by Stephen Milek

The Oscars are right around the corner and the winners are starting to take shape.  While some feel this year the winners are fairly predictable there are a few close races and as we learned last year never count out the underdogs (Cavaliers, Cubs, Trump).  And I decided to try an experiment this year.  Instead of seeing all the movies nominated for Oscars I went the opposite direction and skipped most of the nominees.  I have only seen 6 movies nominated and 1 movie nominated for Best Picture (Hell or High Water).  So obviously these picks are based on buzz and previous wins (except for Best Documentary Short where I picked the only movie I saw).  

Let me know what you think.  

by Stephen Milek

​Oscar Nominations are next week so time to make some final predictions. 
 
While Silence looked like it was going to make a strong case for itself it feels like it kind of got left behind with no SAG, WGA, PGA, DGA nominations it’s hard to consider it a serious contender.  On the other hand, Deadpool landed a WGA, PGA, and a DGA nominations as well as one from the Editing Guild so it has made a great case for a spot on the Best Picture list.  If that happens it will be the first superhero movie to do it.  But it is still hard to consider it a serious contender.  The other movie that has been gaining momentum is Hidden Figures.  The movie always felt like it was in the back of the pack and struggling to get noticed, but now that it finally got released to rave reviews and making lots of money so I feel confident it will get a Best Picture nomination.  Captain Fantastic scored an ensemble and Best Actor nomination at the SAG awards it’s hard to tell if that will carry over to the Oscars.  

​Predictions below

by Stephen Milek

One of my favorite time of the year is Oscar season.  I always find it interesting what movies have momentum, what movies don't, and how momentum shifts from one movie to another.  
It's still early so anything can change but as of now this is how I see the race.  
There are already some clear front runners and movies like Silence haven't been seen by a lot of people so hard to know where that will land in the race.  
I only included some of the bigger races.  I left off the screenplay categories because I can never figure out what is considered original or adapted.  But look for most of the big films (Manchester by the Sea, Moonlight, La La Land, and SIlence) to all get nominations in one of the writing categories.  

Let me know what you think. 
Predictions down below.  

By Christopher K House

The above photo was taken by this writer at the 14 hour Captain America marathon during the final film "Civil War" the highly anticipated newest entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. A fantastic piece of eye candy now tarnished with a bad digital copy online and it was done before my eyes. I had attended this marathon at a local theater, one of the largest in the area and one of my favorite theaters, until now.

Of course, I did my due diligence and notified the employees as I should have, a couple of times in fact. I even gave the exact seat the land lubbing pirate was seated in (F12) as we were in the fabulous assigned seating. Surely the workers would enforce the laws and guidelines and remove this nefarious criminal? Nope. No one ever even bothered to check in on her or look in her direction. Not once. She would have gotten away with it if I hadn't been behind her.

Eventually, I took it upon myself to chastise the young girl, wrapped up in a blanket and resting on a pillow that it was wrong and she should cease her actions. After a while, she did but it wasn't easy. I needed to "ruin" her recording by talking loudly into it. Something I hesitated as to not annoy my fellow film goers but, after I did it was met with "thank yous" and sighs of relief. My experience and those around me had been tarnished, the glow of the cell phone had distracted us but, most importantly the fact she was pirating the film in front of us was a slap in the face, being a screenwriter and in film making myself, I know the pain it causes independent film makers.

I pose a question, film lovers. How can this happen to a big film such as Civil War and the employees entrusted by the studio and film makers to show it? Why was she able to do this recording and no one say a peep?

As of this writing, efforts to contact the theatre chain have only been met with a "we're sorry" on Twitter. I will post any updates if they come in.   

UPDATE:  I was contacted by the theater chain's  advertising manager and, after chatting with him he assured me that steps would be taken to prevent this action in the future. Honestly, 14 plus hour marathon's are long and not everyone has the patience to stay off FaceBook or texting. The gentleman was very gracious and also genuinely concerned about the incident. Theaters are constantly fighting this piracy battle behind our backs in ways we don't see. I feel on my part letting them know what happened will help them establish better steps to combat this menace to film makers. Piracy can also be fought by us, the film lovers who try and escape in the world onscreen. If you see something, say something. Let an employee know what is going on and follow up that steps are taken to remove the infringing pirate. I chose not to name the theater or chain in this article because I wanted the focus to be about film piracy in general, not an attack on a particular theater because this happens everywhere.

Well I am late again posting the next round. Sorry about that and hope you can forgive me. But it's still March and March Madness continues.  
We are down to two. R2D2 was always a front runner so it's no surprise to see him here.  But Ava being a recent movie robot had to beat some nostalgic robots. And beating the Terminator was very unexpected.  But here she is in a showdown with R2D2.  
Who will win?  Vote and share.  
Vote below or use the link here

Well it's down to the Final Four and we got quite the mix of robots here.  We have two newer robots Baymax and Ava battling two classic Robots that both have been in numerous movies R2D2 and T-800.  
Can the newer ones knock off either one of the classics or will the classics prove to be too beloved?  That is the question facing us this week.  
Be sure to vote and share.  
Vote below or use this link to vote
​https://docs.google.com/forms/d/120qcqZ8Zgb6RcTHxq6-cspA5i6EJsdxCLgkE9kvg4vM/viewform

Lots of close races in the first round but definitely appears animated robots are dominating. Baymax and Wall-E were in close battles with some classic robots and barely pulled off the victory. The Iron Giant on the other hand easily pulled off a victory against Robby the Robot.
Two of the three Star Wars Robots won with C3PO losing to Optimus Prime. And in a battle of 80's robots The Terminator pulled out the win over Robocop.

Round 2 should be an interesting one as we got the Disney Robot Baymax going up against PIXAR's Wall-E. Optimus Prime takes on another Star Wars robot in R2D2 and The Iron Giant aims to take down the most recent robot on our list Aba from Ex Machiba.

Be sure to vote and share.

It's March and everyone is going to be talking about March Madness. Last year we had a lot of fun with our Disney Princess March Madness and our Horror Movie Icon Bracket.  After thinking about it we decided it would be fun to do Movie Robot March Madness. Who will win? Will classics like R2D2 or Robbie the Robot win? Or will newer robots like BB-8 or Ava prove to be popular.  
We tried to choose 16 Robots that represented a variety of movies we then placed them in random order to come up with the bracket. 
Each week we will have a new round till one is eventually crowned winner.  
Be sure to vote, share and check back each week to vote in the next round.  
Vote below or use the link here.
​ https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1FVofLjC0DI7VQ8oqFoQ4ctjAEbrBj82SlMT-RGHz0Hs/viewform

by Stephen Milek

It's award season and while we are in the midst of deciding what the best films of 2015 are sometimes it's interesting to look back.  So this week we are going to look back 10 years at the Oscar race of 2006.  Heading into the Oscars that year Brokeback Mountain was one of the most talked about films and easily the front runner.  Crash on the other had slowly been gaining momentum but released by Lionsgate who had no experience running an Oscar Campaign it was not expected to win much except possibly for screenplay.  But in one of the biggest upsets in Oscar history Crash beat Brokeback Mountain for Best Picture even though Ang Lee won Best Director.  It was one of the odd years when Best Picture and Best Director went to different movies. Oddly enough the same thing happened to Lee in 2013 when Lee when Best Director for Life of Pi but Argo won Best Picture.  

Vote below or use this link Oscars 2006 - 10 Years Later
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