Sorry and Catch Up!

So First I would like to apologize to everyone for being an irresponsible film student and not blogging about all the movies that I've seen lately. Life got a little crazy and then I got a little lazy and the combination of the two resulted in Philly not blogging for a while but all of the is over now and I am officially extending my sincerest apology to everyone!

Now with all of that out in the open I have some news to share with you all! Because I have seen several movies in theaters in out time apart I'm going to give you guys some nugget reviews to quickly sum up what I've seen. BUT WAIT THERE'S MORE! While seeing movies in theaters is an awesome experience sometimes I like to sit my big ass down on the couch and watch a movie on DVD. So in light of that I will be also reviewing some of my favorite movies that are on DVD that I so happen watch during the week. ALSO! My good friend M.O. (using initials to protect the innocent) loves classic movies and has been schooling me on them. So I will also be reviewing some the classic movies that she's shoved....whoops I mean suggested I watch.

Alright so nugget reviews in 3...2...1...GO!

Percy Jackson and The Olympians - C+

So I never read the novels and after seeing this movie I don't really plan on doing so. The dialogue was bad and the movie was predictable. My favorite part was the awesome cast of Uma Thurman, Rosario Dawson, Pierce Brosnan, and Catherine Keener. Supposedly the story is supposed to stretch over 5 novels but if my sources are correct they left out crucial information to make the sequel. Oh well better luck next time.

Valentines Day - B-

I walked out of the theater and asked myself did I just watch Love Actually without the awesome british accents? The answer I came to was yes! I couldn't help but be distracted by the huge similarities between the two movies which is a good and bad thing because I love Love Actually. Valentines Day was cute and the perfect date movie. I enjoyed the all star cast especially Anne Hathaway, who I happen to have a slight obsession with but we will talk about that later, and the way each characters story ties into another. If you didn't see this movies don't break your neck to go see it but if you so happen to come across it and have 3 hours to spare watch it.

City Island - A-

OMFG LOVE IT! This movie was so cute and had me laughing from start to finish. The dialogue was witty and colloquial and the acting was really good as well. Andy Garcia and his both on screen and off screen daughter Dominik Garcia had great chemistry as well as the other actors. Hands down though my favorite part of the movie would have to be Julianna Margulies performance. I absolutely loved her, the accent and her mannerism were all so amazing that I just wanted to see her on screen the entire time and lets not even mention how amazing H-O-T she looked, talk about a MILF. This is where I'm going to end things before they get a little to X-rated.

The Runaways - B+

Holy smokes Kristen Stewart can act! I will be the first to say that I am not a big fan of Kristen at all. (Have you seen any of the Twilight movies?) Yet her portrayal of Runaways rocker Joan Jett was spot on! Co-Star Dakota Fanning shined as well as Cherie and the outfits she rocked shows that Dakota is not so little anymore. But of course I have to mention the music because the movie is about a band. Stewart and Fanning actually sung the songs heard in the movie and while I wouldn't hold my breath for either to release an album the two sound pretty damn good. Can't complain about the story because it's a bio-flick so there isn't much room for imagination but I will tell you Stewart and Fanning share and on screen kiss that is both beautiful and highly arousing.

I'm Still Crying?

Today was one of those where you just wanna do your homework and then go watch a movie, SO I DID! I decided that I wanted to watch something moving so after much contemplation I settled on seeing Precious. I can tell you now that it was a wonderful decision.

For those of you who do not know the premise of Precious, instead of me explaining it to you watch the trailer.

So now that we are all on the same sheet of music. Allow me to attempt to try and describe the awesomeness that is this movie. Directed by Lee Daniels Precious is a heartwarming tale that will take you on a roller coaster of emotions, IN JUST THE FIRST 30 MINUTES! Going in I knew what to expect but even with that prior knowledge i still couldn't help but cringe and cry at some scenes. Daniels did not shy away from anything he made us watch as this poor girl attempts to figure out her life. One of my favorite parts was the way he juxtaposed Precious' dreams with reality. Her dreams were filled with vibrant and warm colors while the real world was darker and cold. You couldn't help but smile everytime she imagined being a supermodel or actress but the smile quickly faded as she returned to reality. While on the topic of Precious, I have to say kudos to Ms. Gabourey Sidibe! Her performance is just so amazing for such a young actress. Not for one second of the movie did I feel like she was acting, she was Precious Jones for this movie. From the delivery of her lines to look in her eyes while sitting in a chair Sidibe portrayed the character to the point. Before I get to far gone in my praises for Sidibe we CAN NOT! forget the performance of Mo'nique in this movie. I grew up watching Mo'nique on "The Parkers" and as a stand up comic and you would think coming from a background like that her performance as an abuse mother would be terrible. OMFG HOW WRONG WAS I! She showed the world just how talented of an actress she is by switching the comedian off and showing us that she can be serious. It is no wonder she has been snatching up all the Best Supporting Actress awards. Her and Sidibe had a powerful on screen connection that just intensified the power of the movie. I also have to give a shout out to Mariah Carey and Paula Patton. Both of these women did a wonderful job in their role as well.

Looking back on the movie as a whole you can't help but fall in love with how simply amazing it is. When I look at it compared to all the other nominees for Best Picture I can't help but root for it because it is the underdog. It didn't have fancy new technology, fancy camera work, crazy special effects, or A list actors. It is a small independent film that is taking the world by storm, camera shake and all! This movie is the SECOND! and i'm serious when I say this, the second movie to ever make me cry. (The First Being AI: Artificial Intelligence). When I say cry I don't mean "awww that was sad" I mean I there was some waterworks going on over here. It's hard for me to explain to every one just how moving, inspiring and amazing this movie is. People are saying that you can't talk about "Avatar" you have to experience it. Well I'm telling you all that you cannot critique "Precious" you have to see it from start to finish to truly understand the power of this story. A story that is not on a made up moon of Jupiter. A story that is happening right now as I type this. Precious has stolen my heart, (which was previously occupied by Disney movies). I hands down with out question or second guessing give Precious: Based on the novel Push by Sapphire an A-

I Don't Know How To Feel...

Today was the day, I finally saw Avatar! Going into the movie I tried to keep a clear mind and ignore everything I've read, all the clips I've seen, and all the opinions I've heard. I wanted to go into Avatar with a clear mind so that I could take it for what it is worth in raw form. I'll have you all know that I studied this movie more than I have ever done before. A few people in the group I was with even pointed out after the movie that I was really intense in the theater and that I seemed to be studying the film, which I was. The film really has me torn and I don't know how to feel about it yet, and the fact that I went and talked to people about it isn't helping. I shouldn't have talked to anyone because they point out things you might not have noticed and it can mess with your perception because you start to see things their way, IDK. Anyway, now that the movie is over and I've had a moment to let it all sink in and for me to really contemplate what it was about and how I interpreted it I think I can write this review. Warning don't bite my head off this is just how I'm feeling right now and to make things easier I'm going to break the movie down into parts.

Visuals

Perhaps the strongest element in Cameron's corner is the breath taking and beautiful visuals used in this movie. The CGI world that was created literally blew my mind from the second I saw it. The technology made you feel as if you were one of the Na'vi or one of the marines on Pandora, no longer was it the feeling of watching from the outside, we were placed on the inside on the scene with the characters and it just magnified the intensity of the world. The colors especially were something I really enjoyed in the film. The vibrant blue of the Na'vi's skin was captivating to me and the way the creatures of Pandora looked was so glossy and polished I was truly amazed by it all. While I loved the 3D effect when it came to the Na'vi scenes or any shots of the Pandoric (is that a word now?) landscape the scenes in the human world kind of hurt my eyes and I continually lifted up my glasses to relieve some of the pain. I know you're not supposed to take the glasses off because it takes away from the beauty of the movie but to me those scenes really didn't need to watched in 3D to have to same effect. The rest of the movie, the glasses are a necessity!

The Acting

There have been arguments that Zoe Saldana was overlooked for her performance in Avatar but I will have to disagree with those arguements. While Saldana did captivate me as Neyriti her role wasn't that amazing when compared to some of the other nominees. I will say that she did a wonderful job and I loved her, as I always have. As for her co-stars, I don't exactly share the same love and affection. Sam Worthington was up then down for me, at times I like his role and felt like I could connect to his character but at others I was completely like WTF this guy is a terrible actor but maybe that wasn't his fault perhaps it was the best he could do with the script, which we will get to in a second. Whoever the actor was that played the corporate representative, don't wanna give to much away, he was highly annoying. Everytime he came on screen I wanted to punch him in the mouth, him as well as the colonel. They were the most annoying characters in the entire movie. On a final note about the acting I felt like at times the Na'vi actors were acting to much like the indians in Pocahontas. IDK it's just my opinion

The Script

The final and perhaps most disputed part of the movie is the script. I'm going to be straight forward when I tell you that to me Cameron simply took Pocahontas and Fern Gulley mixed them together and set in a futuristic society. I wanted so much more out of the plot and character development in the movie. I hate to say it but after the first hour you're 120% sure how the rest of the movie is going to play out. I wanted him to add in more twist and not rely so much on the visuals to distract us from the not as strong script. I will give credit where it's due because there are some scenes that are very well written but those are few and very far between for the time period that the movie encompasses. I'm more of a story person than a visual and it's just really hard for me to overlook poor writing.

Overall

In summation Avatar did and did not live up to my expectations. It was a beautiful and stunning as everyone had described to me but it was as completely mind blowing and awesome as everyone described. I still don't know whether I can say I liked it or not, hopefully that will come in a few days but for right now I'm just going to say that I've seen it and that if Mr. Cameron wants to make a sequel please spend more time on the script. As of right now I give James Cameron's "Avatar" a B+.

Are Black People Allowed To Like Country Music?

The weekend's just begun, The sun is low in the sky. I feel like going out, Before the night passes by. I won't just sit around, When life becomes a drag....

I GO TO THE MOVIES!!

On this glorious Friday, Katherine was struck with a moment of spontaneity and whisked the two of us off to The Angelika to see "Crazy Heart". With all the buzz surrounding Jeff Bridges' performance in the movie, not to mention Maggie Gyllenhaal scoring a Oscar nomination for it, I just had to dish out the $12.50 to go see this movie. Gladly I can say that it was money well invested.

"Crazy Heart" is the story of Bad Blake (Jeff Bridges) an alcoholic country singer whose time is just about up. While touring small bars and clubs in the southwest he meets a young journalist, Jane Craddock (Maggie Gyllenhaal), who he can't help but be attracted to. But is this enough to convince Blake to change his behavior?

(Not really a spoiler, If you watch a trailer for the movie you'll get the same idea about the movie)

As the first film directed by Scott Cooper you have to give him credit for doing such a great job on his first try. The colors and style of shooting of the movie definitely make you think it was done by someone with more experience, that or he hired a really good cinematographer. The scenery and locations used also helped give the movie an appropriate representation of small towns in the southwest. Besides that there wasn't to much spectacular about the visuals in the movie which could be why it, as a movie, wasn't nominated for any awards.

The acting on the other hand really surprised me. Bridges had a very nice performance as Bad Blake, one that nearly moved you to tears at times. He portrayed a chain smoking, alcoholic country singer so well you'd swear that we was just being himself. Not to mention the man can sing, that is if that was actually his voice we heard singing (I didn't stay long enough after the movie ended to find out). I'm not a big fan of country, outside of T-Swift and Carrie Underwood but the writer of the songs he sings in the movie is pretty talented. But the person that really caught my attention in the movie was Ms. Gyllenhaal as Jane Craddock. Going in I was being very critical every time she showed up on the screen, I wanted to know what the Academy saw in her that the critics and screen actors guild didn't. I'll have you all know that I found it. Gyllenhaal's performance was very believable and like her co-star tugged at some of your heart strings. SPOILER ALERT! The scene where she's leaving Blake, the anger and emotion flowing out of her is great. I wanted to shout out in the theater for her to stay but at the same time you want her to leave. It was great. SPOILER OVER! I feel like the Academy made a good choice giving her the nomination. While I don't think she'll win, she could be the one to watch, because none of the other nominees are really competition for the front runner Mo'Nique. While we're talking about Oscar nomination, "Crazy Heart (The Weary Kind)" is a good song. I totes understand why it is snatching up all the awards. As I stated before I'm not a big country fan but the lyrics in that song are powerful and if I wasn't such an avid fan of "The Princess and The Frog" I would definitely want it to win.

Looks like there might be three awards going home with "Crazy Heart" come Oscar night.

I give Scott Cooper's "Crazy Heart" a B.

And The Winner Is....

Hello All!

The name's Phillip but most refer to me as Philly and those close to me call me Philly Purfect. I'm a film student aspiring to be a Producer/Director/Writer but what film student isn't? I'm not going to waste your time with my excessive long winded response to "WHO AM I?" if you wanna know that just check out my personal blog.

Now that we've done introductions allow me to explain to you all the point of this here blog. As a film student it's hard for to me watch a movie for pure enjoyment anymore. I alway find myself studying the lighting, the camera angles, the editing, music, acting and other cinematic properties. Since my parents and I are investing so much into my education why not put this knowledge to use. With the help of my beloved bestie Katherine, whose blog you all should also follow, I started my own blog to give my review of movies and the occasional new CD. With the nominees for the Oscars being released yesterday I figured now was the best time to start this thing. So here we go, these are my predictions for the 2010 Academy Awards along with a little commentary.

*Quick Note to the Wise: Titles in bold are who I think will win and Titles italicized are who I want to win. Comprendes? Muy Bien!

Best Picture - Okay so we all know that Avatar has become some kind of freaking worldwide sensation but I really don't know what all of this hype is about, but I will say I haven't seen the movie so maybe I am in the dark. From what I hear the movie is just visually beautiful the story and the acting are terrible. I mean in my opinion if you don't have any actors nominated for their performance or aren't nominated for the screenplay award how can you be best picture? Shouldn't Best picture be the whole package it has to represent this year forever! Quick digression this is why I was so pissed when T-Swift won album of the year at the Grammys. Continuing on, The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds were two of my favorite movies from this year both are visually beautiful, the acting is great, and stories are compelling. I'm Team Bigelow/Tarentino!! Oh and before I forget HOW THE HELL IS UP NOMINATED!! I'm sorry but the second movie ever to be nominate for best picture should not be UP, there is no way in hell it can even be placed in the same category as the first animated movie to be nominated for a best picture Oscar, Beauty and the Beast. Also I feel bad for Precious it was such a touching movie but it came out in the wrong year.

* “Avatar” James Cameron and Jon Landau, Producers
* “The Blind Side” Nominees to be determined
* “District 9” Peter Jackson and Carolynne Cunningham, Producers
* “An Education” Finola Dwyer and Amanda Posey, Producers
* “The Hurt Locker” Nominees to be determined
* “Inglourious Basterds” Lawrence Bender, Producer
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels, Sarah Siegel-Magness and Gary Magness, Producers
* “A Serious Man” Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Producers
* “Up” Jonas Rivera, Producer
* “Up in the Air” Daniel Dubiecki, Ivan Reitman and Jason Reitman, Producers

Actor in a Leading Role - What can you say about this category, Jeff Bridges has one all the other awards leading up to this and there is no doubt in my mind he will take the Oscar home as well. I will say though that I feel really bad for Colin Firth, "A Single Man" is beautiful and his performance is awesome.

* Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
* George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
* Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
* Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
* Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Actor in a Supporting Role - Let's just be blunt here, Christoph Waltz betta take the mutha fuken Oscar home because none of the other nominees had a performance like him.

* Matt Damon in “Invictus”
* Woody Harrelson in “The Messenger”
* Christopher Plummer in “The Last Station”
* Stanley Tucci in “The Lovely Bones”
* Christoph Waltz in “Inglourious Basterds”

Actress in a Leading Role - 2009 was the year of Sandra when it comes to leading ladies with the Proposal and The Blind Side grossing over 200 mil she was the highest paid woman in Hollywood this year. The critics loved her in The Blind Side because i mean hey who else can go from adorable boss pretending to be engaged to bad ass southern wife. I won't be upset when she wins because I love her and any movie she does I'm a fan of, I will say I think Gabourey Sidibe should deff be watched. Her performance as Precious was moving and definitely touched your heart, in a few years i think she'll be following Halle Berry's footsteps if she keeps it up.

* Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
* Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
* Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
* Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
* Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Actress in a Supporting Role - Do I really need to explain my choice here? This woman made me cry, hate and love all in the same movie, sorry to say this but those other girls should just stay home cause they ain't gonna touch that stage. I still love you Penelope baby, just avoid doing another shit job like Nine, kay?

* Penélope Cruz in “Nine”
* Vera Farmiga in “Up in the Air”
* Maggie Gyllenhaal in “Crazy Heart”
* Anna Kendrick in “Up in the Air”
* Mo’Nique in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”

Animated Feature Film - Okay now this is where I'm really passionate. I love animated movies they are my favorite thing to watch and this year I feel like the award is going to go to the wrong movie. Okay yes we all know "Up" is good but it's not amazing! Yeah they told 30 minutes of the movie with no sound and it still touched you but some of these other nominees were ground breaking. Wes Anderson's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" was utterly amazing I will say that he nearly achieved his masterpiece with this one. I've seen it three times and it never gets old. "The Princess and The Frog" this is who the Oscar belongs too. Disney finally returned to its roots of beautiful 2D animation and it seemed as if they never stopped. The movie could easily be shown with Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin and fit perfectly yet at the same time it has the essence of 2009. Let's not forget that it gave little African American girls around the country their own princess to look up to. A princess that is not stuck in a tower asleep, not locked away by an evil step mother, a princess that has a mind and is persistent and under stands hard work and wants to achieve something outta life. Oh and lets not forget the music! Randy Newman did a fabulous job, I was singing all the songs right outta the theater. Pixar is gonna take home the Oscar but if by some chance "The Princess in the Frog" takes home that award you will hear my screams of joy on the other side of the country.

* “Coraline” Henry Selick
* “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
* “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
* “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
* “Up” Pete Docter

Art Direction - OMFG don't be so shocked, yes I want "Avatar" to win this. I'm still a film student people and I recognize great art direction when I see it.

* “Avatar” Art Direction: Rick Carter and Robert Stromberg; Set Decoration: Kim Sinclair
* “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Art Direction: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith
* “Nine” Art Direction: John Myhre; Set Decoration: Gordon Sim
* “Sherlock Holmes” Art Direction: Sarah Greenwood; Set Decoration: Katie Spencer
* “The Young Victoria” Art Direction: Patrice Vermette; Set Decoration: Maggie Gray

Cinematography - I'm pretty sure we all know "Avatar" will win every award relating to editing, art, or sound but cinematography is an interesting category for me. How can "Avatar" win this award if the entire movie was recreated digitally. The camera operators never had to work with shadows, lighting issues, etc. So can it really win this award? IDK. But the cinematography in "The Hurt Locker" is awesome it has my vote.

* “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
* “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
* “The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
* “Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
* “The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Costume Design - Make a period piece = win costume design Oscar, It's not rocket science people.

* “Bright Star” Janet Patterson
* “Coco before Chanel” Catherine Leterrier
* “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” Monique Prudhomme
* “Nine” Colleen Atwood
* “The Young Victoria” Sandy Powell

Directing - OH HO HO HO HO!! Once again "Avatar" will probably take home the award but let's not forget that Kathryn Bigelow did an amazing job with "The Hurt Locker". She deserves this award because you can see all the hard work she did with the actors and crew to make sure each shot was able to deliver those lines properly, to make sure that we were in Iraq with these soliders. There were no 3D glasses but I felt like I was with them over there and that's a good director in my opinion.

* “Avatar” James Cameron
* “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
* “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
* “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Documentary (Feature) - I'm kinda bias because I hate documentaries after the pain I went through senior year to create one as part of my graduation process so I never watch them, but I've heard great things about "The Cove"

* “Burma VJ” Anders Østergaard and Lise Lense-Møller
* “The Cove” Nominees to be determined
* “Food, Inc.” Robert Kenner and Elise Pearlstein
* “The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers” Judith Ehrlich and Rick Goldsmith
* “Which Way Home” Rebecca Cammisa

Documentary (Short Subject) - I have not seen any of these, nor have I heard of any of them so I don't feel good making a prediction. Sorry...

* “China’s Unnatural Disaster: The Tears of Sichuan Province” Jon Alpert and Matthew O’Neill
* “The Last Campaign of Governor Booth Gardner” Daniel Junge and Henry Ansbacher
* “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert
* “Music by Prudence” Roger Ross Williams and Elinor Burkett
* “Rabbit à la Berlin” Bartek Konopka and Anna Wydra

Film Editing - He invented a new technology for the movie! I told I'll give credit when it's due! Stop judging me with those eyes!

* “Avatar” Stephen Rivkin, John Refoua and James Cameron
* “District 9” Julian Clarke
* “The Hurt Locker” Bob Murawski and Chris Innis
* “Inglourious Basterds” Sally Menke
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Joe Klotz

Foreign Language Film - Beautiful movie, I don't know a lick of german and I didn't have subtitles but it is definitely worth seeing if you haven't yet.

* “Ajami” Israel
* “El Secreto de Sus Ojos” Argentina
* “The Milk of Sorrow” Peru
* “Un Prophète” France
* “The White Ribbon” Germany

Makeup - Make a movie with aliens and monsters = Make up Oscar. It's not brain surgery

* “Il Divo” Aldo Signoretti and Vittorio Sodano
* “Star Trek” Barney Burman, Mindy Hall and Joel Harlow
* “The Young Victoria” Jon Henry Gordon and Jenny Shircore

Music (Original Score) - I'm not even going to comment on "Up" winning this because I think we all know why it's gonna take home this award.

* “Avatar” James Horner
* “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Alexandre Desplat
* “The Hurt Locker” Marco Beltrami and Buck Sanders
* “Sherlock Holmes” Hans Zimmer
* “Up” Michael Giacchino

Music (Original Song) - I have not heard "The Weary Kind" but I do know that all the critics love it apparently cause it has been snatching up all the awards. I will say that they totally picked the wrong song for "The Princess and The Frog" "Almost There" is good and would probably win if not for "The Weary Kind" but "Down in New Orleans"?? What the hell were they thinking there are so many better songs! If "Dig A Little Deeper" or "Going Down the Bayou" were nominated "The Weary Kind" would probably not take home that award, just sayin ya'll

* “Almost There” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
* “Down in New Orleans” from “The Princess and the Frog” Music and Lyric by Randy Newman
* “Loin de Paname” from “Paris 36” Music by Reinhardt Wagner Lyric by Frank Thomas
* “Take It All” from “Nine” Music and Lyric by Maury Yeston
* “The Weary Kind (Theme from Crazy Heart)” from “Crazy Heart” Music and Lyric by Ryan Bingham and T Bone Burnett

Short Film (Animated) - I'm so bad I haven't seen any of these either =[

* “French Roast” Fabrice O. Joubert
* “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” Nicky Phelan and Darragh O’Connell
* “The Lady and the Reaper (La Dama y la Muerte)” Javier Recio Gracia
* “Logorama” Nicolas Schmerkin
* “A Matter of Loaf and Death” Nick Park

Short Film (Live Action) - I'm so bad I haven't seen any of these either =[

* “The Door” Juanita Wilson and James Flynn
* “Instead of Abracadabra” Patrik Eklund and Mathias Fjellström
* “Kavi” Gregg Helvey
* “Miracle Fish” Luke Doolan and Drew Bailey
* “The New Tenants” Joachim Back and Tivi Magnusson

Sound Editing - No comment I hope they just take the Oscar and get off the stage.

* “Avatar” Christopher Boyes and Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
* “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson
* “Inglourious Basterds” Wylie Stateman
* “Star Trek” Mark Stoeckinger and Alan Rankin
* “Up” Michael Silvers and Tom Myers

Sound Mixing - Transformers? Oh gawd now they can put that on the bow when it comes out on DVD, I can hear it now "Academy Award nominated Transformers" YUCK! Gag me with a spoon!! Hmmm this one is a little tricky to me but "Avatar" will probably win because it is "Avatar" but I'm still Team Bigelow!

* “Avatar” Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Andy Nelson and Tony Johnson
* “The Hurt Locker” Paul N.J. Ottosson and Ray Beckett
* “Inglourious Basterds” Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Mark Ulano
* “Star Trek” Anna Behlmer, Andy Nelson and Peter J. Devlin
* “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” Greg P. Russell, Gary Summers and Geoffrey Patterson

Visual Effects - Did they really need to nominate someone else for this category? Just give Cameron his award so he can go start on the sequel before he dies.

* “Avatar” Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham and Andrew R. Jones
* “District 9” Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros and Matt Aitken
* “Star Trek” Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh and Burt Dalton

Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - Now I never read the original version of "Up in the Air" but according to Katherine, they changed alot and made the story so much better, so kudos to them. I, however, think "Precious" could win because the movie did get alot of stir from this tiny independent movie to Academy Award nominated.

* “District 9” Written by Neill Blomkamp and Terri Tatchell
* “An Education” Screenplay by Nick Hornby
* “In the Loop” Screenplay by Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche
* “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Screenplay by Geoffrey Fletcher
* “Up in the Air” Screenplay by Jason Reitman and Sheldon Turner

Writing (Original Screenplay) - What Avatar isn't nominated for this award? Oh yeah that's right because a 7 year old with down syndrome could write a better story. Sorry Cameron maybe spend 15 years on the story for the sequel instead of the visuals. Tarantino you know how to write a good story go get yo award!

* “The Hurt Locker” Written by Mark Boal
* “Inglourious Basterds” Written by Quentin Tarantino
* “The Messenger” Written by Alessandro Camon & Oren Moverman
* “A Serious Man” Written by Joel Coen & Ethan Coen
* “Up” Screenplay by Bob Peterson, Pete Docter, Story by Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy

There you have it folks! My predictions for the Oscars, love em or hate em it is what I think. We'll find out who the winners are on March 2!

Peace, Love and Chicken Grease

Philly