 As we head into the final weekend of 2018, I wanted to take a few minutes to reflect back on the year in movies. There will be plenty of countdowns online and recaps of all the films this year, but I wanted to highlight just a few, some I've seen, others I have yet to watch.
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 Merry Christmas!
Two new wide releases hit theaters on Tuesday while everyone celebrates the holidays. I always feel bad for the movie theater employees being some of the only people who have to work on Christmas, but the benefit is that we get new films on Christmas to open every year, just like new presents. 
There are a few new wide releases this weekend as we head into the Christmas holiday. Definitely plenty of new films to check out for you and the family, though there may be fewer Oscar contenders than the last few weeks.
 Today is a day that many people have been looking forward to, the return of the classic Julie Andrews character Mary Poppins to the big screen. It has been 54 years since Andrews originally brought the imaginative nanny to life alongside Dick Van Dyke with plenty of singing and dancing to go around.
This film looks to be a strong follow-up to the original with fresh faces including Emily Blunt and Lin-Manuel Miranda in the lead roles. A quick look at the cast list will also show that Van Dyke appears in this film (as the son of one of his characters from the original) but alas, Andrews is absent from this version. Rounding out the cast are Hollywood heavyweights Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, and Angela Lansbury.  Yesterday the Academy announced short lists of potential nominees for nine different categories including Documentary Feature, Documentary Short, Foreign Language Film, Makeup and Hairstyling, Original Score, Original Song, Animated Short Film, Live Action Short Film, and Visual Effects.
In case you missed them, please check out my previous posts about the initial lists for Documentary Feature, Foreign Language Film, and Visual Effects. I have also included the short lists below. The original information is available from Oscars.org. One note on the links connected with each film below. Any links on the names of the films themselves are links to trailers, usually on YouTube. If there are places where you can view the film in its entirety, I have included a separate link with the name of the source, i.e. Netflix, Amazon Prime, Vimeo, etc.  Last week I posted here about the announcement of Kevin Hart as the host for the upcoming Oscar ceremony in February.
If you spend any time on the internet, you know by now that he has stepped down after much backlash in the media (social and otherwise) about past homophobic comments he made. I've been hesitant to weigh in on the debate, and I'm not going to here except to say that we are still awaiting an announcement on who the host will be. Seth MacFarlana has put forth some ideas about why no one wants the gig and I can't say that he's wrong, especially from someone who's been in that spot before. Which brings up the question of do they Oscars need a host at all? Each award is presented by a different person or group so why does there need to be a central figure at all? One other alternative I would love to see is bringing back any former hosts from the past 20-30 years. Instead of landing on one comedian to host, bring a whole slew of them so no one person has to shoulder the burden. You could make fun of any of the gaffs each one made and they could compete with each other to put together the best segment. Let me know your thoughts below on who you think the host should be. 
After two weeks of very limited releases and nothing substantial coming out in terms of wide releases, things are going to pick up for the next three weeks through the end of the year.
This weekend we get a film from the writers of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit, Clint Eastwood's second film of 2018, and an animated Marvel feature focusing on everyone's favorite neighborhood boy who was bitten by a mutant spider.  This is the first of several mid-week release announcements you'll be seeing here in the month of December. Mary Poppins Returns joins the list next week followed by Holmes & Watson and Vice on Christmas Day.
For now, we have a very special announcement from the man in the red suit. Read on to find out what he has to say.  No, it's not the Oscar nominations (January 22nd, 2019) but the list of Golden Globe nominations may be a good indication of the contenders to watch in the Oscar field this year for some of the top categories.
So let's get down to it. The full list of nominations can be found on the Golden Globes website, but I want to take a look at a few things that jumped out at me as I reviewed the nominations.  Well, since I've been posting these weekly nominee watch updates, I think this is the first time there haven't been ANY wide releases hitting theaters all week. There were not big releases on Wednesday and nothing tomorrow so I decided to hitch the image for this post to the biggest movie that will be on screens this weekend.
Yes, you see that correctly, Schindler's List is getting a 25th anniversary re-release for one day this weekend. It is limited so not in thousands of theaters across the country, but chances are there may be one or two theaters in your area showing it tomorrow. Why should you see this film that's a quarter century old? Because it's still a moving look at the history of the Nazi exploitation and murder of the Jewish people during WWII. Arguably one of Spielberg's best films, it was nominated for twelve Academy Awards, winning in seven categories including Best Picture, Best Director (Spielberg), and Best Original Score (John Williams). |
AuthorI'm just a film buff who wants to watch great movies. Where else to find the best, than the list of those nominated by the Academy each year? Archives
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