Alright, I admit it, I’m too lazy to cut and paste the blog post I just wrote about this year’s Oscar Nominations on my other blog here. Sorry, I’m just too tired, and until WordPress re-instates the blog-sharing feature, I’m gonna have to just leave you with a link. So, if you wanna read what I think about this morning’s Oscar nominations (Yay, Gary Oldman! Boo, “The Ides of March” and “Margin Call”!) you’re gonna have to click here now.
See ya on the other side, amigos…
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OK…I know we’ve only seen like three of this year’s big award-season contenders (“Toy Story 3”, “Hereafter” and “The Social Network”, which were all awesome, by the way) and therefore, we probably shouldn’t be making any broad, sweeping predictions yet, but, mark my words, amigos, Christopher Nolan will win an Oscar for “Inception”.
Whether it’s for writing, directing or producing is still to be determined, but, the mad genius behind “Memento”, “The Prestige” and the Christian Bale “Batman” movies has really outdone himself with “Inception”, and for that reason alone, I see many gold statues in Nolan’s future. And boy does he deserve them!
Taut, suspenseful, positively gorgeous to look at, and populated by the coolest indie cast this side of Sundance, “Inception” is the best movie we’ve seen this year. Yep, I said it, the best. Of course, most of you probably already know this since you saw the movie when it came out, you know, last summer.
But, babysitters being increasingly hard to come by, Christine and I didn’t get to see “Inception” on the big screen until last week at Warner Brothers and lemme tell ya, it blew us away. To say that our heads were swimming (in the best way!) for days afterwards is a serious understatement.
This was no mere movie, amigos, it was total immersion in a completely original and boldly realized new world. And we loved every crazy second of it!
I know I geek out over things a lot, and tend to overhype stuff that I really love, but, I kid you not, I haven’t felt this way about a sci-fi movie since we saw the first “Matrix” or “Terminator” flick way back when.
The dazzling technical elements aside, “Inception” is that rare breed of totally game-changing screen stories that will inspire whole generations of nerdy kids to wanna make movies. For me, it was “Star Wars”, for Generation Whatever, it’ll be Christopher Nolan’s “Inception”. Again, mark my words.
Anyway, I don’t wanna give anything away by going too much into the plot or anything, but, trust me, you don’t have to love sci-fi or even Leo DiCaprio to love this mind-bending little jewel of a movie. Simply put, if you like movies, “Inception” will knock you flat on your movie-loving ass. You have never seen anything like it. EVER.
So, you best get busy on that acceptance speech, Mr. Nolan. The clock is ticking…
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Unlike with the Oscars, I don’t usually stay up to watch the Emmy nominations announced live…but this year I did, and, wow, what a year to do it. I was cheering so loud when some of those names were read that I actually had to cover my face with a pillow so as to not wake up the girls!
I’m not kidding, amigos, this is probably one of the best rosters of Emmy nominees ever. Finding a good movie to see in a theatre might be getting harder and harder these days, but, man alive, TV is on fire, baby!
Not only did new shows like “Glee”, “Modern Family”, and “The Good Wife” clean up in the nomination department, but, some long-overlooked returning shows finally got some recognition too. I’ve never watched it myself, but the fact that a cult show like “Friday Night Lights” finally scored some Emmy love after barely surviving cancellation for all these years is awesome!
I was also thrilled to see Elizabeth Mitchell finally nab an Emmy nomination for her heartbreaking portrayal of Dr. Juliet Burke on “Lost”. Mitchell was totally robbed last year, so, to see her shortlisted this time is just freaking awesome!
Also very excited to see the rocking-good Archie Panjabi nominated for Best Supporting Actress, Drama for “The Good Wife”. Panjabi’s character steals every scene she’s in, and that’s really saying something when you consider she plays most of her scenes opposite classic scene-stealers (and fellow nominees) Julianna Marguiles and Christine Baranski. So, kudos to you, Panjabi!
I was also very pleased to see the incredible Jane Lynch pick up a nod for “Glee”. She’d better start clearing room on her mantel now, because something tells me she’s gonna be one of those people who win every year they get nominated. And unlike some of those people (Tony Shaloub) she totally deserves it!
Christine was very stoked to see Jamie Oliver’s “Food Revolution” score a nod for Best Reality Program. I know it didn’t get a lot of play in the media, but that show had heart and soul to spare and the fact that it has inspired people across the country to join the “Revolution” is the icing on the cake. Good on you, Jamie!
But the best news of the day, by far, was that the late, great Conan O’Brien version of “The Tonight Show” was nominated for four Emmy’s while Jay Leno, once again, received none. Ha ha, karma’s a bitch…suck it, Jay!
To see a complete list of all this year’s Emmy nominees, click here.
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Speaking of Sci-Fi…a few weeks back I got the super cool news that “Not Forgotten” had been nominated by the Academy of Science Fiction Fantasy & Horror for a 2010 Saturn Award for Best DVD Release. Yay! I didn’t blog about it then, because I wanted to make sure I got invited to the show first…and guess what? I did! So, whoo-hoo…let the celebrating commence!
If, like most non-hard-core sci-fi geeks, you have no idea what the Saturn Awards are, please allow me to fill you in. The Saturn Awards have been given out to the best of the best sci-fi, fantasy and horror films, TV shows, plays and home video for the past 36 years, and unlike the Oscars who traditionally shun such genres, these guys are true fans of the first order.
This is the organization that in the past has given Best Film Awards to “The Empire Strikes Back”, “Aliens”, “Poltergeist”, “A.I. Artificial Intelligence” and “Children of Men”…smart, bold genre movies that more staid institutions completely shut out. I used to read about these rocking, underground award gatherings in Starlog and Fangoria magazines when I was a geeky kid…so, to have something I co-wrote and associate produced be nominated at all, in any category is kind of mind-blowing.
And the fact that I will actually be attending the show tonight, rubbing elbows with the creators and cast of “Lost”, “Avatar”, “Star Trek”, “Harry Potter” and the like…well, shit…I might just explode!
However, in the highly-unlikely event that I actually do make it through the show tonight intact, I promise to post some pics soon, so, stay tuned. To see a list of all this year’s Saturn Award nominees, click here.
OMG, I know I’m more than a few days late on this one, but, what an inspired idea for Oscar hosts! Sure, Wolverine was fun last year, but the idea of a comic — not to mention musical! — genius like Steve Martin hosting this year’s Academy Awards with his “enemy”, Alec Baldwin is kinda awesome.
This way, even if that lame 10 Best Picture nominees idea falls flat, the rest of the show will still rock. And, who knows, if the guys are any good in Nancy Meyers’ upcoming romantic comedy, “It’s Complicated”, they might just snag a nomination or two of their own. I mean, come on, they are starring opposite perennial-nominee Meryl Streep in this one, so, that kinda increases the odds.
Either way, kudos to newly-minted Oscar producers Bill Mechanic and Adam Shankman for picking the right guys for the job. Now, just keep the rest of the show running smoothly and Bob’s your uncle!
OK, I know this mini-review of the big night is a couple of days too late, but I gotta say that, surprisingly, Hugh Jackman did not totally suck as host of the Oscars. The opening number was actually pretty funny and he tried his damnedest to keep a very bloated telecast light and lively, but, any way you look at it, that second big dance number was a total train wreck.
First off, Beyoncé needs to simmer. Seriously, she should go into hiding for the rest of the year, America has had enough of her. And if the bitch sings “At Last” one more time, I swear to God, Etta James is gonna have to get in line to beat her down. Enough with that already! Yikes…
The most annoying thing about that colosally over-produced number — aside from the fact that it serves as further proof that Baz Luhrmann has just plain lost his mind — was that most of the songs they “celebrated” were never even nominated for Oscars. So, what was the whole thing about? The return of the musical? What, because there were three big musicals released last year? Please…that was such a stretch.
I was also really annoyed with the clips they played this year too, those comedy and action scenes were kinda cool, but, seriously, sometimes it felt like we were watching the freaking MTV Movie Awards: “And now, Will Smith will present the award for Best Kiss.” Y’all are the Oscars, OK? You do not need to pander to kids with a bunch of clips from movies that most of your craggy-old membership has never even seen. Aside from being a total time-filler, it’s just lame…
And though I am so down with most of the winners — especially all the Oscar gold for “Slumdog” and the “Domo Arigato, Mr. Roboto” quoting Japanese dude! — I have to admit that those creepy induction ceremonies with the past acting winners were just plain scary. Yes, it was great to see some of the old timers out there onstage, but, wow…that whole circle of five shit was freaky.
We kept joking that they were gonna give the winner a chalice of blood to drink from at the end of it all: “Welcome to the club. Now drink from the blood of Oscar and live forever…” Ahh!
Of course, being the Oscar nerd that I am, I went back later and re-watched each of the acting award presentations to see if maybe I missed something. I mean, were we just overreacting when we laughed through most of them? And guess what, we weren’t. That shit was crazy. Well-intentioned and very sweet sometimes, but still straight-up crazy.
I’ll write another post soon about the super cool Oscar-themed food we had at our party, but for now, here’s hoping the Academy works out the major kinks from this year’s show in time for next year’s bash.
Oh yeah, and I HATED the Ben Stiller as Joaquin Phoenix bit. I think Stiller stopped being funny like, ten years ago, but when he kept on mugging for the cameras as the clips from the nominated films played behind him, seriously, I wanted to kill the dude. That is just plain rude, man. Even hot-ass co-presenter, Queen Amidala, looked embarrassed…
But like I said, overall, a pretty decent show. I was pleased. Dying to hear what you guys thought of the big night, so comment away…
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make. see. eat. do. 