The Winners of the second and a half EGNVies, Oscars and RIP Edition

Welcome back to a jam-packed edition of the Entertainment Guru News and Views. We have a lot to talk about this time, but we will get started with some sad news.

This past week we mourned the death of actor/director/writer Harold Ramis. He will forever be remembered as Egon Spengler. There are very few great projects from the 1980s and 1990s that Ramis was not involved in. From Ghost Busters to Stripes to Animal House to a movie that I think is vastly underrated, Back To School. He has been busy into the new millennium as well, showing up in Knocked Up as Seth Rogen's father as well. He was brilliant no matter what he chose to do. From everything that I have read about him, he was highly regarded as a nice guy. The term Renaissance Man gets thrown around a lot, but clearly Ramis fit the description. He was involved in so many different aspects of movie production. I could probably do a whole blog just about the cultural impact this man had, especially on my childhood, but instead, we will just sit back and remember one of his greatest moments in Ghostbusters. I give you, the Twinkie.

There has been talk about doing Ghostbusters 3 for years now. I know that Bill Murray had said he would not be involved with the film. And now that Ramis has passed, I think they should not make the movie. As big of a fan as I am of the movies (Yes, I even enjoy Ghostbusters 2, but not nearly as much as the original) it would lack something when half of the main actors are not involved. I think the time had passed for them to have made the movie, but now just let us move on. It would only ruin another great movie with another sequel not worthy of it.

Later tonight marks the biggest night in Hollywood, it's the Oscars with your host Ellen DeGeneres. I will admit that I have not seen any of the movies up for awards this year, but I thought I would go ahead and attempt to pick the winners. We will check next week to see how well I did with them. For Best Supporting actor, I predict that Jared Leto will win for "Dallas Buyers Club." I think this is the closest category, which is why I started here. I am hoping for an upset though. I think there is a chance (albeit a small one) that Barkhad Abdi will win for "Captain Phillips." For Best Supporting Actress, I say Jennifer Lawrence will win for "American Hustle." For Best Actor, my prediction is Matthew McConaughey will also win for "Dallas Buyers Club." The Academy tends to like true stories, and this one tugs at the heart. For Best Actress, I pick Cate Blanchett for "Blue Jasmine." For Best Director, I predict Steve McQueen for "12 Year's A Slave." For Best Original Screenplay, I am going to say that Spike Jonze will win for "Her." What are my picks for Best Adapted Screenplay? Why, I am glad you asked! John Ridley will win for "12 Year's A Slave." But I am hoping that "Philomena" wins it for Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope. For Best Animated Feature, it has to be "Frozen." Mostly since it's the only movie I saw that's up for anything this year. Plus it was just that good! And finally for Best Picture I say that "American Hustle" will win. Check back next week and see how many I got right. Or most likely in this case, wrong.

But now we will move to the awards that everyone is talking about, the EGNVies for this year. Last week I gave you the nominees. For those of you new to the blog, these are the awards for the movies that I actually saw. So we will get started with Best Ensemble. This year I give the award to "Fast And Furious 6." For Best Female Comedic Performance, the winner is Sandra Bullock in "The Heat." For Best Male Comedic Performance, the EGNVie goes to Alan Arkin in "Grudge Match," because quite frankly Alan Arkin is awesome. The Winner for Best Actor in an Action Movie goes to Tom Hiddleston for "Thor: The Dark World." Why? Because Tom Hiddleston is awesome too! The winner of Villain Of the Year goes to Donald Sutherland's performance as evil President Snow in "Hunger Games: Catching Fire." Speaking of "Catching Fire" let's also congratulate his co-star Jennifer Lawrence, winner of Best Actress in an Action Film. And the winner of EGNVie Picture of the Year, Congratulations "Frozen."

What did you think of my picks? What would you change? What categories do you want me to add for next year? Let me know! See you next week!

Special thanks as always to my wonderful and beautiful editor for helping me with this week's blog.

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The Second EGNVies Nominations Edition

Welcome back to the Second Entertainment Guru News and Views Movie Awards. This should be the third EGNVies but for some strange reason, I didn't do it last year. Which is a real shame. While Lori and I saw some great movies this year, we didn't see nearly as many as we did the year before. But we saw some quality movies that deserve some recognition. Only movies that we saw from 2/8/2013 until today are eligible for nominations. The movie also had to come out between that time as well. I hope that you will agree with my choices. So here we go with the nominees. Last time I gave you the nominees and the winners at the same time, but I thought this year I would divide it up. I mean the Oscars don't nominate and award at the same time, so I won't either.

Nominees for Ensemble Cast of the year: The Last Vegas, Grudge Match, Fast & Furious 6, Hunger Games: Catching Fire, and Saving Mr. Banks.

Best Female Comedic Performance: Melissa McCarthy in The Heat, Sandra Bullock in The Heat, Teresa Palmer in Warm Bodies, and Tina Fey in Admission.

The nominees for Best Male in an Action Movie are: Tom Hiddleston in Thor, The Dark World, Dwayne Johnson in Fast & Furious 6, Chris Hemsworth in Thor, The Dark World, Josh Hutcherson in Catching Fire, and Paul Walker in Fast & Furious 6.

Now it's the Best Male Comedic Performance. Your nominees are: Josh Gad in Frozen, Steve Carell in The Incredible Burt Wonderstone, Alan Arkin in Grudge Match, and Nicholas Hoult in Warm Bodies.

It's time for the nominees for Villain of the Year. Today we nominate Donald Sutherland as President Snow in Catching Fire, Emma Thompson as P.L. Travers in Saving Mr. Banks, Robert DeNiro as Billy 'The Kid' McDonnen in Grudge Match, Dave Franco as Perry in Warm Bodies, and Luke Evans as Shaw in Fast & Furious 6. I know most people wouldn't consider Emma Thompson the villain of the movie, but she was just so negative it's kind of hard for me not to.

Nominees for Best Female in an Action Movie only has two nominations as well this time around. Last time it was Paula Patton vs Jennifer Lawrence. J-Law returns, this time as Katniss Everdeen. She will face Michelle Rodriguez from Fast & Furious 6.

You will notice that there isn't going to be either best actor or actress in a drama because we really didn't see any movies with serious drama in it. So congratulations to Tom Hanks and Emma Thompson for winning Best Actor in a Drama and Best Actress in a Drama for Saving Mr. Banks.

And finally the nominees for EGNVies Movie of the Year are: Frozen, Warm Bodies, The Heat, Fast & Furious 6, and Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Check back next week when we announce the winners!

Earlier today the leads were announced in the reboot for Fantastic Four. If you missed it, Miles Teller will be Reed Richards, Kate Mara will be Sue Storm, Michael B. Jordan will be Johnny Storm and Jamie Bell will be Ben Grimm. Quite honestly I am trying to tell which had more of a fan outrage, this casting or Batfleck. Again, there has been casting that has been booed upon announcing that worked out. So I will reserve judgment on both cases until I see them in action.

Speaking of action and comic book movies I was doubting. I watched the trailer for "Guardians Of The Galaxy" yesterday. I will admit that I have not read any of the comics, so I will be going into it differently than I have any of the other comic book movies I’ve watched. But for this, I wasn't looking forward to it. It just sounded strange. But after watching the first trailer, I am definitely looking forward to it now.

As always a special thanks goes to my editor and fiancée Lori who makes this readable

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The More RIP Editions

And I am back! A lot has happened since my last blog, and not all of it is good. So I thought I would start off with some negative before my regular posts begin again.

Two actors died long before their time was up since I last blogged so I wanted to give my thoughts on them. They lived very different lives, but both fell due to excesses in their lives. I enjoyed both through their careers. I am, of course, talking about Paul Walker and Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

Paul Walker died on November 30th, 2013. Sadly, he died doing what he loved doing, quite frankly what he was best known for. It's more than just ironic when an actor known for "Fast and Furious" movies died while allegedly speeding down the road. Walker wasn't driving, according to police reports. The good news (if there is any good news in this situation) was there were no drugs or alcohol involved.

The same cannot be said about Oscar winning actor Phillip Seymour Hoffman, who battled drug addiction for twenty-plus years. Reports surfaced that when he was found dead, the heroin needle was still stuck in his arm. Again, police reports I read said that 50 bags of heroin were found in his apartment that day.

The two of them really couldn't have been any different, yet they had something in common. While both were movie stars, they primarily lived their lives out of the spotlight. Neither of them seemed to enjoy the spotlight that came with success, especially Walker. He avoided the press as easily as his character in the Fast movies avoided the police. Hoffman didn't seem to enjoy it much either, but I feel he was much more comfortable than Walker was. Maybe it's from the years of Broadway experience Hoffman had. I don't know.

Their movies couldn't have been any different either. Like I said, Paul Walker was known for his action movies like the Fast movies or Into the Blue. Hoffman was known for more dramatic roles like The Master or the role that won him an Oscar, Capote. Hoffman did dip into action for one role, that of a Mission:Impossible movie. Because of how different their styles of movies were, I think it would be very difficult to play Six Degrees of Separation between the two of them.

Another thing they have in common was leaving franchises waiting for their actors to return. Paul Walker was filming another Fast movie, The Fast and Furious 7. That movie was due out this summer, but will now be delayed until next year while they work on reshoots. Brian O'Connor (Walker's character) will not die, according to internet reports. Phillip Seymour Hoffman was seven days a way from finishing his role as Plutarch Heavensbee in The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2. That movie will not be delayed.

Everyone has their favorite movies of certain actors’. While I enjoyed The Fast and Furious, my favorite Paul Walker movie was one of his first movies, Varsity Blues. He has a supporting role in the film as the hot shot quarterback Lance Harbor who gets injured and James Vanderbeek comes in to save the day. It's cheesy at times, but it made me regret not playing high school football. Not that it would have ended well for me if I did. But that's another story. Phillip Seymour Hoffman has a very small role in one of my all time favorite movies though. I believe he is only in three or four scenes (if even that) but he plays a huge part in the main character’s life, and really helps the story get going. So if you haven't seen Almost Famous, I highly recommend it!

Special thanks as always to my wonderful editor. Thank you for all your hard work to make my words right.

Oh yeah, before I let you go. I said it would be difficult, but I didn't say it couldn't be done. Paul Walker was in Fast and Furious Five with The Rock. The Rock co-starred in Journey 2 with Josh Hutcherson. And of course Josh Hutcherson was in Catching Fire with Phillip Seymour Hoffman.

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The 2013 VMA Train Wreck Edition

This past Sunday in Brooklyn, New York we witnessed the Video Music Awards presented by MTV. To me it's very ironic that MTV still has VMAs since they really don't show music videos anymore. I just checked. In the next twenty four hours, they are showing six hours of music videos. I suppose that wouldn't be bad, unless you consider the fact that the videos will only play from 3:00 A.M. to 9:00 A.M. During the same 24 hours the network will show five hours of shows like "16 & Pregnant" and "Teen Mom," but that's another story for another blog.

For this blog I am going to focus on a few things that show the ridiculousness of this awards show. The VMAs first aired in 1984. There was pop royalty like Michael Jackson, Prince and Madonna in attendance. What do we have this year? One Direction and Selena Gomez. No offense to either act, but with the way music fads come and go the chances of both of them being relevant even five years from now are not very likely. For example, five years ago at the VMAs a band won "Best New Artist." The name of that band was Tokio Hotel. And has ANYONE heard of them in the five years that followed? Does that name even ring a bell to anyone? But the names we celebrated in 1980s are still celebrated today.

I am sure that Li'L Kim has been to an award show during her career. Yet for some strange reason when she was out there to present, her co-presenter had to explain that she would be the one to announce who won. I know there wasn't a host to the show, does that mean there wasn't a rehearsal for it either? There is absolutely no reason that awkward moment needed to be televised. And while we are on it, why wasn't there a host? Especially when Kevin Hart came out not once but twice to do recaps and say "I am not hosting!" Clearly we can tell from the awkward dead silence several times during the night.

And then there is the "star" of the night, if you can call her that. Miss Miley Cyrus. I will be completely honest, I am not sure what twerking really is. I have heard the term, but as I have stated in the past I am not the target demographic. Although, Robin Thicke is a month older than I am and it didn't stop her from grinding on him like he was a Beetlejuice porn pole. If you watched the pre-show interview on MTV, she was asked if she was ready for the fans to take her music seriously. She said she was. Then she came out in teddy bear lingerie with giant teddy bears (that she grinded on) and basically stuck a foam number one finger down her pants. That to me in no way shape or form says "Take my music seriously." But I guess it worked. Here it is on Wednesday and we are still talking about it. She wanted publicity; she is getting it. Right now, seven out of the ten "Hot On Buzzfeed" articles are about Miley Cyrus. She is clearly getting the vast majority of this blog and I was completely grossed out by it. I don't know what generated more tweets in the past week, Ben Affleck as Batman or Miley Cyrus. And for the record, both generated negative buzz, but any publicity is considered good publicity, I suppose.

The highlight of the night had to have been the Justin Timberlake award and medley of his hits. I admit that the rumors of an *Nsync reunion were not false, but the end result was a horrible let down. They could have done so much more with that. In the end, it was nice to see all of them back together on stage, no matter how short of a time it was.

My other favorite moment was when Taylor Swift won a moonman and she mentioned something about who the song was about and then the camera cut to One Direction. It was pretty priceless. Though I was waiting for Kanye West to...well Kanye West her all over again. Speaking of Kanye, can someone PLEASE tell me why people think he is talented? The song he sang was not good at all and was highly repetitive.

Well, regardless, another year of the Video Music Awards is behind us. We shall see what 2014 has in store for us... Just please no more Miley...

As always a special thanks to my wonderful fiancée who is also my wonderful editor.

Editor's Note: Hi, fiancée here, just wanted to add a female perspective to the whole Miley Cyrus scandal. During her vomit-inducing performance, Miley did two distinct things, neither of them good. The first was to undo a lot of the good, sexual positivity that the female artists before her pushed for. Madonna led a sexual revolution in the 80s, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Destiny's Child promoted independence in the 90s and early 00s and although I can't count myself a fan of either, Rihanna and Lady Gaga pushed some feminine boundaries in the 2010s. Miley was probably trying to craft an act that showed her independence from her childhood Disney Channel image, but instead she failed miserably by grinding against a man old enough to be her father while he sang a pretty rapey song. And how did her actual father feel about it? He loved it, tweeting the (admittedly creepy) "@VMA.'S "Can't Stop" Rock that puppy Sissy!! Enjoy the party...and be thankful for the greatest fans on earth!!! Hope the Bear pays of!!!!" What? Moving on. The second thing Miley Cyrus did on Sunday night that she can't really take full credit for, because if it hadn't been her it would've been someone else, was draw our attention from more pressing issues. Americans are a fame-obsessed people and that's not going to change, but while we were all busy discussing Miley's butt Syria was using chemical weapons on their own people, Egypt is having all kinds of revolution, and Japan is leaking radioactive waste into the Pacific Ocean. Again, what? So, Miley, keep your butt in your pants and your tongue in your mouth and to the rest of you, take some advice from Benedict Cumberbatch.

Ben Affleck Edition

The other night Warner Brothers' Studios reported that they have signed the next Batman. As I stated in a previous blog, everyone from Josh Brolin to Orlando Bloom was rumored for the role. But in the end the role of Bruce Wayne/Batman went to Ben Affleck.

I have been thinking a lot about this since the announcement last night and the more I think about it, the more I like it. He has played a super hero before in Marvel's Daredevil in 2003. The reviews of the movie are not great, but that can hardly be blamed on Affleck. I am a big Daredevil fan and I have always respected Affleck. There are things about that movie that I would change, but is Affleck one of them? No. The writing itself was not that good. It took awhile to get into the story. Yes, I know origin stories can be like that, but I thought the script itself was bland.

Ben Affleck has been around Hollywood long enough to see his share of ups and downs. He was written off in Hollywood following a string of bombs that most men would not be able to recover from. He reinvented himself as a director and all of a sudden, he is back on everyone's good side again. And now he gets to play one of the most iconic characters in film. Can he do it?

I believe that he can. He has the acting chops to make it as both Batman and Bruce Wayne. I personally think he is more fitted to play Bruce, but I have a feeling that the script won't call for a lot of screen time for him without the cowl. I could be mistaken; I mean, I haven't seen the script. Time will tell on that matter.

Affleck has seen his share of action films from Armageddon to Paycheck to Reindeer Games and even Pearl Harbor. So we know he can handle the action that he will be required to do as Batman as well. He has about 2 inches over Henry Cavill, and from my comic books, Batman is supposed to have a few inches on Superman. Affleck is also 11 years older than his Superman counterpart, which fits into the reported vision for the film. He is young enough that he can do multiple movies as Batman, if this one is a success, and there is no reason to believe that it won't be.

I saw this picture on the Marvel Movies Facebook page. Granted it came from another site so it might not be exactly how Marvel feels about this. But may I remind you that there were skeptics that said Robert Downey Jr. would make a horrible Tony Stark in Iron Man. I think that worked out pretty well.

In fact, the reviews have been pretty mixed on the internet about this. Earlier this week, #BetterBatmanThanAffleck was trending. But I have a feeling that they just might change their minds when the movie comes out.

In closing, I say that Ben Affleck is a good choice although he has some pretty big shoes to fill. Christian Bale was a great Batman (also met with some resistance from the Internet of Fan Boys, if I remember correctly, by the way). But because he will be sharing the screen with Superman, I think it will make it easier on him. And if this is the beginging of A Justice League movie that fans have been craving, I think it is a very good start!

And in honor of the internet trashing a movie before it comes out (and Ben Affleck as well) I am in the mood to watch Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back!

Special thanks to my lovely editor and wonderful fiancée.

Bruce Willis Edition

Welcome back to another edition. Things in the entertainment world have been really quiet since the end of Comic-Con. But there are a few things worth talking about.

First, returning to host the Oscars next year will be Ellen DeGeneres. I think that is a safe pick after the mixed reviews of Seth McFarlane from this year's show. She can be very funny and is well respected in the entertainment world. And like I said, she is safe. She will have song and dance numbers, but they most definitely won't be as offensive as McFarlane's were. Plus she has experience hosting, so that is always a plus in my book.

The other big news stories of the past few weeks are all wrapped around one person. Bruce Willis. He has certainly been on a roll of late. Most people want to clean up their name, on the other hand Mr. Willis seems quite content to sully his. First he conducted in an interview to promote Red 2 with co star Mary Louise Parker. From my understanding, a lot of press in the area gets five or ten minutes to do short interviews with the stars. This can go on for a few hours. I am sure it must not be enjoyable sometimes to be a movie star, but what he did to Magic 105.4's Jamie Edwards is inexcusable. If you haven't seen the interview, here it is. I know stars are allowed to have bad days and I have never met Bruce Willis personally, but everything I have read indicates this is what he is like in real life. Which seems to be a deplorable human being.

But wait! There's more! Bruce Willis was set to reprise his role as Church in the third installment of The Expendables movies. It has been revealed by several entertainment websites that he was to film for only four days. That's not much, right? He was offered three million dollars for four days of work. Who wouldn't jump at such an offer? The correct answer? Bruce Willis. He said that he would only work for a million dollars a day. So he wanted four million dollars for what would most likely only turn out to be around fifteen to twenty minutes of screen time. Does that seem logical to you? Me neither. So fellow Expendables actor and writer of the series Sylvester Stallone fired him publicly via Twitter. And then to replace Willis they got an actor you may have heard of. I believe his name is Harrison Ford! That's a huge upgrade if you ask me!

I admit, I like Bruce Willis. I own several of his movies on DVD including four of the Die Hard movies (I believe in completing sets of movies, but don't have to if I never admit another movie came out. I am, of course, referring to Good Day to Die Hard. Not a real thing. La la la), Armageddon, Red and Cop Out. He is an enjoyable actor. But the fact remains, over the past month, I have lost a considerable amount of respect for him as a person. Can he recover from this? Yes, of course he can. But in this case, I wouldn't hold my breath...

There is other news that came out of Comic Con 2013 that I have not addressed yet. It's the sequel to Man Of Steel 2 which will be Batman vs. Superman. No word on casting of Batman yet, but there has been some interesting rumors. Pretty much every actor regardless of age has been rumored for the role, including a fifty million dollar offer for Christian Bale who has repeatedly said he wouldn't do it. I have heard everyone from Josh Brolin to now Orlando Bloom's name has been rumored as well. Thankfully, there is no rumor I have heard that Bruce Willis would play the role!

As always a special thanks to my lovely fiancée and editor for helping me make this page readable for the fans!

Heat On Melissa McCarthy Edition

Welcome back to another edition of the Entertainment Guru. This time I come with only good things and no Hollywood Tragedy. This time, I will share what I intended to write the last time.

I recently watched The Heat starring Melissa McCarthy and Sandra Bullock and I thought I would give you my review of it. How many times have we seen buddy cop movies about two complete opposite cops who don't like each other, but in the end forge a bond and solve the case? I have lost count, as I am sure you have too. But there are always subtle variations on the movie. Maybe one cop is black (48 Hours?) or one cop is from another country (Rush Hour). Maybe one cop is straight laced (The Other Guys). Like I said, there is always something different to the genre to make it seem fresh. Sometimes actors are interchangeable but you also have to change the story just a little bit to make it feel new.

In this case, they are both female cops. One is uptight and always stressed. So, in other words, the kind of role Sandra Bullock usually plays. The other is high strung and maybe a little crazy. So, in other words, the kind of role we expect Melissa McCarthy to play.

Quite honestly, there is nothing new to the genre other than them both being female cops. So really the movie shouldn't have worked. But it did. You could tell the two actresses were having fun playing off each other. I didn't guess the ending, but I rarely do. My lovely fiancée knew who it was, so she wasn't surprised at the big reveal.

Supporting cast was good too. Marlon Wayans, Thomas F. Wilson (Biff Tannen sighting!), Michael Rappaport and Taran Killam have the major supporting roles in the movie. Based off this role, I would like to see Marlon Wayans more. He was very charming in a role that I had never really seen from him before.

If the movie is still playing near you and you haven't seen it, I do recommend it!

There is something going on and I am getting very tired of it. Why are we constantly talking about Melissa McCarthy's weight? We don't do that for any male actor. When Chris Farley was alive, no one ever said he needed to lose weight. Jon Favreau's weight seems to be forever up and down, but are there news stories about that? No (but quite frankly, there needs to be). No one gets on Ice Cube because of his weight (maybe out of fear, and that's understandable). Jonah Hill? Enough said! But when you type in Melissa McCarthy to Google, a few of the suggestions are thin, skinny, weight, and weight loss. If you go on her iMDB page to her message board, there are some really negative things. If you don't like an actress because you don't think she is good at her job or she isn't funny, then fine. Bash her on the internet. But to make fun of her weight? That's absolutely childish. I don't understand people. Her weight has nothing to do with her as an actress. Are people's lives that boring that things like that matter? Because if it's true, then those people really have no life. I would copy and paste a link to one of the things I saw there, but I don't want to encourage others to do it.

Instead in honor of people with the maturity level of a child, I offer you this wonderful song from Bowling For Soup. It sums up how I feel about bullies.

A special thanks to my wonderful fiancée and editor for helping me! I love you!!