blah year for oscars

By Mike Sadowski | Published: January 22, 2008 | Comments closed

At least it’s better than last year.

For the 2007 Academy Awards, as I noted in my Oscar picks last year (sorry I can’t fin the link), it was one of the most depressing lists in recent memory. There weren’t any really good characters (aside from the Little Miss Sunshine contingent), so we got stuck with some really nasty people.

At least that’s not happening this year.

But what we have isn’t exactly a daring year. The movies that clearly have dominated the awards circuit up to the point are the ones that were honored Tuesday, with very few exceptions.

No Country For Old Men and There Will Be Blood each tied for the most nominations with eight, and both have gone back and forth on both critics’ top 10 lists and best picture honors at just about every awards presentation.  

Actually, it’s almost as if the Academy looked at the nominations and said, “Huh, we don’t have one surprise in here,” then went back and put one surprise in every category other than Best Picture. Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah is a surprise for Best Actor, Laura Linney is somewhat of a surprise for Best Actress for The Savages, Hal Hoolbrook (Into the Wild) and Ruby Dee (American Gangster) are the surprises in the supporting categories, and Ratatouille and Away from Her are somewhat surprises in the screenplay categories and Julian Schnabel (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly) is kinda a surprise for directing, even though he won the Golden Globe.

I can’t give my picks now, because:

1. I’m still in the process of catching up on some of these

2. I’m just not ready yet and

3. I’ll be running our annual Oscar contest again this year. The entry form will be in Sharp on Friday and the Pocono Record probably on Sunday.

But I will say that I did predict in December that Sweeney Todd would be on the outside looking in come Oscar time even though it received a boatload of Golden Globe nominations and awards and that I am happy that Once at least got a nomination for best song (Falling Down).

I know, initial reactions are boring.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Comments are closed, but you can leave a trackback: http://js-kit.com/trackback/blogs.thepoconos.com/pop-rox/p=30
We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from this Community, including without limitation if it violates the Community Rules. We ask that you report content that you in good faith believe violates the above rules by clicking the Flag link next to the offending comment.