Put "Letters From Iwo Jima" back on the short list

As Reported by Tom O'Neil at the Gold Derby, it is official Clint Eastwood's film "Letters From Iwo Jima" will be eligible for the Golden Globes and the Oscars this year. So it's back to the drawing board everybody. This could affect my short lists for Best Picture, Best Froeign Language Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Sound , Best Editing, Cinematography,

Oscar Central is Back

Hey, one of my favoite sites Mark Bakalor's Oscar Central has finally updated the site for this year's race. And as he says, Oscar Central correctly picked 19 out of all 24 categories last year, taking third place among 85 of the Best Oscar pundits. Nice try, but I got 20 out of 24 last year.

A Movie for distraction

To avoid what was to become a Repulican onslaught here in my state, we went to a movie last night. "Borat" was just the thing, laughter drowned out the death toll for change on the political specturm and the continued downward spiral of out way of life here in the Valley and the great state of Texas. Do I sound bitter? You bet!

Oscar Diary update

In the Best Picture category I am undecided about how long I can keep "Flags" in the top five, "Little Miss Sunshine," and "The Good German" could easily replace it, but I'm not ready to take it out just yet. I don't have much confidence in "Bobby" or "The Pursuit of Happyness," the former smells like "Crash," and I hated that film. I love the "Love Boat '68" tag, it seems fitting. I've never taken Will Smith seriously, so he will have to impress me.

In the Best Director race my other favorites are Stephen Soderbergh, Pedro Almodovar and Paul Greengrass, with the later having the less of a chance than the others.

I have a feeling that Leonardo DiCaprio in the "Blood Diamond" will not stand up to his performance in "The Departed," and yet he may still get nominated for it anyway. I really want to put Ryan Gosling in his place.

I don't anticipate much change in the Best Actress category. I think we will have to wait and see who the Academy favors Kate Winslet, Annette Bening or Penelope Cruz.

The supporting categories are always the toughtest for me, either there are too many to choose from (the men, usually) or not enough (the women, usually) and once I make my picks one or two performaces come up totally out of the blue. And don't forget this category frequently has suprises.

All the rest of my picks speak for themselves at this point we'll see how things look at the end of the month.

You can't always get what you want

Yeah! I got to see a movie saturday night. We wanted to see "Borat," but it was sold out so we had to drive across town to catch "Marie Antoinette," and what can I say ... ... ... ...? IT SUCKED! I so wanted to like this movie, but it stunk. It lacked any purpose or meaning, all it really said to me over and over again was these people got exactlly what they deserved! Boo! Boo!

Updates comming next week

Sadly I will not get to the cinema until Sunday night (maybe). I've got other stuff to do this weekend. Here are my choices for this week, I hope to catch at least two of them before next friday:

"Flags of Our Fathers"
"Marie Antoinette"
"Catch a Fire"
"Borat"
"The Science of Sleep"
"Jesus Camp"
"The Day the Earth Stood Still"

It's Sci-fi month at Cine El Rey, the old down town renivated theatre where my mother used to work as a teenager. Check out their web site at http://www.cineelrey.com/ it's because of this theater that we have not had to travel north to see films we couldn't see down here. The last three films are showing at the El Rey this weekend. I love this theatre!

I'm currently working on Oscar updates, which will include all the tech categories as well. I hope to post at the beginning of next week sometime.