2015 Academy Awards

[Owain Taggart]

Whiplash and Grand Budapest Hotel were my favorites and were excellent, but they also didn't scream "The Godfather" or "Rocky" (though in all fairness very few do).

Just goes to show that you can't please everyone. There will never be a consensus among people about the Oscars and their wins. People need and get different things out of movies.

Case in point, I finally got to seeing "Her" after hearing a lot of buzz, a movie that won best writing last year. It was something I had wanted to like, but ended up hating it.

 

[gblews]

Wait a minute...... No honorary award this year? Given how dull everyone thought the show was, might've been worth the effort. I mean you had Julie Andrews right there on your stage. If that's not a class act deserving of overall career recognition, then I don't know what is.

I missed the early portion of the show because I was watching The Walking Dead. Did they even have anybody else from the "Classic" Hollywood era appear? Seems like there was a ton of young fluff like Chris Pratt & a bunch of youngsters I've never heard of.

Pretty much all of "old Hollywood" could have been considered "young fluff" at some pioint in their careers. Likewise, some of what you refer to as "young fluff" today will undobtedly become at some point, "old Hollywood".

 

[Mojochi]

Oh, shoot. I didn't know they gave some to Belefonte & O'Hara... because they did it like three months ago. Did they show any of that on Sunday? Like I said, I missed the early parts of the show. I liked it better when someone would get recognized live on the big night

Pretty much all of "old Hollywood" could have been considered "young fluff" at some pioint in their careers. Likewise, some of what you refer to as "young fluff" today will undobtedly become at some point, "old Hollywood".

Well, then I'd like for them to still be part of the show at that time too. At some point older stars were either no longer asked to be a part or are no longer willing (Unless nominated). In either case it's sad. There was a time that the over 60 crowd were still active in the show. When they are either excluded from the festivities, or are collectively not participating, it makes it look like the whole show is an ad for young stars. The concept to me at least is that all these generations come together to carry out a show that celebrates the whole of the thing, young, old, new, classic, etc...

Well.. I do have to retract a little, because apparently I missed Shirley MacLaine & Liam Neeson, & I did see the in memorium with Meryl Streep, & had forgotten she introduced it. Add Julie Andrews to that & throw in John Travolta, & Oprah who just turned 61, that makes 6 people in that age range, out of 50 who participated in the show

Still seems lacking to me, especially when you have people like Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson there

 

[Owain Taggart]

Oh, shoot. I didn't know they gave some to Belefonte & O'Hara... because they did it like three months ago. Did they show any of that on Sunday? Like I said, I missed the early parts of the show. I liked it better when someone would get recognized live on the big night

They only showed it very briefly. I think they gave it about a minute before they moved on to something else. Agreed though, that I think they would have been better off doing it live. Maybe it had more to do with scheduling though and what they were able to do. When you're that old, getting out becomes a pretty big ordeal, and maybe something like the Oscars would have been a bit too much, preferring a more laid-back intimate setting with less people instead.

 

[EnriqueH]

Because all acting nominees were white and at the 1998 diversity level, and because David Oyelowo as well as SELMA's director failed to make their top five, race is once again an Oscar issue. But our last two director winners were both Hispanic. There's been one female director winner, and two Hispanics, but Steve McQueen, the black British director of 12 YEARS A SLAVE, lost last year to Alfonso Cuaron.

Was Selma that good? I mean, tons of people get snubbed every year, including white people. The year Slumdog Millionaire won, (which sucked IMO), both Gran Torino and The Dark Knight were snubbed. Is it really a race issue? Or was Selma just not THAT good? (I don't know because I still haven't gotten around to seeing it.)

As for Selma being nominated but not Ava DuVernay, the same thing has happened to several directors over the years. Some people are reacting as if it only happened to Ava DuVernay, but it's not exclusive to Ava DuVernay.

In fact, it happened to Clint Eastwood this year! American Sniper was nominated, but Eastwood wasn't. (Though Eastwood has already won a couple of Oscars, but the man has been in movies FAR LONGER than DuVernay. In fact, I don't believe Eastwood won his first Oscar until he was in his 60s.)

Strange you didn't find J.K. Simmons kickassy. But you did see WHIPLASH?

JK Simmons totally deserved it. He was awesome. And I loved Whiplash too, but I consider it an awesome "small movie". It didn't have the stature of, say, "Schindler's List", "The Godfather", or Silence of the Lambs.

 

[CaptainCanada]

The film's very minor changes to LBJ are nothing unusual in the history of drama, and the focus on this in the debate around the film really says more about expectations of how white people will be portrayed in movies about the black experience than anything else. To the extent that his characterization has been changed, it's to allow him to serve as an embodiment of a wider class of issues involving MLK and the American government. This is a common device when dramatizing history (Lincoln does it all over the place); what's comparatively unusual is using a president to do it.

 

[Owain Taggart]

And I loved Whiplash too, but I consider it an awesome "small movie". It didn't have the stature of, say, "Schindler's List", "The Godfather", or Silence of the Lambs.

Not all movies have to be big. In fact, I'd say that some of the more successful movies tend to be smaller ones because they have less baggage and are able to stick to the art of acting without having to think about being flashy to bring people into the seats. It becomes down to the quality of the acting and the people that carry it.

 

[Mojochi]

Oh, shoot. I didn't know they gave some to Belefonte & O'Hara... because they did it like three months ago. Did they show any of that on Sunday? Like I said, I missed the early parts of the show. I liked it better when someone would get recognized live on the big night

They only showed it very briefly. I think they gave it about a minute before they moved on to something else. Agreed though, that I think they would have been better off doing it live. Maybe it had more to do with scheduling though and what they were able to do. When you're that old, getting out becomes a pretty big ordeal, and maybe something like the Oscars would have been a bit too much, preferring a more laid-back intimate setting with less people instead.

What, like when Kirk Douglas got his honorary award? I mean C'mon. If Kirk Douglas can get his geriatric, post-stroke having butt to the show & still warm our hearts, then anyone can. They're entertainers. They live for that stuff. lol

After looking into it a bit more, apparently, in 2009, they created a whole night of celebration for just three awards, collectively know as the Academy Governors Awards. Belefonte actually won a different award that night, the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award. O'Hara was among 3 who received the Academy Honorary Award, & the other award that is sometimes presented on this night is the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. However. It's not been awarded to anyone since Francis Ford Coppola in 2010, & actually isn't an Oscar statuette

I still got mixed feelings about it. On one hand they get a whole night to honor them. Big wigs from all around the industry show up for it. So for them it probably still feels pretty awesome to be recognized in that venue, & it is a less stressful arena on folks, who are likely all geriatric, than a live Oscars broadcast.

However, the Oscars goes out around the world, and the honorary award is as much about the public as it is the individual. I'm not alone in how much I appreciate seeing someone, sometimes long forgotten getting some global spotlight one last time for how much they've had an impact on the world. Recognizing someone like Maureen O'Hara? That's what is at the heart of an award show like the Oscars, even more than just who did we think was the best this year

 

[Greg Cox]

I almost hope he does, just so George Clooney can no longer make that obnoxious joke about being the only Batman actor to win an Oscar.

Clooney will have to find another way to be fake modest.

Clooney hasn't been able to make that joke since 2011, when Christian Bale won Best Supporting Actor for The Fighter.

In that case, if Michael Keaton wins, Val Kilmer will sure look like an asshole.

Don't forget Adam West, whom, alas, has never won an Oscar.

 

[Owain Taggart]

What, like when Kirk Douglas got his honorary award? I mean C'mon. If Kirk Douglas can get his geriatric, post-stroke having butt to the show & still warm our hearts, then anyone can. They're entertainers. They live for that stuff. lol

Yeah, I dunno. Could be anything. It likely was a preference thing.

I still got mixed feelings about it. On one hand they get a whole night to honor them. Big wigs from all around the industry show up for it. So for them it probably still feels pretty awesome to be recognized in that venue, & it is a less stressful arena on folks, who are likely all geriatric, than a live Oscars broadcast.

That's my feeling on it. People are likely making this a bigger deal out of it than the stars are making a deal out of it themselves. To them, being recognized is being recognized, regardless of location. It's likely it also took less time to present than a 4 hour awards show. Could even be that being at the Oscars wasn't an option for them.

I guess one option would have been to have them on the stage while announcing their earlier award. I think some award shows have them presented to them again. But it's also a bit of redundancy.