I've been a fan of the How to Train Your Dragon series since the very first film. It's by far the best animated franchise from Dreamworks. Not only is the quality of the animation itself breathtaking, but the storylines are much more relatable than the Shrek series, which is fine, but largely a string of pop culture … Continue reading It’s Time to Let Go – How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
Good evening ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the 2nd annual "I Actually Paid to See This" Oscar live blog! Over the course of the night, I'll be updating this post in real time (or as close as I can approximate) as awards are handed out, features are aired, and whatever other filler the Academy … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – Live Diary
The second year of the Oscar Blitz on this blog has been a wild ride, and I thank each and every one of my readers for taking it with me. Tomorrow's the big night, and after five weeks of in-depth analysis and general shit-talk, it's time to put my non-existent money where my loud mouth … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – Who Will Win?
We're less than 24 hours away from the Academy Awards, and before I make my official predictions later tonight, there are two more major awards ceremonies to catch up on, which may provide some insight into how I make my picks, because in several cases they will not match up with who I would actually … Continue reading Completing the Undercard – Writers Guild and Independent Spirit Awards Announced!
The Oscars are tomorrow night, and as promised, I'll get to my official predictions later this evening. But before I do, there are a few more undercard awards to hand out, which may or may not inform the results. But those are for another post coming later. Here we're only concerned about the worst of … Continue reading It Can Always Be Worse – 39th Razzie Awards Announced!
We've come to it at last, folks. The award to end all awards, the one win to rule them all. It's time to take all the laughs, tears, analysis, and petulant bitching and lump it all together to see which nominee should win Best Picture less than a mere 48 hours from now. And because … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – Best Picture
For the record, the fact that two of the four categories that were temporarily relegated to commercial breaks were saved until the last week should in no way be interpreted as me endorsing such a stupid move. You could have made a case for Cinematography, but that's only because it's very likely Alfonso Cuarón will win, and … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – Live Action Short
With a name like "Production Design," it would sound like this would be a catch-all category for all the technical elements of a film production. But really, that's what Best Picture is supposed to be for. The producers get that award for the best overall production, ostensibly. Production Design, on the other hand, is a … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – Production Design
Up until about a couple days ago, my breakdown of this category had been rendered superfluous. In the never-ending shit show that this year's ceremony has become, the Academy originally decided to relegate Cinematography, Film Editing, Live Action Short, and Makeup & Hairstyling to commercial breaks at Sunday's Oscars. Never once anticipating that people watching … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – Cinematography
When I went over the Documentary Shorts a few days ago, I mentioned that with each of the three Short categories this year, there's a striking similarity, in that with each list four of the five nominees have a common thread. With the Documentaries, it was the fact that all but Period. End of Sentence. were … Continue reading Oscar Gold 2019 – Animated Short
I Actually Paid To See This 