The Adele Dazeem Edition

Welcome to another edition of the Entertainment Guru, the Post-Oscars edition. It would be so easy to have called it that, but how could I after the events of that night. But there is more to come on that shortly.

Let's see how well I did with my predictions for the night. I said that Jared Leto would win Best Supporting Actor, and the winner was indeed Jared Leto. I had picked Jennifer Lawrence to win Best Supporting Actress. I was wrong this time as Lupita Nyong’o won this year. I picked Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett to win Best Actor and Best Actress respectively. I was correct on both, bringing my total for the year to 3-1. In the writing categories, I predicted correctly again with "12 Years a Slave" and "Her." I was also right with my prediction that "Frozen" would win Best Animated Movie. So now I am 6-1. I would call that a good year for me! But that's where the good news ends. I picked Steve McQueen to win Best Director, but the director of Gravity Alfonso Cuaron won. I also mis-predicted the movie that would win Best Picture. I said it would be "American Hustle" taking the trophy, but it was "12 Years a Slave" instead. So I finished the night picking 6-3. Still, not a bad total.

I thought that Ellen DeGeneres was, for the most part, a good host for the Oscars again. I think they went with a safe bet after last year's host Seth MacFarlane got a pretty mixed reaction from the fans. I thought the Selfie moment was cute and it did what they set out to do. It was indeed the most retweeted picture in the history of Twitter. Just the star power in that picture alone was incredible.

But not every bit in the Oscars worked for me. People wonder why the Oscars are the longest award show of the year. I can sum it up in one word from this year's ceremony. Pizza. I am not sure what that was supposed to accomplish. I laughed once, but I thought the whole skit was pointless, really.

And then there was the John Travolta flub. I don't know if he was nervous or what. But how one goes from Idina Menzel to Adele Dazeem is beyond me. For a guy that has been in Hollywood for almost forty years to not pronounce someone's name is just plain embarrassing.

My final thoughts on the Oscars 2014 are about the names missing from the In Memoriam section. I don't know how names like Cory Monteith, James Avery, Jonathan Winters, Tom Clancy and Dennis Farina were not included. I know the Oscars are about movies, but all of them have been involved in movies in someway or another. Monteith, Winters, Avery and Farina are more known for their work on television than in movies, but they have appeared in movies as well. And without Tom Clancy's novels we would have never gotten Jack Ryan. They were included in the web version of In Memoriam. Maybe if we took some parts out of the pizza bit, we would have been able to honor ALL who passed this year.

Special thanks as always to my wonderful editor and fiancée for once again re-reading my work so I can bring it to you.

79

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.

78

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!