Well, the academy released the Oscar nominations for this year’s Academy Awards.  Again, some surprises, some not so surprising.  I usually like to take a look at the most popular categories and give you some of my thoughts on the decisions.  Looking back, I see I’ve done this recap since 2007 (for the 2006 movie year).  Here are those articles:

2010
2009
2008
2007
2006

Normally, by now, I’ve posted my Movie Board articles telling you guys what my favorite/least favorite movies of the year are.  However, I’m still catching up on Oscar eligible movies, so I’ll have those up in a few weeks.  I have my preliminary list, but there are some good ones I need to see just to be sure.

Anyway, back to the Oscar nominees for this year.  You can find the full list of nominees at Oscars.org.  Now, let’s take a look at the “money” categories and judge how the Academy did this year.

Actor in a Leading Role
Demián Bichir in “A Better Life” – What?  Who?
George Clooney in “The Descendants” – Man, Clooney no longer does the “one for you, one for me” formula.  He pretty much just does whatever the hell he wants to do.  How else do you explain The American or Men Who Stare At Goats?  I miss the Clooney from Ocean’s 11, Goodnight and Good Luck and Intolerable Cruelty.  I’m not having as much fun with the current version.
Jean Dujardin in “The Artist” – This movie actually doesn’t sound that bad, but I have yet to see it.
Gary Oldman in “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” – Looks amazing.  Really want to see this movie.  Oldman is great in pretty much everything.
Brad Pitt in “Moneyball” – Again, I really want to see this but have not yet had the opportunity.

Actor in a Supporting Role
Kenneth Branagh in “My Week with Marilyn” – This movie doesn’t look great.
Jonah Hill in “Moneyball” – Props to Jonah for dipping his toes into the dramatic pool.
Nick Nolte in “Warrior” – I hear this movie is great, but I can’t support a Nolte nomination.  For anything.
Christopher Plummer in “Beginners” – Meh.
Max von Sydow in “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” – This movie looks amazing.  But I’m reluctant to see it because as a new dad, I feel the heavy father-son relationship at the center of this plot will completely undo the macho-man hold on my emotions and cause me to bawl like my wife at cheesy cell phone commercials.

Actress in a Leading Role
Glenn Close in “Albert Nobbs” – Close may be fantastic in this, but it just “feels” tailor made for the Oscars.  Like they were trying to get Close a nomination.  Julie Andrews did gender bending first in Victor/Victoria.  Close’s makeup in this just looks like posturing for an Oscar. See also Nicole Kidman’s makeup in The Hours and Charlize Theron’s in Monster.
Viola Davis in “The Help” – Better movie than I expected and Viola was great in it.
Rooney Mara in “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” – Really, really good movie.  Hard to watch, but very good.  Rooney Mara is also great in it.
Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady” – I imagine this is good.  I want to see it.
Michelle Williams in “My Week with Marilyn” – Not a fan of Michelle Williams.

Actress in a Supporting Role
Bérénice Bejo in “The Artist” – Looks good. I will see it when I get the chance.
Jessica Chastain in “The Help” – Jessica is deliciously bad in this movie. The perfect antagonist.
Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids” – Wow. I’m very surprised by this. Don’t get me wrong, Melissa completely deserves this nomination, but the Academy rarely recognizes these types of movies (ie, straight up comedies). Mark this down.
Janet McTeer in “Albert Nobbs” – No.
Octavia Spencer in “The Help” – I love Octavia. She is hilarious and was great in The Help.

Directing
“The Artist” Michel Hazanavicius – Okay, I’ll see it.
“The Descendants” Alexander Payne – Meh.
“Hugo” Martin Scorsese – I really want to see this movie. I love Scorcese and I love that this is such a departure for him. I’ve been surprised how many “end of the year” lists this tops.
“Midnight in Paris” Woody Allen – Ditto for this. This movie has topped many year end lists. So much so that I actually finally watched it this past weekend. I’m not a fan of Woody Allen, at all, but this movie is really good. It’s sweet, funny and charming. I really liked it. I especially like that Allen no longer puts himself in the middle of his movies.
“The Tree of Life” Terrence Malick – I don’t get Malick. At all.

Best Picture
“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer – I’m becoming more and more interested in this the more awards it gets.
“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers – I continue to say, “Meh”.
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer – Crying or not, I’ll eventually have to watch this.
“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers – Really good. But best of the year?
“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers – I really must see this ASAP.
“Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers – Really good. I can support this nom.
“Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers – Watching this very soon.
“The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined – *shakes head*
“War Horse” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers – I’m baffled by this movie. War Horse? Seriously? Why wasn’t Spielberg nominated for Directing?

Writing (Adapted Screenplay)
“The Descendants” Screenplay by Alexander Payne and Nat Faxon & Jim Rash – No.
“Hugo” Screenplay by John Logan – Yes.
“The Ides of March” Screenplay by George Clooney & Grant Heslov and Beau Willimon – This looks good.  I’m surprised it got no other noms.
“Moneyball” Screenplay by Steven Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin; Story by Stan Chervin – No wonder the movie looks good it was written by Steve Zaillian and Aaron Sorkin.  More proof that I need to see it.
“Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” Screenplay by Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan – Yes, this looks good as well.

Writing (Original Screenplay)
“The Artist” Written by Michel Hazanavicius – This looks good. I can’t argue.
“Bridesmaids” Written by Annie Mumolo & Kristen Wiig – Wow. Kristen Wiig is now Oscar nominated Kristen Wiig. I’m really surprised the Academy put this here. It’s just not traditionally a movie that gets nominated for its screenplay.
“Margin Call” Written by J.C. Chandor – Wow, really? I saw the trailer for this, and there’s a ton of well known actors, but it looked like a showier version of Boiler Room.  Or a more serious The Informant!
“Midnight in Paris” Written by Woody Allen – By all means. This was a very clever script that I enjoyed.
“A Separation” Written by Asghar Farhadi – Never heard of this.

Episode 21 has gone LIVE, my friends. This week we are down a man as Jeeg has flown off to Europe to find himself. In the meantime, we invited Vanessa and Erika from Girls Gone Geek to join us for a lively discussion about comic books.

Specifically we are talking about comic book scenarios. What sidekick would we like to have? What would we do if we ever got super powers? What character would we kill and make sure stays dead? These are the nerdy questions we ask ourselves and sometimes answer with very little geeky rambling.  Well, some rambling.

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

Episode 20 is now available to the legions of Nerd Lunchketeers. This week we are joined again by a fellow Jacksonvillian Robert Zerbe of To The Escape Hatch.  This week we discuss the always relevant topic of movie sequels.

I’ve discussed the subject of movie sequels before, but this is a more in depth investigation.  A drill down, if you will.

We talk about sequels we feel work, sequels we feel don’t work, sequels we wish had never existed and we even discuss movies that never got sequels but we wish had.  It’s a lively discussion that I think you’ll enjoy.  So join us, won’t you?

Download this episode from iTunes or listen to it on Feedburner. And yes, we are still on the Zune Marketplace.

So when I decided to run the marathon again in 2011, I wanted to again do something different. I decided to run as Darth Vader.  I’ve talked about this decision several times on the Nerd Lunch Podcast, so I thought I’d share with you guys how we made the Vader costume and also made it “run friendly”.

First step, I bought a Darth Vader costume shirt.  You can pretty much pick them up anywhere.  This is an easy way to get the majority of the costume in one fell swoop.  Plus, this is easier than attaching a bunch of crap to a black shirt.  Especially when you will be running 26+ miles in said shirt + crap.

I then asked my wife who is an incredible seamstress to make me a mini-cape.  My inspiration for this mini-cape came from a Superman costume shirt on Superherohype.com.

So, to begin, Steph got a yard of black matte fabric.

She then cut it into two rectangles with her rotary cutter.  Next she sliced off the edges to make it taper outwards at the bottom.

Steph ironed down the edges to make it easier to hem.

Then she actually hemmed down the edges.

Here is a test shot of the cape. This was right before the final stitching to see how it fell on my back and to make sure it wouldn’t bother me when I ran.  And it didn’t, the cape turned out perfect.

Here I am around mile 22 of the marathon. You can see my friend Mike came dressed as Boba Fett.  It was at this point in the race that we pass Mike’s house so we stopped for some refreshments like Gatorade and bagels.

You can’t really tell I have the cape except when I’m running or from behind. My only wish was that we had made it taper further out towards my hips. It was too skinny.  But I still think it was awesome and I got several compliments on it.  Next year, I may do Superman with a similar cape and Mike may do Lex Luthor.

So, if any of you decide to do a long race, make it fun and dress up nerdily.  You’ll be glad you did.

At the time, they were offering these awesome Double Effect sandwiches. It was two different sandwiches fused into one. Like this fish sandwich melded to a chicken sandwich.

It looked like these two sandwiches were making out.  GET A ROOM, GUYS!  Anyway, they also had sandwiches that melded burgers and fish and burgers and chicken. It was a spectacular idea that I’m sad to say never caught on here in the States.

Well, Quick is trying to do it again.  They currently have a promotion for the Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace 3D release in a few weeks.  They have released three new burgers with a Star Wars theme.  Here are some ads via MovieLine.

In this ad on the left you see the Dark Burger accompanied by the awesome Darth Maul.  It looks like 2 burger patties, a special sauce, lettuce and maybe some spicy pepper cheese.  On the right you see the Jedi burger alongside the ever wise Yoda.  This burger also has two patties, maybe some regular cheese and what I believe are cheese curds (also used on awesome as f**k poutine).

In this second ad you see the Jedi Burger again.  No different than the last ad.  On the left, though, is the money shot.  The Dark Vador.  It looks similar to the regular Dark Burger, maybe just some red peppers have been added on top of the lettuce, but the buns ARE BLACK!  BLACK BUNS!  It makes the burger look burned.  Burned like Anakin Skywalker’s scarred visage at the end of Revenge of the Sith!  I love everything about this.  I’m willing to overlook the fact that this promotion would probably be more appropriate for the release of Revenge of the Sith 3D in 2014 as Darth Vader is only a child in The Phantom Menace.  But that’s neither here nor there because I want this burger in me RIGHT NOW.

I love when fast food joints think outside the box for fun and creative promotions like this.  It just sucks when I can’t try them.  ROAD TRIP!