"tricks are for pimps, i perform illusions"

i love awards season, finally something to bet on other then poker. i was pretty acurate with my golden globe picks, lets see how close i came with the oscars:

Best picture-the departed-wow, i was surprised, i didnt even think this was in serious contention. i saw babel and little miss sunshine going up against each other. 0/1

Best actor-Forrest Whitiker-this was almost guaranteed after wins at every other awards ceremony this year! I knew he'd nab it but i was really pulling for a peter o'toole win. Venus was pretty slow but he was amazing and i dont think we'll be seeing many more films with the knight in them. 1/2

Best actress-Helen Mirren-another guaranteed victory. she was amazing. as good as penelope cruz was in volver, this wasn't even close! 2/3

Best supporting actor-Alan Arkin-eddie murphy was robbed. that's all i can say. little miss sunshine had a great cast, and alan arkin was a big part of that, but eddie murphy was robbed. 2/4

Best supporting actress-Jennifer Hudson-another lock. i dont think anyone really thought abigail breslin could have won it. the ladies of babel stood a chance, especially rinko kikuchi, but this was jennifer hudsons award to take. 3/5

Best director-Martin Scorcese- i wonder how many members of the academy voted for clint eastwood or steven frears this time around. im going out on a limb to say that it was most likely a landslide in scorcese's favor. 4/6

Best screenplay for the screen-little miss sunshine-truthfully i thought it was the queen all the way. bummer. 4/7

Best screenplay based on previous material-the departed-i had this one as the departed, but only after scratching out children of men, which i loved. 5/8

Best Documentary-An Inconvenient truth-there was stiff competition in this category, but Gore's doc. had this award from the beginning. 6/9

Best animated feature-Happy Feet-gotta give it to the biggest digital film of a few years. 7/10

Seraphim Falls: the first irish western

this my friends is only half true. i would like to start by asking, what kind of a casting director would choose peirce brosnan and liam neeson to star in a civil war era western? though they look so rough and rugged, they spend the entire film covering up their irish accents. i seriously had trouble understanding them. i was looking forward to seraphim falls for so long, its so sad that it was a dissapointment, but its really not hard to understand why. david von ancken, known for his extraordinary television directing skills, was the wrong man tapped for the job. this is not the wire or daybreak, this film should have felt like "the proposition"! instead, its a long drawn out search for peirce brosnans runaway soldier character. angelica houston is on the screen for less then 5 minutes, peculiar. let me leave you with my favorite part of the movie. liam neeson and the bounty hunters come upon brosnans horse, with no man in site they relax for a minute. the next image is peirce brosnans naked body jumping out of the gutted horse. intense. i had to calm myself down. what a bummer.

a weak intro to the new year (doesnt this look the "RENT" poster?)

so far i have not been impressed with the films 2007 has given us. smokin aces couldnt decide if it wanted to be an ocean eleven type comedy or a pg-13 drama, very weak. jeremy piven was good, but this movie was so chopped, it must have been screened 1000 times. i still dont get the ending. was the fbi guy the mafia guy? which one was the dad? why am i still asking these questions, its not worth my time. Because i said so was typical of what diane keatons been doing for the last 10 years. sorta fun. mandy moores getting better at this role, she's played it many, many times. but she is so darn cute. I really enjoyed the queen, hellen mirren is always fantastic, she will most likely win every award this year at the oscars. what else...im looking forward to a few things but for the most part its been quiet... coming up: 300, ghost rider, reno 911, seraphim falls.