I Watch Movies, Read Books, and Eat Food

Happy Oscar Day!  For the second year in a row, I'm not really feeling the Oscar race this year.  But unlike last year, I actually do like many of the films that are up, I just didn't get around to watching most of the Best Picture nominees.  I am, however, extremely excited to see Leo FINALLY take it home!!! 10. Ex Machina Creepy as hell!  But very good!  But creepy!  But good!  But oh the nightmares!  So good, though!  When Caleb, an employee at a huge tech company wins a company contest for a week long retreat in the middle of nowhere at the CEO's private resort, he finds himself a participant of a very interesting artificial intelligence experiment.  The CEO, Nathan, played brilliantly by Oscar Issac, has created a robot he calls Ava, played by Alicia Vikander.  Caleb's role is to determine if Ava passes the Turing Test, a test to see if artificial intelligence can pass as human.  The deeper Caleb goes in this experimen...

It's that time of year again!  The Oscars are right around the corner.  And you know what that means.  Kim posts her most and least favorite films of the past year.  First up is my list of least favorite films.  I thought 2015 was a pretty great year for films.  I actually struggled quite a bit making my least favorite list because most of the films I saw from 2015 I liked.  So the first half-ish of this list contain some pretty decent movies.  It doesn't mean I didn't like them, it just means there were movies that I liked more. 10. Jurassic World This is one of those movies that I rather liked, but not more than every other movie I saw, save the final nine on this list.  I'm still shocked that this movie made as much money as it did; I had no idea how many people wanted to see it!  I mean, I like the first Jurassic Park, but I feel like it is one of those franchises that should be put to bed, and I thought most others felt the sam...

Happy Oscar Day!  I am disappointed to report that this is the least excited I have ever been about Oscar Day in my whole life.  Like I said in my previous post, I feel that this was generally a very weak year for movies, and the Oscar race reflects that.  Not one film or person nominated has me that excited.  (I am excited for Ed Norton's nomination, but he won't win, so I feel like what's the point?)  I will watch the Oscars for the fashion, for NPH, and of course for Lady Gaga!  But as far as who wins, I'm not too invested. Here are my top ten favorite films from last year! 10. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Cesar, noooo!!!!  I was surprised how much I liked this movie.  I was expecting to feel meh about it, but I totally dug it!  It has very smart social commentary about how and why societies have enemies and fight wars.  Paranoia and fear, man!  That's how it starts.  You wouldn't think a film about talking apes coul...

Was it just me, or was 2014 one of the worst years for movies in recent memory?  Of course there were good films (every year has at least a few) but when I look back at all the films I saw over 2014, generally speaking, the movies were pretty blah.  Actually "blah" is a good word to describe this list of mine.  Most of the movies weren't terrible, they were just blah. 10. Dumb and Dumber To   I was one of the few who was actually really looking forward to this movie.  I LOVE the original Dumb and Dumber.  It's seriously one of my favorite movies of all time.  To see Harry and Lloyd together again twenty years later?  Sign me up!!  The movie wasn't exactly bad.  I would even go as far as to say that I enjoyed parts of it.  But I didn't enjoy enough of it, and it was missing that something special that made the first film a classic.  I think the thing it was missing was a certain level of innocence.  In the original fi...

In three days, it will be one whole year since I've eaten meat.  I did it, you guys!  I set a nearly unreasonable goal for myself, and I achieved it!  I'm quite proud of myself.  And you know what?  It wasn't THAT bad.  Sometimes it was hard, but most of the time it was a no brainer.  It's definitely more of a psychological exercise than a physical one.  If I got my mind to believe that I didn't need meat, my body would follow through. The hardest part was eating outside of my home.  Eating and cooking at home as a pescetarian was easy.  When I'm in control of my own food, leaving out meat was not a big deal at all.  Going out, and especially going out to friend's houses was the hard part.  I never wanted to be THAT friend.  You know, that friend who's like, "Thank you for cooking this delicious looking BBQ, but would you mind throwing these tofu burgers on the grill?"  I feel very uncomfortable asking people to mak...

Happy Oscar Day, everyone!  Here are my favorite films of 2013!  I hope everyone enjoys the show and I hope the movie stars don't get too cold and wet tonight! *My comments may have what some might consider spoilers.* 10. Don Jon I still refuse to like Scarlett Johansson.  I didn't have high expectations for this one.  I expected it to be amateurish because it was Joseph Gordon Levitt's directorial debut, but I shouldn't have underestimated him!  It's not a particularly original movie - it's about a porn addict who tries to have a normal relationship, but his addiction creates problems - but it's executed very, very well.  It's funny, it's charming, and it's surprisingly human.  The script is really good, and the acting is good as well.  Yes, even Scarlett is good...but I still don't like her! 9. Saving Mr. Banks Snubbed, I tell you!!  Snubbed!!  I understand why Tom Hanks wasn't nominated, I mean he was good, but maybe not the ...