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randall 
"I like to watch."
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 Posted - 03/08/2010 : 05:26:24
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| If you liked HURT LOCKER [the Academy liked it more than I did], wait till you see RESTREPO later this year. Same deal, only this one's *for real*! |
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w22dheartlivie 
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 05:32:12
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| Haven't seen it yet, nor actually any that won, but I will say I'm tickled to pieces that Jeff Bridges and Sandra Bullock won. Those were highlights in a VERY LONG broadcast that dragged badly through its bulky middle. Even the in memorial piece was less than memorable, sadly. Sticking Patrick Swayze at the beginning and showing 5 screens at a time made it barely visible. And why did they drag all the John Hughes stars out there, like a bad class reunion for the brat pack and then barely show them. I was less than thrilled with the staging of the entire thing. Grade: D+. I've seen worse, but barely. They didn't even showcase the original songs! |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 05:56:04
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| I was OK with the pace until the ridiculous dance-off to "showcase" the musical scores. They should have known better! Then I just said, they lost me. Now I have to go night-night. |
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w22dheartlivie
"Kitty Lover"
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 06:47:31
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| Yeah, that was fairly uninspiring also. It's too bad. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin had some funny moments, they should have let them have more time. I still miss those awful production numbers ala Billy Crystal. |
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Sean 
"Necrosphenisciform anthropophagist."
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 07:47:34
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Didn't watch it. I'm just glad that the Academy didn't give BP to Avatar, that was the only opinion I had on this year's Oscars (haven't seen most contenders yet).
Mind you, I would have been pretty surprised if Avatar had won. Looking good counts for something, but not everything. |
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ChocolateLady
"500 Chocolate Delights"
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 10:20:54
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quote:
Originally posted by Se�n
Didn't watch it. I'm just glad that the Academy didn't give BP to Avatar, that was the only opinion I had on this year's Oscars (haven't seen most contenders yet).
Funny - Hurt Locker is coming on TV here. It was a no-show in the theaters here. I guess war movies that don't involve Israel aren't a big draw with Israelis - especially ones that deal with bombs and terrorist tactics.
quote:
Originally posted by Se�nMind you, I would have been pretty surprised if Avatar had won. Looking good counts for something, but not everything.
Precisely!
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 13:01:24
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| I feel weirdly hostile towards The Hurt Locker. The clips I've seen just make it look so run-of-the-mill. It really has to be a long way above my expectations if it deserves Best Picture. I'd rather that Avatar, or lots of the others, had won instead of it. |
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silly 
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 16:48:48
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I agree that that had to have been the dullest Oscar night in years. Decades, maybe. How can that many entertainers fall so flat?
I was excited for Bridges and Bullock, excited that Precious did well (even though I haven't seen it yet, just all the clips online).
I haven't seen all the BP nominees but my lay person's opinion is they were as much rewarding Bigelow as "the first female director to win" as they were trying to say that Huge Box Office Numbers don't Automatically Give You Best Picture.
My daughter, age 6, was thrilled that Up won an award. She went to bed happy, and I should have gone to bed then, too, to get an extra couple hours of sleep and just checked the winners online today. I wouldn't have missed anything special.
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 16:56:58
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quote:
Originally posted by silly
Bigelow as "the first female director to win"
I was amazed to read that, and it did make me feel a bit better about it.
quote:
My daughter, age 6, was thrilled that Up won an award. She went to bed happy
I haven't seen Crazy Heart but am confident that Bridges deserved his win.
I also haven't seen The Blind Side, and expect that it's a bit hokey but am still glad that Bullock won. I've always found her naural and likeable. It makes a nice story with the Razzie win and her characteristic in-person acceptance of it. I would have liked Sidibe to win too though. |
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silly
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 18:22:23
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I haven't seen Crazy Heart, but love Bridges. His first nomination was in 1971 (not a typo) and this is his first win. Wow. I don't blame him for sounding a little goofy when he accepted, it's not like he gets a lot of practice.
I wasn't blown away by Hurt Locker, but liked it well enough. (bad pun, sorry, I'm having a Monday) |
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Koli 
"Striving lackadaisically for perfection."
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 20:04:04
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I'm very pleased that Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor for his performance in Inglourious Basterds. I thought he was tremendous as Hans Landa, the detective that just happened to work for the SS.
Watching the Oscars live wasn't an option over here. There was a 'red carpet' programme on one of the satellite channels, which would have been entertaining for coutture fanatics, but I'm planning to watch a highlights programme later on one of the terrestrial channels Sky 1. (oops)
What was that joke? Something along the lines of '60 minutes of pure entertainment squeezed into a four-hour show'. |
Edited by - Koli on 03/09/2010 23:02:59 |
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randall
"I like to watch."
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 20:46:26
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At the end of the first post is my take on PUSH...aw, I mean PRECIOUS...with a rare vantage point of only 2-3 days, before all hype ensued. Setting aside any artistry [for example, I think Mo'Nique deserved her award], I still think nobody would have seen it had Oprah not championed the picture. How many of YOU will? [Baffy doesn't count: she gets BAFTA screeners.]
HURT LOCKER is similar. It'll be the least-seen Best Picture winner in history, though the Oscar will give it a desperately-needed jolt. And were I an Academy voter, I would have refrained from the tickertape parade after having seen RESTREPO at Sundance *before ballots were due*. |
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turrell
"Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh Ohhhh "
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 21:59:07
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quote:
Originally posted by Koli
I'm very pleased that Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor for his performance in Inglourious Basterds. I thought he was tremendous as Hans Landa, the detective that just happened to work for the SS.
What was that joke?
There was a good joke about Waltz's character in IB - basically that he was always looking for Jews - and the hosts held their hands out wide and panned the Kodak Theater saying you've hit the mother lode.
Best line of the night for me. |
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Demisemicenturian
"Four ever European"
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 22:00:58
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quote:
Originally posted by randall
I still think nobody would have seen it had Oprah not championed the picture. How many of YOU will?
I've seen it and assuming that it would still have been released over here (which I think it would), then Oprah had nothing to do with it. I'd looked forward to seeing it for ages. |
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silly
"That rabbit's DYNAMITE."
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Posted - 03/08/2010 : 22:47:46
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There are movies I never would have even heard about if it weren't for fourums such as this or people like Oprah.
For example, I'm sure a few people had never heard of The Cove before last night's Oscar show. I had seen Food, Inc via streaming from Netflix because a friend mentioned it on Facebook in the context of talking about healthier eating (she is recovering from a stroke and frequently posts about health issues).
The "limited release" programs from the studios means some movies never turn up in smaller markets like mine - Crazy Heart started playing here after it was announced it was up for an Oscar, which I'm guessing means it was originally released in 2009, right?
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demonic
"Cinemaniac"
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Posted - 03/09/2010 : 02:24:02
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I sat up and watched it with a fellow movie loving friend, as I've done pretty much every year since we met in 2001 and found we were both a little bit film mad. We were both more disappointed this year than with any in this past decade. For the most important night in the film calender it was unbelievably slipshod with stumbled introductions, stalled autocues, flat jokes and absolutely no style or sense of importance. Basically it was pretty boring, kicking off with a lame song and dance routine with spoofy lyrics that you couldn't hear; in fact the sound all night was awful. Steve and Alec had a few nice moments, but mostly it was embarrassing, a la Hugh Jackman. Gone are the days of a reliable and entertaining Billy Crystal hosting. If anyone should be on the list to do it, it should be Steve Carrell who is actually funny, and has enough charisma to pull it off. Ben Stiller had a nice moment as always. Most of the introductions were painfully stilted and lacking any sparkle at all.
I was baffled as to why the crowd didn't seem to include any A-listers apart from the people who'd come to see if they'd won an award... there was a real lack of celebrity in evidence. If they were there they weren't sat in the auditorium during the show... and who can blame them. It was pretty tedious even from where we were. Was a bit confused about the huge John Hughes tribute - was he really so loved in Hollywood based on his run of 80s teen comedies, good as most of them are? I can't think of a similar thing in the Oscars for a recently deceased director. It was like Scorcese had died.
The awards: guessed all of the acting awards from the buzz. Jeff: fantastic, and long overdue. Loved his Dude-ish acceptance speech and Michelle Pfeiffer's lovely arse lick tribute. Sandra: well, I thought she was ordinary in a loathsome TV-movie-lite film, but it seemed to be her time. Knew she'd cry - should have put money on that as well. Cristoph Waltz: Brilliant. Mo'Nique: Worthy winner, but a strange militant acceptance speech raised eyebrows from Samuel L Jackson in the Kodak all the way to Muswell Hill.
In the category of no surprises: Bigelow becoming the first woman to take Best Director. In the big surprises: Hurt Locker taking 6 awards including Screenplay and Best Film. I don't think HL is a special film, and I don't think it will be remembered as a great film of 2009. It's just not that good. Avatar is also not that good a film, but it is an important film - the most successful film of all time and an incredible, ground breaking spectacle that will be high on significant moments in the history of film. The Academy not recognising that actually made itself look pretty stupid I think. You know, Up was actually the best film of the year, and should have won on merit, but Best Animated Feature is more than enough. Not quite sure what happened with the Foreign Language feature as I've not seen the Argentinian film (who has?) but if it's better than The White Ribbon and A Prophet it's going to be a classic. I suspect this might be a bit like Departures winning over Waltz with Bashir last year: an inexcusable mistake.
So all in all: not a great year for film, well reflected in the big awards show. |
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2010 Oscars
