January 24, 2012
The Oscar Challenge is on
I was hoping this year that the Academy would be a little more selective in it's Best Picture nominations. They changed the rules again where they could have up to 10 films in the category, but they didn't have to. So how many do they pick this year? Nine.
Since I try to see all the Best Picture nominees before the awards, nine makes it a little difficult. It makes seeing five like it used to be a piece of cake. And with five all of the movies were very good. Having more than five, you get a few where you question what the academy was thinking.
So here are the movies I have a month to see:
“The Artist” – I'm really looking forward to seeing this one. It won the Golden Globe for best comedy or musical so I have high hopes for this.
“The Descendants” – This won the Golden Globe for best drama but it is not currently playing anywhere right now so I hope it comes out on DVD before the Oscars or gets re-released in theaters.
“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”– Hmm. Our movie reviewer Michael Clark did not like this movie at all. I wonder if the Academy chose this movie because of the content. This could be one of these movies that wouldn't have made the top five in previous years.
“The Help” – This one has been out on DVD for a while so it should be easy to cross off the list.
“Midnight in Paris” – I'm not a huge Woody Allen fan but the Academy is. It's out on DVD so I'll add it to my Netflix queue. I don't have big expectations for this, but I didn't for “Match Point” either and really liked that one, so we'll see.
“Hugo”– I saw this yesterday in a theater I had all to myself and it was really, really good. I highly recommend seeing it in the theater because the 3-D is amazing and beautiful. It was the best 3-D I have seen since “Avatar.” And the story is wonderful, too.
“Moneyball”– I saw this one on DVD. It is good but I don't know if it is top five Oscar good. There was nothing in it that made me think, “Wow.” But Brad Pitt is always nice too look at and it made me wish I had followed the American League more even though I'm a die-hard Braves fan.
“The Tree of Life” – This one is out on DVD and I'm glad because I might have to watch this one twice to understand what is going on. This one is told in an unconventional way.
“War Horse” – It is Steven Spielberg so I'm all in. He has a history of making pretty good movies, so I'll be heading out the theater to see this one soon.
So four of the nine best picture nominees are still in theaters with hopefully a fifth one being re-released, and four are on DVD. I have seen two of the nine so I should be able to see all of them in a month. The Oscar challenge is officially on.
Here is the official list of nominations in all categories
What did you think of the nominations?
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