2010 Oscars: Follow Up

The tribute to John Hughes was phenomenal. Holy memories. I suppose it was the time, but I've seen all of his movies and have loved all the teen flicks through and through. Judd Nelson was looking a little leathery and Ally Sheedy was a little pale, but otherwise, it was awesome to see a collection of John Hughes actors and the clips just made my day. Does Anthony Michael Hall look like a completely different person, or is it just me??? I seriously cried. Not that it takes much...

I would comment on the rest of the broadcast, but TiVO hosed me and deleted it. I don't know what the hell is taking up all the space. I do have Star Wars II and III in HD saved. I have 8 HIMYM's and a handfull of other shows, but not that much really. Oh well. I didn't really care to watch much else anyway.

2010 Oscars: BOR-ing

First, I didn't watch the Oscars yet. I watched a few minutes when Supporting Actor was on, but that's it. They are taped and I will skim through them to see, mostly, how Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin did. I will say that all this "Oscar season" article writing, campaigning, and guessing who will win - along with the 10 million other award shows preceding the Oscars and "predicting" of how the Oscars will fall out - has made the Oscars themselves BORING. I didn't even care to watch b/c you already knew who would win...Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow, Sandra Bullock, Mo'nique, Jeff Bridges, Christoph Waltz, Avatar for all the tech awards, blah blah blah.

I will say these things about it though...

• I, obviously, did not see all the main movies in the nomination list although a bunch of them I'm dying to see and they are mostly coming up my Netflix list now (Up in the Air, Precious, etc)
• Hurt Locker was really good and intense. But, I have to say I did not finish watching it with a wave of "This has got to win awards it was so good". Don't get me wrong...I really liked it, but to me the war genre is exemplified by Saving Private Ryan, Platoon, Band of Brothers. This movie had a lot of great build up, but it didn't completely blow me away.
• Avatar was amazing to watch and deserves all the technological awards out there. The sheer magnitude of this project should be recognized. But, let's face it...the story was predictable and just ok. I'm glad it didn't win Best Picture.
• Sandra Bullock...I don't DISLIKE her, but she just seems to pull out kind of old hat, boring movies in my opinion. She would never draw me to a movie nor would I expect any mind-blowing acting performance from her. I realize that might not be fair, but I consider her an average actress who hasn't really had a role that seemed extremely challenging. I also have not even been a little inclined to see Blind Side. It looks corny to me and not the awe-inspiring sports movie (a la Hoosiers) you would want it to be. I felt unfair about judging her and then the clip of Blind Side just didn't change my mind. I guess I'll have to see it now to confirm/dispel my opinion. On the other hand, she does seem like a totally down to earth cool chick in real life and I've enjoyed interviews with her in the past.
• I liked Christoph Waltz in Inglorious Basterds. I didn't see the other performances so I guess I'm ok with this right now.

A few other points...

• I saw Julie & Julia last week. I liked it, but come on people. Meryl Streep is a wonderful actress but do we have to nominate her for EVERYTHING????
• Up was pretty good, but Best Picture nomination? Really?
• Why even have an animation category? It always seems like every animated movie makes it in every year. Princess and the Frog for an Oscar? I don't think so. Maybe the music...that was pretty good; but certainly not Oscar-worthy.
• We also saw District 9 a couple of weeks ago. Really good, but NOT OSCAR WORTHY. Original, yes, and I give originality a lot of consideration b/c most movies are predictable and already done. I could see it's nomination for the Screenplay category, no problem. But Best Picture? No way.

It doesn't seem so special to win an Oscar these days b/c I don't think they accurately award people and films fairly. They give the win to someone who hasn't gotten one and deserves one even if they are giving it to them for the wrong movie (Ex 1: Denzel Washington - got it for Training Day, should have for Malcom X or Philadelphia; Ex 2: Jeff Bridges - is Crazy Heart really his best role?; I'm sure with some thought I could come up with a million more examples of this practice).

That's it for now. After I watch the show I will comment on Alec & Steve, any boring/notable Thank Yous, and the outfits of course. I don't watch Red Carpet anymore b/c honestly if it's not Joan Rivers or Kathy Griffen, why bother.

TV in General and Golden Globes, Part 2 - The TV Awards

I'm back...Turns out I still don't want to be working...

I watch a LOT of TV, but I'm okay with it b/c I feel that I'm an otherwise semi-well-rounded person. I never watch commercials so an hour show is 45 minutes and a half-hour show is 20-25 minutes. Plus, there are plenty of times when there is nothing on and I might let a show collect over time and watch it later on. I'm probably still a total loser.

There is a lot of crap on TV now-a-days. But, there are some really excellent shows out there still and I've not given up on TV yet. Some are not recognized. Some general rules about it...

1. Any original series on HBO is worth seeing and 85% are not just good, but great shows (In case you are wondering, I didn't really love Deadwood or Carnivale and I hated Arliss)
2. Ditto for FX original series.
3. I think the same for Showtime might apply, but I've only watched 2 shows so far
4. Most Network shows are just ok. It's not the lack of nudity or cursing or anything like that I don't think. I think it's the lack of originality and risk. Maybe that naturally goes hand in hand with taboo topics, but who knows.
5. It is a travesty that Arrested Development and Freaks and Geeks got cancelled. Not relevant to the topic at hand really, but I had to get that off of my chest.

Okay, with that being said...onto the Golden Globes results for TV:

Best TV Series Drama: I don't watch House, I haven't watched Tudors or Mad Men yet but plan to shortly. I have a complete chick addiction to Greys Anatomy but can still be objective in that it has no place being nominated. It's a soap opera, people. I am thrilled to see Big Love and Damages in here. I had a slow start with Damages, but ultimately really enjoyed it. I've heard Mad Men is really great and it's replaying starting this coming Sunday so I'll hold out my opinion on this category.

Best Actress TV Drama: This is a big list of nominees and while I'm pleased to see so many cable shows on here, I'm not watching half of them. I watched Medium when it first came out and it was pretty good, but it got boring. Never seen Saving Grace or Closer. Watched the first few eps of The Riches and Minnie seemed really good, but gave up on that one. To me, this is a race b/w Edie Falco and Glenn Close and I'm happy to see GC win it. She was awesome as Patty in Damages. She was awesome on The Shield in Season 4 so I was really happy to see her get her own show on FX. We can't get enough of her acting overall. Edie Falco is really good too, but she got the GG for this either last season or the season before which included that intense episode between her and Tony when they flipped out on each other. She has also done a nice turn on 30 Rock recently I might add.

Best Actor TV Drama: Once again, haven't seen Mad Men and heard great things about it, but I really would have liked to see Michael C Hall get it for Dexter. He's got me riveted to that show.

Best TV Series Comedy: 30 Rock and Extras are both fantastic as is Entourage, but I'm happy to see this go to Extras. I didn't love Season 1, but Season 2 was hilarious. So was 30 Rock, but I think it was all the celebrity cameos (Daniel Radcliffe was priceless) that puts Extras over the edge.

Best Actor TV Comedy: How can anyone justify Alec Baldwin not getting this award? I can't say anything else about this.

Best Supporting Actor TV Series: How can anyone justify Ted Danson not getting this award? Side note...his characters name "Frobisher" just works. It's quirky and I can't stop thinking the name over and over...it rolls off the tongue. I love Jeremy Piven on Entourage too, but enough is enough...it's not a stretch for him...this is the only guy he can play (all those John Cusack movies, Cars, Smokin Aces, etc, etc)! And Kevin Dillon??? He's possibly my fave guy on that show, but mostly b/c you have to imagine he is clearly playing himself. Should he get an award for that? Side note...Could someone please interview him and find out how much of this really is his life? Or interview Matt Dillon and ask the same thing. Or interview Marky M (yum) and find out how much of this crap really happened. I don't care which. I just need to know.

That should do it for now...my list of future topics just grew ten-fold, by the way.

I can't believe I spaced on the Golden Globes

Actually, I can. This is going to be a long one, folks. This is what I think about most and I have lots of opinions on the topic of Movie awards and over/under rating of films and actors.

I just realized while reading Pop Candy that the Golden Globes were announced last night...holy anti-climactic. While I love the process of the awards, they have 3 big flaws:

1. Joan Rivers is no longer front and center during the Red Carpet. Let's be serious here...Joan is great and despite the fact that Melissa is TERRIBLE, I love listening to her fumble and rip on peoples outfits.
2. They always miss really significant performances from being nominated. Of course I can't think of anything right now, but they just do.
3. Finally and most annoying, I hate when they nominate a great actor or actress for a not-fantastic role b/c they gipped them previously - which happens all the time! Case in point - Denzel Washington for Training Day. Come on - Training Day? It was a good movie and nice to see Denzel as a bad guy, but an Oscar-worthy role? I don't think so. He kicked serious ass as Malcom X and if anything should have won of his, that should have. Do you know who beat him that year???? Al Pacino in Scent of a Woman which was a RIDICULOUS and STUPID movie. I love Al, but this was such a dumb movie and certainly not his best performance. In fact, Al winning in SOAW was another example of this phenomenon since he got gipped on Godfather I and II. I could go on forever...
   

Back to the Golden Globes...As usual, since I am a mom of young kids, I've only been the movies maybe 4 times this year (Shrek 3, Bee Movie, Bourne Ultimatum, and No Country for Old Men)and I haven't seen most of the nominees, although almost all are on my Netflix queue. Here are my preliminary thoughts...

Best Picture: No Country for Old Men and Eastern Promises should NOT have been nominated. NCFOM should have a few actor noms, but not for picture. EP was good, but not award-worthy. Haven't seen the others, but I'm dying to see There Will Be Blood. Daniel Day-Lewis in a film pretty much guarantees a great movie (also agreeing with me will be my friend DS who swears by him).

Best Actress: Julie Christie was amazing in Away from Her which I recently saw on DVD while Joe was out one night. I really like Sarah Polley who wrote and directed it (her first time) and it was such a great movie. The other noms seem reasonable from what I've read about those movies except maybe Jodie Foster. The Brave One seemed like a trite idea to me but whatever. I LOVE Cate Blanchett and she was gipped for Elizabeth the first time around, but having her win this time would probably fall under item #3 above. She lost that year to Gwyneth P in Shakespeare in Love. That was a little tougher of a call b/c I loved that movie and GP in it, but Cate was fantastic in Elizabeth and really should have won.

Best Actor: Haven't seen most and it seems like it was probably a tough call. But, as usual, DDL is just tops and probably totally deserved it. It's a given, isn't it?

Best Animated Film: While I think it's nice that these movies have a category, aren't there usually only 3 or 4 of them anyway? That means they all get nominated, even if they are crappy.

Best Supporting Actress: First of all, I really have no interest in seeing that Bob Dylan movie. I don't know why...there are some great actors in it and the idea is really cool. I just don't care about it. It's not even on my Netflix list, which is saying a lot since I have 180 movies on there right now. I just must say this...Julia Roberts is completely overrated and I cannot believe she is nominated again. THERE. I SAID IT. Those who know me well know how irritated I get over all the accolades she gets. Okay, I loved Mystic Pizza - who didn't? Mostly b/c of Lili Taylor of course, but a solid 80's movie. Satisfaction too - a guilty bad movie pleasure. Steel Magnolias - good. StepMom - pretty good. Pretty Woman was an ok movie and she has a great laugh, blah blah blah. Erin Brockovich was a boring movie and not CLOSE to Oscar worthy - this was one of the biggest Oscar travesties of all time - do you know who she beat out????? Laura Linney in You Can Count on Me, Ellen Burstyn in Requiem for a Dream, Joan Allen in The Contender and Juliette Binoche in Chocolate. ALL of whom should have beaten her (I probably would have gone with Ellen Burstyn - RFAD was an insanely good movie and she was freaky good. Made me think of that awesome movie Resurrection she was in way back when). This was when my I-will-only-see-your-movies-if-they-are-otherwise-highly-recommended phase with Julia Roberts officially began. (Renee Zellweger falls under that category too). More mediocre performances: Oceans movies, Pelican Brief, all those sappy romantic comedies (Notting Hill, Best Friends Wedding, Runaway Bride)...oh I'm bored just listing them out. I'm drained from this one.

Best Supporting Actor: I just wanted Casey Affleck to win. For no other reason then I just like him and Ben gets too much attention.

Best Original Score and Best Original Song: I love the Into the Wild soundtrack. I've lost interest in Pearl Jam in the last years, but loved them in and after college. I thought it was awesome that Eddie Vedder wrote this soundtrack...he seemed like a good choice for it and I just saw him on Iconoclasts with Laird Hamilton and was wondering what PJ was up to. Haven't seen the movie yet. Don't like Sean Penn b/c I think he is probably a dick (And now I don't like Robin Wright Penn b/c she married him, although 1) they are now getting divored and 2) she was awesome in Princess Bride and Gump). I will admit he does have talent though and do really want to see ITW. Glad this won for music.

I need to take a break and actually do some work today even though I'm only 1 of about 10 people at the office today. I'll post later on the TV side of the awards...