The 2014 Oscar Nominations Are In!

For my favorite Oscar categories only...

Which one of the 2013 movies will win an Academy Award for Best Picture of the Year? Will it be...?

• American Hustle (10 nominations)
• Captain Phillips (6 nominations)
• Dallas Buyers Club (5 nominations)
• Gravity (10 nominations)
• Her (5 nominations)
• Nebraska (6 nominations)
• Philomena (4 nominations)
• 12 Years a Slave (9 nominations)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (5 nominations)

Best Director?

• American Hustle (David O. Russell)
• Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón)
• Nebraska (Alexander Payne)
• 12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorsese)

Best Actor?

• American Hustle (Christian Bale)
• Nebraska (Bruce Dern)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (Leonardo DiCaprio)
• 12 Years a Slave (Chiwetel Ejiofor)
• Dallas Buyers Club (Matthew McConaughey)

Best Actress?

• American Hustle (Amy Adams)
• Blue Jasmine (Cate Blanchett)
• Gravity (Sandra Bullock)
• Philomena (Judi Dench)
• August: Osage County (Meryl Streep)

Best Supporting Actor?

• Captain Phillips (Barkhad Abdi)
• American Hustle (Bradley Cooper)
• 12 Years a Slave (Michael Fassbender)
• The Wolf of Wall Street (Jonah Hill)
• Dallas Buyers Club (Jared Leto)

Best Supporting Actress?

• Blue Jasmine (Sally Hawkins)
• American Hustle (Jennifer Lawrence)
• 12 Years a Slave (Lupita Nyong'o)
• August: Osage County (Julia Roberts)
• Nebraska (June Squibb)

Best Original Screenplay?

• American Hustle
• Blue Jasmine
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Her
• Nebraska

Best Adapted Screenplay?

• Before Midnight
• Captain Phillips
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Animated Feature?

• The Croods (Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco)
• Despicable Me 2 (Chris Renaud and Pierre Coffin)
• Ernest & Celestine (Stéphane Aubier, Vincent Patar and Benjamin Renner)
• Frozen (Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee)
• The Wind Rises (Hayao Miyazaki)

Best Production Design?

• American Hustle
• Gravity
• The Great Gatsby
• Her
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Costume Design?

• American Hustle
• The Grandmaster
• The Great Gatsby
• The Invisible Woman
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Cinematography?

• The Grandmaster
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska
• Prisoners

Best Film Editing?

• American Hustle
• Captain Phillips
• Dallas Buyers Club
• Gravity
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Makeup and Hairstyling?

• Dallas Buyers Club
• Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa
• The Lone Ranger

Best Original Score?

• The Book Thief (John Williams)
• Gravity (Steven Price)
• Her (William Butler and Owen Pallett)
• Philomena (Alexandre Desplat)
• Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)

Best Original Song?

• Alone Not Yet ("Alone Not Yet")
• Despicable Me 2 ("Happy")
• Frozen ("Let It Go")
• Her ("The Moon Song")
• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom ("Ordinary Love")

Best Visual Effects?

• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Iron Man 3
• The Lone Ranger
• Star Trek Into Darkness

Best Sound Mixing?

• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Lone Survivor

Best Sound Editing?

• All Is Lost
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Lone Survivor

Tune in to find out during ABC's 86th Annual Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday, March 2nd. Hosted by Ellen DeGeneres!

My Defense in Optimus Prime's Actions in TF: Dark of the Moon

"We will kill them all."

Seriously, PLEASE STOP WHINING ABOUT HOW OPTIMUS PRIME IS PORTRAYED IN ONE OF THE TF MOVIES WHENEVER HE’S INVOLVED IN A BATTLE!!! That's like hating Superman for killing General Zod in Man of Steel when I don't seem to have a problem with it! To all naysayers who felt "disappointed" with Optimus' "cold-blooded" actions, read my defense about why you should not hate him for that! Optimus Prime is like MY FAVORITE HERO OF ALL TIME NOW after being very upset with his death at the forest battle in Revenge of the Fallen!

OK, you may not like the way Optimus "acts brutal" by killing any other Decepticon ("obsessively" GOING FOR THE HEAD (to me, a major weak spot besides the spark inside the chest)) in all 3 movies, but I thought it makes him A TOTAL BADASS (if other people dislike the way he fights during his battle with Megatron in TF1)! Look at G1 Optimus Prime in the 1986 animated TF movie for example; he tried to finish off Megatron with his gun before Hot Rod stepped in (“You, who are without mercy, now plead for it? I thought you were made of sterner stuff.”)! :/ Especially in the TF Prime episode "One Shall Fall," where Optimus decided that "MEGATRON MUST BE DESTROYED!" and acts like he was really going to kill Megatron when fighting! Even so, he killed Megatron/Galvatron in one of the 2 final episodes of Transformers Cybertron! I believe that he knows that there are things will have to be done even at risk (“hard decisions” as Sentinel would comment). After all, “no sacrifice, no victory.” Besides, destroying the pillar, which in turn could destroy Cybertron as well, did save Earth from being enslaved by the Decepticons. For “freedom IS the right of all sentient beings” (mostly, us humans!)!  Just like how he destroyed the solar harvester (supposed to create Energon) in Egypt from blowing up the Sun, which helped prevent the destruction of every living being on Earth. And if there can NEVER be any diplomatic solution to “make peace” with the Decepticons, then perhaps they should all be eliminated (hence, “We will kill them all!”) to prevent any more deaths of innocent human lives. Not "brutal" revenge, but FORCED to do the right thing! COME ON! This is NOT a kid-only TV show, you know! This is different! He once said to Sam in the 2nd one that Earth must not meet the same fate as Cybertron once have. I don’t think Optimus meant to let the humans suffer in the occupation of the Chicago city following their “demise” aboard the Xantium. Because it is the only way, although risky, to prove to everyone that the Decepticons would still conquer Earth even with the Autobots gone. So make up your own mind if u really do like this Optimus Prime better or not! I for one believe he still retains his heroic personality! He is also detailed-looking and very cool with his overall movie design. And it never gets old whenever I hear his voice, provided by the legendary PETER CULLEN!

And what’s the matter with him KILLING MEGATRON IN LIKE 10 SECONDS!? :/ All right, not what I expected, but why should he accept the truce Megatron is offering with after he attacked Sentinel by surprise (I really liked it so much in a “bittersweet way”)? A truce probably means to put aside the fighting for an UNSPECIFIED AMOUNT OF TIME! DID ANYONE NOT LISTEN TO WHAT MEGATRON WANTED IN RETURN CAREFULLY!? >:( HE JUST SAID THAT “ALL HE WANTED IS TO BE BACK IN CHARGE” AND THAT WAS IT! HE DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING LIKE “LET’S MAKE PEACE, SHALL WE? TOGETHER, WE CAN REBUILD CYBERTRON (it was apparently destroyed, though)!”! If u guys wanted Optimus to “accept Megatron’s truce,” then what about all the TERRIBLE THINGS Megatron has done in the past? Like how he KILLED JAZZ IN TF1, TRIED TO TAKE THE ALLSPARK, NEARLY KILLED OPTIMUS PRIME AND SAM PERMANENTLY, HELPED THE FALLEN DESTROY EARTH BY BLOWING UP THE SUN, AND THAT HE ACTUALLY “PLAYED US” BY LETTING THE AUTOBOTS BE AWARE OF SENTINEL PRIME BEING ON THE MOON WHEN HE ACTUALLY “MADE A DEAL WITH HIM” IN RETURN FOR RESTORING CYBERTRON!? What if Megatron CALLED OFF THE TRUCE once Optimus accepts it? That’s what Galvatron did sometime between the end of TF G1 - Season 3 and the beginning of Season 4! So I’d rather that Megatron should STAY AS A VILLAIN other than being a “good guy.” Besides, Megatron only attacked Sentinel from behind (“THIS IS MY PLANET!”) so that he wouldn’t take Decepticon command by force as convinced by Carly! I'm sure this happened because Michael Bay thought that he would be done with the TF movie franchise for good and move on to work on the Pain & Gain movie, which I believe is a "poor excuse," when HE KNEW that DOTM was going to be such a big hit! Maybe killing off Megatron is like a way to introduce Galvatron (if that's what Megatron will become) in TF4! So give it a chance to let the guys BRING BACK MEGATRON! I say that they should give him the same treatment (by increasing his screentime and make him GO BACK TO THE ROOTS OF HIS 2007 TF1 SELF) like Marvel did with Loki in Thor: The Dark World! To change your perspective on Megatron in the movies, I suggest you GO TO UNIVERSAL STUDIOS ORLANDO where you'll meet Megatron and take a picture with him! You'll "love" him!

I’m glad that though one-armed (which almost scared me for sure), Optimus KILLED Sentinel "Prime"! Why can't people see that Optimus HAD to kill Sentinel after for what he almost did? I know Sentinel said that he only wanted for Cybertron to survive and that there are reasons he had to betray the Autobots, but does that give him the right to SIDE WITH THE DECEPTICONS, ENSLAVE THE HUMANS AND TRY TO KILL OPTIMUS AND HIS AUTOBOT/HUMAN FRIENDS WITHOUT ANY HESITATION (just like he KILLED IRONHIDE IN COLD BLOOD!)!? HOW COULD OPTIMUS "FORGIVE" SENTINEL!? SO WILL EVERYONE PLEASE STOP SAYING THAT KILLING SENTINEL (whether he's "unarmed" or "helpless") MAKES OPTIMUS PRIME "OUT OF CHARACTER"!!?? HE JUST HAD TO DO WHAT'S NECESSARY SINCE HE COULD NOT TALK SOME SENSE WITH SENTINEL AT THE WASHINGTON DC NATIONAL MALL! HE WAS FORCED TO ACCEPT THAT THE SENTINEL PRIME HE ONCE KNEW IS GONE FOREVER! DEAL WITH IT, GUYS!!

Oh, and best of all, according to what I found on the link: http://www.tfw2005.com/transformers-news/transformers-movie-just-movie-31/transformers-4-age-of-extinction-interviews-characters-plot-secrets-revealed-178900/, "Optimus must make a choice between doing the right thing what must be done and the safety of his own life." Hope this'll oughta SHUT YOU GUYS UP! I have the picture here to prove it!

In other words, I KNEW IT ALL ALONG! Optimus is no "brutal killer"! He WAS doing the right thing that needed to be done! This is war, guys. Come on. Isn't that why our soldiers who fought in the recent wars kill their own opponents without any hesitation? Just like how Optimus killed Bonecrusher, Demolishor, Grindor, The Fallen, etc., yet I wasn't completely bothered by it? But hopefully, Transformers: Age of Extinction had better come out already and SURPASS OUR EXPECTATIONS, so that I'll finally be able to put aside all of this annoying, pointless debates with the long-discussed flaws found in Revenge of the Fallen and Dark of the Moon! That's all I needed to say to defend what Optimus did in Chicago! But don't agree me if you still don't believe me. I will always believe in Optimus Prime, no matter how he looks or what he does in every incarnation.






NOTE: The rest of the paragraph, except the final two paragraphs, are all copied off from my Facebook note "My Review on Michael Bay's Transformers: Dark of the Moon."

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen - My Fan Director's Cut Edition

Now Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, as I know, was not entirely well-received upon making its debut back in June 2009. Although it brought in over $836 million worldwide on a $200 million budget, it was highly-criticized for mostly the over-the-top "unfunny" humor. Hence why this movie won three Golden Raspberry Awards for Worst Director (Michael Bay), Worst Screenplay, and Worst Picture of the Year. To me, I thought it was completely overwhelming (particularly the DISTURBING death scene of Optimus Prime!) and should not be viewed many times. But for the action scenes (my favorite has always been the Shanghai opening scene), I'd be glad to see them again and again just for entertainment during my free time! This poor outcome is due to the 2007-2008 Writers' Strike that immediately rushed the movie production by creating a script (written by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Ehren Kruger) that might need a little improvement before it would be turned in. Perhaps they could next time do at least is maybe REWRITE the whole thing to prevent any more mistakes that they might encounter.
But now, I may have found a way to make Revenge of the Fallen not so much of a "painful Transformers movie experience" even with a lot of things that some may find uncomfortable. Whenever I see it on Blu-ray, I would skip the unfunny parts to COMPLETELY TONE DOWN the humor of the 2nd TF film by fast-forwarding with the remote control. Henceforth, the "Fan Director's Cut Edition."


The parts that I would cut out from the movie are:

- Mojo and Frankie "humping" (shown twice)
- The Witwicky parents involving Judy complaining during the Kitchenbot scene, Judy going crazy when eating a drug-laced brownie, and the mime appearing out of nowhere while Judy digs into an escargot ("It's nasty")
- Leo dancing… WORKS BETTER IN A COMEDY MOVIE OTHER THAN THIS!
- Alice attacking Sam, Mikaela and Leo in the library while having a very bizarre conversation… most PAINFUL scene to watch in the entire TF movie sequel!
- Sam talking nonsense before "the Doctor" could cut through his head to extract the brain
- Yakov and his AWFUL-looking crooked teeth (no offense)!
- Simmons showing his thong on his exposed buttocks (UGH!) when changing his pants
- Leo and Simmons dispatching the security guards at the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum; especially the bathroom scene where Leo tased the security guard and himself (LOL)!
- Leo saying how "beautiful" Mikaela looked when landing on him before mentioning that she is "crushing his testicles"
- Simmons saying "I am directly below… enemy scrotum!" which has Devastator shaking his wrecking balls (pretend that they were NEVER THERE above his crotch!) while digging out the top part of the Great Pyramid of Giza



So I hope that all of you Transformers fans and my friends (who may be aware of the TF films) agree with my idea of how to make ROTF a less-painful TF movie experience! I wanted to prove to everyone that it does not deserve a lot of hate because of all of the things that made the TF movie franchise very interesting (like the ancient history of the Primes, how The Fallen motivated Megatron into forming the Decepticons, and the additional Autobots arriving to Earth sometime between TF 1 & 2)! I am glad that it did well at the box office compared to the first Transformers (my favorite movie of all time and the BEST in the TF movie series!) even if it's not a worthy sequel like we thought! I can only pray that this summer's Age of Extinction had better be much superior than TF 2 & 3! Besides, on the bright side… NO MORE SHIA LABEOUF! YES!