2007 Oscars

[Edward J Grug III]

Did any of you see Monster House? THAT was the best animated movie of the year. Hands down.

Cars was ok, though, nothing compared to the rest of Pixar's work.

Meanwhile, I really enjoyed the Oscars. It was really cool to see Paqn's Labyrinth pick up a buncha awards. I agreed with almost all of the winners, in fact.

Not best music, though. Nor best actor. Forrest has been on my List since Ghost Dog, and watching Battlefield Earth recently (thanks Mike) made me dislike him even more.

Ellen did much better than I thought she would. Hey, at least it wasn't Billy goddamn Crystal again.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

i have heard nothing but praise for monster house, and though i would vote for Cars ( i havent seen MH) i would have felt happier with MH winning than happy feet.

Forrest has been on my List since Ghost Dog, and watching Battlefield Earth recently (thanks Mike) made me dislike him even more.

who do you think should have won then?

[starfighter]

   You can read all sorts of explanations for why the academy voted in certain ways.  If Scorcese got some votes as a sentimental favorite, then why didn't Peter O'Toole win?  He's about the only actor I saw in the audience who actually reacted like he was disappointed not to win.
    If Dreamgirls hadn't had 3 songs splitting the votes and had just one of those, would it have won instead of Ethridge? I haven't seen the movie but I recognized the names of two of the songwriters for Listen, Scott Cutler and Anne Preven, as guitarist and singer for one of my favorite cult rock bands, Ednaswap.  So I wanted them to win since they couldn't get Columbia to release their album when they reformed into a group called AnneTenna.
    Did Pan's Labyrinth lose votes in the foreign language category because it was assumed they would win some awards in the other categories they were in?
    Unlike recent years, there were still some nominated films that were barely released.  I know Academy voters are sent copies of practically everything, but how much of the public has had the opportunity to see Venus or Little Children and they had major acting nominations?

[davo]

happy scorcese finally won, & the major categories looked pretty solid. here's the beefs i had with it:

-3 songs nominated from the same movie? that's bad...really bad.

- the etheridge song is a horrible song. it's not even up to her normal standard, let alone best song.

-an inconvenient truth should be disqualified from the documentary category because of the untrue histrionics (the water level is going to rise 20 ft? really???)

-if randy newman even gets nominated again for either an oscar or a grammy, i'm going to have to hire an assassin.  that dude is the single biggest overrated hack in all of hollywood AND musicdom.

[Compound]

you want to know my first thought as i was leaving the theaters: 

NO what do you mean no you dont want to hear it?  screw you ill tell ya anyways:

My first thought (really) was "I wonder what penguins taste like"   

According to the hobo in that old Bugs Bunny cartoon, Penguins is practically chickens. And he hates to see chickens cry so much, that he has to put them out of their misery.

[KissKissBangBang]

you want to know my first thought as i was leaving the theaters: 

NO what do you mean no you dont want to hear it?  screw you ill tell ya anyways:

My first thought (really) was "I wonder what penguins taste like"   

I dont think that was what they were going for.

MMMMMMMMMFried Penguin sounds mighty fine! With mashed potatoes, oh well can't have meat till after Lent..... 

[KissKissBangBang]

Speaking of Apocalypto, I'm amazed how snubbed it was. It was clearly obvious that they were biased against Mel Gibson. Which is a shame, because I think it was one of the best movies I've ever seen.

I agree, Apocalypto was one of my favorite movies of 2006. The movie made me interested in Mayans. 

"To the book depository!"   

[Pak-Man]

I have a principle where I don't want to go see a CGI flick that could just as easily have been a hand-drawn animated feature, so I avoided Monster House. Cars is hard to beat. Pixar has a way of making you feel an emotional connection to things you have no right to have an emotional connection to. Cars, fish, toys.. :^)

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

. Pixar has a way of making you feel an emotional connection to things you have no right to have an emotional connection to. Cars, fish, toys

I couldnt agree more, its why i love pixar so much, they know how to create emotion, which is nearly dead anymores.

[gbeenie]

happy scorcese finally won, & the major categories looked pretty solid. here's the beefs i had with it:

-an inconvenient truth should be disqualified from the documentary category because of the untrue histrionics (the water level is going to rise 20 ft? really???)

Unfortunately, the Academy has a history here. Bowling For Columbine doesn't qualify as a documentary under AMPAS' own rules, yet it still got nominated (and won). The only reason the same thing didn't happen with Fahrenheit 9/11 was the intense public scrutiny resulting from their Columbine cock-up.

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

they have an agenda, its pure and simple.  they also dont have enough history majors there to have an intelligent unbiased opioned. 

[davo]

happy scorcese finally won, & the major categories looked pretty solid. here's the beefs i had with it:

-an inconvenient truth should be disqualified from the documentary category because of the untrue histrionics (the water level is going to rise 20 ft? really???)

Unfortunately, the Academy has a history here. Bowling For Columbine doesn't qualify as a documentary under AMPAS' own rules, yet it still got nominated (and won). The only reason the same thing didn't happen with Fahrenheit 9/11 was the intense public scrutiny resulting from their Columbine cock-up.

it's ridiculous. sometimes i feel like the only sane person in the room screaming "can't you see why this is wrong???"   ...and then they all accuse me of being a global warming denyer (which i'm not)

[sarcasm_made_Easy]

At least you dont get called a right-wing nut job and tool of the government just because you think moore is a lying scum bag (which has happened to me)

[mrbasehart]

I've seen all of the animated movies that were nominated, and Monster House was by far the best of the three.  Seriously people, do yourself a favour and go and see it.  It's like the great kids movies of the 80's in animated form!

Whittaker was brilliant in Last King of Scotland, so I'm not surprised by his win.  I am surprised by Arkin beating Eddie Murphy though, as it's Murphy's best performance in lots and lots of years.  I'm super-glad Scorsese won, I think he should've got the Oscar for The Aviator, but The Departed seems like his time finally came.

[6079SmithW]

I enjoyed An Inconvenient Truth, and I thought it had an accurate and powerful message, but in terms of filmmaking, it was the documentary equivalent of a filmed play- all of the subtle tricks available to a director to make a performance, which is essentially what Gore's presentation was, interesting, were left by the wayside, and we're left with watching someone's PowerPoint slides in a movie theater with a few cutaways. Obviously, people were voting for the message and not for the film.

As for Bowling for Columbine, I think it's actually a pretty good example of a documentary, and if it violates the Academy's rules for what constitutes one I think that demonstrates a problem with the rules. If you watch the famous early documentaries, Haxan (sort of), Nanook of the North and such, they demonstrate a lot more film making prowess than they do concern for perfect accuracy, and I have absolutely no problem with that.

edit:

At least you dont get called a right-wing nut job and tool of the government just because you think moore is a lying scum bag (which has happened to me)

"Lying scum bag" does make it sound like you have an axe to grind that goes beyond finding him annoying or his presentation of facts specious, but I can see your point of view. For one thing, both of those are perfectly reasonable complaints.

I think he is a talented film-maker, and I agree with a lot of his positions, but he is very prone to hyperbole and considerably too likely to conveniently ignore anything that doesn't support his thesis. As far as leftist ideologues go, I'll taken Franken any day.