OSCAR Predictions - Despite the fact that I will Still Boycott!

[Flashframe777]

Still boycotting... I need to do this for closure.

But I always try and predict the winners regardless of whether or not I will watch the films.

Wasn't that the problem with the Academny and Brokeback Mountain?  Oh, no, the problem was that the Academy refused to WATCH the film before voting.

My predictions - feel free to add your own.

Based on my belief that the Academy hates the Hollywood Foreign Press, and acts out against its winners I say:

Best Movie -  "The Queen"

Best Actress -  Helen Mirren *****oh wait...she won the Globe...

so I now I lean toward Judi Dench.  I'm not even sure if Judi Dench was in a movie this year, but she's British...the Academy often associates accents with the ability to act.

Best Actor - Leonardo DiCaprio

Best Director - Blah, Blah, Scorcese, Blah, Blah.

Best Supporting Actress - Some English Actress - pick one.

Best Supporting Actor - Djimon Hounsou

[ednbarby]

Here are mine:


Best Movie -  The Departed (that'll satisfy their need to go against the HFPA's picks, and squelch any rumors that they're purposely picking underdog films whose directors didn't win to get more viewers)

Best Actress -  Helen Mirren - might as well give it to her now.  The nice thing is she actually deserves it.

Best Actor - Forest Whitaker (I disagree with you on going against the HFPA on this one - they do *love* their impersonations, after all)

Best Director - Martin Scorcese

Best Supporting Actress - Jennifer Hudson (they also love their musicals, and this will be Dreamgirls' Consolation Prize for not winning BP)

Best Supporting Actor - Leonardo DiCaprio for The Departed - if the production company is smart and markets him for Best Supporting Actor instead of Best Actor in this one.  If they're not, then Ben Affleck for Hollywoodland (they do also love their docudramas about themselves) or Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine

And I'm still boycotting, too.  And not just this year.  From now on.  My husband doesn't believe me and thinks I'm being "silly" about it.  Just goes to show how really little he knows me.  I'll say it the right way, unlike certain of our retarded leaders:  Fool me once, shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me.

The AMPAS is done as far as I'm concerned.  But I'm happy to predict their winners just to prove how well I understand the way they "think."  (And how f***ed up it is.)

[Kd5000]

I don't think Leo should be issuing statements saying something to the effect that it's awful that Scorsese doesn't have an Oscar yet.  Those ppl  (Academy Members) don't like to be lectured to. If anything it could backfire. I hope Scorsese and not Eastwood wins for Best Director.

It would be nice to see THE QUEEN win.  So many of the Academy members are older and films like this might appeal to them as opposed to The Departed.

I won't be watching the OSCARS, first time in my lifetime I have not.

[Anya_Angie]

Nost folks in the score community I know are rooting for The Fountain to win Best Score... Whether it will or not, I don't know.

[MaineWriter]

Barb, I like your picks..I think you are spot on, but Kd might be right about The Queen. And frankly, it would follow the trend of picking a fairly mediocre movie as Best Picture. Don't get me wrong...I thought Helen Mirren was fantastic and I totally agree that she will (and should) win Best Actress. But the actual movie I thought was sort of ... blah. Plus, one-third of it (at least) was stuff from CNN. That's not movie-making in my book.

But I am with the rest of you...I won't be watching the foolish thing.

L

[SFEnnisSF]

Screw 'em all.  The O (I ain't sayin' it's name) doesn't mean anything.  It's worthless, and it's not even worth predicting who will win, since it's not based on merit.  F*ck 'em all ta hell.  The Academy can take the O and shove it.

[Kelda]

Screw 'em all.  The O (I ain't sayin' it's name) doesn't mean anything.  It's worthless, and it's not even worth predicting who will win, since it's not based on merit.  F*ck 'em all ta hell.  The Academy can take the O and shove it.

say how you feel Eric, why don't youl!!!

 

(But I agree!)

[SFEnnisSF]

 

[Anya_Angie]

Screw 'em all.  The O (I ain't sayin' it's name) doesn't mean anything.  It's worthless, and it's not even worth predicting who will win, since it's not based on merit.  F*ck 'em all ta hell.  The Academy can take the O and shove it.

Unfortunately I know a lot of film score fans who have said that after Brokeback WON last year for Score. Some even felt that way back when the nominations for score were revealed.

[ednbarby]

@ Eric.

You make an excellent point about The Queen, Leslie (and you, too, Flash), and one with which I totally agree.  I loved Helen Mirren's performance, but I only liked the movie.  It was mediocre at best.

I didn't know about this Leo lecturing stuff going on.  In that case, can I re-predict?

Best Director: Clint Eastwood for "Letters From Iwo Jima"

Best Supporting Actor: either Eddie Murphy or (more likely) Alan Arkin

Best Picture:  The Queen (since Letters will win for Best Foreign Language Film)

_________________________________


And now I'm gonna make a prediction that you can all take to the bank:  Chances of Barb watching this year's O telecast:  Zero.  Here, I'll add another one for ya:  Chances of Barb ever watching the O telecast again:  Zero.  So many people doubt me on this, since like kd, this will be the first year since the year I started (when I was 8 years old) that I won't be watching it.  But as quoth the raven, "Nevermore."  As my Dad says, mark my words.

[MaineWriter]

Something has just come to mind...what about Mark Wahlberg for Best Supporting Actor for The Departed? I thought he was terrific, the best thing in that movie.

L

[Flashframe777]

I really think Jennifer Hudson is going to LOSE the Best Sup Actress award, and here's why:

1) that thingy that the Academy hates mirroring the Globes.

2) Jennifer was great with all of her performances when they were connected to singing.  However, there were many places when her delivery was disconnected from her dialogue.  They were small moments, but they were consistently disconnected moments.  Watch it again, and you'll see.

I loved her performance, and I really want her to win the Oscar, but I really don't see it happening based on technicality.

3)  Oscar has to always deliver a heartbreaking shoulda woulda coulda Oscar denial...just to let people know they're above public opinion.  All signs point to Jennifer this year.  They're not feeling as sympathetic to black actors this year...I mean, black actors are soooo 2 years ago (I joke...black man here...just a joke).

Though Eddie Murphy was excellent as the James Brown-based characer, there is a snowball's chance in hell that he'll even be nominated.  Danny Glover, who has to be the worst actor of all time (yep, right down there with Ali McGraw), might even be nominated over him if only because he finally delivered his first performance with some semblance of decent acting.

[Pipedream]

You forgot one important category! 

Best foreign language movie:

Das Leben der Anderen (aka The Lives of Others, Germany 2006)



Sorry, I'm just being a bit patriotic here. I hope this film gets nominated. It was great and received quite a bunch of awards already.

 

[ednbarby]

Something has just come to mind...what about Mark Wahlberg for Best Supporting Actor for The Departed? I thought he was terrific, the best thing in that movie.

L

I think he has a shot at being nominated, but I don't see him winning.  (Even though he should.)

[ednbarby]

Again, Flash, you make an excellent point about Jennifer Hudson.  Maybe they'll get really loopy and pick that girl from Little Miss Sunshine.  She was quite good, and it's been a while since they've awarded a mere child.

[Ellemeno]

Hey Flash, I LIKE Danny Glover. 

[Flashframe777]

Hey Flash, I LIKE Danny Glover. 

Oh Elle,  I'm sorry.  It's okay to like him.  I never cared for his acting, and well, after meeting him...um.   Okay, how do I put a positive spin on this? There are actors whose work I never cared for, and I changed my mind after meeting them. 

Maybe the next time I meet Mr. Glover he will join their ranks.  You know, if the old saying "first impressions are most often correct", is a lie.

[ednbarby]

I'm not much of a fan of Danny Glover's acting, myself.  I've never seen him do anything where I could not see him acting.  Everything he does just seems to be an extension of him, only more polished.

Whereas the following actors created something that exists outside of themselves for me:

Sidney Poitier in "In the Heat of the Night"
Ralph Fiennes in "Emily Bronte's 'Wuthering Heights'" and "Schindler's List"
Morgan Freeman in "Driving Miss Daisy"
Jodie Foster in "The Accused" and "The Silence of the Lambs"
Matt Damon in "Good Will Hunting"
Gwyneth Paltrow in "Shakespeare in Love" and "Proof"
Ashley Judd in "Ruby in Paradise"
Bobby Canavale in "The Station Agent"
Heath Ledger in "Brokeback Mountain"
Jake Gyllenhaal in "Donnie Darko" and "Brokeback Mountain"
Helen Mirren in "The Queen"
Forest Whitaker in "The Crying Game" and "The Last King of Scotland"

And then there's Judi Dench, who's managed to create something outside of herself in *everything* she's ever done.  But Danny Glover?  No.  Not so much.

[Ellemeno]

Okay, I'll switch it to I like the movie Grand Canyon and his character in it, which was what I was thinking of when I said I like Danny Glover.

[ednbarby]

Sorry, Elle.  I get a tad carried away at times.    

I like that movie, too. 

[adrian]

Screw 'em all.  The O (I ain't sayin' it's name) doesn't mean anything.  It's worthless, and it's not even worth predicting who will win, since it's not based on merit.  F*ck 'em all ta hell.  The Academy can take the O and shove it.

My sentiments exactly!

[Anya_Angie]

I doubt I'm going to watch the Oscars, but because of my great love for Ennio Morricone I am planning to tape them. He's getting the Lifetime Achievement Award. Bout bloody time he got SOMETHING!

[Pipedream]

I doubt I'm going to watch the Oscars, but because of my great love for Ennio Morricone I am planning to tape them. He's getting the Lifetime Achievement Award. Bout bloody time he got SOMETHING!

Totally agree with you, Angie! Long live Ennio! 

Here's one of his greatest compositions: 

http://www.divshare.com/download/62377-98b

[opinionista]

Screw 'em all.  The O (I ain't sayin' it's name) doesn't mean anything.  It's worthless, and it's not even worth predicting who will win, since it's not based on merit.  F*ck 'em all ta hell.  The Academy can take the O and shove it.

What Eric says. I totally second that.

[Front-Ranger]

Re: Ennio. I posted something about him here:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,905.msg143499.html#msg143499

We should get ourselves to NY during February!!

Have you seen the new version of Once Upon A Time in the West? It is fantastico!

[adrian]

Is anyone from Brokeback Mountain presenting???  Ang Lee, so far, have not made an appearance at any award show to present Best Director.

[Ellemeno]

Is anyone from Brokeback Mountain presenting??? 

Hi Adrian

Is there a way of finding out who is presenting at awrds shows ahead of time?

[adrian]

Hi Adrian

Is there a way of finding out who is presenting at awrds shows ahead of time?

This is all there is so far...

Presenters at the 2007 Academy Awards will include 2006 Academy Award winner George Clooney (Oscar for Best Supporting Actor), Rachel Weisz (Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress), Reese Witherspoon (Oscar winner for Best Actress) and Philip Seymour Hoffman (Best Actor Academy Award Winner).

[ednbarby]

It's looking like Jake will be presenting at the SAG Awards.  I've seen no official announcement, but in Entertainment Weekly, their ad includes a head-shot of him among others as being part of the "star-studded" event or some such thing.

He presented at the Oscars last year.  And now that I guess he's an Academy member, they'll probably ask him to present this year.  Again, all part of The Apology That Wasn't.

He could present completely naked and I still wouldn't watch.  If that ain't enough to make you all realize I'm serious, I don't know what is.

[Kelda]

He could present completely naked and I still wouldn't watch.  If that ain't enough to make you all realize I'm serious, I don't know what is.

  Bet you would download it on you tube though!!

[ednbarby]

Well...  Yeah.   

[chefjudy]

  no one has mentioned Jackie Earle Haley from Little Children whose character was both pathetic and scary - his
performance has been called the comeback of the year, hell the last decade or two!!  I thought I knew most actors from
the late 60's and 70's but I never heard of him before.  He makes his tremendously good role, that much more tangible
and yet seamless - Bravo!  Check it out if you haven't seen it yet.  I would love to see him win but a nomination is great too!

   He did it!! snagged an Oscar nomination - way to go Jackie!!  I'll keep my fingers crossed for you!

[ednbarby]

Jackie Earle Haley was in one of the Bad News Bears movies - the second one, I think.  And he was in one of my favorite movies ever, Breaking Away.  I think he reprised the role on the short-lived (but actually quite good) TV series based on that movie.  Breaking Away was also Dennis Quaid's first film, I think, and he and Jackie basically stole it from the "star" Dennis Christopher, as charming as he was.

I haven't seen Little Children yet but very much want to.  I keep hearing and reading good things about his performance in it, too.

[MaineWriter]

For all you boycotters, here are the nominations:

Complete list of the 79th Annual Academy Award nominations announced Tuesday

at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Beverly Hills, Calif.:

1. Best Picture: "Babel," "The Departed," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Little Miss Sunshine," "The Queen."

2. Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond"; Ryan Gosling, "Half Nelson"; Peter O'Toole, "Venus"; Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"; Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland."

3. Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Volver"; Judi Dench, "Notes on a Scandal"; Helen Mirren, "The Queen"; Meryl Streep, "The Devil Wears Prada"; Kate Winslet, "Little Children."

4. Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Jackie Earle Haley, "Little Children"; Djimon Hounsou, "Blood Diamond"; Eddie Murphy, "Dreamgirls"; Mark Wahlberg, "The Departed."

5. Supporting Actress: Adriana Barraza, "Babel"; Cate Blanchett, "Notes on a Scandal"; Abigail Breslin, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Jennifer Hudson, "Dreamgirls"; Rinko Kikuchi, "Babel."

6. Directing: Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, "Babel"; Martin Scorsese, "The Departed"; Clint Eastwood, "Letters From Iwo Jima"; Stephen Frears, "The Queen"; Paul Greengrass, "United 93."

7. Foreign Language Film: "After the Wedding," Denmark; "Days of Glory (Indigenes)," Algeria; "The Lives of Others," Germany; "Pan's Labyrinth," Mexico; "Water," Canada.

8. Adapted Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, "Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan"; Alfonso Cuaron and Timothy J. Sexton and David Arata and Mark Fergus and Hawk Ostby, "Children of Men"; William Monahan, "The Departed"; Todd Field and Tom Perrotta, "Little Children"; Patrick Marber, "Notes on a Scandal."

9. Original Screenplay: Guillermo Arriaga, "Babel"; Iris Yamashita and Paul Haggis, "Letters From Iwo Jima"; Michael Arndt, "Little Miss Sunshine"; Guillermo del Toro, "Pan's Labyrinth"; Peter Morgan, "The Queen."

10. Animated Feature Film: "Cars," "Happy Feet," "Monster House."

11. Art Direction: "Dreamgirls," "The Good Shepherd," "Pan's Labyrinth," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "The Prestige."

12. Cinematography: "The Black Dahlia," "Children of Men," "The Illusionist," "Pan's Labyrinth," "The Prestige."

13. Sound Mixing: "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond," "Dreamgirls," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

14. Sound Editing: "Apocalypto," "Blood Diamond," "Flags of Our Fathers," "Letters From Iwo Jima," "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest."

15. Original Score: "Babel," Gustavo Santaolalla; "The Good German," Thomas Newman; "Notes on a Scandal," Philip Glass; "Pan's Labyrinth," Javier Navarrete; "The Queen," Alexandre Desplat.

16. Original Song: "I Need to Wake Up" from "An Inconvenient Truth," Melissa Etheridge; "Listen" from "Dreamgirls," Henry Krieger, Scott Cutler and Anne Preven; "Love You I Do" from "Dreamgirls," Henry Krieger and Siedah Garrett; "Our Town" from "Cars," Randy Newman; "Patience" from "Dreamgirls," Henry Krieger and Willie Reale.

17. Costume: "Curse of the Golden Flower," "The Devil Wears Prada," "Dreamgirls," "Marie Antoinette," "The Queen."

18. Documentary Feature: "Deliver Us From Evil," "An Inconvenient Truth," "Iraq in Fragments," "Jesus Camp," "My Country, My Country."

19. Documentary (short subject): "The Blood of Yingzhou District," "Recycled Life," "Rehearsing a Dream," "Two Hands."

20. Film Editing: "Babel," "Blood Diamond," "Children of Men," "The Departed," "United 93."

21. Makeup: "Apocalypto," "Click," "Pan's Labyrinth."

22. Animated Short Film: "The Danish Poet," "Lifted," "The Little Matchgirl," "Maestro," "No Time for Nuts."

23. Live Action Short Film: "Binta and the Great Idea (Binta Y La Gran Idea)," "Eramos Pocos (One Too Many)," "Helmer & Son," "The Saviour," "West Bank Story."

24. Visual Effects: "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "Poseidon," "Superman Returns."

Academy Award winners previously announced this year:

HONORARY AWARD (Oscar statuette): Ennio Morricone

JEAN HERSHOLT HUMANITARIAN AWARD (Oscar statuette): Sherry Lansing

Leslie

[moremojo]

The nomination of "Pan's Labyrinth" for Best Foreign Language Film is the one reason I would be tempted to watch this year's ceremonies. Still don't plan on doing so, though.

[Anya_Angie]

15. Original Score: "Babel," Gustavo Santaolalla; "The Good German," Thomas Newman; "Notes on a Scandal," Philip Glass; "Pan's Labyrinth," Javier Navarrete; "The Queen," Alexandre Desplat.

*gasp* I cannot believe it, the Academy really does not respect scores. My hopes were dashed with Finding Neverland and restored with Brokeback Mountain, but this? I'm sure there's two in there that are worthy of the nomination but to neglect THE FOUNTAIN? Or Lady In The Water? Not to mention Thomas Newman got nominated for the wrong score!

No wonder Bernard Herman left the Academy in the 70s.

[Flashframe777]

The best call on this thread was whoever called MARKY MARK - Wahlberg. 

The best thing about the Oscars 2007?  There isn't the slightest reason to watch.

Snoresville.

But I'm glad the actors, tresses, energy, something, um -Pan's, diversity....

ooh, all this Oscar talk is making me hungry for an Oscar Mayer Hot Dog.

[ednbarby]

The best call on this thread was whoever called MARKY MARK - Wahlberg. 

The best thing about the Oscars 2007?  There isn't the slightest reason to watch.

Snoresville.

But I'm glad the actors, tresses, energy, something, um -Pan's, diversity....

ooh, all this Oscar talk is making me hungry for an Oscar Mayer Hot Dog.

That would be Leslie (MaineWriter).  And I concurred.  And it was the one thing I was happy to see in all the nominations.  After Forest Whitaker's, the one performance that stands out to me this year is his in The Departed.  And believe me, being glad for Marky Mark being nominated for an acting award is one thing I never thought I'd do.  Then I watched him steal that movie.  And enjoyed every second of it.

And I'm with you - beyond that, *YAWN*.  It's almost unfair how easy it's going to be for me to not watch this year.  I do still regret that I'll miss Ellen Degeneres' probably brilliant hosting of it.  But that's all I'm ever going to regret missing where they're concerned, I'm fairly certain.

[ednbarby]

Oh, right - An Inconvenient Truth.  I'm sorry I'll miss seeing that (most likely) win.  But then, winning doesn't really matter, anyway, so no big whoop.

And I haven't seen Pan's Labyrinth yet, but I plan to this weekend.  Judging from the glowing reviews here, it'll probably emerge as my new favorite of the year.

[ednbarby]

Well, at the risk of sounding self-congratulatory, that sounds wonderful, Adrian.  I can't wait! 

[MaineWriter]

The best call on this thread was whoever called MARKY MARK - Wahlberg. 

Wow, thanks!

That's the first time in my life I have ever made a call like that and gotten complimented!

Leslie

[MaineWriter]

My best pic predictions:

If the Academy is in an ensemble mood, as they were last year: Babel will win.

If they want to keep best picture/best director together, then Letters from Iwo Jima and Clint Eastwood will win.

If they want to go with the trend of picking a sort of mediocre/safe movie, then The Queen will win.

Little Miss Sunshine is way too quirky and doesn't have a prayer.

My bet: with all that is going on in Washington and the world, they are going to go patriotic (and think they are sending some sort of a message) with Letters and Clint.

And Martin loses again.

Leslie

[adrian]

If they want to keep best picture/best director together, then Letters from Iwo Jima and Clint Eastwood will win.

Hi Leslie,

I haven't seen this, but isn't this movie in Japanese?  It was in the Foreign Language Film catagory in the GGlobes.  I think people are tired of war and any reminders of war, and will vote against it. (Just my POV)

Maybe I just don't like Clint because of how he received BBM last year.  It must've been hard for him to pass the Best Director award to Ang Lee for BBM.


....BUT, I WILL STILL BOYCOTT THE OSCARS.

[ednbarby]

I didn't know about Clint Eastwood not receiving BBM well, Adrian.  Do elaborate...

I'm with you on the "sick of war" thing.  I predict that Babel will win for Best Picture but that Scorsese will *finally* win for Best Director.  They will figure Best Director is "enough" for him.  And they do love their friggin' ensemble pieces.

[MaineWriter]

I didn't know about Clint Eastwood not receiving BBM well, Adrian.  Do elaborate...

I'm with you on the "sick of war" thing.  I predict that Babel will win for Best Picture but that Scorsese will *finally* win for Best Director.  They will figure Best Director is "enough" for him.  And they do love their friggin' ensemble pieces.

I want Scorsese to win...he should have won with GoodFellas for God's sake...but I read an ominous article that said any time he is nominated with Clint, Clint will win out.

Leslie

[MaineWriter]

Hi Leslie,

I haven't seen this, but isn't this movie in Japanese?  It was in the Foreign Language Film catagory in the GGlobes.  I think people are tired of war and any reminders of war, and will vote against it. (Just my POV)

I haven't seen it either, but I am addicted to reviews. Yes, it is in Japanese, but it is directed by an American and produced through an American studio (Warner Brothers) so I guess that makes it an American movie.

I think people are tired of war but, the Academy can use this as a way to "send a message" about the futility of war, the senseless loss of life and so on. Quoting from Roger Ebert's review, he writes:

"The Imperial Headquarters is deceiving not just the people but us as well," Kuribayashi says. It's a line that could have been adapted from "Flags of Our Fathers," which was also an examination of various forms of propaganda, codes of honor, and nationalistic symbolism that are among the primary weapons in any war.

and later, same review:

In both his films, Eastwood empathizes with the "expendable" soldier on the ground, the "poor bastard" who is only a pawn in a war conceived by generals and politicians, some of whom have never come anywhere near a battlefield or a combat zone.

I think it is a question of how "liberal" Hollywood wants to be seen this year. If this movie is "too hot to handle" then it is going to be a toss up between the ensemble (Babel) vs. the mediocre, safe movie (The Queen). Probably in that case, it will all boil down to which studio has the better marketing campaign.

When I said before that Little Miss Sunshine is too quirky....that still stands. But it also makes California look bad, another nail in its coffin.

Roger Ebert's full review can be found here:

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070111/REVIEWS/701110301/1023

Leslie

[MaineWriter]

And Paul Haggis wrote and directed Crash.

Excuse me, but am I the only one on this planet who has not been sucked into the Paul Haggis stratosphere and does not think he is God's next gift to moviedom?

Clint falls into that category too, if you want to know the truth. Mystic River was crap, Million Dollar Baby was bigger crap and they are going to hand over another statuette for more crap....

like the rest of you, I am boycotting the Oscars!

L

[Flashframe777]

Wow, thanks!

That's the first time in my life I have ever made a call like that and gotten complimented!

Leslie
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Props Leslie!  I was certainly no Miss Cleo with my Eddie Murphy's snowball's chance in hell nomination now was I?

I got mad love for Mark Wahlberg though.

Embarrassing Marky Mark confessional - I OWN A PAIR OF CALVIN KLEIN UNDERWEAR autographed by Mark Wahlberg.  In my own defense, I didn't ask Mark to sign them myself.  I was meeting with a record company client (Interscope) who must have seen the gay sparkle in my eyes when he mentioned that sitting next to him was a box of promotional underwear signed by MM that was going to be sent to radio stations as giveaways to sale his new CD.  He picked up a box and threw it to me.  BUSTED!

[starboardlight]

2. Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, "Blood Diamond"; Ryan Gosling, "Half Nelson"; Peter O'Toole, "Venus"; Will Smith, "The Pursuit of Happyness"; Forest Whitaker, "The Last King of Scotland."

wow! I completely thought "Half Nelsom" would go un-noticed. I'm amazed the Academy gave Ryan Gosling a nomination. If you guys haven't seen this film, do try to see it on dvd. It is amazing!! Ryan is amazing in it. One of 2006's standout in my opininon.

As far as Boycotting, I can't say I will, since I was not a fan in the first place. I never watched until last year, and have not much investments in any of the films this year to care about the awards. I do think the nominations does more for films than the winnings, which is good and bad depending on the film. You have to admit, the award nomination got a lot more people to go see Brokeback than otherwise. Even the lose got more people curious about seeing it.

btw, another Oscar trend is to award people for body of work rather for the work that's actually up for nomination, in particular if they haven't won before. Hoffman's Capote is the most recent example. I'm not saying Hoffman's performance wasn't good, it just wasn't the best. Any how, that trend may go in favor of Scorsese over Clint.

[chefjudy]

  

another Oscar trend is to award people for body of work rather for the work that's actually up for nomination, in particular if they haven't won before. Hoffman's Capote is the most recent example. I'm not saying Hoffman's performance wasn't good, it just wasn't the best. Any how, that trend may go in favor of Scorsese over Clint.

I agree with you on that - it is definitely Martin's turn this year after several  unfortunate ones

[MaineWriter]

 
I agree with you on that - it is definitely Martin's turn this year after several  unfortunate ones

If we continue with the body of work line of thinking, Peter O'Toole should win for Venus...and I really, really doubt he will.

L

[chefjudy]

  but Peter O'toole has an Oscar from a couple of years ago - Honorary, for his vast body of work - so maybe
the voters will think Forest is simply the best of the lot from a purely "acting" viewpoint, although in retrospect,
 it (the body of work versus acting) did work for Phillip over Heath last year - who knows??

[ednbarby]

We keep forgetting that The Departed is also nominated.  Of the five nominated films (admittedly I have only seen four, which is four more than most Academy members will see beforet they vote), I liked this one the best.  By far.  I just saw Babel last night, and I'm sorry, but I found it over-rated.  There were some powerful *moments*, and the acting was top-notch, but it lacked the cohesiveness so many people rave about it having, IMO.  I understand what the director was going for - I just think he missed.

I still think the Academy will deny The Departed the Best Picture trophy just because they really can't stand/don't get Martin Scorsese.  Unless Letters From Iwo Jima proves me wrong (and I do plan to see it in the next couple of weekends), I think it's the highest-quality film of all the nominees.  And I know I'm not gonna be popular with this opinion, but at this point I think Babel is tied with Little Miss Sunshine for being the lowest-quality film of the five.  Really, The Queen was quite good.  But not great.  I wouldn't even categorize Babel as being quite good.

In a perfect, beautiful, Barb-centric world, I would be allowed to pick all five nominees, and they would be these:

United 93
An Inconvenient Truth
The Departed
The Last King of Scotland
Hoop Dreams (just because)

And it would be a tie between United 93 and Hoop Dreams.

And then money would rain from L.D. Newsome and whiskey (make that vodka, and preferably of the Swedish variety) would flow in the streams.

[Kd5000]

CHEFJUDY says

"Forest is simply the best of the lot from a purely "acting" viewpoint."



He's also playing a real life individual.  In recent years, playing a real life famous or in this case infamous character seems to get you an OSCAR. Last year it was "Truman Capote," previous year it was "Ray Charles." This year it might be "Idi Amin."   

Best actress, well "Kate Hepburn" won a few years ago in the best supporting actress category for The Aviator.  Johnny Cash's "wife" won last year.  This year I expect "Elizabeth II"(she deserves it).

I just saw THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND.  Forest did a good job of transforming his character from being Uganda's hope into an almost child-like bloody tyrant. He's almost comical, yet evil at the same time.  Well, as seen from his naive doctor's perspective at least.

[MaineWriter]

Interesting article from the Chicago Tribune...

Surprise!
Wahlberg nod, 'Dreamgirls' snub lead Oscar shockers
By Matt Pais

Clank!

That's the sound of the hype machine crashing to the ground as "Dreamgirls" failed to score in the top category, best picture. It's the first time that the most nominated film--and "Dreamgirls" earned eight total--didn't earn a best picture nomination.

That was just one of a few surprises revealed when the 79th Annual Academy Award nominations were announced early Tuesday morning in Beverly Hills.

The nominations for "Dreamgirls" included the predictable and worthy supporting acting nods for Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy. And three of its nominations came in the best original song category. But besides the film itself, Bill Condon was not recognized for his direction or his adapted screenplay.

Condon has some good company in the snub categories, including Brad Pitt, Jack Nicholson and Sacha Baron Cohen, all of whom failed to win acting nominations. Among those who earned surprise acting nominations were Abigail Breslin, who played the pageant hopeful Olive in "Little Miss Sunshine," and Mark Wahlberg for "The Departed."

Here's a look at what voters got right and what deserves a recount. Oh, and by the way, the awards will be handed out during a live ABC telecast on Feb. 25 with Ellen DeGeneres as host.

• Mark Wahlberg beat out all the heavy hitters--including Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson and Matt Damon--to become the only actor from "The Departed" nominated. This could be because Wahlberg provided the only comic relief in a tough movie, or just because Academy voters are still feeling Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch's "Good Vibrations."

• Abigail Breslin's sweet performance as Olive put the "Little Miss" in "Little Miss Sunshine," with one especially tearful scene some actresses nearly twice her age couldn't pull off (this means you, Hilary Duff). She was far from guaranteed a nomination, but the Academy likes to shine some light on up-and-coming performers with acting chops well beyond their age.

• Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for best actor for "Blood Diamond," not "The Departed." Though voters prefer the actor's South African jewel smuggler to his tough-guy Boston cop, Leo can rest assured: No one called him "cute" in either role.

• Ryan Gosling's best actor nomination for "Half Nelson" was somewhat predicted by other awards nominations he's received. But it still is surprising, considering that he's being recognized for such a small, mostly unseen movie the Academy doesn't normally notice. Nice job, Oscar!

• "Letters from Iwo Jima" earned a best director nod for Clint Eastwood and a best picture nomination. It may not be the popular best picture choice among audiences, but it's a better movie than "Dreamgirls." And along with "Babel," that makes two movies largely in other languages nominated for the prize. Time to get over your aversion to subtitles, people!

• Brad Pitt wasn't recognized for his understated, moving work in "Babel," perhaps because of the multiple impressive performances in a big, ensemble-driven film. Or voters have simply lost track of Pitt in all the Bradgelina hoopla.

• In a year with a total of one really good animated movie, that flick, "Flushed Away," isn't up for best animated feature. Instead, we have below-Pixar-standard "Cars," eerily computer-animated "Monster House," and "Happy Feet," which proves that cute, dancing penguins can get away with anything.

• Uptight, vulnerable and funny all at once, Emily Blunt's performance as the psycho assistant to Meryl Streep's psycho boss in "The Devil Wears Prada" deserved attention, but she was overlooked. Hopefully, she got to keep her wardrobe from the film.

• Sacha Baron Cohen didn't play Borat; he became Borat. But Oscar didn't notice. This wasn't a surprise, as the Oscars typically steer clear of comedy and aren't as happy to push the envelope as the Golden Globes, which awarded Cohen the best actor in a musical or comedy prize. Cohen did get an adapted screenplay nomination.

• No love for Michael Sheen in "The Queen"? His portrayal of Tony Blair is worthy of a nomination, and not just because his name rhymes with the movie.

• Nearly all of the nominees in the best actress and best supporting actress categories went just as everyone predicted, and Helen Mirren and Jennifer Hudson are locks for "The Queen" and "Dreamgirls," respectively. Where's the suspense?


L

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I wonder will they crucify Little Miss Sunshine they way they crucified Brokeback Mountain last year.

[twistedude]

In case nobody noticed, "Babel" (which I regret to say i thoroughly enjoyed) is the goat of critics everywhere. The SF Chronicle publishes a "critical consensus" (40 critics nationawide), and "Babel" gets a 5.1 out of ten...no, that was "he Good Shepherd" which I liked even better.

"Babel"..so what happened to the Moroccans, anyway? Did the little boy finally get credit for shooting the American? Is his older brother alive or dead? (helooks dead)

Been watching too much TV...well, one show 50 times is too much TV, huih? Think I'll go watch it again...

[Pipedream]

Das Leben der Anderen has been nominated for best foreign language picture. Yeehaw!!!

This makes me very happy. I haven't seen any of the other nominated movies, but this one was definitely very, very good. It's all the more amazing for the fact that it was the very first feature of writer/director Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. He must be very excited about going to the awards show!

[ednbarby]

Julie, I don't think we ever know what happens to the Moroccans.  What's more, I don't really care.  That's the problem I have with the movie.  I'm too busy being irritated with the father for giving such young sons who don't know their arses from holes in the ground such a high-powered rifle in the first place.  I don't care what country or culture or economical status you're in - giving a child a weapon like that and then not properly training him how to use it/be responsible with it is just asking for trouble.  Maybe that's one of the filmmakers' points - to show how parental irresponsibility (as well as miscommunication) can lead to tragedy.

I didn't like The Good Shepherd very much at all, either.  To each her own, I guess.

[Kd5000]

I don't get BABEL either.  I wasn't impressed with the film and was surprised it won the GOLDEN GLOBE and is nominated for Best Picture.  Perhaps the studio has launched a massive marketing campaign.  Did read somewhere about Fox Searchlights going all out for LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, i.e. marketing the film to Academy members (USD 50,000,000 some say spent on marketing).     I haven't seen DREAMGIRLS, though someone must have done a poor job marketing the film to Academy Members, given that it has been received much better then BABEL.   Sorry that Maggie G. didn't get nominated for anything. 

Last year, they complained about B.O. figures for Oscar nominees. This year isn't alot better.  Little Ms Sunshine and The Departed have already had their run.  Babel, it's been out forever. The Queen, I don't think the youth crowd is going to go see it (teenagers).  Letters  from Iwo Jima I can't expect it to make alot of money, though I plan on seeing it.

THE DEPARTED will win Best Picture.  If BABEL wins, then the Academy is really gone bonkers.

[ednbarby]

THE DEPARTED will win Best Picture.  If BABEL wins, then the Academy is really gone bonkers.

You still think they haven't yet? 

[MaineWriter]

You still think they haven't yet? 

LOL!

[Kd5000]

I would have thought the Academy would have learned from their mistake last year.  History repeats itself.     

Dreamsgirls has already made USD 75,000,000 and BABEL is still waiting to cross USD 20,000,000 with A-list Brad Pitt starring in it.  I think if Brad Pitt was in a good film, it would be doing better. Some ppl just want to see him.   Not that money is a sign of quality (popcorn movies, stuff like that), but BBM did very good considering the country's homophobia and male sexual insecurity.

[MaineWriter]

People are all talking about the Dreamgirls "snub" but frankly...I don't think it is best picture material. It was good, but not great. But then again, the movies that were nominated were good, but not great. All in all, 2006 was a pretty mediocre year for movies and these nominations seem to be pointing that out.

Leslie

[SFEnnisSF]

Been watching too much TV...well, one show 50 times is too much TV, huih? Think I'll go watch it again...

 

[opinionista]

Have you noticed that in this year's edition of the Oscars, half the nominees are not americans? (I mean the Best director, best actor, actress, supporting actor, actress nominees only). Also, five are black (4 african americans and 1 african); three are hispanics and one is asian. Hollywood is definitely changing. They sure don't want to be considered racists though they sure are homophobics!

[Mikaela]

They sure don't want to be considered racists though they sure are homophobics!

Homophobes? The AMPAS? Surely you jest! They're *so* not homophobes! They've gotten Ellen DeGeneres to host this year's show and everything, to prove that very point, so there. Annie Proulx *really* had no clue in that piece she wrote last year.

I'm sure that's their story and they're gonna stick to it........  no matter our opinion as based on overwhelming evidence.     

[Meryl]

Very good point, Mika!  I hadn't put that together. 

[oilgun]

I wonder will they crucify Little Miss Sunshine they way they crucified Brokeback Mountain last year.

Actually, I can't believe that LMS got a BP nom, or The Queen for that matter, considering all the interesting films that came out last year:

Blood Diamond easily beats both of those films.  Leo's nom is well deserved i think, but the film should have  been nominated as well.

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer ,  that film was just sublime.  Ben Whishaw should have been nominated for Best actor.  Of course i know why it's ignored, it was so badly marketed. that most people haven't even heard of the film .

Children of Men should have been more of a a contender.  For one thing, it's the first time I've  actually felt like I was part of the action on screen.  It was both troubling and strangely thrilling. 

The Fountain, say what you will, it was a very affecting film and Wolverine's performance was outstanding.
 
Little Children  deserved more attention too.

[MaineWriter]

Personally, I liked The Prestige, alot, and would have like to seen it nominated for more than cinematography and art direction. I thought Hugh Jackman and Michael Caine were great, and David Bowie was very good. And the costumes were good too. Oh well...

L

[ednbarby]

I agree.  I wouldn't feel too sorry for Little Miss Sunshine if I were you.  I hear the studio marketed the living daylights out of that one (sending screeners to *all* Academy members during the nomination voting) to even get it nominated, much like a certain "film" which shall remain nameless here.  And like that other movie, it didn't even deserve to be nominated.  It was OK overall and had a few good moments.

United 93 makes you feel like you're part of the action like nothing I've ever seen, too.  And now that you mention that about Children of Men, I'll have to see it!  Though I don't know if I want to mess up my stomach again like I did watching the former.  (I think it's still messed up as a result of it, actually.)

In a perfect world, no jokes this time, these are what should have been nominated for Best Picture IMO:

United 93
Pan's Labyrinth
An Inconvenient Truth
The Last King of Scotland
Little Children

Yes, I am now even venturing to say that The Departed doesn't deserve a nod in light of these other movies, either.  It's an extraordinarily good action movie.  That's all.  If it deserves a nod, then so does Casino Royale, which actually had better character development.

[opinionista]

Perfume: The Story of a Murderer ,  that film was just sublime.  Ben Whishaw should have been nominated for Best actor.  Of course i know why it's ignored, it was so badly marketed. that most people haven't even heard of the film .

I agree that The Perfume is a great movie, well done and well acted. However, the fact that it didn't make the Oscars didn't suprise me.  On one hand, I think it was mostly targeted to the european market, since the original novel was a success here. I never heard of it while I was in America.  On the other hand, despite the fact that I liked the movie, I don't think it was Oscar material. It failed to capture the essence of the story which are precisely the odors Jean Baptiste senses, and separates into different categories.  In fact, I honestly think this story should have never become a movie because it really kills its meaning since it's very hard to translate odors into visuals. That's precisely what made me like this novel so much, that as you read you could actually smell all the odors described.

[Penthesilea]

In fact, I honestly think this story should have never become a movie because it really kills its meaning since it's very hard to translate odors into visuals. That's precisely what made me like this novel so much, that as you read you could actually smell all the odors described.

Amen to that. I didn't like it at all. I thought it was overdone. E.g. the "smelling scenes". There were too many of it; I understood the principle the first time it was shown, I could've accepted if it had been shown a second time - but they showed similar scenes/shots in length throughout the movie They beat the audience over the head with it - and yet failed to convey it convincingly.

And the one crucial scene, the "execution" scene and what followed - this was already hard to accept in the book (if memory serves right, it's more than 10 years ago I read it) - but in the movie this scene was nothing but ridiculous.

I think you're right: they never should have tried to make a movie out of it.

[oilgun]

In fact, I honestly think this story should have never become a movie because it really kills its meaning since it's very hard to translate odors into visuals.

Well I, for one, am very grateful that they decided to make the film.  I haven't read the book of course, which is probably why I loved every second of the film.   I thought Jean-Baptiste Grenouille (strangely offensive name for a French guy, I thought) was one of the most tragic characters I've seen since, well , since Ennis Del Mar.  The only sour note was the absence of male/male couplings in the orgy scene, that's inexcusable.

Someone mentioned Casino Royale, which I loved.  Unfortunately, the scene in Venice in the collapsing palazzo, ruined its chances of a BP nom but Daniel Craig's performance should have been recognized, he's the only actor who can challenge Sean Connery for the title of best Bond ever.

[Meryl]

Someone mentioned Casino Royale, which I loved.  Unfortunately, the scene in Venice in the collapsing palazzo, ruined its chances of a BP nom but Daniel Craig's performance should have been recognized, he's the only actor who can challenge Sean Connery for the title of best Bond ever.

I agree about Daniel Craig, oilgun.  Could you expand on your reasons for why that particular scene ruined the film's chances?

[SFEnnisSF]

From Boxofficemojo:  'Epic,' 'Aces' Smoke Oscar Nominations
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=2242&p=.htm
"Two lowbrow pictures, Epic Movie and Smokin' Aces, topped the weekend box office, overshadowing the highfalutin ones nominated for Academy Awards. Overall business dipped eight percent from the same frame last year when Big Momma's House 2 dominated." (And when Brokeback Mountain was selling up a storm!)

This only goes to prove my theory that the Academy tries to nominate movies that are doing poorly at the box office to increae box office sales (i.e. Munich, Babel, Venus, etc.) and it ain't working, the public still ain't buying tickets to those movies.  Hey Academy, try nominate movies based on Merit, not this industry pat on the back business crap, and maybe you'll instill the integrity into the Awards that is sorely missing and corrupt.  What a charade.

[Scott6373]

How do you REALLY feel Eric?  LOL   

[ednbarby]

Actually, I just saw Venus yesterday, and it was pretty damned good.  In fact, here's my newly-revised list of what *should* have been nominated:

United 93
Pan's Labyrinth
An Inconvenient Truth
The Last King of Scotland
Venus

None of these did very well at all at the box office, but each one is far superior, IMO, to every movie actually nominated.

To me, it should never be about box office sales, because, let's face it - if it were, these are what would be nominated this year:

Pirates of the Caribbean 2 - Dead Man's Chest
Cars
X-Men: The Last Stand
The Da Vinci Code
Night at the Museum

Do these really represent the best Hollywood has to offer?

I know you're talking about going for a happy medium, but I don't think any of these is worthy, nor is any of the next five:

Superman Returns
Ice Age: The Meltdown
Happy Feet
Casino Royale
Over The Hedge

I *loved* Casino Royale.  But Best Picture?  I think not.

Sorry to be a film snob, but it should be about quality and artistic achievement.  Unfortunately, they totally missed on that count this year, too.  My five nominees will stand the test of time.  Will any of theirs?  I can't think of a single one of them I'd ever want to watch again, as much as I enjoyed a couple of them.

By the way, it's starting to look like Little Miss Sunshine might just win it this year.  And nobody here should be happy about that - that studio got it there in the first place by sheer marketing savvy, not based on any artistic merit.  And now they just won the SAG as well as the Producers Guild Award.  Good grief.  I mean, I liked it, but REALLY.

(And you thought Eric was the outspoken one.)

[Scott6373]

(And you thought Eric was the outspoken one.)

I have NO illusions about your ability to speak your mind...LOL

[SFEnnisSF]

If Da Vinci Code had been released in December, it probably would have been nominated... 

[ednbarby]

I don't doubt that, Eric.

The *only* things I will regret missing on the Oscars telecast that I will not be watching, now, are Ellen's monologue and the distinct possibility of Al Gore collecting the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

If I watch either of those two particular things on youtube sometime afterwards, am I a bad person/hypocrite?  I think I already know the answer.   

[nakymaton]

Interesting article on the Oscar season. I wonder... has anyone seen reviews of "Letters from Iwo Jima"? I wonder if it was nominated for best picture because of the Eastwood/Haggis association, and not because people had seen the movie and liked it. (Interesting that "Flags of Our Fathers," which was released early enough for it to be seen as a bust come nominations time, didn't get nominated.)

I'm probably going to rent "Little Miss Sunshine," if only because it's a) out on video already and b) Katherine said, months ago, that it didn't suck.

I might rent "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" first, though. Just because a) I have a lot of friends who enjoyed it and b) I'm in the mood to rebel against Oscar bait.

[Front-Ranger]

I don't doubt that, Eric.

The *only* things I will regret missing on the Oscars telecast that I will not be watching, now, are Ellen's monologue and the distinct possibility of Al Gore collecting the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

If I watch either of those two particular things on youtube sometime afterwards, am I a bad person/hypocrite?  I think I already know the answer.   

And also cheer for Ennio Morricone!! Or do you not like spaghetti Western music?

[ednbarby]

Oh, OK.  And to cheer for Ennio as well. 

I plan to see "Letters From Iwo Jima" tomorrow night.  I'll alert you all to my findings after that time.  I see that it gets fairly consistently good reviews, so I'm confident it won't suck.  But if it's only *as* good as the other nominees, it'll be quite a letdown after the two, I think, great movies I saw this past weekend.  (Pan's Labyrinth and Venus.)

[SFEnnisSF]

The *only* things I will regret missing on the Oscars telecast that I will not be watching, now, are Ellen's monologue and the distinct possibility of Al Gore collecting the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature.

If I watch either of those two particular things on youtube sometime afterwards, am I a bad person/hypocrite?  I think I already know the answer.   

She's slipping everybody!  She's gonna watch 'em.  We need to kidnap her and bring her to Bay City for the night!!   

[ednbarby]

She's slipping everybody!  She's gonna watch 'em.  We need to kidnap her and bring her to Bay City for the night!!   

Tell you what.  The truth is...  I wish you would.  Sometimes I miss you all so much, I can hardly stand it.  And you're right - I'm slipping (a little).  But I promise not enough to warrant watching it.  I will read what those who watch think of Ellen's monologue, though, and if she makes reference to Brokeback in any reverential way, real or imagined, I wanna see it on youtube.  If not, I can stand to miss it.  And I can always stand to miss Al Gore.  Howzat?

[MaineWriter]

I am like Barb, my predictions change daily, but here's my latest thinking:

Best actor, Forest Whitaker; Best Actress, Helen Mirren; Best Supporting Actor, Eddie Murphy; Best Supporting Actress, Jennifer Hudson

Three of the four top acting prizes will go to African-Americans, and the Academy will be crowing about that. "We are so diverse!"

They will further cement their "diversity" by giving Best Picture to Little Miss Sunshine, and crow alot about "Alan Arkin as a dirty old man! Steve Carrell as a gay guy! Oh, we are so open and welcoming of all types of people!"

And in an effort to correct all their past wrongs, Martin Scorcese will get Best Director for The Departed.

That's the way I see it today....

Leslie

[ednbarby]

That's precisely the way I see it, too.

We *definitely* should go see some movies together someday. 

(Just maybe not Pan's Labyrinth.  )

[Kd5000]

I still hope THE QUEEN wins best picture. Like Ennis, Elizabeth II doesn't wear her emotions on her sleeve. I think that's the saying.   

I would have nominated THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND over BABEL. AN INCOVENIENT TRUTH should have been nominated as it's an important film. Still don't want Gore to run for president. 

THE DEPARTED. I hope Scorsese wins for Best Director.  The film left me cold, so I don' care if it wins any other awards.  Scorsese should have won for TAXI DRIVER. 

I noticed no WTC movies were nominated. Some pundits said last years nominated pictures painted a rather a non too optimistic view of the world. I guess LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE is this year's SIDEWAYS, i.e. a lighter film so to speak.   Nice it won SAG. 

Whose watching BAFTA.  Is it on cable?   

I won't have a problem not watching the OSCARS as no film has been of emotion catharsis to me this year, i.e, a film that stays with you for weeks and you go back to the theater to see it multiple times.  And I usually see a film weekly. Still have not seen Letters from...

[ednbarby]

The BAFTAs will be aired on BBC America on Monday, February 12 at 4:00 p.m. EST and on Tuesday, February 13 at 3:00 a.m.  Get your DVRs ready!  (They actually take place the evening before in London.)

I think United 93 should have been nominated, as I've said.  It was by far the most powerful film I've seen all year.  And it was extremely tastefully and reverently done without being the least bit manipulating.  I really appreciate that.

And as for The Departed - the more I think about it, it is just an extraordinarily good action movie.  And nothing more.  I totally agree that Scorsese should have won for Taxi Driver and the movie should have won as well.  Just another case of a masterpiece that didn't get its due but that has stood the test of time and will continue to.

Again, to the Academy, I say this:  Pffffffffffft. 

[oilgun]

Could you expand on your reasons for why that particular scene ruined the film's chances?

By that I only meant that it ruined its chances to be in MY top 5 list of BPs, not the academy's, lol!  I thought that scene was just silly.  The buiklding is collapsing and people are running up and down the stairs, taking the elevator even!  All the while, gondolas are slowly going by as if nothing was happening.  And why was it collapsing anyway? Something about those inflatable things at the bottom? I thought it went on way too long to be believable.

[Meryl]

By that I only meant that it ruined its chances to be in MY top 5 list of BPs, not the academy's, lol!  I thought that scene was just silly.  The buiklding is collapsing and people are running up and down the stairs, taking the elevator even!  All the while, gondolas are slowly going by as if nothing was happening.  And why was it collapsing anyway? Something about those inflatable things at the bottom? I thought it went on way too long to be believable.

I know what you mean!  But I did think the CGI was pretty good.  It really looked like it was a collapsing palazzo. 

[ednbarby]

Just checking in to tell Eric:  You don't have to worry.  I am *still* not watching.  It's almost unfair how easy that is becoming to say and do.  The fact that those numbnuts even *nominated* "Letters From Iwo Jima" for Best Picture, which I think is a C+ movie AT BEST, and that they not only did that but they nominated Clint Eastwood (because God knows, you can't have a year in which he's made one or more movies and not nominate him for Best Director even though he really isn't that good a one) AND for Best Screenplay!!!  GAHHHHH!!!  That third one is the most egregious of all, since as I said in the "Resurrecting the Movies Thread" thread, I could poop better dialog.

The thing that makes not watching *so* easy is that I don't give a flying fig about any of the movies nominated.  I think they're all ridiculously over-rated, with perhaps the exception of The Queen which is a decent movie but seems to be just tacked on, somehow.  No one's even beginning to talk about that one.  It's like The Movie That Never Was.

I wouldn't even watch the BAFTAs this year if I didn't find Stephen Fry so darned entertaining and if they didn't at least have a few different categories of Best Pictures in which are included my two favorites of the year, United 93 and Pan's Labyrinth.

Again, it's just so damn easy not to watch it this year it's not even fair.  And no, me does not thinks the lady doth protest too much.  I AM NOT WATCHING IT!!!  And that's all I'm gonna say on the matter.  Not another word.  Total fucking silence... 

[SFEnnisSF]

Ok then.  I trust you.  But if I hear you start to touch that dial, I'm leaving the Bay City screening and flying down there to Florida and I'm going to smack your hand!

  

[Meryl]

I wouldn't even watch the BAFTAs this year if I didn't find Stephen Fry so darned entertaining and if they didn't at least have a few different categories of Best Pictures in which are included my two favorites of the year, United 93 and Pan's Labyrinth.

I love Stephen Fry, too, Barb.  He always strikes a nice balance between naughty and nice and actually uses the English language intelligently.  However, he's taking a vacation from BAFTA this year.  Jonathan Ross has been announced as the host:  http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117957479.html?categoryid=1043&cs=1

[Kd5000]

So Edna, you thought LETTERS FROM... was only a C+ movie?  And I was just going to see it just to piss off some conservatives who say this is an anti-American film.  I guess because it shows the other side.  Perhaps some said the same thing about ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT. Ppl didn't have a problem with GWTW and sympathizing with the destruction of the Old South's slave owning elite. "Yankees in Atlanta!"  You swear they were Mongol hordes, terrorizing Scarlett O'Hara.

Yep, I always thought Eastwood being so California, it worked to his advantage.  It's a friend of mine's rationale of why if it's Scorsese (east coast where not many A.A. members live) against Eastwood, they give it to the California guy.   Should Woody Allen have won more Oscars?    Of course, Ang Lee, a New Yorker, won best director last year.  Well they had to give something to BBM, I suppose.

[opinionista]

I found this on CNN. It's interesting.


The curse of the Oscar

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- It's awards season in Hollywood, with all red carpets leading to the Oscars. But winning that prestigious award can sometimes lead to nothing more than bad roles and even oblivion.

"It's known as the curse of the Oscar, which is very real. The actor's ultimate dream can turn out to be the ultimate nightmare," said movie pundit Tom O'Neil, awards columnist for the Web site The Envelope.

Winners like F. Murray Abraham, Brenda Fricker, Linda Hunt, Marlee Matlin and Louise Fletcher are hardly household names despite earning the film world's most coveted award.

Other better-known Oscar winners, like Gwyneth Paltrow and Richard Dreyfuss, have complained that winning the award brought them personal and career troubles.

"Winners from Joan Fontaine up to Gwyneth Paltrow and Richard Dreyfuss have all said it was a curse," said O'Neil, noting the Oscar made Paltrow almost too expensive to hire at the age of 26, while Dreyfuss spiraled downward for a while with a high-profile drug habit and a string of flops after his Oscar win for his role in "The Goodbye Girl" in 1977.

Paltrow won for her leading role in "Shakespeare in Love" and has said she was unequipped to cope with the pressure, leading her to make several bad choices.

"I think part of the downside about being so successful and winning the Oscar at the age of 26 is that I sort of became insouciant about the things that I chose. I thought 'Oh, I'll just try this, it'll be fun or I'll do that for the money'. Things like that now I would absolutely never do," Paltrow was quoted as saying by the Internet Movie Database.

Louise Fletcher, who picked up the best actress award for her role as the inflexible Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," went on to scare up roles in such B-films as "Exorcist II: The Heretic," "Firestarter" and "Flowers in the Attic."

"It'll make you wonderfully happy for a night," Fletcher has said of winning the Oscar. "But don't expect that it'll do anything for your career."

Indeed, many winners seem to have sunk to new lows after Oscar victories. Halle Berry, Faye Dunaway and Liza Minnelli have all won both the Academy Award for best actress and a Razzie Award, the industry's version of an Oscar lampoon that is bestowed to the worst efforts of any given year.

After winning the Oscar for her turn in the 2001 film "Monster's Ball," among the first roles Berry was seen in afterwards was as a female superhero in action flick "Catwoman."

'F. Murray Abraham syndrome'
O'Neil said the list goes on and on, citing Oscar winners from Rita Moreno, who won for "West Side Story," to Dianne Wiest and Cuba Gooding Jr., who have all struggled to recapture glory after winning an Oscar.

"Sometimes people win because the stars are in alignment and the perfect actor found the perfect role at the right time, but that doesn't guarantee a lifetime of follow-ups to what may be serendipitous circumstances," said Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian with entertainment news program Entertainment Tonight.

He said the phenomenon is known in Hollywood circles as the "F. Murray Abraham syndrome," named after the well-regarded stage actor who earned the best actor Oscar for his role in the 1984 film "Amadeus" but has hardly been a big star since.

"He was great in 'Amadeus' and he's a fine actor but for whatever reason or combination of reasons, he didn't get the same opportunities again in film, although he's continued to work onstage," said Maltin, noting that Fletcher is the "poster girl" for the same phenomenon.

Maltin said various factors could play a part in why some actors never follow up their Oscar success, such as bad choices, bad luck, bad agents or letting the win get to their head.

"As tough as it is to make a career in the movie business, it's just as difficult to maintain one," he said.

Film critic Richard Schickel said he did not view an Oscar as a viable predictor of immortality for a star or a movie.

"People get carried away by a particular performance, but it doesn't mean the actor has a lot of long-term viability. The only worthwhile judge of careers is history," he said.

"It's the movies that we decide we'll go back to watch a decade or so later that remain important to people. Often a week after the Oscars ceremony, you can't even remember what won," he said.

http://edition.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/31/oscars.curse.reut/index.html

[Karan13]

Hey flash ,
               I agree with your predictions , but i`ve gotta say Helen Mirren is a great actress , she not up cause she has an english accent { as i do , as i am english} our actresses are more down to earth with their talents , it`s about producing great work not trying to be a size 0 like american actresses , kate winslett is another great actress , but most of her american press is about what size dress she can fit into .

The only change i`d like to see is Mark Walberg , pick up best supporting actor , he was great in the Departed.
Leonardo definately deserves best actor , he has matured and is producing some great work lately.

I think to be against the Oscars because of what happened to BBM is childish after all it`s what you take away with you from a movie ,that makes it a winner or not. xx

[MaineWriter]

Interesting article, Natali.

If history follows suit, I predict if Jennifer Hudson wins for best supporting actress, she'll be the one who ends up suffering from "F. Murray Abraham" syndrome.

Leslie

[opinionista]

Interesting article, Natali.

If history follows suit, I predict if Jennifer Hudson wins for best supporting actress, she'll be the one who ends up suffering from "F. Murray Abraham" syndrome.

Leslie

Hopefully not. Do you think she'll win? The Academy rarely gives an Oscar to new comers. I just hope she doesn't become another cokehead a la Lindsay Lohan. Given the fact that she's overweight for Hollywood standards, she migh be pressured into doing the hollywood diet (i.e. snort coke).

[MaineWriter]

Hopefully not. Do you think she'll win? The Academy rarely gives an Oscar to new comers. I just hope she doesn't become another cokehead a la Lindsay Lohan. Given the fact that she's overweight for Hollywood standards, she migh be pressured into doing the hollywood diet (i.e. snort coke).

Well, if you read my prediction from a few days back, I said that three of the four top prizes could go to African-Americans, which would let the Academy pat itself on the back for their embracing "diversity."

Whether she wins or not, I think Ms. Hudson's challenge will be finding good roles. Hollywood can't seem to figure out what to do with talented black women. Look at the crap Queen Latifah has been in lately. Wasn't she nominated for an Oscar for Chicago? Did she win?

L

[opinionista]

Look at the crap Queen Latifah has been in lately. Wasn't she nominated for an Oscar for Chicago? Did she win?

She was nominated for best actress in a supporting role but lost to Katherine Zeta Jones, who was also nominated for this award for her performance in Chicago.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0299658/awards

But yeah, she does a lot of crappy movie. That's true.

[ednbarby]

Very interesting article.  Come to think of it, what has Adrien Brody done that was worth watching lately?  I went to see Hollywoodland for him and ultimately found Ben Affleck way more affecting in a much shorter, albeit pivotal, role.

As much as I like to think they're mature and well-adjusted and smart enough not to let it become a curse, perhaps it's just as well that neither Heath nor Jake won last year, as much as we all know they richly deserved to.

[MaineWriter]

As much as I like to think they're mature and well-adjusted and smart enough not to let it become a curse, perhaps it's just as well that neither Heath nor Jake won last year, as much as we all know they richly deserved to.

The same thing occurred to me as I read it. Michelle, too.

L

[Lynne]

Thanks for posting that article, Natali!  I like this part:

"Sometimes people win because the stars are in alignment and the perfect actor found the perfect role at the right time, but that doesn't guarantee a lifetime of follow-ups to what may be serendipitous circumstances," said Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian with entertainment news program Entertainment Tonight.

Forget the Oscars - it describes Brokeback Mountain perfectly.

 

[Kd5000]

Well after Halle Berry got nominated for a Razzie in the worst actress category for CATWOMAN, she said having won an Oscar is no guarantee your going to get good roles.

Has Jamie Fox really turned out any outstanding performances since he was nominated for Best Actor (RAY) and Best Supporting Actor (COLLATERAL) in the same year.?  Personally, I didn't what was so special about his performance as a taxi driver kidnapped by an assassin.  Still a good film.

[ednbarby]

I actually liked him better in Collateral than I liked him in Ray.  I thought the latter was just a run-of-the-mill parlor trick impression.  I thought he turned in a very subtle and nuanced, as they say, performance in the former.

And Eric, my dear - it's almost worth it for me to watch just to get you to come down here. 

But I promise you won't have to.  And as much as I adore you, not because I think I owe it to you or anyone else.  I owe it to myself.

[kirkmusic]

First a few random notes.

I don't think Queen Latifah deserved the nomination she got.

There's a picture of Daniel Craig in a current gay magazine (I forget whch one) from Casino Royale.  It's very similar to the much used one of him coming out of the water at the beach, but in this one he's full on grabbing his package.  Hot!

Many of the comments in this thread talk about "the Academy" like it's a small group of people who communicate with each other to decide who they're all going to vote for.  In truth, in regards to this years nominations, they pretty much fell in line with all of the other award giving organizations.  There's a website wherein this guy has come up with a mathematical equation to predict the Oscar nominations in the major catagories based on all of the precursors.  The formula didn't do so hot with the screenplay nominations this year but it usually works pretty well.  Check it out.

http://www.geocities.com/ps971100/

I'm surprized so many folks here didn't like Babel.  Hands down, it's my favorite fiction movie this year, second only to the non-fiction Deliver Us from Evil.  To me it's about how we all go through our tragedies, some external, some internal, we hit bottom, we come back out the other side, some the worse for wear, some stronger, life goes on, and most importantly, we're all in it together.  Love the subtlety of the acting and how the point wasn't told to the audience but shown, similar to BBM which is why I'm so surprized.

Anyway, here's what I think will win the major categories and what my favorites were.

Picture: I would like to see Babel take the Oscar as it did the Globe, but I could see any one of these five winning so I don't have a prediction here.  Incidently, that's what could make this year particularly intriguing: outside of the acting catagories and a couple of others, most of the races are pretty open.

Director: I'll predict Scorsese and hope for Greengrass for United 93.  Incredible film and I'm the only person I know who's seen it.  Pity.

Actor: Whitaker will get it.  I liked Gosling.  Seeing Venus tomorrow so I may be editing this.

Actress:  Mirren will get it.  None of these nominees really jumped out at me with the acting skill displayed, so I'm going to root for Penelope Cruz for having the most engaging presense in her role. (Update 2/2: Saw The Queen again and I take it back.  Mirren was pretty great.)

Supporting Actor: Murphy seems most likely, and he entertained the hell out of me so I hope he gets it.

Supporting Actress: I'm guessing that having seen Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls might be similar to having seen Streisand for the first time in Funny Girl in '68.  Just wow.  I similarly predict that, if Hudson does more films, we will see that while she certainly has an incredible talent for expressing emotion through song, like Streisand, we will see that every character she plays is some variation of the basic Hudson persona, like Streisand.  She deserves this one and she'll never be as good in anything else.  Hope she enjoys a great recording career.

Adapted Screenplay:  I'm going to predict the Departed, also my favorite in this category.  I was riveted by every turn of the plot.  The script was the strongest thing about this movie.

Original screenplay:  Babel's my favorite movie but Little Miss Sunshine is my favorite script.  Hope it wins and I think it will. (Update: I enjoyed The Queen much more the second time.  Now I'm not sure who I want to win or what I think will.)

It's interesting to note that not one of the Best Picture nominees is up for art direction or cinematography.  I don't know if that's ever happened before.

One more public service link:  Here's the moviecitynews.com critical concensus page, a chart which takes over 200 top 10 lists and totals them up.  There's another site that's even more inclusive (over 600 critics in 2005!) but or some reason it's not up this year.

http://www.moviecitynews.com/awards/2007/top_tens/00_index.htm

[Lynne]

I'm surprized so many folks here didn't like Babel.  Hands down, it's my favorite fiction movie this year, second only to the non-fiction Deliver Us from Evil.  To me it's about how we all go through our tragedies, some external, some internal, we hit bottom, we come back out the other side, some the worse for wear, some stronger, life goes on, and most importantly, we're all in it together.  Love the subtlety of the acting and how the point wasn't told to the audience but shown, similar to BBM which is why I'm so surprized.

Hey there, Kirk!

I'm in the camp of really liking Babel, but you're right that there hasn't been a great deal of discussion about it here.  There's a small thread in Movie Resources where a few of us were talking about the score and cinematography:

http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,5458.0.html

I think I've already posted this elsewhere, but I went into Babel not knowing anything about the director, purely wanting to see Gustavo and Rodrigo work again.  I loved those aspects, but came away with much more than I expected.  I was completely impressed with Brad Pitt's acting.  I guess all the media hype he's been enduring and a series of let's say, not very worthy roles, caused me to forget his talent.

I like your interpretation and agree that Babel is a work worthy of analysis.  I should see it again in a more analytical frame of mind (I saw it NYEve!)  I have not yet seen Deliver Us from Evil, so I cannot compare.

Lynne

[ednbarby]

Kirk, I think your point about Jennifer Hudson is spot-on.  And your predictions sound pretty plausible, too.

And I saw United 93, for what it's worth.  I know what you mean, though - no one I see regularly from day to day has seen it but me, either.  And you're right again that that's such a pity - it was by far the best-made and most powerful movie I saw all year.  So much so that I don't know if I can ever watch it again - it's all etched upon my psyche, kind of like Schindler's List.

I appreciated the subtlety of Babel, but I think the biggest problem I had with it was the dialogue.  Maybe it was a language difference thing - I thought the Mexican characters' dialogue was excellent, but I found the Americans' trite and forced.  I realize we were looking at a couple with a very strained marriage, but I still thought they said things to each other in a way that no one would ever say them.  Nothing kills a movie for me, after overly gratuitous violence, like dialogue that doesn't ring true.  I also thought that each of the three stories were worthy of being their own movie.  The least of all three was actually the Brad Pitt/Cate Blanchett one.  Again, maybe the dialogue and the terrorism paranoia there just didn't play out in quite a realistic enough way to me.  I understood what he was going for, but it just didn't get all the way there with me, I guess.

If United 93 had been nominated instead of Letters From Iwo Jima, I *might* be tempted to watch.  But it didn't, so I have no interest whatsoever in what wins Best Picture, other than just hoping that it's *anything* except the latter.   

[kirkmusic]

Yeah, Letters is my least favorite of the 5.  I'm seeing it again today (I'm seeing 4 of the 5 movies at Embarcadero today; Letters, Queen, Venus, and Painted Veil  ) to maybe catch something I missed.

The Pitt/Blanchet story was my favorite part of Babel.  What I noticed about the dialogue was that it was so spare.  Everything important was said between the lines.  Cate Blanchet kicks ass.

Lynne - Deliver Us From Evil is the only documentary I've ever seen that I wished was longer because I wanted to know more.  If I hadn't already seen the presentation that Al Gore makes in An Inconvenient Truth it might have had more of an impact on me.  The latter is gonna get the Oscar but I'm pulling for the former having not seen the other 3 nominees, because I can't imagine anything being better than the former.

[chefjudy]

  

Actress:  Mirren will get it.  None of these nominees really jumped out at me with the acting skill displayed, so I'm going to root for Penelope Cruz for having the most engaging presense in her role. (Update 2/2: Saw The Queen again and I take it back.  Mirren was pretty great.)

I just saw The Queen this past weekend and it is very good - definitely worth watching.  Helen Mirren owns that movie and so became Elizabeth II - but what seemed to resonate with me was not what she said, rather what she didn't say - a gesture here, a nod or even a glance or glare, she made the Queen seem human and even a little soft, but also brittle and haughty - I have not seen any of the other women in their nominated roles, so I won't say this is the best of the lot, but it sure was great!

wish I had time to see all of the nominees as I am such a movie buff - oh well, there is always cable

[Eire1978]

I saw the nominations for Best Original Score and that Thomas Newman is nominated for The Good German... why not for Little Children? The music he wrote for Little Children is so much better!!
And he should have won for American Beauty and Road to Perdition btw.

Who agrees/disagrees?

[ednbarby]

I haven't seen Little Children yet, unfortunately.  But I don't remember the music from The Good German, so it can't have been that good. 

I do remember the music from American Beauty and The Road to Perdition vaguely and I definitely remember liking it, so it surprises me it wasn't nominated.

But then again, not much those numbnuts do surprises me much these days.

[Lynne]

Watching Pan's L, reminded me of watching Brokeback Mountain for the first time.  It is very brutal and honest and not what I expected.  It requires a thinking mind and a heart to enjoy it.  What a treasure from Mexico.

I saw Pan's Labyrinth yesterday and completely understand what you're saying here, Adrian.  I was expecting it to be much more violent than it was (based on some other reviews here or in another thread, I think).  But the editing seemed to cut appropriately so that it did not get to me the way graphic violence usually does. 

What a beautiful blend of fantasy and realism!  It left me believing both were true, if that makes any sense, and strangely uplifted.     

[Eire1978]

"I do remember the music from American Beauty and The Road to Perdition vaguely and I definitely remember liking it, so it surprises me it wasn't nominated"

He was nominated for both but unfortunately he didn't win.

[Lynne]

Lynne - Deliver Us From Evil is the only documentary I've ever seen that I wished was longer because I wanted to know more.

I'll put this one on my list, Kirk - best I can tell, it's nowhere nearby, not even Atlanta, right now.  Thanks for the recommendation!

[oilgun]

 
I just saw The Queen this past weekend and it is very good - definitely worth watching.  Helen Mirren owns that movie and so became Elizabeth II - but what seemed to resonate with me was not what she said, rather what she didn't say - a gesture here, a nod or even a glance or glare, she made the Queen seem human and even a little soft, but also brittle and haughty - I have not seen any of the other women in their nominated roles, so I won't say this is the best of the lot, but it sure was great!

I finally saw The Queen as well and Helen Mirren certainly deserves to win, she was amazing!  She does communicate so much with just a look or gesture.  A pleasure to watch.  However, the film's BP nomination is a bit harder to defend.  Because it was filled with so many impersonators I found it difficult to take seriously.  I kept wondering who was going to play Elton John, lol!  The performances were all excellent, I'm not blaming the acting,  maybe it's Frears non-descript style that made it feel a bit like a TV movie, albeit an excellent one.

[ednbarby]

I agree, oilgun.  The one that threw me off the most was the bloke who played Prince Charles.  Hell, I look more like Prince Charles than that guy did.  It's like he got the Queen and Blair spot-on but then decided to blow off the rest.

One thing I especially liked about his direction, though, was that he never really showed William or Harry - they were always shown ducking into a room somewhere from behind.  I appreciated that he didn't resort to manipulating his audience by showing the sad little boys.

[Lynne]

I finally saw THE DEPARTED.  Whew!  What a ride!

Wahlberg, Damon, and DiCaprio - they all were excellent, but Wahlberg really stood above it all - go Marky!  Nicholson was his usual amazing self, of course.  I liked the plot a whole lot - quite complex and twisted and good.  It was very violent, though - don't take any kiddies! - makes PAN'S LABYRINTH look rated G in comparison.

I also appreciated the performance of Boston, my adopted hometown.  I like it when the location is, in essence, its own character.  This is frequently true for movies set in LA.  The various locations in BABEL were vital and perfectly cast.  And BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN obviously could not have occurred anywhere except 1963 Wyoming.

-Lynne

[Pipedream]

I finally saw Pan's Labyrinth and liked it very much, especially the magical performance of young Ivana Baquero as Ofelia.  I've loved Maribel Verdu ever since I saw her in Y tu Mama tambien, and she is just as great here. And, of course,  Sergi López makes a perfect villain, even if this character is somewhat stereotypically bad. The acting is overall superb, as is the music and the juxtaposition of imagination and reality. As to the special effects - oh well. Maybe I've just seen too many computer animated clone monsters in movies to be thrilled by them anymore...

In short: it's perfectly possible that this one takes home the Oscar for best foreign language picture, but I will still be rooting for the German candidate... 

[oilgun]

The one that threw me off the most was the bloke who played Prince Charles.  Hell, I look more like Prince Charles than that guy did. 

It's true that he didn't really look like him, but I still immediately knew it was supposed to be Prince Charles so I think the the actor did an excellent job.   Cromwell as Philip was great!

[MaineWriter]

Here are my final, final predictions, which haven't changed too much in the past few weeks. The odds (in parentheses) are from Ladbrokes, a British betting and gambling company. The were published in the Wall Street Journal.

Best Picture

will win: Little Miss Sunshine (9:4)
should win: The Departed  (even)

Best Actor

will and should win: Forest Whitaker (1:8 )

Best Actress

will and should win: Helen Mirren (1:66)

Best Supporting Actor

will win: Eddie Murphy (8:15)
should win: Mark Wahlberg (25:1)

Best Supporting Actress

will and should win: Jennifer Hudson (1:7) [nb: as I have mentioned before, this will be a career killing Oscar for her]

Best Director

will and should win: Martin Scorsese (1:6)

Leslie

[Kd5000]

Yeah, didn't they pick BBM last year, "Ladbrokes, a British betting and gambling company."  THe WSJ picked THE AVIATOR one year because whichever film has the most flying scenese tends to win. 

I agree with you on everything else you said except I think it will be BABEL. 

I don't watch Roger Ebert anymore. Who has he been cheerleading for?  Does anyone know?

Oh, I wasn't wowed by Mark Wahlberg.  I like him even less as person after what someone posted on TOB regarding  a recent interview he gave PREMIERE MAGAZINE in which he starts talking about BBM.  I can't believe Ang Lee approached him to do BBM.  Can you imagine him as Ennis Del Mar?   Thank god he thought it was too "graphic."

[MaineWriter]

Good question about Roger. I have no idea what he is up to, or what movies he is promoting. I know he has been ill with cancer.

I know very little about Mark Wahlberg, myself. I remember I saw him in Boogie Nights, a movie I did NOT like. I have paid no attention to his career since then but was blown away by his performance in The Departed. I didn't even know who he was until I saw the credits.

My husband heard an interview with him on NPR. Apparently he is from South Boston (locale of The Departed) and spent time in jail. He spent years losing his accent and had to relearn it again for this movie. Just a bit of trivia.

L

[Anya_Angie]

Just want to say congratulations to TWO-TIME OSCAR-WINNER GUSTAVO SANTAOLALLA!!!!!

[Ellemeno]

Oh, I wasn't wowed by Mark Wahlberg.  I like him even less as person after what someone posted on TOB regarding  a recent interview he gave PREMIERE MAGAZINE in which he starts talking about BBM.  I can't believe Ang Lee approached him to do BBM.  Can you imagine him as Ennis Del Mar?   Thank god he thought it was too "graphic."

The guy who wore an enormous penis prosthesis in Boogie Nights thought BBM was too graphic?!?

[kirkmusic]

Yea Gustavo!!!!!  Pity that was the only thing Babel won.  I won the prediction contest at the party I went to.  Got 16 out of the 24.

Can you believe some of the surprises tonight?  Dreamgirls gets supporting actress and that's it!  All of its songs lose to An Inconvenient Truth, probably marking the first time that the Documentary Feature winner won something else as well.  And Pan's Labyrinth winning cinematography over Children of Men and Art Direction over Dreamgirls and then losing Foreign Language Film to The Lives of Others!!!!!  Happy about that one (so is Anke, I bet).  Also happy that Little Miss Sunshine won Original Screenplay AND Supporting Actor!!!  I don't think I've ever exclaimed "WOW" as much during an Oscar telecast.

I was disappointed by the results for Live Action and Documentary Short because I saw them all and my least favorites won in both of those categories.  I would have prefered The Savior and Recycled Life, respectively.

No matter how off base they can be, I still love watching the Oscars.  So there.

Edit: I forgot Dreamgirls won for Sound Mixing too.

[Anya_Angie]

I was rooting for Pan's Labyrinth for score, because it's an amazing one, second-best of the year next to The Fountain. But I was happy for Gustavo, not necessarily because of the work he did on Babel but because of his amazing tribute to Brokeback Mountain. Composers-wise though I was REALLY rooting for THOMAS NEWMAN. How much you want to bet he's the next Ennio Morricone?

Speaking of which I cried during the tribute to Ennio. That, along with Best Score, Actor, Actress and Director and Picture were the only things I saw.

I was really rooting for Will Smith. He always plays roles that make you smile, they please you. He's such a likeable person, and a very gifted actor. I hope he gets his due someday too.

[MaineWriter]

Here are my final, final predictions, which haven't changed too much in the past few weeks. The odds (in parentheses) are from Ladbrokes, a British betting and gambling company. The were published in the Wall Street Journal.

Best Picture

will win: Little Miss Sunshine (9:4)
should win: The Departed  (even)

Best Actor

will and should win: Forest Whitaker (1:8 )

Best Actress

will and should win: Helen Mirren (1:66)

Best Supporting Actor

will win: Eddie Murphy (8:15)
should win: Mark Wahlberg (25:1)

Best Supporting Actress

will and should win: Jennifer Hudson (1:7) [nb: as I have mentioned before, this will be a career killing Oscar for her]

Best Director

will and should win: Martin Scorsese (1:6)

Leslie

On Best Picture, I had the right should. I was totally wrong on Best Supporting Actor, got all the rest. Not bad.

I watched 2 hours of the show (which is 45 minutes more than I usually watch) and finally was bored enough to go to bed. My usual pattern.

L

[j.U.d.E.]

Sorry, slightly OT but I didn't want to start a whole new thread .. but there's something odd about her eyes.. It's like they are not real, there is no depth and they seem affixed to her face somehow..

- Anne Hathaway at the Oscars

I don't have a point - it's just I had noticed this before and it takes away from her beauty. Me thinks.

j. U. d. E.

[Meryl]

Hurrah for Gustavo! 

I was glad to see Martin Scorsese's ship come in at last.  Pardon the obvious, but did anybody else find thoughts of last year overcoming the happiness for Scorsese?  How I wish Ang Lee had been given that extra acknowledgement of Best Picture!  I know, enough already.... 

[ednbarby]

OK, I didn't watch it but I must admit I just read about it on Yahoo.  Does that make me a hypocrite?

I like this:  ""What a wonderful night. Such diversity in the room," said Ellen DeGeneres, serving as Oscar host for the first time, "in a year when there's been so many negative things said about people's race, religion and sexual orientation.

"And I want to put this out there: If there weren't blacks, Jews and gays, there would be no Oscars," she said, adding: "Or anyone named Oscar, when you think about that."

It ain't much.  But it's something.

I thought the score for Pan's Labyrinth was beautiful, too, Anya.  Of all of the ones I've heard at the movies this year, its basic melody is the *only* one I can remember off the top of my head.  (Well, of course I can remember a certain part of Babel's, but that's for another reason.)

I'm glad to know An Inconvenient Truth won not one but two awards.  As much as the Oscars don't matter to me anymore, I realize they still matter a lot to many other people.  And if those wins get more people to rent or buy the DVD, power to them.  It's important enough that I'll take publicity for it any way I can get it.

And now, onward and upward.  I've got three nights of Jake appearances and a movie release to look (vastly!) forward to.  It's all good.

Oh, and I agree, Jude.  There ain't a whole lot of warmth (or anything else) behind Anne Hathaway's eyes.  She's certainly a very pretty girl, yet nothing extraordinary because of that.  There are many young women out there with less perfect facial features who have a whole lot more goin' on than she has because they've got soul.

[southendmd]

I liked that Melissa Etheridge thanked her wife in a very matter-of-fact way.
Go girl!

[Anya_Angie]

Ednbarby, you MUST hear The Fountain by Cliff Mansell. It's performed by the Kronos Quartet and packs quite an emotional whallop.

Oh, interesting note on Gustavo, from filmtracks.com:

The last time the same composer won an Oscar two years in a row was Alan Menken for his animated Disney musicals in 1991 and 1992

Those scores of course are Beauty & The Beast and Aladdin.

[j.U.d.E.]

YEAH GUSTAVO!!

Oh, and I agree, Jude.  There ain't a whole lot of warmth (or anything else) behind Anne Hathaway's eyes.  She's certainly a very pretty girl, yet nothing extraordinary because of that.  There are many young women out there with less perfect facial features who have a whole lot more goin' on than she has because they've got soul.

N'est-ce pas! Her eyes look like they have been painted on her face.. They are a bit scary. Too symmetrical. Too big. Too flat. Weird. When you hide her mouth (on the picture I've posted) her eyes are without any emotion..

j. U. d. E.

[ednbarby]

YEAH GUSTAVO!!
 N'est-ce pas! Her eyes look like they have been painted on her face.. They are a bit scary. Too symmetrical. Too big. Too flat. Weird. When you hide her mouth (on the picture I've posted) her eyes are without any emotion..

j. U. d. E.

Exactly.  I have kind of made a study of the light that shines from people's eyes.  Some people think they can see auras.  I think that if you take a good, straight look into a person's eyes (this works for dogs, too, oddly) for about five seconds, you can see everything you need to know about that person.  This works, I think, with photographs, too.  I became fascinated with this years ago when I became sort of morbidly obsessed with serial killers.  And I became obsessed with them because I learned that one had once stood in my kitchen.  His name was Kenneth Bianchi, and he was one of the "Hillside Stranglers."  He was a friend of a friend of my older brothers, and for some reason (which I think was probably drug-related) he ended up at my house, probably in around 1973 or 1974, with the friend of the friend one day.  I never saw him - I just heard years later from my brothers that he had been there.  Here's a link to his Wikipedia entry:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Bianchi

It always slays me how people in interviews later would say about him or Ted Bundy or any of the others, "He seemed like such a normal guy."  WHAT?  Take one look at a photograph of any of them and they all have one thing in common - dead eyes.  If there is any light coming out of them at all, it's a faint spec that only makes them all the eerier.

OK, so Anne Hathaway is probably not a serial killer.  But there is something kind of creepy about those expressionless eyes of hers.  What's funny is I don't remember them being so expressionless in Brokeback - her eyes seemed fine, there.  But every time I see her in an interview or other venue where she's just "being herself," there they are.  All I can figure is that she might not have much of an internal life - there is no spark or fire in there that shines out.  She can only turn on what light she has, and dimly, when she acts.

And now you all know how really, *really* weird I am.   

[MaineWriter]

Barb, in case you're wondering, this is what you missed. If I wrote reviews in the paper, this is the review I would have written. From the Boston Globe.


Host DeGeneres schmoozes as audience snoozes

By Matthew Gilbert, Globe Staff  |  February 26, 2007

Ellen DeGeneres was a tepid host at last night's Academy Awards. With her wry, rambling, hemming-and-hawing style, she wanted to put everyone at ease; but instead, she put us to sleep. She took a rice-cake approach to her monologue -- it was airy, bland, and a little crunchy, as she focused on the diversity of the audience. "If there weren't blacks, Jews, and gays," she said to applause, "there would be no Oscars."

Alas, DeGeneres had less comic impact than one or two glimpses of Jack Nicholson, who'd shaved his head in solidarity with Britney Spears. He looked like the genie from a very high-proof bottle. When DeGeneres went into the audience and offered a script to Martin Scorsese, she wanted us to laugh, but we cringed as Mark Wahlberg sat right behind them. Moments earlier, Wahlberg had lost his supporting-actor contest.

And so the night proceeded with the same meandering tone as DeGeneres, inching toward nothing in particular. Instead of the usual policy of announcing a few major prizes at the beginning, the first supporting-actor award -- to Alan Arkin, who stoically read his acceptance until a mention of his family brought a crack to his voice -- wasn't announced until almost an hour into the telecast. That's just too much time to string us along.

The next crowd-pleasing award, the supporting prize to Jennifer Hudson, didn't come for yet another hour. And that moment, like Helen Mirren's similarly predictable win later on, was a letdown, only because we've already seen Hudson win so many prizes this season.

Oscarcast producer Laura Ziskin pulled out some old tricks -- very old tricks -- to distract us from the ticking of our internal time-clocks. We got a cutesy song and dance from Will Ferrell, Jack Black, and John C. Reilly about how sad, angry, and envious comedians feel about the Oscars. It wasn't bad; it was charming; but still it felt like a stall. So did director Errol Morris's interviews with the nominees, which opened the night, as well as a performance in which a chorus created sound effects -- helicopters, cars, wind, water -- for film clips.

And then there was the montage about writing in the movies, and then there were the Pilobolus dancers making cool shadow shapes, and then there was the foreign film montage, and then there was the collection of Ennio Morricone music, and then there were the clips of American history seen through movies. They were minutes, many minutes, many late minutes, we will never get back.

Those of us looking for Oscar-worthy thrills had to settle for repeated shots of Peter O'Toole in the audience pretending he knew what was going on, or the odd glimpse of someone completely out of context -- Jerry Seinfeld? Larry David?

We were left to wonder about the little red sack attached to Nicole Kidman's shoulder, and whether or not it was indeed an emergency air-sickness bag. We were left to speculate on Tom Cruise's opinion of said bag, as he delivered an introduction to the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Sherry Lansing. We were left to marvel at the incomprehension of Catherine Deneuve and Ken Watanabe's introduction to the foreign film segment, as well as the crazy-man frizz of Philip Seymour Hoffman's hair.

And, yes, we were left to enjoy one or two things, which came to us like water in the desert -- the sweetness of Melissa Etheridge kissing her wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels, before accepting her statue; the joke that had Al Gore pretending to announce his candidacy while getting cut off by the long-speech music; and the intensity of Forest Whitaker's overwhelmed silence when he took the stage to accept his best actor statue.

The E! red carpet preshow had only a few delicious moments of oddity, although no O'Toole. Jennifer Hudson greeted Ryan Seacrest wearing a tin-foil-like jacket-ette. Somewhere in her refrigerator, a leftover is naked.

But Seacrest distracted us, and the anxious J. Hud, by airing a pre-taped clip from Simon Cowell, who offered sincere congratulations to the former "American Idol" contestant: "We are rooting for you," he gushed. Since Hudson recently said she'd been "abused, misled, and brainwashed" on "Idol," the Cowell nod was either a make-nice offering or a shrewd PR checkmate.

The E! "Glam-a-strator" gimmick brought us back to pre-school. First the E! camera froze images of women, then fashionistas Jay Manuel and Giuliana De Pandi drew on them -- arrows, squiggles, and, over Cameron Diaz, "Justin Who?" It was silly, but nothing could out-silly Seacrest, his fanboy eagerness, and his awkward questions. "Is there a dirty side to Helen?" he asked Michael Sheen, Mirren's costar in "The Queen."

Seacrest inadvertently scored with Gore, who made good on one of Seacrest's many time-killing questions, this one about who'd play Gore in the movie of his life. "William Hung," Gore answered without missing a beat. And Meryl Streep also filled the Ryan Void, noting that, yes, she has received 14 nominations, which is appropriate for a size 14.

The official ABC pre-show, "Road to the Oscars," had a few exclusives, stars who dodged the E! cameras for the stiffer stylings of Chris Connelly. Ryan Gosling, with mother and sister in tow; Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and their son Jaden; and Wahlberg were among those dodging the hoi polloi. We related.

[ednbarby]

It's too bad Ellen is being equated with the show going on for too long.  Not so much in this article, which properly blamed the producer, but in a lot of other quips about it/her I've read or seen.

I am sorry I missed this:

"And, yes, we were left to enjoy one or two things, which came to us like water in the desert -- the sweetness of Melissa Etheridge kissing her wife, Tammy Lynn Michaels, before accepting her statue; the joke that had Al Gore pretending to announce his candidacy while getting cut off by the long-speech music; and the intensity of Forest Whitaker's overwhelmed silence when he took the stage to accept his best actor statue."

I'm sure it was a sweet kiss, too - so often (especially when they're between two long-married straighties!) they're really forced looking and they just make me cringe.

[Anya_Angie]

and then there was the collection of Ennio Morricone music, and then there were the clips of American history seen through movies. They were minutes, many minutes, many late minutes, we will never get back.

I can't tell you how many people were HAPPY for the Morricone bit! In fact his hits are being downloaded all over the place now thanks to the Oscar tribute. Such a shame the "journalist" lacks the respect to mention just who the hell he is and why he deserved it.

[oilgun]

From quoted article:
[...]Alas, DeGeneres had less comic impact than one or two glimpses of Jack Nicholson, who'd shaved his head in solidarity with Britney Spears. He looked like the genie from a very high-proof bottle.

[...]And then there was the montage about writing in the movies, and then there were the Pilobolus dancers making cool shadow shapes.

I too was very disappointed with Ellen's bland performance.  He material was very safe and boring.  The Oscars need a host take takes chances.

As for Pilobolus, why did they include an image of the un-nominated Snakes on a Plane?  That seemed out of place.  A columnist in the Globe said that if people like to see dancers make pretty shapes that they should buy tickets to their show and see it on their own time, lol!  I tend to agree.

The same columnist brought up another excellent point,  why are there so few film clips during the Oscars?  I mean it's supposed to be about movies and people who watch tend to be movie lovers, so you would think that showing as many film clips as possible would be a given.  Millions of people are watching, it would be great advertising for the films.

One last thought.  I haven't seen Dreamgirls but if I go by its three very forgetable nominated songs then i don't think I'm missing much, lol!  What a snooze-fest indeed.

[ednbarby]

Here's the problem I've always had with the Oscars:  Too many tributes.  They really need to take a page from the BAFTAs' book.  There, they honor the films nominated that year and movies released over the last year in general.  And they do a lovely job of honoring each of the nominees.  I've heard that the Oscars tried to do that more (or some) this year.  But it seems they also did way too many tributes to people most folks don't care about.  I think the Honorary Oscar and the In Memoriam tributes are the only ones they need to do.  Beyond that, it's overkill.

Some people say they should do away with the categories like Best Live Action Short and Best Animated Short, but I disagree.  Those people worked hard as nails to make those films.  And they're not what eats up the time.  It's all the extraneous tributes and bits of hosts going into the audience and musical and/or dance numbers that have nothing to do with anything.  Cut that crap out, and you've got a three-hour show, TOPS, and that's with letting everyone have their say.

[Meryl]

Well said, Barb! 

[kirkmusic]

I think you have to be a freakishly huge film fan to reeeeeeeeally enjoy the Oscars.  Unless you're actually interested in who wins film editing and the sound awards and such, much of the show is going to be a big snooze.  I've found that these past two years that I've been able to see all of the documentary and short subject nominees in theatres, I've gained another 20 minutes of the show to be interested in.

I have to defend Ellen.  Asking Spielberg to take a picture of her and Eastwood and then asking him to correct his composition was pretty funny.  And the shadow picture folks?  I'd be surprised if they took up a full two minutes of the show.  I liked them just for the sake of wondering "How did they do that?!?!!?"

I love all of the film clip bits.  Again, you have to be a freak film fan to really get into it, but I am and I did.  And I really liked the way they read bits of the screenplays when they presented those awards this year.

I remember the 2004 awards being dull as dirt, but I had a great time this year.  Sorry, I did.

[Anya_Angie]

I agree that the short film categories, particularly Best Animated Short, should be kept in, if nothing else to preserve the legacy of its winners from the past (Knighty-Knight Bugs, Tweetie Pie, Birds Anonymous, The Fast and the Furrious, these are just some of the ones I know offhand) which included the likes of Chuck Jones and Walt Disney. Of course these were from the time when animated shorts, along with newsreels, were shown before features...

I know I'd rather see Bugs and Daffy arguing over what hunting season it is, than those stupid commercials for Coke and stuff!

[Anya_Angie]

I was searching google for something and typed in my name just to see if the Boston Globe ran my comment about Gilbert's article, and they did!

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/03/11/after_dreamgirls/

I am a collector and lover of film scores. The only reason I watched the Oscars this year was to see the great film composer Ennio Morricone finally get his due with an amazing tribute and an Oscar he should have received a long time ago. Gilbert didn't even seem to care who Morricone is and why he deserved what he got.

ANGELA RABATIN
Perryopolis, Penn.

[Front-Ranger]

Yay! My thoughts exactly. What song or songs did they play when Morricone won his Oscar? I didn't see the performance, natch, because I was in Bay City watching Brokeback Mountain! That was the only part that I regretted missing.

I lent my Yo Yo Ma plays Morricone CD to a friend and now I can't get it back!! I think I'll go into shock if I don't get it back soon!!

[Anya_Angie]

I can honestly say The Mission and The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly were among them. But I'll do better than simply describe the tribute: I'm going to show it to you!!!

LONG LIVE YOUTUBE!!!!!!!!!!!

[Front-Ranger]

That was so incredible!! Thank you very much!!

By the way, I have acquired two tickets to Matthew Bourne's Edwaard Scizzorhands!! I thought you would like to know about that!!

[Anya_Angie]

Ohhh lucky!!!! It's coming here or came here not too long ago, but I was saving up for a now-botched trip to DC for Champions On Ice. *sigh* Oh well, there's always another time.

[Flashframe777]

Been away for a while.  I am enjoying a little pitstop with family now, and packing a few things to head back West.  I totally missed the Oscars.  But I know two people who now own a brand spanking new Oscar.  Good for the both of them.

I want to share this Sigur Ros video link with you guys...maybe it's been linked before. 

26Mytoken%3D72090F34%2DBCD6%2D4054%2DB29

Reminiscent of you know what....

[Ellemeno]

Been away for a while.  I am enjoying a little pitstop with family now, and packing a few things to head back West.  I totally missed the Oscars.  But I know two people who now own a brand spanking new Oscar.  Good for the both of them.

I want to share this Sigur Ros video link with you guys...maybe it's been linked before. 

26Mytoken%3D72090F34%2DBCD6%2D4054%2DB29

Reminiscent of you know what....

Shit, that's hard, beautiful, awful, hopeful, hideous, amazing.

Scott, I'm glad I know you.  Hope your family is treating you well. 

Clarissa