8:28: What I'm looking forward to tonight: Hopefully seeing Quentin Tarantino recognized for his writing on Inglourious Basterds. Even more so, seeing Christoph Waltz recognized for his awe inspiring delivery of it. 

8:30: Here we go.

8:32: NPH to kick things off makes this great already.

8:37: Enjoying the classic Hollywood art direction of the set tonight. Also, Martin and Baldwin providing some good laughs.

8:43: Amending the previous statement, good laughs because of some good writing. Delivery is a little forced.

8:47: Still shocked that the Lovely Bones received any nominations after the critical thrashing it received. 

8:48: As suspected, first win of the night goes to Christoph Waltz for his portrayal of Col. Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. Was sort of hoping for a tri-lingual acceptance speech...

8:51: Seeing clips of "The Last Station" makes me realize I still desperately need to see it. 

8:59: Another shoe-in with "Up" winning Best Animated Feature. One of the year's best without a doubt. Pixar is unmatched.

9:05: Seeing Chris Pine intro District 9 for best picture makes me happy it was such a good year for sci-fi. District 9, Star Trek, Avatar, Moon - all great entries in the genre. 

9:12: Always a good time when Robert Downey Jr. takes the mic.

9:15: My first big surprise of the night with Best Original Screenplay going to The Hurt Locker. Should have been Inglourious Basterds in my opinion. Perhaps a sign of things to come for The Hurt Locker tonight.

9:24: The clips from Up make me really hope that Giacchino wins for his score for that film. 

9:42: Ben Stiller's Avatar gag was only ok until the "hairnet" comment, which was awesome.  

9:47: Best Adapted Screenplay - thinking it will go to "Up in the Air" but wishing it would go to "In the Loop"

9:50: And it goes to Precious for Best Adapted Screenplay.

10:00: Best supporting actress goes to Mo'nique - no surprise there.

10:06: Though I don't particularly love its aesthetic, Art Direction sort of has to go to Avatar for pure coherence of vision. 

10:18: On a night that we're supposed to be recognizing film's best, why oh why do we have people from Twilight on stage?

10:28: Surprising but nice to see The Hurt Locker picking up some technical awards. (Over Avatar, that is)

10:36: Avatar gets Best Cinematography - probably deserved it for its technical accomplishments. 

10:45: Best score.... let's go Michael Giacchino!

10:53: A well deserved win by Giacchino. Also, no one pronounces his name correctly!

11:01: Best documentary. Either The Cove or Food, Inc., I think.

11:15: Best Foreign Language Film? Either The White Ribbon or Un Prophete. 

11:17: ...wrong on both counts. Who knew?

11:32: The lead-in to the best actor nomination was a little too drawn out. An as predicted, Jeff Bridges wins a well deserved award.

11:48: And best actress goes to Sandra Bullock. 

11:53: And here we go..... my money is on Cameron but with the way this night's going Bigelow has the momentum.

11:55: Bigelow it is. Probably the right choice. The Hurt Locker was a master class in onscreen suspense.

11:58: It's The Hurt Locker's night!

The Ashecliffe Mental Institution on Shutter Island is a treatment facility for the most disturbed and violent criminals, constructed from an abandoned Civil War fortress. DiCaprio and Ruffalo are brought to this place as "duly appointed federal marshals" to help track down an escaped patient who appears to have vanished from her cell. As they investigate this place and uncover unspeakable secrets, they begin to suspect that more sinister forces are at work. 

While Shutter Island is not an epic masterpiece on the level of The Departed, it is a worthy entry in Scorsese's illustrious body of work. This is a film which will leave you questioning the truth up until the very end. The highest praise I can give it is that, after seeing it, I could not stop thinking about what it was trying to tell me. This is masterful storytelling wrapped in a beautiful and atmospheric pulp thriller. 

As a narrative, it is not a failure, but it never soars. The film's plot is familiar and the metaphors a bit too on-the-nose (describing the human campaign against the native Na'vi as "some sort of shock-and-awe campaign"). Some questionable dialogue and some odd pacing hamper the film. Thankfully, Cameron has cast some wonderful actors who manage to make work what would come off as trite in less capable hands. The story is not all bad, familiar though it may be, Cameron adds some interesting sci-fi twists through the introduction of the Avatar Program, which allows human beings to inhabit lab-grown Na'vi bodies. He revisits concepts from his previous outings - cryo-sleep for space travel, giant mechs used for battle, and fully realized and believable futuristic settings. He also fully delivers on the action sequences which are tense and riveting. Even so, the film occasionally falls too deep into its new-age spirituality and eco-friendly message and becomes overly preachy at parts.  But then, none of these reasons are why audiences go to see a James Cameron film - they go for the spectacle, which is something "Avatar" delivers in spades.

Like our hero Jake Sully, the audience is thrust into a strange, beautiful and sometimes deadly world which seems truly alien. The first hour or so of this film is a travelogue of sorts through the world of Pandora. Trees the size of sky scrapers and bio-luminescent fauna dominate the landscape; deadly creatures and floating mountains all seem perfectly at home in this world. And most impressive - the Na'vi - the ten foot tall, blue, cat-like heroes of "Avatar". The Na'vi are why you go to see "Avatar". In these creatures, James Cameron gives us a glimpse at the future of film-making. Never before have computer generated creatures this convincing and this able to convey subtle emotions through facial expressions and body language. Created by the team which brought Gollum to life in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, these are not animated creatures, but virtual costumes which allow actors to truly inhabit another body. No longer are the actors just providing voices, every nuance of their performance is captured and portrayed by these creatures of virtual flesh. The true splendor to be found in "Avatar" is the way in which the audience is able to quickly forget that these creatures don't exist in any tangible space and become invested in the story. Add to that the 3D which is done so tastefully that it fades into the background - serving to merely add depth and immersion to the world that Cameron has created - and you have a level of immersion previously unseen in film. 

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A pair of charismatic leads and some wonderful performances from a stable of British character actors make "The Young Victoria" an enjoyable period drama for the Masterpiece Theater crowd. 

Jean-Marc Vallee's film covers the earliest years of Queen Victoria's rule - her courtship and eventual marriage to Prince Albert, the politics surrounding her ascent to the throne, and the experiences which helped to shape Britain's longest ruling monarch. Emily Blunt plays the inexperienced but strong-willed monarch against Rupert Friend's charming and earnest Albert. What could have been an otherwise rote film is lifted up by the like-ability of the leads. 

The film moves at a brisk pace - skipping months and sometimes years between scenes, but we get an interesting look at palace politics and intrigue. Torn between her mother, Parliament, and her husband, "The Young Victoria" traces her rise from a stubborn girl put in an overwhelming situation to a member of a deftly operating political partnership.   

While not revolutionary, "The Young Victoria" is a classy and charming historical drama. Though sometimes too conventional for its own good ( an opening narration includes the line "sometimes, even a palace can be a prison"), the film never feels tedious or dull as plot points come and go at lightning speed. For those who are drawn in by period pieces, this film is likely to please - it hits the right notes with its ornate costumes, beautiful sets, and well matched romantic leads.

At least several hundred mile-junkies discovered that a free shipping offer on presidential and Native American $1 coins, sold at face value by the U.S. Mint, amounted to printing free frequent-flier miles. Mileage lovers ordered more than $1 million in coins until the Mint started identifying them and cutting them off.

Coin buyers charged the purchases, sold in boxes of 250 coins, to a credit card that offers frequent-flier mile awards, then took the shipments straight to the bank. They then used the coins they deposited to pay their credit-card bills. Their only cost: the car trip to make the deposit.

I'm not the biggest sports fan, and know next to nothing about British soccer but this film was incredibly compelling, dramatic, and contains some wonderful performances by some of England's finest actors - one does not need to understand or even care about soccer to enjoy this film. The true heart of this movie is Brian Clough and his assistant manager Peter Taylor, a quiet, unassuming man with a preternatural instinct for constructing a successful team, played by the always enjoyable Timothy Spall. Also wonderful is Colm Meaney as former Leeds United coach and Clough's bitter rival.  

The film has a couple of stand out sequences - especially one in which Clough, too nervous to face his rivals directly, manages his team from his office in the bowels of the soccer stadium, struggling to translate the rhythm and reaction of the crowd. Sheen is a master of the unspoken performance and it is scenes like these that let him shine. 

Michael Sheen continues to impress in his ability to transform himself into these larger than life figures. He plays Clough with the perfect mix of ego, insecurity and charm. He is likable enough that the audience wants him to succeed, but enough of a narcissist that his failures are warranted. His unbridled ambition and obsession with proving himself sets up a classic tragedy. Not a groundbreaking film but one that is thoroughly enjoyable for its performances.