Showing posts with label Up in the Air. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Up in the Air. Show all posts

Sunday, March 7, 2010

and the Oscar goes to.............................


The Oscars are less than an hour away from starting and since I was too late on entering any of the multiple online contests that were out there this year I thought I would list my picks here and see how I do. Here goes my picks for the 2010 Academy Award Winners. I am predicting I will pick 70% or more of them correct. Check back after the show to see how I did!!

Best Picture: The Hurt Locker
Best Actor: Jeff Bridges
Best Actress: Sandra Bullock
Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Waltz
Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique
Best Animated Feature: Up
Best Art Direction: Avatar
Best Cinematography: Avatar
Best Costume Design: The Young Victoria
Best Documentary Feature: Food Inc.
Best Documentary Short: The Last Truck: Closing of GM Plant
Best Film Editing: Avatar
Best Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon
Best Makeup: The Young Victoria
Best Music: Sherlock Holmes
Best Original Song: The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart)
Best Short Film: French Roast
Best Short Film Live Action: Miracle Fish
Best Sound Editing: The Hurt Locker
Best Sound Mixing: Avatar
Best Visual Effects: Avatar
Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay): Up in the Air
Best Writing (Original Screenplay): Inglorious Basters

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

2010 Best Picture Nominee's


Oscar time is here again and for possibly the first time ever I may actually see all the Best Picture nominations prior to the show on Sunday March 7th. This would be very surprising especially since this year for the first time in the Academy's existence they are switching the number of Best Picture nominations from 5 movies to 10 which is almost unheard of. So if it was tough to beat out 4 other films for that coveted prize just think of how difficult it will be this year.

I see how adding more films to the list provides maybe a little more drama and competition but what it also does is allow movies into that category that probably have no reason being there. The three that come to mind right away from my point of view are District 9, Up in the Air, and Disney's UP. In my opinion none of these movies are worth being in a category where the best picture award is up for grabs. I personally have seen all three of these movies along with three others and there are only four I have not seen. It is my hope to see those other four within the next 11 days prior to the award show so I can cleary say that I have seen all the best picture nominations this year. Here is a very short take on the six I have seen so far.

The Blind Side was excellent and easily my favorite from this list and Sandra Bullock should walk away with the Best Actress award for this movie. One of the few that is most deserving of the best picture nomination. Superb!! Inglourious Basterds surprised me in a couple of ways. First I wasn't aware that the majority of the movie is in subtitles and usually I cant stand movies with subtitles but it didn't bother me for this one. Second, I expected to see more of Brad Pitt in this film but as usual he was brilliant in the scenes he was in. I also expected a few more graphic/torture scenes since it was a Tarantino film but that's just me. Overall I thought it was a great film and worthy of the Best Picture nomination it got. District 9 in my opinion is a joke of a nomination. Although it has some memorable scenes the overall storyline was uninteresting and never really kept my attention and for an Alien movie this actually ranks up there with one of the more disappointing I've seen. The Hurt Locker was good but I may have heard a little too much about this film because it didn't live up to its billing as far as I'm concerned. There were some very intense scenes no doubt and the acting was amazing and I can see how it is nominated for best picture but personally I wasn't blown away by this movie (bad reference I know). It does make you sit back and think of what our military goes through day in and day out, truly heroic! I wont waste much time on Up in the Air other than to say George Clooney is a wonderful actor and this movie is simply nominated due to his name alone. It was slow, boring, and lackluster and although Clooney is great this movie doesn't deserve to be anywhere around awards that have the word "best" before it. Sorry. Last but not least is Disney's UP. Again another movie I wasn't impressed with the storyline although at least this one wasn't boring throughout. Visually it was stunning and it did have great characters but there were too many flaws and not enough humor and adventure for a Disney movie for my taste and I can see where the academy was going with it being nominated for Best Picture for the visual elements alone but there is a separate award for that so seriously speaking it probably shouldn't have been nominated for this category.