and the oscar goes to ...

"... and the Oscar goes to ..." just seems to be the most famous line in early Spring each year during the award seasons in Hollywood. I have to honestly admit that I really love movies and as much as Hollywood celebrates it, I do too.

Anyway, I have some disappointment this year with the nominations announced last week. I'm so disappointed that Sally Hawkins and Kristin Scott Thomas didn't get a nod. Good movies, like Revolutionary Road or The Dark Knight were discarded. Kate Winslet was nominated, but unfortunately she was nominated for the wrong movie.

Aside from that, I'm cool and just for the fun of it, this is who I think will or maybe should win the oscar on 22 February 2009. For the complete nominations, please go to oscar.com.

Best Picture: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Slumdog Millionaire might win the Globe, but I think Button shall win the Oscar.

Best Director: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
The Academy tends to make everyone happy, I guess it's going to happen that way again this year.

Best Actor in a leading role: Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
At first, my choice was Sean Penn, but after watching The Wrestler, I have to go for Rourke. His performance is amazing and memorable. Nothing for sure really, Penn might win.

Best Actress in a leading role: Kate Winslet - The Reader
Hawkins or Thomas will have made this category more interesting. Anyway, it's between Meryl Streep and Kate Winslet. I really enjoy both, Doubt and the Reader. SAG picked Streep, but I think Winslet has a bigger chance to win the oscar.

Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
It's a sure bet.

Best Supporting Actress: Penélope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Without Winslet in this category (Winslet won the Globes in the supporting role for The Reader), the race is on between Cruz and Tomei, still I think Cruz will walk away with the big prize.

What do you think?

i hope you dance

I Hope You Dance is a song, made famous by a country singer, Lee Ann Womack. So famous, it was called Womack's signature tune. It won several Grammys and made to the top of several charts in Billboard. Anyway, the song was written by Tia Sillers and Mark Sanders. On one of the interviews, Sillers said that she wrote the song while she's going through a painful divorce. She came up with the line "I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean" when she's on her getaway in the Florida Gulf Coast.

The song is talking much about being brave and taking chances. In Womack's video, it appears that Womack is singing this lovely song to her daughters.
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I hope you never lose your sense of wonder
You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger
May you never take one single breath for granted
God forbid love ever leave you empty-handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean
Whenever one door closes, I hope one more opens
Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance
Never settle for the path of least resistance
Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'
Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'

Don't let some hell-bent heart leave you bitter
When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider
Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance
And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance
I hope you dance

Time is a wheel in constant motion, always rolling us along
Tell me who wants to look back on their years
And wonder, where those years have gone

movie: fireproof

Movie: Fireproof
Directed by: Alex Kendrick
Starring: Kirk Cameron, Erin Bethea
Score: 3.0 of 5.0

Capt. Caleb Holt, a captain to a fire department, was on a rocky marriage when his father dared him to take an experiment called Love Dare to save his marriage. The experiment for 40 days did not only succeeded to save him from not getting divorced but also changed his life.

I'm not prying on my belief, but honestly to say the movie is surprisingly good. Yes, true, it has the plot of those Hallmark Channel movie series - it's tacky yet sincere and true. There are a few scenes when Kirk Cameron was trying too hard to impress me, but half way to the end of the movie, I was on his side.

It was just a perfect movie for my Sunday. To a friend, whom practices the truest form of being humble and sincere (you know who you are), I thank you.

movie: blindness

Movie: Blindness
Directed by: Fernando Meirelles
Starring: Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover
Score: 3.0 of 5.0

An epidemic of blindness attacks a city and forces its residents to be quarantined. Also joined the quarantine is an eye doctor with his wife, who is the only person who's not affected by the disease. Things began to get unsteady soon as more people were infected with the disease and naturally, there's a group that tried to have control over food because they owned a gun. As the ward got chaotic, the whole city was shut down.

Because of a fire accident, they found themselves free from the quarantine and in time, the first man who went blind suddenly could see. It gave hopes to the rest of the others. Mereilles chose not to tell much about the global effects of the epidemic, but he focused on this group of people. He didn't even bother to explain why, what or how.

Blindness was one of the official selection movies in the Cannes Festival last year. Although Blindness is not really terrible, it did not achieve the recognition Mereilles' previous movie did, The Constant Gardener. I guess, most of the credits must go to Julianne Moore. This woman will never do anything wrong. (Well, almost ... we forgive you for being Clarice Sterling!)