Well, and the Oscar noms are out, and Your Humble Blogger has seen six—six!—of the nominated films. Oh, none of the ones nominated for Best Picture, and none of the nominated acting performances, or directing, or writing, but then who saw any of those? No, I have seen two of the three Animated nominees, and am still bitter about not getting to see the third, and I have seen a movie with nominations in sound editing, sound mixing visual effects and art direction, one with nominations in makeup, one with nominations in costume design, and one with nominations in makeup, sound mixing, and visual effects. That’s eleven nominations, in all. Not bad, particularly considering that those six movies were the only 2005 movies YHB saw in theaters. Yep, a clean sweep; every movie I saw last year got an Oscar nom.
Well, and that isn’t quite true. In addition to those six, I saw five movies on DVD that were released earlyish in 2005. Ah, Netflix. Technically, that means I have eleven 2005 movies, totaling only eleven nominations, but still that ain’t too shabby.
Of those eleven, my favorite was clearly Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, with Bride & Prejudice coming a surprisingly close second. The problem is that those were the only two movies that were unalloyed joy. The category of liked bits of it quite a lot, but was disappointed, a bit includes The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, King Kong, The Corpse Bride, and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. The category of stunk on ice, even though there were still some nice bits, and it really ought to have been a lot better included Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Rock School, Millions, Madagascar, and The Brothers Grimm. And that’s the whole year in movies.
Oh, I suppose one more thing. Since the 2004 Movie Wrap-up in this Tohu Bohu, YHB saw Very Long Engagement, which was rather nice but not as wonderful as I wanted it to be, and the first half of Life Aquatic, which was not unpleasant, but which didn’t make me want to see the rest, and as much of the unwatchable Merchant of Venice as could be stomached.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.