Last Call for Oscars

NEW YORK – Last call for Oscars — four more movies squeak in under the wire for your consideration.  Do they deserve it?  Who you gonna trust but the Foxlight?

Black Hawk Down was supposed to come out next year.  Then the marketing guys decided a war movie where we kick a little Somolian behind is just what the country needs right now.  And, hey, if the Oscar voters are in a patriotic mood, this could win some statues.  Well the Golden Globes and most of the other awards have been unimpressed so far.  And the movie itself?  Imagine the first twenty minutes of Saving Private Ryan for two and a half hours. 

For a completely different war and the plucky gal who became a Mata Hari, how about Cate Blanchett as Charlotte Gray?  She's a World War II spy trying to save the world from the Nazis and find her boyfriend.

But for real Oscar firepower, you can't beat Sissy Spacek.  This is the quiet domestic storm In The Bedroom.  Sissy knows this is a good part, and she's ready. 

MCCUDDY:  Are you ready for an Oscar campaign? 

SPACEK:  Always ready.  Good thing. 

She's a shoo-in according to most critics.

Finally, some people love Sean Penn as a mentally handicapped father trying to win a custody battle for his daughter in I Am Sam.  Others think this has all the makings of a Lifetime movie.  And Michelle Pfeiffer as the attorney "that doesn't want to help him at first but we all see where this is going don't we" heroine of the movie who ought to sue the screenwriter.

If all this sounds depressing go see Ali.

And that's the always punchy world of Hollywood flicks, flacks and anxiety attacks we shine brightly in the interogation room glow of the Foxlight.