Sunday, February 24, 2008

Oscar overture...

OSCARSRight, first things first: Ratatouille had better win. Wonderful, the telling twist is probably that the baddy and the goody end up on the same side.

Now…nominations HERE and my not-predictions below…I say that because it’s not really who I think will end up winning, just more that they're my favs.

Best actor and supporting actor: Johnny Depp (Daniel Day Lewis probably deserves it!) and either Javier Bardem (nice hair Javi!) or - I changed my mind last night after seeming 'Charlie Wilson's War' - Philip Seymour Hoffman. Hilarious.

Best actress and best supporting actress: would be great if Cate Blanchett got both only for the fact that it would be for a both a female and a male role! However I go for Marion Cotillard and Amy Ryan in 'La Vie en Rose' and 'Gone, Baby Gone' respectively.

Best film…damn...this is hard and they're all SOOOOOOOOOOOOO different and all good in their own way…is it me or have they all been released in the last 2 months?...yes, that's me changing the subject to avoid making a decision: the odds are on the big guns: 'No Country For Old Men' and 'There Will Be Blood' although recently the sweet, 'isn't it cute and quirky',coming-up-fast-on-the-outside is 'Juno'…so I'll go for 'Atonement'.

Don’t really care about the rest except, as I said at the beginning, as long as Ratatouille wins. However…sound to the Bourne Ultimatum, mainly because I’ve just bought the trilogy on DVD, and screenplay to Cody Diablo’s enjoyable Juno. (More on Juno here from Baldinio)

Other films I've seen recently, in no particular order:

Atonement – lovely Keira…at least the dress [image] she wore won something. Enjoyable and beautifully 'put-together' film.
Juno – easy-going, enjoyable, good script.
Michael Clayton – good film, very good supporting actors
No Country for Old Men – fantastic, my sort of film.
There Will Be Blood – bit too long but very well shot.
Sweeney Todd – great, Johnny D and Helena BC mixing it up.
In the Valley of Elah – good film; Tommy Lee Jones' best in a long time.
Charlie Wilson's War – very funny - Philip Seymour Hoffman in particular.
American Gangster – fantastic film, superb cast.
Jumper – a let down, could have been better; thumbs up for Jamie Bell.
30 days of Night – Enjoyable vampire stuff.
Now or Never – good enjoyable film, classy acting (as you’d expect)
Rambo – does what you’d expect, critics slammed it public loved it (minced meat ending possibly a bit OTT)
Cloverfield – good except for the oh-so annoying first half hour of setting the scene/characters.

Films I've missed and want to see: 'Eastern Promises' and '3-10 to Yuma'; will make sure I see: Kite Runner, We Own The Night, Vantage Point, Mama Mia, 21, 10,000...lots of numbers! some more: possibilities for 55 films to see in 2008...

6 comments:

Paul said...

From an unashamedly sentimental point of view I'd like Katyn to win the foreign language film. Andrezj Wajda is a truly inspirational film maker and although he already has an oscar that was for his body of work rather than one film.

Span Ows said...
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Span Ows said...

Didn't know any of them this year. I've just has a look after reading your post. The war connection - Poland/camps: remembering the threads on some parts of the history of WW2 etc: are you really a Baldowski?

Paul said...

No, but I think I have life membership of Pseuds Corner in Private Eye! I've known English people who have lived and worked in Poland, I've been there on holiday and Kieslowski is my all-time favourite director.

I think have a similar simpatico with France - there's a Wajda (Wadja?) connection there as the first film of his I saw was Danton.

Crispin Heath said...

Span, Ratatouille was absolutely shite. I have never been more disappointed by a film. I've loved everything Pixar have done and that includes Cars, but this fell down in the twin areas, it wasn't funny for adults and kids found it utterly boring I know as it was the first film I took Eben to see and my 6 year old godson came with us and they were unrecoverable after 10 minutes.

Span Ows said...

LOL! For God's sake Six - you took a child to see it? No wonder...these films are for watching, if you take children (especially more than 1 including someone else's child) then how can you expect to enjoy the film.

You were clearly fooled by the silly 'human' hero and his love difficulties when all attention should have been on the rat and the restaurant critic. Cars? PAH! Cars can't talk! :-)