2013 Oscar Winners

Here it is - in case you missed it last night...results from the 2013 Oscars.

Winners:

Best Motion Picture: Argo
Achievement in Directing: Ang Lee, Life of Pi
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln

Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role: Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role: Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables

Adapted Screenplay: Argo, Chris Terrio
Original Screenplay: Django Unchained, Quentin Tarantino
Original Score: Life of Pi, Mychael Danna
Original Song: "Skyfall," Adele Adkins & Paul Epworth; Skyfall
Best Animated Feature Film: Brave
Best Animated Short Film: Paperman
Achievement in Cinematography: Life of Pi, Claudio Miranda
Achievement in Visual Effects: Life of Pi

Achievement in Costume Design: Anna Karenina, Jacqueline Durran
Achievement in Makeup & Hairstyling: Les Misérables
Best Live-Action Short Film: Curfew
Best Documentary Short Subject: Inocente
Best Documentary Feature: Searching for a Sugar Man
Best Foreign-Language Film: Amour (Austria)
Achievement in Sound Mixing: Les Misérables
Achievement in Sound Editing: Zero Dark Thirty & Skyfall
Achievement in Film Editing: Argo
Achievement in Production Direction: Lincoln

Can't Wait: Les Miserables

Just watch it. My friend, Allan and I got goosebumps watching the trailer.  I literally just watched it again and even got misty eyed. It's so powerful and rumour has it, they actually performed these songs not in a studio but as they were filming.  Whoa.  Now, that's impressive.  The cast is amazing.  I could go on but I won't.  Just watch the bloody trailer.  Les Miserables.  Release date is Christmas Day, 2012.

Finally Saw: "Love & Other Drugs"

Aw yes, let me first start by saying that I took a hiatus away from life and writing. But I am now re-energized after taking a mini-break to London last week where in a future post(s) will explain my love for british tv sitcoms and dramas. But that's a whole 'nother time, so I digress while I sit here eating my Maltesers and Wymans Wine Gums...

...I must give a shout out to Air New Zealand as I was a bit hesitant at first with this airline, but I give them a hefty two thumbs-up if you're taking a non-stop trip from LAX to Heathrow. With it being such a long flight, you are offered a plethora of newly released films which made me salivate. I fought my chronic narcolepsy on a plane as much as I could and in the end, only one film won in it's entirety and that was "Love & Other Drugs" which stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway. I enjoyed this film, as I usually would enjoy any film where you might catch a glimpse of a nearly naked Jake, and found the relationship between his character, Jamie, and Anne Hathaway's character, Maggie, quite the opposite as to what happens in real romantic relationships. Never would you find the ultimate "player" guy falling for a girl with parkinson's disease who chooses to only use him for sex and denies him the right of being his girlfriend. Never would you find a girl who is afraid of commitment after this guy actively pursues this girl and even confesses that he loves her. Okay, I may sound a tad cynical but I liked this film because it showed a complete reversal of emotion in how we generally perceive how a "player" operates. This is also a fictional film, might I remind us of that.

"Love & Other Drugs" was directed by Edward Zwick and I found it a nice departure from his previous epic and profilic films such as: "Defiance", "The Last Samurai", "Courage Under Fire" and "Legends of the Fall". I enjoyed the cast which included Oliver Platt, Hank Azaria (loved him from my "Simpsons" days - yes, I used to work on the show and no, I was not the voice of Bart), Josh Gad (why does he seem familiar? He played Jonathan Ame's arch-enemy ex-BF of his lover on "Bored to Death" and was also in "21"), George Segal, Gabriel Macht and Judy Greer.

So go see this film - and thank me later.