Oscars

[Greathands]

Anyone watching? What's the name of the acrobat troup that's performing?

[+ imagooddog]

I don't know who they are but they are great!!

 

And to Jennifer Hudson, GO GIRL !!

Make Simon eat crow !

[jackhammer91406]

They are called the Philobus Dance Company I believe.

[Guest ncm2169]

< Anyone watching?

 

What time did you post this? (BIG yawn).

 

I'd be surprised if half their viewership didn't bail in the first 90 minutes. Ellen, who I had such high hopes for, was so tame she hardly elicited a laugh and a half, and the whole production reeked of being written by a team of TinselTown insiders patting themselves on the back, ala Hooray For Hollywood circa 1953. Add to that the v e r y s l o w first 90 minutes, and that nimrod back stage trying to gin up some "back office" excitement with his lame scorecards, and, IMHO, this was one of the worst Oscar productions in years. Yeah, Jennifer Hudson was awesome as was Helen Mirren's win and particularly Scorcese's win (finally!!), but those came late in the show and were probably missed by 75% of the original viewing public. Al Gore got his due, but that was so hyped in advance that if he hadn't, Oscar would have been tarnished forever.

 

Message to H'wood: Get real, folks. You have more competition for viewership than ever before. Sherry Lansing couldn't prop you up and neither will Home Alone #14. x(

[+ purplekow]

I thought the speeches were much more polished than in previous years and not just an endless litany of thanked names as has been the case in the past. Ellen was not really funny and I doubt she will be doing another turn at the hosting podium.

It seems to me that a good percentage of the show is spent watching presenters walk in and winners walk up. I know a few years ago they tried to shorten that aspect by having all the nominees on stage and that was a disaster as the losers were left standing there as the winners made an acceptance speech. Perhaps the next set of presenters being discretely ushered on stage to a second podium while the winner makes his walk, would cut some time off the overlong show.

The musical numbers were better than usual and the Philobus Dance Troupe was entertaining, as they were during their run on Broadway some years ago.

A different approach would also have them doing one long clip of nominated movies, for example 45 seconds of Pan's Labrynth with subtitles naming the nominations the picture has received. They could also do it in a pop up video manner stating something about the nominations.

This year there would have been about 10 such clips with longer clips for more frequently nominated movies or to accentuate an acting category nomination.

[Guest zipperzone]

I agree - very boring show. Ellen NOT FUNNY - probably had too many restrictions placed upon her by the Academy. Stage setting looked like a budget production you would expect to see on "Trading Places" and the whole show was so disjointed and uncoordinated it reeked of amature.

 

The best part of the whole evening was on the red carpet before the show started where Ryan Seacrest showed us his underwear. Now that was hot - strange that he wasn't wearing a belt.....

[Guest ncm2169]

< The best part of the whole evening was on the red carpet before the show started where Ryan Seacrest showed us his underwear. Now that was hot - strange that he wasn't wearing a belt.....

 

DAMN, I missed that ... probably while watching Baba Wawa interviewing a NotVeryFunny Eddie Murphy. x(

 

They need to "spice up their act" ... maybe something like a separate but concurrent pay-per-view, let's say from David Geffen's lair.

 

Scott Adler, any suggestions? }(

[jackhammer91406]

oooops, missing one syllable.

The Philobolus Dance Theater

[+ Lucky]

Since my new satellite tv stole my local channels, I chose to watch a movie instead of the Oscars...strange that I picked The Departed. Leo may not be the last king of Boston, but he sure was good in it!

[+ imagooddog]

Was Ryan really in his underwear??? Any pictures?

Guess I was also watching Barbara Walters, which

was not too great.

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Congrats Jennifer Hudson... You have officially arrived

[catnip]

It's actually Pilobolus, no "h." Here's a link to a Hyundai commercial they did: http://www.pilobolus.com/index.cgi/566

[Guest zipperzone]

>Was Ryan really in his underwear??? Any pictures?

>Guess I was also watching Barbara Walters, which

>was not too great.

 

One of the fashion commentators recognized a guy (I forget who) who had a contract for advertising Clavin Klein underwear and asked provocativly what brand of underwear he was wearing.

 

Seacrest said it had to be CK and then they asked him what kind he (Seacrest) was wearing. Ryan then hauled up his shirt and yanked down his pants enough to show about a 2 inch slice of skin and the tops of his tighty whities. Don't ask me what kind they were - I was too busy looking at the skin.

 

It was not really all that dareing, but it struck me as highly erotic. But then I've always had a thing for RS

[Guest Jesse Dane]

While it may not have been the most entertaining show of all time I was quite happy with the distribution of awards this year. It was nice not having any one movie completely sweep. I was also thrilled that Pan's Labrynth won 3 awards!

[Guest rohale]

I have nothing but respect for Forrest Whitaker and his absolute brilliant performance in the film " The Last King Of Scotland ". However for sentimental value, I personally would loved to have seen the great Sir Peter O'Toole win the Oscar for his melancholy performance in " Venus ".

 

As for Jennifer Hudson and her win for Best Supporting Actress. If anything her Oscar should annoy Beyonce in quite a big way. It's been a good number of years since the Academy had a performer guzzle down so much undue praise for belting out a show tune into a mircrophone. The Academy Award winner displayed remarkable pipes, but genuine acting chops? I hardly saw evidence of that in her performance within " Dreamgirls ". It goes without saying that there was indeed a more deserving actress who should have gone home with the gold statue. One cannot dismiss the performance by Cate Blanchett to which she was absolutely peachy as the adulterous school teacher in " Notes Of A Scandal ".

 

Ro

[Guest EuropTravl]

I've read the star of "Borat" wouldn't present because the producers would NOT let him appear as the "Borat" character. It would have been the "shock" from a defibrillator this "corpse" of an award show needed.

 

And the most excruciating parts for me were from that ex-MTV movie "expert" Chris Connelly doing his backstage commentary. Not one segment he did wasn't an embarrassment because each winner backstage fled from him like vampires from garlic.

[+ Axiom2001]

>< Anyone watching?

>

>What time did you post this? (BIG yawn).

>

>I'd be surprised if half their viewership didn't bail in the

>first 90 minutes. Ellen, who I had such high hopes for, was

>so tame she hardly elicited a laugh and a half, and the whole

>production reeked of being written by a team of TinselTown

>insiders patting themselves on the back, ala Hooray For

>Hollywood circa 1953. Add to that the v e r y s l o

>w first 90 minutes, and that nimrod back stage trying to gin

>up some "back office" excitement with his lame scorecards,

>and, IMHO, this was one of the worst Oscar productions in

>years. Yeah, Jennifer Hudson was awesome as was Helen

>Mirren's win and particularly Scorcese's win (finally!!), but

>those came late in the show and were probably missed by 75% of

>the original viewing public. Al Gore got his due, but that

>was so hyped in advance that if he hadn't, Oscar would have

>been tarnished forever.

>

>Message to H'wood: Get real, folks. You have more

>competition for viewership than ever before. Sherry Lansing

>couldn't prop you up and neither will Home Alone #14. x(

 

 

 

AGREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEED HIGHLY! Since Ellen was not her old self, and since the ceremony was not full of verve and vitality, I kept bounching back from viewing the Oscars to my watching ROME on HBO!

[+ BenjaminNicholas]

Blanchett got an Oscar the year before, so it was highly unlikely that the Academy was going to bestow again.

 

The differences between 'Notes' and 'Dreamgirls' are incredible and to say that Hudson didn't give just as an emotional and thrilling performance as Blanchett is bullocks. Both films were strong in their respective genres.

 

If we're going on ACTING talent alone, the trophy really should have been won by either actress from Babel. Those were showstopping performances that truly trumped.

 

Dreamgirls had the buzz, the PR money and the fresh-off-the-bus newcomer vote going for it. Does that make it the better film? No. Then again, in the film business that doesn't really matter. It's ultimately who (and which studio) walks away with the Oscar.

 

 

BN

[Guest zipperzone]

>The differences between 'Notes' and 'Dreamgirls' are

>incredible and to say that Hudson didn't give just as an

>emotional and thrilling performance as Blanchett is bullocks.

 

As much as I was pleased that Hudson won (and didn't the egg on Simon Cowell's face look good?) I think she might be a one trick pony.

 

It's hard to imagine another roll where her talents could be as effective again. After all - it's hardly the age of the musical.

[Guest rohale]

Well bullocks or no bullocks, in a Tom Petty sort of way " I Wont Back Down ". I'm going make this very short and brief by focusing mainly on the two individual performers in debate and nothing more at this stage. So here we go, Adrianna Baraza was absolutey awesome in " Babel " and hopefully most people will not dispute this.

 

Now Cate Blanchett was absolutely very powerful in " Notes On A Scandel ", almost a lead performance as some critics would say. One of the great qualities about Cate is offcourse being an amazing and terrific actress. She is almost a chameleon because she really becomes each character she plays. There is also a downside and the problem is, Blanchett raises the bar to such an extremely high level for her performances that in comparison, Jennifer Hudson just doesn't really measure up and certainly not in " Dreamgirls ".

 

Comparison wise it just wasn't as strong as I had hoped. It more or less came off as a rather stale performance as opposed ot Cate's captivating appproach in " Notes On A Scandel "

 

Ro

[Rick Munroe]

I just watched it on youtube and I thought Ellen was very funny, especially when she went into the audience to give her screenplay to Martin Scorsese and get Spielberg to take her photo with Clint Eastwood for her MySpace. And when she said since the show was "green," she was asked to recycle some of her old material and then did some really bad Gilligan's Island jokes. It was brilliant!

[RockHard]

RE: Rick's post,

 

That was probably Ellen's funniest moment. I like Ellen but I thought the opening montage bombed, big time, especially when you compare it to any of the film clips where Billy Crystal plays the leading actors/actresses in the roles nominated. How does one top that for laughs? The rest of Ellen's performance was lackluster for me.

 

I always thought Bette Midler would make a great host but she can't be controlled so I doubt that will ever happen.

 

Regarding some of the other comments:

 

It's hard to imagine the conservative academy awarding the Oscar to an actress who played a predator of an under-age boy, while at the same time playing a mother to an autistic child. Notes On a Scandal was not a film one would expect from Hollywood's usual devoid-of-any-substance crap but, as interesting as the film/car crash/train wreck was to watch, the story had some serious problems. Cate did not deserve the Oscar on this one.

 

I agree that Jennifer Hudson was weak on the "acting chops," however, she made up for that weakness when she performed her 11-o'clock number. She acted that song, on film, like no other. Based on her singing/acting-that-song, I think she got what she deserved.

 

Where she goes from here is anyone's guess. Everyone knows an early Oscar in a blossoming career can be a curse. I wouldn't want to be her agent.

 

Like Jesse, I, too, was happy to see Pan's Labyrinth get some serious attention. Frankly, I thought the film deserved a Best Picture Award. It's one of the more captivating films of 2006. I loved it. It was nice to see Maribel Verdú again. I loved her in Y tu mamá también, along with those boys.

 

Pilobolus is a famous dance company from Connecticut and well known in NYC. They get rave reviews with every new show they bring to NY. Catnip provided the link to their website. Talk about some very hot men. I highly recommend their show for an evening of sheer delight and remarkable talent.

[peter555]

This is my first time posting on this website and hopefully I can make a little contribution and see what comes about as time goes by.

Why to respond to this thread because I love American and English films. There is no better way for an introduction other than to throw myself into the lions den. Realistically I dont know much about the American Academy awards as I'm from Sheffield and my interest lies with the Orange Brtiish Academy Film Awards.

 

I understand Jennifer Hudson won the American Award in supporting actress category as well as the BAFA. Am I pleased with this result not really as I absolutely adore Emily Blunt from Devil Wears Prada who was up for an BAFA acknowledgement. Miss Hudson did an okay roll aand i really enjoyed although I grew up with the real deal from Motown but for any poster to knock down what Miss Blanchett did in notes on a scandel and say it's not up to par with what Jennifer Hudson. To suggest getting a head check would be underscored.

One more comment to the poster who was on the original receiving end of the word bullocks. You go by the name of Ro and Dont take it personally as what Benjamin Nicholas was trying to say is that your comment was bullshit. Absolutey not and I liked your Tom Petty remark as it took me a bit of time put two and two together. In fact your attacker is being knocked down on another thread. IN a manner of tone being burned at the stake. The internet universe balances itself.

pete555