2018 Nominee Watch – May 18th

After last week's Mother's Day theme, I don't see any major themes in the works with this weekend's wide releases. We have three new films this week, Book Club starring Diane Keaton and Jane Fonda, the next superhero (or antihero) film in Ryan Reynolds's Deadpool 2, and Show Dogs with Will Arnett, Alan Cumming, and Stanley Tucci.

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Book Club
The ultimate in meta movies, Book Club features a group of four 60-something women that experience impressive changes in their relationships after reading E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey (Amazon affiliate link) as their monthly book club selection. The film stars Diane Keaton, Jane Fonda, Candice Bergen, and Mary Steenburgen with support from their male counterparts Andy García, Don Johnson, Richard Dreyfuss, and Craig T. Nelson.

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I say it's a bit of a meta movie because of the device of James's novel sparking the relationship changes. According to Wikipedia, James initially wrote the story for Fifty Shades as fan fiction based in the world of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga (Amazon affiliate link). So now we have a movie about women reading a book that was originally inspired by another series of books which in turn was loosely based on various piece of classic English literature.

Does that mean that any of this cleverness will earn it any Oscar buzz? Probably not. While this looks like a fun movie and is sure to provide some moments of tittering laughter, I doubt it will deliver any memorable performances from some top notch actors, many of whom have been nominated or even won Oscar's in the past.

Deadpool 2
As if we haven't had enough Marvel lately with Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War, 20th Century Fox is back with a sequel to 2016's Deadpool. For those not up on their superheroes, this is NOT part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe that houses the Avengers films, mainly due to the fact that different companies own the rights for each (Avengers = Disney, Deadpool/X-Men = Fox). But I digress.

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I enjoyed the first Deadpool film well enough and it certainly is a departure from what many are used to in the MCU. I would expect more of the same, especially since the sequel returns with the same R rating as the original.

As far as Oscars go...don't look for Reynolds and company on the red carpet talking about their nominations next February. With the possible exception of the sound and visual effects awards, there will likely not be anything worth a nomination here.

Show Dogs
If you ever wondered what would happen if you cast Scooby Doo in place of Sandra Bullock in Miss Congeniality, wonder no longer. I'm pretty sure Show Dogs would be the result.

If you're looking for something to take the kids to this weekend that will get them a few laughs (and maybe provide a few for you as well) this is likely to be your best option.

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Now, I'm pretty sure I don't have to tell you this isn't winning any awards. If it was purely animated, it might have a chance at the Animated Feature award, but since it is mostly live action with some animated critters, that's out of the question. If you're looking for good award possibilities, just stay away from this one.