Oscar Nom Nom Noms

If you didn’t know, the 2012 Oscar nominations were announced this morning. Of course, thanks to the Golden Globes, none of the nominees shocked us – except maybe Jonah Hill (who apparently became a serious actor after he transformed). However, as much as we enjoyed the Golden Globes (wait – did we even watch?), we all know that the Academy Awards are well above every other awards show out there. They help us moronic 20-somethings realize that there are movies out there other than “The Hangover” and “Bridesmaids” (oh wait – that was nominated). Every year, I sit down with a hun-cal bag of popcorn and my computer (so I can live tweet the event, duh) and watch as the Academy informs me on what I should have been watching this past year, instead of the endless repeats of the Kardashians that I wasted my time on.

To be honest, I never have an idea of what half the nominated movies are. And I rarely have an interest in watching a good chunk of them. I mean who has the time to watch a bunch of movies (other than the Academy)? However, when the Academy announces the best movie of the year, I always feel like I have to watch it in order to feel smart and be able to engage in conversation with others. In 2009, I was in Los Angeles during awards season, interning at the entertainment news show, Entertainment Tonight. I was surrounded by awards show information and knew everything about the nominees. I saw the best movie of that year, “Slumdog Millionaire,” prior to the Oscars and legit rooted for it during the Oscars (yes – just like I will root for the Pats in the Superbowl). After Slumdog won, I saw it two more times. However, I never watched any of the other nominated movies, even though I had heard they were all fantastic films. This is mostly because I didn’t have the time. Watching a movie is a commitment.

To this day, I still believe that 2008/2009 was just a great year of movies. This year (and last year) there haven’t been many movies I’ve been willing to dish out $10/15 to see and waste a night that I could be drinking or catching up on sleep. One movie I saw this year was Bridesmaids… and never once did I think the movie would score any Oscar noms… but it did. There have been other movies I’ve wanted to see, like Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, but I base my decision on reviews – and as soon as I hear that a movie got a bad review, I have no interest in wasting my time, money, and calories (movie popcorn kills) on it (Sandy B’s depressing new flick apparently got bad reviews).

Part of me is excited that Melissa McCarthy got nominated for shitting in a sink and that the cast members of “Superbad” are now serious actors… but the other part of me is sad that there were no other classic films for them to choose from. The following are the nominees for Best Picture:

“The Artist” Thomas Langmann, Producer

“The Descendants” Jim Burke, Alexander Payne and Jim Taylor, Producers

“Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” Scott Rudin, Producer

“The Help” Brunson Green, Chris Columbus and Michael Barnathan, Producers

“Hugo” Graham King and Martin Scorsese, Producers

“Midnight in Paris” Letty Aronson and Stephen Tenenbaum, Producers

“Moneyball” Michael De Luca, Rachael Horovitz and Brad Pitt, Producers

“The Tree of Life” Nominees to be determined

“War Horse” Steven Spielberg and Kathleen Kennedy, Producers

“The Descendants” won best picture at the Globes, so we know it has a good chance of winning the big Oscar… however the Academy is a little more prestigious. “The King’s Speech” took home the big win last year… leading us to believe that another foreign film may take the cake this year (such as “The Artist”). And I don’t know if I can really compare “Moneyball” and “The Help” to “The Artist.” Either these foreign films are actually really good… OR America just sucks at making movies now (I think that could go either way). I have to admit, though. I haven’t seen any of the nominated movies. “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” got horrible reviews.” “Hugo” I don’t know much about. “War Horse” I heard was good, but if it was going to win big, I think it would have won at the Globes too. Oh, and I have no idea what “Midnight in Paris” and “The Tree of Life” are. Well, I know The Tree of Life is in Orlando, FL…

Regardless of any of this, I am excited for the red carpet. And the Fashion Police episode that will air the next day.

Oh, and thank god Billy Crystal is hosting. James Franco and Anne Hathaway were quite possibly the worst and most awkward hosts ever. Ever.

What are your thoughts about this year’s Oscar noms? Who do you want to win and for what? Check out the list of nominations here!