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What Are You Watching? (Feb. 22-24, 2019)
Loading ...Film Preview: Child’s Play (2019)
Page Revisions:
(February 17, 2019) Original
Release Date:
June 21, 2019
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “A mother gives her son a toy doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature.”
Poster Rating: B
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Review: Reminding us of the original film, this poster will do a lot in getting fans of the series to the theater to see how the reboot compares.
Trailer Rating: B-
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Review: If you’re familiar with the original horror film, this trailer hits on many of the right buttons, making it feel like a must-see event. The choice not to reveal Chucky himself, does give the trailer an added air of mystery.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
Trailer Watch: Teen Spirit (2019) Updated
New Trailer (#2)
Teen Spirit, updated
Preview Link: CLICK HERE for all of the new content as well as the original.
2019 Spring Season Preview: March
Here we look at the upcoming month’s offerings.
March 1, 2019
Tyler Perry’s A Madea Family Funeral
Premise: From IMDb: “A joyous family reunion becomes a hilarious nightmare as Madea and the crew travel to backwoods Georgia, where they find themselves unexpectedly planning a funeral that might unveil unsavory family secrets.”
Box Office Prospects: $60 M
Expectations: Uncertain. Only one film with Madea as the central character failed to pass $50 million at the box office. That film was the only genuine sequel on offering from Tyler Perry: Boo 2! A Madea Halloween. Most of the films have topped $60 million, but a few haven’t. Considering the law of diminishing returns, I suspect this one will barely eke out a $60 million run.
Oscar Prospects: None
Cinema Sight Preview: See my preview of this title here.
91st Oscars – Presenters, Part 4
More non-film-related presenters that don’t quite make a lot of sense. A chef, a congressman, and a tennis player. The whiffs of Allan Carr’s disastrous 61st Oscars in 1989 are everywhere.
OSCARS® ROUND 4: ELEVEN UNIQUE TALENTS INTRODUCE BEST PICTURES
Chef José Andrés, Dana Carvey, Queen Latifah, Congressman John Lewis, Diego Luna, Tom Morello, Mike Myers, Trevor Noah, Amandla Stenberg, Barbra Streisand and Serena Williams
LOS ANGELES, CA – Highly recognized talents from various walks of life, will introduce the eight Best Picture nominees on Oscar® Sunday, February 24, announced show producer Donna Gigliotti and co-producer and director Glenn Weiss. The Oscars® airs live on the ABC Television Network, and is broadcast in more than 225 countries and territories.
“Movies connect us all,” said Gigliotti and Weiss. “They move us, and they create moments and memories that unite us. We are thrilled to assemble this well-known array of film lovers to introduce and share their reflections on the Best Picture-nominated movies.”
Over 40 award presenters have been previously announced. Amandla Stenberg was among them, and now joins the Best Picture introductions.
The presenters are:
Elsie Fisher, Danai Gurira, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Keaton, Helen Mirren, John Mulaney, Tyler Perry, Pharrell Williams, Krysten Ritter, Paul Rudd and Michelle Yeoh.
Javier Bardem, Angela Bassett, Chadwick Boseman, Emilia Clarke, Laura Dern, Samuel L. Jackson, Stephan James, Keegan-Michael Key, KiKi Layne, James McAvoy, Melissa McCarthy, Jason Momoa and Sarah Paulson.
Awkwafina, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Tina Fey, Allison Janney, Brie Larson, Jennifer Lopez, Frances McDormand, Gary Oldman, Amy Poehler, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Charlize Theron, Tessa Thompson and Constance Wu.
The 91st Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
Looking at the Weekend: Feb. 22-24, 2019
There’s only one new wide release and after a series of disappointing openings, the final How to Train Your Dragon film should rescue the box office this weekend.
Our Highest Rated Films: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Our Best Awards Ratings: How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
OTHER LIMITED RELEASES
Prosecuting Evil
Total Dhamaal
Fighting with My Family (Expanding)
Oscar Statistics: Categories & Nominations
Periodically, we’re going to be looking at the Oscars in a different way. While most of our content deals with predictions and precursors and reviews and previews and everything in between, the facts and statistics surrounding the Oscars are seldom referenced but in passing. These articles will change that. As often as is possible (research takes time), we’ll take a narrow look at statistics about and surrounding the Oscars.
For any Oscar lover who is fond of statistics, it’s always interesting to look at the actual numbers surrounding the Oscars. When talking about numbers, one of the best statistics to review is which categories tend to favor Best Picture nominees and Best Picture winners most. It’s also quite fascinating to see how nomination tallies, MPAA ratings, box office numbers, and length can affect the final outcome. While my past statistics articles haven’t done a lot of looking at the current Oscar race, this one will.
The Rundown 2018: Sound Mixing & Editing
For our eighteenth Rundown article, we examine categories whose innovation was in their infancy when the Academy was founded. After the jump, you’ll find our winner and runner-up predictions for Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing as well as general commentary about the race. Thursday, we’ll cover a frocking amazing category.
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91st Oscars: The Polls – Best Animated Feature
For the next 24 days, we’re going to present to you polls for who and what you think the best of 2018 was based on the Oscar nominations. Every morning at 8am, we’ll post a new poll for each category. Just submit your vote for the best in that category and that’s it. We’ll have one final post the Friday before the Oscars with all the category polls combined.
Best Animated Feature
Loading ...This Day in Oscar History: February 20 (2019)
Precursor: 21st Costume Designers Guild Awards (2018)
The Oscar frontrunners are the winners here, which will make for an interesting race at the Oscars where The Favourite and Black Panther will battle it out. The former has legendary, 14-time nominee Sandy Powell while the latter has another legendary costume designer Ruth Carter, who has never won before.
The Awards
Best Period Costume Design
The Favourite (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
Best Fantasy Costume Design
Black Panther (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
Best Contemporary Costume Design
Crazy Rich Asians (Wesley, Peter, Tripp, Thomas)
Costume Designers Guild Data
First Awards: 1998 (21)
Film Preview: Frozen II (2019)
Page Revisions:
(February 17, 2019) Original
Release Date:
November 22, 2019
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “Elsa, Anna, Kristoff and Olaf are going far in the forest to know the truth about an ancient mystery of their kingdom.”
Poster Rating: C
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Review: A snowflake teaser poster is appropriate, but inconsequential.
Trailer Rating: B-
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Review: The natural-looking water at the beginning, injected with the computer-generated Elsa feels a bit off-kilter, but after that moment, as the music builds, and others are introduced, the magic of the original almost completely comes through. This is a good foundation, but a better trailer should be forthcoming.
Oscar Prospects:
The first film took home two Oscars and this one is likely to pick up at least two more nominations, possibly even wins depending on the competition.
Trailer #1
Film Preview: Shaft (2019)
Page Revisions:
(February 17, 2019) Original
Release Date:
June 14, 2019
Synopsis:
From IMDb: “John Shaft Jr., a cyber security expert with a degree from MIT, enlists his family’s help to uncover the truth behind his best friend’s untimely death.”
Poster Rating: C
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Review: The color scheme is poorly selected, especially against a blank white background.
Trailer Rating: B
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Review: If it weren’t for Isaac Hayes’ iconic song, this trailer wouldn’t work nearly as well as it does. The lame humor injected by Shaft Jr. feels entirely out of place and while there’s still a genuine sense of nostalgia mixed with homage, there’s still something slightly inauthentic about it all.
Oscar Prospects:
None.
Trailer #1
91st Oscars – Presenters, Part 3
Nice to see a better mix of new and familiar stars, though Krysten Ritter seems an odd choice considering she’s primarily a television performer.
ROUND 3: A DOZEN MORE STARS TAKE OSCARS® STAGE
Elsie Fisher, Danai Gurira, Brian Tyree Henry, Michael B. Jordan, Michael Keaton, Helen Mirren, John Mulaney, Tyler Perry, Pharrell Williams, Krysten Ritter, Paul Rudd and Michelle Yeoh
LOS ANGELES, CA – Stars continue to line up to present on the Oscars® – the year’s most-watched, live entertainment event – on Sunday, February 24, announced show producer Donna Gigliotti and co-producer and director Glenn Weiss. The Oscars air live on the ABC Television Network, and is broadcast in more than 225 countries and territories.
“We are excited to welcome these amazing artists and filmmakers to the show,” said Gigliotti and Weiss. “They bring excitement, momentum, and elements of surprise to this year’s Oscars.”
Previously announced presenters include:
Awkwafina, Daniel Craig, Chris Evans, Tina Fey, Allison Janney, Brie Larson, Jennifer Lopez, Frances McDormand, Gary Oldman, Amy Poehler, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Amandla Stenberg, Charlize Theron, Tessa Thompson and Constance Wu.
Javier Bardem, Angela Bassett, Chadwick Boseman, Emilia Clarke, Laura Dern, Samuel L. Jackson, Stephan James, Keegan-Michael Key, KiKi Layne, James McAvoy, Melissa McCarthy, Jason Momoa and Sarah Paulson.
The 91st Oscars will be held at the Dolby Theatre® at Hollywood & Highland Center® in Hollywood, and will be televised live on the ABC Television Network at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.
The DVD Report #608
Bohemian Rhapsody isn’t a terribly profound film, but it’s a highly enjoyable one for what it is – a typical Hollywood tribute to a great artist with an emphasis on the joy he or she brought to the world. As such, it works. It is, after all, already the highest grossing biographical musical of all time with an infectious star performance.
Rami Malek’s remarkable performance as Freddie Mercury, the lead singer of Queen, may well be the best of its kind since James Cagney inhabited master showman George M. Cohan’s totally different style of singing, dancing, and strutting in 1942’s Yankee Dandy Dandy. The best moments of that film, aside from its musical numbers, were the moments of family togetherness with Joan Leslie as his wife, Walter Huston and Rosemary DeCamp as his parents, and real-life sister Jeanne Cagney as his sister. The same is true of Bohemian Rhapsody, although the emphasis here is on Mercury’s professional family consisting of Gwilym Lee, Ben Hardy, and Joe Mazzello as his bandmates, Brian May, Roger Taylor, and John Deacon, as well as his biological family and various lovers from Lucy Boynton as Mary Austin to Allen Leech as Paul Prenter to Aaron McCusker as Jim Hutton. The real-life bonding between the actors playing the members of the band is palpable. It’s no wonder the film was nominated for an ensemble award by the Screen Actors Guild, and certainly no wonder that Malek has been winning awards for best actor over more established competitors.