Post Oscars 2012 Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

So, what did everyone think of this year's Oscars?

Thought the show moved rather quickly, and Billy

Crystal did an admirable job (though not his best show).


The biggest upset of the night for me was Gary Oldman

losing Best Actor.


I think Gary Oldman is the best actor we currently have.

I had no idea what was going on in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

but it was clearly apparent that Oldman was giving the

performance of his career. Very sad to see this chameleon

lose top honor.


Biggest surprise of the night was Meryl winning Best

Actress. Iron Lady did not receive great reviews, and

really, I thought Viola Davis gave the performance of

the year.


Want to thank those who joined us for our annual live

chat last night. Had a lot of fun hanging out with all of

you.

Ronald Epstein said:

I think Gary Oldman is the best actor we currently have. I had no idea what was going on in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy but it was clearly apparent that Oldman was giving the performance of his career.

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I wasn't even a fan of Tinker but Gary Oldman was fantastic in it. That being said, I think he'll get one eventually. Now I have to go explain to my friend why I told them to pick Viola Davis over Meryl Streep for their office Oscar pool. I gave them all the right picks (it was just the major categories) but I missed out on the one that seemed like the super obvious one.

Once again, the only major award given to a movie I've actually seen was Best Animated Feature. I didn't catch any of the other nominees (I did enjoy Cars 2, even if it wasn't Oscar material), but man did I love Rango! Sorry I missed the chat. In my new house there's no cable jack in the computer room and I was too tired to look for my laptop's power cable.

Yep, a pretty ho-hum affair. The only moderate surprise being the Streep win after most everyone was predicting Viola Davis. I did appreciate the fact that they finally...finally...seemed to convince the audience to sit on their hands during the segment noting the year's deaths, with just polite applause at the end.

I thought it was the dullest show yet. Most of the fanfare of earlier shows was gone, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. They were just handing out one statue after another - it was all very solemn and fast-moving, no one took the time to really take it all in. Billy Crystal was a good host but I didn't think he was funny at all.

I did appreciate the fact that they finally...finally...seemed to convince the audience to sit on their hands during the segment noting the year's deaths, with just polite applause at the end.

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I think they started this last year. They're using a live performance during the death roll to curb the "applause popularity contest" throughout the segment. But they give the most "Popular" for last it seems with Liz Taylor. Speaking of this though, how did Whitney Houston make it in? She didn't die in 2011. Crystal was ok. But I wish they would let Ricky Gervais host, or bring Chris Rock back. But it will almost certainly never happen. Too many delicate egos, I guess.

elDomenechHTF said:

Billy Crystal was a good host but I didn't think he was funny at all.

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Yeah, he seemed to think his jokes were a lot funner than the audience did. He kept making long pauses after his quips waiting for laughter that didn't come. Whitney may have died in 2012, but imagine the outrage if she was not included in the current ceremony. I'm not sure why she had to be included, period, other than for PR purposes. She was in, what, three films in her lifetime? Harry Morgan was in over 100 films and they didn't include him in the segment (presumably because he's most remembered as a TV actor).

I just assumed that the time frame for the 'in memoriam' segment was from last year's show to close to the day of this year's show rather than January 1 to December 31. I'm sure popularity is the biggest determining factor though. If someone on the level of Houston's fame died yesterday afternoon, they probably would have recut the video to include her last night. On the other hand, if a production designer who had been retired for 30 years died on Friday night, he'd have probably been mentioned next year.

WillG said:

They're using a live performance during the death roll to curb the "applause popularity contest" throughout the segment. But they give the most "Popular" for last it seems with Liz Taylor. Speaking of this though, how did Whitney Houston make it in? She didn't die in 2011.

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My first thought was that having a live performer during In Memoriam takes focus away from the deceased, but when you put it that way, it makes sense. I think the In Memoriam list can cover everyone since the previous Oscar ceremony. Whitney may not have been an important figure in cinema, but she was a MAJOR entertainer (the young 'uns may not realize how big she was for about 10 years) and she was the star of a huge hit movie. As for Harry Morgan. . .I've started wondering whether they intentionally leave out random people just to give movie buffs something to talk about afterward. It's getting ridiculous!

They've increased the memorializing of behind the scenes talent (and rightly so since this is the Motion Picture Academy and not TCM) to the point that the deceased actors they honored were mainly the most popular stars. Because of this, it's no surprise that Harry Morgan was overlooked. So were a lot of other supporting actors.

The more I've thought about this, the more I realized that there was a film that got completely jobbed last night. And it was one that is baffling. Harry Potter: 7B. Outside of being a great film effort, I can't think of any other franchise that went 8 films deep with the same cast, cohesive story and paid off in every way. The Harry Potter Franchise will live much longer in the minds of the public and kids then we think, and it was an absolute amazing accomplishment of filmmaking. Outside of some incredible effects, the film fleshed out full characters. I guess, stepping back and thinking about it with my kids, if I were to re-pick and choose a "best picture" of the year, that would probably be it

Oh, wow....they left Harry Morgan out.


How sad. That's rather horrible that he wasn't included.

I'll leave my comments on Houston off this board but she did very much deserve to be mentioned last night. After all, she did appear in one of the biggest box office hits, had a couple record smashing soundtracks and with WAITING TO EXHALE she was able to bring some respect to black cinema and it did feature a crossover appeal to the mainstream, which really wasn't the norm at the time (just look at the type of urban films that were around during the decade). I didn't think Crystal was hilarious but I thought he did a good job overall. I enjoyed the fact that it was cut and paste as I personally don't want to listen to certain people go on and on and on. I'm glad they changed the "clapping" for certain people so perhaps the producers have heard me complain the past couple years. One other issue. It's somewhat annoying having big names come out during small awards (the ones people don't care about) and try to make a show on their own. It really takes away from the winners having to follow them and if the producers really think you need this then just cut these smaller awards to a different show or event.

The movie-going public would probably pick any number of films as the "Best Picture" over what the Academy chooses. The disconnect between the Academy and the ticket-buying public seems to be increasing every year.

It's a good thing they don't often go with public taste. Have you seen The People's Choice Awards?

eric scott richard said:

It's a good thing they don't often go with public taste. Have you seen The People's Choice Awards?

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Yeah, I realize that it creates a disconnect between the general public and the Oscars but Hollywood has no problem patting themselves on the back so there's room for both the Oscars and the People's Choice Awards. If people don't like the movies snagging awards at one ceremony, they'll probably like some of the movies getting awards at the other.

Any award show including the Oscars that don't agree with my choices, don't know what they're doing. It's as simple as that and their choices suck.








Crawdaddy

Originally Posted by eric scott richard

It's a good thing they don't often go with public taste. Have you seen The People's Choice Awards?

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Yes. Nothing wrong with that show either. The Academy has become increasingly insulated against the desires of the public. It doesn't mean they have to nominate or provide a win to a blockbuster, but it means that we nominate films that didn't even screen in major markets, and we take films that get a "push" rather then real chancy outside films.


I mean, yes, there is also room for embracing the artist and trying to get the public to pay attention.. but have you seen the Oscars make a real, daring choice based on artistry? Michael Fassbender didn't get a nom for "Shame", which wasn't a box office hit but would have made their case they looked for aristic merit.


The win by Meryl was hogwash; The Iron Lady was a TERRIBLE movie. But was she the best actress of the year? I don't know.. I was kind of dissappointed Brit Marling (Another Earth) or Kirsten Dunst (Melancholia) didn't get noms.


The problem with the Academy is that it is wishy-washy. If it wants to nominate based on artistic merit, then damn it, do it. If it wants to nominate based on impact at the theaters, then do that too. But right now, it's mostly an old boys club where a combination of lobbying, the right appeal and being made in LA trumpcards everything else. If "The Artist" had not been 100% filmed on LA backlots and if Harry Potter 7B had filmed a huge amount in LA, you'd have seen it sweep the technical awards at least.

The artistic merit thing is a hard one especially when I'd say 95% of the voters haven't seen all the films in question. As Crystal said, this award show is just famous/rich people smacking each other on the behind and they have a right to. If I was going to take anything as artistic then I'd probably go with the critic awards since they usually watch the majority of the films that get released.

Originally Posted by Rob_Ray

They've increased the memorializing of behind the scenes talent (and rightly so since this is the Motion Picture Academy and not TCM) to the point that the deceased actors they honored were mainly the most popular stars. Because of this, it's no surprise that Harry Morgan was overlooked. So were a lot of other supporting actors.

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I had this thought while watching the segment last night and someone came up on the roll and was identified as 'Marketing Research'. I'm sure this person was a nice guy and obviously remembered fondly by a number of people, but 'Marketing Research'?