Friday, February 25, 2011

A Look at the Oscars



As the world knows, tomorrow night is Oscar Night. Last year when watching the Academy Awards, I was seized with an all too familiar pain and ended up watching much of the show in the ER at Passavant Hospital while dealing with an attack of kidney stones. Let's hope there is no repeat of THAT particular performance.

As for the awards themselves, Marilyn and I are looking forward to watching them since we have actually seen many of the nominated films and performances....The King's Speech, The Social Network, True Grit, The Kids Are All Right, and Toy Story 3. So, we figure that, unlike the Grammys of a couple of weeks ago, we will actually get it while watching the Oscars.

We have not seen The Fighter which figures to cop both Supporting Actor awards. I know that absolutely everyone who saw this movie insists it is a GREAT movie, but I just can't get myself up for watching another boxing movie. Perhaps when the DVD comes out, maybe, but not before then. Also, I would really, really love to see an upset here and have the Best Supporting Actress Oscar go out to 14 year old Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit.

Natalie Portman is also being conceded the Best Actress award for Black Swan. We were all set to go out and see this flick this week, but, alas and alack, it was not playing at either the Robinson Cinemark or the Rave North, aka, the Dump of a Theater on McKnight Road, so we will have to wait to see Ms. Portman's soon-to-be-Oscar-winning performance.

(As an aside, the other chick in Black Swan, Mila Kunis, who is the actress who played the hottie, Jackie, in That 70's Show, a guilty pleasure show for me. Hasn't she come a long way? Who would have thought that she and Ashton Kutcher would have been the breakout stars from that series? Personally, I thought that Red Foreman was the the REAL star of that show.)

The Best Actor award is also being conceded this year to Colin Firth playing King George in The King's Speech. No argument there, although I really liked Jesse Eisenberg in The Social Network. However, no way the Academy gives the Oscar to a 27 year old American actor going up against a 50 year old British Actor playing the King of England.

From what I am reading, the Best Picture Award seems to be coming down to The King's Speech and The Social Network. Both great movies and I wouldn't have a problem with either of them winning. I'll also say that I wouldn't have a problem if Toy Story 3 won. That was a great movie, and it will win the award for Best Animated Feature.

Another award that seems to have a strong favorite is the award for Best Adapted Screenplay. The predictions seem to be that Aaron Sorkin will win it for Social Network. Again, I can't argue with the choice, the dialog in that movie really was great, but surely the Coen Brothers have to be a strong second in that category for True Grit.

Finally, there was an interesting story in the paper this morning about the always very popular necrology feature on the Academy Awards show, and speculation as to which dead actor will be the last one pictured in the five minute (up from three minutes in previous years; 2010 was big year for Hollywood deaths, apparently) tribute. This is THE coveted spot in the clip. Gotta be Tony Curtis, right?

Enjoy the show. I'll check in with some post-Oscar commentary on Monday.

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