With a history-making blockbuster, several high-art, high-impact indie films and some bona fide crowd-pleasers in the mix for best picture, the Academy Awards are poised to put on a snappy, in some races suspenseful and -- could it be? -- audience-friendly and ratings-grabbing Oscar telecast.
Even if many folks here in town say it was an overall lackluster year for movies, the box office haul belies such a view, and not just because of "Avatar."
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