On the Oscars

Let's just get down to the nitty gritty about the Oscars, why not?

Good
-Slumdog Millionaire came up huge. While some in India claim the plot etc is too cliche, it isn't really in America or the West, as the style is one that is predominant mainly in India. I have a feeling they would love Transporter 3, but alas, here it is same old same old.

Bad
-Nomination introductions for the acting awards. What is up with that? It is supposed to be the person of the opposite gender presents the award the next year. For example, if Heath Ledger were alive, he would present best supporting actress next year. Instead they did this huge elaborate ceremony with five past winners talking about awards and whatever, one for each person. When it came down to it, the only two I was really interested in hearing were Chris Walken for Supporting Actor (from Deer Hunter) and Ben Kingsley for Lead Actor (from Ghandi). Also, why wasn't Ben Kingsley nominated for anything? he was in like 6 movies (cancel out another because of the Love guru, so it's 4).

Bad
-Not only did Sean Penn win best actor, but (of course) he used the opportunity to grandstand on the issue of gay rights. I think he also called Obama gay ("I'm glad we have an elegant man as President"????). I should mention I am not against gay rights, it's just he phrased his whole argument alot like Clooney phrased his argument about the freedom of the press when he won for that forgettable anti-McCarthy movie. I wanted to punch Clooney in the face, and I've never liked Sen. McCarthy. While I would be happy if this man died, his life would forever be eulogized in an Eddie Vedder song, and he would be remembered as a martyr. He's always played an asshole, and that's what he is in real life. -- But what about Spacoli? Spacoli was an asshole, didn't anyone actually watch that movie? The only reason Mr. Hand liked him was 'cos he was an asshole too. Not to mention the Academy passed up an opportunity to give a career award to Frank Langella for a legitamately award worthy performance (so I've heard), likewise with Rourke.

Bad
-Hugh Jassman as host was subpar. This isn't the Tony's. The only semi-redeemable part was where he made Anne Hathaway act as Nixon.

Bad
-That huge musical number in the middle that mixed up a bunch of old oscar winning songs. If there's anything we learned from Moulin Rouge, it's that Baz Luhrman cannot be trusted to remix popular music. Almost entirely spoiled an on-screen appearance from Mean Girls' Seyfreid. Also, I know Beyonce sang "At Last" at the innauguration, and alot of people liked it (except the original performer), but this is the Oscars, not the innauguration.

Good
-Jack Black's presentation was awesome and awe inspiring. But then Kung Fu Panda didn't win anything despite being a far better movie than Wall-E. What is up with that academy?

Bad
-Wall-E won a ton of awards despite being a total piece of ass-crap. Was I the only one who didn't like that movie? And not because of the subliminal messaging throughout (Macs are awesome, Walmart is evil, if we kill the planet we can always come back when we're too fat for gravity to accept our body's movements and the soil is still too toxic for substinance farming). It was a boring movie. Yeah, the visuals were stunning, and yeah, maybe it should win some technical awards. But the movie was just that, an exercise. Besides that it was a boring, slow, plotless, characterless, settingless piece of crap.

Good
-Will Smith's live flub was amazing. I'm not saying that to make fun of him. He recovered awesomely and even let out some "boom goes the dynamite."

Bad
-Bill Mahr presented for best documentary (short then long) and of course had to talk about how awesome his own "documentary" wasn't nominated. A few problems. It wasn't a documentary, and probably wasn't funny enough to be a mockumentary. The premise is interesting but probably not really explored at all. He interviewed complete idiots and led them on with bad questions. No one can give you a definition of how the devil and the anti-christ are separate? Seriously? I can answer that question and I'm not even a church scholar. "The Devil" is a demon, a fallen angel who opposes God, much in the same way Lucifer, Beelzebub, and Satan are (yeah, they're all separate). Because none of them are God, they cannot be as strong or powerful, even when together (though their bickering prevents that). The anti-christ is simply the harbinger of the apocalypse. Fuck you Bill Mahr. Learn about your subject before you decide to condemn it.

Good
-Huge upset in Foreign language film land. I think I actually heard a monocle drop.

Good
-Kate Winslet finally won an oscar after being nominated like 50 times. Well you know what they always say, Nazi/Holocaust films aways win. I guess she gets bonus points for it also pretty much being a skin flick. Who would've thought she could pull off Nazi she-wolf so well?

Good
-Jerry Lewis is finally recognized for something outside of France. The man has been underappreciated for years. In addition to "recent revelations" that Deano was the true genius in Lewis and Martin, he was also held without cameos in both the Nutty Professor and Flubber. The man perfected the wacky scientist before it was even thought of.

Bad
-Yes, I know Peter Gabriel made a poor career choice in singing a song for Wall-E, but he should've at least sung his nominated song instead of that hack, John Legend.

Bad
-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was both over-nominated and over-won. Over-winning for this movie includes winning anything, which I think it won one or two only. Also, did anyone see the look on David Fincher's face on the close up during hte presentation of the Director award? "So this is what happens when I take the Machete Dildos out of my movies" Advice, put them back in.

That seems like enough. No comment on the whole Pheonix saga.

--Knuttel