Wednesday 28 February 2007

It is all over!

I am so glad this years Oscar season is over. You have no idea. I am so looking forward to this years coming movies and I hope that the offerings are far better than this year. I am hoping for another 2001.

Any who, lets forget about all that for the time being.

Right now I wanna talk about the genious that is The Roots.
The Rootsare an influential, Grammy winning Philadelphia-based hip hop group, famed for a heavily jazzy sound and live instrumentation. Inspired by the "hip-hop band" concept pioneered by Stetsasonic, the Roots themselves have garnered critical acclaim and influenced later hip-hop and R&B acts.

All members have worked with PETA to promote animal compassion and vegetarian lifestyle. So I love them even more.

Enjoy the video for Seed - A Damn sexy song!

Tuesday 27 February 2007

The MAFFE Awards

MAFFE - Michael's Academy of Feature Film Excellence (cheesy I know)

If I were to give out yearly awards for this media of film, which I so love, they would purely reflect my taste. So smaller films that would never be considered by the Academy have found a deserved place.

First off, the smaller awards:

Best Original Score
Babel
The Fountain
Notes on a Scandal
Pan’s Labyrinth
Volver

Best Cinemetography
Babel
Children of Men
The Fountain
Pan’s Labyrinth
Volver

Best Art Direction
Children of Men
Dreamgirls
The Fountain
Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen

Best Costume Design
The Devil Wears Prada
Dreamgirls
The Queen
Volver
Pan’s Labyrinth

Best Editing
Children of Men
The Departed
The Fountain
Little Miss Sunshine
United 93

Best Original Song
I Need to Wake Up: An Inconvenient Truth
In The End: Shortbus
Love you I do: Dreamgirls
Soda Shop: Shortbus
Song of the Heart: Happy Feet

Best Visual Effects
The Fountain
Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Mans Chest
Superman Returns

Best Make Up
Dreamgirls
Pan's Labyrinth
Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Mans Chest

Also check out BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR and BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Monday 26 February 2007

The Fashions

The Best Dressed

click to enlarge

Penelope Cruz wins the award. Stunning, beautiful, just perfect.
Cate Blanchette looked sexy and cool as ice in a figure hugging charcole dress.
Reese Witherspoon wore a stunning midnight blue dress, it took away from her jaw line – a good thing.
Rachel Weisz was lovely in gold Vera Wang, too bad about the broach and necklace.
Emily Blunt continued the midnight blue look to great effect.
Kate Winslet – She can do no wrong.
Cameron Diaz took a risk and looked fantastic in white.
Rinko Kikuchi looked old school glamour in Chanel.
Helen Mirren was a vision in a sexy gold number.

The Worst Dressed

click to enlarge

Oh J-Hud – Darling you look like you should be on Dr. Who……In the 70’s. Oh dear
Eva Green – who ever she thinks she is – Honey needs to go and take a look at Penelope Cruz to see how it is done.
J-Lo – Ancient Greek whore all chained up.
Beyonce – And speaking of which. Can’t she just put it away for once, although this is better than the Golden globes number.
Gwenneth Paltrow looks a little bit like sea food. She came as a giant prawn. Looked like it was made by the guy who did the costumes for Bram Stokers Dracula.
Speaking of Bram Stoker – What was Adrianna Barraza thinking. Looks like a bleeding bin liner!
Poor Dirty Cunts oops, Kirsten Dunst. Looks like she was going to the Oscars on the moon, but forgot her space helmut. Will she ever learn?

The good and the bad

This years Oscars.

The Good.

I for one really enjoyed Ellen DeGeneres. Sure she was safe, but it seemed to take a lot of the stuffiness out of the ceremony.

Pan’s Labyrinth winning the first 2 awards. This made me very excited.

Al Gore getting such an amazing reception – if only…………

Alan Arkin winning. Although he read his speech from a giant piece of A4, I was happy. It got me hoping for a lot more upsets.

Jennifer Hudson – Thank God she took off her space jackets. She looked a little bit like an extra from Dr. Who. And boy can she sang!!

Ennio Morricone has an Oscar!

Happy Feet won! Yippeeee!!

Martin Scorsese has an Oscar……a competitive one at that!

Meryl streep walks away with the funniest moment and didn’t even say a word!

The Bad

The short little acting clips!! What was up with that??? I like a good 10 to 20 second clip, not this 1 to 2 second one. The clips are my favourite part. Bring back the longer clips next year!!!

The rushing of the winners off the stage. Let Jennifer Hudson speak!!!! You let Ennio Morricone speak for a week, but Jennifer barely blurted out a tearful thank you before you played her off.

Don’t get presenters who have something to do with the nominated movies. I felt awful for Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway for having to present Best Costumes, only to read out Marie Antoinette. You know they were disappointed and it showed.

What was with the looky likeys dressed up as the movies characters for the Costume Design nominees. That was terrible. Made the costumes look like they were in a bad school play.

Pan’s Labyrinth lost Best Foreign Picture – Boo!!!!

Will Farrell and Jack Black’s song….did not work for me. It felt too long. I think they may actually still be singing it.

Did I really need to see Celine Dion?

Helen Mirrens “Ladies and Gentlemen The Queen” moment I thought was bad, but it didn’t prepare me for te awful Forest Whitaker…….insert fingers in ears “la la la la la la la la la la la la”

Poor poor Peter O’Toole. You know he wanted it, could they not have given it to him? Also did you notice Kate looked a little sad too?

79th Annual Academy Award Winners!

Best Picture: The Departed
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, The Departed
Best Actor: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland
Best Actress: Helen Mirren, The Queen
Best Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls
Best Original Screenplay: Little Miss Sunshine
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Departed
Best Animated Feature: Happy Feet
Best Art/Set Decoration: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Cinematography: Pan's Labyrinth
Best Costume Design: Marie-Antoinette
Best Film Editing: The Departed
Best Original Score: Babel
Best Original Song: "I Need to Wake Up" - An Inconvenient Truth
Best Sound Mixing: Dreamgirls
Best Sound Editing: Letters from Iwo Jima
Best Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest

Sunday 25 February 2007

Good Luck!!!!

May you all have a great Oscars night!

Tonight I will be with my good friends Dean and Lee, watching the Oscars and trying not to strangle Dean for having opinions on films he has not even seen. Lee has promised not to talk during the speeches, and I have promised not to shit on Deans sisters TV should Hilary Skank or Lemon Face make an appearance.

Happy Oscars to all!!!

What's up with all the haters??

As we approach the end of the movie year, capped off by the Academy Awards, I would like to just have a think about the voice of the bloggers (including me).
Ever since Little Miss Sunshine won the PGA there has been a general consensus that if this translated to Oscar, it would be remembered as one of Oscars all time blunders.
Why is this? I ask this question, not because I think it is one of the best films of the year, or that it will win, but more because I cannot understand the sentiment.
Right now we live in a pretty f*cked up world. The films this year represent that. Corrupt cops and gun control, People not communicating with each other because of differences, disillusionment with our officials, elected or otherwise and the horror of war. Pretty damn bleak stuff and all very important messages.
In time, when I look back at the nominated movies, I will not think “Wow, what a great line up!”. Instead I will probably think “Yeah, 2006 was pretty damn weak.”
Little Miss Sunshine is my favourite movie in the line up. It sent out a nice little message about the joys of trying, even if you fail. It also featured a sympathetic gay character that did not conform to stereotype, and a little girl that saw the good in everyone.

So forgive me in burying my head in the sand and taking solace in the dysfunctional family in a yellow mini bus who stand by each other out of love. So to the nay-sayers – What’s to hate?

May you all enjoy the Oscar show tonight, and remember….they are just awards handed out by a collective of rich white people who are very out of touch with reality whose only real purpose is to once again prove that we, the fans of film, have better taste.

Don’t take it too seriously, besides, nothing can be worse than Black Sunday.