Best Motion Picture of the Year
NOMINEES:
American Hustle
Nebraska
Captain Phillips
Philomena
Dallas Buyers Club
12 Years a Slave
Gravity
The Wolf of Wall Street
Her
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role
NOMINEES:
American Hustle: Christian Bale
Nebraska: Bruce Dern
The Wolf of Wall Street: Leonardo DiCaprio
12 Years a Slave: Chiwetel Ejiofor
Dallas Buyers Club: Matthew McConaughey
by Armando
10.Prisoners
9. American Hustle
8. Her
7. The Heat
6. Man of Steel
5. 12 Years a Slave
4. The Conjuring
3. Mud
2. Captain Phillips
1. Gravity
A first look at one of the most highly anticipated, star-studded movie of 2014.
By Armando
This week, Marvel rang the new year with the first official picture from upcoming superhero film based on the Marvel Comics of the same name.
Directed by James Gunn, the promo image recalls the iconic Usual Suspects poster with the cast of characters standing on a lineup that suggests a strong comedic tone the movie will have.
From left: Zoe Saldana as the Gamora, standing next to Chris Pratt, who plays Peter Quill/Star-Lord, the leader of the Guardians. And then there’s Rocket Roccoon (character voiced by Bradley Cooper), followed by Drax The Destroyer (played by WWE’s Dave Bautista alongside Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).
Guardians of Galaxy opens Aug. 1. Here’s the movie synopsis that went out with the press release:
“An action-packed epic space adventure, Marvel’s Guardians Of The Galaxy expands the Marvel Cinematic Universe into the cosmos, where brash adventurer Peter Quill finds himself the object of an unrelenting bounty hunt after stealing a mysterious orb coveted by Ronan, a powerful villain with ambitions that threaten the universe. To evade the ever-persistent Ronan, Quill is forced into an uneasy truce with a quartet of disparate misfits—Rocket, a gun-toting raccoon, Groot, a tree-like humanoid, the deadly and enigmatic Gamora and the revenge-driven Drax the Destroyer. But when Peter discovers the true power of the orb and the menace it poses to the cosmos, he must do his best to rally his ragtag rivals for a last, desperate stand—with the galaxy’s fate in the balance.”
By Armando
Paul Walker’s “Fast and Furious 4″ Nissan GT-R for sale at $1.4 million
A few years ago Steve McQueen’s GT40 fetched for $11 million on a Pebble Beach Auction block, becoming the most expensive American car ever sold. Following the unexpected death of Paul Walker, the tradition of collecting celebrity vehicles is back in business.
Check out the car here: http://suchen.mobile.de
The car in the ad is allegedly the same one used by Paul Walker’s character in Fast and the Furious franchise, a Nissan Skyline GT-R of the R34 which appeared in the fourth film. Apparently, the car was seized by the US government a few months ago, along with many other cars, due to auto safety and emission rules non-compliance.
So how did it end up being in Germany?
A few months ago, a German car magazine posted a review of the car, wherein the owner also reveals its in his possession and has on sale for 300,00 euros (around $400k). Within the last few days, another ad for the car has come up, only this time with a new price: 1 million euros (approximately $1,373,000).
It is kind of creepy when someone cashes in on a former celebrity ownership. But in this day and age, we all know it won’t be the last.
Best Picture, Drama
12 Years a Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena
Rush
Best Picture, Comedy
American Hustle
Her
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska
The Wolf of Wall Street
Best Director
Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Best Actress
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr Banks
Kate Winslet, Labor Day
Best Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Idris Elba, Mandela
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaghey, Dallas Buyers Club
Robert Redford, All Is Lost
By Armando
Once again, New York Film critics is first to come out of the awards season in awarding a front-runner. Last year, Zero Dark Thirty came out of the gate with a best picture win before it was officially reviewed by critics. That movie went on to receive 5 Oscar nominations including Best Picture, and a win for Sound Editing… and nothing else. So this may or may not be a good precedent for American Hustle, depending on how you look at it.
Here’s a complete list of winners follows:
Best Picture: American Hustle
Best Actor: Robert Redford, All Is Lost
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Director: Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
Best Screenplay: Eric Singer & David O. Russell, American Hustle
Best Supporting Actor: Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Best Animated Film: The Wind Rises
Best Cinematographer: Bruno Delbonnel, Inside Llewyn Davis
Best First Film: Ryan Coogler, Fruitvale Station
Best Foreign Film: Blue Is the Warmest Color
Best Nonfiction Film (Documentary): Stories We Tell
Special Award: Frederick Wiseman
Posted by Steve Boxer
At one time it was the game industry that wanted to emulate films. But now the movie industry is adopting the technology of video games
Amid the debate about television stealing the film industry’s thunder, another entertainment form has crept up unnoticed, further threatening Hollywood’s creative hegemony: video games. With a new, much more powerful generation of games consoles poised to arrive – Microsoft’s Xbox One goes on sale on Friday, with Sony’s PlayStation 4 due a week later – the games companies reckon they finally have the ammunition to shake off the perception that their digital epics are inferior to movies.
I’m in a place that could not reinforce that impression more emphatically: the historic Ealing studios, where classics such as The Lavender Hill Mob and The Ladykillers were filmed. But I’m here to experience the process of making a video game called Ryse: Son of Rome, an epic tale charting the Roman conquest of Britain, which will be a launch title for the Xbox One. And the studio is nowadays home to The Imaginarium, an outfit co-founded by Andy Serkis, who – as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings – is perhaps the world’s leading exponent of performance-capture, in which every nuance of an actor’s performance (specifically movement, voice and facial expressions) is recorded and mapped on to a video game character.
By: Armando
The first trailer for Darren Aronofsky’s long-gestating biblical epic Noah has arrived, offering an early look at the filmmaker’s most ambitious project to date. The film stars Russell Crowe in the title role, marking a reunion with Jennifer Connelly, who previously appeared opposite Crowe in Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind, for which she won an Academy Award.
Based on the story of Noah’s Ark, the trailer teases a darker, more mythic interpretation of the biblical tale, with images of massive floods, sweeping landscapes, and the construction of the ark itself. Brief moments show Noah grappling with a divine warning that humanity faces imminent destruction, while supporting characters question the cost of his mission. Anthony Hopkins appears as Methuselah, alongside Emma Watson, Logan Lerman, Ray Winstone, and Connelly as Noah’s wife, Naameh.
The release of the trailer follows reports of behind-the-scenes tension between Aronofsky and Paramount Pictures over the film’s final cut. According to industry reports, the production exceeded its original budget, with costs reportedly climbing past $130 million, largely due to extensive visual effects used to create the film’s animals and large-scale flood sequences. The scale represents a significant departure for Aronofsky, whose previous work (Black Swan, The Wrestler, Requiem for a Dream) focused on more intimate, character-driven stories.
Written by Aronofsky and Ari Handel, with revisions by John Logan (Gladiator, Hugo), Noah is set to open in U.S. theaters on March 28, 2014.
The video-rental company, now owned by Dish Network, is closing its last 300 stores by early January.
By Nick Turner
Blockbuster, the video-rental company now owned by Dish Network, will close its remaining 300 U.S. stores, ending an era for a retail chain that was once a hallmark of shopping centers nationwide.
Blockbuster will shut the outlets by early January and discontinue its DVD-by-mail service by the middle of next month, Englewood, Colo.-based Dish said Wednesday in a statement. The company will keep the licensing rights to the Blockbuster brand and use it with Dish services. It also has a video-streaming product called Blockbuster On Demand.
While the chain had more than 20 stores in Jacksonville less than three years ago, it’s now down to two: one at Atlantic and Hodges boulevards and another on Old St. Augustine Road in Mandarin.
