I thought this years Oscars lacked a lot of nominee firepower of other years. I felt like the nominees this year were weaker than normal with much fewer good films and good performances to choose from. However, I felt that two performances were incredibly memorable and one movie really stood out. The two performances were Daniel Day-Lewis in ‘There Will Be Blood’ who won for best actor and Javier Bardem in ‘No Country For Old Men’ who won for best supporting actor. I also felt that ‘No Country For Old Men’ was clearly the best picture of the year, even with the questionable ending much like last years winner ‘The Departed’. I felt that the other nominees for best picture and best actor were not even in the same league as the winners. My only question was why Bardem was nominated for supporting actor when it seemed to me that he was basically the main character in ‘No Country For Old Men’. However, I guess it’s appropriate that both he and Day-Lewis got Oscars because they were equally deserving.

Granted I didn’t see all of the nominated movies and to be honest the only movies I saw that had actresses nominated for either best actress or supporting actress were ‘American Gangster’, which I was very lukewarm on and ‘Michael Clayton’ where Tilda Swinton won for supporting actress. Again, I didn’t see any of the other nominees but I thought Swinton’s role was minimal and not deserving of a nomination, let alone a win…However, I also hated ‘Michael Clayton’ and still can’t fathom why it was nominated for best picture or why George Clooney was up for best actor. I understand the Hollywood loves Clooney and gives him token nominations a lot and I still can’t believe he won for ‘Syriana’ a few years ago.

I also thought this years Oscars were the most long and boring I can remember. I’ve heard the ratings were the worst in recent history and I thought that John Stewart was boring at best as the host. Also, the performances of the best song nominees nearly put me to sleep although it was a good time to flick around the channels.

Additionally, why do they have to make the show so long. Nobody cares about some of these awards they give out. They give out several awards before the broadcast begins and I think they should extend that list to include categories like sound editing and sound mixing along with the short film categories, etc. Nobody cares who wins these categories and I understand they want to give these people their due and I appreciate that, but to watch these awards about things you’ve never heard about and don’t care about is excruciating to watch.

I honestly thought the best part of the show was when a category winner was announced and there was a man and a woman who won-I can’t remember for which category but the man spoke forever in his thank you speech and they played the music so the woman couldn’t say her thanks. She was clearly upset about it and after the commercial they gave a her a few seconds to come back out and give her thanks. I still have no idea who she was or what obscure category she won for but I was happy she got her due after that guy hogged the time.

Anyway, for the best actor categories and the best picture category I obviously agree with the winners, which I usually don’t but I only wish there were more good nominees and more good movies in general. I feel that the quality of movies has really dropped off in recent years. Obviously the big special effect superhero, fantasy type movies make the most money for the studios and all of the best picture nominees this year except for ‘Juno’ made little money. However, ‘No Country For Old Men’ was fantastic and stuck to its guns and didn’t try to Hollywood it up. I appreciate that and hope that 2008 will produce better movies and more memorable performances.

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