Oscar Nominations

I was surprised that Washington and Hawke were nominated for Training Day but I hope Denzel wins for the other two times he was cheated out of an Oscar.

Have you seen Monster's Ball, Berry gave a very, very, very impressive performance. I've seen the other films and actresses she is up against (except Iris) and none of them come close to her performance. If she doesn't win then she got cheated.

 

i think she does a little more than showing her hoo hoos, too...

 

Why is it that by merely playing a r****ded person you automatically get a Oscar nomination? By all accounts Sean Penn's performance in "I Am Sam" is about as nuanced as Jim Belushi in "Homer and Eddie." I never thought Sean Penn would do something so naueseatingly Hollywood. This is Patch Adams bad, yet it is rewarded. What a bunch of garbage! Let's call this the Billy Bob Thorton rule: this past year Thorton could easily have gotten nominations for two great performances in "Monsters Ball" and "The Man Who Wasn't There." Previously, Thorton *was* nominated for "Sling Blade" as, you guessed it, a developmentally disabled man (to say the least). Without being r****ded (and thus, noble?) Thorton is shut out in roles that are at least as good. If you are mentally ill (hello, Russell Crowe), dying or boringly noble you are usually a shoe-in for the Oscars. Gene Hackman got royally screwed this year, as well.
Another pet peeve: if your film is nominated for Best Film, shouldn't the director be also nominated? I don't think "Moulin Rouge" is necessarily worthy of a best picture nomination, but Christ, if the movie is anything it is a film of the director Baz Luhrman's vision. Do you think Moulin Rouge is about a great story or is particularly well-written, or well-acted? No! I think the movie is about the deconstruction of the film romances and musicals...what the hell is Ron Howard being nominated for again? Opie Cunningham movies has never been much above the level of a Lifetime movie of the week, in my opinion.
Films that were overlooked: Waking Life, Ghost World and the Royal Tannembaums. I am rooting for Peter Jackson, Ian McKellan and everybody nominated in Gosford Park.

 

That dude that played Warren in <i>There's Something About Mary</i> should have been nominated a couple years ago for best supporting actor...

<i>Have you seen my weiner?</i>

 

franks and beans franks and beans...

 

If this doesn't show all of you that the Academy Awards has nothing to do with talent and everything to do with popularity, nothing will. Hollywood is creatively bankrupt.

 

I agree that the Oscars have a lot to do with popuarity but some of the people nominated can actually act. Who would be your nominees Tex?

 

My picks:

Best Picture:
Lord of the Rings - Really close with A Beautiful Mind
Moulin Rouge
Gosford Park
A Beautiful Mind
In the Bedroom

Best Actor:
Will Smith (Ali)
Denzel Washington (Training Day)
Sean Penn (I Am Sam)
Tom Willkinson (In the Bedroom)
Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind) - Three of these movies I have not seen, but I can't imagine them being better than Crowe's portrayal of John Nash

Best Actress: I abstain from this vote, as I have only seen part of Moulin Rouge, and none of the others. I hated Moulin Rouge so much, there is no way I would vote it for any awards.

Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge)
Renee Zellwegger (Bridget Jones's Diary)
Halle Berry (Monster's Ball)
Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom)
Judi Dench (Iris)

Best Supporting Actor:
Jon Voight (Ali)
Ethan Hawke (Training Day)
Ian McKellen (Lord of the Rings) - did an AMAZINGLY good job in this movie
Jim Broadbent (Iris)
Ben Kingsley (Sexy Beast)

Best Supporting Actress:
Kate Winslet (Iris)
Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind) - did a great job and, along with Catherine Zeta Jones, is the best looking woman in Hollywood
Maggie Smith (Gosford Park)
Hellen Mirren (Gosford Park)
Marisa Tomei (In the Bedroom)

Best Original Screenplay:
Memento
Amelie
Gosford Park
<B>The Royal Tenenbaums</B> - Had to agree with RM95 here. Memento was awesome, but Royal Tenenbaums was better.
Monster's Ball

Best Adapted Screenplay:
Lord of the Rings - so much like what I envisioned the book would be it blew my mind.
A Beautiful Mind
Shrek
In the Bedroom
Ghost World

I am disappointed in how many nominations Moulin Rouge received. I remember seeing the previews and thinking it looked like a movie I wouldn't be too interested in, but one day I had a coupon for a free pay per view movie, and I decided I would give it a shot. Oh man, sappy love songs adapted from modern day songs has got to be one of the absolute worst ideas in cinema I have seen (another would be letting John Leguizamo try to be the star in a movie in The Pest. Ironically, he is in Moulin Rouge as well). I had to turn the movie off halfway in because it couldn't hold my attention, but I kept watching because it was free. When I turned it off, I found something better to do with my time, like clip my toenails.

 

If Lord of the Rings doesnt win, that about sums it up for the Academy Awards. Bull****.

 

George Costanza must be an academy member.

 

GO AUSTRALIA. Two in a row, Russell Crowe.

 

Best Actor -- Vince Vaughan, Made

 

The fact that Brotherhood was snubbed displeases me more than having my pants full of bees.

 

agreed. any actor that can somehow find the (oh-so fine) line between being an ******* and a son of a b**** deserves to be nominated.

hackman's performance was extraordinary, i thought. the best thing in a film that didn't quite add up for me -- but great to see wes and owen honored. rushmore remains one of oscar's greatest snubs -- it deserved four, received none. what an outrage.

i wanted to pour gasoline on myself and light a match during the first 30 minutes, but once it settled down, moulin rouge worked for me. i thought kidman was great.... sorry, i'm just trying to take the high road -- what i mean is: she was hot as ****. if the academy had any balls, they'd come right out and say, "maybe she was good, maybe she wasn't, who cares? she was hot! oscar goes to kidman!"

actually, iirc, this is howard's first nom -- he was screwed in '95 when they snubbed his efforts on apollo 13. now that was a director's movie if ever there was one.

btw, LOTR blew. i'm still at a loss trying to reconcile it's popularity.

 

You sound like you are already mad at the Academy for its treatment of LOTR even though it just got the most nominations of any movie. How can you say bull**** when it seems like they like it the most.


Hollywood is creatively bankrupt.

Tex, how can you complain that Hollywood is all about popularity. It seems the Oscars have always been a haven for low-grossing films no one has seen. In years past me and my friends were always suprised what would beat other films as it almost seemed the academy had an anti-popularity stance. This year there do seem to be more popular films nominated for stuff which I think is good. I think there should be a mix of quality and popularity as popularity means the performance affected more people. Some movie that was produced by Joe blow and shown on one screen in Laramie, Wyoming may have some great performances, but it shouldn't get nominated in my opinion. I want popularity among audiences to mean at least something. Popularity doesn't automatically make something sucky.



And for all the people talking about snubs. I'm sure there are some. I haven't watched that many movies to say what should/shouldn't be nominated but considering there are only 5 slots for each category something has to be left out. I mean for every person in this thread to be satisfied there would have to be about 15 nominations for every category. Just because the academy doesn't put your favorite in there doesn't mean they are on some mission to screw everyone. For your film/person to be nominated someone else would have to be taken out and then millions of people would b**** about that person being snubbed.

I don't really like to defend the academy cuz I don't agree with them that much (but thank you so much for gladiator over crouching tiger), and they like British movies/actors way too much.

 

I'm still at a loss trying to reconcile how much of a douchebag you are.



But you still get my vote in the Best Poster tourney because you have solid football knowledge.

 

For the second year in a row, I've not seen any of the Best Picture nominees (I did eventually see Traffic last year, though it was after the Academy Awards).

I would've liked to have seen Memento nominated for Best Picture, but at least they did get a screenplay nod. I suspect that since it came out so long ago, a lot of Academy members sort of forgot about it. Films that open later in the year generally have a better shot at getting a nomination.

 

Davo:

Hang on a mo. He was born in Auckland, he spent the first three years of his life and his entire adolescence in Auckland (known as 'Russ le Roq', playing in some awful bands), and he's a first cousin to NZ cricketing legends Jeff and Martin Crowe. Dude is *shared* with New Zealand, if you don't mind. I don't really care for him myself, but fair suck of the sav.

I am jingoistically supporting LotR for *everything*. (Although I wouldn't mind if Gosford Park won either - and luckily The Royal Tenenbaums isn't going head to head with 'my' movie anywhere, so I won't be *too* torn.) However, I have a bad, bad feeling about LotR. I think it'll be snubbed in the most prestigious categories. Still, I heart you, Peter Jackson. For many reasons.