Sharing my childhood

The song "Tomorrow" from Annie has been in my head a lot lately due to the horrible weather around here. The other night Lincoln and I were singing it at dinner as we goofed around with the kids and I was telling Hannah and Jake about the movie. The kids had obviously never seen it and Lincoln informed me that he actually hadn't seen it either so of course I had to run out and buy it on DVD. We started out with all 4 of us watching it but since we got a late start Jake started to fall asleep and Lincoln went off to put him to bed. Hannah and I stayed up late (isn't summer great?) and finished watching the movie. Annie was one of my favorite movies when I was a kid and it was so fun to watch it again with Hannah. She got so much enjoyment out of it that it made my experience that much better.

Sometimes the "classics" don't translate well from one generation to the next but this one did. What a fun night.

Up

Tonight we took the kids to see the new Pixar movie Up. It was really cute. Originally I had hoped to take them to see it at the drive-in but, you guessed it, it rained. We went to the regular movie theater instead which of course is WAY more expensive. Oh well. It was a fun night out.

Final Oscar Post

I didn't post anything yesterday because I was way too tired. Between our late night at House of Blues on Saturday and staying up until midnight on Sunday to watch the Oscars I was a wee bit exhausted yesterday.

None of my picks really won in the major categories although I was happy with the outcome. I was very happy to see Kate Winslet win and I know that Anne Hathaway will be nominated again some other day. By the way, her bit in the opening was brillant. I never knew she had such a great voice.

Forget the Oscar nominees

One of the greatest movies of all time is on ABC Family right now......Grease 2.

I want a cooool rider....a cool, cool, cool, cool rider.....I want a C-O-O-L...R-I-D-E-R. I want a cooooolll rider.

Ahhh......what a classic.

My two cents on the Oscar nominees (for what it's worth)

This year, for the first time, I've actually seen all 5 of the Best Picture nominees and a majority of the best actor, best actress, best supporting actress, and best supporting actor nominees. Below are my thoughts on the top five categories. These are not the ones that I think will win....they're the ones I hope will win. It's who I would have voted for if I was an Academy member.

BEST ACTOR:

• Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
• Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
• Sean Penn, Milk
• Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Of the five movies I have seen Frost/Nixon, Milk, and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. All the buzz is about Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler and it sounds like he has a good chance of winning tonight. Since I haven't seen The Wrestler yet I can't really weigh in on Mickey Rourke's performance so I would say it's a tough call between Frank Langella and Sean Penn. They both did a fantastic job. I liked Milk better than Frost/Nixon but since this award is for acting and not the movie I have to say I would vote for Frank Langella.

BEST ACTRESS:

• Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
• Angelina Jolie, Changeling
• Melissa Leo, Frozen River
• Meryl Streep, Doubt
• Kate Winslet, The Reader

Of the five movies I've seen Rachel Getting Married, Doubt, and The Reader. The Reader was definitely my favorite movie out of those three but I would cast my vote for Anne Hathaway. Meryl Streep, at this point in her career, has set her own bar so high that even though she was fantastic in Doubt it just seemed like nothing less that you expect out of Meryl Streep at this point. Kate Winslet is becoming the Susan Lucci of the Oscars (nominated 6 times so far with no wins yet) and she did an absolutely incredible job in The Reader but I think Anne Hathaway was better in Rachel Getting Married. Best known for The Princess Diaries she really knocked it out the park in this movie about a recovering drug addict. Unfortunately Rachel Getting Married came out last fall and I think most people have forgotten about it. There is also a long dinner scene in the movie that turns some people off but once again, this is about acting and not the movie itself. Therefore, I vote for Anne Hathaway.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

• Josh Brolin, Milk
• Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
• Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
• Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
• Michael Shannon, Revolutionary Road

Of these five movies I've seen Milk, Tropic Thunder, Doubt, and Revolutionary Road. I wasn't terribly impressed with Josh Brolin's performance; I thought Robert Downey Jr. was great but there is little chance a comedic performance like that would win; and I thought Michael Shannon was fantastic even though he's only in a handful of scenes....they were pretty powerful scenes. I'm pretty sure Heath Ledger is going to win this one and even though I haven't seen The Dark Knight yet I've heard he's fantastic in it and I would vote for him because he got screwed out of an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain if nothing else. I realize that's not fair to the others but in this imaginary voting system I would vote for Heath Ledger. If you take Heath out of the running though I would definitely vote for Michael Shannon.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

• Amy Adams, Doubt
• Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Viola Davis, Doubt
• Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler

Of the four movies I've seen Doubt and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Amy Adams does a great job and she definitely has incredible potential as a great actress. Penelope Cruz is supposed to be really great in her role and that movie is one that I wish I had seen prior to the show tonight but it wasn't meant to be. The critics say she has a good chance of winning. So without having seen Vicky Cristina Barcelona I would have to say I would be voting for Viola Davis. She doesn't have a very big role at all but the power that she puts into her few scenes blew me away. And she's up against Meryl Streep in those scenes and she more than holds her own. I think she even overshadows Meryl Streep in those few scenes.

BEST PICTURE

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire

I'm pretty sure that Slumdog Millionaire is going to walk away with this grand prize but you can read my thoughts on the Best Picture contest here. I would definitely be voting for The Reader.

Best Picture Nominees

I have now seen all five nominees for Best Picture at next weekend's Academy Awards. For those of you not following the Awards here are the nominees for Best Picture:

• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk
• The Reader
• Slumdog Millionaire

I have to say they were all very good and all of them definitely deserve to be nominated. They all cover very different topics and each one moved me in a different way. I would have to say, if I was voting, I would definitely vote for The Reader. I know it's not likely to win....Slumdog Millionaire and Milk definitely have the most press and Slumdog has been cleaning up on the award circuit lately, but The Reader was phenomenal. It was the only one of the five movies that I wanted to start over and watch again immediately. The nuances of the film are terrific and the film doesn't tell you what to think or feel....it tells you what the characters are thinking and feeling and you just feel privileged to get to witness such amazing emotions. It's not a cheery topic....it is a holocaust film after all....but it is well worth a few hours of your time. I highly recommend it.

What makes an Oscar worth film? Or performance?

I love watching the Academy Awards. Most of it is because of the "pre-show" and watching the Red Carpet arrivals but also because the movies that make the list usually are the best of the best. This year I am on a quest to watch all of the major nominees for Best Film, Best Actress, and Best Actor before the awards next Sunday.

But what makes an Academy Award winning film? I remember back in high school watching Sean Penn in Dead Man Walking and thinking he deserved an award but he didn't win that year. The other one, and this one I'm still terribly bitter over, was Cate Blanchett for Elizabeth. I walked out of that movie (seen in a theater in Mankato, MN) in utter awe of her performance. She took a young, carefree Princess Elizabeth and ended the film with the great queen. In light of the fact that most movies are shot out of sequence it was truly a work of art that she made such a seamless movie showing how Queen Elizabeth came to power. If you haven't seen it yet I highly suggest you do. (Side note: I haven't seen the sequel to the movie yet because I'm afraid it won't live up to the true wonder that was the original.) The fact that she lost to Gwyneth Paltrow for Shakespeare in Love was a huge blow. Shakespeare in Love wasn't a bad movie but it certainly wasn't a great one - and to add insult to shallow insult, Gwyneth's dress that year was atrocious. My final "how the hell could this have happened" comment is the fact that Heath Ledger lost for Brokeback Mountain. His performance in that was nothing less than astounding. If I'm not mistaken he lost to Phillip Seymour Hoffman for Capote. That was a great movie but I don't remember leaving that movie and thinking "Wow. He deserves an award."

So that brings me to what makes a great movie. Is it the ability to make someone cry? Is it the ability to make someone think? Is it the ability to take someone out of the world they are living in and move them into the one on the screen? Who knows. So far this year I've seen 2 of the 5 nominees for best picture. I will have seen the other three by the time the awards are presented next Sunday. I will let you know what I think by then. I have seen Slumdog Millionaire and Milk so far. They were both fantastic but I'm definitely keeping an open mind because while I very much enjoyed both of them neither have blown me out of the water. I guess that's what I'm waiting for. That feeling...that sense of "oh my God, that was brilliant"....that utter awe I got watching Cate Blanchett, Sean Penn, and Heath Ledger. So far I haven't had that moment.