The Chicken or the Oscar

The Academy Awards were on TV last night. It was the lowest rated ceremony in a long time. Why, who’s to say? It could be for a lot of reasons; perhaps your every day average movie going slob didn’t feel represented? Too much time spent on the “red carpet” as opposed to being spent in the love of film? Too many dance numbers? I don’t know. What I do know is that that little golden statue and I were at it again this year. Here were my picks: http://evilchickenscratch.blogspot.com/2008/02/oscar-vs-chicken-2008.html ; now let’s see who won this year.

Best Supporting Actor – who I chose: Hal Holdbrook for “Into the Wild”. Who won? Javier Bardem for “No Country for Old Men”. One nuthin’ for the golden boy.

Best Supporting Actress – who I chose: Rudy Dee for “American Gangster”. Who won? An incredibly HOT woman who wore no make up to the Oscars, Ms. Tilda Swinton for “Michael Clayton”.

Best Actor – who I chose: Daniel Day-Lewis for “There Will Be Blood”. Who won? Daniel Day-Lewis. Oh yeah, I’m feelin’ it.

Best Actress – who I chose: Cate Blanchett for “Elizabeth – the Golden Age”. Who won? Marion Cotillard for “La Vie en Rose”. Shake it off, baby – shake it off.

Best Visual Effects – who I chose: “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”. Who won? “The Golden Compass”. BTW, “The Golden Compass”? Please.

Best Animated Feature – who I chose: “Ratatouille”. Who won? “Ratatouille”. YES! Brad Bird is a genius. -SNIFF- I smell a comeback.

Best Makeup – who I chose: “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End”. Who won? “La Vie en Rose”. What? Who? I’ll rent it and let you know BUT you’ve got to go a long way to beat out the job that was done of Pirates III.

Best Adapted Screenplay – who I chose: “No Country for Old Men”. Who won? “No Country for Old Men”. I’m nippin’ at his heals.

Best Original Screenplay – who I chose: “Juno”. Who won? “Juno”.

Best Director (s) – who I chose: “Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country For Old Men”. Who won? Why it was, “Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country For Old Men”. OH MY – I do believe we have a tie.

Best Picture – who I chose: “No Country for Old Men”. Who won… “No Country for Old Men”! OH MY GOODNESS – EVIL CHICKEN WON BY A NOSE!

What’s creepy is the fact that I haven’t seen most of the movies that were nominated. The trick is to think the way the Academy thinks. Still and all, it was close this year.

I didn’t watch the full broadcast and missed the memorandum. I caught it on Youtube but I either missed them or they were not mentioned but Mr. Roy Schider and Mr. Brad Renfro who both passed away not all that long ago may not have been mentioned.

I’ll see you next time Oscar. Until then know that ’08 was MINE!

Oscar VS. Chicken 2008

Ok. Let me be direct and up front with you gentle reader, it’s not fair for me to take on Oscar this year due to the fact that I’ve only seen about 4 of the films that are nominated this year. In other words, I’ve got one hand tied behind my back.

Misinformation has never stopped me before so bring it on Oscar. Let’s see what you’re made of. The majority of my picks are trying to infuse my mind with just how the academy thinks. It’s not easy but this remote viewing has worked for me in the past so here are my picks for who’s going to be walking away with the statue of the little, golden, bald guy.

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis for “There Will Be Blood”. Clooney might surprise me.

Best Supporting Actor: Hal Holdbrook for “Into the Wild”. Nostalgia – the academy voters want to feel like they have an appreciation for the past.

Best Actress: Cate Blanchett for “Elizabeth – the Golden Age”. The academy voters want to establish a two-fer; in this instance Blanchett will have won for the same role in two different films. There’s that and she’s brilliant.

Best Supporting Actress: Rudy Dee for “American Gangster”. Blanchett might surprise me, we’ll see.

Best Animated Feature: “Ratatouille”. Pixar deserves any accolades they might receive AND, I might add, Brad Bird (writer/director) is a genius.

Art Direction: “Sweeny Todd”. I want to see Burton and Co. beat out “The Golden Compass”. Burton’s got it coming.

Cinematography: “The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford”, although “There Will Be Blood” might take it.

Costume Design: “Elizabeth – The Golden Age”

Best Director: “Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country For Old Men”. These guys are amazing filmmakers and they are due.

Best Documentary Feature: “Sicko”; mainly because the academy voters are petrified that they will be the focus of Moore’s next movie.

Best Editing: “The Bourne Ultimatum”

Best Foreign Language Film” “Mongol”. I hear that this one is really something to see; Genghis Kahn the early days. It’s on my list.

Best Makeup: “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End”. Get a good look at Davey Jones – amazing.

Best Music Original Score: “Ratatouille”.

Best Picture: “No Country for Old Men” BUT this is going to be close – it could easily go to “There Will Be Blood”. We shall see.

Best Visual Effects: “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End”. With all due respect to the work that was done on, “Transformers”, Pirates Rocked.

Best Adapted Screenplay: “No Country for Old Men”. This too will be close and could easily be “There Will Be Blood”.

Best Original Screenplay: “Juno”. The academy voters will vote for this film in this category. I hear that it’s a very good film but I haven’t had a chance to see it. “Ratatouille” I have seen and it is amazing. I’d like it to win but the academy will be too busy patting itself on the back for other things to take notice of an animated movie beating out a live action film.

So. There you have it. Evil Chicken’s picks Oscar ’08. Oscar’s got the upper hand going into this fray but I think I’ve got his number. We’ll see who wins and who loses on February 24th.

Bring it on Baldy

The 2008 Academy Awards

Thanks to Ain’t it Cool News for generating the following list. And the Nominations are…

Best Actor
George Clooney - Michael Clayton
Daniel Day-Lewis - There Will Be Blood
Johnny Depp - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Tommy Lee Jones - In The Valley Of Elah
Viggo Mortensen - Eastern Promises

Best Supporting Actor
Casey Affleck - The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Javier Bardem - No Country For Old Men
Philip Seymour Hoffman - Charlie Wilson's War
Hal Holbrook - Into The Wild
Tom Wilkinson - Michael Clayton

Best Actress
Cate Blanchett - Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Julie Christie - Away From Her
Marion Cotillard - La Vie En Rose
Laura Linney - The Savages
Ellen Page - Juno

Best Supporting Actress
Cate Blanchett - I'm Not There
Rudy Dee - American Gangster
Saoirse Ronan - Atonement
Amy Ryan - Gone Baby Gone
Tilda Swinton - Michael Clayton

Best Animated Feature
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up

Art Direction
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd
There Will Be Blood

Cinematography
The Assassination of Jesse James By The Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Costume Design
Across The Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie En Rose
Sweeney Todd

Best Director
Julian Schnabel - The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Jason Reitman - Juno
Tony Gilroy - Michael Clayton
Joel & Ethan Coen - No Country For Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson - There Will Be Blood

Best Documentary Feature
No End In Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing The Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi To The Dark Side
War/Dance

Best Documentary Short Subject
Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother

Best Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
Into The Wild
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Foreign Language Film
Beaufort
The Counterfeiters
Katyn
Mongol
12

Best Makeup
La Vie En Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Best Music Original Score
Atonement
The Kite Runner
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
3:10 To Yuma

Best Music - Original Song
Once
Enchanted
August Rush
Enchanted
Enchanted

Best Picture
Atonement
Juno
Michael Clayton
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Best Animated Short Film
I Met The Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Même Les Pigeons vont Au Paradis (Even Pigeons Go to Heaven)
My Love (Moya Lyubov)
Peter & The Wolf

Best Live Action Short Film
At Night
Il Supplente (The Substitute)
Le Mozart Des Pickpokets
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman

Best Sound Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country For Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers

Best Sound Mixing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country For Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 To Yuma
Transformers

Best Visual Effects
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers

Adapted Screenplay
Atonement
Away From Her
The Diving Bell And The Butterfly
No Country For Old Men
There Will Be Blood

Original Screenplay
Juno
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Ratatouille
The Savages

All Right Then… I will reserve my picks until I’ve seen more of the movies. Even though I can not see them all I will be making a post closer to broadcast time about who will win and who should win.

I’m curious as to just how the writer’s strike will affect the broadcast? I don’t know. There are people saying that they will not cross the picket lines.

I respect that.

Most of the time I’m only interested in who wins, their acceptance speeches and the retrospectives. This year I’m interested to see who will cross the picket lines IF the strike is still going on. Who knows if the strike is still on perhaps it will cut down on the insipid use of interpretive dancing to movie scores.

Why even have that?

Believe me – it is superfluous and should be cut anyway. Give the people more time to say what they have to say – whatever they have to say. In theory, these people – the nominees have worked their entire careers to win the approval of their peers and they get pushed out of rotation because of some dancing jackass?

Welcome to Hollywood.