Blogiversary and some early envelopes!

Happy Anniversary to ME! Rockets and Robots is one year old today, which I'm celebrating by being home sick with a nice lung-busting cold. The whole family has it, Anthony worse than any of us. But it's fun to realize that apart from a few preoccupied lapses, I've been up and running here for a full year now!

How kind of Hollywood to announce the Oscar nominations this morning, in my honor, no doubt. I'm not sure if I've ever been more behind or seen fewer of the nominees than this year, with four of the top five contenders (True Grit, Black Swan, The King's Speech and The Fighter) still in the unseen category. Calling all babysitters!?!


Still, giddy as ever to pore over the list of nominees.


It's wonderful to see John Hawkes nominated for Winter's Bone, as he's been such a favorite since his Deadwood days. Hell, quite a bit of love for Winter's Bone, including Best Picture, Adapted Screenplay and Jennifer Lawrence for Best Actress. It's a remarkable movie on a very small scale and this should increase its viewership a thousandfold. Big congratulations, you guys.



I'm very much in the minority in my opinion of The Social Network, which seems to be the front-runner after the Golden Globes. Enough said on that front already.

Natlie Portman and Colin Firth also seem to be locks in the acting categories this year.

Christian Bale has tremendous Juju for The Fighter, but it's incredibly exciting to see Jeremy Renner up for his chillingly realistic, off the rails work in The Town, so you never know.

It looks like Supporting Actress is the race this year, though there has been so much positive reaction to young Hailee Steinfeld in True Grit that it sounds like she's got this in the bag, though she should probably watch her back around Amy Adams.


I suspect that were I to see True Grit it would instantly be my front-runner. The Coens have had a great success here -- the original novel is back on The New York Times bestseller list -- and have done more to restore affection for the western as a genre than anybody since Clint Eastwood and Unforgiven. I'm pretty programmed to love this movie (as yet) sight unseen.

The Fighter has also done really well, garnering nominations for everyone except star Mark Wahlberg, though he's probably not complaining, as he's become such a tremendous success as a producer with shows such as Boardwalk Empire and the phenomenal In Treatment to his credit.

It still drives me crazy, this business of 10 nominees for Best Picture. So I go straight to Best Director to see what's what. It really pains me to see Danny Boyle missing from the Best Director ranks, as 127 Hours was just so spectacular. But he's won this rodeo before with Slumdog Millionaire and of the five pictures up for Best Editing, they all match Best Director with the exception of True Grit, that slot went to 127 Hours. Likewise, of the five Best Director nominees, they all match Best Cinematography, with the exception of David O. Russell's The Figher, with Wally Pfister's work on Inception taking the fifth cinematography position.

It's also surprising not to see Christopher Nolan nominated for directing, but he scored for Best Original Screenplay as well as the Cinematography nod -- plus they'll probably win hands down for Visual Effects. I suspect Nolan's okay with it, as he's absolutely white hot right now in terms of box office success and anticipation. His pictures are as pre-sold as they come these days and his reputation is near untouchable.

I'll be rooting for James Franco this year, as I still think he did truly amazing work in 127 Hours. It would really be nice to see at least a couple more of these in the theater over the next 33 days (February 27th), but seen or unseen, the cards have been dealt.

If you've been an occasional visitor to Rockets and Robots this year, many thanks for your support and faithful curiosity. Year two promises to be even more interesting, with my renewed commitment to give equal time to the toy portion of the masthead this year. Hey, Toy Fair is only a few weeks away, after all!