The Official Oscars Gameday Thread

[Drbio]

Best Picture: Crash

Great pick. Brokebutt mountain didn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Crash or even Capote for that matter.




Achievement in Directing: Ang Lee

I think Spielberg got screwed here but Hollywood had to appease the homosexual crowd and Lee is a damn good director.




Leading Actor: Phillip Seymour Hoffman

Hard to argue although Terrence Howard (HUstle and Flow) and Joquin Phoenix (Walk the Line) certainly had an argument.




Original Screenplay: Haggis and Moresco, Crash

Good choice




Adapted Screenplay: Brokebutt mountain

Total appeasement to the gay lobby. I thought the Constant Gardener deserved merit here. Munich too.


Cinematography: Memoirs of a Geisha

Didn't see it but heard it was very good. Your thoguths?



Editting: Crash

Cinderella Man had to be close right?




Visual Effects: King Kong

Chronicles of Narnia had to be close. Hollywood would hate for a christian film to outdo a homosexual one though.




Art Direction: Memoirs of a Geisha

see above




Visual Effects: King Kong

no argument although Chronicles and War of the World could argue possibly.




Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha

Saw some clips...very well done. But again, see above




Makeup: Chronicles of Narnia

Had to allow a token Oscar to the christian film right?




Sound Mixing: King Kong

Not really sure what this one is all about but Walk the Line had to be a favorite right?




Sound editting: Memoirs

No idea.




Original Score: Brokebutt mountain

more appeasement?





Original song: It's Hard out Here for a Pimp (Hustle & Flow)

um...ok. I didn't know Rhylan was into music.




Foreign Language film: Tsotsi

Didn't see any of the nominated films.




Best Documentary: March of the Penguins

Hell yeah! Excellent choice.





Best short documentary: A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin

Didn't see any of these either.




Animated Feature Film: Wallace & Gromit in the Curse of the Were-Rabbit

I saw this and very much enjoyed it, but Howl's Moving Castle got screwed.



Animated short film: The Moon and the Son: An Imagined Conversation

ok




Short subject documentary: A Note of Triumph: The Golden Age of Norman Corwin

Didn't see it.




Live action short film: Six Shooter

didn't see it.





Alright.....what are your thoughts?

[Evilmav2]

Did anyone else notice that Big Don Nelson was sitting in the third row, behind George Clooney and a seat in front of Steven Spielberg? I was shocked and amazed to see that our old Mad Scientist scored incredible tickets to the event (my guess is that he somehow got them from Cuban), and I'll post a screenshot of the ridiculous business as soon as I download a copy of the awards...

[Drbio]

Didn't watch it....just stole the results from CNN.com...

[Murphy3]

Did you forget some rather key categories?

As for Crash winning BP....very solid choice. Personally, I believe that Cheadle should have been up for an award also... just give him an Oscar nomination every year.

[Murphy3]

Stewart did a great job hosting.

[Drbio]

I figured murph would have a shitload to post in this thread having seen so many of the films. Seriously....I'm looking forward to those posts.....others too.

[Drbio]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

Did you forget some rather key categories?

Probably so, I just looked over the CNN.com winners page. Post updates as needed.

As for Crash winning BP....very solid choice. Personally, I believe that Cheadle should have been up for an award also... just give him an Oscar nomination every year.

Don Cheadle is greatness. he and Ed Norton deserve perennial props. I did like the Crash pick.

[Murphy3]

Actually, I haven't had as much of a chance to catch as many films over the past several months....

[sixeightmkw]

Hated Crash, won't see Brokeback mountain, don't even know what other movies were nominated. Think Cinderella Man got robbed. Hate the Oscars. Just a few quick hits on my thoughts.

[Big Boy Laroux]

Originally Posted by Drbio

Visual Effects: King Kong

Chronicles of Narnia had to be close. Hollywood would hate for a christian film to outdo a homosexual one though.

Did I miss the gay threesome with King Kong, Jack Black, and Adrien Brody?


and i hate how people call Chronicles of Narnia a Christian film. I know you're saying it in support of the movie, doc, but many dismiss the film with that same remark. Christian allegory, yes. Stright-up christian film? nope.

[u2sarajevo]

Crash is more an important film than a great film. I watched it with my wife 4 months ago and she really liked it. I thought it was good, but nothing I would want to own and watch again. I think the topic being tackled, intolerance, made it interesting.

But after seeing it win? I figured it must have been a slow year for films. Heck, Return of the Sith was much better than Crash. Not knocking the film, but really..... Best of the year?

But I'll take it if it keeps down the gaying out of America film. (just kidding.... I didn't see Brokeback so I can't comment on it)

[Rhylan]

Did anybody else think Sandra Bullock maybe had a facelift? Her upper lip and lower eyelids didn't move when she presented an award. Extremely disappointing.

[u2sarajevo]

Originally Posted by Rhylan

Did anybody else think Sandra Bullock maybe had a facelift? Her upper lip and lower eyelids didn't move when she presented an award. Extremely disappointing.

Wouldn't that be Botox?

[Murphy3]

Crash was an absolutely great movie. I can agree that it might not have been Oscar worthy in any other year, but was any of the movies worthy of Best Picture? It was a down year for great movies. They had to pick a picture and Crash was as good as any of them.... There were some great performances though.

[mary]

Well, I can say that I haven't seen a single Oscar nominated film this year - at least in the major categories. I would like to...just not enought time right now.

However, I do have a small rant about the 15 minutes worth of Oscars that I watched.

What the hell is up with women and their sleeveless gowns that barely hold in their boobs?...and I'm not talking about the Uma Thurmans of the world...if you're built like Uma you should flaunt it....but EVERYONE was sporting the sagger look last night.

Listen, if you have flabby arms...wear sleaves. If your boobs are heading south..for pete's sake put them in something that will at least hold them....that one woman in the orange strapless....she could've seriously poked someone's eye out with one of those things.

Look, if you've got it, FLAUNT it.

But if you don't (and believe me I don't), then put some clothes on damnit! Not everyone is meant to wear a backless-strapless gown.....its okay. If you don't have the body to pull it off, then its not becoming to dress that way.

That's all I have.

[Murphy3]

So you're saying you have saggers?

[mary]

Edit.Edit.Edit.

Sorry...that was waaayy too much information on my part.

[MavsFanFinley]

Originally Posted by Evilmav2

Did anyone else notice that Big Don Nelson was sitting in the third row, behind George Clooney and a seat in front of Steven Spielberg? I was shocked and amazed to see that our old Mad Scientist scored incredible tickets to the event (my guess is that he somehow got them from Cuban), and I'll post a screenshot of the ridiculous business as soon as I download a copy of the awards...

I was sitting here thinking why would Cuban give Nelson tickets when they can barely sit in the same room together? Then I remembered something in the nba section about Nelson possibly starring in a tv show (maybe documentary?) being produced by Clooney. Anyone else remember that?

[SaltwaterChaffy]

Ugh.

Doc, I'm not sure if you saw the movie. All prejudices aside, I think you can at least admit that the score was really good, and deserved the win (not just a token award for the gay movie.)

Didn't see enough of the movies to comment on the Best Actress/Best Supporting Actress. I have no problem with the choices. I did see Walk the Line, and Reese Witherspoon was very good as June. I really liked the fact that she gave props to Joaquin in her speech. Most years, Joaquin could have expected a win.

Too bad he was in one of the more amazing acting classes I've ever seen. 4 of the 5 could have been winners. I thought it was a dead heat between Hoffman and Ledger for best actor, and thought that Hoffman would win. David Straitharn (sp?) was awesome as Ed Murrow, and as mentioned above, Joaquin was very good. Anytime Terence Howard delivers the worst performance of the group, you know the class is phenomenal.

Best movie. This was a joke. I don't want anyone to think that I think Crash is a bad movie. It isn't. But, it's pretty marginal. It has great acting performances. Dillon (who I hate) is good here, Cheadle is always awesome, Howard, Phillipe, blah blah blah. You also have horrible performances from Bullock and Fraiser. The script was ham-fisted and heavy-handed. OH MY GOD, RACISM IS BAD. Character development was pretty weak, and the Sandra Bullock story arc was sooooo bad I laughed in the middle of the theater.

This was a movie that was redeemed by its acting performances. I think everyone remembers me championing Brokeback Mountain in an earlier thread, so I won't do more of that, other than saying I think it should have won. I haven't seen Capote, but I've been told it is much better than Crash. Haven't seen Munich, but the consensus I get is that it too is better than Crash. I have seen Good Night and Good Luck, and it was definitely better than Crash. So, is it possible that the worst movie of the nominees could win? I guess so.

Crash will not be looked upon kindly in the next few years. It will be seen as a decent movie about racism, but people will wonder why it won Best Picture. It will join the ranks of Life is Beautiful, Chicago, Titanic and others in the "What was the Academy thinking?" category.



Flame away.

[Murphy3]

No, saltwater, it isn't 'marginal'. You're showing your lack of taste... What movie should have won it over Crash?

[sixeightmkw]

I just hate Hollywood. They pick crap movies that are artsy to be nominated. I didn't see Br Mtn, I won't see it because of its story, but what I have heard about the movie other than that point is that it is very slow, the story goes no where, Heath overexagerates his lip thing, and just overall bad movie. But because it faced an issue that is riske', it is great. I don't really care, I just know Cinderella Man got robbed. That was a great movie. Crash, I couldn't even finish 10 mns of it before turning that crap off. Capote, I am really glad that Phillip Seymour Hoffman can figure out how to have one of the most annoying voices and it is considered "great acting". And then using the stage as their platform for political gogglywash. I hate hollywood.

[Murphy3]

Crash was great...

Nearly 22,000 readers on yahoo movies gave it an average score of B+ (actually a higher rating than the critics listed on yahoo movies).

On Rottentomatoes.com, 87% of the users gave it favorable reviews compared to 77% by the critics.

In around 750 votes on boxofficemojo.com, Crash garnered a B+ average rating from readers.


Oddly enough, this movie has actually done better with audiences than with critics pretty much everywhere that I've looked. So, for you to bitch about Hollywood nominating just artsy films, you're off base. This movie was extremely well received by audiences all over the country.

[Big Boy Laroux]

on a side note, i was digging phoenix's all-black outfit. nice touch.

and mary, i hear you on the woman in the orange dress (i think she was the wife of the director of Crash). it's not really flattering to see a woman constantly tugging at her dress to keep it up.

figured i'd sound gay and talk about the clothes. this was the Gay oscars, right?


anyway, stewart did a really good job, and 36 Mafia was hilarious.

if you're keeping score at home. Martin Scorcese - Zero Oscars. 36 Mafia - One Oscar.

[SaltwaterChaffy]

Originally Posted by Murphy3

No, saltwater, it isn't 'marginal'. You're showing your lack of taste... What movie should have won it over Crash?

Murph, if you had read all of my post, you would have seen that the answer was ANY OTHER FILM NOMINATED.

[SaltwaterChaffy]

Because I'm not quite as eloquent about movies yet as I'd like to be, here is a sampling of critics.

David opened the floor to suggestions of the year's worst movies, and Crash is certainly a good starting point for me. Admittedly, Paul Haggis' directorial debut wasn't one of those so-bad-it's-mesmerizing debacles, like Town & Country or The Bonfire of the Vanities, that Tony so lovingly remembered a few weeks back in the Times—if it had been, it wouldn't have made my blood boil nearly as much. No, Crash is an Important Film About the Times in Which We Live, which is another way of saying that it's one of those self-congratulatory liberal jerk-off movies that rolls around every once in a while to remind us of how white people suffer too, how nobody is without his prejudices, and how, when the going gets tough, even the white supremacist cop who gets his kicks from sexually harassing innocent black motorists is capable of rising to the occasion. How touching. Haggis is trafficking in much the same territory here as Michael Haneke is in Caché, only he lacks the guts to pull out his paring knife and fillet his bourgeois characters with the mercilessness they deserve. (Instead, when Sandra Bullock's pampered Brentwood housewife accuses a Mexican-American locksmith of copying her keys for illicit purposes, Haggis doesn't condemn her reprehensible behavior so much as he sympathizes with it.) People who say that Crash is an insightful portrait of life in Los Angeles clearly don't live in the same town I do. Watching it, I wondered if Haggis hadn't sat down with a copy of Thom Andersen's brilliant essay film Los Angeles Plays Itself and deliberately written a script that reinforces every bogus assumption about life in the city—from the thesis that the only way people in L.A. connect with one another is by getting into car crashes to the depiction of the untold dangers of driving south of the 10 Freeway—that Andersen so skillfully shoots down. And in a year that brought many (and in some cases justified) accusations of racial insensitivity against movies from King Kong to Memoirs of a Geisha, it was Crash that gave us Larenz Tate and Ludacris as carjackers who view their actions as a form of civilized protest, and Terrence Howard as creepy embodiment of emasculated African-American yuppiedom. Not since Spanglish—which, alas, wasn't that long ago—has a movie been so chock-a-block with risible minority caricatures or done such a handy job of sanctioning the very stereotypes it ostensibly debunks. Welcome to the best movie of the year for people who like to say, "A lot of my best friends are black."

Crash offers a lesson on racism for those viewers who don't have to think about it, namely, white people.

So Paul Haggis gets his car jacked, and somehow this qualifies him to make the definitive drama on race? Arrogant and schematic, Crash's ensemble artifice was enough to make Grand Canyon look like Shadows.

An overwrought exercise in after-school-special morality, Crash creates hollow statements about race without a shred of humanity. Resolutions come fast and furious—sprain your ankle, heal your prejudices, hug your Hispanic maid—letting audiences feel better about their own seemingly redeemable racism.

Grand Canyon for the era of right-wing talk radio? A feature-length extrapolation of Haggis' redneck interlude from Million Dollar Baby? The worst film of 2005 in a walk? It's not just that this is the worst kind of "screenwriter's movie," with preposterous coincidences and behavior that conveniently dispenses with anything resembling actual human neural functioning. (E.g., a mother responding to unspeakable tragedy by coldly explaining why she plays favorites; the pissiest, most misplaced upbraiding of a husband by a wife since Contempt; etc., etc.) It's that Haggis stupidly assumes that all of these people are equal, and that, say, a young black man complaining about how corporate-sponsored gangsta culture is a tool of the man (cf. Bamboozled) is roughly equivalent to a rich white bitch all but calling her locksmith a [censored], or blacks, Latinos, Asians, and Iranians swapping racist epithets. These things aren't equal, except in Haggis' cordoned-off fantasy L.A. (Some people get huffy when a person of color points out the difference between racism and prejudice, like it's mere sophistry or special pleading. But it's true -- only white people in America are able to systematically reproduce the world in accordance with their own racial biases.) I'd invite anyone who thinks Lars von Trier is a card-stacking puppetmaster, constructing a fraudulent allegorical world jury-rigged to demonstrate his own predetermined assessment of human nature, to dip into Crash and see the real deal, ten times more repugnant because it parades itself as gritty humanism and congratulates its white viewership for not "being like that, oh dear, how dreadful." This film is awful, and it steadily builds in its awfulness over the course of its running time, so much so that it is eventually outright risible. And yet, I couldn't bring myself to walk out. True to its title, I had to hang with it, slack-jawed, and gawk at the wreckage.

Among the most schematic and simpleminded visions of racial discord ever put on film, stone blind to the intricacies of intolerance or the way disgust builds and breeds more often than explodes. Haggis has no patience for escalation: he starts Crash at Level 12 and only amps it up from there, gang-banging coincidence, contrivance and thirty-four diluted storylines into a shimmery puddle of piss. Nary a scene goes by in which marionettes aren't instantly screaming out of the blue epithets at each other merely because Haggis has no real sense of how people struggle to communicate through barriers (or more importantly, the fact that sometimes these boundaries are nonexistent). Tackling Grand Issues with such manipulative bombast probably does more harm than good -- this is a facile treatise, not a narrative.


Edit to say: Each paragraph break represents a different critic, so this is not just one guy who had a bone to pick with the movie.

[Murphy3]

So? Many critics didn't like BBM or any of the other movies... It's rare to find a live action movie that finds 100% critical acclaim.

I could just as easily tell you that Ebert picked Crash to win.

[SaltwaterChaffy]

Thought the Ebert argument was coming. Ebert also gave Tomb Raider 2 3/4 stars.

It's not that these are numerous critics who didn't like Crash. I'm sure I could have found more. These critics have arguments that reflect mine, in a much more eloquent manner. That is why I chose to post them.

[chumdawg]

Crash was the only movie of the five that I saw. I can't remember exactly where I saw it. I wanna say that it was on late-night cable, on the Independent Film Channel. I remember thinking that it was a pretty good movie, but not being overwhelmed or anything. I guess I'm just out of the critical loop if that's what they've got for Best Picture.

[Rhylan]

Originally Posted by u2sarajevo

Wouldn't that be Botox?

Botox, facelift, whatever. I'm from Hamilton. I don't know these things.

Either way, it's another good looking woman lost to crap. Like Lauren Holly getting big fake boobs, only worse because it's a face.

BAH!

[Big Boy Laroux]

at least botox isn't permanent, although i don't know if there are permanent side-effects.

[sixeightmkw]

Originally Posted by Big Boy Laroux

at least botox isn't permanent, although i don't know if there are permanent side-effects.

the side effect is called bitchism

[Drbio]

Originally Posted by SaltwaterChaffy

Thought the Ebert argument was coming. Ebert also gave Tomb Raider 2 3/4 stars.

It's not that these are numerous critics who didn't like Crash. I'm sure I could have found more. These critics have arguments that reflect mine, in a much more eloquent manner. That is why I chose to post them.

Didn't Ebert say he gave the movie 3/4 stars and each Jolie boob one star?




BBL- you misunderstood my post...maybe it was poorly worded. I didn't infer King Kong had a gay scene just that he Academy was trying to suppress Chronicles so Brokebutt Mountain would get more awards than it. mea culpa on the verbage.


Chaffy- I did not see it. Will not see it. Have no desire to see it. There is nothing appealling to me about Hollywood using a feature film to try to push the gay is ok agenda down America's throat. I am very disappointed that Director Lee worked on this piece of garbage.

[Big Boy Laroux]

no kidding, doc. i work every possible angle for a joke.

But even so... while i saw chronicles and really liked it, i never once thought it deserved an oscar for anything. maybe in special effects type stuff, but if you look at King King in those categories, there's no comparison.

gay's not ok? can we keep that to the political forum?

[Drbio]

I am just saying that I don't want gay forced on me which is happening here. People can make their choices and receive no troubles from me. Hollywood uses this format to force it upon us. I know it is hard to take the political out of it, but I just object to it both inside politics and outside politics.

[Dtownsfinest]

I was so happy to see Crash win. Especially after all of that overrating of Brokeback Mountain. Crash was greatness.


Biggest shocker of the night though was 3 6 mafia winning. I was pulling for them but had no clue they'd actually win.

[Murphy3]

I was pulling for the song from Crash..that was by far the best of the three that were up for the award.

[Drbio]

The Oscars made me feel like a democrat. I had to vote for anybody but Brokeback.

[Five-ofan]

I havent seen brokeback yet sadly i have to see it at some point ( i have friends who are literally going to college to be actors) and they will make me watch it at some point but from what i have heard and the general storyline im just pleased it didnt win. Then again it might turn out to be a good movie despite its story so i will check back in once i see it. That said I just dont see anything redeemable about watching people be gay in a movie.

[Evilmav2]

As promised, here's some evidence that Big Don did indeed spend yesterday evening sandwiched between George Clooney, Kate Capshaw, Meryl Streep, and Steven Spielberg with a dead-center, third row seat at the 78th annual academy awards show ...

[mary]

I am just saying that I don't want gay forced on me which is happening here. People can make their choices and receive no troubles from me. Hollywood uses this format to force it upon us. I know it is hard to take the political out of it, but I just object to it both inside politics and outside politics.

Gay is being forced on you? Did someone force you to watch it?

Doesn't everyone pretty much choose to watch or ignore films that feature gay characters?

I mean, I don't like horror films, so I simply don't watch them.

How is this different?

I'm not necessarily a fan of the Western myself, but Larry McMurtry has some serious skins on the wall. I'd be willing to give it a shot.