Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

Shape up and sit down this coming Sunday, March 7, for the 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, live on every coast imaginable. I’ll tell you my predictions for who will emerge victorious in a bit, but first a quick briefing about this year’s ceremony — what makes it “different” from recent years, what makes it similar, and the moments you need to look out for the most.

This year’s creative team and show producers are Adam Shankman and Mustache Man Bill Mechanic. Shankman’s work as a director is known by you, though you may not realize it: The Wedding Planner, A Walk to Remember, Cheaper by the Dozen, Hairspray. He is also a well-respected choreographer in both movies and theater, and promises to bring a light-hearted sense of humor to the proceedings (he also hired Good Charlotte’s Joel Madden to DJ the party during commercial breaks…yeah).

Bill Mechanic is former Chairman/CEO at Fox Studios, who was allegedly fired because Fight Club “flopped.” He has since produced The New World and Coraline.

Bruce Valanche is a veteran writer of the Oscars’ patter. He is back.

The show is bouncing off of last year’s mildly successful broadcast, which had the highest ratings in three years and was produced by Dreamgirls director Bill Condon. Condon declined to return, wanting to focus on his upcoming projects. Maybe it’s a good thing, but his decision could also prove fatal as Shankman and Mechanic are aiming to bring in the “younger crowd” by having the likes of Taylor Lautner, Kristen Stewart, Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus present a few awards.

The problem with the Academy’s aim for younger viewers is that the intentions are immediately contradicted in the choice of host — or, for this year, hosts — in Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin. Martin has hosted before, and Baldwin has seen a recent resurgence of popularity and exercising of his comedic chops on 30 Rock (an NBC program, you can be sure). Nevertheless, both are more familiar to an older crowd.

Rumors swirling in recent weeks have it that the Academy Board turned down the idea of Borat and Bruno star Sacha Baron Cohen as host of the Awards show, worrying that his brand of humor would somehow bring down the show’s pedigree. Because when you’re having the stars of Twilight and the non-acting-actors Zac Efron and Miley Cyrus present an award, you’re really turning up the talent factor.

For the record, Baron Cohen joins Tina Fey, Steve Carell, Ben Stiller, and Jason Bateman as presenters — all of whom are also potential hosts for future broadcasts.

There are other ways the producers are trying to bring in the audience this year — including an online vote to choose a designer for the outfit worn by the Award Escort — and these tactics only go on to prove that the Academy is now less concerned about actually honoring the best in the industry than they are about scoring ratings for the broadcast. Here’s hoping they don’t repeat the Round Robin of Super Compliments which plagued last year’s awards (five people to TALK about a performance without SHOWING us why Penelope Cruz deserved to win, or Heath Ledger, etc. This is a VISUAL MEDIUM!!!!!) Seriously. It took about 4 minutes to present each acting category, and there was nary a clip to show us why.…

But I digress.

On to the predictions!

You can get a full look at the nominees here. I will only cover a few select categories below, in the interest of space and time. Feel free to chat back below and tell me who you think should win. I want a full briefing on your reasons.

1. Best Actor: Jeff Bridges.

• Jeff Bridges in “Crazy Heart”
• George Clooney in “Up in the Air”
• Colin Firth in “A Single Man”
• Morgan Freeman in “Invictus”
• Jeremy Renner in “The Hurt Locker”

Dark Horse: Jeremy Renner — An adrenaline junkie who diffuses bombs in Iraq, tuned perfectly to the material and setting, one with his environment.

2. Best Actress: Sandra Bullock

• Sandra Bullock in “The Blind Side”
• Helen Mirren in “The Last Station”
• Carey Mulligan in “An Education”
• Gabourey Sidibe in “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• Meryl Streep in “Julie & Julia”

Dark Horse: Helen Mirren — up against two rookies and Meryl Streep, who now gets a nomination because she woke up in the morning, Mirren has the strongest shot against the inexplicable front-runner that is Sandra Bullock.

(**Note that I won’t go into the supporting categories. If Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique do not win — for Inglourious Basterds and Precious, respectively — then I will eat my boots.**)

3. Best Animated Feature: UP. Up actually has a strong chance of winning best picture, but enough Academy members will still vote for it here. Secret of the Kells is the nominee out of nowhere, here, a little film that has yet to be released wide in the U.S.A. You can find the trailer here.

• “Coraline” Henry Selick
• “Fantastic Mr. Fox” Wes Anderson
• “The Princess and the Frog” John Musker and Ron Clements
• “The Secret of Kells” Tomm Moore
• “Up” Pete Docter

Dark Horse: Fantastic Mr. Fox. As amazing as Coraline looked, the throwback style of Wes Anderson’s Fox is enough to impress even the most adamant Pixar fan.

4. Cinematography: Though Inglourious Basterds featured some of the best camera work in recent memory, Avatar’s pioneering new 3D technology and dedication to world creation gives it the advantage here.

• “Avatar” Mauro Fiore
• “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” Bruno Delbonnel
• “The Hurt Locker” Barry Ackroyd
• “Inglourious Basterds” Robert Richardson
• “The White Ribbon” Christian Berger

Dark Horse: Inglourious Basterds. Because there’s never a Tarantino film that fails to show you something unique.

5. Best Director: Bigelow all the way. She has the momentum, the DGA award, and The Hurt Locker is a strong film because of its’ direction more than anything else. Cameron certainly proves that dedication can make anything beautiful, but it’s not enough in a year where Bigelow can become the first woman to receive this Oscar. Standing ovations abound.

• “Avatar” James Cameron
• “The Hurt Locker” Kathryn Bigelow
• “Inglourious Basterds” Quentin Tarantino
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire” Lee Daniels
• “Up in the Air” Jason Reitman

Dark Horse: Tarantino. In a weird way, voters might cancel each other out in the duel between Cameron and Bigelow. Tarantino could emerge the deserving victor.

6. Best Picture: The Hurt Locker. It currently has the momentum, and voters may feel that Avatar’s technical achievements greatly outweigh any overall story or feeling in Cameron’s opus.

• “Avatar”
• “The Blind Side”
• “District 9”
• “An Education”
• “The Hurt Locker”
• “Inglourious Basterds”
• “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire”
• “A Serious Man”
• “Up”
• “Up in the Air”

Dark Horse: Up. Seriously. Precious is too bleak and lost steam in the recent campaigns. Up in the Air is highly regarded, yet is recognized as a manufactured film (made for awards), A Serious Man is a nod to the respected Coen Bros., An Education is similar to Up in the Air in its’ intentions, District 9 remains a genre pick, though its’ presence here is definitely worth something, and I’m still under the belief that The Blind Side is the result of a huge practical joke. Inglourious Basterds re-wrote WWII history, and, though it’s Tarantino’s best since Pulp Fiction, it hasn’t got the regard that Hurt Locker does. Up, being only the second animated film nominated for Best Picture in history (first was Beauty and the Beast) is very well-respected, very entertaining, and people most remember the first ten minutes as pure genius storytelling in pictures — no dialogue needed!

Enjoy the show, and until next time,

You are dismissed!

Sgt. Angle

Sgt. Angle reporting for duty!

Welcome back from a glorious three-day tribute to MLK, Jr. Hope you’re rested and free from all that holds you down. Me, I’ve got a bone to pick with the Hollywood Foreign Press.

Anyone living under a rock may not be aware, but I expect the rest of you to be with me on this. The Golden Globe Awards played out live on the flopping fish known as the NBC network, and all was well until the end disaster, the hat trick of bizarre choices to carry home the shiny orb: Sandra Bullock for Best Actress Drama (The Blind Side), James Cameron as Best Director and for Best Picture (Avatar).

Now, Sandra Bullock is a fine lady, and in The Blind Side she shows off a bit more emotion than in her typical romcoms — but that’s because she’s starring in a picture that belongs on the Hallmark channel. But Carey Mulligan held more than just a smile and a coupla tears in An Education, more than enough to clean the floor with the Bullock of today or the Bullock of Demolition Man days.

Likewise, James Cameron more than executed his masterpiece, he delivered a pleasurable reel of unmatched visual grace from any such film this year or of the last decade. That being said, the story was choppy, some fight scenes were predictable, and there wasn’t much in the way of character growth or development. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association is known for running their own awards show for ratings and star-studded evenings, rather than true accolades. But sometimes you need to learn to draw the line between “chasing ratings” and “artistic integrity.” This is a line which the HFPA failed to even indulge on Sunday night.

As far as complete and utter film execution in the year 2009, here are the best choices for Directing in 2009, some nominated the other night, others just below any “common moviegoers’” radar:

Kathryn Bigelow — The Hurt Locker. What this film lacks in arcs and A — Z storytelling, it makes up for in spades with the tension and editing of the bomb diffusion scenes. Cap on that the harsh performance of Jeremy Renner, and you’ve got a technical achievement to match wits with the best of earth, or Pandora.

Duncan Jones — Moon. A budget of $5 Million and a lunar landscape second only to our Moon itself, Duncan Jones’s feature debut features the best performance you won’t read about last year: Sam Rockwell. And yes, Duncan is David Bowie’s son.

Quentin Tarentino — Inglourious Basterds. War meets spaghetti Western meets the pop-culture infusion of Tarentino’s mind. No one can handle scene structure and the suspense of a long take like him, and it doesn’t hurt that he writes his own material, too.

The Coen Brothers — A Serious Man. Seriously, the Coens pull no punches in their bizarre slice-of-life story of a MidWest professor in the late-60s whose life unravels when his wife has an affair. Dark comedy ensues. A little lighter material for the Coens since No Country for Old Men (not counting the quirky Burn After Reading, of course).

Wes Anderson — The Fantastic Mr. Fox. Stop motion animation done the way it hasn’t been done for sixty years, Anderson takes his sophisticated style to the world of Roald Dahl’s classic children’s story. He apparently took his voice actors out on location (out in the forest, in a sewer) to record their dialogue, which added to the sudden reality to talking animals.

Spike Jonze — Where the Wild Things Are. Overall a bit underwhelming, Jonze’s dedication to the source material and the hopefulness penetrating each scene should be enough to invoke that frog in the back of your throat feeling in any parent, or child. Plus the monsters are all invited to my next mission, wherein I invade another country to build forts out of trees, and a command post for future Angle Operations.

Soon we review the year’s writing accolades, wherein I breakdown the travesty that is the WGA (Writers Guild of America) and their omission of Inglourious Basterds from this year’s nominations (place taken by Avatar. Explain, good sirs).

Signing off.

Sgt. Angle