Best Picture:

• The Decendants
• The Artist
• The Help
• Moneyball
• War Horse
• The Tree of Life
• Hugo
• Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• Midnight in Paris

Best Actor:

• Gary Oldman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• Brad Pitt, Moneyball
• George Clooney, The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• Demian Bichir, A Better Life

Best Actress:

• Michelle Williams, My Week with Marilyn
• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
• Viola Davis, The Help
• Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
• Rooney Mara, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Best Supporting Actor:

• Jonah Hill, Moneyball
• Christopher Plummer, Beginners
• Kenneth Branagh, My Week with Marilyn
• Max von Sydow,  Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
• Nick Nolte, Warrior

Best Supporting Actress:

• Octavia Spencer , The Help
• Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
• Jessica Chastiain, The Help
• Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
• Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs

Best Director:

• Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
• Michel Hazanaviciu, The Artist
• Alexandar Payne, The Decendants
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo
• Terrance Malik, The Tree of Life

Best Original Screenplay:

• The Artist
• Bridesmaids
• Margin Call
• A Separation
• Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• The Descendants
• Hugo
• The Ides of March
• Moneyball
• Tinker, Tailor, Solider, Spy

Initial thoughts:

• What was once touted as the year of Ryan Gosling yields no nominations for him! I’m sure he’ll be at the ceremony looking dapper, which is all I ask for anyways
• YEAH MELISSA MCCARTHY AND KRISTIN WIIG!!!
• No best picture or supporting actor nod for the final Harry Potter film; instead, 3 technical noms in art direction, makeup and visual effects. I would’ve liked to seen Alan Rickman get SOME credit for his portrayal of Severus Snape, but I guess it wasn’t meant to be!
• Lots of love for The Help, which is awesome!
• A little surprise, but pleased with Rooney Mara’s nomination for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!
• The people in the audience at the announcement seemed REALLY excited every time Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was nominated. Could that be an indication of things to come?

All in all, good stuff! Not too many surprises, but lots of solid performances here and some big name nominees that should make for some interesting races! See the full list of nominee here.

What are your initial thoughts here? Any surprises or shoo-ins you see here? Leave a comment!

This is one movie I’ll likely be getting some advance tickets for; who doesn’t love a good summer action movie, especially one starring Christian Bale?

What 2012 movies are you looking forward to? It’s a long list for me, but leave some of your highlights in the comments!

Unlike those other airlines, there’s no network or cable TV stations; everything is on demand, from a handful of TV series to several first run movies. For free. Did I mention this was the best part? On the way to Ireland, I was more focused on catching some zzz’s than watching movies, but on the way back, it was on. Dude, they even had Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part 2. Instead of doing a repeater, I watched two flicks I hadn’t seen before.

First up was Contagion, the “disease is everywhere” thriller that came out in September. This had been on my list for a while, as I love a good end of the world movie! Contagion has a whole boatload of people in it, including Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Marion Cotillard, Kate Winslet, Laurence Fishburne and Jude Law, to name a few. Despite the star power, the movie didn’t really do it for me. It all seemed kind of…low intensity. There were some scenes of looting and public freakouts, but not nearly as many as you would suspect had this contagious disease outbreak been for real. I thought it was just fine; don’t expect to see Contagion on any awards lists this season!

Next up was another movie I’d been wanting to see, Horrible Bosses. Seriously. Why did no one TELL me that this movie is hilarious? Legitimately laugh out loud (on an airplane surrounded by strangers, no less) funny?

I love this movie. It’s was such a nice mix of what I would consider overly done genres, the buddy/dude comedy and the bumbling idiots trying to execute some kind of crazy plan. Jason Bateman, Jason Sudeikis and Charlie Day were really funny, and the bosses, played by Kevin Spacey, Colin Ferrell and Jennifer Aniston were all fantastic, and really, really horrible. Jamie Foxx is also here, in a small, but impactful role…as a character named Motherf*cker Jones. I actually wish this movie wasn’t so funny, so I could’ve looked less like a jerk and more like a normal person to all those people on the flight I’ll never see again…

Anyone else like Horrible Bosses as much as I did? If you’re late to that party like me, get thee to a Redbox stat!

Without further ado, here are the nominees!

BEST MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
The Descendants
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
Moneyball
War Horse

BEST MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
50/50
The Artist
Bridesmaids
My Week With Marilyn
Midnight in Paris

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - 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 PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - DRAMA
George Clooney, The Descendants
Leonardo DiCaprio, J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender, Shame
Ryan Gosling, The Ides of March
Brad Pitt, Moneyball

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jodie Foster, Carnage
Charlize Theron, Young Adult
Kristen Wiig, Bridesmaids
Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn
Kate Winslet, Carnage

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A MOTION PICTURE - COMEDY OR MUSICAL
Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Brendan Gleeson, The Guard
Ryan Gosling, Crazy Stupid Love
Joseph Gordon-Levitt, 50/50
Owen Wilson, Midnight in Paris

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Berenice Bejo, The Artist
Jessica Chastain, The Help
Janet McTeer, Albert Nobbs
Octavia Spencer, The Help
Shailene Woodley, The Descendants

BEST PERFORMANCE BY AN ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE IN A MOTION PICTURE
Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks, Drive
Jonah Hill, Moneyball
Viggo Mortensen, A Dangerous Method
Christopher Plummer, Beginners

BEST DIRECTOR - MOTION PICTURE
Woody Allen, Midnight in Paris
George Clooney, The Ides of March
Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Alexander Payne, The Descendants
Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Initial thoughts:

• Score two nominations for Ryan Gosling! With Best Actor nominations in both the comedy/musical and drama categories,
• The HFPA is digging Clooney, with a best actor and best director nod.
• No love for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the upcoming film starring Tom Hanks. According to the film’s producer, via The Carpetbagger, “Those who love it, love it passionately and those who resist it find it too tough as an emotional experience,” Mr. Rudin said in a email on Thursday.
• Stephen Speilberg doesn’t get a director nod for War Horse, which only scored 2 noms.
• Awesome to see The Help and Bridesmaids getting some love the best picture drama and comedy/musical categories, respectively. Ditto for Kristin Wiig’s best actress nod and Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer’s nominations in the best actress and best supporting actress.

After seeing these nominations, it’s clear I have  A LOT of movies I need to see, especially since the Oscar for Best Picture will likely come out of the 11 best picture nominees here. As you may recall, The King’s Speech won the big prize at both the Globes and the Oscars. Some movies that immediately come to mind to see ASAP are: My Week with Marilyn, The Decendents, We Need to Talk About Kevin, The Artist and The Iron Lady.

Check out the full list of film nominees at MovieLine, and all the good stuff in the TV nominations at TVLine!

The 69^th Annual Golden Globe Awards, hosted again by Ricky Gervais, air on NBC on January 15th 2012, which is in only 31 days!

WHat are your initial thoughts? Any thing you’re psyched or pissed about here? Leave a comment!

It was fine. I’ll go see the 5th and final installment when it comes out next year. 3 things that happened during my viewing are noteworthy, however.

1. This actually happened in my showing. For you non-link clickers, someone had some kind of seizure or reaction during the final scenes of the movie. It abruptly shut off, and I, being the reasonable person that I am, thought “Hmm, that was a weird ending.” The 150 teenagers in the theater, however, did not share my reaction. As soon as the screen went dark, what can only be described as a roar went up through the crowd. I’d call it equal parts angry and heartbroken that Vampire Edward had been cut of from delivering what was likely a crucial line (I couldn’t tell, I was ready for this ish to be over). Apparently, another lux level patron (where I was obviously sitting) was having a “medical emergency” and the movie would be restarted once that situation was dealt with. It was awkward, but I was never more happy to be in the 21 plus section and away from the crying girls in the regular section. So, that was weird.
2. There is a point in the movie where Edward, who is a 100+ year old vampire, needs to look something up. Of course, being a modern vampire-man thing, he takes to the internet. Where does he go on the internet? Why, Yahoo! of course. Wait. What? Yahoo? Who uses Yahoo? You know he would Google it. Let’s be serious. Out of all the search engines, Yahoo is rated number 3, and is losing marketshare monthly. Maybe your average person wouldn’t notice/be so offended about that, but I work at a technology company and I care.  So, that part was ridiculous and I laughed at it. Stupid Twilight.
3. The Lux Level is still my favorite way to see a movie, especially when I see it with awesome people like my friends Anne and Annemarie and my sister-in-law to be Maggie. If you don’t see movies in the Lux Level occasionally, you are MISSING OUT.
4. In honor of the movie, Showcase Cinemas went all out. And by all out, I mean: customer Twilight-theme drinks. I had a Team Edward and it was delish.

So, there’s my month in the making Breaking Dawn post. Not going to say it was 100% worth the wait, but that’s neither here nor there.

On the bright side: only 99 more days until The Hunger Games comes out!

Check out the full trailer here!

I think the trailer looks promising and now that I’m seeing the cast bring these characters to life, I can’t wait to see the finished product! So Hunger Games fans, what do you think? Are you excited for the release of the movie next March? I know I am! Leave your reaction in the comments!

This quick turnaround with naming a new host makes me wonder: do they have someone agree to play emergency back up every year? It seems pretty convenient that they were able to announce the new host so quickly!

What do you think of this replacement? How many jokes about this situation is Billy Crystal likely to make in the opening monologue?

From Eddie Murphy, via the Academy:

“First and foremost I want to say that I completely understand and support each party’s decision with regard to a change of producers for this year’s Academy Awards ceremony. I was truly looking forward to being a part of the show that our production team and writers were just starting to develop, but I’m sure that the new production team and host will do an equally great job.”

The Academy has 109 days to figure out its producer situation AND name a new host. Any bets on who it will be? Will we end up with a mishmash of stars doing segmented hosted duty? Leave your predictions in the comments!

However, the greatest Halloween movie ever is none of these things, least of all, subjective. It’s scary, in its own way, and funny and generally amazing.

Ever since it came out 18 years ago, I’ve been a fan. Lest anyone be a movie date freak, I’ll end the suspense: I’m talking about Hocus Pocus.

Yes, Hocus Pocus is the greatest Halloween movie of all time. Starring Bette Middler, Sarah Jessica Parker, Kathy Najimy and a bunch of kids (including Thora Burch) who haven’t really been in anything else, Hocus Pocus is frequently seen on Fox Family (and has been on recently as part of the 13 nights of Halloween). The story of three sister witches who have come back from the dead to steal the lives of Salem’s children intersects with the main protagonist, Max, his little adorable sister Dani and his (is there a new word for “crush?”) whatever, his crush Allison.

I’ll spare you the play by play, but I highly recommend Hocus Pocus for Halloween night watching. Is it technically a children’s movie? If you’re going to get all technical on me, then yes, I suppose it is. However, I am (clearly) not above continuing to watch this movie ever year anytime it’s on during October.

If you haven’t seen Hocus Pocus, I’ll leave you with a little taste that will likely leave you wanting more, similar to the feeling you get when you have that first piece of Halloween candy…

We did a solid amount of sightseeing and touristy things; Nick had never been to CA and it was only my second time out, so it seemed like the right thing to do. Sadly, we didn’t see any celebrities, but we did do some fun movie related things!

One of our stops in San Diego was the famous Hotel Del Coronado. Also known as Hotel Del, the Del has been a favorite of Hollywood types since it opened in 1887. It’s pretty famous, and is one of the oldest and largest all-wooden buildings in California. Check out some of the Del’s Hollywood connection  here.

Marilyn Monroe’s movie Some Like It Hot was filmed at the Del in 1959, and is featured prominently throughout the movie.

And here’s my shot of the Del!

We heading north to LA after a few delightful days in San Diego, and saw some of the sights there!

First, we headed up to the Griffith Observatory, which is a popular tourist attraction that boasts awesome views of LA and the famed Hollywood sign! The Observatory plays a role in a bunch of movies, especially Rebel without a Cause, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle and a bunch of TV shows too.

Proof I was there

Finally, on our last day in Cali, we took a Warner Brothers Studio Tour! The tour, which is 2 and a half hours through the WB back lot in a covered tram-type vehicle, covers the sound stages and sets of movies and TV shows that are filming/have filmed there. We saw some really cool stuff, including one of the tallest sound stages in the world that also has an in-ground tank with a two million gallon capacity (parts of Jurassic Park and The Perfect Storm were filmed in that one) and sets from TV shows like The Mentalist, Harry’s Law and this set that will probably look pretty familiar!

There was also a lot of cool Harry Potter stuff to see, which was a highlight for me. This is the car used by Harry and Ron in the very beginning of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets:

There was also an awesome exhibit with costumes and props from all of the HP movies, but unfortunately, no photos were allowed there.

All in all, we had a great time in California doing movie things! What’s your favorite movie-related sight to see? Any awesome Cali places I have to hit next time I’m back? Leave ‘em in the comments!