Richard Roeper Blog

When it comes to announcing the Oscar nominees, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts & Sciences continues to cling to is Old World ways. They race through the lists at 5:30 a.m. PST, in order to get live coverage on the morning talk shows.

That’s just stupid.

As I’ve suggested before, the Academy should turn the nomination announcements into a one-hour special, to air on E! or some other cable channel. Build up excitement by showing clips and interviewing possible nominees. Have some cameras on set or in the homes of some contenders, to catch their reactions. If they can do it with the Heisman Trophy every year, why not the Oscars?

In any case, I just took Doc Brown’s DeLorean out for a spin to next Tuesday, and I’m back with the nominees in the major categories. Ready?

BEST PICTURE:

Avatar

An Education

The Hurt Locker

Inglourious Basterds

Invictus

Precious

A Serious Man

Star Trek

Up

Up in the Air

Just missing: The Hangover, The Messenger, It’s Complicated, District 9

BEST ACTOR

Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart

George Clooney, Up in the Air

Colin Firth, A Single Man

Morgan Freeman, Invictus

Jeremy Renner, The Hurt Locker

Runner-up: Viggo Mortensen, The Road

BEST ACTRESS

Sandra Bullock, The Blind Side

Helen Mirren, The Last Station

Carey Mulligan, An Education

Gabourey Sidibe, Precious

Meryl Streep, Julie & Julia

Just missing: Emily Blunt, The Young Victoria

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Matt Damon, Invictus

Woody Harrelson, The Messenger

Christopher Plummer, The Last Station

Stanley Tucci, The Lovely Bones

Christoph Waltz, Inglourious Basterds

Close but no cigar: Alfred Molina, An Education; Stanley Tucci, Julie & Julia

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Vera Farmiga, Up in the Air

Anna Kendrick, Up in the Air

Mo’Nique, Precious

Julianne Moore, A Single Man

Penelope Cruz, Nine

Just missing: Samantha Morton, The Messenger; Diane Kruger, Inglourious Basterds

This seems like an incredibly predictable year, even if you don’t have a time-traveling DeLorean. Bridges, Bullock, Mo’Nique and Waltz are the odds-on favorites in the acting categories. The tightest race is for Best Picture, with Avatar and The Hurt Locker just ahead of Up in the Air.

As for the nominees: if I don’t get at least 27 or 28 out of 30 correct, I’ll be thrilled, because that means there are going to be some big surprises next Tuesday.

Maybe my favorite autograph request ever:

Hello! I am the Max Maltzev. I write to you from Uzbekistan, therefore in advance I ask me to change for my errors, I badly know English language. I am yours the fan, but I can’t be the real your fan without your autograph! Whether not so?) I will be very grateful if you send to me on my post address which I will specify more low! Many thanks, I will wait for the autograph and the answer!

My Address:
Country: Uzbekistan
City: Tashkent
Home Adress: Chilanzarskaya st. Home #–. Apartment #—

ZIP/Postal Code : 100115

Only in Chicago.

As we dig ourselves out from the first big snow of the year, as we deal with yet ANOTHER parking meter increase, as we shake off the loss of the 2016 Olympics, as we deal with crime and corruption and all the other problems facing any major metropolis in the 21st century, a local alderman has his sights set on…

“Avatar”???!!!

Ald. James Balcer (11th) says the film makes U.S. Marines “look like lunatics.”

Chicago alderman hates \”Avatar.\”

Balcer is a decorated veteran of the Vietnam war. He is entitled to his opinion and he deserves our respect.

But come on. First of all, the soldiers in “Avatar” aren’t soldiers—-they’re ex-military men and women hired as contractors working for the RDA corporation. The evil Miles Quaritch is the head of the security force for RDA. He is not an American military commander.

Granted, the security force looks and acts like a military unit. But (SPOILER ALERT!!!!)…

The main hero, Jake Sully, is a former Marine who changes his ways when he learns the true nature of the Na’vi tribe. Another hardcore military type, Michelle Rodriguez’ Trudy Chacon, defects from the security unit, saying, “I didn’t sign up for this shit,” when she realizes it’s more of a mass slaughter than a war.

Says Ald. Balcer: “We are a good, generous country that helps people.”

And in “Avatar,” the “good, generous” Americans that help each other and want to help the Na’vi include the aforementioned Sully and Trudi—-as well Sigourney Weaver’s Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the Avatar program. In fact most of the major American characters in “Avatar” are the good guys.

The CBS-2 story about this controversy includes a quote from the almost comically predictable ultra-conservative windbag Tom Roeser, a minor figure on the Chicago scene known (if he’s known at all) for spewing blustering, bilious streams of envy of toward journalists who are half his age and have had 10 times his success.

A line for the ages from Roeser:

“This is the only time I ever sat in a theater where people were cheering the forest and the blue people, attacking ex-Marines.”

Really? The first time? But wasn’t that the plot of “Annie Get Your Gun” too?

I just love the idea of Roeser approaching a ticket counter and growling, “One for the commie-liberal-anti-American movie ‘Avatar.’ What’s a movie cost these days, a buck fifty?”

Here’s hoping Ald. Balcer has this out of his system and goes back to meeting the needs of the fine people of the 11th ward.

In the meantime, I’ll remember the words of an actor who years ago reacted to a controversy about a major blockbuster by telling me, “It’s a fucking movie. There’s life, and there’s movies, and this is a movie. People need to get some perspective.”

Amen.