OSCAR FIEND!

The Fiend takes on the Oscars in a live-blogging marathon. Keep refreshing this page to see our latest thoughts!

(Lou) Fun opening sequence. Great to see Back to the Future get some love.

(Sal) Greatest Opening Sequence ever?! Quite possibly! Felt very MTV Movie Awardsish, which isn't the worst thing. Alec Balwin was great. Liked how it went from Inception riff all the way to a Back to the Future one.

(Sal) Opening monologue was OK, too. The kids, Franco and Hathaway, have a chance to make this memorable.

(Lou) First award - art direction ALice in Wonderland. Deserving film for this. The hat for the award is a nice touch.

(Sal) Yes, Alice in Wonderland was artsy fartsy...

(Lou) Glad to see Inception win for Ciinematography. Was a really visually stunning film.

(Sal) Inception had the best cinematography of the last 5 years. Totally agreed with those. Can Tom Hanks just be funny again, though.

(Sal) Kirk Douglas schools all.

(Lou) Tough seeing Kirk Douglas like this. Though he is funny. Must admit to not seeing any of the movies for supporting actress. Melissa Leo is a pretty big upset though.

(Sal) Bleep'n' Oscars!

(Sal) There's an app for that? Really? Justin, come on, bro! Mila Kunis is incredible...

(Lou) Anybody know if Spike and Mike still run an animation festival? I need to see some shorts!

(Sal) Sadly, I saw none of the shorts, and even sadder: I've yet to see Toy Story 3! I'm sure it was worthy of the Oscar, though, it's freakin' Pixar!

(Lou) Can't believe I watched virtually no animation in 2010...

(Sal) Brolin and Bardem are freaking me out! Can they bring me a martini? That'll make me feel better.

(Lou) Going to be another of those nights where the big winners are films I haven't seen. Skipped Social Network, despite Fincher being behind it. Will have to go back and change that.

(Sal) Yeah, compared to last year where it was insane that I saw all of the best movie noms, this year is pretty much the norm for me.

(Lou) Anne Hathaway is awesome.

(Sal) James Franco as Marilyn Monroe...I won't sleep tonight.

(Lou) I actually find Russell Brand and Helen Mirren amusing. Who knew?

(Sal) OMG...I am sooo crushing on Helen Mirren. Wow.

(Lou) Rooting for Batman or a future Avenger.

(Lou) Batman wins!

(Sal) The Chameleon, Christian Bale, wins! Excellent! His dedication to his craft has not gone unnoticed. The man is great in everything he's in. I even liked him in Terminator: Salvation! Nice speech, strong, funny, very real. Good job, chap!

(Lou) Do we really need people plugging the network?

(Sal) Did Trent Reznor just win an Academy Award?!

(Lou) Wow. Never thought I'd see Nine Inch Nails win an Oscar.

(Sal) OK, so saying Scarlett Johanssen is hot is wasted breathe, but how about that sound mixer?!

(Lou) Hoping Inception wins more than just the more technical awards. I really loved this movie.

(Sal) Cate Blanchett's dress gets an ouchie from me. What is that?!

(Lou) Rick Baker remains one of the greatest makeup artists of all time.

(Sal) Meh, I didn't like the Wolfman, and the effects were OK, some nice transformations, but best of the year?! And Alice in Wonderland continues to keep artsy fartsy covered. I hated that movie.

(Lou) TV's Chuck can sing? Who knew?

(Sal) CHUCK SINGS!!!

(Lou) Does anyone ever see the short films?

(Sal) Jake and Rachel are so vanilla. They've tuned me out.

(Sal) But thanks to this big-haired freak for saving the segment! Award well won! hahahahaha!

(Sal) That pop music section was well done. The Justin Timberlake part was just spot on, it just sounded like his musical voice. "Does he even own a shirt!"

(Lou) Leave it to the documentarians to bring up the politics.

(Sal) Banksy was robbed! His doc was AMAZING! Although, I would've loved to have seen him collecting the award. Do cops chase him to the stage?!

(Lou) Always liked Bob Hope. Nice to see this tribute.

(Sal) Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law are awesome. They are a dynamic duo if there ever was one. Love their chemistry! Can't wait for Sherlock Holmes 2!

(Sal) A Fincher movie winning for film editing? Not shocking in the least. These guys, and all he's employed over his career are high artistes for sure.

(Lou) Glad Inception took the FX award, still think it has no shot at best picture, though it deserves it.

(Sal) Hathaway looks cute in red...and wow, go Jennifer Hudson!

(Lou) Can we just skip best song this year?

(Sal) Mercifully, the songs are done. Please, please, stop doing these, Oscars!!! Or consolidate them into one song. Have some rock star come out and jam out on them! Reunite Guns n' Roses for it!

(Lou) No need to kill the song category, just encourage better nominees. This is a category that Springsteen and Eminem have won before.

(Sal) I raise my glass to all of whom Hollywood has lost over the past year. To Leslie, Dennis, Dino, Blake, and all the esteemed rest. Thank you for your contributions.

(Sal) Best Director...Tom Hooper...and SHOCK.

(Lou) Arenofsky was robbed I tell you... robbed.

(Sal) I mean, I'm sure it was a great film and Hooper did a great job, but wow so many name-brand great directors and a name I don't know wins. I guess that's good? His speech was a tad short, too. Live it up, brother!

(Sal) So, I'm a little disappointed with Franco tonight. He seems stiff, nervous, sweaty? I dunno, it's alot of pressure to host and be nominated. Biggest night of his life for sure. Hathaway is cool as cucumber, though. Good job! Oooo, Jeff Bridges!

(Lou) Portman deserved this one. Glad to see her get it.

(Sal) Love Portman. Haven't seen the Swan yet, but she's great in everything. Well-deserved for a great career thus far. Cheers!

(Sal) Hey, this Firth guy is funny. Congrats. I guess I'll check out the King's Speech. Why the heck not?

(Lou) Can't say I have any desire to see The King's Speech, so I'll likely never know if I agree with Firth winning the award.

(Sal) After Hooper won best director, this wasn't much of a surprise. It's rare that Best Director/Picture aren't one and the same.

(Lou) See my previous comment.

(Sal) Give it up to the Staten Island kids for closing the show, and for Brooklyn's own Anne Hathaway for being excited about it! I like her a little more tonight. Great job!

(Lou) A good ending. Anne was great tonight.

Thanks to everyone for tuning in!

FIENDISH THOUGHTS: THE OSCARS

I grew up watching the Oscars, but kind of stopped caring about ten years ago. I still check them out now and again, and will usually try to put on the last hour or so, like I have on now, but I should care more now that Flix Fiend is around. That said, I think FF is still an infant and not quite ready to fully tackle an awards show in a way that would make sense for this site. Maybe next year.

That's not important, because obviously I'm still posting something Oscar related. So what I think is fascinating about this year's Oscars is the expansion of the Best Picture category. I'm not one of those folks that has to see every nominated movie, but there's a few this year that I've loved, and a couple I want to see. So, that makes it more interesting for me. Even more interesting is that two of my favorite directors, James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino, are nominated for Best Director. Also, I've dug Jason Reitman's first two flicks, and I've loved all of Kathryn Bigelow's movies prior to The Hurt Locker, which I've yet to see. What I'm getting at is that the expansion appears to be good for the awards. I say that because movies that I've loved are getting recognized! Wow, how novel!

So who would I want to win? I loved both Avatar and Inglorious Basterds, but I also thought District 9 was fantastic, still have to review that actually, and what can be said about Pixar's Up? (needs to be reviewed, too, I'm behind!) That was one of the best movies I had ever seen, and the fact that it has been nominated is so utterly overdue for this studio that they should just get it on merit.

Anyways, I like this ten movie idea, and I hope the Academy keeps expanding their views of what makes a Best Picture and a movie like The Hangover can get nominated next time, because that certainly deserved it. But, hey, we got a two sci-fi, an animated one, and a crazy Tarantino revisionist history flick, so the Oscars are heading in the right direction! Congrats to all the winners! (hopefully, two among the ones I mentioned! ;))