The End is Nine, er, Nigh for 09 #8

Heath Ledger wins Best Supporting Actor Oscar for "The Dark Knight

Talk about heart-wrenching. Now it would seem as much of a fan of this movie I am, this would be placed higher on this list. The truth of the matter, is that we all saw it coming. I mean, from the his introductory scene, we knew Ledger would make this movie, and his role is now legendary. In addition to being the second person to win an acting Oscar posthumously, it is also the first acting Oscar for a "genre" movie.

And the fact of the matter is, it was his award to lose. I felt almost bad for the rest of the nominees, they knew they weren't walking away with their gold naked man that night. I remember where I was that night and will never forget his father's speech.

RIP Heath. You were a man of your word.

I was up early this morning...

...just to be sure I didn't over sleep to see the Oscar noms, and I have to say I am fairly disappointed with the Academy right now. Let's be honest. People are going to remember 'The Dark Knight' twenty years down the road, while those other movies up for the Best Picture will be lucky to be late night re-runs on TBS.

Oh, well. Oscar will take the digger for this in the form of ratings. whatever.

So here's the breakdown, to keep it official:

Best Supporting Actor (Heath Ledger)
Art Direction
Cinematography
Film Editing
Makeup
Sound Editing
Sound Mixing
Visual Effects

"Nominated for 8 Academy Awards" still has a nice ring to it, but...

Wall-E got a best Screenplay nom? REALLY?!? I fell asleep through that movie. Twice.

I mean Nolan and TDK gets nominated by the DGA and PGA and STILL gets shut out? They're practically the same voters. Congrats to Downey, jr. though. First nomination is almost two decades.

The supporting actress category was damn predictable. I could have called that in my sleep, but I didn't have to since I was right on all of them. The surprise is that The Reader - which got some awful reviews, even for Winslet's acting - was the fifth nominee. But these are all, with the exception of Slumdog Millionaire, standard Oscar films: two biopics, a Holocaust-related films and the sort of star-studded socially aware film Hollywood loves to thank itself for making (if also a fantasy).

I hope Slumdog wins, just because it's from outside the system. But I haven't seen any of these, and odds are I won't for a long time, if ever. It makes me wish there was some good TV shows out there.

The Joker stole my money!!!

Okay, he didn't REALLY steal my money, but from the way things are looking, I'll be gladly giving all I have for everything related to The Dark Knight. I honestly don't think I have ever been excited for ANYTHING (Christmas of '87 INCLUDED) like I have been for this movie.

Seriously...is it July yet?