For all of you who want the chic-flick back, I promise that this is my Academy wrap-up. Please feel free to give me your opinions about what you enjoyed and didn't enjoy or if you even considered watching it, in the comments section.4.5/5 BABY!: How excited was I, that all my predictions were spot on, if you count my half prediction for Sean Penn. Even if you don't, it is still pretty good. Now that I look back on it, I really should have known. The Academy loves the minorities and I'm sure wanted to express their support for gay marriage. I really wanted to kick myself after. Though, I will say that this was a fairly easy year to predict, so I'm a little lucky. Congratulations to all the winners!
Best Dressed: Shockingly enough, Miley Cyrus. There were some incredible dresses all round but she had great hair and jewelery to match. I was way impressed! Also some shout outs to Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz and Taraji P. Henson who all looked stunning.Shock moment: No, it wasn't Ben Stiller as a certain "retired" actor during Cinematography (way inappropriate) or Jack Black's dig at DreamWorks (bitter much?) or even the amount of times they showed James Franco and Sean Penn making out (yes, we get it, you homo-loving sons of guns), it was the In Memoriam montage that featured greats like Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack and one of my favourites, Paul Newman, but didn't feature one of the night's winners. Where was Heath Ledger's picture? Where was his chance to, yes for a second time, to get an applause and be recognized not only for his work as the Joker but for other roles? Shocking, indeed.'
note: I realized after this post that they featured Ledger in the 2008 award show because he died in January of that year. This year featured people who died from March 2008-February 2009, I'm assuming. I am still mad about it though!
Tribute to the Musical: Once again, luck is on my side. I think it's fate that I recently decided to dedicate a post to, as, host, Hugh Jackman sang, "The Musical is back!". But I known people will complain because The Oscars is not The Tonys and
maybe they shouldn't have tried to be. What do you really expect though? Jackman is a many-time Tony host and a theatre-man so really, what else could he have done other than sing and dance? Make fun of Brangelina so more? I loved the show as a whole: the pacing was better than usual, the performances were interesting and the sets were a feast for the eyes. I was also really impressed by the organization; the process of making a film gave the awards and presenters a new twist and the genre montages were so much fun. Everyone must watch The Comedy Montage, it may have been the best, non-award winning, moment of the night. Also check out MSN Movies version of the night's best and worst moments.Chic-Flick Moment: What a personal, heart-warming and chick flick like way to present awards to the nominated actors! My mom and I were gushing about it the whole night. Shirley MacClaine made Anne Hathaway cry, Kevin Kline saluted the late
Heath Ledger and Sir Ben Kingsley gave a Oscar-worthy tribute to Mickey Rourke. What a great year to be nominated!Not only was Edward Cullen...uhmm, sorry I mean, Robert Pattinson a presenter, but he introduced the chic-flick moment of the night along with musical-girl Amanda Seyfried: The Romance Montage. This moment inspired the wrap-up post because, take a breath everyone, The Academy is acknowledging chic-flicks. I say chic-flicks and not chick flicks because, if you saw it you would notice the quality of the films that were chosen (mostly Oscar winners or nominees and then promotion for other 2008 and 2009 movies). It may have been my favourite moment of the night.
Do Chic-Flicks get nominated?: Obviously not all. But take a look at this year's nominees and winners: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is a love story that spans over time and is made to touch the hearts of us all. Plus you cry your eyes out and isn't that what skeptics say girly movies are? Or even The Reader, which at first seems like a basic World War II film, but essentially tells the story of love affair between two unlikely people and the effects of it afterwards.
You can also look at the big winner, Slumdog Millionaire; a movie about a kid who really only wants to see the girl he loves again. I say the rules are about the same as any other genre; comedies and action flicks are just not going to cut it (Dark Knight, anyone?), no matter what kind, and if there is enough drama to call it a Drama that it just might have a chance. Throw in a heavyweight director and similar actors and you might just have yourself a winner!FUN FIND: For those wondering about The Academy Rules, there is definitely more. I, myself, came up with two or three more just watching last night's show. For another take, check out the gallery-accompanied, How to Win an Oscar from MSN.
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Watched the Comedy and Romance Montages that you linked. Loved the Comedy, was highly unimpressed with the Romance.
ReplyDeleteI know you have a respect for Robert Pattinson than I will never begin to understand. And I respect your opinion and knowledge of movies, because generally I can't be assed to watch all of the movies that you do (if it's not funny or full of explosions, I tend to avoid it), so I watched the Romance Montage just for you. Do feel special. =p The only clips I really 'agreed' with were the ones from Wall-E. Mind you, I had no idea what half of those movies were, but the couple of other I recognized I was unsure as to whether they'd warrant a watch for me. Maybe I'll see Milk, one day, same with Slumdog Millionaire. But The Curious Case of Benjamin Button I have little to no interest in seeing whatsoever. Part of it is because I am unwilling to suspend my belief in order to accept that Brad Pitt (an actor I find mediocre at best) has a character with a fictional disease that causes him to grow younger as he ages. I think that the fact that I cannot accept this fact coupled with the fact that I love fantasy plots probably shows that the movie is probably not as fantastic as everyone keeps claiming.
We've had differing opinions before. I know that you love (or loved) Moulin Rouge, while I personally find the entire movie to be over-rated. I believe that Rent suffered from a similar fate, though I will admit that Rent has potential where I find that Moulin Rouge (despite quite a number of good actors) does not. But I digress.
I would comment more on the actual nominations and winners if I had even heard of half of what was nominated. Out of the movies that I know were nominated (which would be less than a handful) my only opinion on nominations would be in the Best Supporting Actor category. Honestly, I think every person in North America who actually watches movies every once in a while saw that Heath Ledger was going to win. It was something that couldn't have not happened, if you'll pardon the terrible grammar. I would have loved to have seen Robert Downey Jr. win, but that's might be beause I loved Tropic Thunder a lot more than The Dark Knight. Heath was phenomenal, but so was Robert. I don't think that just because Heath died meant that he should win the prize. It would be akin (though in a rather extreme way) to giving a heart transplant to an already dead patient: the thought might be nice, but what's the point in giving something to someone that won't be of any real use? Sure, I know that the Oscar is used to say "Hey, you did a fantastic job! Or that's what we're saying by giving this to you", and that it's nice to give props to people who have died if they deserve them, but it just seems unfair to give the guy a gold-plated naked man statue when he can't even brag about it. Because that's what the Oscars seem to be about after all is said and done: bragging rights.
I think you should create a blog on opposing comments to mine. But thank you, thank you as always! This was a really fun comment to get!
ReplyDeleteYes, we have different opinions and, always have (from my memory) and probably always will, but I enjoy it. I also really love that you trash some of my choices and give reasons for it. You're a great critic to have on board! I also won't address any comments from the first paragraph because it I think I made my opinions clear in my posts.
I so get the rant about Heath.
I know! But I think he still deserved to win it. I knew he was going to because he died, but I didn't want him to win because of it. When I watched it, it actually made me sad because I knew he won for the wrong reasons. It should have been this ground-breaking moment when an action movie (a freaking Superhero movie!) won an Oscar that wasn't in the tech department. It's almost as good as a comedy or a chic-flick winning best picture (probably not happening in our lifetime! It bordered on depressing for extreme movie-lovers like myself. By the end I was voting for Downey Jr., now that would have been something special. Plus he is hilarious and his speech would have been too! Poor, poor Heath, it should not have happened like this. And Robert, next year better be yours!
ps- You crack me up!
ReplyDeletepps- Yes, it's true. It is about bragging rights.
You really like the dress Miley Cyrus (who is she?) was wearing? I think it looks sort of like a badly styled christmas- tree...Penélope looked quite stunning though!
ReplyDeleteI do have to say that it looked way better on TV, but yes I really liked it. I prolly should have picked a better picture. It was unique and I loved her hair and jewelery, a category where everyone else lacked. It's a interesting dress that I'm sure you are either going to love or hate and I think it's fun!
ReplyDeleteShe's a Disney pop star who has her own TV show. She's huge with the kiddies and not a favourite of mine AT ALL! She's kinda funny and cute though. Click on her name in the post and it'll tell you about her.
All right...I have never heard of her before...I generally don't watch TV and can't receive American TV anyway...
ReplyDeleteI have to say, I didn't see any outfits that blew me away this year...I will probably get the In Style or a similar magazine when they feature the Oscar dresses though.