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Academy of Oscars Awards

bestdirectorI figured I should do a post on Oscars just so we have a place to discuss them. That is what I am doing write now, I am doing a post on Oscars.

A couple of random thoughts to start things off:

1. I know people always complain when you discuss Oscars and have to point out that they are meaningless or whatever. Fair enough. Like anybody doesn’t know that. But I’ve noticed that this year more than usual they have had a positive effect already. The main one is the amount of discussion I have heard about Kathryn Bigelow. As recently as when THE HURT LOCKER came out you could not find anybody outside of nerd clubs who even knew that movie existed. Now it’s one of the most discussed movies and Kathryn Bigelow leans closer to “household name” than to “name only known by movie nerds who like NEAR DARK or POINT BREAK.” I’ve also run into many people who would not have seen HURT LOCKER if not for all this awards talk, and also some of the other nominees that wouldn’t have been nominated without the expanded 10 best picture nominees, mostly A SERIOUS MAN. So that’s good. I myself have to admit I probly wouldn’t have gotten around to seeing CRAZY HEART if Bridges wasn’t up for best actor.

2. I put Kathryn Bigelow up there because I want her to win (and think she will) but if Cameron ends up winning let’s not roll any cars or anything. I personally don’t think AVATAR is up to the standards of earlier in his career, but you have to admit that “best director” is a good way to honor the movie for its technical achievement and daring. It’s easy to look at its ridiculously gigantic success and say that it was an obvious crowdplease, but that dude was working on that movie for years with sayers saying “nay” on all sides. The tenacity to get that made at that budget, to invent the technology and to at least on a technical level orchestrate it all together is something probly no other director could’ve done. So although I would rather reward a movie that to me has more heart and soul to it I think those would be legitimate reasons to give him the award.

If Jason Reitman got it I would be kind of pissed though.

After the “jump” or whatever it’s called I will present to you a series of posters commemorating previous works of all the best director nominees, arranged in order of preference of who I would want to win.MP_neardarkMP_pointbreak

MP_reservoirdogs

MP_jackiebrownMP_killbill2MP_terminatorMP_aliensmp_tennesseemp_thankyouforsmoking

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 7th, 2010 at 3:37 pm and is filed under Blog Post (short for weblog). You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

63 Responses to “Academy of Oscars Awards”

  1. I’m not sure why you’d torture yourself with this Oscar nonsense, Vern, but I hope you get something positive out of it. I know I won’t.

  2. I would like Bigelow to win. Or at least The Hurt Locker to win an award. That or Basterds are my favorite movies of last year. I think Watchmen should have been nominated for effects though.

  3. I really like that they expanded the field to ten movies and changed up the voting procedure.

    Much as I like Tarantino I’d be kinda pissed if BASTERDS won it this year.

  4. I think BASTERDS can actually pull off the upset and win Best Picture.

  5. It was getting roughly 18-1 odds over at Intrade last I checked…

  6. Casey – the BP system this year is a weight ballot, or voter ranks all 10 movies in order of preference. #1 gets 10 votes, #2 gets 9, etc.

    Well what if BASTERDS is at #2 on enough ballots, and AVATAR say #3 on way too many?

  7. RRA,

    It isn’t quite like that; if I understand it, it’s an instant runoff voting system, where the film with the lowest number of #1 votes is eliminated until eventually some film has over 50% of the #1 votes.

    That isn’t for me to belittle anyone who liked BASTERDS, though, and if I came off that way I didn’t mean to. Just not my cup of Tarantino this time… or to put it another way, it was one-half (the Shoshanna half) of an excellent movie.

  8. It’d be awesome if Basterds won, wouldn’t it? Or District 9 or Up…

    And Point Break appears to be called Hot Blue in that poster

  9. I bought Near Dark on blu ray recently, I need to watch it soon (never seen it before)

  10. also I got me some crawfish boiling in the pot and I am ready for the Oscars!

  11. Vern – you should try to review K-19 in the near future if Bigelow wins.

    Or that obscure murder mystery movie she did around that time.

  12. If anyone of you are outside of the US like me you can watch the Oscars stream here:

    http://www.livestream.com/theoscars

    Although not sure if it’s showing the awards or just the red carpet shit. Though the red carpet stuff is funny to watch just how silly it all is. Every woman being asked “who are you wearing?!” Is creepier/funnier than it’s meant to be.

  13. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody showed up wearing the actual skin of Alexander McQueen.
    It’s what he would have wanted.

    I would love to see Basterds win best picture, but I chose Hurt Locker in the Oscar Pool – I’m a pragmatist.

  14. With most of these posters the non-USA release ones look best. Actually that seems a pretty common thing, Japan and Europe get awesome semi arty and/or twisted images, and the US gets BIG PORTRAIT OF FAMOUS ACTOR’S FACE with similarly HUGE FRONT PROCLAIMING HIS NAME (even if said actor only appears in a cameo).

    Actually that is less true these days. Most of the modern posters here in Japan now simply use the US poster, often with only the title translated. Lind of makes me feel at home, in a crappy US multiplex kind of way.

    Also, Vern, good point about cameron/bigelow (is there even a chance for anyone else? Really?). They were married for a while and have since worked together (strange days), so whoever wins, at least the feeling of being screwed by the other won’t be a new one. It might even be a good one. Okay enough of that.

  15. Those are some sweet posters. I especially like the Near Dark poster and the Kill Bill 2 posters. The Terminator poster is pretty sweet as well. Unfortunately, the art of movie posters is in serious decline.

    I think The Hurt Locker will win and it deserves to but I was not as taken by the movie when I watched it for a second time more recently. My personal favorite is Basterds, but I would be surprised if it it won. I have seen it four times and it never gets old to me. If Christoph Waltz doesn’t win an Oscar they should lock the doors to the building and mow everybody in attendance down with machine guns before they blow the place up.

  16. Those movie posters are wicked awesome.

  17. wow Oscars referenced EVIL DEAD

  18. Finally got it to work . I’m watching this in streaming , and I will be coming back to comment with you guys. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for District 9 and Hurt Locker. But if Avatar wins or Tarantino wins , I still think it will be okay .

    Nice selection of posters , by the way , Vern . Especially the Italian version of Near Dark.

    And just a suggestion : can we do this live comments/dedicated post for Wrestlemania , next ?

  19. The sound I’m getting is really strange. They all sound kinda like the fucking chipmunks.

  20. Fuck , now the sound is gone , the image is shit , I see a frame , then the streaming stops . There’s a bunch of people jumping on stage ? I’ restarting this shit of a computer .

  21. I wonder if Bigelow and Cameron will have hot makeup sex afterward? (just to show there’s no hard feelings)

  22. ChopperSullivan

    March 7th, 2010 at 9:22 pm

    I thought it was kind of fucked that those Twilight assholes got to introduce the horror tribute, but seeing clips of Evil Dead 2, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Night of the Living Dead on an Oscar broadcast was pretty cool.

  23. Wow , Jeff Bridges ! I’m happy for him .

  24. Jeff won!

  25. That was Bridges , right ?

  26. Holy shit , YES!

  27. well, Bigelow is victorious

  28. she owned her ex husband lol

  29. Son of a bitch. If Sandra Bullock didn’t win I would’ve won the office pool.

  30. Fun Fact: the editors who won the Oscar this year started out on Raimi’s EVIL DEAD 2.

    Also, the director of Point Break won the Oscar. :)

  31. I didn’t see Sandra Bullock’s latest , but I was not expecting her to win. The most predictable win for me was Jeff Bridges , as he was , as they say , “due” and I’m really happy for him . But the Academy surprised me this year with all the awards for Kathryn Bigelow and the Hurt Locker , I hope that now even non-nerd fans will go back and enjoy all the movies directed by her . I’m really sad that District 9 went home empty handed , I think that that movie deserved better . But , overall , not bad , Oscars.

  32. That was a horrible Oscar telecast, the worst I remember in all the years I’ve watched it. Horrible hosts, guys who usually are funny but didn’t sport a single good gag.

  33. Yeah , I’ve seen some of the gags , and it wasn’t really all that fun. Keep in mind that I had some technical problems, so maybe I missed all the best jokes , but the last time , at least , we had Wolverine dancing !

  34. skippin the comments for now, since i haven’t watched the show yet, but just wanted to pipe in on the japanese posters vern attached above, just for shits and giggs. first, the japanese poster for POINT BREAK, which is titled HEART BLUE in japn for some reason. the tagline that runs down the middle of the poster translates to “He chased his dreams, and I chased him. The two of us, we were very alike.” Next, the KILL BILL vol.2 poster is also japanese, hence the nonsensical in english “Kill is Love” tagline, but the japanese writing is far too small for me to be able to read it. finally, the ALIENS poster (called ALIEN 2 in japan). the copy at the top of the poster says, “This time, it’s war! In space, there is a place where you musn’t go alone.”

    hopefully i will watch the oscars soon so i can participate in this discussion.

    but speaking of which, anyone know the best/fastest way to get a version of the show online? it only show on cable in japan, which neither i nor any of my friends has (and even then it is only shown edited), but i am planning on having a little viewing party at my place. any info would be appreciated.

  35. I thought it was mostly a good telecasting. The hosts were pretty funny and inobtrusive. I liked the POINT BREAK reference of having Keanu Reeves introduce THE HURT LOCKER. Liked that they kept the camera steady for the dead people tribute (last year was Greengrass-unwatchable). Noticed that everybody’s name said “actor” or “director” or whatever but no category for Michael Jackson, most famous person ever. Good to see Sam Raimi thanked for EVIL DEAD 2. Hilarious to see clips of shit like TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE: THE NEXT GENERATION on the Oscars in a serious manner.

    And I’m real happy for Kathryn Bigelow. It’s not just that a woman won, but that she deserved it. Her movie schools modern action directors on a technical level, stealing their style and throwing it back done correctly. Fucking Adam “BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE” Shankman, director of the Oscars, should have to apologize for the condescension of having Barbara Streisand do the introduction and talk about “for the first time a woman or an African American could win, or it could be the director of the most successful movie ever.” What if one of the other two had won?

    Also, anybody else catch that the band played “I Am Woman” after she won? Jesus.

  36. Oh yeah, another shitty part was Tyler Perry explaining what an editor does, which according to his teleprompter was just to switch between closeups, medium shots and wide shots. Kind of an insult to the expert rhythm of the editing in HURT LOCKER.

    Also, recent American history tells us the first woman best director is gonna keep having weirdos asking to see her birth certificate.

  37. Vern – I’m pretty sure that little lesson on how to edit a movie was brand new information to Tyler Perry.

  38. Anyone who enjoys a good movie poster from back when Hollywood actually gave a shit about making artistic posters should check out:

    http://www.wrongsideoftheart.com

  39. Wow, thank you for that link Gwai Lo. A treasure chest has just appeared…

  40. Gwai Lo, thanks for the link. That sight is awesome. I love these older movie posters.

    The Hurt Locker was a deserving winner of best picture and director, but best original screenplay, no way. QT got robbed.

  41. Were was Farrah in the death show?

    Denied.

  42. Bea Arthur too

  43. Yay! Hans Landa won for BASTERDZ, which I think would have been a travesty if he had not.

    Best speech of the night was the black guy who adapted PRECIOUS.

    WHAT THE FUCK was up with the fat white lady who interrupted the guy who won best documentary? That bitch needs to be slapped a thousand times. It was like a role-reversed Kanye West – old white woman being rude to young black man. HORRIBLE.

    My girlfriend fell asleep so I told her who won the last 4 awards later on. She was incensed that they actually separate it into best Actor and best Actress, she thinks they should have one big category and not separate it into male and female. So I told her that Katherine Bigelow won best Directress and James Cameron won Best Director, and she believed me until this morning when she was talking to a friend of hers and got laughed at.

  44. Oh by the way, Australian voting (preferential voting) is seriously flawed, way beyond the trick where your unhappy minority intentionally ranks a great film last to poison its chances at winning. For example, imagine you have a group of people who originally voted for best picture and they voted AVATAR as their least favorite, but AVATAR wins anyway. Now have those same people rank AVATAR as their most favorite film. AVATAR should obviously still win, right? Duh… Not necessarily, this change in voting can change the results so AVATAR actually LOSES. Proof (example at bottom of page):

    http://www.telematicsfreedom.org/en/project/15/instant-runoff-aka-preferential-voting

    The moral of the story is that Katherine Bigelow stole two Oscars. (kidding… I am glad AVATAR didn’t win, it did not deserve anything but technical Oscars in my opinion).

  45. Is no-one else perplexed by AVATAR winning best cinematography? I mean, it’s a lovely looking film, but I don’t think lighting, lenses and camera placement had an awful lot to do with that…

  46. No problemo guys. The great thing about that sight is that almost everything they post is in super hi-res, so you can actually print the things poster size and they look photo quality. I have a good friend who works in a professional print shop, and she gets me her staff discount, so I decorated my 2br suite for under $100 with crazy cool art that can’t be found anywhere else. Well actually that’s not true because I spent about $300 on frames for all of it, but still.

  47. Personally Vern I think you should revive the Outlaw/Badass Awards & Honors. Who would be walking the red (with BLOOD) carpet this year? I assume Black Dynamite would rack up the most nominations, but who would fill out the other categories? Denzel in Book of Eli? Rain in Ninja Assassin? Tony Jaa in Ong Bak 2? Channing Tatum in Fighting? Personally I think Best Badass candidates should include Olyphant in Perfect Getaway, Diesel in Fast & Furious and – of course – MJW as Black Dynamite in Black Dynamite. Best Badass, Female? I guess it would have to be between Samurai Princess and Robogeisha. Or the ladies from Bitch Slap, although I didn’t think it was very good.

    Did you review A Serious Man, Vern? I thought you did but I can’t seem to find it in the archives…

  48. Rainman – The salon has an article about the kanye moment, weird stuff:

    http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/2010/03/07/music_by_prudence_burkett

  49. GoodBadGroovy – Its weird how Salon.com called HURT LOCKER a James Bond movie.

  50. GoodBadGroovy – wow, thanks for that. Either the woman is batshit crazy (most likely), or she has a legitimate gripe that she should have handled better. I vote for crazy.

  51. I love the zombie paxton in that first NEAR DARK poster. Kind of makes me want a sequel where the Pax takes revenge. Come to think of it, we never see his body, do we? Maybe he crawled away from the wreck a torn-up-zombie-vampire with vengence on his mind.

  52. It was a well intentioned tribute so I don’t really want to knock it but leaving out Zelda Rubinstein when they had just shown clips from Poltergeist in the horror montage was strange. Unless I missed it. I thought the horror tribute was pretty good. Baby steps to horror getting respect maybe.

  53. Andy C. – but where was HENRY in that clip show? :(

    Also SILENCE OF THE LAMBS won the Oscar. Yes only horror movie so far to pull that off, but Sci-Fi is fucking jealous.

  54. I groaned at first when the first clip was Jaws and I thought they would just show mainstream movies that have had their day in the sun. I thought it was okay though in the end. Nothing heart-stopping but you know baby-steps. Something of note though, I think, was the hammer scene in Misery used to always cut away on impact in the broadcast version. Last night it was there in all its glory. Still a pretty intense scene I think.

  55. Andy C. – Yeah I noticed that too. Plus she won an Oscar for that part.

    James Caan got shit (again) for getting fucked over. First THE GODFATHER, then MISERY, then ELF, then…

  56. SLYB,

    I agree ! I know Vern is very busy these days but if he ever had the chance to do the 2010 Awards I would love it…

  57. Anyone seen BROOKLYN’S FINEST yet? pretty legit! And a big plus if Vern graces us with his review: it’s such a clear example of THE WIRE’s already formidable influence on film that the talkback will inevitably be the tipping point and Vern will be forced to watch the THE WIRE.

  58. Hey Vern, I was wondering if you had a problem with the film “Up In The Air” or Jason Reitman, or you would just be pissed because obviously superior films lost if it won?
    I don’t know anything about it, but I just read today about how apparently Jason has been acting like a bit of a douchebag at the Golden Globes or something, and was wondering if that had anything to do with it.
    I liked “Up In The Air”, but definitely thought “The Hurt Locker” was the superior film, and that Kathryn deserved the win.
    Gwai-L0-Let me add my thanks, just had a quick look, but it looks like a site I’ll return to often.

  59. 1. Lady Gaga performs theme song for next James Bond film.
    2. Lady Gaga wins Oscar for said song.
    3. We can refer to Lady Gaga as “Oscar Winner Lady Gaga”.
    4. Her acceptance dance ends war, hunger, and poverty.

  60. Wow LA Times reported that Bigelow turned down the new SPIDER-MAN reboot. Good for her.

  61. Just watched the Oscar show from last weekend (recorded it to skip the commercials. Suddenly the show was only 2 hrs long.) What the fuck was up with the Best Actor/Actress category? I’m not talking about the nominees, but about dragging it out to each 10 minutes, just by letting for every nominee someone tell a long, uninterestining story about him or her!
    This been said: I was surprised when Fisher Stevens suddenly got an Oscarr for Best Documentary Feature. Didn’t know he had anything to do with The Cove.

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