Academy Awards night.....spoliers....

[habernac]

this is the only awards show I watch. I haven't seen any of the films nominated, gotta get off my ass and do that. Renting them is my preference and some are just coming out.

Best Picture - Crash

thought Brokeback would win with all the hype.

Best Actor - Philip Seymour Hoffman, Capote - this guy is a fantastic actor, great to see him win, tough break for a great field in this category.

Best Actress - Reese Witherspoon - Walk the Line - not a big surprise here, sounds like she nailed the role of June Carter.

Best Supporting Actor - George Clooney - Syriania - one of the better "Hollywood" type actors out there. I may have to get out and see this film.

Best Supporting Actress - Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener - a film I know nothing about, looked like a good performance from the clips.

Best Director - Ang Lee - Brokeback Mtn -I was hoping to hear a "thanks to Calgary" in his acceptance speech.

[Displaced Flames fan]

Crash was one of the best films I've seen in quite a few years, if not the best. It's the only one of the 5 nominated that I've seen so far. I can't wait to see the others.

Hoffman nails everything he does. I've heard Joaquin Phoenix would've been equally deserving and can't wait to see both films. Big fan of both actors.

[JiriHrdina]

How did everyone think Stewart did?

I thought he was VERY good, but it will be interesting to see what the reaction is to him. Some of his off the cuff comments were brilliant:

"For you keeping score that's Martin Scorcese zero Oscars, three 6 mafia...one".

The only irritation was the Academy's desperate please for people to watch movies in the theatres. 3 unnecessary montages and a begging Academy President.

Hey folks - you want people back in the theatres - lower the damn ticket prices.

[RougeUnderoos]

They were merciless in cutting people off in mid-speech or even pre-speech. They turned out the lights on one of the Crash writers and ushered him off.

Stewart was pretty funny. The gag with Will Ferrell's makeup was alright but even better was later on Jennifer Lopez came out and she had the same face painted on but it wasn't a joke.

[FunkMasterFlame]

ben stiller presenting the best special effects award while wearing a bright-green full body unitard was freakin hilarious, especially when he pulled that mask out and was hovering around.

[metallicat]

I thought Stewart was bombing during his monologue, but he seemed to get better. He's still his best on the Daily Show though.

Can't say I really cared who won what award this year. The only Best Picture nominee I saw was Crash.

[lucid]

I've wanted to see Crash for a while now, but haven't had the time to do so. I was shocked however, that Brokeback Mountain didn't win. It's really an amazing film.

Reese Witherspoon's acceptance speech was really well done. Congrats to her!

[BlackEleven]

Best Supporting Actress - Rachel Weisz - The Constant Gardener - a film I know nothing about, looked like a good performance from the clips.

It's a great film. I would put it in my Top 3 of 2005. Definitely worth checking out.

[Cowperson]

Stewart bombed according to this review:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11687022/

Cowperson

[nfotiu]

Constant Gardener was a good movie.

I thought Crash was just okay, I was pretty surprised it was even nominated. At no point while I was watching, did I think this is an Oscar worthy film. It felt like a public service announcement, or ABC afterschool special at times. I haven't seen any of the other nominees, but I thought Cinderella Man was a much better movie.

[Mike F]

Originally Posted by Cowperson

Stewart bombed according to this review:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11687022/

Cowperson

Sounds like a big Daily Show fan (nothing wrong with that) who went into the show convinced that Hollywood wouldn't accept Stewart and interpreted everything to fit that.

"The Academy Awards were clear to demonstrate, however, that they are not a dreadfully serious affair where humor doesn't belong.

Two CGI characters, Chicken Little and Abby Mallard, presented an award, and Ben Stiller dressed in an all-green unitard to introduce the special effects Oscar. Later, Will Ferrell and Steve Carell introduced the makeup award while wearing awful makeup, Carell looking like a drag queen without his wig or gown, and Ferrell appearing as if his face had been dragged along the red carpet.

Those moments evoked smiles and giggles. But that humor is safe, easy, and non-confrontational. It does not require the stars to laugh at themselves or their hypocrisy."

I watched the show and can't remember those bits doing any better than the average Stewart joke.

Sure, some stars like Juaquin Phoenix sat there stone faced, but then he comes from the Sean Penn school of "Look like a serious artiste by always having a stick up your a**".

Edit: CNN hilights some mixed reviews.

[Lanny_MacDonald]

First off, I thought Stewart was the best host in years. He had me and the wife rolling. On to the awards....

Best Movie... Crash was a surprise. It was good, but it wasn't that good IMO. I actually thought Syriana was a much better movie than the ones nominated. I look forward to seeing Good Lock and Good NIght (big David Stratharn fan).

Best Actress... Witherspoon was deserving for here job in Walk the Line, but I can't help but look at her body of work and go, BARF!!! Come on Academy, Legally Blonde, Sweet Home Alabama and Vanity Fair all sucked ass. Witherspoon did not have the body of work. As well, I thought Theron in North Country was outstanding and likely deserved the statue again.

Best Actor... no problems with Hoffman at all. Anyone in that category could have walked away with the trophy. Hoffman has an outstanding body of work and deserves the nod.

Best Supporting Actress... Weisz was very good in The Constant Gardner, but my hope was Frances McDomand would get the nod for her great job in North Country. Weisz was good, I just thought McDormand was better.

Best Supporting Actor... the Academy hit a home run with this one. Clooney was awesome in the role of a real life CIA spook and put on 35 pounds for the role. One of Hollywood's good guys, I think his body of work showed he was deserving. There was a little bit of me pulling for Giamatti (Bartlet Giamatti's kid BTW) but his time will come, and soon.

One award I have no idea WTF they were thinking about was best original song. If "Pimp" is the best the Academy has to offer (and I told my wife it would win to appeal to the "new market") they need to work on their music. IMO, the song from Crash was much more deserving, but not as politically strong when appealing to the marketplace.

Overall, I really think that Hollywood was doing its best to appeal to the ticket holders and create a buzz. I think they did a fine job.

[octothorp]

I was actually able to see every winning film this year (and a bunch that didn't win), except for some of the obscure categories like the shorts. I really felt Capote was the best film this year, but Brokeback, GN&GL, Constant Gardener, Walk the Line, and maybe even Syriana were all better than Crash. It's not that Crash wasn't a good film, there were just so many outstanding films this year. It was better than Munich, though.

Since I felt Capote was the best film, obviously I have no problem with Hoffman getting the Oscar. Even though it's based on a real man, this is one of the most compelling film characters I've ever seen.

Reese Witherspoon's performance was excellent, and it was clear that Walk the Line was going to get shut out in all the other categories, so this was the only category where it could win; sort of a consollation award. Personally, I thought Keira Knightly deserved the award, but epic period-pieces just weren't in vogue this year.

I agree 100% with Rachel Weisz winning supporting actress. For a supporting actress performance, she was an absolute force in this very underrated film.

George Clooney was good in Syriana, and I figured he or Dillon would take this, because their performances were both in montage films where they were really a central character. Although I though Terrence Howard's Crash performance was better than Dillon's. I agree with Lanny, though; I was cheering for Giamatti.

In the Deep was a better song than Hard Out Here for a Pimp. Niether March of the Penguins or Wallace and Gromit were the best in their category. Otherwise, I don't have a big problem with any of the awards.


Stewart was hilarious. I especially liked the best actress lobbying commercials. The montages were all really lame, but I think they were trying to compensate for the fact that most viewers probably don't have much familiarity with the nominated films. By my count, there was a four-way tie for most oscars, with three (Crash, Brokeback, Geisha, and Kong); and none of these won any acting awards, either (which went to four different films). When was the last time that no film received at least four awards? It really seemed that the voters were making an effort to make sure as many films as possible were recognised.

[VANFLAMESFAN]

I remember posting here after the first time I saw Crash and said it was gonna win best pic. I just found it so amazing, there's just so much more to it than what;s on the surface. Having said that, I thought Brokeback could have easily won, that was an amazing movie as well. Capote was solid, but I thought the performance of PSH was way better than the movie, take him out of the movie and you have a very weak film. Munich was very good as well IMO, but I think it was just up against far better competition this year, if that film was made 5 years ago or whenever Shakespeare in Love won, and it wins hands down. Shakespeare in Love was pure garbage.

[Igottago]

Originally Posted by Lanny_MacDonald

Best Movie... Crash was a surprise. It was good, but it wasn't that good IMO.

Totally agree...I don't think Crash is as good as the hype suggests..I actually can't believe it was even nominated..when I saw it, yeah it was okay, but didn't blow me away or anything. It seemed pretty predictable and run of the mill. Must of been the amazing performance by Ludacris that pushed it over the top.

[Calgary Flames]

Ok, I like Rap... but how Three 6 Mafia got an Academy Award is a total joke. That song was a cookie cutter song that I don't know how many times i've heard... I liked the performance but I have no idea how that won.. Definetely a throw away to fit in with pop culture.

[North East Goon]

Disturbing Trend for the Oscars. Acting awards going for biography pictures. Wouldnt it be more difficult ot play a character that is completely made up and original rather than trying to mimmick somebody famous from yesteryear? My wife gave me the gears about whether I would rent Brokeback if it was 2 women instead of men, I said if they were hot, we would have seen it in the theatres. I really want to see Munich, anyone have a review for this?

[Lurch]

I really want to see Munich, anyone have a review for this?

Don't waste your time with this movie - rent "One day in September" a documentary on the same subject which won an Oscar, IIRC. Just saw both within a week, and this was clearly superior. Munich's lack of direction and overly long running time left me with a real large "so what" factor despite the fact I was very interested in the story, whereas September was very compelling.

I agree with those that found Crash overrated. I found it lacking any subtlety - neat premise, but generally failed to pull it off without feeling forced. Didn't see enough of the other nominated movies to comment on whether those felt right to me.

[octothorp]

Originally Posted by North East Goon

I really want to see Munich, anyone have a review for this?

It's got some really tense and suspenseful scenes, the acting is overall solid (I really liked seeing Michael Lonsdale, who creeped me out a couple decades ago when I saw him in The Name of the Rose), but it substitutes heavy-handed Spielburg wanking for any kind of real or honest emotional climax. Same cast, same general story, and a different director, and this could have been a great film.

[Bobblehead]

Here's a question: Lanny mentioned how when Reece Witherspoon won, he barfed because couldn't get past her body of work.

Shouldn't you win for your role? I personally don't think previous work should be considered; you are nominated for your roll in that movie, not the ones you did in previous years.

If prior work matters, how did Tom Hanks win? Volunteers, Money Pit, Bonfire of the Vanities, Joe vs the Volcano, the 'burbs - all pretty mediocre bordering on outright bad films.

I know some actors win, and people mention that they are a 'sentimental winner' and they won because of they have an excellent body of work but have never won before. Doesn't that cheapen the win for the actor?