Oscar Time!

Whew, what about them Oscars, huh? Wow, that event really got me out of my chair and into the movie theatres. No. Not really. For the first time in memory, I actually sat through the entire Oscar program and watched the presentation of all of the awards. Do you want to know the most amazing part? I only saw three of the movies that received awards (Motorcycle Diaries for Best Song, Eternal Sunshine for Best Original Screenplay, and Born into Brothels for Best Documentary). And I'm not even that excited to catch up on all the "great" films that were nominated for all of the big time awards.

Things of note:
1. I have seen 0 of the movies nominated for Best Picture, Actor, and Director.
2. I have seen 1 nominee from each of Best Actress, Supporting Actor, Supporting Actress, and Cinematography
3. Despite Tom Shales review in the Washington Post, Chris Rock was actually pretty funny at times. Highlights include making fun of Jude Law and an extended metaphor placing Bush's first term in the context of being a Gap employee.*
4. Hilary Swank being cut off by the orchestra on multiple occasions and bulling her way through to extend the agony of the viewer at home.
5. Oh, and the Aviator dominated the early awards for such important things like Costumes, Make-up, and Art Direction, but then bombed in the big leagues once everyone came to their senses about what a crappy movie it was.
6. I will make an effort to see Million Dollar Baby (aka "the big winner") because I love Clint and I actually meant to see the movie before the Oscars, but there's been no time.
7. Hollywood needs to start putting out more quality films and then actually recognizing them for their efforts, otherwise I am moving over to all Bollywood all the time.
8. I will never stay up to watch another Academy Awards ever. Unless someone that I personally know is nominated.

*Here is Chris Rock's analysis in full (lifted from the Dan Froomkin's White House Briefing)

"A lot of people like to bash Bush. I'm not going to bash Bush here tonight. I
saw 'Fahrenheit 9/11.' I think Bush is a genius. I think Bush did some things
this year nobody in this room could do -- nobody in this room could pull
off.
"Bush basically reapplied for his job this year. Now, can you imagine
applying for a job, and while you're applying for that job, there's a movie in
every theater in the country that shows how much you suck at that job? It'd be
hard to get hired, wouldn't it? Now I watched 'Fahrenheit' and I learned some
stuff, man. And Bush did some things you could never get away with at your job,
man. Never, ever ever. You know, when Bush got into office, they had a surplus
of money. Now, there's like a $70 trillion deficit.
"Now just imagine you
worked at the Gap. You closing out your register and it's $70 trillion short.
The average person would get in trouble for something like that, right? Not
Bush. No. then -- then, he started a war. That's cool. Support the troops. He
started a war.
"Now, just imagine you worked at the Gap. You're $70 trillion
behind on your register. And then you start a war with Banana Republic, 'cause
you say they got toxic tank tops over there. You had the war. People are dying.
A thousand Gap employees are dead, that's right, bleeding all over the khakis.
You finally take over Banana Republic. And you find out they never made tank
tops in the first place."