The Dossing Times » Award Season

Jai Ho

ck — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 14:09:35 +0000

Other than Hugh Jackman gone cabaret, music from the movies actually nominated for Oscars last weekend, did not feature in the clip show shown on RTE 2 on Monday night. As a means of remedying this here is the good mood song Jai Ho, from Slumdog Millionaire which won Best Song.

Top 6 Friday: Oscar Special

ck — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 00:00:25 +0000

Apologies to Yeddnek – the great books of fiction will have to wait. The Academy Awards are this weekend and Top 6 looks to this self-congratulatory high point of award season for our list this week. Its considered a particularly poor year for diverse nominations and those nominated for Best Picture are getting the worst of the backlash, with ‘The Reader’ being reprimanded for taking the place of more deserving films. That said, Best Supporting Actor is a particularly strong category – Ledger’s penultimate role in ‘The Dark Knight’ taking the award is a given, however to see Robert Downey Jnr’s nomination is a real treat. Best Actor looks to be a two horse race between Sean Penn and Mickey Rourke, I firmly want to see Rourke win. Winslet looks destined for Best Actress, why must it be for this film though and not for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind back in 2004?
So to the list:

6. Hugh Jackman is on hosting duties this year. Dr. Cox for one will not be looking forward to this, I reserve judgement. The clip below is from 3 years ago, when Jon Stewart hosted, with an appearance from some of his predecessors.

5. 1977, Stallone and Ali spar on stage before announce Best Supporting Actress. Watch the clip here. Read here the controversy surrounding Jodie Fosters nomination that year – based on her performance in Taxi Driver, John Hinkley decided to attempt to assassinate Ronald Reagan to impress her!

4. 6 Oscar related quotes
Billy Crystal, 76th Academy Awards
…and when I say funny, I mean threatening to my career.

Chris Rock
The only acting you ever see at the Oscars is when people act like they’re not mad they lost. Nicole Kidman was smiling so wide, she should have won an Emmy at the Oscars for her great performance. I was like, ‘If you’d done that in the movie, you’d have won an Oscar, girl!

Denise Robert, 76th Academy Awards
[on winning the award for Best Foreign Language Film] We’re so thankful that The Lord of The Rings did not qualify in this category.

Grace Kelly, 1954 Academy Awards
This is one night I wish I smoked and drank.

Angelina Jolie, Best Supporting Actress, Girl, Interrupted
I’m in shock. And I’m so in love with my brother right now, he just held me and said he loved me.

Russell Crowe, Best Actor, Gladiator
For anybody who is on the downside of advantage and relying purely on courage, it is possible….

3. The trailer for this years Oscars. Presenters are not being revealed and generally there is a sense of change of approach to the style of the show. The Oscars have been consistently slipping in the ratings over the years – will this years show with generally little buzz surrounding so many of its nominees be the success producers hope for? An interesting tidbit is that the combined box office returns of the 5 Best Picture nominations combined does not match the money made by ‘The Dark Knight’.

2. An excellent clip of each of the Best Picture winners for the past 80 years, with some highly questionable decisions made at times. ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ is usually top of the list for the best example of this. These types of montages really remind me of the magic of movies though. There are no doubt people who love every one of these movies.

1. And finally, from the only Oscars I’ve seen at a reasonable hour having been stateside that year, Adrien Brody lands one on Halle Berry. Find the clip here.

Movie Review: ‘Vicky Christina Barcelona’

ck — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 10:04:15 +0000

There are two cynical elements behind

Movie Review: ‘The Wrestler’

ck — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:17:01 +0000

Films can exist outside of the actual viewing experience

Oscar Nominations Announced

ck — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 14:54:02 +0000

So lets start with the good:

Heath Ledger, Best Supporting Actor for ‘The Dark Knight’ is not surprising, but very welcome. This category threw up the best surprise for me in the form of a nomination for Robert Downey Jnr. in ‘Tropic Thunder’ – its an all too rare sign of humour and a broad range of movies being considered by the Academy. Similarly, Best Supporting Actress has thrown up a nice surprise with Taraji P Henson being nominated for her heartful and charming role in ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’. I plan on seeing each of the big 5 before the awards but I just have an impression that ‘Button’ is over represented overall.

Irish interests are represented in the form of a Best Screenplay (Original) for Martin McDonagh for his work in ‘In Bruges’ – truly a dynamite script and ‘In Bruges’ is on top of DVDs I want to re-watch before the awards this time next month. There is also Irish interest in the Best Live Action Short Film category, where Steph Green’s ‘New Boy’ is among the nominees.

These highlights out of the way the list of nominees comes across as lacklustre – too many old reliables make an appearance – Meryl Streep who probably has her own car space at the Kodak Theatre as she receives her 15th nomination, while Philip Seymour Hoffman and

Razzie Award Nominations

ck — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 23:09:47 +0000

I think this will be my last year commenting on these awards – the humour is gone from the premise for me and the nominations are unimaginative. Those nominated for being the worst Hollywood had to offer in 208 are below the break.

Worst Picture: DISASTER MOVIE and MEET THE SPARTANS; THE HAPPENING; THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE; IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE; THE LOVE GURU.

Worst actor: Larry the Cable Guy, WITLESS PROTECTION; Eddie Murphy, MEET DAVE; Mike Myers, THE LOVE GURU; Al Pacino, 88 MINUTES and RIGHTEOUS KILL; Mark Wahlberg, THE HAPPENING and MAX PAYNE.

Worst actress: Jessica Alba, THE LOVE GURU; Cameron Diaz, WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS; Paris Hilton, THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE; Kate Hudson, FOOL’S GOLD and MY BEST FRIEND’S GIRL; the cast of THE WOMEN (Annette Bening, Eva Mendes, Debra Messing, Jada Pinkett-Smith and Meg Ryan).

Worst supporting actor: Uwe Boll, POSTAL; Pierce Brosnan, MAMMA MIA!; Ben Kingsley, THE LOVE GURU, WAR, INC. and THE WACKNESS; Burt Reynolds, DEAL and IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE; Verne Troyer, THE LOVE GURU and POSTAL.

Worst supporting actress: Carmen Electra, DISASTER MOVIE and MEET THE SPARTANS; Paris Hilton, REPO! THE GENETIC OPERA; Kim Kardashian, DISASTER MOVIE; Jenny McCarthy, WITLESS PROTECTION; Leelee Sobieski, 88 MINUTES and IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE.

Worst screen couple: Uwe Boll and any actor, camera and screenplay; Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher, WHAT HAPPENS IN VEGAS; Paris Hilton and either Christine Lakin or Jorel David Moore, THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE; Larry the Cable Guy and Jenny McCarthy, WITLESS PROTECTION; Eddie Murphy in Eddie Murphy, MEET DAVE.

Worst prequel, sequel, remake or rip-off: THE DAY THE EARTH BLOWED UP REAL GOOD (this is the title on the site; I’m guessing this is a reference to THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL); DISASTER MOVIE and MEET THE SPARTANS; INDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL; SPEED RACER; STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS.

Worst director: Uwe Boll, 1968: TUNNEL RATS, IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE and POSTAL; Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, DISASTER MOVIE and MEET THE SPARTANS; Tom Putnam, THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE; Marco Schnabel, THE LOVE GURU; M. Night Shyamalan, THE HAPPENING.

Worst screenplay: Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer, DISASTER MOVIE and MEET THE SPARTANS; M. Night Shyamalan, THE HAPPENING; Heidi Ferrer, THE HOTTIE AND THE NOTTIE; Doug Taylor, IN THE NAME OF THE KING: A DUNGEON SIEGE TALE; Mike Myers and Graham Gordy, THE LOVE GURU.

Worst career achievement: Uwe Boll (according to the site, “Germany’s answer to Ed Wood”).

Review: ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’

ck — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 11:26:58 +0000

‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ is equal parts extraordinary and so very ordinary. It encompasses the first and last breaths of a man and much of what passes in between, where aside from his condition he lives a life of questioning, struggle, joy and comfort that could characterise any life, fictional or otherwise. The grounds for presenting this tale to a medical journal are that our protagonist is born, with the dimensions of a baby and all the symptoms of an aged octogenarian. With each day, his body grows younger, at one point resembling the Brad Pitt we all know and for the remainder groundbreaking effects and makeup show Pitt

BAFTA nominations

ck — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 11:01:39 +0000

The BAFTA nominations are an oddity, acknowledging films yet to be released in the UK in a desperate attempt to seem relevant. A few years ago they moved the nominations and awards to a date preceeding the Oscars, traditionally viewed as the end point to award season, as they struggled to attract stars to attend or garner press coverage.

Today’s nominations include nods to films such as ‘Frost/Nixon’ and ‘The Curious Case of Benjamin Button’ which have yet to be released in the UK. There are some very flexible release date rules clearly. Also, intriguing is the inclusion of ‘In Bruges’ which despite being written and directed by an Irish man (playwrite Martin McDonagh) and having Irish leads is included in the ‘Best British Film’ category. Maybe such matters are dictated by where the money comes from. Similarly, ‘Hunger’ must be suffering from a personality disorder, it being nominated for ‘Best British Film’ by BAFTA and ‘Best Irish Film’ for this years IFTA awards. And only two technical awards

Night of surprises at Golden Globes

ck — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:20:26 +0000

There were two wins for Irish talent at last nights ‘Golden Globes’ – Colin Farrell won Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical for his role in ‘In Bruges’. Its genuinely heartening to see his role and indeed the movie acknowledged. Farrell quipped that the vote counting must have been done in Florida.

Producer Actor Guild Nominations

ck — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:36:56 +0000

What’s important about these nominations is that 12 of the previous 19 winners of best feature as selected by the PGA has gone on to win Best Picture at the Oscars, including ‘No Country for Old Men’ last year. The appearance of ‘The Dark Knight’ here will raise hopes for many that it could feature in the Best Picture race. Obviously Heath Ledger has been receiving nominations, but the film itself is not making many awards short lists, other than of course the Dossing Times Movie of the Year 2008! The PGA nominees are:

Dark Knight;
Slumdog Millionaire;
Frost/Nixon;
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and
Milk