The Oscars thread

[reki]

so what did you think? a beautiful mind was a nice film, but ron howard over robert altman, david lynch, peter jackson and ridley scott? hmmm...

maybe its just the fact that i keep waiting for him to sing "i found my thrills on blueberry hill" every time i see him speak. and where was the thanks for the fonz?

congrats to halle berry for taking out the paltrow award for best blubbering.

[Vaarok]

Everybody was getting so worked up about her being the first black woman.

WTF. Cult of victimhood. "I want to be equal, but my ancestors may have been traumatized, so I'm owed."

Otherwise I could care less about the silly awards.

[reki]

i dont recall that ever being implied, vaarok, and i find your attitude disturbingly defensive. it is a milestone, and one to celebrate, not bawk at.

[Vaarok]

"I want to be like everyone else, but pay attention to me because I'm different!"

I find it an amusing contratiction, but foolish.

[ionfish]

The fact that David Lynch didn't win Best Director was a travesty, but a horribly predictable one. Hollywood protects itself from anything groundbreaking, new or original - Lynch has never been a part of "the establishment", hence he will never win no matter how fantastic the films he makes are (it was also a travesty that Mulholland Drive wasn't even nominated for Best Film and that neither Naomi Watts nor Laura Harring were nominated, but I think it's time I climbed down from my soapbox so we won't get into that one).

- ion -

[Fitz]

Hi wtf happened to LoTR ?

[ceejayoz]

Stoner - Beautiful Mind and Lord of the Rings tied, each getting 4 Oscars...

[jayhawk]

*warning: extreme cynicism ahead*

halle berry = so lame. nicole totally should have won. she would have at least had better composure. what an idiot.

mulholland drive = just wanted to comment on the fact that i am so THANKFUL hollywood didn't try to be "cool" and award that blubbering director anything or nominate his film for best picture. "wild at heart" and "lost highway" are amazing films, but "mulholland drive" was a 2nd-rate attempt at keeping his 'avante-garde' title.

for the birds = cute and funny as hell. glad it won. wish there was more competition for pixar in the category though. fifty-percent grey is a great short as well.

randy newman = WTF? that guy has *detracted* from so many good movies with his lame music ("you've got a friend in meee" -- my ass). i'm guessing he got the award because they felt sorry for him after 16 nominations and no win. enya sounded nervous as hell when she was singing, but rocks the socks off newman and goodman. pffft.

russell crowe = well, frick. he might as well have won the best actor award, they talked about and showed his face enough! holy crap. needless to say, i'm sure you can guess that i am VERY glad denzel won. "training day" was a great performance for him and i think he deserved to beat out russell LAST year with "the hurricane".

[Walker]

It was all bollocks. Somebody decided it was going to be the black oscars. Goldberg hosting, Sidney Poitier getting special award, some black woman who's never been in anything worth mentioning, and Denzel Washington who frankly gets on my nerves with his black-power bullshit, getting the highest awards. All at once.

Russel Crowe was cut out of the picture altogether - the academy boycotted him because he's been a bit too close to the bone for their liking recently. There's no way Washington should have won - he's had better performances before in other films that never even got nominated than in that training day rubbish.

The black woman gave the most embarassing acceptance performance I've ever seen - it tops paltrows easily. I had to bury my head and look away it was so cringeworthy. Whatever happened to dignity, and class? The whole affair ran hours over because every single award winner wanted to give a bloody speech, thanking their families, their dogs, their chiropodists daughters. Can't they just get up, take it, say thanks and sit down? It gets worse every year.

LotR got a load of technical awards, which everyone hates. That's it now - the only way it can win an award now is if the third film wins best picture, as the ending to a trilogy, which is unlikely. It's irritating, I would have wanted it to do better, but it wasn't going to happen I spose.

Even the coverage was awful - they kept on losing sound, they messed up the camera, what the hell the presenters were doing I don't know.

I've never had much faith in the academy awards, but after this years corruption and ceremony, any respect I had for them have vaporised. It's a joke, a self-congratulatory pat on the back for the film industry, which is shitty enough to begin with. The academy board is full of bent bastards, the whole event is just a glitzy, vapid sham.

[Walker]

Yeah, I meant her.

[jayhawk]

you can certainly tell she's had pageant experience with that shivering cry-fest.

[Maverick_3058]

Were I likewise suprised by a rather high accolade as she was, I honestly would have difficulty in trying to say something short, yet significant, all while keeping my composure.
Hell, I've enough difficulty with people that I know, much less a room full of thirty people looking at me. Thousands of audience members and millions worldwide is well nigh inconcievable.

Until any of you naysayers can incontrovertibly prove that you are capable of doing better in the same situation, I'd suggest that you STFU.

[sajuukar]

Differen't people have different reactions I guess... but then again her reaction could be because of all the work she has done before without winning anything ridiculously significant like the oscars. Would that mean she just didn't act well in previous movies or that she just wasn't noticed... or what?

[Stripe7]

Did not watch it, was not intested in it, too dammed many award shows with celebs around any way. I am glad Halle won tho.

[Walker]

Congrats to maverick for already moving off-topic and starting an argument. What is it with this board and baiting all of a sudden? Can noone keep a cool head and keep things to the point? Is there an outbreak of trolls disease?

[Maverick_3058]

The thread is on what we think about what happened at the awards, Walker.
As if it isn't already obvious, I disagree with negative connotations pertaining to the speech of the best actress winner.
gj, spinsta.

[jayhawk]

*mouth gaping, chomps firmly on the squishy worm*

kim basinger doesn't watch her own movies, is agoraphobic and extremely shy.

shania twain didn't become famous until 8 years after she started singing professionally because she was scared spitless of performing in front of audiences.

in high school halle berry was a cheerleader, class president, editor of the school paper and prom queen. she was also miss teen all america, miss ohio, miss usa first runner-up and has nearly 40 feature films to her name.

unlike kim and shania, for some reason i don't really feel sympathetic towards halle's ability to deal with public speaking...

[Tygre]

I'd cry if I won the best actress award.

[Tronno]

/me collapses on the floor in a fit of laughter

You can't stop me from quoting you, Tygre. You can't.

As for the speech, yes, it was overdone. But they all are. A real, sincere speech from the heart, unedited and uncut is hard to come by at the Awards. After all, what's it all about? Satisfying the human obsession with the success of others. Tell me that any one of those who stepped up to the mike that night didn't rehearse their bit... and you get a cookie.

[Walker]

The threads about what we thought of the awards, not what we think of what other people thought of the awards, AKA flaming.

You want a dignified speech? See Sidney Poitiers. He didn't seem to have any trouble accepting with grace and honour, he didn't ramble, he didn't cry, he didn't play any cheap race cards, he didn't have the audience laughing at him. He gave a powerful and moving speech. That's class. Washington, as much as I thought what he spieled about was tosh, also gave a dignified acceptance. Everyone else handed in at least a passable performance.

That woman got up there and collapsed spectacularly, with much embarassment and laughter all around. Her speech, if you can call it that, added up to nought, and she did herself, her race, her sex and her profession absolutely no favours. Hers was a perfectly bad acceptance.

The only way you can defend it is to say she broke down, which is what you're saying. That's failure in anyones book. Nobody else had a problem. You're defending a very singular failure.

Apart from which she didn't break down. If you do that, you wait to regain composure, or you say a brief thanks and leave the stage. You don't, ie., gush and scream and shriek at the camera, or gibber about standing by your black ancestors like some tribesman. She meant to do what she did, and if she didn't plan it, she sure as hell acted it up when it happened. That, i'm satisfied to say, has no dignity or class. It's just embarassing and degrading to those she's meant to represent up there.

[frstkor13]

walker, im watching you sit here trying to pass off your opinion as fact. someone 'breaking down' = failure? did god not give you tear glands? do you live in a closet?

im also mildly annoyed by your almost racial attitude you displayed a few posts up.

these are general discussion boards, this is a thread about the academy awards. people debating over their opinions relating to the academy awards is not off topic. stop being the troll.

[Mac_Bug]

Walker: An academy award, as much as some think it is overblown and total crap, is what most actors hold up to the highest honor one could get.

I shudder to think of your reaction when you win the lottery.

I'm still not clear why you hate her so. 'That woman' and all.

You are not black, are you?

[Maverick_3058]

By your definition, then the whole thread is off-topic, as it essentially started as what we think others, namely the Academy members, thought of the awards. You yourself attack someone on the rather shaky basis that you thought how she expressed what she felt the awards meant to her wasn't up to snuff.

Get a thicker skin, the #homeworld ninjas would rip you a new, more humble asshole, were you ever to dismount from that high horse of yours.

What you determine to be failure I say is not failure at all. If the awards are given on the basis of who gives the best speech up on the podium instead of what they bring to the actual silver screen, then she probably would overthrown...along with nearly all of the award winners in the entire history of the Oscar. Alas, for it is not so, for the Academy tends to be objectively oriented upon that which people make careers out of, and are paid to do, not some four-minute period to time that is mostly spent flippantly droning on, boring everyone.
Really, Halle Berry's only responsibility in her allotted time was to thank the people she thought deserved credit in helping her reach that achievement. She did that. There's no need for elaborate, eloquent dissertations upon why the award is relevant to black women and African-Americans in general; We already know that. It was her time to spend, and she had a bit of nerves. ong.

[Thaum]

Well all I can say is that it was probably the most contrived, pretentious and annoying Oscars I have ever seen in my life. In fact every time I see a new one it just gets worse. But the nadir of that particular show was Berry's acceptance speech.

She came across as fake and a blubbering and emotional wreck. Even Paltrow who acceptance speech was just as pathetic came across as genuinely sincere. Also if that was the limit of her (Berry) acting ability (and she was acting) I find her sadly lacking. Still like somebody else said you never know how you would be in the same position. But I suppose different people respond in different ways and while some people come across as sincere and honest, others most definitely do not ......

Also as for the other main awards, Ron Howard is just an Academy sheep who was bound to pick up an Oscar for that movie. I have not seen the it but, I could almost guarantee that he was going to get it when they were showing his big cheesy “Richie Cunningham” head at the beginning. But I shall reserve judgement on the movie until I see it.

I think Washington definitely deserved best actor. While Crowe is a good actor I still find every one of his performances wooden. Maybe that just the way he acts but I still have not seen the movie so I cannot be sure of what he is being judged for. Whereas I have seen the other one and thought he (Washington) excelled in the part.

I still think the LOTR should have done a bit better (i.e. by winning a real award, not just technical ones), but I kinda half expected that.

As for the rest of the show I could not stomach any more after Berry performance. The Oscars after all is for actors, journalists and groupies who like all the pomp and circumstance of the evening. But after seeing the spectacle of the other evening I don’t think I shall ever watch it again.


Just my 2 cents

[ionfish]

While browsing (ok, I was bored) the BBC News site, I came across this (http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/talking_point/newsid_1891000/1891449.stm). One comment in particular caught my eye... ;)
Only the British could be so obsessed with such a farcical event. It's absolutely pathetic.
Dean, Boston, USAedit: ooh, this one's good too
Yet again the Oscars have proved themselves to be a politically correct farce, whilst other film awards - Golden Globes, Cannes Film Festival, Sundance etc, etc - show themselves to be superior in terms of recognising talent, originality and awarding awards to those films that deserve them rather than the ones the establishment is comfortable with. As a spectacle and gloriously indulgent self-congratulation session the Oscars are still way ahead of anything else, but as a barometer of quality they have become both predictable and obsolete.
Ben, UK- ion -

[bluevorlon]

Wtfs happened to Amelie?

*sighs*

[Walker]

frstkor, mac bug: OK, cry and shriek all you want, and admire others for doing so. I reserve the right to laugh at you and make other people laugh at you, whether you think it's acceptable or not, it's a point of ridicule for anyone with taste. I quantify taste myself, because I don't trust you to do it, now that I've seen the way your opinions lie. And frstkor, OK, let's debate. Forgive me for trying to lend YOU a hand in keeping things on the right track. Next time you lock or make an aggressive reply on a thread that wanders I'll remind you. And cram your racist accusations up your arse.

Maverick: Keep your IRC nerds. If you spend all day insulting and arguing with each other in a chatroom then well done for joining in and developing such a nice set of mental callouses. I apologise for having sensibilities that appreciate taste. And if you think that " the Academy tends to be objectively oriented upon that which people make careers out of, and are paid to do " then maybe you should read up on the procedure, the members and the history of the affair, and learn what it's really about.

Thaum: thankyou.

Ion: I don't know what to make of your post. I know what I make of it but that might not be what you meant me to make of it. Your posts don't have enough prejudice, ignorance and arrogance to agree or get angry with, like the rest of us.

[Mac_Bug]

Okay take this a little far and we'll have a full blown flame war -

On second thought maybe not. Because you know what walker? I don't give a damn about the Academy awards. I taped it so I can fast forward through the speeches, and they didn't even have best song this year to be performed.


I reserve the right to laugh at you and make other people laugh at you, whether you think it's acceptable or not, it's a point of ridicule for anyone with taste. I quantify taste myself, because I don't trust you to do it, now that I've seen the way your opinions lie.

Now that I establish where I'm coming from, since you clearly label me in the frstkor camp (your call, I could be your only friend, but hey). My original question still stands, why are some of you so full of 'hate' for the academy awards?

[Tygre]

Halle Berry's too hot to be seen crying...she should win less academy awards and do more modeling. She should also spend more time with me.

Remember, these people that do the acceptance speeches are ACTORS, not writers or producers or directors or someone that makes something seem realistic in a film. The speeches aren't going to be great.

[molo]

Walker's use of the phrase "that woman" reminds me of Bill Clinton. Unfortunately, Bill Clinton had a valid reason to dislike and distance himself from "that woman".

[Tygre]

That can mean only one thing...Walker and Clinton buy the same brand of pink bubblegum... :p

[Walker]

I just didn't remember her name at the time. I wasn't being disdainful.

[jayhawk]

er, what were we talking about again?

[Tygre]

You were talking about how you were about to deposit your entire checking account into mine on Paypal. You were looking at my signature and thought giving me money would be a great way to stop terrorists.