand embarrassment for Ben since his attempts at being loose and comfortable just come off as dorky and inexperienced. Anne Bancroft is also excellent in this film as the sexually aggressive and much older Mrs. Robinson, who is both very domineering over her younger lover and quite pathetic and sad in many other ways all on her own. Struggling in a loveless marriage, she beings an affair with the younger son of her friend, Ben's mother, but expects him to be her slave and is repulsed at the thought of him dating her daughter Elaine. After their tryst ends, Ben's parents suggest that he take out Elaine, and to get them off his back, he does. When Ben first takes Elaine out, he is a complete jerk to her having been "hardened" by Mrs. Robinson and by his life, which is not so bad at all. After a short while, he is smitten with Elaine, but his secret about her mother threatens to ruin whatever relationship they may end up having.

Beyond the great acting and story, the directing, cinematography and camerawork in this film are amazing and seamless. Mike Nichols and his film making crew use so many different and unique shots executed with the utmost precision and flawlessness. The shot of Dustin Hoffman through Anne Bancroft's leg has become an iconic and memorable scene mimicked many times throughout cinematic history. Another shot that is quite remarkable is the scuba mask shot before, during and after a contemplative Ben sits at the bottom of his pool wondering what to make of his life. This camera work elevates the film from just another dramatic comedy to one that has been and will continue to be remembered for both its daring story and its incredible cinematography. All in all, this is a fabulous film with a memorable soundtrack, a fantastic ending and a great watch every now and then.

My Rating: 9/10
BigJ's Rating: 9/10
IMDB's Rating: 8.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 88%
Do we recommend this movie: ABSOLUTELY YES!!!

Oscar Movie Review: "Rachel, Rachel" (1968)

Image Source

Movie: "Rachel, Rachel"
Year Nominated: 1969
Director: Paul Newman
Rating: R
Running Time: 1 hour, 41 minutes
Did It Win?: No.

Rachel (Joanne Woodward) is a 35 year old single school teacher who lives with her slightly overbearing mother (Kate Harrington). Rachel is unsure about what she wants out of life and is suffering from a mid-life crisis of sorts. She must decide if she wants to continue with her mundane life or make a drastic change onto a different path.  

We have had this movie on our DVR for over 6 months, waiting for February to watch and review it. This film isn't so much an actual story as it is a character sketch about Rachel as a person. Rachel clearly has emotional problems due to growing up in a funeral home, not to mention that the community where she and her family lived were hit with a rash of child deaths that she witnessed first hand due to widespread illness when she was young. On top of these obviously compounded emotional problems, she has to take care of her aging, abrasive and overbearing mother, who clearly values Rachel's sister more than her, even though her sister doesn't visit ever since she had kids of her own. This movie begins and ends the same way as we see Rachel's day-to-day life, along with flashes of her inner thoughts and fantasies. She has an obsession with death and often thinks of dying, which stems obviously from growing up in a funeral home. She also thinks about the prospect of being a parent, as well as standing up to her mother or her boss in epic fashions. These thoughts are portrayed as voice-overs or little cut away scenes, which sometimes necessitates the audience to stop and think if what we are seeing is actually happening, or if it is just her fantasy, because sometimes, it's hard to differentiate between her fantasy and reality. The movie starts off at a pretty slow pace and only picks up a little bit towards the middle after a rather intense Evangelical church scene. This scene is really the film's only saving grace, and after that, it peters out again after a short time. Rachel has a relationship with a man named Nick, played by James Olson, who to us, comes off as a self-centered jerk from the get-go and never redeems himself, but her insecurities as a woman who is unsure of herself allows him to take advantage of her time and time again. The movie also deals with some hot button issues for the time, like pregnancy to unwed mothers, discussions about having an abortion by those same unwed mothers, and it even hints at homosexuality, though it is never fully discussed or brought up again after the church scene. Bringing up issues like this are probably what garnered it such critical acclaim, as well as it's Oscar nomination, in 1968. Now, though these issues can be seen as controversial to some, they are much less so. Joanne Woodward does give a good performance as Rachel, which earned her a Golden Globe win and an Oscar Nomination, and the film deals with some real human issues, but the slow pacing and lack of any really engaging story or characters does knock it back quite a bit. It's a fine enough film, but definitely got lost in the times.

My Rating: 6.5/10
BigJ's Rating: 6.5/10
IMDB's Rating: 7.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 86%
Do we recommend this movie: Sure, why not?

Lolo's Lists: 2015 Oscar Predictions!

Through all of the snubs and shoe-ins, the 2015 Academy Awards is shaping up to be the whitest ever. Each and every year, we bring you our picks for who we believe will win Oscar gold, as well as those we want to win, but might not necessarily take home the ultimate cinematic prize. Do you agree or disagree? Let us know!
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Picture

-American Sniper

-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (front-runner)

-Boyhood (front-runner)

-The Grand Budapest Hotel (dark-horse potential winner, also won the Golden Globe for Best Comedy or Musical this year)

-The Imitation Game

-Selma (would be awesome if this won)

-The Theory of Everything

-Whiplash (really dark-horse winner, but would be awesome if it won)

*WILL WIN: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

*SHOULD WIN: Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

~~~~~~~~~~

Best Director
-Wes Anderson – The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Alejandro González Iñárritu – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (front-runner)
-Richard Linklater – Boyhood (front-runner)
-Bennett Miller – Foxcatcher
-Morten Tyldum – The Imitation Game

*WILL WIN: Richard Linklater - Boyhood
*SHOULD WIN: Alejandro González Iñárritu - Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (we want him to win the most, but he is also a front-runner)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Actor
-Steve Carell – Foxcatcher as John Eleuthère du Pont
-Bradley Cooper – American Sniper as Chris Kyle
-Benedict Cumberbatch – The Imitation Game as Alan Turing
-Michael Keaton – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) as Riggan Thomson
-Eddie Redmayne – The Theory of Everything as Stephen Hawking

*WILL WIN: Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything
*SHOULD WIN: Eddie Redmayne - The Theory of Everything
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Actress
-Marion Cotillard – Two Days, One Night as Sandra Bya
-Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything as Jane Wilde Hawking
-Julianne Moore – Still Alice as Dr. Alice Howland
-Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl as Amy Elliott-Dunne
-Reese Witherspoon – Wild as Cheryl Strayed

*WILL WIN: Julianne Moore - Still Alice (pretty much a shoe-in)
*SHOULD WIN: Rosamund Pink - Gone Girl (HUGE dark-horse)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Supporting Actor
-Robert Duvall – The Judge as Judge Joseph Palmer
-Ethan Hawke – Boyhood as Mason Evans, Sr.
-Edward Norton – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) as Mike Shiner
-Mark Ruffalo – Foxcatcher as Dave Schultz
-J. K. Simmons – Whiplash as Terence Fletcher

*WILL WIN: J.K. Simmons - Whiplash (a shoe-in but he DESERVES this award)
*SHOULD WIN: J.K. Simmons - Whiplash
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Supporting Actress
-Patricia Arquette – Boyhood as Olivia Evans (pretty much a shoe-in)
-Laura Dern – Wild as Barbara "Bobbi" Grey
-Keira Knightley – The Imitation Game as Joan Clarke
-Emma Stone – Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) as Sam Thomson
-Meryl Streep – Into the Woods as The Witch

*WILL WIN: Patricia Arquette - Boyhood (pretty much a shoe-in)
*SHOULD WIN: Emma Stone - Birdman
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Original Screenplay
-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Boyhood (front-runner)
-Foxcatcher
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Nightcrawler

*WILL WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
*SHOULD WIN: Birdman OR Nightcrawler (huuuuuge dark-hose, but also deserves it and was completely snubbed elsewhere)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Adapted Screenplay
-American Sniper
-The Imitation Game
-Inherent Vice (huuuuuuuuge dark-horse)
-The Theory of Everything
-Whiplash

*WILL WIN: The Imitation Game
*SHOULD WIN: Whiplash
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Animated Feature Film
-Big Hero 6
-The Boxtrolls
-How to Train Your Dragon 2
-Song of the Sea
-The Tale of the Princess Kaguya (dark-horse)

*WILL WIN: How to Train Your Dragon 2
*SHOULD WIN: How to Train Your Dragon 2
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Foreign Language Film
-Ida (Poland) in Polish
-Leviathan (Russia) in Russian
-Tangerines (Estonia) in Estonian and Russian
-Timbuktu (Mauritania) in French
-Wild Tales (Argentina) in Spanish

*****we abstain since we were only able to see one of the five nominees*****
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Documentary – Feature
-Citizenfour
-Finding Vivian Maier
-Last Days in Vietnam
-The Salt of the Earth (we did not see this film)
-Virunga

*WILL WIN: Citizenfour
*SHOULD WIN: Citizenfour OR Virunga
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Animated Short Film
-The Bigger Picture
-The Dam Keeper
-Feast
-Me and My Moulton
-A Single Life

*WILL WIN: Feast OR The Dam Keeper (we really liked this one a lot)
*SHOULD WIN: Feast (you would know Feast as the short before "Big Hero 6," so damn adorable, even our dog, Freddo liked it!) OR The Dam Keeper
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Live Action Short Film
-Aya
-Boogaloo and Graham
-Butter Lamp (La Lampe au beurre de yak) (the Academy seems like this is the type of thing they would love...)
-Parvaneh
-The Phone Call

*WILL WIN: Aya
*SHOULD WIN:  The Phone Call (gut-wrenching) OR Boogaloo and Graham (dark-hose, but lovely)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Original Score
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Interstellar
-Mr. Turner
-The Theory of Everything

*WILL WIN:  The Imitation Game
*SHOULD WIN: Interstellar
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Original Song

-"Everything Is Awesome" from The Lego Movie – Music and Lyric by Shawn Patterson

-"Glory" from Selma – Music and Lyric by John Legend and Common

-"Grateful" from Beyond the Lights – Music and Lyric by Diane Warren

-"I'm Not Gonna Miss You" from Glen Campbell: I'll Be Me – Music and Lyric by Glen Campbell and Julian Raymond

-"Lost Stars" from Begin Again – Music and Lyric by Gregg Alexander and Danielle Brisebois

*WILL WIN: "Glory"
*SHOULD WIN: "I'm Not Gonna Miss You" OR "Lost Stars" (just so "Begin Again" can get some recognition!)
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Sound Editing
-American Sniper
-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
-Interstellar
-Unbroken

*WILL WIN: Birdman OR Interstellar
*SHOULD WIN: Birdman OR Interstellar
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Sound Mixing
-American Sniper
-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-Interstellar
-Unbroken
-Whiplash

*WILL WIN: Birdman OR Whiplash
*SHOULD WIN: Birdman OR Whiplash
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Production Design
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Interstellar
-Into the Woods
-Mr. Turner

*WILL WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
*SHOULD WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Cinematography
-Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Ida
-Mr. Turner
-Unbroken

*WILL WIN: Birdman
*SHOULD WIN: Birdman
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Makeup and Hairstyling
-Foxcatcher
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Guardians of the Galaxy

*WILL WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
*SHOULD WIN: Guardians of the Galaxy
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Costume Design
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-Inherent Vice
-Into the Woods (dark-horse)
-Maleficent
-Mr. Turner

*WILL WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
*SHOULD WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Film Editing
-American Sniper
-Boyhood
-The Grand Budapest Hotel
-The Imitation Game
-Whiplash

*WILL WIN: Boyhood (Linklater had to hold onto 12 years of film, so...)
*SHOULD WIN: The Grand Budapest Hotel
~~~~~~~~~~

Best Visual Effects
-Captain America: The Winter Soldier
-Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
-Guardians of the Galaxy
-Interstellar
-X-Men: Days of Future Past

*WILL WIN: Interstellar
*SHOULD WIN: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (THAT IS A FAKE ORANGUTAN IN THE PHOTO ABOVE...COME ON!!!)
~~~~~~~~~~