>2. I'd take Atonement out of the Best Picture slot and
>replace it with Zodiac...

Haven't seen Atonement yet but need to see Zodiac again. It's been so long since I've seen it. I remember liking most of it but thought it ran a little long towards the end & became repetitious.

>3. I STILL can't decide between No Country for Old Men and
>There Will Be Blood as my film of the year.

After seeing There Will Be Blood a 2nd time I think I gotta switch my choice back to The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. And hopefully when I see it again I wont feel the need to switch it back again.

I think, as of
>now, that No Country will win Best Picture. But there's still
>a month to go.

I wouldn't be too shocked if There Will Be Blood takes it or Atonement. Atonement just seems like an Oscar favorite.

>4. Right on to Tony Gilroy and Michael Clayton. Told y'all
>that was a good script (and the movie *is* THAT good).

This was certainly 1 of those movies that I liked more that it didn't try to hard to explain every little detail. I knew just enough of what I needed to know to let the actors do their thing.

>5. Up until I started hearing about this Persepolis, I thought
>Ratatouille was a lock for Best Animated Feature. Now, I'm
>not so sure... I'll have to peep that Persepolis jawn...

The only thing I have to add about animated features in general is that I just finally watched Shrek for the 1st time last night. I need to start paying more attention to these.

>6. I would have taken Atonement out of the Best Adapted
>Screenplay category and replaced it with The Assassination of
>Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. It's not that I hate
>Atonement or anything, I just think it's slightly overrated,
>and I just thought Jesse James was an underrated film (and I
>know jigga agrees)...

Indeed. I think it might be 1 of those films that gets appreciated more further down the road after its DVD release. It was 1 of those movies I had sorta high hopes for & then it still completely blew me away on every level.

>7. Right on to Tommy Lee Jones for In the Valley of Elah. I
>know that a lot of you slept on this movie, since it was
>written by PTP favorite P--- H-----, but it's actually a good
>film and his performance was stronger here than it was in No
>Country for Old Men, since he has to carry the movie more...

Yeah I slept on this one big time. After seeing Tommy in NCFOM & Brolin in that & American Gangster, it's certainly tops on my list once the DVD comes out.

>7. Should be a fun race to watch. I would like to be the one
>to, for the 3rd year, do our EW Oscar game, so I'll hit y'all
>when the details become available...

Cool. I'm game again.