Top 25 Guilty Pleasure Movies Part IV

10. Transformers: Okay, okay, okay. I know I have a reputation for being the biggest Michael Bay hater that you’ve probably ever met (and rightfully so, how can a man who makes Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys II and The Island back to back still be considered a valuable commodity in Hollywood?!?), but I gotta admit, I like the first Transformers on a purely dumb escapist level. In fact, this is the first time that Michael Bay’s flaws have been really restrained. Sure, there’s hammy acting from Shia LaBeefy and any attempt at human emotion comes across as laughable, but they never linger on trying to be anything above popcorn entertainment. And after the crapfest that was the summer of 2007 (Spider Man 3, Pirates of the Caribbean 3, Fantastic Four 2, Evan Almighty), this was a welcome installment of fun escapism. Now why did he have to ruin it by making the two sequels?

9. Universal Soldier: Jean Claude Van Damme. Dolph Lundgren. Roland Emmerich. Dean Devlin. Apart, this just sounds like a formula for disaster, but for some reason, this movie about soldiers killed in Vietnam and resurrected as super-soldiers is still a lot of fun. Van Damme gets to do his corny “acting” while doing his split kicks, there are some pretty fun shoot ‘em up scenes and the story is kind of entertaining. It’s an incoherent and implausible story, but it’s still fun nonetheless. So, if you’re ever in the mood for 80s cheese that was made in the early 90s, look no further than Universal Soldier.

8. Batman Forever: I know, I know, Joel Schumacher Batman movies are the bastard children of the Batman franchise, but honestly, I really hated the cynical decadence of Batman Returns so much that I was aching to see something bright in the Batman universe and this movie did that just fine. Sure, ALL of the characters are completely overacting in practically every frame of the movie and the plot ramble unintelligibly from scene to scene. What I liked the most about this movie was actually the fun camera work, lighting and special effects that were pretty good for 1995. The movie is stupid as hell, especially when you see The Dark Knight and see that comic book movies CAN be complexly constructed character pieces, but it’s a welcome bright installment after the cesspool of villains that was Batman Returns.

7. Kung Pow! Enter the Fist: Maybe it’s just the Mystery Science Theater 3000 fan in me, but I loved this movie, not so much for the guy fighting the cow scene, but how they blended the scenes from an old kung fu movie, Tiger and Crane Fist, redubbed it to be a comedy and shot some filler scenes to blend them with the other scenes. I mean, when one of the lines was a kung fu master explaining that he intentionally trained one of his students the wrong way “as a joke”, I can’t help but laugh. This movie is completely bizarre and nothing more than stupid funny, but for as weirdly stupid they were in making it, I can’t help but love it. This will determine if this is your type of humor.

6. Brit Rom Coms (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Love Actually, About a Boy, etc): Okay, there was once a time (I think it was before How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days soured the genre) that romantic comedies were charming and no other nation did it best than the British. Their romantic comedies were witty, cleverly written, fun and…romantic. Nowadays, they’re cheaply made American movies to cast thirty something actresses desperate for roles that pay seven figures before their stardom fades away into obscurity. But before those piles came along, British romantic comedies were actually very enjoyable and charming. A lot of people look at them as being femmy or mushy…and they are, but damn it, I still like them. They’re genuine, they’re fun and, yes, I think they’re romantic. There, I’m sentimental.

5. Hulk: Now, I’m not in love with this movie, but I guess the fact that I just don’t hate it as much as everybody else did means I have to consider it a guilty pleasure. When I saw it, I thought it was okay, not better than Spider-Man, but I still enjoyed it nonetheless. It may have helped that I never read the comics growing up. But what I saw was pretty stylish, neat effects and I LOVED the editing style of making the split scenes like a comic book version of an episode of 24. Yes, it was really long (2 and a half hours was a bit much) and the villain was pretty stupid, but overall, I liked the psychological story behind him, even though it may have been a bit corny. So, not really liked by me, but I give it credit nonetheless…and by that respect, I guess it is a guilty pleasure.

4. Street Fighter: Now this is a movie that I can’t help but admit is nothing but stupid. Every scene is poorly acted, a talented cast is wasted, the dialog is terrible, but the biggest problem is that it has absolutely nothing to do with video game. Instead, it’s about a rogue army that the UN army is trying to squelch, never mind that it’s based on a game called Street Fighter, which was about tournament fighting…and yet, every time it’s on, I can’t turn it off. It’s such a train wreck of epic proportions, but I can’t help but love it. Raul Julia is such an over the top bad guy that it actually becomes entertaining. In fact, everything is so overdone that it becomes entertaining. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at this clip.

3. 80s Slasher Flicks (Friday the 13^th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, all their sequels and knock offs): There’s something about the low-budget 80s era slasher films that are simultaneously gritty with a sense of grandiosity to them. They knew they were nothing more than excuses for nudity, sex and gratuitous violence and they made no excuses about them. They’re the roman coliseum of movies and…I applaud them for it. If you’re ever in the mood for a quick fix of shamelessness, look no further than these movies. With the exception of the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, which actually have a degree of creativity to the effects and teen murder scenes.

2. Rocky IV: Now here’s a movie that shows how far a movie series can fall from its roots. The original Rocky was a realistic underdog story that had clever characters and great interactions. By Rocky IV, the series has pretty much become a cartoon with his opponent being the equivalent of video game final boss. The writing is subpar, the scenes are so convoluted and the movie is essentially 80% montage. Which is probably what makes it so enjoyable is the soundtrack that could be used for any workout playlist and the fight at the end is still pretty epic and exciting, even if the ending speech is very pretentious. Still, it’s one huge slice of 80s cheese that goes down so well with the entire box of crackers.

1. Maximum Overdrive: Okay, let’s go through the guilty pleasure list: over the top acting? Check. Cornball dialog? Check. Talented actors in embarrassing roles? Oh yeah. Over the top violent scenes? Double check. Produced in the 80s? You betcha! Killer soundtrack? Um, did the credit “Music by AC-DC” go unnoticed? Oh, and it’s an apocalyptic movie, to boot. The only thing that would make this movie better would be zombies, but I’ll settle for semi-trucks getting blown up with missile launchers. This is a movie that is so cheesy, so hyper eccentric and so outrageous that I can’t help but be in love it. If it is on TV, I have to watch it. If I could find the soundtrack for it, I would buy it and I would listen to it ad nauseum. This is my biggest guilty pleasure movie of all time.

Why I CANNOT wait for 2012

The Dark Knight Rises

and

The Hobbit Part I

Why? Because I can't think of two movies that consumed the inner geek in me through the decade of the 2Ks as much as The Dark Knight and The Lord of the Rings movies did. Those movies were a rare blend of geek worthy obsession and brilliantly crafted movies, something that can rarely be said about most Hollywood movies (Transformers, I'm looking at you!) I mean, just the previews alone have me so happy that they actually have made me revert. Few movies have that ability, so for these two movies alone, I am willing to wade through the crap that was 2011.

Well, we'll also have The Avengers, the Spider-Man reboot (which I am interested in seeing), Prometheus, Skyfall, Django Unchained, World War Z, The Dictator and The Hunger Games, so 2012 will DEFINITELY make up for 2011.

Best Song Finalists

Well, we have another precursor list. The Academy has announced their list of 39 finalists for Best Song, which are:

"The World I Knew" from "African Cats"
"Lay Your Head Down" from "Albert Nobbs"
"Star Spangled Man" from "Captain America: The First Avenger"
"Collision of Worlds" from "Cars 2"
"Dakkanaga Dugu Dugu" from "DAM999"
"DAM999 Theme Song" from "DAM999"
"Mujhe Chod Ke" from "DAM999"
"Rainbird" from "Dirty Girl"
"Keep On Walking" from "The First Grader"
"Where the River Goes" from "Footloose"
"Hello Hello" from "Gnomeo & Juliet"
"Love Builds a Garden" from "Gnomeo & Juliet"
"Bridge of Light" from "Happy Feet Two"
"The Mighty Sven" from "Happy Feet Two"
"Never Be Daunted" from "happythankyoumoreplease"
"Hell and Back" from "Hell and Back Again"
"The Living Proof" from "The Help"
"Coeur Volant" from "Hugo"
"It's How We Play" from "I Don't Know How She Does It"
"When the Heart Dies" from "In the Land of Blood and Honey"
"Ja Nao Estar" from "José and Pilar"
"The Keeper" from "Machine Gun Preacher"
"Life's a Happy Song" from "The Muppets"
"Man or Muppet" from "The Muppets"
"Pictures in My Head" from "The Muppets"
"Summer Song" from "The Music Never Stopped"
"Imaginary Friends" from "Olive"
"Sparkling Day" from "One Day"
"Taking You with Me" from "Our Idiot Brother"
"The Greatest Song I Ever Heard" from "POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold"
"Hot Wings" from "Rio"
"Let Me Take You to Rio" from "Rio"
"Real in Rio" from "Rio"
"Shelter" from "Take Shelter"
"Gathering Stories" from "We Bought a Zoo"
"Pop" from "White Irish Drinkers"
"Think You Can Wait" from "Win Win"
"The Backson Song" from "Winnie the Pooh"
"So Long" from "Winnie the Pooh"

Well, some of these are sure fire, others are long shots, others you look at and probably say WTF? Well, I'll be back to give my thoughts in a minute. (Gotta make the 1:35 of Hugo!)

*EDIT* Okay, Hugo wasn't at the theater. I was pissed. Then mom took Steph and I to lunch, which was nice, but then I had to endure holiday shopping...not so nice. Either way, I'm at home and I'm going to unleash my frustration on the thing I love the most: movie awards.

Okay, first and foremost, DAM999 has absolutely no chance whatsoever, so that's out. Haven't heard of it, no one's talking about it, It's out, plain and simple. Same for Jose and Pilar, Dirty girl, The First Grader, Hell and Back Again, Olive and White Irish Drinkers.

As for the others, it seems to be a battle for who has the next amount of no chance. African Cats, Cars 2, happythankyoumoreplease, I Don't Know How She Does It, In the Land of Blood and Honey, Our Idiot Brother and POM Wonderful Presents The Greatest Movie Ever Sold.

Now, for movies I think can pull an upset like those songs from Paris 39 or August Rush, they would have to be movies that are ABOUT music, so movies like The Music Never Stopped or Footloose might have a chance. I know, I know, saying Footloose has a chance is like speaking blasphemy, and I'll be honest, it is, but sometimes, it needs to be said to keep surprises from being...surprising.

Then there's the other director who's known for his great soundtracks: Cameron Crowe and his film We Bought a Zoo. Now, this may be a financial disappointment come Oscar time, but don't count it out. Crowe knows his music and he has a loyal fan base, so I'm not counting it out.

Also, keep an eye on Sparkling Day from One Day, because it has a soundtrack boasting music from Elvis Costello and name recognition goes a long way with the Academy. So this one could sneak in.

Ditto Machine Gun Preacher's song The Keeper, which managed a surprise nomination from the Golden Globes. And with Chris Cornell as the singer/songwriter of this tune, it could be in the running. However, the Globe's track record for matching up songs is VERY slim, so it may wind up the same route as Shakira's song from Love in the Time of Cholera, Despedira.


Now, for other movies that could sneak in because of their prestige:

I'm holding out on Star Spangled Man from Captain America because of the number of times it was performed in the movie and it's a pretty good tune that both sets the time period and the mentality. It's upbeat and fun, but it also has a wit of biting satire in it, which I love satire, so I'm not ready to put it in the "no hope" category yet. Call it personal bias, but I like it.

Take Shelter has been getting some strong critical buzz lately. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if an acting or screenplay nomination would be out of the question. So, that may carry over to Best Song here, but it all depends on how strong the love for this movie is. Same for Win Win.

Coeur Volant from Hugo. That was a sweet song at the end of the credits of the movie...I have no idea what they were saying, but it sounded so sweet. Yet, that may work against it as it is both a foreign language song AND an end credits song. The Academy's music branch has been trying to restrict songs to ones that "used in the body of the motion picture or as the first music cue in the end credits". That's one of the factors that I think cost "I See You" from Avatar getting nominated, so this song from Hugo is going to have a REAL uphill battle. If it gets nominated, expect Hugo to win Best Picture.

The animated films.

Cars 2 is out. Randy Newman won last year, this movie isn't as well loved, so it's out. As for the songs from Rio, they may be catchy, but I'm not which ones are being heavily promoted. And I still haven't seen it yet, so I'm not sure which song works best with the film. I don't think it's out, necessarily, but I don't think it's very strong. Happy Feet 2 has Bridge of Light performed by Pink, so that may have a chance, but the movie's lackluster performance is going to be a STRONG factor against this movie's chances for anything. Winnie the Pooh's song So Long was nominated for a Grammy, but they are the worst source to use to predict the Oscar's song nominees. If it has a chance, it's for this song, but don't hold your breath.

Now, as for Gnomeo and Juliet, it's chances for Best Song are pretty likely, if only because of (wait for it) the name recognition behind it. Elton John wrote both songs and he and Lady Gaga performed Hello Hello, which has been nominated for both the Golden Globe AND Broadcast Film Critics Awards, so it's chances are pretty high for that song to be nominated.

That leaves the following:

ALL of the songs from The Muppets. If the Academy didn't impose that idiotic rule back in 2008 that only two songs, then I'd say look for all three to be nominated. (TWO IS THE NUMBER OF THE NOMINEES AND THE NUMBER OF SONGS FROM MOVIES TO BE NOMINATED IS TWO! NO MORE NO LESS! YOU SHALL NOT NOMINATE THREE! FOUR IS RIGHT OUT!)...but I digress.

Instead, we are assured that Life's a Happy Song is in, but if a second one is to be nominated, what's it going to be? Is it going to be the emotionally charged Pictures in my Head or is it going to be the funny but surprisingly deep existential pondering song Man or Muppet? My personal choice is Man or Muppet, but I wouldn't count out the nostalgia of seeing Kermit the Frog performing on stage again, the first time since he performed Rainbow Connection at Oscars in 1979. (Screw you, Norma Rae, THIS was the better song!)...digressing again...


The song from Albert Nobbs, Lay Your Head Down may have a chance. I'm definitely not counting it out, but support for the film (outside of the performances of Glenn Close and Janet McTeer) have definitely been waning. I still think it's one of the stronger chances, but that's only because we don't have more recognizable songs this year to choose from. (I personally blame the Academy's music branch, but that's for another rant.)

The Living Proof from The Help is a solid lock. If you're going to pick anything from this list, pick that one. Sure fire Best Picture nominee, getting really good buzz and co-written by one of the Academy's people to nominate: Thomas Newman. (Note: nominate, never won)

So, that about does it for these finalists. What do I think will get nominated from this bunch? Well, as of December 20th, 2011, the ones that I think have the best chance are:

"Hello Hello"; Gnomeo and Juliet
"Life's a Happy Song"; The Muppets
"The Living Proof"; The Help
"Man or Muppet"; The Muppets
"Sparkling Day"; One Day

With "Lay Your Head Down", something from "Rio" or "Summer Song" pulling an upset.

Golden Globe Nominees

Oh, there are SOO many things for me to be angry about here...

Best Picture, Drama

The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

Best Picture, Comedy/Musical

50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
Midnight in Paris
My Week with Marilyn

Best Picture, Animated

The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Cars 2
Puss in Boots
Rango

Best Director

Woody Allen - Midnight in Paris
George Clooney - The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Alexander Payne - The Descendants
Martin Scorsese – Hugo

Best Actor, Drama

George Clooney - The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio - J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender - Shame
Ryan Gosling - The Ides of March
Brad Pitt – Moneyball

Best Actress, Drama

Glenn Close - Albert Nobbs
Viola Davis - The Help
Rooney Mara - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Actor, Comedy/Musical

Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Brendan Gleeson - The Guard
Joseph Gordon Levitt - 50/50
Ryan Gosling - Crazy Stupid Love
Owen Wilson - Midnight in Paris

Best Actress, Comedy/Musical

Jodie Foster - Carnage
Charlize Theron - Young Adult
Kristen Wiig - Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn
Kate Winslet – Carnage

Best Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Albert Brooks - Drive
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen - A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer – Beginners

Best Supporting Actress

Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Janet McTeer - Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer - The Help
Shailene Woodley - The Descendants

Best Screenplay

The Artist
The Descedants
The Ides of March
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball

Best Original Score

The Artist
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
W.E.
War Horse

Best Song

“Hello Hello”; Gnomeo & Juliet
“The Keeper”; Machine Gun Preacher
“Lay Your Head Down”; Albert Nobbs
“The Living Proof”; The Help
“Masterpiece”; W.E.

Best Foreign Language Film

The Flowers of War - China
In the Land of Blood and Honey - USA
The Kid with a Bike - Belgium
A Separation - Iran
The Skin I Live In - Spain

First of all, where the hell are the songs from The Muppets?!? Is the HFPA that much in love with Madonna that they HAD to nominate her pile of dung movie W.E.? Machine Gun Preacher? Really? Even Gerard Butler didn't see Machine Gun Preacher! Do they just love Chris Cornell? Then why the hell didn't they nominate his wonderful song from Casino Royale five years ago? I may just be biased, but Life's a Happy Song or Man or Muppet deserved nominations above both of these movies (and will probably do so come Oscar time).

I'm really starting to question what they classify as Comedy/Musical. The Artist, okay, it's a comedy/musical, I'm cool with that. We have our winner right there. Carnage? Really? A Roman Polanski film is a comedy? If it is, it has to be the driest comedy to the point that it's, I don't know, a DRAMA! My Week With Marilyn a Comedy? It's flat out a drama, there's no excuse for this! And where the hell is Beginners? That movie was practically a shoe in for Best Comedy, but no, apparently that's going to be restricted to Best Supporting Actor.

The Ides of March. Out of friggin' nowhere, the HFPA digs The Ides of March out of virtual shut out and gives it four major nominations. Dammit, now it's back in contention. It's not a horrible movie, but there are just so many other movies that didn't feel like you were watching a stage play (which is what it was based on). Don't feel like it was needlessly included? How about the fact that there are six nominees instead of the standard five?

W.E....I'm just gonna throw that out there again. Madonna got another undeserved nomination.

Movies that took a huge hit here are Young Adult, Martha Marcy Mae Marlene, A Dangerous Method, The Tree of Live, Drive and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Young Adult needed some kind of support to keep it in the running, but without a Best Comedy/Musical nod or a nod for previous nominees Jason Reitman and Diablo Cody. Elizabeth Olsen's chances have become very slim now, despite having huge critical support. A Dangerous Method's chances have been restricted to Viggo Mortenson's nod for Best Supporting Actor. Tree of Life seems to have only the Broadcast Film Critic's support, ditto Drive, but the most troubling was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close's chances. This is a movie directed by the guy that was able to sneak The Reader into the Best Director/Picture race in 2008 over The Dark Knight and Wall-E, earning three straight Best Picture/Director nominations for his first three movies. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo also seems to be shut out outside of technical nods. The only way that these movies will maintain their chances at nominations will be to see what ten movies the Producers Guild are going to pick.


Another glaring omission was Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids. Though the movie was up for Best Comedy/Musical and Kristin Wiig also got nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy, McCarthy seemed like a good fit for Best Supporting Actress. Guess not. I'm still not sold on Janet McTeer getting nominated for Best Supporting Actress over McCarthy, but it could happen now. McCarthy no longer seems as solid of a fit. Ditto Steven Spielberg's chances as his prestigious film War Horse only managed nods for Best Picture and Score.

Movies that got a tremendous boost are Moneyball as well as Jonah Hill. With four nominations, Moneyball's support seems to have held out from October. While it may not be enough to win the big awards, it IS enough to make Brad Pitt a strong contender for Best Actor. Ditto My Week with Marilyn, which has secured nods for Michelle Williams and Kenneth Branaugh. While a Best Picture nomination may seem a bit far fetched, there may be some room for technical nods like Costume Design, Art Direction and Make-Up.

For now, we can be assured that Best Picture nominees are going to be The Artist, The Descendants, The Help, Hugo and Moneyball with War Horse and Midnight in Paris being strong possibilities. Everything else that's in contention is kind of in limbo because of the Academy's "Five to Ten" rule, in that Best Picture nominees could be as few as five or as many as ten. Hell, we could have seven, we could have nine. This is just an asinine attempt to drum up interest. Funny, the only people that are going to notice are going to be nerds like me that follow these things. Everyone else is going to just shrug their shoulders. Well, here's to more confusion and disappointment.

W.E….W.E….

Screen Actors Guild Nominees

Ensemble
- The Artist
- Bridesmaids
- The Descendants
- The Help
- Midnight in Paris

Actor
- Demian Bichir; A Better Life
- George Clooney; The Descendants
- Leonardo DiCaprio; J. Edgar
- Jean Dujardin; The Artist
- Brad Pitt; Moneyball

Actress
- Glenn Close; Albert Nobbs
- Viola Davis; The Help
- Meryl Streep; The Iron Lady
- Tilda Swinton; We Need to Talk About Kevin
- Michelle Williams; My Week With Marilyn

Supporting Actor
- Kenneth Branagh; My Week With Marilyn
- Armie Hammer; J. Edgar
- Jonah Hill; Moneyball
- Nick Nolte; Warrior
- Christopher Plummer; Beginners

Supporting Actress
- Berenice Bejo; The Artist
- Jessica Chastin; The Help
- Melissa McCarthy; Bridesmaids
- Janet McTeer; Albert Nobbs
- Octavia Spencer; The Help

Stunt Ensemble
- The Adjustment Bureau
- Cowboys and Aliens
- Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
- Transformers: Dark of the Moon
- X-Men: First Class

Lately, the Academy's acting categories have matched at the very least four out of the five nominees. So what does this mean for these nominees? Probably that about 80 to 90% of them (maybe even 100%) will end up with Oscar nominations.

HUGE boost for Bridesmaids here and continued support for Melissa McCarthy. If she can score a Golden Globe nod, then she is in. Maybe the movie itself might be up for Best Original Screenplay. Who knows, it's a weak year for Original Screenplay and honoring an actress who turned in the script for one of the most talked about summer hits wouldn't seem all that crazy.

And you're not alone in asking "Who the hell is Demian Bishir and what the hell is A Better Life". This is something that was not even on the radar of any Oscar predictor and will probably not carry over to a nomination...that is, unless, he can score a Golden Globe nod and momentum for this unheard of film can continue. Very shocking that he scored nominations over Ryan Gosling for both Drive and The Ides of March as well as Michael Fassbender. Either one of those performances will probably take the fifth slot with the Academy, but it's still too early in the game to count anyone out.

Albert Nobbs got the support it needed here, both for Glenn Close AND Janet McTeer. Could they both be on their way to nominations? It seems very likely.

I think the best way to break these down is by category, so here I go:

Best Actor: The weakest of the nominees here is obviously Demian Bishir. As much as I would like to get behind the dark horse candidate, I don't think he'll make it into the other nominations. Honestly, the same goes for Leonardo DiCaprio. J. Edgar had a tremendous head of steam built up for it, but it has all but sputtered out now. If he manages a nomination, he'll probably be in last place. The ones who are more likely to score nominations are Michael Fassbender in Shame or Ryan Gosling in Drive or The Ides of March. Also, don't count out other dark horse candidate Michael Shannon for Take Shelter, an actor who literally came out of left field in 2008 to score his first Oscar nomination.

Best Actress: All five of these ladies seem incredibly likely to earn nominations, so I wouldn't put it past them to all receive Oscar nominations. That is if they can hold off momentum from other candidates Charlize Theron in Young Adult and Elizabeth Olsen in Martha Marcy Mae Marlene. If one of those two actresses have enough momentum, then the shakiest of nominees here would be Glenn Close, but that may not be the case any more.

Best Supporting Actor: Academy Award nominee Jonah Hill...just can't quite get that through. Sure, he may have done phenomenal work in Moneyball, but his current release is The Sitter and we saw how well current releases can help other actors vying for awards (I'm sure Eddie Murphy is wishing Norbit got delayed just another month). That being said, Hill is probably most likely going to lose out his Oscar nomination to Albert Brooks in Drive, but if Hill can earn a Golden Globe nomination, then his chances may be stronger than we thought.

Best Supporting Actress: Wow, this is one shaky category, not that the nominees aren't great, but that there are so many good ones and one of them may have to make way for newcomer Shailene Woodley in The Descendants. Octavia Spencer, Berenice Bejo and Melissa McCarthy seem like sure fire nominees and Jessica Chastin has been gaining a lot of momentum by turning in a LOT of good performances this year. The one who may lose out here is Janet McTeer, unless the Academy wants to shake things up and shut out Chastin...or Woodley, who knows? It's still an early game

Best Ensemble: Why this isn't an Oscar category, I'll never understand. A great ensemble is so important to a great movie, sometimes it's one of the best things about watching a movie. Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I think the race is between The Help and Bridesmaids. A win for Bridesmaids would just be oh so delicious. :)

Top 25 Guilty Pleasure Movies Part III

15. Con Air: Perhaps the 90s had equally good cheese. Here, we get the standard run of the mill Jerry Bruckheimer action flick: loud, in your face, over the top with incredibly preposterous action sequences. But through it all, the cast looks like they are having one hell of a time with it. They’re all bad guys or crazy guys and they ham it up more than a national 4-H convention. I mean, just Steve Buscemi’s crazy guy alone is enough to recommend this movie. Want a loud, dumb, fun as hell action film, look no further than Con Air.

14. Ace Ventura 1 & 2: The second one was just on over the weekend and I was able to see exactly why it was such a critically trashed film. It is so incredibly over the top in its ridiculousness, so unnatural with not just Ace himself but how everyone else around him just treats his psychological disorders as a simple tick. Yet, I still get so much amusement out of it. I love that it goes so over the top and makes no apologies for how incredibly bizarre they are. I love how over the top Jim Carrey takes his performance and what delicious insanity only he could bring to this role. It’s dumb, it’s insane, but it makes no apologies for it. Have a ball!

13. Judge Dredd: If you ever wondered what a movie made out of every cliché in the book would look like, I give you Judge Dredd. Let’s count, shall we? We have the rookie cop fresh out of the academy that is killed in the first ten minutes, the thousands of bullets that are fired none of which hit our heroes, the reunited partners that say “it’s good to be back” just seconds before getting killed, the villain that LOOVES to monologue, red digital display countdown bombs…the list goes on, but what an over the top list it is! This is a movie where all of its clichés and corniness are matched in its production. It’s a huge scale, it’s loud, it’s over the top and it makes no excuses for what it is. Michael Bay, take note, THIS is how to make a guilty pleasure action movie.

12. The Polar Express: When I first saw this movie, I loved it. I loved the tale of the boy who goes on a midnight journey to the North Pole to see Santa Claus, but he’s not sure if he really believes or not. There was something so charming about a boy who was growing up too fast going on a childlike adventure like we used to imagine. Yet, the more reviews I read and the overall audience reaction to the movie (Shrek 2 ended up making three times more than Polar Express that year), I began to think the rest of the world didn’t embrace this movie the way that I did. Still, for better or for worse, I still love this movie as a charming holiday staple and for some incredibly well done visual effects for 2004.

11. The Blair Witch Project/Cloverfield: I like to look at these two as the real found footage movies. They don’t have the luxury of tripods that Paranormal Activity had or the “professional crew” that The Last Exorcism had. No, Blair Witch and Cloverfield are TRUE first person movies, the ones where your eyes are the camera lenses and you are seeing everything they see (or hearing what they don’t). It’s a genre that’s a lot like Orson Welles’ radio broadcast of War of the Worlds, where they utilize the medium to their fullest to pull off their tale in a convincing manner that makes you feel like you are truly experiencing this medium. That being said, I cannot begin to tell you the number of people I have talked to about these movies that have said, “I couldn’t watch it because of how shaky it was”. (Yet, inexplicably, we have to watch their home movies with even worse camera work.) I will forever defend these movies by saying yes, the footage is shaky, but you try either running with a camera or standing in the same place as that creepy noise right next to you. The Blair Witch Project and Cloverfield: two movies that get bad reps because of their medium, but are really well made if you like giving yourself over to a movie.

2011 Broadcast Film Critics Award Nominations

It is official, the movie award season has kicked off and the top nominees are The Artist and Hugo (YAY FOR HUGO!!!). The other nominees are as follows:

BEST PICTURE

"The Artist"

"The Descendants"

"Drive"

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

"The Help"

"Hugo"

"Midnight in Paris"

"Moneyball"

"The Tree of Life"

"War Horse"

BEST ACTOR

George Clooney – "The Descendants"

Leonardo DiCaprio – "J. Edgar"

Jean Dujardin – "The Artist"

Michael Fassbender – "Shame"

Ryan Gosling – "Drive"

Brad Pitt – "Moneyball"

BEST ACTRESS

Viola Davis – "The Help"

Elizabeth Olsen – "Martha Marcy May Marlene"

Meryl Streep – "The Iron Lady"

Tilda Swinton – "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

Charlize Theron – "Young Adult"

Michelle Williams – "My Week With Marilyn"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Kenneth Branagh – "My Week With Marilyn"

Albert Brooks – "Drive"

Nick Nolte – "Warrior"

Patton Oswalt – "Young Adult"

Christopher Plummer – "Beginners"

Andrew Serkis – "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Berenice Bejo – "The Artist"

Jessica Chastain – "The Help"

Melissa McCarthy – "Bridesmaids"

Carey Mulligan – "Shame"

Octavia Spencer – "The Help"

Shailene Woodley – "The Descendants"

BEST YOUNG ACTOR/ACTRESS

Asa Butterfield – "Hugo"

Elle Fanning – "Super 8"

Thomas Horn – "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

Ezra Miller – "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

Saoirse Ronan – "Hanna" 

Shailene Woodley – "The Descendants"

BEST ACTING ENSEMBLE

"The Artist"

"Bridesmaids"

"The Descendants"

"The Help"

"The Ides of March"

BEST DIRECTOR

Stephen Daldry – "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

Michel Hazanavicius – "The Artist"

Alexander Payne – "The Descendants"

Nicolas Winding Refn – "Drive"

Martin Scorsese – "Hugo"

Steven Spielberg – "War Horse"

         

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

"The Artist" – Michel Hazanavicius

"50/50" – Will Reiser

"Midnight in Paris" – Woody Allen

"Win Win" – Screenplay by Tom McCarthy, Story by Tom McCarthy & Joe Tiboni

"Young Adult" – Diablo Cody

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

"The Descendants" – Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" – Eric Roth

"The Help" – Tate Taylor

"Hugo" – John Logan

"Moneyball" – Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin, Story by Stan Chervin

BEST ART DIRECTION

"The Artist": Production Designer: Laurence Bennett, Art Director: Gregory S. Hooper

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2": Production Designer: Stuart Craig, Set Decorator: Stephenie McMillan

"Hugo": Production Designer: Dante Ferretti, Set Decorator: Francesca Lo Schiavo

"The Tree of Life": Production Designer: Jack Fisk, Art Director: David Crank

"War Horse":  Production Designer: Rick Carter, Set Decorator: Lee Sandales

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

"The Artist" – Guillaume Schiffman

"Drive" – Newton Thomas Sigel

"Hugo" – Robert Richardson

"The Tree of Life" – Emmanuel Lubezki

"War Horse" – Janusz Kaminski

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

"The Artist" – Mark Bridges

"The Help" – Sharen Davis

"Hugo" – Sandy Powell

"Jane Eyre" – Michael O’Connor

"My Week With Marilyn" – Jill Taylor

BEST EDITING

"The Artist" – Michel Hazanavicius and Anne-Sophie Bion

"Drive" – Matthew Newman

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" – Kirk Baxter and Angus Wall

"Hugo" – Thelma Schoonmaker

"War Horse" – Michael Kahn

BEST MAKEUP

"Albert Nobbs"

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"

"The Iron Lady"

"J. Edgar"

"My Week With Marilyn"

BEST SONG

"Hello Hello" – performed by Elton John and Lady Gaga/written by Elton John and Bernie Taupin – "Gnomeo & Juliet"

"Life’s a Happy Song" – performed by Jason Segel, Amy Adams and Walter/written by Bret McKenzie – "The Muppets"

"The Living Proof" – performed by Mary J. Blige/written by Mary J. Blige, Thomas Newman and Harvey Mason, Jr. – "The Help"

"Man or Muppet" – performed by Jason Segel and Walter/written by Bret McKenzie – "The Muppets"

"Pictures in My Head" – performed by Kermit and the Muppets/written by Jeannie Lurie, Aris Archontis and Chen Neeman – "The Muppets"

BEST SCORE

"The Artist" – Ludovic Bource

"Drive" – Cliff Martinez

"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" – Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross

"Hugo" – Howard Shore

"War Horse" – John Williams

BEST SOUND
"
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"
"Hugo"
"Super 8"
"The Tree of Life"
"War Horse"

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

"Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2"

"Hugo"

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

"Super 8"

"The Tree of Life"

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE

"The Adventures of Tintin"

"Arthur Christmas"

"Kung Fu Panda 2"

"Puss in Boots"

"Rango"

BEST ACTION MOVIE

"Drive"

"Fast Five"

"Hanna"

"Rise of the Planet of the Apes"

"Super 8"

BEST COMEDY

"Bridesmaids"

"Crazy, Stupid, Love"

"Horrible Bosses"

"Midnight in Paris"

"The Muppets"

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

"In Darkness"

"Le Havre"

"A Separation"

"The Skin I Live In"

"Where Do We Go Now"

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

"Buck"

"Cave of Forgotten Dreams"

"George Harrison: Living in the Material World"

"Page One: Inside the New York Times"

"Project Nim"

"Undefeated"

So, what does this mean? Well, two major things off the top of the bat: 1. Drive just got a TREMENDOUS boost for major award chances like Best Picture, Actor and Original Screenplay and 2. Glenn Close's chances at a nomination just took an equally tremendous blow. With 11 nominations, The Artist and Hugo have become top contenders for the prestigious Best Picture award, but not to be counted our are War Horse or The Descendents (both with 7 nominations).

This is just after a first glance. I'll edit this later tonight after I've had some time to let the nominees sink in.

*edit: Okay, now that I've reviewed them further, I can safely say that I don't think Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is that tight of a lock for multiple nominees. Unless the PGA and Golden Globes decide otherwise, it's chances are pretty slim. Ditto The Ides of March, which only managed an Acting Ensemble nomination, indicating what I've been saying, which is it's a great ensemble acting piece, but a stale movie (usually stage plays adapted to movies have that problem).

Another movie that took a big hit was David Fincher's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. After earning a spot in the National Board of Review's Top 10 films this year, it looked pretty likely that it could sneak in to the Best Picture slot, especially since the Academy's trying to appeal to the masses to watch their show (then quit nominating Harvey Weinstein's crap like The Reader over actually well-made, audience pleasing movies like The Dark Knight or Wall-E). However, the critics awards nominated it for only Score and Editing, two of the categories that Fincher's Social Network won last year. Could this be a sign that the movie is faltering? Only nods from the Golden Globe/Producers Guild nominations/seasonal box office will boost it's chances.

Another crowd-pleaser that took a big hit here was Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2. Since it's release this past July, the studio has been HEAVILY promoting it to be nominated for Best Picture. It was able to make the National Board of Review's Top 10, who also gave it (well, the franchise) a Special Achievement Award for it's "Distinguished Translation from Book to Film". Would the series be able to get a nomination the way that The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King did? Well, all three Lord of the Rings movies were nominated for Best Picture and Harry Potter movies haven't been able to be nominated outside of the technical categories. I'm predicting that the same will happen come Oscar night, but it's still early.

It's looking more and more clear that The Help is going to have a really strong showing come nomination time. With 8 nominations, it's getting some really good buzz, which is good news for Best Actress candidate Viola Davis and Best Supporting Actress candidate Octavia Spencer, who could receive their second and first nominations respectively. It also bodes well for Jessica Chastin, who could sneak in here with her performance in this film or her performance in The Tree of Life (I'll get to that movie in a minute...). So, I'm calling it now, expect a Best Picture nod for The Help. The big question will be how much support will it have? Will it earn a bevy of nominations or will the opinion that it glosses over racial issues harm it getting nominated in too many categories?

Also, this may have to be the year that I suck up and admit that there are going to be two people in contention as strong contenders that I find incredibly overrated: Terrence Malick's Tree of Life and Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris. Personally, I can't stand these two pretentious snobs and their pretentiously snobby movies, but there's been a lot of support for them this year, so I may have to suck it up and wait for another year where the nominees aren't so...pretentious. Oh, look how artistically I use nature as parallels for the destruction of human existence! Look at me, I'm an artist! I'm an artist, look at me!! I made The Thin Red Line...fuck you, Terrence Malick! You ostentatious hack job trying to "redefine cinema as poetry", the 60s are over, tell a fucking coherent story!!!...but I digress...

On a happy note, I am completely jubilant over all three songs from The Muppets getting nominations! Hopefully, this translates well to a win for it at the Oscars, making it the first and only Muppet movie to win an Oscar. However, the BCFA's past two years for Best Song haven't have the best track record for nominations paralleling, so who's to say where it's going to go for here. Either way, I don't care, I just love seeing praise given to good Muppet movies. :)

So, the race is officially under way, we have front runners, we have dark horses, we have snowballs in hell, we have all sorts of contenders here. This is going to be a fun year for movie awards...well, fun for movie nerds like me who enjoy following these things, for everyone else, you'll probably be asking "what the hell is that movie?"

Top 25 Guilty Pleasure Movies Part II

20. Hook: This is another one from my childhood that is ripped on more and more the older I get. Why? Well, watching it again, you can see that it is pretty cliché-ridden and seeing Julia Roberts play another fake-sweet character is pretty revolting. But, you know what, I don’t care. I love the notion of a Peter Pan who grew up and I especially love the look of the film. It’s a handsome production and, for better or worse, something that speaks to kids when they watch it. Therefore, why should it have to be held to adult standards? It’s cute and fun and damn it, I like it.

19. Scary Movie 1-3: Now, I love a good parody movie and for some reason, I find these hilarious. Perhaps it’s the fact that these movies are parodies of movies that were in and of themselves parodies. I mean, Scream was a send up of all slasher films while becoming a slasher film itself. Scary Movie is just a send up of these movies and, you know what, yes, I’ll admit it, I like the Wayans Brothers. I’ve liked them since In Living Color and, yes, I like these movies, too.

18. Commando: Now this is one that any guy who was a kid in the 80s has on their guilty pleasure list. This is a one that is just so over the top and just filled to the rim with every action movie, hell, every movie cliché that exists that it’s hard not to enjoy just how over the top it is. Is there a shred of coherency or originality? Hell no, this is Commando and it makes no apologies for itself. Want more evidence, just check out this great review of it (Warning: NSFW):

http://thatguywiththeglasses.com/videolinks/thatguywiththeglasses/nostalgia-critic/15593-arnold01

17. Tango & Cash: And if cliché Arnold Schwarzenegger movies are allowed, so should cliché Sylvester Stallone movies. Mine is Tango & Cash, which is pretty much awesome for all the same reasons that Commando is awesome. Here, instead of the cliché retired army commando, it’s the cliché buddy cop action movie and it is stupid as hell, but damn it if it’s not so over the top, it’s entertaining. Tack onto the fact that I first saw this on HBO at nine years old and grew up for the longest time going, “There was this movie about these two cops that get sent to jail, break out and get these really huge guns.” Hey, at nine, that was all I could remember and good luck remembering anything else from it. Well, there’s also Teri Hatcher’s underwear dance, too.

16. Weekend at Bernie’s: Here’s another one that I’m sure a LOT of you are ashamed to admit how much you like them, but I know there are a lot of you out there that do. Why are you ashamed? Well, it’s a story about two guys that, instead of reporting the death of their crooked boss to the authorities, they try to pass him off as alive so that they can have a good time partying. Yet, there’s something so pathetic and mean spirited in their attempts to re-animate him that you can’t help but laugh in embarrassment/amusement. It was fun, it was stupid, but it was the 80s. What better decade of vintage cheese was there?