BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The cowboy love story "Brokeback Mountain" led the Academy Awards field Tuesday with eight nominations, among them best picture and honors for actor Heath Ledger and director Ang Lee.

Also nominated for best picture were the Truman Capote story "Capote"; the ensemble drama "Crash"; the Edward R. Murrow chronicle "Good Night, and Good Luck"; the assassination thriller "Munich."

The Johnny Cash biography, "Walk the Line," considered a likely best picture nominee, was shut out, though Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon earned acting nominations for the film. George Clooney picked up two nominations, as supporting actor for his role as a steadfast CIA undercover agent in "Syriana" and best director for his Edward R. Murrow tale "Good Night, and Good Luck."

Along with best-actor contender Ledger, and directing nominee Lee, "Brokeback Mountain" scored nominations for Michelle Williams as supporting actress, Jake Gyllenhaal as supporting actor and Larry McMurtry and Diana Ossana for their screenplay adaptation of Annie Proulx's short story.

I haven't seen "Brokeback Mountain", "Syrianna", "Munich", "Capote", or "Crash" so I really can't comment on those films. Wow! I haven't seen really any of the Oscar films. I gotta get to a video store (if any are available on DVD yet???).

I have a feeling I'm not alone though. A lot of the films this year are more "art house" than years past. Your average middle America, flyover state, movie goer has likely not seen many of these films.

I did see "Walk The Line" and thought is was good, not great. So it not receiving an Oscar nomination is not suprising. I did think both leads (Phoenix and Witherspoon) were great though and I'm very glad they are getting recognized.

Clooney's "Good Night, and Good Luck" is crap though. Seriously, it's crap. I went to see this movie and really wanted to like it (I was one of the few who really liked his first directorial effort "Confessions of a Dangerous Mind"). But I didn't like it at all. It is a complete snooze fest. If would be better if they showed it on the History Channel as a documentary (and marketed it that way) - then I wouldn't have expected it to have actual drama, conflict, plot, story or even be remotely entertaining.

Understand please that I don't think it was a poorly made film or that it wasn't original. It was very well made and quite original (the way they used the actual news footage of McCarthy was interesting, but got old quick). It was just boring as hell.

It had great cinematography and excellent acting. And Clooney did a nice job at creating the mood of the 1950's with all the cigarette smoking, etc. But there was just no story. I was never engaged or interested in any of the characters.

In the end I think Academy voters probably liked it because of it's supposed "political message" and how a few think the story aligns with some of today's events (not true though).

Anyway, enjoy the Oscars on March 5th...

http://oscars.org/78academyawards/noms.html

-Blake

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