God's Not Dead Review

It's true. He's not. I am not ashamed to admit that I am a devout Christian. In fact, I just recently spent 10 hours this past weekend listening to messages from modern apostles and prophets via the 184th annual General Conference from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. I'll put my unashamed plug for that. If you want to know what we as Mormons believe, go check at least a few of those messages out. You can find them on LDS.org. Moving on, a couple days later I was sitting in my apartment debating which movie to go see. Being that I was in a spiritual, Christian mood, I decided to check out the new Christian movie, God's Not Dead, which recently came out of nowhere to open in the top five of the Box Office. The movie is far from perfect and is definitely not for everyone, but I personally walked out uplifted and inspired. If you are a someone that has a faith in Christ, I recommend you give this movie a shot.

The movie has a lot of side stories that I will touch on briefly, but the main story we follow is a college student named Josh Wheaton. Josh is taking a philosophy class from Professor Radisson. On the first day of class, Professor Radisson gives a big lecture on why there is no God. He makes the whole class get out a piece of paper and write the words "God is dead" on the paper, sign their name, and turn it in. Josh can't do it because he is a Christian and thus has a strong belief in God. He feels if he does this, then he is betraying his God. So what does Professor Radisson do? For the next three class periods, Josh has to get up during the last 20 minutes and defend the idea that God's not dead. If he fails, the jury being his classmates, he will essentially fail the class. While this is going on, there are several side stories that show various people dealing with challenges of their own.

The big message of this movie is obviously that God's not dead. But diving deeper, the message that the movie sends to the world is one of standing up for what you believe it. All Josh had to do is write a few words on a piece of paper and sign it. He could've also just dropped the class. But he decided he needs to defend God. In doing this, his parents are against him, he loses his girlfriend, and his semester is in jeopardy as well his entire college career. Is this a perfectly realistic situation? I don't know. Probably not. But the principle stands true. If the whole world chooses to stand against you and asks you to deny your faith, what do you do? Do you give into the pressures of this world and make your life easier in the moment or do you risk your current situation in favor of a good standing in the eyes of God? I liked that. Stand up for what you believe. Don't give into the pressures of the world. Keep the faith and move forward even if it seems like the odds against you are impossible to overcome.

For a small budget movie, one thing I was surprised is how well the more technical aspects of the movie were. It was shot well. The music was great. The acting was even phenomenal across the board. I especially liked the performance of one of the side characters who gets diagnosed with cancer. There is a scene where she completely loses it and it is so emotional that it almost brought me to tears. But as I mentioned, this movie is far from perfect. First off, while I really liked the strong Christian message of the movie, there could've been a lot more thought put into the actual story of the movie. Yes, the message is great, but some of the things that happen just feel forced and unrealistic. Like I mentioned, the situation with Josh seems a bit far-fetched. How it resolves is also not done so well. I won't say what happens with Professor Radisson, but his story arch in the last part of the movie is disappointing. Also, the girl who gets diagnosed with cancer tells her boyfriend that she has cancer and what does he do? He breaks up with her. I mean, come on. I know they were trying to set something up where life just kept collapsing on this girl, but would anyone really be that insensitive? Absolutely not.

Also, I do have to point out that possibly the worst part of the movie is that I don't feel that they portray non-Christians accurately. During Josh's debate with Professor Radisson, the moral compass idea is brought up. Professor Radisson says that someone can be an atheist and still have a moral compass. Josh responds that if you don't believe in God, there is no point in having a moral compass and for some reason everyone took Josh's side on that. As a devout Christian, I take Professor Radisson's side on that. I do believe there is such thing as a moral atheist. Saying there can't be is offensive to those people. Also, they portrayed Muslims in a horrible light. There is a side story where a Muslim girl has converted to Christianity but is afraid to tell her dad because of what he will think. When the dad finally finds out, he drags her out of the house, throws her on the porch, and completely disowns her. This I feel is not fair to Muslims. I'm not an expert on their religion, but I do know they are a very misunderstood religion and I believe they are a lot more tolerant that this movie displayed.

Those things aside, I did walk out of this movie with a positive feeling towards the movie. Some reviews of the movie I have read say they don't like it because it is preachy and just Christian propaganda. Uhhh... of course. What did you think it was going to be? If you don't want to see a movie that will preach to you that God's not dead, don't go watch a movie called God's Not Dead. Overall, I've been comparing this movie to the type of movies that the Sherwood Baptist Church has put out, most notably Fireproof and Courageous. If you like those movies, I think you will like this one, because it has a similar feel. Yes, a lot of the story aspects could've been a lot more believable and the movie could've been more respectful to non-Christians, but the movie tries to teach a message that God's not dead and in that aspect it does what it sets out to do. If you are not a Christian, unfortunately this isn't the movie that will turn the tables for you, but if you are a Christian, I think you should give this movie a shot. I give God's Not Dead a 7.5/10

Book Review: Tennis Shoes Adventure Series: Sorcerers and Seers

Picture courtesy of yours truly. Yes, this is the exact copy that I read

It's not often that I do book reviews on this blog because it's not often I dive into books. However, there are some series' that do a great job a sucking me into them and one of those long-standing series' is the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series. The first book in the series, Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites, came to the world in the same year that I did, so you can literally say that I grew up with this series. I first picked up the books when I was a young teenager (or maybe earlier) and now as an adult I still enjoy travelling back in time with these characters. They are characters that are so well written that I feel a true attachment to them as if they were my neighbors across the street growing up. The book at hand that I just finished is book 11 of the series called Sorcerers and Seers and it is just as good as any of the previous 10. In fact, the whole series feels like one long book and at the conclusion of Sorcerers and Seers, I became immediately excited for books 12 and 13 that Chris Heimerdinger will have coming up soon.

Haven't heard of the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series? Let me briefly explain. Jim Hawkins and Garth Plimpton were best friends growing up around Cody, Wyoming. Together with Jim's little sister Jenny, the three of them found a cave near their home and went exploring. This cave led them down a long path to a beautiful room that they called the Rainbow Room. This room miraculously worked as a time-travelling cave that led the three back to the time of the Nephites in the Book of Mormon. Yes, this is a series of books directed towards an LDS audience. Can non-LDS people enjoy it? I suppose. But the great thing about these books is that it was a great way to learn about the Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is an amazing book of scripture. Its focus is bringing the reader closer to Jesus Christ with the many inspirational teachings that it includes. And it will do just that. The Book of Mormon also claims that it's not a history book, but yet one can't help being fascinated with the many great stories included. The Tennis Shoes Adventures Series dives into these stories and it is done so well that upon reading them, I feel like I am going down to the land of the Nephites right along with the main characters.

The first book in the series is a very simple story. So is the second for that matter. Both books are their own story as well. Each additional book after, there are more characters added, especially as Garth and Jim grow older and have families of their own. Jim, Garth, and Jenny are still there, but the stories become more focused on their kids. Also the stories get more complex and intricate as it goes on, and even expands over to the other side of the world via the New Testament mainly. Heimerdinger also gets bolder with the paths he goes down and the creative liberties he takes. Is everything perfectly accurate? Well, that's impossible to know because the Book of Mormon is not a history book and thus is sometimes sparse on the details. So in creating a fictional story, in order to make it good, one has to include creative liberties. Perhaps when this world when our lives are over and we get to look back on everything, perhaps we might find out that certain things aren't quite the way it was written in the Tennis Shoes books, but who cares? It's a lot of fun. Plus, Heimerdinger gets kudos because he does a ton of research before he writes and usually will include his findings in chapter notes, explaining certain points and reminding us what points of fiction he created. Have the fun is reading those chapter notes and gaining that knowledge that he shares.

So onto the actual book at hand, Sorcerers and Seers. The specific story line covered is actually the fourth book of the specific adventure we are going on. A lot of ground is covered in the first three books of this adventure that I'm not going to spend time catching you up on. I'm also not going to talk much about the specific characters we are following and what they are going through. What I do want to bring up is the events that we are witnessing at this point, as this book dives into some pretty major parts of scripture.

The first time period is in Jerusalem during the last week of the Savior's life. These stories are common among all Christians and most non-Christians as well. But it is great experiencing it first-hand with these characters. One of the high points of this book series was back in book four when we were there with our characters in the land Bountiful when the Savior appeared to the Nephites. We got a glimpse of what it would be like living there at the time when the Savior came. And now we get to be on the other side of things. We spend time with the Savior before he dies. Specifically with this, we are with the family and friends of the Savior. We experience first-hand what that week was like. We watch the drama of that week begin to unfold as we learn more about people such as Judas Iscariot and Nicodemus. But we don't get too far into the week during this volume. Just the first couple of days. It's pretty awesome reading through this, but in terms of the focus of this novel, it actually gets the least amount of attention.

Getting a bit more attention in the novel is the second time period, the final battle in the Book of Mormon between the Lamanites and the Nephites on the Hill Cumorah. We're actually split into two parties with this one. The first party is with Mormon. Spending time with Mormon, we get a taste of what it was like for him right before the final battle. The Nephites are just plain awful people. Some of the scenes depicted are rather hard to read, but it's realistic to the time period and you just feel for Mormon. You also gain a ton of respect for Mormon as well as he handles things in the best and most humble way possible despite the circumstances. A lot of political intrigue in this aspect of the story. Also in this time period is where the majority of our characters are. But instead of being with Mormon they are on a journey towards Mormon and the Hill Cumorah. This is the most tense parts of the book as this gang is essentially sneaking their way through enemy territory towards their destination. Ambushes and attacks are waiting for them on every side at every step.

And finally, we have the part of the story that is focused on most. This part is actually super fascinating because we dive into one aspect of the Book of Mormon that is often over-looked. The main character in this one is Josh, the son of Garth. He's spent time as a commander in the Nephite armies, but when his dad Garth arrives, the two of them, plus another named Marcos get sent on a mission by Mormon to hide the sacred gold plates in the caves where Mormon keeps everything. But tragically, the plates get stolen by one of the most evil men in the Book of Mormon, that of Akish the Jaredite. And suddenly we dive right into the middle of the Jaredites. In Ether chapters 8-9 it tells of this very tense drama. Omer is the king at the time, but he gets the kingdom overthrown by his son Jared. Not happy with this, Jared's two brothers fight Jared, take the throne back, and give it to their father Omer again. Jared's daughter sees the sorrow of her father and comes up with a plan. She teams up with the wicked sorcerer Akish by dancing for him and thus giving him the desire to marry her. But in order to do so, killing Omer and giving her father Jared the throne back is required. So Akish sets out do so, but Omer is warned in a dream to get out, so he does. Jared gets the throne back. Omer is not dead, but apparently the daughter of Jared is satisfied, so her and Akish marry. But Akish isn't done. He and his followers were deeply into secret combinations of the devil and thus Aksih murders Jared on the throne and takes the throne for himself. After some time passes, Akish gets jealous of one of his sons and starves him to death. This doesn't sit well with Akish's other son and in turn that son goes and joins Omer. Pretty soon a huge civil war occurs over the space of many years between Akish and his sons that leads to the death of all but 30 Jaredites.

Yes, this is the story we dive into for most of the book. And it's fascinating. It fits very well with our other two time periods, the battle at Cumorah and the last week of the Savior's mortal ministry. Of course Chris Heimerdinger is so invested in all this that he has created a story that has essentially written itself. This is the sign that Heimerdinger is an expert story teller. He's created a world and characters that are so well written, that ending prematurely would not do it justice. It was once that that this series would end with book 11, but nevertheless book 12 and book 13 are on their way. I'm excited to see where this all goes. While we have dove into this epic parts of scripture, we have not yet hit the height of the conflict in either story. The betrayal and crucifixion are still a couple days away. The battle at Cumorah has not yet commenced. And the huge civil war that almost wipes out all the Jaredites has not yet happened. But they are about to. And it should be a fascinating ride when they do. What will our characters do? Will they escape the huge events? Or will they get caught up in these events and be forced to live through them? We will see!

Overall, if you are a fan of the Tennis Shoes Adventure Series, this is a book you will like. And perhaps since this book did come out in 2010, you have already read it. But if you are like me and for some reason, your life got so busy that you never made quite made it through the series, I suggest that you pick it back up. For me, the five year gap between book 10 and book 11 threw me off. When book 11 game out, I didn't immediately jump back in, thus it was close to 10 years of time where I went without reading a Tennis Shoes book. But there came a point where I told me self that it is time. Time to jump back in. I love myself for doing it because Sorcerers and Seers is an excellent addition in Chris Heimerdinger's epic Tennis Shoes Adventure Series. So yes, I would recommend you do the same as I did. Tell yourself that it is time to jump back in. You won't regret it. And if you've never given these books a chance, I suggest you pick them up because they are great reads. I don't give books a grade when I review them, but if I did, this book would get one of the higher grades.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Review

The Marvel Cinematic Universe has returned once again this weekend with it's ninth movie thus far and third in Avengers Phase II. That movie of course is Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Before I jump into this one, I feel it appropriate to mention that while I liked Captain America: The First Avenger, I wasn't blown away by it. It necessary. It gave us the origin story of Captain America, introduced a pretty important weapon, and sent Captain America to the modern world to connect him with the Avengers. Outside that it was kind of a bore. It had a dumb villain and a less than spectacular story. Yes, it was better than Iron Man 2 in Phase I, but it was the worst origin story of Phase I. That said, I like the actual character of Captain America, especially in The Avengers, and I was excited to see this sequel because the movie looked way different. In fact, despite me thinking that The First Avenger was one of the worst in Phase I, I actually have thought for quite some time now that The Winter Soldier would end up as the best from Phase II. While we still have Guardians of the Galaxy to see before I can officially make that judgement call, so far I am correct. Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the best of Phase II up to this point.

Just like Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, the events of The Winter Soldier take place after The Avengers. With The Avengers, you were able to get away with not having seen all of the Phase I one movies and still having this movie make sense. However, the big question of the day is do you have to have seen Captain America: The First Avenger before seeing The Winter Soldier or is having seen The Avengers enough? My answer actually would be you do have to watch The First Avenger for The Winter Solider to make perfect sense. Can you be entertained without? Sure. But some sequences won't have the same emotional impact if you haven't because this movie does connect with Captain's past.

Moving forward, the story line of this movie is focused heavily around S.H.I.E.L.D. In fact, that is pretty much the whole movie. While Thor, Iron Man, and the Hulk have all gone their separate ways, Captain America has decided to stay and work with S.H.I.E.L.D. He has really nothing better to do because he doesn't have a home to go back to. While with S.H.I.E.L.D., Captain starts off struggling a bit with his exact role as he tries to fit into the modern society. Quickly, though, that begins to matter less because as it turns out S.H.I.E.L.D. gets compromised and we thus begin this surprisingly intricate story that is of course centered around this mysterious character called the Winter Soldier. Yes, there are a ton of different characters in this movie, but for most of the movie, our trio of heroes is Captain America, Black Widow, and newcomer Falcon.

There are a lot of twists and turns in this movie and I really enjoyed following it. It made it different than your typical superhero movie. However, if there was anything about this movie that I would be a bit nit-picky with it is the fact that along with these many twists and turns, the movie tried to surprise its audience several times. And while I thoroughly enjoyed the story, I was not surprised at all. I was kinda hoping that it would at least throw a minor curveball. But oh well. No tears shed here. I was entertained from start to finish. What really made it all work was the chemistry between are lead trio. Captain, Black Widow, and Falcon were just plain perfect. All three were funny at the right times. While this wasn't a comedy, there were a lot of one-liners thrown in perfectly that just had me cracking up. When the movie got serious, all three were also completely boss. And of course, they worked perfectly as a team.

The acting in the movie was great. The action in the movie was a ton of fun. The characters and the story were well-written. The interaction between Captain America and the Winter Soldier was perfect. Overall this was just a fantastic movie from start to finish. Before I end, I want to mention three things/people that I think stole the show. The first is Captain America's shield. In the first two movies with Captain America, the shield was a cool weapon. But in this, oh my goodness. Captain did so many things with that shield and it made the shield possibly the best superhero weapon in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The second is Scarlett Johansson. I liked Black Widow before and I certainly have always liked Scarlett in whatever she does, but in this movie she took Black Widow to the next level. Before this movie, Black Widow was just an interesting side character. Now she has become one of my favorite characters in the whole Marvel Cinematic Universe, if not my actual favorite. And third and final is Robert Redford. I'm not going to tell you his role in the movie because it's supposed to be a bit of a surprise. But I will say that Robert Redford is easily one of the best actors of all time and Marvel bringing him in for this movie was an excellent decision.

Now if I'm going to quickly rank all the movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe without including this movie, it would be as follows: 1- The Avengers; 2- Iron Man; 3- Iron Man 3; 4- Thor; 5- The Incredible Hulk; 6- Thor: The Dark World; 7- Captain America: The First Avenger; 8- Iron Man 2. How does Captain America: The Winter Soldier fit into all this? Of course this ranking could change with time. But for now, I will boldly put it right into second place. No, it's not as good as The Avengers, but I will say that it is the best of Phase II thus far and the best solo movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. My official grade for the movie is a 9/10.

Movie Preview: April 2014

This past March managed to rake in just over $800 million at the box office. That's not a bad total, but with no Hunger Games type of movie, it fell short of any record. In fact, it also fell short of last 2010 and 2013 in addition to 2012's record-setting March, so it's nothing to write home about. April is usually the month where the box office dies down again before summer in Hollywood officially begins, but this April should be different. Studios are beginning to realize that there are more than five or six months (May, June, July, November, December, and recently March). Recently, The Lego Movie did huge business in February while Lone Survivor and Ride Along had great success in January. Most notably this month, Marvel made the decision to throw Captain America: The Winter Soldier into the beginning of April. That added with several other potential hits should make this April a surprisingly big month compared to previous Aprils.

April 4th - 6th-

After slightly mixed reviews to both Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World, Avengers Phase II continues on with Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Early reviews out suggest that this could be the best movie of Phase II. No, it won't beat Iron Man 3's box office total, but it should get a huge bump up from the first Captain America, which ended up with $176 million here in the US, which was the second lowest among the Phase I movies, ahead of only The Incredible Hulk. It seems a bit odd for this movie to be opening up in the beginning of April being that Marvel has always released their Avengers movies in the big movie months, but as referenced earlier, studios are learning that there are in fact 12 months in a year and movies can do well in any month. Marvel seems to be experimenting with that a bit this year as Winter Soldier comes out in April and Guardians of the Galaxy is set for an August release. While April rarely has big movies like this, it's not new grounds for the month. Recently, the Fast and Furious franchise has learned that April can bring success as Fast and Furious and Fast Five both raked in the cash with an April release. The latter of those two currently holds the opening weekend record for April at $86.2 million. Winter Soldier is currently poised to break that, but not by a huge margin. With solid reviews and no real competition until The Amazing Spider-Man 2 hits theaters at the start of May, Winter Soldier should be able to completely dominate April while making Marvel look brilliant by taking a chance in April.

April 11th - 13th- 

Yes, there is more than just Winter Soldier coming out this month, despite what some may think. Opening up in the shadow of a huge Marvel movie is always a scary thing, but there are three movies that are taking on the challenge and all of them are different enough that Winter Soldier shouldn't effect them too much. The movie with the biggest chance of stealing the crown from Winter Soldier is Rio 2. Blue Sky has an incredible track record at the box office as all eight of their movies have topped $100 million in the US, while their Ice Age movies are some of the biggest animated movies ever overseas. Rio was also huge overseas and Rio 2 should be even bigger, so it's US gross shouldn't mean much. That said, Rio was a fairly well received, so Rio 2 could do decent business. The musical bird movie already had a loaded cast, and they are upping the antics in this one by bringing back the original cast and adding a few big names like Bruno Mars and Janelle Monae.

The second movie of this weekend brings Kevin Costner back to his glory days as a sports-movie star. I'm specifically thinking of Field of Dreams by saying this. Interestingly enough, Costner has two sports movies this year. Later in the year he will star in the movie McFarland, but right now he will take on the role of an NFL manager in Draft Day. The NFL Draft isn't until May, but draft season is completely underway with the combine behind us and pro-days currently happening. Draft Day takes a bit of a unique approach as it is not based on a true story, as most sports movies are. However, with Costner on-board and all the actual ESPN analysts acting in the movie as if this was the real deal, this could work. It appears that instead of trying to tell an actual story that happened, they are trying to convey the types of things that go on behind the scenes on draft day, so NFL fans who are super invested in the draft will most likely be curious enough to check this out as it is perfectly timed because all of them have their minds on the draft right now.

Last but not least is the wild-card of the week in Oculus. Oculus is a horror movie, and horror movies are always hit or miss. In fact, it is rarely in between that. This year, Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones and Devil's Due were big misses, but last year the horror genre was on a huge role with Mama, Evil Dead, The Conjuring, and Insidious Chapter 2 all hitting at least $50 million. So a well done horror movie has proven to draw out the horror crowd in masses, but predicting exactly how each movie plays is nearly impossible. Early reviews have Oculus as very strong, so it could play out like last April's Evil Dead, but who knows for certain.

April 18th - 20th- 

The third weekend of April is the most crowded one. In addition to all the previously-mentioned movies having potential to still be playing well, four new movies get added to the market as they all will be fighting to get box office attention before they all die in May when huge hits like The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Godzilla, and X-Men: Days of Future Past hit the theaters. The most interesting of the bunch is Transcendence. Wally Pfister is essentially the protege of big-time director Christopher Nolan. Pfister has done the cinematography work for every Nolan-directed movie except for Nolan's first movie Following, of which Nolan did the cinematography work himself. Now after working under Nolan for nearly 15 years, Pfister makes his directorial debut with Transcendence. Transcendence is a sci-fi movie wherein a terminally-ill scientist downloads his mind into a computer and soon becomes unstoppable. Johnny Depp stars as said scientist Will Caster. Depp is joined by Rebecca Hall, Paul Bettany, Cillian Murphy, and Morgan Freeman. With an interesting premise and a good cast, Pfister could have himself a hit with his directorial debut.

Next up this weekend is Marlon Wayans returning with A Haunted House 2. Nearly 15 years ago, the Wayans brothers were fairly revolutionary with their movie Scary Movie. It was a comedy horror spoof movie and audiences ate it up. The Wayans left that after the second movie and the movies went downhill from there. However, Marlon Wayans came back last year with a very similar movie in A Haunted House. This was also a comedy horror spoof movie, but it was focused specifically on spoofing the found footage horror movies of late, specifically the Paranormal Activity movies. The movie became a surprise hit by opening up to $18 million on it's way to a final total of $40 million. Being that the movie only cost $2.5 million, this was a huge success. And just like the Paranormal movies, this huge profit means that this year we have a sequel. With Marlon Wayans again leading this one, it could enjoy similar success.

This year has been a very religious year for Hollywood. There has already been Son of God, Noah, and surprise hit God's Not Dead. Hoping that religious audiences aren't burned out by now is Heaven is for Real. The movie is based on a true story of a young boy who nearly died, and upon coming back claimed that he visited Heaven. This is supported by the fact that this boy now knows things that would be impossible for him to know of otherwise, including facts about things that happened before he was born. The movie is based on the #1 New York Times best-selling book of the same title, but in a crowded market in the month of April, the movie has the chance of being lost in the crowd.

After taking a 2013 off, Disneynature is back this April with Bears. This follows Earth, Oceans, African Cats, and Chimpanzee, all opening on around Earth Day in consecutive years starting in 2009. These aren't meant to be huge hits, but all things considered, these nature documentaries have done fairly well. Those wanting to learn a bit about bears can go watch this and Disneynature will donate part of the income to the National Parks in the US.

April 25th - 27th-

The final weekend of April is typically the riskiest weekend of the month as new releases face the challenge of opening in the shadow of the big summer opener, this case being The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Three movies are taking on this challenge. The first of which is Brick Mansions. Brick Mansions is a remake of French action film District B13 from about ten years ago. Both Brick Mansions and District B13 are from producer Luc Besson, famous for the Taken movies. It's a PG-13-rated action film that feels fairly generic. Normally I'd say a generic action film coming out in April right before a huge blockbuster is a recipe for a dud, but this one is different. Why? It's starring Paul Walker. A few months back, the world was shocked by the news that Paul Walker had been killed in a car accident. While not known as the best actor in history, he was well-liked. Brick Mansions is one of the last movies he completed before dying and will be the first nationwide release starring him since he died. Subject-matter aside, fans of Paul Walker will most likely show up to see him on the big screen one more time before Fast and Furious 7 comes out next year.

Next up is the movie this weekend that probably has the biggest chance of falling flat and that is R-rated comedy The Other Woman. Starring Cameron Diaz, Kate Upton, and Leslie Mann, The Other Woman is a comedy where these women team up to get revenge on the guy appears to be in a relationship with all of them. Now Cameron Diaz has recently starred in the big hit Bad Teacher, so her leading another R-rated comedy could mean success, but it instead feels a lot like last April's The Big Wedding. That was another R-rated comedy with a loaded cast that completely bombed when it opened up in the final weekend of April. Comedy fans are more likely to wait for May's Neighbors.

Last and possibly least is horror movie The Quiet Ones. Like I mentioned with Oculus, horror movies are a hit or miss. Some are huge. Some are dead on arrival. Usually not in between. And it's hard to predict which ones are which. However, if I am making a complete guess, I will say that Oculus will be a hit while The Quiet Ones becomes a miss, because I have heard a lot more buzz about Oculus. But who knows, maybe it will be the other way around. Maybe both will be big. Or maybe horror fans will take the month off and show up to neither. Who knows. Your guess is as good as mine. 

Muppets Most Wanted Review

The Muppets... again! Er, um... no. That was the old title of this movie. They changed it to Muppets Most Wanted, which is probably a better title. But seriously! It's the Muppets again! It's always a good time when we get a new Muppets movie. Muppets Most Wanted is a sequel to the 2011 reboot of the Muppets. That one was simple called The Muppets. I actually wrote a review for that movie. But you won't find it on my blog. That was back during my month-long stint with Blue Box that got me to start this blog. Check that out right here. And while you're at it, check out more of Jeremiah's stuff on Blue Box. The man knows his stuff when it comes to movies. But anywho, I digress. We're here to talk about a new Muppets movie! So let's begin!

Muppets Most Wanted picks up right where The Muppets leaves off. Like almost exactly. The last scene in that movie is the practically the first scene in this one. Then they have this whole sequence on sequels. What are we going to do next? We're back now, what should we do? If you remember, that reboot was all about the return of the Muppets. Not only was it literally the return of the Muppets in this actual world, but the story line of that movie was all about them returning. The whole movie essentially broke the fourth wall. It was great. Muppets Most Wanted starts out the same way. After deliberating what they should do, they break out into a song about sequels. It was one of the best songs of the entire movie, actually. Oddly enough, they joked around about sequels never being as good as the first. I don't think they really did this intentionally, but this sequel wasn't quite as good as the 2011 reboot.

Like I mentioned, The Muppets was an excellent film in terms of story. The return of the Muppets story was genius. Muppets Most Wanted tries really hard to have a fun, clever story to keep the newly found Muppets momentum, but it's fairly sub-par compared to the story of the first. After the amazing introduction, it kinda gets lost. After becoming a huge success, The Muppets get duped by Dominic Badguy (played by Ricky Gervais). He convinces them to go on a world tour. The only one really opposed to this is Kermit, but shortly after getting started, Kermit gets replaced by criminal mastermind Constatine, a Kermit look-a-like. Constatine escapes from prison, frames Kermit, and the police throw Kermit in Prison in his place, thinking he is Constatine. Meanwhile, Constatine and Dominic put into play a sinister plot during this Muppets tour.

Yes, this is fun. And the kids especially should love it. But it's just not epic. And it didn't make me laugh as much as the previous one did. But hey! I'm being too harsh. This is a Muppets movie that I enjoyed. And it did have plenty of laugh-out-loud moments. Just not as many. One thing I will say, though, is that the human actors were a lot better. With The Muppets, the story was great and the movie made me laugh, but I really didn't like the main human cast. Jason Segal and Amy Adams just didn't seem all that invested in the movie. The main human cast here consists of Ricky Gervais, Ty Burrell, and Tina Fey. All three of them looked like they were having a ton of fun interacting with the Muppets in the movie. And they did a great job. And as is typically the case with the Muppets, there were plenty of cameos. While not used as epically as say Jim Parsons and Jack Black in the previous one, there were a lot of huge names. Part of the fun is letting these cameos surprise you, so I won't spoil anything, but there was one specific cameo that made me laugh out loud. If you've seen the movie, talk to me in private so we can discuss these cameos. Finally, Muppets Most Wanted is an all-out musical. And it is a great musical. I don't know if they have any songs as strong as "Man or Muppet" from the previous movie that are strong enough to win best song, but as a complete body of work, the music was excellent.

Overall, if you are not a Muppets fan, this movie isn't going to convert you to Muppetism. Muppets are one of those things that you just have to have grown up with to enjoy. That's the case for me. I've always liked the Muppets. And thus I liked this movie. But if that is not the case for you, then I wouldn't give a strong recommendation for this movie. However, if you are a Muppets fan, than this movie is a must see. You may not walk out of the theaters with a new favorite Muppets movie. You may not even like it as much as the previous one. But you will have a lot of fun it. Why? Because it's the Muppets. And the Muppets are great. My grade for Muppets Most Wanted is an 8/10.

Noah Review

After months of swimming in controversy, Noah has finally hit theaters. When I first heard of Noah, I was a bit leery, but I was game with Noah coming to the big screen. But then I started to hear rumors of what the actual plan was for this. That made me super nervous, and I did my fair share of ranting about what was going to happen. Then the trailer came out and suddenly it appeared that this could be an entertaining movie despite their plans on deviating from the source material. So I remained neutral. Then came the reviews. Christian audiences hated the movie. Some countries banned it. But then the critic reviews came in strong. Some good sources I trust loved the movie. Other good sources I trust hated it. Going into this, I was completely in the darkness as to my expectations because of all these mixed reviews. I knew this wasn't supposed to be a religious movie, but perhaps it could be entertaining? While watching, I tried really hard to like what I was seeing, but I just couldn't. The longer I watched, the more sick I felt at what they were doing with this story. While driving home, I was in an angered shock at what I had just witnessed.

First off, I will openly admit that there is a good reason why Noah has not been attempted yet. Despite it being a great story that one can learn a lot from in a biblical standpoint, there's not a whole lot of substance for a full-length movie. The people are wicked, so Noah preaches repentance. When that does nothing, he's commanded to build an ark to save the animals and his family while the Lord destroys the rest of the world and starts over. So he does. And that's really it. So to make this a successful venture, anyone who is making a movie out of Noah is going to have to come up with a few creative liberties just to add some story and substance that will make the movie interesting. This sheer fact alone is not what bothered me. What's more, I expected a slight deviation to the actual story that is there. So the idea of a deviation does not bother me. I want to make that perfectly clear before someone jumps out and criticizes me for complaining that they deviated or added things. That's not the issue here, so don't make a fool out of yourself when you respond to this review. The problem is WHAT they decided to do when they added things and deviated from the story.

PART ONE -- SPOILER FREE

So let's start at the top. Religion. Didn't want me to bring that up? Sorry, you shouldn't have clicked on a review about a religious-based movie. I didn't go into this movie expecting a religious movie. I went in expecting an action/adventure/disaster movie. But as I got into it, I became irked. The makers in this movie went out of their way to make this as non-religious as possible. What do I mean? I mean that the word "God" is not used at all in this movie. They call him "The Creator." Why is this necessary? Why not just say God? What's the problem there? You think you're going to offend everyone if you use the word God in a movie in the way it's supposed to be used? If you want to avoid this, don't adapt a biblical story. Also, the word "prophet" is not used. Noah's not a "prophet," he's "the chosen one." Why not just use the word prophet? This would be accurate to the source material. And no one would be offended. Methuselah is in this movie. Methuselah pulls off some pretty amazing miracles to help Noah. How? I don't know. It never says. He's not described as a man of God. He just looks like a wizard with magical powers. Then there's the introduction. "In the beginning there was nothing." And so on. Where were they getting this from? It's like they wrote their own bible in order to avoid quoting actual scriptures. Get what I mean? Why is it necessary to completely beat around the bush when it comes to every potential religious aspect? It bothered me. You can use religious, biblical terms and still have this not be a religious movie.  

That aspect aside, the first half of this movie was just plain WEIRD. Noah's family is completely alone. They live in this barren rock-land area in a tent. How do they survive? I don't know. It doesn't look like there is any food or water. When people do come, where do they come from? I don't know. There's no city around. No buildings. They just show up. Apparently tents is all people knew? Tents in the middle of nowhere? They wander a bit and find a abandoned girl in the middle of nowhere. Why? Oh yeah, we wanted Emma Watson in the movie. Got it. Time passes. In a very weird way. We had to show every day passing by in the blink of an eye and nearly give me a seizure in the process. We couldn't have just said "10 years later." That would've been confusing. 

Then this gets even funner. We run into rock monsters. Yup. Rock monsters. Apparently there were angels that fell from heaven. Ok, I get that part. But then they get to heaven and turn into these large rock monsters. What? Oh did I mention Noah's dreams? So freakin' creepy. We couldn't have had God appear in a dream and tell Noah to build an ark because he's going to flood the earth. Too religious. Instead Noah dreams he's drowning and all these corpses that look like zombies come to attack him. And somewhere in there a snake slithers out of it's skin, an apple shows up, and we see a glowing Adam and Eve. Maybe I have these out of order. Point is, there is a lot of creepy weird dreams and flashbacks. Noah interprets this as God is going to destroy the world. Ok, semi-plausible, but still super weird and creepy. 

Noah goes to Methuselah. Methuselah is obsessed with berries the whole movie. Why? Shem tells him that he likes berries. So Methuselah goes crazy over berries. What? Why? Then Methuselah touches Shem and he falls asleep. No children should hear this next conversation. Why not? Well, after concluding that Noah needs to build an ark, Methuselah gives Noah a magical seed. What does this seed do? It plants... a forest. Yup, you heard that right. Apparently forest-planting seeds existed? Why? Oh yes. Trees don't exist where Noah lives and he needs to build an ark. So we need to plant a forest. Oh remember our rock monsters? For some reason, they decide to join Noah. And in fact, these rock monsters are the ones that build the ark. Really?

Get the point? The first half of this movie is just super, super weird. I mean, I get that they need to add things. Creative liberties need to happen in order to create a decent movie out of the story of Noah. I get it. But who in the world wrote this? And why did they think these were good ideas? It was just dumb. Add to that, the whole first half of the movie is actually super slow and boring. The actors, especially Russell Crowe, just look bored the whole time. Like ok, this is a dumb movie, but I'm getting payed. So sure, I'll be Noah. Just give me my paycheck.

But yet I haven't even gotten to why I hated this movie so much. But to describe my true feelings, I NEED to talk about the second half of this movie. So yes, SPOILERS will happen from here on out. If you don't want to hear any SPOILERS, close this browser right now. Chances are you are really bored anyways because I have already written more than I usually do. Just know the last half of the movie was awful. I could've forgiven the first half if the last half was epic, but it wasn't.

PART TWO -- SPOILERS 

If you are continuing to read this, first off, I'm impressed that you got this far. You must love my writing. Either that or you have nothing to do with your life right now. Let's just pretend it's the first. Also this means that you have either seen the movie or don't care about it being spoiled. You've been given a fair warning. 

Like I've said, the first half of this movie is weird and goofy, but I could've forgiven it if it had a epic ending. But it didn't. There came a point where the movie completely lost all of my faith that it could be good. The ark is near completion and Noah and his wife realize that if they are going to live on, their sons need to have wives. So Noah goes to this weird, creepy village to find wives for his sons. After seeing the state that they live in, Noah decides that mankind needs to be completely wiped off the face of the earth. So he gives up on finding wives for his sons and goes back to the ark. He tells his family that they will save the animals. Once the flood is over, they will live as a family and once they die, that will be it for mankind. Then the world will move on without the animals and plants being bothered one bit. This is justice. Mankind is being punished.

Logically, Ham does what a normal teenager/young man would do when his father announces the suicide of mankind. He runs away to find his own girl. Sure, this happens super fast. He falls in a ditch where there just happens to be a girl all alone. So he stays with her. Then it starts raining, so he convinces her to come with him to the ark. On the way, she steps on a bear trap. Ham can't help her because he is too weak and there is an army right behind them planning on attack the ark. Here comes dad to save the day, right? Nope. Noah pushes Ham towards the ark, looks at the girl, and intentionally leaves her to die. She quickly gets trampled by the army.

That scene is where I lost it. It's all downhill from there. Making things worse. Emma Watson learns that she is pregnant on the ark. The magical wizard Methuselah healed her right before he died eating a berry. A second later she runs up to Seth and immediately jumps him and they... well... the scene cuts thankfully. But she's pregnant. What does grandfather Noah say to this? Well, instead of being happy, he is almost horrified that his (or God's?) plan is about to be frustrated. So he announces that if it's a girl, he's going to kill the baby. And he hates doing all this... but he is just following God's... I mean "The Creator's" will. He begs several times to not have to do this, but the answer seems to be no.

I won't actually spoil the very, very end. That is sufficient. But now let me get to the problems with this. First off, the film screams an environmentalist platform. I haven't seen a movie this politically charged since WALL-E. I mean, really? Your going to twist the story of Noah this much so you, Darren Aronofsky, can sit on your high horse and yell out to how crappy the world is and how we need to repent because we are destroying the environment? Remember, there is no life-form around. They live in a land where it's apparent that mankind has destroyed the environment. And now they are being punished to the point where God is going to wipe all them off the face of the earth and instead move forward without mankind. Just the animals and the plant-life. And that will be a perfect earth. Now I'm usually among the crowd that says sometimes a movie is just a movie and the political propaganda is unintentional, made up be crazy politicians. But nope. This I think is so obvious and so in-your-face that it has to be intentional in my opinion. Moreover, Aronofsky himself has claimed that Noah was the first environmentalist. Sometimes I can still enjoy a movie. I love WALL-E. This time it got in the way.

Second huge issue. Crazy Noah. When you make a movie and call it Noah and it's about Noah, I feel it's the right thing for me to root for Noah and treat him like the protagonist. When Noah goes psycho and decides God has told him to destroy mankind, the switched in me was completely flipped. Noah was the antagonist. I care about mankind. I cared about the Ham's girlfriend that Noah killed. I care about Emma Watson's twin daughters that Noah is threatening to kill. Noah is the villain in my eyes. I want him stopped. Everyone is mad at him, but especially Ham. Ham discovers that our main villain has snuck onto the ark and the two conspire to kill Noah. I should be against them. But I'm not. I am wanting them to succeed. This is bad. If I want the main character of a movie -- who's supposed to be the protagonist -- to die, the makers of the movie have done something wrong.

And this leads right into the biggest reason why I hated this movie. Not a religious movie? I get it. But blaspheming against God and Christianity in the process for the sake of your environmentalist high-horse is UNACCEPTABLE. Don't want to hear me preach? Then you better close this right now, because I am about to preach. I care about mankind. God cares about mankind. God created man in his own image. That was his greatest creation. What does this movie preach? Man has destroyed the environment, so God is going to destroy man, because apparently God cares more about the environment than he does man. This is NOT... I repeat... this is NOT the reason why the flood happened. Man was wicked. Man didn't follow God. God decided to start over with Noah's family because they were righteous. Harsh? Yes. But for many reasons, this was the right decision. Never at any time did God have on his agenda to destroy mankind and move forward with without them. So while we are on the ark in the movie, I am cheering against Noah. I want his plan to fail. Noah doesn't want to do this, but he feels he is the chosen one to bring God's plan to pass. The plan to destroy mankind. So while I'm cheering against Noah, I realize that in fact I'm am cheering against the God of this movie. And that's when I become plain out disgusted at what this movie was doing. The God of this movie is NOT the God I worship. The God of this movie is NOT the God of the Bible and not the God of Christianity. And I am offended that Darren Aronofsky decided to interpret God this way.

So yes, I am finally finishing. Maybe you'll walk into this movie and see it things a completely different way. But in my opinion, I watched the story of Noah get thrown into a blender. I saw nothing but weird and confusing things in the first half and nothing but blasphemy and environmentalism in the second half. I drove home from the theater angry at what I saw. If you see something different, that's great. The beauty of movies is that we can all interpret them in a different way. We can all have different opinions and all be right. But as for me, I will recommend that you completely skip this movie. If you know that you disagree with me a lot and that recommendation makes you want to see this movie, then so be it. But I warned you. Remembering that I hated Man of Steel and put it as the worst movie of 2013, if you put me in a corner, pointed a gun to my head, and forced me to either re-watch Man of Steel or Noah, I would pick Man of Steel. That should say a lot. You blaspheme my favorite superhero and thus my childhood that is one thing, you blaspheme my God, this is another. I give Noah my worst grade, a 1/10.

The 87th Academy Awards: A Very Early Look

In no way do I consider myself an expert on the Academy Awards. A lot of their picks seem very random at times and a lot of the movies that end up getting awards aren't even on the radar at the beginning of the year. However, I thoroughly enjoy following them all year and thus I have learned that you can sometimes come up with patterns as to how they think. So now that the 86th Academy Awards were officially completed earlier this month, I wanted to do a quick post looking forward to next year's Academy Awards. So what I have done here is I have gone through a lot of the movies that are currently on schedule and have tried to pick out the ones that I think could be up for some awards at the beginning of next year. It will be fun to look back at this in a year from now to see how good or bad my early vision was. I expect more of the latter, but either way this is an interesting way to introduce you to some movies coming out this year that you may not have been aware of. After reading this, feel free to add your own thoughts as to what you think may happen at next year's Oscars.

The Grand Budapest Hotel- 3/7

Typically the Academy has this weird thing where they forget that movies get released from January through August. Thus movies specifically going for awards will set their release date at the end of the year. However, there is the rare occasion that films coming out early get attention, so I wanted to give a few early picks. Wes Anderson usually gets shafted during award season and with the early release date that will probably be the case here as well, but he's definitely conjured up a huge hit with The Grand Budapest Hotel. The reviews all around for the movie have been very positive and the movie has been killing it in limited release. This could be Anderson's biggest hit yet and if the Academy remembers that this movie came out, it could also be the first time Anderson gets some love from the Academy.

Million Dollar Arm- 5/16

Sports movies sometimes get love at the Oscars. All one has to do is look at The Blind Side and Moneyball to figure that out. Although Moneyball didn't win any Oscars, it received six nomination including best picture. I specifically bring up Moneyball because Million Dollar Arm is freakishly similar. Both movies are about using unconventional wisdom to put together a Major League Baseball team. Million Dollar Arm even has the Oscar-nominated Thomas McCarthy in charge of the screenplay. The only problem here is the release date. So instead of being the next Moneyball, this looks like it will instead be the next 42, a movie from last year that would've been in the conversation if it had come out later in the year.

Get On Up- 8/1

Oscar season officially gets underway around September or October, but there is often an August movie that sneaks into the picture. This year that candidate looks to be Get On Up. Chadwick Boseman is apparently the actor to cast if you are doing a biopic movie. Last year he got a lot of attention by portraying Jackie Robinson in 42. This year he takes on James Brown. As previously mentioned, 42 had release date issues. Get On Up, though, is in range for Oscar-love.

Gone Girl- 10/3

Two-time Oscar nominated director David Fincher has had a lot of success with the Academy recently with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network. This year he has teamed up with Ben Affleck to take on Gillian Flynn's novel Gone Girl, about a woman who mysteriously disappears on her wedding anniversary. Fincher plus Affleck seems like a sure-fire hit on paper.

The Judge- 10/10

Robert Downey Jr. may get no attention from the Academy for his role as Iron Man, but he's no stranger to the Academy in his other roles as he has been nominated twice, most recently for his role in Tropic Thunder. He may get his third nomination this year for The Judge, which is a drama about a lawyer returning home to his mother's funeral to find that his father, the town judge, is suspected of murder. Initially this appears similar to last year's Prisoners, which may have gotten more nominations had it not been such a crowded field. 

Kill the Messenger- 10/10

This next candidate for awards is a lot like the previous movie that I just talked about. Both The Judge and Kill the Messenger are crime dramas that feature an Avengers star with two Oscar-nominations looking for a third just before the Avengers sequel comes out. While The Judge features Iron Man, Kill the Messenger features Hawkeye, aka Jeremy Renner. Renner has received two recent nominations for his work in The Hurt Locker and The Town. Kill the Messenger is the true story of reporter Gary Webb, a reporter that becomes a huge target after after exposing the CIA. Renner of course plays Gary Webb.

Interstellar- 11/7

Christopher Nolan is one of the most prolific directors of our day, which is why many are surprised that he has received no nominations for best director. Inception got a best picture nod, but that's as far as it goes with Nolan-directed films. Is this his year where he finally gets the love he deserves? Seems likely, especially since Interstellar has a cast that includes Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, and Jessica Chastain. 

Fury- 11/14

The title of this movie may actually change before this movie comes out, so no laughing at me if you never hear of a movie called Fury. Moving on, can director David Ayer get an Oscar nomination? He can when his movie is a World War II drama released in November that stars Brad Pitt. Shia LaBeouf is also a main player in this. That would certainly shock the world if he somehow pulled off a nomination.

McFarland- 11/21

I mentioned earlier that sports dramas have a good history at the Oscars. While we have several of them this year, McFarland is the one that has the highest chance of earning nominations, specifically because it is released at the right time of the year. Kevin Costner is the star of this movie and his role in this is a track coach. Interestingly enough, this is actually his second sports drama that he is doing this year following April's Draft Day. Costner does well in sports dramas, so this could pay off.

Exodus- 12/12

Exodus concludes quite the lengthy streak of religious-themed movies in 2014. It may be a stretch to include it in this list, but if it's well received by all parties, it's in the right position. Christian Bale in December is a pretty safe bet to get the attention of the Academy. This also wouldn't be the first time a movie about the story of Moses got some love at the Oscars. Cecil B DeMille's classic film The Ten Commandments was nominated for seven Oscars back in 1957, including best picture. So it's possible.

Inherent Vice- 12/12 

While nothing is for sure, out of all the movies I've mentioned thus far, Inherent Vice is one of the more surefire bets at Oscars. Director Paul Thomas Anderson doesn't come on the scene very often, but when he does, it's usually been gold. His previous outing, The Master, received three nominations. The time before that, There Will Be Blood received eight nominations. Inherent Vice reunites Paul Thomas Anderson with Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix narrowly missed out last year with Her, but it was with Anderson where he got his most recent best actor nomination with The Master, so he could be back on the scene again. Inherent Vice also stars Jena Malone, Reese Witherspoon, Josh Brolin, and Owen Wilson. It's possible for anyone of them to join in on the party.

Into the Woods- 12/25

Musicals have had good luck at the Oscars, most recently with Les Miserables. This Christmas brings us two musicals with Into the Woods and Annie. With the mixed reaction to the first trailer for Annie, I'll go ahead and wager that the movie gets similar reaction and thus miss out on awards. That leaves Into the Woods with the biggest chance of scoring nominations. It definitely has the cast to back me up on that. Meryl Streep has a role in the movie and being that she has had 18 nominations, it's safe to bet that she could easily add another to that. The movie also puts Johnny Depp, Anna Kendrick, Chris Pine, and Emily Blunt in good positions to win out the hearts of the Academy.

Unbroken- 12/25

I recently mentioned Inherent Vice as a surefire bet to get nominations. If I were to make official bets this early on, Unbroken is the other one I would make sure to include. The movie has Oscar-bait written all over it. Oscar darling Angelina Jolie has won for best supporting actress, been nominated for best leading actress, and most recently won the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. Now she is going for a best director nod with Unbroken. Joel and Ethan Coen are in charge of the screenplay with Roger Deakins doing the cinematography. Add to all that, this is another World War II drama. It follows the life of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic runner who was taken prisoner by Japan. Here's a name for you to write down: Jack O'Connell. He's fairly unknown right now, but this time next year he could be a household name. He's plays the lead role of Louis Zamperini.   

Untitled Cameron Crowe Project- 12/25

A movie with no title on this list? With Cameron Crowe at the helm, it's a good bet. Crowe is responsible for the Oscar-nominated films Almost Famous and Jerry Maguire. He's also done We Bought a Zoo and Vanilla Sky. Whatever they decide to name this movie, it has Bradley Cooper leading the way with Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams, Bill Murray, Jay Baruchel, John Krasinski, Alec Baldwin and Danny McBride. It's about a military man who discovers himself while deployed on the island of Hawaii.

Foxcatcher- release date TBD

Foxcatcher was initially supposed to come out in 2013 and many thought it was going to be a major contender in this year's Oscars. Well, it got pushed back to this year so logic says if they finally decide on a solid release date than it will be a major contender this year. Director Bennett Miller hit two home runs with his previous to films, Moneyball and Capote, so there's a good chance of him hitting three in a row. The film is about Olympic wrestling champion Mark Schultz, whose brother David Schultz was killed by John du Pont. Channing Tatum actually plays the star role of Mark Schultz, but the major buzz  is surrounding Steve Carrell as du Pont. It would be Carrell's first Oscar nomination. It would also be Tatum's first Oscar nomination if he gets some love as well.  

The Cobbler- release date TBD

While there are certainly plenty of other candidates that will sift themselves out as the year goes on, the last one I will mention here is The Cobbler. This also doesn't have an official release date, but if they settle on 2014 with this, it could bring a lot of surprises. Writer/director Thomas McCarthy was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay work on Pixar's Up, so he has the talent. What makes this movie stand out to me is the potential of shocking the world by getting Adam Sandler an Oscar nomination. I've always said that Adam Sandler is a good actor. He just usually decides to be weird and goofy in his movies. He'll be out to prove that to the world this year. His co-stars include Glenn Fleshler, Dustin Hoffman, and Steve Buscemi