LKJ, do you remember Kevin Sharp?

I could deal with his holier than thou attitude for the most part, but after seeing his sheer glee in the xfl failing pissed me off. It's one thing to take joy from McMahon failing. I can understand that, but the company who pays your salary failed too. Not to mention all of the regular people who lost jobs. He can kiss my ass

Speaking of football shows on TV, does anyone else watch Friday Night Tykes? It's on the Esquire channel, and it is a dumpster fire of a television show. It's a reality show that follows teams in a Texas pee wee football league. I've been watching for a few years now, and as mad as I get watching, I still can't look away

You know who came across really well in that XFL doc? Matt Vasgersian. Ive always found him to be a perfectly cromulent announcer, but after watching the doc, he seems like a really cool guy as well.

Eyebooger,
You doing the "watch every best picture nominee before the Oscars" thing again this year?

I've only seen three (La La Land, Hell or High Water, Arrival), though Netflix has sent me two more that I should get through before Sunday night (Manchester by the Sea, Hacksaw Ridge).

Interested in your thoughts on all 4 (we may have discussed a few of these already, and im leaving out Hacksaw bc I didnt see it and dont plan to).

I loved Manchester by the Sea, heard mixed opinions. Its exactly my kind of dark

Id really like to see Moonlight but its not playing anywhere here.

La La Land was really good/great.

Hell or High Water was pretty good; Jeff Bridges was tremendous in it.

Arrival didn't do it for me. Unless this year was just exceptionally weak, I don't see how it's in the best picture field.

Moonlight is due out on Blu-ray next week, so I'll likely see it soon, but not before Sunday.

Manchester should arrive tomorrow, and I may just sit and watch it tomorrow, but I'm getting a tooth yanked in the late afternoon and in the name of giving the movie a fair shot, I'll only watch if I'm not heavily drugged.

I just finished seeing all 17 movies with at least one nomination for the 8 major awards.

This field is significantly weaker than last year (which I thought was an incredible lineup).

La La Land should win best picture and it's really not even close. It's got an outside shot at breaking the record of 11 wins. It has to lose one of the two songs and Gosling ain't going to win either. It will almost certainly win picture/director/screenplay/actress. It could sweep the technical awards; there's no Fury Road type movie this year.

I was bored by both Moonlight and Manchester. The concept of Arrival was really cool; the execution was bad and the ending was pants on head ******ed. Lion was very good and a clear #2 for me, but had about 40 minutes in the middle that was deeply flawed. The first hour and final 15 minutes are elite though. Hell or High Water/Hidden Figures/Fences/Hacksaw Ridge fall into the "good, but not best picture good" for me. They wouldn't have cracked the top 6 last year.

One movie I really liked that only got a supporting actor nomination was Nocturnal Animals. If you like movies like Nightcrawler or Drive, you'll likely enjoy it. DO NOT watch the first 3 minutes with any family member though.

Still need to see Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, Lion, and Hacksaw Ridge.

But I'd rank the rest

1. Manchester by the Sea
2. Moonlight
3. La La Land
4. Fences
5. Arrival

Would have Nocturnal Animals 3rd.

Didn't. Kinda bummed. Still plan to watch both Manchester and Hacksaw by Sunday night.

By the way, not a best picture nominee, but anyone see Allied? I loved the preview on that one.

La La Land and Hacksaw Ridge are both very, very good, imo. Probably the class of the ones that I've seen.

Manchester is really good as well. Fences I was in and out of consciousness for. I'm not sure if it bored me a little, or I was just exhausted while watching it. I'm going to try again, though.

Haven't seen any others.

Allied was fun. I obviously liked it because Pitt's character is a Canadian, but as a movie it was entertaining, if not predictable.

I heard Hacksaw Ridge was very watchable but was also essentially just a continuation of Gibson's gore porn fetish

I always wondered if Mel Gibson booked JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero.

Ha, he was the guy that handed Eddie the blade before the chair shot.

Except he handed him a bowie knife.

I mean, it is, but it's also an amazing story which holds back a lot of the truth. Garfield is excellent in it, as well as Vaughn.

I'm with eyebooger on Manchester by the Sea. Struggled to get into it. Good acting, though I don't see Casey Affleck's performance as a particularly worthy Best Actor performance despite the fact that he's apparently a frontrunner to win that tomorrow.

I watched it last night, and I agree for the most part. I felt like his character didn't really develop or go anywhere throughout the whole movie, though the police station scene is probably the best acting I've seen in any one particular scene this year. I would rank Hell or High Water as my favorite movie of the year, though I still haven't seen Moonlight yet.

To be fair to Affleck, the recurring thought I had while watching is that being emotionally closed off was a good choice for how to play such a heavily-traumatized character, but it doesn't lend itself to a ton of great acting to spend such a large part of a performance being deliberately subdued.

Michelle Williams was tremendous in her limited screen time.

I don't think his character was as emotionally closed off as you think. I think the character has a facade of emotionally closed off, but pretty clearly demonstrated his feelings in certain situations, almost blatantly, throughout the movie.

Man that scene where she runs into him in town destroyed me

Saw I Am Not Your Negro today, highly recommend. Frustrating to see how little we as America have come on civil rights in the past 60 years.

I'll say that I like Manchester by the Sea more as I digest it more. It's a bit stupid to give a snap-reaction the second a movie ends, as too often I feel differently 24 hours later.

Anyway, I'm starting Hacksaw Ridge now, so I'll be along with a snap-reaction in a couple of hours.

Also I wonder if they make a same-day edit and get Bill Paxton into the "in memoriam" video for tonight.

Snap-reaction: movie was somewhere in between good and really good.

FWIW, as someone who doesn't care for gory material and would downgrade a movie for showing lots of gore without it having the artistic merit to justify it, I didn't think this movie was particularly excessive on that front.

How would you rank it with Hell or High Water and Manchester by the Sea?