The Oscar on Oscar Night!

If you've a penchant for glorious movie badness, make sure you check out 1966's super campy The Oscar, on TCM March 7 at 8pm (Yes, Oscar night). Considered to be one of the best Bad Movies around (up there with Valley of the Dolls, Can't Stop the Music and Mommie Dearest), it has yet to be released on DVD. So tune in to see Stephen Boyd step over and abuse just about everyone in Hollywood in his quest to get the coveted statue. And if you will be planning on watching the real deal Sunday night, tape it, DVR it, or TiVo it. But don't miss it, you can thank me later.

Netflix Fridays: What are we watching now?

Good week for movies - Roman Polanski and Frost/Nixon were excellent. Battlestar was a bit uneven - but only because it began its fourth season by focusing on a completely new story with completely new characters. Took a while to warm up. So here's what we've got on deck:


The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Our last of the Oscar nominees from this past year and by far the worst. We just watched this last night and - oh my God - does someone owe the guy who wrote Forrest Gump some serious money! There are so many parallels it is truly dizzying. Except - of course - for the whole "being interesting" part. Let me tell you something, Benjamin Button, I have seen Forrest Gump. I own Forrest Gump. You Sir, are no Forrest Gump.





Last Chance Harvey - I really am so excited to see this movie. It looks like one of those little gems which - while probably a little slight - just makes you smile. And how can you go wrong with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson? I ask you!





Ace in the Hole - Perhaps one of the best filmmakers of all time, Billy Wilder, brings us our last viewing option. This was recommended to us by Netflix, based on our ratings. I had never even heard of it before and am quite intrigued. As Netflix describes it: "After being fired from several major newspapers, reporter Charles Tatum (Kirk Douglas) tries to reestablish himself in New Mexico. When a local store owner is trapped in a cave-in, Tatum turns the victim's misfortune into a media frenzy to further his own career. A local sheriff agrees to help prolong the rescue efforts, thereby helping build up the story. This classic film has been touted as director Billy Wilder's sharpest, most uncompromising piece of work." Sounds good, yes? And also sounds like one of those movies which was way ahead of its time.

Netflix Fridays: What are we watching now

Another busy week, but we managed to finish out John Adams (that good-for-nothing John Quincy...) and The Wrestler (Not bad, but one of those "saw the whole movie in the trailer" kind of experiences for me) and are on to fresher fare. Here's what we have lined up:



Frost/Nixon - It's funny how I'm seeing the Best Picture nominees in about the same order I had interest in them (leaving Benjamin Button for last). Still, I have hope that my lackluster feeling about his year's Oscar crop can still be turned around by a terrific film. If Opie can't pull it off, who can?





Battelstar Gallactica: Season 4, Disc 1 - So we're beginning the penultimate season and hopeful won't have too long a wait until Season 5 is released so that we can cruise to our (hopefully) satisfying ending. They continue to delve into a lot of religious psycho-babble in here and I wish they would just embrace the sci-fi (and political parallels to our current world-state) a bit more. We'll see what this season brings.




Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired - A documentary examining the controversial director. It touches on his career as well as his tumultuous personal life including the rape charges which made him flee America and the murder of Sharon Tate.

Yawn....

I just can't get into the Oscars this year. I know... the oscarnazi herself, the one who berates all she knows into participating in the annual pool, isn't excited about the ceremony? Yep. I can't quite put my finger on why, but I have a few theories:

I haven't seen any of the best picture nominees. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Goose egg. This is the first year that has ever happened. And here's the weird part: I don't care that much. "Frost/Nixon?" Meh. "The Reader?" Zzzzzzzzz. "Benjamin Button?" Strikes me as one of the classic 'too-long, too-beautiful, not-much-to-say after the quirkiness of the premise wears off' films. "Slumdog Millionaire" and "Milk" seem like I would like them, but neither seems to really have me desperately awaiting their wide-release.

Honestly, the past few years of "Crash," "Million Dollar Baby," and "There Will be Blood" have tempered my love for the awards. There's always going to be movies which get nominated that I didn't care for. I get that. But there seems to be this new genre of Oscar movie now - the brooding, self-important, message movie done on a small scale. It's an off-shoot of the classic big, splashy Oscar message-movies of old, but more obnoxious because they are wrapping themselves up in Harvey Weinstein's independent coat tails. This seems to increase their geek-out factor as well as my eye-rolling.

The current economic climate and incessant news reporting on such has so significantly depressed me that I can not take pleasure in even the most trivial things. Thanks a lot corporate America.

I'm probably the only one in America, but I just can't get worked up about the resurgance of Mickey Rourke.

Let him sink.

It's the Brangelina Oscars. Nuff Said.

Still... I suppose it could all turn around for me if Hugh Jackman starts the show off singing a duet with Snow White.

Here's Hoping.