Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Best director: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Best actor: Sean Penn - Milk
Best actress: Kate Winslet - The Reader
Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Best animated feature film: Wall-E
Best foreign language film: Departures - Japan
Best documentary feature: Man on Wire
What does everyone think of the results?
I’m a bit disappointed that The Wrestler didn’t do better (Mickey Rourke was excellent in it) and its a shame Waltz with Bashir didn’t win best foreign film (if it had we’d have made a fortune on Wednesday). Slumdog Millionaire would have been my choice for Best Picture though and its nice to see that Heath Ledger get the Best supporting actor.
I’m surprised at the best foreign language one. I would have expected Waltz with Bashir, or maybe The Class… but then I have not seen Departures - just never heard of it before!
I’m happy about Slumdog and Heath too, as well as Winslet and Penn.
However, I maintain my campaign against Wall-E. I just don’t get what the big deal is; it’s incredibly run-of-the-mill stuff! Though not worthy of an Oscar either, Kung Fu Panda kicks its ass in my opinion.
[quote=“OPR”]I’m happy about Slumdog and Heath too, as well as Winslet and Penn.
However, I maintain my campaign against Wall-E. I just don’t get what the big deal is; it’s incredibly run-of-the-mill stuff! Though not worthy of an Oscar either, Kung Fu Panda kicks its ass in my opinion.[/quote]
Oh Owen… Aiden will never deem you awesome again The first half of Wall-E was absolute magic :!: And to claim that Kung Fu Panda is even at the same level, let alone better, is to do yourself a disservice
Admittedly, it should have been up against the Waltzer, but I’m not going to blame it for that - it probably would have won anyway!
I’m still not sure about the Loselett win - seems to me like a sympathy vote after missing out five times :-s
Nah, I actually agree with Owen. I was talking to George about this before, although he was like :shock:. The first 40 mins of Wall-E absolutely spanked Kung Fu Panda to bits and then it just gets a lot less entertaining after that. Also the fact the animators of Kung Fu Panda took a 6 hour kung fu class is darn impressive, never mind the awesome visual effects, excellent artwork and Jack Black’s brilliant voice acting (well just being himself).
Overall Kung Fu Panda was the better film. If Wall-E had just been 40 mins long it would have easily been the worthy winner.
I always thought it would have been ‘nice’ to have Wall-E not to have got on the spaceship and spent another hour or so of the film pining for Eve (which would equate to like 400 years in the film) and then he finally turns himself off i.e. commits suicide, since he doesn’t think Eve will come back and can’t go on any longer. However, a few days after that Eve arrives to find Wall-E dead. The End. Now that is an Oscar worthy film :D. Wall-E was still good but after seeing the first 40 mins the rest of the film just couldn’t compare.
And, in reciprocity, I do indeed grant that the first part of Wall-E was very good. It was everything after he leaves earth that pissed me off; hated every subsequent minute.
However, I think if it had been a full 90-min feature of innocently-exploring-planet stuff it would’ve probably gotten old and dull. Though your suicide idea is interesting, Aiden; a slight variation on Pixar’s usual slant. Ha!
Lol. Hey I love Disney films and quite like a happy ending every now and again but I just think that it needed that kind of ending to do the rest of the film justice. In the same way Han Solo should have died in Star Wars Episode 6. And also, in The Lion King, Mufasa died plus, in Bambie, Bambie’s mother passes away so it’s not like kids can’t handle a bit of sadness.
… I think the main character of the film spending the second half becoming increasingly depressed and lonely on an abandoned world before eventually realising that his cold empty life is all he has to look forward to and committing suicide is a little bit worse than Bambie or the Lion King.
I was considering (yes I do have this all planned out) he (WALL-E) could stop compacting rubbish and start creating it, plus he would never be bothered to fully recharge, giving the illusion that he was tired and he could start drinking engine oil (robot form of alcohol). Then maybe in his severe bout of depression and drug abuse he kills his only friend the little bug since he isn’t watching where he is going (I know he almost squished him in the film). That would be the last straw.
I’m sure we could throw in a few musical numbers to keep the kids entertained :D. It was just after those wonderful 40 mins the rest of the film was a cop out to keep the kids happy. And kids deal with pain all the time - getting bullied and losing hamsters. There is no reason to hide the harsh reality of the real world from them. I’m sure they can handle it.
Oh and George you’re forgetting the fact that Eve comes back for him so if he had only waited a couple more days. The moral of the story: don’t give up hope. It’s like a children’s version of The Shawshank Redemption but without the happy ending and no rape.
Yeah of course there was rape. You really did miss most of the Shawshank Redemtion. I’m still shocked that you didn’t know Andy Dufresne was wrongfully imprisoned. It kinda makes the entire film pointless. I love how we/I have gone from Oscars 2009 → The Lion King → drug addicted robots → prison rape → realising Kathryn watched The Shawshank Redemption but did actually watch it :shock:.
Anywho, back to the Oscars. Waltz with Bashir should have been nominated for Best Animation and it should have won. At the very least it should have won the Oscar it was nominated for i.e. Best Foreign Language Film.
Not sure whether I agree that it should have won best animation but it should definitely have been nominated. You get the impression the oscars are rather narrow minded about animation films though.
[quote=“Aiden”]Yeah of course there was rape. You really did miss most of the Shawshank Redemtion. I’m still shocked that you didn’t know Andy Dufresne was wrongfully imprisoned. It kinda makes the entire film pointless. I love how we/I have gone from Oscars 2009 → The Lion King → drug addicted robots → prison rape → realising Kathryn watched The Shawshank Redemption but did actually watch it :shock:.
Anywho, back to the Oscars. Waltz with Bashir should have been nominated for Best Animation and it should have won. At the very least it should have won the Oscar it was nominated for i.e. Best Foreign Language Film.[/quote]
I thought it was Natalie who didn’t know about the wrongful imprisonment? Or was it both of them :?: Any who, I think that anal rape should definitely be kept out of Wall-E… I prefer the dodgy fat people to that!
Not sure whether I agree that it should have won best animation but it should definitely have been nominated. You get the impression the oscars are rather narrow minded about animation films though.[/quote]
They nominated persopolis last year so it’s not unreasonable to expect Waltz to be up for best animation, but Wall-E deserved it’s win. But really both of these should have been up for best picture.
Aidens wrong (and losing cool points rapidly in this thread) Wall-E didn’t drop in quality after 40 mins. It dropped in quality after 20 mins and then again after another 20. But those first 20mins are among the best put to 35mm this decade if it carried on like that it would have kicked Toy Story’s butt and be the best animation ever. Kong Fu panda was good but it was nothing special and if it wasn’t for the sequels they are planning in a few years time nobody would remember it. The second half of Wall-E is as good as KFP anyway.
Anyway back to the rest of the oscars here’s my uncensered thoughts.
**Best picture: Slumdog Millionaire **
Well done to the academy for voting for the only film worthy of nomination, the fuck ups were all in the naminations here. Best director: Danny Boyle - Slumdog Millionaire
Pretty much the same here, at least their an arguement for David fincher being nominated, there was nothing wrong with his direction of Benjamin Button.
**Best actor: Sean Penn - Milk **
And the award for fuck-up of the year goes to… Best actor. Definitely should have went to mickey rourke, if only so he could dedicate it to his dog which died last week. (Note: I haven’t seen the visitor)
**Best actress: Kate Winslet - The Reader **
Why didn’t she speak german? Is she not aware that germans don’t speak english in german acsents? I’ve only seen changeing and the reader so I won’t judge the academy to harshly (yet), but so far I prefer Angelina. Still Kate’s win does give alot of irony to this extras clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEnjiGwVw6o
**Best supporting actor: Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight **
I haven’t seen doubt or Revolutionary Road but I doubt I’ll be complaining about Heath’s win.
**Best supporting actress: Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona **
My current favourite is Marisa Tomei for the wrestler but I’ve not seen Doubt (2 nominies) or Vicky Crinstina. So no judgement yet.
**Best animated feature film: Wall-E **
I’m happy with this but to me this catagory is just an excuse to snub any good animated film that comes along
**Best foreign language film: Departures - Japan **
I’ve only seen Waltz but again this catagory is just an excuse to snub any good foreign film that comes along.
I got issues with some of the minor catagories but this post has went on enough so I’ll leave them for another time.
I’m not sure that Pixar will ever be able to beat the genius that is Toy Story, but I did enjoy Wall-e a lot, but haven’t seen Kung Fu Panda yet so can’t really judge.
As for most of the awards I haven’t seen a lot of the films but I am glad that Slumdog won the big ones as it is one of the best films I have seen in a while and it definitely deserved to win.
Has anyone seen the winner of the best foreign film? From what I have heard Waltz would have been a worthy winner but I will reserve judgment on that for a few hours until I have seen it.
As for Kate Winslet, it is probably a very good performance but you can’t help thinking that she may have got it because of the amount of times that she has missed out on it.
The first 20 mins of Wall-E is closer than I thought they would ever come
Waltz and Baader Meinhof are the only ones to be released in the uk. The Class comes out this friday. Revanche comes out 20th of march. IMDB doesn’t have the uk release date for Departures (the winner).
Not sure whether I agree that it should have won best animation but it should definitely have been nominated. You get the impression the oscars are rather narrow minded about animation films though.
Aidens wrong (and losing cool points rapidly in this thread) Wall-E didn’t drop in quality after 40 mins. It dropped in quality after 20 mins and then again after another 20. But those first 20mins are among the best put to 35mm this decade if it carried on like that it would have kicked Toy Story’s butt and be the best animation ever. [/quote]
I agree that the first 20 mins are better than the subsequent 20 mins but there is a far more noticeable drop in awesomeness after the latter 20 mins compared to the former. Plus you’re right that those 20 mins are some of the best 20 mins ever but I always look at a film considering the whole thing. However, we’ll have to agree to disagree since I think KFP easily beats the remaining 60 mins of Wall-E. And for that it is the better film.
The first half of Wall-E was absolute magic :!: And to claim that Kung Fu Panda is even at the same level, let alone better, is to do yourself a disservice 