News Archive - February 2007

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2-26-2007

The votes are in...

Well, I'm sort of happy.  First up, Martin Scorsese finally won his Oscar for The Departed and to make the night even sweeter, he also pulled in best picture for the same film.  I'm happy, you're happy, Marty's happy.  Yay.

That's the only celebrating going on, though.  I was 2 for 6 and totally missed on my predictions for best actor/actress and supporting actor/actress.

I can't be overly disappointed that Forest Whitaker won best actor for The Last King of Scotland but I would really have liked to see Leo win even though he wasn't nominated for The Departed.  However, Helen Mirren for The Queen?  Whatever.  Hopefully she was good in it, not that I'll ever know...I'll never see any of the other 4 films that produced the best actress nominations anyway.

 I'm such a bastard.  Heh.

In the supporting roles we have Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine and Jennifer Hudson from Dreamgirls.  Now, Arkin is a really great actor and apparently the Academy felt they should throw him a bone, but I still maintain that Hounsou, Murphy and Wahlberg were the top 3 choices from that category.

As for Hudson, she's talented but all this does is further agenda of "American Idol."  And, really, don't encourage that show.

Looking down the rest of the list of winners last night I see The Departed also scored for adapted screenplay and achievement in film editing.  Nice.

It's also nice to see Pan's Labyrinth getting the nod for achievement in art direction, makeup and cinematography.  By all accounts it's a really good movie and looks incredible.  J-Ass gives it 2 thumbs up so it must be good.

So, now I guess we get to wait another year to find out who'll get screwed from this year's batch of films.  I'm betting 300 will be nominated, now let's see if it's worth the hype!

No news is good news

I was going to post all sorts of stories last week until I realized that, apparently, the only thing that happed is that Anna Nicole Smith died.  I refuse to cover that circus.

Maybe this week something interesting will happen.

2-19-2007

RIP

This is probably how I'm going to go; sitting in front of the TV and nobody will notice I'm dead for 6 or 7 months.  The TV will probably be turned to TNT and a "Law & Order" will be on when they knock in the door.

Oscar

We're only a week away from this year's Academy Awards and I figured it was time to take a look at who was nominated, see if I can make some predictions.  I think I'll just do the big 6; actor/actress, supporting actor/actress, film and director.  I may even leave out the commentary on why you'll never see any of the films nominated...or not.  We'll see.

Actor

For best actor we have the choice of DiCaprio for Blood Diamond, Ryan Goslin for Half Nelson, Peter O'Toole for Venus, Will Smith in The Pursuit of Happiness and Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland. 

Okay, forget what I said about not trash talking the films...Venus, Half Nelson and King?  I've never heard of the first two and can pretty much guarantee you'll never see them.  The last is a true story about a brutal despot of an African country.  As much as I love Forest Whitaker I gotta pass on this film.  That leaves Will Smith and DiCaprio.  I didn't see either film but I'd have a hard time believing that Leo was better in Diamond than he was in The Departed.  Love Smith also but I gotta think DiCaprio is a lock as he should have gotten one for Departed anyway.

Supporting Actor

Alan Arkin for Little Miss Sunshine, Jackie Earle Haley for Little Children, Djimon Hounsou for Blood Diamond, Eddy Murphy for Dreamgirls and Mark Wahlberg for The Departed.  You can't go wrong with Murphy, Hounsou or Wahlberg even though 98% of the people reading this will probably never even see Murphy in Dreamgirls. 

Hounsou is incredible in everything he does and I'd put him on this list for about any role he's ever been in, right down to his guest spot on "ER" years ago.  Murphy is one of the most talented guys in Hollywood today and Wahlberg tore it up in Departed.  I think Murphy has the edge but if the Academy can see it's way to rewarding Hounsou I won't be disappointed.

Actress

Penelope Cruz in Volver, Judi Dench for Notes on a Scandal, Helen Mirren for The Queen, Meryl Streep in The Devil Wears Prada and Kate Winslet for Little Children. 

Yawn.  Haven't seen any of the films, probably not going to see any of them.  And neither are you.  The only possibility on that list was Devil Wears Prada but since Anne Hathaway doesn't unleash the sweater kittens, meh.

So, not only do I not really care who wins, nor am I even remotely qualified to make a call I'm going to say Penelope Cruz because she's the only one on the list I'd sleep with.

Supporting Actress

Adriana Barraza for Babel, Cate Blanchett for Notes on a Scandal, Abigail Breslin in Little Miss Sunshine, Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls and Rinko Kikuchi also for Babel. 

I'm thinking maybe I need to see Babel, what with the Academy throwing all these award nominations at it.  Anyway, I'm gonna go with Abigail Breslin just because I want to see a 10-year-old give an acceptance speech.  I bet Blanchett wins, though.

Director

Alejandro González Iñárritu for Babel, Martin Scorsese for The Departed, Clint Eastwood for Letters from Iwo Jima, Stephen Frears for The Queen and Paul Greengrass for United 93.

Shit.  Scorsese or Eastwood.  Shit.  Well, Eastwood has a win so it's almost a requirement for Scorsese to win this year.  Besides, The Departed was a hell of a fuckin' movie.  As a matter of fact, if he doesn't win it will be a larger snub than Sean Astin not getting a Supporting Actor nomination for the Lord of the Rings films (yes, I'm still bitter).

Film

Babel, The Departed, Letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen.  I think this year you can't split the film and the director awards, so The Departed gets my vote.

Letters would be a good second choice, however, but any other outcome and the Academy can continue to sit and spin on on a sharp object.

2-6-2007

"The Internet is a communication tool used the world over where people can come together to bitch about movies and share pornography with one another." - Holden McNeil

Okay, I'm getting tired of reading and watching news reports every other day about porn on the interweb.  Newsflash, I was downloading porn off the internet in 1992.  This is not a new occurrence. 

The government had an opportunity about a year ago to put in a top level domain of XXX to segregate all the pornography out there.  Now, obviously, it was a double edged sword.  Not only would it have allowed easier filtering of content but it also created a better avenue for governments to force regulations, taxes and other laws on sites registering with those domains.  Ironically, one of the reasons they gave for turning it down was that it made porn too easy to find.

Fuckin' politicians.

With reports like this, NBC's airing "To Catch a Predator" 24x7 and MySpace becoming Satan's Gateway for Child Molesters, I can see the government writing some half-assed law that will do nothing to correct the problem but do everything to make citizens jump through more hoops.

Boston

As if a Yankee fan needed one more reason to hate Boston, did you guys read about the "Aqua Teen Hunger Force" advertisements that caused all the stir up there last week?  The fact that the Boston police couldn't figure out that the oversize Light Bright wasn't a terrorist bomb just points out the ridiculous world we're living in.

Apparently any device with lights, wires and a battery can now be a hoax device.  Since IEDs in Iraq are set off with cell phones can we get a ruling on the asshats driving around town talking on them even though it's illegal to do so?  Can we now make citizen arrests on all these people?  Please?

Newsflash, Boston, if terrorists were planting bombs to blow up your city you'd never find them till the buildings started dropping.  Putting a light-up character on the bomb, giving you the finger, is NOT how the terrorists roll.

Speaking of....

Things that light up and give you the finger, did you hear the latest in the ongoing saga of how Paris Hilton is really white trash with a better hair cut?  There's a video that's been leaked from ParisExposed.com showing her dancing at a party with her equally trashy sister before she calls someone a faggot and then utters the most off limits word of them all; the "N" word. 

ParisExposed.com sprang up back in January after some people bought out a storage locker that contained a ton of Paris Hilton's stuff.  Including videos of her taking a bath, getting fondled by some doucebag and the video linked above on Egotastic.  Supposedly there's stuff from medical records to videos of Paris and her friends snorting blow off some guys chest.

A judge put the kibosh on the site for now but I wouldn't be surprised to see it pop back up sooner, rather than later.  Either that or they'll just leak it for free.