The Oscars!

Yes, it's that time of year again. And, once again I'm done (seeing all the BP nominations) just in time. Thing is, years ago this wasn't really that impressive as I saw like a movie a week. Now that I see maybe a movie every 6 weeks? Considerably more impressive. When the Oscar nominations came out on January 24th I'd seen two of the movies. That means in a month I've fit in 7 movies. Not too shabby. Two firsts for this year too: Taking a half day off work to fit one in and seeing a movie in a theatre completely by myself. I mean, not one other person in the theatre.

Here's how I'd rate them with some very technical headings.

I Would Pay Real Money to See These Again.
· Hugo (I want to show this one to my kids when they’re a bit older. What a sweet movie.)
· The Artist (My favorite of the bunch. I can't begin to describe how delighted I am that a black and white silent film is going to win Best Picture of the year.)
· The Descendants

This One Broke My Heart So I Don’t Want To See it Again But I Did Like It Very Much.
· Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close (The critics have eaten this one alive. I think that’s part of why I enjoyed it – my expectations were VERY low going in.)

These Ones Really Didn't Stay With Me Much. They’re Okay But Not Great.
· The Help
· Midnight in Paris

Meh. Or In Other Words, Oscar-Worthy? I Don’t Think So.
· War Horse
· Moneyball

Somebody Please Let The Critics* Know That The Emperor is Buck Nekkid.
· The Tree of Life

* Seriously! It's on soooooo many Top of 2011 lists. All I can figure is that critics are scared to be honest about it for fear of being called out by their much more artistic much more evolved critic friends.