Walking With Dinosaurs Review

Ever since I was young, I was always fascinated with dinosaurs. A trip to the dinosaur museum was the coolest thing ever for me. Even to this day, I have no shame in letting my inner child show when it comes to dinosaurs. Jurassic Park is still one of my favorite movies, and I will easily admit to you that Jurassic Park 3D was one of the best theatrical experiences for me ever. Thus when I first heard about this movie, I was immediately intrigued. However, after poor reviews followed some less than impressive trailers, I proceeded with caution. Coming out I was amazed at one aspect. How did the makers of movie look at the final product and consider themselves pleased enough to release this into theaters? Walking With Dinosaurs is a pretty bad mess.

The idea behind this movie is a good idea. That idea is to make a movie with realistic CGI dinosaurs and throw people right into that story. The problem? How they went about doing it. We start off with two kids and an adult driving up to a dinosaur skeleton. The three of them get out of the car, and the boy decides to stay behind. As he's playing his Gameboy, a bird lands on the car and starts talking to him. No, I take that back. The bird wasn't talking at all. But it was supposed to be. There was this voice we started to hear that we were supposed to believe was the bird, but it just didn't belong to the bird. Then this voice that was supposed to belong to this bird took us back in time to tell a story. The story was about a herd of Pachyrhinosaurs. The story itself was pretty bad. All we got was a story about our main Pachyrhinosaur growing up to eventually become leader of the heard. They migrated back and forth a lot. And then for most of the movie we got this weird love triangle story between our main character, his brother, and a girl Pachyrhinosaur that they meet. And that's it. No substance at all.

And yes, back to the voices. Only four characters could talk; the bird and our three Pachyrhinosaurs. But once again, the voices were out of place. The mouths of the characters rarely moved and definitely weren't synced to the voices. But the voices were there and we were supposed to just believe they belonged to the characters. Remember Mystery Science Theater 3000?  It was as if that gang got together and did a dinosaur documentary as one of their gigs. Except instead of making fun of it, they tried to be completely serious the whole time. It was rather ridiculous.

Was this movie complete trash? Well, not exactly. The CGI dinosaurs were actually done really well. It was much better CGI than a certain other recently released movie that took place in Middle Earth, if you know what I mean. Also, it introduced several different dinosaurs and paused to explain them really quick. As far as I can tell, the information was accurate. So for a small portion of the movie, it was actually fairly educational. However, the movie is actually based on a documentary also called Walking With Dinosaurs, and I actually hear that it's a pretty good documentary. If you want to be educated, just go watch that instead.

Overall, I can see Walking Dinosaurs as a movie that really young boys may enjoy. Like boys ages three to six. And it seems like the type of movie that you would find on Netflix in a few years and put on for your younger kids either early in the morning or just before bedtime in order to keep them preoccupied for a bit. But this is not a show for adults. And it's definitely not one you want to spend money on. Don't even bother Redboxing it. If you want to watch a good dinosaur movie, just re-watch The Land Before Time or Disney's Dinosaur. I give Walking With Dinosaurs a 5 out of 10. And that's just because of the good CGI and enjoyable credits music. Movie quality itself would be a lot lower.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues Review

If I'm being perfectly honest, I never actually saw the movie Anchorman. It came out back in the day when I didn't see a whole ton of movies, and since then I just never got around to giving it a shot. Although I have been shown a couple scenes here and there, and I actually quote those all the time. "LOUD NOISES!" When an Anchorman 2 trailer arrived, I wasn't super ecstatic, but then the trailers arrived. Oh my goodness! All the trailers made me nearly die laughing. I was sold. I was going to catch the first one before I saw it, but it didn't happen. Oh well. Turns out that Anchorman 2 wasn't my favorite, but if you need a few laughs and you liked the first one, I'd say it's worth your money.

Coming from someone who hasn't seen the first one, take my word that if you are like me and haven't seen the first one, you don't actually need to see the first one to understand what's happening. The story is fairly simple. After losing his job as an anchorman to his wife, which causes problems with them, Ron Burgundy is on the streets in a rather tough position. Suddenly he is given the opportunity to start the first 24-hour news broadcast. He initially thinks it's a bad idea, but then he accepts the job, gathers his old crew, and is back doing what God put Ron Burgundy on this earth to do: have salon quality hair and read the news.

Will Ferrell is sometimes hit and miss for me. At times he is really dirty and stupid. Other times he great. I have to say Elf is one of my favorite Christmas movies and it's because of Will Ferrell. Also I really am a huge fan of The Other Guys and several other of his movies. So overall I'd call myself a fan. When he gets into a role, he is 100 percent into the role and that to me is the sign of a good actor. This one I would say is more of a hit for me on his part. Yes there were times where I wasn't impressed or was wondering why certain things were happening. But Will Ferrell, like always, was super into his role. He WAS Ron Burgundy and it looked like he was enjoying himself. But he's not the only positive in this. My favorite character in this movie was Steve Carrell. I don't know if I've ever been super impressed with Carrell, but I suppose that's because I never saw Anchorman because that character was brilliant! He was making me laugh out loud the whole movie.

This wasn't actually the best comedy I've seen this year. That award might go to Red 2 or The Internship. For most of the movie, I was actually unimpressed. Yes, I laughed quite a bit, especially with Brick, but it wasn't sucking me in, and I wasn't impressed with the story. Also, it was a little too dirty at times, which I guess is to be expected with an Anchorman movie. However, after going through a lot of the movie feeling unimpressed, we then got to the ending. Wow! I'm not going to say what happens, but I actually found the end of this movie quite epic! It made the whole movie worth it. If you liked the first one, I'd say give this a shot. If you never saw the first movie, but you like Will Ferrell or Steve Carrell, I'd say give this a shot. If you never saw the first one, but you don't like Ferrell or Carrell, they probably won't convert you to be honest. But I walked out of this movie entertained, so take that for what it's worth. I'll give Anchorman 2 a 7 out of 10.

Top 10 Most Popular Songs of 2013

The top 10 songs on Billboard's Hot 100 for the week ending in December 28th have been released just now, and that means my year long project of keeping track of the top songs of the year has been complete. Thus it is time to release that list to the public. Note, this is not a list of my personal favorite songs of the year, that list will come later, but rather it's the most popular songs of the year according to the general public here in the United States. My formula for determining this is simple and thus not perfect, but it works. So here we go!

10- "Wake Me Up!" -- Avicii

The genre of electronica has become increasing popular, with many top artists turning that direction at least a little bit in their music. A lot of electronic music topped the billboard charts this year, but out of all of them, Avicii takes the crown with the top electronic song of the year. The uncredited Aloe Blacc provides the lyrics, and Avicii's mix of electronica and folk music in the song helped spread it out to more audiences than just fans of electronica.

9- "Radioactive" -- Imagine Dragons

Last year was a huge breakout year for the Provo band Imagine Dragons as their album Night Visions viraled out of control. The first single from that album, It's Time, didn't quite crack the Top 10 last year, but followup single Radioactive certainly did. In fact, Radioactive has become one of the biggest rock songs ever, setting a record for most weeks on top of the rock charts. It never hit number 1 on the Hot 100, but it spent 20 weeks in the top 10, and at this current time has been on the Hot 100 for nearly 70 weeks, which means it's only a few weeks away from breaking the all-time record for time spent on that chart.

8- "When I was Your Man" -- Bruno Mars

Bruno actually had a hit this year in Locked Out of Heaven that was bigger than When I was Your Man. That single is currently in the top 15 when it comes to the songs of the decade. Unfortunately for Bruno, it split it's run between the end of last year and the beginning of this year, so it has shown up in neither end-of-the-year list. Instead When I was Your Man gets to represent Bruno in this 2013 list. It had a good run towards the top of the charts, with one of those weeks being at number one.

7- "Just Give Me a Reason" -- P!nk featuring Nate Ruess

Taking advantage of Nate Ruess' vocals turned out to be a great choice for P!nk in this duet, as Nate is coming off of huge success as lead singer of the band fun. This duet hit chords with audiences earlier this year as it ruled the billboards for three weeks, and has earned P!ink a Grammy nomination for best song.

6- "Wrecking Ball" -- Miley Cyrus 

Miley shocked audiences this year several times as she has set out to shed her good girl "Hannah Montana" persona. Dancing almost naked with Robin Thicke, who is both married and almost old enough to be her father, definitely did the trick. Not finished with her antics, she decided to go completely nude in her music video for her single Wrecking Ball. These combined have given her a lot of bad press. However, in some instances, bad press can turn into good press when it comes to success, and that seems to have been the case as Wrecking Ball has flown high as one of the top songs of the year.

5- "Roar" -- Katy Perry

Back in August, Katy Perry and Lady Gaga both released their debut singles for their upcoming albums on the same day. It was a cat fight that Perry won out on, as Roar has continued Katy's successes from her previous album. Also, their was a mild controversy as concerning Roar having copied Sara Bareilles' single Brave. Being that Roar was written before Brave was released, this seems to have not been the case. Sara Bareilles has definitely not been complaining as the controversy boosted sales for her song quite a bit, and it has sure to have done the same for Roar, so the situation is a win/win for both parties.

4- "Can't Hold Us" -- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Ray Dalton

It's been a huge year for Macklemore as the rapper has seen his first two singles both reign as the king of the Billboard, which is something not many have been able to pull off. It helps that he has been able to please audiences from both the rap crowds and the pop crowds. His successes have gain him several Grammy nominations, including best song, best album, and best new artist. Can't Hold Us is the lesser of his two successes, but not by a whole lot.

3- "Thrift Shop" -- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis featuring Wanz

Continuing on Macklemore, Thrift Shop was the top song of the year for quite some time. Although in terms of Billboard success, it did get shortchanged a bit as in the midst of its rein at the top, Billboard changed their formula to include YouTube views. The made it so YouTube phenomenon Harlem Shake reigned at top for five weeks before Macklemore took back the title. Had this change not happened, Macklemore may have reigned for 11 weeks at number one instead of the six weeks that it did. This wouldn't been enough to garner it the top spot, but it would've been a close second.

2- "Royals" -- Lorde

Speaking of breakout artists, 16-year-old Ella Yelich-O'Connor of New Zealand, known by her stage name of Lorde, has had a huge year. While most 16-year-old girls are busy with high school and homework, Lorde has been busy writing music and has seen herself become one of the biggest artists in the world just in time for her 17th birthday. Impressive. Royals enjoyed the year's second longest run at number one, and is also tied for third longest run of the decade. The song isn't done with it's top 10 reign quite yet, which means it has still plenty of room to climb on the decade list. As the song is beginning to fade out, Lorde's second single Team is on the rise, so Lorde's success is far from finished.

1- "Blurred Lines" -- Robin Thicke featuring TI and Pharrell

In talking about controversy, Robin Thicke has definitely been no stranger to the concept, as he has ridden that the whole year long. He started by introducing his music video to the world wherein he, TI, and Pharrell danced around with completely naked girls (an edited version of the music video was also done where the girls had some coverings). Then of course there is the subject matter of the song that, while very catchy, is also quite a bit sketchy. Those two aspects helped Thicke cruise to one of the best Hot 100 runs in history, and currently the best of the decade so far. After leading as king for the whole summer, he had the previously mentioned stint with Miley Cyrus at the VMA's which turned a lot of heads. To top it all off, while Sara and Katy may be besties after the Roar/Brave controversy, Marvin Gaye's family is certainly angry at Robin Thicke and have decided to sue Thicke for illegally copying Gaye's Got to Give it Up, as they claim. And that ladies and gentlemen, is your song of the year. Moral of the story? Sparking controversy leads to fame and fortune in the music industry? You decide.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Review

Just like was the case with The Lord of the Rings trilogy in the early 2000's, this December gives the gift of Hobbit once again just one December after the first one came out. When I first saw An Unexpected Journey last December, I wasn't totally impressed. I didn't hate it, but I was hoping for a lot more. Upon viewing it again, I actually liked it a lot more. It had a few things that bother me, and it's no where near the level of the Lord of the Rings movies, but I would think it's a good movie. I can't claim I was extremely excited for Desolation of Smaug, but nevertheless I had high hopes. It turns out that I still thought the movie was really entertaining, but when all is said and done, the second chapter of the Hobbit trilogy is still no where near as good as it could've been and is actually even a step down from the first.

If you haven't read the Hobbit, I highly recommend you find some time to sit down and read it. Most of you, I feel, have read the Hobbit, so I don't need to dive into the story that much. With this second one, we pick up our story with right where we left off with Bilbo and the dwarves running away from the orcs. An Unexpected Journey, although it was a bit drawn out, seemed to follow the book pretty well. This one, however, took a ton of creative liberties. A lot of creative liberties I was fine with. The scenes were entertaining, even though they strayed quite a bit from the book. However, the more we got into the movie, the more I got the feeling that they were just throwing things in there to fill the movie. And that of course brings up the discussion of this three movie decision.

Was it worth it to create three movies out of the Hobbit? I never liked the idea, but I was willing to give Peter Jackson a shot. After all, he made the Lord of the Rings movies, which are three of my favorite movies ever. He seemed like he knew what he was doing when the three-movie decision was announced. After seeing the first two movies, I have officially decided that this was a bad idea. The first movie was good, but it could've been improved if they moved a bit faster through it. The second movie was decent, but they added so much, that it got a bit silly. Had they stuck to two movies, I feel The Hobbit would've been pretty epic. The scenes in it would've been great. The movie would've been more focused. The pacing would've been much better. Things just would've been a lot better overall.

But let's get back to the movie, because I have more to say. There is one aspect that bothered me even more than all the unnecessary added plot and that is the CGI. Had the CGI been top-notch, I may have been able to forgive the plot follies. But my goodness it was so awful that it was embarrassing! Especially the orcs. Every time there was a scene with the orcs, despite how well written the scene may have been, I had a hard time enjoying the scene because of how the orcs looked. For a movie team that did something so legendary with The Lord of the Rings, it's almost mind-boggling that they could be so lazy and pathetic when it comes to doing the CGI in their movie.

A few more down points for this movie real quick. Did Legolas need to be in this movie? I mean, he did a good job, and was especially entertaining when he was cutting off orcs' heads, but I'm going to say no to that question. It was one of those things where they threw him into the movie as filler so they could justify three movies. And since Tolkien never wrote him into the book in the first place, the writing of his character seemed especially weak. Also there is Evangeline Lilly. I love her! She was so good in Lost! And I'm not complaining that they wrote her character in, but the way they wrote her character is what I have a problem with. In the movie there is a weird and awkward love triangle between her, Legolas, and a dwarf. Yes, you heard that right. And yes, it's as stupid as it sounds. Finally, I need to complain about the music in the movie. All four of the other movies I walked out loving the music! The Lord of the Rings soundtrack is easily one of my favorite music soundtracks ever. And the Misty Mountains song in An Unexpected Journey was also awesome! But this movie had no memorable music. The music wasn't bad, but it was just not memorable. And that's disappointing.

Now I know I have written for a long time on this post, but I have been so negative to this point that I need to give some positives. Like I mentioned, while this movie is far from epic, it was really entertaining. It may not seem like it based on this review, but sometimes when you have high hopes for a movie and it doesn't quite meet your expectations, all the follies stick out a lot more and thus you spend a lot more time talking about them. Thus is the case with this. The visuals and cinematography in the movie, outside the awful CGI of course, was brilliant. The acting was superb, as always. Speaking of which, our Sherlock reunion made me so happy. Martin Freeman is an amazing Bilbo. He was great in the first and was great in this. And when he made it to Smaug, that scene stole the show. Benedict Cumberbatch as the voice of Smaug was pure genius. The man is one of my favorite actors, and after hearing him voice both Smaug and the Necromancer, but especially Smaug, I have decided that he should voice every villain ever. He is that good!

Anyways, I will wrap this up by mentioning that I originally gave An Unexpected Journey a 7 out of 10. After additional viewings, I would've regraded that and given it an 8.5 out of 10. Most people that I've been reading have claimed that Desolation of Smaug is an improvement over the first, but I am going to reverse course and give Desolation of Smaug a 7.5 out of 10. It's decent and entertaining, but overall not that great and a step down from the first. But alas, there is still hope that the finale next December ends up being the best of three, so we'll see what happens.

Movie Preview: December 2013

We're already a few days into December, but the holiday season is upon us, and the majority of the movies coming out this month are later on anyways. In fact, with the combination of nationwide releases and nationwide expansions around Christmas, there are plenty of options for everyone this Christmas break. For the movie business, that means it is almost guaranteed that a few of those that get lost in the crowd, but audiences won't be complaining too much. Let's dive in!

December 6th - 8th - 

The first week of December is always the quietest of the month. Audiences have just spent their time on the Thanksgiving movies, and are waiting till the middle or end of the month for the Christmas movies. Thus was the case last weekend as November holdovers Catching Fire and Frozen dominated the weekend, with the latter stealing the crown from the former. The only new nationwide release this weekend was Out of the Furnace and it was a bad weekend for it. Out of the Furnace was the first movie in a Christian Bale double-header this month, both going for Oscars. Out of the Furnace was essentially about Christian Bale's character going through a lot of crap in his life. Audiences and critics both didn't go for it, as critics were harsh on it, and audiences didn't give it a shot as it opened to only $5 million for the weekend. No Oscars for this one.

Opening in limited release this weekend was a movie that will get Oscar consideration, and that is Inside Llewyn Davis. It only opened in four theaters over the weekend, but the movie's per-theater average was the ninth highest ever for a movie not released by Disney with that per-theater average being $101,000. Inside Llewyn Davis expands to more theaters on December 20th and is scheduled for a nationwide release in January. Inside Llewyn Davis follows the life of a young singer for a week as he tries to make it in the unforgiving New York Winter. With a 95 percent tomatometer, a best picture nomination in the Oscars is a possibility, with star Oscar Isaac also being in the conversation for a best actor nomination.

December 13th - 15th - 

The second weekend of December is where this month starts picking up. The big release of the weekend will be the biggest of the month, and one of the most anticipated of the year as The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug hits theaters. The Desolation of Smaug is the second chapter of a planned Hobbit trilogy. Fans of the book were skeptic of the decision by Peter Jackson to split the short book into three movies, but last December when the first chapter came out, fans of the book ended up being pleased. Critics were harsh on the movie, though, and the casual movie goer wasn't always impressed. This might hold this second chapter from reaching Lord of the Rings levels, financially, but it will still do great, especially overseas. The second chapter, as the title suggests, will focus around the drag Smaug as voiced by Sherlock star Benedict Cumberbatch. It also brings Legolas into the series, along with new elf Tauriel, voiced by Lost star Evangeline Lilly.

Counter-programming from the other nationwide release, Tyler Perry's A Madea Christmas, will make this weekend a rather successful one. Tyler Perry has established himself as quite the popular movie-maker, and audiences have especially loved it when he uses his Madea character, a big, crazy black girl played by Perry himself. The Madea movies typically fare well, and a Christmas theme very well may boost it beyond the typical Madea audience.

This weekend also has two Oscar-contenders opening in limited release that will both get a nationwide expansion on the 20th, as well as a third movie in limited release that will get an expansion in January. The first of these three is Saving Mr. Banks. Saving Mr. Banks tells the story of the making of Mary Poppins, or rather the process that Walt Disney went through to get permission from author P.L. Travers to make the movie. Tom Hanks plays Walt Disney and it's been quite the year for Hanks. This movie, along with October's Captain Phillips, might make it so Hanks gets two Oscar nominations in one year, one for best actor and one for best supporting actor. Saving Mr. Banks expands nationwide on December 20th.

The other movie expanding on December 20th, but opening this weekend, is American Hustle. David O. Russell is the director of this movie, and he's been a rather popular director recently with his other movies The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook, both of which got multiple Oscar nominations. American Hustle brings in an all-star cast, as it combines the cast of The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook with Christian Bale and Amy Adams from The Fighter, and Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from Silver Linings Playbook. As a fifth star, the movie also includes Jeremy Renner. With very strong reviews so far, multiple Oscar nominations are certain to come this movie's way.

Finally, the limited release movie that expands nationwide in January is the movie Her. Her is more of an under-looked Oscar contender, but it could sneak in a few nominations. Spike Jonze directs as the movie is about a lonely author that falls in love with a new technologically advanced operating system that's designed to meet his every needs. The cast includes Joaquin Phoenix, Amy Adams, and Scarlet Johansson in lead roles, but also has a supporting cast of Rooney Mara, Chris Pratt, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig.

December 20th - 22nd - 

Think that was a lot the previous weekend? Well, we're just getting started for holiday movies. In addition to the previously mentioned expansions of Inside Llewyn Davis, Saving Mr. Banks, and American Hustle, the weekend of the 20th also gets two brand new nationwide releases that look to get a jump on the busy Christmas holiday. The dominate one will be Anchorman: The Legend Continues. It's been nearly 10 years when the first Anchorman become a modest hit. Since then, the audience of the movie has continued to build and thus the hype for the sequel has been pretty big, especially because it returns the cast from the original, and trailers have provided lots of laughs. Being that comedies have been somewhat sparse this holiday season, this should provide a great option for those hungering for a comedy that don't want to give Madea's Christmas a chance. Anchorman 2 actually opens up on Wednesday, so it will get even more of a head start on the other movies.

The other nationwide release will give family audiences their first major option since Frozen, and that is Walking With Dinosaurs. Dinosaur movies are no unique thing with movies like The Land Before Time, Jurassic Park, and Dinosaur. This movie, though, looks to take a unique spin on the Dinosaur genre by creating a realistic CGI world that, combined with the help of 3D, looks to take family audiences back to the dinosaur age. Hence the title, Walking With Dinosaurs. Yes, there is a story in the movie that actually seems a bit cliche for dinosaur movies, but the realistic dinosaurs in this is the big grab, and family audiences should eat it up.

December 25th - 29th - 

And then there was Christmas. In addition to what should be a long list of holdovers, Christmas adds five new nationwide releases, which should make things pretty insane. First up is the highly anticipated Martin Scorsese film The Wolf of Wall Street. This movie tells the true story of Jordan Belfort, who went from being a wealthy stockbroker to falling because of crime, corruption, and the federal government. Leonardo DiCaprio stars as Belfort, and although the competition for best actor is rather crowded, Leo could be one of the major contenders. The Wolf of Wall Street will probably see several other Oscars, of which Matthew McConaughey and Jonah Hill could sneak away with best supporting actor nominations.

Next up is The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which is a remake of the 1947 movie of the same title. The movie is about the day-dreaming Walter Mitty who finds himself on a real-life adventure due to a certain chain of events. The movie is directed by Ben Stiller, and also stars Ben Stiller as the title character of Walter Mitty. The movie is only rated PG, which could be a good thing or a bad thing. Either it will appeal to all audiences and thus do really well or it audiences will be confused as to who it's trying to target, and thus it may be a miss. Thus it will rely on good word of mouth as well as Oscar buzz in order to get a good audience.

Third movie of the week is Grudge Match. This is a movie where audiences will see Sylvester Stallone get back into the boxing ring once again, although this time he's not playing his title character of Rocky. However, this will certainly get his Rocky fanbase out to see him box once again, and he will be up against Robert De Niro in the ring. As the story goes, the two were big rivals 30 years previously, and they are getting back into the ring again for one final battle.

Like I mentioned earlier, with so many movies coming out at once, there is bound to be a movie or two that gets lost in the crowd. This will almost certainly be the case for 47 Ronin, unless of course it picks up good solid word of mouth. 47 Ronin is a Samurai movie that stars Keanu Reeves, and it's about a band of Samurai that are out to avenge the death of their master under a ruthless shogun.

Finally we have another Justin Bieber documentary coming out, this one titled Believe. It seems like a bit of an odd choice to do this, since Justin Bieber already filmed a documentary about himself. But for whatever reason he's doing it again. Justin Bieber has also been releasing a song a week for the last couple of months leading up to Christmas, so this appears to be a grand hurrah after doing that. Beliebers will show up to see Believe, but it's doubtful that many others will.

Grammys 2014: If it were My Choice

The nominations have recently came out for the 2014 Grammy Awards. I am not making predictions as far as who is going to win, but I wanted to make my personal picks based on what the nominations were, so that's what this is. You can look at this and know a bit about my musical tastes this year. Also, when the Grammys air on January 26, you can look back at this and see how happy I am at the results. This is not a comprehensive list of all the categories, just the ones I care about.

For a full list of the nominations, check out this article on Billboard.com: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/5819883/grammy-awards-2014-full-nominations-list-complete-nominees?page=0%2C0

Album of the Year: "Random Access Memories" -- Daft Punk

Record of the Year: "Royals" -- Lorde

Song of the Year: "Royals" -- Lorde

Best New Artist: Macklemore and Ryan Lewis (why is Lorde nominated not here?)

Best Pop Solo Performace: "Brave" -- Sara Bareilles

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance: "Just Give Me a Reason" -- Pink feat Nate Reuss

Best Pop Vocal Album: "Pure Heroine" -- Lorde

Best Dance/Electronic Album: "Random Access Memories" -- Daft Punk

Best Dance Recording: "Clarity" -- Zedd feat Foxes

Best Rock Performance: "Radioactive" -- Imagine Dragons

Best Rap Performance: "Thrift Shop" -- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat Wanz

Best Rap/Sung Collaboration: "Holy Grail" -- Jay Z feat Justin Timberlake

Best Rap Song: "Thrift Shop" -- Macklemore & Ryan Lewis feat Wanz

Best Country Solo Performance: "I Drive Your Truck" -- Lee Price

Best Country Album: NOT Red (It's not a country album, it's pop)

Best Country Song: "I Drive Your Truck" -- Lee Price

Best Compilation Soundtrack For Visual Media: The Great Gatsby

Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media: The Great Gatsby -- Craig Armstrong, composer

Best Song Written for Visual Media: "Young and Beautiful" from "The Great Gatsby" -- Lana Del Rey & Nick Nowles, songwriters (Lana Del Rey)

Producer of the Year, Non-Classical: Pharrell Williams

Best Remixed Recording, Non-Classical: "Summertime Sadness" (Cedric Gervais Remix) -- Cedric Gervais, remixer (Lana Del Rey)

Best Music Video: "Safe and Sound" -- Capital Cities (Grady Hall, video director; Buddy Enright, video producer)

The Book Thief Review

The Book Thief, based on the best-selling novel of the same title by Markus Zusak, hit theaters a few weeks back. However, the distributors decided to take the limited release route at first, which was probably a smart decision with how loaded November was. It just recently made it to a wide release, so I found a theater it was in and went and saw it. I have not read the book, but after seeing the movie, I have put the book on my long list of books I want to read, because the movie is a masterpiece.

The movie is narrated by Death, which puts an interesting light on the story as it follows a young girl named Liesel in Nazi Germany during World War II. Liesel's birth mother can't care for her, so she gives her up to her new Ma and Pa. Together as a new family they are simply trying to survive. Liesel is quiet and uncomfortable at first, but she soon starts to make friends and finds solace in books that, as the title of the movie suggests, she steals. The situation starts to get really risky as the family hides a Jewish friend in their basement.

Honestly this movie moves really slow. No crazy fighting scenes. No constant explosions. No non-stop drama. But, no, this is not a bad thing. Here we have a story about a young, innocent girl living and surviving in Germany during World War II. That's it. It's a character piece that really allows us to focus on the story and the progression that all the characters go through, and that is beautiful. In order to make a movie like this work, what you need is a strong cast that can pull the movie forward and help you get attached to all the characters. The Book Thief hits a home run in that category. Our lead girl Liesel is played by young French-Canadian actress Sophie Nelisse and by goodness she is such a doll. I loved her and her character. I also loved the little boy Rudy, played by Nico Liersch, who becomes Liesel's best friend. And of course we have Geoffry Rush and Emily Watson playing Liesel's adopted parents, both of whom do a great job.

Two other areas that I want to mention before I sign off. First is cinematography. The Oscars will be a crowded place this awards season, but if The Book Thief is deserving of any Oscar nomination, the nod for cinematography is what it should get. Also, John Williams does the score in this movie, and he once again showed why he is one of the best in the business. I'd be more than willing to give him another Oscar nomination for this. But yes, The Book Thief is a great movie, and I highly recommend you find a theater near you where it is playing and give it a shot. Grade-wise it seems like I have been giving out a lot of high reviews, but that is because there have just been a lot of great movies out recently. So here I go again, The Book Thief gets a 9 out of 10 from me.