For the first time since Shelbi and I have been together, I beat her in our Oscar picks this year. Normally, I would be ecstatic by such a dominating performance but, unfortunately, there is a bit of a caveat this year. Usually, Shelbi and I get out and see a flurry of movies at the end of the year. I would say on average we end up seeing a minimum of three of the Best Picture nominees, often four, occasionally all five. This year? We saw one. What with Shelbi being nearly eight months pregnant and the two weeks of bedrest and all, our tally was hindered. And even seeing one nominated film was kind of an accident.

Not long after Elliott was born we decided to be adventurous and go see The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. It was playing at the Lake Twin Cinemas in Lake Oswego where Shelbi worked while she was in high school. She still knows the manager there and we are always allowed to sit by ourselves in the balcony which was an ideal situation for us. However, our choice of movie was a bit ill-advised. For a pair of sleep-deprived individuals, a 3+ hour movie in which nothing really happens becomes a battle of wills. Also, it's a bit odd to watch a movie in which someone ages backward and dies as an infant while holding your own newborn.

Nevertheless, that was the only major nominated movie we caught which made our Oscar picks far more of a crapshoot than they usually are. Although I am beginning to think this is a far more beneficial way of doing things. After all, I watch FAR more college basketball than Shelbi does each year and yet I believe I have only beaten her once head-to-head in our March Madness brackets. Perhaps my win tonight was a good omen for a month from now. So without further ado, here are pros and cons from the awards.

Pro:
1. Danny Boyle potentially dropping an unedited F-bomb during his acceptance speech. We listened over and over and still aren't 100% sure it happened.
2. Jerry Lewis's 10-second speech
3. The 5  Best Actor presenters coming out like it was a "One of these things is not like the other" skit from Sesame Street. It can't be too late to take away Cuba Gooding Jr.'s trophy can it? Snow Dogs? Boat Trip? Chill Factor? Norbit? Daddy Day Camp? The Fighting Temptations? His post-Oscar IMDB page is a freaking minefield.
4. Nailing the winner of the Best Short Film by picking the German name and HOPING it was about the Holocaust. It was.


Con:
1. The Academy gifting the Oscar to Sean Penn instead of allowing Mickey Rourke to give the show all the crazy it could handle when he got on stage.
2. Sophia Loren. Yikes. I texted my brother to ask if that was the crypt keeper on stage and his reply was: "I think it's Skeletor"
3. Hugh Jackman. It was nice that the Academy gave him less to do than any other host in history but considering the other option to host this year was Ricky Gervais, it still stung a little.
4. 7 of the last 8 acting award winners going to non-Americans. Vin Diesel can NOT catch a break.




Baby's First Oscars! "Ugh, not another dance number."