2015 Academy Awards Thread

[The Count]

Few things to address...

1 Hey bro, don't dis my man Michael Ore, part of the Baltimore Ravens when The Blindside was made.
2 Of course MMW was going to be passed over. The Academy Awards only hand out noms to movies released from August to November at the latest of the previous year (August-November 2014 in this case). The only way a movie like MMW would get any consideration is if its parent distributor felt so strongly about it that it got a special limited rerelease during this period for Oscar nom consideration. So I'm not crying any tears over that. Then again, I don't rully care for the Academy Awards that much, I just go see the movies I actually want to see. On that note, I've gotta wait till February for Big Eyes, and that's cause I'm a Tim Burton fan rather than supporting the Whinystein Company though it makes little difference to them after they've got my money from the ticket purchase. *Rant over.
3 The next time someone is inclined to post about a year's relevant Academy Award noms, create a year-relevant titled thread. Bumping up an almost twelve year-old thread would be viewed as extreeeeeme thread necromancy.

 

[mr3urious]

Sorry about the necropost. I just thought that posting in that old thread would be more appropriate and less redundant than creating a whole new one, but I guess not.

Anyway, I'd like to talk about the Razzies for a bit.

Anyone else miffed that Seth MacFarlane was nominated for worst actor and director for A Million Ways to Die in the West? Granted, it was a bit more sophomoric than his last film, but I don't think the movie is Razzie material.

On the upside, Kirk Cameron and his film has got plenty of noms to go around, and I do like the "Razzie Redeemer" category, where they acknowledge artists who earned Razzies in the past but later redeemed themselves with critically-acclaimed films.

 

[Drtooth]

Anyway, I'd like to talk about the Razzies for a bit.

Anyone else miffed that Seth MacFarlane was nominated for worst actor and director for A Million Ways to Die in the West? Granted, it was a bit more sophomoric than his last film, but I don't think the movie is Razzie material.

On the upside, Kirk Cameron and his film has got plenty of noms to go around, and I do like the "Razzie Redeemer" category, where they acknowledge artists who earned Razzies in the past but later redeemed themselves with critically-acclaimed films.

Seriously? They're starting to get snobbier than the Oscars if that's the case. I don't get the "we hate Seth MacFarlane" (at least outside of Family Guy) elitism here. The film wasn't nearly as bad to be considered here. Sure, it was a vanity project, but so wasn't half the crap that gets nominated for Oscars anyway. Personally, I think his movies are far better than his current TV show, and I really want to see him do more of that and less doing a bunch of voices and cashing a check.

And I gotta say, TMNT and Transformers 4... really!?! No Divergent or Maze runner? We got to go with lame staples of "we hatez the Mikel Bay" and not going after these cheap little throw away 13 year old hormonal films? The CGI alone on Michelangelo had more care put into it than all those tweenlit films combined. Maybe not Hunger Games, but certainly Divergent. plus, frankly, TMNT was meh. Not good, but not bad enough to consider in this list, and Transformers 4 was an improvement over the two before it. It was more in the wrong hands than a bad movie. A clumsy, almost good if you cut away a half hour of the human crap not that great movie, but certainly not horrible.

2 Of course MMW was going to be passed over. The Academy Awards only hand out noms to movies released from August to November at the latest of the previous year (August-November 2014 in this case). The only way a movie like MMW would get any consideration is if its parent distributor felt so strongly about it that it got a special limited rerelease during this period for Oscar nom consideration.

Those rules are insane and stupid. No wonder all the Oscar Bait movies are released in the same 2 month period. I'd think that Disney had a role in not even caring enough to submit it.

 

[D'Snowth]

Well, we have this thread which pretty much covers the whole shebang, somewhat.

 

[The Count]

S'okay, we got a new 2015 thread to talk about this year's noms.

Like the Oscars, I'm pretty much indifferent to the Razzies... Unless there's a movie I knew was going to be such an utter bomb it was ticking down to explode from the moment it was announced for mass distribution. *CoughCatwomancough*
Holy schnikey! Ju mean Kirk Camerons got himself an acting cred after the Growing Pains? Unbelievable okay.
*Gives the grouch cheer for Razzies.

 

[Drtooth]

Holy schnikey! Ju mean Kirk Camerons got himself an acting cred after the Growing Pains? Unbelievable okay.
*Gives the grouch cheer for Razzies.

Not so much acting as much as his extreme (and obnoxious) born again Christianity compelled him to make a terrible preachy film about Christmas. Essentially, he makes lame connections from the religious aspect to the commercial aspect, which boarders on tin foil hat logic. It's a pro-Christianity film that's offensive to Christianity! My words won't do it any justice, so here's The TV Tropes Page and the Your Milage May Vary page. By all means, it deserves every Razzie it should get. But they'll want to stick it to Bay again... yeah, he sucks, but why not contribute to Kirk's decent into madness?

But seriously. While TMNT and TF4 are far from great movies, they have their fun little moments. Meanwhile, we have those terrible Frankenstein and Dracula movies that really stink that no one actually went to see getting snubbed. And Vampire Academy. REALLY?!?! Those aren't on the list?

Also, ticked because Million Ways to Die was pretty good. Not quite Ted, but it doesn't deserve nearly the crap it gets. 'Specially with the crossover cameos.

 

[mr3urious]

Well, Kirk Cameron and Saving Christmas dominated the Razzies yesterday, taking home Worst Actor and Picture, respectively. But Michael Bay ended up winning Worst Director for Transformers 4, undeservedly enough.

 

[CensoredAlso]

And I gotta say, TMNT and Transformers 4... really!?!

I know I'm in the minority, but I'd put the new TMNT at #2, just below the 1990 film. Bottom line for me is whether I enjoyed the turtles as characters. And I was even cool with Fox as April.

 

[Drtooth]

Well, Kirk Cameron and Saving Christmas dominated the Razzies yesterday, taking home Worst Actor and Picture, respectively. But Michael Bay ended up winning Worst Director for Transformers 4, undeservedly enough.

All I can say for Transformers is that had they picked a different director for the fourth installment, it would have been a much better movie. As much as I don't like him, I think this was essentially the opposite of a snub. They just want to keep picking on him, and frankly he doesn't care. So essentially, it's a passive aggressive comment muttered under their breath. That said, TF4 was good for what it was. A better director and stronger editing (and MUCH less of the Cade family) would have made the film decent. Suffice to say it was one of the better installments, and John Goodman and Stanley Tucci stole the film. Hopefully the fifth film follows the lead of the G1 cartoon's mythology. With Bay not attached, the direction can only be better.

As for Kirk, good for him. I can't think of a more deserving recipient than him. The guy who used his Born Again, license to be judgmental Christianity as an excuse to terrorize the cast of Growing Pains because he was the big ego of the series and was power tripping. So what does this guy do? He further drags religion through the mud with an incoherent smiling tirade about how all the worst excesses of Christmas are exactly what Christ wanted instead of that helping out your fellow man and giving of yourself nonsense hippies clearly planted there. But above all, he made a complete horse's tweez of himself, showing the world how out of touch he is with reality and his own supposed religion. Keep up the good work.

I know I'm in the minority, but I'd put the new TMNT at #2, just below the 1990 film. Bottom line for me is whether I enjoyed the turtles as characters. And I was even cool with Fox as April.

While I had problems with the focus of the film, I have to say I liked what they were trying to do with the Turtles, and can only hope the next installment is much better written and completely focused on the Turtles themselves. Then again, critics never liked the Turtles. Even the good first film got hammered. Somehow, muscular guy flying around in red and blue tights that can circle the Earth to turn back time and throw cellophane S's out of no where is an American classic tradition. Mutated Turtles fighting crime? Some stupid video game of the 80's where they all said "Cowabunga." I love that old cartoon series like a son, but I really get disappointed that the mainstream forgets its a comic book.

But yeah. The film itself was a very good technical achievement. While not the amazing animatronic suits Henson developed, they split the difference by having guys in motion capture suits so the actors can have something to react to. A LOT of love went into those CGI designs, and they're far better than the standard low quality Garfield/Yogi Bear/ Scooby-Doo looking things. I really liked the look and feel of the film. Just disappointed by some dumb choices behind the scenes, like keeping Eric Sacks in there for the actor's sake. You can tell he took parts better utilized by Oroku Saki and Baxter Stockman.

 

[Drtooth]

Very happy that Big Hero 6 took home the award. Nice to see that the animated movie nominations were all good, and not a single shockingly undeserving one in the bunch. Any other year, I would have expected to see crap like Rio 2, but this year they nailed it. Not to mention that it double teamed with Feast, which also won the award.

Also great to see Birdman, a comedy, win so many awards especially best picture. I'm kicking myself for not seeing that film. Or Grand Budapest Hotel. I'm also happy that Boyhood lost. Yeah, I get it. Experimental film about the human condition. The experimental part is admirable, I'll give it that. But the journey through childhood to adulthood is a lot less interesting because everyone has been through that. We have our own stories. That's why most people go to movies about things that can't happen in real life.

As far as the music selection was concerned, I was about to completely let the fact MMW was snubbed, along with Boxtrolls and Book of Life's offerings until I heard those two lousy songs from two different movies about the same subject. How can there be two "singer follows their dreams" movies (that no one ever heard of or watched) and have them both be nominated? Better question. How can a very mediocre, even for Maroon 5, Maroon 5 song even get nominated? Seriously, both of those songs were awful and proof the Academy doesn't know music from a hole in the ground. At least there wasn't any fakey world music in it this time.

And it really seems that Glory only won because of it making a political statement and they wanted to give Selma something to keep their pseudo-left leaning Hollywood Street Cred. I'm not saying it was a bad song, but considering other songs about that subject, there have been better outside of movies. I'd say at least the Glenn Campbell song had a heartwarming, yet depressing real life context. I'm almost shocked that got nothing. But really, Everything is Awesome was robbed. The performance alone was the highlight of the night. Seriously. The best performed song in an Oscar telecast always loses. Which brings me to...

Are these telecasts getting duller every year? Neil seemed uncharacteristically nervous when he was simply bombastic during the Tony's. It's like they let him have one song in the production, and that was the most interesting thing they did. And why the heck are the presenters so freaking dry? Kevin Hart at least managed to get some laughs in, but that was it. And why don't they have some animated characters present an award anymore? it certainly would have spiced this one up. At least the animation award wasn't presented as terribly as it was last year. An out of it old actress that probably don't even know what a cartoon is and that insufferable stoner? Did they pass the freaking joint around before presenting? Too bad this year they didn't let Zoe and The Rock do anything funny.