Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars has one of the most interesting stories of the year. But I’m not referring to the script.

I never saw the cult-fave TV show, but I love the thought of a gumshoe drama with Kristen Bell and was wondering if I could jump right in. Lucky for someone like me, creator writer and director Rob Thomas effortlessly initiates all audiences into the Veronica Mars world with a story that sends a modern Veronica (Bell) back home for a high school reunion — and a mystery to solve. Bell is irresistible and the story is, well, cute enough.

You’re probably wondering if this just felt like a TV show on the big screen. I can’t answer that because I took advantage of an in-home release date that was the same as opening night. A trend I don’t like as a theater-lover, but was pretty satisfied with for something like Veronica Mars.

Turns out, the legacy of Veronica Mars will be its more interesting story: how fans on Kickstarter, the crowd-funding platform, brought their favorite show to the big screen.

Simply put: Marshmallow fans will appreciate Kristen Bell and the clever wit of this film, but the story is too mellow for a satisfying night at the movies.

Award potential: None.

The ten buck review: Not worth ten bucks. But for $6.99 on-demand, I have no complaints.

Oscar Night Hustle: 10 tricks to winning your Oscars Pool

10 Tips to hustle your Oscars pool — and win

1. Win the Best Director category

Go with whoever won the Director’s Guild of America award. Those winners have matched 58 times in the past 65 years.

2. Win the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category

The Academy has to choose between the work done on the prestigious Dallas Buyers Club, the critically panned Lone Ranger and the lowbrow Bad Grandpa.
The last two are the most showy, but if you look to the past you can see that Johnny Depp’s Pirates of the Caribbean makeup lost to both The Lord of the Rings (2004) and La Vie en Rose (2007). Lesson learned: go with the prestigious film, not the Jackass.

3. Win the Best Sound Editing category

No need to vote for the prestige film here. The loudest movie takes Best Sound Editing, period. Speed, Pearl Harbor and Bourne Ultimatum have all won Oscars, for real.

4. Win the Best Foreign Language Film category

The foreign film that was playing at the Angelika Dallas during the month of the Oscars has won Best Foreign Language Film for eight of the past nine years.

5. Win the Visual Effects category

Historically, a Best Visual Effects nominee that also has a Best Picture nomination will always win. This is bad news for The Hobbit. Also noteworthy, for seven of the past 10 VES Awards, the winner for Outstanding VFX has gone on to win the Visual Effects Oscar.

6. Win the Best Costume category

Period movies have won Best Costume for 19 of the past 21 years. Exceptions were Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Dracula and Alice in Wonderland. Last year, Anna Karenina won even though it was not even nominated for Best Picture.

7. Win the show’s-running-time tiebreaker.

In 2002, the show ran four hours and 23 minutes. Whew! But just like its ratings, the show has been getting smaller ever since (except for last year’s much maligned show).

Here are the timings on the past five years:

2008: 3 hours, 21 minutes
2009: 3 hours, 30 minutes
2010: 3 hours, 37 minutes
2011: 3 hours, 15 minutes
2012: 3 hours, 14 minutes
2013: 3 hours, 35 minutes

8. Win Best Documentary and Best Short Subject

Forget how folks have won for the past few decades in these categories. Beginning in 2013, ALL members of the Academy (not just category peers) can pick the winners of:
Best Documentary Feature
Best Animated Short Subject
Best Live Action Short Subject
That means everyone from actors to musicians will have a say instead of just documentarians. For Best Animated Short Subject, vote on something with a cute animal or, for Documentary, maybe one that speaks to struggling actors, just saying.

9. Win the Best Actor categories

The SAG voters are all actors and are the largest block of voters for the Academy Award. Choose the SAG winners and you’re guaranteed three out of four (and likely four out of four).

10. Win the Best Picture category

Go with the SAG winner, right? Not so fast, American Hustle. The movie that wins Best Cast (not Best Picture) at the SAG Awards has just a 52.1 percent chance of winning the corresponding Oscar for Best Picture.

Turns out, The Producers Guild of America most consistently predicts Oscar Night success in the Best Picture category. This year, the Producers Guild of America chose both 12 Years a Slave and Gravity in a tied win. Oh. Oh.

Will there be a tie? Well, Gravity has three problems. Not only is a big award for that film going to the director, but only two films in the last 57 years have won best picture without a Best Screenplay nomination, the most recent being Titanic (1997). And lastly, people respect 12 Years a Slave and Gravity, but not many love them. Good news for American Hustle, it’s a three-horse race.

So darn, only nine tips out of 10 will give you a solid hustle on your ballot. 

Go with your gut for Best Picture — and good luck!

Lone Survivor

Based on the title alone, any viewer will already know how this will end; but I'll bet you'll be surprised by the beginning.

 Based on the true story and The New York Times bestseller, Lone Survivor tells the heroic tale of Navy SEALs on a covert mission to neutralize a high-level al-Qaeda operative in Afghanistan. Faced with an impossible moral decision, the SEALs are ambushed in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Based on the title alone, any viewer will already know how this will end. But getting there is hell. The fun, rollercoaster kind. Beginning with an opening real-life montage of the SEAL’s training process and continuing with relentless intensity to tell the story, you won’t be bored with this nail-biter. Peter Berg is not sparing with the intensely realistic violence — nor is he subtle with the heavy-handed message about men going to war.

Simply put: If you’re looking for a true action movie during awards season, this one is a winner.
 

Award potential: Shut out of nominations for Oscar Best Picture, Best Screenplay and most of thetechnical awards except for Best Sound. If anything upsets Gravity for Best Sound, it will be this film.

The ten buck review: Worth ten bucks.

Wish the WInter Olympics were more exciting? Here are 5 golden films to rent instead.

Bored with the Winter Olympics? Here are some flicks that are not only some pretty solid films (sorry American Anthem) but also capture the Olympic spirit (sorry Munich).

GOLD

Chariots of Fire (1981)

Racing, in slo-mo, to the top of the list is the film that won four Oscars, including Best Picture. Worth another visit just to hear the somehow-timeless, electronic score by Vangelis. 

SILVER

Miracle (2004)

Miracle gives me goose bumps every time. The story of the 1980 U.S. Olympic men's hockey team, of course, who took home gold medals after defeating the seemingly invincible Soviet Union team. And no, it doesn’t matter if you know how it ends. 

BRONZE

Blades of Glory (2007)

The comedic team of Will Ferrell and Jon “Napolean Dynomite” Heder are somehow not that much sillier than actual Olympic synchronized swimming or curling, but the duo find comic Gold in Olympic ice dancing.

Qualifiers

Without Limits (1998) Based on the life of Olympic hopeful Steve Prefontaine. This version has a slight edge over the Jared Leto one.

The Jesse Owens Story (1984) Biopic of the most profoundly successful athlete at the pre-WWII Summer Olympics of 1936.

The Wolf Of Wall Street

If it’s one of those Friday nights where you’d like to have a wild night but need to get up early the next morning, then I have an idea for you — go see The Wolf Of Wall Street.

Exiting the theater on a wet, rainy Friday night, I felt like I just had a long evening of nonstop partying, excessive debauchery, and sidesplitting laughs. However, I really just sat inside a mall movie house for three hours.

Yeh, this film could have been edited down, but it never got boring and I laughed — a lot. As proven by the heartbreaking, tough, slow final moments of this film, director Martin Scorsese definitely had the right approach to the Jordan Belfort story by using excess and excessive comedy.

And Leonardo DiCaprio finally has his Gordon Gekko movie moment.

Simply put: Don’t go with the whole family.

Award potential: Despite 506 uses of the F word, expect nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay andBest Actor. It will probably rank fourth in the number nominations to a movie, but I don’t expect any wins.

The ten buck review: Worth ten bucks.

Inside Llewyn Davis

“If it was never new, and it never gets old, then it’s a folk song.”         -Llewyn Davis

Inside Llewyn Davis follows a week in the life of a struggling folk singer (Oscar Issac), as he navigates the pre-Bob Dylan Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961 and takes a road trip to find legendary producer Bud Grossman (Homeland’s F. Murray Abraham).

The music, overseen by T. Bone Burnett, cleverly corresponds with each concept of the story. And often, with this main character that is often short on words, the tunes complete the film’s thoughts.

With Llewyn, a musician slipping through the cracks, it seems the cynical, philosophical Coen brothers have a self righteous, self destructing hero that even they could love. Thoughtful audiences will too.

Folks will either find it to be a major downer or one of the most memorable movie experiences of the year. For me, it was the latter.

Simply put:  Offbeat and endearing to some; it’s a folkin' divider.

Award potential: Newcomer Oscar Isaac was nominated for a Golden Globe in the comedy/music category but the senior competition is too tough for the Best Actor Oscar. A Best Screenplay nomination is this film’s best hope at an Academy Award nod.

Yes, JT is just fine in his role but nothing more. Casey Mulligan, as she did in The Great Gatsby, Drive, Public Enemies and even Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, sucks the life out of every scene she is in.

The ten buck review: Worth ten bucks.

Alan's Academy Award Nomination Predictions 2014

On Thursday morning, Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and the Academy president will attempt to read off the nominees for the 86th annual Academy Awards. Here’s what’s gonna happen:

Best Picture  (If 8)
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Dallas Buyers Club
Gravity
Her
Nebraska
The Wolf of Wall Street
(If 10)
Inside Llewlyn Davis
Saving Mr. Banks
Watch out for:  A wild surprise like The Great Beauty

Best Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Sandra Bullock, Gravity
Judi Dench, Philomena
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Watch out for: As always, Meryl Streep

Best Actor
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Matthew McConaughey, Dallas Buyers Club
Watch out for: The Gatsbys! Between the two 77-year old, original Great Gatsby co-stars, Bruce Dern gets nominated instead of Robert Redford (All Is Lost). If Leo DiCaprio, the current Gatsby, doesn’t make the list, Joaquin Phoenix (Her) instead of Redford.

Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Daniel Bruhl, Rush
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years A Slave
Jared Leto, Dallas Buyers Club
Watch out for: Jonah Hill, The Wolf of Wall Street

Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years A Slave
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
June Squibb, Nebraska
Oprah Winfrey, The Butler
Watch out for: Octavia Spencer, Fruitvale Station. It would be a hoot to hear “Scarlett Johannson, Her.”

Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Spike Jonze, Her
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
Alexander Payne, Nebraska
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Watch out for: Paul Greengrass, Captain Philips

Adapted Screenplay
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Before Midnight
The Wolf of Wall Street
Philomena
Watch out for: Writers Guild nominees August:Osage County and Lone Survivor

Original Screenplay
American Hustle
Blue Jasmine
Dallas Buyers Club
Her
Nebraska
Watch out for: The Coen Brothers’ Inside Llewyn Davis. No threat from Gravity

Animated Film
The Croods
Frozen
Ernest & Celestine
Monsters University
The Wind Rises
Watch out for: Despicable Me 2

Documentary
20 Feet From Stardom
The Act of Killing
Blackfish
Stories We Tell
The Square
Watch our for: The Crash Reel
 
Foreign Language Film
The Great Beauty, Italy
The Hunt, Denmark
The Broken Circle Breakdown, Belgium
The Missing Picture, Cambodia
The Notebook, Hungary
Watch out for: Two Lives, Germany

Best Cinematography
12 Years a Slave  
Gravity 
Inside Llewyn Davis 
Nebraska
Captain Phillips
Watch out for: Rush

Best Film Editing 12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Her
Watch out for: The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Production Design  
12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
The Great Gatsby
Gravity
Saving Mr. Banks
Watch out for: Inside Llwyen Davis

Best Costume Design 12 Years a Slave
American Hustle
The Great Gatsby
The Invisible Woman
Saving Mr. Banks
Watch out for: Inside Llewyn Davis

Best Original Score
12 Years a Slave  
All Is Lost  
Captain Phillips  
Gravity  
Philomena
Watch out for: John Williams, the most nominated person of all time, for The Book Thief

Best Original Song 
"Amen”, All Is Lost
"Let It Go" , Frozen
"The Moon Song", Her
"Ordinary Love", Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom
"Young and Beautiful", The Great Gatsby
Watch out for: Happy, Despicable Me

Best Sound Mixing  
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
Lone Survivor
Rush
Watch out for: All Is Lost

Best Sound Editing
All Is Lost
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Lone Survivor
Rush
Watch out for: 12 Years A Slave

Best Visual Effects  
Gravity
The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug
Iron Man 3
Pacific Rim
World War Z
Watch out for: Love for a Sci-Fi film like Star Trek Into Darkness or Elysium

Best Makeup & Hairstyling
American Hustle
Dallas Buyers Club
The Lone Ranger
Watch out for: Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa. For real.