"Patriot Act, patriot aaaaaaact!" "Due to da principles of detection, I conclude that deez men were from Praw-vidence." "Qui gives a sh*t?" Okay, only one of those lines was from either one of those two. In any case, I think the scene with Jack Nicholson beating Leo's arm with the shoe alone should win this film best picture: even though I liked Babel much more than it's overrated, r****ded, anti-Brokeback placating older cousin Crash (question, how do you get middle-aged red-staters to want to talk about racism without rolling their eyes? put some gay cowboys in the room). I'd like to see that lonely deaf teenage Japanese girl with the dead mom and the absentee father win best (or supporting) actress.
Here is an alphabetical list of films and what they were nominated for: http://oscars.com/nominees/?pn=films Dreamgirls Leads Oscars With 8 Nominations BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - The peppy "Dreamgirls" led Academy Awards contenders Tuesday with eight nominations, but surprisingly was shut out in the best picture category after being considered a potential front-runner. The sweeping ensemble drama "Babel" was close behind with seven, including best picture and acting honors for two newcomers to U.S. audiences, Adriana Barraza and Rinko Kikuchi. Other best-picture nominees were the bloody crime saga "The Departed," the World War II spectacle "Letters From Iwo Jima," the road-trip comedy "Little Miss Sunshine" and the monarchy-in-crisis chronicle "The Queen." Going into nominations day, the best-picture competition looked unusually wide open, with no consensus on a favorite. With "Dreamgirls," a Golden Globe winner out of the race, the best picture competition was even more up for grabs. But front-runners in all four acting categories nabbed nominations and seem poised to come home with Oscars on Feb. 25: Helen Mirren for best actress as British monarch Elizabeth II in "The Queen"; Forest Whitaker for best actor as Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in "The Last King of Scotland"; and Eddie Murphy and former "American Idol" finalist Jennifer Hudson as soulful singers in "Dreamgirls" supporting roles. All four won at the Golden Globes. Oscar attention is a new experience for Murphy, whose fast-talking persona has brought him devoted audiences but little awards acclaim in his 25-year career. For Hudson, the nomination caps a speedy rise to stardom with her first film role, just two years after making her name on "American Idol." The best-actress category featured a 14th nomination for two-time Oscar winner Meryl Streep, padding her record as the most-nominated actor ever, this time as a demonically demanding boss in "The Devil Wears Prada." Joining Mirren and Streep as best-actress nominees were Penelope Cruz as a woman dealing with bizarre domestic crises in "Volver"; Judi Dench as a scheming teacher in "Notes on a Scandal"; and Kate Winslet as a woman in an affair with a neighbor in "Little Children." Other best-actor nominees were Leonardo DiCaprio as a mercenary hunting a rare gem in "Blood Diamond"; Ryan Gosling as a teacher with a drug addiction in "Half Nelson"; Peter O'Toole as a lecherous old actor in "Venus"; and Will Smith as a homeless dad in "The Pursuit of Happyness." Whitaker is expected to come away with best actor, though sentiment is high for O'Toole, who has been nominated seven times, losing each. An eighth loss for O'Toole, who nearly turned down an honorary Oscar three years ago because he hoped to earn one outright, would put him in the record books as the actor with the most nominations without winning. This finally may be the year for another perennial loser, Scorsese, who is tied with four other directors for the Oscar-futility record of five nominations and five losses. "The Departed" marks Scorsese's return to the cops-and-mobsters genre he mastered in decades past and is considered his best shot to finally win an Oscar, though a sixth defeat would put him alone in the record book as the losingest director ever.
I think Children of Men and Pan's Labyrinth have been really disrespected by the Golden Globes and the Oscars. I think only The Queen was better reviewed than Pan's Labyrinth and not by much. Children of Men has some of the best direction I've seen in a while. You get so damn tired of herky jerky camera movement when there's a fight or any kind of violence on screen, with Children of Men there were 2 great scenes without any kind of visible cutting. The best was the battle in the refugee ghetto where you follow Clive Owen for like 15 minutes or more as he tries to get through the battle to find Kee and her baby.
I think Children of Men was pretty overrated. A solid action movie, but some of the scenes were terribly corny. I thought the scene where they stop fighting when they bring the baby out is one of the more ridiculous scenes I've seen in a while.
Wow, I couldn't disagree more. Could you imagine if you had spent 20 years of your life without seeing one single baby and believing that all woman were sterile, then all of the sudden seeing one? That was the most poignant part of the entire movie. Methinks someone missed the point.
No, I didn't miss the point. I don't care that they had gone 20 years in between having a new born child. To suggest that people would just stop shooting is ridiculous. First off, most of the people would be too caught up in the fighting and trying to save their life to quit shooting. To suggest that an entire city would stop rioting immediately upon seeing a baby is fuggin ridiculous. Furthermore, one of the problems I have in the scene is something that Kee says earlier in the movie. I forget the exact context, but it's suggested that she just go public with her pregnancy. Kee suggests that is impossible because the government would just seize her child and give it to a black woman that was not an immigrant. Well -- the soldiers had their opportunity to do that, yet it didn't occur. So was she just full of ****? If the soldiers weren't going to anything, why was she so scared? Why didn't she ask one of them for an escort to her boat?
I gaurantee you if I hadn't seen a baby in 20 years I would stop dead in my tracks in the middle of a firefight; I mean, this baby could very well represent humanity's LAST HOPE FOR SURVIVAL. You think any one of those soldiers would want to be responsible for putting a bullet in his head?! And notice that as soon as they got out of there, the battle continued immediately. Very powerful scene. And I don't think Kee was full of s**t for thinking that..she was just afraid. She was an immigrant in a very anti-immigrant place, full of hostilities, chaos and violence. Couldn't agree more about Childen of Men and Pan's Labrynth, both critically acclaimed films (never saw Pan's though; not a big fan of Del Toro) and probably more deserving of an Oscar nom than LMS (even though I loved the film) and definitely more deserving than The Departed (me thinks it was thrown in there to finally recognzie Scorcesse). But kudos to Wahlberg for his Oscar nod; very much deserved.
My Picks Best Picture: The Departed Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, Blood Diamond Actress: Penelope Cruz, Volver Supporting Actor: Djimon Hounsou, Blood Diamond Supporting Actress: Abigail Breslin, Little Miss Sunshine Directing: Martin Scorsese, The Departed Foreign Language Film: Pan's Labyrinth, Mexico Adapted Screenplay: Sacha Baron Cohen and Anthony Hines and Peter Baynham and Dan Mazer and Todd Phillips, Borat Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan Original Screenplay: Guillermo del Toro, Pan's Labyrinth Animated Feature Film: Cars Art Direction: Pan's Labyrinth Cinematography: Pan's Labyrinth Sound Mixing: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Sound Editing: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. Original Score: The Good German, Thomas Newman Original Song: You I Do from Dreamgirls, Henry Krieger and Siedah Garrett; Costume: Curse of the Golden Flower Documentary Feature: An Inconvenient Truth Documentary (short subject): The Blood of Yingzhou District Film Editing: The Departed Makeup: Apocalypto Animated Short Film: Maestro Live Action Short Film: The Saviour, Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Academy Award winners previously announced this year: Honourary Award (Oscar statuette): Ennio Morricone Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award (Oscar statuette): Sherry Lansing
Maybe I'm being too harsh on this movie. I thought it was good. I really enjoyed it. Just something about that scene really took me out of the moment. I have no doubt that you'd do what you're saying -- stop shooting. But if you'd stop shooting, I don't think you'd be fighting in a completely irrational war/battle against (from what I could tell) legal immigrants to your country. What the soldiers and the government were doing was not rational. I didn't have a problem with the people that were being held as prisoners in the big apartment building stopping everything at the sight of the baby. I just don't see people in the situation that those soldiers were in as stopping their fight for a few seconds at the sight of a baby. If it were so important to them -- the LAST HOPE FOR SURVIVAL -- I think the soldiers would have risen up in arms to protect the baby and make sure that the people of their country knew the truth and knew that hope existed. As it is, they continue fighting in a few seconds and Kee is forced to ride a rickety rowboat out in the middle of the harbor on the HOPE that some boat might come by and pick her up. If they cared enough to stop fighting -- why wouldn't they fight to protect that baby and make sure that the baby and Kee weren't put in harm by anyone?
^^^ I can see how you'd feel that way. I just think they were so completely stunned at seeing the baby, they were basically frozen in their tracks; they had no idea what to do. If I'm in any one their shoes I can see myself acting that way as well. I want to help but have no idea what to do, so I'm waiting for someone else in the unit to react; and I'm sure everyone else is thinking the same thing, so nobody does anything except to not harm the baby and allow them to pass. Though on the other hand, if I'm just a random soldier who happened upon them and the baby (outside of any battle), I'd imagine I would help them instead of letting them be on their merry.
I love it when people argue the believability of a scene in a movie about women becoming completely sterile and no children have been born in nearly 20 years. Once again, methinks you missed the point.
Ok, saw Babel this weekend...OMFG...What a great, gut wrenching, tough movie...I left the theater speachless...A great movie and highly recommend it...I hope to see the Departed this week so I can fairly judge who should win... I also want to see Volver and The Last King of Scotland...
Right now, I'm rooting for The Departed in a huge way. Still need to see Babel, though. I'm probably skipping Letters From Iwo Jima so I can see more of the Best Actor/Actress nominees like The Last King of Scotland, Notes From a Scandal and Venus.
Just got back from Notes on a Scandal. Judi Dench is hot. Just kidding, but she is one damn fine actress. I'll still be rooting for my girl Kate though. Really good movie as well.
