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I say Heath Ledger should get an Oscar, and not just because he died. He had an incredible support role who completely stole the show in Dark Knight. Amazing.

“The Reader” is a movie coming out soon. I haven’t seen it yet, but it looks like one of those movies that is going to be nominated for an Oscar. It looks promising. It’s based on a book and will feature Ralph Fiennes and Kate Winslet. I’m predicting it will get nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography and maybe Best Actress or Actor awards…

“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button” looks like a good one too. Maybe it’ll get a nomination for Best Picture, as well as Best Makeup – since they had to make Brad Pitt “age backwards” :)

I just watched the movie “Gran Torino” with Clint Eastwood. What a refreshing movie, about dealing with our ever-changing society and a warning about the aftermaths of war and violence. It’s really such as a shame it was overlooked as a nominee for anything at the Oscars, or even for any of major awards. I wonder why that is.

Ledger – definitely an aye from me, in fact I think the movie deserves a shot in the other popular categories too.

I’m the biggest Eastwood fan, and plan to catch Gran Torino soon. Saw “Changeling” recently, also directed by him. Really well-made movie. Angelina Jolie’s hotness usually makes it easy to forget that she’s an Oscar-winning actress. But not this time!

I’ve heard a lot of good things about Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler” starring Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei. Plan to watch that too.

I heard “Milk” was a good movie – about Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California.

I’m happy to dear “Slumdog Millionaire” got a bunch of nominations, although I am surprised it did. It’s not often movies outside of Europe and America get acknowledged by the Oscars, especially one with such a young cast and a modern setting.

Ah nevermind, I just learned Slumdog Millionaire in fact a British drama.

I saw Slumdog Millionaire, and found it to be wonderful. It deserves to win a couple of awards, out of its ten nominations. BTW, I don’t think it’s exactly a drama…

Of the 5 movies nominated for Best Picture I’ve seen 3.

Slumdog Millionaire: I really enjoyed this movie. It was difficult to watch at times, but had lots of energy and optimism, and a very clever story.

The Reader: I was not impressed. The supposed point of the story was the exploration of German guilt around the Holocaust, but all it conveyed to me was that Germans like to follow rules, so you couldn’t blame them for following orders. ?!? I found it completely confusing emotionally.

Frost/Nixon: I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It was incredibly acted, and very focused.

I really liked Doubt….

The other movies I liked have all been spoken about, but this one was left behind so I decided to add it..:)

Here is a fantastic parody on The Reader.

For some reason I started another discussion, forgetting about this one. Too bad.

Anyway, what do you think of the winners?

Let’s see… I’m glad Heath Ledger took his award, that was a good point. I was surprised by Penelope Cruz winning Supporting Actress though. I was also glad Sean Penn took best Actor. Slumdog Millionaire dominated the wins though, and I guess I’m ok with that.

I am kind of annoyed about the best Visual Effects and Make-up categories. Button shouldn’t have won those, effects should have gone to Dark Knight (for creating a real life menace city and atmosphere, together with amazing action scenes), and Hellboy should’ve gotten the make-up. It wasn’t a great movie, but the character designs were great.

The ceremony itself was actually not that bad, although I only watched the beginning. I especially enjoyed the opening number with Hugh Jackman screaming “I’m Wolverine” at the end, that was great. The presenters were good for the most part (especially Steve Martin, Jack Black, and the little piece with Seth Rogen and James Franco), except for Daniel Craig who did a pretty bad job.

What did everyone else think?

@Malgosia – That parody was hilarious!

@oLahav – Hugh Jackman is really charming, I find him a really adaptable actor. Naturally I liked looking at all the Oscar dresses but I must say I was disappointed by a lot of them this year…the only ones I liked were maybe Keira Knightley’s and Natalie Portman’s. The parody of Joaquin Phoenix by Ben Stiller was pretty hilarious, too. I don’t think there was anything particularly surprising about the movies that won…