Oscar nominations

[olsonm]

the 24th. that's next sunday.

[IronParrot]

"Ah, but, O Ferrous One, I hated "Caterwaulin' in the Rain" and "An American in Plaster of Paris" too. Musicals usually make me violently ill."

Yeah, you're right that we'll have to agree to disagree here, just based on fundamental beliefs. I appreciate all films based on their level of artistic achievement regardless of genre... it's too bad you don't like musicals.

"I meant pacing in terms of presentation and organization. The problem is that it wasn't seamless. it was cutcutcutcut."

But, if you pay attention, it was a rhythmic cutcutcutcut. And I was referring to inter-scene transitions.

"I never saw A Beautiful Mind, but what i'm hearing about the butchering of the person's real experience is making me very reluctant to do so"

Adaptation is interpretation. That should not dissuade you from the artistic achievement of the film itself. Even The Sound of Music and Lawrence of Arabia took liberties. Not saying ABM is anywhere near those... not even close. I found it to be a very good, but not great, film.

"I want to see Amelie though."

Yeah, it's the only romantic comedy in the past few years that doesn't smell like it was just churned out of the Big Bad Hollywood Machine of Formulaic Filmmaking. And it's real cute.

[Earenya]

I am thinking that for technical/special effects LotR will have a pretty good chance of picking up some little golden guys. I REALLY want them to win best soundtrack, so Im keeping my fingers crossed. Of course it would be awesome for best picture/director/sup. actor, but I have a feeling 'A Beautiful Mind' is more "standard Oscar" material.

[mirrille]

Next Sunday!

Wow. that's pretty soon. I wonder if I will bother watching it. Who would miss a chance to stare at what outlandish fashions the young stars of today are sporting? I did say I liked looking at costumes and dancing, didn't I?
Then again, maybe I won't. My exams are coming up fast.

But, if you pay attention, it was a rhythmic cutcutcutcut

]

Aha! Artisiness.... Now I begin to understand. I guess I'm just not sophisticated enough. rhythmics. I see... Oh well. Who am I to argue with High Art?


I like it (i.e. it's more fun and interesting) when non-hollywood films get oscars. The Academy isn't the most...international, but it's very famous, so it's good publicity for when a "dark horse" gets in there. Of course, they have to be good foreign films.

[IronParrot]

Yeah, what I love about LOTR is that it is essentially an independent film with a huge budget. So it has artistic innovation, yet the resources for the dream to materialize are available. Too many movies getting mass distribution today have the resources, and nothing else.

I can't believe how much **** there is out there filling the multiplexes, while all the innovation heads for the arthouses... what I really love, however, are the indie films that have huge studios behind the money. Steven Spielberg's A.I. was basically an indie project, and an extension of Kubrick's own indie project. LOTR, of course. George Lucas' Star Wars prequels are essentially independent films, but from a huge wallet. And then there's Baz and Moulin Rouge! They have such a personal air to them, in a way.

Imagine the wonders if you gave Ang Lee or Christopher Nolan or David Lynch or Jean-Pierre Jeunet a hundred million dollars to work with. Assuming they used it wisely, and on a project of their own passion, not something a money-minded studio producer just hired them to do.

[Pailan]

I agree with you, IP. If highly respected directors could be given a solid budget to work their wonders on a piece of true passion. Look what's happened to Tim Burton with "Planet of the Apes." I would have never known that was a Burton piece, Because of all the Hollywood-ification that swamped that movie.

As for "Moulin Rouge", I loved the way the colors where so vivid and dense. Plot was boring (I hate knowing the ending at the beginning) and throughout the movie I kept coming up with better songs to use. (I was a DJ in another life.)

Now "Gosford Park" that was a prime example of a well crafted movie. Incredible acting, strong plot great twists and wonderfully realized settings.

"Amelie" was a fun movie. Intricate and delicate with slices of humor served like a Belgian chocolate. But once I left the theater it didn't linger like....

"LotR:FotR" which just blew me away. I hardly ever go back to see a flick durrings it's first run, now I a wait my fourth viewing. IMHO, this the winner hands down.

[Arian]

Go LOTR. WIn the best pic. I know u can.

[bropous]

"Moulin Rouge", which is obviously E! Entertainment Television's [and Iron Parrot's, wink!] fave flick for the Oscar nod, is a plagiaristic, unoriginal, boring, overhyped, TYPICAL, uninteresting, conglomerate failure and a waste of good celluloid.

"A Beautiful Mind" is a piece of Hollyweird formulaic garbage, directed by a total failure of a director and a medicore child actor, coupled with a boozing, overbearing, violent digger principal actor, which has no resemblance whatsoever to its parent book.

As for the others, they were so vapidly disinteresting that I never wasted the money to see.

And then we have the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring. a masterwork to rival those of Kubrick. A sweeping epic, a world of fiction fully fleshed out and re-created, the most important piece of twentieth-century literature brought to the screen, and a work of a MASTER director, not just some cheap, manic, over-shaky camera angles (Baz the Spaz and Ridley "Snot" Scott as prime examples) and gratuitous, plunging cleavage. No comparison between the "big budget indie" and the typical Hollyweird pablum which is spewed forth upon movie screens year after year.

No choice. LotR wins all thirteen Oscars. Any less reinforces my opinion of the "Academy": Incestuous, puerile, and juenile.

May Sunday surpise me profoundly. Judging from the voting Academy members I have known, I ain't holding my breath.

[olsonm]

This is weird. FoTR could get shut out or it could win them all.

By the way, is it just me or is Richard Roeper a piss-ant? I don't mean just because of his review of FoTR. Most of his "reviews" are annoying.

[Gerbil]

Originally posted by bropous
"Moulin Rouge", which is obviously E! Entertainment Television's [and Iron Parrot's, wink!] fave flick for the Oscar nod, is a plagiaristic, unoriginal, boring, overhyped, TYPICAL, uninteresting, conglomerate failure and a waste of good celluloid.

What utter rubbish Bropous. One would almost think you'd never seen the film. You may not like out and out love stories, you may not like musicals (especially with contemporary soundtracks) but your description of the film is so far off the mark it's uncanny.

As for the others, they were so vapidly disinteresting that I never wasted the money to see.

Ah well, there's nothing like preconceptions eh?
My own personal fave (cos I have not seen all of the films up for awards must admit) is Amelie - it's simply gorgeous innocence.

No choice. LotR wins all thirteen Oscars. Any less reinforces my opinion of the "Academy": Incestuous, puerile, and juenile.

If it won all 13 I'd think it would reinforce 99% of the world of exactly the opposite of your beliefs. For a film to win 'just because' is surely the most awful abuse of the system ever?
Much as I love the film - there are some oscars it doesn't deserve to win.

Sorry Brop, but your post was full of rubbish

Anyway, can't even remember what the nominations are, but I reckon it'll win 5 oscars. Anyone else want to actually put their money where their mouth is?

[bropous]

Gerb, I can't even TELL you in the Moot what I thought of Moulin Rooj. I stand by my assertion, and it is dead-on accurate:

Moulin Rouge is a plagiaristic, unoriginal, boring, overhyped, TYPICAL, uninteresting, conglomerate failure and a waste of good celluloid. Period.

Moulin Rouge stunk to high heaven. That's my review, and I'm sticking to it.

However, it IS interesting that the hype is pumped, and obviously the fix is in. Moulin Rooj and Beautiful Mine are plastered all over the Oscar pre-boost shows, barely get a flippin' cut of Lord of the Rings, and as for the other two movies, you don't even get a single mention, usually. The bloody media should at least show equal amounts of clips from all FIVE films. Ron Opie Howard, Russell Boozer Crowe, Baz the Spaz and Bony Nicole are all servants of Morgoth hissef.

AND, Gerb, it ain't that LotR should win all thirteen Oscars "just because". It is because, in the face of its unimaginative, predicatable and overhyped garbage it is running against, any other result would be tragedy. And you can bloody well bet my undying lack of faith in the Academy will be reinforced.

[Hyperbole aside, I'd like to see Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Set Design, Best Score, and Best Costumes for LotR. Six out of thirteen ain't asking much, heck, it ain't even fifty percent!]

And if Peter Jackson gets up in front of the Academy and in his acceptance speech he thanks all the EIDRIORCQWSDAKLMED
DCWWTIWOATTOPWFIO's I will have a heart attack.

Rubbish, my hinder. Nassty little rodent.....we knows what they does with gerbils in hollywood.......hee hee hee!!!

[Gerbil]

Dead-on accurate in YOUR mind
Here we are back to opinions.

In MY mind Moulin Rouge was excellent. As a 'watch then forget' way for sure but I thoroughly enjoyed myself, both the songs and the style. The style is quite original (especially given Hollywood) and the music, well, I know I don't expect to see a more original cover of Madonna's 'Like a virgin' or the Police's 'Roxanne' in my lifetime

It was fun and enjoyable. You may not like it but that's your loss.

Plagiaristic - well, what isn't these days? And I'm sure if you asked the director he'd acknowledge lots of references. He'd probably make some comment on the difference between plagarism and referencing other work.

Unoriginal. Why? Because it's a love story? Because it used other people's music? Because it used popular actors? I genuinely don't follow you in this. Anyway not that unoriginal is necessarily a bad thing - take virtually any romcom film you like. Of course, I'm not saying they are oscar material, but people know what they like and like what they know.

Boring. Hmmmm that's up to the viewer to decide so won't disagree.

Overhyped - well, it's known as marketing. If LotR had got loads more publicity (and it DID get shed-loads) we'd be all 'YAY!' and anyone who didn't like the film would be like 'OVERHYPE Grrrr'.

Typical. Hmmmm repeating unoriginal using another word doesn't make it true you know

Uninteresting. Errr ditto with boring!

Conglomerate. 'A film is weaker than the sum of it's parts' kind of thing?

Anyway, you are entitled to your opinion of course, but it's your loss that you can't enjoy the film for what it's worth. Kind of like JerseyDevil watching FotR numerous times and hating it each time cos of story changes
Personally I put off seeing MR because of the hype - I'm a real anti-hype person usually (STILL haven't seen Trainspotting and I'm english, this makes me 100% unpatriotic apparently ) but when I did see it on DVD I was suprised at just how good it actually was.

As for 'the fix is in' I take this with a pinch of salt. I'm sure lots of BM and MR fans will be crying the same when FotR sweeps the board
I also put it down to Americans not feeling comfortable with things unless there's a conspiracy theory in there somewhere

And what exactly DO they do with gerbils in Hollywood then eh?
Haven't been so couldn't say. Have you?

[bropous]

Gerbil, good post. Good points.

HOWEVER: I stand, again, by my assertions.

Plagiaristic: Yes. Using modern songs placed in 1890s was stupid. If the director had any imagination whatsoever, he'd have hired Danny Elfman to write some good, original songs for the film. Weak.

Unoriginal: Yes. Refer to last entry. Can't even be bothered to create anything original for the film.

Boring: Anorexic, alabaster-skinned, overrated Aussies caterwauling with obvious voice-overs bore me to death. Now, in the interests of full disclosure, I admit the musical/opera is my least favorite variety of entertainment, and the London cast of "Evita" was the last musical I could sit through, and I've walked out on garbage like "Miss Saigon", "Cats" and "Showboat" because it was simply too painful to watch grown up adults act like such fools. Yes, Moulin Rouge bored the living heck out of me.

Overhyped: Yes. A dog of a film with a king's ransom being spent to garner an Oscar. LotR is a REAL work of film artistry, and the others in the category simply do not hold a candle to it. I'd feel the same way had I not read the book, the film is simply a great piece of filmmaking history. It stands head and shoulders over the vapid competition [okay, okay, Amelie might have some good points].

Typical: Yes. Typical in that a dog of a script, an unimaginative director, and big name actors team up to produce a piece of celluloid that stinks as much as the C-movie classics on "Mystery Science Theater 3000". Might have just as well popped Nicole and Ewan into "Manos:The Hands of Fate" and then claim it was Oscar material. The Emperor has no clothes!

Uninteresting: Yes. Embarassingly stupid song and dance numbers, typical deification of prostitution, praising the "bohemian" mindset and Nicole Kidman all add up to a total and unyielding lack of interest. Heck, even Stanley Kubrick, Film Master Extraordinaire, wasn't able to make that chick anything but vapid, disinteresting and an automatic trigger of bottomless ennui. And no, boring and uninteresting, though close in definition, are not exact matches. I've been plenty bored with interesting material before, and been interested in boring material. Go figure.

Conglomerate: No, not in the "sum of the parts" sense, but a typical [re-use of the word, bad form apparently] Hollyweird formulaic approach, which, without the big-name stars, would have fallen flat at the box office, beyond a shadow of a doubt. It would have just been a quirky little movie which only showed at 123 theaters nationwide. I would say the same of Dino deLaurentis' "Dune", except that the story for Dune was very interesting.

Besides, what's so Britannically patriotic about watching a film about heroin junkies?

Agreed on opinions. Opinions are like elbows, everybody gots at least two. As far as the fix is in, I was referring to the obvious attempt to get the Academy to vote either for MR or BM [wow, what an appropriate abbreviation for that movie!!!!] through media coverage. Again, I think it's really shaddy that BM and MR gain the lion's share of film clips on E! and other mindless Hollyweird worshipping outlets, and even though it would make me happy to see more LotR clips, it is REALLY unfair to Amalie and In the Bedroom. It is a five-way race, and yet the media have allowed themselves to be manipulated to pump up BM and MR, with only token respect paid to the film with the most nominations.

Amelie and In the Bedroom are the two films which are REALLY getting the ream on this one, although I'm not a partisan for either film. It just seems that a more balanced approach to showing clips, instead of letting the Hollyweird publicity machines dictate which films get shown again and again.

And, as for what they do with gerbils in Hollywood....they pump 'em full of expensive champagne, take 'em to the finest restaurants, and then take them to awards shows.

[Pailan]

Originally posted by Gerbil

... but I reckon it'll win 5 oscars. Anyone else want to actually put their money where their mouth is?

Well, I hesitate to enter this fray, but I say FotR will garnner 9- maybe 10
awards and will not get get Best Movie. This then will cause about 400 'mooters to develop carpal tunnel syndrom as they type and post endless threads about how FotR was ripped off...

[Pailan]

Ah, mon ami bp, when my wife and I went to the theater to see MR we actually got up and walked out. I have never done that before but it was more for her than me. Typically I will tough out a movie I don't like hoping to find something I like. Later, I went and rented MR and watched it all the way through. I find the overall tenor of the movie to be well, bland w/ some neat photography and visuals but the music choices considering how much there is out there to draw from were horrible. I had thought of this idea back in junior high. Baz just got the chance to do it. And I guess the reason why something like this hadn't been done before is painfully obvious.

[Gerbil]

Ah well I guess I'm a bit different then I like a fair number of musicals and stuff (although must admit worst I've been to see was Cats - now THAT was rubbish. 1 good song and the story just stops rather than ends, so you walk out going 'eh? Is that it?').

Funnily enough I thought the idea of using contemporary songs was much more original than having an 'original' score, especially with the more famous numbers because it's cool to see a re-working of things people have such preconceptions about.

As for dubbing - word is Ewan did his own songs (good boy!) but the ginger minger was dubbed. Apart from on 1 song apparently (no idea why).

As for things like 'prostitutes are really angels, no really' it does kind of make me wonder (even the 'bad' whore at the end has a change of heart, seemingly at random) but then again I wonder about you lot - can you not simply suspend disbelief for the sake of enjoyment? I mean come on - it's a film fercryinoutloud! Watching LotR you have to suspend disbelief, and not just at Arwen

I mean, sure, if I'd gone to see MR expecting it to be an original score, non-love story with realistic prostitutes (whatever that is) and a documentary-like approach to historical fact then sure I'd be disappointed. As entertainment goes, I loved it!

And go see Amelie - it's cute and the woman in it is just the most innocent sweet person in the whole wide world Quirky love story that rocks!

[bropous]

Actually, my girlfriend really liked Amelie. I usally like artsy-tartsy films, but for some reason I skipped this one [oh, I remember, I went to see Lord of the Rings instead!]. I do think it is really rotten to leave Amelie and In the Bedroom out of all the Best Film Oscar coverage, LotR notwithstanding.

[jerseydevil]

Gerbil - I never said I hated LOTR. I just don't think it's a great movie. I give it about 7.5 on a scale of 1 - 10 - which is still above average - since 5 is average. That is seperate from my feelings when comparing it as being LOTR - as LOTR I think it does suck. As a movie - it's okay - but not anything great.

I also feel the movie is riding on the coattails of the books and would never have been getting the kind of publicity it is without them. I think more than likely most critics would have been wondering if it was another Waterworld in the making. Which again - without the fans of the books - it would never have done as well in the theater. Had it not been for the books, I would have seen it once and that was it.

[orald]

In critic's columns they talk about, what a wonderfully well directed,and developed movie LOTR is.And it is done well,but most Tolkien fans know with enough money,what a cake walk this movie would be to make,with a little experience in the directing field.And the screenplay had to be the easiest one ever to write.Still I hope it wins best picture.Doesn't really matter if P.J. wins anything to me,I give it an 8.

[orald]

For Moulan Rouge there is a score,it's done by Craig Armstrong,pretty good stuff,most if his stuff usually is.