REEL TALK's with you for your Oscar fix. From the red carpet to the teary-eye speeches, here's our up-to-the minute Academy Awards commentary.

9:38: So far no big surprises - except for how lame Jon Stewart's jokes are. Javier Bardem finally claimed the award he basically won 3 months ago. Biggest shocker so far? The Golden Compass winning visual effects over "Transformers." What a travesty!!

9:39 - Alison Bailes: It's so typical that the Oscar for best animated feature went to "Ratatouille." Not that it wasn't a great film, but wouldn't it have been great to see "Persepolis" win? Something different than the usual Disney/Pixar effort. Makes me wonder how many of the voting members actually saw "Persepolis."

9:44: "Peter and the Wolf?!?" Drat. My Oscar pool is collapsing rapidly. I thought any film with 'Walrus' in the title was a shoo-in. BTW, anyone else sick of "The Bee Movie" tie-ins? Ugh.

9:49: The first surprise of the night - Tilda wins out over Cate and Ruby Dee. Dont think too many people picked her. And even fewer would have thought the funniest acceptance speech would come from her. Go Tilda!

9:52: It took almost until 10 P.M. to get our first Jack Nicholson cutaway and joke.

9:55: The "No Country for Old Men" caravan keeps rolling. The Coen brothers just grabbed Best Adapted Screenplay. The first of several for the brothers, we suspect.

10:00: Mixed reaction in my apartment for the Kristin Chenoweth version of 'That’s How You Know' from Enchanted. I liked it but my wife Cindi thought it stunk.
And was I the only one hoping Miley Ray Cyrus would fall while walking to the mic?

10:05: Seth Cohen and Jonah Hill save the day! Their 'im halle berry, youre dame judi dench' routine was priceless!! And whats the difference between Sound Editing and Sound Mixing?? Isn't it the same thing?? Why have two categories???
My head hurts.

10:18: How great was it to see Marion Cotillard win in a category full of superb performances? Her speech will lead all the news packages, just watch. That was pure joy on her face. Good for her. Marion's any absolute babe, inside and out. I'm just sad my personal fave Cate Blanchett is going home empty-handed.

10:18: When I spoke to Tilda Swinton at Sundance this year, she expressed relief that there might not be any big awards shows due to the writers' strike. She said she was daunted at the thought of the red carpet and having to dress up in a posh frock. I love that honesty, and a woman who doesn't bow to the ridiculous standards of Hollywood's idea of beauty. How refreshing to see an actress comfortable enough in her own skin to go to the Oscars without makeup!!

10:18: The two leads from "Once" had the best performance so far. Simply perfect almost makes me want to root for them - except i picked 'That’s How You Know' in the pool.

10:40: Strange seeing Jack Nicholson doing such an early segment. I always expect him to do Best Picture or at least Best Director. Doesn't the Academy realize "The Bucket List" has made over 85 million at the box office??

10:50: Three nominations for the same movie and still, Disney's Enchanted came up empty in Best Original Song.
The couple from 'Once' were just as deserving and a win certainly does more for them career-wise than another win for the Disney empire.

11:00: When people look back on the 80th annual Oscars, the most memorable moment will be when he decided to amend the Academy's mistake of cutting off Markéta Irglová's speech after winning Best Original Song by giving her a chance to say her thanks. And what a touching speech, saluting the spirit of indie filmmaking. Classy move by Stewart.

11:05: I can't believe the Academy's production team couldn't find a way to insert five seconds of video at the end of the obit piece to salute Roy Scheider. Disgraceful oversight of an actor who was not only a 2-time Oscar nominee but just a tremendous actor. He also muttered one of the most famous lines in history - one so famous that I’m not even going to write it here because if you’re reading this you should know it.

Cant believe he didn’t get the proper respect, considering he passed away so recently. Shame on you, Academy!

11:45: Daniel Day-Lewis was the easiest call of the night.

The Coen Brothers for Best Director was a close second.

This year's Oscars has turned out to be very predictable. How much that impacts the ratings, who knows? I bet they’re lower than usual.

12:00: The biggest surprise of the night for me was that the show wrapped before midnight.

But aside from that, it was pretty by-the-book, with few surprises since most of the major winners were correctly forecasted.

There's nothing the producers can do about that. But hopefully next year, with no writers strike going on, they can work on jazzing up the show a bit. Just felt a bit...I don't know. Stale. Maybe it's just me. I'm bitter because I lost my Oscar pool, AGAIN.