Fanboys in mourning
The nominees for the 81st Academy Awards have been announced, and the fanboys are none too happy.
"The Academy just slit their own throats," proclaimed Harry Knowles, editor of aintitcool.com. A reader named Halik at joblo.com cried out: "CURSE THE HEAVENS!!!" One particularly disgusting post at IMDB.com blasted the Academy for forcing the gay agenda on America by nominating "Milk," and wondered: "maybe if bruce wayne came out then TDK would be in there too."
Yes, this is what happens when an Academy full of pseudo-intellectuals, Old Hollywood cronies and pompous blowhards declines to nominate a superhero movie as best picture.
And what does it matter? "The Dark Knight" has already made more than $500 million in America and is all but guaranteed to be considered a classic of its genre(s). Who cares if 5,000 people who don't care what "the folks" like or think decide it's not worthy of winning a gold statue? Most of the Web fanboys will tell you how meaningless Oscar is, and point to best-picture wins by "Shakespeare In Love," "Crash" and "Chicago" as evidence. So settle down already, people. The Oscars, in the long run, mean ... nothing.
But that doesn't mean they're not fun to watch or to talk about. Some random Oscar tidbits:
• All four principle actors in "Doubt" were nominated, and rightly so. How does that not lead to a best picture nomination? Anyone?
• I am thrilled to see Richard Jenkins ("The Visitor") and Robert Downey Jr. ("Tropic Thunder") get nominations. Neither has any hope of actually winning, but it's nice to see the Academy recognize a long-suffering character actor and a truly brave comedic performance.
• The best thing about 10-time nominee "Slumdog Millionaire" is its music, and it got three nods between original score and original song. Go A.R. Rahman!
• How in the world did "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" get 13 nominations? It's almost as if the picture was carried on hype alone. The reviews were good, but they weren't great, and I think most who have seen the picture can agree that, of the two leads, Brad Pitt wasn't the one you'd nominate.
• "WALL-E" got shut out of best picture, like I knew it would, but I do have a little glimmer of hope that it could win for its screenplay. (The animated feature Oscar is in the bag, of course.)
• Can someone explain to me what was so great about Josh Brolin's performance in "Milk"? I loved the movie and I even loved Sean Penn in it (which is really saying something for me), but Brolin left no impression at all on me, thanks mostly to his underwritten part.
• I really didn't want "Frost/Nixon" to get nominated for best picture, because I didn't want to feel obligated to go see it. I guess you can't win them all.
• This must be the first time I've ever seen two of the documentary feature nominees: Werner Herzog's "Encounters at the End of the World," and the vastly overrated "Man on Wire." So where the hell was "Dear Zachary," Academy voters?
• "Hellboy II" got a nomination for best makeup. Get 'em, Red!
• Kate Winslet's performance in "The Reader" was named a supporting performance by the Golden Globes, but as a lead performance at the Oscars. She won for both "The Reader" and "Revolutionary Road" at the former. I wonder if she'll win in a landslide because voters will be giving her credit for two movies, essentially.
• My official predictions:
Best Picture: "Slumdog Millionaire"
Best Director: Stephen Daldry, "The Reader"
Best Actor: Sean Penn, "Milk"
Best Actress: Kate Winslet, "The Reader"
Best Supporting Actor: Duh.
Best Supporting Actress: Penelope Cruz, "Vicky Cristina Barcelona"
...But it is, after all, a BATMAN movie. I don't see how anyone could be surprised or outraged that a BATMAN movie was not nominated for Best Picture. IMO, it would have been nothing without Heath Ledger.
I guess I gotta see more movies....the only Best Picture nominee I've seen is "Milk" (Which was AWESOME!) It's hard for me to go see "serious" movies when there is anything with Will Ferrell, Steve Carell, Seth Rogen, or Jim Carrey out at the same time, lol.
Did people ever really care about the Oscars? More people used to watch the ceremony, for sure, but that was back when most people only had 3 or 4 TV channels, and when there weren't hundreds of movies released every year, and when the media wasn't saturated with so much "entertainment news" on a daily basis.
Can I just state that I really dislike Ron Howard? And that I think he is maybe the most overrated director ever? And that I think his best movie was "Parenthood" and it was all downhill from there? Thank you.
Ron Howard must be the biggest "name" director with the most distinct lack of style. Does he have one? I can't point to anything that truly defines a Ron Howard movie -- other than their tendencies to be vastly overrated.
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...their tendency to be based on utterly uncontroversial and not particularly relevant true stories and wildly successful books, plays etc.? Or their dependence on universally liked and respected actors such as Tom Hanks and Russell Crowe? The presence of Ed Harris, America's the most overrated actor?
...but Hollz may hate Ron Howard more than I do.
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... and I liked it, even if it employs completely pointless mock interviews with some of its characters. That seemed like a storytelling crutch that wasn't needed. But Langella's performance is pretty darned fantastic.
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Without Heath Ledger's rightfully nominated performance, I doubt that "The Dark Knight" would have gotten any Oscar buzz at all. It seems like people accuse the Academy of being snobby and out-of-touch when a movie they like isn't honored, but they forget that "Titanic" and "Return of the King" won best picture. They also forget that "Shakespeare in Love" is a really great movie, and a hilarious comedy to boot, and comedies hardly ever win best picture, so really, wouldn't "Saving Private Ryan" have been the boring, predictable choice?
If "fanboys" want anyone to take them and their movies of choice seriously, they should cut the ignorant nonsense. "Milk" was fantastic, and I think it elevated the biopic genre the same way "The Dark Knight" elevated its genre. (Of course, the Academy has been heaping praise on mediocre biopics like "A Beautiful Mind" for years, so I just mean that "Milk" elevated the genre in my eyes).
........not that any of this crap matters anyways : )
...that I am even remotely interested in seeing. Every year there are less and less movies nominated that a large portion of the country even have the OPTION of seeing. I live in a major metropolitan area and we are fortunate enough to get most of these movies a month or two after NY and LA, but most of the country never gets this chance. And then people wonder why nobody cares about the awards anymore?