Token Oscar Picks

After failing horribly at my Razzie Picks last night, I feel a little more confident going into the Oscars, especially since I've actually seen some of these flicks.

So here are my picks for some of the big 83rd Academy Awards categories:

Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published

• Danny Boyle & Simon Beaufoy, 127 Hours
• Aaron Sorkin, The Social Network
• Michael Arndt, John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton & Lee Unkrich, Toy Story 3
• Joel & Ethan Coen, True Grit
• Debra Granik & Anne Rosellini, Winter's Bone

Token Pick: Aaron Sorkin.  Does anyone really think Sorkin won't be walking off with an Oscar tonight?  His script was typical of his style, but fantastically brilliant.

Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen

• Mike Leigh, Another Year
• Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson & Keith Dorrington, The Fighter
• Christopher Nolan, Inception
• Lisa Cholodenko & Stuart Blumberg, The Kids Are All Right
• David Seidler, The King's Speech

Token Pick: The King's Speech.  While Nolan's Inception was mind blowingly frightening, Seidler's story of the King who wasn't suppose to be, overcoming his horrible stutter, was the kind of thing Oscar loves.

Best Achievement in Directing

• Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan
• Joel & Ethan Coen for True Grit
• David Fincher for The Social Network
• Tom Hooper for The King's Speech
• David O. Russell for The Fighter

Token Pick: David Fincher.  Now, keep a close eye on this, because usually whoever wins Best Director means that movie will win Best Picture, but we could see a first tonight.  I say Fincher's ability to use smooth camera moves to make hooded sweatshirts look cool with Aaron Sorkin's words beats out Hooper's royal King's Speech.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role

• Amy Adams for The Fighter
• Helana Bonham Carter for The King's Speech
• Melissa Leo for The Fighter
• Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit
• Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom

Token Pick: Melissa Leo.  All signs seem to indicate this will be only one of The Fighter's big awards.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role

• Christian Bale for The Fighter
• John Hawkes for Winter's Bone
• Jeremy Renner for The Town
• Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are All Right
• Geoffrey Rush for The King's Speech

Token Pick: Christian Bale.  And this will be the other award for the Fighter, most likely barely beating out Geoffrey Rush's brilliance.

Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role

• Annette Bening for The Kids Are All Right
• Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole
• Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone
• Natalie Portman for Black Swan
• Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine

Token Pick: Natalie Portman.  After collecting the Independent Spirit Award last night, she has a bunch of trophies on her mantle for the title role.  Looks like Oscar will be joining them.

Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role

• Javier Bardem for Biutiful
• Jeff Bridges for True Grit
• Jessee Eisenberg for The Social Network
• Colin Firth for The King's Speech
• James Franco for 127 Hours

Token Pick: Colin Firth.  Firth's turn as the Royal Monarch was mesmerizing, and will earn him his first Oscar of his already storied acting career.

Best Motion Picture of the Year

• 127 Hours
• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids Are All RIght
• The King's Speech
• The Social Network
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit
• Winter's Bone

Token Pick: The King's Speech.  While The Social Network grabbed all the early critics awards, The King's Speech has won the awards that matter when picking a winner for the Academy.  In other words, in other award shows where members of the Academy are also voting members, The King's Speech wins.  So this year, for what may be the first time, we'll have a different movie winning Best Picture and Best Director.

Check out all the nominees here, and don't forget to watch on ABC. 

Token Razzie Picks

Tonight is the Razzie Awards, where the worst movies in Hollywood are celebrated the night before the Oscars celebrate the best movies in Hollywood. Started back in 1980, the Razzies have been handing out The Golden Raspberry Award to "winners" that include Sandra Bullok.

This year's nominees include, yet again, some of the biggest money-makers (Twighlight Saga: Eclipse) and stars (Jennifer Aniston, Miley Cyrus, Jessica Alba, Jack Black) in this year's Hollywood "films."

Let's take a look at who The Spinoff thinks will take home some of those Golden Raspberries. And let's keep in mind that The Spinoff only watches good movies, so we don't watch these crappy pieces of so-called cinema.

Worst Prequal, Remake, Rip-Off, or Sequal

• Clash of The Tians
• The Last Airbender
• Sex & The City 2
• Twilight Saga: Eclipse
• Vampires Suck

Token Pick: Twilight Saga: Eclipse. The Razzies love to nominate the Twilight movies. 'Bout time it takes one home.

Worst Screen Couple/Worst Screen Ensemble

• Jennifer Aniston & Gerard Butler, The Bounty Hunter
• Josh Brolin's Face & Megan Fox's Accent, Jonah Hex
• The Entire Cast, The Last Airbender
• The Entire Cast, Sex & The City 2
• The Entire Cast, Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Token Pick: Josh Brolin's Face & Megan Fox's Accent. Brolin's face alone was freakin' horrible.

Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3-D

• Cats & Dogs 2: Revenge of Kitty Galore
• Clash of the Titans
• The Last Airbender
• Nutcracker 3-D
• Saw 3-D (aka Saw VII)

Token Pick: Nutcracker 3-D. From everything I read from the Boston Globe review of Nutcracker 3-D, not only was the 3-D horrendously bad (as any post-conversion will be), but the movie took away the heart and sole of the story: the music.

Worst Actress

• Jennifer Aniston, The Bounty Hunter & The Switch
• Miley Cyrus, The Last Song
• The Four "Gal Pals," Sex & The City 2
• Megan Fox, Jonah Hex
• Kristen Stewart, Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Token Pick: Miley Cyrus. I don't know how she's been able to stay a star in the first place.

Worst Actor

• Jack Black, Gulliver's Travels
• Gerard Butler, The Bounty Hunter
• Ashton Kutcher, Killers & Valentine's Day
• Taylor Lautner, Twilight Saga: Eclipse & Valentine's Day
• Robert Pattinson, Remember Me & Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Token Pick: Taylor Lautner. Any actor who never puts his shirt on in a movie deserves to be labeled the worst.

Worst Picture

• The Bounty Hunter
• The Last Airbender
• Sex & The City 2
• Twilight Saga: Eclipse
• Vampires Suck

Token Pick: Vampires Suck. Of all the films nominated, this one recieved the lowest score from RottenTomatoes.com. Give it the Golden Razzie.

Check out all the nominees for the Razzies here.

Real Life Mario Kart

Say no more. This is awesomeness in a two minute vidoe format. The banana peels, the supermarket run, the fat security guard chasing after this guy...it has it all. It makes me wanna play Mario Kart. Now.

Is This Song Catchy?

It seems to be catching on the United States. 22-year-old British Rapper Tinie Tempah and singer Eric Turner collaborated on the track "Written in the Stars". It's already gone #1 in England, and it's making waves in America now. I can't decide how I feel about this track. It kind of reminds me a passionate, meaningful song that B.O.B would come out with, so it must the British accent on Tinie that's eating at me. Is it wrong that his dialect spoils what could be a legendary track. I mean, the song is the new theme for Wrestlemania (need I say more). That means there's something epic about this song, I'm just not sure what it is. Listen for yourself:

Bieber Gets Big Boos

There you have it...not everyone is obsessed with Justin Bieber. This time, at Madison Square Garden during a recent Knicks game, Bieber's mug on the jumbotron elicited more boo's than cheers. I guess there weren't too many 14 year old girls at the Knicks game.

Lots of Zuckerberg on One Screen

Here's the best clip from "Saturday Night Live" with a whole lot of Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg featured for one television. There was the NSL Zuckerberg (Andy Samberg), the movie Zuckerberg (Jesse Eisienberg), and the actual Zuckerberg...who can't act for s$$&.