The Jameson Empire Awards and Other Things

So the Nominations for the Jameson Empire Awards have come out.

I'm gonna highlight the ones I voted for in red, and the ones I think will actually win in blue. If there is just one, in blue, I voted for who I think will win.

Best Newcomer:

• Carey Mulligan (An Education) <-She is the award season's darling
• Aaron Johnson (Nowhere Boy) <- I'm not a great fan of this guy, he seems very arrogant...
• Sharlto Copley (District 9)
• Anna Kendrick (Up In The Air/ New Moon)
• Katie Jarvis (Fish Tank)

Best Thriller:

• Harry Brown
• Public Enemies
• Inglourious Basterds <-Love this film so much
• The Hurt Locker <- By the looks of clips I've seen, it does look thrilling.
• Sherlock Holmes <- Thriller?

Best Horror:

• Let The Right One In <- So I actually haven't seen any of these & didn't vote, but heard this one is great
• Paranormal Activity
• Zombieland
• Thirst
• Drag Me To Hell

Best Comedy:

• In The Loop
• A Serious Man
• The Hangover <- Supposedly hilarious
• Up In The Air <- Only one I've seen...
• The Men Who Stare At Goats

Best Sci-Fi/ Fantasy:

• Moon
• Star Trek
• Avatar <- I did love this, and it sort of has to win Best Sci-Fi
• District 9
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus <- Saw this, very weird and wonderful, very Terry Gilliam

Best Actor:

• Sir Michael Caine (Harry Brown)
• Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds) <- See below
• Robert Pattinson (New Moon)
• Sam Worthington (Avatar)
• Robert Downey Jr. (Sherlock Holmes)

Best Actress:

• Anne Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy)
• Carey Mulligan (An Education) 
• Zoe Saldana (Avatar)
• Emily Blunt (The Young Victoria) <- Great film, that hasn't had near enough attention
• Melanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Director:

• James Cameron (Avatar)
• Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
• JJ Abrams (Star Trek)
• Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
• Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)

Best British Film:

• Harry Brown
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• An Education
• Nowhere Boy
• In The Loop

Best Film:

• Avatar
• Star Trek
• District 9
• Inglourious Basterds
• The Hurt Locker

Now, other than telling you my vote and my predictions for this set of awards... I did have another motive to write this post.

Robert Pattinson will most likely win Best Actor. This will probably not bring me any friends by saying this but for his acting in New Moon, compared to the others in their respective films, does not lend itself to a Best Actor accolade. I'm actually surprised Jeremy Whats-his-name from the Hurt Locker didn't get a look-in.

I am categorically NOT saying that I think Rob can't act. On the contrary, I think he can, he's very good at what he does. I just do not think the Twilight films, thus far, have shown off his acting chops well, just his (admittedly quite good) ability to stand there looking pretty and brooding. And he wasn't even in NM that much... js. 

Due to the influence of the millions of fans behind him, he will probably win. But I really want Christoph Waltz to win. Every time he walked on screen, you just knew something fantastically horrible was going to happen.

This used to happen to the Harry Potter films. They are relatively good films, with actors who have improved over the course of the films. But every time they used to go up for public vote against films/actors that were admittedly better than they were, they would win because of fan power.

I don't want to stop you from voting for him though, if that makes sense. If you really think he was the best actor out of that selection then go for it. Vote for him! (And I'm not being sarcastic or anything). I would just like you to think about who you are voting for a little bit. Don't just vote on autopilot.


Now go VOTE.

The Robsten Factor

Ok... so Robsten. I normally keep out of this debate because IMHO, it honestly makes no difference to my day-to-day life, or my enjoyment of their films as to whether they are together or not. To be fair, they do make a very pretty couple... (Fig.1) but that means jack really.

 

 Fig. 1 

Now the reason I am breaking my "silence" about this topic is because of this article, Exhibit A.

Marie Claire... obviously not a broadsheet newspaper or anything. Just a glossy magazine. But the article claims that Rob and Kristen's management have told them to spend less time together, i.e. split up. 

Now, I can see several things wrong with that sentence...

1. Rob and Kristen being an item, if anything, will bring MORE publicity to their respective projects. And it'll be good publicity, too. After all... all publicity is good publicity.
2. I'm pretty sure someone's management cannot tell someone what to do with their personal lives, because, well, it's their personal life.
3. And finally, we are still waiting for any type of confirmation that they are together, even if there is perhaps quite a lot of evidence (depending on how you look at it...) pointing to it. Just saying, don't shoot me.

Now I am not saying they are together. I'm not saying they aren't. I'm just ranting about the complete BS rumours that all the rags manage to cobble together from, at the most, hear-say.

I'm getting of my high horse now. I probably won't come back to this topic, just refer to this ;)

The Oscar Noms: Thoughts

So the Oscar noms were announced today. Well they were no real surprises I suppose but here are my thoughts:

Avatar got its Best Film, Director, SFX nod as expected. Thankfully not the Screenplay one because let's be honest here... Avatar's story wasn't exactly original. Good enough to keep the audience interested, yes. Original, no.

It is blatantly going to win the SFX one. It sort of has to. I mean, did you even realise that essentially, unless it was the live action sequences, computer animated! From the scenery to the characters, everything. I was completely engrossed when I went to see this film in IMAX 3D. Well worth the premium prices...

Debatable if it wins Director or Best Film, but a strong contender.

Up In The Air... I went to see this last week? Yeah, last week. I really enjoyed it, funny, heart-warming as well as thought provoking. George Clooney managed to say the name 'Ryan' in perhaps the sexiest way, EVER. I went all gooey ;)

And Anna Kendrick was fabulous in it. Completely deserves the Oscar nod, as does George and Vera Farmiga (who struck me as a prettier Maggie Gyllenhaal). I think I want Anna to win the most, but I'd be happy for either to win.

The ending was a bit weird... which left me a little unsatisfied but it doesn't take away from the rest of the film very much.

Now, Inglourious Basterds. I really, really enjoyed this film when I went to see it. For a start, it is one of the only films out there that is mostly not in English. I'm not sure I really needed all the gratuitous violence (I had to look away at a few points) but the performances of some of the cast were amazing. In particular, Christoph Waltz. He is essentially the visible Baddie. Hitler was there, briefly, in the background, but it was Waltz's character that really gave you the heebie-jeebies whenever he walked on screen.

And if you aren't a fan of how the rest of the film pans out, Christoph Waltz should get the Oscar just for the first scene. A-MAZ-ING. Really sets the tone, and creeps you the hell out!

Without a doubt, though, the best line in the whole film was Brad Pitt managing to put a Southern US accent onto Italian. Hilarious...

Some aside notes. Up! is gonna win Best Animation most probably, and Wallace and Gromit the Best Animated Short.

Also if there was Best Set Production, Harry Potter would/should win hands down every time. Seriously, have you seen the amount of detail that goes into those films??

The Inaugural Post

So... yeah. I thought I set up one of these blog things. You know, jump on the band wagon and all that lol.

Not sure how often I'll post but I hope to make posts about things that interest me, i.e. current affairs and stuff like that. Others may just be pic dumps... or talking about fic.

Just so you know, I'm one of those people who become obsessed, like really easily. First it was Harry Potter (which I still am obsessed about to be fair) and now it's Twilight.

And no judgment please on the fact I like this:

And this:

They are both pretty hot IMHO... ;)