Sunday, March 07, 2010

In Like A Lamb, Out Like A Lion

The headline for this entry is my motto for this blog, this month. We shall see if I'm able to follow through. As you all know, this is the semester when I teach two classes, which makes me feel like I have two full-time jobs. Come to think of it, I do have two full-time jobs.

Oh, I'm making excuses again. Stupid me. Anyway, the Oscars are tonight. Woo hoo. I'm very excited to write a running diary of the 13-hour show. Here's hoping there are some funny moments. If there aren't, I'm sure my friends and I will mock enough people that it'll be funny either way. Here are my predictions.

This week's Weekend was really tight, and I don't mean that in a mid-'90s hip-hop kind of way. Well, I guess it was still tight in that way, but I would never call it tight like that because, you know, that's not how I roll or something. When I say tight, I mean that there wasn't much room, which meant I didn't run my album reviews. I just want you all to know that I think Peter Gabriel's "Scratch My Back" is just wonderful. Honestly, it's the best covers record I've heard. Gabriel makes all the tunes his own, and the results are startlingly beautiful. Seriously.

That's about all I got for today. But, I absolutely promise I'll be updating every day this week. You ready for it? What I'll leave you with is this two-part review of "Avatar." It pretty much sums up what I think about the gloriously mediocre film. My friend Matt told me to check this review out, and he's a smart boy. Also, keep in mind, there's some bad language in this, so kiddies, don't you click on it. Here it is:



5 comments:

Anonymous said...

If midnight rolls around and somehow "Avatar" manages to win best picture, listen for the Edvard Munchlike horror scream I will be emitting. You summed it up quite diplomatically in the Register today - cool to look at. That's about it.

In a perfect world, "Up in the Air" would win best picture, Clooney and Renner would tie for best actor, and um...I don't actually care who wins best actress. Streep was good in a lousy movie (sort of half a movie if you count her part), Bullock was OK in the predictable trifle, Sidibe was very good though seldom if ever is a first time actor given the award and Mulligan, well...extremely good in a movie that looks worse in the rearview mirror.

Whenever I think I care a little too much about this, and can't view it for the self-congratulatory Hollywood love-in that it is, I think back to last year's winners and...realize that I can't recall a single one of them with the use of Google. Will a win make Reitman or Bigelow any more bankable directors? Will a loss send Cameron into a shame spiral that catapults him into the world of indie filmmaking? Would a tie between Streep and Bullock result in an Armani-dressed, E-sponsored cage match?

You tell me.

Pat Ferrucci said...

You're making a whole lot of sense. And, yeah, the more you think about "An Education," the worse it is, but Mulligan deserves to win.

But one thing I disagree with: I'm OK with Bridges winning for "Tender Mercies." I know it'd be a bit of a career-achievement award, but that's a-OK for someone like Jeff Bridges.

I hope if Sandra Bullock wins, it means we'll get a "Speed 3."

Anonymous said...

I hear you, brother - but your very point is what bothers me. Jeff Bridges won for "Tender Mercies." Or I should say, playing the Dude in "Tender Mercies." I know that isn't a valid criticism - it's just that it didn't impress me so much as a performance as it did, a mammoth exercise in staying awake. I mean, there were scenes where I thought the guy would doze off.

ANYWAY...

Now that Sandy and her red, red lips have an Oscar, it will hopefully give her enough Hollywood clout that we will never ever ever have to see her in a movie with Hugh Grant again.

P.S.
I LOVED when that crazy lady pulled a Kanye and stormed the stage with her gibberish. Classic. And MUCH funnier than Ben Stiller.

Anonymous said...

P.S.
ALSO funnier than Ben Stiller?
The fact that Miley Cyrus was allowed to present.

And, um...would it have killed her to even out those tan lines? I felt like a dirty old man staring at her lines of...um...demarcation...

Anonymous said...

Lots of chat rooms are abuzz, wondering why Emilio Estevez wasn't part of the John Hughes tribute with the rest of the Breakfast Club.

From the looks of things, Anthony Michael Hall may have eaten him.

Another popular theory is that the Kodak Theater wouldn't give him the time off from parking valet duty.

As someone who saw the Breakfast Club several times as a teen, I have to say - when I first saw the movie, I found the Judd Nelson character frightening and disturbed. As someone who watched the Oscars on Sunday nigh, I have to say - I found Judd Nelson to be frightening and disturbed.

And didn't Disney do an OUTSTANDING job with those animatronic Molly Ringwald and Ally Sheedy figures? So nearly lifelike!

And I am I the only one who missed seeing Wyatt and Chet from Weird Science?! (It's a shame Downey Jr couldn't step down off his throne to participate in the tribue).

How strange a world is it that the most successful participant in that tribute was ... Jon Cryer?!

In the words of the late, great Margaret Hamilton, "What a world, what a world, what a world..."