OSCARS

The Common Room Film, Television, Music & Books
#11

Concerning last night’s Oscars, I’m simply going to reiterate what I stated on an Upcoming Pixar article:

Woooah ho ho! Man, the Oscars certainly were rigged big time this year! Everyone knows that it’s all a predetermined set-up, of course, but I think they overdid themselves this time….

Well, first of all, I would like to give a heartfelt congratulations to Andrew Stanton and the entire crew at Pixar Animation Studios for breathing life into a solitary robot… and receiving the Academy Award for “Best Animated Feature Film”!! You guys deserve nothing less!

I was actually still rooting for “Kung Fu Panda”, but, after “WALL•E” was very unceremoniously overlooked in every other department it was nominated in, I’m glad that it won the “Best Animated Feature” award over “Panda”.
That said, I remain firm in my opinion that the last “decent” Academy Awards ceremony was in 2004, I believe, when Billy Crystal hosted the show. Now-a-days, I find everything to be politically-biased, extremely one-sided/opinionated, and (at times) environmentally friendly. I mean, come on, “Slumdog Millionaire” won for “Best Sound Mixing”, “Best Original Score”, and “Best Song”?! What the heck?!? They were waaay too biased this year. Almost every freakin’ award went to India, and if it didn’t go overseas it went to “Benjamin Button” for “Best Visual Effects”. (Uh-huh. Yeah, right. It won “Best Visual Effects” over “The Dark Knight” and “Iron Man”.) What really blew me away is the fact that Ben Burtt didn’t win anything, and neither did Thomas Newman. They deserved those awards more than anyone else, and we all know it. (It was nothing less than painful to watch the Oscars’ “updated” version of “Down to Earth” in place of Peter Gabriel.) And, by the way, Hugh Jackman’s performance kinda sucked. Every year they have to capitalize on lame jokes and over-played performances. Oh well. Thank goodness for such insertions as Jack Black’s reference to Pixar and that whole “Screenwriting” bit….

Thank GOD Heath Ledger won for “Best Supporting Actor”. Thank the Lord….

But I rant. Well, in any case, congratulations to Pixar!!

For anyone who is wondering, I have seen Slumdog Millionaire and I loved the heck out of it. Nevertheless, I don’t believe that it deserved as many awards as it earned.

By the way, I love how they played a section from the End Creditouilles score (on the official Ratatouille soundtrack) at the very end of the Oscars. That was a nice treat. (heheh)

– Mitch

#12

Something that I find most annoying about the Oscars is how England seem to treat it like the Olympics or something. Claiming any win for any british actor or actress as “A win for England” It just really bugs me for some reason :laughing:

Nice to see that Heath Ledger got the win, but other than that…I haven’t seen enough movies that have been nominated to have any kind of opinion on what should or shouldn’t have won. Although I do feel that Mickey Rourke was given a bit of a snub for sean penn’s impression of Elmer Fudd. (This joke won’t make sense to anyone i haven’t actually spoken to…but hey ho.)

Other than that…I suppose i’ll just follow popular opinion without having seen the film and just give praise and worship to Slumdog Millionaire.

I now have to go back to partying in the streets :laughing:

#13

The Oscars were okay this year. I still can’t believe they gave Benjamin Button best visual effects at not Dark Knight. I don’t think Slumdog Millionaire should have won all 8 Oscars, maybe about half. I was really mad when it won Best Original Song, Best Score, Best Music, and Best Sound Mixing. Overall, it was an alright show.

#14

I was really impressed with the Oscars this year, especially the show theme with Mr. Jackman. But when Beyonce, Zac Efron, and Vanessa Hudgens came on, I started having headaches.

Anyways, I thought the winners were well deserved. Slumdog was dominant, and so was Benjamin Button. Congrats to WALL-E for all of its nominations and win.

#15

This. Kate Winslet sucks so much, I would’ve preferred it if Meryl Streep had won the Best Actress Oscar. Not only do I not like Kate Winslet’s style of acting, but her eyebrows scare me. I don’t want this country to be associated with such caterpillars as hers.

Slumdog Millionaire had a great soundtrack, but it didn’t deserve to win that many awards. A fair few, yes, but eight, especially over such amazingness as WALL-E? I don’t think so.

I am please Heath Ledger got the award, mainly because I think that if he were still alive, he probably would’ve got it anyway (it wouldn’t have been as much of a dead cert, admittedly, but he still would’ve got it). It’s not as if he won the award just because he died, so I’d say it’s pretty fair that he won the Oscar since he was so amazing as the Joker.

These things have to be taken with a pinch of salt, though. Not saying that those who won didn’t deserve it, just that not always the best films and best people in their categories win, but I guess that’s just the way it is.

#16

Benjamin Button got an Oscar for slapping some latex on Brad Pitt’s face?

WELL ALRIGHTY THEN

#17

After a while, it got boring

mo watching the oscars
Best animated feature - “Oh look!! Wall-E won best animated feature!”
2 hours later- “Oh, Slumdog won… again”
After the show- sigh :cry:

#18

Call it a small and somewhat conspiratorial theory, but perhaps the academy wanted slumdog to win so many for reasons beyond it just being a good movie.

Since the economy is now in the sewers rather than being flushed in the toilet, would it not be a promising sign to show that a movie made for a lower budget with lesser known actors can still reach heights of oscar worthy proportions as well as being a commercial success? Part of me thinks it’s a convenient way for hollywood to find ways to cut down money. But this half is very much a weird one

Oh and best oscar moment for me was Kunio Kato’s speech

youtube.com/watch?v=EtlpHgAls1o

His delivery at the end of the speech was perfect :laughing:

#19

I had guessed Iron Man or The Dark Knight for Best Visual Effects, until Saturday night, when I saw this site. It was then that I knew where this award was going.

benjaminbuttonfx.com/

Haunt - I know this is off-topic, but I am really curious… How’s that film festival? Is there a good selection of films there?

  • C-3PO
#20

Yeah I only caught about an hour’s worth of the show (all I wanted to see was Wall-e win anyway) as I wanted to watch a movie then. But from the hour I watched I’d say it was very predictable! I was 7 for 7 with my assumptions.

#21

Lol…! :laughing:

Like a lot have already said, it’s disappointing to me (even though I didn’t actually watch the Oscars) that Ben Burtt did not receive ANY recognition for his work on WALL•E; which was, to say the least, astounding. I have never seen Slumdog Millionaire either, but I just don’t see how it’s fair that half of the Oscars went to that movie alone. :frowning:

I’m extremely happy that Heath Ledger recieved Best Supporting Actor; even though I am not a Dark Knight fan. I remembered hearing about his death last year and thinking how hard it must have been for fans to watch that movie and know that he was gone. :cry: He deserved it. :slight_smile:

I think if I had actually watched the Oscars this year, I would have been really angry. So I’m kind of glad I’ve never watched it before. :laughing:

little chef

#22

If I had an award for the most predictable awards ever… I dare say I would have given it to that show… Although Danny Boyle trying to do ‘Tigger’ showed that not everyone can pull off comedy, and if your British you’ve got very little chance of succeeding!

On the Award for Sound… How hard is it to re-create the sounds of Mumbai and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire… Not as hard as creating the languages of a Universe of Robots… WALL-E was to put it bluntly robbed. How long will it be before the academy notice Talented Composers Again? Maybe Princess & the Frog can claw it back for them?

Kate Winslet’s win, was out of sheer pity… come on it was only a matter of time before the academy finally went… “Yeah give her one”.

Predictions for 2010:
Best Animated Feature: Princess & The Frog
Everything else… well we shall have to wait and see what’s released around Christmas and The New Year… Possibly a Nomination for Downey Jr. for best actor in Sherlock Holmes, but you’ll never know.

#23

Predictions for 2010: best special effects: James Cameron’s Avatar

Haven’t seen “slumdog”, buit I doubt it can top Wall·E.

#24

Exactly. Ben Burtt was deserving of that award and we all know it. Why the Academy chose to disregard his work as not “up to par” with that of the sound effects in Slumdog Millionaire is a complete mystery to me.

As far as any predictions for the winner of the “Best Animated Feature” award for the 2010 Oscars go, I’m betting that Up will take home the gold. Like you said though, we’ll have to wait and see what happens.

– Mitch

#25

I don’t know about you guys, but in my opinion, I believe all of the awards were well deserved and the winners were rightfully chosen. We forget that the fact that these movies were nominated is a big accomplishment itself.

#26

BEST PICTURE 2009: “Where the Wild Things Are”

BEST DIRECTOR: Spike Jonze, “Where the Wild Things Are”

Who’s with me?

#27

TS2: Hmmm, I really don’t know. They might get nominated for other awards, but I don’t see it winning best film or director.

#28

One question, TSS…

Do you hate children??? (jk) :wink:

#29

I agree.

Although I was devastated that Wall-E did not win, the media titles chosen were deserving. Slumdog Millionare , from what I’ve heard (I’m not aloud to see it yet) was amaizing…

#30

I’m actually pretty disappointed that WALL-E didn’t win any other awards, especially for sound design. I mean, best animated feature was good but…
I’m not really allowed to watch slumdog millionaire but it must be pretty good. I don’t even know what it’s about…