Academy Awards 2014

The 86th Academy Awards are due to be held on March 2nd, 2014. It's always fun to watch the show or read the critics' opinions, but unfortunately most of the movies have not yet been released in Japan, so we cannot really take part in the debate. At least we can watch the trailers, and today we watched three trailers of movies that are expected to be nominated for one or more awards. (Actual nominations will be announced on January 16th.) We watched one movie by an old hand, Martin Scorcese (Wolf of Wall Street, featuring Leonardo DiCaprio), and two movies by younger directors, John Wells and Alfonso Cuaron. The John Wells movie is August: Osage County and the Alfonso Cuaron movie is of course Gravity.

Wolf of Wall Street (Martin Scorcese)
August: Osage County (John Wells)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuaron)

Academy Awards 2014

The Academy Awards are lots of fun, but the fun is diluted in Japan because most of the nominated movies still haven't been shown here. Two exceptions this time around are Captain Phillips and Gravity. Although it's no substitute for seeing the actual movies, of course, today we watched trailers for four of the movies: the aforementioned Gravity (directed by Alfonso Cuaron), Nebraska (directed by Alexander Payne), August: Osage County (directed by John Wells), and 12 Years a Slave (directed by Steve McQueen).



Gravity: Alfonso Cuaron (George Clooney, Sandra Bullock)
Nebraska: Alexander Payne (Bruce Dern)
August: Osage County: John Wells (Meryl Streep
12 Years a Slave: Steve McQueen

Mandela, Maleficent, and other matters

Today we watched two movie trailers. They were Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom and Maleficent. Maleficent is the name of the witch in Sleeping Beauty, and the movie is a retelling of that tale.

The FIFA Club World Cup is coming to an end. The final, between Raja Casablanca and Bayern Munchen, will be held tonight. Bayern is a very powerful team, so nearly everyone expects them to win. I'm looking forward to the match very much!

Mandela, Maleficent, and other matters…

Today, we saw no fewer than two movie trailers. The first one was Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, starring Idris Elba, and Naomie Harris as Winnie Mandela. The second was Maleficent, starring Angelina Jolie. As you can probably imagine, Mandela is about the life of Nelson Mandela, and Maleficent is related to Sleeping Beauty, focusing on the villain. Beside Angelina Jolie in the title role, the movie also stars Imelda Staunton and Elle Fanning. 

The FIFA Club World Cup final is scheduled to be held early tomorrow morning, I believe. I'm looking forward to seeing Bayern play!

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, and…

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a Level 2 book in the Penguin Kids series of graded readers. As a level 2 book, it contains only 235 words, and is super-easy to read.
Snow White is very popular these days, with 2 movie versions having been released recently. I enjoyed Snow White and the Huntsman, with Kristen Stewart. You can watch an interactive trailer for the movie.

Edge of Tomorrow, The Legend of Hercules, and other matters…

Today we saw two movie trailers. They were Edge of Tomorrow, and The Legend of Hercules. Edge of Tomorrow is a science fiction movie starring Emily Blunt (of Salmon Fishing in the Yemen fame) and Tom Cruise. The Legend of Hercules tells the Hercules (Heracles) story in a modern way. Both look pretty exciting. The Legend of Hercules is starting in January in the US, while Edge of Tomorrow is scheduled to start playing in June. In Japan, that probably means summer and autumn starts, respectively.

Edge of Tomorrow, The Legend of Hercules, and other matters…

Today we watched no fewer than two trailers. The first one was Edge of Tomorrow, starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Most recently, I've seen Emily Blunt in Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, in which she costarred with Ewan McGregor. She was great in that film, so I'm looking forward to seeing her again. The film is due to come out in the States in June next year, so probably it will be a late summer feature in Japan. Its tagline is "Live. Die. Repeat."

The other trailer was The Legend of Hercules, starring lots of actors that I've never heard of before. It starts in Hercules' youth when he is still just a human, and gives us a look at how he gets special powers. It looks pretty exciting. It's beginning in January in the States, so I'm guessing it will come to Japan in spring.

Reminders

3rd & 4th movie essay deadlines

• December 20th
• January 10th!!

Make-up class

• Saturday, December 21st (usual time)
• Tuesday, January 14th (C class only!!!)

Drive Into Danger

"Where's Gary?" says Mark. "He isn't usually late. The truck is ready. Everybody's waiting."

Drive into Danger is a book in the Oxford Bookworms series. It is at Starter level, so it is very easy to read. But the story is quite exciting! Gary Slater, the driver, has a mysterious injury one day, so Kim (who has a truck driver's licence) and Andy (who speaks French) offer to take some tables to France in his place. But what they don't know is what other kind of cargo the truck is carrying!

Divergent, and other matters

Today we watched the trailer for Divergent, a movie due to begin next year. It's a science fiction movie set in the near future, when everyone undertakes a psychological test when they are teenagers, and are divided into five types of personalities. The heroine of the movie, played by Shailene Woodley, takes the test and is told she doesn't belong to any of the five types. In other words, she is "divergent". That appears to be a problem for the society and she has to run away in order to survive, and she joins a resistance movement.
I don't know much about the movie, or the original story (written by Veronica Roth), but I was attracted by the presence of Kate Winslet in the movie.

Dead Man's Money and Bonnie & Clyde

Dead Man's Money is a very entertaining but easy book in the Oxford Bookworms series, Starter level. It focuses on a gang of bank robbers in the 1930s, when the Great Depression hit America, and many people were very poor and turned to crime. You may have heard of the reallife gang Bonnie & Clyde. Anyway, please check out Dead Man's Money!

Dead Man's Money

"We want the money, Cal. Eddie's money."
"What? Who's Eddie?

Dead Man's Money is an Oxford Bookworms Starter, written for learners who know only about 250 words. It's written as a cartoon and is very easy to understand, but also very entertaining. It's about 3 bank robbers in the 1930s, one of whom dies. The other two want to recover his share of the money, but some other people are also interested in the money.

As you may know, the 1930s in America is famous for the Great Depression. Poverty meant that there were many people who turned to crime. The bank robbers in the story were some of those people. Others were Bonny & Clyde, whom you can see in a Hollywood movie.

listen to ‘Dead Man's Money’ on Audioboo

Island of Lemurs: Madagascar, and other matters…

Today we watched the trailer for Island of Lemurs: Madagascar. To tell you the truth, before I watched it, I thought it was going to be an animated movie in the Madagascar series. In fact, it is a documentary about lemurs, a kind of primate that lives only on Madagascar, and which is said to be close to extinction.
These days haven't been very enjoyable, because I have had a bad cold and cough. I went to see the doctor last Wednesday, but the medicine hasn't been so effective, so I'm planning to go again this afternoon. I hope to get better soon, so that I can finish off all my work before the winter holiday, and also go and see some interesting movies, e.g., Red 2, and Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

Captain Phillips, and other matters…

Captain Phillips is a movie directed by Paul Greengrass, who also directed the second and third Bourne movies and United 93. To tell you the truth, although I like all the Bourne movies, I think Greengrass's style wasn't so good in those movies: it made me feel tense as I watched the movie, but my memory of the movies was not as good as that of the original Bourne movie. However, in Captain Phillips and United 93, he is a little more restrained, with the result that the movie is tense but also satisfying.

Another movie coming soon is the 47 Ronin. It looks like it's pretty exciting!

Captain Phillips, and other matters…

We just saw a trailer for Captain Phillips, the new movie starring Tom Hanks. It is based on a true story, which is told by Captain Phillips himself in his book, A Captain's Duty. In the story, the captain's ship is boarded by four pirates, and the captain nearly loses his life.

Captain Phillips is playing now. Another movie that is coming soon is 47 Ronin. That movie stars Keanu Reeves, Hiroyuki Sanada, Ko Shibasaki, and Rinko Kikuchi. It looks like a very fantastical interpretation of the well-known story.