CineDrunk: Emmys & the Best of Television 2016

With TV's glitterati set to honor themselves at the Emmy Awards this coming Sunday, we recently gathered the CineDrunk crew for another (indulgent) TeleDrunk extravaganza/eleganza. 

In an (unsuccessful) effort to avoid inane predictions and meandering discussion, we each crafted a trio of top five lists: our favorite nominations, our favorite performances, and our favorite shows from the 2015-2016 TV season.

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Credit: Bee Raw

Our drink of choice this time 'round comes from the master mixologists at Bee Raw (a company to which we have no affiliation, we swear). Their guide to honey cocktails has made us regulars at the liquor store and given us a new favorite for everyday drinking: the Bee's Knees.

With ingredients this simple, we recommend buying the best quality you can afford. (At the very least squeeze your lemons fresh.) Your tastebuds will... buzz with approval.

Bee's Knees
recipe from Bee Raw

4 parts London Dry Gin
1½ parts lemon juice
1½ parts Bee Raw Honey simple syrup

1. Combine gin, lemon juice and honey simple syrup in a cocktail
mixing glass.
2. Fill halfway with ice and stir until well chilled, about 30
seconds.
3. Strain into a chilled cocktail glass.
4. Garnish with lemon twist.
5. Get your buzz on.

The Creative Arts Emmys were held over the weekend (where Nathan's fifth favorite AND most favorite nomination from this year became a winner), while the main event airs this Sunday, September 18 on ABC. Matt's final predictions to come!

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CineDrunk: Favorite Actors Without Oscar Nominations

Credit: Elizabeth Perrin

Another month, another random match-up to determine our favorite... something. This time, it's our favorite actors who have yet to receive an Oscar nomination.

Our criteria: actors must be alive and working, and have come close to an Oscar nomination in the past or at least been in the awards conversation at some point in their career. Many were considered, but to narrow the field we had to leave a great many talented folks off the list (sorry, Kevin Bacon, Lisa Kudrow, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw).

Our 32 finalists are listed below. Have a listen to discover who emerged victorious!

Modified Martinez
adapted from Saveur

2 oz gin
2 oz dry vermouth
3/4 oz Luxardo maraschino liqueur
a splash of Unicum

Measure all ingredients into a cocktail shaker over ice. Shake vigorously. Strain into a martini glass and enjoy.

Jamie Bell • Maria Bello • Gael Garcia Bernal • Paul Bettany • Emily Blunt • Jim Carrey •
Jeff Daniels • Julie Delpy • Cameron Diaz • Kirsten Dunst • Colin Farrell • Richard Gere •
Jeff Goldblum • John Goodman • Hugh Grant • Oscar Isaac • Allison Janney •
Scarlett Johansson • Michael B. Jordan • Steve Martin • James McAvoy • Ewan McGregor • Catherine O'Hara • David Oyelowo • Guy Pearce • Sam Rockwell • Meg Ryan • Andy Serkis • Martin Sheen • Donald Sutherland • Kristen Wiig • Shailene Woodley

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CineDrunk: Best & Worst of 2016 So Far

The year is half over, which is as good an excuse as any to dust off our ball gowns, fill the champagne flutes and hand out some awards. Oh, first-six-months-of-2016, we barely knew ye.

In the podcast that follows we recount our favorite and least favorite films we've seen so far, and we cook up some new superlatives like Most WTF Moment, Best Ass, and the Goofy Granny Award. (Hint: the winner is one of America's bushiest.) Listen in as we crown the jewels of Winter/Spring with our favorite libations in hand.

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CineDrunk: Favorite 90s Kids' Movies Showdown

We're baaaaaaack! And we're joined by some special guests for this special edition of CineDrunk! Welcome, Nora and Cameron--fellow '90s kids who experienced no small part of their childhoods at the multiplex.

When nostalgia hangs in the balance, a vote against your favorite film can feel like a shot to the heart, so our showdown of '90s kids movies got extra heated. We chose our 32 contenders by popular vote, excluding films already allocated to other brackets. (Home Alone, you went too far in our Holiday Film Showdown. Sorry, Space Jam - hope to see you in our Sports Movies Showdown this summer!) And somehow a 1989 release slipped into the mix, but we'll skip over that in the hopes you won't notice or mind...

Our drink, of course, was an adult Shirley Temple. Lemon/Lime soda, grenadine, and a generous shot (or three) of gin. Like adults do, we got a little rowdy, so apologies for the audio quality near the end (blame a bag of candy someone thought was best to place right next to the microphone). Mix yourself a drink and listen in!

The 32 finalists were: Angels in the Outfield, Beethoven, Blank Check, Casper, Cool Runnings, Dennis the Menace, Dunston Checks In, First Kid, Fly Away Home, Free Willy, Harriet the Spy, Heavyweights, Hocus Pocus, Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey, Honey I Shrunk the Kids, Hook, The Indian in the Cupboard, It Takes Two, Jumanji, A Kid in King Arthur's Court, The Little Rascals, Matilda, The Mighty Ducks, MouseHunt, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Parent Trap, Richie Rich, Rookie of the Year, The Sandlot, 3 Ninjas, Tom & Huck, and The Witches.

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CineDrunk: Final 2015 Oscar Predictions

A drumroll, please. But not from Whiplash, because it would be cruel to remind us of such things.

Nay, a drumroll to announce our final* predictions for the 88th Annual Academy Awards. Drinks in hand, we worked through all 24 categories in a magnanimous effort to help you win your office pool. No need to send us a cut of your winnings. Helping fellow Oscar-obsessives is what we do.

*Final means "subject to change." Set-in-stone predictions to be posted Sunday.

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CineDrunk: Best of 2015 - Top Ten Lists

It's that time of year! We've seen more than one hundred 2015 movies, so it's high time we rank them--unmercifully.

Just kidding, we're as giddy as BB-8 to talk about this impressive crop of films. And we do just that in our latest CineDrunk podcast. Without further ado, our long-awaited top ten episode in which we are drunk on movies, lists, and celery martinis. Cheers!

Celery Martini
(adapted from Saveur)

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2 oz London Dry Gin
1.5 oz lemon juice
1.5 oz dry vermouth
celery salt
lime wedge
celery hearts

Rim a martini glass with lime wedge and celery salt. Fill a cocktail shaker with ice and add gin, lemon juice, and vermouth. Shake vigorously and strain into rimmed glass. Garnish with a celery heart.
 

Watch the blog in the coming days for our full write-ups on the films that were most special to us in 2015. Want more? You can't possibly, but there's more anyway! Below is a short (we promise!) bonus podcast where we discuss even more films we loved from last year, though not quite enough to make any of our lists. Spiked hot chocolate is involved.

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CineDrunk: Favorite Films of 2000

Remember the New Year that fueled our fears of end-of-the-world-caused-by-computer-glitch destruction? The New Year that outsmarted all the math machines on Earth because... math?

Those were innocent times.

Sixteen years later, we're taking a look back at Y2K. We're not quite ready to unveil our list of the best films and performances for the current year (though we're well on our way, with 80 films under our belt).

(Our first thought was to continue with our 2005 retrospective, until we decided we weren't the biggest fans of the films of 2005.)

So instead, we're rolling out our 15th-anniversary celebration of the films of 2000! The first year of this century brought us some great cinema, both popular and indie alike, and we had drunken fun trying to recall our memories from that crop of films.

Y2K Cocktail

• 2 oz cold espresso (we used super-concentrated Vietnamese coffee)
• 1/2 oz Cognac
• 1/2 oz Grand Marnier
• 1/2 oz simple syrup

Stir, strain, and garnish with a twist of orange peel.

SPOILER: Nathan's source for trivia question #3.

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CineDrunk: Top 10 Favorite Oscar Nominations of the Last Decade

Our favorite Thanksgiving related film moment - Addams Family Values

Before the current Oscar season discards or ignores our favorite films and performances, we thought we'd take a moment this holiday weekend to focus on the positive. We love the Oscars, drinks, and lists in almost equal measure, so what better way to celebrate Thanksgiving then by counting down our ten favorite Oscar nominations from the last decade in our latest inebriated podcast! 

We considered every nominee from 2005-2014 in all categories, even films or performances that won. While our tastes aligned much of the time, we were surprised at the diversity in our selections. A few choices seem like no-brainers, but each of our top ten lists provides a personal snapshot of what we're thankful the Academy got right.

You can find the recipe for the mulled wine we were drinking here -- we added 1/2 cup applejack brandy and replaced the star anise with an anise flavored liqueur because of course we did. Enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend or at least the start of the true holidays (Oscar season!), and let us know which nominations from the last ten years you're most grateful for!

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