Just for the Record...

My last minute Academy Awards nominations predictions are up over at The Oscar Grouch.

As anyone who's visited that site in the last couple months has noticed, I have not been very active this Oscar season. Or active. There are many reasons for this, not the least of which is that I'm not too excited about the presumptive awards-hogs this year. I didn't think any of them were horrible, or even bad. But they're just not my cup of tea.

I think Brokeback Mountain and Crash are both decent movies, but they're not anywhere near as great or revolutionary as people are making them out to be. I thought The Constant Gardener, A History of Violence and Syriana were all pretty good, but they didn't stick to my bones. I respect Good Night, and Good Luck quite a bit, but I can't say I enjoyed it. Capote and Walk the Line are both very good, but again, they didn't leave a lasting impression on me.

And then there's Munich... whose misunderstanding and awards snubs have been even more frustrating to me than the undeserved praise lavished upon Brokeback and Crash. Munich is so far and away the best film of this crop, and yet, every precursor award announcement has been a painful smack down of my hopes. I think following this awards season too closely might've been as excruciating as rewatching this year's Rose Bowl game or the 2004 election results.

So anyway, here are my predictions... I didn't give them too much thought or analysis, though I did shuffle a few names around just before posting (at the last minute, I traded out Russell Crowe for Hustle & Flow). We'll see how I did in a couple of hours.