I'm probably not entitled to any opinions on the selections themselves since I can't remember the last time I actually saw a recently released movie in a theater ("recently released" because I will, on occasion, go see a film at the MoMA, though maybe there should be some kind of monetary qualifier as well since I did view at least one entry during last year's Tribeca Film Festival).
my best guess would be The Simpsons Movie. pretty sure that came after William Eggleston in the Real World.
but I do take advantage of my Netflix membership (a good place here to curse Time-Warner Cable for the erratic at best Internet connection that tends to stall out at the most inopportune moments, necessitating either a reconnect or excruciating replay of buffering process), and so I have seen Richard Jenkins in The Visitor (he had about as much chance at winning Best Actor as he did the lottery, which is not to say he didn't give a fine performance in a worthy film), Best Documentary winner Man on Wire (also available for instant viewing on Netflix) and, of course, Dark Knight (Heath Ledger's Supporting Actor win) which has been out on DVD forever.
oh, and I saw Wall-E but didn't see what the fuss was about.
which means I haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire or Frost/Nixon or Milk or Doubt or The Reader or Benjamin Button or Frozen River (though that'll be taken care of shortly) or even The Wrestler.
but I appreciated the twist of bringing back five previous category winners to present the respective acting awards (even though Sophia Loren scared me a bit). Shirley Maclaine actually appeared more human than anyone else on stage with her (a surprise) and even though I'm not a fan of Anne Hathaway I felt good for her that she was able to receive such a tribute from someone who obviously meant a lot to her (either that or she's a better actor than I thought).
very surprised that Forest Whitaker wasn't one of the five Actor presenters, though it was mucho cool to see Deniro out there feting Sean Penn.
but if they do this again, damn they've either got to insist that the presenters memorize their tributes or find a way to put the teleprompter at least somewhere near the nominees. a couple folks (I'm looking at you Adrien Brody) about broke their necks having to swivel from the teleprompter to the nominee they were supposedly addressing. and to hide such, the Awards show director kept the cameras on the nominees' faces entirely too long. I mean, poor "Seymour Phillip" Hoffman trying his best to hide his WTF? reaction to Alan Arkin's butchering of his name during an excessively long take (payback for keeping his hat on, some will say; not me).
also, quit jerking the camera around during the In Memoriam segment. made me dizzy.
it's also time to ignore the instinct to show Angelina Jolie's reaction every time Jennifer Aniston speaks. absolutely unfair that the woman's up there playing straight man to Jack Black (which can't be easy) on some fairly difficult, not inherently interesting categories, and then get undercut like that.
enough already with Beyonce (absolutely the worst part of the show; the musical is back? really? I would've guessed the complete dearth of nominations for such, as well as the need to mine the entire Oscar history in order to provide music for the segment might've been a hint that this idea should've been a non-starter).
and finally, how stupid must Mickey Rourke's management feel right now? I mean, even hinting that the guy would partake of the squared circle at Wrestlemania (actually attempting to start at feud on the SAG Awards red carpet) before the Oscar votes were submitted and tallied was idiocy. because you know those Academy voters didn't take kindly to Rourke preparing to cash in (with the WWE, no less) on his Oscar before receiving it.
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