Ron's Popcorn Reviews.com

Remember when I was skeptical about the Best Picture category being expanded to 10 movies instead of 5? If The Blind Side being nominated for Best Picture doesn’t prove my point, only Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen can. Thank god they didn’t nominate that. If you didn’t get it yet, the nominations for the 82nd Academy Awards were announced today. I watched the announcement like I do every year and was excited as usual. But as I said before, 10 nominees devalues the category. And I was right. The motherf----- Blind Side?!

There weren’t any big surprises in the acting categories.

Best Leading Actor:

Jeff Bridges for Crazy Heart (of course, not that he deserves it for this movie. I think he deserved it for The Big Lebowski in 1998.)

Morgan Freeman for Invictus (great, but not if it takes the slot from much worthier performances)

George Clooney for Up in the Air (YES! Of course he was going to be nominated but still.)

Colin Firth for A Single Man (Really? Julianne Moore owned that movie.)

Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker (great performance)

I would have picked: George Clooney for Up in the Air, Viggo Mortensen for The Road, Nicholas Cage for Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, Matt Damon for The Informant!, and Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker. Sam Rockwell deserves an honorary mention for Moon as does John Malkovich for Disgrace.

Best Leading Actress:

Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side (Glad to see they’re not going for higher ratings by nominating popular but shitty movies like I thought they would.)

Carrey Mulligan for An Education (At least if they’re nominating crap like The Blind Side they still honor great movies and great performances. Carey Mulligan deserves to win.)

Gabourey Sidibe for Precious (Very good performance but that movie belonged to Mo’Nique.)

Helen Mirren for The Last Station (Haven’t seen the movie so no comment.)

Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia (Gimme’ a break! Why does the Academy need to nominate Meryl Streep for everything. She’s a great actress and deserved an Oscar for Doubt but her performance in this movie was nothing extraordinary.)

I would have picked: Carey Mulligan for An Education, Cameron Diaz for The Box (it was a great performance), Zooey Deschanel for 500 Days of Summer, Gabby Sidibe for Precious, and Charlotte Gainsbourg for Antichrist.

Best Supporting Actor:

Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones (why not?)

Woody Harrelson for The Messenger (I thought the trend this year was to only nominate big movies.)

Matt Damon for Invictus (Does a Clint Eastwood movie have to be nominated just for the sake of being nominated. Maybe instead of nominating Morgan Freeman they could have nominated Damon for The Informant!, a performance he actually deserves recognition for.)

Christophe Waltz for Inglourious Basterds (I don’t care if he wins because the movie is popular. I just want him to win.)

Christopher Plummer for The Last Station (Again, I haven’t seen the movie so no comment.)

I would have picked: Christophe Waltz for Inglourious Basterds, Alfred Molina for An Education, Peter Capaldi for In the Loop, Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Road, and Woody Harrelson for The Messenger.

Best Supporting Actress:

Mo’Nique for Precious (Best performance of 2009.)

Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart (Wtf? This is a surprise, but not a pleasant one. Julianne Moore deserves this spot.)

Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air (So happy)

Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air (I wish Mo’Nique, Anna Kendrick, and Vera Farmiga could all win.)

Penelope Cruz for Nine (Completely indifferent.)

I would have picked: Mo’Nique for Precious, Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air, Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air, Julianne Moore for A Single Man, and Imelda Staunton for Taking Woodstock.

And of course the Award everyone cares about…

Best Picture:

Up in the Air (obviously I’m happy. The best movie of 2009, one of the best movies of the decade, and maybe even my favorite movie ever made.)

The Hurt Locker (My second favorite movie of 2009.)

Precious (I’m not against it.)

Avatar (how this won Best Drama at the Golden Globes is beyond me. Hopefully the Academy will give the Oscar to the movie that deserves it instead of the movie with the highest gross.)

Inglourious Basterds (What balls to nominate this! Very happy about this.)

Those are the actual 5 Best Picture nominees (match it up with the nominees for Best Director) The next 5 (except for some) are needed to fill the slots and, well, bring in higher ratings:

An Education (Happy to see they don’t forget the actual great films, even if they aren’t big. Wish this movie, my fourth favorite of 2009, was in the top 5 instead of the filler inners.)

A Serious Man (Wow! Glad to see this movie nominated, even if it is as a filler.)

The Blind Side (WTF! This is for the higher ratings.)

District 9 (What did I say? Higher ratings! At least they chose this over Transformers.)

Up (Everyone realized that if there’s 10 nominees, Up will be one of them. I don’t care if this is a filler, I’m just glad it’s nominated. Maybe this means Fantastic Mr. Fox has a greater chance in the Best Animated Feature category. My sixth favorite movie of 2009.)

If you’re interested in the movies I would pick, just read my top 10 list of 2009. Now that there are 10 nominees, well, just read a top 10 list.

The real 5 Best Picture nominees are Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Up in the Air, Precious, and Inglourious Basterds. The way to find out is to see which directors were nominated because that usually correlates with the 5 nominees for Best Picture.