January 14, 2016

2015 Oscar Nominations Reactions

January 14, 2016/ Matt

They're heeeeere! Nominations for the 88th Annual Academy Awards were announced today, and it was The Revenant that came out on top with a whopping 12 nominations. Close behind was Mad Max: Fury Road with 10 well-deserved mentions. As is always the case with Oscar, there were a handful of surprise inclusions and a few jaw-dropping snubs. So let's dig in to see how I fared with my predictions and what the CineDrunk team thinks of it all.

Have a listen to our initial reactions below, and also subscribe to CineDrunk on iTunes. Read on for the list of nominations and prediction results.

January 13, 2016

Final 2015 Oscar Nominations Predictions

January 13, 2016/ Matt

The day we've all been waiting for has arrived! Or maybe just me and a handful of other nerds, I guess. The 88th Annual Academy Awards nominations will be announced Thursday morning in two batches beginning at 8:30am ET (you can view both announcements live at the Oscars website or the second announcement on most major news programs at 8:38am ET). The nominees will be announced live in all 24 categories by directors Guillermo del Toro and Ang Lee, actor John Krasinski, and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs.

2015 delivered an abundance of quality films (we here at CineMunch will have our top ten lists and year-end superlatives ready for the public early next month), and I'm hopeful this year's crop of nominees reflect that quality. Knowing the Oscars though, they probably won't (I'm looking in your direction, Helen Mirren). Some of this year's categories are the most fluid and difficult to predict I've ever encountered in my 15+ years of prognosticating (Best Supporting Actor is wildly competitive), so there are bound to be some surprises.

Unlike my impressive performance last year (where I placed first on awards betting site GoldDerby out of more than 3,000 participants and experts), I expect to do considerably less well this year. I'll predict my overall prediction accuracy rate is somewhere around 72%. Look at me predicting my own predictions - someone stop me! Read on for my final nominations predictions.

January 10, 2016

2016 Golden Globe Awards Predictions

January 10, 2016/ Matt

'Tis the season! It's Golden Globes night! Hollywood's best and brightest stars of the screen, both big and small, will file into the Beverly Hills Hilton and get drunk for our amusement. Some awards will be handed out (as determined by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association), and host Ricky Gervais will likely make many in the audience uncomfortable. Denzel Washington will receive this year's Cecil B. DeMille Lifetime Achievement Award. So grab a drink or four, follow along with us on Twitter @CineMunch throughout the telecast (starting at 8pm ET on NBC), and read on for my foolhardy predictions for the 73rd Annual Golden Globe Awards!

November 16, 2015

CineDrunk: 2015 Fall Movies Thus Far

November 16, 2015/ CineMunch

With November half gone, we've been busy at the cineplex as we work our way through the list of our most anticipated films of the season. This week we're discussing a handful of fall movies that may or may not factor into the fast approaching Oscar race. In honor of the season, our inspired cocktail was either titled the "Flouncy Flirty Fall Philanderer" or the "Clea DuFall."

Gin and Poached Pear Tonic
1 part gin
1 part tonic
1 part poached pear juice (find your own recipe b/c we're not helping)
1 sprinkle-dinkle cayenne pepper
1 small squeeze fresh lime juice

Pour gin, tonic, and pear juice over ice and stir. Add cayenne and lime juice. Garnish with lime, poached pear, or 1st Place Sash from the World Bartender Championships. Enjoy!

Films Discussed in This Episode:
00:00   Intro & Drink Recipe
03:21   The Martian
13:17   Goodnight Mommy
18:21   Room
29:06   Black Mass
33:54   Everest
37:51   Crimson Peak
45:39   Sicario
49:05   Bridge of Spies
1:02:50   Steve Jobs