Title: OSCAR ROUNDUP
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Comic ID #5539
Title: OSCAR ROUNDUP
Print Status: Available
Title: OSCAR ROUNDUP
Print Status: Available
Discussion (22) ¬
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This had to be one of the worst produced telecasts in a while. Hell, this came damn close to making the Rob Lowe and Snow White opening look like a class act by comparison.
Missed cues by the director, especially not going in tight early enough for the “In Memoriam” film (which might be where all the missed celebs people complained about not seeing were…) were just emblematic of the issues plaguing this show. Add to that the lack of real engagement between and from Martin and Baldwin, and you had a show that made it possible to fantasize about adopting a format like the WGA-strike-affected “press conference” Golden Globes presentation…
Yes, everyone likes to carp about the awards, and unfortunately this year had more carp than a boatload of fish in an episode of DEADLIEST CATCH. About the only good moments were seeing Roger Coreman getting an ovation from the Academy, and the director of NEAR DARK finally getting some recognition for her body of work.
I know, I know, they keep telling me, “Forget it Jim, it’s Hollywood,” but like an Oscar winner once wrote, “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” Not if we keep getting dreck like this I ain’t…
I could post my entire Facebook rant about Oscars on here. However, I will just say that I’d rather have Tom resting while sick, than working on something for us. I’m glad that you’re feeling better, Tom.
I’m very upset over the lack of Sherlock Holmes. I think it was a great enough movie to win SOMETHING. Don’t get me wrong, Avatar was good, really good. But again as people had said, it’s overrated and the plot not very original. Great movie…a great overrated movie. Sherlock and Avatar are different movies in of themselves..but I think I enjoyed Sherlock Holmes better. Doctor Watson won my heart…I was a little shocked with how Sherlock was represented, he definitely didn’t look like the older illustrations of him in the past.
Anyway, this is supposed to be a oscar rant…not Sherlock Holmes rant…but ROAR to lack of Holmes. Shame on them.
I think Sandras comment was meant as “I put out so many damn movies this/last year right!?”, because what like 20 with her came out?
We all know going into the Oscars that it’s just the biggest televised event of Hollywood kissing its own @$$. I haven’t even taken it remotely serious since the Dark Knight was passed over for anything major (Heath Ledger wouldn’t have won what he did had he been alive– not to say he didn’t deserve it). It’s incredibly sad that the Teen Choice Awards have a more meritous voting system than the Oscars, because it’s not a bunch of “industry” people making political/friendly votes.
Seriously I didn’t get the break dancing.
I missed half over half of it do to having to go to my own house, and not having cable there (darn poor college student living!) but I must admit, I am happy for Sandra Bullock. I really have a feeling her line was more ‘Hah, stay in here long enough and do enough films and I wore you down’ and less ‘I have been acting so awesome all these years’. If it was the second she would have said something like ‘and you guys finally took notice of my talent and decided to reward it’ instead of ‘wore you guys down’. The second implies a little kid bugging his parents over and over, while the more arrogant one implies.. well, arrogance.
Buuut that is me and language analyzing. Can’t help it, I’m a student of the English language and a voracious reader. Word choice matters in a big way.
I’m glad Avatar didn’t win, because although I loved the movie I didn’t feel it was deserving of a Oscar, you know? Best picture is a big deal.
And as for the Sherlock Holmes… meh, Hollywood rarely gives us geeks love. The moment something has a geek stamp on it, Hollywood ignores it unless it smashes the box office. (I mean, dude. They never gave STAR WARS an Oscar. The original trilogy!)
Over the years I have become jaded with the Oscars though. You can predict most things by politics alone.
MJ and Chris, Amen to that. It was sad that Ledger died…but people made such a big deal over The Dark Knight simply because, “OMG…he died!!” I was getting so mad at YouTube comments because this was well before it came out on film and everyone was getting in a debate over who was the best Joker. And I’m like “Uh, it’s not out yet..Ledger could be crap for all you know and you saw him for like 30 seconds in the trailer!”
And yeah…the dancing definitely was not appropriate for any of the scores. Robot and break dancing? Fail…Hollywood…just fail.
Sandra Bullock in Blind side was simply not an Oscar winning performance nor do I think her body of work deserves an Oscar. You could tell by how joyless Bullock was walking to and from the podium she didn’t think she deserved it either. I think from a marketing standpoint they are tired of giving it to Streep and Mirren. If they could have gotten away with it they would have given it to Kristen Stewart to bring in the young crowd.
I don’t think Avatar had a chance to win best picture. Much like Star Wars it looked great but really the story was not much beyond being a Cowboys and Indians movie.
Speaking of Avatar I have a serious pet peeve about foreign actors whose voices pop in and out of American accents. Some actors pull it off better than others but when a scene calls for them to yell something it just sounds goofy. The kid from Avatar starts the movie with a southern lilt which fades to American Hollywood and then in and out of Australian or wherever he’s from for the rest of the movie. Worst offender I’ve seen is Gerard Butler, thanks to him there is a large contingent of kids thinking Spartans from Greece talk with a brogue…:)
They gave Star Wars six Oscars. They even nominated it for Best Picture.
You raise a good point, R.J., especially when you compare her acceptance speech the night before for her Razzie award. She took on an entirely different demeanor just 24 hours before, one that seemed to be more accepting of the judgement of the GRAF than the Academy’s. Interesting…
Quick question to everyone that says Avatar didn’t deserve to win because it wasn’t that great, or was overrated? Have you seen The Hurt Locker? If the answer is no, how can you positively say that, for as overrated as it might be, Avatar isn’t a better movie than The Hurt Locker?
I can’t believe nobody said anything about Monique’s speech. She said something to the effect that the academy voted for the performance and not for politics. I thought that was bad form.
It’s as if, because she won, it was based on performance, but if anyone else had won, it would have been politics. Hers was, IMHO, the worst speech of the night for that reason.
@Eric
I wanted to talk about Mo’nique’s speech, but I couldn’t transition into it like I wanted.
Personally, I’m not a fan of Mo’nique. I haven’t seen Precious, so I can’t judge her performance. But there’s just something about her attitude I’ve never liked. Not as a comedianne. Not as an actress. Not as a talk show interview subject. Just oil and water for me.
Andre already hit on it, but I think Mo’nique was talking about the critics who took her to task for not appearing at some early critic award ceremonies. The New York Critics Association springs to mind.
At first, I was like “Yeah! The Academy SHOULD award the performance, not the politics” and she totally won me over by talking a stand.
But then I remember reading that part of the reason she didn’t attending those early newspaper critic award ceremonies was because she wasn’t being compensated for her appearance. She didn’t want to show up somewhere for free, regardless of whether it looked good or bad to Academy voters.
She she wasn’t really taking the high road by choosing not to campaign. She was simply looking out for her immediate short-term financial gain in. She’s no martyr.
Here’s an article about the controversy:
http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_goldderby/2009/12/monique-precious-based-on-the-novel-push-by-sapphire-news.html
Eric, I think Mo’nique was referencing the fact that she had been criticized by media/bloggers that she wasn’t campaining for her Oscar nomination. In her speech, she basically said “see, you don’t need to campain to win if you really deserve it”.
While on the subject, I don’t think it’s fair that one of The Hurt Locker’s producers basically started a smear campain against Avatar. Sure, he was denied entrance to the theater as a reprimand, but whoever he contacted might have been swayed by his compain, giving an unfair advantage to The Hurt Locker. Worse in all of this is that this producer will still get his Oscar. That’s shameful. The rules are clear on this, and if they had guts, they would have suspended this guy’s membership, at the very least.
Here’s the exact rule on this:
“References to Other Nominees.
Ads, mailings, Web sites or any other forms of communication that attempt to promote a particular film or achievement by casting a negative or derogatory light on a competing film or achievement are not permitted. In particular, any tactic that singles out “the competition” by name or title is expressly forbidden.”
Expressly forbidden. Sounds to me like they would take this seriously, much more than simply refusing him access. How about disqualifying the movie maybe? You clearly break the rule, you suffer the consequences I say.
I would just like to say that I saw both Avatar and Hurt Locker. I was blown away by how good Hurt Locker was and felt it deserved all the awards it one except Best Picture. She did earn that Director’s Oscar, but I think Avatar should have won best picture, and not just because of it’s technical merits. I think so many people believe it is getting attention just because of the visual/technical achievement that they don’t look at the big picture.
Also, if part of the reason Sandra Bullock won best actress over Streep was box office, than how in any world does Avatar not win best picture. Now don’t misunderstand, I do not think any category Oscar should be given based on ticket sales, but again I think they made the wrong choice. Is it possible that people did not vote for avatar because it was “Just a blockbuster”. All I know it is the current culmination of one man’s already GREAT career, and will go down in History for several different reasons as groundbreaking.
When the War on Terrorism is over and our soldiers are home, The Hurt Locker will only be remembered as a really good movie, not a great one.
Oh and Tom, regarding those ‘flashcubes’ that you get before a migraine, I also get them once in a while. As soon as I start getting those flashes, I take an Advil Liqui-Gel pill and that does the trick more often than not. If I don’t do anything and let the migraine come, then I can get pretty bad, even complete disorientation and vomitting once. So yeah, try the Advil pills to see if they help you!
To Greg – Oops, posted late last night hopped up on caffeine. I meant that none of the original trilogy ever won Best Picture, even though it is one of the most recognizable movie trilogies world wide. Not that it didn’t win anything. (Though looking at the awards, they are the typical ones fantasy/sci-fi movies get. Costumes, sound mixing, special effects, etc. With the exception of film editing. Of course that is what those movies do really well, but I think I have become overly critical of critics when I realized how much they ignored stuff that was fantasy sci-fi. But then again, I am more familiar with the biases of books so it might not exist as much in the movies.)
As for the question concerning Hurt Locker vs. Avatar, I personally could see why the academy voted the way it did, but really none of the movies this year I felt deserved an award for best picture… but then again, I am a horribly big critic. I loved Avatar and think it should be remembered, but part of me feels weird putting it on the same level as past great movies.
Hurt Locker got it for numerous reasons, one is that if Avatar did have a more solid self-contained story and didn’t depend so much on the tropes of the Sci-fi genre it probably would have won and I would have been fully behind it. Hurt Locker had its own story, Avatar borrowed heavily off of other stories.
Also, Hurt Locker is depressing as all heck and critics love the opportunity to translate a work as ‘this world is a hopeless, barren place and everything is in vain’. (Once again, my own bitterness showing against some critics. But once again, more talking about the elitist literarti types who believe something has to be depressing and a horrible sad ending to be meaningful. Which is why comedy will never win best picture). (I walked out of the room halfway through the movie as I was getting to emotionally wound up so I don’t know if it ended as such, but even having it there in the beginning is a plus for Hollywood critics).
I actually thought that the dancers were the best part of the show. They were at least interesting to watch.
I didn’t think the guy was busting out the robot for ‘UP’. I thought he was supposed to be part of a clock that was ticking away while the other two chased each other around. It made me tear up. I didn’t really care for ‘UP’, but that was an amazing score….wait, I guess that was the robot….still loved it.
I only saw 8 of the 10 Best Picture Nominees, and the only one I thought that was undeserving was ‘The Blind Side’, but that’s just me.
I thought the Oscars were better this year than last year. I hated last year’s whole inner workings stage (it remind me of the ‘behind the scenes’ acts of the Muppet Show) & the in memorium made me motion sick. At least this year there was a little Hollywood old school glamour & you could tell who had passed away. Steve Martin & his wooden dummy Alec were okay, but I would have actually liked to see Neil Patrick Harris host (I actually think he had more total screen time than Steve & Alec).
I was pleasantly surprised to see 2 Sci Fi entries for best picture. Just really happy Avatar didn’t win because Hurt Locker was great. I was lucky enough to see it during its theatrical release last summer & it still haunts me.
I thought Moon got robbed. It wasn’t nominated for anything, but was easily one of the best movies of last year.
Avatar winning best art direction was unfortunate, IMO. People focus on how unoriginal the script was, but look at all the rest of it. The visuals were great, but there was nothing original there, either; the ship designs, the weapons, the forest, etc. Almost all of it was something straight out of either a previous Cameron film or a space marine video game of the week.
My favorite moment was Steve Martin’s reference to The Jerk while he was chatting with the girl from Precious. That cracked me up.