Dan the Movie Man

Well the Oscar winners have been announced, and unfortunatly it was another shitty, routine year (and according to a mate the ceremony was once again boring too) and I’v become even more disinterested in this once exciting event. In fact I practically don’t care for this award show anymore, I think It’ll just be the Emmy’s that will be really good for now. Yeah why not I mean this year Boardwalk Empire will be leading the race and Steve Buscemi should win Best Actor. Or the Guy’s Choice Awards, the most superficial, but extremely funny awards show, and the Globes was only really good lately with Ricky Gervais hosting, so if they keep giving it to him I’ll be interested, but nomination wise meh. Which is a shame, cause I used to really like the Oscars and the Oscar race, and the ceremony was always good, but if it keeps going down the path it’s going then I’m gonna become more and more disinterested in it until I finally really don’t care.

The Winners

Best Picture

The King’s Speech

Ok Colin Firth won Best Actor, which he probably deserved, but was this two hour film about a King with a speech impediment really the best picture of the year? Even if I like it I bet it isn’t half as good as The Social Network.

Up Against: The Social Network, Black Swan, True Grit, 127 Hours, The Fighter, The Kids Are Alright, Winters Bone, Toy Story 3.

What Deserved To Win? The Social Network, because of it’s relevance to our times, how it manages to turn a rather dull idea of how a website is created and turn it into high drama, and manages to be wildly entertaining at the same time.

Best Director

Tom Hooper-The King’s Speech

What would have been harder to make, a fine actor like Colin Firth act good or getting Natalie Portman to perform ballet, lesbanism too, not to mention those brilliant original shots Darren Aranofsky did in Black Swan?!

Up Against: David Fincher for The Social Network, Darren Aranofsky for Black Swan, The Coen Brothers for True Grit and David O. Russell for The Fighter.

Who Deserved To Win? Darren Aranofsky, for the effort, not to mention years it took to finally be able to make this wondourous and scary thriller.

Best Actor

Colin Firth-The King’s Speech

Yes I’m sure he’s good in this, but I’m betting Firth deserved it more for A Single Man last year and the Academy could have given it to Jeff Bridges this year (even though I wasn’t blown away by his take on Rooster Cogburn) but he was more entertaining in True Grit than he was in Crazy Heart. Though I wanted Jesse Eisenberg to win, I can understand if Firth was better, even if I’ll like Eisenberg more.

Up Against: Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network, Jeff Bridges for True Grit, James Franco for 127 Hours and Javier Bardem for Biutiful.

Who Deserved To Win? Probably Firth. I’v got no real beef with this win.

Best Actress

Natalie Portman-Black Swan

A win totally deserved, Portman gives it her all in this fiery, tragic performance, still managing to be as beautiful as she always is, despite how emotionally draining the role is. I haven’t been this impressed (or liked) Portman in anything since her debut in Leon.

Up Against: Annette Benning for The Kids Are Alright, Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole, Jennifer Lawrence for Winters Bone and Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine.

Who Deserved To Win? Portman all the way. 

Best Supporting Actor

Christian Bale-The Fighter

While he was watchable in this, I do also think he over acted and wasn’t as good as Mark Wahlberg (can’t believe I’m saying this), but then again all Iv really liked Bale in was in American Psycho so. The one I felt deserved to win was Jeremy Renner for his scene stealing performance in the snubbed fine crime drama The Town.

Up Against: Jeremy Renner for The Town, Geoffrey Rush for The King’s Speech, Mark Ruffalo for The Kids Are Alright and John Hawkes for Winters Bone.

Who Deserved To Win? Renner, for his magnetic, scene stealing in The Town, should have stolen the trophy right off Bale during the ceremony. Sure Bale lost weight, but he loses weight all the time, it’s like me drinking coke everyday, nothing for him.

Best Supporting Actress

Melissa Leo-The Fighter

To be honest I don’t really remember Leo’s performance in this all that well. I just knew she was a bitchy ma and that was about it. Now Jacki Weaver, all she really did was act all nice, when really she was terryifying and pulled the scariest expressions on her face, but she was waay more memorable in Animal Kingdom.

Up Against: Jacki Weaver for Animal Kingdom, Hailee Steinfeld for True Grit, Amy Adams for The Fighter and Helenna Bonham Carter for The King’s Speech.

Who Deserved To Win? Weaver for her absolute scary performance as the matriarch of a screwed up Aussie crime family. If looks could kill.

Best Animated Film

Toy Story 3

No suprise there. Rightly deserved, this touching Pixar film was definetly the best animated film of the year.

Up Against: How To Train Your Dragon and The Illusionist.

What Deserved To Win? Toy Story 3.

Well it’s that time of the year again, Hollywood’s biggest night for movies as the 83rd annual Academy Awards air in the states tonight (or if you have Sky Movies will air here from Midday), and for the first time ever I’m not that interested in the award show. At least not like I normally am. In the past I’d look extremely forward to this event, would stay up late on a school night and even tape em, or in more recent years since only airing on Sky would try and see em at a friend’s house. But this year I’m not as excited, and the reasons not because Scott Pilgrim got over looked by the Academy (I knew from the get go that it wouldn’t get any awards consideration). No, it was after watching the last Oscars and seeing the very overrated and extremely dull Hurt Locker winning practically everything, and being soo annoyed (not to mention kind of bored by the ceremony itself) that I started to become disinterested in the Oscars, and it made me realise how much the Oscars have really screwed up in the past. Alfred Hitchcock never won an Oscar for Best Director (Although he got an Honorary Oscar) that’s still not the same, Saving Private Ryan losing Best Picture to Shakespeare In Love, the rap group Three 6 Mafia winning an Oscar before Martin Scorsese! It goes on. Oh sure there have been wins that I have liked or were very much deserved: Annie Hall winning Best Picture, All About Eve, How Green Was My Valley, Casablanca, The Apartment, The Godfather’s I & II, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Rainman, Forrest Gump (Yes I truly think it deserved Best Picture), American Beauty; James Stewart and Katherine Hepburn my fave actor and actress of all time receiving golden statues (Hepburn four and to this day the actor with the most wins); and this year’s Oscars has my second favourite film (and in my opinion best) of the year The Social Network being a popular contender to win Best Picture, although it could be beaten by the Colin Firth inspirational drama The King’s Speech, in which case if it does, and sweeps all the Oscars and becomes a repeat of last year, then I’ll become even more disinterested in the Oscars. I’ll know in a few hours whether the Academy will make up for their decisons last year, or make it worse!