Category Archives: Cinema

May 2, 2007 · 7:55 am

Cultural News Bytes – May 2nd, 2007

Why WordPress Rocks

First today, an extensive thank you to the good people at WordPress support for dealing with some technical difficulties in fantastic fashion. I posted last evening’s Tuesday Night TV Society, and then I kind of disappeared from the site. In fact, I was no longer an administrator, and had basically lost control of the blog. As it was late and I was heading to bed (I really shouldn’t have been up blogging in the first place), I sent off a quick message to support and somewhat expected to be dealing with it throughout the day today.

Alas, this was not the case; I had an email from Mark when I woke up this morning, and logged on to find that I once again had control of the site. This basically means that the blog was down for an entire five hours or so. Mark was extremely apologetic, but honestly: where else would tech support on a blog host going to get things done in five hours (And what is technically the middle of the night out here on the East Coast)? Many thanks to Mark and everyone at WordPress for creating such a fantastic environment. I tip my hat to you.

9 Minutes of Rat-a-too-ee

It’s Disney’s big hope for the mid-summer months, and it’s Pixar’s first film completed under complete Disney/Pixar partnership. Ratatouille began as a project under Jan Pinvaka, director of the Oscar-winning short Geri’s Game, but was radically revamped starting early last year when Brad Bird ended his vacation early to take over the project. The result was a complete story overhaul and likely a completely different film. That film, it seems, is coming along quite nicely. For those of you who watched American Idol last night (In both Canada and the US, since I also saw this), you saw an extended commercial for the film which taught you how to say its title, and sent you to Disney.com in order to watch a 9-Minute preview of the film.

This is an interesting strategy, considering that it is basically advertising their advertising campaign. However, it’s probably the right way to go in terms of getting the word out about this film. It is lacking a gimmick, an immediate appeal, outside of its Pixar quality. It is the first Pixar film since The Incredibles to really feature human characters and it lacks that film’s built-in superhero audience. Ratatouille has a confusing title, a rat as its lead character, Paris as its setting, and in many ways it’s an unmarketable film…but don’t tell that to the 9-Minute clip on Disney’s website.

For me, it’s everything Cars wasn’t. Cars was really very lifeless, if I had to lodge a single complaint in its direction. The landscapes were luscious, but the cars just didn’t convey emotion except within its supporting characters (Mater and Guido were the only ones who really stuck with me). Its action scenes were beautiful and impressive, but didn’t have the frenetic pace and energy we saw in The Incredibles…but it’s all here. There is emotion that is mature, understandable, touching. There is action that carries the story forward and seems exciting, meaningful, and beautifully animated. I now can’t help but be excited for this film’s release, much more so than any of the multitude of sequels which surround it.

Ratatouille opens on June 29th. I can now spell it without checking it; with any luck, millions more will be able to do the same soon.

The Fate of Scrubs

There’s usually a few hits a day on my post regarding the need for NBC to cancel Scrubs, and here’s a bit of an update. According to Variety, NBC aired commercials on Monday promoting the “final episodes” of Scrubs airing on Thursdays. Considering the show’s budget, and the multi-million dollar deal signed by Zach Braff, NBC really isn’t in any position to keep a show that, after losing its post-Office time slot to 30 Rock, was defeated by the Freshman drama in key demos and total viewers. On a basic level, Scrubs is not going to be on NBC in the fall (especially for the reason that we’ll discuss Re: The Office on Thursday).

However, considering that ABC signed Braff’s contract (They own, produce and distribute the show), all signs point to ABC picking it up. They’ve been looking for a comedy hit for ages, and with According to Jim and George Lopez on their last legs and with three failed comedies (Knights of Prosperity, In Case of Emergency, Notes from the Underbelly) this season, a known success would be key. Variety notes that it could still be too expensive, but ABC is in such a bad comedy state that they’ll spend the money just to be able to air the show’s final season.

So, fans of the show should be holding their breath for seeing another season of the show, but don’t bet on the peacock.

Spider-Man 3 Opens Strong Internationally

Watch today for initial opening-day results from its European tallies, but early word from Asia is that Spider-Man 3 will continue the franchise’s overseas success at the very least. It set records in Japan, Hong Kong and China, and is likely to do similar business across Europe. When it opens on Friday, it will be the widest opening ever…which basically means that its success is guaranteed. It’s funny, really: I can’t really get excited about this film, and yet it never had a chance to fail. It’s got nothing opening against it, this past weekend as an abysmal one for the domestic box office so there’s no holdover competition in the least, and there’s nothing opening on May 11th to challenge it. Basically, until Shrek 3, Spider-Man 3 can destroy the box office with no real competition. The really interesting opening will probably be Shrek 3, as I think it’s the least necessary sequel and stuck in the middle of Spidey and Sparrow (Pirates 3)…but who am I kidding? They’ll all make hundreds of millions of dollars.

1 Comment

Filed under Box Office, Cinema, Disney, Pixar, Ratatouille, Ratings, Scrubs

Tagged as

April 29, 2007 · 11:33 pm

Plagiarism Patrol: ‘Brothers & Sisters’ goes royal

Television writers are like any of us, really; they live normal lives with the same types of interactions with popular culture as the rest of us. They watch the same television shows, experience the same classic cinema, and likely watch the same Academy Award nominated films as we do. In fact, after watching tonight’s episode of Brothers & Sisters, I am convinced that writers Alison Schapker and Monica Breen (Late of ‘Lost’ and ‘Alias’) most certainly saw one of the films nominated for an Oscar this year. For, you see, they most assuredly ripped off the basic premise of Stephen Frears’ The Queen for tonight’s episode, ‘Bad News.’

This week, one of the many storylines revolved around a helicopter crash which claimed the life of a young speechwriter who Senator McAllister (Rob Lowe) had been hard on. Kitty (Calista Flockhart) was very emotionally distraught over this, considering that she had been the one who decided that Steven would be in the chopper instead of her and the Senator. This is the real plot of things, but in the process there was an exchange that was quite literally ripped out of The Queen.

After the crash has taken place, Kitty insists that McAllister needs to address the people, and he is aghast at this suggestion. For him, this is a personal matter, and he doesn’t believe that he should have to make it a public issue. Kitty, however, insists that the people need to know how to react, and that there are people who are counting on him to set an example. The people need you, Senator McAllister!

For anyone who has seen The Queen, this likely sounds very familiar. The entire film revolves around the reaction, or lack thereof, from the royal family (Queen Elizabeth II, portrayed by Academy Award winning Helen Mirren, specifically) to Princess Diana’s tragic death. For Elizabeth, this was a private manner for her son and her grandchildren, and she felt that she had nothing to say to the public. Newly elected prime minister Tony Blair (Portrayed extremely well by Michael Sheen), however, believes that it is the Queen’s role to comfort her subjects in this time of mourning.

I seriously doubt that this was pure coincidence, although I can’t real blame Alison and Monica for turning to The Queen for inspiration; it was well-handled in that film, and it was well-handled on Brothers & Sisters as well. The show seems to like to treat Kitty as its star, and sometimes I don’t really buy it…but her storyline this week held resonance, so I guess that plagiarism was successful in this instance. I guess if you’re going to rip off something, a first-class piece of screenwriting from Peter Morgan is probably a good place to start.

1 Comment

Filed under ABC, Brothers & Sisters, Cinema, Television

Tagged as

April 14, 2007 · 3:30 pm

Box Office ‘Disturbia’ (April 14-16) – Friday Estimates, Projections

You see, sometimes the Box Office needs to make up its bloody mind. The past year has seen internet-focused films like Grindhouse and Snakes on a Plane fail to meet expectations, struggling to emerge from their internet-audience into a broader spectrum. And yet, this weekend has marked the success of a film that had little-to-no mainstream hype, a plot ripped almost straight from Rear Window (Although you could do far worse than Hitchcock), no truly mainstream lead, and a limited marketing push on television coupled with an extensive internet advertising campaign centered on sites like Ain’t It Cool News. That film was Disturbia.

Friday Estimates – Top 5

1. Disturbia -$8.7 Million

2. Blades of Glory – $4.3 Million (-50.8%)

3. Perfect Stranger – $3.9 Million

4. Meet the Robinsons – $3.1 Million (-54.3%)

5. Are We Done Yet? – 2.4 Million (-55.3%)

6. Pathfinder: Legend of the Ghost Warrior – $1.7 Million

8. Redline – $1.4 Million

10. Grindhouse – $1.3 Million (-73.9%)

11. Aqua Teen Hunger Force Colon Movie Film for Theatres – $1.3 Million

First off, I think this shall now be officially declared the Spring/Summer of Shia LaBeouf, considering that he’s starring in Transformers and will likely start shooting Indiana Jones 4 during this period. This 21-year old (He’s my age, this is terrifying) has made a name for himself as a talented actor and someone for the future, but that was all supposed to start with Transformers. That fact that Disturbia stands to make $23 Million or so is absolutely astonishing, and destroys most predictions made for the film’s box office fortunes. It’s a huge coup for Dreamworks, and should be a huge coup for young LeBeouf as well.

Perfect Stranger, the other big release, had Halle Berry and Bruce Willis…and yet more or less bombed. The reason is simple: the film didn’t look very good. Berry has yet to be a box office draw since her Oscar win, since X-Men had nothing to do with her, and people like to see Bruce Willis playing either sarcastic or full-on action here. This doesn’t do much to hurt Willis heading into Live Free or Die Hard, but Berry’s star is falling fast. Meanwhile, the other three debuts were, as expected, tepid at best. Crashing a fancy car did nothing for Redline’s box office fortunes, Karl Urban is unsurprisingly not a large enough draw to carry a Viking film, and ATHF did alright for a niche release.

Among holdovers, drops were high as expected due to last week’s Friday holiday, but films held on at fairly standard levels…except for Grindhouse. I singled it out for an absolutely disastrous week-over-week drop of 74%. The film has sunk, and whether Weinstein splits Grindhouse into two parts or not I just think that the films don’t have an audience big enough to make it work. It’s a fine piece of art, but people weren’t looking for art in their cinema.

So, what does this mean for the Top 5 Weekend totals? Without looking at sites which actually do this on a regular basis, here are my educated guesses:

Weekend Projections

1. Disturbia – $22.7 Million

2. Blades of Glory – $14.3 Million

3. Meet the Robinsons – $11.8 Million

4. Perfect Stranger – $10.1 Million

5. Are We Done Yet? – $8.1 Million

Leave a comment

Filed under Box Office, Cinema

Tagged as ,

March 31, 2007 · 12:42 pm

Box Office (3/30-4/1) – Friday Estimates, Weekend Projections

Box Office Estimates and Projections

‘Blades’ achieves Box Office ‘Glory’

Friday, March 30th (Boxofficemojo.com)

1. Blades of Glory – $12,065,000

2. Meet the Robinsons – $7,630,000

3. 300 – $3,380,000

4. Shooter – $2,525,000

5. TMNT – $2,520,000

Will Ferrell’s comedy vehicle ‘Blades of Glory’ easily skated away with the Friday box office battle, unsurprising considering the current lack of competition in the teen laugher category. Tracking higher than this year’s ‘Norbit’, the film looks to rack up a fair chunk of change. Disney’s ‘Meet the Robinsons’ is certainly not a bomb, looking to gross fairly well at the box office, but it is growing increasingly clearer that Disney just doesn’t have the same clout it used to. Meanwhile, the continued success of ‘300’, the decent 47% drop of Shooter, and the disastrous 71% drop for TMNT round out the Top 5. Projections are below.

Weekend Projections

1. Blades of Glory – $37.7 Million

2. Meet the Robinsons – $27.4 Million

3. 300 – $12.3 Million

4. TMNT – $9.5 Million

5. Shooter – $8.2 Million

Leave a comment

Filed under Box Office, Cinema

March 5, 2007 · 3:11 pm

Is Frank Miller’s ‘300’ Really All About George W. Bush?

Last Thursday, I spent a few hours watching classic Western “Shane” for my Politics of Mass Media class. It was a dreadful film, with huge plot holes and terrible dialogue that could be expected of the genre. However, since it was being screened for the class, our professor had a hidden agenda: it was his belief that the film can be viewed as a microcosm of the Iraq War. The tyrannical Riker gang were the Iraqi government, the timid farmers the Iraqi people, and the heroic Shane the epitome of George W. himself. There was some skepticism as to the validity of this argument, but on a personal level I had been sitting watching it as a representation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine.

I’ve always been open to these kind of interpretations because I think it makes texts like Shane worthwhile. It’s not an issue of changing the film to fit the example, but rather using the film as a way to better understand and analyze cultural perceptions relating to the conflict. A good film is more than capable of standing on its own, but considering the cultural placement of a film has a great deal of value. Viewing Shane as a vision of 1950s American thought allows us to realize that perhaps Bush’s ideologies are ripped straight out of that period. I consider this to be a worthwhile reading of the film, if not a perfect one, and I left that classroom unbothered by the application.

However, I was not expecting for this issue to become quite so relevant this week when, in a rather strange turn of events, it was revealed that the adaptation of Frank Miller’s ‘300’ is perhaps being painted with the same brush.

Link: The New York Times – “That Film’s Real Message? It Could Be: ‘Buy a Ticket’”

While I was fine with the application of modern conflict to “classic” cinema, I can’t help but agree with that article that this is setting a bad precedent. Zack Snyder, the film’s director, was asked which leader represented George W. Bush; the questioner answered Xerxes, the Persian invader. Another reporter, however, felt it was Leonidas, the Spartan hero. When he took the film to a German festival, reporters asked questions as if the American government had financed the film’s production. Unbeknownst to Snyder, his film has become a powerful political statement, which was likely not the attention of the computer-assisted gorefest that is ‘300’. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Cinema

February 26, 2007 · 2:01 am

Talkin’ Oscar: Retrospective and Review

Four hours, twenty minutes, 16 out of 24 predictions (66.6% accuracy rate, not bad) and 7,398 liveblog words later, Oscar night is over. Marty finally won his Oscar, and Peter O’Toole was left out in the cold as the Academy preferred heroin-addled grandfather to creepy old pervert. The Actresses long anointed to victory took to the stage with grace, and the Oscars went Green with victories for both Al Gore and climate-conscious penguins. And, despite a few surprises, the moral of the story was “Go Green, Go Safe.” This was the story of the 79th Academy Awards.

Ellen Degeneres is a fantastic talk show host, but she isn’t an awards show host. Her monologue was tepid, her gags clichéd. And yet, due to her general nature, the end result was an engaging host who was capable of breaking the tension and the monotony. With the Supporting acting awards pushed later into the evening, it was necessary for Ellen to break up the technical awards, along with some elaborate staging for Costume Design. Through it all, Ellen elevated her constructs with her good nature and adlibbing abilities. Throwing her into the crowd is something that could kill a host dead, but she handled her screenplay gag with Marty and her picture with Clint with ease, especially when giving Spielberg Framing tips. As the show started to wear down on us with video packages, she knew that her job was to break up that monotony with vacuuming, of all things. Perfect? No. As biting as Jon Stewart? No. But, unlike Chris Rock who was pedestrian against expectation, Ellen IS pedestrian and that’s what makes her good for the job.

The show on the whole was dragged down by video packages, despite the fact that they were all really quite well done. While there were attempts to jazz things up with elaborate musical performances, Celine Dion cameos and some silhouette performances (The best of which was clearly the amazing Snakes on a Plane one), none of it kept it from feeling like just another Academy Awards ceremony. This isn’t really that surprising, but at the same time it hurts to see them clearly try to break out of that barrier with no success. It’s a futile fight, there’s no question about it.

As for the awards themselves, the lesson I have learned is, as I said, “Go Green, Go Safe.” While Ellen and the producers wanted us to note the international flavour of the awards, that never really took hold within the winners themselves. I went mostly green, as I predicted the environmentally conscious Happy Feet to take Best Animated Film over the fossil-fuelled Cars and for An Inconvenient Truth to take home Best Documentary Feature. However, it even extended to Best Original Song, where Dreamgirls continued to be shunned as Melissa Etheridge took home the award for her mediocre song from Al Gore’s pet project.

In terms of going safe, outside of Alan Arkin’s win in Best Supporting Actor every major award went to the choices that were the safest for Academy Award members to make…actually, even Alan Arkin was safer than favourite Eddie Murphy considering Murphy’s history of crappy movies dating back as recently as Norbit. From Mirren to Hudson, from Whitaker to Marty’s time to shine, and The Departed won Best Picture because it had everything the Academy expected, rather than desired.

I didn’t quite get this ahead of time, although I was fairly safe on the whole; I should have realized that it was about what was least offensive to voters, those with the least problems or caveats. As a result, while my predictions did alright outside of the usual headscratchers that are withstanding from my general theme of the evening (Such as Pan’s Labyrinth losing Best Foreign Film to The Lives of Others, or winning cinematography over Children of Men), they could have been better. Still, though, I’m happy with my overall performance, and if I had updated my pool ballot I would have totally won. Curse you, hindsight!

Thanks to everyone who’s been following Talkin’ Oscar. Here’s some links to the various posts involved, and after the jump you can check out the Oscar winners and my predictions for each category against one another. Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Academy Awards, Award Shows, Cinema, Oscars

February 25, 2007 · 9:03 pm

Talkin’ Oscar: Live Blogging Extravaganza

9:00pm – We open on the pre-show with the lovable penguins from Happy Feet, including a President Bush penguin. The answer to all of their problems? Apparently dancing. And now it’s people wearing Borat bathing suits. And then Lightning McQueen. And then Abigail Breslin and the little yellow VW that could. It’s all kind of cute. Just kind of.

9:02pm – And now’s it’s Chris, our host…ABC’s red carpet people are really quite boring, let’s face it. We open with Leo! Chris looks fat. Continue reading →

8 Comments

Filed under Academy Awards, Award Shows, Cinema, Oscars

February 24, 2007 · 5:22 pm

Talkin’ Oscar: 79th Annual Academy Awards Predictions

79th Annual

Academy Award Predictions

After besting the Elder earlier this year in our Nominations Predictions, I think I might be in more trouble here. While I’m great at reading buzz about nominees in major categories, I am decidedly less good when things open up into the technical categories. It’s all a bit of a gamble even in the major categories this year (some of them anyways) so I’m really sticking my neck out there.

And, perhaps I should look back to my predictions for nominees where I took some risks that paid off, because after completing this predictions I notice that I’m not taking too many risks. My “Dark Horse” candidates are even quite predictable, and I don’t appear to be sticking my neck out much further than I have to. Still, I don’t think I’m towing the line too much, so here’s hoping for some disagreement and some surprises come Sunday night.

Best animated short film

THE DANISH POET
LIFTED
THE LITTLE MATCHGIRL
MAESTRO
NO TIME FOR NUTS

For the Animated Shorts, which most of us might not see in any capacity, Animation World Network has been kind of enough to develop an Oscar Showcase with clips and information on each of the shorts. Click on each nominee to view their page, and load up the clip to see them for yourself.

Now, let’s face it: A majority of people have not seen these shorts outside of No Time for Nuts, which was featured on the Ice Age 2: The Meltdown DVD this fall, and The Little Matchgirl which was featured on the Little Mermaid DVD but likely watched by less kiddies. While this could in fact put ICe Age in a position to win, I also think that it’s a little bit too simple in its execution, almost too child-focused. Lifted has much the same problem (as most Pixar shorts do. While I believe that all of them have a chance, I’m going to go with Disney’s The Little Matchgirl. It signals Disney’s return to the original short arena (If we view Destino as not entirely original but rather adapter) and deals with some interesting subject matter.

Prediction: The Little Matchgirl

Dark Horse: The Danish Poet

Performance by an actress in a supporting role

Adriana Barraza – BABEL
Cate Blanchett – NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Abigail Breslin – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Jennifer Hudson – DREAMGIRLS
Rinko Kikuchi – BABEL

While technically Breslin or Blanchett could sneak in here, Jennifer Hudson has done far too good a job transitioning into her new role as an actress. TV performances, appearances, red carpets: through them all she has appeared poised, mature and humble. With a much-talked about performance and a recognizable story for people to follow, she’s almost the perfect storm Oscar nominee. Everything came together, none of the possible problems popped up, and she’ll be taken seriously before and after her Academy Award win.

Prediction: Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)

Dark Horse: Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine)

Performance by an actor in a supporting role

Alan Arkin – LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
Jackie Earle Haley – LITTLE CHILDREN
Djimon Hounsou – BLOOD DIAMOND
Eddie Murphy – DREAMGIRLS
Mark Wahlberg – THE DEPARTED

This is an incredibly tough category to call, perhaps the most difficult out of the acting categories, purely because of the “old guy” factor. With apologies to Alan Arkin, who I enjoyed during his brief screen time in Little Miss Sunshine, I don’t really think that the role is Oscar worthy. Eddie Murphy’s career resurgence signaled by his role in Dreamgirls is a much better story, much more deserving, and yet the Academy could revolt against a performer who has never been considered a “real” actor.

Still, as much as I think Arkin could take this thing, I think that Eddie Murphy has done enough work to be rewarded for his performance. With both SAG and Globes going his way, I don’t see the Academy turning around and giving Arkin this award, especially since I think they’ll be giving one to O’Toole later in the evening.

Prediction: Eddie Murphy

Dark Horse: Alan Arkin

Performance by an actress in a leading role

Penélope Cruz – VOLVER
Judi Dench – NOTES ON A SCANDAL
Helen Mirren – THE QUEEN
Meryl Streep – THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
Kate Winslet – LITTLE CHILDREN

There is no competition here. While The Queen will likely go home empty-handed otherwise, Helen Mirren’s portrayal of Queen Elizabeth II has been an unquestioned sure thing for months. None of the precursors changed this, and anyone in their right mind will select her in their oscar pools.

Prediction: Helen Mirren (The Queen)

Dark Horse: Meryl Streep (The Devil Wears Prada)

Performance by an actor in a leading role

Leonardo DiCaprio – BLOOD DIAMOND
Ryan Gosling – HALF NELSON
Peter O’Toole – VENUS
Will Smith – THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
Forest Whitaker – THE LAST KING OF SCOTLAND

This is one of those awards that, much like Supporting Actor, there are a lot of factors at play. On one hand, Whitaker has taken most of the precursors (Including both the SAG and Globes) and is generally well-liked, humble, all of that jazz. However, he’s up against two candidates with more pedigree, more prestige if you will. O’Toole is old, beloved, and has never won despite his lengthy career (Including a snub for Lawrence of Arabia). Leo is young, had huge roles in both Blood Diamond and the Departed, and has been taken very seriously as an actor in recent years.

I think Old and Winless is going to take it this time around, in the end; O’Toole is actually attending the ceremony, he was on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, and I think the Academy feels it’s time to give him his due. Whitaker is still in solid position, though I think I’ll have Leo as my Dark Horse, perhaps shooting myself in the foot.

Prediction: Peter O’Toole (Venus)

Dark Horse: Leonardo DiCaprio (Blood Diamond)

Achievement in directing

BABEL
THE DEPARTED
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
THE QUEEN
UNITED 93

This is Marty’s year. The award is being presented by three of his most famous contemporaries (Spielberg, Lucas, Ford Coppola), and he won the DGA earlier this year. The fact of the matter is that, while there are some strong contenders in the category, The Departed was received well by audiences and critics alike, and there is no candidate to stand against him. Still, the Academy could be real jerks and give it to Eastwood again, but I can only hope they don’t do such a thing.

Prediction: Martin Scorcese (The Departed)

Dark Horse: Paul Greengrass (United 93)

For my prediction for the big one, Best Picture, as well as the rest of the awards: Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Academy Awards, Award Shows, Cinema, Oscars

February 24, 2007 · 11:57 am

Talkin’ Oscar: 2007 Academy Awards Extravaganza Preview

That’s right, folks. We’re less than 24 hours away from the event, the extravaganza if you will, and Cultural Learnings is all about informing everyone about who to watch, what will win, and which spoilers to look out for. It’s all about Hollywood’s best (aka Hollywood’s most well represented and advertised) on Sunday night, so I’ll be coming to you with two separate events here on the blog which will be linked below.

First, I’ve posted my entire Oscar predictions on Saturday evening. Then, on Sunday, I’ll be live-blogging from 3rd Floor lounge to bring you all the latest from the awards (So if you want to watch The Amazing Race at 9, you can catch up here at Cultural Learnings). It’s an epic dual-post extravaganza that starts tonight, so stay tuned!

Part One: Official Predictions

Part Two: Live Blogging Extravaganza (Coming Sunday Evening!)

The 79th Annual Academy Awards: A Preview

When: 8:30pm EST on ABC (CTV in Canada)

Host: Ellen Degeneres

It’s Ellen’s first time hosting the Oscars, and she’s on a bit of a personal roll at this point. She was sitting front and centre at the Grammys, despite little to no connection to the music world. Her talk show remains buzzworthy, continuing to provide the kind of entertainment that appeals to housewives and younger viewers alike. Unlike Jon Stewart, who drew some political lines in the proverbial Hollywood sands, Ellen is the kind of host eho everyone can get behind with little difficulty. I’m pretty sure most people have even forgotten that she’s gay. Continue reading →

1 Comment

Filed under Academy Awards, Award Shows, Cinema, Oscars

January 28, 2007 · 11:29 pm

Talkin’ SAG: And the Winners are…

So, let’s take a quick look at how I did with my Screen Actor’s Guild predictions. All in all, the awards were basically an absolute redux of the Golden Globes outside of a few small differences, and it’s an interesting phenomenon. Last year, the awards that crossed over on the TV side of things were:

Best Drama / Best Ensemble in a Drama – Lost

Best Supporting Actress / Female in a Drama Series – Sandra Oh

Best Comedy / Best Ensemble in a Comedy – Desperate Housewives

Now, the supporting category is even more difficult for someone to crossover in, as the Globes lump Drama/Comedy/Miniseries together, and the SAG Awards mix Lead and Supporting. Thus, Sandra Oh’s victory in both is a strong achievement. However, this year was a whole different monster.

Best Drama / Best Ensemble in a Drama – Grey’s Anatomy

Best Actor in a Drama / Male in a Drama Series – Hugh Laurie (House)

Best Actor in a Comedy / Male in a Comedy Series – Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Best Actress in a Comedy / Female in a Comedy Series – America Ferrerra (Ugly Betty)

What makes this so surprising is that so many acting awards crossed over, where they normally haven’t in the past. There was only one similarity in the two years prior to last as well, which makes it quite an interesting anomaly for there to be three. Have we finally found the group of actors who will united the crazy Foreign press and the actors themselves? Delightful young actress, cantankerous British man and Alec Frackin’ Baldwin? Seems like a winning combo.

As far as film goes, I went 5/5 on a predictable and uneventful set of awards. Whitaker, Mirren, Murphy, Hudson, and Little Miss Sunshine continues to move towards an Oscar run with an Ensemble win.

The deviations from the Globes on the TV side were for the best, really. The Office takes the Ensemble comedy prize over GG winner Ugly Betty, and I couldn’t be happier about it. I had predicted Desperate Housewives, but my heart was always with the delightful group of folks who populate Dunder-Mifflin.

On the Drama side, the only difference was Chandra Wilson, woefully snubbed of even a nomination at the Golden Globes, picking up an award for Best Actress in a Drama. Her role deserves more attention, and I very much enjoy her picking up some kudos from her peers.

So, my overall totals:

Cinema

5/5 on Myles’ Picks

Total: 5/5

Television

1/6 on Myles’ Picks

4/6 on Dark Horses

Total: 3/6 (Yeah, I’m giving ½ pts)

Final Tally: 8/11

Not too bad, I’d say. The TV Awards were definitely a bit of a madhouse, although not a bad one by any means, just surprising.

I’d offer up some more details and analysis of the winners (Such as Steve Carell being robbed AGAIN, the terrible fate befalling Michael C. Hall) but I think that will wait until tomorrow afternoon. Battlestar Galactica is on.

For the full list of winners, Continue reading →

Leave a comment

Filed under Award Shows, Cinema, Television