And the winner is ...

OK, with last night's visit to the movie theater, I have now seen all 5 Best Picture nominees for the 81st Academy Awards. (And to give credit where it's due, I wouldn't have done this if it weren't for my neighbor Deborah, who usually tries to see them all each year before the Oscar show.)  So for Best Picture, here are my thoughts (ranked in order of preference).

1. Slumdog Millionaire: This is an absolutely fantastic movie! If you can only see one of these 5, this would be it! The cast are for the most part young and not as experienced as you would find in the other movies (but I love Dev Patel!). However, the story is just outstanding. You are just pulled along with the pace of the movie as you slowly discover how this kid from the slums of Bombay can possibly know answers to some esoteric questions on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.  Yes, there are scenes of a violent nature, but they aren't frequent and are integral to the story. (Plus, you never really see any blood.) But in the end, the movie does have a happy ending. And be sure to stay through the end credits because I love them, too!

2. Milk: I saw this one even before the nominations came out, and I was sure after seeing it that it should win. (But that was before I saw Slumdog, of course.)  The story is pretty straightfoward and you know what's going to happen, but it's the acting that is superb. Sean Penn, Josh Brolin, and everyone else acts their hearts out and make you believe they are the characters they're portraying. I highly recommend it also.

3. Frost/Nixon: I actually don't remember anything about the Frost/Nixon interviews.  (Actually I don't remember much about Nixon at the time it all went down.) And I wasn't really expecting much about this movie.But I have to admit this was a really good movie. I loved Michael Sheen in The Queen, and he did a really good job here playing David Frost. But the real star of the movie is Frank Langella, who I would never have thought in a million years could have played Richard Nixon. But he did. He really became Nixon.

4. The Reader: OK, so the movie is centered around a heavy topic: the Holocaust. But it's pretty good. I'm not a fan (usually) of Ralph Fiennes, but he is actually quite good in this movie. (Of course, that could be because he was only in part of the movie, not all of it.) Anyway, Kate Winslet is also very good, but David Kross (as the young Finnes) to me really steals the show. But as much as I liked this movie (which I did even though you probably can't tell that from what I've written so far), it was just not up to par with the other 3 movies.

5. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: Which brings me to this movie, which is the one I saw just last night. This is the "crowd pleaser" movie. I liked it, but I'm just not sure why it got nominated. Yes, it's good, and yes, the acting is superb. Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett both do a great job, as does Taraji Henson. But the movie is really low-key, it moves slowly (though you don't realize that it's 2.5+ hours long), and it doesn't really grab you. And the story itself is very formulaic. Good, but there are no surprises.

So in summary Slumdog or Milk should win, and I wouldn't be upset if Frost/Nixon took the main prize. The Reader doesn't stand a chance, but Benjamin Button is the question. If it should win, it would be a travesty. But as the "crowd pleaser" movie, it might sneak in there.