It’s that time of year again. The Oscar nominees have been announced, and that means that the Oscar Best Picture Marathon will be coming to a theater near me in about a month. Until then, I shall be dreaming of a day filled with free popcorn and all its buttery goodness.

For those not in the know, AMC Theaters plays a marathon of all the Oscar nominated movies for best picture (hence the name). In addition to the movies, you get a cool collector’s pass, and, best of all, all the free popcorn you can cram in your face hole. I attended my first marathon last year and enjoyed it so much that I decided that it was something I would like to do again.

This year, rather than just providing a recap of each movie after the fact, I decided to go above and beyond by providing some insight beforehand. You’re welcome.

So for those who don’t have any idea about this year’s Best Picture nominees, I have provided the list of nominees along with their directors (all of whom were also nominated in the Best Director category), as well as a brief plot synopsis, written as a haiku because, why not?

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – David Fincher A wrinkled baby,

Turns out he ages backwards,

An adverse journey.

Frost/Nixon – Ron Howard Disgraced President,

Gets some time in the hot seat,

A battle of wits.

Milk – Gus Van Sant Openly gay man,

Running for public office,

A hero for all?

The Reader – Stephen Daldry A woman on trial,

Crimes against humanity,

Hiding a secret.

Slumdog Millionaire – Danny Boyle Poor kid on game show,

How does he know the answers?

A story of love.

This list has some movies that I’m pretty excited about seeing, although there’s a couple movies that I would’ve liked to have seen on this list that aren’t, but we’ll get to that later. For now, I’ll just break down my thoughts and level of anticipation for each of the nominees.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:

The premise of this movie is certainly offbeat, but based on reviews it apparently doesn’t add to the film and ends up just being a gimmick. Despite that, I like Fincher (Seven, Fight Club, Zodiac) so I’m confident in that regard.

Level of Anticipation: B

Frost/Nixon:

On a whole, I find Ron Howard’s work to be a bit “Meh”, but I will admit that I’m interested in this movie. I like the idea of putting ‘the Man’ in check, and the fact that it’s based on actual events makes it all the more appealing.

Level of Anticipation: A-

Milk:

I seem to be in a minority in saying that I like Gus Van Sant, and I’m alright with that. I’m looking forward to his return to something mainstream, well, sort of mainstream any way. And if this is like anything he’s done over the past several years, it’ll be wonderfully shot, if nothing else.

Level of Anticipation: A

The Reader:

Honestly, the only reason that I have any interest in this movie is because of Roger Deakins. He was nominated in the Cinematography category for his work on this movie. He also received two nominations last year for No Country for Old Men and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Level of Anticipation: C+

Slumdog Millionaire:

Having won a handful of awards already (see Golden Globes, et cetera) this movie is the ‘big dog’ of the nominees. Because of this, I’m interested in seeing what all the hype is about. It does look like an inspiring movie with an interesting premise.

Level of Anticipation: A-

The Oscars, as we all know, are notable for their ‘snubs’ and this year is no exception. This year, two unlikely movies that managed to balance the fine line of critical and mass acclaim made bids for a Best Picture nomination but came up short. I’m, of course, speaking of WALL-E and The Dark Knight. It would appear that both movies suffered for not being standard Oscar genres, although if you ask me, both of these movies had more than what it takes to make the cut, but what do I know? At least WALL-E is a given to win the Best Animated Feature and The Dark Knight should take home a couple technical awards, as well as a Best Supporting Actor statue for the late Heath Ledger.

For those interested in enjoying the festivities, tickets go on sale today, and the showcase will take place February 21. And for those curious about which movie I think is going to win the Best Picture Oscar, I don’t know. I haven’t seen any of them yet. Ask me after I’ve had a day’s worth of movie theater popcorn.

This has been Jamie saying, “Suck it, you whittling IHOP monkeys!”