Oscars 2011!

Yay! It's that time of year again! The Academy Awards are just around the corner!

I'm pretty excited! I love the Oscars! They're so fun to predict and finally the nominees have been released!

But I was surprised to find how many snubs as well as surprises there were this year!

So, I think I'll start in the "Best Picture" category. The nominees are:

The Black Swan

 

The Fighter 

Inception

The Kids Are All Right

The King's Speech

127 Hours

The Social Network

Toy Story 3

True Grit

Winters Bone

There aren't any surprises here, all the movies were very high Oscar contenders. Though I don't really have an opinion, since I've only seen Inception and The Kids Are All Right, (In my defense 127 Hours comes out here in two weeks The Black Swan came out last week and The Fighter is coming out in a week and I don't even know when True Grit and The Kings Speech are coming out) but from what I've heard my bet is, it's gonna' be The King's Speech. With 12 nominations it seems to be the most promising in the bunch, also it's a war movie which seems to fly well with the academy (The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, Avatar etc...). Otherwise I think The Social Network has a good chance, though I was surprised to find it was only nominated in 8 categories even though I thought it might reach 12 like The King's Speech. Personally I'd like Inception to win, since I think it should have received more than just 8 nominations.

In the Best Actor category following nominees have been announced:

Jeff Bridges in True Grit

Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network

Colin Firth in The King's Speech

James Franco in 127 Hours

Javier Bardem in Biutiful

Okay, so James Franco, Colin Firth, Jesse Eisenberg and Jeff Bridges were sort of predictable, but Javier Bardem?! Who saw that coming? I actually think it's pretty cool that he was nominated and would really like him to win, even though I think this one's probably going to Colin Firth. That is, him or James Franco. I don't think they'll give Jeff Bridges a second one in a row and I personally feel annoyed by Jesse Eisenberg so, my bet's on those three. I have a question though, why didn't Leonardo DiCaprio get nominated for Shutter Island? Why does the academy hate him? It's almost impossible to be such an awesome actor, get nominated three or four times and not win! I was really disappointed after reading the list of Best Actor nominees and not finding him on there!

Another major category is the one for Best Actress, the nominees are:

Annette Bening in The Kids Are All Right

Nicole Kidman in Rabbit Hole

Natalie Portman in The Black Swan

Jennifer Lawrence in Winter's Bone

Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine

The actresses in this category are less predictable, except for Natalie Portman in The Black Swan, she probably will even win the oscar. Although I want either Jennifer Lawrence or Michelle Williams to win. I haven't seen Blue Valentine, but Michelle Williams is a very good actress and therefore I trust in the fact that she has what it takes. As for Annette Bening and Nicole Kidman there has been less hype about them than the others, therefore I think they have a lesser chance. On the other hand I watched The Kids Are All Right and Annette Bening was very convincing as a lesbian, so it's really anyone's game.

Moving on. Next is the Best Supporting Actor's category, the nominees are:

Christian Bale in The Fighter

John Hawkes in Winter's Bone

Jeremy Renner in The Town

Mark Ruffalo in The Kids Are All Right

Geoffrey Rush in The Kings Speech

This category has the most surprises in my opinion. Aside from Christian Bale and Geoffrey Rush, who both gave exceptional performances, I wouldn't have thought any other of these actors would have been nominated. Because of the great praise and Golden Globe Christian Bale got for his believable drug addict performance in The Fighter I think he'll take home the gold, though I'd really like it to be Jeremy Renner, since he was practically robbed last year or Geoffrey Rush, because he's pretty cool. Otherwise Mark Ruffalo also acted very well in The Kids Are All Right , as for John Hawkes, I had never heard of him before this nomination and haven't watched Winters Bone, so I can't really judge...

Now to the Best Supporting Actresses:
Amy Adams in The Fighter

Helena Bonham Carter in The King's Speech

Melissa Leo in The Fighter

Jacki Weaver in Animal Kingdom

Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit

And more shockers, with the nominations of Hailee Steinfeld (who I'm so jealous of) and Jacki Weaver. Although it's been said that it's really only between Melissa Leo and Amy Adams I beg to differ, I think all of the contenders have a fair chance, though it'd be cool if Hailee Steinfeld, being only 14 or Jacki Weaver, being totally new to the academy, winning. Otherwise I love Helena Bonham Carter, so I'd like her to win too. So when it comes to the Supporting Actresses of this year, I'm neutral.

Now for the last category I'm blogging about: the Best Animated Picture Category.
(I know, most people would have chosen the Best Director category, but it amounts to the same thing as Best Picture)
Anyways, here are the contenders:
Toy Story 3

The Illusionist

How to train your Dragon

The reason I'm blogging about this category is because we all know Toy Story 3 has this one in the bag, but I'd really like The Illusionist to win. Even though it's the Secret of Kells of this year, it's very amusing and nicely made. Therefore I would just like to express my sadness towards that fact.

On a more brighter note, I've started a poll about whom you think should win. Please vote!
Regards,
Elle

Sick Day #3 @ home

Hi,
Still sick...
Feeling better though...
So, this morning, after I woke up and read my book for a while, my parents informed they were going to take a walk. So, because I felt very weak and my book's almost done, I decided to watch one of the five movies in my aforementioned post: Land of the Lost.
Land of the Lost revolves around Dr. Rick Marshall (Will Ferrell), who studies time warps and is an outcast in the science world. The movie starts on the "Today Show with Matt Lauer", where Rick and Matt have a dispute. 3 years later Dr.Rick teaches science at an elementary school. It is there that Holly Cantrell (Anna Friel) finds him and asks him to make the tachyon amplifier which he presented to the kids at the school. At first he refuses, until she shows him a fossil with an imprint of a cigarette lighter that he recognizes as his own, along with a crystal she wears around her neck that gives off strong tachyon energy. He later makes the tachyon amplifier and they go off on a routine expedition to the place where Holly had found the fossil and crystal. The place is a run down "theme park" of some sort and in order to get into the cave,  they have to take a ride through it with it's quirky owner Will (Danny McBride) . In the ride Rick turns on the tachyon amplifier  which catapults them sideways through time in space, to a place where past, present and future meet, a.k.a "the Land of the Lost".
This movie is funny - mostly because I watched it with my mom, who bursts out laughing each time Will Ferrell shows up on screen - but also because of Danny McBride, that guy's hilarious! One of my favorite scenes is when Chaka gives them those fruits, which make them high!
The only thing I thought was stupid, was Holly and Dr.Marshall getting together. She's like 20 and he' 45 or 46 or so! That's just wrong...
Wait a second...
My brother was just randomly chosen amongst 200 others to choose the blogs from the categories:
- Best African Weblog
- Best-Designed Weblog
- Best Fashion or Beauty Weblog
- Best Group or Community Weblog
- Most Humorous Weblog
- Lifetime Achievement
- Best Parenting Weblog
- Best Weblog about Politics
- Best Topical Weblog
- Best Writing of a Weblog
Yay!
I guess I'll help him choose...
This is so exciting!
I'm gonna' read through all of these!
Gotta' go!
Elle
P.S.: The only reason I put an @ in the title is because I wanted to see how it looked...
P.P.S.: I MADE 1000 PAGEVIEWS YAY!!!

Still Sick :(

So I'm still sick- and I feel worse... :(
But I watched Legend of Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole and it was really good! It's totally exciting, I think this is probably the best animated movie of the year or even all time! (but I could be wrong...)
But seriously, it's about an owl named Soren (cool name!) and his brother Kludd, who get kidnapped by the "Pure Ones" when they were practicing flying. After they are taken away to the scary Pure Ones hideout, Soren and his new friend Gyfie are assigned to be "Pelletiers" (a.k.a they have to pick apart owl pellets for metal "flecks,"which are piled together into a frightening sci-fi mass of blue energy seems to afflict the owls with pain). They and a bunch of other owls are told to fall asleep while looking into the moon which somehow brainwashes them. ! Soren and Gylfie however don't follow orders and are saved. After that they manage to escape with the help of one of the "Pure Ones", but Kludd turns evil, having been chosen as on of the "Warriors", which he enjoys. 
Soren and Gylfie however are told to fly to "The Guardians", the enemies of the "Pure Ones" (a.k.a the good guys). 
I'm afraid I've already given too much away, but you guys should totally watch it!
It's one of the most epic sibling rivalry movies of the year/decade/age!  I really liked it.....
And it was animated! Okay... so maybe not age or decade, but definitely year! 



So, if you're sick (or even healthy) and feel like a cool animated movie, I would strongly recommend this!


Anyways, I have to get crackin' on my French,
Regards,


Elle

Sick :(

Hey Guys,
It's flu season and guess what? I' sick :(
I already felt it yesterday, but today it really hit me, so I went home early from school, puked my guts out and now I'm here, in my living room on the couch, on my mom's laptop ('cause she won't give me one 'till I'm 15 >:( ...) blogging in my misery and boredom...
But after spending two hours reading my book, I've decided it's time for some on-screen entertainment and I've gathered all interesting movies I wouldn't mind watching or haven't watched in decades, from the upstairs cabinet, since my sister and our math tutor are blocking me from the downstairs one, with all the good movies in it...
So the movies I found are but five:
-Zoolander (so funny)
-Hidalgo (haven't watched that in ages)
-Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (Steve Martin :))
-Land of the Lost ('cause Will Ferrell's hilarious)
-Pirates of the Caribbean 1 (also haven't seen that since my tenth birthday party)
And, since my mom doesn't want me to watch anything sad or brutal and apple-TV doesn't offer that many movies I haven't seen I started downloading "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole", since the fight sequences are supposed to be pretty sick, for an animated movie.
It's almost 5:00 p.m and I'm starting with "Zoolander". See you in 85 minutes!

I was in the middle of "Zoolander", when I got a phone call from my friend asking me how I was, which is why I'm blogging again.
Until now my favorite things about this movie are:
- The Hansel theme song, which plays each time he comes from a ghetto blaster held by a person in his entourage
- The Mugatu building and it's inside, because it's freakin' awesome!
 Sorry, no better picture...
- Mugatu --> WTF!?

- Derek's gay outfits

- The British rasta DJ-guy

- The "Kill the prime minister of Malaysia!" video

Okay, the movie's done now, so funny! ;) Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson are really young!
So is Will Ferrell!
To conclude my list from before, I also loved:
- Hansel's place
- Mugatu's throwing star shaped like an "M"

- The song "Relax" from "Frankie goes to Hollywood", I think I'll buy that on iTunes...
- The "Derek Zoolander Center for kids who can't read good and want to learn to do other stuff good too"


After having eaten dinner (soup...), I am now back on the couch, surrounded by used tissues and a bucket. I might take a nap now or maybe watch "Legend of the Guardians"... I dunno.
Since I have nothing better to do, I'll probably be back tomorrow,
Regards,
A very tired Elle ;)

Resumé

Hey guys...
Just wanted to ask you something...
I'm trying to land an extra role (or maybe something bigger if I can) in a movie and I've been working on my resumé, so I wanted to ask you guys if you think it's good enough.
I've decided where I live doesn't matter, I'll make it somehow!
But for now, what do you think of my resumé?
Do you think I have enough experience?
(I've left out name, height and weight, but it will be on my resumé)

Acting experience

Theatre:

*Played the lead role of “Man dressed in Black” in my school’s production of “Die Zeitreise” (Timetravel)

*Played the lead role of “Alex” in Daniela Rüetz’ musical production of “Brainstorm” * Played the featured role of Dawn Star/ Raven in my school’s production of “Die Sieben Raben” (The Seven Ravens)

* Played the supporting role of elephant #3 in Daniela Rüetz’ musical production of “Das Dschungelkind” (adaptation of The Junglebook)

*Played the supporting role of Cheerleader in Daniela Rüetz’ musical production of “High School Musical”

Link: http://www.musikschulekuesnacht.ch/ --> Musicalabteilung

Education:

*Middle school drama club

*Daniela Rüetz’ musical group Küsnacht

Training:

*Took voice lessons from Daniela Rüetz

Special Skills:

Fluent in German, swimming, ice-skating, German accent, typing

So what do you think?

Did I do a good job of making it look like more than it really is?

Leave Comments, please!

Elle

2010

2010 is almost over, when I finally post this, it probably will be over.
2010 was a great year, a lot of things happened, like the tallest man-made structure, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was opened on January 4.

On January 15, the longest annular solar eclipse of the 3rd millennium occurred.
See wikipedia: Solar eclipse of January 15, 2010


On February 3 the sculpture L'Homme qui marche 1 by Alberto Giacometti was sold in London for £65 million. This is the sculpture depicted on the swiss 100 franc note.
    


The Winter Olympics were held in Vancouver and Whistler, Canada from February 12 until February 28.
 




Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for Best Director (the first woman to win this award)

Jeff Bridges (Best Actor), Christoph Waltz (Best Supporting Actor), Sandra Bullock (Best Actress) and Mo' Nique (Best Supporting Actress) won Oscars too

The 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa was won by Spain (sadly my father is Dutch).


    


On October 13, the 33 miners stuck 700 meters underground in a mining accident in San José Mine, are saved after 69 days down there.



I started this blog! :)



The Burmese opposition politician Aung San Suu Kyi is released from house arrest.



The first total lunar eclipse since 1638 takes place on December 21.



Sadly, as well as good things, bad thing occurred also, like the earthquake in Haiti on January 12...
Or the earthquake in Chile , which triggered a tsunami over the Pacific on February 27...
  
Volcanic ash from under the ice cap Eyjafjallajökull disrupts air traffic...

The Deepwater Horizon oil platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, it is one of the largest oil spills in history on April 20...
   
Greece went bankrupt (sadly my mother is Greek)...

Wikileaks leaks information to the public over 90,000 internal reports about the United States-led involvement in the War in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010 ...



J.D. Salinger, author of Catcher in the Rye died :(

Alexander McQueen hanged himself :(

Steve Lee, lead singer of Gotthard (and one of the few famous Swiss people) died in a freak accident :(



My Top 10 Movies of 2010:
To help me with this  difficult choosing is my secret special guest - me! No not me... she likes to call herself me... *exasperation*... I know!
10. Alice in Wonderland

To tell the truth, this movie is only on this list because I couldn't think of any other movie to fill this place, my hopes were high for this movie. But I was disappointed with the outcome... As much as wanted to like this movie, because I think Tim Burton's totally awesome, I just couldn't! I didn't like Johnny Depp's character at all! I just wanted to punch him in his stupid, annoying face!

Surprisingly I only liked Alice and the bunny.

9. The Losers

Surprisingly I didn't hate this movie, in fact it was pretty good. I've gotta' say, I liked the whole cast, the only thing that I thought was a little stupid was that the hot 20 something-year old went for the old, battered dude! Yeah right! But it was entertaining and funny and the action scenes were pretty cool! Now, I wouldn't buy this, but for a long flight I would highly recommend it!

8. The Ghostwriter

Another movie which surprised me was the Ghostwriter! I was awaiting something totally weird and boring, but it was actually exciting and the end was totally unexpected! During the whole movie I was nervous, because I had no idea what was going to happen! I have to say it's a good movie, though I'll probably never watch it again...

7. Despicable Me

I have to say, this movie was exactly what I suspected it would be, but nonetheless it was a good movie. It was cute and funny and all in all entertaining. The only things I didn't really like were Gru's (Steve Carrel's) annoying accent and the fact that it had more than one plot. It was about a villain who adopted three girls, the same villain trying to steal the moon and again the same villain and his rivalry with another villain who looks like Bill Gates all at the same time! So at times it seemed like scenes were cut short so they could flip to the rest of the other plot. Otherwise, as said before, it was a cute and funny animated family movie which I might watch again with my little brother...

6. Grown Ups

I can't say that this is my favorite comedy movie, but it was very amusing and I didn't hate it. There were a few hilarious parts and a few stupid ones... But all in all a good watch!

5. Iron Man 2

Iron Man 2 was not what I expected... I thought it'd be a totally bad-ass movie, with epic battles and an awesome villain. I was only right on the last part...

To tell the truth, this movie bored me a bit, the only reason it's so far up my list is because of Mickey Rourke. Whiplash was pretty cool! To tell the truth I was more on his side than on Iron Man's...

Otherwise there were some other cool parts, but all in all I was disappointed because the first one was so good... Mickey Rourke, Tony Stark finally getting together with Pepper Pots and some other scenes made up for this, though and landed it on Number 5 of my top 10 list.

4. Get him to the Greek

This has got to be one of the funniest movies of the year, if not the funniest!

Russell Brand is hilarious and so is Sean "Diddy" Combs!

And even though I didn't really care about Jonah Hill's character, he did a good job as the straight man. 

Also, Russell Brand can sing really well! I was surprised! Well, if it was him who was really singing... and what a great name for a band: Infant Sorrow!

And also, the African Child video was really funny! 

I actually bought this movie, because although it's dirty it's very entertaining!

3. The Other Guys

Okay, so the reason I watched this movie was, as previously mentioned, my sister loves Mark Wahlberg and my whole family's a huge Will Ferrell fan!

And to tell the truth, it was much funnier than I expected! 

Especially the "bad cop/bad cop" routine!

me: I LOVED IT TOO!

(and not just because Mark Wahlberg was in it!) 

elle: no she means it!

me: mmmhmm!

elle: Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg are a great team, after a while you can really see their friendship grow!

me: *swoon*

elle: the man is 40

me: you got a problem with that! Let me just say how many people love... him...

elle: him?

me: don't make me say his name.

elle: ohh .. HIM! George Clooney. 

me: ...

elle: I see your point!

me: HE IS OLD AND ANNOYING! 

elle: i know...

me: So don't get mad at me!

2. Shutter Island

I am a total Leonardo DiCaprio fan, so of course I had to watch this movie and it's awesome!

It's just suspense from the beginning until the end!

And also I really liked Mark Ruffalo and Michelle Williams too!

The only critique I have is that towards the beginning, there's this dead guy, who just looked really fake...

But to tell the truth, I was actually kind of happy, because I didn't want to have to see some gross, scary body either.

Also, Leo's German wasn't that bad! I was impressed!

me: It was a great movie, because it wasn't too scary, sad (ooh his poor wife *sniff*... actually poor LEO!) 

elle: on we go!

1. Inception

Like so many other top ten lists, my number one is Inception.

As said before, I'm a Leonardo DiCaprio fan and this movie is pretty cool!

And all the detail they put in this movie is also impressive. I don't think I've ever seen a movie so thought-through!

And I actually liked the whole cast, I think from all the movies this year, this one had the best cast, they worked really well together!

Of course it was going to be my nr. 1 choice!

me: agree! 

me: so deep!

elle: xD

Anyway I hoped you liked my top 10 list and thank you to my dear friend, whose real name shall remain unknown, me!

me: Thank you and your welcome! ^^

So Happy New Year!

Or, as they say in Switzerland: Guten Rutsch ins Neue Jahr!

Elle :)

P.S.: Sorry, I didn't watch that many movies this year, but in my defense everything comes out later here!