Oscar Predictions

The Oscar nominations came out this morning so I've decided to get a jump on my predictions this year. Not that my predictions, or the awards themselves matter in the grand scheme of things, but it's a decent way to kill time at work while I have nothing else to do. I'm only going to list my predictions for the winners. If you want the full list of nominees go here.

Best Picture - The King's Speech

Best Actor (Leading) - Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Best Actor (Supporting) - Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Best Actress (Leading) - Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Actress (Supporting) - Hailee Steinfield (True Grit) [my dark horse pick]

Best Animated Feature - Toy Story 3 [is there really any doubt?]

Art Direction - Inception

Cinematography - Inception

Costume Design - The Tempest

Director - Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)

Best Documentary Feature - Exit Through The Gift Shop [it's the only one I've seen]

Best Documentary Short Subject - The Warriors of Qiugang [a wild guess]

Editing - Black Swan

Best Foreign Language Film - Biutiful (Mexico) [only one I've heard of]

Makeup - The Wolfman

Original Score - The Social Network

Original Song - If I Rise (127 Hours) [another wild guess, but Dido wrote the lyrics and I like her]

Best Animated Short Film - Day & Night [only one I've seen]

Best Live Action Short Film - God of Love [wild guess]

Sound Editing - Inception

Sound Mixing - Inception

Visual Effects - Inception

Adapted Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Original Screenplay - Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg (The Kids Are Alright)

So if my predictions are right, it should be a big night for The King's Speech and Inception. We shall see.

The Social Network and Piranha

Recently I've been catching up on all the 2010 movies I missed that have made their way to DVD. I've been itching to see The Social Network, and since I never return movies back to Netflix (maybe I should switch to the streaming only plan), I headed to the closest Redbox to rent it. While I was there I noticed they also had Piranha, so I picked it up too since I've also been wanting to see it. The Social Network did a decent job of keeping me interested in a pretty boring subject. It's main strength is the dialog of Aaron Sorkin's screenplay. I also enjoyed Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's score, but that was no surprise since I'm a long time fan of Nine Inch Nails. 4 out of 5 stars.

Piranha was a complete one-eighty from ...Network's Oscar baiting pedigree. Shlocky, bloody madness from pretty much start to finish. I am a huge fan of this type of movie, but something about Piranha just didn't do it for me. There were cool cameos, lots of gratuitous T&A, and a ton of grisly deaths. This is normally a formula for success in my book, but something didn't click. Maybe it was the unlikeable characters, whose deaths I just shrugged off, or the blatant 3D gimmicks which I couldn't enjoy in the home setting. 2.5 out of 5 stars.