The Who Should Have Won/Been Nominated For the Oscar debate is a fun one, for participants and observers. It’s always funny to me how seriously critics take themselves, and they get even more prissier and more sanctimonious around Oscar time. I thought’d it fun to look back at the Oscars, starting with the year I first watched the ceremony, and give my take on why I thought so-and-so should have won.

I will take a given year, narrow down the Best Picture Nominees to two, maybe three, one of which will be my favorite. Then I’ll pick which movie should have won, and patiently wait for all of you to tell me how wrong I am. I might jump from year to year if I get bored, but for now, the rules are that I start with the year I started watching the Oscars and continue on chronologically. Another rule certain to be broken: I’m writing about Best Picture nominees and winners, other categories are not included.  Oh, and I will try to refrain from hopping on the soapbox to trumpet a movie that wasn’t nominated, like, say Unidentified Flying Oddball (1979), which was and is way better than either Apocalypse Now (consensus shoulda won) and Kramer Vs. Kramer (winner winner French Toast for dinner).

I first tuned in to the Oscar telecast in 1982, when I was eleven years old. At the risk of over-defending myself, please understand that I became hooked on the Oscar telecast for nerdy reasons, not for faaaabulous reasons. Just putting that out there. (more…)

The movie business is not generally kind to women when they pass the age of 40, and Julia Roberts (now 41) is learning that lesson the hard way. The former Pretty Woman has returned to the big screen this weekend in Tony Gilroy’s Duplicity (Universal), and one prominent blogger wrote this headline:

Duplicity soft: Julia’s Comeback? Audiences Say Go Back

Julia Roberts and Clive Owen star in the fun, smart DUPLICITY, from writer/director Tony Gilroy

Roberts’ last starring role was in 2003’s Mona Lisa Smile ($63.8M domestic), and since then she has become a full-time Mom. Overall, she has 8 movies on her resume that have reached $100M in the US with her as a lead (I’m not including the Ocean’s Eleven franchise). Her most successful string of movies started in 1997 with My Best Friend’s Wedding ($127.1M cume) and ended with her Oscar winning performance in Erin Brockovich ($125.6M cume). During that span, she starred in 6 movies, generating an average of $115M in domestic box office.

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