http://www.americasfish.com Random thoughts from an endangered species of journalist. Tue, 09 Mar 2010 16:51:21 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en [caption id="attachment_488" align="alignleft" width="193" caption="How does a flawless movie go almost completely ignored then win Best Picture? Forget it, it\'s Hollywood."][/caption]Now that one of the lowest-grossing Best Pictures in history has officially knocked off the highest-grossing movie ever, The Hurt Locker's win is already starting to seem a little underwhelming. A ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/03/09/oscars-rehash-10-year-of-not-feeling-blue/ [caption id="attachment_481" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="Who wants to be millionaire? Apparently not as many people as wanted to be the Dark Knight or an environmentally aware robot."][/caption]What if there had 10 Best Picture nominees a year earlier? The original five were all worthy of the larger list, even The Reader and The ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/03/06/oscars-rehash-09-year-of-woulda-shoulda-coulda/ [caption id="attachment_462" align="alignleft" width="203" caption="This movie was so good, you almost wanted something else to win Best Picture so you could feel that familiar sense of righteous indignation."][/caption]Sometimes everything works out. The best picture won Best Picture; all the acting awards went to strong, risky performances from actors who are ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/03/04/oscars-rehash-08/ [caption id="attachment_457" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="After losing to Robert Redford, Kevin Costner and Clint Eastwood, it\'s a good thing for Martin Scorsese that Russell Crowe didn\'t decide to direct a movie."][/caption]Martin Scorsese was nominated for Best Director five times before finally winning, and that doesn't including the times he was screwed ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/03/04/oscars-rehash-07-year-of-finally/ [caption id="attachment_449" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="The question for the ages is which version of Crash is worse: The 2006 Best Picture winner or David Cronenberg\'s 1996 paraphiliac fetish fest?"][/caption]First off, I don't hate Crash. It's a simplistic, Hollywood pat-on-the-back look at race relations that manages to confirm all the worst stereotypes ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/03/02/oscars-rehash-06/ [caption id="attachment_445" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="Maybe Million Dollar baby wasn\'t good enough for Best Picture, but it could have been worse. It could have been directed by Christopher Columbus."][/caption]A few quick lessons on how to make a sequel better than the original: Before Sunset: Stick to what people love about your movie. ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/02/26/oscars-rehash-05-year-of-second-efforts/ [caption id="attachment_441" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="When adapting a much-loved book into movie, it\'s best to follow the Peter Jackson\'s approach: make the movie so long that by the time it\'s over, most people will have forgotten any liberties you took with the source material."][/caption]It is not for me to say what ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/02/23/oscars-rehash-04-year-of-movies-from-good-books/ [caption id="attachment_432" align="alignleft" width="203" caption="Clearly, Chicago had a better year than New York."][/caption]In a few days, for the first time since before my parents were born, the Academy will choose its Best Picture from 10 movies rather than five. The move was made to try to include more movies the ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/02/18/oscars-rehash-03-year-of-big-cities/ [caption id="attachment_415" align="alignleft" width="202" caption="A lesson for aspiring directors who want to win an Oscar: Forget creativity and boldness, set aside grand visions. Bore us or tug relentlessly at our heartstrings or, even better, do a little of both."][/caption] While some tried and seemingly true formulas fell flat -- Julia Roberts ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/02/10/oscars-rehash-02-year-of-hard-lessons/ [caption id="attachment_407" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="What we do in life echoes in eternity? We thought it was the tagline for Gladiator, but really it was Ridley Scott warning Michael Bay to stop making crap."][/caption] One of the richest years of movies in recent history, the year some of my favorite filmmakers did ... http://www.americasfish.com/2010/02/04/oscars-rehash-01-year-of-what-could-have-been/