Ebert's Oscar Predictions

rogerebert.com ^ | 2/10/07 | Roger Ebert

[L.A.Justice]

Ebert loved Gore's "documentary"...Even Michael Medved gave it two out of four stars. (It's not because Medved liked Gore's message.)

I think "Babel" would probably win...I think it was an OK film. It was an uneven film. I was not too impressed with the Japan portion of "Babel". My preference would be "Letters from Iwo Jima". No, the film didn't turn me into some peacenik who thinks that dropping atom bombs was wrong..."Little Miss Sunshine" did not impress me too much...

For Best Director...My choice would be the director of "United 93". But, I don't think he will win.

Whittaker was indeed excellent in "Last King of Scotland". Helen Mirren was great in "Queen".

[WOSG]

Ebert loved Gore's "documentary".

---
Ebert is a liberal. He is wrong about the science validating Gore's movie, which was hyperbolized scaremongering ...


From Gregg Easterbrook's (environmentalist and non-GW skeptic) review of Gore's movie:

http://www.slate.com/id/2142319/
"The picture the movie paints is always worst-case scenario. Considering the multiple times Gore has given his greenhouse slide show (he says "thousands"), it's jarring that the movie was not scrubbed for factual precision. For instance, this 2005 joint statement by the science academies of the Western nations, including the National Academy of Sciences, warns of sea-level rise of four to 35 inches in the 21st century; this amount of possible sea-level rise is current consensus science.

Yet An Inconvenient Truth asserts that a sea-level rise of 20 feet is a realistic short-term prospect. Gore says the entire Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could melt rapidly; the film then jumps to animation of Manhattan flooded. Well, all that ice might melt really fast, and a UFO might land in London, too. The most recent major study of ice in the geologic past found that about 130,000 years ago the seas were "several meters above modern levels" and that polar temperatures sufficient to cause a several-meter sea-level rise may eventually result from artificial global warming. The latest major study of austral land ice detected a thawing rate that would add two to three inches to sea level during this century. Such findings are among the arguments that something serious is going on with Earth's climate. But the science-consensus forecast about sea-level rise is plenty bad enough. Why does An Inconvenient Truth use disaster-movie speculation?"

[Mobile Vulgus]

I no longer patronize anything this far left liberal and his half-wit sidekick (Richard Roeper) produce.

[hawkeye101]

Ebert is a lib; his views have been expressed many times about reviewing other films of his political beliefs. But when all other film critic snobs were thumbing their elitist noses at "The Passion of the Christ", Ebert praised the film, saying it was by far the best movie of 2004, and one of the greatest achievments in cinematic history.

[skeptoid]

I will never again voluntarily or intentionally watch or listen to Ebert.

[fieldmarshaldj]

"Penelope Cruz embodied joy and fancy as a high-spirited woman who inherits the ghost of her own mother in "Volver.""

My mama would wash my mouth out with soap for saying that word in the house.

[highlander_UW]

I guess Hollywood has moved to the point of alienating me enough that I have not seen any of these movies, nor do I have any interest in seeing any of them...and that's how I feel about what is supposed to be the best of their products. I'm not even angry...just apathetic about film entertainment. Guess it's been too long since they've made anything I've found worth the price of admission.

[HHFi]

I have a friend who's a critic and gets me in to previews for free, so I've seen a few of these. I really liked "Venus," and "Last King of Scotland" is great. It should have been nominated for Best Picture instead of "Babel," which I thought was a pretentious mess. Other than critics, I've yet to find anyone I know who's seen that movie and admits to liking it. If I were voting for Best Picture among the actual nominees, I'd give it to "Little Miss Sunshine." Even after many decades of filmmaking, Academy voters still haven't figured out that it's much harder to make a really good comedy than to make a depressing, pretentious drama. Remember the famous last words of a great English actor: "Dying is easy...comedy is hard."

BTW, the Gore movie is a big slab of crap. Further proof that the Best Documentary category has been degenerated by Michael Moore into nothing but the "Most Popular Piece of Ridiculous Leftwing Propaganda" award.

[woofie]

Best Fear Monger...Al Gore

[word_warrior_bob]

My Oscar Prediction:

Roger Ebert will wildly overeat at the pre and post Oscar gatherings.

[SuziQ]

The only movie out of ANY of these mentioned that I have seen is Little Miss Sunshine, and I just LOVED it! It was very family affirming, after everyone got over themselves and pulled together for the little girl. I haven't laughed that hard watching a movie in a LONG time.

I DO want to see The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, but will likely wait until they are on DVD, and we can get them from Netflix. That is, unless they show up at the local 'burgers and beer' theater; THEN we might go see them on the big screen.

[EternalVigilance]

EV's Oscar Predictions:

1. More ego than any one room should be forced to contain.

2. More liberals than a World Workers Party Convention.

3. Less talent in the room all put together than was possessed by Ronald Reagan's co-star in "Bedtime for Bonzo."

4. If all of the cleavage were added together, it would make the Grand Canyon look shallow.

5. More liberal speeches than you'd hear at a funeral for a Democrat Senator.

6. More antiwar rhetoric than you'd hear in a conversation between Cindy Sheehan and Medea Benjamin.

7. More stupid anti-Bush jokes than in an Al Qaeda training camp.

8. More designer dresses than you'd find in Hillary's closet, but less than in Rudy Giuliani's.

9. Hillary/Obama kneepads passed out at the door, gratis.

10. More calls to pull out and surrender Iraq than in a House Democrat Caucus meeting.

[Bullish]

Ebert's a douche!

[JoeGar]

Yawn ... were there any really good movies in 2006?

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Ebert's finest moment will always be writing the screenplay to Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. He should have stuck with Russ Meyer.

[napscoordinator]

I totally disagree with you on Director. 93 was ok but not superior like The Departed. I thought 93 was very shaky and bounced around and just ok. Everything else I agree with you on. I hope Scorsase (spell?) wins.

[mathluv]

I don't see many movies. Reading about some of the so-called 'great' performances, and the movies they were in, just re-enforce that decision. I could not read, without total disgust, beyond Best Actress. Why on earth is good money spent to see, much less make, this kind of stuff?

[ustanker]

Dont give a damn about hollywood or those two lib A-holes.

[MindBender26]

>>Why does An Inconvenient Truth use disaster-movie speculation?

For the same reason every TV station overstates the probable effect of an upcoming weather event.

To "sell tickets" (attract viewers) and made money. In this case it also propels Algore from a $8500 per night rarely booked washed up politician public speaker to a $25000 a night liberal hero.

[LS]

I thought "Babel" was nearly unwatchable. I fast forwarded through long, boring segments. The notion that these people were "tied together" was a stretch, at best.

"The Departed" was a very good story, turned into something of a plodder through too many unnecessary relationships. The rat on the window sill at the end was classic, however, and Jack Nicholson had some good lines.

All in all, another year of irrelevance for Oscar.