I have to confess I'm not entirely excited about this year's Oscar race, but just to gauge everyone's opinions, here's the first, official Aisle Seat Poll for Best Picture.

BTW, this is not what "should" win, but what WILL win!!

I think either Million Dollar Baby or Sideways should win. The Aviator WILL win though.

aviator will win, just because they put so much money into this so far bomb, that they will try to get some more poepl into this movie with as many oscars as they can give it...

haven't seen any of the other contenders...

not too excited about the noms this year either, but the scores are at least well deserving (except passion) and that will be exciting who will win...

I have seen THE AVIATOR, SIDEWAYS, and RAY. I'm currently working on the other two.

So far, I've enjoyed SIDEWAYS the most, even though I really like THE AVIATOR for the epic bravado. Although, I would hardly call this one a bomb on a critical level (maybe the box office was not too great), but THE AVIATOR seems to be missing something and I can't quite nail what it is. I think it loses a little focus. It struggles to find the balance between trying to tell the story of Hughes the pioneering-visionary-daredevil- businessman-Aviator and Hughes the mentally afflicted OCD eccentric. I admit that it's a hard story to tell, but I was yearning for a little more depth in some of the supporting characters. I don't really see why Alan Alda was nominated. He seems to play incarnations of himself in every picture. I admit that I did fall in love with Cate Blanchett's Katherine Hepburn. She captures the spirit and demeanor of what I would envision a young Katherine Hepburn to be.

SIDEWAYS is the movie I most connected with. Being in my late 30's, I empathize with these characters and their inner struggle with age, sense of accomplishment, and lonliness. It seemed real an honest to me. No pretentiousness here.

I can't see what the fuss is about MILLION DOLLAR BABY yet, although I will find out this week. Same goes for FINDING NEVERLAND.

However, I would not discount RAY. It may be the surprise win this year. It is a far from perfect movie and I have some problems with some of the early onscreen story telling, but it may get the sympathy vote from the Academy. This may be another CHARIOTS OF FIRE - where nobody sees it coming.

Who knows.

The Aviator will win, but I'm really hoping that Sideways somehow bucks the odds and comes through. Doubt it though! Million Dollar Baby is a very strong chance and has the momentum, and Finding Neverland and Ray are just making up the numbers, sadly. What Ray is doing nominated for best picture when films like The Incredibles, Eternal Sunshine, Before Sunset, The Passion Of The Christ are missing in action I'll never know ... to be honest I think Mean Girls is more deserving of a best picture nod that Ray, which I thought was sincere, well-intentioned and certainly well acted but a fairly dull and scattershot biopic when compared with some of the greats.
So it looks like the award goes to The Aviator, the one good thing to come from this is that at least the great Michael Mann will get an Oscar out of this as one of the producers.

Ok. I just finished MILLION DOLLAR BABY. And I love it! I see what the fuss is about this movie. It nearly left me in tears in the end. And for a guy to admit this, well, it must be some film. Hilary Swank, Clint Eastwopod, and Morgan Freeman are at the top of their game. The movie starts off slow and I did not know what to expect. Someone had commented elsewhere on how the movie throws you a left hook about 3/4 of the way in. And it does so powerfully.

This is going to be hard. I now have one more fil to see - FINDING NEVERLAND. Maybe I will save that for tomorrow.