Guardians of the Galaxy

It is no secret that Chris Pratt got ripped to portray Marvel comic book hero Peter Quill. His comedic skills are put to great use as well and he was perfectly cast as the lead. The ragtag team he works with include Zoe Saldana, trading her Avatar blue for green as assassin Gamora (though she does have a blue sister), Rocket Racoon voiced by Bradley Cooper and his muscle, Groot, voiced by Vin Diesel. Josh Brolin voices an uncredited role as Gamora's father Thanos, Benicio Del Toro portrays the Collector and Glenn Close is Nova Prime.

The movie balances sci fi, superhero, and comedy genres with special effects and excellent dialogue. The pop culture references begin immediately with the Awesome Mix Vol 1 mixtape (and subsequently a fantastic soundtrack) in the opening scene and proceed to include the Millenium Falcon, Jackson Pollock, Footloose, and John Stamos. While very mainstream, the movie is also offbeat at times and sometimes delightfully odd. The extensive backstories and amount of villains to keep track of would seem to indicate an effort to remain true to the comic book.

Like any smart Marvel project, sequels and a growing franchise seem definite. Special effect nominations are likely, the movie is short listed for a Best Visual effects nod, and due to the success of the blockbuster references and montage inclusion at the Oscars probable. Amy Poehler could get in some jokes about her Parks and Rec costar Chris Pratt at the Globes as well.

Shout out to the Lees for being able to enjoy Guardians on my new big tv with excellent sound. It's going to make for great Oscar viewing.

Just a couple of the best quotes...
"It's not a purse, it's a knapsack!"
"Well, on my planet, we have a legend about people like you. It's called Footloose. And in it, a great hero, named Kevin Bacon, teaches an entire city full of people with sticks up their butts that, dancing, well, is the greatest thing there is."

Next Year's Oscar Movies

These could be way off, but I want to take a stab at predicting which films will be prominent in next year's awards season. Some of these I am really excited to check out. Some I hope that I am wrong about just so that I do not have to watch them. Goes to show how spoiled I was this year. I wanted to see the movies on the ballot and there were none I had to force myself to see. This should be an interesting exercise and I will be interested to know which ones we'll be hearing about at the end of 2014. Release dates are subject to change. The 87th Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 22, 2015.

• Unbroken Directed by Angelina Jolie, the biopic of Olympic track star and World War II vet Louis Zamperini. The kicker, the Coen Brothers wrote the script. In theaters Dec 25 
• Grand Budapest Hotel Wes Anderson's latest and looks to be greatest. At the very least, this one will get a Best Original Screenplay nod. In theaters March 7   
• Rosewater Jon Stewart took time off the Daily Show to direct this film based on the non-fiction book about a journalist being mistreated in an Iranian prison. He also produced and wrote the adapted screenplay. TBD 
• Gone Girl Directed by David Fincher. Starring Ben Affleck, looks like a movie Affleck would direct. In theaters Oct 3
• The Monuments Men May get lost being released so many months before awards season but it has some Oscar hallmarks, it's about World War II and has a strong cast. Written and directed by George Clooney. Now playing
• Inherent Vice Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. This one actually sounds ok but after his last picture, the Master, my stomach still churns at the thought. It does reunite Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon. TBD 
• Interstellar Directed by Christopher Nolan. In theaters Nov 7 
• Foxcatcher Bennett Miller's Moneyball follow-up. TBD 
• Into the Woods Fairytales with a twist, it's a musical and Meryl Streep and Johnny Depp are among the cast. In theaters Dec 25 

Stewart directing his first project.

Animated:

Big Hero 6 

Little is known about this project but it is Marvel's first fully animated film after being acquired by Disney and is based on an obscure title in the Marvel archives. In theaters Nov 7
How To Train Your Dragon 2 Sequel to the Oscar nominated original. In theaters June 13

Big Hero 6

Technical:

X-Men: Days of Future Past
The first trailer for this gave me chills. I loved the first three (original) X-Men and have recently enjoyed First Class. Bryan Singer, director of the first two X-Men flicks, returns. It should get some technical category love. In theaters May 23
Dawn of the Planet of Apes Likely to receive a technical nomination or two much like the first in the revamped series. In theaters July 11

Iffy:

Noah
Looks cheesy to me but Darren Aronofsky of Black Swan and The Wrestler acclaim directed. And Hollywood does not usually stop bestowing its accolades all of the sudden (see Paul Thomas Anderson). Or it could blow up like the Matrix when they started making sequels. In theaters March 28 Which brings me to...

Jupiter Ascending 

The Wachowski Brothers return. This one looks cheesy to me too but it could land in the technical categories. In theaters July 18
Cesar Chavez 
Biopics can go either way, they can be Ray or J Edgar. Even the so-called bad ones are usually pretty decent, it is most often decided in their reception. In theaters March 18

In A World...

Written, directed and starring Lake Bell, In A World...is a quirky indie look at the voiceover world. Full of a supporting cast of many recognizable, comedic character actors including, Michaela Watkins, Ken Marino, Demetri Martin, Rob Corddry, and Nick Offerman, the acting is very strong throughout. Eva Longoria and Cameron Diaz appear as themselves and Geena Davis also turns up.

There are almost no movie trailers that feature female voiceover talent. Gone in 60 Seconds, a rare trailer that did, used Melissa Disney and she also briefly appears in the movie. Lake Bell had been intrigued that the typical voice behind film trailers was male. This inspired her to write a story in which a woman struggled to overcome that environment and it resulted in her feature length writing, directing, and producing debut. The title of the film references the phrase used by Don LaFontaine at the beginning of many film trailers.

Bell is recognizable from her work in It's Complicated and What Happens in Vegas. She was also in Over Her Dead Body and that was the first screening I ever attended. While it is a terrible movie, I recall it well. Bell starred with Longoria. It looks as though several of Bell's previous castmates appeared in her film as support for her efforts. Corddry and Diaz were in What Happened in Vegas with Bell.

The movie is really funny and well written. After seeing the film, the first time you hear an ad begin with "In a world...",  and it won't take long, you can't help but smile. In A World...is nominated for Best First Screenplay at the Spirit Awards and won Best Screenplay at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Available for home viewing...
X-Men: First Class
The trailer for X-Men: Days of Future Past made me want to watch First Class because I had not seen it. The May 23rd release of the next chapter in the X-Men franchise finds characters from the original trilogy and the younger versions of many of them existing in one movie with what appears to be a cleverly conceived script. Expand the cast without having to add characters. First Class is just as good as the first three X-Men movies and I am glad to have finally seen it. There is something about superhero movies that is very yea or nay. There is not a lot of middle ground. It really seems to depend on the writing and then as the franchise continues, sticking to the things that worked while keeping it fresh and not just retreading prior films. Dissecting superhero movies could be a series of posts but the main thing about First Class is that it develops the backstories of the older generation in the previous X-Men stories in a historical context. Putting the two together makes Days of Future Past look very promising. Bryan Singer is also back directing.

The Lone Ranger

The Gore Verbinski flick was beaten up in the press for its high cost and supposed poor quality before it was even released. The movie is not as bad as it was made out to be and its low box office seems to be a result of bad buzz, not a terrible movie. It is fairly long at two and a half hours. It is also a Western, not really the typical summer blockbuster genre but they did it well. Let's not forget that Verbinski wrote and directed Rango and directed The Mexican. And he is of course the man behind the first three Pirates movies, regardless of your opinion of the franchise.

I venture to guess that my dad would like the movie; Western fans and people that watched the tv show as kids must love it. The best parts are when they play the classic Lone Ranger theme music over the action. The Lone Ranger is nominated for two Oscars in the technical categories for Makeup and Hairstyling and for Visual Effects. Dallas Buyer's Club is anticipated to win for Makeup and Gravity for Visual Effects. If you like Westerns, or Johnny Depp, or Armie Hammer, you will probably enjoy this movie. I imagine Disney would have liked Lone Ranger to become a franchise like Pirates but that seems unlikely due to its box office. Depp and Hammer are very well cast. Depp makes the role of Tonto his own and Hammer embodies the Lone Ranger. I had completely forgotten that Hammer was ever a Winklevoss.

And because I thought of the quote every time the nephew was on screen, from A Christmas Story:

Mr. Parker: "What is the name of the Lone Ranger's nephew's horse?"
Mother: "Ah... Victor! His name is Victor."
Mr. Parker: "How the hell did you know that?"
Mother: "Everybody knows that! "

Available for home viewing...
Iron Man 3
The third chapter of the Iron Man franchise maintained the quality and attitude of the first two movies. I was concerned when Jon Favreau announced that he would not be directing. I was happily surprised to see that he did return for his role as Happy Hogan, Tony Stark's driver/head of security. I couldn't help but wonder if the summer blockbuster was originally slated for a holiday release as it is Christmas time in the movie. The Marvel universe continues to dominate the pop culture lineup. The third Iron Man movie was the seventh film in the franchise. There is a television show now, Marvel's Agents of Shield, Captain America 2 comes out April 4th and the second Avengers film is set to debut Summer 2015. Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy trailer just came out. Iron Man 3 has one Oscar nomination for Visual Effects. As mentioned before, Gravity is the likely winner, and rightly so.  The effects in Gravity are based on new technologies developed specifically for the film.