Even though we don’t really care all that much who or what wins an Academy Award, the rest of Hollywood does. It’s also likley many of you care as well.

So, in that spirit, here’s a list of the nominations that were announced this morning. There’s a lot of them and, to put it bluntly, not that many surprises. The movies and performances that seem “Oscar-worthy” were nominated. It was kinda a no-brainier year.

Of course, there’s also a few regulars who made the cut, like Meryl Streep, you would expect to see on the list. One notable exception is Tom Hanks, who seemed to be a shoe-in for a nomination for his role as Captain Phillips. He got nothing.

I guess every Oscar nominations list needs at least one surprise, just to try and keep it interesting and prove the Oscar voters don’t just vote for whomever or whatever wins a Golden Globe. Of course, Hanks didn’t win the Golden Globe either, but I’m sure it was just a pleasure to be nominated.

Anyway, here’s the nominations list (stolen from the folks at Deadline):

The Snow White movie wars are heating up folks. Last week we got a look at Universal’s Snow White and The Huntsman directed by Rupert Sanders and starring Kristen Stewart.

Now, we’ve got the trailer for director Tarsem’s take on the story called Mirror Mirror. This one features a cast that includes Julia Roberts, Lily Collins, Armie Hammer and Sean Bean.

One thing you can say about Tarsem’s films is that they are stylish and his visuals are often stunning. Plus, he knows his way around an action sequence.

In truth, I was not a fan of his first film, The Cell. That said, his most recent project, Immortals, is quite good so I have a bit of hope for this one.

Plus, this is also the Snow White film that doesn’t feature Kristen Stewart, which is a big plus in my book. Look for Mirror Mirror to arrive in theaters on March 16.

Check out the trailer after the break.

Sean Bean is an incredible talent. Not just because the man has been working for over 25 years in nearly 100 projects, but because he knows a good thing when he’s hit it. In the past decade, since his role as Boromir in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, Bean has managed to make a name for himself in the fantasy realm.

From Red Riding: In the Year of our Lord to Black Death and most recently Game of Thrones, the man knows he looks good wearing armor and weilding a sword, so why fix something that isn’t broken? It turns out he’s keeping with that motto as he’ll be portraying the king in Relativity Media’s upcoming Snow White film.

From Variety:

Bean will soon close a deal to play Snow White’s father, whose kingdom is destroyed by Roberts’ evil Queen.

Lily Collins stars as Snow White, while Julia Roberts and Armie Hammer co-star as her wicked stepmother and princely love interest, respectively.

Movie fans and studio execs alike both know the importance of the Independence Day weekend. It’s the coveted 3 days during which the most amount of money is made for the year. And for almost all 3 films in the Transformers franchise, Michael Bay has held that special spot.

As if we didn’t know it was going to happen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon was #1 this weekend, with a whopping 6 days covering its “opening weekend” (Wednesday to Monday) and pulling in over $180 Million domestically and an estimated $218 Million overseas.

Continuing its popularity from last weekend, Disney’s Cars 2 stayed strong at the #2 spot with $26 Million, followed by Cameron Diaz’s foray back into comedy with Bad Teacher bringing in $14.5 Million.

Also opening this weekend was the hugely disappointing romantic comedy Larry Crowne, with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts. It came in fourth place with $14 Million. Finally, the Leighton Meester/Selena Gomez vehicle Monte Carlo came in at #6 with $7.4 Million.

Next weekend, we expect a bit of a lull with Zoo Keeper and Horrible Bosses opening, giving us just enough time to cleanse our collective pallets for July 15th’s Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallows Part 2, which is expected to have the biggest opening of the year, and possibly putting Michael Bay and his toys to shame.

You may have heard of a film called Sullivan’s Travels, and if you’ve heard of it, you may know the gist: Popular but unfulfilled director Sullivan is tired of making commercially successful but emotionally and intellectually vapid films. He decides that his next film (named O Brother, Where Art Thou?) will be a socially conscious depiction of the lower classes.

Through a series of comic mix-ups, he gets tossed in prison. One night a cartoon is screened for the inmates and Sullivan has an epiphany: The best way he can help the downtrodden is not by making high drama, but low-brow crowd-pleasers.

Larry Crowne is the kind of movie Sullivan would make if he were alive today. It’s full of plot-holes, cheap laughs, lazy pop-culture references, and utterly devoid of conflict. But for the women-age-45-and-up demographic wanting to see a cute romantic comedy with Tom Hanks and Julia Roberts (have they ever been paired together? I can’t recall), this should suffice.

Tom Hanks, who wrote, directed, and produced it, plays Crowne, a middle-aged supermarket drone/former Naval cook who loses his beloved job because he never went to college. Low on cash but doggone tenacious, he enrolls in community college, taking a speech class taught by the jaded Mercedes Tainot (Julia Roberts, who’s getting more attractive with age) and an Econ 101 class taught by the zany Dr. Matsutani (George Takei).

In the war between Universal and Relativity Media for Snow White dominance, it looks like Relativity has made the latest advance. The company has pushed up its untitled Snow White project to March 16, 2012, from June 29. This comes days after Universal moved Snow White and the Huntsman up six months to June 1.

Relativity’s version has Julia Roberts, Lily Collins and Armie Hammer and is directed by Tarsem Singh. Universal’s has Rupert Sanders directing Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart and Chris Hemsworth. With all the shuffling around you have to wonder if both of these movies will make it to the big screen. With all the jockying for position it would appear boith companies are serious about their projects. So, expect to see both of these see the light of day — ready or not.

This is just one of three pictures that Relativity has dated in moves that seem to be geared directly toward this competition against Universal. The company also announced it has moved its adaptation of the Nicholas Sparks romance novel Safe Haven to be released on June 1, 2012 and selected a Dec. 21, 2012 release date for the Phillip Noyce thriller Hunter Killer.

Check out the full release from Relativity after the jump. This reminds me of the time there were competing movies that featured a comet and or/asteroid about to destroy the earth.

You remember how that turned out? No, neither do we. But it probably wasn’t all that great — especially when movies are rushed into production just to meet a release data. That always works out well.

As summer dies down with explosive fire power and spiritual journeys to other lands, I recall the glorious action fest that was The Expendables. In turns out Julia Roberts has nothing on protein packed men with a mission on their minds. My female counterparts have voiced their love of meaty men in droves and unexpectedly taken away business from Julia’s love fest. Nearly 40 percent of The Expendables‘ audience was women. X-Men Origins: Wolverine‘s audience raked them in as nearly 50 percent of the audience was female. It seems women have tired of the boys akin to Michael Cera and instead jones for something with a little more muscle. Stallone should have learned the key to Hugh Jackman’s success to driving women in throngs- taking off his shirt.

I hear Hugh gave up his lead in Avon Man to start his insane work-out to become the ferocious mutant once again. If you take months upon months to beef up like these 80‘s action legends did, you’d think they’d want to show it off. Plus, wasn’t it super hot in Louisiana and Brazil where The Expendables shot? It was like 100 degrees with 100 percent humidity. Stallone couldn’t have been the only one who was feeling the heat.  Take off those shirts and up your female movie-going audience to 51 percent.

SVGNGR is a new mobile application that allows you to complete challenges at different places you check into. Think of it as FourSquare, with a kick. From an official press release:

Playing SCVNGR is simple. It’s a game all about going places, doing challenges and earning points. Challenges are quick, casual, fun things to do at places. Building on SCVNGR is just as simple. Everyone who plays SCVNGR can also build SCVNGR by adding challenges to their favorite locations.

Eat, Pray, Love follows the journeys of Liz Gilbert (played by Julia Roberts), who travels to Italy, India and Bali on a journey of self discovery. Columbia Pictures has announced that they are teaming up with SVGNGR to bring you the feel of these exotic locales right from your phone.

Twenty six cities across the US have been selected and identified with Eat, Pray, Love locations. Players can compete in movie based challenges and earn badges.  To learn more, visit  the official website for this Eat, Pray, Love partnership, letyourselfgo.com/svgngr

SCVNGR is available for the iPhone and for the Android.  Eat, Pray, Love will be released in theaters on August 13.

The fan with knowledge of video editing is a marvelous creature. They are just like the rest of us, but they are able to show their love and geekdom off by producing some pretty high quality viral videos, thus creating an infitine loop of fans and enjoyment.

The Monocular Group, who also brought us the famed 2012 retro trailer last year are at it again, and this time they are sending out a call to arms for men everywhere to go see The Expendables on August 13th.

The trailer takes a pretty strong stand against the state of Hollywood lately, and points out that Expendables, which can easily be considered the quintessential “guy movie”, will be opening against the film adaptation of Eat Pray Live starring Julia Roberts. Basically (according to the message of the trailer) if you are a “real man”, you’ll go see The Expendables that weekend, and help it beat out the alleged “chick flick”.

Check out the fun fan trailer after the jump, and be sure to live up to it’s directions and catch Stallone’s The Expendables on August 13th.