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2014 Academy Awards - The OSCARS


Strider

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Finiahed 21-3 and won the first place gift bag at the Oscar party. I'm a little tipsy from all the wine and champagne and a little tired from the long week, so I won't say much.

But I thought the show was much more enjoyable overall than the last few have been. I really wasn't expecting Ellen Degeneres to be that good, but she was much better than the last time she hosted. I had to laugh at the pizza gag because I recognized the pizza place they came from: Big Momma's on Hollywood Blvd.

They left out some people in the In Memoriam section, as they always do, but it was much more tastefully presented than the past few years...until, that is, Bette Midler came out and sang that song.

As usual, checking out the clothes and hairstyles was a big part of the fun. Lots of fabulous women...and a few disasters, plastic surgery and otherwise. It was nice to see Matthew McConaughey and Jared Leto break up the monotony of penguin suits on the men's side. Why is everyone afraid of a little colour. Where is Johnny Weir when you need him?

The highlight of the night for me was Matthew McConaughey's acceptance speech. He nailed it; gracious, effusive, thoughtful, funny, not too long. All right, all right, all right. Jared Leto's tribute to his mother was a nice touch, too. Much better than his Golden Globe speech.

Last thought of the night: Liza Minnelli? :blink:

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The Acadamy Award show was in in the middle of the day here and I had it on in the background, taking notice when something interested me, or caught my attention.

I very much agree with Strider in many aspects. I enjoyed Ellen Degeneres as host, especially the pizza part and the hand around to pay for it ...... plus her pocketing a few items along the way :lol:

Cringe worthy disasters for me were Goldie Hawn's plastic/pretend face. Liza Minnelli, what the hell stratosphere is she on?! Whoopie Goldberg's outfit (wtf was that) and the absolute worst ...... Bette Midler singing that song. I don't know if she performed it well or not, because I hit the mute button the second I heard the opening notes.

Highlights ....... The Aussie winners, of course :bravo: but Cate Blanchet was well deserved and as gracious as ever and also Jarod Leto winning Best Supporting Actor.

My absolute highlight of the night ..... Mathew McConaughey's speech. As Strider said, he absolutely nailed it. He spoke like a 'mere humble mortal', plus he was entertaining. He also managed to thank the required people within his eloquently spoken and heart felt speech.

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A 110 year old Holocaust survivor can forgive.

So sad that Alice Herz-Sommer died a week before the Oscars.

I liked Gravity but it is the most overrated movie ever. How does Cuaron win when 99% of that movie was done on computers? Scorsese got screwed again!

Overrated? Fine, if you want to feel that way about it, go ahead. One man's trash is another man's treasure. But I had to chuckle when you rant about "Gravity"'s use of CGI and then bring up an even more overrated film like Scorsese's "Wolf of Wall St." that also has CGI all over it.

"Gravity" told its story with grace and visual poetry in an emotionally gripping taut 90 minutes, with not a wasted shot. The stunning opening 13-minute tracking shot alone was enough to warrant Alfonso Cuaron getting Best Director. The entire film was a tour de force of camera movement and making the viewer feel like part of the experience...that we were out in space with Sandra. He gave just enough back story to the character to give the film emotional resonance without overloading it with unecessary exposition, which is a flaw of many modern movies. Read any article about the creativity and persistence involved in the making of "Gravity" (American Cinematographer and Cinefex magazines are a couple of good places to start) and you will see that it's a little simplistic to criticize the movie being done on computers.

CGI does have a place in film, when it is used wisely, as it is in "Gravity". Hello? It's not as if the cast and crew can actually fly out into space and film the movie. CGI is useful for representing something that does not exist in the real world, or to recreate an environment that it would be physically impossible to film in...such as outer space.

I don't mind CGI when it is used for those reasons. What I can't stand is when CGI is used to fake things that used to be done for real...like battle scenes or even real locations. Take "Ben-Hur", for instance. One of the reasons that movie is still thrilling is that those are real horses and chariots that Charlton Heston is riding. That was a real track and set that chariot race was filmed on. Nowadays, when you see these big action epics like "Troy" or "300" or "Thor", the CGI makes everything look so fake that you are emotionally uninvolved. The slack storytelling usually inherent in these types of movies doesn't help.

Alfonso Cuaron had a good reason to use CGI. What is Martin Scorsese's excuse? There was no reason "Wolf of Wall St." needed to be slathered with CGI the way it was. But then, CGI was the least of "Wolf of Wall St." problems. A one-note movie that went on way too long. There was nothing new in that film that we didn't know before. Hmmm, people that work in Wall St. are assholes? Check. People high on coke are unpleasant to be around? Check. People that work in Wall St. and are loaded on coke are really loathsome? Double-check. Rich jerks like to snort coke out of hooker's assholes? Okay...that was kind of different.

Leo DiCaprio's character ran the gamut from A to A...there was no character arc, no curve, no backgrounding in how he got that way or any interest in what he was doing or why it was illegal. Jonah Hill's character was even worse...as portrayed, he was psychotic and it is farcical to think a guy like that could rise to a V.P. position in any corporation. The whole movie plays out like a frat boy's fantasy. There isn't one flesh-and-blood female character in the film. It's all bimbos with fake boobs. Really, it just gets tiring seeing scene after scene of guys drinking and doing drugs and acting like idiots, treating women like pieces of meat.

I'm not buying Scorsese's protestations that he was showing the damage that these guys did and how he was portraying the dark underbelly of capitalist greed. Maybe he thought he was doing that initially, but the whole film plays like a love letter to Jordan Belfort. Christ, even at the end, he is still the same scammer...he hasn't changed and has no remorse. The movie is three and a half hours spent with people you don't want to be with. Not one character in the film is worth emotionally investing in, which means you have basically wasted more than three hours of your life. Okay, there is one...Matthew McConaughey's character is pretty goofy and he perks up the film. But he's gone after 10 minutes or so and then you're left with the annoying Jonah Hill and the endless procession of bimbos.

In fact, there is so much gratuitous nudity and sex in "Wolf of Wall St.", it reminded me of Tom Wolfe's absurd "I Am Charlotte Simmons" novel, where old Mr. Wolfe was trying to show the kids how hep he still was and filled his book with bad sex scene after bad sex scene and tried his hand at rap lyrics. Scorsese seems to be trying to do the same thing with "Wolf of Wall St."...show the kids he's still got it and can get down and dirty with the best of them. But after awhile, all the naked flesh and f-bombs just get wearying and infantile and silly.

Scorsese even takes the easy way out and cheapens his argument by refusing to show exactly what it was that Jordan Belfort did and why it was illegal. All we get are the standard Wall Street movie cliches of people screaming into telephones and acting crazy. Every time there's a hint that some explanation of the financial chicanery might be forthcoming, Leo cracks to the camera about that being boring and the audience wouldn't understand it anyway. That's a bullshit copout by Scorsese. This is the guy who in "Goodfellas" and "Casino" spent plenty of time elaborately showing step-by-step the methodology and tactics of the gangsters and the casinos, and now all of a sudden, he gets cold feet?

There are other problems with "Wolf of Wall St." but it doesn't matter now anyway. The Oscars are over and done with. Like it or not, "Gravity" will still be taught in film schools twenty, fifty years from now, while "Wolf of Wall St." will be consigned to the dustbin along with "Wall Street II".

It was looking like Gravity would sweep everything - so it was a shock when Sandra Bullock didn't win. Not saying she deserved it more than Cate, just was unexpected after all the Gravity love.

Not unexpected nor was it a shock that Sandra Bullock didn't win. It was a shock only to those who weren't paying attention. Cate Blanchett was the odds-on favourite for months...she had the shortest odds in Vegas. She was even more of a lock than Jared Leto. She won Best Actress at the Golden Globes, the BAFTAS, the SAGs, practically every critics group and award show leading up to the Oscars...it was a no-brainer. Just because "Gravity" was winning all the technical awards early had no bearing on what was going to happen in the artistic categories. "Gravity" was expected to win for Visual Effects and Cinematography, etc., just as Cate and Jared and McConoughey were expected to win their categories.

The shock would have been if Sandra, or even more so, Meryl Streep, had won.

That's because Harvey Weinstein basically runs Hollywood.

Maybe 10-15 years ago, but he's not as feared as he used to be. He only won one Oscar this year, for "20 Feet from Stardom", and had nothing to do with whomever won Best Actress.

Post a pic when you're 81.

I plan on being dead by then. ;)

Seriously, as Led Dirigible pointed out, your remark is irrelevant as you missed the point. It was not about age, but her plastic surgery disaster. Look how great Sally Field, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Blythe Danner, Sidney Poitier, and others all look. And, they have fully functional use of their mouths. I feared for Kim that if she opened her mouth too far it would crack apart. planted was right, she looked like the Joker from Batman.

I really would like to know the psychology that goes into a woman deciding to do that to her face, even in the face of all the evidence out there in public on how horrible it looks. How anyone can look at Kim Novak or Goldie Hawn now and say, "that's what I want done to my face" is baffling.

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I plan on being dead by then. ;)

Seriously, as Led Dirigible pointed out, your remark is irrelevant as you missed the point. It was not about age, but her plastic surgery disaster. Look how great Sally Field, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Blythe Danner, Sidney Poitier, and others all look. And, they have fully functional use of their mouths. I feared for Kim that if she opened her mouth too far it would crack apart. planted was right, she looked like the Joker from Batman.

I really would like to know the psychology that goes into a woman deciding to do that to her face, even in the face of all the evidence out there in public on how horrible it looks. How anyone can look at Kim Novak or Goldie Hawn now and say, "that's what I want done to my face" is baffling.

Not me. I want to live a LONG time. :)

Hey, plastic surgery is the way of Hollywood, as long as it gets rid of the wrinkles. Like 'Family Guy' when Joan Rivers was on the red carpet and said she couldn't act in a porn film because all her body parts were under the age of 18. :lol:

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Guys, seriously. Kim Novak looked ridick, regardless of her age. There are some women in my 'circle' who are in their mid 40's that had have horrific work done.

After the glorious weekend I had with family, I am inspired to live well into my 90's....gracefully with a little luck.

May I quote my friend Billy (on Ms Midler's performance)?

"OMG. that "drag queen" looks just like Bette Midler!!"

LMFAO

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Nebraska totally snubbed. <_<

Yeah, that was a shame. "American Hustle" got zilch, too. Would have been nice to see them get at least one tip of the hat...Best Supporting or Screenplay or something.

At least Bruce Dern got one last time in the limelight.

I cannot believe I forgot all about them. Will go see results.

To be honest, you've had more important and pressing concerns on your mind. Good luck Thursday.

Here are the winners: http://oscar.go.com/nominees

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Yeah, that was a shame. "American Hustle" got zilch, too. Would have been nice to see them get at least one tip of the hat...Best Supporting or Screenplay or something.

At least Bruce Dern got one last time in the limelight.

Hollywood is all political correctness.

Bruce was a real ass in 'The Cowboys.' .

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