Tag: Best Picture

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Early Reviews For ‘Logan’ Are Coming In, And They Are Super Positive: “Best Superhero Movie In Years”

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If you follow this site, you’ll know we’re not huge fans of comic book movies, but we have been excited for the Wolverine solo movie, Logan. The trailers look fantastic, and everyone involved has done a wonderful job of selling the film.

Last year, you may remember reading Ryan Reynolds’ comments on the movie. He claimed Logan could be the first superhero film to win Best Picture at the Oscars. We obviously thought he was just doing his best to promote the movie, but now we are beginning to wonder if he might be onto something.

Logan screened at the Berlin International Film Festival and the critics who were lucky enough to watch it are going crazy over it.

Entertainment Weekly’s Chris Nashawaty wrote in his review, “both the most violent film in the series and the most sentimental one. When it’s not showering you in blood, it’s trying to make you spill tears.”

Den of Geek said this, “Without question the best superhero movie in years, and certainly the most ambitious one since Christopher Nolan hung up the cape.”

And Forbes’ Mark Hughes believes the film could be nominated for Best Picture, “one of the true great films of the superhero genre, among the best films of 2017 to date, and a rousing send-off for the old guard while ushering in the future of the X-Men franchise.”

It looks like everyone needs to watch this film, even if you don’t typically enjoy comic book movies. This one might be something special.

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‘La La Land’ Wins Top Prize At 2017 BAFTAs, What Does This Mean For The Oscars?

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‘La La Land‘ has been winning all the awards this year. The modern (but classic) musical starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling. Last month during the Golden Globes, the film took home a record seven awards.

And during the British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards this past Sunday, La La Land took home five awards, which was more than any other film. It won the most important award of the night, Best Film. It also won for Best Original Music, Best Cinematography, Best Director and Best Actress.

So what does this mean for the Academy Awards in two weeks? Not much. Well, it means Emma Stone is a lock for Best Actress and Damien Chazelle will most likely win Best Director.

But the biggest award, Best Picture? It’s just too early to predict a win. Back in 2015, Boyhood won the award for Best Film at the BAFTAs, and then it ended up losing at the Academy Awards to Birdman. In fact, Boyhood also won the Best Picture award at the Golden Globes that same year.

I think La La Land is following the same path. I think it’ll do well at the Oscars, but I don’t believe it will win Best Picture. I think Moonlight takes it, although, La La Land does have the whole “Los Angeles” thing going for it. The voters love films about the industry.

We’ll see what happens. It’s going to be fun to watch. My vote is for Moonlight. I think it’s most deserving.

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The New ‘Logan’ Trailer Has Arrived And It’s Filled With Action, Check Out The Potential Best Picture Nominee Inside! (VIDEO)

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That “Best Picture” comment in the title might throw you off if you haven’t read the comments from Ryan Reynolds about the upcoming Wolverine sequel, Logan. You can click here to check out what he said. Basically, he believes the film has a chance to be nominated for Best Picture in 2018.

And the style featured in the first trailer for the movie showed hints of an Oscar-worthy performance from Hugh Jackman. As most of you know, this will reportedly be the actor’s last time playing the character, so it makes sense that they want to go out with a bang.

This second trailer, which was released today, is more action-packed than the first trailer. It reminds you, “Hey, don’t get it twisted…this is still a superhero film.”

The first trailer was moving and probably one of the best trailers we have seen for a film in a few years, but this second trailer is more true to the film. If you want to know what to expect going in, this is the trailer you need to focus on.

If you go in the theater having seen only the first trailer, you’ll probably be a little disappointed. It’s scheduled to be released March 3, 2017. We are really looking forward to seeing how the audience reacts.

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Anthony Mackie Pulls A Vin Diesel, Predicts A Best Picture Nomination For ‘Captain America: Civil War”

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Here we go again. Back in March of 2015, Vin Diesel boldly predicted that Furious 7 would be the most powerful film ever and would probably win best picture at the Oscars.

“It will probably win best picture at the Oscars, unless the Oscars don’t want to be relevant ever.” He said during an interview with Variety. Obviously, we know that’s not going to happen now because the movie wasn’t even nominated for best picture.

And now, almost a year later, another actor is predicting something that probably won’t happen. During an interview with BBC Radio, Anthony Mackie claimed ‘Captain America: Civil War‘ is Marvel’s best movie ever. He also believes it will be the first superhero film to land a best picture nomination.

“It’s Marvel’s best movie thus far… It’s really, really good. It’s because it’s more of an acting movie than an action movie. I think it might be the first superhero movie that might be up for best picture. You get to see Robert Downey Jr and Chris Evans and Scarlett Johannson and Mark Ruffalo and everybody just do really, really good acting.”

The mention of Mark Ruffalo also got a lot of attention because the Hulk isn’t expected to be in Civil War, which made some fans wonder if there might be some special appearance by Ruffalo’s character near the end of the movie.

Mackie clarified his comments during an interview on Late Night With Seth Meyers…

“I was giving respect to my fellow actors. I said Marvel movies are so great because they have great actors. The likes of Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., love that guy. People take that to mean that I’m saying this is what the movie is about, and this is in the movie.”

You can watch ‘Captain America: Civil War’ in a theater near you May 6, 2016. We’ll see if Mackie is right about this being the best Marvel movie.

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‘Mad Max: Fury Road” Is Named The Best Movie Of 2015 By National Board Of Review

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Back in September, we told you that Mad Max: Fury Road was already taking home awards. The International Federation of Film Critics named it the best film of 2015, beating out The Assassin, Taxi and Son of Saul.

Now just a few months later, we can officially add another grand award. The National Board of Review has named George Miller‘s masterpiece the best film of 2015. The organization, founded back in 1909, has always been one of the first major film critic groups to announce their annual award-winners.

Unfortunately, the Academy Award voters don’t usually agree with their choices. The last five movies to get that special Best Film title by the National Board of review have been: A Most Violent Year, Her, Zero Dark Thirty, Hugo, and The Social Network. They all failed to take home the Best Picture Oscar.

There were other awards handed out by the organization. Ridley Scott won Best Director for his work on The Martian, and Matt Damon won Best Actor for his performance in the film.

MovieSmackTalk favorite Brie Larson took home the Best Actress award for her brilliant performance in Room, and Sylvester Stallone won Best Supporting Actor for his work in Creed.

I saw Creed last week and I was surprised by Stallone’s performance. His name definitely deserves to be on the list when the Oscars come around.

Check out the full list by clicking this link.

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‘Furious 7’ Is Now China’s Highest-Grossing Film Of All Time

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This Furious 7 movie just can’t stop breaking records. In its second full week in the Chinese market, the action film took home 450 million yuan ($74 million), which brings the impressive box office total up to over 2 billion yuan ($332 million).

In just 15 days, the movie has passed the previous record of $319 million held by the Transformers: Age of Extinction. According to the research group Entgroup, China is the biggest box office territory in the world for Vin Diesel’s baby.

Back in North America, Furious 7 is still holding strong. The film has been at the number one spot since its release earlier this month, although, that will change this weekend with The Avengers: Age of Ultron being released.

What other records does this movie have? Well, it’s the fastest live-action film to take home more than $1 billion worldwide. And after going over the $1.32 billion mark, it’s now more successful than Frozen.

Maybe Vin Diesel was right when he said this movie would win Best Picture at the Oscars?

“It will probably win best picture at the Oscars, unless the Oscars don’t want to be relevant ever. This will win best picture. There is nothing that will ever come close to the power of this thing.”

Okay, okay. We all know that’s never going to happen; however, the noise this movie is making around the world is pretty impressive.

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‘American Sniper’ Smashes January Box Office Records: Could It Pull Off Best Picture Upset?

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Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper pulled in over $90 million in its debut weekend at the box office in the middle of January. The last few words of that sentence are the most important. This is the middle of January. Those numbers are huge for January.

How huge? Well, the previous top-grossing Martin Luther King weekend release was Kevin Hart’s Ride Along last year, which brought in $48.6 million. And that $40 million mark is what many believed American Sniper would take home this past weekend. The $90 million weekend surprised a lot of people, but it didn’t surprise me.

Why? Because this movie had three things going for it. The week before the wide release, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture. In addition to the awards, the film also benefited from an amazing trailer.

And we all know how Americans love a good war drama. Big guns, killing terrorists, cheesy southern accents, romance, etc. I mean, the only thing this film missed was a 10-minute montage of fast food cheeseburgers.

Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy this film. I saw it during its limited release on Christmas, and it was an enjoyable experience, which is saying a lot because the A/C was out inside the theater. That may not sound like a big deal in December, but there were a lot of people packed inside one tiny theater. It was unpleasant.

Anyway, the point I am trying to make is that these numbers aren’t really that surprising. I just hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. American Sniper is a good film, but there is no way it should win Best Picture. However, I am starting to get this strange feeling that it could pull off a huge upset.

We’ll see what happens soon enough.

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The 5 Most Shocking Best Picture Oscar Snubs Of The Past 60 Years

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As you all know, the 2015 Oscar nominations were released today. Many people (myself included) are already pointing out the obvious snubs. You can read all about them by clicking that link you see above.

But the nominations are just the beginning. The awards still have to be handed out, and you can bet that there will be some major upsets. It happens every single year, but some years the snubs are a little more obvious and suspicious.

Check out the list down below to see the five Best Picture snubs we still can’t get over.

 

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No. 5 – Psycho (1960)

Most of the films on this list were at least nominated for Best Picture, but Alfred Hitchcock’s thriller masterpiece didn’t even get nominated. Hitchcock did land a nomination for the Best Director, but he didn’t take home the award. You can’t deny the impact this film had. The shower scene is one of the most iconic horror scenes of all time, and Bernard Herrmann’s classic score was just icing on the Bosco chocolate syrup cake.

 

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No. 4 – Goodfellas (1990)

You can blame Kevin Costner for this. Goodfellas was nominated for Best Picture, and many fans believed it was going to take home the award, but insiders knew nothing could stop Mr. Costner. He directed, produced and starred in the Best Picture winner, Dances with Wolves. I think we can all agree that Goodfellas was clearly the better movie. It’s in the conversation for one of the best films of all time.

In total, it was nominated for six Academy Awards, but it went just 1 for 6 on the big night. Joe Pesci took home the award for Best Supporting Actor.

 

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No. 3 – Saving Private Ryan (1998)

In a more competitive year, Saving Private Ryan probably wouldn’t have been the frontrunner. The first 30 minutes aside, the film would not be considered Best Picture material in most years. But in the year it was nominated? It deserved to win. Everyone was shocked when it was announced that Shakespeare in Love would be taking home the biggest award of the night.

Just take a moment to watch the first 60 seconds of this clip. Look at Harrison Ford’s face when he announces the winner. You see him look back down at the piece of paper, clearly thinking, “What the hell is going on here?”

 

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No. 2 – Brokeback Mountain (2005)

After losing to Crash for Best Picture, Brokeback Mountain writer Larry McMurtry suggested that homophobia played a major role in the snub. Looking back at it now, it’s pretty obvious something fishy was going on. Michael Jensen noted that before the Oscars, Brokeback Mountain became “the most honored movie in cinematic history.” Prior to Brokeback Mountain, no other film that had won the Director’s Guild, Writer’s Guild, and Producer’s guild failed to win the Best Picture Oscar.

It’s difficult to explain. All signs back then pointed to Brokeback Mountain being the Best Picture, and 10 years later, the signs are still up.

Bonus: Listen to the crowd reaction when Jack Nicholson makes the announcement.

 

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No. 1 – The Color Purple (1985)

Tying the record set by The Turning Point, Steven Spielberg’s The Color Purple failed to take home any awards after being nominated an incredible 11 times. It scored nominations for Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Supporting Role (x2), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song.

It didn’t win any of those! Not even Best Original Song. Are you kidding me?

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