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".
Ebert loved Gore's "documentary".
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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?"
I will never again voluntarily or intentionally watch or listen to Ebert.
My mama would wash my mouth out with soap for saying that word in the house.
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.
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.
Best Fear Monger...Al Gore
My Oscar Prediction:
Roger Ebert will wildly overeat at the pre and post Oscar gatherings.
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.
Ebert's a douche!
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.
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?
Dont give a damn about hollywood or those two lib A-holes.
"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.
Yeah, sure.
It reflected the truth as I understood it,
You libs think the truth is a lie and a lie is the truth. That is the truth as you understand it.
that global warming is real, and is partly caused by human activity. That view has just been ratified in a recent meeting of scientists.
And what about the scientists who think global warming is bull?
Incoherent Truth is a lock if there ever was a lock in SoddomWood. As is his token whine about the FL count.
Pray for W and Our Freedom Fighters
BONUS CATEGORY: BEST DOCUMENTARYI have only once in my almost 40 years as a film critic written these words: "You owe it to yourself to see this film." That was the power of Al Gore's movie about global warming, "An Inconvenient Truth." My review was divorced from politics or political leanings. It reflected the truth as I understood it, that global warming is real, and is partly caused by human activity. That view has just been ratified in a recent meeting of scientists. But aside from the content, the movie is well done cinematically.
The other nominees: "Deliver Us From Evil," "Iraq in Fragments," "Jesus Camp" and "My Country, My Country."
Poor old Rog can't see the forest for the trees. His myopia has prevented him from being able to see just how political his reviews as a critic have become.