I didn’t get to watch the whole special because I couldn’t get a feed where I was, but I caught the last half hour which is essentially all you needed to see last night especially the ending. It was that time of the show where it was time to reveal the winner of Best Picture and Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty were presenting the award. When Beatty was about to read the winner, he seemed very confused so he would occasionally stop so Faye had to read the card and she announced La La Land as the winner of best picture. So, the whole entire crew came on stage and were giving their speech when it was revealed by the film’s producer Jordan Horowitz and Warren Beatty that there was an epic mistake. Jordan would reveal that the real winner of the award went to Moonlight and he waited on stage so that he could personally give them the award. That right there my friends is a very embarrassing moment for the Oscars and one that almost gets Steve Harvey off the hook for his epic blunder. There were a lot of surprises that night including that one because I thought for sure that La La Land was going to clean house. I knew that Casey Affleck was going to win Best Actor, but I thought that Dev Patel was going to win best supporting.
Out of 14 nominations which tied a record, the film La La Land only took home six total awards which is less than what I predicted (I predicted nine). One of the definite surprises of the night is that now you have to call Suicide Squad a Oscar winning film even though it was for best make up and hairstyling. Out of all the surprises and all the mayhem that ensued, the awards show definitely makes me want to watch Moonlight to see what they saw in the film which took home three golden statues that night. A lot of the films I predicted were second choices and if I had gone with my first choice, I would’ve done a lot better, but I listened to the hype. So, out of 24 possible awards, I only correctly predicted 11 of them which is 46% and that is a failing grade. Here are all the winners from the night:
Best Picture- Moonlight
Best Director- Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Best Actor- Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea)
Best Actress- Emma Stone (La La Land)
Best Supporting Actor- Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Best Supporting Actress- Viola Davis (Fences)
Best Original Screenplay- Manchester By The Sea
Best Adapted Screenplay- Moonlight
Best Animated Film- Zootopia
Best Foreign Film- The Salesman
Best Documentary Feature- O.J.: Made In America
Best Documentary Short- The White Helmets
Best Live Action Short- Sing
Best Animated Short- Piper
Best Original Score- La La Land
Best Original Song- City Of Stars (La La Land)
Best Sound Editing- Arrival
Best Sound Mixing- Hacksaw Ridge
Best Production Design- La La Land
Best Cinematography- La La Land
Best Film Editing- Hacksaw Ridge
Best Visual Effects- The Jungle Book
Best Make Up and Hairstyling- Suicide Squad
Best Costume Design- Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them
We only have so many days left in the year so I am trying to be selective about what films I choose for the challenge. For today’s film, I wanted to clean up my Netflix queue a little so I decided to watch the 1981 military drama Taps. Life at Bunker Hill Military Academy is business as usual with cadets coming in and cadets leaving to bigger and better things under the watchful eye of the acclaimed General Bache (George C. Scott). After being appointed the new Major, Cadet Major Moreland (Timothy Hutton) finds out that the school is going to be shut down in favor of condos. After an accidental shooting takes their beloved general away and speeds up the closing process, Moreland and the cadets take a stand and they take over the school. The film also stars Sean Penn (Mystic River) as Cadet Captain Dwyer, Tom Cruise (Top Gun) as Cadet Captain Shawn, Evan Handler (Sex And The City) as Edward West, Giancarlo Esposito (The Jungle Book) as Cadet Captain Pierce, Ronny Cox (RoboCop) as Colonel Kerby, Billy Van Zandt (Anything But Love) as Bug, Donald Kimmel (As Luck Would Have It) as Billy Harris, Wayne Tippit (Nurse Betty) as Master Sergeant Kevin Moreland, and the film was directed by Harold Becker (City Hall).
You know I often wonder if Tom Cruise and Sean Penn knew what kind of megastars they’d end up becoming during the 80’s. They are definitely two of my favorite actors to emerge from that decade along with some others. Timothy Hutton proves in this film that he can give some strong performances because he did in this one. They definitely captured the essence of what it means to be a kid who is forced to try and act like an adult in a world that when they step up for something, they are once again treated like children. That is definitely the eternal struggle for kids who were brainwashed that there are far worse things in life then death by a man who has known nothing other than that lifestyle. The great thing about this film is that it emulates war movies where in the beginning you are gung-ho about the battle at hand then when the film continues on, it starts showing scenes of war is hell as the soldiers begin to crack or in this case the cadets. I loved the cinematography in the film especially the final scene where you may be shocked by what happens or if you are like me you had an idea of what was about to happen. Sean Penn does such an amazing job in the film and I would consider it a stellar performance as well as Tom Cruise who plays that war monger character who is just inching to become Rambo. The film is available on Netflix like I said, but for right now I am going to give the film an A- for a final grade.
I wouldn’t be 100% honest with all of you if I didn’t tell you that I wasn’t sure about today’s film that I chose for you. I have always been skeptical about films that are associated with the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment), but nevertheless the film I chose for today is the new horror film Incarnate. Aaron Eckhart (Thank You For Smoking) stars as Dr. Seth Ember, a tortured soul with a very cool ability that only a few people here and there possess. You see he can travel into the minds of people to free them of the demons that have taken over their bodies. One day he gets called to a job that even the church won’t allow their priests to take when a child is possessed with a demon he knows all too well. The film also stars Emjay Anthony (The Jungle Book) as Jake, 
I have to completely honest because I am a huge Horror fan which is why I do and have done Eddie’s 31 Days Of Halloween for as long as I have. I’ve seen some really bad horror films and some really good ones and I’ve seen some that had the right idea, but the execution just wasn’t there. This is definitely one of those films where the execution just wasn’t there, but the idea was cool. It was definitely a different take on the whole exorcism sub-genre of horror. It’s basically Flatliners meets The Butterfly Effect meets The Exorcist sub-genre. He basically Flat-lines so that he may enter a dream state to be able to drive the demons or as he calls them Parasites out of the victims. The problem I had with the film was the writing because some of the actions and lines were just corny and overused as hell.We have all seen it before and some of the actions were just too erratic to make at the point they were made. Aaron Eckhart does a great job with the film, but the film just falls flat on it’s face like when a person flatlines. I am having a hard time trying to decide what grade I should give the film because it wasn’t so terrible, but let’s just say this is a wait until it comes out in Redbox or On-demand. I am going to give the film a grade somewhere between an C- and a D+. It’s in that range for sure.
So, I have been ranking the top 25 for each month in the challenge and I am about to up the ante by ranking the top 25 films of the first quarter of 2016. That is right, I am going to rank the top 25 films of the first quarter which means all the films from January up to April which makes it the first quarter of the year. Just in case you were wondering what didn’t make the list, well it’s simple, it’s whatever movies are not listed in this list. There are some films that are still the clear cut top films and some that may surprise you. Check it out below:
It is that time of the month again as we are well into May to give you what I believed to be the top 25 for the month of April. I want to start by saying that this was definitely one of the hardest months to choose a film only because we stepped the game up with the quality of films. We had a couple of stinkers of course, but we had way too many good and amazing ones that made it hard to choose. So, there may be some choices that I make that you may not agree with, but this list is about how I feel the films were. The five films (since there is only 30 days in April) that didn’t make the top 25 cut are: Volcano, Kull The Conqueror, Summer Job, Reefer Madness, and Fifty Shades Of Black. Those films simply did not make the cut because they were either not worthy or just didn’t top any of the 25 films chosen. Here is the Top 25 for the month of April:
There are some stories in life that are so amazing when they are brought on to the screen which is what the original 1967 Walt Disney animated film The Jungle Book did. Now, what if we take one of the coolest stories combine it with the director that helped put Marvel back on the map in Jon Favreau (Iron Man), and made it a live action film for today’s feature film. For Mowgli (Neel Sethi), the only life he has known since he was a baby was the life and laws of the jungle as he has been taken care of by a pack of wolves and a panther named Bagheera (Ben Kinglsey). That is until one day when he is confronted by an evil Tiger named Shere Khan (Idris Elba) who is intent on killing the child for living in the jungle. So in order to ensure his own safety and the safety of all the animals, Mowgli agrees to leave, but he may have to come back to save them. The film also stars Bill Murray (Ghostbusters) as Baloo, Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years A Slave) as Raksha, Scarlett Johansson (Avengers) as Kaa, Christopher Walken (Dead Zone) as King Louie, Garry Shandling (The Larry Sanders Show) as Ikki, Giancarlo Esposito (The Usual Suspects) as Akela, and Brighton Rose (Mil Mascaras vs. the Aztec Mummy) as Gray.
This was by far one of my favorite movies of the year and it’s ranked up there with Deadpool and any other movie I’ve seen this year so far.This film is non stop fun and adventure from beginning to end and I was so disappointed it was over because I wanted more. All of the characters in the film were absolutely amazing from the acting to the design and the scenes themselves. Bill Murray was an absolute star in this film as everyone’s favorite bear Baloo and believe me Murray delivered. It was such a joy to see him as the bear on the big screen and Neel Sethi did a terrific job as Mowgli too. You were 100% sold that this kid was raised in the jungle and that he communicated with the animals. Now if you are looking forward to seeing Kaa on the big screen, I am going to warn you that you may be a tiny bit disappointed on the amount of screen time she has in the film. Another pleasant surprise for me was hearing Christopher Walken play everyone’s favorite Orangutan King Louie (except he’s a giant one in this film). The story is amazing, the way it came to life on the screen was amazing, and the cinematography was amazing too. Like I said this is definitely one of my favorite films of the month so far and I think everyone should go and check it out in the theaters. A second Jungle Book film has already been announced according to IMDB so I look forward to it. With all of that being said, I am going to proceed and give the film an A+ for a final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 