William Hurt my butt (...that sounds bad...)

Ok, so the Oscar nominations were announced this morning and, thanks to my proximity to work, I was able to catch them before going out this morning.

I wasn't too surprised by the names read. I have seen only about half of the movies involved, but I had heard enough about the rest that I understood most of the selections.

Except one.

William Hurt for Best Supporting Actor in "A History of Violence"?!

Are you on crack?!

If you haven't seen the movie, well, part of the movie will be blown for you simply by knowing Hurt is in it, and I'm about to blow the rest for you.

So let me get this straight: a guy shows up at the end of a movie for about 5 minutes (I'd be shocked if it were 10), puts on the hokiest gangster accent, barely expresses an emotion, and gets nominated for an Academy Award over thousands of other potential candidates?

Get outta here!

I'm sorry, that's bullshit. If you've seen the movie (which actually ain't bad) then you know what I'm talking about.

Let's say that you didn't mind Hurt's performance. That you didn't think it was the worst of his career. Let's say you actually believe his accent was spot on. Do you really think it was one of the top 5 performances of the year?!

This is insulting not only to the audience, but to Hurt himself. I mean, The guy's gotta know that this was not one of his best, and yet they choose this one to recognize. If he wins, it'll be ten times worse than having Denzel win Best Actor for "Training Day", which didn't even have the benefit of being a good movie. Just like Washington, Hurt has put in a number of great, overlooked performances over the years, but that's no reason to give him this nom - this is not the lifetime achievement award.

Geez. If they were going to nominate someone from AHoV for supporting actor, it should have been Ed Harris.

There. I've said my piece.

Other than that...I was kinda disappointed to see Walk the Line get overlooked for Best Picture. (I heard Crash was crap, and the description certainly sounds melodramatic)

And as much as I liked Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman is terrific) Catherine Keener as Best Supporting? Again, little expression/range. This is not a "great" performance.

I really want to see Good Night and Good Luck. I'm a David Strathairn fan and it's nice to see him get a nomination.

I'll tell ya later if I thought he deserved it...


"I don't deserve this award, but I have arthritis and I don't deserve that either."
-Jack Benny