The Academy Awards are tomorrow night.
I’m not normally a big “fan” of anything, especially awards shows. I usually won’t go out of my way to watch one, but catch glimpses of whatever might be on TV (with three other people in the house, there’s something on most evenings). The Oscars are a little different. Billy Crystal is usually pretty funny, and the intial satirical bit he does at the beginning is well worth watching.
This year, my wife and daughter thought an Oscar viewing party would be fun. Watching with friends can always be more fun, but they had bigger ideas. Supposedly, everyone is coming dressed as a character from their favorite nominated movie. Me? I’ll be “Gapper #2” from Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.
We do have some family friends coming over and a menu of movie-inspired foods (I’ll have a skewer of Last Samurai Chicken Satori, please). I’m sure we’ll have a good time.
For best picture, I’m playing catch-up with the nominees. I have seen LOTR:ROTK twice, but hadn’t seen any of the other nominees. Last night we watched Seabiscuit. A good, sturdy movie. Interesting characters but ultimately very predictable. It was nice, but not Best Picture nice. Worth seeing if you haven’t.
Tonight I’m seeing Lost in Translation, the Sophia Coppola film with Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson. I’ll let you know how it goes.
My vote? It’s for Return of the King. Though I haven’t seen it, Mystic River is probably the most likely competition. The Academy seems to have disdain for fantasy, sci-fi and anything with computer-generated special effects. This works against ROTK. But there is enough popular and critical acclaim for the film that they just might give it the Oscar.
