2009 Oscars thread

[sahyder1]

I would have adored Mickey Rourke winning, but Sean Penn deserved it every bit as much as Rourke did. They both put forth absolutely awesome, captivating performances.

Honestly, I'm just selfish towards entertainment value at these ceremonies, because the award itself is hardly prestigious. And I guess I'd like Mickey speaking about...anything really versus say Sean Penn telling up what we already know, that Prop 8 is shit. Because...NO SHIT PROP 8 IS DUMB.

If enough people knew that already there wouldn't have been a need for the mention but we all know this is still an issue.

[livid]

Well to be fair, it's not like all the people that voted necessarily had a great view of what's right and what's wrong. There's still a ton of prejudice out there.

But saying it at an entertainment function is pointless because he's preaching to the choir.

[Universal]

I am fine with Sean Penn winning, I am just bitter that Mickey probably won't get another chance at the award. Now... cue the "did the WrestleMania talk ruin his chances?" conversation.

Though, the BIGGEST snub of the night goes to two things... WALL-E for NOT getting a sound award. I am a sound mixer myself and I feel that was hands down the best use of sound for any movie in YEARS. Secondly, though this was a nomination, was snubbing The Wrestler for Best original Song. Come on... you give Slumdog TWO out the three nominations? It didn't have to win but the fact that it didn't get nominated pissed me off.

Slumdog, from what I have heard from people that saw it and are in the business of the technical areas, said it didn't deserve best cine and sound mixing. They just seemed to give awards to it just to pile them on when it really didn't deserve much of the technical awards.

[sahyder1]

Well to be fair, it's not like all the people that voted necessarily had a great view of what's right and what's wrong. There's still a ton of prejudice out there.

But saying it at an entertainment function is pointless because he's preaching to the choir.

Along with a worldwide audience. There is always some form of political statement. The guy just won am Oscar for portraying a gay activist......what else was he going to talk about?

Universal, have you watched Slumdog yet? I don't see where this bitterness is coming from. Don't mean to just single you out either. It goes for everyone.

Need to watch Milk in the next couple of days. Everyone has been telling me that Penn is phenomenal in his role.

Edited February 23, 2009 by sahyder1

[wrathofcarnage]

I am fine with Sean Penn winning, I am just bitter that Mickey probably won't get another chance at the award. Now... cue the "did the WrestleMania talk ruin his chances?" conversation.

Though, the BIGGEST snub of the night goes to two things... WALL-E for NOT getting a sound award. I am a sound mixer myself and I feel that was hands down the best use of sound for any movie in YEARS. Secondly, though this was a nomination, was snubbing The Wrestler for Best original Song. Come on... you give Slumdog TWO out the three nominations? It didn't have to win but the fact that it didn't get nominated pissed me off.

Slumdog, from what I have heard from people that saw it and are in the business of the technical areas, said it didn't deserve best cine and sound mixing. They just seemed to give awards to it just to pile them on when it really didn't deserve much of the technical awards.

Agreed. I do a bit of sound mixing myself (mostly live theatre) and I can safely say that usually the only reason people notice sound is if it's absolutely terrible. If people actually remark on sound as enhancing the experience or whatever then, THEN you have something that doesn't happen very often. Dark Knight got pigeonholed into getting sound because they figured the big summer blockbuster needed to get something and they voted for sound for Slumdog because they liked the music used in it. Because all sound mixing is music, you see.

[livid]

Well to be fair, it's not like all the people that voted necessarily had a great view of what's right and what's wrong. There's still a ton of prejudice out there.

But saying it at an entertainment function is pointless because he's preaching to the choir.

Along with a worldwide audience. There is always some form of political statement. The guy just won am Oscar for portraying a gay activist......what else was he going to talk about?

Universal, have you watched Slumdog yet? I don't see where this bitterness is coming from. Don't mean to just single you out either. It goes for everyone.

Need to watch Milk in the next couple of days. Everyone has been telling me that Penn is phenomenal in his role.

Oh I'm not upset about his speech by any means. Moreso indifference than anything. I didn't mind it but at the same time, it's not like the audience he's talking to is all that anti-gay or anything.

[sahyder1]

Well to be fair, it's not like all the people that voted necessarily had a great view of what's right and what's wrong. There's still a ton of prejudice out there.

But saying it at an entertainment function is pointless because he's preaching to the choir.

Along with a worldwide audience. There is always some form of political statement. The guy just won am Oscar for portraying a gay activist......what else was he going to talk about?

Universal, have you watched Slumdog yet? I don't see where this bitterness is coming from. Don't mean to just single you out either. It goes for everyone.

Need to watch Milk in the next couple of days. Everyone has been telling me that Penn is phenomenal in his role.

Oh I'm not upset about his speech by any means. Moreso indifference than anything. I didn't mind it but at the same time, it's not like the audience he's talking to is all that anti-gay or anything.

Like I said there are people watching who weren't sitting at the Kodak theatre(or whatever it is called now)..

[zero]

The one thing I learned from tonight's show is that I need to see Milk immediately. It's on DVD March 10, so I'm pretty excited about that. I thought Penn's speech was great, especially his shots at himself for being unlikeable at times when it comes to him ranting and raving about George Bush's soiled and blood-soaked underwear.

I loved tonight being all about gay rights, not just because it's an issue I'm passionate about, but because I can't wait for all the right-wing commentators' heads to explode tomorrow morning. If you don't have anything going on tomorrow, turn on FOX News at some point, I promise you'll be entertained. Every year, they bitch about the Oscars and how out of touch Hollywood is with America and it's just hilarious considering they're a part of Newscorp, which owns one of the six major studios. It'll be especially delicious this year when they're blathering on about pointless shit like this while the country is crumbling.

My only gripe with tonight was Benjamin Button taking most of the technical awards. Admittedly, I haven't seen the movie, but really, better visual effects than Iron Man and The Dark Knight... REALLY? Yes, congratulations, you turned Brad Pitt into something women wouldn't fuck, but The Dark Knight had a motorcycle coming out of a fucking dune buggy.

Edited February 23, 2009 by Zero

[Big Red Fury]

Once again proven, if you play gay, jew/nazi, opposite gender, or are a foreign film, you WILL win lots of Oscars. Also if the "critics" are on your dick, you stand a good chance of winning a lot as well because the Oscars only follow what has been "critically acclaimed", usually by people out of the touch with 75% of the public. I mean really, Slumdog won about 1243246745 different awards tonight. Benjamin Button beats Hellboy for best makeup? One fucking guy who is old and then gets young versus basically an entire cast of humans made to look unhuman. Absolutely unreal that, as well as beating I believe it was Iron Man and TDK in another one of the production categories. The entire show is elitist to no end.

[livid]

So because they're critically acclaimed movies means that they shouldn't win awards? What kind of assbackward logic is that? If it's viewed as a good movie by most movie critics, it's going to win awards. The Academy's not going to give Best Picture to My Best Friend's Girl, sorry. You know why Sean Penn won Best Actor? Because he did an amazing job, that's why. Not because he played a gay person, but because he did a good job of playing a gay person. And there's a reason why it's critically acclaimed...because it's good. If it wasn't critically acclaimed, it wouldn't win awards.

Seriously, you don't sound cool by being "anti-elitist", you sound like a jackass who doesn't know what he's talking about. You need to realize that the Academy Awards doesn't reflect your opinion of movies and you won't come across as a prick.

And Slumdog Millionaire deserved most of the awards it won.

[arwrestling]

I'm really happy Kate Winslet won tonight, I mean she deserved it many times over the yeasr and it was an awesome moment to see her geet the win for once.

However, I gotta say that I'm upset by Penn's win, because I really thought Brad Pitt deserved it so much more.

As always though, the Academy really overlooked some of the best performances this year, notably Aaron Eckhart for The Dark Knight, aswell as Cate Blanchett for Benjamin Button. I would have personally replaced Philip Seymore Hoffman with Aaron Eckhart; and also Melissa Leo for Cate Blanchett. Other than that, this was certainly the most competitive Oscars in a long time.

[ROC]

The one thing I learned from tonight's show is that I need to see Milk immediately. It's on DVD March 10, so I'm pretty excited about that. I thought Penn's speech was great, especially his shots at himself for being unlikeable at times when it comes to him ranting and raving about George Bush's soiled and blood-soaked underwear.

I loved tonight being all about gay rights, not just because it's an issue I'm passionate about, but because I can't wait for all the right-wing commentators' heads to explode tomorrow morning. If you don't have anything going on tomorrow, turn on FOX News at some point, I promise you'll be entertained. Every year, they bitch about the Oscars and how out of touch Hollywood is with America and it's just hilarious considering they're a part of Newscorp, which owns one of the six major studios. It'll be especially delicious this year when they're blathering on about pointless shit like this while the country is crumbling.

Let's not forget that their very company is the parent company of Fox Searchlight. Admittedly, I see them going for the...well, for the rednecks who would've rather seen Mickey win over Mr. Into The Wild. Oh, and more Indian people that have ever been on Fox News in its entire existence.

[gunnar hendershow]

I would have adored Mickey Rourke winning, but Sean Penn deserved it every bit as much as Rourke did. They both put forth absolutely awesome, captivating performances.

This is the second time that a Sean Penn performance got overshadowed by someone else's "performance of a lifetime" (Murray in Lost in Translation). Both times Sean Penn has won the Oscar.

[Big Red Fury]

As I said earlier, Benjamin Button wins two production categories it never should have. Slumdog beats best Wall-E, a movie that was composed almost entirely of fucking sounds, in the sound mixing category. Iron Man and TDK made roughly 1 Trillion dollars this year, I guarantee they blew out most of the other competitors, yet they got shit for awards. Heath Ledger doesn't win Best Supporting if he lives, I know that much. Only in death was he able to win an award for one of the greatest cinematic performances I've ever seen. There's a difference from being acclaimed movies that no one has seen or will see and movies that were seen by millions of people and were almost universally enjoyed. I hate to continue to come back to Iron Man and TDK, but these are the best examples. Both movies were seen by a shit ton of people, both were cinematic masterpieces, and both won fuck all. Contrast that to Slumdog, which won almost every award it was nominated for just because it was Slumdog. That to me, is the definition of Elitism. I'm not anti-Slumdog or Benjamin Button, I've seen and enjoyed both, but where's the love for the movies that crush the box office? Isn't that the sole reason movies exist?

EDIT*

An in the end of the day, what does being critically acclaimed really get you? How many times have we seen critically acclaimed movies or tv shows that tank and are off the air or out of theaters more quickly than they arrived? Arrested Development won just about every award ever created. You can catch it on your box sets, but you won't see it on TV. Meanwhile The Simpsons have been on for like 20 years. Does that mean the Simpson is a better tv show than Arrested Development? According to the critics no, maybe according to the people it's a different answer.

Edited February 23, 2009 by Big Red Fury

[Herr Matzat]

I did like Slumdog but I did not see this coming... (well I did not even know the nominations) ... but it was heavenly predictable and nothing that had not been don a million times before. It really dos not hold up against other forging Movies that pulled a big surprise against big money US Productions (like "Life is Beauty full" for example). So i am being told by the Oscars that this wassent a good Movie year, which is wrong, booohooo them! ;-)

[livid]

As I said earlier, Benjamin Button wins two production categories it never should have. Slumdog beats best Wall-E, a movie that was composed almost entirely of fucking sounds, in the sound mixing category. Iron Man and TDK made roughly 1 Trillion dollars this year, I guarantee they blew out most of the other competitors, yet they got shit for awards. Heath Ledger doesn't win Best Supporting if he lives, I know that much. Only in death was he able to win an award for one of the greatest cinematic performances I've ever seen. There's a difference from being acclaimed movies that no one has seen or will see and movies that were seen by millions of people and were almost universally enjoyed. I hate to continue to come back to Iron Man and TDK, but these are the best examples. Both movies were seen by a shit ton of people, both were cinematic masterpieces, and both won fuck all. Contrast that to Slumdog, which won almost every award it was nominated for just because it was Slumdog. That to me, is the definition of Elitism. I'm not anti-Slumdog or Benjamin Button, I've seen and enjoyed both, but where's the love for the movies that crush the box office? Isn't that the sole reason movies exist?

EDIT*

An in the end of the day, what does being critically acclaimed really get you? How many times have we seen critically acclaimed movies or tv shows that tank and are off the air or out of theaters more quickly than they arrived? Arrested Development won just about every award ever created. You can catch it on your box sets, but you won't see it on TV. Meanwhile The Simpsons have been on for like 20 years. Does that mean the Simpson is a better tv show than Arrested Development? According to the critics no, maybe according to the people it's a different answer.

It didn't win because it was Slumdog though. It won because it was a great piece of cinema. You're coming across as a bitter Iron Man/Dark Knight fan and you have to realize that box office results doesn't not equal Oscar. It never has and it never will. That said, only The Dark Knight should deserve any remote mention with the Oscars. I loved Iron Man, I did but it wasn't exactly chocked full of amazing performances. Downey Jr. was awesome in it but was it a better display of acting than Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke did in their specific roles? One can argue, but most would argue not. There's a difference between an Oscar movie and a big Summer action movie. The studios know this and they release their movies accordingly. And I bet you if it's the same nominees for Best Supporting Actor if Ledger was alive, he'd still win it because he was just too good in that role not to be recognized. Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman and Christian Bale were all good in their roles but not on the level Ledger was at as The Joker.

If you want to see high-grossing popcorn movies win awards, watch the MTV Movie Awards. The Oscars is different and whining about it because your favorite movie didn't win only makes you sound like a bitter fan who can't recognize reality.

And at the end of the critically acclaimed gets you Oscars. One would think that would be fairly obvious by now.

[Herr Matzat]

As I said earlier, Benjamin Button wins two production categories it never should have. Slumdog beats best Wall-E, a movie that was composed almost entirely of fucking sounds, in the sound mixing category. Iron Man and TDK made roughly 1 Trillion dollars this year, I guarantee they blew out most of the other competitors, yet they got shit for awards. Heath Ledger doesn't win Best Supporting if he lives, I know that much. Only in death was he able to win an award for one of the greatest cinematic performances I've ever seen. There's a difference from being acclaimed movies that no one has seen or will see and movies that were seen by millions of people and were almost universally enjoyed. I hate to continue to come back to Iron Man and TDK, but these are the best examples. Both movies were seen by a shit ton of people, both were cinematic masterpieces, and both won fuck all. Contrast that to Slumdog, which won almost every award it was nominated for just because it was Slumdog. That to me, is the definition of Elitism. I'm not anti-Slumdog or Benjamin Button, I've seen and enjoyed both, but where's the love for the movies that crush the box office? Isn't that the sole reason movies exist?

EDIT*

An in the end of the day, what does being critically acclaimed really get you? How many times have we seen critically acclaimed movies or tv shows that tank and are off the air or out of theaters more quickly than they arrived? Arrested Development won just about every award ever created. You can catch it on your box sets, but you won't see it on TV. Meanwhile The Simpsons have been on for like 20 years. Does that mean the Simpson is a better tv show than Arrested Development? According to the critics no, maybe according to the people it's a different answer.

It didn't win because it was Slumdog though. It won because it was a great piece of cinema. You're coming across as a bitter Iron Man/Dark Knight fan and you have to realize that box office results doesn't not equal Oscar. It never has and it never will. That said, only The Dark Knight should deserve any remote mention with the Oscars. I loved Iron Man, I did but it wasn't exactly chocked full of amazing performances. Downey Jr. was awesome in it but was it a better display of acting than Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke did in their specific roles? One can argue, but most would argue not. There's a difference between an Oscar movie and a big Summer action movie. The studios know this and they release their movies accordingly. And I bet you if it's the same nominees for Best Supporting Actor if Ledger was alive, he'd still win it because he was just too good in that role not to be recognized. Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman and Christian Bale were all good in their roles but not on the level Ledger was at as The Joker.

If you want to see high-grossing popcorn movies win awards, watch the MTV Movie Awards. The Oscars is different and whining about it because your favorite movie didn't win only makes you sound like a bitter fan who can't recognize reality.

And at the end of the critically acclaimed gets you Oscars. One would think that would be fairly obvious by now.

Yes, becaus Titanic was such a good Movie.... Oscars are Mainstream mumbo jumbo aswell. That dos not make the winners good movies.

[Big Red Fury]

As I said earlier, Benjamin Button wins two production categories it never should have. Slumdog beats best Wall-E, a movie that was composed almost entirely of fucking sounds, in the sound mixing category. Iron Man and TDK made roughly 1 Trillion dollars this year, I guarantee they blew out most of the other competitors, yet they got shit for awards. Heath Ledger doesn't win Best Supporting if he lives, I know that much. Only in death was he able to win an award for one of the greatest cinematic performances I've ever seen. There's a difference from being acclaimed movies that no one has seen or will see and movies that were seen by millions of people and were almost universally enjoyed. I hate to continue to come back to Iron Man and TDK, but these are the best examples. Both movies were seen by a shit ton of people, both were cinematic masterpieces, and both won fuck all. Contrast that to Slumdog, which won almost every award it was nominated for just because it was Slumdog. That to me, is the definition of Elitism. I'm not anti-Slumdog or Benjamin Button, I've seen and enjoyed both, but where's the love for the movies that crush the box office? Isn't that the sole reason movies exist?

EDIT*

An in the end of the day, what does being critically acclaimed really get you? How many times have we seen critically acclaimed movies or tv shows that tank and are off the air or out of theaters more quickly than they arrived? Arrested Development won just about every award ever created. You can catch it on your box sets, but you won't see it on TV. Meanwhile The Simpsons have been on for like 20 years. Does that mean the Simpson is a better tv show than Arrested Development? According to the critics no, maybe according to the people it's a different answer.

It didn't win because it was Slumdog though. It won because it was a great piece of cinema. You're coming across as a bitter Iron Man/Dark Knight fan and you have to realize that box office results doesn't not equal Oscar. It never has and it never will. That said, only The Dark Knight should deserve any remote mention with the Oscars. I loved Iron Man, I did but it wasn't exactly chocked full of amazing performances. Downey Jr. was awesome in it but was it a better display of acting than Sean Penn or Mickey Rourke did in their specific roles? One can argue, but most would argue not. There's a difference between an Oscar movie and a big Summer action movie. The studios know this and they release their movies accordingly. And I bet you if it's the same nominees for Best Supporting Actor if Ledger was alive, he'd still win it because he was just too good in that role not to be recognized. Aaron Eckhart, Gary Oldman and Christian Bale were all good in their roles but not on the level Ledger was at as The Joker.

If you want to see high-grossing popcorn movies win awards, watch the MTV Movie Awards. The Oscars is different and whining about it because your favorite movie didn't win only makes you sound like a bitter fan who can't recognize reality.

And at the end of the critically acclaimed gets you Oscars. One would think that would be fairly obvious by now.

I'm not at all a bitter comic book movie fan, but honestly I don't see how Iron Man or TDK weren't better movies from a production standpoint than Slumdog. Was the acting better in Slumdog? Absolutely it was, Downey was serviceable but he wasn't best actor quality and I'm not arguing that. I'm arguing that these movies, Slumdog and Button, didn't deserve to win the cinematic awards. Again both the production awards that I previously mentioned going to Benjamin Button were jokes and the sound mixing award not going to Wall-E was also a joke. My problem with the Oscars in particular is that I see the entire show as being out of touch with the public. If the MTV awards is the award show that best represents the people then so be it, but I certainly don't believe the Oscars does. As far as my original statement about playing a gay or a nazi/jew winning you an Oscar, I didn't say that, Entourage did, but it holds up to be pretty true.

*EDIT* Roc you are right, my roommates and I all marked pretty big for Ben Kingsley. Actually we almost unanimously agreed that sans Adrian Brody, that whole lineup was pretty freaking bad ass.

Edited February 23, 2009 by Big Red Fury

[ROC]

I will say this, I don't think I'm nearly as disappointed for Rourke on proxy of him getting the most awesome speech ever dedicated to him by Ben Kingsley. FUCKING BEN KINGSLEY TOLD MICKEY ROURKE THAT HE'S BACK. Awesome. That seemed like an honor that's even better than winning Best fucking Actor.

[Clawson]

Bid Red Fury may have a point in that it seems for the production thing it seemed to be more of a picking of the best film out of the nominees than what should have actually won. I mean can anyone really argue its harder to make one person look old compared to a bunch of people look like they aren't even human?