77th Annual Academy Awards... Natalie Portman lost!! Bah!! Oh well... Cate Blanchett may have taken the Oscar away from the late and broken-hearted Queen Amidala (oh wait, I hope I didn't spoil one part of Episode 3 for you! Heheh), but at least Million Dollar Baby, which I haven't seen yet, pulled an upset on The Aviator by winning Best Picture. Sideways (which, along with Finding Neverland, are the only Best Picture nominees I've seen as of this writing. Or typing) won for Best Adapted Screenplay, which was really awesome. That film rocked. Great story and characterization, it had. And Chris Rock was hilarious. Those interviews at that Magic Johnson theater cracked me up, and one of the jokes I found humorous was the one about Michael Moore doing Super Size Me instead of Fahrenheit 9/11...since Moore was already "super-sized." Not an exact quote by Rock, but still hi-larious nonetheless. Oh, and I'm not surprised that Spider-Man 2 won for Best Visual Effects. That train sequence between Spidey and Doc Ock owned! But here's hoping Industrial Light & Magic wins Best Visual Effects next year...for either War of the Worlds or Revenge of the Sith. I'm rootin' for the latter.

Another geeky film update: Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson made a cameo as some bad guy who gets shot with an arrow by Legolas in The Return of the King, and now George Lucas, the "Flanneled One" according to Star Wars fans, makes a long-awaited cameo in one of his six science fantasy films by having a brief appearance in Revenge of the Sith. If you watch the film, keep an eye out for him during the “opera scene” that takes place on Coruscant (that planet covered by ‘one big city’...for those of you who slept or walked out of the last two prequels. Not to sound like a 'basher' or anything, haha). An image of the Flanneled One in costume is shown below. Sorry that the pic isn’t big enough... I stole, err, took it from another website. For meaningless trivia, his character's name is Baron Papanoida (Papa Nerd? Pop Annoyed, since Lucas has 3 kids? Just kidding). Expect a comic book series, action figure or novel to delve into his history in the near future, hahaha.

SIN CITY: I just saw the trailer for the upcoming film today, and needless to say, Sin City looks awesome! Sure, I've never read the Frank Miller graphic novel of the same name, but that's okay. The movie's awsome look is enough to get me to watch it. Well... That, and Jessica Alba, Jamie King, Brittany Murphy, Rosario Dawson and all the other hot chicks in it. Speaking of which, this movie features an all-star cast, with all the hot actresses mentioned above as well as Bruce Willis, Benicio Del Tero, Elijah Wood, and Josh Hartnett—among others. The movie has a way better visual style than Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, but I enjoyed that film as well. If you want to see Sin City's trailer (though it is a small version), click here. Can't wait till the movie comes out this April!

100 DAYS REMAINING... Till the shi-, err, Sith hits the fan.

Super Bowl XXXIX: No boobies were exposed, but at least the Patriots won, 24-21. Why didn't I root for the Eagles, you ask? 'Cause I never root for the underdogs, hahaha. Much like I'd root for the Yankees in October and the Lakers in June.

...

Though not this June, thank you very much Kobe.

EDIT: By the way, the Super Bowl ad for Batman Begins was pretty cool. The TV spot for War of the Worlds somewhat resembled that of Independence Day in 1996...the only difference being the WOTW ad didn't have any money shot like the White House blowing up. Oh well.