Sunday, January 30, 2011

Oscars 2011 - Best Picture

My wife and I have seen 8 of the 10 films nominated for this year's Best Picture. This is some kind of record for us as we don't have that many movie nights, so I guess we chose wisely this past year.

We haven't seen Winter's Bone or 127 Hours, but neither will win so I'm not that concerned.  Let's go down the list of nominees and determine what flick will take home this year's most coveted Oscar.

8. The Kids Are All Right - I didn't see it, but my wife did. She tells me it's well acted but kind of boring. Not Best Picture material, but Benning will give Portman a run for her money. And she'll lose too.

7.  Toy Story 3 - Nice movie, but the weakest of the three Toy Story pictures. Beauty and the Beast is the only Disney movie that ever had a chance at the Best Picture Oscar, and it lost. Sorry, Woody & Buzz.

6.  Inception - The academy does not like Christopher Nolan. This film doesn't have a chance. Too bad Tom Hardy's performance continues to get overlooked as much as Nolan's directing does.

5.  The Fighter - Good flick with top notch acting. The Town was just as good of a film and should have been nominated. Bale will win. Leo should win. The movie won't.

4.  Black Swan - Aranofsky did an incredible job making ballet interesting. Natalie Portman deserves the Oscar for Best Actress.  Mila Kunis was hot and Barbara Hershey's face was terrifying. A bit too dark and artsy for Best Picture though.

3.  True Grit - The Coens will not win for this Western remake in spite of its recent buzz. Hailee Steinfeld picked the wrong year to have a great performance for Supporting Actress. I'll see any Coen brothers movie though. They are that good.

2.  The Social Network - Great writing and very well acted. Fincher will probably win for direction in spite of having no need for one actor to play those twins. It's a slice of tech life that we'll look back and laugh at down the road. Of course, Zuckerberg will probably own the road we're laughing on.

1.  The King's Speech - Excellent acting, compelling historical significance, British, and a feel good theme.  In other words, this year's Best Picture.