Film: The Grand Budapest Hotel

GENRE: Comedy/Drama

RATING: 14A for some language, sexual content & violence
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 40 minutes

STARRING: Ralph Fiennes (Harry Potter, Schindler’s List )

Adrien Brody (Darjeeling Limited), Tony Revolori (newcomer)

DIRECTOR: Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom, Life Aquatic)

WRITER: Wes Anderson (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums)

PLOT: A concierge and his trusted lobby boy strike a friendship and find themselves inheriting a painting which causes all sorts of trouble and mystery.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 I love Wes Anderson films. I would say this is my third favourite of his (Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom slightly edge it out). This Anderson film has all the same bells and whistles but I believe this is the most action packed of all his filmography. Very fun stuff.

2 Like usual, it’s the art direction that blows my mind. I love Anderson’s attention to detail. Every location is its own character. I also loved the amount of signage found at the hotel.

3 I like the way Anderson uses trucking to move the camera left or right, it usually ends in a wonderful reveal of quirkiness.

4 There’s a great running gag of inspired speeches getting interrupted. Classic.

5 Again, Anderson gathers a brilliant cast of favourites and newbies. It’s really like he’s putting on a play with every new movie. Fiennes is a fantastic addition to the Anderson family.

RECOMMENDATION: Great fun at the theatre

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Divergent

Film: Veronica Mars

GENRE: Crime/Drama

RATING: PG for some violence, sexuality and language
RUNTIME: 1 hour and 47 minutes

STARRING: Kristen Bell (Frozen, Forgetting Sarah Marshall )

Jason Dohring (series), Enrico Colantoni (Flashpoint, Remedy)

DIRECTOR: Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars series)

WRITERS: Thomas & Diane Ruggiero (series)

PLOT: Veronica reluctantly returns to Neptune to help out Logan Echolls who is accused of murdering a pop star.

FIVE OBSERVATIONS:

1 This was basically a glorified two part episode of Veronica Mars and that was fine with me. I think I would have been disappointed if it didn’t look like a classic Veronica Mars episode. All the elements were present which made me happy.

2 I loved that everyone returned for the movie. While some got more screen time than others, I enjoyed that all the characters had some great moments.

3 Dick Casablancas (Ryan Hansen) stole every single scene he was in. I hear they are making a web series for him. Awesome.

4 Martin Starr (Freaks & Geeks, Party Down) used to look extremely nerdy and now was hardly recognizable as Cobb.

5 Enjoyed the James Franco cameo. Very funny.

RECOMMENDATION: See in theatres marshmallows.

UPCOMING REVIEWS: Grand Budapest Hotel

Oscar Results

So this was my best year of predicting ever. I got 21 out of 24. Someday I’ll get them all right. Ellen did a fine job as host; she was pretty casual. I enjoyed her pizza order and selfies. I thought Jared Leto went on quite long, in fact, I don’t recall anyone getting played off this year. I was very happy that despite the overtime, they showed the clips of the best actor/actress instead of just their faces. While Ellen was funny, the presenter banter was sorely lacking this year; more comedians are needed for these things. Oh and I was disappointed that 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture. With the amount of hardware that Gravity won, they should have nabbed Best Picture as well. Maybe Ellen was right and it was just white guilt that got them the big prize. Oh well, let’s see who won:

LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

HELIUM

ANIMATED SHORT FILM

MR. HUBLOT (predicted)

DOCUMENTARY SHORT

THE LADY IN NUMBER 6 (predicted)

SOUND EDITING

GRAVITY (predicted)

SOUND MIXING

GRAVITY (predicted)

ORIGINAL SCORE

GRAVITY (predicted)

ORIGINAL SONG

LET IT GO [FROZEN] (predicted)

VISUAL EFFECTS

GRAVITY (predicted)

MAKE-UP

DALLAS BUYERS CLUB (predicted)

COSTUME DESIGN

THE GREAT GATSBY

PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE GREAT GATSBY (predicted)

FILM EDITING

GRAVITY (predicted)

CINEMATOGRAPHY

GRAVITY (predicted)

DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

20 FEET FROM STARDOM (predicted)

ANIMATED FEATURE

FROZEN (predicted)

FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

THE GREAT BEUTY (predicted)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

12 YEARS A SLAVE (predicted)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

HER (predicted)

BEST DIRECTOR

ALFONSO CUARON [GRAVITY] (predicted)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

LUPITA NYONG’O [12 YEARS A SLAVE] (predicted)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

JARED LETO [DALLAS BUYERS CLUB] (predicted)

BEST ACTRESS

CATE BLANCHETT [BLUE JASMINE] (predicted)

BEST ACTOR

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY [DALLAS BUYERS CLUB] (predicted)

BEST PICTURE

12 YEARS A SLAVE

How did you do?