It's Time to Go Home and Chill

Yes, it's only Monday and it's still one hour and forty minutes away from 5:00 p.m. here at the office in Smyrna, Georgia (not actually where I am at, but the same time zone), but I am very beat.

So, we leave you with this image of Ally Sheedy from the 1985 film "The Breakfast Club." Those of you wondering what has happened to her should check out the independent film "Life During Wartime" from the always brilliant dark comedy director Todd Solodnz. The film came out last year. It is great!

Alas, it didn't exactly beat out "Avatar" at the box office.

Oscar Forecast- The Major Awards

Since we are screening "Gremlins" at midnight for my 40th birthday (which was actually Thursday) at the Grandin Theatre in Roanoke, Va., things are a bit hectic around here, but we did excuse ourselves from the dinner table long enough to post our projected victors for tomorrow night's Oscars.

For this entry, we focus on major categories (including Best Song, which one could argue should not be a major category).


Let's start with Best Picture:

The Nominees: "Avatar," "The Blind Side," "Precious," "A Serious Man," "Up in the Air," "The Hurt Locker" (pictured), "Up," "Inglorious Basterds," "District 9" and "An Education."

WHO SHOULD WIN: "Up in the Air" or "The Hurt Locker"
WHO WILL NOT WIN: "District 9," "A Serious Man" or "An Education"
WHO WILL WIN: "Avatar" or "The Hurt Locker"
OUR PICK: "The Hurt Locker" (because I still live in a world where the good guy wins except during the 2000 American presidential election)


BEST ACTRESS:

The Nominees: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side), Meryl Streep (Julie and Julia), Helen Mirren (The Last Station), Carey Mulligan (An Education) and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious).

Who Should Win: Mulligan
Who Will Win: Bullock (It's the Oscars, after all----eyes rolling) or (maybe) Streep
Our Pick: Bullock (It's the Oscars after all---------eyes rolling)

BEST ACTOR:

The Nominees: Jeff Bridges ("Crazy Heart"), Morgan Freeman ("Invictus"), George Clooney ("Up in the Air"), Clin Firth ("A Single Man") or Jeremy Renner (pictured-"The Hurt Locker)

Who Should Win: Clooney or Bridges
Who Will Win: Bridges.......he won the Independent Spirit Award last night; this seems like his year.
Our Pick: Bridges

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

The Nominees: Penelope Cruz (Nine), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), Maggie Gyllenthal (Crazy Heart), Anna Kedrick (Up in the Air), Mo'Nique (Precious)

Who Should Win: Farmiga or Kedrick
Who Will Win: Cruz (stranger things have happened) or Mo'Nique
Our Pick: Mo'Nique..........when two actresses are nominated from the same film- that's a problem (though Shirley Maclaine beat out co-star and fellow Best Actress nominee Debra Winger in "Terms of Endearment back in 1984)


BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

The Nominees: Matt Damon "Invictus," Woody Harrelson "The Messenger," Stanley Tucci "The Lovely Bones," Christopher Plummer "The Last Station" or Christoph Waltz "Inglorious Basterds"

Who Should Win: Damon, Tucci or Waltz
Who Will Win: Damon or Waltz
Our Pick: Waltz

BEST DIRECTOR:

The Nominees: James Cameron ("Avatar"), Katrhyn Bigelow ("The Hurt Locker"), Quentin Tarantino ("Inglorious Basterds)," Jason Reitman ("Up in the Air") or Lee Daniels ("Precious)

Who Should Win: Bigelow or Reitman
Who Would Give Best Acceptance Speech: Tarantino (we all know that)
Who Will Win: Bigelow or Cameron
Our Pick: Cameron (because sometimes the basterds win!).


BEST SONG:

Who Should Win: "The Weary Kind" from "Crazy Heart"
Who Will Win/Our Pick: "Take it All" from "Nine" (pictured)

NOTE: GO TO OUR OTHER BLOG "Politics, Culture and Other Wastes of Time" for our remaining picks!

Silly Picture to Fill Space- Illegal Alien

I guess today's entry might attract those who read "The National Review" as well as those who read "UFO Magazine" (I read neither).

Since the Academy Awards, which will air on Sunday, have two science-fiction films this year "Avatar" and "District 9" up for Best Film this year (coincidentally, my one-two worst films of the year, but I generally like sci-fi films-in fact, I think "ET" should have won in 1982 over "Gandhi"), we thought we'd find some science-fiction related photos.

There happens to be a UFO Museum in Istanbul, Turkey- of all places. I've actually been there, and it's quite an interesting museum which is amazingly close to the Covered Bazaar.

But, of course, there is one such place here in America as well. The Roswell UFO Museum in Roswell, N.Mex., is hosting an annual festival from July 2-5th this year. Perhaps, Marvin the Martian will stop by as well.........

The Semi-Annual Oscar Rant

For starters, it should be pointed out that I am/was one of the people who thought that expanding the field to nominated films for Best Picture Oscar to ten was a good idea.

Perhaps this was because I felt that one of the great talented directors of my generation Wes Anderson had been snubbed once too often. Well, Anderson made yet another solid film this year in "The Fantastic Mr. Fox" but even with an expanded field, it was still snubbed! The film is nominated for Best Animated Feature, but the odds of it upsetting "Up" are about the same as North Carolina Central University, the 'other school' in Durham, NC, winning the NCAA tournament!

But, my main beef with the Academy Awards is that "The Blind Side," a film which appears to be nothing more than a two hour "ABC Afterschool Special" actually landed a nomination for Best Picture! One could say I am being very pre-judgmental because I haven't seen the film myself, but I thought the 30-second trailer was painful enough! Somehow, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Sandra Bullock, who has done some fairly good acting here and there given her limited range, wins the coveted Oscar over Carey Mulligan who gave a wonderful performance in "An Education."

This is also the first year that my choice for best film of the year ("Up in the Air") and worst film of the year ("Avatar") have both been nominated for Best Picture. I can't say enough negative things about "Avatar" which is somehow an even more annoying over-the-top boring spectacle than director James Cameron's (pictured) previous epic box office champ/Oscar winner "Titanic." Of course, "Avatar" will win Best Picture which is almost enough to make me think I would vote for "The Hurt Locker" by Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow even though it ranks eighth on my Ten Best List. "Up in the Air," on the other hand, is a truly wonderful film in every regard. At least, it got nominated.

I also disapprove of the Oscar nomination for "District Nine," my second least favorite film of 2009. Like "Avatar," it's a completely fake film with no interesting characters which moves at an agonizing slow pace. The only impressive thing about either film seems to be their special effects, but if looks alone were a criteria for selecting a nomination then one should nominate Sandra Bullock for Best Actress (oh wait, they did that, didn't they?!).

I must profess that there were some pleasant surprises from the Oscar nominations this year. "An Education," "A Serious Man," "Up in the Air," "Inglorious Basterds" and "The Hurt Locker" are deserving of Oscar nominations even though I personally had qualms with the final act of Quentin Tarantino's film ('Basterds).

Stanley Tucci ("The Lovely Bones"), Matt Damon ("Invictus") and Christopher Waltz ("Basterds") are terrific nomination choices in the Best Supporting Actor category. The same can be said for the cast of "Up in Air." George Clooney was nominated for Best Actor and his co-stars Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick were nominated for Best Supporting Actress. I was also delighted to see Jeff Bridges get a Best Actor nomination even though I have yet to see his film "Crazy Heart." And, with a few major exceptions, I was pleased with the Best Director and screenwriting nominations as well as many of the technical categories.

And, lastly it was great to see the great Austrian director Michael Haneke's film "The White Ribbon" get nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film.

Of course, there's no way in expletive H-E-DoubleL that the film will actually win what many of us film fans consider to be the category with the most dubious history (at least in recent years). But, there is always a chance that your horse can win the Kentucky Derby, and I suppose that is the reason why we always watch the Oscars. But, this year, I might actually turn off the set before the Best Picture Oscar is announced.

Merry Christmas from Michael Moore!

The most famous man to come out of Flint, Mich., formally wished all his followers on Twitter a Merry Christmas. To be fair, so did John McCain's daughter. Here was the message Moore tweeted last night (actually X-mas Eve):

"Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you're having a wonderful Christmas Eve. Let's hope 2010 is a more peaceful and just year."

Moore's latest doc "Capitalism: A Love Story" is now on dvd. It's not Moore's best film, but it was a fairly good effort. I find Moore a bit idealist as I am a supporter of the war in Afghanistan and he is not. Though I do agree with him MUCH more than the likes of Glenn Beck.

"An American Carol," a very bad right-wing slapstick comedy featuring Kelsey Grammer and Jon Voight in showing on Showtime throughout December. I must say I love the Turkish actor who played an Afghani terrorist in that movie, but he should be waterboarded for taking the part (I am a Turkish-American).

Coincidentally, Pat Boone the subject of an entry on this blog on Dec. 23 was featured in Moore's first film "Roger and Me."

Moore also said that he liked the new epic mess "Avatar." I did not, and neither did my good friend Moviezzz (http://www.moviezzz.blogspot.com) though as I said on Facebook last night I somehow hate James Cameron's most famous film "Titanic" even more!

Happy Birthday Mom from Casper the Friendly Ghost

After deliberating of which cartoon character should wish my mother Lila Sullivan a happy 70th birthday, we came up with Casper the Friendly Ghost. It was more or less a completely random choice!


SIDEBAR: Actor Ben Stiller became the 500th person I'm now following on Twitter. I highly recommend him for other tweeters. His Twitter home page is: http://twitter.com/RedHourBen

I'm not sure if he's in any movies this holiday season, but I know he's not in "Avatar."

UPDATE: I'm sure my Facebook friend Andrew Neal would want to tell everyone that Casper and other comic books are available for the holidays at his comic book store on Franklin Street in downtown Chapel Hill, NC, which is called Chapel Hill Comics. I would say unless you live in North Pole, Alaska, it's worth the drive!