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Actually, I Need to Wake Up Too

26 Feb

I guess it was an enjoyable Oscars show. I’ll probably always enjoy it. Perhaps that’s the ultimate in denial, because this year’s show was really safe, slick, slow-moving, and not too exciting or surprising overall. And for a change, it felt long. That said, it had its moments:

I was shocked that Alan Arkin actually won Best Supporting Actor (though let it be said that I predicted that). Somewhere Jeffrey Wells is gloating, and elsewhere, Dreamworks/Paramount is regretting releasing Norbit before the Oscars … Celine Dion still sucks. I wish she’d stayed in Vegas, where we didn’t have to hear from her … J.Hud won and gave a nice, genuinely emotional speech — and gave me the chance to say for the last time (I promise) that I interviewed her months ago (I even scooped Barbara Walters) … I liked the opening Nominees film, by Errol Morris … I thought Ellen’s monologue was good, but I think she was probably a little too quirky for the Oscars … Good for An Inconvenient Truth, but I thought there was a little too much Al Gore, even if I do like him … A definite highlight was Apple’s commercial for the iPhone … Why was Jack Nicholson bald? … Does anyone else remember when Chris Connelly was cool? … The Dreamgirls musical number was good — if you don’t include “Patience” — but Eddie Murphy was missed … Jennifer Lopez: whoa! … So WTF were those shadow dancers?? … I still wish Judi Dench had won Best Actress … You know, say what you will, but I do sorta feel bad for Eddie Murphy. Were it not for Norbit, that award would have been his, and he seemed, in the end, to really want it (too little, too late, I guess) … Did Ellen really vaccuum?? That was ridiculous … Best acceptance speech: Forest Whitaker’s. Second best: the guy who won for West Bank Story, the Best Live Action Short Film … I’m happy Helen Mirren doesn’t have to feign surprise anymore … And while I thought Little Miss Sunshine would win Best Picture, I’m happy The Departed actually did. After all, it was my favorite movie of last year … Oh, and I can’t believe the three Dreamgirls songs actually cancelled themselves out and Melissa Etheridge won Best Song; that may be a bigger surprise/upset than Alan Arkin’s win because I thought “Listen” was a sure thing. (A complete list of winners is here.)

I guess that’s it. It’s past Abigail Breslin’s bed time. On to next year!

A Not-so-Wonderful Night for Oscar?

24 Feb

For all the unpredictability that accompanies this year’s Best Picture nominees, the rest of the major categories look to go according to plan. As a result, there’s not so much interesting about an Oscar predictions post this year. I’ll say I hope The Departed wins Best Picture, but I expect Little Miss Sunshine to actually win — which is fine, because Sunshine is a great movie. Otherwise, Scorsese, Hudson, Whitaker and Mirren will all win (though I’d rather Judi Dench take Best Actress). And The Departed and Sunshine will win the screenplay categories. Perhaps the only surprise might come in Best Supporting Actor, where Jeffrey Wells has convinced me that Alan Arkin might actually win, not Eddie Murphy. So I hope Ellen DeGeneres does a great hosting job, because the show is not shaping up to be a suspenseful one. (And by the way, if you need a ballot to keep track of the winners, here’s one.)

Either way, the show has to be better than the one in 1989, when Snow White and, yes, Rob Lowe opened the show by singing, among other things, “Proud Mary.” If you’ve never seen it, here’s your chance. The year after this debacle, Billy Crystal hosted and all was right with the world. But this is a great reminder of how bad the Oscars can be. So at 12:30, when the show is still going on, remember: it could always be worse. (And thanks to David Poland for the tip.)

Bring It On

23 Jan

Whoa. That’s my biggest reaction to the Oscar nominations this morning. More specifically:

* No Dreamgirls for Best Picture? That’s a huge shock, because everyone thought it was a lock to win. This opens the field up completely, and now I’d say it’s a 4-way race (The Queen doesn’t really have a shot). But what’s odd is that Dreamgirls still has the most noms of any movie (eight) — including three in the Best Song category. That’s the coolest of all, because it means Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson and Eddie Murphy may all sing. That would make for some fantastic television.

* Leo nominated for Blood Diamond and not The Departed. It’s because he thought he’d get a Best Supporting Actor nom for The Departed, and Warner Brothers campaigned thusly. Now he’s shot himself in the foot because he’s much better in Departed and doesn’t really have a shot to win for Blood Diamond. Then again, Forest Whitaker’s a lock to win anyway, so this is all moot.

* Ryan Gosling nominated for Best Actor. This is great. He is so good in Half Nelson. But I’m bummed that Sacha Baron Cohen didn’t get a nom for Borat. My view is that Will Smith took his spot; had Pursuit of Happyness come out any earlier in the year, the spot would have been Cohen’s.

* Whitaker vs O’Toole. If Peter O’Toole wins, it’ll be because of sentiment. He’s old; he plays an old guy. It’s sort of like Abigail Breslin. She’s good and all, but she’s playing a cute kid. How hard can that be? (Says the guy who couldn’t act, so he started writing reviews.) Not that I’ve seen Forest Whitaker’s movie (or O’Toole’s, for that matter), but that seems like a much more challenging role for him.

* Paul Greengrass nominated for Best Director. Even though United 93 didn’t make the Best Picture cut, I’m glad the movie was recognized here.

* Jennifer Hudson nominated for Best Supporting Actress. Hey, have I ever mentioned that I interviewed her for Continental? (Just kidding.)

* Mark Wahlberg nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Really? That one I don’t get. But more importantly, so who has the better back story this year: Jennifer Hudson, former contestant on American Idol, or Mark Wahlberg, formerly Marky Mark, former Calvin Klein underwear model?

* My predictions: Departed for Best Pic; Scorsese for Best Director; Mirren, Whitaker, Hudson, and Murphy in the acting categories; Departed for Adapted Screenplay and Little Miss Sunshine for Original Screenplay; “Listen” for Best Song; and Happy Feet for Animated Film.

Those are my quick reactions. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the nominations. I like that, aside from the four acting categories and Best Director, things are pretty wide open. And now I definitely need to see Babel (I still have no interest in seeing Letters from Iwo Jima). With Ellen Degeneres hosting, this could be a great show. I can’t wait.

Everyone’s a Winner!

6 Mar

Some quick Oscar reactions:

* I got 16 out of 24 correct. Not bad. Of course, I was happy to get Best Song wrong.

* Crash winning Best Picture was an upset, sure, and I was shocked. I figured Brokeback had it all pretty much sown up. (Didn’t everyone?) I mean, It’s not like Crash is a bad movie or anything (hello, Shakespeare in Love), but even given how Lions Gate was aggressively marketing that movie in the last few months, I never thought it would pull out a win.

* Best Acceptance Speech: George Clooney, by a mile. That guy is just the most well-spoken, most intelligent, most underrated guy in all of Hollywood (despite his three, some would say four, nominations). Damn, was I impressed. No wonder I’m such a huge fan.

* Three 6 Mafia won. That was too funny (and totally cool). But what was up with the “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” production number? Truly bizarre stuff. Whole lotta “witches” jumpin’ ship? Where … in Salem? And those dancers? Huh? How come Dolly Parton didn’t have any backup entertainment?

* Brokeback Mountain, Crash, Memoirs of a Geisha AND King Kong all won three awards. That’s a pretty even distribution. No one film dominated.

* Jennifer Garner. Yes, I saw her trip. I even chuckled. Poor Jennifer. But it was still good to see her back in action.

* I turned quickly to the TV Guide Channel’s preshow to hear this comment from Dolly Parton to Joan Rivers: “Are yours all real? There’s not a real thing about me except my heart.” She then added, “You’ve known me since I was a B-cup.” That was when I quickly turned back to the E! preshow. Joan Rivers makes Guiliana DePandi seem so much more tolerable.

* Kudos to David Letterman for taking part in the opening montage.

* Bravo to Jon Stewart. Thought he did a really good, really different and unconventional, job. At times it was almost like he was too hip for the room, but I laughed the whole way through. And kudos to him for not overdoing the Brokeback jokes.

* Best dressed: A tie between Hillary Swank and Jessica Alba. Second place: Sandra Bullock.

* What was up with Jennifer Lopez’s makeup? Otherwise, she looked great too.

* Can we call a moratorium on all penguins talk from here on out? I mean, really — did the producers and directors of that film have to bring up those stuffed animals when they won? And on a similar topic, does this mean we can all move on from Brokeback and all the Brokeback jokes now that the Oscars are over and it didn’t win Best Picture and now it’s yesterday’s news?

* Really liked the M. Night Shyamalan AmEx commercial. Weird stuff, but it’s pretty cool compared to other ads out there.

* In general, this was the best Oscars in years. It hardly ever dragged, and it was thoroughly entertaining. I mean, really — no one expects the show to actually be over in three hours. And even if you took out two or three of the montages, you’d only be cutting out about 5 or 7 minutes.

* So to borrow and expand upon Jon Stewart’s thought, let me get this straight: Three 6 Mafia are Oscar winners, and Eminem is also an Oscar winner from a couple years back, but people like Robert Altman (not including his honorary one), Alfred Hitchcock, Martin Scorcese, and Paul Giamatti are not? Hmmmmmm. It’s always interesting to put things in perspective like that.

* No kidding, I’m a bit bummed the Oscars are over. As much as the Oscars are overexposed and overhyped, as a movie fan, it’s one of my favorite times of the year, and now it’s a bit of a let-down. When do the summer movies start?

If I Picked the Winners

3 Mar

Since I never did write up a list of my favorite movies of 2005, I figured it was only right for me to post some of my picks for this Sunday’s Oscars. I don’t have strong feelings in many of the categories, and I feel like a good number of them are already pretty well set (which doesn’t generate much interest in picking your own winner), but here goes anyway in a few of the ones I have an opinion about …

Best Picture
Who’s going to win: Brokeback Mountain
How I’d vote: Toss-up between BBM and Munich. While the latter film resonated more with me and would have ranked higher on my list, Brokeback has had the longer-lasting emotional impact, and I saw it twice. As good as it was, I have no real interest in seeing Munich again.

Best Actor
Who’s going to win: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote
How I’d vote: It’d be cool if Terrence Howard won, but I’d agree with the Academy if they chose Hoffman. He really was great, and he’s way overdue for some recognition.

Best Actress
Who’s going to win: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
How I’d vote: Wasn’t particularly blown away by Witherspoon or Felicity Huffman, so this one is also a toss-up for me. Because I enjoyed Walk the Line more, however, I’d give my vote to Witherspoon.

Best Supporting Actor
Who’s going to win: George Clooney, Syriana
How I’d vote: Tough call again. Despite my allegiance and loyalty to Clooney, and my liking of Syriana, I’d really like to see Paul Giamatti get some long overdue recognition.

Best Supporting Actress
Who’s going to win: Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
How I’d vote: Weisz was the best thing in a great movie. She’d have my vote too. Still, even though I didn’t like her movie, I think it’d be cool if Amy Adams won.

Best Documentary Feature
Who’s going to win: March of the Penguins
How I’d vote: Murderball was my favorite movie of 2005, the only one I actually wanted to be longer. So I’m really rooting for it here.

Best Original Song
Who’s going to win: “Travelin’ Thru,” Transamerica
How I’d vote: “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp,” from Hustle & Flow. Let me put it this way: If this song doesn’t win, there’ll be a whole lotta bitches jumpin’ ship.

Best Original Score
Who’s going to win: Gustavo Santaolalla, Brokeback Mountain
How I’d vote: The score for BBM is great music that can be listened to on its own without the movie. I’m hoping John Williams’ two competing scores cancel each other out with the voters.

Otherwise, here are my other picks:

Best Animated Feature: Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Best Art Direction: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Cinematography: Brokeback Mountain
Best Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
Best Documentary Short: The Mushroom Club
Best Editing: Crash
Best Foreign Language Film: Paradise Now
Best Makeup: The Chronicles of Narnia
Best Animated Short Film: One Man Band
Best Live Action Short Film: Ausreisser (The Runaway)
Best Sound Editing: King Kong
Best Sound Mixing: Walk the Line
Best Visual Effects: King Kong
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Best Original Screenplay: Crash

So there you go. Oh, and one last prediction: Jon Stewart is going to rock. I can hardly wait.

Good Man, That Oscar

31 Jan

Gotta say, I’m really happy with the Oscar nominations this year. Really quickly … Continue reading →

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