I confess I really enjoy the Oscars, although my love has been greatly enhanced by Tivo and DVRs. We record the entire thing, adding an additional hour for inevitable OT, then wait for an hour or two before watching. That enables us to skip over the commercials, the obscure awards given to groups of artisans flown in from Albania, and anything else that bores us. A 210-minute snoozeathon becomes 90 minutes of great entertainment. We enjoy the opening monologue (this year, Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin have great potential, but they may also suck, which is also potentially entertaining), the film clips, some of the attire (Bjork’s swan, Cher’s hideousness, etc.) some of the acceptance speeches and, of course, the awards themselves. I’m looking forward to popping up the usual trough of popcorn and settling in for a fun evening Sunday. Hope you can join us.
I was going to set up polls for all the major awards, but I don’t think the demand is there for multiple Oscars threads. Instead, I’ll just do Best Picture and invite you to vote for the nominee you believe is most deserving, NOT the one you think is most likely to win. Feel free to defend your choice and post your predictions/preferences in the other categories, while mocking those of others.
Best picture? Avatar seems to be the likely winner, and that’s too bad. No question it was a great technological achievement, but the storyline, dialogue and performances were rather ordinary. With the exception of The Blind Side (which I still liked), I thought every one of the other nominees was a better overall cinematic achievement than Avatar. I acknowledge the language and violence were way over the top, but I think Inglourious Basterds was the best of the bunch.
For best director, I’d be inclined to give the award to Tarantino, but I think Kathryn Bigelow will win, and she’s deserving. I don’t think the Academy wants to give it to King of the World Cameron again, so I see a split decision on the movie/director thing, unusual but hardly unprecedented.
Of the other major awards, my prediction of what will win is followed by my personal preference in parentheses).
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (I’d give it to him for his work as The Dude; this year I’d give it to Clooney)
Best Actress: Bullock (Streep)
Supporting Actress: Monique (ditto)
Supporting Actor: Waltz (ditto, and this one isn’t close)
I was going to set up polls for all the major awards, but I don’t think the demand is there for multiple Oscars threads. Instead, I’ll just do Best Picture and invite you to vote for the nominee you believe is most deserving, NOT the one you think is most likely to win. Feel free to defend your choice and post your predictions/preferences in the other categories, while mocking those of others.
Best picture? Avatar seems to be the likely winner, and that’s too bad. No question it was a great technological achievement, but the storyline, dialogue and performances were rather ordinary. With the exception of The Blind Side (which I still liked), I thought every one of the other nominees was a better overall cinematic achievement than Avatar. I acknowledge the language and violence were way over the top, but I think Inglourious Basterds was the best of the bunch.
For best director, I’d be inclined to give the award to Tarantino, but I think Kathryn Bigelow will win, and she’s deserving. I don’t think the Academy wants to give it to King of the World Cameron again, so I see a split decision on the movie/director thing, unusual but hardly unprecedented.
Of the other major awards, my prediction of what will win is followed by my personal preference in parentheses).
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges (I’d give it to him for his work as The Dude; this year I’d give it to Clooney)
Best Actress: Bullock (Streep)
Supporting Actress: Monique (ditto)
Supporting Actor: Waltz (ditto, and this one isn’t close)
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