Academy Award | the m0vie blog

Does Anybody Actually Take the Oscars Seriously These Days?

Posted on December 22, 2011 by Darren

And people complain that Christmas starts too early! It’s still 2011 and we’re already in the heart of what might be termed “Oscar season”, the spiritual counterpart to the equally expansive “blockbuster season.” Both have very different measures of success. Success in blockbuster season is measured in the words “record-breaking” and “box office” along with various other aggressive adjectives like “smashing”, “breaking”, “crushing” or “dominating.” The winners get their choices of big budgets and high-profile roles and franchises, or the opportunity to risk it all and play again during Oscar season. The rewards at the end of Oscar season are a little gold statue and something like “artistic credibility”, along with the right to stick “Oscar-winner” in front of your name. I’d swear Meryl Streep’s mail is addressed to “Oscar-winner Meryl Streep.”

I might Doubt their credibility...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: academy, Academy Award, Christopher Nolan, eddie murphy, gary oldman, Hurt Locker, meryl streep, oscar, People's Choice Awards | 2 Comments »

Critical Revisionism: Retrospective Re-Evaluation…

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Darren

It’s funny. I always figured that long-term critical re-evaluation was sort of a one-way street. I guess it always seemed that people were talking about “classics” that got an unfair rap from critics and audiences on initial release, but have subsequently become amongst the most influential films within their genre. I’m talking about movies like Blade Runner or The Thing, movies that were attacked on initial release, but have undergone a massive transformation and vindication in popular consciousness. I generally figured that good films that got bad reviews would eventually be found and praised for the quality productions that they were, while over-praised mediocre (or worse) films would languish in purgatory, forgotten about, save the occasional television re-run. So I’m surprised at the way the tide seems to have turned against Juno in the five years since the film’s original release.

Well, that's one response...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, arts, Blu-ray Disc, David Edelstein, diablo cody, film, george lucas, Golden Globe, Golden Globe Award, Internet Movie Database, juno, Movie, no country for old men, review, rotten tomatoes, star wars, Top Lists | 2 Comments »

You’d Be Muppets To Say No: Let the Muppets Host the Oscars…

Posted on November 11, 2011 by Darren

UPDATE: Well, time marches on. Sometimes by the hour. It’s Billy Crystal. Not that I expected the gang to get a look-in. Still, I think the points stand.

There are days when it seems like the internet is about to explode. Somebody has a random thought, posts it or shares it, and it just catches on like wildfire. Before you know it, it seems like half the world is saying “that’s actually not a bad idea!” and the other half is saying “that’s a great idea!” The campaign to have the Muppets host the Oscars is one of those things that has just come to life, like a phoenix from the ashes of Brett Ratner’s resignation and Eddie Murphy’s departure. I generally don’t comment on these things, because they speak for themselves, and I don’t like to just run a post saying “everything these guys are saying is true!”, but this is the exception rather than the rule. I want to see the Muppets host the Oscars. I know it isn’t going to happen, but damn if it isn’t the most outrageous, ambitious and insane idea that has been suggested.

And that, my friends, is exactly why it should happen, even if it probably won’t.

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Bob Hope, eddie murphy, hugh jackman, James Franco, Muppet, Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Oscars, oscar | 3 Comments »

The Beginning of the End? Is It Too Early To Be Talking About “The Best of the Year”?

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Darren

The New York Critics’ Circle has moved the date of their annual awards forward to 28th November. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like an awfully early date for a festival designed to celebrate the best of the year that has been – especially when you consider that the logistics of posting and counting votes. It’s a full month before the end of the year! How many films are yet to be screened at this point? It got me thinking about the “best of…” polls that we inevitably see as the year draws to a close? When do people start compiling those lists?

Well, I guess we can all cut this one out of our NYCC pools...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, christmas, Come December, david fincher, Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, new york, New York Critics Circle, oscar, steven spielberg | 6 Comments »

5% Solution: Why the Oscars’ New First-Preference Rule is a Step in the Wrong Direction…

Posted on October 6, 2011 by Darren

We’re officially out of the summer blockbuster season, which might lead you to believe that it was time for us film folk to have a bit of a rest. After all, we’ve been yammering on about “box office this” and “3D that” for quite some time now, and it makes sense we’d use the lull to compose ourselves. Of course, we can’t – it’s time to start Oscar-speculating. Because I’m situated in Ireland, there’s no point in me putting together a list of potential nominees, as it would just involve plagiarising countless individuals far more informed than myself. However, I have been thinking quite a bit about the latest amendment to the Academy’s infamous “ten nominees” amendment to their Best Picture nomination process: whereby every nominee will now be required to have at least 5% of the first preference votes. The more I think about it, the more I don’t like it.

Not quite the gold standard anymore?

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy Award for Best Picture, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, best picture nominees, black swan, Christopher Nolan, first preferences, five percent. 5%, King's Speech, oscar, Social Network, toy story 3, voting | 4 Comments »

Monkey Business: Could Andy Serkis Win An Oscar?

Posted on August 16, 2011 by Darren

Okay, I think we all know the answer is “no.” I thought better than to try to pretend there was the slightest hint of even a nomination. However, considering some of the chatter around Serkis’ performance in the superb Rise of the Planet of the Apes, I can’t help but wonder if the Academy will everrecognise motion-capture performances with acting nominations. After all, where does the line end between the performance of the actor, and the special effects work put in by the technical team?

Serkis folk...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, andy serkis, avatar, burke and hare, christian bale, David Oyelowo, Freida Pinto, James Franco, john lithgow, king kong, Morgan Freeman, motion capture, Natalie Portman, planet of the apes, Rise of the Apes, Rupert Wyatt, Tom Felton, zoe saldana | 10 Comments »

March (2011) In Review

Posted on March 31, 2011 by Darren

That was a fun month.

I’m still, to be honest, entirely speechless. I picked up the Best Pop Culture Award at the Irish Blog Awards earlier this month, and I’m still delighted and humbled and honoured and all those things. I know I don’t blog to win awards, but I really feel motivated to try even harder to justify the huge vote of confidence that it represents.

Other than that, there was tonnes of stuff. I’m currently blogging along with Things That Don’t Suck‘s “Raimi-fest”, which is a blast. Always a joy to be asked to take part. March also had some fairly decent films – with two brilliant films in Source Code and The Adjustment Bureau, along with a slew of quite good films to go along with it. So that was pretty fantastic. Although maybe I’m just a big softie.

I got to ramble (at length) about the upcoming Superman film, and revisit Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy (and just why he was so damn suited to it). I had my first honest-to-goodness interview, with the wonderful Grace Dyas.

I defended big budget blockbusters, wondered who killed The Mountains of Madness and got to discuss why this year’s Academy Awards felt like a great big group hug.

It was a fun month. Hopefully the trend will continue!

Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, Adjustment Bureau, arts, Belfast, irish blog awards, Movie, popular culture, sam raimi, source code, spider man, spider-man 3 | 2 Comments »

Non-Review Review: Cleopatra

Posted on March 28, 2011 by Darren

The big budget Cleopatra is renowned as something of a massive contradiction. It was panned mercilessly by critics, and yet picked up four Academy Awards (and five more nominations). It was the most financially successful movie of the year, and yet still turned a fairly substantial loss. It’s one of the last great Hollywood epics, and it almost killed Twentieth Century Fox. So there’s something strangely fitting about the final line, in which it was suggested that the movie’s subject was “the last of so many noble rulers.” In many ways, the film was the last of its kind, but perhaps the most lavish. Perhaps history has been kinder to the production than its initial release was, but it’s still a very flawed film.

I can see Cleo now...

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Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: Academy Award, blockbuster, Cleopatra, Elizabeth Taylor, epic, film, historical epic, Julius Caesar, Marc Anthony, Mark Antony, Movie, Movies, non-review review, review, Rex Harrison, rome, studio system | 1 Comment »

Leo the Lion: Melissa Leo’s Self-Funded Oscar Campaign…

Posted on March 7, 2011 by Darren

Melissa Leo took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar last Sunday night and I was quite happy about the decision, to be honest. She was great in The Fighter and – although I personally would have though Hailee Steinfeld from True Grit would have made a more deserving winner – it wasn’t a bad result. In the lead-up to her win, Leo garnered a fair amount of publicity from the fact that she took out her own “For Your Consideration” advertisements, most of it, to be honest, quite derisive. But you know what? I’m okay with that. After all, who else was going to do it for her?

Perhaps not the most Consider-ed move...

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Filed under: Movies | Tagged: Academy Award, christian bale, colin firth, For Your Consideration, Hailee Steinfeld, Halle Berry, Harvey Weinstein, helen mirren, Melissa Leo, Oscars, pimping, Saving Private Ryan | 6 Comments »

Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World: Oscars 2011

Posted on March 5, 2011 by Darren

You know what? I’m not actually that ticked off with the Academy Awards this year. In fact, as I mentioned in discussing the nominees, I was quite happy with the candidates up for the award. Now, nearly a week after the ceremony, I must concede that I’m generally relatively happy with the way that the awards were divided up on the night. CinemaBlend summed up the ceremony as a “group hug” to movies released in a great year for cinema, and I find it hard to object to that succinct summary.