Oscar 2007 Wrap Up

12 out of 24 Ain't bad . . . Wait, Yes It Is!

Wow, this has got to be the worst prediction year for me in a long time! Last year I picked twenty winners . . . So what’s wrong with the world? I know it can’t be me so here is my Oscar recap!

First off, I knew Scorsese was going to get best director (Janaki right), but picture? (Janaki wrong) I thought it was one of his most technically weak films in a long time and the editing sucked as well (wrong again). When “Little Miss Sunshine” won for best original screenplay I knew that was the kiss of death and consolation prize. That I was right about.

Anyway, in grand Oscar tradition best supporting actor was the upset category. Eddie Murphy had been the hands down favorite but in came Alan Arkin to swoop in an register Oscar gold. I thought Murphy deserved it much more as his performance was much more of a departure than Arkin’s, in fact I fully expected Arkin’s speech to have tons of cursing in it!

I wanted Peter O’Toole to win and the fact that Forest Whitaker (and his rambling) won is unfortunate and even though many say his performance is amazing, I don’t care! O’Toole will be dead soon and if the Academy is all about rewarding past oversights then damn it, he should win for “Lawrence of Arabia”.As expected Helen Mirren won for “The Queen”, but what wasn’t expected is that Will Ferrell, Jack Black and John C. Reilly would be singing a song about “getting” with her. Yuck! I am sooooooooo tired of people kissing her ugly old British ass. “Oh, Helen Mirren is soooooo beautiful, she puts 20 year old’s to shame”, sorry but that’s complete and utter bullshit! I recently saw a film she did when she was in her 30’s and she wasn’t beautiful then and she most certainly isn’t now.

Also expected was Jennifer Hudson’s win for best supporting actress. I’m happy she won as her performance was devastatingly heart wrenching.
I was surprised to see that not only did “Pan’s Labyrinth” get robbed of best foreign film, that it won best cinematography right from underneath “Children of Men”. I mean how can you win best art direction, cinematography and makeup and lose best foreign film??

Other winners I picked were “Marie Antoinette” for best costume design (it looked like candy), “The Inconvenient Truth” for best documentary and “Babel” for best original score. War films always win best sound editing and musicals always win best sound mixing and this year was no different with “Letters From Iwo Jima” and “Dreamgirls” respectively winning Oscars.

As for the show itself?Ellen DeGeneres had some humorous if not bland moments. Her highlights? Giving Scorsese a script in the aisle and having Spielberg take a picture (and retake) of her and Clint Eastwood was priceless. Other than that she was pretty forgettable. Next year they will probably try Jerry Seinfeld as host, I thought his bit about movie trash was very funny and the fact he introduced the documentary films by saying that they are incredibly depressing was awesome and very, very true. Leave it to Seinfeld to say nothing and make it something!

I don’t care what anyone else says, I liked those dancers behind the lighted screen and I liked the sound effects choir. I am in the minority because I also think the telecast is not too long. Why streamline it? I mean c’mon this is once a year people, if you don’t like it than don’t fucking watch it, but I love everything about filmmaking and I wouldn’t mind if it was 6 hours long!

Who looked the best?

Jodie Foster, Cate Blanchett, Emily Blunt, Jessica Biel, Gwyneth Paltrow, Rachel Weisz and of course Nicole Kidman.

Overall, the show was low key due to Ellen, but mostly the upsets were not only unexpected and unfortunate they were upsetting!

Wonder who will win next year???