February 15, 2009

  • BEST COSTUME DESIGN

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • Australia
    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Duchess
    • Milk
    • Revolutionary Road

     

    Erin’s Pick: The Duchess

    My Mom’s Pick: Australia

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: Elizabeth: The Golden Age

     

    It’s all period pieces this time, to some extent. You’ve got World War II, the 1920s through whenever (haven’t seen the movie yet), the 1700s, the 1970s, and the 1950s. The other odd thing about this category is that it’s one of the few places where critically-panned movies can still win (as evidenced by the last two recipients). If this holds up, Australia would be the most likely one to prevail, even though I don’t think it got universally horrible reviews. As an aside, when was the last time Nicole Kidman was in something successful?

     

    BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany)
    • The Class (France)
    • Departures (Japan)
    • Revanche (Austria)
    • Waltz with Bashir (Israel)

     

    Erin’s Pick: The Class

    My Mom’s Pick: The Class

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Counterfeiters (Austria)

     

    I would give you plot synopses here for all the movies, but a few of them are really complicated and would take forever to write about, so I’m not going to. At any rate, The Class is apparently about a teacher and his racially diverse group of students at a school in inner-city Paris. It seemed like the most interesting of the group.

February 14, 2009

  • BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Betrayal (Nerakhoon)
    • Encounters at the End of the World
    • The Garden
    • Man on Wire
    • Trouble the Water

     

    Erin’s Pick: Encounters at the End of the World

    My Mom’s Pick: Trouble the Water

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: Taxi to the Dark Side

     

    Well, the nominees are nowhere near as political as last year’s lot, but the plotlines sure are different from one another. The Betrayal is the story of a Laotian family who is forced to flee the country during the Vietnam War. Encounters at the End of the World is a nature documentary about Antarctica. The Garden is the story of a 14-acre community garden in South Central Los Angeles that is threatened by land developers. Man on Wire chronicles a daredevil’s (illegal) tightrope walk across the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 1974. Trouble the Water is the story of a couple who survived the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina (apparently the film makes extensive use of footage from the couple’s video camera).

     

    BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • Changeling
    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Dark Knight
    • The Reader
    • Slumdog Millionaire

     

    Erin’s Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

    My Mom’s Pick: The Dark Knight

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: There Will Be Blood

     

    I haven’t seen any of these, so I chose the one that I am the most interested in seeing. My mom chose The Dark Knight because it’s the only one that she has seen. By the way, I read some entertainment columnist who was mad that The Dark Knight, for the most part, was only nominated for “tech” awards (and Heath Ledger). His argument was that it was the most successful movie of 2008 and apparently #2 on the all-time box office list. Dude, in case you hadn’t noticed, the top movie at the box office in any given year usually does not get a lot of Oscar recognition. This page has a list of the top movie of every year since 1915. Most of them did not win or were even nominated for the “big” awards. In the past twenty years, only Forrest Gump, Titanic, and LOTR: The Return of the King were both box-office champs and Best Picture winners. As for his other argument, actually, Wikipedia has The Dark Knight ranked at #4 on the all-time list, not #2. Return of the King and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest are both between The Dark Knight and Titanic (and of the top 10, ONLY Titanic and ROTK have won Best Picture, and The Two Towers is the only other one to have been nominated). But I digress.

February 13, 2009

  • BEST EDITING

     

    The Nominees Are:

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

     

    Erin’s Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

    My Mom’s Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Bourne Ultimatum

     

    Of course, the category I may claim some expertise in has no nominees that I’ve seen, just like last year. And the year before. And the year before that as well. So I’m forced to just be arbitrary. Again.

     

    BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT SUBJECT

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Conscience of Nhem En
    • The Final Inch
    • Smile Pinki
    • The Witness-From the Balcony of Room 306

     

    Erin’s Pick: The Final Inch

    My Mom’s Pick: The Witness-From the Balcony of Room 306

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: Freeheld

     

    Once again, I was actually responsible and looked up the synopsis of each documentary, which I will list for you here. The Conscience of Nhem En is the story of a Cambodian man who, when he was 16, was a prison photographer during the Khmer Rouge. The Final Inch is about the global effort to eradicate polio. Smile Pinki is about a girl living in rural India who is ostracized by her village because she has a cleft lip. The Witness-From the Balcony of Room 306 is about the assassination of Martin Luther King (specifically, as told by the aforementioned witness).

February 12, 2009

  • BEST ORIGINAL SCORE

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • Defiance
    • Milk
    • Slumdog Millionaire
    • WALL-E

     

    Erin’s Pick: WALL-E

    My Mom’s Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: Atonement

     

    WALL-E is the only one of these movies that we’ve seen, so there you go. Once again, very few of the “usual suspects” in Original Score have been nominated (No John Williams, James Horner, etc).

     

    BEST MAKEUP

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Dark Knight
    • Hellboy II: The Golden Army

     

    Erin’s Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    My Mom’s Pick: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: La Vie en Rose

     

    The Academy seems to fall into a pattern with the Makeup category, usually nominating a fantasy/sci-fi flick, a period piece, and a movie where someone gets aged throughout the course of the story. Benjamin Button is both a period piece AND an age-makeup flick, so they killed two birds with one stone in that one. Hence, we got ourselves two superhero (read: fantasy/sci-fi) movies.

February 11, 2009

  • BEST ANIMATED SHORT FILM

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • La Maison en Petits Cubes
    • Lavatory-Lovestory
    • Oktapodi
    • Presto
    • This Way Up

     

    Erin’s Pick: Presto

    My Mom’s Pick: This Way Up

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: Peter and the Wolf

     

    Yeah, we’re being arbitrary again. I found all the synopses for these films, but I’ve forgotten most of them. Presto is the Pixar short that was shown before WALL-E and is also on the DVD. It’s about a magician’s hungry rabbit who wants to eat a carrot and is pissed off that the magician won’t give it to him, so he sabotages his show. I didn’t particularly care for it, but it’s the only one of these that I’ve seen. This Way Up is about the troubles that occur when two undertakers are trying to transport a casket.

     

    BEST ORIGINAL SONG

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • “Down to Earth” from WALL-E
    • “Jai Ho” from Slumdog Millionaire
    • “O Saya” from Slumdog Millionaire

     

    Erin’s Pick: “Jai Ho”

    My Mom’s Pick: “Down to Earth”

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: “Falling Slowly” from Once

     

    Not much variety this year, with only three nominees. As much as I liked WALL-E, I didn’t really care for its song, so I went on YouTube to listen to the two Slumdog Millionaire songs (by the way, that is a movie that I have interest in seeing, hopefully before Oscar Night). “Jai Ho” was the one I liked better. And yes, apparently it WAS written by a fairly accomplished Bollywood composer (though neither of these songs make me picture people running around trees).

February 10, 2009

  • BEST SOUND MIXING

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Dark Knight
    • Slumdog Millionaire
    • WALL-E
    • Wanted

     

    Erin’s Pick: WALL-E

    My Mom’s Pick: Slumdog Millionaire

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Bourne Ultimatum

     

    I believe Sound Mixing refers to how all the audio tracks (dialogue, sound effects, music, etc.) are put together as a whole. This isn’t as favorable towards “special effects” movies as Sound Editing is, but they still do pretty well here, as do musicals/movies based on musicians. However, this year, like last year, there’s only one difference between these nominees and the Best Sound Editing nominees. Once again, WALL-E is the only one that I’ve seen, and my mom picked Slumdog Millionaire cuz she wants to see it.

     

    BEST LIVE ACTION SHORT FILM

     

    The Nominees Are:

    • Auf der Strecke (On the Line)
    • Manon on the Asphalt
    • New Boy
    • The Pig
    • Spielzeugland (Toyland)

     

    Erin’s Pick: New Boy

    My Mom’s Pick: Spielzeugland (Toyland)

     

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Mozart of Pickpockets

     

    As I’ve said the past six years, none of us frequent short films, so we’re just being arbitrary, usually picking the one with the most interesting title. I did look of the synopsis of all of these films, but I’ve forgotten most of them. I do remember that New Boy is about an African boy going to school in Ireland and that Toyland is about a little boy in Nazi Germany who believes his Jewish neighbors have gone to Toyland (that sounds a little depressing).

February 9, 2009

  • It’s That Time of Year Again…

    Time for… 

    OSCAR PICKS!!!!

    I’ve done this on Xanga for six years, and I thought it was fun so I’ll do it again this year. Joining me this year is my mom again (yeah, I’ve fallen a bit, but the vast majority of my friends are either overseas, inconsistent when it comes to e-mailing, or “not movie people”). Considering the time crunch I’m in, I’ll post the nominees for two categories per day as well as my pick and my mom’s pick. Keep in mind that our “picks” are who we would LIKE to win, not necessarily who we think WILL win, although it’s cool when the two coincide. Feel free to join in on the fun and let me know your pick as well. Like last year, I’ll start with the tech categories and work my way up to the “big” categories, although this year is kind of a low for me, as I have only seen one nominated movie, which is WALL-E. Hell, my mom outranks me, having seen three of the nominated movies (WALL-E, The Dark Knight, and Iron Man). But without further ado, here we go…
     

    BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
    • The Dark Knight
    • Iron Man

    Erin’s Pick: Iron Man
    My Mom’s Pick: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Golden Compass

    It’s kind of a sad day when I haven’t seen ANY of the Visual Effects nominees, considering they’re normally the type of movies I enjoy. By contrast, my mom has seen two of them, and wants to see the third, which is the one she picked. Her assessment of The Dark Knight was that it was “too dark.” She did think I would like Iron Man, which is apparently more upbeat. A couple of people at work have also recommended Iron Man to me as something they think I’d like, so I picked it here.
     

    BEST SOUND EDITING
     

    The Nominees Are:

    • The Dark Knight
    • Iron Man
    • Slumdog Millionaire
    • WALL-E
    • Wanted

    Erin’s Pick: WALL-E
    My Mom’s Pick: The Dark Knight

    The Winner Last Year Was: The Bourne Ultimatum

    I will try to explain the two sound awards as best I can understand it. This category deals with the sound effects and other stuff that is put into the audio track in post-production. I picked WALL-E cuz it’s the only one of these five that I’ve seen.

February 5, 2009

  • Short update today. I will start Oscar Picks soon, I promise. I’m in the midst of a 3-exam week so time’s been kinda tight (not to mention I’ve worked every day except Monday). I’ll probably start either this weekend or Monday between class and lab. I did watch the Super Bowl on Sunday. That makes two exciting Super Bowls in a row, which has to be some kind of record, although the fourth quarter was nerve-wracking to watch cuz I was rooting for the Steelers. And as bad as I am with understanding the intricacies of baseball, I’m about a million times worse when it comes to football, but even I could recognize some outstanding plays. As far as the halftime show went, it wasn’t the most exciting thing in the world, but it was better than Tom Petty. Meanwhile the commercials were kinda meh. I mean, the Clydesdale commercials were cute, but there were no real big standouts. Then again, there weren’t that many obnoxious beer commercials or really stupid ads, so maybe that’s a good thing.

January 21, 2009

  • I thought I’d check in today, since I have a doctor’s appointment between class and lab tomorrow and so I might not have time to post tomorrow. I certainly enjoyed watching the inauguration yesterday, especially since it’s the first I’ve seen since 1996 (when I was 13 years old and pretty much all I remember is the CNN people discussing what was going to be served at the inaugural luncheon). Now I should probably get around to getting rid of some of those blinkies to the left that are now out of date, but I’m not good when it comes to HTML so it’ll take me a while to figure it out. Last night also featured the brief re-surfacing of a couple of “old friends” who both have had prolonged absences and other than that, have absolutely nothing to do with one another, save for the slight possibility of a chance encounter that may or may not have occurred on August 6th of 2004. One surfaced at a couple of the Obama inaugural balls and sounded uncharacteristically bad, while the other surfaced in a CBS Sportsline article and went on a massive ego trip.

     

    In other sports news, yes, I will be watching the Super Bowl as I normally do, and while an Arizona win wouldn’t be the end of the world, I’m still rooting for the Steelers.

     

    By the way, I believe the Oscar nominees get announced tomorrow, so anyone who wants to play Oscar Picks needs to let me know real soon.

January 15, 2009

  • Well, the new semester has started, so here’s the obligatory schedule:

     

    Monday

    Pharmacology II   8:00-8:50

    Pharmaceutics II   9:00 -9:50

    Microbiology & Immunology   10:00-10:50

    Biochemistry II   11:00-11:50

    Microbiology & Immunology Lab   2:00-4:50 (every other week)

     

    Tuesday

    Medicinal Chemistry II   8:00-9:15

     

    Wednesday

    Pharmacology II   8:00-8:50

    Pharmaceutics II   9:00-9:50

    Microbiology & Immunology   10:00-10:50

    Biochemistry II   11:00-11:50

     

    Thursday

    Medicinal Chemistry II   8:00-9:15

    Pharmaceutics Lab   1:00-2:50

     

    Friday

    Pharmacology II   8:00-8:50

    Pharmaceutics II   9:00-9:50

    Microbiology & Immunology   10:00-10:50

    Biochemistry II   11:00-11:50

     

    As you can see, there’s nothing terribly exciting, but given the way the schedule is organized, it means I’m probably gonna work a lot and I’ll probably only post on the days where I have the big gaps between the last class and lab (i.e. Thursdays and every other Monday). But don’t hold me to that.

     

    By the way, as you probably know, the Oscar nominations will be announced on January 22nd, and as usual, I’m planning on doing the annual Oscar Picks feature. If you would like to participate, please let me know before then.

     

    Also, since the Total Amateur Analysis just doesn’t seem to be gelling with the rest of my blog life, I’m probably going to move that to a different site and restore this site to its former state of randomness. However, I’m going to wait until we get closer to Spring Training before I make the “official” announcement, so you didn’t hear anything, all right? Speaking of which, you know I’m ready for Spring Training to start when I actually resort to watching football. I do watch the Super Bowl every year, but that’s about it. However, this past weekend I actually tuned into parts of some of the playoff games. It wasn’t pretty, cuz the teams I was rooting for kept losing. Now, I’ve said on numerous occasions that I currently don’t have a favorite football team, and that’s true, but I generally pick a team to root for whenever I watch a game (which isn’t very often). I know very few of the players’ names or stats, so my reasoning is usually random and kinda dumb. At any rate, Saturday was awful. I’m not really that wild about the Tennessee Titans, but I’ve never cared much for the Baltimore Ravens (Maybe cuz they used to be the Cleveland Browns and I’ve never really cared much for them, so there’s some residual dislike?), so I was kinda rooting for Tennessee by default. And they lost. Then came the Arizona-Carolina game. Now, my high school team name was the Cardinals, so logic would dictate that I would root for Arizona, but either from my nature or from being a Tigers fan, I’ve always gravitated towards the “cat” teams (although the Lions and Bengals are kind of a lost cause at the present time). The Panthers got crushed. I didn’t see either of those two games, but I did see the two Sunday games. I rooted for the Giants last year in the Super Bowl, so I was kinda gravitating toward them to start with (plus Donovan McNabb acted like an idiot and the city of Philadelphia already has one championship team this cycle). So you could imagine that by Sunday evening, I was somewhat frustrated (well, as frustrated as I could be given the fact that I haven’t poured much emotion into football since I was about 12 years old). Luckily, the Steelers came through for me so I still have someone to root for. Just so you know, Ben Rothlisberger (sp?) is from the area, so there is quite a bit of local attention on the Steelers (In general, Toledo natives tend to be comprised of Steelers fans, Browns fans, Packers fans, the occasional Cowboys fan, and Lions fans who’ve all picked a different, “interim” team to root for so they don’t depress themselves).