Comments on: Academy Awards 2007 Picks

By: Academy Awards 2008 Picks « Media Maven Musings

Academy Awards 2008 Picks « Media Maven Musings — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 22:55:39 +0000

[...] (you guys are awesome! all five of you), you’ll remember the lengthy post I wrote with my 2007 Oscar picks. Well, with the Awards coming up this Sunday, I figured it was time to give it another go. So here, [...]

By: Cornholio

Cornholio — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 01:50:56 +0000

Time for some 20/20 hindsight, Mr. Media Maven. I didn’t read your picks until just now, so all of this analysis is post-Oscars viewing. First of all, Letters From Iwo Jima, while a perfectly legitimate choice considering the wide-open state of this years race, seemed to me to be the least likely candidate to win the award. The Departed, while I did not think it would win, was definitely (at least in my opinion) the most widely accessible movie of the bunch. After all, who can’t resist Leo and Jack and Matt and Mark (who, incidentally, I thought should’ve won Best Supporting Actor), along with guns, violence, mystery, and intrigue, with a little sex peppered in here and there? While it may not have been the most artisticaly impressive movie out there, its sheer star power, acting prowess, plotline, and overall popularity (not to mention the sweet soundtrack!), were what carried this flick to victory, and would’ve placed it higher on my list than Iwo Jima. As for Little Miss Sunshine, I still have not yet seen it, so I accept any criticism for complementing a movie I haven’t seen, but I actually thought this one would win. It was a cult favortie, haven’t heard a single bad thing about it, and it’s been a while since a movie of this ilk won the top prize. After Jack Black and Will Farrel’s song about the disrespect comedians get at the Oscars, I thought it would be only fitting for a comedy to win Best Picture, something that hasn’t happened in a long time. Babel had a great cast, and a topical storyline, making it a good possibility. And The Queen had Helen Mirren, who, even if it was an imitation-biopic, simply ran away with her Actress Oscar. That was the surest-thing, and also the most deserved award out there last night. While I appreciate what you say about the fine line between acting and imitation, Forest won for an imitation too, and it really isn’t a coincidence that many of the past winners have been portraying real people. After all, isn’t the role of an actor to portray reality as closely as possible? And isn’t that most likely to be accomplished when the character portrayed is/was a real person? I’ll sign off with the thought that if an acting career is judged by Oscars, then Peter O’Toole ought to be an exception from that rule. I was simply transfixed by his performance in Lawrence of Arabia (which was also a real person!), and the fact that he has been nominated 9 (?) times, ought to put him in the ranks of the best actors of all time, far more impressive than, say, Tom Hanks or Russell Crowe, who already have multiple Oscars to their name.

By: Freddy

Freddy — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 20:00:26 +0000

Hey man,

Love the new blog..I disagree w/some of ur picks tho...
Scorsese will win no doubt, I loved the Departed, but I think he's gonna get that award just because the Academy feels like they owe him one after he came up short so many times. I think that either Steven Friars should get it for The Queen or the spanish dude with the 3 names should get it for Babel, or even the directors from 'Sunshine'. It used to be like the person that got the 'best director', was the director of the 'best pic', but recently it's been different. I personally think that if the director is the 'visionary' of the film, how could the film win and not the director...or vice versa..but watever.
Forest was great in 'Last King', but I think Ryan Gosling deserves it for Half Nelson, he'll never get it because it was such a small movie, and they weren't able to really publicize it like the others. Mirren will get 'best actress', but I really thought that Meryl Streep gave the best performance. She's good in everything she does...Hudson will win for supporting, I liked Blanchett tho, for 'Notes on a Scandal' but that's also the last movie I saw. Eddie will get it, unless he fucks up, and gets arrested the week before. I agree with you on Whalberg, Arkin was good too though. Best picture: I can't really see them giving it to 'Iwa Jima', although they love Clint. I think 'Sunshine' should get it, but it's all politics, so it'll probably come down to the last week of voting, and which films get the most commercial spots. Best movie of the year, according to me:
'Thank You for Smoking'

Anyway, I wrote like 5 times as much as I thought I would, but whatever...It's a pretty cool blog you got goin here.

I'll ttyl,keep in touch,dude.

Freddy
(fred tv)