Oscar News

Because of the short week, there actually isn’t any real news to share here. Don’t worry, though, because precursor nods begin on Tuesday with the Spirit Awards, and it will all be chaos from there!

Review Round-Up

• Love and Other Drugs, Oscar winner Edward Zwick’s return to the romantic comedy genre, did not fare as well with critics as he would have hoped. It currently has a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes and a better, but still not great, 55 on Metacritic. Most critics seem to feel that the film is hit-and-miss in sections, but that Jake Gyllenhaal and especially Anne Hathaway are wonderful.
• Disney is getting some strong reviews for its Animated Feature contender Tangled, a return to the Disney Princess mold. Rotten Tomatoes has the film at a wonderful 87%, while Metacritic places the film at 73. Look for Disney to push the film in several categories, especially Animated Feature and the music categories.
• One of the most anticipated Oscar contenders of the year, The King’s Speech came out of the gate running with a 91% on Rotten Tomatoes (Metacritic doesn’t have enough reviews up yet to score). Every aspect of the film, from the technical work to the writing to the prime cast, are all being hailed as among the year’s best.

Oscar Box Office

• Major Oscar contender 127 Hours is doing respectable, but not blazing, business as it continues to expand its screen count. It took in just under $1 million last weekend.
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part I did, however, blaze out of the gate with a $125 million opening weekend. The $205 million it made worldwide makes it the biggest non-summer opening weekend in history.

New Trailers

• Source Code: The best it could hope for Oscar-wise would be some tech nominations, and those films don’t normally come out in April.

Oscar Farewell

The Oscar community is thankful that it didn’t lose any of its cherished members this week.