Letters to the Editor
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_Yeah_.
>Have Colbert do the show next year. Do not allow ANYONE to read or review his routines beforehand; keep it as hidden as the Price Waterhouse ballots. Heck, the resulting lava flow of contempt may make the Oscars worth watching.<
I'll second _that._ It's become depressing as hell to watch terrific comic after terrific comic go down in flames hosting the Oscars because they can't be as pointed and observant as they truly are. Watching the likes of Stewart struggle with this show's strictures and the underlying "satirize Hollywood, but not too much" threat is like watching someone try to turn Rupert Murdoch's life into a contemporary CITIZEN KANE--there's no way they can bring all their guns to bear.
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"No Country" What?
That movie was mediocre at best.
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deserved a special Oscar for his full-frontal nude fight scene in "Eastern Promises."
A thousand porn stars got there first.
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trying too hard
"So, since America hates itself this year, Oscar gave the biggest trophies to foreigners"
Perhaps they simply gave the best performances. Perhaps you're trying to hard to rationalise the lack of Yanks on the rostrum.
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too long, too dated
Something needs to be done with the Oscar format--the musical presentations are SOOO stupid, dated and embarassing. Can't they just do a little from each--also, those two "dudes" who did the bit about Halle and Judi, very very bad. They were not funny, again, embarassing. The red carpet people--Ryan Seacrest, so so juvenile--when he asked Jessica Alba if she was going to breastfeed I almost fell out of my chair, she was in shock!--can you imagine Ingrid Bergmann or Grrace Kelly being asked that question waaayy back when? I would say there is more ass than class....
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This stuff is so tiresome
This whole "America hates itself" line is tiresome. With the exception of Marion Cotilliard, American directors and producers hired non-American actors for American-made films. So what are we supposed to do, exclude them because they aren't American? I'm familiar with all three actors work over several years, and they are all fantastic actors. Period.
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SK
It isn't true that only Academy members are included in the In Memorium montage. Industry-known agents with no producing credits are routinely represented, as are other exceptions, at the Academy's discretion. It's an Academy-centric list, to be sure, but there are many non-members who've made the cut. Why them and not others, if the Academy is supposed to stand for "craft" above all else? In fact it doesn't. The Academy stands most for "respectability," as befitting what was considered a bastard art form, based in declasse California, when it first was founded. If Brad Renfro, a member or not, had starred in a well-received costume drama -- an Oscah winnah! -- he would certainly have earned his right to be honored. As it happens, his best work was in "Bully" -- a far cry from the Academy’s slut-who-desperately-wants-to-be-crowned-homecoming-queen ethos.
Memo to the Academy: Sluts rule these days! That's practically all there is! Relax!
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The best way to make the show more bearable...
Don't televise the winners of the short films -- the short animated, documentary and live-action films. Still give out the award if you must, although they seem from a different era -- before TV shows (short films themselves, often.) But absolutely NOBODY at home has seen these short films or knows anything about them. Even most academy members haven't seen them as they have to go to a special screening to be eligible to vote on them. So maybe a few film critics have seen them at festivals, but that's about it. So cut them from the show, cut 20 minutes, and increase the amount of time each winner can speak to a full minute (as opposed to the ridiculously short 30 seconds they have now.) These people work their whole lives for this moment, let them have it. And a longer moment allows for a more emotional speech as they will get through their laundry list of people to thank and say something real. And that will give people a connection to the winners and something to feel good about while watching at home.
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What if you don't like dark movies?
This was a lousy year for movie going if you can't stand dark movies and your closest art house is 25 miles away. There were of course a few good movies outside that genre but in general, I stayed home this year. Where are the well made, intelligent dramas sans blood, violence, and 20 year-olds (except Juno which was fantastic!).
Where are the dramas with actors of a certain age that actually get to the regular movie theaters that deal with real life issues, joys and sorrows? Where are the intelligent comedies that leave the movie goer with grins and a happy feeling?
Where are the movies for people over 35? There are certainly enough of us but many of us have stopped going because we are not adolescent boys and our kids are adults now so we are not so much thrilled with family movies. Where are the quality films? Few in our Dallas paper have high ratings lately!
I don't care where they are made if they fit into these categories.
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Give Me a Break!
Oh Cintra, bag it, willya?
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Sure it sucked, but so does Wilson's take on it...
Yes, the endless, boring montages sucked the life out of it. And the songs were cheesy, but aren't they usually? But to turn the whole thing into an overblown metaphor on American foreign policy says more about Wilson's psyche than the Oscars.
What I found weird was a zombified Owen Wilson struggling to read his lines from the teleprompter, looking as if the only reason he was there was to fulfill some contractual obligation.
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who is surprised?
Considering the quality of the product Hollywood gives us, why would their annual back-slapping-atta-boy-orgy be anticipated as any better?
The best thing that the television writer's strike did was remind me how much better the writers and their product in my bookcase and local library really are.
BTW, Cintra, the anti-Americanism is tired and unoriginal. Must be easy to be a sheep and to complain about the sheepdog.
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Duh.
Let's see what's on the menu: serial killer; Juno; Alzheimer's; Juno; demented oil man; Juno; .... who wants to go to the movies? Anyone? Anyone? Combine that with 4 hours of tedium and self-congratulation, lame jokes with a dull host, blah blah blah. Snore. It's fine with me all the furriners won.