Lights, Camera, Naptime

It’s Oscar time and once again, I’ve only seen one and a half of the movies up for best picture. My in-laws watched the kids for a couple hours a few weeks ago so we could have dinner and go see a movie. We chose “The King’s Speech,” which was great.

Then last weekend, we broke down and, against our better judgment because our cable bill is already outrageously expensive, spent $5 for a Comcast On-Demand viewing of “The Social Network.” It was my idea to watch it and I chose the title, but I only made it through half of the movie before I fell asleep on the couch.

For the record, I liked what I saw, even though Comcast only offered a lame pan-and-scan, full-screen version of the film, rather than the preferred widescreen print. But it was one of those Saturday nights where I’d been up since 6 a.m. with the kids (when, oh when, do children discover the joys of sleeping in on the weekend?) and by 9:30 p.m., I was just exhausted.

We’ve always had vague plans each year to see all of the movies nominated for the top honor before the awards show with limited success. We kind of threw up our hands and said “oh well” last year when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences bumped the number of best picture nominees up from five to 10 films. It was like the academy convened and decided to find a way to further rub my face in the fact that we don’t get out to the movies like we used to, and that when we do, it’s often just a high-priced nap (yes, I fall asleep in the theater just like I do in the privacy of my own home).

There is a chance we’ll be able to catch a third Oscar-nominated film before the 83^rd Academy Awards are broadcast live on ABC (locally that’s WMAR-TV) at 8 p.m., on Sunday, Feb. 27. We have a copy of “Toy Story 3” on DVD, which we gave our daughter for Valentine’s Day. But my husband hasn’t seen “Toy Story 2” yet, so we’d have to watch that before we could watch the one that’s up for this year’s big award. Somehow, I don’t see that happening.