Oscars!!!

Now that the Superbowl is over, it's time to get ready for The Academy Awards. For me they're bigger than the World Series and the Superbowl. Maybe bigger than both of them combined. For the Oscars it's kind of a tradition for me to get some Chinese take-out and plop myself in front of the TV. This year will be no different. Unfortunately this last year I wasn't able to catch any of the movies up for best picture except for "Avatar" (though I don't know if it counts because I fell asleep), "Inglorious Basterds" and "Up." I do have "The Hurt Locker" and "District 9" laying around and will hopefully be getting to those soon.

The nominees for the major awards:

Best picture-
"Avatar"
"The Hurt Locker"
"Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
"Up in the Air"
"Inglourious Basterds"
"Up"
"The Blind Side"
"District 9"
"An Education"
"A Serious Man"

Actor-
George Clooney, "Up in the Air"
Jeff Bridges, "Crazy Heart"
Colin Firth, "A Single Man"
Morgan Freeman, "Invictus"
Jeremy Renner, "The Hurt Locker"

Actress-
Meryl Streep, "Julie & Julia"
Sandra Bullock, "The Blind Side"
Gabourey Sidibe, "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
Helen Mirren, "The Last Station"
Carey Mulligan, "An Education"

Supporting actor-
Matt Damon, "Invictus"
Woody Harrelson, "The Messenger"
Christopher Plummer, "The Last Station"
Stanley Tucci, "The Lovely Bones"
Christoph Waltz, "Inglourious Basterds"

Supporting actress-
Vera Farmiga, "Up in the Air"
Mo'Nique, "Precious"
Anna Kendrick, "Up in the Air"
Penelope Cruz, "Nine"
Maggie Gyllenhaal, "Crazy Heart"

Director-
Quentin Tarantino, "Inglourious Basterds"
Kathryn Bigelow, "The Hurt Locker"
James Cameron, "Avatar"
Lee Daniels, "Precious: Based on the novel 'Push' by Sapphire"
Jason Reitman, "Up in the Air"

I'm going to take my shot and say it's going to be Christoph Waltz for the win. Even without having seen any of the other nominees in the supporting actor category I'd place my bet on him. His is one of THE most terrifying performances I've ever seen. I know Mo'Nique is cleaning up at other awards shows and that with Anna Kendrick also nominated for "Up in the Air," Vera Farmiga's chances are almost non-existent but mark my word this woman will win an Oscar one day. Do yourself a favor and go to Blockbuster or log onto Netflix and rent "Down to the Bone" and you'll see what I mean. I'm hoping against hope that Avatar will horribly bomb in the major categories. I just did not get this film. It looked pretty (okay, fucking amazing) but it was "Dances with Wolves." Cameron peaked at T2. The next few weeks I'm going to be on a mission to catch these movies before the big show. If there are no new blog posts just know it's because I'm sitting in a dark theater.