And the award goes to.....

I have to be honest, I have not been as excited about this year's Academy Awards as I have in years past. I do not know if it is because I am just not that interested in the nominees or if it is because I am far away from all my friends and cannot have my annual Oscar Party this year. Regardless, here are my 2012 choices and predictions for the 84th Annual Academy Awards:

***Updated with winners***

Best Actor:
My choice: Gary Oldman
Probable winner: Jean Dujardin
Actual winner: Jean Dujardin

Best Actress:
My choice: Michelle Williams
Probable winner: Viola Davis
Actual winner: Meryl Streep

Best Supporting Actor:
My choice: Christopher Plummer or Nick Nolte
Probable winner: Christopher Plummer
Actual winner: Christopher Plummer

Best Supporting Actress:
My choice: Melissa McCarthy
Probable winner: Octavia Spencer
Actual winner: Octavia Spencer

Best Animated Feature:
My choice: Rango
Probable winner: Rango
Actual winner: Rango

Best Director:
My choice: Woody Allen
Probable winner: Michel Hazanavicius
Actual winner: Michel Hazanavicius

Best Picture:
My choice: Midnight in Paris
Probable winner: The Artist
Actual winner: The Artist

Full list of winners

Since I am not having a party this year, I will be live tweeting the awards show here. I will also try to update this page with the actual winners as the night goes on.

xoxo
c
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"Note to self: Hold the trophy like it's The Lion King baby."

I did not watch the Emmys live last night because I was at the Phillies game. Instead, I DVR'd the show and stayed up until 2am watching it. Here now is a list of some of the things I liked about the show and a few things I could have done without:

Likes:
-All the Friday Night Lights love! I got a little overly excited when Zach Gilford, Jesse Plemons and Michael Jordan were featured in Jane Lynch's opening number, even though you only saw them for about 30 seconds. And, even though I knew they were coming because I had checked twitter from the game, Jason Katims winning Best Writer for a Drama and Kyle Chandler winning Best Actor in a Drama made me ridiculously happy as well.

-Cee Lo Green having trouble with his chair from The Voice made me laugh, probably harder than it should have.

-The Best Actress in a Comedy beauty pageant was hands-down the best part of the show. All the ladies standing onstage holding hands, then all hugging when the winner was announced and Melissa McCarthy actually being crowned and handed a bouquet of roses was awesome. I have loved McCarthy since Gilmore Girls but I do not actually watch Mike & Molly, so I really could not say whether she deserved the award or not, but the presentation of the award was hilarious.

-Clifton Murray, who plays one of Channing Tatum's friends in the movie She's The Man, is apparently one of the Canadian Tenors who sang Hallelujah during the In Memoriam montage. I found this to be incredibly random and I am probably the only person on the planet who realized that. It made me smile though :o)

"You're like the Maid-of-Dishonor"

Bridesmaids was hilarious! I am usually pretty critical about comedies, but this one was awesome. The funniest movie that I have seen in a long time.

Kristen Wiig plays Annie, a failed bakery owner with no money, no boyfriend and two very weird roommates. She is asked to be in her best friend Lillian's wedding, whom she has known since childhood. While there is a potential love interest, the movie is mostly about how Annie copes with feeling like she is being replaced as Lillian's best friend by Helen, the trophy wife of Lillian's fiancee's boss.

My only real issues with the movie were that a few of the characters were not fully developed. Annie's back storyline about how she used to own a bakery but opened it during a recession and it eventually went out of business is not really necessary. While I understand that this part of the movie was there to show why Annie had no money, I just felt like it was kind of awkward. I also would have liked to see more of Wendi McLendon-Covey's and Ellie Kemper's characters. But this is all just me nitpicking, these minor issues did not detract from my enjoyment of the film at all.

"If I ever had a wedding, I’d, I’d want everybody to be stress-free, you know?.....

I’d like it to be like a carnival. Like, people win prizes for guessing the bride's weight, some dunk tanks..."
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The two big movies opening tomorrow are Bridesmaids and Priest.

As a single woman who has been in six weddings, been a guest at at least a dozen more and has watched most of her close friends get married, I am very much looking forward to seeing Bridesmaids. It stars Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Rose Byrne and Melissa McCarthy and it looks hilarious. Rudolph's character gets engaged and she chooses her best friend (Wiig) to be her maid of honor. This means she is in charge of planning all the standard pre-wedding activities with the help of the rest of the quirky wedding party. Wiig was on The Late Show Tuesday night and David Letterman called the film a "cavalcade of fun."

Trailer #1
Bridesmaids at MOVIECLIPS.com

The other big movie coming out this weekend is Priest, starring Paul Bettany, Cam Gigandet and Maggie Q. Based on a series of Korean comics, Bettany plays a priest who breaks the vows of his order when he sets out to try and track down the pack of vampires who kidnapped his neice. He is one of the warriors of the last vampire war and uses the skills of his niece's boyfriend and another warrior priestess to help him in his quest.

Trailer #1
Priest at MOVIECLIPS.com

While I normally would be excited about a vampire movie, I am not sure that this one is up my alley. The action sequences look pretty cool, but I am just not sure I will be seeing this one in theaters. If you decide to check it out, please let me know what you think and if I should change my mind. 

Other movies opening this weekend include Hesher and Everything Must Go. 

xoxo

c

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