Alright Alright Alright!

I admit it has taken me a little time to come down from the Oscar high. I admit I am struggling to write this post because I don't want the Award Season to be over. After months of preparation the Academy Awards aired last night and it was fantastic. I felt it had the right tone and all the winners were well deserved.

Can we all give a round of applause for Ellen DeGeneres. She was absolutely perfect last night. Anyone who can create the greatest selfie in selfie history will always be my hero. Everything about that moment was flawless.

I felt that all of the musical performances were out of a dream. The performances had me either dancing or moved to tears. When I think I can't love P!nk anymore than I do, she proves me wrong.

I don't know what was in the air last night but we had some of the best acceptance speeches in Oscar history. Jared Leto proved that his soul is as beautiful as his hair. Matthew McConaughey delivered my favorite speech of the night. How he made the conscious decision to turn his career around is truly inspirational. The work he has been doing over the past four years have been spectacular. I really got to watch True Detectives. I have a sneaky suspicion that he might end up getting an Emmy nomination for his work on that show this fall. Can I get a amen for Cate Blanchett calling out sexism this entire award season. I freaking love that women. Lupita Nyong'o has stolen my heart and I can't wait to see what her future has in store for her. It would be dream for her career to take off like my BFF in my head Jennifer Lawrence.

Everyone looked sublime last night.I am not the biggest fashionista so I want go into much detail about the fashion. This moment right here warmed my heart.

The moment when my heart stopped was when the Best Picture was being announced. I had no idea if 12 Years a Slave would take home the grand prize. I was thrilled that it won because it was the best picture of the year in my opinion. Overall, it was a spectacular night and I cannot wait until the Oscars air next year. 

Just Let It Flow: Recap of the 71st Golden Globes

The Golden Globes are a time when the best in television and film mingle for three hours as they celebrate each other with a countless supply of booze. Some might argue that The Golden Globes are irrelevant and nothing more than the bastard stepchild of the Academy Awards. I believe that The Golden Globes set the tone for the rest of the award season. Some people are all up in arms over the winners last night but it is important to note that the Hollywood Foreign Press is not the Academy. Don't freak out just yet, wait until the Oscar nominations are announced than you can freak out.

Overall, I thought the 71st Annual Golden Globes was a success. There were things that irked me but I want to focus on what was great about the night. Amy Poehler and Tina Fey were sensational hosts. They had some of the best one-liners of the night. Their jokes about George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio had me laughing for hours.When it comes to hosting, Amy and Tina really are the golden pair. I was completely ecstatic about the wins for Andy Samberg, Amy Adams(finally), Amy Poehler(once again finally), Elizabeth Moss, Jared Leto(my favorite in his category), Leonardo DiCaprio( Tumblr rejoice) and Cate Blanchett( rooting for her to win the gold).

I know there is still a good chance that Lupita Nyong'o will win the Oscar but I was disappointed that The Hollywood Foreign Press did not recognize her as the best supporting actress. We all know my love for Jennifer Lawrence is strong but in no universe was her performance stronger than Lupita's. To tell you the truth, I was really pissed that out of the seven nominations 12 Years a Slave walked away with one. I am happy that it won Best Drama but come on it should be sweeping the awards. It's just The Golden Globes, there are several other awards for the taking. I was disappointed that Chiwetel Ejiofor did not win Best Actor in a Drama but if he was going to lose to anyone it would be to the lovely Matthew McConaughey. Isn't it amazing to see how Matthew has reshaped his career. I am so happy for his success.

The beginning of award season may have gotten to a bumpy start, but with the Oscar nominations being announced this week and both the Critic Choice Awards and SAG awards this week the season should be full of surprises. Tell me what was great about last night and what had you shaking your head. I want to know your thoughts. 

Mid-Term Box Office Update

It has happened, summer is beginning to wind down. I want to wish a happy belated Independence Day for all my visitors from Liberia, United States and Canada.  If you need to know what movies are coming out for the remainder of the summer check out my Summer Movie Guide. Now that it is August is upon us, we are almost through the summer movie season. Like each season there are hits and misses. Bare with me as I breakdown what has been hot and what has not been this summer.

The summer box office started off with a bang with the highly anticipated  Iron Man 3. Iron Man 3 is the highest grossing film of the summer and has surpassed the grosses of its predecessors with a red hot gross of $407 million at the US box office. Third highest grossing film of the summer is the Superman reboot  Man of Steel which has grossed a spectacular $286 million at the box office. I don't think anyone is surprised that two superhero movies are two of the highest grossing films of the summer.. The Wolverine opened over the weekend and grossed over $55 million at the box office. It was not a spectacular opening but I feel that it may still have life in it.

Besides superheroes this summer has belonged to the kids. Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University are bona fide hits at the box-office. Despicable Me 2 has surpassed  Man of Steel over the weekend and is the second highest grossing film of the summer with an outstanding $306 million. Monsters University was another solid hit for Pixar, grossing $255 million at the US box office. The other animated films Epic  and Turbo may not have been huge blockbusters but they have performed solidly at the box office.  It will be interesting to see how Planes and Smurfs 2 pane out next month. 

Sequels and adaptations also had an incredible summer. The sixth installment of the Fast & Furious grossed $237 million at the US box office. Rounding out the top ten films of the summer are Star Trek Into Darkness, World War Z, The Great Gatsby and The Heat. One of the biggest surprises of the summer was  the success of the film Now You See Me. That film surpassed all predictions and has grossed $114 million to date. After two weekends I am certain the horror hit The Conjuring will end its run in the top ten highest grossing films of the summer. Not surprising Adam Sandler earned another his 14th $100 million grossing film with Grown Ups 2. Interestingly, there was no indie hit this summer. There have been a few pictures that have done well at the box office but no runaway hit. It will be interesting to see if Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine becomes the first indie hit of the summer.

Not everything has come up smelling like roses this summer. The summer has belong to the superheroes and the kids, a lot of summer blockbusters have been left to the wolves. One of the biggest misfires this summer was the Will Smith vehicle After Earth. The film crashed and burnt at the box office, collecting an underwhelming $60 million. I don't think this film's performance has anything to do with a dimming star power of Will Smith. I am positive with the right material people will pay big bucks to see him on the big screen. This summer has also seen Johnny Depp have a box office disappointment with the big budgeted The Lone Ranger. Channing Tatum and Jamie Foxx struck out with White House Down and much to my despair Pacific Rim did not draw the big bucks(don't know why, it was amazing).Then there was the final installment of Hangover that grossed a disappointing $111 million. I wished that they had never made Hangover into a series. They should have left it as a comedic classic. Another misfire this summer was Owen Wilson and Vince Vaughn vehicle The Internship.


Disclaimer: All of my figures come from Box Office Mojo. These figures only take into consideration how much the films grossed as of this past weekend. 

The Rundown: Summer 2012

For my American readers I hope you had an incredible Labor Day Weekend. For my readers in Europe, I hope you had a wonderful weekend as well. Now that we are in the first week of September, summer is  officially over. Lets all take a deep breath to process that set of information.  I could go into detail about my love for the changing leaves, pumpkin spice lattes and apple cider but this is not the time for that. Instead I am going to give a rundown of what was hot and what flopped at the box office this summer.

In my Summer Movie Preview post, I predicted that three biggest films of the summer would be The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises and The Amazing Spider-man. I must have been looking into the crystal ball because I was right on target with that one. I admit that it would not take a genius to figure that information out. The success of the first blockbuster of the summer The Avengers was surreal. I was excited about the film but I did not think it would draw the crowds it did. The upcoming sequels in the Marvel franchise will get a huge boost from the success of The Avengers.  In the wake of the success of The Avengers, many films failed to deliver huge audience turnout (specifically Battleship and Dark Shadows). Not until The Dark Knight Rises did we have our second bona fide blockbuster. What I did not see in my crystal ball was the runaway hit that Ted was. It was the fifth biggest hit of the summer. I believe that it found success because moviegoers were looking for a good laugh this summer. I admit when Ted came to life I was in complete ROFL mode.

Animated films continue to dominate at the box office. The biggest animated hit was Brave which was followed by Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted. Madagascar did something that is rare, it grossed more money than it predecessors. It can be debated that Ice Age: Continental Drift was a disappoint because it was the lowest grossing film in the franchise. However, Ice Age was on the biggest films overseas. It will also do really well on DVD and Blu-Ray. Several independent films saw success at the box office this summer as well. There was The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel(BEMH), Moonrise Kingdom, Beasts of the Southern Wild and The Intouchables to name a few. I still have not seen Beasts and BEMH but they are still high on my list. It warms my heart when independent films do well at the box office.

It seemed that the reboots were a hit and miss this summer. The Amazing Spider-man did do well but it still was not in the league of the Sam Raimi vehicle. The Bourne Legacy was off to a good start but I don't see this reboot going any further. In the long run it lacked the legs that the previous films had. Then there were those reboots like  the Total Recall that completely crashed and burned at the box office. Besides reboots it seems that ensemble pieces were having a hard time finding an audience. Rock of Ages and What to Expect When You're Expecting were pretty much duds at the box office. Even The Expendables 2 did not live up to the hype. Studios have to remember that the movie has got to be good. If you throw eye candy at us it won't distract us from a bad story unless the movie is Magic Mike. Just kidding Magic Mike was not a bad film but it was an ensemble film done right.

Will Smith proved that he still a movie star. I know you could argue that MIB 3 under-performed at the American Box Office but not only was the film the seventh highest grossing film of the summer but out-grossed it predecessors at the international box office.  Scandal aside Snow White and The Huntsman proved that audiences loved the idea of darker take on the fairy tale. Charlize Theron had another hit with Prometheus.

It would have been interesting to see how the GI Joe sequel would have done this summer but its release date was pushed to next year. Since 2012 is the year of Channing Tatum, I am pretty certain the movie would have been another success story for him. Now we will have to see how 10 Years does well this fall.

And the Oscar Goes to...

So last night was the 84th Annual Academy Awards and I could not have been more elated. For some one who lives and breathes movies, the Academy Awards are the highlight of the year for me. From the glitz and glamour of the red carpet to the joy of watching your favorites take home the golden boy, there is a lot to look forward. I was looking forward to what the veteran host Billy Crystal would bring to this year's show. My favorite hosts have been Jon Stewart and Chris Rock but I admit that they are both a little crazy which makes some good TV. With that being said I thought Billy did a great job  but I was not floored by his performance. The best red carpet moment was The Dictator pouring ashes on Ryan Seacrest. I still can't believe that happened. It was a great TV moment but terrible at the same time. My favorite presenters by far were Emma Stone( could she be any more adorable) and Angelina Jolie( Bad Ass). I think I died a little bit when Jim Rash struck the same pose as Angelina. I remember thinking I would never had the confidence to strike a pose like that on TV and loving Angelina for doing it. Then Jim Rash just goes up and does the same thing, it was hilarious. Congrats to him, Nat Faxon and Alexander Payne on their well deserved win for Best Adapted Screenplay for The Descendants.

For the most part there were not too many surprises last night which is always a bummer. I still miss the days when Adrien Brody won Best Actor(wasn't that a magical moment?) and when Crash won instead of the favorite Brokeback Mountain. I like there to be a little mystery when it comes to the Oscars. As expected The Artist won big last night as well as Hugo. I was a little disappointed that Viola Davis did not take home Best Actress this year. Honestly, I had a feeling that it would be Meryl Streep this year. She just had a bigger momentum coming into the awards this year, so it was not such a big surprise. Congratulations are in order to the incredible Christopher Plummer for winning his first Academy Award( can't believe he has never won) , Gary Oldman on his first nomination.(yes he has never been nominated) and the lovely Octavia Spencer on her well deserved Best Supporting Actress win. In all it was a good night but was not a spectacular night.