Tuesday 17 February 2015

Random Nominations and Awards you Won't See at the Oscars 2015

The Oscars are coming, and with them, the last chance for predictions on the winners and last minute nominee-movie-watching. I'm going to take the chance to do my own little movie awards, but don't expect the usual categories...


Best Unexpectedly Good Movie: Maybe an obscure comic, an 80's toy or the sequel of a cop comedy... You couldn't really ask for much, and yet, they were some of the funniest stuff of the year.

The nominees:
Guardians of the Galaxy: I was expecting a Marvel filler to keep the cash flowing while working on another Avengers, turned out to be great fun.
Lego Movie: Seemed like a kiddie film that the dads would love, but everything was awesome.
Paddington: Another kiddie film that had more laughs than most of this year's comedies.
22 Jump Street: So many funny moments, I never expect much from sequels, but this one was at least as good as the original. 
The winner: Guardians of the Galaxy. Marvel, thank you so much for not taking yourself so seriously and actually have fun.



That actor/actress that was everywhere: For some reason, his/her face kept popping up every time you went to the cinema this year... How do they do it?

The nominees:
Rosamund Pike: 4 Movies (A Long Way Down / Hector and the Search of Happiness / What we did on our Holiday / Gone Girl).
Owen Wilson: 5 Movies (The Grand Budapest Hotel / She's Funny that Way / The Hero of Color City [voice] / Inherent Vice / Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb).
Anna Kendrick: 6 Movies (The Voices / Life after Beth / Happy Christmas / The Last Five Years / Cake / Into the Woods).
Liam Neeson: 7 Movies (The Nut Job [Voice] / Non Stop / The Lego Movie [Voice] / A Million Ways to Die in the West / Kahlil Gilbran's The Prophet [Voice] / A Walk among Tombstones / Taken 3). Plus 3 TV episodes and a short film.
The winner: Liam Neeson. It's like he makes a movie while waiting for the bread to come up from the toaster.



Best Baker: Yes, colleagues, colleagues everywhere. Well, not everywhere, but this was a good year for fictional bakers and pastry chefs in the big screen.

The nominees:
Peeta Mellark: The PR genius from The Hunger Games maybe out of the kitchen, but he'll always be the baker boy from District 12.
Agatha: The girl with a birthmark in the shape of Mexico, the ability to make amazing pastries and the courage to save the day.
The Bakers: The young but childless couple from Into the Woods, whose last name matched their trade (not so unusual in fairy tale times).
The winner: Agatha. Not just because her cakes are the best, but because she became one of my favorite characters ever.



Best Method of Teenage Oppression: The year of the YA novel adaptations left us with a few ideas of what won't work to keep the kids from starting a revolution.

The nominees:
Dividing them into "Factions": Divergent was all about making kids choose at very young age what they would do for the rest of their life, and then watching how everything becomes a mess... sounds familiar?
Propaganda: If making them fight to death on TV for The Hunger Games is no longer an option, maybe a good old fashioned brainwashing will do.
Sending them to a wasteland: The kids from The Maze Runner had it awful: lack of basic care, anarchy, bullying, memory lost... and then it gets worse.
Ultra Censorship: An ignorant kid is a happy kid, at least according to The Giver, where everyone's seem to be under some type of collective forced thinking of happy thoughts.
The winner: Propaganda. The Hunger Games hit first and hit hardest with the rebel theme and the evil elite trying to stay on top.

Most Bipolar Film: This has nothing to do with the characters... This movie had double personality itself, and for some that made them brilliantly balanced, for others, they were just non committed to any side.
The nominees:
Interstellar: A mix of very dense scientific content, with a father/daughter drama that for some, gave humanity to the story, for others, just got in the way.
Maleficent: This is the kind of fantasy movie you see on TV years after it was premiered. She's good, then she's bad, broken heart, broken wings (this sounds like my 14 year old self's awful poetry).
A Million Ways to Die in the West: It tried to mix comedy, romance and action... it wasn't funny, romantic or exciting. Just all over the place. 
Muppets Most Wanted: Muppets are best when they do their Muppet thing, but this time they were in some type of Russian conspiracy parody with evil look alikes and terrible accents.
The winner: Interestellar. It was too scientific to be a "power of family love" story, and to sappy to please hardcore sci-fi fans, but at least was a decent movie with impressive moments.


Best Movie Poster: I'm going to get help with this one from the Internet Movie Poster Awards, a website that's been choosing a winner for this category for years.

The nominees:
The Book of Life: Lots of life and color, a very unique style and a just a few hints on the plot of the movie.
Interstellar: Dreamy, simple and eye catching, also, a great tag line for the movie.
Big Eyes: The expression of the characters and the picture-ception tell a lot about the movie and express its feeling very well.
The Interview: Great parody of propaganda posters (and great propaganda poster itself, some might say), it's over the top, silly and just plain funny.
The Grand Budapest Hotel: This poster reminds me the "Guess Who" board game (the characters surely make for an especial edition of the game), makes you curious about that weird group of people.
The winner: The Book of Life. The Dia de los Muertos theme of the film looks beautiful in the poster, I think the best part from this movie was the colors.

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