Academy Awards

[MuppetQuilter]

Kidman was superb in The Hours. Virginia Woolf is such an important figure, both from an historical perspective and a sociological perspective, it was a tough role to tackle and she's right-- a gorgeous Aussie was risky casting there. It would have been easy to overplay Woolf's mental illness and instead Kidman gave a very controlled performance that didn't turn mental illness into a joke but really showed the struggle Woolf fought within herself all her life. It was masterful.

Haven't seen Far From Heaven, but I would have been quite happy to see Moore win for supporting actress in The Hours-- the film was packed with understated performances that were riviting. But Moore's career is just taking off, she'll get her shot.

Interesting that Hanks and Speilberg were both absent from the proceedings.

 

[CraigD]

Julianne Moore was wonderful in both films, and I was disappointed she didn't take home an award. I thought she (and Meryl Streep) were just as worthy as Kidman.

I personally think Julianne Moore should have won back in 97 for her wonderful performance in Boogie Nights, but oh well.

She's been nominated four times now and, like those other four time nominees Ed Harris and Martin Scorsese, will hopefully win sometime soon.


Craig

 

[frogboy4]

Wasn't Hanks in the previous Oscar winners segment? I remember hearing that he wouldn't be there. Maybe it was a cut-in, but I thought he was there.

Hanks sure is picking some really sculpted roles that others might not think are choice. I hope it continues. I enter every theater with a blank slate, wanting to like the movie and all its stars. He has done some very impressive work lately. Was Catch Me If You Can up for anything? Oh yeah, Walken.

 

[CraigD]

Yeah Hanks was there. I guess it was just a rumour about him not showing up.

I was surprised that Catch Me If You Can didn't receive an adapted screenplay nomination. I thought it was a very clever and throughly enjoyable film.

However, even though I'm a huge fan of Christopher Walken's, I was surprised he got nominated for it. He was good as usual, but the performance was nothing outstanding. I thought he filled a position in the nominations that could easily have gone to Dennis Quaid or Richard Gere.


Craig

 

[Chilly Down]

Originally posted by radionate
Actually Kander and Ebb were nominated for best song. They wrote one original song for Chicago, and it played in the very last scene of the movie, and over the credits.

Ahh. OK, sorry I missed that. Again, it's ironic that the only nominated song from that movie was one that only played over the credits.

Thats not true. The academy is making no such rules. In fact, most people believe the 3rd in the LOTR trilogy will take home the top honors next year.

I think you are getting confused with another story. LOTR wasn't nominated in the field of makeup because most of those members who nominate felt that they shouldn't be honored two years in a row for the same work they won for last year. The academy isn't going to create rules disqualifying sequals. It isn't, nor will that ever happen.

Sorry, dude, I can't make this stuff up if I wanted to. I read it in the LA Times in late January. They were trying to push the rule through for this year, but there was so much controversy they decided to wait till next year.

Hopefully, since you haven't heard about this yet, that means that this was one of those things that died quickly -- like (to use an unfortunate example) all the articles about "the new Muppet Show" that circulated in 2000.

For those who talked about Micheal Moore, my final comments are this: the argument that "Moore was booed by a bunch of babies who don't like free speech" doesn't work, because he gave his speech to a bunch of Hollywood liberals who gave him the award in the first place, and who love free speech to a fault. Even they knew he was out of line.

And I'll try to restrain myself from saying anything else on this subject matter, because all of your friendships mean more to me than any politics or celebrities do.

 

[Drtooth]

Originally posted by MuppetQuilter
Page 4 of a thread about the Oscars and no one has mentioned the clothes yet?

I was impressed with Catherine Zeta Jones. She's not one of my favorite actors, but anyone who gets on stage, under all those lights, in heels, and belts out a song nine months pregnant gets my respect!

I also liked it when Kirk Douglas told Michael to ennunciate clearly-- ya gotta like people who can laugh at themselves and upstage their kids at the same time.

Ughhhh.. I hate when people talk about fashion. So what if such and such wore such and such. It attracts more attention from the awards if you tune in to see celebrities wear clothes you'd never be able to aford, if you had every single dollar you ever had...

 

[Fozzie Bear]

Originally posted by Chilly Down
And I'll try to restrain myself from saying anything else on this subject matter, because all of your friendships mean more to me than any politics or celebrities do.

That's why I quit discussing it in general, and I think this thread should be kept to a minimum about that topic as well to keep more flames from rising and such. For those interested in discussing the war and their opinions surrrounding it, there is a thread that is dedicated to that topic (which I've bowed out of) at:

http://forum.muppetcentral.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6518

************
I did think it was neat that they had an animated section of the Oscars. Who knows, maybe they might one day do a section called "Animation and Puppetry" or something.

 

[wolfy]

Okay, I know I'm late to this thread, but I have to say this about the Oscars...(if I can and not get booed off the stage)

Michael Moore does have a right to speak his mind, but his timing was horrid. To talk like that the evening that five American soldiers had been captured and featured on Iraqi television, with a minimum of two others shot dead in the pictures, was not what we needed at that time. It was tactless and totally uncalled for.

Steve Martin's remarks about teamsters helping Moore into the trunk of his car were great, though.

The Brody/Berry kiss...what can I say but "I'm jealous!" And I have to say that I imagine there are thousands of women who wish they were Halle, and millions of guys who wish they were Adrian at that moment (and don't deny it)! The man had his chance and defintely took advantage of it! Hey, if I had a chance to kiss someone famous and sexy like that, I would too. Besides, no one mentioned that Kidmann asked Denzel if she could kiss him on the mouth instead of his hairy cheeks, or did you all miss that? And she got HER kiss (lucky...)

Polanski did direct a great film, and I feel that the audience was applauding the fact that he won for his film (and that he is a Holocost survivor as well as a Charles Manson victim) more than anything else. The fact that he had sex with a 13 year old girl more than 25 years ago and fled the country because her mother pressed prosecution didn't come into the fact that he is a great director. It doesn't say much about him PERSONALLY, but he is a great director.

Tasteless jokes. I didn't hear the "skin color" joke about Mickey, but I was gone for a little while during the show (putting the kid to bed). I returned just AFTER my favorite part, the montage of our lost stars, which I always get upset and cry over, because we have lost so many truly wonderful actors. What I DID hear was the VERY poor joke that Martin made afterward...not that he hoped to be up there someday, but that next they would be showing "a montage of people you only THOUGHT were dead." THAT was in totally poor taste, in my opinion...

While I truly enjoyed the beauty of Zeta-Jones and her win, I really believe she was "done wrong." I believe more that she should have been up for best ACTRESS, not Rene Z. Rene Z. should have been up for SUPPORTING actress with Queen Latifah, who should have won (my opinion) in that catagory. Anyone who can wear a dress that makes your breasts the prow of a ship deserves an Oscar...WHOA!

By the way...has anyone else noticed what Zelleweger does when she thinks she is going to win? Watch her some time...she does this little "fold hands in front of nose/face area with eyes looking up, wait for a count of three to five, then throw hands apart, scream while waving them wildly, jump up and pretend to cry to everyone while smirking inside all the while." It's like an act. We watched her do this with at least two award shows, the Golden Globes included...I even walked her through the GG awards step by step, which was weird to do, but my kids liked it.

Clothing aside, it wasn't a bad show, just very muted. Considering all that is going on in the world, I can understand why.

What I'd like to know, though, is this...do these stars really think that they are so important to the world that someone from Iraq would want to kill them when they have an award show? I figure the Iraqis would want to hit some other target, like the White House or something, that would make Americans seethe and boil. There are a lot of stars that people don't really worry about, which is a horrible thing to say, but you have to admit, somewhat true...I guess I mean that the stars really think too much of themselves and their "importance" to the world. To me, an American soldier is WAY more important...WAY more...
wolfy

 

[Fozzie Bear]

I saw Chicago and thought that Zelleweger had a much bigger role than Zeta-Jones. Though, I'm not sure how 'real' RZ is about winning things.

Theater people do bug me, though; the fake perfect speech, the fake sound of their laughter...like they're always acting. I never have got along well with most of them if they couldn't be more real.

Sometimes, it's good to be in character, then you just gotta get real.

 

[Aaron]

i did not like the oscars