Looking over the list, it'd be really fucking hard to get thru.

Pfffffft ... He can't be counted on. He is the Lebron James of the forum.

The King's Speech - In some ways it's appropriate that we end here with this film. If we've learned anything along this journey it's that while the Best Picture winner is rarely the best film of the year, it at least is a reflection on where we were and how we were feeling as a people at that particular moment in time. Going My Way comforted everyone in the middle of a huge war. Around the World in 80 Days allowed us to celebrate new technology. Midnight Cowboy gave us the chance to finally explore the darker side of ourselves. Each movie was picked for a reason, whether we agree with it or not. And even if many choices seem silly now, with few exceptions, you can't really argue with how people were feeling at that time. I don't know how The King's Speech will reflect on us as time passes, but I'm guessing they'll look back and think we needed a nice warm blanket to snuggle into, especially after the dark times that led to wins by The Departed, No Country for Old Men, and The Hurt Locker, not to mention the depressing rejection of a progressive attitude toward homosexuality that led to Crash receiving a more notable place in history than it deserved. The King's Speech is a safe and comfortable retreat featuring everything Oscar loves: historical characters, the British, royalty, a handicap, overcoming the odds, and Nazis. All it's missing is a kid dipped in shit. It's a good movie, but hardly a great one. It has great performances, but it feels like a standard BBC production of Stuff Americans Care About If They Want to Look Smart. Maybe that's where we are right now. We just want to look smart.

Did it deserve to win?: It wasn't as awesome as Inception, which would be my pick. The Social Network is better also, but it's too cold for these times. I haven't seen The Fighter, Black Swan, or True Grit yet, but I hear they're all better, too. Not a bad year for movies, but a bad choice for a winner. And I have no idea what Tom Hooper did that's so great to win Best Director. He's the new John G. Avildsen.

(out of 5)

*beats Stu to death with bowling pin*
*collapses in heap on floor*
I'm finished!

Hamlet - It's kinda unfair to go after Oscars when you're working on a version of Hamlet. You already have a kickass story. If you get some good actors and some competent production values, you can get fitted for your tux while the thing's still in the editing room. That's about what happened here. It's Laurence of Olivier's show. He directed and starred, and managed to grab Best Actor. He's as good as you'd imagine he'd be, especially starting halfway through once Hamlet goes apeshit. It's kinda dull while he mopes around, but it's a lot of fun when he's rhymin' and schemin'. Directing-wise, he makes a few interesting choices with shots and camera movement, but mostly he keeps the camera still and lets the actors do their thing. One scene I did like was the play-within-the-play. Normally, Hamlet describes the action, but here, the scene is entirely silent. We can see what's happening. No explanation is needed. They let it unfold with nothing but action and reaction shots. It's also a nice respite from the dense dialogue. I could've used subtitles on this one, but I streamed it through Netflix and they don't offer that yet. Sometimes it wasn't easy to understand what they were saying, but the plot machinations were still easy to follow. Don't ask me how it compares to other filmed versions of Hamlet because I don't know.

Did it deserve to win?: It won Best Picture but The Treasure of the Sierra Madre won Best Director. Usually that means they were 1 and 2 and pretty close. I've seen both now and enjoyed Sierra Madre more. It and The Red Shoes are still widely-considered and viewed while no one talks much about this version of Hamlet, so no, it probably didn't deserve it.

I was thinking I was more like Jim Spanarkel.

You guys should watch them all. It's a rewarding experience.

That sounds like a dumb thing to do.