TRAVIS BYRAM'S MOVIE REVIEWS

It's been a long year waiting to see what the Academy saw as the 10 finest films of 2010, and they're finally here! An "*" indicates a film I correctly predicted. -127 Hours -Black Swan* -The Fighter* -Inception* -The Kids Are All Right* -The King's Speech* -The Social Network* -Toy Story 3* -True Grit* -Winter's Bone* "The Town," the nominee I got wrong only got 1 nod for Best Supporting Actor for Jeremy Renner , of [last year's Best Picture winner] "The Hurt Locker" fame. Javier Bardem scored a surprise nod for Best Actor for " Biutiful ," leaving Ryan Gosling (Blue Valentine) and Robert Duvall (Get Low) in the cold. "Winter's Bone" won a Supporting Actor nod for its star John Hawkes , who no one's heard of (but good for him though!) over favorite Andrew Garfield (The Social Network.) I'm excited to see this very balanced list and that the Academy finally shook a few things up! I will be back hopefu...

Well it's finally time to make the last set of predictions for the biggest award in the Oscar ceremony; Best Picture. I had to wait until the Golden Globe and Critic's Choice Awards weekend was over to make my final decisions, but I think these will be pretty accurate. -The Social Network -The Kids Are All Right -The King's Speech -The Fighter -The Town -Toy Story 3 -True Grit -Black Swan -Inception -Winter's Bone Since "127 Hours" has not been getting much love from the critics, I believe the almost unknown indie "Winter's Bone" will pull off a nomination. Other choices might include the films: -Blue Valentine -Rabbit Hole -Another Year I am very much awaiting the nominations on January 25th and will (hopefully) post them on Tito's Topics!

Last nights Golden Globes went across very well...but there was ONE big British problem wrong with it. Ricky Gervais, who did a fine job hosting last year, returned this year with scathing jokes and just plain mean dialogue aimed towards anyone and everyone in the room. One particular joke about Robert Downey, Jr. pretty much solidified him not returning as host next year. There's a fine line between scathing humor and being meanly rude, and Ricky crossed it. Besides the host's problems, I was very pleased with who the Globes were taken away with! "The Social Network," of course, was the big winner for movies, taking home 4, including Best Drama! "The Kids Are All Right" (AKA that one movie about lesbians) took home Best Comedy/Musical, but besides "Alice in Wonderland," what competition was there? Here are the other winners of last night's Globes, which played out almost exactly like the Critic's Choice Awards: DRAMA Actor: Colin Fi...

VH 1 did the wise thing and did not feature a host. Last year Emmy-winner Kristin Chenoweth hosted, making an embarrassment of herself and making things uncomfortable for the people attending. This year's awards show was much better, and I'm glad to say "The Social Network" and "Inception," 2 of the year's most extraordinary films, made out greatly. Although "Network" was the winner of Best Picture and Best Director, "Inception" was the big winner of the night, winning 6 awards, interestingly enough only one; Best Action Film, was won on screen, the others were mentioned briefly in voice-over saying "Congratulations to "Inception" for..." and so forth. "The King's Speech" also did well with wins for Colin Firth and the sublime screenplay, although I was disappointed to see Christian Bale win the award and not Geoffrey Rush (then again I haven't seen "The Fighter.") And to conclude ...

It seems more and more the best movies made nowadays aren't from Hollywood, a weirdly ironic statement considering that's all there was back in those days; Hollywood. Take a look at the past 3 Best Picture winners: "No Country for Old Men," "Slumdog Millionaire" and "The Hurt Locker," all backed with famous directors but released independently. I'm not sure why this is such a large trend with films currently but I love it, because "The King's Speech" is one of the best movies you will see all year. The film concerns a very large fear in the world: public speaking. There's that old statistic that says more people would rather "be in the coffin than the person speaking about it." Now picture yourself as the king of England with a stuttering problem trying to address the entire country. The film opens with a humiliating speech Bertie (King George VI, played with absolute brilliance by soon-to-be Oscar winner Coli...

Writing this now it is the New Year, 1/1/11! This year in movies seemed extremely dull, full of remakes, sequels and spoofs. I'd be a hypocrite if I said I didn't watch them though...I saw 5 sequels and 2 remakes this year. Due to the age restriction of the R rating on many of the year's acclaimed films (Winter's Bone, Black Swan, The Fighter, The Kids Are All Right) I haven't seen many of the Oscar contenders. I have a couple more films left of 2010 that I want to see, "Despicable Me," "How to Train Your Dragon," "Catfish" and "The King's Speech." For animation this year it will be an enormous shocker if "Toy Story 3," the biggest animated film of all time doesn't walk away with the Oscar, and it will without a doubt get a Best Picture nomination. " Shrek Forever After" disappointed me, majorly ripping off "It's a Wonderful Life" and " Megamind " was only mildly funny. Th...