Fat Jesus's 85th Annual Academy Awards Recap

Well the 85th Annual Academy Awards in the books, it was an exciting night for movie fans everywhere. Questions were answered and awards were given as Seth MacFarlane hosted the biggest night in film. The show was pretty solid and a decent hosting job was done by Seth. His sometimes "edgy" jokes and one-liners about every aspect of Hollywood were pretty good. Of course some jokes did fall flat, but it was a lighthearted night all around. The original songs done by Seth were good as well, with one of the most memorable ones have Seth list out whose boobs we've seen in films over the years.

Speaking of singing there was a ton of it throughout the night. Jennifer Hudson tore down the house while Adele followed suit as she won the Best Original Song Oscar. The cast of Les Miserables did a pretty solid performance of one of their songs from the movie as did Catherine Zeta Jones with her song from Chicago. Also the Goldfinger theme after The 50 Years of Bond tribute was nice. With Barbra Streisand and her nose giving a good performance during the In Memoriam section. The song and numbers were in full force all night, but none of it was bad or out of place.

There were a lot of surprises when it came to winning tonight as well. There was also a lot of predictability. I did a write up and straight up predicted 11 out of the 14 categories I went over correctly. With me getting 13 out of the 14 categories correct in either (or both) "Who I Wanted To Win" and "Who Would Win" predictions. There is only one I got completely wrong ant that was the Best Original Screenplay category. Boy was I glad I did. I wanted Moonrise Kingdom to win but picked Zero Dark Thirty to take it. To my excitement, Quentin Tarantino blew everyone away and took the Oscar for Django Unchained!

Most of the rest of the night went as expected. While many thought Lincoln would take best picture easily, Argo had been considered a contender for months now. So after a rousing introduction by First Lady Michelle Obama, Argo was awarded the Best Picture Oscar. Prompting one of Ben Affleck's finest moments as he gave a great speech accepting the award as star, director and co-producer of Argo. Daniel Day Lewis won the Best Actor Oscar for his leading role in Lincoln. Following the win with one of the best and funniest acceptance speeches of the night. While Jennifer Lawrence won the Best Actress Oscar for her leading role in Silver Linings Playbook and was in a bit of shock as she stumbled on the steps as she went to get her award.

Argo also won the award for Best Adapted Screenplay and it was well deserved as well. Adding onto Argo's accolades. Best Director was a toss up between Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg. In the end Ang Lee added a fourth award to Life of Pi's accolades. There was a tie (yes a tie) in one of the categories with BOTH Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty winning the Best in Sound Editing Oscar. The Best Animated film category came and gone as Brave beat out Wreck-It Ralph among others to win. With the Best Animated Short Oscar going home with Paperman this year. Finally we come to the last of the "big" awards. The Best Supporting Actress Oscar went to Anne Hathaway for her performance in Les Miserables. She beat out her only other real competition in Amy Adams for The Master. Last but certainly not least Christoph Waltz beat out Tommy Lee Jones' Lincoln performance with his one as Dr. Schultz in Django Unchained. It gives him his second Best Supporting Actor Oscar  from a role in a Quentin Tarantino film.

It was a great night, and I'm highly sick of writing about the Oscars this year haha. I'm already looking forward to the Oscars next year and what the rest of 2013 in film has in store for us. Below I'll be giving you a complete list of winners tonight. So thanks for reading, and I can't wait to write about all this again next year. So until then, this is Fat Jesus saying "Deuces" to the 85th Annual Academy Awards.

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BEST PICTURE

"Argo"

BEST ACTOR

Daniel Day-Lewis for "Lincoln"

BEST ACTRESS

Jennifer Lawrence for "Silver Linings Playbook"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Anne Hathaway for "Les Miserables"

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christoph Waltz for "Django Unchained"

BEST DIRECTOR

Ang Lee for "Life of Pi"

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

"Argo"

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

"Django Unchained"

BEST ANIMATED FILM

"Brave"

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

"Amour"

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SONG)

"Skyfall" from "Skyfall" (Music and Lyric by Adele Adkins and Paul Epworth)

BEST MUSIC (ORIGINAL SCORE)

Mychael Danna for "Life of Pi"

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN

"Lincoln"

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

"Life of Pi"

BEST DOCUMENTARY (FEATURE)

"Searching for Sugar Man"

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS

"Life of Pi"

BEST MAKEUP

"Les Miserables"

BEST COSTUME DESIGN

"Anna Karenina"

BEST FILM EDITING

"Argo"

BEST SOUND EDITING

"Skyfall"

"Zero Dark Thirty"

BEST SOUND MIXING

"Les Miserables"

BEST SHORT FILM (ANIMATED)

"Paperman"

BEST SHORT FILM (LIVE ACTION)

"Curfew"

BEST DOCUMENTARY (SHORT)

"Inocente"

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Silver Linings Playbook [A Fat Jesus Movie Review]

I like well made romantic comedies. Well at least ones I proclaim as good like Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Zack and Miri Make a Porno and more (raunchy) movies of the like. But I like Bradley Cooper, and really wanted him to make up for Hit and Run (I mean what the hell was that movie) and have a good performance in this. Also Jennifer Lawrence is adorable and I've been a fan of her since I saw her in Winter's Bone in 2010. I liked The Hunger Games and wanted her to keep that roll going. Instead I got a movie, Silver Linings Playbook, that left right in the middle of where I wanted to be.

Silver Linings Playbook follows the story of Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper), who had undiagnosed bipolar disorder. He is released from a mental health facility and is cleared to go home and live with his parents. His wife Nikki (Brea Bee) has moved away in the eight months since he went in and his father, Pat Sr. (Robert DeNiro), lost his job and is resulting on gambling on football games to try and start a restaurant. Pat wants desperately to get back with his wife, who has since filed a restraining order against him. At one of his court mandated therapy sessions he tells his therapist (Anupam Kher), Pat explains that he was sent away because one day he came home to his wife having sex with another teacher in their shower with their wedding song playing ("My Cherie Amour" by Stevie Wonder) and beats him almost to death. That night having dinner with his friend Ronnie (John Ortiz) and his wife Veronica (Julia Stiles) he meets Ronnie's sister-in-law Tiffany Maxwell (Jennifer Lawrence). Tiffany is a young widow and a recovering sex addict who is also living at home. Pat and Tiffany form a relationship off of all their shared quirks and Pat realizing he can use Tiffany to get his wife letters. Pat getting back together with his wife is what he wants or through unorthodox (and dance-y) ways he can develop a new life with Tiffany. See which play he calls by watching this for yourself.

This movie was a mixed bag for me. As it's one of the better rom-coms, I'll admit, I really don't think it should be getting all the Oscar buzz and nominations it has. The music is well done and the score is good. But sometimes the amount they're drilling it into our heads that Pat is indeed bipolar, by playing "My Cherie Amour" over and over and over, is a little off-putting. The cinematography of sites around Philly and it's very close-knit family and friends are pretty good to watch. Times it seems like everyone knows what's going on between Pat and Tiffany and they're not afraid of letting us know, that everyone else knows as well. The acting by DeNiro and Weaver as husband and wife are awesome to watch throughout. Cooper and Lawernce (as well as his scenes with John Ortiz and Chris Tucker) are done very well too. The writing and dialogue, by David O. Russel, was more, real I guess you could say, than other romantic comedies and the tension between the families and characters were done well. It's much more serious with the humor, but that's a plus in this movie.

The story was as original as you can get with the whole rom-com scheme. Guy meets girl. Guy pisses off girl. Girl leaves. In the end guy and girl get together. This is that with more a feel with everything. The story felt real, the characters were relate-able, and the outcome (though predictable) is what you want out of a feel good movie like this is. Here's where my problem with all the praise this is getting is coming from. There's laughs. There's romance. There's drama. But in the end this is just an above average movie for me. Cooper, Lawrence and the rest of the crew did great and made this the above average movie it is, but still in the end this just a rom-com. Like the steps I listed, it follows them almost to a tee. I want movies to surprise me. Lawrence does well, Cooper does great and DeNiro is DeNiro. This movie was what it was though, above average movie watching. It was just okay.

All in all this is still worth your watch. The story is highly engaging and the acting by everyone is superb. The acting by Bradley Cooper is probably the best of his career and Jennifer Lawrence keeps her acting train rolling. With DeNiro, Weaver and Tucker, there are great compliments to the two main stars on screen. The writing is a helluva a lot better than most rom-coms as well. This is not Oscar worthy in my eyes, it has a ton of nominations, but who am I to say. Silver Linings Playbook was just an okay watch for me.

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