Who is going to be the big winner at the Oscars?

Avatar vs. The Hurt Locker vs. Inglourious Basterds

There are two ways that you can define "big winner." First, you can go by the raw number of Oscar wins, or second, you can go by who wins best picture.

The three favorites for both of these distinctions are Avatar, The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds. Avatar and The Hurt Locker are the obvious favorites, but Basterds has a chance to pull an upset based on the total number of nominations it received. Here is the breakdown:

"Avatar," (9 nominations)
(Art direction, Cinematography, Directing, Film editing, Original score, Best picture, Sound editing, Sound mixing, Visual effects)

The Hurt Locker (9 nominations)
(Jeremy Renner - Performance by an actor in a leading role, Cinematography, Directing, Film editing, Original score, Best picture, Sound editing, Sound mixing, Original screenplay)

Inglourious Basterds (8 nominations)
(Christoph Waltz - Performance by an actor in a supporting role, Cinematography, Directing, Film editing, Best picture, Sound editing, Sound mixing, Original screenplay)

Meanwhile, Up In the Air (6 nominations), Precious (6 nominations) and Up (5 nominations) are sleeper picks for the night's big winner. All are nominated for best picture.

Right now my money is on Avatar winning the most Oscars with The Hurt Locker winning best picture. In that case it is a split decision on who is the night's big winner. That is the way it should go anyway. I really hope Avatar doesn't win best picture and James Cameron better not win best director.

Record Deal for Mr. Schue, @shitmydadsays Gets A TV Show and Avatar's Oscar Chances

This is old news, but it is relatively new news to me. If you are a fan of @shitmydadsays you may know that the author, if you want to call him that, has a forth coming book, but you may not have known that he has a deal with CBS for a TV show.

I am still a little flummoxed by Avatar's big wins at the Golden Globes. It won Best Picture and Best Director for James Cameron. It is a good movie, the box office recites are amazing, but it is not the best movie to come out this year. Here is an opinion piece talking about it's Oscar chances. Let's hope common sense prevails.

Hey Glee fans, Mr. Schue has signed a record deal. This could be a crazy awesome idea or a crazy bad one -- only time will tell. Remember when Brian Austin Green tried to have a rap career.

Really? AVATAR? My Quick Thoughts on the Golden Globes

I am kind of stunned that Avatar just won the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama. It clearly should have gone to either The Hurt Locker or Up in the Air. I might have even been satisfied with Inglourious Basterds, but Avatar...

I loved the experience of seeing Avatar (or "Avadah" according to Arnold) in the theater but it just didn't deserve this win. What is worse, however, is that James Cameron won the Best Director nod. Argh. Again Jason Reitman or Kathryn Bigelow got robbed.

Let's hope that things shake out better at the Oscars!

Some positives... that was a nice standing ovation for Jeff Bridges. He deserves some more accolades after a long and brilliant career. I really hope he repeats at the Oscar's.

The tribute to Marty Scorsese was funny and sweet, although I found it a little odd that they were plugging Shutter Island in a montage of his greatest films. Shutter Island hasn't even come out yet.

The best acceptance speech of the night for me, by far, was Meryl Streep. She started rocky but it really came around. If you missed it you can catch it here on Huffington Post.

The early reviews on Ricky Gervais as host are trending negative. He was obviously going for a one-and-done affair. There is no way Gervais will ever host another Golden Globes.

That is not to say he wasn't funny. I had good fun with Gervais as the host. He was obviously mocking the crassness of the whole awards glitz and glamor dealio. His shameless plugs to all of his projects were meant in that vain.

I can't believe he managed to throw in a few dick jokes. Nice. I would probably give him a C+/B- for a grade on the evening.

I was glad that Glee won the Best Television Series -Musical or Comedy, but I was super bummed that Jane Lynch lost to Chloe Sevigny in the Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in TV category.

My other big surprise was that Dexter did not win the Best Television Series - Drama Golden Globe. After Michael C. Hall and John Lithgow won acting Globes for their work on Dexter, I thought for sure it would win.

I was saddened to find out during the show that Hall has cancer. Apparently he is doing well according to reports, but still. I hope he wins many more awards. He has been a great actor for a long time.

What did you think?

Holiday Movie Season Wrap: AVATAR and UP IN THE AIR Are the Best of the Bunch

The holiday stretch is always a good time for movies. Good ones get sent to the theaters this time of year as filmmakers look to capture the family movie-going experiences that tend to happen around the holidays.

A lot of the filmmakers are also looking to win some awards. Most filmmakers looking to gain Oscar or Golden Globe buzz for films get them released in December to bleed into the awards voting season. Here are a few that got my attention:


AVATAR
The money I spent on Avatar in IMAX 3D was the best money I have ever spent on a movie theater experience. Director James Cameron spent years and hundreds of millions of dollars making this science fiction epic and it shows.

There is a moment in the film when a real (or at least I think it is real) human hand touches a computer generated alien face. It blends flawlessly as each appears as distinctly organic skin. It is amazing. Avatar and the world Cameron created is amazing.


UP IN THE AIR
Director Jason Reitman knows how to make a movie. It is likely he will be on the short list for a best director Oscar again this year – he was also nominated for his direction of the 2007 smash hit Juno. I doubt he will win, simply because of his notable competition.

That said, expect this movie's stars, George Clooney and Vera Farmiga, to be serious contenders in the the best actor and best supporting actress categories. Rietman has a way of making the people around him better. He helped first-time screenwriter Diablo Cody win an Oscar; he also helped the elegant Ellen Paige get an actress nomination with Juno.

Reitman's movies, especially Up in the Air, are well-rounded, without overwrought sentimentality and without easy answers. His direction is clean and understated. That is probably why it might take him a while to win an Oscar, but it is why he has won my theater-going loyalty.

Tomorrow I will discuss INVICTUS and THE ROAD.

Some Thoughts on James Cameron's AVATAR

I didn't feel like writing my own review of Avatar yet so I decided to piggy-back off those of others.

Let's start with Rotten Tomatoes. I think RT nailed it pretty well with its boiled-down consensus of critical analysis of this science fiction epic.

"It might be more impressive on a technical level than as a piece of storytelling, but Avatar reaffirms James Cameron's singular gift for imaginative, absorbing filmmaking."
-Rotten Tomatoes

There has been a lot said about the plot being Dances With Wolves in outer space and talk about how it doesn't live up to the spectacle of Avatar, which I find true, but then again it is hard to live up to the mind-blowing spectacle.

"When all the hype and hullabaloo about Avatar calms down, we will be left with a film that’s no masterpiece, but still well worth seeing."
-Cosmo Landesman
Sunday Times (UK)

Go see this movie for the pure simplicity of watching the special effects, if for no other reason -- and see it in IMAX 3D if possible.

"Yes, you are effectively watching a special effects showcase - but no more so than Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings. And that was nine hours long. So go and see Avatar on the biggest screen possible - you won't regret it."
-Andy Morris
GQ Magazine (UK)

This movie really is as amazing as people say it is.

"The narrative would be ho-hum without the spectacle. But what spectacle! Avatar is dizzying, enveloping, vertiginous ... I ran out of adjectives an hour into its 161 minutes."

-David Edelstein
New York Magazine

Throughout this movie I felt like I was on vacation in a crazy new world. It is an entirely engrossing adventure. This is my favorite review that I have read about Avatar so far.

"Mr. Cameron's singular vision has upped the ante for filmed entertainment, and given us a travelogue unlike any other. I wouldn't want to live on Pandora, mainly because of the bad air, but I'm glad to have paid it a visit."
-Joe Morgenstern
Wall Street Journal