posted February 19, 2009 02:30 AM         

Any thoughts on who will take the oscar this year? I have not seen them all, but from what I've seen here's my take:

Best Actress: Kate Winslet in the Reader, but I just watched Angelina in Changeling, and it was a great performance, so I am not sure, but my gut tells me Angelina. I do think is time for Kate Winslet to win, she is a great actress, also, and deserves it. Angelina already won some time ago for Supporting actress in Girl Interrupted

Best Suppoting actress: Penelope Cruz in Vicky Christina Barcelona

Best Actor: Sean Penn in Milk

Best Supporting Actor: Heath ledger in Dark Night or Michael Shannon, Supporting actor in Revolutionary Road, but my money is on Heath Ledger.

Best Picture: Slumdog Millionaire
Best Director: Stephen Dauldry for the Reader, but I doubt he'll win, most likely it will go to Slumdog Millionaire

posted February 19, 2009 03:39 AM         

His Brit acceptance speech was peppered with the eff word, told how he had trashed his career with his behaviour and now just wanted to get laid. Everyone loved it. But then Brits love the underdog.

posted February 20, 2009 01:04 AM         

Doubt shouldn't get any award.
DiCaprio did a MUCH better job in Body Of Lies than he did in Revolutionary Road.

Beyonce did a helluva job in Cadillac Records even though she hasn't been nominated.

Another one that surprised me was Dakota Fanning in The Secret Life Of Bees and Liam Neeson in Taken.

posted February 20, 2009 03:20 AM         

I was really upset the year when Julianne Moore's performance in The Hours lost the supporting category to Catherine Zeeta Jones in Chicago. Julianne was brilliant-- The same when Nathalie Portman's performance in Closer lost to Cate Blanchet in The Aviator-- Nathalie stoled the entire film, and was wonderful-- so, you never know...

posted February 21, 2009 09:23 AM         

In a year when pundits and movie know-it-alls predicted most of the eventual winners in the major categories, it’s easy to forget Marisa Tomei.

Yup, Marisa Tomei. We’re talking about the shocking 1992 Best Supporting Actress win, arguably the most notable Oscar upset in the awards show’s 79-year history.

And then there was 2006, when Crash was victorious instead of Brokeback Mountain. And let’s not forget 1976, when the first Rocky movie beat such classics as Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver, All the President’s Men and Network.

Jaw-dropping moments like these are what give a little life to what is, no matter what Joan Rivers screams at us on TV, an event that can be excruciatingly predictable. With that in mind, let’s revisit some of recent history’s most famous—or infamous—Oscar upsets…

10. The Year Brokeback Crashed (2006)
Who could forget Brokeback Mountain director Ang Lee’s face when Paul Haggis’s ensemble drama Crash was announced as the 2005 Best Picture winner, trouncing Lee’s endlessly touted front-runner? No wonder he was bummed—he’d just won Best Director and it looked like his film was on a roll. Monday morning Oscar quarterbacks wondered if Brokeback had been over-publicized? Was the film’s gay romance too much for conservative Academy voters in the end? Or was Crash just — as some individuals thought —a better film? Questions about Felicity Huffman’s plunging coffin-liner of a dress and Charlize Theron’s Christmas-package number still linger, however.

9. Key Victories for The Pianist (2002)
Coming off a Golden Globe win, Jack Nicholson was the slight favorite for 2002’s Best Actor for his heartbreaking performance in About Schmidt, while SAG winner Daniel-Day Lewis nipped at his heels for his spot-on gangster role in Gangs of New York. But rookie nominee Adrien Brody (The Pianist) swooped in from behind to beat them both. Whether or not his win resulted from a split vote, Jack’s previous three Oscars or the Academy’s soft spot for tortured real-life characters hardly mattered after the dip-and-smooch maneuver Brody pulled on presenter Halle Berry.

8. The Director Who Wasn’t There (2002)
Brody’s might have been the biggest upset that night, but it wasn’t the only one. The Pianist’s director Roman Polanski, who hadn’t made a movie in the U.S. since his infamous incident at Nicholson’s house in 1978, wasn’t doing interviews. But the Academy awarded him with the Best Director award for his magnificent survival story, triumphing over Rob Marshall (whose Chicago won Best Picture) and the long-suffering Martin Scorsese.

It’s always fascinating to see the on-camera reactions to such upsets: Harrison Ford’s little smirk as he accepted the Best Director award on Polanski’s behalf, plus the folks who gave the director a standing ovation (like Scorsese) and those who did not stand up (including, apparently, Jack Nicholson, star of Polanski’s Chinatown).

7. Supporting Surprise (2001)
Ian McKellen was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the wiz in Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Rings and he was clearly the favorite to win. He had walked off with the Screen Actors Guild award in that category, but lost the Golden Globe to another Englishman, character actor Jim Broadbent for the little-seen Iris. Oscar handicappers overwhelmingly picked McKellen to win, though – and when the Oscar went to Broadbent instead, the disheveled actor looked as stunned as everyone in the audience.

6. Upsets for the New Millennium (2000)
For the fifth time in more than 50 years, the Academy broke ranks with the Directors Guild of America: the Oscar for Best Director went to Steven Soderbergh for his edgy Traffic instead of DGA winner Ang Lee for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, the highest-grossing foreign language movie ever. Lee looked genuinely teary-eyed.

5. The Academy’s Harden-ed Heart (2000)
It was expected that America’s darling boho blonde (and Golden Globe winner) Kate Hudson would win Best Supporting Actress for her star-making role in Almost Famous. After all, Kate’s mom, Goldie Hawn, also won her Best Supporting Actress Oscar when she was an ingénue, way back in 1969 (for the comedy trifle Cactus Flower). But the audience woke up when Marcia Gay Harden was announced as the winner for her tough portrayal in the little-seen Pollock. Harden was ecstatic, and thanked the Academy for “even taking the time to view the film.”

4. Indies Rock (1998)
This was the first year it was unclear whether Academy campaign tactics trumped movie quality. Miramax’s romantic dramedy Shakespeare in Love won the Oscar for Best Picture over Steven Spielberg’s war drama Saving Private Ryan. It was a surprising upset, despite Miramax’s spending a reported $5-10 million on marketing, hiring a small army of publicists in the studio’s employ. They loosely disobeyed Academy rules by holding a party for Academy members after the nomination announcements. Weinstein himself was rumored to have criticized the Spielberg film to journalists.

3. Age is Necessary (1998)
James Coburn looked almost as surprised as everyone else to hear his name called out as the winner for Best Supporting Actor for the little-seen drama Affliction. Although Coburn’s role as an alcoholic crank was acclaimed, fellow respected nominees like Ed Harris (The Truman Show) or Billy Bob Thornton (for A Simple Plan) were considered favorites. Coburn’s win furthered the suspicion that age can be a factor in the Best Supporting Actor category.

2. Patient’s Virtue (1996)
Most assumed the Academy would hand an Oscar to sentimental favorite Lauren Bacall (The Mirror Has Two Faces), a great actress who finally got a nomination for playing Barbra Streisand’s mother. She’d won the Golden Globe for supporting actress, and despite a performance some said wasn’t Oscar-caliber, was considered a lock for this award. Instead, the Academy handed out one of its most notorious upsets ever, awarding The English Patient’s Juliette Binoche, who was so sure she wouldn’t win that she didn’t have an acceptance speech prepared. Bacall looked a little ticked, and at the podium, Binoche graciously and emphatically declared Bacall should have won.

1. Acclaimed, or Defamed? (1993)
Forget black helicopters, 9/11 and the moon landing. Few controversies have created such hot debate as Marisa Tomei’s out-of-this-world upset win for Best Supporting Actress over such venerable UK competition as Vanessa Redgrave (rumored to have really won), Joan Plowright and Judy Davis. Because Tomei’s performance as a gum-smacking, dim-bulb mechanic in My Cousin Vinny was labeled too broad and brash to be worthy, Hollywood conspiracy theorists insisted an aging Jack Palance misread Tomei’s name by mistake as the winner when he opened the envelope (a charge that Academy officials denied). To this day her gold is still tarnished.

What I want to know is why Hugh Jackman is the host??? That is perhaps the biggest "out of nowhere?"

posted February 21, 2009 09:38 AM         

I think they chose Hugh Jackman because of his success with hosting the Tony Awards numerous time (and pointing out the cynic in me) because, lets face it, when was the last decade that the Oscars scored good ratings, and Hugh is bound to pull in the chicks. Hugh is like the full package for women. Oh, it's true.

Have to say - I agree with you about Heath and The Joker. I feel sorry for poor Christian Bale. His first effort as Batman/Bruce Wayne was hijacked by Katie Holmes and her, then, new relationship with Tom Cruise. Totally overshadowed the movie and Christian. And then the passing of Heath. Christian who? Sad. He's such a great actor. And Christopher Nolan is brilliant.

posted February 21, 2009 09:46 AM         

And, well, yes - what's not to love? Good looks, devoted to his family, charming, funny, he can sing, act, dance, he's Wolverine. Ah, what's not to love? Well, he's not my type.......... but there's some great/ideal qualities there.

posted February 21, 2009 09:47 AM         

quote:

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and let us hope that if Christian is on the list of presenters a lighting grip doesn't cross his 'sight line'

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posted February 22, 2009 10:55 AM         

quote:

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Mickey: Sin City

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posted February 22, 2009 10:58 AM         

quote:

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Best picture should've gone to The Hours instead of Chicago that one year.

In regards to the Dark Night, I didn't care for the other performances. Heath Ledger stole the entire film, and I felt that the Batman's portrayal was awful, as well as the girl.

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posted February 22, 2009 02:54 PM         

And I must disagree with you, Lexx, I really liked Christian in both Batman films; I also was impressed with Cillian Murphy.