Oscar Predictions

I usually don’t watch the Oscars because I can’t stand political correctness (PC) and this is PC at its finest. I do enjoy debating about the winners the next day; even though the choices by the Academy piss me off most of the time. The worst I can remember was in 1983 when Chariots of Fire won Best Picture over Raiders of The Lost Ark.

In 1983 the Academy was being criticized for not acknowledging foreign filmmakers, so Chariots of Fire wins. Another year they were criticized because not enough black people won awards, hence black people swept the Oscars. I am still surprised they did not succumb to peer-pressure last year and give the Best Picture to Brokeback Mountain. It was a good film but it was not a great film. Anyway, getting back to 1983, does anybody even remember Chariots of Fire? I doubt it but Raiders of The Lost Ark is still cherished as one of the greatest films ever made and will stand the test of time for years to come.

Two of the best years I can remember (the best years being when the proper people got the awards) was when Titanic and Return of the King swept all the categories. Those two films will be watched generations from now and the competition will probably be forgotten.

This year in my opinion the Best Picture by far is The Departed. The story was solid and the performances were outstanding. This movie had some of the best acting I have ever seen in a film. With Jack Nicholson, Leo DiCaprio and Mark Wahlberg headlining and with a host of other solid supporting performances, this film is one the best ever. Two other great films of note were Blood Diamond and Apocalypto.

Let’s look at the categories and I will give my opinions:

Actor in a leading role:
Leonardo DiCaprio had the best year of any actor in 2006. With two incredible performances (The Departed and Blood Diamond), he should easily get this as he was head and shoulders above the other performances.

Actor in a supporting role:
Although Mark Wahlberg was outstanding, Djimon Hounsou deservers this award. His performance was powerful in Blood Diamond.

Actress in a leading role: (the word ACTRESS does still exist)
I’ll have to pass on this because I have not seen any of these performances. None of these five films interested me at all to pay $8 bucks to see them. Even when The Devil Wears Prada came to video I still didn’t want to see it for only a buck. I don’t care at all for the fashion industry and I care even less for the assholes who run it.

Actress in a supporting role:
Again the only performance I saw was Adriana Barraza in Babel. The film was very dry, very slow and too long.

Best Picture:
I have to admit, of these films I did not see The Queen, but my choice is definitely The Departed. Only Letters From Iwo Jima was even close to being the caliber of The Departed, but, still the Departed was in a different league. Martin Scorsese should also reel in the Best Director award.

My predictions are rarely ever right. For some reason the Academy usually picks the most boring piece of shit to win Best Picture and rarely grades actors and actresses on their performances. As I said earlier, sometimes the Academy wants to make some half-assed political statement, so instead of grading performances they will give awards based upon race or they will throw foreign films an occasional "bone" (right-wing fundamentalists at their finest).

The Oscars is just another tool in the movie marketing machine. Since the Academy consists of workers within the movie making industry, most of the time you only have to see which film had the most people working on it; the more people, the more votes. Sometimes they will select a film which was not too popular to increase profits. Why else would people rush out to see Chariots of Fire?