Oscar Watch: Our final thoughts and predictions
Posted Wednesday, February 22, 2012 at 3:44 PM Central
by John Couture
What a year 2011 was in film and what an interesting last three or four months it has been trying to sum it all up. On Sunday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will hand out their Oscars and officially end the awards season.
It's been a roller-coaster ride these last few months as some films peaked too early (Young Adult) and others never got going as many thought they would (Shame). But one thing will be clear after Sunday: we no longer have to discuss which film is the best from 2011.
Well, actually we will speak one last time about it on Monday when Tim and I put together a quick reaction podcast to celebrate the previous night's Oscars. We will talk fashion, we will share with you the best and worst things from the event and, naturally, we will tell you who we thought got the shaft.
We thank you for following our little series "Oscar Watch" and we're pretty sure that we will continue it periodically throughout the year as necessary and ramp it up again when Awards Season returns in 9 months. But let's not dwell on the future, let's talk about the past one last time.
From all that I'm seeing lately about the Oscars, everyone is predicting a safe show with very few upsets. Heck, even Mr. Reliable Billy Crystal is back as host. Although as you can see from this Oscars video, that wasn't such an easy task.
Of course that video also demonstrates what we already knew. Megan Fox can't act her way out of a paper bag and if these are as good as the jokes are going to get, we might be lulled to sleep on Sunday.
Given this week's "big reveal" that the Academy is mostly made up of old, white men, I fully expect to see Clooney, Streep, Scorsese and Allen to win their expected awards. I also like The Muppets to get their Oscar in the ultra competitive (not!) Best Original Song category.
Most of the technical awards will go to the film that you would expect to win in each category. The only real drama of the night will be in the fist 30 minutes in the Best Supporting categories and the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
I will never bet against Sorkin, but I'm sort of hoping that The Ides of March can eek out a victory. It was well written and I thought it played like very much like a Sorkin film without actually being written by him.
For the Supporting nods, I'm pulling for Max Von Sydow, yes simply because he was in Strange Brew and Melissa McCarthy, because I love a good underdog and that whole fat people solidarity thing. I doubt either of these two will win, but I have to hold out hope for something, don't I?
Also, Tim and I will be tweeting the Oscars live on our twitter feed, which means that we will lose a few dozen followers in the process. We also tend to gain a bunch that appreciate our snark, so it all balances out in the end.
Speaking of Strange Brew, I think I'll throw that movie in Saturday night to get in the mood. If you're looking for something to help you get into the Oscars mood, you could check out the video below. Although be forewarned, I think it's safe to say that Mike Myers is no longer funny.
The 84th Academy Awards will be held this Sunday. The ceremony will be telecast on ABC starting at 7:00 p.m. Eastern and 4:00 p.m. Pacific.