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TheAnswer

macrumors 68030
Jan 25, 2002
2,519
1
Orange County, CA
I'm really surprised that none of the Dreamgirls songs won, and that movie had 3 chances!

They all cancelled each other out...that's why I thought Little Miss Sunshine might win...I figured the Letters, Departed and Babel would split the serious crowd and the feel good crowd would be united behind Sunshine.
 

TheAnswer

macrumors 68030
Jan 25, 2002
2,519
1
Orange County, CA
Infernal Affairs > The Departed

Wow, I'm so angry right now it's ridiculous.

Agreed...it was cool when Tarantino and others were doing their whole homage thing (Although I did get ticked when people started thinking he actually produced "Chungking Express"), but I think any remake is gonna suffer in translation.

The Seven Samurai > The Magnificent Seven

But it looks like Vertigo Entertainment is the the business of selling off successful Asian films to American production companies. It looks like they are working on bastardizations of "The Eye", "The Mission" and "Ikiru" among others.

So if Scorsese's Infernal Affairs didn't work...just wait until we have to sit through the Wachowski Brother's "Ikiru" starring Will Ferrell.
 

irmongoose

macrumors 68030
I am extremely happy that Scorsese finally got the award. The Departed was by far the best film of the year. I'm also quite glad that Pan's Labyrinth and Babel did not get much recognition. Both were horrible films that absolutely did not live up to their hype. An extra bonus for choosing Thelma Schoonmaker for Best Editing. The Academy seems to have gotten most things right, for once!



irmongoose
 

TheAnswer

macrumors 68030
Jan 25, 2002
2,519
1
Orange County, CA
Essentially, the Academy gave Scorsese the Best Director Oscar as a makeup of him not winning for Goodfellas and Raging Bull 16 and 26 years ago.

Agreed...it will be interesting to see if "The Departed" holds up with time or if 26 years from now it will be thought of as the "Ordinary People" of 2006. Outside of the indie wonders like "Little Miss Sunshine", it seems the majority of innovation in filmmaking is coming from Asia or México...of course the Academy as a whole is always a little slow to recognize innovation until it has proven itself to be a repeatable act that generates revenue.
 

Steradian

macrumors 6502
Dec 3, 2002
393
0
San Jose
I am extremely happy that Scorsese finally got the award. The Departed was by far the best film of the year. I'm also quite glad that Pan's Labyrinth and Babel did not get much recognition. Both were horrible films that absolutely did not live up to their hype. An extra bonus for choosing Thelma Schoonmaker for Best Editing. The Academy seems to have gotten most things right, for once!



irmongoose

While I'd agree babel was far far far over-hyped, I can't say the same for Pan's. I haven't really ever seen a movie quite like it. For whatever reason, it was easy for me to completely forget that the film wasn't in my native tongue and get absorbed in the story. What didn't you like about it? Everyones entitled to their opinion :)
Also while I really didn't like babel, and felt like I had walked away with nothing more from the film than utter dissapointment. I Certainly don't think it was horrible, more it was a horrible decision of the academy to even nominate it over better movies.
 

TheAnswer

macrumors 68030
Jan 25, 2002
2,519
1
Orange County, CA
I'm also quite glad that... Babel did not get much recognition.

You do realize that if you take your film on your site, bump up the contrast, tone down the color levels, add some grain, switch out the piano in the soundtrack for a guitar, tone down the acting a bit...you'd have a film very much like an Iñárritu film with a brief homage to Kubrick's "2001".
 

takao

macrumors 68040
Dec 25, 2003
3,827
605
Dornbirn (Austria)
i was surprised by the departed winning for best film and the story thing kinda surprising as was dreamgirls not getting the oscar for best song or peter o'toole not winning
i also suspected that iwo jima would win more ...

best editing and best directing were well deserved IMHO

the most deserved one was the ennio morricone award by far ;)
 

FleurDuMal

macrumors 68000
May 31, 2006
1,801
0
London Town
I'm quite baffled by The Queen. It just looks like they took a made for TV docu-drama script and gave it a film gloss. We have equally average dramas on ITV/BBC1 by the bucket loads, and nobody in them deserves an Oscar. It seems the US just laps up anything about the Royal Family/Diana. Thank God it didn't get Best Film.

Good on Forrest Whittaker. That was the best performance I've seen for years. But if Martin Scorcese can get an Oscar for work he did 30 years ago (come on...The Departed was a hollow shell of his earlier stuff), then perhaps O'Toole should've got one for Laurence of Arabia this year?

A renaissance in British cinema? What renaissance? :rolleyes:
 

SactoGuy18

macrumors 601
Sep 11, 2006
4,311
1,475
Sacramento, CA USA
That Oscar is just a belated response to "Goodfellas" which was shockingly overlooked at the time. The Departed was fairly average, I thought, for a Scorsese film.

And I personally believe that Alan Arkin's win this year was also a de facto "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his 40+ years of film work (remember Catch 22 from over 36 years ago?).
 

thedude110

macrumors 68020
Jun 13, 2005
2,478
2
Clint directed two movies this year, one in a language he doesn't even speak...and he can translate Italian...what a stud.

Am I the only one who thought Clint looked a little out of it/generally confused last night? Like, maybe the train's left the station?

Sad if so ...
 

it5five

macrumors 65816
May 31, 2006
1,219
1
New York
Best Foreign Language Film surprised me. I was expecting Pans Labyrinth to win, especially since it had won two or three awards up to that point already.

I'd wanted to see Lives of Others before, so hopefully the win will bring it to a theatre a bit closer to my house.
 

carbonmotion

macrumors 6502a
Jan 28, 2004
983
0
San Francisco, CA
Agreed...it was cool when Tarantino and others were doing their whole homage thing (Although I did get ticked when people started thinking he actually produced "Chungking Express"), but I think any remake is gonna suffer in translation.

The Seven Samurai > The Magnificent Seven

But it looks like Vertigo Entertainment is the the business of selling off successful Asian films to American production companies. It looks like they are working on bastardizations of "The Eye", "The Mission" and "Ikiru" among others.

So if Scorsese's Infernal Affairs didn't work...just wait until we have to sit through the Wachowski Brother's "Ikiru" starring Will Ferrell.

I'm alright with american directors americanizing HK / JP / Korean Cinema scripts as long as they don't screw up the americanization proccess... but once you watch the original, you'll certainly think the American directors got their translation wrong as they have a poor understanding of Asian culture like most Americans who've never lived in the area extensively. Of course all the Asian cinema that Americans get exposed to in the US are crappy films like Crouching Tiger and House of Flying Daggers. Gagh. What a load of flamming turd.

Also, Americans are also starting to copy korean romance dramas as in the Lake House. When I watched it, even though I like the film for its depiction of Chicago, the film over simplified the original's message and pretty much go the ending all wrong. And to top it off, it was inferior.

Lastly, I'd like to point out that Tarentino has no talent he's living off of his earlier Indie film success. Kill Bill was just one big "omage" to japenese cinema.
 

FleurDuMal

macrumors 68000
May 31, 2006
1,801
0
London Town
Best Foreign Language Film surprised me. I was expecting Pans Labyrinth to win, especially since it had won two or three awards up to that point already.

I'd wanted to see Lives of Others before, so hopefully the win will bring it to a theatre a bit closer to my house.

Pan's Labyrinth is the best film I've seen out of all the nominated films which I've seen. Why that wasn't the token foreign language film in Best Film instead of Volver (which was still very good thanks almost entirely to Penelope Cruz) I'll never know.
 

carbonmotion

macrumors 6502a
Jan 28, 2004
983
0
San Francisco, CA
Am I the only one who thought Clint looked a little out of it/generally confused last night? Like, maybe the train's left the station?

Sad if so ...

he's old... he's probably got Alzheimer or something. however, the guy's a much better director than actor. I mean dirty harry was good, but the films he's making are great! i.e letters from iwo jima and flags.
 

2nyRiggz

macrumors 603
Aug 20, 2005
6,161
76
Thank you Jah...I'm so Blessed
Best foreign language film.....Pan's Labyrinth or the other one....ummm the other film won...wow that was the shocker, I was like :confused: . The dude that created the winning movie couldn't believe it...he started jumping like a mad man.




Bless
 

TheAnswer

macrumors 68030
Jan 25, 2002
2,519
1
Orange County, CA
I'm alright with american directors americanizing HK / JP / Korean Cinema scripts as long as they don't screw up the americanization proccess... but once you watch the original, you'll certainly think the American directors got their translation wrong as they have a poor understanding of Asian culture like most Americans who've never lived in the area extensively.

I think the problem is that they think the original message needs to be changed in order to sell tickets. In Kurosawa's "Ikiru", Watanabe-san dies roughly half way through the film...you think that's how the American version is gonna do it? No way...It's gonna be a showdown in the park between him and the deputy mayor with insert cuts showing the progression of Watanabe-san's stomach cancer in "bullet time" slow-mo.

Lastly, I'd like to point out that Tarentino has no talent he's living off of his earlier Indie film success. Kill Bill was just one big "omage" to japenese cinema.

I don't really have a problem with Tarantino, as he is a big fan of Asian cinema in general and seems to want the audience of the original films to expand (for example, his distributing "Chungking Express" here and lobbying for "Oldboy" to win the Palme d'Or at Cannes). Same with Scorsese to a lesser extent, as every speech I've seen or heard him give this year, he's mentioned Andrew Lau by name and also promoted Hong Kong cinema...which I think in the long run is a good thing for Asian cinema and the prospective audience here in the U.S.
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
And I personally believe that Alan Arkin's win this year was also a de facto "Lifetime Achievement Award" for his 40+ years of film work (remember Catch 22 from over 36 years ago?).

Right, Arkin's great acting career has been overlooked by nearly everybody, so it was nice to see him win one finally. BTW, "Catch 22" was a completely forgettable movie -- they made a total hash out of a brilliant novel. He's done much better work. I really liked Arkin in a great little film from a few years ago, that hardly anybody saw, called "Slums of Beverly Hills."

As for "Departed," I thought it was mediocre Scorsese. The Oscar was a consolation prize for years of neglect, not this movie. At least he didn't win last year for "Aviator," which would have been almost embarrassing.
 

e²Studios

macrumors 68020
Apr 12, 2005
2,104
5
A bunch of rich high-brow socialites that get to screen movies and then rate them on how much they liked it so that we the consumer can rave over their choices, yea i love the oscars :rolleyes:

Ed
 

takao

macrumors 68040
Dec 25, 2003
3,827
605
Dornbirn (Austria)
Best foreign language film.....Pan's Labyrinth or the other one....ummm the other film won...wow that was the shocker, I was like :confused: . The dude that created the winning movie couldn't believe it...he started jumping like a mad man.

well he is the the third german director who won ... and it doesn't happen that often ;)
 

Swarmlord

macrumors 6502a
Sep 18, 2006
535
0
The only award I had trouble with was the Oscar for editing that went to The Departed. After watching the film long before the awards ceremony and again when it came out in DVD I commented many times to my wife and my brother how what could have been a good movie was really ruined by poor editing. What I thought was the main weak point of the whole movie (casting and dialog was great) was the thing it wins an Oscar for. I guess that's why I'm not in the Academy.
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,777
7,498
Los Angeles
There's something odd about the thinking that if you are the 2nd best (or 3rd best, or 4th best...) at your profession year after year, you eventually deserve top honors, even if you aren't ever best in a given year. What if they applied that logic to sports teams too? We'd have a lot of instant "winners" to award trophies to!

Scorsese's work has qualified him for a lifetime achievement award, but I'm not convinced he deserved this Oscar. In any case, the problem is solved. He won't get sympathy votes the next time!
 

IJ Reilly

macrumors P6
Jul 16, 2002
17,909
1,496
Palookaville
There's something odd about the thinking that if you are the 2nd best (or 3rd best, or 4th best...) at your profession year after year, you eventually deserve top honors, even if you aren't ever best in a given year. What if they applied that logic to sports teams too? We'd have a lot of instant "winners" to award trophies to!

Scorsese's work has qualified him for a lifetime achievement award, but I'm not convinced he deserved this Oscar. In any case, the problem is solved. He won't get sympathy votes the next time!

Hollywood is a close-knit mutual admiration society. The Academy Awards are very much a function of the entertainment community's need to congratulate each other for making lots of money, and almost nothing to do with art. The fact that we're interested even a little bit in all of this insider high-fiving says a lot about the power of movies.
 

Lyle

macrumors 68000
Jun 11, 2003
1,874
1
Madison, Alabama
The show just wasn't very entertaining to me, so I went to bed after the showed the "Hello" ad -- that's all I was really watching for, after all.

There was one thing that happened, presumably by accident, which cracked me up. During the sequence when they were announcing the nominees and winner for best animated picture, the camera was jumping back and forth between the cars from "Cars", the penguin from "Happy Feet" and the kids from "Monster House", and for a moment the camera stopped on Abigail Breslin, as if she were another little cartoon character in the running. :D
 
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