2.28.2007

Ok, just for fun, I'm going to rank my personal TOP TEN of 2006. This does not include Letters From Iwo Jima because I didn't see it yet, but I've seen everything else noteworthy.

1. THE DEPRATED
2. THE QUEEN
3. PAN'S LABYRINTH
4. CHILDREN OF MEN
5. THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
6. DREAMGIRLS
7. HALF NELSON
8. BORAT
9. CASINO ROYALE
10. LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE

And now I'm done posting about anything related to the Oscars or 2006 movies. I swear.

Continue reading...

2.27.2007

So today I ran into one of my friends, and she was wearing a shirt for the band Plain White T's. Yet, oddly, while the shirt was white, it had numerous designs and logos on it. Isn't that a bit oxymoronic? Wouldn't the most logical advertisement for the band be, you know, a plain white t-shirt? But then again, people who aren't familiar with the band wouldn't get it, and even those who are may just think you like white t-shirts. Quite the little dilemma, there.

Continue reading...

2.26.2007

So, about the actual Oscar program...

Ellen wasn't a bad host. She was no Jon Stewart, but then again -- who is?

There was lots of boring stuff that could've been cut to make the ceremony short and sweet. The AMPAS wonders why their ratings decline? Here's why:

Celine Dion - boring. Cut.
The shadow dancers were cool, but just fillers. Cut.
Foreign Language film winners, kinda cool, but still... Cut.
The tribute to America in film, or whatever. Cut.
Happy Feet thing at the beginning. Cut.
Will Ferrell/Jack Black. Definitely cut (and I usually like Will Ferrell)
Commercials. Cut... oh wait, they can't do that.

Show the awards and winners, have a few bits by the host, original songs performed, best picture clips introduced, the couple honorary awards, and that's it. Is it too much to ask? We all love Snakes on a Plane references, but it's just a waste of time. However, I did like the showing of the costumes. That part can stay as well.

Little fact: these Oscars had the third lowest ratings, beating out only 2006 and 2003. Terrible.

In semi-related news, I think I did okay on a Spanish quiz today, but even if I failed, who cares. I'll be in a good mood for the next three weeks and nothing can affect that.

Continue reading...

Tonight was a great night!

(This is going to be the most jumbled post ever, but oh well.)

Here's how I reacted as the night progressed:

Pan's Labyrinth wins the first two Oscars: "Oh my God, tonight's going to be a great night."

Alan Arkin upsets Eddie Murphy: "Ugh, this isn't a good sign."

Lots of the upsets and second-placers get the Oscar (elaborated later): "God damnit."

Babel wins score, Little Miss Sunshine wins Screenplay: "This has got to be a joke."

Thelma Schoonmaker wins editing for The Departed: "Yes! YES! All the previous wrongs are gone, The Departed has it!"

Then when Scorsese won, and The Departed won, all was right in the world, and now I can be happy for another year. Thank Christ.

Who Deserved the Wins

Scorsese and The Departed obviously deserved their wins. Thank God Scorsese is finally awarded.

Forest Whitaker managed a not totally mumbled speech, and Helen Mirren was as elegant and articulate as usual. Gotta love her.

Thelma Schoonmaker for Editing. This woman is a legend, and she pulled this win while still winning only two years ago. I think I was happier at this award than anything else up to that point.

The Departed for adapted screenplay was well deserved.

The Surprises

I would've bet lots of money on The Queen taking original screenplay, despite most people saying Little Miss Sunshine was the frontrunner. Oh well, it could've been worse, and gone to Babel. *shudders*

Costume design for Marie Antoinette. This was my first guess but I changed it due to a lack of other major nominations. Guess next year I'll go with my gut.

Alan Arkin best supporting actor... Sigh. This is pretty much a huge upset, since Eddie Murphy won everything beforehand. Everything. I guess Norbit, plus his various antic, plus Arkin's seniority pulled him through. Too bad the same couldn't be said for Peter O'toole. I really suck at picking supporting actor.

Pan's Labyrinth for cinematography... I said a month or so ago that it was a toss up (for me) between this and Children of Men. I'm surprised Pan's Labyrinth won, and wish Children of Men did, but we all know how I love that fantasy movie, so it's sort of like a pleasant surprise...

The Complete Jokes

Melissa Etheridge winning original song? Are you kidding me? Obviously as a result of split votes between the Dreamgirls songs. Sigh.

Babel for original score? All of the other nominees produced better work this year. God damn that movie.

Foreign Language Film is what makes me the most mad. How does a film come in with SIX nominations, five outside of this catagory, WIN THREE of them, but still lose it's main Oscar? Granted, The Lives of Others was the 'dark horse' (I hate that term), but seriously... This irritates me.

Happy Feet over Cars? Even over Monster House... I didn't think Cars was anything amazing, but at least it had, how do you say it... 'quality?' Yeah, that's it.

Conclusion

So I predicted 12/22, which is a pretty crappy percentage. I still stick by what I said as the 'best' in their catagories, so whatever. I don't even care, because The Departed/Scorsese won, and that makes up for the crappiness of last year. All is well in the world, and now I'm going to go watch The Departed and fall asleep.

PS. The worst part of the night was Meryl Streep not presenting anything.

PPS. How scary is Jack Nicholson with no hair?

Continue reading...

2.19.2007

With six days to go and all the major guild awards done, it's about time to make some final Oscar predictions. A lot of these won't be a shock. The AMPAS likes to go with comfortable choices, and upsets are usually rare. Having more than one in a year is pretty uncanny.

Best Picture: Preference/Prediction: The Departed
Best Director: Pref/Pred: Martin Scorsese
Lead Actor: Pref/Pred: Forest Whitaker
Best Actress: Pref/Pred: Helen Mirren
Supporting Actor: Pref: Mark Wahlberg. Pred: Eddie Murphy
Supporting Actress: Pref: Cate Blanchett. Pred: Jennifer Hudson
Original Screenplay: Pref/Pred: The Queen
Adapted Screenplay: Pref/Pred: The Departed
Animated Feature: Pref/Pred: Cars
Documentary Feature: Pred: An Inconvenient Truth
Foreign Language Film: Pref/Pred: Pan's Labyrinth
Cinematography: Pref/Pred: Children of Men
Art Direction: Pref/Pred: Pan's Labyrinth
Editing: Pref: The Departed. Pred: Babel
Visual Effects: Pref/Pred: Pirates of the Caribbean
Costume Design: Pref/Pred: Dreamgirls
Makeup: Pref/Pred: Pan's Labyrinth
Sound Mixing: Pref/Pred: Dreamgirls
Sound Editing: Pref/Pred: Pirates of the Caribbean
Original Score: Pref: Pan's Labyrinth. Pred: The Queen
Original Song: Pref/Pred: 'Listen' from Dreamgirls
Animated Short: Pred: The Little Matchgirl
Live Action Short: No idea.
Documentary Short: No idea.

I hope this year doesn't disappoint.

Continue reading...

2.16.2007

I've watch tons of movies since my last extensive update, but I'll just mention the most recent two:

Half Nelson; No doubt that the main reason to watch this flick is to see Ryan Gosling in his best role to date. He plays a drug-addicted history teacher at a junior high school, and when one of his thirteen year-old students discovers his habit, they form a unique friendship. This movie isn't without a few pacing flaws, but Gosling gives a memorable performance and it's definitely worth a rental.

A Scanner Darkly; An interesting cell-shading take on what could be happening seven years in the future. A new Substance D drug is highly addictive and, in simple terms, messes with the user's brain. The movie stretches the viewer in ambivalence, with some parts being interesting, deep, or funny; however, the movie fails to keep up the suspence, and the problem with cell-shading is that it takes away the depth of live action movies, and glazes over what could be top-notch animation (we'll say Pixar movies, for a quintessential example). The concept is a fresh take on addiction, but the movie falls short in the closing scenes. Two important things with this movie: first, even when cell-shaded, Winona Ryder is hot, and second, Robert Downey Jr. is the most memorable 'performance' in the movie. If anything, I love when he does the bullet-through-the-head motion (see about 1:15 in the video below). Worth a viewing on HBO.

Here's the trailer for the latter movie.

Continue reading...

Word of the day: 'incredulous(ly)'

I was in one of my workshops today and one girl had a pretty badly proofread manuscript (lots of typos and gramatical errors), and while we were critiquing it, another girl said something like, "It seemed like you used too many big words, some of which I don't even think are real words. Like, _________, or ________, or in..credu...lously..."

So, I think the first two were actually made up, but when she said the last one, the whole class was like, "...incredulously is a real word, it's like 'skeptical'." It was pretty amazing.

Continue reading...

2.13.2007

Yesterday I got carded buying a thing of Robitussin and a pack of DayQuil. Do I really look 14?

Also, 'The Office' is an amazing TV show (American version, thanks).

Also, 'Little Miss Sunshine' winning the WGA is saddening. Good thing all those sitcom writers aren't in AMPAS members.

Continue reading...

2.11.2007

Ebert and I disagree.

Ebert's Oscar picks are now up. I must say, I generally respect his opinion on movies. He definitely knows what he's talking about (obviously more-so than me, which is why he is famous and I'm only slightly less famous), but his Oscar predictions, other than predicting a few random upsets (i.e. 'Crash') are usually off.

The short version, here is what he says:

Best Actor - Prediction: Forest Whitaker, Preference: Peter O'Toole
Supporting Actor - Prediction: Eddie Murphy, Preference: Eddie Murphy
Best Actress - Prediction: Helen Mirren, Preference: Helen Mirren
Supporting Actress - Prediction: Jennifer Hudson, Preference: Jennifer Hudson

Foreign Film - Prediction: "Pan's Labyrinth", Preference: "Pan's Labyrinth"
Animated Film - Prediction: "Cars", Preference: "Monster House"
Original Screenplay - Prediction: "Babel", Preference: "Babel"
Adapted Screenplay - left out...
Best Director - Prediction: Martin Scorsese, Preference: "For reasons of tact, I prefer not to reveal my preference."
Best Picture - Prediction: "Babel", Preference: "Babel"

Babel? BABEL?! The only way I see this happening is if it wins the WGA tonight, which is pretty unlikely since its competition is Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen. If the former wins, it has a good shot at Picture, if the latter wins, it'll for sure win screenplay, and has a better shot at Picture as well (and pretty much knocks LMS out). Can Babel even win screenplay? If Babel doesn't win Screenplay, the only potential wins at the Oscars are Editing (which I don't think it will win either), and then Picture. And I honestly don't see it taking home the big prize with only two awards. Actually, I can imagine it, and it makes me pretty mad, and since the Academy likes to throw a few curve balls I almost expect this kind of joke. Why do I get so into this?

Continue reading...

2.08.2007

Because I really, really don't want to read T.S. Eliot right now...

Oscar gibberish.

Ok, this is still very early, but here's the update:

Best Pic: Should win - 'The Departed.' Will win - 'The Departed.' Wouldn't mind winning - 'The Queen.' Would vomit if won - 'Little Miss Sunshine' or 'Babel'

Best Director: Should win - Scorsese. Will win - Scorsese.

Best Actor: Should win - Leo DiCaprio for 'The Departed.' (I know) Will win - Forest Whitaker for 'The Last King of Scotland.' I really need to see 'Half Nelson,' though.

Best Actress: Should win - Helen Mirren for 'The Queen.' Will win - Helen Mirren. Very unlikely upset: Meryl Streep

Supporting Actor: Should win - Mark Wahlberg for 'The Departed.' Will win - Eddie Murphy for 'Dreamgirls.' Possible upset - Alan Arkin.

I say Wahlberg, and I feel I need to justify myself. First off, the only other nominee in a Best Pic movie is Alan Arkin. Also, Wahlberg was easily the biggest scene stealer in 'The Departed,' and that's an amazing thing when you're in a movie with Leo, Matt Damon, and the amazing Jack Nicholson. Sure, a lot of it is tributed to Will Monahan's script, but still. Whereas Eddie Murphy broke his typical mold, he's far from the main attraction of 'Dreamgirls,' which was thoroughly snubbed by the Academy. Sadly, I don't think Wahlberg will pull much support though.

Supporting Actress: Should win - Cate Blanchett for 'Notes on a Scandal.' Will win - Jennifer Hudson for 'Dreamgirls.' Possible upset - Abigail Breslin for 'Little Miss Sunshine.'

If little Abigail throws Jennifer Hudson off her damn pedestal I'd be happy, except that would mean 'Sunshine' has a huge shot at Best Pic, which I don't want. Seriously, I would put all the other four nominees ahead of Hudson. Cate Blanchett has the most talent out of any of the nominees, but she already got her gold for 'The Aviator,' so I doubt she'll win again so soon. Sad.

Adapted Screenplay: Should win - 'The Departed.' Will win - 'The Departed.'

Original Screenplay: Should win - 'The Queen.' Will win - 'The Queen.'

The WGA awards are soon, and if for some reason 'Sunshine' wins that, I may change my prediction, but 'The Queen' seems like a solid lock now, which makes me happy.

Ok, back to this damn poetry...

Continue reading...

2.07.2007

So who's seen the original 'King Kong,' 1933 version? Oh well, this kind of works if you've only seen the new 2005 version.

A ways into the movie Kong camptures Ann Darrow (Fay Wray, or Naomi Watts), and then the group of people are following the ape, trying to rescue her. At some point in the old movie, Kong crosses a big river, temporarily losing the group that was trailing him. But then one of the guys has the bright idea to build a raft. Yes, assembling a raft to get across the river, brilliant! It even shows the men going off to collect supplies. A bit of a stretch, but I can buy it.

But then later, remember when Kong gets knocked unconscious by the grenade(s) and passes out, right before he's brought back to America? Well, in the new version, I think it just cuts and shows them in New York, ignoring the logistical question of how the F to get the ape on the boat. In the 1933 version, guess what they decide to do? Hell yes, they build another raft! (Though they don't actually show it, they just say they're going to do it.)

So, I'd like to know where they managed to find these hundreds of long, round pieces of wood so they could assemble a raft to put the 50 foot tall ape on their boat, or how they would even move him. I also think it's pretty hilarious that the universal solution to any problem involving water transportation is to build a raft. Not use a boat, or use a pre-made raft, or anything, but to actually build the raft on the spot. So great.

Continue reading...

2.04.2007

Yesterday I was at a lazer tag place, and there's a playground there, inside by the waiting area. There was this kid, probably about ten years-old, and he stood on top of some platform and yelled, "I'm the king of the world!" with his arms out.

I looked for his parents, who are smiling, then I shook my head. First, I'm surprised he's seen that movie, since it's PG-13, and came out probably the same year he was born. Secondly, because kids are annoying in general.

But then I thought about it, and looked at it this way. If I'm so disapproving of kids yelling out movie quotes from before their time like they know what they're talking about, I wonder what the generation before me thinks when I quote 'The Godfather' or 'Annie Hall' or any other of the hundreds of movies I've seen that were popular before I was born.

My general conclusion, though, was that I've had time to watch these movies and know what they're about and understand them, while this kid probably has no idea how significant a movie like 'Titanic' is, and just watched it because that was the only way his parents would let him stay up past his bedtime. I win.

Continue reading...

2.03.2007

A couple days ago I was at Target and I saw the special edition of 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' for $19.99. Now, as we all know, that movie is easily one of the best films ever made. Normally the SE is ~$23, so I picked it up.

At the register for check-out, the DVD came up to be $10.00. And it rang up as the right movie. I think those little pleasant surprises are the things that get me through everyday life. Unexpectedly saving ten dollars is amazing.

Continue reading...