Kathy Bates channeled her Oscar-winning role in ‘Misery’ to share her contempt for those wicked Wall Street types.

Bates, chatting with CNN’s Piers Morgan, went to bat for President Obama while excoriating those who put the U.S. economy on the brink of destruction. And no, she wasn’t talking about Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

BATES: The last two years, I want to go back, something my father said to me — he always said, “Stand up on your hind legs and fight.” And that’s what I’d like to say to my president, whom I’m so proud of. But I want him to stand up on his hind legs and fight these rat bastards. And he has got do it.

MORGAN: Who do you mean by the rat bastards?

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By now I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of other reviews about “The Blind Side,” currently in theaters, including this one by BH’s own Cam Cannon. I hope you can stand to read one more.

I saw “The Blind Side” last Friday evening with my younger daughter. Arriving half an hour before showtime, I was surprised to see that the theater was already about three quarters full and we ended up sitting down near the front, where my daughter usually begs to sit and I reply, “No, let’s sit somewhere near the middle.” Sure it was a long holiday weekend and people were looking for something to do, but as it was the second weekend, I took this as a positive sign. Word of mouth has a way of killing films that deserve to die quickly, especially in the age of Facebook and Twitter.

Not having read the book, I could judge the movie on its own merits. As BH readers already know, “The Blind Side” tells the true story of football phenom Michael Oher, then a fatherless black teen from the projects of Memphis with a crack-addicted mother and who, despite being accepted into a tony Christian school, ends up homeless. He is seen wandering out in the cold by Leigh Anne and Sean Tuohy, a well-to-do couple from the other side of the tracks, who take him in and eventually make him a part of their family. (more…)

On Sunday, the Academy Awards will be handed out at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, and there are some clear favorites. Slumdog Millionaire, the feel-good Danny Boyle Mumbai opus made for just $14M, is a heavy favorite to win Best Picture. It’s hard to imagine Slumdog missing out on Hollywood’s biggest prize, having won the Golden Globe, the BAFTA Award and just about everything in between.

But, in the world of gambling, you always want to look for value. What are the films and performances with longer odds that would be worth a wager on Sunday? My purpose here is to establish a betting line for each of the six major categories, and then find the value bet in each category.

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There was not a great deal of drama surrounding this year’s British Academy of Film & Television Arts Awards, commonly known as the BAFTA Awards. Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) is a movie with deep roots in the UK. Director Danny Boyle was born in Manchester, England, lead actor Dev Patel is the star of the popular British television series Skins, and the movie is a gigantic hit in the British Isles with an impressive $20.6M (US dollars) in box office for Pathe, since its release there on January 6.

BAFTA Winner Mickey Rourke

The two major uncertainties entering Sunday’s ceremony were whether Kate Winslet, twice-nominated for Best Actress, would split her own vote and miss out on her second BAFTA Award and who would prevail in the Sean Penn-Mickey Rourke battle for Best Actor. Aside from that, it seemed like a Slumdog sweep, and that’s exactly how it played out.

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Liam Neeson is officially a full-fledged action star. The Irish-born actor has often played heroes, whether it was Oskar Schindler in Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece Schindler’s List, the wise Qui-Gon Jinn in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace or determined sex researcher Alfred Kinsey in 2005’s biopic Kinsey, Neeson has always had a knack for playing the earnest-but-flawed good guy. In his new movie Taken (Fox), writer/producer Luc Besson and director Pierre Morel have turned him into a Dad with the “mad skills” of a super-spy – think Mike Brady crossed with Jason Bourne.

The result is a well-reviewed (56% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) action film that will help to satisfy blockbuster-hungry audiences waiting for Warner Bros’ Watchmen (due March 6). Taken has scored big on its opening weekend. After grabbing an estimated $9.4M, the movie surged on Saturday to $11.62M (up almost 24% from opening day) and, despite today’s Super Bowl, the film could reach $24.62M according to studio estimates. That will be more than enough to win the Super Bowl 3-day, and positive word-of-mouth could get this one into the $70M-$75M range domestic.

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