The Oscar Awards are Sunday Night, and my question is this: how excited are you?  Do you really care?    Do you remember that Eddie Murphy was supposed to host, but backed out late in the game?  Do you know that Billy Crystal stepped up and said he’ll do it, for the 9th time.

Billy Crystal just might be the most entertaining thing about this years Oscars ,along with who’s wearing what.   Previously as host, Billy stole the show when he opened as Hannibal Lecter, or did the Titanic song parody.    And the inserting of himself into scenes from the Best Picture nominees was pure genius. Let’s hope he still has some Magic left.

This year there are 9 movies nominated for Best Picture, and that is way too many.  Part of the allure of the Oscars is to see as many of the nominated films as you can before the awards.  When there were 5 nominees,  I would normally see at least 3 or 4 so that I could make an informed pick.  This year 4 of the 9 was the best I could do.  

In my opinion, this years’ list is rather weak, with one or two exceptions.  Here are the nominees.  

Best Picture: 

"War Horse" 

"The Artist" 

"Moneyball," 

"The Descendants" 

"The Tree of Life" 

"Midnight in Paris" 

"The Help" 

"Hugo" 

"Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close"

How many have you seen?  What’s your pick for Best Picture?

“The Artist” and “The Help”  appear to be the favorites.  I’ll go with “The Help”  but really love “The Descendants”.

If animals were given Oscars, Uggie the dog from “The Artist” would win.  Actually, Uggie should win an Academy Award for Best Actor !!!!