Any ideas on the Oscars Guys?

Here's some odds...

Outright 20 Jan 03 00:00
Winner
Best Movie 2003

The Gangs of New York
2.50
Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
3.00
Chicago
4.00
The Hours
4.50
About Schmidt
5.00
The Road to Perdition
6.50
The Pianist
8.50
Adaptation
10.00
Far from Heaven
10.00
Minority Report
15.00
My Big Fat Greek Wedding
15.00
Signs
20.00
About a Boy
20.00
Catch Me If You Can
20.00
Insomnia
33.00
Red Dragon
50.00
One Hour Photo
50.00
Star Wars 2
66.00
No refunds. Bets on movies that are not nominated are losers.


Outright 20 Jan 03 00:00
Winner
Best Actor 2003

D. DAY-LEWIS in Gangs of New York
2.50
J. NICHOLSON in About Schmidt
3.50
M. CAINE in The Quiet American
4.50
A. BRODY in The Pianist
6.50
L. DI CAPRIO in Catch Me If You Can
8.50
N. CAGE in Adaptation
10.00
No refunds. Bets on actors that are not nominated are losers.


Outright 20 Jan 03 00:00
Winner
Best Actress 2003

J. MOORE in Far from Heaven
2.50
N. KIDMAN in The Hours
3.50
D. LANE in Unfaithful
4.50
R. ZELLWEGER in Chicago
7.50
M. STREEP in The Hours
10.00
S. HAYEK in Frida
10.00
N. VARDALOS in My Big Fat Greek Wedding
15.00
C. ZETA JONES in Chicago
20.00
No refunds. Bets on actresses that are not nominated are losers.

I haven't seen any of the other movies besides Gangs that had best actor noms in them, but I really like Daniel Day Lewis at 2.5 odds... The only thing that worries me about that pick is that he's going up against Jack, and my impression is is he's an Academy favorite. I also read that his performance was really good in Schmidt... Still, Lewis tore it up in Gangs, and that's the only Oscar wager I'm willing to take: Daniel Day Lewis for best actor...

Best picture is tough.. the Academy hardly ever hands it to the most popular picture, with the nod to Traffic over Gladiator in 2001, and then A Beautiful Mind over The Lord of The Rings last year... I guess I'd be surprised if The Two Towers won, even though it was pretty amazing. And I'd say that A Beautiful Mind and Traffic were both superior to Gangs of New York story-wise, so I wouldn't be surprised if they went with one of the more obscure films like the Hours or Chicago. Or maybe this is the year for the box office champ, TTT. Or does Gangs take it? Hard to say.

Gladiator won, not Traffic. And it was in 2000 not 2001.

oh, my bad, I origionally thought that it had won, and then some website I was looking at misled me, I guess they were talking about the Golden Globes. So, about About Shmidt, here's Harry Knowles' (of aintitcool.com) take on it:

"Nicholson is as good as he’s ever been in his career. He’s completely realized this character, a restrained and paced man, so you know this isn’t Jack playing the arched eyebrows and wolfish grin. He isn’t sticking to the Jack-crutches, this is Jack playing a role that very much, 3 years ago would have been played by Jack Lemmon. And that would have been a shame. I love Jack Lemmon, but watching Nicholson play with this role, that’s something that I haven’t seen before, and I’m quite taken with it.
Jack deserves any awards he may be nominated for or suggested for with this performance. It really is quite spectacular in its own quiet sort of way."

Harry is a total film nut and has a pretty good perspective on this, although sometimes his opinions are a bit nutty and over-enthusiastic. Not the first person I've read say it was one of Nicholson's best performances, however.

Nicholson's Oscars:
1997 Best Actor : As Good as It Gets
1983 Best Supporting Actor: Terms of Endearment
1975 Best Actor :One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
also garnered 2 other best actor, and 2 other best supporting actor nominations.

Lewis:
1993 Nominated for Best Actor : In the Name of the Father
1989 Winner : Best Actor :My Left Foot

I'm still leaning towards Lewis, as it was pretty generous, I thought, for them to hand the award to Nicholson for As Good as it Gets.

saw the pianist tonight. best actor race is between two guys- Nicholson and Adrien Brody for the Pianist. if you can get good odds on Brody to get nominated, run and take it and come tell me where you found it. if you can get great odds on him to win, you might want to take a small shot.

daniel day lewis will get nominated but won't win. people in LA are tired of the miramax bullshit. harvey is having a bad year and they will see snubbing him at the oscars as a good way to put him down.

AC

by the way, Nicholson is still the favorite in my mind. people in LA really like that movie. personally, it didn't do much for me. but add in the breadth of jack's work and he should win.

AC