Oscar nominations are in!

In theaters Friday: Blood and Chocolate, Catch and Release, Epic Movie and Smokin’ Aces.

New on DVD: The Guardian, SherryBaby and The Puffy Chair.

Celebrity birthday: Ed Helms turns 33 today. Happy birthday Edward! If readers of the Filter don’t recognize the name, Helms has been actin’ a fool on The Daily Show for the last few years, and most recently, was seen last fall as an obnoxious sales exec on The Office co-starring with another Daily Show ex-pat, Steve Carell. So Ed, you’re next movie will be Evan Almighty, which also stars Steve Carell. Hmm. Well, Helms, if you were any further up Carell’s coat tails I wouldn’t be able to tell where you end and he begins. I know you’ve been offered the lead in the direct-to-video 40-Year-Old Virgin 2, but don’t do it!

Here are the nominees for the 79th Academy Awards. I thought The Departed was a great movie, but how can Mark Wahlberg be nominated in the best supporting actor category over Jack Nicholson? Sure Wahlberg had some hilarious dialogue, but it’s not like he wrote the lines himself, or had to carry the film like Nicholson and DiCaprio did. I can’t wrap my head around that. I’m going to think about these noms and post my predictions in the next Filter. Who do you think will win?

I saw The Oh in Ohio over the weekend. If you remember last summer, it was one of the indie comedies I was looking forward to, mainly because of its stars: Parker Posey and Paul Rudd. Of course its theatrical run did not include Baton Rouge theaters, so I didn’t see it until the DVD release. It was a major disappointment. Posey wasn’t nearly as funny as she is in the Christopher Guest films, or even in Superman Returns. At first Rudd was hilarious in his full-on, depressed shlub mode, but once he gets his act together, thanks to a fling with a student no less, he loses any trace of a personality. To me, it looked like he phoned in the rest of the movie. Mischa Barton was decent casting as an overly mature high school senior who goes after Rudd in order to “cure” him. Barton has that Gwyneth Paltrow air of condescending snootiness down pat, but her one-dimensional character and her relationship with Rudd are left completely unresolved. After a pretty funny and fast-paced start, the movie dissipates and unravels into nothing. Not even Danny DeVito as a squirrelly swimming pool contractor can save the second half of the movie. Oh, well.

Online video journals are a growing trend, especially for the sci-fi/fantasy set. Here is a sneak peek at the upcoming Sparta vs. Persia throwdown, 300.

Screenwriter David Koepp, who should probably get some kind of Nobel Prize for drafting an Indiana Jones 4 screenplay that Spielberg, Lucas and Ford are all happy with. Here’s a great little interview with Koepp. No spoilers of course, and while I’m still dubious that they can pull this movie off, this was somewhat reassuring to read.

Speaking of Koepp, the guy is on fire. He’s just been hired to write Spider-Man 4, another film that may or may not ever get made. The trailer for Spider-Man 3 looks great, but getting Tobey Maguire to return to the role for a fourth go-round may be Spidey’s biggest challenge yet.