I agree with most of the nominations below however, Tom Hanks should have been nominated for best actor for “Scully”, Amy Adams should have been nominated for best Actress for “Arrival” and Jessica Chastain was a major omission for best actress for “Miss Sloane”. Taraji P. Henson was essentially the lead actress and is equally as deserving for a nomination as Octavia Spenser for Hidden figures and also did not get a nomination. Perhaps the solution for these obvious omissions is to increase the number of nominations like they have done for movies.

On top of this Viola Davis in Fences is not a supporting actress, her time on screen warrants a Best Actress nomination and this is also true with Dev Patel, who is in almost every scene. I would like to learn the logic of how the Academy decides these categories which very often it makes no sense. The worst example of this was Timothy Hutton in “Ordinary People” in 1980 who was the lead actor, was in every scene, but was nominated for best-supporting actor and did win the award.

The movie La La Land received 14 nominations, now tied for the most in Oscar History. La La Land is very good, but both Manchester by the Sea and Fences are better movies overall, in my humble opinion. The movie the “Lobster” is nominated for best original screenplay, even though it was one of the worst movies I have ever seen. Manchester by the Sea should win in this category, but like the Golden Globes, the odds are that La La Land will win this award as well.

Best picture:
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“Hidden Figures”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Manchester by the Sea”
“Moonlight”

Lead actor:
Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land,”
Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”

Lead actress:
Isabelle Huppert, “Elle”
Ruth Negga, “Loving”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
Emma Stone, “La La Land”
Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”

Supporting actor:
Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Michael Shannon, “Nocturnal Animals”

Supporting actress:
Viola Davis, “Fences”
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures”
Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”

Best director:
Damien Chazelle, “La La Land”
Mel Gibson, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Barry Jenkins, “Moonlight”
Kenneth Lonergan, “Manchester by the Sea”
Denis Villeneuve, “Arrival”

Animated feature:
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Moana”
“My Life as a Zucchini”
“The Red Turtle”
“Zootopia”

Animated short:
“Blind Vaysha”
“Borrowed Time”
“Pear Cider and Cigarettes”
“Pearl”
“Piper”

Adapted screenplay:
“Arrival”
“Fences”
“Hidden Figures”
“Lion”
“Moonlight”

Original screenplay:
“20th Century Women”
“Hell or High Water”
“La La Land”
“The Lobster”
“Manchester by the Sea”

Cinematography:
“Arrival”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Moonlight”
“Silence”

Best documentary feature:
“13th”
“Fire at Sea”
“I Am Not Your Negro”
“Life, Animated”
“O.J.: Made in America”

Best documentary short subject:
“4.1 Miles”
“Extremis”
“Joe’s Violin”
“Watani: My Homeland”
“The White Helmets”

Best live-action short film:
“Ennemis Interieurs”
“La Femme et le TGV”
“Silent Nights”
“Sing”
“Timecode”

Best foreign language film:
“A Man Called Ove”
“Land of Mine”
“Tanna”
“The Salesman”
“Toni Erdmann”

Film editing:
“Arrival”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“Hell or High Water”
“La La Land”
“Moonlight”

Sound editing:
“Arrival”
“Deep Water Horizon”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“La La Land”
“Sully”

Sound mixing:
“Arrival”
“Hacksaw Ridge”
“La La Land”
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”
“13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi”

Production design:
“Arrival”
“Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them”
“Hail, Caesar!”
“La La Land”
“Passengers”

Original score:
“Jackie”
“La La Land”
“Lion”
“Moonlight”
“Passengers”

Original song:
“Audition (The Fools Who Dream),” “La La Land”
“Can’t Stop the Feeling,” “Trolls”
“City of Stars,” “La La Land”
“The Empty Chair,” “Jim: The James Foley Story”
“How Far I’ll Go,” “Moana”

Visual effects:
“Deepwater Horizon”
“Doctor Strange”
“Jungle Book”
“Kubo and the Two Strings”
“Rogue One: A Star Wars Story”

One of the things you never expect with an action movie, where the entire point of the film is an excuse for explosions, fights and gunplay is for that movie to be extremely boring. You might expect the movie to be stupid, as are all of the XXX movies, or it to have a ridiculous convoluted story that mostly makes no sense, corny over the top dialogue maybe, but never boring. The new movie “XXX The Return of Xander Cage” achieved this one rare feat of being boring and for the entire middle of this film, nothing really happened as it seemed that everybody in the film was sleepwalking through their part. I actually lost interest in the entire story at around the mid-point of this ridiculous movie. As far as the script for this bad film, it is all over the place and mostly makes very little sense. The entire process of getting from the beginning of this very bad film to the end, where there is some action is long and drawn out waste of time. I was looking at my watch the entire two hours hoping and waiting for the whole nightmare to be over.

Vin Diesel returns to the XXX series for the first time since 2002 as does Samuel L. Jackson. In 2005 Ice Cube took over the starring role in the movie “XXX: State of the Union” that was another bad movie and Ice Cube makes an appearance at the end of this film, that all movie goers pray will be the last in this series, but it probably will not be.

Run from this very bad movie that is a total waste of two hours.

Without a doubt, “Back To the Future” is the best science fiction movie about time travel ever made. The idea and the story of this movie are brilliant, using a Delorean car because of it was built with stainless steel, using plutonium and nuclear energy for power and then having to reach a speed of 88 miles before you are transported anywhere in time. On top of all of this, this movie is funny and that is rare for any quality science fiction film. It is hard to believe that it has been almost 32 years since this great movie came out in the summer of 1985. This movie is so good it spawned two sequels and the producers were confident enough in the box office for the first film that they almost guaranteed part 2 at the end of this movie. This movie is also one of the first big hits for Robert Zemeckis who did a great job directing this film.

Back to the Future is the high point for Micheal J. Fox in his movie career, he has made several other good movies, but nothing as good as this one. Christopher Lloyd is also at the top of this career in this movie as he is both funny and believable as the scientific genius who invents a time machine. Thomas F. Wilson who plays Biff is one of the best villain/bullies in movie history. Biff Tannen is as unlikeable as any fictional character I have ever seen in any movie and as hateful and miserable a human being as ever been portrayed. This movie is such a great escape because all of us like to see the bad guy get what he deserves in the end, that way too infrequently happens in real life.

Back to the Future is an American classic and if you have never seen it after all these years, you owe it to yourself to see it, at least once.