The 2019 Next Level Blockbuster Award Winners

Best Picture

Avengers: Infinity War (Winner)

Aquaman

Black Panther

Bohemian Rhapsody

Creed II

Green Book

Isle of Dogs

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

A Star Is Born

Best Comedy Picture

Crazy Rich Asians (Winner)

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Blockers

Deadpool 2

A Futile and Stupid Gesture

Best Action Picture

Mission: Impossible- Fallout (Winner)

Aquaman

Black Panther

Bumblebee

Venom

Best Horror Picture

Halloween (Winner)

The First Purge

The Nun

A Quiet Place

The Strangers: Prey At Night

Best Inspirational Picture

I Can Only Imagine (Winner)

God Bless the Broken Road

March of the Penguins 2: The Next Step

Pick of the Litter

Unbroken: Path to Redemption

Best Drama Picture

Bohemian Rhapsody (Winner)

Creed II

First Man

Green Book

A Star Is Born

Best Science Fiction Picture

Avengers: Infinity War (Winner)

The Cloverfield Paradox

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Ready Player One

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Live Action Family Picture

Paddington 2 (Winner)

Benji

Christopher Robin

Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween

The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Best Animated Family Picture

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (Winner)

The Grinch

Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation

Incredibles 2

Teen Titans Go! To the Movies

Best Digital or Direct to Video Picture

Bird Box (Winner)

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

The Cloverfield Paradox

A Futile and Stupid Gesture

Roma

Best Actor

Rami Malek/Bohemian Rhapsody (Winner)

Christian Bale/Vice

Chadwick Boseman/Black Panther

Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born

Robert Downey Jr./Avengers: Infinity War

Ryan Gosling/First Man

Michael B. Jordan/Creed II

Viggo Mortensen/Green Book

Ryan Reynolds/Deadpool 2

John David Washington/BlacKkKlansman

Best Actress

Lady Gaga/A Star Is Born (Winner)

Yalitza Aparicio/Roma

Emily Blunt/A Quiet Place

Sandra Bullock/Bird Box

Jamie Lee Curtis/Halloween

Jennifer Lawrence/Red Sparrow

Evangeline Lilly/Ant-Man and the Wasp

Danielle Macdonald/Dumplin‘

Tessa Thompson/Creed II

Constance Wu/Crazy Rich Asians

Best Supporting Actress

Michelle Yeoh/Crazy Rich Asians (Winner)

Jennifer Aniston/Dumplin‘

Awkwafina/Crazy Rich Asians

Marina de Tavira/Roma

Cynthia Erivo/Bad Times at the El Royale

Claire Foy/First Man

Danai Gurira/Black Panther

Zoe Kazan/The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Regina King/If Beale Street Could Talk

Lupita Nyong’o/Black Panther

Best Supporting Actor

Mahershala Ali/Green Book (Winner)

Josh Brolin/Avengers: Infinity War

Adam Driver/BlacKkKlansman

Donald Glover/Solo: A Star Wars Story

Woody Harrelson/Solo: A Star Wars Story

Tom Holland/Avengers: Infinity War

Michael B. Jordan/Black Panther

Tim Blake Nelson/The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Sylvester Stallone/Creed II

Patrick Wilson/Aquaman

Best Ensemble

Avengers: Infinity War (Winner)

Aquaman

Black Panther

Crazy Rich Asians

Mission: Impossible- Fallout

Best Director

Bradley Cooper/A Star Is Born (Winner)

Wes Anderson/Isle of Dogs

Steven Caple Jr./Creed II

Damien Chazelle/First Man

Ryan Coogler/Black Panther

Peter Farrelly/Green Book

Ron Howard/Solo: A Star Wars Story

Anthony and Joe Russo/Avengers: Infinity War

Bryan Singer/Bohemian Rhapsody

James Wan/Aquaman

Best Adapted Screenplay

Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely/Avengers: Infinity War (Winner)

Ryan Coogler and Joe Robert Cole/Black Panther

Jonathan Kasdan and Lawrence Kasdan/Solo: A Star Wars Story

Phil Lord and Rodney Rothman/Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Eric Roth, Bradley Cooper, and Will Fetters/A Star Is Born

Best Original Screenplay

Anthony McCarten/Bohemian Rhapsody (Winner)

Nick Vallelonga, Brian Hayes Currie, and Peter Farrelly/Green Book

Wes Anderson/Isle of Dogs

Bryan Woods, Scott Beck, and John Krasinski/A Quiet Place

Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian/Searching

Best Original Music

Ludwig Göransson/Black Panther (Winner)

Alan Silvestri/Avengers: Infinity War

Justin Hurwitz/First Man

Alexandre Desplat/Isle of Dogs

John Powell/Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Original Song

“Shallow” performed by Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper

from the motion picture “A Star Is Born” (Winner)

“All the Stars” performed by Kendrick Lamar and SZA

from the motion picture “Black Panther”

“Pray for Me” performed by The Weekend and Kendrick Lamar

from the motion picture “Black Panther”

“Sunflower” performed by Post Malone and Swae Lee

from the motion picture “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”

“Venom” performed by Eminem

from the motion picture “Venom”

Best Production Design

Black Panther (Winner)

Aquaman

First Man

Mute

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Cinematography

First Man (Winner)

Avengers: Infinity War

Black Panther

Roma

A Star Is Born

Best Costume Design

Solo: A Star Wars Story (Winner)

Aquaman

Avengers: Infinity War

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Bohemian Rhapsody

Best 3D Presentation

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (Winner)

Aquaman

Avengers: Infinity War

Skyscraper

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Film Editing

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (Winner)

Avengers: Infinity War

Bad Times at the El Royale

Black Panther

Bohemian Rhapsody

Best Sound Editing

Bohemian Rhapsody (Winner)

Avengers: Infinity War

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Solo: A Star Wars Story

A Star Is Born

Best Sound Mixing

Bohemian Rhapsody (Winner)

Avengers: Infinity War

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch

Solo: A Star Wars Story

A Star Is Born

Best Special Effects

Aquaman (Winner)

Avengers: Infinity War

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Ready Player One

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Makeup Effects

Vice (Winner)

Avengers: Infinity War

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

Deadpool 2

Solo: A Star Wars Story

Best Stunt Work

Mission: Impossible- Fallout (Winner)

Black Panther

Deadpool 2

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Skyscraper

Best Home Video Release

Batman: The Complete Animated Series Deluxe Limited Edition Blu-ray Set (Winner)

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes MVD Rewind Collection Blu-ray

Avengers: Infinity War 4K Blu-ray

Deadpool 2 Super Duper $@%!#& Cut 4K Blu-ray

Fraggle Rock: The Complete Series Blu-ray Set

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom 3D Blu-ray

Justice League 4K Blu-ray

Night of the Living Dead The Criterion Collection Blu-ray

Stranger Things Season 2 4K Blu-ray Set

Supergirl Warner Bros. Archieve Collection Blu-ray

Next Level Blockbuster Icon Award

Marlon Brando

Heath Ledger

Christopher Reeve

Gene Roddenberry

Orson Welles

Next Level Blockbuster Legacy Award

Ghostbusters

The Godfather

Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope

Superman: The Movie

“Escape Room” Movie Review

    We enter the new year in a rather unusual place.  While January is typically a slow month for movies, 2019 looks to start the new year off a little more promisingly.  While theaters are still filled with some incredible 2018 holdovers such as “Aquaman” and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse”, we can seemingly also look forward to movies such as “Glass”, “A Dog’s Way Home”, and “Escape Room”.  We decided to go see “Escape Room” over some of the 2018 holdovers this week based primarily on the strength of the trailers.  The film looked interesting and had a very unique looking style.
    I knew there was a decent chance it might not turn out well, but sometimes you have to give a movie a chance as well.  I was hoping for something more in the vain of “The Cabin in the Woods”.  Something intelligent and self aware with it’s humor.  What I got wasn’t exactly in that vain, although it was entertaining in it’s own respect.

    The film focuses on six strangers who all are invited to a mysterious escape room.  The strangers all have a secret in common and must survive an escape room with life or death steaks.  START OF SPOILER: One complaint about the characters in the film is that by only showing three of the six characters backstories in the beginning, I immediately knew which characters were going to be killed first.  END OF SPOILER

    The film succeeds in building suspense throughout from the beginning until the end.  The ending however, is very frustrating.  I don’t want to spoil the ending, but there isn’t much to spoil either...which is part of the problem.  I also don’t tend to like sequel baiting which this movie is very guilty of.

    “Escape Room” is a movie that focused more on style than substance.  To quote a fellow movie goer as she left our theater, “the movie would have been a lot better if they had paid for a script”.  The movie pulls a J.J. Abrams, it creates this elaborate mystery box approach with no plans to answer all the many questions it creates.  If you want questions answered, you better hope the next screenwriter is creative because the buck has been passed to him.

    “Escape Room” is ultimately a fun but pointless film.  Just don’t bother trying to figure out what is going on, it is just a waste of time and energy.

Grade: C+

"Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" Movie Review

    It is no secret that Spider-Man is my favorite Marvel superhero.  I grew up with the 90s animated Spider-Man series and enjoyed the comics (although it was the weird Ben Reilly Spider-Man period).  I am open to anything Spider-Man, but I have to admit that “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” didn’t exactly captivate me with it’s previews.  It didn’t look bad to me, but nothing I wanted to rush and see.  Then I kept hearing how good it was from friends so I figured it deserved the benefit of the doubt.
    Needless to say, I was pleasantly surprised with how well the film was executed.  By all intensive purposes, much of the film shouldn’t have worked.  Some aspects were goofy but some of those parts were among the most enjoyable moments of the movie.  The film feels fresh and different which is somewhatly refreshing in an era of cookie cutter superhero films.
    The film primarily tells the origin of Miles Morales and his transformation into his universe’s Spider-Man.  Miles Morales was introduced in the Marvel Ultimate brand.  Like in the Ultimate comics, Miles Morales is forced to take the mantle of Spider-Man after Peter Parker is taken out of the picture.  The story is fun overall and I liked how the filmmakers were able to take the familiar Spider-Man story and changes it up by focusing on a Spider-Man other than Peter Parker.  Miles has a different outlook on life and has different interactions with characters.

    The film also introduces several alternate dimension Spider themed crime fighters including the popular Spider-Gwen, an alternate Peter Parker/Spider-Man, Spider-Man Noir, and Spider-Ham.  It’s amazing how the film can include the likes of Spider-Ham and still work.  It was also visually amazing how the animators managed to differentiate the animation styles of some of the characters.  I should also note that the film contains several references to classic Spider-Man comics and the movies that die hard fans will love.
    The film was filled with innovative animation that was just fun to watch.  My only real complaint with the animation style was that the background had a slightly unfocused 3D effect, almost like you went to a 3D movie without 3D glasses.  Aside from that, it was sharp.
    “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” may not be able to top the likes of the classic Sam Raimi movies, but it’s miles ahead of “The Anazing Spider-Man” franchise and on par or perhaps better than what Marvel Studios is doing with the character now.  If you love Spider-Man, comic book movies, and/or animated flicks, you can’t miss this movie.

Grade: B+

Merry Christmas to Everyone!!!

    Hello everyone!  I know it’s been a little while since I have posted on here but I have more content coming soon!  Unfortunately, November and December are two of the busiest months for me due to my job and from selling on eBay.  I will soon have reviews posted from movies in theaters including “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” and classics including “The Karate Kid Part III” and “The Next Karate Kid” (review copies were provided by the very kind Mill Creek Entertainment company).  Anyway, I just wanted to take this time to wish all my readers a very merry Christmas.  Also, for those amazing readers who celebrate holidays other than Christmas, I hope you have a happy holiday season!  Lastly, if you don’t celebrate a holiday, I still wish you the best and hope you have a great week!  Thank you!