Fortress Of Good Fortune

Yep, it's Oscar Night, my friends! :)

My fave, Christian Bale, is up for Best Actor. Here's hoping he wins. :)

Black Panther is up for Best Picture. I wish Wonder Woman had gotten a chance at that statuette, but I'll be thrilled if BP makes history for the superhero genre by capturing the award.

It is supreme irony that an industry that exists to entertain can't make their showcase awards show diverting. I guess it's the nature of the beast. Awful riffing by actors who can't improvise without a script to save their lives (once in awhile you get an exception), tedious 'comedy' sketches, song-and-dance numbers thrown in...you get the picture. And speeches thanking everyone in the universe isn't too exciting, though this year they tried to speed it up by a crawl screen giving us the particulars for each speech so that the recipient could be quicker. Even with all that, the darned thing ended at 12:05 A.M. EST. Yeesh!

Here's a thought: give us the categories we want (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Supporting Actor, Actress). Throw in Best Director and Original/Adapted Screenplay and Best Costume Design. The rest? Have them join that separate Oscar night. I really don't care about Sound Mixing and whatever. And cut the songs and the painfully unfunny bits. I know, dreaming, right? An awards show that's under two hours? Blasphemy!

I was pleased to catch glimpses of Christian Bale since he was up for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar, though I didn't think he'd win. The heavy favorite was Sly Stallone for Creed, so it was a pleasant surprise when Mark Rylance won for his role in Bridge Of Spies. I wanted BoS to get recognition, and they snagged a major prize. Rylance was exceptional as Rudolf Abel, captured Soviet spy. He and Tom Hanks had great chemistry together. :)

Weird that Mad Max was even nominated for Best Picture. SF movies generally are not. They cleaned up in the technical categories, though. A shame that Cinderella didn't win for Best Costume Design or Bridge Of Spies for Best Set Design. Cinderella's ball gown alone was worth the price of admission! :) And that Berlin Wall set was pretty fantastic in BoS.

I think Chris Rock would have been better served to confine his #OscarsSoWhite comments to his opening monologue. Sometimes less is more.

Spotlight won for Best Picture. Even though it happened in my backyard, I haven't seen it yet. I'll probably catch it when it gets to TV.

Cute to see the kid actor trying to get a better look at the Star Wars droids on-stage. Sometimes even a kid actor is just a kid! :)

Christian isn't doing too badly for himself: three Oscar nominations and one win. Some Hollywood greats got neither!

Some great gowns, Christian looked great, and a few surprises. I drifted in and out of sleep for the latter two hours but saw the highlights. Another Oscars in the books. *yawn*

Hi, luvs!

Yay, my man Christian has been nominated for an Oscar again! *dances* It's for his role in American Hustle, known as the 'Worcester Movie' around these parts because several scenes were filmed in Central Massachusetts.

Quick List of the movie's major nominations:

Best Picture
Best Actor: Christian Bale
Best Actress: Amy Adams
Best Supporting Actor: Bradley Cooper
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence
Best Director: David O. Russell
Best Original Screenplay: Eric Warren Singer & David O. Russell
Best Production Design
Best Costume

Bruce and Lois did well in the nominations! ;)

You can find the whole list of nominees here at: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/academy-awards-2014-nominations-full-list-nominees-article-1.1581641

The film has a decent shot of taking home Best Picture, though I'm not sure they'll win in any other major category except for Jennifer Lawrence as Best Supporting Actress (gods, was she a hoot!). I would love to see Christian take home a second gold statuette, but he's already got one and a second nomination doesn't hurt the ol' career. :)

I do think that Jeremy Renner should have gotten a Best Supporting Actor nomination. He was outstanding as Camden's Mayor Carmen Polito in the film.

American Hustle is a funny, sly film with wonderful '70s trappings and an excellent cast. Go see it if you haven't already! :)

You can check out my review here but it has major spoilers.

Google Chrome took about five hours to download, but it finally did. I just tested making an entry and then editing it. Looks like it works! I'll test again tonight.

Not liking the new editing interface and I'm gonna HATE the new friends list when they don't allow us to keep our own version. But, I'm back in the game (so far) and will probably start posting some stories that I was just not able to do in the past few weeks.

Quickie Oscar notes: loved Anne Hathaway getting an Oscar! She and Christian match now. ;)

Lovely gowns. But is it me or did the red carpet lack star power? Some recognizable stars but kind of meh, too.

Seth McFarland: not my cup of tea.

Bill Shatner as Jim Kirk: I enjoyed the bit! And he doesn't look bad for an 82-year-old guy, either. :)

I did like Argo winning Best Picture and Daniel Day-Lewis winning Best Actor for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln, which I thought was outstanding.

LJ note: I might just post really long stories to A03 in the future. Stuff like the Big Bangs. Just too much aggravation doing it here now and with my poky dial-up...

I can easily import my bookmarks though I might hold off. A lot of them could be discarded and it's kind of cool to have a clean slate to just bookmark really important stuff. ;)

Tom Brady signed a VERY team-friendly contract, signing for less than half his market value in order to keep his team competitive (salary cap). That's my boy! :)

Thanks to all who gave me hugs during my travails. Always appreciated, as were the offers of help! *hugs you all* :)

Last year all of us Christian Bale fans were eagerly awaiting the awards show to see if our guy would win the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Dicky Eklund in The Fighter, and he did! This year I'm more interested in the movies rather than individual actors. Have fun with the poll! :)

[Poll #1821503]

YES!!! CHRISTIAN WON!!!

LOL! It's crazy but that's what being a fan is all about. I did put up the victory salute when his name was announced. *giggles*

He delivered a good speech. So often actors without a script...kinda painful to watch, like Franco and Hathaway. And they had a script!

Aww, Christian got all choked up. And I had to laugh that when he asked where Dicky was, Mr. Eklund shot right to his feet while brother Micky stayed in his seat. Just like the movie! One taking center stage and the other pretty quiet. :)

It would have sucked if he had won all those other awards and not gotten this one, but happily the stars aligned. :)

I could have bailed on the show after Christian won at 9:20, but I was curious to see how the awards went, so I did some writing and then just vegged on the couch for the rest of the evening. I did eat pasta with crushed red pepper sauce (yum!) and enjoyed most of the show, though, as usual, it dragged in spots.

Melissa Leo won for Best Supporting Actress and dropped the F-bomb! Heh! And an 'expert' on the red carpet before the show said that since she had taken out ads promoting her candidacy, she might have blown it. Imagine! Being frowned upon in Hollywood for self-promotion! Who woulda thunk it?

Some people have been saying that Kirk Douglas should not have been on-stage but it seems pretty inspirational to me. The guy's like 94 years old and coming back from a stroke and still able to deliver.

EDIT: svgurl mentioned RDJ and Jude Law presenting together. How could I forget them? They were genuinely amusing, and I'll be happily going to the theater to see the new Sherlock Holmes film this Christmas! :)

Christian may never get another Oscar nomination or statuette but he's won one, and he'll always be known as an Oscar winner.

Congratulations to Christian Bale for snagging an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor! I celebrated by going to see The Fighter again today. LOL! I highly recommend this film!

Now I'm hopelessly behind on e-mails and other stuff, so be assured I'll get to you when I can. :)

I've been sort of turning over some vague desire to write some Steve/Diana (haven't done that in awhile) but nothing yet. This year's Valentine's Day bunny appears to be another couple for now. Oh, well, there's still three weeks 'til V-Day. :)

I just saw The Fighter the other night! Wow! I HIGHLY recommend this movie! Even if you’re not a boxing fan (I’m not), it’s still worth viewing. Christian Bale fans? No prettiness, but Oscar-worthy acting!

( Spoilers all over the place! )

If you enjoy films about family, loyalty, and brotherly love, with genuinely funny moments interwoven with the serious, then this is the film for you. If you’re a Christian Bale and/or Mark Wahlberg fan, go see it. The boxing adds to the drama but doesn’t dominate the film, so being a boxing fan isn’t necessary. I didn’t know the details of Micky Ward’s life, just some things about his career, because I’m not a boxing fan, but when a local boy makes good, you hear about it. :)

This is one of the best films I saw in 2010. Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, and Melissa Leo were all nominated for Golden Globe Awards. Let’s hope they get Oscar nominations, too!