The Movie Thread

[RGMike]

Surprise of the Night: Best Foreign Film goes to Japan's Departures, beating favorites The Class and Waltz With Bashir. 

It's worth noting that this is one of the few categories where voters are required to see all 5 nominees, which is why there's frequently a surprise when the votes are counted. Big night for Japan: it also won Best Animated Short earlier.

And here's Queen Latifah, singing "I'll Be Seeing You" to intro the annual montage of dead people.

[RGMike]

Credit where credit is due: I *LOVE* what they did with the acting categories, bringing 5 past winners out to salute the current nominees one-on-one. A masterstroke, whosever idea it was. For Best Actor, we had DeNiro, Hopkins,  Kingsley, Adrian Brody and Michael Douglas all on stage praising this year's guys.

And -- minor surprise -- Sean Penn beats Mickey Rourke, who seemed to have the momentum the past several weeks. "Oh, you Commie, homo-loving sons-o-guns!" sez Sean to the audience.

And the Best Picture clips, interweaving past winners, was also quite artful. Juxtaposing Harvey Milk with Braveheart must've pissed Mel Gibson off something fierce. LOL!

[RGMike]

Well, the show still ended up being a shade under 3-1/2 hours, even with a shorter Song Medley, only 2 production numbers and fewer/shorter montages. So much for "streamlining".

[ggould]

Credit where credit is due: I *LOVE* what they did with the acting categories, bringing 5 past winners out to salute the current nominees one-on-one. A masterstroke, whosever idea it was. For Best Actor, we had DeNiro, Hopkins,  Kingsley, Adrian Brody and Michael Douglas all on stage praising this year's guys.

And -- minor surprise -- Sean Penn beats Mickey Rourke, who seemed to have the momentum the past several weeks. "Oh, you Commie, homo-loving sons-o-guns!" sez Sean to the audience.

And the Best Picture clips, interweaving past winners, was also quite artful. Juxtaposing Harvey Milk with [i}Braveheart[/i] must've pissed Mel Gibson off something fierce. LOL!

Just goes to show...I specifically disliked the acting nominee format and the montages.  I thought this was the worst Oscars show I'd ever seen.  But that's just me.  I'd only seen a few movies this year, missed most of the top ones.

[mshray]

Anyone else watching the Oscars? We're (I think) about halfway thru as I write. Hugh Jackman? OK, a bold choice, but his opening number was a pale imitation of what Billy Crystal used to do, and that salute to musicals was a classic (maybe even legendary) Oscar clusterfuck -- no surprise that it was put together by Baz Luhrman.

And no surprises in the awards so far.  But Ben Stiller was funny spoofing Joaquin Phoenix, as was the filmed bit with Rogen and Franco.  Having Heath Ledger's parents and sister accept his award was quite nice.

I had ABC on during the red carpet stuff & paused it on my DVR to eat dinner, but when I came back later it skipped the whole first half & took me to the middle of the Will Smith presentations.  CRAP!!  Missed the supporting actors & screenplays, but I can't argue with the winners now that I look them up.  I wish I'd seen the Ben Stiller bit, I figured there had to be a reason for Reese Witherspoon zinging him.

I loved how the Queen Latifah montage ended with Paul Newman, and then his overdubbed quote about those who had good lives on top of the image of him and Joann Woodward.

Wife & I also loved the 5 winners introing the 5 nominees.  How much cooler it must have been for, say, Anne Hathaway to be addressed personally by Shirley MacLaine?  The Reader was the only major nominated film that I hadn't seen, so I can't speak to Kate W's deserving it over the rest of the field, but I loved how she said that all the rest of them were still getting over the shock of just being nominated alongside La Streep.  Also hadn't realized that both the late Sydney Pollack AND the late Anthony Minghella were on board for that film.

God bless Sean Penn.  That's all I have to say.  God bless him.

[RGMike]

Just goes to show...I specifically disliked the acting nominee format and the montages.  I thought this was the worst Oscars show I'd ever seen. 

I'm curious as to why you disliked. It seemed quite classy to me to recognize everyone, not to mention seeing that many winners from the past together at one time. (My gawd -- Eva Marie Saint!) And as Mark pointed out, you could see how thrilled (for example) Anne Hathaway was to be singled out by Ms. Maclaine -- you could read her lips saying "I love you Shirley!"

[RGMike]

Forgot to mention that Tina Fey and Steve Martin's bit presenting the writing awards was hilarious:

Fey: "It has been said that to write is to live forever."

Martin: "The man who said that is dead."

Fey: "Yet, we all know the importance of writing, because every great movie begins with a great screenplay."

Martin: "Or, a very good idea for the poster. But usually, with a screenplay."

Fey: "And every writer starts with a blank page."

Martin: "And every blank page was once a tree."

Fey: "And every tree was once a tiny seed."

Martin: "And every tiny seed on Earth was placed here by the alien king Rondelay, to foster our titrates and fuel our positive transfers!"

I suggest Fey, Martin and Seth Rogen should host next year. 

I still don't get the love for Slumdog: it went 8 for 10 (while Button was 3 for 13) and is now the 2nd-biggest winner among movies with no acting nominees -- Last Emperor went 9 for 9 back in '87.

[urth]

And here's Queen Latifah, singing "I'll Be Seeing You" to intro the annual montage of dead people.

My gripe was with all the shifting and panning camera angles of the onstage big screen during this montage. It made it difficult if not impossible to read the names of the people who weren't necessarily recognizable. And just hard to focus overall. Wish they'd just put the pics on screen as they've always done.

Btw, did Heath Ledger die before last year's ceremony? He wasn't included in this one--Paul Newman was the "marquee" dead guy.

I was OK with the 5-man tagteam presenting of the acting awards, but it seemed to draw out the process of presenting each one, and led to quite the mob scene at the podium when the winner came up to receive their statuette. Everyone had to get their congrats in with the winner, and just seemed kind of chaotic.

[mshray]

I still don't get the love for Slumdog: it went 8 for 10 (while Button was 3 for 13) and is now the 2nd-biggest winner among movies with no acting nominees -- Last Emperor went 9 for 9 back in '87.

I have been pondering this question as well.  I mean, I sort of get it, as I really liked the movie myself, but I think it can be explained on two levels.

First, call it the Rocky effect - every now & then (and especially when times are tough) the Academy just falls in love with an underdog story & it gets enough votes to win, often beating out a much-lauded but very serious historical drama.  (c.f. Oliver! in 1969 over The Lion In Winter or Chariots Of Fire in 1981 over Reds).  This explains those who voted with their hearts for Slumdog over Milk or Frost/Nixon.  Remember the other nominees when Rocky won?  Network, Taxi Driver & All The President's Men.

Second, I think the members of the Academy who really vote with their heads thought to themselves, "If I went to Mumbai on a $14M budget, how could I possibly come up with a movie this good?"  And the answer being "I have NO idea how they did it", they are led to give it props for just about every category it's nommed for. This helps explain all the technical awards Slumdog won.

[princessofcairo]

...beating favorites The Class and Waltz With Bashir. 

Both of which I *highly* recommend. Really fine stuff.

Missed the Oscars, but I don't feel like I really missed much, reading your recaps (and if you read really quickly, fun things like "Newman...on top of...Woodward"). The only winner I saw was Milk.

[RGMike]

Btw, did Heath Ledger die before last year's ceremony? He wasn't included in this one--Paul Newman was the "marquee" dead guy.

Yup, Heath was in last year's montage iirc.

from another message board, some dead folks who were overlooked last nite:

Edie Adams
Guillaume Depardieu
Ivan Dixon
Mel Ferrer
George Furth
Beverly Garland
Neil Hefti
Eartha Kitt
John Philip Law
Patrick McGoohan
Robert Prosky

I can't explain all of those, but I think they went with people who are primarily identified with film in a bid to make it a bit shorter.

[princessofcairo]

from another message board, some dead folks who were overlooked last nite:

Edie Adams
Guillaume Depardieu
Ivan Dixon
Mel Ferrer
George Furth
Beverly Garland
Neil Hefti
Eartha Kitt
John Philip Law
Patrick McGoohan
Robert Prosky

I can't explain all of those, but I think they went with people who are primarily identified with film in a bid to make it a bit shorter.

Still - the Depardieu and Kitt are *big* snubs. HUGE, I would say.

[RGMike]

from another message board, some dead folks who were overlooked last nite:

Edie Adams
Guillaume Depardieu
Ivan Dixon
Mel Ferrer
George Furth
Beverly Garland
Neil Hefti
Eartha Kitt
John Philip Law
Patrick McGoohan
Robert Prosky

I can't explain all of those, but I think they went with people who are primarily identified with film in a bid to make it a bit shorter.

Still - the Depardieu and Kitt are *big* snubs. HUGE, I would say.

had it been GERARD Depardieu, yes, but nobody in America knew he even had a son, much less that he was an actor. I'll agree about Eartha, tho'. Bet Beej was pissed about Neal Hefti!

[mshray]

had it been GERARD Depardieu, yes, but nobody in America knew he even had a son, much less that he was an actor. I'll agree about Eartha, tho'. Bet Beej was pissed about Neal Hefti!

I think the montage last night was really bad, as did Tim Goodman this a.m.  Hard to say for sure who they snubbed as there were lots of times I couldn't recognize the image nor make out the name.  But Eartha certainly wasn't in there & shoulda been.  I think McGoohan was also a significant omission, he had a very long career, including a major role in a Best-Picture-winning film.

[urth]

from another message board, some dead folks who were overlooked last nite:

Edie Adams
Guillaume Depardieu
Ivan Dixon
Mel Ferrer
George Furth
Beverly Garland
Neil Hefti
Eartha Kitt
John Philip Law
Patrick McGoohan
Robert Prosky

I can't explain all of those, but I think they went with people who are primarily identified with film in a bid to make it a bit shorter.

Still - the Depardieu and Kitt are *big* snubs. HUGE, I would say.

had it been GERARD Depardieu, yes, but nobody in America knew he even had a son, much less that he was an actor. I'll agree about Eartha, tho'. Bet Beej was pissed about Neal Hefti!

Not just Beej--I'm pretty pissed about that one. Seems like a lot of the changes in last night's ceremony were designed to cut time, which I think is just bullshit. But I don't have a problem with an Oscar ceremony lasting nearly 4 hours. Beyond that, yeah, gets a bit extreme.

One thing I noticed last night is that it seemed like everyone got as much time as they wanted for their acceptance speech--or at least they didn't use the orchestra as a means of cutting them off. There may have been a little red light flashing at the edge of the stage telling them they were going long, but if they chose to ignore it--and a few seemingly did--the TV audience had no way to know.