84th Academy Awards (Oscars) Nominations
The 84th Oscar nominees were announced this morning. While there weren’t that many surprises (Hugo and The Artist have almost a billion nominations each), there were some shockers in the bunch (The Adventures of Tintin was not nominated for Best Animated Feature).
I’ll be offering some commentary on the nominations during the Weekly Movie Podcast tonight as well as looking at the Golden Globe winners from last week and the BAFTA nominations which also were announced a couple of days ago. There will also be an in-depth look into the Academy Awards nominations and the Golden Globes winners this Friday in the Weekly Movie Newsletter (along with reviews of many of the films nominated for both sets of awards).
Click more to see the nominees for the 84th Academy Awards.
Website Update
I don’t know if it’s a sign but I got probably the worst case of food poisoning I have ever had during a educational workshop last week. I can normally work while being sick as long as it doesn’t affect my stomach. Any stomach bug to me is like a thorn in a lion’s paw. I was able to produce quite a bit of work during the winter holidays considering I had a horrible cold and two computers that decided to take turns on not being able to work. Last week was so bad, I wasn’t able to do anything other than sleep after coming home from work.
I’m still not at 100% but I feel good enough to start writing again. I have two semi-half-finished newsletters but I’ll wait until the normal Friday and Saturday release days to put them out so that I don’t have to over-exert myself to get four newsletters out by Saturday. The worst case scenario (unless I become violently ill again) is that the Video Game Newsletter will be released on Sunday except for Saturday. Here’s a list of the upcoming major items to pop up on the website.
Weekly Movie Newsletter-Double Issue (Fri., Jan. 27)
- Golden Globes roundup
- BAFTA nominations
- Jan. and Feb. 2011 in review
- Box office data for January (so far)
- Report on the decline of the film industry (or so they say)
- Movie reviews including: 50/50, The Adventures of Tintin, Bridesmaids, The Descendants, The Help, Hugo, The Ides of March, Margin Call, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, Monsieur Lazhar, My Week with Marilyn, Salt, The Social Network, War Horse
Weekly Video Game Newsletter (Sat., Jan. 28)
- The Top 10 Games of 2011
- Video games sales information for the weeks of Christmas and the New Year weekend
- Q2 2011 in review
- Video Game reviews including: Alien Crush (TG-16), Duck Hunt (NES), Final Fight (Arcade), Rad Racer (NES), Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Genesis), Super Mario Land 2: Six Golden Coins (Game Boy)
Weekly Movie Podcast (Tue., Jan. 24)
- Golden Globes commentary
- BAFTA nominations discussion and predictions
- Box office data for the weekend ending Jan. 22
Weekly Video Game Podcast (Sun. Jan. 29)
- Video game sales information for the first two weeks of January
- The disappointments of 2011
I’m also working on adding at least one new podcast series on the site (maybe a second). I would like to start producing them this week but it all depends on how I’m feeling.
69th Annual Golden Globes Live Blog
10:58 – YAY! It’s over! The Weekly Movie Newsletter will be up on Monday night and there will be a Movie Podcast up on Tuesday recapping the entire show.
10:57 – Music to tell people to get the hell off the stage count: Ten
10:55 – Keep in mind that I really liked The Descendants, I think this was junk. There were two films that were better.
WINNER: The Descendants Best Picture – Drama
10:49 – I see we’re rewarding mediocrity. I like George Clooney but I don’t think this was even close to his best work. However, considering how this night has been, I just have to shrug my shoulders.
WINNER: George Clooney (The Descendants) Best Actor – Drama
Weekly Movie Post–January 15, 2012
Weekly Movie Podcast – January 15th, 2012 <37 mins – 25.3MB>
^right click to download^
The 2012 Golden Globes page is now up.
Golden Globes talk and predictions…listen now and see how awesome my predictions are.
Continue reading for the top five charts from last week’s box office (all data coming from www.the-numbers.com). There’s also a list of all the movies coming out this weekend in theatres and the movies that were released for the home video market this week (with trailers where available).
Donkey Kong Country (Video Game Review)
Video Game Review
Donkey Kong Country
Super Nintendo
1994
Developed by: Rare
Published by: Nintendo
Donkey Kong isn’t exactly the crown prince of Nintendo’s large cast of mascots. In fact, it’s almost as if he’s the black sheep; the first nemesis of the beloved Mario that was relegated in the 80s to teaching kids about math. When Nintendo enlisted Rare to create a new type of platformer during the mature age of the Super Nintendo’s life cycle, it was curious to see what would be the result. Donkey Kong Country ended up being a renaissance f or the primate character that helped revitalize the I.P. and became, for a while, a solid number two behind Mario in Nintendo’s roster of franchises. Donkey Kong Country is the game that started it all again and despite its age is still one of the best platformers ever.
Weekly Video Game Post–January 8, 2011
Weekly Video Game Podcast – January 8, 2012 <14 mins (9.5 MB)>
^ right click to save
- Due to technical difficulties, this is a shorter than normal podcast; just sales and game release information
- Continue reading for sales figures from the week of December 24th and other stuff (all sales figures come from www.vgchartz.com)
Decimation X (Video Game Review)
Video Game Review
Decimation X
Xbox 360 (Xbox Live Indie Games)
2010
Developed by: Xona Games
Published by: Xona Games
Space Invaders clones are a dime-a-dozen in the gaming sphere although they’re less prevalent in today’s age than during the golden age of the arcades. To simply dismiss Xona Games’s Decimation X as a clone of one of the originators of the shoot-em-up genre is selling the game short. That being said, it’s not much different from Space Invaders. The graphics are not much better and the action is very similar (think of the original game but as if it were on steroids). Decimation X is a pretty good game at a great price that will easily suck away much of your spare time.
Centipede (Video Game Review)
Video Game Review
Centipede
Arcade
1980
Developer: Atari
Publisher: Atari
During the golden age of the arcades, you couldn’t throw a stone in an arcade and not hit at least a dozen shoot-em-up games. Centipede was one of the top games of its generation and still holds up reasonably well despite not being all that flashy. For those who like classic arcade action, Centipede is a solid bet. However, for those who have grown up with games that have things like a background and a decent soundtrack, it might be a bit problematic.
Space Invaders (Video Game Review)
Video Game Review
Space Invaders
Arcade
1978
Developed by: Taito
Published by: Midway (North America)
It’s hard to evaluate a game that was published in 1978 by today’s standards (and it will probably be even more so for people in the future). When Space Invaders came out, it was seen as a revolutionary game that dominated the video game industry. It was so popular yet so simple a game that when the sequel came out a year later, the only thing Taito/Midway did was include colour; and that was more a trick than actual software/hardware engineering as they simply put colour filters over certain parts of the screen. Still, playing Space Invaders today is still quite a bit of fun. Graphically and technically it has been surpassed by modern games but, due to a strong foundation, it is still provides for a good time.
Weekly Movie Post–January 3, 2012
Weekly Movie Podcast – January 3rd, 2012 <16 mins – 11.1MB>
^right click to download^
The box office saw a nice bump from the previous week despite there being no new movies (in wide release) released in theatres this past weekend. Plenty of discussion on this week’s podcast about the state of the movie industry, some movie recommendations and reviews, and a recap of what’s your options are in theatres and on DVD this coming week.
Continue reading for the top five charts from last week’s box office (all data coming from www.the-numbers.com). There’s also a list of all the movies coming out this weekend in theatres and the movies that were released for the home video market this week (with trailers where available).
