Thinking about the nominations

No big surprises to me. I'm glad Milk got eight nods, all well deserved. Not to sound like a fanboy, but Hellboy II and Iron Man probably deserved a few more. The endless Benjamin Button nominations are kind of a waste, because it's one of those "tasteful" gimmick movies that people like to praise but don't really care about. It won't win many.

One oddity is Wall-E's nomination for best original screenplay, considering about the first half of the movie is virtually silent -- and it's the better half. I'm a big fan, though.

Oscar musings

Just at first glance, I don't see any huge surprises on the Oscar nominations. I just hope there's a show. Just a few thoughts:

It's a huge relief that Hal Holbrook was nominated for Into The Wild, since he blatantly deserves it. That's the one I was waiting for. Unfortunately, it's kind of like finally getting your show on the air but having it scheduled against American Idol. Bardem is a shoo-in, even though I didn't think his performance was any better.

I'm not quite as enthused about The Bourne Ultimatum as I was at first, but didn't it deserve a little more than Editing, Sound, and Sound Editing? Maybe Best Director?

They should have added Best Original Score to There Will Be Blood's tally.

Lust, Caution should have been nominated for Best Foreign Language Film, but we all know the Academy only vacations in Europe. Nice to see them throw in a film from Kazakhstan; maybe they're trying to make up for the whole Borat thing.

I'm not putting any money on Norbit for Best Makeup.

If Daniel Day-Lewis wins, he totally has to say this.