The 2014 Academy Awards nominations were announced overnight. The good news is our Cate Blanchett has been nominated as best lead actress as expected. She’s the hot favourite after winning the Golden Globe earlier this week. She’s up against the delightful Sandra Bullock, the evergreen Meryl Streep and Judi Dench and the ‘am I in every movie’ Amy Adams. Cate Blanchett is hot favourite for good reason. Her performance in Blue Jasmine DVD was simply the best acting performance of the year, male or female. Blue Jasmine is a New DVD Release now available at DVDLand.

The most important Best Picture nominations didn’t include many surprises after this week’s Golden Globes. Gravity starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney is my personal favourite. You can’t go wrong with putting those two in space. Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks is also an outstanding movie but at long odds and will become a modern day classic with or without the Best Picture award. Dallas Buyers Club would have been a bit of a surprise prior to the Golden Globes but the inconsistent Matthew McConaughey delivers a great performance in this low budget movie. Leonardo DiCaprio fans will be rooting for The Wolf Of Wall Street and similarly Brad Pitt fans shouting for 12 Years A Slave. The nominations are rounded out with Nebraska, Philomena and the movie Her adding fuel to the argument why these movies have been nommed to get the total to 9. These 3 are good movies but Best Picture nomination worthy?

Best Actor nominations are an open field, almost any of them could win. Christian Bale for American Hustle, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf Of Wall Street and Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club all delivered near-perfect performances, all deserving of the gong. Bruce Dern for Nebraska is a dark horse and firming from long odds to heading to favourite territory is Chiwetel Ejofor for 12 Years A Slave. This movie is a journey that’s worth taking.

On a lighter note I like to watch the best Animated Feature Film category or as we like to call it Disney DVD versus the rest. Disney’s Frozen is pretty much guaranteed to win as well it should. Probably the best Disney animated movies since Cars. It’s up against the hilarious Despicable Me 2, The Croods, The Wind Rises and Ernest & Celestine.

The Oscars are on 2 March and will be hosted by the new-funnier-Oprah, Ellen DeGeneres (that was a little harsh). But all that matters is we get behind our Cate and barrack her home.

Paul Walker died today aged 40. The actor known for his work in the Fast & Furious movies died this afternoon in a car crash in Southern California. Paul Walker starred in all of the six Fast and Furious films except Fast and the Furious Tokyo Drift.

While Paul Walker was well known for these action films, he had an established body of work that included very early guest spots on Who’s The Boss and Highway to Heaven, serious drama in Flags Of Our Fathers and the quirky Pleasantville amongst many others. At only age 40 he leaves us a huge back catalogue of great DVDs.

Paul Walker had only just turned 40 and was on his way to a charity event in California when his Porsche had an accident.  Walker was also an avid race car driver and had a love of cars. This will go down as one of the huge losses for Hollywood, not unlike the untimely death of James Dean, who passed away when his Porsche Spyder was in an accident in on his way to auto rally in California in 1955.

Paul Walker was known for being a Hollywood heartthrob and had developed almost a cult like following with his work on the Fast and Furious films including the New DVD Release Fast & Furious 6.  Given his appeal and that of co-star Vin Diesel combined with fast cars and action, these films were guaranteed to appeal to both men and women alike.

Walker was currently filming Fast and Furious 7 due for release next year, so it will now be up to the producers and directors to decide how they will deal with this tragedy in the context of the movie.  Hopefully they will treat it with the class that producers of The Dark Knight did when Heath Ledger passed away during it’s filming in 2008.

He will be an actor missed by many and will have many fans across the globe devasted by this tragic news today.

Deadliest Catch Season 9 is now out on DVD. Deadliest Catch caused quite a stir when it first aired on The Discovery Channel back in 2005.  Initially I was sceptical, a show that follows crab boats, not just a one hour special but a whole season?  Didn’t really sound that interesting, not being a huge fan of actual fishing myself which probably stems from when I was 6 and got fish hook stuck in my hand. I’d like to think that experience made me empathise with what the fish feels like when it gets on a hook and that’s why I have never fished again. But in reality I was 6, had a fish hook in my hand and it really hurt; I was done with fishing then.

So I watched the first episode of Deadliest Catch not expecting great things but to my surprise it was really interesting (let’s get the pun out of the way – I was hooked). Deadliest Catch offers a glimpse into a world where most of us didn’t even know about and will never experience. The premise itself is simple, put cameramen on boats that go out on the dangerous Bering Sea and film the crab boat crews hauling in crab. Sounds easy and a bit boring, but it’s not about the fishing it’s about the personalities and the element of real life danger.

The Deadliest Catch TV show remains popular as it’s not the ‘reality’ TV shows we are used to.  The crews are not on TV to win a prize or become a C-Grade celebrity, this is just their job.  Granted it’s a job that involves gigantic waves, ice that can sink a boat and the real risk of death, but these are just hard working guys doing their job.  This is real TV not reality TV.

After watching a bit of Deadliest Catch we all become couch experts on crab fishing, we suddenly think we know what the right amount of bait is for a crab pot, who’s not experienced enough to throw the hook and which greenhorn we think won’t last the season. But that’s part of the charm of the show, it draws you in and makes you feel a part of the crews’ story. You say things like ‘that will be the last string of the season’ implying that; a) I know what I’m talking about, b) I would normally use this phrase in real life, and c) I could be a crab fisherman if I wanted.   Now I know that I wouldn’t even last 5 minutes on a crab boat even if it was still moored at the dock.  But from the safety of the couch you can imagine what being a part of the experience would be like.

So while I’m not going to take up fishing again anytime soon I will be more than happy watching Deadliest Catch on DVD from the safety of my lounge room, where the chance of getting a fish hook in the hand is practically zero.

This New To DVD release is now available at DVDLand.

Remember when 3D movies used to involve blue and red cellophane cardboard glasses and special effects which mostly consisted of a toy Godzilla destroying a miniature city? Well if you do, you can also remember how we thought it was fantastic, bad special effects leaping out of the TV screen and making you think it was going to poke your eye out; we were easily pleased. Things have gotten a little bit more sophisticated since then. Now we have 3D TVs and 3D Blu Ray players that come with futuristic glasses that are much smarter than we are.  Turn on your 3D glasses and your TV will know exactly when flash a bit of light that basically tells each eye to see the picture slightly differently to create illusion of depth.

Now I know that this is hardly a comprehensive technical explanation but let’s face it, for the viewer, it’s not really about how it works but how awesome it looks. To be able to see a Blu Ray in 3D puts you right in the action and lets you see things in the depth of a scene that you may not notice in a 2D movie.  Details become clearer and everything just seems more real.  The 3D experience can cover everything from nature documentaries, action movies, sci fi and animated movies.  Whatever kind of Blu Ray you like you will probably now find a 3D Blu Ray to satisfy.

Live action 3D Blu Rays such as The Hobbit and Great Gatsby are spectacular in 3D, giving you a vivid sense of reality to the story. But personally I think that animated 3D Blu Rays are where you really get to enjoy the 3D technology and you really can’t go past Avatar as the ultimate 3D experience.  James Cameron may have created the world of Pandora, but 3D Blu Ray allows us to really become a part of the fantasy.  So grab a 3D Blu Ray online and sit back and let your clever 3D TV really take you into the story.

One Direction. Two simple words that seem to make teenage girls cry spontaneously. One Direction fans seem to speak another language, whether it is about which of 1D (shorthand, for those in the know) has the best hair, whether Harry or Niall has the best voice or which one they love the best and why.  Well, whether you understand the intricate details of the One Direction band members or not, you can’t escape the fact that their faces are everywhere and on everything.  And right now they are here in Australia.

Currently touring the country, they are creating mass hysteria with fans everywhere they go.  With sold out shows, and fans staking out hotels it’s clear that One Direction is this generation’s boy band phenomena.  One Direction is the product of another global phenomenon, X Factor. Individually, none of the One Direction members made it very far until they formed a group to continue in the competition. And even then they only came third. But after signing a record deal the rest, as they say, is history.

One Direction’s massive popularity has been fuelled by social media, and it doesn’t hurt that they are all good looking boys-next-door that every girl wants as a boyfriend and every mum wants as a son-in-law.  By using social media well, the boys have made an emotional and personal connection with their fans.  This connection has created fierce fan loyalty as fans feel that they are very close to the band members.  The boys use Twitter to share their everyday experiences with fans, presenting themselves as just typical teenagers that just happen to be mega stars. The fans can’t get enough. The Australian concerts were sold out over a year ago within minutes of going on sale. 1D has also just announced they are releasing their third album, Midnight Memories, which will no doubt be another top seller along with their music DVDs.

Whether you are an avid 1D fan, or a parent that needs to do some research in order to try and make sense of your teenager’s constant One Direction conversations, grab some One Direction DVDs online and discover more about these five British boys that are taking over the world.