Review – The Revenant

Genre: Drama
Certificate: 15
UK Release Date: 15th January 2016
Runtime: 156 minutes
Director: Alejandro González Iñárritu
Writer: Alejandro González Iñárritu, Mark L Smith
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, Will Poulter, Domhnall Gleeson, Forrest Goodluck, Paul Anderson
Synopsis: A fur trapper is left for dead by his colleagues when he is mauled almost to death by an angry bear.

 

 

Much of the publicity for The Revenant has focused on one of two things. First, there was the bizarre, and erroneous, reports that the film contained a scene of rape by a bear. More importantly, though, this will likely be the film that finally nets Leonardo DiCaprio his elusive Academy Award. With Birdman director Alejandro G. Iñárritu at the helm, this is a brutal tale of human survival against the forces of nature.

Golden Globes 2016: The Revenant sweep could lead Leonardo DiCaprio to Oscar glory

Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant

 

It was a big night for The Revenant yesterday in Hollywood, as the Golden Globes 2016 were handed out. Alejandro G Inarritu’s survival drama was the ceremony’s biggest winner, scooping the gongs for Best Picture – Drama, Best Actor – Drama for Leonardo DiCaprio and Best Director for Inarritu. Given the film’s Globes success, speculation will inevitably turn to whether the film can similarly triumph at the Oscars next month. After four nominations over the course of two decades, could this finally be DiCaprio’s year?

Few people had The Revenant earmarked for such a comprehensive sweep. Conventional wisdom suggested that Tom McCarthy’s journalism drama Spotlight would win the night’s biggest prizes, but it seems as if that film’s lack of nominations in the acting categories cost it dearly.

2014 Oscars: The Big Best Picture Row

The Best Picture award and the rest of the 2014 Oscars will be announced on March 2 at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood
Photo: Cliff

 

We’re getting very close to the 2014 Oscars now. There’s only a couple of weeks to go until Ellen DeGeneres presents the glitzy Hollywood ceremony, allowing the stars to pat themselves on the backs and celebrate the successes of the year.

I’ll be doing a lot of coverage in the run-up to the awards, including predictions and information on the nominees.

But first, I’ve recruited a crack team of guest writers to argue the case for each of the nine films up for the big award of the night – Best Picture.

And I think I win the prize for having the only Oscars post named in the style of a primetime Channel 5 slanging match.

Another year, another load of hilariously honest posters for the 2014 Oscars nominees

The build up to the 2014 Oscars continues at full pace, with awards hopefuls whoring themselves out to voters in abundance. Meanwhile, the rest of us are trying to predict the most open ceremony in years and talking about who didn’t get nominated.

As an antidote to the seriousness, the lovely folks over at The Shiznit have produced another hilarious crop of truth-telling posters, just as they did last year.

Review – The Wolf of Wall Street

Genre: Crime/Comedy 
Certificate: 18
UK Release Date: 17th January 2014
Runtime: 180 minutes
Director: Martin Scorsese
Writer: Terence Winter
Starring: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jonah Hill, Margot Robbie, Matthew McConaughey, Jean Dujardin, Kyle Chandler, Rob Reiner
Synopsis: A young stockbroker builds a multi-million dollar firm around playing the system, fuelling a lifestyle of drink, drugs and debauchery.

 

 

This year, American Hustle gave us an elegant pastiche of the work of Martin Scorsese. But now, the real thing has arrived in the shape of epic true life crime comedy The Wolf of Wall Street, which is three hours of unadulterated, ludicrously entertaining decadence.

2014 Oscars: Predicting the Academy Award nominations

It’s that time of year again. We’re right in the midst of awards season and the nominations for the 2014 Oscars are set to be announced by Thor star Chris Hemsworth at a press conference on Thursday afternoon.

And because it’s that time of year, I’m going to hop up on my soapbox and have a crack at predicting those nominations for the eight biggest awards.

Following some unexpected results at the Golden Globes on Sunday night, this is a far more open awards season than we have had for a few years, which makes this very difficult.

Note: All lists are in alphabetical order.

Review of 2013: Top 10 supporting acting performances of the year

In the second part of my round-up of the acting performances of 2013, I’m casting the spotlight on the ten best supporting performances of the year.

Some of them are going to be in the mix for awards season in the next few weeks and, due to funky UK release schedules, some were there last year. And then there are some that won’t even come close to a statuette, but were just as brilliant.

Here we go, as my Review of 2013 continues.

Top 10: Films not to miss in January 2014

As we leave 2013 behind, we look forward to the first cinematic wonders that 2014 has in store. January and February are rich with the big movers and shakers of the awards season, including many of the candidates for the Best Picture prize at the 2014 Oscars.

So, in a new regular feature here at The Popcorn Muncher, these are the top ten films you should see over the course of January.

It’s a packed month, so otherwise interesting stuff like the new Paranormal Activity film and the Jack Ryan reboot hasn’t made the cut.

Review of 2013: 20 best films of the year

Amongst the piles and piles of cinematic dreck that this year has served up have lurked a lot of real gems. In fact, some of the films released this year have the whiff of an instant classic about them.

Here, celebrating those who choose to innovate, create and imagine rather than rinse, repeat and reuse, are the 20 best films of 2o13.

Top 20: Films to watch for the 2014 Oscars season – Part 3 (10-6)

Last week, my countdown of the films in contention at the 2014 Oscars spanned 10 of the most interesting films on the way ahead of the awards ceremony. This week, it’s the top ten, starting with Michael Fassbender getting involved with drugs and Tom Hanks playing Walt Disney.