Oscar Watch 2005 - pre-awards discussion (1 Viewer)

[Arman]

I have lot of unseen Oscar contenders. Heard so many positive things about Match Point. But most would not consider it as Allen's best - for most of them a very good WA film in quite a while. BM seems to be the frontrunner but it's the same case last year with LiT. One thing going for it is that this year seems to be the year that no one knows who will definitely win or what the Academy will like and that every Academy darlings/favorites already won and the mood generally is not very Academy-like because BO is way down this year. Hey, even the Golden Globe thinks it's about time to recognize the Indies and time to be hip again - "King Kong and/or Munich is great(?) but ..." I'm guessing the Academy will possibly follow GG's lead not because they too want to be hip and that for the first time would feel like they are some movie geeks after attending those indie festivals (or as they say "Oscar screenings") but because they are just confuse and the box-office is generally down this year - oh wait PJ's KK and SS' Munich could still post some great BO #s. ()

No love for Terrence Malick's The New World? Some pseudo unknown critics said "The New World is long and boring, a fantastic place to take a nap". Can't wait - it sounds like TNW is potentially the profoundly moving cinematic masterpiece I've been waiting for in '05.

 

[ChristopherBlig]

Speaking of the GGs, what's the deal with that Christmas song in contention?

Elizabethtown had a decent original song offering and it lost out to a movie not even released in 2005 (2004 to be exact) what gives???

Might not matter since the award went to the song from Alfie that wasn't even nominated for the oscars

 

[teapot2001]

Sounds great to me, too.

~T

 

[Nathan V]

Yeah, I'm there no matter what for Malick. Give me 3 hours of ambiguous poetic narration and landscape shots...I'll eat it up!

After seeing King Kong, I will say it is more than definitely still in the running. The film is simply too good to be passed up. This is the new Jurassic Park. This is Titanic with a script. The word of mouth on this will be huge. Those skeptical of watching a giant gorilla movie will evntually hit the theaters on great WOM...I predict this to be a long, slow builder with serious legs at the BO. I am seeing techie noms in all categories, and BD, and maaayyyyybe BP. It would certainly up the telecast ratings.

The trailer for Mrs. Henderson Presents looks horrible, very average. That said, I'm very interested in seeing it.

Regards,
Nathan

 

[Chris_T]

Question...how are the f/x's in KK compared to ROTS? Is it basically a dog fight between these two in the tech categories or will KK sweep like everyone is predicting? I haven't seen KK yet, so that' s why I'm asking.

Chris

 

[Brook K]

I thought the Mrs. Henderson Presents trailer looked like it will be a fun, entertaining comedy; I just don't see myself thinking it will be the movie of the year like Adam does. I'll definitely see it. I'm taking a week and a half off of work after Christmas so I should have some time to see multiple movies.

Outside of The New World, the film I'm most excited to see is Wolf Creek, an ultra violent Aussie horror movie being released around Christmas as the ultimate form of counter programming!

 

[Nathan V]

Chris T, I unfortunately can't answer your question, as I actually haven't seen ROTS. I will say that the effects in general are outstanding (you've seen LOTR, I'm sure; this is similar, and perhaps slightly better). The realization of Kong himself, though, is beyond outstanding; he makes Gollum look like Dobby look like Jar Jar look like the Rock at the end of Mummy Returns. We are literally looking at a giant gorilla. The emotive abilities of his face are absolutely extraordinary. This, along with the overall great quality of the film, should give KK a serious edge in the FX category.

BTW, it is underperforming at the BO, with a $9.7 mil opening wednesday. I expect WOM to change that.

Regards,
Nathan

 

[Chris_T]

Thanks for the reply Nathan. I can't wait to see it for myself. KK's box office take is the hot topic in the 2005 Box Office Thread. I hope it does succeed.

Chris

 

[Jose Martinez]

Regarding the GG noms, if the Oscar voters follow the Best Picture route, I think it's safe to say this year's Oscar show will probably be the lowest rated. I hate to say it but none of the GG Best Picture nominees are (or will be) box office smashes. People want to root for something they've seen. no Munich or King Kong means low ratings.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Agreed on the f/x...barring a Special Achievement Award for Kong separate from the VFX award, there is no way Kong loses that. That is not to say the effects are necessarily better. That's a matter of taste. There is one relatively poor sequence in KK, and no such low in ROTS or WOTW (the third choice that already had a decent shot of beating ROTS). But KONG is so far beyond what VFX have done (in any film) before that the Academy will single it out in that category if it has to. And it probably will.

 

[Arman]

Okay, am not a fan of anyone of them but some critics reviews for Munich and The New World are up in metacritic. Here's scorecards of the ones that seen/reviewed both films:

Newsweek's David Ansen
Munich = 100
The New World = 80

Variety's Todd McCarthy
Munich = 70
The New World = 50

The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt
Munich = 90
The New World = 70

Ansen on TNW -
Moviecitynews has Munich in 3rd with 74 pts for Best Picture and The New World out of the Top 10 (13th) with only 18 pts.

Oh well their opinions are useless, I just wanted to share . I'm still more interested in TNW.

 

[Kirk Tsai]

The 42 songs eligible for the best song Oscar has been announced.
http://www.oscars.org/press/pressrel...05.12.15c.html

I've only seen 11 of these films. Among these, it's a no brainer that "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" should win. There have been many musical biographies and backstage dramas, but the construction of this song in Hustle and FLow still makes it stand out as an integral part to the movie.

"Along the River" from "End of the Spear"

"Angels Talk" from "Angels with Angles"

"Butterfly" from "Because of Winn-Dixie"

"Can't Take It In" from "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe"

"Closer Every Day" from "Freezerburn: The Movie "

"Dicholo" from "The Constant Gardener"

"Do the Hippogriff" from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"

"Dreamer" from "Dreamer: Inspired by a True Story"

"Face of Faith" from "Rumor Has It"

"Fight for the Children" from "Palindromes"

"Finding Home" from "Finding Home"

"Great Big World" from "Hoodwinked"

"Have a Little Faith" from "The Theory of Everything"

"Hustle & Flow (It Ain't Over)" from "Hustle & Flow"

"(I'd Have It All) If I Had Drew" from "My Date with Drew"

"If I Apologize" from "Mirrormask"

"I'll Be Near You" from "Bee Season"

"I'll Whip Ya Head Boy" from "Get Rich or Die Tryin'"

"In the Deep" from "Crash"

"It Ain't Over Yet” from "Racing Stripes"

"It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp" from "Hustle & Flow"

"I've Gotta See You Smile" from "Because of Winn-Dixie"

"Mad Hot Ballroom" from "Mad Hot Ballroom"

"Move Away and Shine" from "Thumbsucker"

"My Brother, My People" from "Blues by the Beach"

"Nobody Jesus But You" from "Palindromes"

"One Blood" from "Green Street Hooligans"

"One Little Slip" from "Chicken Little"

"One Safe Place" from "The Upside of Anger"

"Reachin' for Heaven" from "Ice Princess"

"Remains of the Day" from "Tim Burton's Corpse Bride"

"Same in Any Language" from "Elizabethtown"

"Shine" from "Robots"

"Shoulder to Shoulder" from "Pooh's Heffalump Movie"

"So Long and Thanks for All the Fish" from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"

"Taking the Inside Rail" from "Racing Stripes"

"Tell Me What You Already Did" from "Robots"

"There's Nothing Like a Show on Broadway" from "The Producers"

"These Days" from "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants"

"This Is the Way" from "Palindromes"

"Travelin' Thru" from "Transamerica"

"You're Gonna Die Soon" from "Sarah Silverman: Jesus Is Magic"

 

[Adam_S]

I'll be mad if that Narnia song is nominated, it's a junky contemporary piece that has no business being on the credits for that particular film, it annoyed me in the theatre when I heard it, the only sour note at the theatre for me.

 

[mattCR]

Ok, at this point in the year, so many films that I thought would be great contenders turned out "eh". So, I'm going to throw my support whole heartedly behind a film that opened early in the year "Crash" as the film I would say (at this point, from what I have seen) most deserves to win Best Picture.

There are a few films left I haven't seen, so it could change, but Syriana didn't impress me so much; and while I think Hoffman deserves a nod for Capote, the film as a whole, not so much. I was dissapointed in "Rent" and let down by a bevy of other films I thought would "be something".

Crash is a film that I fear may still get overlooked in favor of a lesser film which opened later in the year. Too bad, because at this point, I can't think of a film I've seen that I thought was better managed and delivered then "Crash".

 

[Seth Paxton]

I've been like Vicky lately, not posting very much at all here for whatever reason, but I've been trying to get back into it and keep up, especially now.

Of course after the "stellar" performance of my formula last year its hard to get too enthused. I'll still work it up but not until late next week or so. GG wins, the Guild noms and wins and the Oscar noms all factor in so there isn't enough data just yet to be that interesting.


In regards to no drawing power, if Producers gets nom'd it could be the big fun smash hit that draws in viewers.

I couldn't believe History of Violence hung in there with the GG, that's nice. It and Crash are 2 of the better films I've seen so far.

The other majors I've seen at this point are Syriana, Good Night, and Walk the Line. Right now they and Crash make my top 5 with Batman Begins at #1 and clearly not in the Oscar running itself.


BTW, speaking of FX I would think that War of the Worlds would still be in the mix. In fact I think it would be in better shape than ROTS. SOUND especially was very impressive and impactful with WotW.


I'm going to be near LA over XMas so I think I will try to get up to the Arclight to catch at least The Producers. Love that theater after catching Shaun of the Dead there at the HTF meet in 2004.

 

[teapot2001]

It's probably a better idea to see The New World in 70mm there.

~T

 

[Quentin]

Seth - catch Kong at the Dome if you can. It's really THE theater to see it in.

 

[Tino]

Saw this posted elsewhere:

"The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the seven films in consideration for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 78th Academy Awards®.

The films are listed below in alphabetical order:

Batman Begins
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
King Kong
Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith
War of the Worlds

Fifteen-minute clip reels from each of the seven films will be screened for the Visual Effects Award Nominating Committee on Wednesday, January 25. At this screening the members will vote to nominate three of the seven films for Oscar® consideration.

All nominations for the 78th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, January 31, 2006, at 5:30 a.m. PST, in the Academy's Samuel Goldwyn Theater.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements for 2005 will be presented on March 5, 2006, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland®, and televised live by the ABC Television Network beginning at 5 p.m. PST

 

[Paul Case]

While I think that Sith had the best effects of the year, hands down, I believe Kong has the visual effects oscar completely sewed up. The individual effect of Kong is simply too much of an achievement to be overlooked.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

The three noms will be Kong, Sith, and WOTW. It was nice to see Batman Begins get an early nod, considering how well it matched old school and new school effects in a lovely production, but it doesn't have the, uhhh, horses to compete with the big three.