The Academy Awards (and Golden Globes)

[GrandMoffNick]

They really need to cut the other actors talking about the nominees right before the Best Actor/Actress awards.  That is terrible and huge waste of time

I'm a huge movie fan and blah blah blah, but no kidding. They are just actors. Let's not get too carried away about how meaningful these people are to the world.

[Chris M]

They really need to cut the other actors talking about the nominees right before the Best Actor/Actress awards.  That is terrible and huge waste of time

Not to mention Hollywood is the master of "look how good we are" and all that fanfare. 

I didn't watch much of it...I can't stand award shows.  Saving Private Ryan was on and my daughter was being fussy and I had Masters work to do, so there was so much more I really needed to focus on.

[Phrubruh]

This time around it was pretty obvious who would win best picture. Before the announcement, they put the camera on the "Hurt Locker / Avatar" group to the left of the stage. Since actors are the ones that vote for Oscars, no actor is going to pick a movie that is mostly animated. They are going to pick something that has actors in. Its even better if it has a political statement attached. Movies that do well in the box office typically do not win best picture.

Personally, the thing I like about the Academy Awards is the historical  and behind the scenes pieces they show. If they cut the acceptance speeches out, the show would be fairly entertaining. Of course, that is what tivo is for.

[Rob]

Its even better if it has a political statement attached.

Not sure that holds up... Avatar was hideously preachy and riddled with political statements.

Hurt Locker, despite being a war film, was decidedly apolitical.

I think Avatar didn't win because it simply wasn't best picture material.  If there was a category for best blockbuster, or best spectacle, it would win hands down...

[BillCable]

I agree Avatar simply wasn't up to snuff as far as Best Pictures go.

One thing I found odd... they claimed during the "Horror" homage that no horror film had been honored since The Exorcist.  Did they forget Silence of the Lambs?  Maybe they thought Silence was more of a drama...

No wait - they had Silence in the horror film montage!

Just sloppy.

Also, the intros for best actor/actress were absolutely awful.  They were creepy... almost made my skin crawl.

[JediJman]

This time around it was pretty obvious who would win best picture. Before the announcement, they put the camera on the "Hurt Locker / Avatar" group to the left of the stage. Since actors are the ones that vote for Oscars, no actor is going to pick a movie that is mostly animated. They are going to pick something that has actors in. Its even better if it has a political statement attached. Movies that do well in the box office typically do not win best picture.

That's why I don't pay attention to award shows anymore.  Each movie is not given an equal chance and there's obvious reasons for bias in the voting.  Seems like a Horror/Action/Sci-Fi movie is discredited just because of it's genre.  If the awards aren't going to pay attention to movies that matter to the ticket-buyers, then why should the ticket-buyers pay any attention to the awards shows?  Don't get me wrong, I thought the Hurt Locker was an excellent movie and was very happy to see it get nominated, but it's not ground breaking and visually stunning in the way that Avatar is. 

[DSJ™]

The Academy went down the ******* in 82 when Gandhi won for best costume design... ******* bed sheets! 

[GrandMoffNick]

I'll take movies winning that no one saw over the "Academy Awards" turning into the Grammys. If you want that then most of the other movie awards are for you (which I realize is partly what you are saying).

[JediJman]

I'll take movies winning that no one saw over the "Academy Awards" turning into the Grammys. If you want that then most of the other movie awards are for you (which I realize is partly what you are saying).

I'm not saying it has to go to whoever sold the most tickets, but why not remove all the bias and judge simply on the dimensions of the film itself.  I guess there is some risk that whichever movie sells the most tickets also ends up getting the award, but selling a boatload of tickets is generally an early indicator that the movie is pretty good. 

[Phrubruh]

I'll take movies winning that no one saw over the "Academy Awards" turning into the Grammys. If you want that then most of the other movie awards are for you (which I realize is partly what you are saying).

I'm not saying it has to go to whoever sold the most tickets, but why not remove all the bias and judge simply on the dimensions of the film itself.  I guess there is some risk that whichever movie sells the most tickets also ends up getting the award, but selling a boatload of tickets is generally an early indicator that the movie is pretty good. 

I don't know about that. Transformers 2 sold lots of tickets and was an awful movie.

[I Am Sith]

I've gotten sick of the entire, 'look how great we are' vibe these award shows put out.  Considering this is one of the only professions in the world that has more than one (if any at all) award ceremony every year, they should be a tad bit more humble about it.  My wife won't even watch the ceremonies any more.  She actually was getting mad during the 'Best Actor' monologues given by the other actors.  It got to the point where she left the room before they delivered the last one.

The main highlight for me yesterday was having Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin as the hosts.  I thought that they did a really good job.  And I'm sure that the Ben Stiller 'spoof' would have gone over much better had Sacha Baron Cohen been there with him, but it was pretty bad with just him doing it...

I was really happy to see that Christoph Waltz won the 'Best Supporting Actor' award for Inglorious Basterds.  He had a great performance in that movie.

[P-Siddy]

Sometimes I think they should have more catagories, like Best Drama, Comedy, Action, Sci-Fi. Dilutes the awards a bit, but really, Up was up for Best Picture and Best Animated... so if they can do a best animated catagory, then I think they can open it up a bit more.

[JediJman]

I'll take movies winning that no one saw over the "Academy Awards" turning into the Grammys. If you want that then most of the other movie awards are for you (which I realize is partly what you are saying).

I'm not saying it has to go to whoever sold the most tickets, but why not remove all the bias and judge simply on the dimensions of the film itself.  I guess there is some risk that whichever movie sells the most tickets also ends up getting the award, but selling a boatload of tickets is generally an early indicator that the movie is pretty good. 

I don't know about that. Transformers 2 sold lots of tickets and was an awful movie.

Note the italics around generally. That was specifically put there with TF2 in mind.   

[Darth Broem]

I saw where Farrah Fawcett was not in the "in memoriam" or whatever that segment is called where they honore who died during the year.  Very off but yet Michael Jackson was? 

[Jesse James]

"He made Thriller...  Thriller."

-Dave Chappelle