No Surprises at 81st Annual Academy Awards

I can't say that I didn't see this coming, but to me, this was a disappointing night. Can someone please explain to my why the best movie of the year was not even nominated for Best Picture, Director, or Screenplay? As the second highest grossing movie of all time, The Dark Knight was clearly snubbed this year at the Oscars and it was just sad to see.

Slumdog Millionaire? Wait did you say Slumdog Millionaire? Are you serious? The more awards this film wins, and the more I hear people hailing at it's greatness, the more I hate this movie. Don't get me wrong, when I first saw this movie I liked it. I thought it was well directed but I just felt like the screenplay was a little out there. I thought the musical rendition summed up this film very well, CHEESY. Some say that Slumdog Millionaire is inspirational but I believe that in order to be inspiring a film needs to believable.

Slumdog Millionaire walked away with 8 Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. I think that writing is one of the most important, and maybe the most important part of film making. There is no way that Slumdog Millionaire had a better screenplay than The Dark Knight. Each character in The Dark Knight faced moral dilemma in decisions that had to be made. I did not see as much depth in the characters from Slumdog Millionaire and it didn't look as though much thought was put into the ending. Yay, its so perfect, he got the money and the girl...Come on.

I did end up seeing The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and I wasn't a huge fan but I want to give it another viewing when it comes to DVD. I also never got around to see The Reader, The Wrestler, or Frost/Nixon but for what I did see here is the way I thought the night should have gone. Out of what was nominated and what I saw I definitely think that Milk should have won Best Picture over Slumdog Millionaire. Milk is a truly inspirational film and it hard for me to understand how anyone, who saw them both, could think that Slumdog Millionaire was the better film. Milk was a harder film to distribute in America despite the fact that it is an American Film, with big name actors, and a big name director. Milk never received a wide release and I think this is due to the homophobia that sadly still exists in our society.

Sean Penn won best Actor for his performance in Milk. I was happy with this award but I didn't get to see The Wrestler and I hear that this film would not be what it was if it wasn't for a tremendous performance by Mickey Rourke. Personally I think that Clint Eastwood should have been nominated for Gran Torino, at least over Brad Pitt's performance in Benjamin Button. I don't think Brad Pitt's performance was bad I just liked Eastwood's better. Sean Penn gave a great speech, one of the highlights of the night, in which he gave Mickey Rourke props, and he also addressed proposition 8.

Kate Winslet won Best Actress for her performance in The Reader. I was happy about this even though I have not seen the Film. Kate Winslet has been one of the top actresses for a few years now and it was her time to win. I thought she was amazing in Revolutionary Road and maybe this Oscar is for the two great performances this year, The Reader and Revolutionary Road. Anne Hathaway was brilliant in Rachel Getting Married but I'm sure she will be back at the Oscars very soon.

Danny Boyle won Best Director for Slumdog Millionaire. Personally, out of what I saw and what was nominated, I would have voted for Gus Van Sant for Milk but I think Danny Boyle was a worthy recipient. Slumdog Millionaire was beautifully directed. I had more of a problem with the writing. I feel like I could go on about the Oscars forever but for a full recap click here.