Short Road to the Oscars

Folks, award season is once again upon us, and in particular the Oscars are just closing in as we speak. They're scheduled for February 25th which will give everyone plenty of time to finish their taxes. The only real question left to resolve is, of course, will I correctly predict any winners? Hey, it's my blog, give me a little room for ego here, huh? Besides, that's what I plan to do, barring any unforeseen circumstances... which reminds me, I gotta get my laundry. Hold on...
Alright, took care of that. Well, I can't resist a corny segué so let's dive right into my Oscar laundry list. Well, first of all I know what's going to win for Best Animated Feature, and that would be Cars, and I'm not just basing it off of DVD sales, unlike the Academy. No, it's my man John Lasseter because how could he be happy with just his one Special Achievement Oscar for Toy Story? Feels like a whole century ago! We're already up to TS3. Time for some fresh acknowledgement. It'll be the perfect opportunity to plug Pixar as a workplace, and a chance to throw in a seemingly random plug for what he will undoubtedly call the "underrated" Goodbye Lover. Suck on that, Monster House!

For Visual Effects, the field seems kinda thin. Just Poseidon and Superman Returns, a coupla remakes, basically. But Pirates 2, man! It's the only one of these I saw in the theater, and I must say it's the only one that had the hearts and minds of the people, baby! And some very creative pirates, I must add. Some of the craziest damn things I've seen in a long while. Gotta give it to P2.

For Best Makeup, it'll probably go to Pan's Labyrinth. In fact, Pan's Labyrinth will probably sweep all the awards it's nominated for, but I'm giving it to Click anyway. Lemme tell ya something, if Click wins, it'll probably piss off the most people. So many heads held in hands, shaking in disbelief. I'd buy that for a dollar!

Man, this is tough! Requires a great deal of deliberation, more than I'm prepared to do right now, now that it's my bedtime. Well past, as usual. But I do it all for you, my loyal reader! I'll do one more. Best Documentary Feature? Let me do it this way: "Deliver Us From Evil" - no. "Iraq in Fragments" - should win, but probably won't. "An Inconvenient Truth" - should win, but has about as good a chance as Brokeback Mountain. So it's down to "Jesus Camp" and "My Country, My Country". While My Country x 2 has a great Oscar-sounding title, Jesus Camp generated a little more buzz, especially with the Daily Show crowd... my crowd. I'm assuming the latter will triumph, and for just that reason. Goin' with J.C.

So much farther to go, but you gotta take these kinds of things slow, right? Right. And so good night, and happy blogging. I'm just so glad that the internet's open 24 hrs. a day, just like New York City.