Movies: The Academy Awards

With the small amount of hits my blog gets, I easily noticed a random blip of recent activity around my review of The Departed. I take that as a sign that the Academy Awards will be on tonight.

I have been negligent in sharing my thoughts about several other movies I have watched since seeing The Departed, and maybe I will give them the fuller reviews they deserver at some later date. Also, I have not seen every movie that was nominated for an award this year, but I will try to make public predictions for the first time. I have made correct predictions in private even without seeing any of the pictures nominated. Granted I believe all my predictions are based on an ability to process the "buzz" on the street and the media rather than on any true psychic abilities. :-)

Best Picture: The Departed. A lot of people are hoping that Little Miss Sunshine wins. I loved that movie, and I am rooting for it, but I think it may ultimately fall short. Perhaps the cast should jump on-stage and dance or do something outrageous to get the movie completely disqualified :-) If somehow the popular vote gets split between those two movies, then another excellent movie, The Queen, could just sneak through. How fearless a first public prediction is that? Not.. :-)

Best Director: I think Martin Scorsese will finally get an Oscar. I have heard good things about Letters from Iwo Jima but I think voters may say Clint Eastwood already has two directing Oscars from movies that may have been better.

Best Actress: Helen Mirren. When I saw the opening shot of The Queen, I thought I was watching a documentary rather than a movie. Maybe if I paid attention to the royal family more, I would notice differences between the real queen and an actress, but Mirren just disappeared into her role. In this case, I have to admit that I missed the movies of all the other nominated performers.

Best Actor: Forrest Whitaker. I have to go on buzz alone on that one as I have not watched The Last King of Scotland yet -- though Whitaker looks convincing as Idi Amin in the trailer for the movie. I thought Leonardo DiCaprio performed better in The Departed than in Blood Diamond. But he did an excellent job in both, so maybe he deserves some sort of an award just for that accomplishment.

Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy. I have to go with the buzz once again since Dreamgirls is also still on my "to see" list. Mark Wahlberg stole every scene in The Departed but his role did not allow him to display many emotions other than anger. Alan Arkin was awesome in Little Miss Sunshine as was Djimon Hounsou in Blood Diamond. So it is kind of funny that I am leaning toward a performance I have not seen.

Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson. But I really think it would be cool if Abigail Breslin wins.

Like most people, I do not pay too much attention to the other categories. I suspect Pan's Labyrinth will get some award related to art. Finally, I think An Inconvenient Truth will win Best Documentary. I never thought a movie about a class lecture delivered by a politician criticized for being stiff would be so compelling. I've heard good things about the other documentaries so it could be a close vote.

TV: Amazing Race: All-Stars Ep 1

The Amazing Race is back and well I guess I am too.

I guess I now better appreciate people who manage to post entries more regularly. It is so easy to let blogging slide way down on the "To Do" list.

Anyway, it is hard for me to comment on the first leg of the race because I messed up. Not entirely but pretty badly. I forgot that by DVR was set up was specifically to record the Amazing Race 10 and not the Amazing Race in general. I did not realize that until I arrived home after a party. Fortunately, I did try to watch the show while I was at the party, but for various expected reasons, it was really hard to hear anything that was going on.

At best as I can tell, there were supposed to be some surprises with the teams this season. The two biggest surprises both involved John Vito and Jill. First, they are an ex-couple who, I guess, are still friends. Second, they managed to be eliminated quickly, falling victim to the oldest pitfall of any race - getting lost.

Not as surprising is the fact that Eric and Danielle are now dating and racing together this season. I personally would have preferred to team up with the other Dani of Team Pink (not that I would have had a chance with either of them). Anyway, I think Eric had a better chance of winning if he had stuck with his original teammate, Jeremy.

Least surprising is that Romber came in first place. Love them or hate them, they are skilled reality show competitors. It will be interesting to see how other teams keep up. Joyce and
Uchenna did beat them before, but they happened to get very lucky at the right time, and it seems unlikely that lightning will strike twice.

It's still too early to predict an elimination order. But I get a general impression that teams from earlier seasons are outmatched, along with the Miners who may not be able to form any sort of
alliance this time around. I'll still hope

Oh well, hope I correctly record the second leg and hear the audio.