You know the producers were desperate to get the show over with before midnight, but it really makes for an anti-climax when the friggin' Best Picture award is so totally rushed like that. Maybe they could've saved time by cutting that totally unnecessary tribute to John Hughes. Not that Hughes wasn't an important or quality filmmaker, but why is he singled out for a lengthy tribute when everyone else is shunted into the 'In Memoriam' montage?
Kathryn Bigelow is FIFTY-EIGHT?! Holy crap. How does she look like that at 58 and Carey Mulligan is already looking like Judi Dench at age 25?
"In Italy for 30 years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder, and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love. They had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock." -- Orson Welles, The Third Man
Originally posted by Big BadKathryn Bigelow is FIFTY-EIGHT?! Holy crap. How does she look like that at 58 and Carey Mulligan is already looking like Judi Dench at age 25?
CGI. Part of the divorce settlement, I believe.
Well, 16 out of 24 on my predictions -- I've done better, but I've done worse. I blew both Screenplays! And I wish I had voted for what I wanted to win Animated Short -- Logorama -- which went on to win after all. I honestly didn't think it had a chance.
--K
Last 5 movies seen: 40 Pounds of Trouble ***1/2 - Alice in Wonderland (1933) **1/2 - Where the Wild Things Are *** - The Informant! **** - Sherlock Jr. ****
What was the deal with the lady running up on stage during the acceptance speech for "Music by Prudence"? It was very odd and didn't seem like she belonged there.
Am I in Horseville? Because I'm hearing nothing but naysayers!
Originally posted by The King of KeithWhat was the deal with the lady running up on stage during the acceptance speech for "Music by Prudence"? It was very odd and didn't seem like she belonged there.
They're both producers but apparently don't get along. Salon has the story: Click Here (salon.com)
Originally posted by She Says...BURKETT: What happened was the director and I had a bad difference over the direction of the film that resulted in a lawsuit that has settled amicably out of court. But there have been all these events around the Oscars, and I wasn't invited to any of them. And he's not speaking to me. So we weren't even able to discuss ahead of the time who would be the one person allowed to speak if we won. And then, as I'm sure you saw, when we won, he raced up there to accept the award. And his mother took her cane and blocked me. So I couldn't get up there very fast.
Originally posted by He Says...WILLIAMS: The academy is very clear that only one person can speak. I own the film. She has no claim whatsoever. She has nothing to do with the movie. She just ambushed me. I was sort of in shock. I just expected her to stand there. I had a speech prepared.
--K
Last 5 movies seen: 40 Pounds of Trouble ***1/2 - Alice in Wonderland (1933) **1/2 - Where the Wild Things Are *** - The Informant! **** - Sherlock Jr. ****
I thought the show was terrible. Not the awards--haven't seen that many of the movies, but from what I could tell, the decisions weren't bad, and I was thrilled that Up picked up a screenplay award. I mean the show. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin had bad material (with a few exceptions like "that damn Helen Mirren") and their comic timing was awful. Everything just seemed to drag on. I wasn't even impressed by NPH, although I must admit that my potential enjoyment was hampered by my parents (I was watching at their place) complaining about how they had no idea who he was and what he was doing on their screen. Was he better than I thought?
It seemed that they were really agressively trying to make the show palatable to younger viewers. Lots and lots of young presenters. Very little history. A friend of the family who was over to watch with us mentioned that years ago her favorite part of the show was when they would bring out old time movie stars such as Cary Grant and Gregory Peck, and we started listing the people who are still alive who would be really cool to see--Elizabeth Taylor, Sidney Poitier, Lauren Bacall, Kirk Douglas, Julie Andrews, and so on. (We realize that some of these people may have health issues that would preclude their participation.) Bacall appeared briefly when they did the lifetime achievement awards thing, although this year that was only a segment of highlights. Other than that, nothing--in fact, I think the only other person from the 60s and 70s was Barbra. Not even room for any of the older stars who are around these days--Nicholson, Hoffman, and so on. Added to that was the lack of history-oriented segments; there was just the horror montage, and that seemed heavy on modern times as well. There just wasn't much to enjoy, and even for the younger folks who may have tuned in to see Zac Efron or Miley Cyrus, or the somewhat-less-younger folks who wanted to see Ben Stiller or Elizabeth Banks, I don't think there was much that would have actually entertained them. (At least these younger viewers didn't notice how incredibly corny and condescending it was to play off Kathryn Bigelow's director win with a Muzak version of "I Am Woman".)
The show also had at least two egregious script errors. (Well, I thought they were egregious, anyway.) The introduction for Up said it was the second film nominated for both Best Picture and Best Animated Feature. That's wrong; the only other animated film nominated for Best Picture was Beauty & The Beast, and that was before the Animated Feature category was introduced. And when the Twilight folks introduced the horror montage, they said that horror had not been acknowledged at the Oscars since The Exorcist won 2 awards 36 years ago, but the montage included Misery, which won Best Actress for Kathy Bates, and The Silence of the Lambs, which swept the major awards, and obviously both films were much more recent than The Exorcist. The Oscars shouldn't screw up its own history like that.
I did like the John Hughes tribute, although I was very surprised to see that Farrah Fawcett was left out of the In Memoriam montage. (Yeah, she's much more of a TV star than a movie star, but she did have some memorable big screen roles including Logan's Run and Extremities.) BTW, did anyone catch who was on right after Patrick Swayze? The name was so small and in such poor contrast to the background that we couldn't make it out, even though we were watching in HD. (They were still in a long shot.)
EDITED TO UPDATE: according to Usenet postings there were two people whose names were virtually invisible: composer Maurice Jarre, and Western star Monte Hale.
Sandra Bullock's acceptance speech was wonderful, and there were good moments in some of the others. (Loved the foreign film winner thanking the Academy for not considering Navi a foreign language!) The short Up "interview" bit was good, too. I'm sure there were a few other things I enjoyed, but overall it was a long night.
NPH should have hosted, screw middle America since he popped the Emmys number. Hurt Locker had this wrapped up in January with their Little Engine that could. Even though it sounds like they spent more on PR then the actual film. I'm disappointed Bastards only won one award. Hurt Locker's screenplay win puts some egg on the Academy's face. Yet, the solider suing Hurt Locker wanted til the awards were counted, a calculated move, but it makes it very shifty. Jeff Bridge's speech was very Dude like. I am a little surprised, he didn't ask Kate Winslet where his rug was. The Shawshank re-union made my night.
I was also a little surprised Michael Jackson, but no Farrah in the memorial, a little disappointing. I didn't mind the John Hughes tribute since he got a number of actors and actress their jobs, they all seemed to truly miss him. I thought Al Sheedy and Makly Culkin were going to lose it. I missed the Kenya moment glad I did. Monique's speech was odd and seem to really dis the other nominees which I am not in favor of and made her look bad. Star Trek winning shocked me, but the field was very weak. The costume winner nailed that category by throwing the Academy under the bus when it comes to period pieces. Avatar and Blind Side should never been nominated in the first place. Bullock won mainly due to Up in the Air getting screwed by throwing both of the actresses in the supporting category when there were only two women in that film. It was a paint by numbers oscars even with the ten nominees. They could have cut half an hour to an hour by just eliminating the needless BJ speeches for Best Actor and Actress as well as the clips for Best Picture.
Wow, I hated hated HATED this show. I watch the Oscars every year, as I think it's one of the award shows that still maintains a bit of integrity and reverance. Well, there goes that.
The young-people pandering was disgusting, and I'm only 26. I love NPH, and even that I thought was unnecessary. Martin and Baldwin were horrible, and very badly mashed with the rest of the tone of the show. Neither were funny, and a lot of the industry people seemed to be as turned off by the show as I was. I really like all of the historical clips and recaps that they normally insert into the show, and to substitute those with a horror movie montage (WTF?) and an uncalled-for Hughes memoriam (and I'm as big a fan of Breakfast Club as you'll find) was verging on blasphemy.
The only highlight for me was seeing Robert Downey Jr. & Tina Fey's intro for the screenplay award. Those two played off of each other incredibly well. Someone capitalize on this STAT. Their schtick couldn't possibly have been written by the same people that wrote the rest of this trash, right?
Count me among those who were glad to see the big Avatar "snubbing." I've expressed my opinions on it before on this site, but to sum them up: yawn. I liked how every person who won for Avatar's technical stuff earlier in the show robotically fellated James Cameron in their acceptance speech though. I get it, he's a great director, but the movie wasn't any better or imaginitive than, say, District 9, IMO.
I was really cheering for Mo'nique... up until she accepted the award. It seems like she thought it was owed to her, for more reasons than just her amazing performance. She diva'd up immediately after she won, put down her competition, and tried to sabotage her own press conference afterwards. She was just classless.
Any clue if George Clooney's sour disposition the entire night was for any specific reason? He knew he was losing, and didn't seem to be bothered by it pre-show, so then what gives?
And if having 10 Best Picture noms results in no time for the Best Original Song performances, I hope that they go back to 5 next year. The movies are already over-exposed by Oscar night and don't need more spoiler-filled trailers all throughout the telecast.
Overall, a big step backwards this year. I think the Golden Globes had a way better showing.
Originally posted by GameCrazyAnd if having 10 Best Picture noms results in no time for the Best Original Song performances, I hope that they go back to 5 next year. The movies are already over-exposed by Oscar night and don't need more spoiler-filled trailers all throughout the telecast.
Unless there's bigger backlash I don't see them scaling it back any time soon. The reason they bumped it up from five to ten in the first place was to make sure there were movies in the running for Best Picture (well, not ACTUALLY in the running, but at least technically so) that the mainstream public had seen.
I think it was last time they had five Best Picture nominees when it seemed like no one had seen any, or at least most, of the films. Why does this matter? Ratings. No one will care who wins Best Picture if no one has seen the movies. And if no one cares about Best Picture, they're not likely to care about any of the other/lesser awards.
So this year you have not just twice as many movies but also some movies that were basically pop fluff. I honestly think Avatar wouldn't have even been nominated for Best Picture if it was still a field of five.
Originally posted by StingArmySo this year you have not just twice as many movies but also some movies that were basically pop fluff. I honestly think Avatar wouldn't have even been nominated for Best Picture if it was still a field of five.
- StingArmy
Probably not, since Cameron got nominated for Best Director.
(edited by hansen9j on 8.3.10 1128) It is the policy of the documentary crew to remain true observers and not interfere with its subjects. "This topic is going to suck to read in three years." -Psycho Penguin "Well. Shit." -hansen9j
I was really cheering for Mo'nique... up until she accepted the award. It seems like she thought it was owed to her, for more reasons than just her amazing performance. She diva'd up immediately after she won, put down her competition, and tried to sabotage her own press conference afterwards. She was just classless.
Any clue if George Clooney's sour disposition the entire night was for any specific reason? He knew he was losing, and didn't seem to be bothered by it pre-show, so then what gives?
Re Mo'Nique: Yeah, I have no idea where the heck that anger came from. It's not like someone from The Hurt Locker was up against her or anything. Even Samuel L. Jackson was all "WHOA!" when they cut to his reaction shot. I don't know what gives with that.
Supposedly, the Clooney joke was that the "look of death" he gave the hosts was the same kind of look he gave to the people he was firing in Up in the Air. Or so it was explained to me; I haven't seen the movie yet.
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Funny concept of abducting a scared, non-English-speaking family and destroying their home only to rebuild it with no experience and no money. And fire. Only laugh-out-lound momoent for me was Frank being stabbed in the leg and then pulling a gun.