Getting Ready for the Oscars

I love watching the Oscars every year, though I am dismissive of them as an institution for judging great movies.  It’s rare that I agree much with the nominations, and even rarer that I agree with who wins.  Still, I love the spectacle of the show, and am always hoping for a great comedic performance from the host.  I also see the Oscars as a great occasion to hang out with friends and talk about movies for hours, and there ain’t nothin’ wrong with that!

Here are the 2012 nominees for Best Picture:

War Horse — click here for my review.

The Artist — click here for my review.

Midnight in Paris — click here for my review.

Moneyball — click here for my review.

The Descendants — click here for my review.

Hugo — click here for my review.

Tree of Life — My review will be up next week!

The Help — My review will be up next week!

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close — this is the one Best Picture nominee that I haven’t seen yet.

To read MY opinions on the best films of 2011, just click here.  Despite that fact that I listed fifteen films instead of my usual ten, only two of my selections (Hugo and The Artist) were nominated for Best Picture.  Though I do take some comfort for the fact that, for the first time since I started MotionPicturesComics.com, my choice for best film of the year — that would be Martin Scorsese’s Hugo — was nominated for Best Picture.  (In 2010 I selected Scott Pilgrim vs. the World as my favorite film of the year; in 2009 I selected Where the Wild Things Are, and in 2008 I chose The Dark Night. Not only did none of those films win the Academy Award for Best Picture, they weren’t even nominated!)  So that probably means bad luck for Hugo, but we’ll see!