Cavalcade of Awesome

The Academy Awards are almost upon us. This year the Oscars will be broadcast on Sun, March 7 at 8pm EST. The ceremony will be co-hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin.

The Oscar nominations for this year were released on Tuesday, Feb 2.  I do this every year, I go through the nominations for the biggest categories and see how much I agree with the Academy. More often than not, I don’t agree at all.

See my thoughts on last year’s Oscar nominations here.

See the Oscar noms for 2007 here.

You can see all the nominations on the official Oscar website.  So, without further ado, here are the nominations.

BEST PICTURE
Avatar – I can see this in Visual Effects, but not Best Picture. It’s a good movie, it’s just not a great movie.  And by that I mean it’s not the best written movie in the world and it’s AT LEAST 30 minutes too long. The mineral the corporation is mining in the movie is called Unobtainium. They actually say it in the movie. COME ON!
The Blind Side – Think about this: The Blind Side has a shot at being the BEST PICTURE OF 2009. Don’t get me wrong, I like this movie, but BEST PICTURE OF THE YEAR?! No.
District 9 – On my list of top 5 movies of 2009. Of course, there’s no way in Hell this is going to win, but it’s good to see it here.
An Education – Yeah, didn’t see it.  Nor have I heard of it.  Well, played, Academy.  Well.  Played.
The Hurt Locker – I don’t normally like war movies. I hear great things about this, so I may have to suck it up and give it a watch.
Inglourious Basterds – An exception to my war movie rule. In my top 5 movies of 2009.
Precious – I see why this is nominated.  I really do.  I just never want to watch it.
A Serious Man – The Coen’s are weird, dude.  I’ve only enjoyed 3 of their movies.  EVER.  And I’ve only watched one of those three movies more than once.  I’m not exactly itching to see this.
Up – I really did enjoy this movie, but, again, I’m not sure it deserved a BEST PICTURE OF 2009 nomination.
Up In The Air – I love George Clooney.  I knew this was going to be high on Academy voters’ lists.  And I still have no desire to watch it.

BEST ACTOR
Jeff Bridges, CRAZY HEART – Bridges wasn’t nominated for The Men Who Stare At Goats?  RIGGED!  I’m kidding.  Of course, I’ve never even heard of this movie.
George Clooney, UP IN THE AIR – Another missed opportunity for The Men Who Stare At Goats.
Colin Firth, A SINGLE MAN – Love Colin Firth.  Unless this is a sequel to Love Actually, then I’m not interested.
Morgan Freeman, INVICTUS – I have a man-crush on Matt Damon and I love Morgan Freeman.  That still does not make me want to see a movie about rugby…and apartheid.
Jeremy Renner, THE HURT LOCKER – Again, I hear Renner is great in this.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Matt Damon, INVICTUS – Yay, Matt!  I’m still not going to see this movie.
Woody Harrelson, THE MESSENGER – WTF is The Messenger?!  Harrelson should have been nominated for Zombieland.  There, I said it.
Christopher Plummer, THE LAST STATION – What?
Stanley Tucci, THE LOVELY BONES – Nice nom for Tucci.  He was good in this sequel to What Dreams May Come.
Christoph Waltz, INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS – Waltz better win this.  From what I see here, he PWNS this category.

BEST ACTRESS
Sandra Bullock, THE BLIND SIDE – Sandra Bullock was really good in this.  I concur, Academy.
Helen Mirren, THE LAST STATION – Never heard of it.
Carey Mulligan, AN EDUCATION – Or this.
Gabourey Sidibe, PRECIOUS – I hear she’s great.
Meryl Streep, JULIE & JULIA – This was a really good movie.  I’ve been loving Streep lately.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penelope Cruz, NINE – No.
Vera Farmiga, UP IN THE AIR – I loved this chick in The Departed.
Maggie Gyllenhaal, CRAZY HEART – Crazy Heart again.  I’m not sure how much enthusiasm I can muster for a movie about a broken down country music singer who finds redemption in a journalist at least 10 years his junior.
Anna Kendrick, UP IN THE AIR – In all of the trailers, I totally thought this chick was Amy Adams.
Mo’Nique, PRECIOUS – I hear good things.

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Coraline – Based on a book by Neil Gaiman who also wrote Stardust.  I really need to see this movie.
Fantastic Mr Fox – I am reluctant to watch a movie by the director of Magnolia and The Life Aquatic.
The Princess And The Frog – Disney returns to 2-D cell animation.  WANT. TO. SEE.
The Secret Of Kells – Never heard of it.
Up – Meh.  This movie is good, and I see why it’s here, but I didn’t just love it like I loved The Incredibles or A Bug’s Life.

BEST DIRECTOR
AVATAR, James Cameron – Really, Academy?  Really?
THE HURT LOCKER, Kathryn Bigelow – Like I said, I’ve still not seen it, but seeing how many noms it’s getting I may have to pick it up.
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, Quentin Tarantino – Loved this movie, but Quentin is the dark horse in this category.
PRECIOUS, Lee Daniels – Okay.
UP IN THE AIR, Jason Reitman – Got it.

BEST WRITING (Adapted Screenplay)
DISTRICT 9, Neill Blomkamp & Terri Tatchell – For me, this is the winner.  It won’t actually come away with the trophy, but it should.
AN EDUCATION, Nick Hornby – Did Nick Hornby sing lead vocals for The Range?  Nick Hornby and The Range, right?
IN THE LOOP, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci & Tony Roche – If District 9 is the dark horse, this is probably the darker horse.  I love this movie and would love to see it win…but it won’t.  Hilariously vulgar British political comedy.
PRECIOUS, Geoffrey Fletcher – What a shocker.
UP IN THE AIR, Jason Reitman & Sheldon Turner – We meet again.

BEST WRITING (Original Screenplay)
THE HURT LOCKER, Mark Boal – Again, haven’t seen it, can’t really say.
INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS, Quentin Tarantino – I hope Quentin gets at least one trophy for this movie.  It totally deserves it.
THE MESSENGER, Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman – No.
A SERIOUS MAN, Joel & Ethan Coen – Like I said, I don’t just love the Coens.
UP, Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter. Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy – This was a cute movie.  I think Zombieland should be in this category but I doubt the Academy would nominate a movie with zombie in the title.

Those are the big categories for the Oscar nominations. To see all the nominations go to the Official Oscar website here. And watch the Oscar telecast on Sunday, March 7 at 8 EST. It’s going to be a good show as it’s co-hosted by Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin!

Anything missing?  Yes, Star Trek is missing.  It did get several nominations in Visual Effects (which will be won by Avatar…rightly so) and a bunch in the sound categories.  But that’s it.  Nothing in the “showtime” categories.  That is a shame.  I would also liked to have seen Taken get some more love from the Academy. Maybe some for State of Play, with Russell Crowe and Ben Affleck. But, at this point, I’m just reaching.

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This entry was posted on February 3, 2010 at 8:33 am and is filed under Academy Awards, movies, Oscars with tags Academy Awards, movies, Oscars, Oscars Wild. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.