Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: So... Oscar Night

This is topic So... Oscar Night in forum Film-Yak at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by John Lasher (Member # 968) on 02-24-2008, 11:28 PM:

...yeah. Kinda surprised not to see any posts about it here.

I didn't watch (no TV in my apartment).

I went to see Barry Manilow. They upgraded my seat (twice!) I was about ten feet from the stage, good show, felt a little short, but good show.

Anyway, No Country For Old Men won for Picture/Director

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-25-2008, 01:05 AM:

I was surprised about Tilda Swinton for best supporting actress in Michael Clayton. IMHO her performance was the one weak link in an otherwise respectable film (and proof that Michael Douglas is adapting to upper-middle age roles well, just as Jack Nicholson did). I found her completely unconvincing: lines delivered badly, not making consistent eye contact with the people she was supposed to be talking to, she almost lapsed into an English accent once or twice and in the final board meeting scene her clothes didn't even seem to fit her properly!

Posted by Scott McGuire (Member # 4508) on 02-25-2008, 01:17 AM:

I've worked two manilow concerts and they sucked even getting paid to be there. He was an ass, we were told that we were not aloud to look at him and only his body gard and prompeter we aloud in his dressing room hall way and the tunell leading to that stage.

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-25-2008, 02:06 AM:

I didn't really watch the Oscars but I had it on a nearby set as I was working on some animation. What was that Tildo Swinton trying to do? Make herself as repugnant as possible for Oscar night? Man, talk about a train wreck in the looks department. I feel that Micheal Clayton should have won the awards for worst story, least interesting characters, shortest movie ever to feel like 9 hours and of course boringest movie. They showed some clips from Juno (a movie which I got sick of after the first 10 minutes) with the girls calling each other "dude". Ug. That movie would have been great if they all caught on fire for no reason. I was glad it didn't win, but I knew that the stripper whorebitch who wrote it would win.

Does the Bourne Identity or whatever the 3rd one is called really have sound that is impressive enough to win awards? I'm amazed it didn't win best cinematography. It did win best editing even though it was cutting way too fast in the clips they showed.

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 02-25-2008, 02:38 AM:

The editing in THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM was actually really good. But it can't be appreciated by looking at a short clip or even a whole scene. What makes it so impressive is its total control of pace.

That being said, the best edited movie of the year was actually PLANET TERROR.

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 02-25-2008, 03:16 AM:

quote: Scott McGuire
...only his body gard and prompeter we aloud in his dressing room...

What's a "prompeter"? Does it pay well, 'cause I'm looking for a new job. [Big Grin]

I was hoping "No Country For Old Men" would have won in the editing category. It would have been interesting to see who would go on stage to accept the award. "Accepting the award for Roderick Jaynes is...Joel & Ethan Coen." [Wink]

And sound re-recording mixer Kevin O'Connell ("Transformers") lost AGAIN. The dude's been nominated an outrageous TWENTY times!

Posted by Joshua Waaland (Member # 287) on 02-25-2008, 06:49 AM:

It was pretty boring as usual. Jon Stewart was somewhat funny but his jokes were laced with his usual political drivel that he has come so much to rely on.

As usual I haven't seen any of the films that won big last night. Since I don't work in a theater anymore I don't see nearly the amount of films I used to. I used to see quite a few good movies that I would have never went and paid to watch had I not worked there because the stories didn't interest me. After I watched them though I was surprised at how good they were. Most of the big winners last night didn't look interesting to me and so I didn't go see them. Now I'll have to rent them and see if they are good as they made them out to be.

Posted by Tim Reed (Member # 137) on 02-25-2008, 07:53 AM:

Michael, I was going to ask the same question. [Wink]

quote: Michael Coate
Joel & Ethan Coen

This is another thing. Why does it always take two of them to direct a movie? Do they only halfway measure up, individually? [Confused]

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-25-2008, 09:04 AM:

Whatever the Coens are doing -if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Joel and Ethan Coen have always collaborated as equals in the writing and directing of their projects, although in the past one would get the on screen credit for writing and the other have the directing credit.

It's only now that the AMPAS and DGA are kind of being forced to get the stick out of their butts on their rules that two people cannot actually co-direct a movie that attitudes are starting to change and the truth can be acknowledged.

I'm not a huge Robert Rodriquez fan, but I applaud his move of tearing up his DGA card when they didn't want him to give Frank Miller a co-director's credit for Sin City. Who gives a shit!? But that kind of territorial pissy crap with credits has been going on for decades.

It's just like the Writer's Guild controversy regarding Tom Mankiewicz' work on Superman. He did most of the screenplay work and revisions. But four other guys got the actual screen writing credit. The WGA cried foul when Mankiewicz was given a "Creative Consultant" title in the opening credits.

Anyway, I think the Coen brothers should be able to use whatever system they feel like using to make their movies. Their system has worked for the past 25 years.

Posted by Mike Heenan (Member # 392) on 02-25-2008, 09:14 AM:

I dont really know how the Guilds work, but I think Robert Rodriguez is directing a remake of Barbarella (gag), which is Paramount I believe, so since he publicly dissed the DGA, could he in fact still direct it? Or did he just use a lot of tape when the cameras and newspeople left to fix his DGA card back up? [Razz]

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 02-25-2008, 11:48 AM:

quote: Michael Coate
I was hoping "No Country For Old Men" would have won in the editing category. It would have been interesting to see who would go on stage to accept the award. "Accepting the award for Roderick Jaynes is...Joel & Ethan Coen."

I think my favorite part of the entire show was the picture they had of Roderick Jaynes when they were listing the nominees. I love that the Coens have started to create this behind-the-scenes mythology for their movies, with Roderick Jaynes and Mortimer Young. Those guys are good at the whole humor thing.

Posted by Scott Jentsch (Member # 1681) on 02-25-2008, 12:19 PM:

I ranted about the length and pacing of the awards show again this year on my site, but I don't think the Academy reads it... [Smile]

Jon Stewart was useless, the speeches were mostly the rattling off of names no one knows, and there was one too many musical numbers. They need to hire the editors that were nominated, time-delay the broadcast by 30-60 minutes, and cut that sucker down to a more reasonable length.

I want to see movie stars enjoying themselves and remember the past year in movies. If they have to have an emcee, then they should hire Robin Williams and broadcast the show on a channel that can let him go to town. There should be no script, everyone should have to improv, and no names mentioned in acceptance speeches at all.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-25-2008, 01:15 PM:

Don't any of you people realize there's already a thread about the Oscars? It's kind of misleading though because it says "2007 Oscar nominees" -- which is correct, however.

quote: Scott Jentsch
I want to see movie stars enjoying themselves and remember the past year in movies. If they have to have an emcee, then they should hire Robin Williams and broadcast the show on a channel that can let him go to town. There should be no script, everyone should have to improv, and no names mentioned in acceptance speeches at all.

Good ideas, except without allowing names in acceptance speeches there'd be no speeches at all. Wait, that's still a good idea.

I don't like Robin Williams as MC though. He's too manic. I'll bet it won't be long before they ask Howie Mandel to do it. They could have the winners in the "Deal or No Deal" briefcases. "And the winner is....open the case."

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-25-2008, 02:09 PM:

quote: Mike Blakesley
Don't any of you people realize there's already a thread about the Oscars?

That's what the "Merge Threads" button is for. Oh wait, that's vBulletin.

Anyway, who were those two morons trying to be funny by pretending to be Hally Berry, etc? I have never seen either of them and they weren't introduced as themselves. They certainly have no comical talent.

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 02-25-2008, 02:43 PM:

Wow. That's Seth Rogen and Jonah Hill. They certainly have comic talent. In fact, they were both in KNOCKED UP, which was the funniest movie of last year.

Posted by Bobby Henderson (Member # 840) on 02-25-2008, 02:47 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
Anyway, who were those two morons trying to be funny by pretending to be Hally Berry, etc?

They were both in Superbad and The 40 Year Old Virgin. The taller guy, Seth Rogan, is pretty funny -at least when he's given the right material.

Most Oscar presentation skits are just plain unfunny. Even with professional writers back from the strike writing that crap. It won't matter if you have the greatest comedian of all time up there trying to deal with it. Awards presentation just sucks as a situation for comedy.

I will say Steve Carrel's bit was humorous, but it seemed more like something he came up with on his own rather than some other fart feeding him some lines to say.

Posted by Joseph L. Kleiman (Member # 3097) on 02-25-2008, 03:08 PM:

Owen Wilson looked like he was high on pain killers. He had to squint to read the teleprompter and then did a horrible job of doing so. This was not the right way to re-kickstart his career.

Posted by Mike Blakesley (Member # 26) on 02-25-2008, 03:11 PM:

Actors never look or sound good on the Oscars. They always sound stilted and obvious. Most of the time they seem to have never read their material before coming to the podium.

Then again they aren't getting 10 or 12 million bucks to present an Oscar either and the ladies are wearing borrowed clothes and jewelry, so what do we expect?

Posted by Mike Schindler (Member # 1309) on 02-25-2008, 03:14 PM:

quote: Bobby Henderson
Seth Rogan, is pretty funny -at least when he's given the right material.

And even when he isn't given good material, he can generate his own. He wrote SUPERBAD, and was also a writer on UNDECLARED and DA ALI G SHOW.

Posted by Dennis Benjamin (Member # 1137) on 02-25-2008, 03:40 PM:

I think that the best movie of 2007 won the award for best picture. So I was pretty happy about that. That French girl that won Best Actress, I need to see a few more of her movies [Wink]

Oh yeah, Barry Manilow. What an ass. When he came to the Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland (where his husband is from) - he had the stage crew tape up his dressing room so no-one could see him until he came out for his show. What a diva. [puke]

Posted by Joe Redifer (Member # 3) on 02-25-2008, 04:15 PM:

The only thing I remember about Superbad is that the poster was just a headshot of some fat dude with a dopey expression. Wow. Super creative! Maybe that was Knocked Up. Oh well, same thing. Wasn't Superbad the movie with the drawings of dicks in the credits? I remember trying to watch it, but it was so unfunny and lame that I had to stop in order to go diarrhea (which was much more entertaining, by the way).

Posted by Leo Enticknap (Member # 534) on 02-25-2008, 05:06 PM:

quote: Joe Redifer
What was that Tildo Swinton trying to do? Make herself as repugnant as possible for Oscar night? Man, talk about a train wreck in the looks department.

Saw a clip on the box at lunchtime, and I see what you mean! If Gollum had been a female character, she'd have been perfect for the role...

Posted by Michael Coate (Member # 757) on 02-25-2008, 05:18 PM:

quote: Mike Schindler
I think my favorite part of the entire show was the picture they had of Roderick Jaynes when they were listing the nominees.

Yeah, that got a big laugh from me. I was watching the show in a restaurant and a couple (non film-industry types) near me had no idea why I was laughing.

quote: Tim Reed
This is another thing. Why does it always take two of them to direct a movie? Do they only halfway measure up, individually?

One of them yells "Action!" and the other yells "Cut!"

Posted by Adam Martin (Member # 641) on 02-25-2008, 07:21 PM:

See other thread.