"Pan"

Welcome! I hope everybody had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My Thanksgiving weekend, I got the “privilege” of going to see Pan. So, this is what I am here to review. So, let's begin my review of one of the biggest bombs of 2015.

Background:

I regret to inform you that I didn't have time to do any research on this movie. So, I guess you can hit me with a frying “Pan”.

Plot:

Now, as you know, this is a prequel. It is about Peter Pan first going to Neverland and, for whatever reason, befriending Captain Hook and trying to find who his mother is (it's as predictable as it gets).

Opinion:

Now for my opinion; This movie suffers the terrible curse of being a prequel! And, personally, I don't really understand the point in prequels. Did anybody finish watching “Peter Pan Live!” last year and say; “Gee, that was good...I wonder what happened before.”? Well, apparently WB did because we got this movie. Now, don't get me wrong – I don't hate ALL prequels. Some prequels are good like “Oz: The Great and Powerful”. Of course, there are other prequels that are pretty bad like the “Star Wars” ones. Now, I know you are waited with baited breath to find out what category this falls into...Well, unfortunately it falls into “Star Wars” category.

First off, let's get the good stuff out of the way. The visual effects were really good. Some of the acting was good. The music was pretty good (I wouldn't be surprised if the music gets nominated for best score at the Oscars). Otherwise, the credits were a relief to see! That's about it!

Okay, now we are getting into the worst of the worst (like the Batman movies I have made). First off, you may be wondering; “How is Hugh Jackman in this?”. This is Jackman's WORST performance yet. Now, I really like Hugh Jackman. But here, I didn't like him. He was not playing Blackbeard! He was playing Johnny Depp playing Blackbeard, and I don't like Depp that much (although I did like him in Ed Wood – he was bad in the last 15 movies he's made though). Garrett Hedlund did a pretty decent job as Hook minus the fact that his voice sounded like a mix between the Crocodile Hunter and Jack Nicholson. And there was no inkling of Captain Hook in his performance. And Levi Miller's performance was good besides the fact that Peter Pan had zero personality (not a very good thing for your lead character). And Rooney Mara was datisfactory despite the fact that she is a white actress playing an African American character.

I said earlier that the effects were good. Let me rephrase that; the effects were good...but misused in a couple of places. They were just playing up some parts to the 3-D audience. And the writing is pretty bad, but there was a little plot twist that I didn't expect. But, everything else in the movie is just plain predictable! (Spoiler Alert) We find out the Peter Pan's mom was a fairy princess, but at the beginning of the movie they made her out to be a total idiot. She dropped Pan off as a baby on the doorstep of an orphanage run by a total witch. She's a fairy princess!!! Couldn't she have done her research to find a suitable place for her child to grow up?!? The time period is a bit skewed as well. The time period in all the previous versions of Peter Pan is set in the early 1900s. But, in this one, it is set during World War II (the 1940s). And, that would mean that when Wendy went to Neverland was in the 1950s...But that is the least of my problems with this movie. I never got emotionally invested in the story. So, I think I even dozed off at one point (but only for a moment or two). (spoiler alert) Peter Pan and Captain Hook never became enemies in this movie. I assume that they were saving that for a sequel that will never get made...So, overall, I give Pan one and a half stars (it's below MEH).

And now the answer to the quiz in my last blog. The answer is TRUE. Beauty and the Beast won Best Picture Musical or Comedy in 1992. And now this week's question; What was J.M. Berry's (the creator of Peter Pan) career?

A. Author
B. Playwright
C. Both A and B
D. Homemaker
E. A Representative of the mud people

You can comment or e-mail me (thatbradley@gmail.com) the answer. Goodnight, and Bee Happy!™And Jackman, I love you, but stick to playing Wolverine, bub!

By Mr. Bee 

copyright 2015 Mr. Bee Studio International All rights belong to Mr. Bee and webmaster Wesley M. and if anybody breaks this copyright they will have to spend ten years as my personal slave, and thanks for your understanding. 

images courtesy of  AT&T Inc. and ImmigrationProf Blog

The Annie Awards 2016 Pre - Nominations

We are about 2 weeks away from the nominations for the 43^rd annual Annie Awards. I thought that this blog would be as good as any to give you my predictions. Before I get into my predictions, I would like to tell you that I will only be giving my predictions for the movie categories. Not that I don't like tv or video games, they would just seem out-of-place on my blog. And, since they are not my forte, I would probably get a majority of them wrong. I have only seen two of the movies that we are talking about here. I will tell you what they are later in this blog. Let's begin.

Let's start with the biggest award of the night! Best animated feature. Let's start with the films that I don't think will be on the list. Home: now, it did well in the box office, but it bombed critically. Now, granted, those critics are not the people that nominate Annie Awards – that is done by the professional animators in the industry. Now, I have not seen it (yet), but judging from what I have heard (and seen), it is not the greatest animated movie of the year. But the Annie voters could feel sorry for Dreamworks financial state right now, and throw them a bone. I would estimate Home having a 10% chance of getting in there. The film will get a couple nominations elsewhere in the awards. Steve Martin and Jim Parsons' performances will probably get in there. In addition, it will probably get nominated in several technical categories. The next one that will not get in there is The Spongebob movie The Sponge out of Water. Now this one I have seen. And if you read my blog about it, I enjoyed it. Now, why don't I think it will be in there? Well, judging by what a couple of other critics are saying about the movie, it is far from the best this year. Now, as I've mentioned before, critics are not the best predictors for nominations for awards though. Another thing that hurts its chances is that it was released back in February. The excitement surrounding the movie has died down. So, maybe if it was released this month, it might have a better chance. And, another thing, because it's based on a Nickelodeon show, the Annie voters might look at it as an extension of the show (which I can't argue). But, like I said with Home, it will get nominations elsewhere in the ceremony. Any performance by Tom Kenny will get in there. He will probably get a nomination for the same character in the series. Overall, I think the Spongebob Movie has a 5% chance of getting in.

And, another movie I feel will not be getting in, is Hotel Transylvania 2. Now, why don't I think it will be getting in? The first movie didn't get a nomination. This is based on what I have heard; it is not better than the first. It will be getting nominations elsewhere in the show in some of the technical categories and best story boarding. And now the final movie that I don't think will be getting in, is Regular Show the movie. The big question is where would you nominate it - Because it is a direct-to-DVD movie from the Cartoon Network. It is eligible to get in that category. It did have a very limited release in select categories in Los Angeles in order to be eligible for the category. The question is, will it be nominated. Will they put it with the TV stuff or the movie stuff. Overall, I think that they will probably put it with the TV stuff because it is meant for TV and most likely has low-budget animation. I give it a 3% chance of getting nominated.

Now, for the movies that I do feel will get nominated. Inside Out. This is a movie that I have seen, and it's brilliant. I feel it will not only be getting in but I think it will hands-down win and sweep the awards. There is a 100% for this movie to get nominated. Anomalisa is another movie that I think will be getting in. It “WOWed” critics at several film festivals. Also, it's the kind of artsy material that the Annie voters tend to like. So, I think it will get nominated in several categories an has a 90% chance overall of getting in. The other one is Minions. Minions is the highest-grossing animated movie of the year. But, granted, that does not assure that it gets in, but based on the ticket sales, we do know that it is on the Annie voters' radar. So, it will probably get in in several other categories. So, overall, I say it has an 85% chance of getting in.

Shaun the Sheep movie is probably guaranteed of getting in there as well. Aardman Animation makes Shaun the Sheep, and they have a tendency to get into this category (maybe because they make great movies). In fact, interesting tid-bit here, the academy introduced best animated feature category because of their film Chicken Run. Overall, it has a 100% chance of getting in.

The Boy and the Beast is supposed to be the last Studio Ghibli movie which means it is automatically a shoe-in because the Annie voters can't resist giving them one more nomination. Overall, I feel that it has a 90% chance of getting in.

The Good Dinosaur...well, this is the second Pixar movie released this year. And even though Inside Out has this in the bag (as mentioned), The Good Dinosaur will probably get a nomination here. Overall, I feel that it has a 75% chance of getting in.

And, now my final movie that will get in is the Peanuts Movie. Now, from what I have heard, it is supposed to be the best movie that Blue Sky has made yet. So, hands-down, it will get in there. And the Peanuts are supposed to be going back to their roots in this movie. Overall, I feel that the Peanuts movie has a 95% chance of getting in.

And the nominees are...

• Inside Out
• Peanuts
• Shaun the Sheep
• Anomalisa
• The Boy and the Beast
• The Good Dinosaur
• Minions
• And the last one...to be determined

But, whether or not my predictions are correct, we will have to wait until December 1, 2015 to find out the answer...

And now for the answer to my quiz from my last blog, the answer is TRUE! Steve Martin did get an honorary Oscar in 2013.

And for today's quiz: True or False: Beauty and the Beast won for Best Picture at the Golden Globes?

From all of us here at Mr. Bee's Brilliant Movie Buzz, have a very Happy Thanksgiving and Bee Happy (and enjoy the turkey).

By Mr. Bee  

copyright 2015 Mr. Bee Studio International All rights belong to Mr. Bee and webmaster Wesley M. and if anybody breaks this copyright they will have to spend ten years as my personal slave, and thanks for your understanding.

The Governors Awards 2015

                                                                                   

In case you didn't know, about a week ago, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) held their 7^th annual Governers awards. Now I'm going to take you back a year ago to last year's ceremony. If you remember, I did a long rant about The Academy's stupid choice of live blogging the ceremony. Fast forward to this year's ceremony and you may be wondering what the Academy decided to do this year. Did they live blog it, like they did last year, or did they come to back to their senses and live stream it? Well the answer might surprise you: They did none of the above. They basically held the ceremony in private. The only thing that they did was post it on You-tube the next day. Granted, they might have live streamed it or live blogged it. If they did, it wasn't advertised it on their website very well because the day of/night of/ the ceremony, I dug deep into their website to no avail (I dug so deep that I found Bob Hope's phone number). Instead of doing a big long rant, I am just going to leave it at this: Congrats to Debbie Reynolds, Spike Lee and Gina Rowlands. Goodnight and Bee Happy!™

Now for my quiz : True or False Steve Martin received an Honorary Oscar ? Comment or email me ( @ thatbradley@gmail.com ) your answer

By Mr. Bee   

                                                      

 

copyright 2015 Mr. Bee Studio International All rights belong to Mr. Bee and webmaster Wesley M. and if anybody breaks this copyright they will have to spend ten years as my personal slave, and thanks for your understanding.

The Hollywood Film Awards: Epic Fail

Now, as some of you may know, on November 1, the Hollywood Film Awards were held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. It was live-tweeted on Twitter. Now, if you have been reading my blog since last November, you may know that I did a huge rant about the Academy's choice to do a live blog to cover the Governors' Awards. And, if you read the blog, you would know that I was “none to happy” about it. Here again, this is the very identical thing.

Last year the Hollywood Film Awards were broadcast on live TV for the first time. However, after horrible ratings, they got demoted to a live twitter feed. Now, first off, doing this on twitter it automatically limits your audience because not everyone has a twitter account. There were a couple of things that I could see without a twitter account...but I don't know how much I couldn't see as I do not have a twitter account. Secondly, this leads to another problem; to get through the entire show, you would have to wait 2 hours until after the show was actually over (I may be over-exaggerating a tad) because doing something like this makes them have to post things in multiple segments so you have to wait a long time to see all of it while they're posting it. WHO HAS THAT KIND OF TIME?! I know I don't! Thirdly, in all awards shows there are heart-wrenching moments. And to deny people the right to see that is just inexcusable! Apparently, one of the winners got a standing ovation...but I couldn't see it because it was not shown and I WASN'T AT THE CEREMONY (and, unfortunately, it did not end up on youtube). Only about 3 parts of the entire ceremony went viral for the general public (Amy Schumer winning, Vin Diesel's speech for Fast 7 and Straight out of Compton winning for best casting and part of James Cordin's monologue...those are the only parts that I could see!)

So, on to a more pleasant show topic; The Hollywood Film Awards, as they say, is the start of “awards season”! So, here's some of my quick-picks on the movies going to the Oscars. The Martian will definitely get in there and The Sufferagette may have a chance at the best picture...but it is not doing so well at the box office. This may be weird for me to say, but Inside Out will definitely get in and win best animated feature and it also has a small chance for getting nominated for best picture (winning is another story). I am saying this because I think this year will be a year with 10 nominees for best picture because of the Academy's ratings last year being sub-par.

Now here is the answer to my quiz from the last blog: Louie B. Mayer is the founder of the academy...The person who got it right will get to request a movie that I will review. Goodnight, and Bee Happy!™

By Angry Mr. Bee 

copyright 2015 Mr. Bee Studio International All rights belong to Mr. Bee and webmaster Wesley M. and if anybody breaks this copyright they will have to spend ten years as my personal slave, and thanks for your understanding.