2011 Oscar Winners

It's 2:15 AM and the 2011 Academy Awards ceremony ended about an hour and a half ago.  The King’s Speech won Best Picture.  No one movie emerged as the big winner.  The King’s Speech and Inception had four wins apiece, The Social Network had three, and Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, and The Fighter had two apiece. 

11:30 AM Edit - I should have pointed out that the four wins for The King's Speech were in four of the five "major" Oscar categories - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, and Best Original Screenplay.  It did not win Best Actress, nor did it have anyone even nominated for that from this film.  See my set of posts on the only three movies in Oscar history to have won all five major awards - Click here for these posts

The show actually moved along pretty well.  It went a little over three hours.  For an Oscars telecast that is blazing speed.  Four hours tends to be more common.  Having presenters do two awards at a time definitely sped things up and I hope they keep it like that.  Not having montages for each of the ten nominated films also saved time.  Things still bogged down with the final four awards (Actor, Actress, Director, Picture.)  It took them over 45 minutes to hand them out when it had taken them less than two and a half hours to hand out the prior 20 awards.

2011 Oscar Predictions

The Academy Awards ceremony is this Sunday, February 27^th at 8:30 PM EST.  It is on ABC.  Check your local listings. 

I’m posting this list so you can either be amazed at my overall movie knowledge, or so that you can ridicule me for being wrong.  Hopefully it’s more the former than the latter.  My goal is more than 50% correct, with a hope of 75% (18 of 24 categories), although that is probably not realistic.  Good or bad I will do a follow-up post on how I did.

Here is the complete list of nominations in all twenty-four categories.  What I would pick is highlighted in yellow.  No highlight means I have not seen any of the choices.  What I think will win is in bold.  I will also say if I think my choice is a lock, likely, educated guess, or wild-ass guess.

Movies – My Top 10 of 2010

Here is my list of the ten best 2010 movies.  I believe I’ve seen all the big mainstream movies except Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, which I heard good things about.  I’ll buy it when it comes out and watch it then.  I have not seen any of the Oscar-nominated foreign films or documentaries because they mostly have not been available.  Other than that, my list should be based on a pretty complete set of 2010 movies.

You’ll notice some movies in my Top 10 that did not receive any Oscar nominations.  I have never felt that getting an Oscar nomination was the be all and end all of how good a movie was.  On another note, I had a hard time with position ten.  I had three very different movies (True Grit, Unstoppable, and How to Train Your Dragon) and deciding among them was difficult.

Click “Read more” for the list.

Movie – Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010)

How to describe this movie?  I guess I should start by saying that it may very well be unique among the thousands of movies that I have seen.  That should tell you a lot right there.  This is not a movie for people who want to see the same, normal, grounded-in-reality, boy-meets-girl movies they have been seeing.  This is the kind of movie that you just have to go with and have a good time.  I did and I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I consider it one of the top 10 movies of 2010.

Movie – Defendor (2009)

Defendor is a small independent film that takes a look at one man who tries to be a superhero and stop bad guys.  It starts out comedic, but as it goes along and you learn more about this character, it slowly shifts to being a drama.  If you watch this I think it will go places that you do not expect.

Woody Harrelson plays the title character, whose real name is Arthur Poppington.  He is a little slow mentally.  He goes out at night and tries to help people.  He is searching for Captain Industry, who he is convinced is the ultimate villain that needs to be stopped.

Movie – Kick-Ass (2010)

Kick-Ass was the first bigger budget movie to ask the question – what would it be like if a normal person decided to put on an outfit and try to fight crime?  There would be no lifting trucks, seeing through walls, reading minds, fancy cars, jets, boats, gadgets, etc.  The result is a very entertaining movie, one that is mostly comedic, but one that has some dramatic moments as well.  I consider this to be the third best movie of all of 2010.

Movies with Everyday Heroes

"Everyone’s a hero in their own way/ Everyone’s got villains they must face/ They’re not as cool as mine/ But folks you know it’s fine/ to know your place/ Everyone’s a hero in their own way/ In their own not-that-heroic way" – Captain Hammer, Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog

There have been a ton of superhero movies in the last ten years.  Most involve people with superpowers derived from radiation (Spider-Man, Hulk, Fantastic Four, Daredevil, etc.), mutation (X-Men, Wolverine, etc.), or technology (Batman, Iron Man, etc.)

By “everyday heroes” I mean people who don’t have any of those things going for them.  What if a normal human just happened to put on a suit?  Two movies I will recommend deal with that directly – Kick-Ass and Defendor.  A couple of other movies fall into this category – Special and Mystery Men.  While both were okay, neither was good enough for me to recommend.

The third movie I will write about then is Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.  To be honest, this movie doesn’t fit as well in this category as the other two; it is really in a category all by itself.  If I waited until there were two other movies like it, though, I would probably never end up posting on it.  I’m including it partially because I want at least three recommended movies in this category, but mostly because it is one of my Top 10 movies of 2010 and when I write about that I want to have reviews for all 10 movies already posted on this blog.

You can find my posts for these movies here:

Kick-Ass
Defendor
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

On to the reviews…

Book – Math Doesn’t Suck

The author of this book is Danica McKellar.  If the name or her picture on the book cover look familiar, it’s because she is an actress best known for playing Winnie Cooper on the TV show The Wonder Years.  After the show got done she went to UCLA and in 1998 graduated Summa Cum Laude with a degree in Mathematics.  She has held the title of World’s Hottest Mathematician ever since.

Hike – Borestone Mountain

View from West Peak of Borestone

Borestone Mountain is the centerpiece of the Borestone Mountain Audubon Sanctuary, which was founded in 1958.  In addition to the hiking, the sanctuary features Adirondack style cottages on alpine ponds that are available to be rented.  There is also a Visitor’s Center with displays of the animals in the sanctuary. 

The hiking trail to the two peaks of Borestone is listed as moderate by the AMC Maine Mountain guide.  That is more an average than an overall description.  The trail starts out easy, becomes moderate when starting up Borestone, and becomes somewhat strenuous as you near the top.  The reward is 360 degree views from two different peaks, much of it looking into the “100 Mile Wilderness.”

Humor – 69 Posts

With this latest set of reviews I made my 69^th post on this blog.  Here’s how the mind of a man works.

Movie – Kung Fu Panda (2008)

Yes, this is a kung fu movie, but one with a silly, animated fat panda as the lead.  How can this be a movie with a badass?  In this case, it is the villain who is a badass.  In most movies, what makes a great hero is the skill of the villain that he has to defeat.  This movie is both a spoof of, and homage to, kung fu movies.  The two of these things combine to create a villain that is so badass that you can’t imagine how he can be defeated.

Movie – Pitch Black (2000)

Pitch Black is the classic “group of people caught in a dangerous situation just trying to get home.”  It could have been a western with cowboys surrounded by Indians, or a contemporary movie with people trapped by criminals.  In this case, it is a science fiction movie.  Not unlike John Wayne becoming a star after doing Stagecoach (an example of a Western version), Vin Diesel is the breakout star of this movie.

Movie – Gran Torino (2008)

Almost 40 years after making the original Dirty Harry, Clint Eastwood came out with Gran Torino.  Unlike the sometimes cartoonish Harry Callahan, in this movie Eastwood portrays a man who is a much more realistic badass.  The character of Walt Kowalsky is a Korean War veteran, a retired autoworker who spent more than 40 years at Ford, a father and grandfather, and a recent widower after decades of marriage.  This is a terrific movie and it is one of the best films Eastwood has ever made.

Movie – Dirty Harry (1971)

The movie Dirty Harry didn’t invent the maverick cop genre (Bullitt is an earlier example), but it sure cemented it in the public consciousness.  Harry Callahan is a cop who has little patience for politics or legal procedure.  Anything that prevents him from getting scum off the streets is bad in his book and he will often disregard it.  He also carries a .44 magnum gun, which is much too powerful for use on the streets.  After this movie came out a “Dirty Harry” moment or act became part of the language.  The list of movie and TV references on IMDB is a mile long.  This movie also has the famous “Do you feel lucky?” quote, which is one of the most misquoted lines in movie history.

Movies with Serious Badasses

"You don’t tug on Superman’s cape/ you don’t spit into the wind/ you don’t pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger/ and you don’t mess around with Slim" – Jim Croce

With all the romantic movies I posted last week I felt it was time for a shot of testosterone.  This set of movies is going to concentrate not just on tough guys, and not even on guys that are kind of badass.  No, this set of movies is going to be about characters that lift badassery to a whole new level.

Who better to start with than Clint Eastwood in Dirty Harry (1971)?  Making for an interesting double feature, almost forty years later Eastwood did the movie Gran Torino (2008).  Can an almost eighty year old man still be badass?  If he’s Clint Eastwood he can.  Switching to a newer generation, Vin Diesel had the first really good role of his career in Pitch Black (2000).  The last movie I will review is Kung Fu Panda (2008).  What’s that?  You’re wondering how Jack Black’s panda character is badass?  I’ll give you a hint – that’s not the character I’ll be writing about.  Check out the posted review for the answer.

Finally, can a man be badass while playing ping pong?  If he’s Bruce Lee using nunchucks he can.

You can find my posts for these movies here:

Dirty Harry

Gran Torino

Pitch Black

Kung Fu Panda

On to the reviews…

Humor – Valentine’s Day

It’s Valentine’s Day once again, the day where people commemorate the beating, stoning and beheading of Saint Valentine by eating chocolates out of heart-shaped boxes.  The greeting card, floral, and magazine industries get in the spirit by metaphorically beating and stoning the single women in the country for not being in a relationship.

Humor – Praying for Snow

It appears that the Baptists have had enough snow this winter.  (Click “Read more” for the pics.)

Book – Ender’s Game

Back in 1986 I was visiting a college friend in Massachusetts and he had somehow ended up with two copies of the book Ender’s Game.  He gave one to me.  He had not read it yet and he figured I might get to it before he did.  After a three hour drive home, and having nothing else planned, I started reading the book around suppertime.  Even though I had to work the next day I did not put the book down until I finished reading it around two in the morning.  The next day I called my friend up and just said three words to him “Read. Ender’s. Game.” 

Hike – Little Wilson Falls

Little Wilson Falls

The “Little” in “Little Wilson Falls” refers to the fact that it is on Little Wilson Stream, not that the size of the waterfall is little.  At 60 feet this is among the higher waterfalls in Maine.  I caught it on a day where there had been rain, so the volume of water was quite impressive, too.  This is an easy hike so if you like waterfalls, this is definitely one you will want to check out.

Movie – Possession (2002)

Possession is a very romantic drama.  It is a smaller movie that got a little lost between more commercial movies Gwyneth Paltrow did like Shallow Hal and Austin Powers.  It is probably the most traditionally romantic movie of the four where she played a Brit.  It is also quite an intelligent mystery story that keeps the film moving along as clues are uncovered.