ENTERTAINMENT

The Oscars put a hurting on Avatar as Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker upset the highest-grossing movie of all time to take home awards for best picture, director and four others.
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Maurstad: Show goes on and on
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Nominees and winners
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Clockwise: Precious, Avatar, Up in the Air and Up are among the 10 Best Picture nominees.

One film will get the big glory Sunday night at the Academy Awards, deemed the best of the year by a jury of its peers. Other talent – actors, writers, a director – will also walk away happy, secure in the knowledge that you like them, you really like them. But it will take much longer for another, weightier judge to reach a verdict. That would be Father Time, the long-term arbiter that separates indelible classics from flashes in the pan.
List of nominess
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Sony Pictures Classics

Christopher Plummer is shown in a scene from The Last Station.

He has played F.D.R., Rudyard Kipling, Aristotle, John Barrymore and Mike Wallace. Now he's got a couple of new roles on display. He's an elderly Leo Tolstoy in The Last Station, which opened in Dallas on Friday. At age 80, he's also a first-time Oscar nominee. Where fans might ask what took the Academy so long, Plummer does a dazzling impression of a man just happy to be here.
Movie review: The Last Station | More recent releases
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Chat replay: The movies staff discusses the Oscar nominees for actor and actress

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Clint Eastwood

In 1997, film critic and historian Richard Schickel made a documentary called Eastwood on Eastwood. Thirteen years later, with the release Feb. 16 of the gargantuan ($179.98 suggested retail) box set Clint Eastwood: 35 Films 35 Years at Warner Bros., Schickel is once again chronicling the Eastwood legacy.
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Chat replay: Chris Vognar, Tom Maurstad and others discuss the Oscar nominees for actor and actress

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Up in the Air and Avatar are up for best picture.

Avatar may have nine Oscar nominations, but to hear some tell it, James Cameron's visual marvel isn't even a good movie. The most common complaint, usually sniffed with nose in the air, has been repeated often enough to become a cliché: "The story isn't good enough." Indeed, if it goes on to win the Big One, Avatar will do so without the benefit of a screenwriting nomination.
Chat replay: Chris Vognar and Tom Maurstad discussed the nominees for the supporting roles
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Smaller, independent films still have a comfortable place in the Oscar firmament, Vognar says.
'Avatar,' 'Hurt Locker' top nods
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Link: Academy Awards official site

Paramount Home Entertainment

Director Francis Ford Coppola's epic trilogy

The Couch Potato admits that sometimes he thinks the whole DVD thing is a scam. Case in point: Movie lovers had cause to rejoice when the Godfather films were first released on DVD. Then in 2008, all three chapters came out in a handsome Blu-ray package, with a high-definition restoration overseen by Francis Ford Coppola. Fancy.
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Clockwise, from top left, winners for Best Motion Picture Drama categories: James Cameron (Director, Motion Picture - Avatar), Mo'Nique (Actress in a Supporting Role), Jeff Bridges (Actor) and Sandra Bullock (Actress)

Chris Vognar: Those who tune into the Golden Globes generally do so for two reasons. There's a solid chance of seeing drunken celebrities act like fools. And sometimes, though not always, the Globes indicate who might win at the Oscars, otherwise known as The Awards That Matter.

Tom Maurstad: All seemed on their best behavior, and that's too bad
List: Nominees and winners
Quoted: What they're saying about the Golden Globes | Photos
Link: GoldenGlobes.org
Relive the night: The show | The red carpet

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Clockwise: John Hamm in Mad Men, Lea Michele in Glee, George Clooney in Up in the Air and Zoe Saldana in Avatar.

Sunday night's Golden Globes awards show for movies and TV is considered the fun one. The booze flows freely, and a looser, table-hopping vibe prevails. Here are the nominees, with predictions and picks for movies from critic Chris Vognar and TV from critic Tom Maurstad:
Shopping Blog: Fashion writers' views of the Sunday red carpet
Movies Blog: Join the Golden Globes discussion at 7 p.m. Sunday
List: Nominees and winners

Warner Bros.

Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais

A lowly drone gains power and learns life lessons when he becomes the first person ever to lie. Sounds a little like a rightfully abandoned Jim Carrey vehicle, maybe Liar, Bruce Almighty, Liar! But The Invention of Lying, out next week on DVD and Blu-ray, manages to weave a little droll comedy gold from its high-concept premise.
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