The Most Incredible News You've Ever Heard

Ahh... the most *exciting* time of the year for movies.

Fact: Nothing comes out between the beginning of the year until after the Oscars, except for documentaries and foreign movies. I've seen one documentary so far this year and that is it, waiting for more good stuff to come out. No English-language fiction movies that will not be completely awful will come out until the second half of March.

Fact: The new stuff that's coming out on Netflix I've mostly seen already.

Fact: There isn't even much fun in Oscar predicting at this point because I pretty much feel like I know what's going to win, there's only one more precursor show coming (The BAFTAs, Sunday on BBC), and even that no matter what the results are will not probably change my predictions. Last year there was at least some Million Dollar Baby vs. The Aviator drama (which I guessed correctly, but still had doubts), this year there is nothing. Brokeback Mountain is going to win. Anybody who says anything otherwise is just experiencing some serious delusions (that means *you* Roger Ebert). I am not aware of any movie, ever, which has won all the precursors it has (DGA, PGA, Golden Globe Drama) and did not win Best Picture. It would maybe be the biggest upset in the history of the show. Sigh. Even though I enjoy guessing correctly, and I want to match my 8/8 score from last year, it is still a little more fun when there is a little bit of uncertainty to it.

Fact: There isn't anything up for awards this year that I really hate. Well, Memoirs of a Geisha has 6 nominations, but they are all in minor technical categories which I do not really care about. There's always one or two movies that get way more praise than they deserve and I get to have some fun complaining about it.

For example:

2004: Ray, The Aviator
2003: Seabiscuit
2002: Chicago, Gangs of New York
2001: A Beautiful Mind, Moulin Rogue

There's usually one, more often two Best Picture nominees each year that I simply do not like at all. This year I like all of them, the weakest link being probably Munich, but nevertheless, none of them are bad. And had Munich had a little more time spent on the screenplay and the latter portions of the movie, and the main character's personality progression been done a little better, I probably would've really liked it. It was rushed out to be released on time for awards, I think.

Anyway, I really need more to talk about. Blech.