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"Forget it, Jake. It's Retinal Damage."
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2007
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February
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- Is democracy bad for cinema? (Late at night and lo...
- What the hell...
- Guaranteed Contender for Best Film of 2007
- Bumping it up
- Y'know... I kinda have to agree....
- Tribute to a Master
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- Swingers Redux (or Mike C'est Moi)
- Seen: Breach
- What's Your Inspiration?
- Netflix wants Zac and I to Fight!
- A Question from the Teaching Trenches, Part One
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February
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25 comments:
5:45 -- What the hell is wrong with Nicole Kidman? Is Botox addictive? Lori and I were shocked she was able even to stiffly lean forward and read into a microphone. Her personality seemed as rigid as her forehead, too. In that red dress, she looked like a quasi-ambulatory stop sign.
6:05 -- Is Will Smith's kid illiterate?
So far, Ellen de Generes has been doing a bang-up job as host. I wasn't expecting much, as I am not a fan, but she's been pretty good so far.
Do the two early victories for Pan's Labyrinth indicate it will win Best Foreign Film?
Goddamn, but this human sound effect display got old in a hurry.
6:35 -- Looks like Al Gore put the weight back on.
6:55 -- I don't think Valium is what William Monahan on.
This is one dull, dull telecast.
7:09 -- I'm with you Mookie. I feel like going to the gym or something. Total yawn.
7:11 -- One caveat. "Make sure we're both in, Steven." Ellen D is hilarious.
7:16 -- Wait the dancers get to use proprs? Props? What a cheat!
7:25 -- Good call on the Visual FX winner, Paul.
Methinks more nominees need to take lessons from Sherry Lansing on how to give pithy, intelligent acceptance speeches.
I guess everyone decided to vote for Pan's Labyrinth for everything other than Best Foreign Film. The director seems very excitable, and it was a nice gesture to embrace Del Toro.
7:35 - The Snakes on a Plane shadow routine was cool.
Re: Jack Nicholson. Is there a remake of Apocalypse Now that I'm unaware of?
Very classy of Jennifer Hudson to say that God picked her to win and dissed the other four. I didn't see Dreamgirls yet, but Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi gave the best performances of the four I can can claim to speak whereof I know. Their performances -- the way they invested what were pawns as much as anything -- are what made that film more than the sum of its not inconsiderable ambitions.
7:48 -- An Inconvenient Truth, hunh? Never saw that one coming.
Should I be ashamed that, even though I teach a doc class, Inconvenient Truth is the only doc I saw at the theatre this year?
7:51 -- Is Clint Eastwood having a stroke onstage?
8:16 -- Boy, Chris Connelly must be desperate if he's trying to make the telecast seem interesting by touting "upsets" in categories like Best Costume Design.
Of the predictions I made here earlier in the week, I'm 4 for 5. Darn you, Zac and Betsy! The jackpot would have been mine this year!
8:28 -- As in most years, all of the original songs stunk this year. Who knew that "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" would mark a musical high point?
That Melissa Etheridge song sucks. As does just about every Melissa Etheridge song; I, for one, never believed that the world needed a distaff Bruce Springsteen.
8:41 -- That Anthony Mann montage devolved into an uninspiring clip reel rather fats. Dissapointing.
Geez, this is a pretty cynical year for me this time round. They better get to the memorial tribute soon ...
8:48 -- Cleopatra Jones died?!?!?!
8:50 -- Lori and I are have needed two bottles of wine to get through this thing.
8:52 -- Thank God someone remembered to wake Philip Seymour Hoffman up from his nap in time to present the Best Actor (Female) award.
Did the Academy have some mandate this year to present only the most uninteresting clips of the nominated actors this year?
9:00 -- Why did Reese Witherspoon send one of the Olson twins out to present for her?
9:05 -- We're a little behind with the Tivo, did you se Judi Dench when Helen Mirren was announced? Wow. Talk about a forced expression!
Has anyone ever given an acceptance speech-cum-religious manifesto before? That was some... impressively spiritualized thinking, Mr. Whitaker. Perhaps this is the dawning of a new celebrity religion to compete with Scientology?
9:10 -- What the hell is up with Steven Spielberg shoving George Lucas and Francis Ford Coppola to the side to hog reading the winner of Best Director? Coppola might have lost any cinematic vision (and his wine is meh), but the first two Godfather films, The Conversation and Apocalypse Now are greater individually than all of Spielberg's films put together and magnified by a factor of ten. Spielberg does have it over Lucas, admittedly, but still. It was rude. At least Lucas and Coppola finished school on time, and didn't insist on using studio productions to fulfill requirements for their bachelors degrees.
I'm no great fan of Scorsese as a director, but it's nice to see him win. He has been an important inspiration on legions of other directors, and his love of film inspires legions of film scholars.
Well, it's over, after 3 hours and 45 minutes. And it felt every goddamned minute of it. What a horrible event this time. Ellen De Generes was consistently funny, and the tumbling shadow puppets were fun, but on the whole, this was one dull show. As Lori so aptly put it -- "Talk about anticlimactic." Months of being underwhelmed, then a few days of buildup for glamor, and then... under-underwhelmed (over-underwhelmed?). The dresses were horrible, most of the non-Ellen delivered jokes flat. Kind of like this past year at the movies in general.
Did anyone else think Beyonce was going to break down and cry when Ellen walked past her to talk to Clint Eastwood immediately behind her? Poor Beyonce -- passed over for a Best Actress nom, given only a few moments in the spotlight when singing, and snubbed by the host. I predict a Destiny's Child reunion album in a few months.
Chiming in after the fact.... Boring - yes, yes, yes. After years of trying to do something somewhat interesting with the telecast they seemed to revert to the super schlocky. And why didn't they stick with their tradition of interspersing the "Big Awards" with the slightly less captivating awards?
The Departed was somewhat of a surprise...not necessarily a pleasant one as I still haven't forgiven Marty for the last image. Talk about schlocky.
Michele, I don't remember where I read this, but apparently the screenwriter added the rat at the end of The Departed as a Shakesperean touch. Shakespeare's plays frequently ended with everyone getting killed, and then some odd bit of business to make the audience go home wiser or happier. I'm not saying I agree with his intent or the success of said intent, just that he was attempting to be at least quasi-high brow.
I don't doubt that some thought was put into it but that still doesn't make it okay. I left the theatre neither wiser nor happier than I would have been had they not made that ridiculous choice.
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