my opinion matters

So, apparently there have been some rumors about The Hurt Locker and some negative email campaigns against the other Best Picture nominees. There were two emails sent out by Nicolas Chartier, one of the producers of the film, basically bashing the other nominees. According to the rules and regulations of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, you can’t send mailings of any kind that “attempt to promote any film or achievement by casting a negative light on a competing film or achievement,” so he is an idiot. He has since apologized and claimed he didn’t know the rules (which is just plain stupid and impossible). Possible disciplinary measures include a public censure of Chartier being a douche, not letting him come to the ceremony, refusing to let him into the academy, and last but not least, removing The Hurt Locker from the Best Picture race. Okay, we all know they aren’t going to do the last one. When the emails were sent, the Academy said they had already received almost ...

The Academy Awards are given out on Sunday, and I’m starting to get pretty excited about it. As always, there are only six awards that really matter, but I’m going to give it a shot and predict all the categories, just to see how I do - but officially I only care about the top six. Here goes… Best Picture——————-Avatar Best Actor———————Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart Best Actress——————-Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side Best Supporting Actor——-Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds Best Supporting Actress—–Mo’Nique, Precious Best Director——————-Kathyn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker (i really want James Cameron) Best Screenplay—————-The Hurt Locker Best Adapted Screenplay—–Up in the Air Best Cinematography———-Avatar Best Editing———————-The Hurt Locker Best Art Direction————–Avatar Best Costume Design———–The Young Victoria (I wish it was Nine, though) Best Makeup———————Star Trek Best Original Score————–Michael Giacchino, Up (LOST!) Best Original Song—————”The Weary Kind,” Crazy Heart Best Sound Mixing————...

Here are my current predictions for the Oscars – I haven’t seen all the films yet, but this is what I think as of right now: - Best Picture – It has to be Avatar. Seriously. Nothing else comes close and if The Hurt Locker wins, that sucks. - Best Actor – Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart – see the post below. - Best Acress – The only one I haven’t seen is Helen Mirren in The Last Station, but I think Sandra Bullock has this locked up… although I would love to see Meryl Streep win. Hmm.. - Best Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds. Stanley Tucci rocked his performance, but Waltz was genius. - Best Supporting Actress – Mo’Nique, Precious. Nobody else is even on the radar. - Best Director – It should be James Cameron, I mean for real, but I bet Kathryn Bigelow gets it for The Hurt Locker. I bet whoever gets Best Picture doesn’t get Best Director.

As you all know, I have been trying insanely hard to find a copy of this movie to watch it before the Oscars next month, and had been completely unsuccessful. Thankfully, I live in Dayton, Ohio, where we have The Neon Movies that shows more independent films and stuff that doesn’t come to regular theatres. And they are currently showing Crazy Heart, so it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up, and I’m glad I didn’t because I really enjoyed the film. Wait, strike that. I really loved Jeff Bridges. The movie, not so much. Maggie Gyllenhaal? Definitely not. I really hate her and her saggy boobs. I know that’s a horrible thing to say, but I swear, it’s not like she doesn’t know – so why not wear a bra every once in awhile, right? And her face is very droopy too – ugh. She is also a shitty actress, which is why I don’t understand why she was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar – there’s no way. She sucks. I don’t really want to give away the story, because you should see the movie...

Okay, so they’re making a huge deal at the Winter Olympics this year about how Apolo Ohno has now tied Bonnie Blair with six medals at the games. Except not really. Bonnie Blair won FIVE GOLD MEDALS. FIVE. Ohno only has two, and a crapload of bronzes. So while it technically is the same number as Blair has, and he will probably get more at the games this year, is it really equal? She won five for crying out loud. Even if she only had three, it would still kick his ass. If you think I’m wrong, just look at the faces of the teams and individuals who get silver and bronze – not always happy. It’s because it’s just not as good as gold, and everyone knows it. So I guess it’s a big deal that he will surpass the number of medals total, he will never be as cool as Bonnie Blair. He just won’t. Plus he has that really lame facial hair, so he’s got that working against him too. Ugh he’s obnoxious.

Okay, seriously. Women are terrible at moguls. TERRIBLE. And you wouldn’t know it at first, but then when you see the men go it’s bananas. They are 5-10 seconds faster, they hardly EVER crash, and the air they get is sick. So… yeah. Women, this is not your sport. It’s like women’s basketball, for real.

I took a class in grad school titled “Mental Health and Contemporary Fiction” and we read a book by Alice Sebold. That is how I came upon The Lovely Bones, the book and the film. The book was… well… to be honest I didn’t really enjoy it. At first it was interesting and good, but then it got weird and boring and kind of lame. There was a lot of skimming towards the end of the book, and I am not ashamed to tell you that. But, nonetheless, I wanted to see the film. Stanley Tucci, Mark Wahlburg, Susan Sarandon – I can’t pass something like that up even if I wanted to. But I’ll tell you what – they did a good job on making a kind of crappy book into a decent movie, and I believe that is all because of Stanley Tucci. I have always liked him, but he really is different and awesome in this film – totally creepy, but great. I think one of the best parts is that he doesn’t look or act like Stanley Tucci at all, except with his hands and little things like that. He is a great actor. Now, in the b...