Enough with Oscar guessing and Happy Birthday wishing - let's get to the good stuff!

The title says it all. I've started this blog in 2014, and last year I was not very active. My last posts were all Oscar and Golden Globes guessing, and I announced to write about how I did in guessing later - which I never did, there is no point to doing it now (for last season!), and there was not really much of a point to planning to do it in the first place.

I want to give this blog another try though, and I really want to find my own voice for it. There is one post I'll be doing soon that I've been planning to do for some time. Guessing Oscars and celebrating celebrities' birthdays... that's something everyone can do, and many people do it better than I. I guess that's the reason why I did it... and then I didn't do it anymore.

PS: I also write reviews on letterboxd, if you're interested, please click the link to my profile there on the sidebar.

Oscar night is about to begin...

...and I still haven't analyzed how I did on my nomination predictions, and not even how I did on my Golden Globe nomination predictions. I'd still have one or two things to say about either, but should I really still do it?

Anyway, in a little more than two hours the Oscar show with Barney Stinson himself will start (no, I do know Neil Patrick Harris is more than just that. That e.g. he has hosted the Emmys how many times)... oh, that makes me realize, I'll have to charge my iPhone, because I need to check Twitter for comments about the show all night long, as I did the last years since I registered with Twitter.

But I'm getting digressed: I just guessed the winner for all 24 categories, which I used to always do in private back when IMDb still had that ballot to fill out online and print, but this year it seems there not having it. I did it anyway, though I have absolutely no idea to be honest in most of the "less important" category, and I want to make it public, so here goes:

Last minute Oscar nomination predictions

I never find time for this blog, I've been planning to write a recap on how I did with the Golden Globe nomination predictions, and which ones surprise me and so forth, and another article I've been planning for ages, but I don't come around.

Meanwhile the Golden Globes have been given out, but I still will comment on the outcome later, together with the outcome of today then.

Because today is Oscar nomination "morning" (well, it will be afternoon where I live, hence the quotation marks.

Predicting the winners would be easy in the six categories I really care to think about. There is really only one real question mark, which is Best Actor. I can perceive both Michael Keaton and Eddie Redmayne as the most likely winner.

This year's Golden Globe winners for Best Actor - Comedy/Musical and Best Actor - Drama (pictured above) both seem to have a really good shot at the Oscar.

Predicting the nominees seems a lot tougher, at least if you don't want to go with the most likely and unimaginative lineups by default for the acting categories. I hate to go with these, though it seems between 1-3 of them always turn out like this in the end.

So without anymore rambling, here are my predictions. I will honour my guesses who will and won't translate to the Oscars that I included in my Globe predictions, though in some cases I think otherwise. I will add a small note when that's the case.

Last minute Golden Globe predictions

I'm a sucker for awards season, though the prediction game is always really tough for me. Most of the time, I haven't even seen any of the movies that will win nominations yet - it's the same this year. This is in part due to some of the movies not coming to the theatre before the Oscars are over here in Germany, and in part due to me not going to the movie theatre nearly as often as I would like to. I most regret not seeing "Gone Girl", because it really sounds like a great suspenseful movie that I could totally love from what I've heard. Therefore I will include a picture of this film, just to make the post more colorful.

Another reason is that I don't experience any of the buzz, campaigning etc. first hand, like people living in the US seem to do. So all I can rely on is what I read on websites dedicated to the subjects. Still, normally I kind of get drawn in early on, but this year I resisted to get involved the least bit, and just read the guesses on my favorite blog from time to time.

But now, with the Golden Globe nominations only a few hours away, I can't resist anymore.

The Golden Globes are extremely tricky, with the Comedy/Musical categories, because some of the movies that will land here eventually are not in the awards conversation at all before. With the limited exposure to the conversation and to some of the movies, there is also a danger that I put the movies or actors in the wrong category in my guesses. But they are also extreme fun, because sometimes the Globes nominate people that the Oscars would never nominate.

So enough babbling already, here are my rather uneducated last minute guesses:

R.I.P. Robin Williams (1951-2014)

It's 0:40 a.m. on the 13th of August where I am as I start writing this [it's actually 9:08 p.m. now that I'm finally posting it, as I just couldn't f**king manage to get the "Posterized" part right last night, and finally did go to sleep much too late out of frustration], and I really should be going to sleep, as I have to work tomorrow (well, today, actually), but even if I don't know if anyone reads my blog - and I am still too shy to actually try anything to promote it - I feel it has to be today.

Robin Williams died on August 11th, but due to time lag, it was already August 12th here when I heard it, around 7:30 a.m. when I was driving to work this morning. It is still hard to believe that he is dead, but that will change within a few days.

Whenever a celebrity dies, other celebrities, friends, former co-workers, or just attention whores, will point out what a kind person the deceased was. It's nice though, when they have a little story to tell for evidence.

Yes, No, Maybe So: Maleficent

"Yes, No, Maybe So" is one of the trademark series of my favorite movie-themed blog, "The Film Experience". I don't want to copy it, but "Maleficent" started at theaters last week in my country, and I just have to do it for this movie, especially because I always knew how I would do it, very minimalistically, in very few words:

Yes: Elle Fanning <3

I'm late, but *hush* let's talk about the Illuminati...

One and a half weeks ago, on Friday the 23rd of May, I wished my unsuspecting facebook friends a "happy Illuminati Day". Why is this day the Illuminati Day? Well, one of the first things you have to know about the Illuminati, except the fact that they are incredibly powerful and conspiratorial, is that their codes are the number "23" and its cross sum, the number "5", and that you can detect their involvement - in historical events for example - by means of these codes.

Here are the TOP 3 things to do and not to do (well, actually, the TOP 2 things to do and the TOP 1 thing not to do), i.e. you should have done and should not have done on Illuminati day to honor the Illuminati, or educate yourself about them:

1. Read the "Illuminatus" trilogy by Robert Anton Wilson

But be aware that you are in for a major mindfuck. I so have to write one or more blog entries about these books one day when I have a lot of time on my hands, but I just can't do it right now, I'm sorry.

Happy Birthdays

It won't be all birthday posts as I hopefully continue this, but today is the birthday of not one, not two but at least four prominent people that I absolutely want to take the opportunity to mention, congratulate and write down some thoughts about.

Usually, it's ladies first, but today I'll go gents first, if only because it allows me to save the best for the last spot IMHO. I could also apply a saying we have in Germany, "Alter vor Schönheit", which translates to "age before beauty".

Here we go:

Dennis Quaid (60)

Sixty is a big birthday for sure. It also means he has a big career behind him, and hopefully also some ahead of him. But I won't discuss his whole filmography now, nor will I say anything about his marriage to Meg Ryan in the 90's, or remind anyone how it ended... I won't even state which of his performances is the best. I will only say for which role I will always remember him most, and I may be alone here. This clip is the closest I could find in a rather short time to my favorite quote from the 1989 movie "Great Balls of Fire":

By the way, Dennis Quaid was 35 when he played that role, but Jerry Lee Lewis is actually "only" 21 throughout most of the movie, as that is the age he was when he married Myra. Not that this makes it okay...

Happy Birthday, Russell Crowe

Today is the 50th birthday of Academy Award winning actor Russell Crowe. I have only ever seen him in two movies, actually, Í checked using IMDb, namely "L.A. Confidential" and "Gladiator". I thought he was smart casting in "L.A. Confidential", playing the main character as a then virtually unknown, but his character annoyed me. When he - warning: minor spoiler ahead - slaps Kim Basinger near the end, it was relief to me, I like screamed out: Ha, I knew it, you are just a hypocrite. Everyone with such a big mouth has to be!
Gladiator was good, not great, everything about it, but I remember thinking of Joaquin Phoenix's dark, over-the-top villain as the highlight.

Long story short, I have nothing against him, but I'm hardly a big fan. Still, the occasion of the Big Five-O is too great not to take it as an excuse to post something. A few weeks ago, another blog I follow for quite some time now, "SeriousFilm", posted this: http://seriousfilm.blogspot.de/2014/03/youtube-tuesday-fightin-round-world.html, and it made me want to search for something funny and short out of that particular South Park episode. Including the theme song, and "Russell"'s own singing.

So, way to celebrate a man's birthday, making fun of him, I know, but it's just too funny, I could watch it over and over again. Enjoy, in Russell Crowe's honor:

Belated birthday post for Alyson Hannigan

I actually wanted to post this a lot earlier, but didn't manage to come along. Still the occasion is too great to just skip it. Alyson Hannigan, pictured below, not exactly an unknown, but not really a big star either, who more and more became one of my favorite actresses during the last years, celebrated her 40th birthday on March 24th. If I had posted it on the big day itself, I would have titled the post "To Alyson on her 40th birthday", alluding to a 90's movie starring Michelle Pfeiffer that I have actually never seen, but almost two weeks later this seems ridiculous.

Oscars 2014

I've been thinking about starting to blog for a long time now. As an Oscar fanatic, this year's Oscars are like a now-or-never chance for me to start. So here are my thoughts on this year's show, chronologically (not everything, just "highlights"):

• Anne Hathaway presents Best Supporting Actor. Everyone knows it's gonna be Leto, so let's get him out of the way. AnnE acts weird. Jared Leto seems as though he is on some kind of drugs. His eyes... and it takes him weirdly long to perform whole sentences... He's not just on some harmless drug, and he has not taken just a little bit of it, if you ask me...
• A few awards later, Indiana Jones himself introduces three of the nine Best Picture nominees. He is so bored by all of that...
• An undistinguishable dude that I learned was Channing Tatum introduces... what was that? As far as I understood... winners of some sort of talent competition... whatever!
• The botox victim Kim Novak and Texas T-Rex (thank you to the hilarious posters on www.crazydaysandnights.net for his nickname!) present Best Animated Short and Best Animated Feature.
• Sally Field presents "ordinary heroes", and she is one of them. I don't really dig it. Nice to see Sally, though.
• JGL + Hermione Granger present Best Achievement in Visual Effects. I love Emma, but honestly, she doesn't look too excited the whole night.
• Kate Hudson + Jason Sudeikis present Best Live Action Short + Best Documentary Short. I wouldn't have recognized either of them. A tweet by a semi-famous person I won't name just now, whom I like very much, and who's a hilarious tweeter in general, mislead me to mistake Jason Sudeikis for Ezra Miller...
• Kevin Spacey presents the Governor's Awards.