Proof that the movie critics have…lost it. A few years ago, the almost shunned a real good movie and gave the award to gay cowboys. Did the same this year. Here’s the full list of winners at Oscars 2008. And boy has the jury gone against public sentiment. Johnny Depp (Rach’s fave drunkard) was the front-runner for Best Actor, but didn’t win (I heaved a sigh of relief); but even Ellen Page (for Juno) was the front-runner for Best Actress by a long margin (and I was rooting for her), and they gave it to someone who was at way at the bottom of everyone’s list. The Bourne Ultimatum, quite deservedly got Best Editing.
What really shocked (and irritated) me was Best Visual Effects – which went to The Golden Compass! Huh? Come on, people, Transformers was way more deserving to get this award (among the nominees). Which brings me to my other point – the movie with THE most path-breaking visual effects, that is, 300 (yes, the same one on why exactly it rocks to be a human with a dick) wasn’t even nominated! What the f**! No doubt Transformers was good, but it was nothing ‘revolutionary’. I mean, did you know that in 300, certain scenes were hand-crafted frame-by-frame in Photoshop (on a Mac, if you must know) to match scenes in Frank Miller’s graphic novel of the same name?
I think the problem we have here is that the critics live in a world of their own; and whenever a movie comes out which the mainstream audience actually relishes, they just itch to chuck those out and choose something out-of-the-ordinary. Simply to prove that they’re jury members / critics, and what the public likes can’t possibly be something they like.
BTW, Woohoo! Lindsay Lohan won too, the Razzies, that is. Her I Know Who Killed Me set a Razzy record of *eight ‘wins’! Defeating the likes of established actors like Eddie Murphy. In fact, she got two Worst Actress Razzies! She won something at least! [blows a raspberry]. Here’s what Razzies chief John Wilson said about the TWO awards:
“It’s appropriate that it’s a tie, because at the end of the movie, you don’t know if it was one person or two people, or are they twins, or are we as mentally ill as the screenwriter and director.”
PS – Ratatouille got Best Animated Feature Film. I was supporting Surf’s Up (because it had penguins in it).