Armchair Commentary

MTV Movie Award Nominations Announced

MTV Movie Award nominees were announced today. The pool of finalists were selected by MTV, with the final nominations coming from fan votes. How that translated to Kate Winslet (for The Reader) going up against Anne Hathaway--not for Rachel Getting Married, but for Bride Wars(!)--vs. Kristen Stewart in Twilight (one guess who's gonna win that one, people) is beyond me, but here are the nominees. The show airs live on May 31.

BEST MOVIE
The Dark Knight
High School Musical 3: Senior Year
Iron Man
Slumdog Millionaire
Twilight

BEST FEMALE PERFORMANCE
Angelina Jolie, Wanted
Anne Hathaway, Bride Wars
Kate Winslet, The Reader
Kristen Stewart, Twilight
Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

BEST MALE PERFORMANCE
Christian Bale, The Dark Knight
Robert Downey Jr., Iron Man
Shia LaBeouf, Eagle Eye
Vin Diesel, Fast & Furious
Zac Efron, High School Musical 3: Senior Year

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE, FEMALE
Amanda Seyfried, Mamma Mia!
Ashley Tisdale, High School Musical 3: Senior Year
Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire
Kat Dennings, Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist
Miley Cyrus, Hannah Montana: The Movie
Vanessa Hudgens, High School Musical 3: Senior Year

BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE, MALE
Ben Barnes, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Bobb'e J. Thompson, Role Models
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
Robert Pattinson, Twilight
Taylor Lautner, Twilight

BEST COMEDIC PERFORMANCE
Amy Poehler, Baby Mama
Anna Faris, The House Bunny
James Franco, Pineapple Express
Jim Carrey, Yes Man
Steve Carell, Get Smart

BEST VILLAIN
Derek Mears, Friday the 13th
Dwayne Johnson, Get Smart
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Johnathon Schaech, Prom Night
Luke Goss, Hellboy II: The Golden Army

BEST KISS
Angelina Jolie and James McAvoy, Wanted
Frieda Pinto and Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
James Franco and Sean Penn, Milk
Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson, Twilight
Paul Rudd and Thomas Lennon, I Love You, Man
Vanessa Hudgens and Zac Efron, High School Musical 3: Senior Year

BEST FIGHT
Bridal cat fight (Anne Hathaway vs. Kate Hudson), Bride Wars
Battle over Gotham (Christian Bale vs. Heath Ledger), The Dark Knight
Vampire showdown (Robert Pattinson vs. Cam Gigandet), Twilight
Battle in Hell (Ron Perlman vs. Luke Goss), Hellboy II: The Golden Army
Three-way stoner fight (Seth Rogen and James Franco vs. Danny McBride), Pineapple Express

BEST WTF MOMENT
Peeing in the sink (Amy Poehler), Baby Mama
Curved bullet kill (Angelina Jolie), Wanted
Jumping in the poop shed (Ayush Mahesh Khedekar), Slumdog Millionaire
Tasting decapitated head (Ben Stiller), Tropic Thunder
Naked break up (Jason Segel and Kristen Bell), Forgetting Sarah Marshall

BEST SONG FROM A MOVIE
"Jai Ho," from Slumdog Millionaire
"The Wrestler," from The Wrestler
"The Climb," from Hannah Montana: The Movie
"Decode," from Twilight

--Ellen

SAG Award Winners Make Oscars More (and Less) Predictable

The Screen Actors Guild Awards have brought us one step closer to the Oscars; and has muddied the race even further. One thing's for sure: That Slumdog Millionaire is chugging along just fine. I'm a little surprised it took the best acting ensemble award, particularly since it had just one acting nominee (Dev Patel), vs. double nods for the actors in Milk and Benjamin Button. But alongside its Producers Guild win, Slumdog looks like the odds-on favorite.

Less clear is what on earth is going to happen with the Best Actress race. Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road) lost to Meryl Streep (Doubt) this round, but Winslet won Supporting Actress for The Reader, which is the role for which she's nominated for Best Actress against Streep at the Oscars. So basically, Streep's win tells us that she would win a Winslet-less Oscar race in this category. But with Winslet in, and sentimental sway going her way (she's had two Oscar-worthy roles in the same year, and has a 0-for-6 batting average), it will be a tough race. Even Anne Hathaway is still in there somewhere.

The Best Actor race also tightens up; while Mickey Rourke took the Golden Globe, Sean Penn took the Actor. Am already getting a headache over my upcoming Oscar pool.

On the TV end... yawn. John Adams, as usual, swept in the TV miniseries and actor/actress categories; 30 Rock is turning into the new Frasier (the casts of the other shows must be wondering why they should bother showing up, since it cleaned up in all its categories), but the drama side brought first SAGs for Sally Field and Mad Men (ensemble). Hugh Laurie won a second consecutive award for House, and with it, another witty speech; I was sorta hoping for Mad Men's Jon Hamm to take the prize, just so he might maybe explain what was going on with his hair tonight.

Best quote of the evening: "I didn't even buy a dress!" -- a surprised, black-slacked Meryl Streep

Here's a complete list of winners:

FILM

Cast in a Motion Picture: Slumdog Millionaire

Male Actor in a Leading Role: Sean Penn, Milk

Female Actor in a Leading Role: Meryl Streep, Doubt

Male Actor in a Supporting Role: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight

Female Actor in a Supporting Role: Kate Winslet, The Reader

Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture: The Dark Knight

TELEVISION

Ensemble in a Drama Series: Mad Men

Ensemble in a Comedy Series: 30 Rock

Male Actor in a Drama Series: Hugh Laurie, House

Female Actor in a Drama Series: Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters

Male Actor in a Comedy Series: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock

Female Actor in a Comedy Series: Tina Fey, 30 Rock

Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries: Paul Giamatti, John Adams

Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries: Laura Linney, John Adams

Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series: Heroes

Life Achievement Award: James Earl Jones

--Ellen

Critics' Choice Awards: A "Slumdog" Fest

If the Oscars are the main course, the SAG Awards the salad and the Golden Globes the drinks and appetizer, the Critics' Choice Awards are like the bread basket. If you're hungry for something it's find to nibble on, but once the rest of the courses come in you're most likely to forget its existence.

Still, with the Globes three days away, I'm hungry, so I watched. Some highlights:

• Because of Slumdog Millionaire's multiple wins, we got to hear that really catchy dance number "Jaiho" a total of five times.
• I was amused by the addition of the "house band" Rooney (fronted by Robert Schwartzman, son of Talia Shire, brother of Jason, nephew of Coppola), who got to translate A-Ha's "Take on Me" into walk-on music for Amy Adams and the "Rocky" theme for Dustin Hoffman. Wonder if the stars got to suggest their own cues?
• I got slightly teared up when the room, filled to the brim with A-listers, stood up for Heath Ledger when he posthumously won Best Supporting Actor for The Dark Knight, with his black-and-white mug filling the screens.
• What a dismay that Kate Winslet, always the bridesmaid, finally won an award (Best Supporting Actress for The Reader) but was not there to accept. If she loses all the other awards this season we'll have been deprived of seeing her finally give an acceptance speech.
• In a surprise, Meryl Streep (Doubt, who was not present) and Anne Hathaway (Rachel Getting Married) tied for Best Actress.  Hathaway, who exclaimed, "I know how to not be nominated for awards!" In what may or may not have been a reference to her tumultuous personal year, she tearfully thanked her dad "for showing me that there are good men in this world."
• Sean Penn was nowhere to be found during the first award (Best Ensemble) which went to his film Milk. ("He's parking the car," joked his co-stars Emile Hirsch and Josh Brolin, who were on hand to accept) He was, however, there at the end to accept Best Actor. "At heart, this was a beauty contest so I had an advantage," he said to his fellow nominees, who included Brad Pitt, Clint Eastwood, Mickey Rourke, and Richard Jenkins.

Here's the complete list of winners:
Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Actor: Sean Penn, Milk
Best Actress: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married and Meryl Streep, Doubt (tie)
Best Supporting Actor: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, The Reader
Best Acting Ensemble: Milk
Best Writer: Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Documentary Feature: Man on Wire
Best Foreign Language Film: Waltz With Bashir
Best Young Actor/Actress: Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Animated Feature: Wall-E
Best Comedy Movie: Tropic Thunder
Best Action Movie: The Dark Knight
Best Score: A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Best Song: "The Wrestler," Bruce Springsteen, The Wrestler
Best Picture Made for Television: John Adams

--Ellen

 

2008 Hall of Fame/Shame in Movies & TV

Best Two-Fers
Kristin Scott Thomas (Tell No One, I've Loved You So Long)
Josh Brolin (Milk, W.)
James Franco (Milk, Pineapple Express)
Anne Hathaway (Get Smart, Rachel Getting Married)
Kate Winslet (The Reader, Revolutionary Road)
Robert Downey Jr. (Iron Man, Tropic Thunder)

Best Comeback No One Saw Coming
Mickey Rourke (The Wrestler)
Tom Cruise (Tropic Thunder)

Title That Sounds Most Like a Low Budget Erotic Thriller
Body of Lies

Strangest Common Movie Theme
Animated space films (Wall-E, Fly Me to the Moon, Space Chimps)

Busiest Revolving Door in a Series
Grey's Anatomy

Best Showing of a SNL Alum
Tina Fey (30 Rock, Baby Mama, that Sarah Palin impersonation)

Worst Showing of an SNL Alum
Bill Murray (City of Ember)
Eddie Murphy (Meet Dave)
Mike Myers (The Love Guru)
Molly Shannon (Kath & Kim)

Show That's Become Cool to Like
How I Met Your Mother

Worst Unceremonious Canceling
Pushing Daisies

Best Dysfunctional TV Couple to Root For
Chuck and Blair (Ed Westwick and Leighton Meester), Gossip Girl

Most Touching Post-Character-Departure Episode
"For Warrick," CSI: Crime Scene Investigation

Yes, It's Still on TV
According to Jim
The Tyra Banks Show


 

The Best DVDs of 2008: TV

As readers of this blog know by now, Amazon Movies & TV editors recently gathered to vote for our Best of the Year DVDs. Everyone weighed the options, researched the contenders, and looked deep within their hearts to pick the funniest, smartest, and most insightful entertainment of 2008. Then I moved Mad Men to the top anyway. (Jon Hamm can sell me anything.)

Anyhoo, here are my (with lots of input from my friends) top 10 TV DVDs of 2008. But you shouldn’t take our word for it--TV is a populist art form, after all.  Here's what our customers have to say:

1. Mad Men: Season 1 (available on DVD or Blu-ray):
Average customer rating: 4.5 stars
Customer quote: “It would be hard to imagine a more absorbingly intelligent American TV series--in terms of writing, acting, and visuals--than Mad Men... Ostensibly the series is about a group of advertising agency working for Madison Avenue advertising agency, the fictitious Sterling-Cooper, in 1960, during the Nixon-Kennedy presidential contest; yet on a deeper level the show wrestles with much larger questions about the meaning of obsession with having (and marketing) happiness in mid-20th-century America.”  --Jay Dickson



2. The Wire: Season 5 (available on DVD as a single season or in the five-season set)
Average customer rating: 4.5 stars
Customer quote: “All in all, the final season of The Wire further proves the frequently mentioned point of just how unbelievably good this show was, and how much of a shame it is that it never achieved the kind of uber-popularity that it deserved compared to many of HBO's other shows. Either way, longtime fan or late newcomer, there is nearly nothing better than The Wire, even to its bittersweet end.” –N. Durham

3. John Adams (currently available on DVD or pre-orderable on Blu-ray):
Average customer rating: 4.5 stars
Customer quote: “I typically do not enjoy programs about American history, especially from the colonial days. This series goes beyond history, however. It is captivating in its psychological depiction of both John and Abigail Adams as human beings.” –-Not Yet a Lemming

4. The Tudors: Season 1 (available on DVD):
Average customer rating: 4 stars
Customer quote: “Yes, there are inaccuracies, as others have pointed out [on Amazon.com]. This is a dramatization and this is elegant popular entertainment. As an armchair historian, in love with the stories of Henry VIII, I find it absolutely gripping. The acting is for the most part marvelous, and the idea of doing these great personages as compellingly attractive people is a brilliant one.” –Anne Rice

5. 30 Rock: Season 2 (available on DVD):
Average customer rating: 4.5 stars
Customer quote: “Watching 30 Rock during its second season was a completely exhilarating experience. It had in its rookie year quickly established itself as the funniest show on TV, but during its sophomore campaign the writing and acting got sharper and sharper with each episode. Next to Arrested Development, I honestly believe that this is the funniest American comedy series ever.” –Robert Moore

6. The Office: Season 4 (available on DVD as a single season or in a four-season set)
Average customer rating: 4 stars
Customer quote: ”If the writers’ strike had not cut [this] season in half then I'm sure it would have ranked up there with Season 2 and 3. Season 4 offered the usual story of the complex relationship between Jim and Pam and also the odd and disturbing at times relationship between Michael and Jan.” –-Jason Orzello

7. Dexter: Season 2 (available on DVD)
Average customer rating: 4.5 stars
Customer quote: “I didn't think the second season of Dexter could even come close to to the brilliance of the first season, but I was wrong. Instead of the Ice Truck Killer, Season 2 begins with the Miami P.D. hot on the trail of another mass murderer dubbed as the Bay Harbor Butcher. Dexter (Michael C. Hall) already knows the identity of the killer right off the bat, because it happens to be him.”—Melissa Niksic

8. Battlestar Galactica: Season 3 (available on DVD as a single season or in the three-season set)
Average customer rating: 4.5 stars
Customer quote: “…the modern BSG is fast becoming for me one of THE greatest works of film making art I have ever had the privilege to witness... To be quite honest, the story line of BSG makes Star Wars seem like a cartoon by comparison...” –-S. White

9. It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: Season 3 (available on DVD)
Average customer rating: 4.5 stars
Customer quote: “Tears streaming down my face, fall off the couch, beer through the nose, crude, rude HI-LARITY! If you ain't watching this, get out of your mom’s basement, put down the PlayStation controller and glue your orbs to FX.” –-Carla D. Paschal

 

10. Pushing Daisies: Season 1 (available on DVD or Blu-ray)
Average customer rating: 5 stars
Customer quote: “Alternately funny and whimsical, Pushing Daisies is a visually-distinctive romantic comedy that encompasses a truly winning mix of ingredients.” –The Masked Reviewer

Screen Actors Guild Nominations Announced

Doubt topped other films with five SAG Award nominations, which were announced today. The Meryl Streep-starrer, which is buzzed to be more of an acting contender than a Best Picture one, was joined by Milk and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which each earned three nods.

Clint Eastwood was again shut out for his leading role in Gran Torino, which is further dimming his chances at Oscar. Kate Winslet, on the other hand, is becoming more than likely to be a double Oscar nominee next month, with her leading role in Revolutionary Road and supporting role in The Reader (her Road co-star Leonardo DiCaprio was not nominated in the lead acting category this time around; that slot went to The Visitor's Richard Jenkins, who has reportedly been campaigning hard for Oscar, along with The Wrestler's Mickey Rourke).

Over on the TV side, Mad Men and 30 Rock again dominated the nominees (although at this point, what else is new?). Here is the complete list of nominees:

FILM

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role

• Richard Jenkins, The Visitor
• Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
• Sean Penn, Milk
• Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role

• Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
• Angelina Jolie, Changeling
• Melissa Leo, Frozen River
• Meryl Streep, Doubt
• Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role

• Josh Brolin, Milk
• Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
• Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
• Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role

• Amy Adams, Doubt
• Penélope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
• Viola Davis, Doubt
• Taraji P. Henson, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
• Kate Winslet, The Reader

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture

• Doubt
• Frost/Nixon
• Milk
• Slumdog Millionaire
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

TV

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

• Ralph Fiennes, Bernard and Doris
• Paul Giamatti, John Adams
• Kevin Spacey, Recount
• Kiefer Sutherland, 24: Redemption
• Tom Wilkinson, John Adams

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries

• Laura Dern, Recount
• Laura Linney, John Adams
• Shirley MacLaine, Coco Chanel
• Phylicia Rashad, A Raisin in the Sun
• Susan Sarandon, Bernard and Doris

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series

• Michael C. Hall, Dexter
• Jon Hamm, Mad Men
• Hugh Laurie, House
• William Shatner, Boston Legal
• James Spader, Boston Legal

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series

• Sally Field, Brothers & Sisters
• Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit
• Holly Hunter, Saving Grace
• Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men
• Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series

• Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock
• Steve Carell, The Office
• David Duchovny, Californication
• Jeremy Piven, Entourage
• Tony Shalhoub, Monk

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series

• Christina Applegate, Samantha Who?
• America Ferrera, Ugly Betty
• Tina Fey, 30 Rock
• Mary-Louise Parker, Weeds
• Tracey Ullman, Tracey Ullman's State of the Union

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series

• Boston Legal
• Dexter
• House
• Mad Men
• The Closer

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series

• 30 Rock
• Desperate Housewives
• Entourage
• The Office
• Weeds

Time's Top 10 Movies and TV Series

Time's Top 10 Everything of 2008 includes some interesting choices on their movies and TV lists. The movies, picked by Richard Corliss:

1. Wall-E
2. Synedoche, New York
3. My Winnipeg
4. 4 Months, 3 Weeks & 2 Days
5. Milk
6. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
7. Slumdog Millionaire
8. Iron Man
9. Speed Racer (Speed Racer?)
10. Encounters at the End of the World

Note that among the summer blockbusters and year-end Oscar bait, Corliss does not include The Dark Knight, apparently lumping it among the action movies in his Iron Man slot--"In an excellent year for action films (Wanted, Hellboy II, The Dark Knight and, as you'll soon see, Speed Racer), this was the coolest movie machine."  Then again maybe not, as he does give a separate slot to Speed Racer ("Operating a pitch of delirious precision, the movie is a rich, cartoonish dream: non-stop Op art, and a triumph of virtual virtuosity."). He gave TDK a positive review, so either he likes to be different, or he just wanted the space for something more important (Speed Racer?).

Time's top TV series, picked by James Poniewozik:

1. The Shield
2. Mad Men
3. The Presidential Election
4. Dr. Horrible's Sing-along Blog
5. The Wire
6. Breaking Bad
7. Lost
8. Battlestar Galactica
9. Architecture School
10. Chuck

Note that Dr. Horrible was actually an online show.  Poniewozik explains: "But the best thing to come of [the writers' strike] was this eccentric, tragicomic musical, which--like the strike itself--helped redefine what could be called 'TV.'"  I'm all for it; Dr. Horrible is one of the more entertaining things I've watched this year.  --David

The Best DVDs of 2008: Packaging

What makes your favorite movie or TV series even better? When it comes in totally awesome packaging! Impress the people on your list this year with The Big Lebowski: 10th Anniversary Limited Edition which is among our picks for the most snazzy packaging of 2008 and among the 3 of the my top 10 list that I proudly display on my desk.  See more favorites in our Best DVDs of 2008 Store.

Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas: Collector's Edition - Ultimate Collector's DVD Set + Digital Copy

• 3 discs
• Individually numbered, hand painted ultimate collector s bust
• Plays sound bites from the movie
• Includes Sandy Claws hat and beard with matching disc case
• Booklet containing original poem
• Letter of Authenticity

The Big Lebowski - 10th Anniversary Limited Edition

• 2 discs
• Limited Edition and individually numbered "bowling ball" case
• All new bonus features
• Jeff Bridges' photo book

The Sopranos - The Complete Series

• 33 Discs
• All 86 episodes
• Bonus features include David Chases reaction to fans outcry over the series finale
• Props stolen from the set
• The music selected and the meaning behind it
• Lost scenes saved from the editing room
• Detailed 16 page episode guide

 Casablanca (Ultimate Collector's Edition)

• 3 discs
• 48-page photo book
• 10 one-sheet reproduction cards
• Archival correspondence
• Exclusive passport holder
• Luggage tag

Heathers -  Limited Edition Box Set

• 2 discs
• Metal locker with working combination lock/latch and individually numbered plates
• Brand New Heathers Blu-Ray (releases same day)
• Hardcover Heathers Yearbook
• Heathers Themed Magnets
• Compressed "Big Fun" T-Shirt in a textbook box

300 (Limited Collectors Edition + Digital Copy)

• 3 Discs
• Digital Copy of the theatrical version
• 52-page hardcover art book with personal message from Director Zack Snyder
• Lucite display with motion film clip
• 6 collectible photo cards

Hellboy II: The Golden Army (Collector's Set)

• 3 discs
• Golden army figurine
• Replica Director's sketchbook
• Certificate of authenticity
• Collectible mini-poster

Masters of Horror: Season Two Box Set

• 11 discs
• Really cool skull. Not much else, buy hey, its a skull!

The Man from U.N.C.L.E. - The Complete Series

• 41 discs
• 60's style high tech attaché  case

Best DVDs of 2008: Kids and Family

Here are Amazon's picks for the top 10 kids and family DVDs of the year. --Brooke G

1. Wall-E

2. Alvin and the Chipmunks

3. Avatar the Last Airbender - Book 3 Fire, Vol. 3

4. Sleeping Beauty

5. Horton Hears a Who!

6. Kung Fu Panda

7. Tinker Bell

8. Ni Hao Kai-Lan: Super Special Days

9. Kit Kittredge - An American Girl

10.  Classical Baby: The Poetry Show

See the rest of our top 10s in our Best of 2008 store.

Oscar Forecast: Golden Globe Nominees, Critics' Awards Out

The Golden Globe Award nominations were announced today, and we have your full list here, with some interesting notes:

1) Revolutionary Road, which was left off the Broadcast Critics' Awards and other lists, saw its dimming hopes brighten again with nominations for Best Picture Drama, Actor & Actress and Director Sam Mendes.

2) Milk, which has been a critics' award darling (named Best Picture by the NY Film Critics), was shut out of all categories save for Best Actor Sean Penn.

3) The Dark Knight, also thought to be a strong contender for Best Picture and Director, got its only nom for Heath Ledger's shoo-in performance in the Best Supporting Actor category.

4) Most surprising nominations? James Franco, who did not get kudos for his supporting role in Milk; instead, a lead actor nod for the comedy Pineapple Express. And Tom Cruise for Tropic Thunder. (Robert Downey Jr.'s nod was expected, but did anyone see this coming?)

5) Also shut out: Clint Eastwood for Best Actor in Gran Torino; Cate Blanchett as Best Supporting Actress for The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (her spot likely taken by Amy Adams for Doubt), Will Smith for Seven Pounds, Josh Brolin for Milk and W, Globe darling Sex and the City's film version in any of the comedy categories.

6) Over in TV, the only new series receiving any nomination was for Debra Messing in The Starter Wife, which was originally a miniseries turned into a full-fledged show. TV's biggest new series, The Mentalist, received no nods.

7) In Treatment filled the HBO void with three supporting nods, Best Actor for Gabriel Byrne, and Best Drama. But new to the Globe dance? Kevin Connolly as a lead actor for Entourage. (Likely, a surprise to Kevin as well)

8) Shut out this year: Previous Globe darlings Grey's Anatomy, Boston Legal, Lost, and the recently-canceled Pushing Daisies.

9) Double nominees: Meryl Streep (Mamma Mia! and Doubt), Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road and The Reader), Tom Wilkinson (Recount and John Adams), Ralph Fiennes (Bernard and Doris and The Duchess)

10) And finally, a thumbs-up to recognizing In Bruges. Granted, the comedy/musical category is always week, but it was cool to see a little film from left-field get some deserving nods.

The roundup so far from the critics:
Best Picture
National Board of Review: Slumdog Millionaire
L.A. Film Critics: Wall-E
NY Film Critics: Milk

Best Actor
National Board of Review: Clint Eastwood, Gran Torino
L.A. Film Critics: Sean Penn, Milk
NY Film Critics: Sean Penn, Milk

Best Actress
National Board of Review: Anne Hathaway, Rachel Getting Married
L.A. Film Critics: Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky
NY Film Critics: Sally Hawkins, Happy-Go-Lucky

Best Director
National Board of Review:  David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
L.A. Film Critics: Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
NY Film Critics: Mike Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky

Best Supporting Actor
National Board of Review: Josh Brolin, Milk
L.A. Film Critics: Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
NY Film Critics: Josh Brolin, Milk

Best Supporting Actress
National Board of Review: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
L.A. Film Critics: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
NY Film Critics: Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona

What do you think of this year's Oscar race so far? -- Ellen