I have a feeling Kafka was good at table tennis.- Crowther

My favourite time of year has now arrived. Awards season! This Sunday, the biggest and most important awards show will air with one of the funniest guys on the planet as host. This years host for the Academy Awards is Billy Crystal. I am so happy that he is back as host. The big category for me this year is the Best Acotr category. Personally, I don't know who will win this year. Usually I can detect who will win but this year is a bit more difficult. The Academy is very, very, VERY political and several of the actors this year have been vocal of thier dislike of Hollywood and war. Bill Murray is very much against Hollywood. Ben Kingsley is against war. Johnny Depp is both against war and Hollywood, as is Sean Penn. As you can see, we are left with Jude Law. I have a lot of repsect for him, but if you admit in a press conference that Sean Penn's performance "dwarfed" yours, that's not a good sign. You are supposed to boost your image and no one else's. That's just the Hollywood way. Now, let's go through a rundown of the actors nominated and their performances:

Bill Murray: He was amazing in "Lost In Translation". That was an awesome movie. I thougth that it was one of his best performances we have ever seen. I don't want him to win though.

Ben Kingsley: I didn't see his movie "House of Sand and Fog" because I heard that it was really boring. Personally, I think that he is a really good actor. I can't really judge here.

Jude Law: I didn't see "Cold Mountain" either. Not because I didn't have the time, but because my brother say it and said that it was crap. Also, I would have gone crazy if I had to listen to Renee with that annoying accent throughout an entire movie.

Johnny Depp: I love Johnny. I think that he is one of the best actors out there in all honesty. I loved him in "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl". I loved his character. I loved his costume. I loved everything about him. He was fun. I think that it would be great to work with him. Will he win? I don't think so. The Academy has never been partial to comedies. They like their tragedies more than the Greeks did. I am glad that he is being recognized now though.

Sean Penn: I loved "Mystic River". I was one of the best films I have ever seen. I rarely cry in a movie theatre, but in the first 20 minutes, I was holding back tears. It was such a subtle performance and I am so glad that everyone has been jumping on the "We Love Sean Penn" bandwagon. He is one of the most underrated actors out there and I hope that the Academy recognizes his work. I hope that he wins and if he doesn't, then I will just have to blame it on politics.

I know that I will probably get a lot of flack for this, but I must comment that in a perfect world, Lord of the Rings wouldn't win best picture (although we already know it will) and Peter Jackson wouldn't win best director (he will though). In a perfect world the winners would be Mystic River and Clint Eastwood, respectively.

Have fun watching the Oscars this year!

C