British Expatriate Network

Anyone watch it? And what do you think of the winners?

Having seen Capote, Walk The Line, Crash, and Brokeback Mountain I figured Capote should have won. For me Crash and Brokeback had some huge flaws but were good movies. Crash was clunky and a bit too soap opera, and Brokeback had some cheesy dialogue and was too drawn out. Terence Howard would have had my nod after Hoffman too - he has that certain something about him. Walk The Line was nice, but I didn't think it was revelatory in any way. I actually liked A history of Violence alot too. Hoffman deserved the best guy Oscar for my money. Ledger was decent but basically mumbled alot, and I can't get over the fact the Phoenix to me was much like a half-decent Cash impression. I like Reese Witherspoon - seems like a nice girl - and have enjoyed some of her earlier work (Election for example). Her June Carter Cash was decent, but again not fabulous. I thought Felicity Huffman would win hands down - she was amazing in Trans America.

And as for the documentary award - why on earth was Grizzly Man not even nominated? that film is excellent.

I can't stand Reese Witherspoon, and to be fair half the reason why is because of Election!! Not that it's a bad film or anything, just because of her character in that film!! :roll: I wanted Judi Dench or Keira Knightley to win and when she won my wife looked at me and said "You just don't dont like her (Witherspoon) because of Election..... Youre pathetic!!" (or words to that effect :wink: )
I had no defence apart from that theyre english :wink:

My only criticism is that it just seems that Reese Witherspoon just seems to play Reese Witherspoon in whatever she does.

Only one result really counted.
Best animated feature Wallace and Gromit
Cracking

I was chuffed when Wallace And Gromit won the Oscar, I even pumped my fist roll
I'm so sad...... roll

The only film of the ones talked about in this thread that ive seen is walk the line and i thought weatherpoons portrayal of june cash was spot on she was june cash .

I should get capote and crash this week or next from netflix , buttcrack mountain and transamerica is on the * to be released * list , ill give opinion after ive seen them .

i must have missed the boat on the whole Academy awards thing. Just seems like loads of backslapping, none of the films seemed very interesting and far too many of their trailers screamed "look at me look at me". Over the weekend we watched the latest John Waters movie A Dirty Shame, which was funny and rude but not overall a brilliant movie, rather forced in places. And Terrance Stamp in the Collector, interesting adaptation there. - why is it the older I get that old movies seem better than new ones? ?

I 'm pleased they farm out all the techie awards and nerds to another sub ceremony and just concentrate on the 'luvvies' for the big night. They should have done that for school prize day - I won a prize for my English essay and I could have made an emotional speech if they didn't waste time with all those scientists go up and down to shake the headmaster hand.

It seems rather pointless to rank art or artists. However, it's good for drawing your attention to movies you might otherwise have missed - particularly the obscure foreign films or short ones.

This was the first time I actually watched the Oscar ceremony live. Can't say I enjoyed it - I'd rather read about it on the news.

Looks like there were a few more who didnt care for the Oscars either..... :roll:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4781282.stm

The viewing figures for the 'bums on seats' (in front of the tellys) was down by 8% compared to last year which if I remember rightly was down too?
I thought John Stewart was alright hosting the show.

Didn't watch them as I thought most nominated movies this year were just so-so and not really deserving of much.

"Crash" was ok but would look out of place compared with previous winners of "Best Picture". Summed it up really - best of a bad bunch.

Perhaps a world cup style once every four years would do the trick. Also if they moved it around the world and the home nation gets to put its best film in automatically.

That might defeat the whole object of the exercise (which, let's face it, is to self-promote, self-congratulate and generally hold an exclusive Hollywood party that the common folks are allowed a window into, via television).

One day, the already archaic movie star syndrome will be no more as it will be possible to create a believable "actor" using technology, without the "I need a bigger trailer" ego or the multi-million dollar price tags.

Voice talent will follow after that and how Equity will no doubt squirm........

You can see how hostile the academy is to anything remotely close to that scenario - Sin City, a great film in my view, didn't even get a mention.

I am often perplexed by the choices for awards. For example, Clooney was rightly recognized but Syrianna wasn't. To me it was better than all except maybe Capote. The movies nominated for best of the year were good, but as Pilgrim said, they weren't great. Better movies were Cinderella Man, Syriana, Sin City to name a few. Russell Crowe hates the Hollywood thing so they seemed to have shunned Cinderella Man - he and Paul Giammatti are excellent in it. Looking at the list for best female it is weird that Witherspoon won. She does seem to have got it for not playing herself for once - sort of like Charlize Theron not playing the nipples in a Ben Affleck movie for a change - yet Judi Dench and Felicity Huffman were absolutely excellent in their roles. I really don't get the amazement at Walk The Line - as I didn't with Ray last year - Foxx was particularly cheesy in that one. The last few years there have been, in my mind, some odd winners. Never would I think that Renee Zellwegger and Jamie Foxx were two of America's finest actors, let alone the world.

I saw the Squid and the Whale yesterday. How did that not get an Oscar nomination? Better than Crash and Brokeback by far in my opinion.

I finally got capote from net flix and having seen some of his other works * scent of a women , happiness ,&bogie nights *i have admired him for some time i thought Phillip hoffman gave the performance of his life .
I cant make a accessment as to wether his acting was more deserving than the other nominees cus i havnt seen there efforts yet except *walk the line * and in that movie renee witherspoon dominated

stay tuned

I think it might be because only 8 people saw it, I hear it is excellent and will be watching it soon.