The Oscar buzz this year is all about ‘The King’s Speech‘, ‘The Social Network‘ and ‘The Black Swan.’

What’s missing? Arguably the best movie of the year, and arguably one of the best movies of the decade.

That movie is: ‘Inception.’

Despite all of the talk about the movie being “complicated” it really is very simple at its core: It’s about a group of thieves attempting an astounding heist – breaking into somebody’s mind.

Yes, people will argue that it was nominated for an Oscar for Best Picture. But it’s a meaningless gesture for several reasons:

• The Best Picture category has been expanded to ten films so it is easier for the academy to throw in some more films especially considering all of the crap Hollywood produces these days
• Christopher Nolan was excluded from the Best Director category
• A multi-layered film that relies heavily on editing for the purposes of telling the story was left out of the Best Editing category

This is not the first time Nolan has been snubbed. While one may argue superhero films aren’t deserving of Oscar nominations, one would be hard pressed to argue ‘The Dark Knight’ was not one of the best movies of 2008. After all, it was good enough to earn Heath Ledger an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. While receiving accolades for his work with ‘Memento’, he was not recognized by the Academy for his work on that film. I challenge anyone to come up with a director who has a better body of work over the last ten years (All of his films save for ‘Insomnia’ – Memento, The Prestige, Batman Begins, The Dark Knight and Inception are in the IMDB Top 250). To add to that, Nolan has been the writer of all of these great films (save for ‘Insomnia’ which was a remake) as well as directing them.

So why is ‘Inception’ the best movie of the year? Because it encompasses everything a Best Picture should have. It has an excellent story. It features great performances from an ensemble cast. It has exceptional writing (at least they recognized this aspect as it does have a Best Original Screenplay though the award will most certainly go to Aaron Sorkin who is the Stanley Kubrick of writers in Hollywood). It features a multi-layered environment that only the most skilled of directors could keep together in cohesive fashion. It is also one of the few original movies to come out of Hollywood.

However, in the idiotic world of Hollywood, a movie gets a knock against it because it happens to have action sequences and some special effects. That is just a shame. Nolan hasn’t been given the due he rightfully deserves with ‘Inception’ and as such, I will not watch The Academy Awards this year.

Thoughts?

The idea for this was actually given to me by Tyler Braun after he saw several tweets I had thrown out about Netflix movies and I thought it was great so I will go for it. Thanks Tyler! Not bad for a Twins fan. Ha.

My goal for this is twofold:

1. To try and stick with movies that are available for streaming so people have more instance access to the movies

2. To attempt to choose movies that many people may not have seen, but probably should. Therefore, I won’t select titles such as ‘Terminator 2′ because almost everybody on the planet has seen it.

I hope you like this weekly feature and throw out suggestions if you have any.

The first pick is ‘Runaway Train’, a film about two escaped convicts aboard a runaway train that is making its way through desolate areas of Alaska.

The movie stars Jon Voight as Oscar ‘Manny’ Manheim, a violent criminal at Stonehaven Maximum Security Prison. Because of two previous escape attempts, Associate Warden Rankin (John P Ryan) — quick timeout here. Is there any profession more negatively stereotyped in television and movies than prison wardens? It is rare in my view to find a movie or show where the warden is not A. Corrupt B. Sadistic or C. Both. Ok, onward — has the door to Manny’s cell welded shut. A court order forces Rankin to release Manheim back into the general population where he immediately begins to plot his escape.

Assisted by dimwitted Buck (Eric Roberts), who decides at the last minute to escape with Manny, they take off int the dead of night. After traveling for awhile on foot, they both hop on a train consisting of four engines. Just as the train is moving out, the engineer suffers a heart attack. Instead of closing the throttle, he pulls the emergency brake and as such, the engines overpower them and the brake shoes burn off. The only other person on board is Sara (Rebecca De Mornay) a train worker that happened to be sleeping on one of the other engines.

What follows is what can be expected from a movie with this title. Various disasters are closely averted and the sub-plot of Warden Rankin going after Manny & Buck plays into the mix as well. Director Andrei Konchalovsky provides a brisk pace and does an excellent job maintaining tension throughout, not only with the action but also with the characters.

It is Voight’s performance as Manny that stands out above all else. Voight was nominated for an Oscar for his performance and won a Golden Globe award. The accolades were well deserved as Voight is simply mesmerizing as the shrewd but ruthless criminal. His lesson to Buck about what life is really going to be like on the outside as a prison escapee is sad and terrifying all at the same time.

There are some negatives. It was made in 1985 so some of the technology is obviously dated and it was at a time when awful, cheesy synthesized soundtracks were used. But that doesn’t detract overall from this film.

Give it a look.

** The movie is rated R by the MPAA for scenes of violence and profanity