Best Actor, 2010 (Oct)

(Colin Firth - THE KING'S SPEECH, James Franco - 127 HOURS, Jesse Eisenberg - THE SOCIAL NETWORK, Robert Duvall - GET LOW, Michael Douglas - SOLITARY MAN)

I think the locks in this race is Colin Firth, James Franco and Michael Douglas. No one is picking Michael Douglas to be nominated... which is idiotic to me. He's going to win if he's nominated. I'm sure by then he'll be talking with the aid of machine. These actors and teams will do whatever it takes. He's going to win the Golden Globe and then be nominated and then probably win. Even though Colin Firth probably should. If last year thought us anything about who gets the big prize, it doesn't matter who is most deserving. It's about pity, popularity and timing. The acting awards for the most part throughout Oscar history have usually gone to the best of the best - but NOT last year. Michael Douglas is a lock, the only thing that could throw a wrench into the system is that the Oscar Nominations are announced before the Globes are given out. But even with that small set back - I think he's a shoe-in. The other two spots are the open ones. It could go to Ryan Gosling for BLUE VALENTINE or Javier Bardem in BIUTIFUL. 'Biutiful' is getting some negative reviews which could hurt his chances. Robert Duvall pretty much has the fourth spot. He's old - he's crazy and southern and he always brings something interesting and new to each role, even if it feels we've seen him in this before. Even though people haven't seen that film. The poster, reviews, and trailer should do fine by him. Jeff Bridges in TRUE GRIT falls behind Javier and Ryan. He just won and it looks like he's doing some major furniture chewing. 'True Grit' feels a little thrown together too fast to me and like the directors really focused on Hailee's role in the picture - which is great - great for her. If they spent a few years developing it and Jeff Bridges did a Daniel Day Lewis preparation number with his role then I'd be more interested in seeing it. Switching the eye-patch to the other eye ain't enough for me to add him to the list of five. In the trailer I got a sense that it was all grouchy, gruff, wild hair, eye-patch and dust.