Wow! I Didn't See This One Coming

I thought it would fill out the top five for Best Picture, but 13 nominations? This thing could potentially beat Ben Hur and Titanic for the record of 11 Oscars for one motion picture.
I couldn't believe it when I read it. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button has been nominated for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Director and 10 other Academy Awards.

Look, this was a good movie, maybe even a really good movie, but to justify 13 Academy Award nominations without the real marketing or word-of-mouth that you would normally see for a pre-bought, hope-to-be-blockbuster release, is surprising to say the least.

However, I do like the nod for Brad Pitt for Best Actor. I think he should have won a couple of times already for Fight Club and 12 Monkeys, for which he was nominated for. One of his best roles has to be Achilles in Troy. I want to say Se7en, but although that was a good performance, I don't think it warranted an Oscar. Hey, I'm not in love with the guy.
I have to add his best cameo (even before his pretty funny appearance on Friends) would have to be as Floyd, in True Romance. Funny.

But anyways, this movie was sweet, sincere, flowing and sad, even though the makers tried to make us feel alright, as if to say, "it's o.k."
But 13 nominations? I can't wrap my head around it. Is this the answer Hollywood gives us? They don't want to have to decide between Milk, because it's a Prop 8-accompanied release, which has made squat, considering? Or The Dark Knight because it was the best movie of the year? Unfortunately, it's a "comic movie," so it doesn't count.

Well, we have a buffer-zone for Hollywood bigwigs now. No direct competition. No questions about an "epic" winning a monopoly on Oscars night, right? And once again, the wrong movie will win Best Picture.

On the bright side, Heath Ledger got his obvious Oscar nod for Best Supporting Actor for one of the most brilliant performances you ever will see portraying The Joker.
Never again will I look at another Batman comic and not think of Ledger as Joker.
But I also can't believe Christopher Nolan didn't get a nomination for Best Director for The Dark Knight. Or for sure, The Dark Knight not getting a Best Picture nomination? I know. It is a "comic movie"but it was the best movie of the year!
Just being released outside of that 1-month zone killed it chances. You know the zone. The 1-month time target that only focuses on films released (at least the Best Picture) within one month of the awards ceremony.

Clint didn't get his Best Actor or Best Director nods! And with Gran Torino and The Dark Knight out of the way, it's down to Milk and Slumdog, it seems. Oh right, then there's The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and its 13 nominations! Still, it's rather fishy in Denmark-type stuff.

What else got nominated for Best Picture of 2008? The Reader(?) and the liberal art house favorite, Frost/Nixon.

Mickey Rourke got a Best Actor nod for The Wrestler.See it. He is now my favorite to win. Along with that was Marissa Tomei has a chance for a second Oscar, this one in a drama from the same film.Slumdog Millionaire has 10 of it's own nominations overall as well. We have us a gen-u-ine Cinderella-like story going on. Strange how a movie with absolutely no acting nominations gets the nomination for Best Picture.

And Wall-E got the nod for Best Animated Feature.
Good little movie.

But, 13 nominations for Benjamin Buttons? What the...? Where did this come from?

Ah, who cares? Just another ceremony that allows-on a nationally televised platform- the entertainment elite to pat themselves on the back for being Masters of the Universe, that lasts 18,000 hours long.
Nothing ever changes with this "tradition."

I wonder if I have to work that Sunday?