The Oscars

[Bob Phillips]

Tonight, once more we go through the hollow, self-congratulatory ritual known as the Oscars, populated by over-preened, over-paid, under-talented, intellectually challenged nobodies who believe we should hang onto to their every word just because they are super-rich.

We all know the favourites (Little Miss Sunshine - best file? Get outta here. Babel, anything, what is the matter?).

What do you think should get the big awards?

I am not going to cast my approval on any of them (lest it be seen as my endorsement) other than to say that I will smile if Scorsese gets best picture/director award, not because I think it is the best film (I haven't sen it), but his body of work has deserved an award long before now.

Yesterday, on the BBC's Cultural Show, Mark Kermode gave out the Kermode's, an award only for films that have not been nominated in ANY category for an Oscar. Included were:

Best Film - Guillermo Del Toro's Pan's Labryinth
Lifetime Achievement - Christopher Guest
Best Animation - Richard Linklater - A Scanner Darkly

[johnske]

I have seen way too many movies over the years about ppl who are, used to be, or wanted to be - actors, writers, painters, or musicians. The treatment usually given in the films is that these ppl are at the absolute pinnacle of human achievement, the epitome of human genius that we should all aspire to.

Come off it! this is "the Arts" for gods sake, and that simply means "entertainment", "amusement" and a whole heap of wannebes who wannabe something right here, right NOW, with the amount of hot air they're giving off leading to a rapid increase in global warming.

This award process is a real slap in the face to all those ppl who really DID do something (such as the Nobel Prize recipients - and many others) that had a real impact on the world, and often spent their whole lifetime in achieving just one goal.

The undue amount of money and publicity given to the wonkers who are all part of the academy award process denigrates the work and achievements of those ppl who weren't doing something just for its entertainment value and should be banned!! I mean who really cares if one nobody is judged by another bunch of nobodies to be a "better actor" than some other nobody?

Give all the money spent on this process to researchers looking for a cure for cancer, to cure world hunger, to reverse global warming - or something else far more worthwhile than this incestuous award process - and yeah - incestuous is an amazingly apt word for it... :)