Back in Business

Hi everyone. I'm announcing that I'll be more active in this blog.
First up tomorrow will be my review of Avengers: Infinity War.

For now, here's a treat for you all:
Nicolas Cage as The Avengers

2018 Oscars Predictions (AND WINNERS)

Well, this blog could be declared dead if not for this post. No one is reading anyway. I have a Letterboxd account now where I share my lazy short reviews of the films I watched. If I have more time, I should come back here.

It's hours before the Oscars and I would like to predict some of the winners for this year. I will update the post with winners and see how much I got wrong. This year, I'm quite behind. I've only seen 6 out of 9 Best Pic films but let's clumsily predict.

*Now added with actual winners.

Best Picture
I've not seen The Shape of Water, Phantom Thread and I, Tonya. But if the race's between TSoW and Three Billboards, I'll pick Del Toro's. Three Billboards is good but not as good as previous McDonagh's films.
Official prediction: The Shape of Water
Personal prediction: The Florida Project  The Shape of Water
RESULT: The Shape of Water (1/1)

Best Actor in a Leading Role
Gary Oldman winning is the most boring result. I hope Timothee Chalamet or Daniel Kaluuya makes a shocking upset. Because I'm upset James Franco was snubbed.
Official prediction: Gary Oldman, The Darkest Hour
Personal prediction: Timothee Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name
RESULT: Gary Oldman (2/2)

Best Actress in a Leading Role
Never forget: Frances McDormand was in Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
Official prediction: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Personal prediction: Margot Robbie, I, Tonya.
RESULT: Frances McDormand (3/3)

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Sam Rockwell has also done a Frances McDormand sweep in all the awards circuit. But I'd like to see Willem Dafoe gets recognized.
Official prediction: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards...
Personal prediction: Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
RESULT: Sam Rockwell (4/4)

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
Allison Janney all the way. Glad to have Laurie Metcalf be the strongest contender.
Official prediction: Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Personal prediction: Allison Janney, I, Tonya
RESULT: Allison Janney (5/5)

Best Achievement in Directing
I don't feel this year's race is that exciting. Especially with Martin McDonagh not in the mix.
Official prediction: Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water
Personal prediction: Jordan Peele, Get Out
RESULT: Guillermo Del Toro (6/6)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Official prediction: James Ivory, Call Me By Your Name
Personal prediction: Aaron Sorkin, Molly's Game
RESULT: James Ivory (7/7)

Best Original Screenplay
I'm amazed and glad at how strong this year's category is. Super hard to make a choice.
Official prediction: Jordan Peele, Get Out
Personal prediction: Jordan Peele, Get Out
RESULT: Jordan Peele (8/8)

Best Cinematography
If Roger Deakins doesn't win, we'll all fail in life.
Official prediction: Roger Deakins, Blade Runner 2049
Personal prediction: Roger Deakins, Blade Runner 2049
RESULT: Roger Deakins (9/9)

Best Editing
Dunkirk has some annoying edits in my opinion. Baby Driver has won major editing awards.
Official prediction: Baby Driver
Personal prediction: Baby Driver
RESULT: Lee Smith, Dunkirk (9/10)

Best Production Design
Another tough competition, this time between Shape of Water and BR2049
Official prediction: The Shape of Water
Personal prediction: Blade Runner 2049
RESULT: The Shape of Water (10/11)

Best Costume Design
All signs point to The Shape of Water, but Phantom Thread is a film in the world of fashion!
Official prediction: The Shape of Water
Personal prediction: Phantom Thread
RESULT: Phantom Thread (10.5/12)

Best Make-up and Hairstyling
Official prediction: Darkest Hour
Personal prediction: Darkest Hour
RESULT: Darkest Hour (11.5/13)

Best Animated Feature
Official prediction: Coco
Personal prediction: Coco
RESULT: Coco (12.5/14)

Best Song
I don't hate The Greatest Showman, but if it win over Coco, we should question The Academy.
Official prediction: 'Remember Me', Coco
Personal prediction: 'Remember Me', Coco
RESULT: Coco (13.5/15)

Best Original Score
Jon Brion's score for Lady Bird was criminally snubbed.
Official prediction: The Shape of Water
Personal prediction: Phantom Thread
RESULT: Alexandre Desplat, The Shape of Water (14.5/16)

Best Visual Effects
Official prediction: Blade Runner 2049
Personal prediction:  War for the Planet of the Apes
RESULT: Blade Runner 2049 (15.5/17)

Well, I guess this year I'm quite on point. Missing out only on the editing category.
Last year I had 12.5/17, the previous year I had 13. So this is my personal best.

This year's show is quite tame and a bit boring. No surprises and all the gimmicks were not that exciting. Jet ski? Really? Also while I'd be thrilled to meet both Gal Gadot and Margot Robbie, I'd be a bit pissed to have them disturb me during a film. Honestly I would probably just go home without continuing A Wrinkle in Time, the film couldn't top the experience.

2018 Watch List

The blog may be dead for some months, but the tradition has to continue. Otherwise, we'll all be Olaf looking for traditions and hated by people around the world. Honestly, who looks for traditions? You make traditions, or someone made them. I wasted a lot of time in the past year but no 24 minutes was more wasted than watching Olaf singing sub-par songs. But good news, I ended the year watching The Disaster Artist and started 2018 with All the Money in the World. Looks like a solid year or everything could go downhill.

You know the drill: bold titles mean must-watches and unmarked means it's optional. I just copied and pasted and paraphrased that last sentence, because plagiarizing your own work is totally acceptable (and at least I owned it)--AGAIN.

(There are some award-season films that I overlooked as they were mostly released in 2017 and obviously, we have to watch them anyway. Some films that are too far in the year are selected from its premise, cast and crew.)

JANUARY

The Commuter Liam Neeson, Vera Farmiga, Jaume Collet-Serra (director)

12 Strong Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, Nicolai Fuglsig (director)

FEBRUARY

Annihilation Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Alex Garland (director)

Black Panther Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Ryan Coogler (director)

MARCH

Isle of Dogs Edward Norton, Bryan Cranston, Wes Anderson (director)

Ready Player One Tye Sheridan, Mark Rylance, Steven Spielberg (director)

Red Sparrow Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Edgerton, Francis Lawrence (director)

A Wrinkle in Time Chris Pine, Oprah Winfrey, Ava Duvernay (director)

7 Days in Entebbe Rosamund Pike, Daniel Bruhl, Jose Padilha (director)

Mary Magdalene Rooney Mara, Joaquin Phoenix, Garth Davis (director)

Tomb Raider Alicia Vikander, Dominic West, Roar Uthaug (director)

Pacific Rim: Uprising John Boyega, Scott Eastwood, Steven S. DeKnight (director)

APRIL

God Particle Daniel Bruhl, Elizabeth Debicki, Julius Onah (director)

The New Mutants Anya Taylor-Joy, Maisie Williams, Josh Boone (director)

Beirut Jon Hamm, Rosamund Pike, Brad Anderson (director)

A Quiet Place Emily Blunt, John Krasinski, John Krasinski (director)

Tully Charlize Theron, Mackenzie Davis, Jason Reitman (director)

Rampage Dwayne Johnson, Naomie Harris, Brad Peyton (director)

MAY

Avengers: Infinity War Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Russo Brothers (directors)

Where'd You Go, Bernadette Cate Blanchett, Billy Crudup, Richard Linklater (director)

Solo: A Star Wars Story Alden Ehrenreich, Donald Glover, ? (director)

JUNE

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, JA Bayona (director)

Deadpool 2 Ryan Reynolds, Josh Brolin, David Leitch (director)

The Incredibles 2 Holly Hunter, Samuel L. Jackson, Brad Bird (director)

Ocean's 8 Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Gary Ross (director)

Sicario 2: Soldado Josh Brolin, Joel Edgerton, Stefano Sollima (director)

JULY

Mission: Impossible 6 Tom Cruise, Henry Cavill, Christopher McQuarrie (director)

Ant-Man & The Wasp Paul Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Peyton Reed (director)

Alita: Battle Angel Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz, Robert Rodriguez (director)

Mamma Mia! 2 Lily James, Amanda Seyfried, Ol Parker (director)

Skyscraper Dwayne Johnson, Neve Campbell, Rawson Marshall Thurber (director)

AUGUST

The Predator Boyd Holbrook, Olivia Munn, Shane Black (director)

The Meg Jason Statham, Ruby Rose, Jon Turteltaub (director)

Scarface Diego Luna, Coen Brothers (directors)

The Equalizer 2 Denzel Washington, Antoine Fuqua (director)

Crazy Rich Asians Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Jon M. Chu (director)

Captive State John Goodman, Vera Farmiga, Rupert Wyatt (director)

Christopher Robin Ewan McGregor, Hayley Atwell, Marc Forster (director)

Kin James Franco, Zoe Kravitz, Baker Brothers (directors)

SEPTEMBER

Robin Hood Taron Egerton, Jamie Foxx, Otto Bathurst (director)

Johnny English 3 Rowan Atkinson, Olga Kurylenko, David Kerr (director)

Boy Erased Lucas Hedges, Russell Crowe, Josh Edgerton (director)

OCTOBER

First Man Ryan Gosling, Claire Foy, Damien Chazelle (director)

The Girl in the Spider's Web Claire Foy, Fede Alvarez (director)

Mowgli Christian Bale, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andy Serkis (director)

Venom Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Ruben Fleischer (director)

Bad Times at the El Royale Chris Hemsworth, Drew Goddard (director)

NOVEMBER

X-Men: Dark Phoenix Sophie Turner, James McAvoy, Simon Kinberg (director)

Fantastic Beasts 2 Eddie Redmayne, Jude Law, David Yates (director)

Creed 2 Michael B. Jordan, Tessa Thompson, Steven Caple Jr. (director)

Widows Viola Davis, Elizabeth Debicki, Steve McQueen (director)

Holmes & Watson Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Etan Cohen (director)

Mary Queen of Scots Margot Robbie, Saoirse Ronan, Josie Rourke (director)

Nutcracker & Four Realms Keira Knightey, Lasse Halstrom (director)

Wreck-It-Ralph 2 John C. Reilly, Sarah Silverman, Rich Moore (director)

DECEMBER 

Aquaman Jason Momoa, Willem Dafoe, James Wan (director)

Mary Poppins Returns Emily Blunt, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Rob Marshall (director)

Bumblebee Hailee Steinfeld, Travis Knight (director)

Mortal Engines Christian Rivers (director)

Bohemian Rhapsody Rami Malek, ? (directors)

I feel like there are more films that you can skip easily this year especially the comedies and some actioners. Even Clint Eastwood's latest isn't compelling for me as a non-American. The Rock has two films this year and after last year's disappointments, we'll proceed with more caution now. Some sequels also has to be approached with less expectations such as Pacific Rim: Uprising, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again and Soldado. Not to mention there are at least two troubled productions this year, the Han Solo prequel and the Freddie Mercury biopic. We've seen how reshoots can impact a film from the 'successful' Rogue One to the disastrous Justice League, it'll be interesting to see how those two films turn out.

From last year's list of 61 films, I watched 41 of them. Some of them hasn't been released and a few were bumped to this year (transfers from last year include Red Sparrow and God Particle). Last year I put four duds in my top 10 (JL, Kingsman 2, Kong Skull Island and Alien Covenant). Let's see how I fare this year. Honorable mentions go to Alita Battle Angel, The New Mutants, Isle of Dogs and Widows (scripted by Gone Girl's Gillian Flynn!). Here's my top 10 anticipated films for 2018:

10. Robin Hood - Hoping for a Peaky Blinders/Kingsman vibe in this one

9. Mission Impossible 6 - All in for Tom Cruise in action mode

8. Ready Player One - So far the trailers look great

7. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - Ugly title though

6. Deadpool 2 - Annual dose of R-rated superhero film

5. Aquaman - Hoping for a Wonder Woman-scale success

4. Avengers: Infinity War - if this isn't in your list, whats wrong with you

3. God Particle - God bless the Cloverfield series

2. Annihilation - Alex Garland yass

1. First Man - Ryan Gosling & Damien Chazelle double yasss

My new year's resolution this year is easy: list all the films/episodes I watch this year and probably at the end of the year I can reflect on how much time was utilized (or wasted or saved) by watching them. Also, I'm on Letterboxd, find me!

And also get a better job.

Summer Recap 2017

Summer 2017 has been dubbed the worst in years. And I think I agree. I haven't seen a lot of bad movies as much like this year. Last year I skipped this summer recap. (Quick last year recap: Top 3 2016: Popstar, Civil War, umm that's it?; Worst 2016: Independence Day Resurgence; Most Disappointing: Suicide Squad & Jason Bourne)

But now I'm back! After went missing for two months in July and August. I saw a lot of films though. But I didn't see The Emoji Movie (high-five!). But also I didn't see The Dark Tower or Cars 3.


Top 3 Films
1. Baby Driver
Coolest film this summer. Featuring a great ensemble led by Ansel Elgort and featuring the coolest soundtrack, Edgar Wright is now 5 for 5. By now, I'd dare him to make a bad movie and I'd pay him up before his new film comes out. The action scenes are super energetic almost unlike other action films you've ever seen. If you come out of the theatres not humming one of the 30+ songs featured, then you must be deaf and tasteless.





2. King Arthur: Legend of the Sword


Controversial choice, yes. I might be the only one putting this film above Dunkirk. The deciding moment for King Arthur is in the first 2 minutes: if you're okay with this version having a giant elephant and more magic stuff than ever, then you're in for a treat. Legend of the Sword is destined to be a cult classic for its action, amazing soundtrack, and quick storytelling (honestly, it skipped shit parts making it so much better). It's a shame people are too dull that this film made less than The Mummy.




3. Dunkirk
It's a Chris Nolan film. This film, as he said, to be experienced. It is. And you have to see it in IMAX to get the full experience. But then there's some weird editing that prevents this film from being my number one this summer. Also, when compared to Joe Wright's five minute sequence of Dunkirk, this film feels a tad dull. (This is a lot of criticism for a film in number 3). 






Honorable mentions
 - War For The Planet Of The Apes, best franchise not featuring humans in leading roles. Also, the soundtrack from Michael Giacchino here is an Oscar contender.
  - Spider-Man: Homecoming, for successfully handling the third iteration of the human spider in a decade in such grace, with a decent villain too.
 - Wonder Woman, for showing that DC could do something right and pioneering female-led superhero film.

Most Surprising Film
Dunkirk
Surprising for not being the best film this summer. But also not a really bad film. It's a different type of film. A film where Tom Hardy acts with his left eye. A film where Cillian Murphy is not explained well. A film with a very intense soundtrack. A film with three different timeframe and place. A film that is super loud. A film that fills complete but also empty at the same time. It's a weirdly good film. It's surprisingly very short. And after Nolan's talky space masterpiece Interstellar, Dunkirk is a weird follow-up.

Honorable mention
- King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, for being more enjoyable than it should've (for me).


Most Disappointing Film
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
I'm a big fan of the original trilogy. No one would proudly declare that. But I would. But On Stranger Tides was a massive dud. This one tried better, but failed as well. They managed to make Captain Jack a total buffoon and drunkard. They deleted Will Turner's backstory in favor of a very bland Henry Turner's rescue mission. For a franchise that has ran for 14 years, it is critical to have at least the characters right. On Stranger Tides still has Jack, Barbossa and Gibbs right. This one, not really--only Barbossa was right in this film. It's a shame. They nailed the coffin this time for sure.

Dishonorable mentions

- Alien Covenant, honestly what is going on with this franchise.

Worst Films

1. The Mummy
Worst film ever. Nothing is good, except the production design. At least Tom Cruise got his zero-G plane. He's the only winner here.

2. Transformers: The Last Knight
Also a massive dud. It bad for even the worse things like aspect ratio. There are 8 aspect ratio changes in the film, constantly changing. It's filled with total nonsense. But also surprising stuff that made you stay until the end, just shrugging away every scene. Like Anthony Hopkins or a robo-butler that is voiced by the butler from Downton Abbey. Honestly this film is the epitome of "what the fuck is happening." This film's title should be a curse word, everytime you shout "what the fuck is happening" you should just scream "transformers the last knight!"

Nolan's Gravity

Dunkirk is Christopher Nolan's passion project. Same like Gravity is Alfonso Cuaron's passion project. Both are outstanding technical achievements. Both are short in their runtime. So basically Nolan just made a film worthy to envy Gravity's achievements, which is a weird compliment because Alfonso Cuaron and Christopher Nolan are two different directors. But yes, both are different films. Dunkirk, based on a true story unfamiliar to people outside the UK (or the Commonwealth at least), stars newcomers Fionn Whitehead & Harry Styles, backed up by greats Tommy-fucking-Shelby Cillian Murphy, Mark Rylance and Tom Hardy.

The film plot is the evacuation of 400,000 soldiers from the city of Dunkerque in France, after the Allies + Brits gets pushed back by Germans. The story is told from three settings, land, air and sea. This story device/structure makes the film unique than other war films or other films in general. And it's very Nolan-y with his signature unconventional timeline. The film is technically superior. The sound design is over-the-top in a good way that it's perfect. I saw it in IMAX last week and it's amazing. The score by Hans Zimmer is very Zimmer-y but this film don't actually need a musical motif and Zimmer delivered a music that plays like a main cast member in the film. It is intense and you should blast the song when you're doing a project the night before deadline.

The actors in the film don't have much to do, because the film, like Gravity, is not an actor's film. But more than Gravity, the actors have more to do. Mark Rylance and Cillian Murphy are unquestionable greats and Tom Hardy spends most of the film acting with his left eye only. Damn. But the real test in this film is Harry Styles, which is like the equivalent of when you hear Rosie Huntington-Whiteley got cast in Fury Road. Like Rosie Huntington, Harry Styles did a good performance in this film. He even gets more lines than the Fionn Whitehead, who's in the poster. My only criticism in this film is sometimes the editing takes you out of the film. It could be Nolan's fault too and not only the editor. There are at least three moments that could have better editing. Two of them need more scenes to stitch the existing scenes and the other needs to be deleted. It's a small thing but it could annoy you. It's a tricky film to edit anyway with its complicated structure. But the film is still great. Just like Nolan claimed, the film needs to be experienced in the biggest theatre available with the loudest sound system available. And for that I wholeheartedly agree. Dunkirk: 3.5/4.


PS. Like Inception, Christopher Nolan can be unimaginative to preserve the realism (it's dreamscapes!). Go to the amazing tracking shot in Atonement to see Joe Wright's stellar depiction of the evacuation of Dunkirk.