Thoughts on results of Oscars 2011

A quick disclaimer before you read the rest: this is only the 2nd Oscars show that I've watched (the first being last year's), so my knowledge is extremely limited. Please feel free to disagree and educate me.

Compared to last year's academy award, I have to say this one was less suspenseful. Whereas last year's Oscars had a ex-husband vs ex-wife showdown at the end (James Cameron vs Kathryn Bigelow), the winner of this year's Best Picture, The King's Speech, was very much expected. The same could be said for the other 2 major awards, best actor and best actress, where Colin Firth and Natalie Portman were very much favored to win.

TAKE THAT, JAMES CAMERON!

Well well, what do you know. The best motion picture of the year did NOT go to James Cameron's Avatar. Instead (if you haven't heard already), the Best Motion Picture of the year went to The Hurt Locker. I don't know if I should be happy or sad. Maybe I should begin by making a T-chart.

--I should feel happy because...
Avatar is the big shot, the highest grossing movie of all time, and it's directed by the big shot James Cameron. Knocking off Avatar to let The Hurt Locker win means that the Academy still care more about the art than about the money. Plus Jay thinks Cameron has an ego problem, and after watching Cameron's speech about whether he'd be okay for his ex-wife (Bigelow) to take Best Directing award away from him, I agree with Jay. So letting The Hurt Locker win Best Picture does a good job in teaching Cameron a lesson in humility.

--I should feel sad because...
Once again the Academy has maintained its stand -- action movies do not win Best Picture. As an action movie lover (long live The Dark Knight!!!), this is my biggest beef against the Academy. But I can see how The Hurt Locker was good too, although I can't say I enjoyed Hurt Locker anywhere as much as I did Avatar.

Oscar predictions!

First off, let me start this post by saying FUCK CABLEVISION! For those of you who haven't heard, because Cablevision and ABC were not able to come to an agreement on retransmission fees, over 3 million households in the Tri-State area no longer have their local ABC 7 channel as of 12:01 AM this morning - meaning they won't be able to watch the Oscars tonight! Let me just say I don't give a shit who's right or who's wrong here; these are two multi billion dollar corporations trying to rip each other off and I have sympathy for neither. However, since I have to pay Cablevision over $20 a month just to get my seven basic channels that I can otherwise get free-over-the air with an antenna, the fact that they are taking away one of those channels on one of the most important TV nights of the year is completely and utterly despicable! I had originally planned to live blog the ceremony, but that's obviously no longer possible now. If like me, you're also suffering under Cablevision, you can get live updates on IMDB (also via their Twitter feed) or read a live blog on Deadline Hollywood.

Anyways, enough ranting and procrastinating, here are my closely-guarded picks for who should and who will win the most important awards of the night:

Best Picture
As much as I hate to say it, my favorite movie of 2009, District 9, has absolutely zero chance of winning this award. Neither do 6 other movies - The Blind Side, An Education, Precious, A Serious Man, Up in the Air and Up. I won't go into detail on why these movies have no shot, it ranges from no one saw them to the fact that they were just included to appease the masses. Most people think this is a David versus Goliath story, the $2.5 billion behemoth that is Avatar versus The Hurt Locker, that movie James Cameron's ex-wife made. While those two are certainly the front runners, don't discount the Weinstein brothers sinister and prodigious sway with the Oscar voters, making Inglorious Basterds, a viable Dark Horse candidate. In case anyone thinks I'm exaggerating, you can read up on how Shakespeare in Love stole the award from Saving Private Ryan in 1999. In the end however, I see Avatar taking down Best Picture, much like Titanic before it, since the biggest grossing movie of all time is hard to ignore, and also the movie deserves praise for bringing James Cameron's singular vision to life, as well as pushing the boundaries of film making.

Should win: Avatar
Will win: Avatar

Early thoughts on the Oscar nominees

As you guys know by now, the nominations for the 2010 Academy Awards were announced this morning. Here is the first in a series of posts in which X and I will share our thoughts on the lucky nominees. We will bring them to you throughout the month until the Oscars on March 7th. X and I will also pick who we think should and will win in each category, and you guys will be able to vote (bet?) on who gets more right. Of course, you are always welcome to voice your own opinions.

For now here are my preliminary thoughts, focusing on the Best Picture nominees…

Oscar Nominees are in!

Best Picture
“Avatar”
“The Blind Side”
“District 9″
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
“Up in the Air”

Great minds think alike

As you may have noticed while reading through Golden Globe nominations, Sandra Bullock was nominated twice for her roles in two pretty successful movies this year, The Proposal (saw it, meh) and the Blind Side (didn't see it, read the book it's based on). Based on what I saw from her in the first one, and some trailers/spots of the second I thought those award nods were not well deserved. But that's ok, Sandra Bullock is a pretty fair actress and those are chick flicks so whatever...

I do however want to pour some cold water on another movie,  one that received a lot of hype and critical consideration because of the actors and director involved - Invictus. Since one of my dear friends has always told me not to pass off other people's opinion as my own, I will not judge the movie without having seen it. Instead I will refer you to the review of this non-critic. Let me just say that the reasons he listed are the precise ones that made me not want to watch this movie...

A little bit about Bill Simmons, one of the most knowledgeable, insightful and funniest sports columnist/culture critics I know and respect.

Season of giving and receiving

James "Santa Clause" Cameron (and the recession?) gave the movie industry a great Christmas gift as Avatar, Sherlock Holmes and the Chipmunks helped make this past weekend the highest grossing holiday weekend on record. In fact, it was Hollywood's best ever weekend, surpassing the Dark Knight debut.

Also, 'tis the season for Hollywood to congratulate itself again as nominations for all the important awards have been/will be announced.

Here are the 2010 Golden Globe nominees:

Best Motion Picture - Drama
Avatar
The Hurt Locker
Inglorious Basterds (I'm happy to announce the "Jew Hunter" was nominated for best supporting actor!)
Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire
Up in the Air

Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy
(500) Days of Summer
The Hangover
It's Complicated
Julie & Julia
Nine

Click here for the complete list of awards and nominees. Of the ten, I have yet to see The Hurt Locker, Precious, (500) Days of Summer, Nine, and It's Complicated. I'm incensed that District 9 (my pick for best movie of 2009, and the only one to get a "BETTER THAN SEX" rating from Spill) was not included, but hopefully this will be corrected come Oscar time. I will make an effort to see the ones I'm missing before January 17, when the Globes will be "broadcast in full HD"... can't promise a review for each though.