[It's Oscar day! And much like every other movie blog on the intarwebz, I shall be doing a live blog shortly. So just to prep, I'm gonna post up who I think should win, who will win, who could possibly win, and then the actual winner. I'll do this now (sans actual winner), and come one hour from now, I'll re-arrange the bits to correspond with when each is announced. And in between the winner decisions, I'll comment on the goings-on of the actual show.
Hopefully this will be better than last year. Last year, there was this whole big switch from analog to digital television, so the channel the Oscars was on was all fuzzy. There were long stretches where you couldn't see or hear anything, and even longer stretches where you could only hear stuff. So short of the electricity going on, there's really not anything that can be worse than last year.
Also, I doubt my choices right now and my choices on the LAMB Oscar Pool... or even the Oscar-related LAMBcast... are the same (though they're probably closest to the LAMBcast). Mostly because I don't remember, and some I've just changed my mind about since. So without further ado, here are my choices.]It's time for the live blog! Continue refreshing for more of my thoughts and for the announced winners. And it begins... now.
7:30: All the leading actors/actresses are listed off one-by-one. I'm not gonna spell them out, mostly because I can't spell some of their names.
7:31: Haha! Neil Patrick Harris! That's freakin' awesome. He's singing "No one wants to do it alone" to explain why he's there. And a Twilight joke. lol... "There are two hosts tonight, and I fired my agent 'cause one's not me."
7:34: Steven Martin and Alec Baldwin are lowered from the ceiling in a giant ball thing. Ha... Steve Martin made a funny.
7:35: Aw, poor Meryl Streep.
7:39: Burn! Alec to Steve: "They just don't give Oscars to stand-up comedians, but nobody has to tell you that."
7:40: And there it is, the first mention of Bigelow vs. Cameron.
7:41: Clooney seemed a bit miffed... but maybe that's just me.
7:43: Again... Clooney seems a bit miffed. But maybe it's just an act. Who knows? On with the show!
7:44: Penelope Cruz is out for the first award: Best Supporting Actor. There's Matt Damon for Invictus. Woody Harrelson for The Messenger (Ben Foster spotting!... at least in the clip). Christopher Plummer for The Last Station. Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones. And Christoph Waltz for Inglorious Basterds.
SUPPORTING ACTORWill: Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)
Want: Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds)
Possible: ...it's gonna be Christoph Waltz.
Actual: Christoph Waltz (Inglorious Basterds). Totally knew it.
7:49: Yeah... no idea what Christoph Waltz was just talking about in his acceptance, but good for you!
7:50: Ryan Reynolds is introducing Best Picture nominee, The Blind Side.
7:55: And we're back. Cameron Diaz and Steve Carell are up. Steve is funny.
7:56: Animated characters talking about what they feel about being nominated. This is pretty cool/funny.
7:58: Announcing best Animated Feature Film. There was The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Coraline, The Secret of the Kells, Princess and the Frog, and Up.
ANIMATED FEATURE FILMWill: Up
Want: Up
Possible: It's gonna be Up (it was nominated for Best Picture, for cryin' out loud).
Actual: Up8:00: Alec and Steve talk about The Hangover before introducing Amanda Seyfried and Miley Cyrus. Wow, is Amanda getting married? That dress is huge. But now it's up for Best Original Song. There were songs from Crazy Heart, Princess and the Frog, Nine, and Paris 36.
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)Will: The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart)
Want: Down in New Orleans (Princess and the Frog)
Possible: Almost There (Princess and the Frog)
Actual: The Weary Kind (Crazy Heart)8:04: "I'd like to thank my wife. I love you more than rainbows, baby." Um... k.
8:05: Chris Pine introduced Best Picture Nominee, District 9.
8:11: And we're back. Alec introduces Robert Downey Jr. and Tina Fey. Robert Downey Jr. is hilarious. It's a writing award... which one? Original Screenplay. We have The Hurt Locket, Inglorious Basterds, The Messenger, A Serious Man, and Up.
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAYWill: Up
Want: Up
Possible: The Hurt Locker
Actual: The Hurt Locker8:15: At least I got it with my "Possible" guess, so I wasn't completely off.
8:17: Molly Ringwald and Matthew Broderick. Molly seems really stiff and nervous right now. They're talking about John Hughes. Followed by a bunch of John Hughes movie clips.
8:21: A bunch of former Hughes film stars come out on stage, introduce his family, say goodbye, and leave.
8:23: Samuel L. Jackson comes out and talks about Best Picture Nominee, Up.
8:27: Out comes Carey Mulligan and Zoe Saldana. They're here to give the awards for Short Films.
8:31: First is Animated Short.
ANIMATED SHORT (Guessing)Will: A Matter of Loaf and Death
Want: Don't know.
Possible: Don't know.
Actual: Logorama8:32: Yeah, haven't actually seen any of the shorts (of any type), so I was really just picking one.
8:33: Next is Documentary Short.
DOCUMENTARY SHORT (Guessing again)Will: Rabbit a la Berlin
Want: No idea.
Possible: No idea.
Actual: Music by Prudence8:34: This lady bursts in during the middle of the dude's speech and speaks really slowly until they start playing the music to hurry them along.
8:35: Now for the Live Action Short.
LIVE ACTION SHORT (Guessing again)Will: Instead of Abracadabra
Want: Don't know.
Possible: Don't know.
Actual: The New Tenants8:36: Yup... so, I got all the Shorts completely wrong. But again, I hadn't seen any of them or heard really anything about any of them. And this guy's talking super slow. Speed it up, guy. Poor second guy who didn't have time to speak.
8:37: Ben Stiller is out... dressed as a Na'Vi. lol. He's there for Best Make-Up. He's being really funny. And the nominees are... Il Divo, Star Trek, and The Young Victoria.
BEST MAKE-UPWill: Star Trek
Want: Star Trek
Possible: The Young Victoria
Actual: Star Trek
8:43: Jeff Bridges comes out to introduce Best Picture Nominee, A Serious Man.
8:47: Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams come out for Best Adapted Screenplay. Nominees are Up in the Air, Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire, In the Loop, An Education, and District 9.
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAYWill: Precious (it's based on the novel Push by Sapphire, you know)
Want: District 9
Possible: Up in the Air
Actual: Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire8:50: For all the people who yelled at me, mocked me, and called me crazy for saying that Precious would beat out Up in the Air for this category, especially in the LAMB Devours the Oscars post I did, this I say to you: F*#@ You! Told ya so! Nana nana boo boo! (Because I'm not childish in any way).
8:52: Steve Martin introduces Queen Latifah. She's here to talk about the Governor's Awards.
8:54: Honorary awards recipients, Roger Corman and Lauren Bacall.
8:55: Out comes Robin Williams... and already a balls joke. He's giving the award for Best Supporting Actress. There's Penelope Cruz for Nine, Vera Fermiga for Up in the Air, Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart, Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air, and Mo'Nique in Precious.
SUPPORTING ACTRESSWill: Mo'Nique (Precious)
Want: Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
Possible: It's gonna be Mo'Nique... there's really no other possibility.
Actual: Mo'Nique9:00: Mo'Nique has given the best speech of the night so far.
9:01: Colin Firth comes out to introduce Best Picture Nominee, An Education.
9:05: And we're back with Sigourney Weaver. She's talking about Art Direction. There's Avatar, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine, Sherlock Holmes, and The Young Victoria.
ART DIRECTIONWill: Avatar
Want: Avatar
Possible: Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Actual: Avatar9:07: With Sigourney Weaver giving the award for a visual-based award with Avatar as a nominee, I was totally surprised that Avatar won... *cough*
9:08: Alec and Steve introduce two clothes whores? hehe... Tom Ford and Sarah Jessica Parker. They're here to give the award for Best Costume Design. And the nominees are Bright Star, Coco Before Chanel, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine, and The Young Victoria.
COSTUME DESIGNWill: Nine
Want: Don't care.
Possible: The Young Victoria
Actual: The Young Victoria9:10: Not sure why I picked Nine over The Young Victoria when my gut told me to go with the latter. Maybe it's because the former was full of so many Oscar-winning people. But still, it was my "Possible" choice, so I feel it at least somewhat counts.
9:11: Charlize Theron is out to introduce Best Picture Nominee, Precious.
9:16: And we're back. Steve and Alec introduce a segment about horror movies... beginning with a hilarious spoof on Paranormal Activity.
9:18: Out come Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner to talk about the genre. And they're damn straight that horror films aren't given their due at the Oscars. Let's watch this little montage thingy now...
9:22: Pretty good... but only a half-second clip of Night of the Living Dead and 28 Days Later? Lame. Anywho, Zac Efron and Anna Kendrick introduce Sound Editing and Mixing, narrated by Morgan Freeman. I love how they have to explain WTF Sound Editing and Mixing are every year, because nobody really cares enough to remember. Anyway, Sound Editing is up first.
SOUND EDITINGWill: The Hurt Locker
Want: The Hurt Locker
Possible: Star Trek
Actual: The Hurt Locker9:26: Now it's up to Sound Mixing.
SOUND MIXINGWill: Star Trek
Want: Star Trek
Possible: The Hurt Locker
Actual: The Hurt Locker9:26: I was banking on the fact that more mainstream action movies tend to go in this category, but I guess I didn't take into account that "the best movie of the year" is technically an action movie.
9:28: Elizabeth Banks is up now... to the E.T. theme. And she's really enthusiastic! (And makes a pretty funny James Cameron joke... he's been hit quite a few times tonight).
9:29: John Travolta is up to introduce Best Picture Nominee, Inglorious Basterds.
9:34: Sandra Bullock is on stage now to give the award for Best Cinematography. The nominees are for Avatar, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, and The White Ribbon.
CINEMATOGRAPHYWill: The Hurt Locker
Want: Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Possible: Avatar (Strong possibility)
Actual: Avatar9:36: Seriously? I mean, seriously? This is the only one that was truly going to upset me if it happened. In the classic sense of the word, there IS no cinematography in this movie. It's all CGI. This was a BS win for this movie. Whatever.
9:37: Demi Moore is out now. It's the part of the show where we see the montage of those Hollywood individuals who have died in the past year. Are they trying to say something about making Demi introduce this segment (like her career being just as dead)? And... huh, that was much shorter than the past few years. Maybe they just cut out all the people nobody had ever heard of.
9:45: Back with JLo and Sam Worthington. And they're here to give us Best Original Score. And "The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers" dance to all the best scores including Sherlock Holmes, The Hurt Locker, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Up, and Avatar. The dances of Up and Avatar were the best, though the score for Up is much more emotional and penetrating (you know what I mean).
MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)Will: Up
Want: Up
Possible: Fantastic Mr. Fox
Actual: Up9:52: Heck yeah. I'm actually doing pretty good with my choices. And I take back what I said about Mo'Nique's speech. This one just given was the best of the night so far.
9:53: Gerard Butler and Bradley Cooper are now out for Visual Effects. The nominees are Avatar, District 9, and Star Trek.
VISUAL EFFECTSWill: Avatar
Want: Avatar
Possible: There's no way Avatar isn't winning.
Actual: Avatar9:55: This one was pretty obvious. Like I said, there was no way this movie wasn't winning Best Visual Effects.
9:56: Jason Bateman is up to introduce Best Picture Nominee, Up in the Air.
10:01: And we're back... getting down the nitty gritty. Matt Damon is out to give the award for Best Documentary. Nominees include Burma VJ, The Cove, Food Inc., The Most Dangerous Man In America, and Which Way Home.
BEST DOCUMENTARY (Guessing)Will: The Cove
Want: The Cove
Possible: No idea.
Actual: The Cove10:04: I only chose The Cove because that's the only one I'd ever hea... did I just hear Fischer Stevens? Really? Fischer Stevens was involved with this movie? I did not know that. Huh.
10:05: Tyler Perry is now on stage... not dressed like a woman. And it's down to film editing. And the nominees are for Avatar, District 9, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, and Precious.
FILM EDITINGWill: The Hurt Locker
Want: The Hurt Locker
Possible: Inglorious Basterds
Actual: The Hurt Locker10:07: I really have a lot of respect for editors. If I couldn't direct movies or act, I'd love to be an editor. It's a lot of work, but it's fun to me.
10:08: Keanu Reeves at the Oscars. Foreshadowing? Anyway, he's introducing Best Picture Nominee, The Hurt Locker.
10:14: And we're back with Quentin Tarantino and Pedro... let's leave it with Pedro. Quentin is being goofy, but they're introducing Best Foreign Film. Nominees are Ajami, The Milk of Sorrow, A Prophet, The Secret in Their Eyes, and The White Ribbon.
BEST FOREIGN FILM (Guessing)Will: A Prophet
Want: Don't know.
Possible: The White Ribbon
Actual: The Secret in Their Eyes10:17: Wow, I don't think anyone saw that coming (no pun intended). I actually haven't seen any of the foreign films this year, but the only ones I'd even heard of are A Prophet and The White Ribbon. And I had been under the impression that those were the top contenders for the winner. I guess not.
10:18: Kathy Bates is out now introducing Best Picture Nominee, Avatar.
10:23: We're down to the nitty gritty officially now. The big four are left. First up, Lead Actor. The nominees are Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, and Jeremy Renner. Kate Winslet is here to give the award, which will go to..
LEAD ACTORWill: Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
Want: Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)
Possible: Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)
Actual: Jeff Bridges
10:32: Despite loving how Renner did in Hurt Locker, I'm happy for Jeff Bridges, because I love that man. I haven't seen Crazy Heart yet, but I'm sure he deserves it.
10:33: They'll really need to speed this show up. They still have 3 awards to go, and they're already starting to go over in time. And I have to wake up early for work in the morning. What happened to the 45-second speech rule? Does it not matter for the Big 4? Speed it along, guys, especially if you're gonna do the never-ending praises on the Lead Actresses like you did with Lead Actors.
10:39: Now we're up to the Lead Actress award. The nominees are Sandra Bullock, Helen Mirren, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe, and Meryl Streep.
10:47: Sean Penn is up to give the award. The award goes to...
LEAD ACTRESSWill: Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
Want: Don't care.
Possible: Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side)
Actual: Sandra Bullock
10:48: Wow, even though I put it under "Possible," I didn't actually expect it to happen. She looked utterly shocked when they said her name. I feel particularly bad for Meryl Streep, who after all those nominations, she still didn't win... and in fact lost to Sandra Bullock. Granted, I haven't seen The Blind Side yet, and I'm sure it's wonderful and she's wonderful in it. Though she did give quite a good acceptance speech.
10:52: Barbra Streisand is out on stage now to give the award for Best Director. Here it is, folks. It's potentially the first female director winner of the Academy Awards. The nominees are James Cameron (Avatar), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds), Lee Daniels (Precious), and Jason Reitman (Up in the Air). And the winner is...
BEST DIRECTORWill: Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Want: Quentin Tarantino (Inglorious Basterds)
Possible: James Cameron (Avatar)
Actual: Kathryn Bigelow10:55: I'm all for this win. I think she did a great job with The Hurt Locker, and if Quentin Tarantino couldn't have won, I like that she did.
10:58: And now Tom Hanks is up to give the winner for the Best Picture. This is it, folks.
BEST PICTUREWill: The Hurt Locker
Want: Inglorious Basterds
Possible: Avatar
Actual: The Hurt Locker10:59: Wow, I couldn't even get my previous comment all typed up before Hanks said the winner. They really were rushing it. But good stuff, nevertheless.
Final Thoughts: I thought this was one of the most obvious Academy Awards in some time, with only one real surprise (foreign). As for Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin... didn't care for them much. I actually liked Hugh Jackman last year better, and I could hardly see and hear him (see the top of this post). Maybe they'll get Neil Patrick Harris next year. But yeah, good show, if it did go a bit long.
