Reaction to the Academy Awards

I didn't watch the Academy Awards (had to work), but I figured I'd throw in my two and a half cents.

Best Picture - The King's Speech
If you read my top ten for the year you can probably guess I don't agree with the Academy on this one. It's an Oscar bait movie. Five years from now nobody will watch or remember this movie. Who still watches Cold Mountain, The Hours, Crash, or any other boring, snobbish Oscar bait movie? No one. I don't dislike any of these movies, but this award should represent the very best of the year. I know every year there's not going to be a generation defining film, but I would say The Social Network, Inception, or Black Swan are more likely to be that film than The King's Speech.


My pick: True Grit - Best western since Unforgiven, and maybe even better than that.


Best Director - Tom Hooper, The King's Speech
I hope I don't come off as a basher of The King's Speech, because I did like it quite a bit. But everything in this movie I've seen before. Sure, he got good performances out of Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush, but that's not that great of a feat. If he had made it with Hugh Grant and Mel Gibson, than I'd be really impressed.


My pick: Christopher Nolan, Inception - Didn't get nominated, but should have won anyway. Inception was the most ambitious and risky big budget film in years.

Best Actor - Colin Firth, The King's Speech
I would have been happy with James Franco, Jesse Eisenberg, or Jeff Bridges. I'm not going to go on about The King's Speech anymore.

My pick: Jesse Eisenberg, The Social Network - I love Jesse Eisenberg. He's one of my favorite actors of all time, so you could say I'm a little biased. He really should have been nominated for Adventureland last year, but Social Network was a tad more successful. I really hope he tries something new for his next role, otherwise he could go down in flames as the typecast awkward geek.

Best Actress - Natalie Portman, Black Swan
Why couldn't she have given a performance like this in Star Wars? When she is motivated and is working with a director she likes, she is great. If she gave this kind of effort for every movie she did, then she could be one of the best actresses of all time. But she likes to mail it in and get paid too often.

My pick: Natalie Portman

Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale, The Fighter
He's obviously very professional, and I can't really argue with this pick. He was great, but not what I would have picked.

My pick: Matt Damon, True Grit - Another non nominee. I thought he was good the first time I watched it, and was fantastic on the second viewing. Watch it again.

Best Supporting Actress - Melissa Leo, The Fighter
I didn't remember being all that impressed with her performance. Not that memorable.

My pick: Chloe Moretz, Kick-Ass - I would have picked Hailee Steinfeld, but she wasn't a supporting actress, she was the lead. Chloe Moretz was awesome as Hit Girl, and really made the movie as good as it was.

I hope you enjoyed reading this. I'll be back tomorrow with my February movie reviews

May the Force be with you,
CHUD