The 88th Academy Award nominations will be announced tomorrow morning, January 14, 2016, hot off of the weekend's 73rd Golden Globe awards. I've been following the full awards season over on my Awards Tracker page. Using that data as the tea leaves and a truckload of hunches, I'm going to attempt to closely predict the Oscar nominations for the "Big 8" categories for the third year in a row.
Read MoreMore and more each year, the Golden Globes have become more an a popularity contest than a true precursor to the Academy Awards. What you're watching on TV is a party thrown by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and hosted by Ricky Gervais in an effort to be loved and share some love. To its credit, the awards show still garners legitimate attention and ratings. The winners do get a pretty positive rub and the marketers gain a few more "Winner of..." graphics to put in the newspapers next to their films.
Read MoreFor this writer, "Mad Max: Fury Road" is a daunting challenge for this website's definition of mindless action as a movie genre. Mindless action has its range from the trash of Michael Bay to the treasure of the "Fast and Furious" franchise. However, what separates the trash from the treasure is quality and impact. The quality speaks to the action and the impact speaks to the story being sewn along the way, even if it's secondary. The really good mindless action movies offer just enough heft of a compelling story to make the action matter and resonate beyond just superficial coolness. As incredible in stunt work and thrills as "Mad Max: Fury Road" is, it is missing too much of that heft to matter beyond being really cool to watch.
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