2007 Oscar Nominees...

[Hairy Lime]

I especially loved Nicholson NOT PLAYING Nicholson

Nicholson didn't play Nicholson in ABOUT SCHMIDT. Nor did he win a much deserved Oscar for that turn thanks to Adrian Broday in THE PIANIST.

 

[Kholi]

Man, if the Illusionist is better than The Prestige then The Prestige must be pretty bad. I had the displeasure of watching the Illusionist, and I kid you not, because they put the wrong film in the box at the videostore.
We had a dinner party the other night, and we we're supposed to watch Cat Ballou, since some friends hadn't seen it. Everyone was in food coma after dinner and we decided to watch The Illusionist anyway.
It actually killed my party...nobody stayed for the whole thing. I wanted to leave too, but it was my house! Those accents!

I'd suggest watching it before assuming that on another opinion. I wanted to watch Illustionist on the plane, and just about any movie on a plane will do for me. Needless to say, I huddled on the fold-down tray and went to sleep instead. Illusionist bored me to death.

The Prestige was great. Then again, that's just my opinion.

 

[Blaine]

Going back to the 60s they've only totally poo pooed up a few times. Many years, while I would have preferred a different movie, the one that won was also great. A couple of those years, they should have just cancelled the awards.

The BIG MISTAKES:
2006 Crash over Munich
2000 American Beauty over ANYTHING
1997 The English Patient over Fargo
1991 Dances With Wolves over Goodfellas

1986 Out of Africa over Witness
1984 Terms of Endearment (wrong astronaut movie) over The Right Stuff
1982 Chariots of Fire…gimme a break…
1981 Ordinary People (ordinary movie) over Raging Bull (extraordinary movie)
1980 Kramer vs Kramer over Apocalypse Now :shocked:
1978 Annie Hall over Star Wars (and I’m not that big a fan)

 

[J.R. Hudson]

Nicholson didn't play Nicholson in ABOUT SCHMIDT. Nor did he win a much deserved Oscar for that turn thanks to Adrian Broday in THE PIANIST.

Good point but personally, Daniel Day Lewis blew them all away with his performance in Gangs.

 

[Kholi]

Good point but personally, Daniel Day Lewis blew them all away with his performance in Gangs.

Omg. Did he ever. Gangs of New York was all Daniel Day, for me. I'm not savvy on the sexual content, cause I'm a sissy, but I loved that movie thanks to his performance.

 

[J.R. Hudson]

The Sexual Content ?

-

Yeah; just watching him play The Butcher is worth the price of admission

 

[They Live]

And no, Scorsesse shouldn't win it because "he's due." He should win it and the Departed should get best picture because it was an excellent film, depressing as hell ending or not. The film was not only incredibly thoughtful and intelligent but also surprisingly emotional for Scorsesse and damn entertaining (as always). I've long been a critic of Goodfellas because, despite being one of the most legitimatly fun films I've ever seen, I found it impossible to really sympathize with any of the characters nor did I think the movie had a ton to say (I know, sacrilige). The Departed is very reminicant of GF in terms of style but this time legitimatly felt for nearly every character in the movie, even Matt Damon's who was a complete bastard. It's a simply fantastic film and Scorsesse's best in years. So what if I don't like it as much as Taxi Driver? It still deserves to win and that man still deserves his Oscar.

I agree that The Departed is an amazing film. Flat out great. Don't get me wrong. What I'm saying is, I think he should of won it for Goodfellas, or Raging Bull (eh, actually the end was a bit stretched out in Bull, but that's another discussion). I feel that those movies, as a whole, are better and more memorable than The Departed. Obviously you disagree, no sweat. I just think it's interesting/funny that he will finally get the award for the The Departed when you consider the rest of his resume. Then again, time will tell. For example:

1981 Ordinary People (ordinary movie) over Raging Bull (extraordinary movie)

What the hell is Ordinary People?

 

[Kholi]

The Sexual Content ?

-

Yeah; just watching him play The Butcher is worth the price of admission

There are parts and phrases in the movie that made me cringe. The Butcher delivers a good portion of those lines. I'm just a baby, ya know!

 

[J.R. Hudson]

Ooohhhh

I got ya ! Yeah, those are some pretty strong words at times; lol !

 

[spidey]

ntbrandons got it wrong people watch nolan the prestige. it fun and tense i seen the movie 4 times in the theater good writing and acting and set design. also cinematography was great. PLUS it weaves facts of tesla in to it... man if edisons goons didnt mess with him thing how the world would be today.

also to say that movie was predictable how about every rodriguez film!


*long pause*

for chali and hudson!

the costanza AHA!

 

[ExtremeSleuth]

The Prestige was a slow... predictable unfun film... watch The Ilusionist... that was a good film.:lipsrseal

:shocked: :shocked: how was that predictable? i didnt see that ending coming. this and only one other film have done that. The Sixth Sense. The Prestige was very entertaining. I had one gripe about it, and that's just as a magician (the whole Chung Ling Soo part, revealing his famous trick :furious3 that's the ONLY thing that irked me. I like Illusionist too, but The Prestige's ending was FAR better than The Illusionists.

 

[capitalP]

When films like Shakespear in Love beats out The Thin Red Line or Saving Private Ryan or when Million Dollar Baby beats The Aviator ...

I remember both years, I was :kali: as hell. Don't get me wrong, Shakespear in Love was a good movie, more like a Life Time Original movie, but definitely not best picture worthy.

I think I'm the only one in the planet who didn't like Million Dollar Baby. Nothing about it moved me.

The BIG MISTAKES:
2006 Crash over Munich
2000 American Beauty over ANYTHING

Again, Crash was an ok movie, but not Best Picture worthy. And till this Day I still have nightwares about American Beauty winning over anything like you said LOL! Don't know what the big deal over that movie was, It was just a regular afterschool special type of screenplay and film overall...

But, as for the Departed, I'd have to say the best film I saw all year until I saw Blood Diamonds, Blood Diamonds for some reason hasn't hit big with the movie audience, it's a great film, it's real deep. And my Opinion, Mat Damon should of been nominated, best performance in the whole film, I love that guy.

Matt Damen gave what may be the best of his (that or The Talented Mr. Ripley).

I sooo agree with this. The Talented Mr. Ripley is such a great film...

 

[Kirk Gillock]

No, the date used is the date aired. It is assumed that the films nominated came out the previous physical year (they are always a year behind...er...ahead)

D'oh! I always thought they used the previous year in the title of the awards list since that's when the films were released. They do it that way in some other award shows.

My mistake.

 

[SPZ]

Interesting, and somehow ironic, if Scorcese wins an Oscar from a Hong-Kong Movie adaptation (and the Hong-Kong version is as good as the US version. I challenge anyone who hasn't seen the original to see it).

Not that I dislike Scorcese. I also tought the Aviator not winning best picture was unbelievable- his best movie in years.

The Prestige was predictable as hell. Never cared about the characters from beginning to end, so didn't care about the second "twist". The first one I believe everyone from the audience saw it coming right after the appearance of "The Machine".

Going to see Blood Diamond this week. So no opinion yet.

I'm surprised "Volver"was not nominated.

And Babel is a seriously pretentious and lacklustre film. It follows a similar narrative to "Crash" (2006), but on a "Global" level.

Seriously, tough, I do feel we are experiencing one of the weakest Oscar showings in recent years...

 

[bosindy]

spoiler alert*******************************

I am on business in a hotel and just watched the prestige on the pay service which takes away from films bc of the crappy TV. The first twist (the machine) was pretty obvious and the for the second twist, the assistant/bodyguard was obviously in costume but to be honest, I didn't figure out the twin thing. The characters were so unlikeable though that I didn't empathize with them and once it ended the felt like a cheap parlor trick.

I did watch casino royale last night ( stuck in a not so nice area of NJ, ) and I thought it was very well done and glad to see a Bond with an edge.

I think "The Proposition" should have been nominated (ducking) over "the Departed." I think it was a weak year for film and it will be to Scorsese's benefit.

 

[AloysiusK]

I really enjoyed American Beauty. I loved the performances, Conrad Hall's eyes, and I think Alan Ball is a terrific writer(I was a huge Six Feet Under groupee). I have to admit, though, that The Insider blew me away, and was definitely deserving. I love the ambient texture of the score.

 

[AloysiusK]

Hey Bosindy, ever hear of a spoiler alert?!

 

[Zack Birlew]

*Possible spoilers and movie taste opinions ahead!*



Am I the only one reeling from "Little Miss Sunshine" and "United 93" being up for anything? "Little Miss Sunshine" was another in the long series of Ishtar films (ie. Horrificly bad films), nothing about it was funny and as far as the disfunctional family theme went, it was TOO disfunctional. "United 93", in my opinion, was just plain wrong.

By the way, my family and I saw "Curse of the Golden Flower" this past weekend and we were amazed, just absolutely floored, and all the Academy is nominating it for is costumes? It could easily take home a lot more than that, especially art direction and cinematography. Snubbed, just plain snubbed.

I honestly think "Babel" is getting way too much credit, my family and I saw that one too over the weekend, it was rather "meh" and had some overly over-the-top moments (especially the orgasmic "bedpan peeing" kiss scene with the shot wife and Brad Pitt). Also, it had the "Heroes"-syndrome where the best story was the one about the Japanese characters.

Now, "The Departed" makes sense, I didn't like it so much but I can see why it would get a lot of praise.

Of course, I laughed a little seeing "Flags of Our Fathers" and "Letters from Iwo Jima" being crisscrossed around there. Weren't they filmed at the same time or something? Same style? In any case, we'll probably see that this weekend.

Of course, I'm rooting for Peter O' Toole for "Venus", I haven't seen it, but it's not looking like Peter will have too many other opportunities, though I did like him a lot in "Troy" which I think they should have tossed him the golden bone back then. But I think he should get it this time because even from the trailer I could see he did a wonderful job.

I was surprisingly let down by "Pan's Labyrinth", it wasn't what I expected at all. I was hoping more for the fantasy part and less of the whole war/rebellion part of it. The effects were wonderful though and out of all the choices, I'd be most pleased if it won for Best Foreign Film.

But in any case, whether the right movies win for the right reasons or not, I'm just wanting to see what Ellen Degeneres does with her Oscar hosting.

 

[DavidBeier]

Don't feel like quoteing everything so get ready for a steady ramble of opinions!

I personally don't think Jack deserved it for About Schmit. I think he was trying hard NOT to play himself which is good but ultimatly his performance seemed to amount to walking around looking befuddled. That's all well and good but I don't think it's Oscar-worthy. I think he can broaden his spectrum without simply turning off all his talents. I already mentioned The Joker as a role I think he should have gotten a nod for. A Few Good Men is another one that isn't token Jack (well, not entirely) but still VERY good. Yet another one is the under-appreciated Wolf. Bottom line is I'm glad Jack didn't win that year but I wasn't exactly excited over Brody getting it. As others have said, Daniel Day Lewis easily blew them both away but the Pianist had mojo going for it.

As far as Scorsesse films go, I know the general conses seems to be that Raging Bull is his best closely followed by Taxi Driver and Goodfellas but that's simply not how I see it. As I already explained, Goodfellas may well be the most entertaining movie ever but if I can't feel for any of the characters I can't love the film. As far as I'm concerned, The Departed is a better effort and is up there with Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. I know many see it as not living up to his previous gangster films but I still argue that the greater depth of characters and also the more restrained yet no less powerful camera work shows a real evolution of his talents.

As for Oscar travesties, some are horrid, others aren't. I have no problem with Shakespear in Love beating Saving Private Ryan since I felt they were about equal. I would have loved for The Thin Red Line to win but that sadley wasn't gonna happen. Chicago winning best picture was perhaps my biggest pet peeve, especially when the awards for writing, directing, and acting all went to the Pianist (apparently moviemaking is all about editing and set design).

As for last year, my biggest gripe is that Kingdom of Heaven's director's cut hadn't been released yet. If anyone has seen it, it makes the difference between a decent action flick and an all out masterpiece. I personally think it blows the hell out of Crash, Brokeback, or any of the others.

 

[They Live]

*Possible spoilers and movie taste opinions ahead!*
"United 93", in my opinion, was just plain wrong.

Of course you're entitled to your own opinion, but you're going to have to elaborate on this one for me. I'm curious as to why, in your opinion, that United 93 was just plain wrong?????