Movies, Movies, Movies!!

Well, Oscar season is in full swing at the Lindell house. We are avid movie-goers and each year we try to see as many Oscar nominated movies as we can (prior to the big day!). I will admit, it sometimes gets a little frustrating considering the HUGE number of "limited release" movies that are nominated. Some are only in theatres in NYC/LA while others are released on DVD after the Oscars air. So, we have our fair share of searching for those little artsy theaters around the Buffalo area in order to complete our quest. This year, we've been pleasantly surprised at the availability of the nominated movies. Here is our list (as of today) that we've seen:

Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Sweeney Todd
Eastern Promises
Away From Her
La Vie en Rose
The Savages
Ratatouille
Surf's Up
Charlie Wilson's War
Into the Wild
I'm Not There
American Gangster
Lars and the Real Girl
Across the Universe
Pirate's of the Caribbean: At World's End
The Bourne Ultimatum


Ok, so I admit, there are a couple of older ones that we saw last spring/summer but most of them have been seen over the past 2 months. We do get a good head's start after the Golden Globe nominations come out since a lot of those cross over into the Oscars. It's a fun endeavor each year because we have a lot of time on our hands and love the weekday afternoon empty theaters. Also, it's great because there are several movies each year that we see because of their nomination that we probably would've just skipped by on the title alone. You definitely get away from the usual "blockbuster" types...sort of like our own "book club" but with movies. Maybe we should start having a pow-wow in a coffee house at the conclusion of each film. :-)

We have a few more to see:

In the Valley of Elah
Assassination of Jesse James
Gone Baby Gone
The Golden Compass
Elizabeth
The Kite Runner
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers

Other than that, we need to hear the nominated songs (will probably just listen to them instead of watching the movie) and there are 2 documentary features that are available on DVD:

Sicko
No End in Sight

Unfortunately, the Foreign Language Film, Short Film-animated, Short Film-live and Documentary-short aren't available for us lay-people to see. Oh well, those are what make our contest (to see who picks the most winners) more fun as neither of us have a clue who should win in those categories...it's a blind pick.

Well, that's about it for my movie post. I've gone on long enough. Hopefully there are other movie lovers out there who can read this and not think I'm crazy...Now I just have to hope this writer's strike ends soon so the Oscars will go on!!