What I Watched in July '14

17 films in total.

5 of these films were re-watches.

Couples and Tunnels

I've been AWOL for a little bit recently, mainly due to working more than usual as well as visiting Liverpool and London, which is why the blog's been light on updates.

I've still been watching as many films as I can but I just haven't had the time to put together a decent, thorough review for any of them. I'll try my best to get some finished and published soon.
My main priority right now is working on making a post that ranks every film I've watched from 2013. I've got a list of films that I feel like I need to watch and add to my ranking before I publish it, but I'm excited to put that together.

On top of that I really want to take part in Sati's awesome Spin-Off blogathon, and Ben over at The Movie Man has been kind enough to nominate my blog for the Liebster Award so I need to post my response to that and pass on my nominations.

You can find my Tumblr here and my Pinterest here.

What I Watched in February '14

If you couldn't tell, I used February to work my way through all of the major Oscar nominees that I hadn't seen yet. My film viewing has been down a lot compared to last year cos I've been trying to focus on blogging more and reviewing a higher number of films, and I've also been on a Breaking Bad binge.

23 films in total.

5 of these films were re-watches.

Who is Adelle Nazeem & other post-Oscar thoughts

    

The Oscars have left us for another year. Last night was extremely predictable, but lots of fun and I had a great time staying up for it even though it did mean going to bed at 5am.

- I predicted 18 of the 24 winners correctly, and of the six I got wrong four were my alternate choices for the winner so I think I did pretty well. The predictability of it all worked in my favour.
- Gravity rightly swept up all of the technical awards, and it was great to see Alfonso Cuar ón get Best Director.
- Steve McQueen's excitement and jumping around was adorable, it's great to see the winners show genuine surprise//appreciation when they get acknowledged.
- Lupita winning was the best, I'm so happy for her and she was as wonderfully gracious and beautiful as expected. Her dress was also gorgeous.
- Right up until the last moment I was terrified it was going to be Jennifer Lawrence's, so I let out a pretty big squeal when Lupita's name got called.

- Ellen was hilarious. She maybe wasn't as great as I was hoping for but she was still excellent and provided so many great moments. The way she got everyone in the audience involved and her banter with so many of the stars was tons of fun.
- Getting pizza for everybody and that instantly infamous selfie were huge highlights. Apparently she broke twitter with that, but mine carried on fine. What a way for Meryl Streep to lose her twitter virginity.

- The man candy collection was incredible, with presenters including Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Chris Hemsworth, Zac Efron, Channing Tatum and Chris Evans.
- I was surprised at how many of the presenters stuffed up their lines actually, and only Charlize Theron managed to work the falter very well, she was cute as hell.
- I'm also not sure why exactly Will Smith, who was in one of the worst films of 2013, got to announce the film that won Best Film. I think it'd be nice if they did something similar to the acting presenters in having the previous years winner hand over the award.
- And then this happened….

- SERIOUSLY!? This man just needs to stop. How can you stuff up the one tiny job that you have to do. It's not even like Idina Menzel is that hard to say, but if you know you have to introduce somebody you'd practice even if their name was John Smith.

- It did lead to a great slurry of tweets from celebrities though trying to decode what the hell Travolta actually said, I think the general consensus landed on Adelle Nazeem. 

- Thankfully Menzel killed it singing Let It Go. 

- Seeing all of the Best Original Song nominees performing made the snub of Lana Del Rey hurt all the more. I still stand firm that that award was hers. 

- P!nk also amazed me performing Somewhere Over The Rainbow. She was an unusual choice for sure but she was great. 

- My biggest surprise of the night was Spike Jonze getting the award for Original Screenplay. The only other awards show I managed to watch this season was the Bafta's so I was all prepared for the insufferable David O. Russel getting the statue.

- Her was my favourite nominee so it was great to see it getting some love. I didn't think it had a chance of getting anything so I was very pleasantly surprised. 

I'd like to finish off this post by addressing the greatest, most perfect-wonderful-magnificent  achievement of the night. The Academy didn't give a single fucking thing to American Hustle, and I love love love them for it. Suck it O. Russell!

Wild Ones and Pink Ladies

- Guardians of the Galaxy looks alright. I enjoyed the focus on Chris Pratt, he definitely looks like he'll carry the film easily and make sure the comedy is done well. Plus there's this.
- The raccoon doesn't look as ridiculous as I thought either, but I haven't watched any of the features on the characters yet so I can't comment on whether Bradley Cooper's vocal contribution sells it or not.
- Godzilla got a new poster. It's not as good as the others but they set a pretty high standard from the get go with the marketing. I'm too excited for this film.
- Speaking of excitement, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 has been getting trailers and pictures and posters released by the boat-load. I still think it looks fantastic, and I hope that I'm proven right.
- I love love love the news about casting for Josh Trank's reboot of Fantastic 4. Some serious talent fleshing out this film and I'm excited to see how it all plays out.
- I also love that fans are still hating on the cast. They clearly don't give a crap about how talented actors are, they just have to look identical to their comic counterparts, and that has been really frustrating me lately.
- I finally got around to seeing The Wolf of Wall Street, and was blown away. Expect a review sometime next week while I try and work my way through the last few nominees I still haven't seen.


You can find my Tumblr here and my Pinterest here.

Her

Her
Spike Jonze // 2013 // 126 mins

Thoughts On Them Nominees

So the nominees for this years Oscars got announced yesterday and brought with them the usual mix of surprises and WTF moments. I've still got to work my way through a lot of the nominated films but here are a few of my initial thoughts:

- I obviously missed something when I watched American Hustle. It was good but nowhere near deserving of all this praise.
- The fact that it's up for Best Editing is a joke, the pacing was all off and left it feeling very sluggish.
- While J-Law was entertaining in it, if she wins this award I'm going to smack someone. Yeah, she's talented but I'm getting tired of the boner everyone is carrying for her.
- Even though I haven't seen it, I'm shocked by the lack of attention Inside Llewyn Davis is getting.
- Just as neglected is Before Midnight, which kills me inside.
- Lana Del Rey not getting a nomination for Original Song is a travesty.
- Sally Hawkins up for Supporting Actress is awesome, and very well deserved.
- Bradley Cooper over Jeremy Renner for supporting actor just pisses me off.
- I love that Jonah Hill got himself a nomination, and I love how pissed off people are getting even more.
-LEO!!!!

I'll be putting up an Oscars page soon which I'll update with my predictions for the winners as I see more of the films. Last year I did pretty well so hopefully I do again.

Let me know what you think of the nominations, if you share my opinions or disagree.

You can find my Tumblr here and my Pinterest here.