The 94th Annual Academy Award Nominations...

Here are some notes on today's announcement:

- As mentioned in my review for the film last month, Nightmare Alley rightfully received a nomination for Best Cinematography. It is also up for Best Picture, Production Design and Costume Design.

- Dune: Part One is up for 10 awards: Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay, Production Design, Costume Design, Cinematography, Editing, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound, Visual Effects and Original Score.

- Free Guy, No Time to Die, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and Spider-Man: No Way Home are all up for Best Visual Effects...though it will most likely be Dune that wins the award.

- Billie Eilish received a Best Original Song nomination for No Time to Die. Adele's Skyfall is still my favorite Bond song.

- Licorice Pizza is up for Best Picture...which means I just might finally watch it since all of those radio and TV commercials for this movie didn't convince me to do so.

- I still watch the classic sitcom I Love Lucy on TV, so I just might see Being the Ricardos since Javier Bardem (who plays Desi Arnaz) and Nicole Kidman (who portrays Lucille Ball) are up for Best Actor and Actress, respectively.

- I might also watch West Side Story (even though I never viewed the 1961 original) since Steven Spielberg is nominated for Best Director... We'll see.

Click here for the full list of Academy Award nominations. Happy Tuesday!

Quick Review: THE LAST DUEL...

A few hours ago, I watched the Ridley Scott-directed film The Last Duel...which was about the final government-sanctioned duel in France.

I enjoyed this flick for the most part...as it was fairly accurate to what I read about the actual event on Wikipedia beforehand.

I liked how this movie was divided into three chapters to tell the story of how this duel came to be from the perspective of the three individuals caught up in this medieval love triangle: Sir Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), Marguerite de Carrouges (Jodie Comer, who was awesome in this summer's hit comedy flick Free Guy) and Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver).

As mentioned above, the duel was fairly accurate to historical accounts—though I read in the actual story that Carrouges and Le Gris had their helmets on till the very bloody end. Oh well.

And in case you were expecting the medieval battles that were peppered throughout this movie to be as exciting as those in Scott's Oscar-winning epic Gladiator, think again.

Just re-watch Gladiator for the amazing combat scenes, as well as Hans Zimmer's steering music in that film.

See The Last Duel to find out what happened in 14th-century France when you were accused of adultery and wanted to defend (to the death) what little honor you had. Carry on.

Bring On FREE GUY 2!

In the wake of Free Guy's very successful opening weekend at the domestic box office (where it made $28.4 million as of today), Ryan Reynolds tweeted yesterday that Disney—which obtained the rights to Free Guy after the studio purchased all of Twentieth Century Fox's movie properties a few years back—officially wants a sequel to the sci-fi comedy flick. And to that I say, bring it on!

Free Guy is the most entertaining and clever film I've seen at the theater during the pandemic era so far, and I can't wait to see what's in store for Guy (played by Reynolds), Molotov Girl (portrayed by the very lovely and talented Jodie Comer) and Antwan (played by Taika Waititi; you know that we haven't seen the last of his hilariously villainous character) in the next movie!

Until then, don't have a good day. Have a great day! Again.

Aaaannnnd after 3 years messaging #FreeGuy as an original IP movie, Disney confirmed today they officially want a sequel. Woo hoo!! #irony pic.twitter.com/85mMxW4owx

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 14, 2021

Movie Review: FREE GUY...

Earlier today, I went to my local AMC theater to watch the Ryan Reynolds sci-fi comedy flick, Free Guy. Needless to say, it was a very enjoyable movie...and much deeper than the trailers made it out to be!

As a quick synopsis for the film, Free Guy is about a video game character named Guy (played by Reynolds) who was created through advanced artificial intelligence and quickly became aware that the world he lived in wasn't what it appeared to be.

Guy runs into Molotov Girl (portrayed by Jodie Comer), the woman of Guy's dreams who's on a secret mission to expose the true origin of Free City...the metropolis where Guy happily lived in and worked at as a coffee-sipping bank teller.

Like Deadpool, but with a PG-13 rating, Free Guy aptly made use of Reynolds' quick wit and comedic talent. Also providing hilarious and at-times heartwarming moments to the movie were his co-stars...from Comer (who also played Millie in the film's real-world scenes), Joe Keery (as Keys), Utkarsh Ambudkar (as Mouser), Channing Tatum (as Avatar), Matty Cardarople (as Gamer), Aaron W. Reed (as Dude) and Lil Rel Howery (as Buddy) to Taika Waititi (as the hilarious antagonist, Antwan).

In regards to the movies that Free Guy reminded me of, it had moments that were reminiscent of the 1998 Jim Carrey film The Truman Show, the 2018 Steven Spielberg flick Ready Player One, the 1998 rom-com You've Got Mail (starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan), Christopher Nolan's 2010 sci-fi flick Inception, 2010's Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (starring Michael Cera and Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and unsurprisingly, 1999's The Matrix. But with a much lighter tone and a PG-13 rating.

Free Guy was originally supposed to be released last year, but was obviously postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. However, the wait was worth it! As mentioned earlier, this movie played to Ryan Reynold's greatest strengths, and it clearly had a couple of messages to convey (from betraying people to earn lots of money and wanting to live life to the fullest, to finding true love) that weren't really emphasized in the film's TV ads and theatrical trailers.

Free Guy is a must-see movie—especially considering that it also had a couple of cool cameos in it! SPOILER ALERT: I won't elaborate on the appearance made by a cast member who starred in several Marvel films like The Avengers, but it was emotional to see the late and great TV game show host Alex Trebek show up in Free Guy.

Before I end this blog entry, let me just say, "Don't have a good day, have a great day!" That is all.