Unofficial Academy Awards Discussion Board

Best Picture ***12 Years a Slave (Fox Searchlight Pictures) Steve McQueen, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner American Hustle (Columbia Pictures) Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon, Charles Roven Captain Phillips (Columbia Pictures) Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin Dallas Buyers Club (Focus Features) Ro...

Of anyone deserves to receive a special tribute segment at the Oscars, it's Roger Ebert. Gene Siskel got one, and Ebert was definitely the more notable of the two. You can't give one to Siskel and not Ebert.

This one hurts. I'm literally about to cry.

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: It Lives! Peter Jackson's middle episode of his Middle Earth saga revs up the action, the peril and the wonder By Richard Corliss Dec. 09, 2013 A heavyset man of gross demeanor lurches out of an inn, gnawing a meat bone, and a chuckle of surprise runs through th...

Review: New 'Hobbit' breathes fire into trilogy By JOCELYN NOVECK / AP National Writer / December 9, 2013 Sleeping dragons, as we know from our childhood literature, eventually awaken. If they didn't, there wouldn’t be a story. So it’s hardly news that in the second installment of Peter Jackson’s ‘...

The Great and Terrible Hobbit Desolation of Smaug is the fullest realization of the fantasy-entertainment complex By Alan Scherstuhl, The Village Voice, Monday, Dec 9 2013 Elves snore, it turns out. Their maidens make teensy-peen jokes and pine for the hottest of dwarves. And Bilbo Baggins, so conc...

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug Reviewed by: Edward Douglas Rating: 9 out of 10 After getting the first installment of his triumphant return to the world of J.R.R. Tolkien bogged down in the high-frame rate fiasco, director Peter Jackson dusts himself off and reminds us why we loved the "Lo...

A negative 2-star review by Slant Magazine. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug By R. Kurt Osenlund ON December 7, 2013 "You are being used, hobbit," the great dragon Smaug (Benedict Cumberbatch) growls at Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) in Peter Jackson's latest jaunt through Middle-Earth....

‘The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug’ Review: Peter Jackson’s Second Verse Is Better Than the First By Todd Gilchrist on December 6, 2013 @ 5:03 pm Clearer and more engaging than its predecessor, this second installation in the “Hobbit” trilogy deftly brings out the human side of dwarves and elves ...

A surprisingly mediocre review from fan site TheOneRing.net, whose major gripe seems to be that it strays too far from the source material. The Great Schism: Splendid Smaug Splits Fandom? or Hobbit Version 2.0: Jackson Does it Differently I know it’s been a long year to wait. Ringer fans are going i...

Not an actual review, but it's a short blurb by Richard Corliss of Time Magazine. The film came in at #10 on his Top 10 list for 2013. Who could guess, after the meandering first feature in a seemingly unnecessary eight-hour trilogy of films based on a novel of less than 300 pages, that Peter Jackso...

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has the best shot, followed by Iron Man 3 and Man of Steel . He says MOS is an original movie as if there's never been a Superman movie before. I realize this is a reboot, but the character is one of the most recognizable in the world and it's coming off the heel...

Another interesting statistic...

Life of Pi is the first film not rated PG-13 or R by the MPAA to win the Oscar for Best Director since Out of Africa (1985), a gap of 27 years.

‘Oz’ Wizards For Big $23.5 Million Friday And Tracks 2013′s First Huge $74M Weekend By NIKKI FINKE, Editor in Chief | Saturday March 9, 2013 @ 1:30am PST SATURDAY 1:30 PM, 4TH UPDATE: Refining numbers overnight. Disney‘s Oz The Great And Powerful looks like $23.5M for Friday. That figure includes $2...

Lucas: 'Star Wars VII' to reunite original stars 'Star Wars' creator George Lucas reveals Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill will return for the new installment. Star Wars creator George Lucas says the films' original megastars -- Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher -- "have...