POLL Results: The KT Community’s Best Film of 2016 is…….

After a month of frenzied voting, the leader never changed, and the Killing TIme Community has officially selected Rogue One: A Star Wars Story as their Best Film of 2016.  Of the 15 possible nominees, 12 received votes, showing the depth of quality movies from last year.  This marks the second consecutive year that a Star Wars film has won the top community prize, giving Disney a perfect record since they took over the franchise (I wouldn’t count out The Last Jedi taking 2017).

POLL: BEST FILM OF 2016 (5th Annual KT Reader’s Awards)

2016 was an absolutely brilliant year for movies, and now it is time for the Killing Time Community to do their yearly duty and anoint one movie as the BEST FILM OF 2016.  I do my own yearly awards (The Renaissance Film Awards) just before the Oscars, so this is the readers’ pick; YOUR pick.  Will you follow the critics toward La La Land, Arrival or Hacksaw Ridge?  Will you pick a summer favorite like Finding Dory, Captain America: Civil War or The Jungle Book?  Will a Star Wars film win for the second year running with a vote for Rogue One? Or will you just put forth MAXIMUM EFFORT and give Deadpool the recognition the Academy denied it?

Here are how the 15 finalists for the award were chosen: I took the nine films the Academy nominated for Best Picture, added the next three highest ranked by my personal list, and then added the top two box office earners not covered by either previous category (and then I threw in Deadpool for kicks and giggles because anarchy amuses me).  All year you endure my yakking about my opinions, but this is your award.  This is our most important poll of the year, so VOTE!  The winner will be announced on February 24, 2017, (Oscar Eve), and will join the hallowed ranks of these past winners:
2012: The Dark Knight Rises 
2013: Gravity
2014: Guardians of the Galaxy 
2015: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
2016: ?????????????????

PS – Forward this around or direct your fellow movie lovers to the Killing Time homepage (https://justkillingti.me) to cast their votes.  We want to get as many as possible for the biggest KT Community event of the year!

2017 Oscar Nominations Announced: “Or La La Land and Some Other Films

This morning, the nominations for the 89th Academy Awards were announced and, as expected, La La Land lead the way with 14 nominations, which ties Titanic and All About Eve for the most in Oscar history.  It literally cannot win more than 13 (it has two songs nominated), but if it walks away with less than 10 I’ll be shocked.  The biggest snub on the entire list is Amy Adams inexplicably being left off the Best Actress list, but Arrival still tied for the second most nominations with Moonlight, each film getting 8 nods.  Hacksaw Ridge and Lion each received six nominations.

For geeks, Rogue One got two nominations as did Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but nothing for Captain America: Civil War or Deadpool, but Suicide Squad got one nomination.  Oh Oscars, you always me confused beyond belief.  No Finding Dory for Best Animated film…..but an animated film is nominated for Best Special Effects?  One nomination for The Jungle Book?  And, I will certainly be rooting for Emma Stone come Oscar night because the only two performances on her level in Arrival were Amy Adams (SERIOUSLY?) and Hailee Steinfeld in The Edge of Seventeen, which was also completely shut out

The 89th annual Academy Awards, hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, will air live on ABC from the Dolby Theatre at the Hollywood & Highland Center on Sunday, Feb. 26, at 8:30 p.m. ET/5:30 p.m. PT.  The only way I can stay sane when the Oscars do what they always do, is to have my own, which we do annually on the site, and The Renaissance Film Awards (or the Rennys as people in the biz call them) will be posted during Oscar Week.  Now here’s the complete list of categories and nominees (I was going to go through and analyze who will win each category, but here’s a quick and dirty way: if La La Land is nominated in the category, there is an 85 – 100% chance of it winning that category, except for the Oscar that Casey Affleck will get for one of the most overrated movies in recent memory.

2017 Golden Globes: All the Winners!

 

 

Anyone looking to the Golden Globes to shed light on what is one of the murkiest Oscar races in memory walked away with a definite leader, but typical Globes wacky results.  Going into the show there was a pack of five or six films running about even with La La Land and Manchester by the Sea a bit ahead of the others.  The small indie drama Moonlight took home best drama but La La Land regained leader status by winning for best musical or comedy, as well as wins for Director, Actress, Actor, Screenplay, Song, and Score.  When the Oscar nominations are announced, it seems clear that La La Land is going to dominate.  On the TV side, new shows The Crown and Atlanta were honored for drama and comedy as well as for their stars, Claire Foy and Donald Glover.  Read the complete list of nominees and winners below courtesy of Coming Soon.

Movie Review: Manchester by the Sea (2016) *Somebody Please Drown Me*

Most films I go see in the theater, I go because I have some interest in them.  Around this time of year, I try to go to see most of the award front runners primarily because of this blog (get ready to shoulder some blame), and that’s why I found myself sitting through 147 of the pointless, rambling misery that is Manchester by the Sea rather than standing in the sold out line for Rogue One for the third time.  I don’t want to mince words, because I honestly cannot spend more than a few minutes more dwelling on this pointless wreck.  Manchester is boring, uncomfortable, awkward, unsympathetic, weirdly directed, poorly scored, and all-around the worst film I paid to see in a theater in the last three years.