While everything I've heard says Whitaker is excellent, I hope Peter O'Toole wins for best actor.
"Babel" was horrible. I hope it doesn't win anything.
Scorcese is due.
Eddie Murphy, from what I've heard, is fantastic. It's too bad he got detoured into b-grade Disney movies.
Wahlberg was excellent, but I hope it is Murphy.
I agree with all you wrote except I did like Babel. Peter o Toole is surely the nostalgic candidate,
Whitaker was outstanding in Last King of Scotland.
Eddie Murphy did so well in Dreamgirls
Babel will probably win more Oscars than it deserves. Movies that are very strange and not understood by the majority of people often do very well at the Oscars. I will be happy if Will Smith does end up winning an Oscar for Pursuit of Happiness, but I really don't see Forest Whitaker not getting an Oscar for his effort. They both did an excellent job in their roles. I'm hoping that the Departed does very well so that it also indirectly helps boost the sales of Howie Carr's book about the Boston Mafia: The Brothers Bulger! Good luck, and Cha-Ching!
From what I've heard, that was his decision -- once he had kids, he wanted to make movies he could watch with them. And while the Nutty Professor and Dr. Doolittle movies were mediocre, I can find very little to dislike about either Shrek.