Round-up!!!

Generally the husband and I are able to at least round out the Best Actor and Actress categories each year, but this year we came up short. The week and weekend of the Oscar's was busy busy busy for us, but we were able to grab a couple more of the movies at home. The first was Animal Kingdom. This is an Australian film up for Best Supporting Actress for Jacki Weaver. Interesting tidbit - this film was nominated for 18 Australian Film Institute Awards (Australia's Oscar's) which is the most any movie has ever been nominated. It won almost everything with the exception of the Acting categories where more than one cast member was nominated (only one could win). Jacki Weaver plays the matriarch of an organized crime family. She has 5 sons and 1 daughter and when the daughter dies (of an overdose), Smurf (Jacki Weaver) takes in her grandson. The movie is a look at their family through his eyes. It is gritty and sometimes hard-to-watch, but it is interesting and it is good and Jacki Weaver just embodies the role. Definitely worth seeing.

Saturday night we watched Alice in Wonderland. I was eagerly anticipating this movie while it was being made because I love Tim Burton's eye, but then the reviews were pretty rough. The story meanders and feels a little disjointed - it takes elements from both books and the Disney cartoon, but is also a return to Underland for Alice - I didn't really get the framing. Either way, it does look GOOD. Colleen Atwood definitely deserved her nomination (and win) for Best Costume - I mean I wanted to wear every single thing Alice wore. But as far as this movie being something interesting or different in the Alice pantheon, I just kind of say, "meh."

SO the Oscars...I loved loved loved the idea of Anne Hathaway and James Franco co-hosting and I still think it could have been great, but somehow it just didn't quite pan out. I thought James Franco was super-stiff (and possibly high) and Anne Hathaway did her best to compensate, but it was just a bit off. I know a lot of people thought Kirk Douglas was super-charming and hilarious, but for me it was one segment that just drug on forever. His presentation coupled with Melissa Leo's long acceptance speech - I think 30 minutes ended up being dedicated to that award. I was disappointed that there were no real surprises in the winners. I really enjoyed both The King's Speech and The Social Network, but I was really hoping that by Oscar time everyone would have gotten over that and Black Swan and Darren Aronofsky could just be given their due. I was/am so happy for Natalie Portman and her win - the clip they showed from the movie made me emotional, so you can imagine I was even more so during her acceptance speech. Yay Natalie! I still think 10 Best Picture nominees is too much, but it was nice to see how spread out those films are across genre and appeal. Don't worry, Academy, I'll be back next year.

What's next now that the Academy Awards have passed? Well, Salt still arrived via Netflix, so at least one of us will watch that. Paul also opens in a few weeks and the cast is just irresistable (Seth Rogan, Simon Pegg, Jane Lynch, Jason Bateman - and those are just in the commercials I've seen).

Also - what did you think of the Academy Awards - show and winners?