The List! Part Deux

I thought I had failed miserably with this year's list of "Film's you Must See Before The Academy Awards". Then I looked back at my post and realized I've done far better than I thought. Here is the updated list. The titles in red indicate those I've seen:

1. Up in the Air
2. Avatar
3. The Hurt Locker
4. Precious
5. Inglourious Basterds
6. Invictus
7. An Education
8. Up
9. A Serious Man
10. The Messenger
11. Julie & Julia
12. A Single Man
13. Crazy Heart
14. The Blind Side
15. The Last Station
16. Nine
17. Star Trek
18. District 9
19. Fantastic Mr. Fox
20. The Lovely Bones
21. (500) Days of Summer
22. It's Complicated
23. The Young Victoria
24. Bright Star
25. The Informant!

District 9 is half red because I Netflix'd it but couldn't get all the way through it. Let's just chalk it up to "life is too short" and call it a day. I'll probably give it another go when it comes to cable.

I'm seeing Crazy Heart tomorrow morning. That means I'm only got Invictus left and although it's just not gonna happen I'm happy I've seen the rest. Not bad for someone who sort of dropped out of the race.

So far my favorite of the year remains The Fantastic Mr. Fox. I'd say my least favorite is The Last Station. Yuck! I hate that cursed Tolstoy. I'll never understand what the big whoop is about that guy. Then again, he was Russian. As a people, Russians have suffered, maybe it's negatively influenced their bench mark. I'm just sayin'.

I believe The Best Film of the Year award belongs to The Hurt Locker. I genuinely admired it. I hope Kathryn Bigelow stomps James Cameron in the Best Director category. I also sincerely hope The Academy refrains from giving The Best Picture award to Avatar. I fell asleep in that dumb thing and was later reassured to hear that I didn't miss a thing. I was entirely underwhelmed by it and cannot understand why folks seem to have enjoyed it. Then again I didn't like Titanic much either. I believe the ridiculous box office dollars Avatar has received is reward enough. I understand that a monster film like Avatar helps the entire film making industry but it deserves nothing more than a couple of technical awards.

I've always lived in Southern California so I'm not sure how folks embrace The Academy Awards broadcast elsewhere. Around these parts there is always a party or small viewing get together to go to. Whatever you plan to do I hope you enjoy the awards. They are usually a pretty good time and, if nothing else, they shine a light on some lesser known films. There were some excellent performances to be seen this year. Go out and see a few if you haven't already.