It turns out I wasn’t the only one with this brilliant insight, but viewers last weekend had a tough call: which would be the funnier parody, “Meet the Spartans” or “Rambo?” I haven’t seen the former except for the trailer, and I must say the guy playing the faux Rambo looks a lot more human than does Sylvester Stallone in his movie.

A few days have passed and I can finally take another look at what became of my Oscar nomination predictions. At first I thought that I had 25 right, beating last year’s miserable score of 24, out of 30. But no, I missed Cate Blanchett in “Elizabeth: the Golden Age” beating out Angelina Jolie in “A Mighty Heart.

The first impression I had of Heath Ledger when he entered the room for his “Brokeback Mountain” interview three years ago was how small and fragile he looked. Nothing like the hot-blooded warrior of “The Patriot” or the bungling jouster of “A Knight’s Tale” or even the character he played in “Brokeback,” that laconic, lean and secretly gay cowpoke who kicks the asses of a trio of drunks harassing his family.

With Daniel Day Lewis’s Golden Globe win and a per-screen b.o. average over $14,000 and even Republican presidential candidate John McCain taking a break from campaigning in South Carolina to watch the movie, “There Will Be Blood”’s tagline “I drink your milkshake” seems destined to become a pop cultural mantra, if not a new campaign slogan.

Add “zeitgeist” to the list.

I’ve been at my wits end trying to avoid resorting to it as I write my annual Oscar Nomination prediction story/folly. But nobody said kicking the habit would be easy. Maybe I need a cliché patch. At least there’s still “weltschmerz” and “schadenfreude.”

Speaking of the “z” word, I never knew the National Society of Film Critics (of which I am a member) to tap into it with their annual choice of Best Picture.

Some additions to the list:

“testosterone soaked” Thanks to Scott Hamrah for the heads up on this. Also "testosterone fueled."

“…on steroids”

“…on acid”

and “meets” -- a phrase which, in the interest of full disclosure (and maybe we should include “in the interests of full disclosure” on the list), I am personally guilty of using (“Chalk:” “’Election’ meets ‘The Office’”), as pointed out by the diligent people at eFilmCritic.

Since health or behaviorally related resolutions at this point in my life are probably futile, I’ll take the opportunity of the New Year to resolve to improve my writing style as a film critic. Such as not mixing up names (see below). Well, good luck on that. Maybe I’ll start on something a bit more doable, like cutting down on modifiers and eliminating clichés and mannerisms, or at least the ones listed below.