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Oscar Wrapup (American Beauty and The Matrix win) 294

Posted by CmdrTaco from the aint-that-spiffy dept.
RobertPearse noted that the winners are on CNN. No surprise that American Beauty cleaned up (I watched it again on saturday: Wow). But The Matrix took Editing, Sound and FX (Edging out Phantom Menace). Sleepy Hollow took Art Direction. Update by nik: "Not a lot of people know that" many of the effects for The Matrix were generated on FreeBSD systems.
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Oscar Wrapup (American Beauty and The Matrix win) More

Oscar Wrapup (American Beauty and The Matrix win)

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  • I liked the Matrix a lot. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Could someone explain to me what was so good about American Beauty? I didn't like it at all, but so many people liked it... First, do not suggest that it offered a commentary on the emptiness of suburban life. Why not? Because I heard the ... hmm... don't know what he was, director? author? ... anyway, I heard "the guy" on TV yesterday, and he said that it's not what the movie was about: he lives in the suburbs and he likes the suburbs.

    What didn't I like about it? I thought that explored well trodden ground, ripped off little bits of other movies/stories, and didn't offer anything new.

    • Dropping out of the ratrace: very old news. That Albert Brooks film about the executive who chucks it all in and buys the mobile home was a much better example. Death of a Salesman was much deeper. Read some Updike.
    • Teen tits? Well, I can never get enough, but they didn't carry the movie. And, totally politically correct: we're supposed to accept that he wouldn't have porked that girl? Yeah, right. The "guy" on TV said that character was him; I guess his "art" demanded that he be ultimately shown as a decent guy.
    • Oooh, the bad guy is homophobic! Oooooh! The Christian is a bad guy! Oooh! homophobics are actually homosexuals: C'mon, totally cliche, and totally even something worse: bigotted.
    • Bloody death? Kind of out of place, wasn't it, and yet not a surprise: I wasn't surprised because a shot in the back of the head was exactly what I was thinking the director deserved at about that point.

    So, it was well made, had some funny parts, but it took no risks, and wound up saying nothing. Yes, I know, you think it was risky, but that's because it expressed some of your own biases and you like to feel you are daring: that's called adolescence, retarded in some cases (as in means "delayed").

  • Re:Who the FUCK cares about the Oscars (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    THE OSCARS RUN LINUX DOOD! YOU DUMBASS!
  • Anyway if you are one of those weak minded fools who actully watched it you have my pity.

    It depends upon your intentions. We watched, but we MST3K'd it. :)

  • Re:haha (Score:1)

    by Alan ( 347 )
    From what I saw on the "making of" section on the DVD the flips were assisted by harnesses but were "real". The CGI used for those would have been the removal of wires.

    That's actually one of the more impressive things about the matrix for me, the things in it that were NOT CGI. The actors did a LOT of training to get "realistic" fighting moves, and the fights they had were for the most part "real".

    my $0.02CND

  • Actually, I thought it was a very good movie, and I thought Angelina Jolie did a very good job for the part. It's one of the few "chick flicks" I'd recommend anybody to go and see. Quite good.
  • The puke bag is called "submit story." If you would like to see other [interesting] news, make sure there's some to post.
  • IIRC, that was the way it was supposed to happen in the original 1977 version. The effects at the time just didn't quite show it.

  • - let them be self important. we know the truth.
    - actors affiliate themselves with pet causes because it attracts attention to the cause and to the actor. it's a win/win situation. Yes it's a sad state of affairs when we don't notice "great causes" unless a shining smile/body/face is attached to them, but can you really blame us? It's an information glut...
    - sometimes it's easy to get jaded, but it's important to remember that WE are the reason hollywood is an empire. intellectual property isn't going to save them in the long term - you don't make that much money off of re-runs. It's up to us if we want to watch shlock movies.

    if there's something to get jaded about, it's about wide spread cynicism, double standards and attention deficit in the general populace.
  • sorry folks, but I don't buy the "Star wars' CGI was same-old, same-old" argument. It was ground breaking work, and was BY FAR the most visually extraordinary movie of the year. ILM pulled off major innovations in order to get Phantom Menace out the door, and deserved the oscar.

    The academy most likely wanted to give Lucas the finger. Which is somewhat understandable.
  • I actually liked his speech.

    The drooling masses who watch any shlock hollywood throws at them do suck.

    at the same time, the prententious art folk who watch obscure indie films just because it's "hard to understand" also suck.

    the name of the game is "straddling the line" between art & sensibility. which is hard to do.
  • But the point is that real character interacting with animated characters that were added later has already been done.

    Like I said above, the Jar Jar character was very well animated, but the actual part of adding him to the scene wasn't anything special.

    Sure, wasn't the same type of thing done in both B5 and Voyager, though to a lesser extent, with some of the aliens that they were fighting (the Borg killers in Voyager).

    T.
  • By ridley scotts own admission, for the first hour of "Alien", nothing happens, still I was riveted to my seat.

    Agreed, but that was more of a nothing that in American Beauty. In Alien, you are constantly expecting something to jump out from around the next corner, or something. The psychology of the film is completely different.


    T.
  • Not really. What's the difference between putting in a CGI character, and drawing in a character. We all remember 'Who Frames Rodger Rabbit', don't we.

    No, Jar Jar was hardly ground breaking. Very well done as a character though(even if he was annoying).

    T.
  • And finally there is the fact that the kid who has the camera, the one who films everything, find beauty everwhere, but only throught the lens of a camera. Gee, more Hollywood self validation.

    I thought that he was capturing the beauty so that it could be viewed again, not that he only saw such beauty through a camera lens.


    Anyway, as for the film itself, I didn't like it. I nearly fell asleep during it. This could be for a few reasons, though:

    - I'm Irish, and have no real interest in American Surburban life, which is mainly what this film was about.
    - I was told the film was a comedy, and as such I was expecting it to be one. After 30 minutes, there wasn't much laughter, and I was really disappointed.
    - I was also told that the film doesn't really take off until about 30 minutes into it as the characters and stuff need to be setup in order for the rest of the film to be better. After 45 minutes, I was so bored I must have missed the changeover, and kept missing it until the end.

    I will agree that the end was a bit of a surprise. I know he tells us that he will be dead by the end of the film, but you don't know how until the end of the film. And by the time you know how, you don't know who, and then it's a shock 'cos it's not who you thought it would be.

    There were some good bits in the film alright, but on the whole, I didn't enjoy it.

    I never walk out of films, no matter how bad. However, this was one that I was almost going to walk out of.


    Sixth Sense, on the other hand, was excellent. I would have liked to have seen it get the oscar.

    Kudos to The Matrix. It deserved what it got, and more.



    T.
  • While I would disagree with an excellence rating on any other element of TPM, I do think they win the Oscar for "Best fight choreography of all time". If nothing else.

    I wish I had a nickel for every time someone said "Information wants to be free".
  • nah, Saving Private Ryan was too "Braveheart" derivitive for my tastes.

    I wish I had a nickel for every time someone said "Information wants to be free".
  • This assessment is correct.

    The winners only went to the stage after hesitating, and finally seeing that others were helping the handicapped artist.

    --
  • Another often overlooked film in the sci-fi "nature of reality" subgenre is Dark City.
  • I hate to sound so jaded, but I am.

    The Academy Awards has become just blip in an ever increasing glut of televised shows where viewers can ogle celebrities and the industry can pat itself on the back. Perhaps Warhol was wrong. Not everyone will be famous for 15 minutes, but at the rate things are going, everyone who is famous will receive an award for fame every 15 minutes.

    The entertainment industry is so awash in self-importance that it sickens me. Actors affiliate themselves with trendy pet causes to compensate for the fact that they are wealthy for being people they aren't. I'm tired of celebrities telling me what I should look like, what I should buy, what I should donate money to, how I should vote.

    I'm tired of a business where the only way to derive respect is to be as offensive as possible. I can't stand the fawning entertainment press that can't help but describe this stench as anything other than "bold" and "intelligent."

    I'm offended the entertainment industry's attitude that portrays itself as a victim of censorship while at the same time trying to eradicate any expression on the net that may undermine its empire.

    I will not shut up and sit on the couch!!!
  • If anything, the ending of The Sixth Sense actually *encourages* you to go see the movie again so that you can actually see what clues you missed and if the entire movie was accurate in leading to the end.

    They did the same thing with Fight Club. It's just a big marketing ploy. Still enjoyed them both though

  • Braveheart had tons o' violence and swept that year. Same goes for Dances With Wolves. (Don't get me wrong, I loved both of those movies).
    I don't think there's a direct correlation between amount of violence and chances of getting Oscars.
  • [puts on square spectacles and London accent] "Oi, not a lot of people know that".

  • eXistenZ was one of the best movies of the year. Much better than the matrix, and along similar lines.

    Pi was good also, as was Fight Club. the oscars are a joke.

    American Beauty wasn't so great at all, I thought.
  • Personally I prefer ExistenZ's coverage of reality vs. perception to that of The Matrix, and I think it gets less wrapped up in glamour (i.e., Keanu, guns and tiles).

    However, The Matrix also covers the theme of fate, and covers it well, IMHO.

    As for Pi, I thought it was crap. Which just goes to show there's no accounting for taste. I haven't seen 'The Cube'.

    Hamish
  • First off I think it was spelled eXistenZ not ExistenZ. They made a strong point of that in the movie. But, now I'm just being picky.

    (Warning Spoilers)

    Secondly, yes it was a good movie but, anyone who has ever read quite a bit of scifi could have told you that it would end with a game within a game plot. IMHO the only thing really new it brought to the table was the bio weapons spin.

    The Matrix on the other hand had everyone going into the movie wondering if this film was going to live up to the hype and allow them to suspend disbelief. Like, in the previews the characters could in fact leap across buildings.

    Plus, The Matrix's storyline seems a bit more tightly woven then eXistenZ. Lets not forget to mention the new cool special effects in the movie and music to help boost the whole film. In short The Matrix had more to offer the viewer.

    As for the movie "The Cube". I agree with the others that it really should have been an outer limits show instead of a movie. I mean who really didn't know that the cubes were moving once they saw the grid on the outside of the cube. It just looked too much like a rubics cube for anyone to resist writting that into the plot.

    The movie Pi was actually really good. There's not really much more to say about it. The film speaks for itself.

    And finally the movie Dark City. This is one of those movies were you start to watch thinking it might be worth your time, but they drag the suspense on for so long that you begin wondering why and the hell you care anyhow. And once the end comes it didn't deliver the thill you expected.

    Part of what made The Matrix so cool was that throughout the previews and the beginning of the movie they had already told you enough for you to put it together. But, something about didn't allow your brain to make the connection. And once you sat down and watched the film they didn't spend 2 and a 1/2 hours telling you it's all in a computer and leaving the film ten minutes afterward.

    My 2 cents
  • Topsy Turvy was a very excellent movie about Gilbert and Sullivan. It mainly revolved around the production of the Mikado, but explored a lot of other issues as well. One of the best of the year. It won in makeup because it was the only 'legitimate' movie in the catagory.
  • In the words of Gene Siskel; "..."
  • No, the movie industry doesn't call sequels versions. That is a programmer slipping up.

    But they might as well for the lack of originality generally shown.

    Cheers,
    Ben

    PS Don't trust the fortunes to be very accurate. The fortune as I am posting this is Wad some power the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us. -- R. Browning I happen to know that this is due to Robbie Burns [electricscotland.com]. Which makes me wonder about others out there that I don't know about...
  • I have to diagree. Some of the effects used in the Matrix were completely new, (bullet time, and at least one other that I can't remember,) and there were many instances of older effects being used in unique ways, (this goes back to the directors' background in comic books.) The Matrix was an eye opener, filled with "wow" effects that caused the jaw to drop.

    Save for the AMAZING light saber battle in the end of TFM, there was nothing truly spectacular about the movie's effects. Everything had been done before, and nothing old was put ot a new use. The awards for best fx, sound fx, and editing usually go to the pioneers; the ones that break the rules in bold new ways. TFM, while at least moderately impressive, was really just a rehashing of old-school effects. I was not impressed.

    George Lucas, and ILM to a lesser extent, deserves not only the slap in the face that he/they got, but a good swift kick to the head. TFM had ONE cool thing in it, the light saber fight. Everything else was stupid, lame, and altogether CRAPPY. Gone were the witticisms of the original trilogy ("What an incredible smell you've discovered.") They've been replaced with fart jokes, stepping in poop, and stupid sophomoric humor. The lame american-style announcer during the pod race was also too much, as were lame little pit droids getting sucked into combustion chambers, or jar jar getting his lips numbed off. Lame.

    So no, Star wars gets no awards because it was stupid, the effects were pretty much recycled crap, and george lucas can suck it.

  • If anything, the ending of The Sixth Sense actually *encourages* you to go see the movie again so that you can actually see what clues you missed and if the entire movie was accurate in leading to the end.

    The ending to sixth sense made me think exactly one thing -- "remake of Jacob's Ladder - foo!".

    There is no boy. We don't see the boy until afterdoc is shot. The entire movie from the shooting forward is doc's hallucination. There is no boy! So it's impossible for it to be "inconsistent". They could have put the entire "mission to mars" movie in the middle of "Sixth Sense" and it still would have been "consistent". It's a nearly-dead-man's deathbed dream, just like "Jacob's Ladder".

    I don't see why everyone likes this movie, or wants it to be consistent or inconsistent. <sigh>

  • Oscars (Score:1)

    by ACK!! ( 10229 )
    I want to know why it is imperative that if a movie wins best picture of the year then Best Director and Actor awards are a given? The lead actor from the Best Picture and the Director from the best picture are going to win. Am I the only one who notices this nonsense?

    I remember the year that Forrest Gump won everything. God, I got so tired of seeing Tom Hanks I could have puked.

    The Matrix and Star Wars Episode I were good flicks and the Matrix was very entertaining. Yet, does anyone remember Blade Runner? That was an incredible deep movie that happened to be in the Sci-Fi genre. That was one that should have won a butt load of awards.
  • All about my mother.
    Pedro Almodovar is The One.
    You really should see Boy's Don't Cry.

    - Ain't she pretty?
    - Yeah if you like trash.
  • Agreed. The Cube sucked sooo much balls that the only redeming qualtity was the actors obesession with shoes. "Okay, you can go. BUT LEAVE YOUR SHOES" I think all the actors just had a very unnatural foot fetish.

  • Besides the Cube sucking (Thats not the nature of my post, but I had to throw it in). A documentary won that hasn't even been released yet. In the acceptance speech the director (I think the documentary was One Day In September) admited that the film was yet to be release ANYWHERE in the world. I guess only the academy saw it. (or maybe they didn't. I wouldn't put it past them to award a movie that no one has seen, including themselves)

  • Pish is an expression.

    "pish tosh!"

    It is generally assumed to be reserved for stuck up nobility who would look down on the lower classes and say "pish". It is an insult where you impy that the ideas of the lower classes are nonsense.

  • I was seriously bored halfway thru Matrix. I admit , PM was not the greatest move out there but at least was not boring.
  • The Economist [economist.com] has an interesting article: When Life is More Interesting than Art [economist.com] about American Beauty, Hollywood, and the suburbs.
  • Perhaps if you released your movies on DVD like the Wachowski brothers, people would remember them well enough to give you Oscars for their technical merit.

    --The Academy
  • I saw it. It was ham-handed, gross, and dull. I know the storyline confusion was deliberate but it scrambled the plotline and left me unmoved.

  • " I would say that a completely CGI character interacting with real actors was pretty groundbreaking "

    Which is why "Stuart Little" had better CGI than TPM... The clothes on Stuart are amazing. There is some excellant CGI work there. I have to agree with the academy's decision tho' "The Matrix" deserves the Visual Effects Oscar... too bad they couldn't have given one to "Stuart Little" as well.

    If it were "Stuart Little" vs. TPM, I'd give the award to Stuart... The mouse character was much more visually realistic and complex then those stupid gungans, robots, and spaceships. Not only that, clothes and fur are really really hard to do right.

    - // Zarf //

  • "THAT had never been done before"

    Except maybe in say, a GAP commercial.

    I would say that a completely CGI character interacting with real actors was pretty groundbreaking (even if the character itself annoyed people) and the shots they got using completely CGI backgrounds got were a lot more awe-inspiring than digitally removing the wires from kung fu scenes.

  • Take a look [cyberg8t.com] for yourself.

    Before movies they worked for Marvel Comics and it shows in their cinematography.

    Regards,
    Ben
  • I'll admit, that when I saw it last year, Matrix impressed the hell out of me.

    Then, a few months later, I watched the DVD of Dark City. WOW, no comparison in my mind.

    They cover some of the same thematic ground. But Dark City did it without the freeze frame trickery. Frankly, I thought that DC was a much better film. It just didn't have a marquee star like Keanau (god it's sad that he's become a marquee star at all).

    If you haven't seen Dark City, go check it out. It's an awesome movie.
  • And speaking of old Dr. Who episodes, as soon as I heard that background noise in "The Cube", I knew what was going on - thanks to watching "The Horns Of Nimon", a key to time episode of Dr. Who.
    Naah, The Horns Of Nimon was after The Key To Time storyline, which ended with the Armageddon Factor.
  • Also please tell me I'm not the only one who though Pi used cool music to attempt to jazz up a basically pointless film the contained nothing but art house dribble attempting to masquerade itself as insight.
    This is the tracklist:-
    1. Pi\Clint Mansell
    2. P.E.T.R.O.L.\Orbital
    3. Kalpol Intro\Autechre
    4. Bucephalus Bouncing Ball\Aphex Twin
    5. Watching Windows\Roni Size
    6. Angel\Massive Attack
    7. We Got The Gun\Clint Mansell
    8. No Man's Land\David Holmes
    9. Anthem\Gus Gus
    10. Drippy\Banco De Gaia
    11. Third From The Sun\Psilonaut
    12. A Low Frequency Inversion Field/Spacetime
    13. 2Pi\Clint Mansell
    Should have used 'This Film's Crap, Let's Slash the Seats' by David Holmes...
  • They did this one sequence of film people that died in the last year, honoring such notables as George C Scott. Unless I blinked and missed it, though, Stanley Kubric was nowhere to be seen.

    What the fuck? He was one of the greatest directors ever, and certainly the most original. I saw no menion of him or his recent "Eyes Wide Shut" the entire night. Grrrr....

    --
    grappler
    1. ...I thought Sixth Sense was much better myself, in the Best Picture but more particularly the best Original Screenplay category...
    2. ...I'm tired of seeing Michael Caine win Oscars for essentially playing "Michael Caine"....
    3. ...Angelina Jolie didn't have nearly the difficult part as Chloe Sevigny (Boys Don't Cry)...
    4. Other than that, not bad.
  • Shirley Manson had a good side-nipple exposure during the VH1 movie awards s few years ago singing "Stupid Girl." Her shirt was buttoned half-way up, and when she turned 90 degrees to the camera, exposure! And the cameras didn't switch to another band memeber.
    You can find it on USENET all the time.

    Pope
  • It's not to say that The Sixth Sense was a bad movie, (it was a GREAT movie!) it's just that the way the ending is written, you can't really watch it more the once. It's like a murder mystery -- you allready know the butler did it, so what's the point?

    Oh, I've got to disagree with you...sort of. I had to watch it twice. Once to see it the first time, then again to see all the scenes where Bruce Willis's character "interacts" with other people, just to see how they fooled us. The scene with his wife in the restaurant, or when he first meets the boy in his home...they were masterfully done, and I didn't really appreciate them until I saw them the second time. After that, though, you're right...what's the point?
  • I love how they handled the censorship issue wrt the F-word... Robin and company was really a class act there. I'd say give him an Oscar for that little performance.... but no, that would be an Emmy, being on the small screen.

    ObCoinkyDink: Isaac Hayes was associated with two films last night, and both of them had to censor the F-word in the middle of a song... and both were handled brilliantly. He played the voice of Chef in "South Park", and wrote/performed the theme from "Shaft", which was presented in one of those (actually quite good) retrospective pieces.

    Isaac, you still Da Man.

    --
    That Shaft is one baaaad muthah-Hush yo' mouth!
    I'm just talkin' 'bout Shaft! We can dig it!

  • I agree and I personally didn't care for much of Spacey's performance in the movie. I found his performance at the beginning of the movie to be wooden and 2 dimensional. Only after he started getting wierd does his character seem to have any life to him at all.

    Well, yes, and that's the main part of the idea of the movie.

    -- Abigail

  • Sad to see Blame Canada not win best song but I think that they should still win best dress of the evening ;)
    Matt Stone & Trey Parker [oscars.com]
  • Not that I remember - they (and others helped him back into the wheelchair, and then they walked up. I don't remember them leaving before he was in place, or at least had other people setting him in the chair.

  • My understanding (granted from a biased source of the bonus audio track on the dvd of the main editor, the main fx guru, and trnity (forget her name) was that they were running grossly over-budget/time (filming time) and the studio was demanding to know what the story was. The editor put together the first "chunk" of the movie (begining through telephone booth crunch), along with temporary sound effects and music and they sent it back to the studios. The studio execs watched it, and promptly shut up and gave them the extra time/money they needed to finish the film. They may not have had money to shoot over some scenes they would have liked to have done a different way, and they may have made some poor choices for certain effects (the police->MiB morph at the end for instance), but those happen in any movie (with few exceptions).
  • Three words: Eyes Wide Shut

    It's terrible, and sad, but what Mike wallace's character said in "The Insider" was very true: You are remembered and judged on what you did last. EWS sucked so badly, that they left him out.

    Scott

    Hey Rob, Thanks for that tarball!
  • To the moderator who moderated this down as flaimbait: FUCK YOU TOO YOU MISBEGOTTEN ASSHOLE! I made that comment WITH TOTAL SERIOUSNESS! You can KISS MY BIG FAT WHITE ASS, YOU COCKSUCKER!

    Hey Rob, Thanks for that tarball!
  • Ah, so YOU'RE the other person who saw that movie besides me! I watch ANYTHING with Richard Kieth O'Brien in it. I'm a big Rocky Horror nutcase from way back. Wasn't Dark City last year, or the year before? Maybe even older than that. I didn't think it was eligible this year?

    Scott

    Hey Rob, Thanks for that tarball!
  • The category is not about who integrates some new kind of effect, it's about the overall impression you get. And Ep I had a lot of effects which were seen before, but not in that perfection and not in that number. I agree with the original poster that Ep I was robbed, although Denis Muren and his ILM folks must have about a gazillion statuettes already, so they will get over it ;-)

    Unfortunately, every member (even 90-year old actors that would not recognize a special effect if it jumps on their head) of the Academy can vote for the award, only the nominations are determined by specialists on the field for each category. I guess Academy members dislike George Lucas because of the commercial success of his films... And they may remember that any other Star Wars film has received the Award, so they might think it's alright to give it to someone else this time.

    The Awards have a long history of giving statuettes away for the wrong reasons...
  • He died March 7, 1999, just in time for last year's Oscar show.
    ---
  • Except maybe in say, a GAP commercial.

    Wrong again. The GAP Swings commercial merely took two frame from different angles and had a 'Morph tool' generate interpolated frames to simulate a camera pan. OTOH, Bullet-time combined high-speed photography(150frames/s) with a camera pan, and use CGI for compositing and lens distortion cleanup.
    ---

  • Sorry, but the matrix had a few 'neato' effects, most notably the bullet-time sequences, but TPM was probably the most visually stunning movie in history. Say what you will about the movies problems, but to brush off ILM's groundbreaking work like this was a slap in the face

    In the word of Gene Siskel (may he RIP); "I disagree Roger"
    Bullet-time WAS the most visually stunning FX of '99. Check out the DVDs making-of feature. They had something like 50~100 35 mm cameras circling the set to take those pictures. THAT had never been done before. CGI effects? Been there done that. It was stunning set design, but hardly groundbreaking stuff.
    ---

  • The acceptance for "One Day..." was the worst speech I've ever heard. 'You all suck and nobody watches good movies, and ours isn't even out yet, and I'm a crotchety old geezer, and thank god I won this so I can go die in peace - did I mention you all suck?' was about the gist of it... on the other hand, the speech for best supporting actor (Caine) was one of the most gracious speeches I've heard, individually praising each of the other nominees, and saying that he was 'representing them' accepting the award. That's class.
  • Another often overlooked film in the sci-fi "nature of reality" subgenre is Dark City.

    Agreed, briliant film. The DVD is a treasure as well, with film critic Roger Ebert contributing a commentary. It's practically a course in film theory, pointing out all the references the director makes to other films.

  • I've never quite understood the difference between sound and sound editing.

    To their credit, the producers did work quite hard attempting to make that distinction clear. They presented the "sound editing" clips as an audio-only montage with no visuals other than the titles of the films. You could get a feeling for how much of the film experience is sound effects.

  • Well I should think that the deck was decidedly stacked against the Matrix. Many other movies were nominated for as many as 10(?) and Matrix won all 4 that it was nominated for. I would like to believe that it would have easily won cinematography had it been nominated for that (Robbery that it wasnt!!!). Anyway American Beauty was an excellent movie and it did deserve best picture =)
  • WTF? Come on. Run Lola Run was one of the best movies this year. It wasn't nominated for one thing! I was, needless to say, more than a little upset. I don't know how many of you have actually seen it, but those of you who have, I'm sure you agree with me.

    ~Jester
  • The only reason why Matrix got the awards it did over Star Wars is because most of the Star Wars effects didn't stand out to the voters. They had seen lightsabres and spaceships and blasters and armies of identical bugs... ah, robots. They hadn't seen the biotech stuff before. They hadn't seen the bullet-dodging, wallwalking bad-@$$ cyber-kung-fu $#!~ before. Sure, we may have, but they haven't and it made an impression.

    You hit it exactly here.

    Star Wars took existing effects to a all-time high, with more, better, clearer, faster, etc. But when it comes down to it, it was still the same old effects.

    However, The Matrix took effects to the next level, with new ideas, procedures, methods, etc.

    It's all the difference between mastering what you've got or gambling on something untried.
    ---
  • My only problem with the Matrix came in the scene where they are trying to avoid those big electric squid type things and someone says they are going to use an EMP bomb to disable the critter. At this point, Keanu's character says, "EMP? What's that?" Now, he's been "chosen" because of his skills. Because he is smart, because he is smarter than most, right? Well then how come he doesn't know what an EMP is?

    Think for a second how aware and intelligent YOU'D be after going through the same thing he just went through. I'd have a hard time keeping my wits around me, and would surely have asked the same question.

    Besides, he's in a whole new environment, and I'd prefer a person willing to make sure he understands, since there's plenty of chance that things could be different.
    ---
  • Shouldn't they rename best supporting actor/actress "lifetime achievement"?

    No they shouldn't. Often both the supporting and leading actor/actress awards are used this way as could be argued for Michael Caine, or for Jack Palance.

    But when a newcomer does manage to get one, it can lift a superior actor from supporting roles to lead roles, which it certainly did for Kevin Spacey. Spacey has had some great supporting roles in the past, such as his Oscar winning role in the Usual Suspects, or for his creepy character in JFK. But he is not your stereotypical leading man type, so were it not for his supporting actor Oscar, he might never have been given leading roles in major films.

    Let's hope that the industry starts offering Angelina Jolie challenging leading roles, now that she has proven herself in a supporting role.

  • It's not to say that The Sixth Sense was a bad movie, (it was a GREAT movie!) it's just that the way the ending is written, you can't really watch it more the once. It's like a murder mystery -- you allready know the butler did it, so what's the point?

    If anything, the ending of The Sixth Sense actually *encourages* you to go see the movie again so that you can actually see what clues you missed and if the entire movie was accurate in leading to the end. The megabucks the Sixth Sense has earned are coming from repeat viewers. They just made another $1 million a couple of weeks ago and had no advertising going on. I agree that American Beauty deserved their award, but The Sixth Sense was a close second in my book.

  • I haven't seen it and I probably won't but it's hard to believe that American Beauty could be more of a "feel-good" movie than Fassbinder's Merchant of Four Seasons.

    Someone please tell me where I can buy a video of that movie, please! I mean the Fassbinder one; I know where to get the Hollywood thing - in fact I can hardly swing my damn arm without slapping up against another videotape store. Hollywood everywhere, everywhere, aaagh!

    Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net

  • I think Uncle F*cka would've been more original, and has a more catchy tune. Can you imagine the censors going on that one....

    Shut your f.... face, uncle f.....
    you're a c... sucking a... licking uncle f.....
    you're an uncle f.... yes it's true
    nobody f.... uncles quite like you!
  • Gackk - Phil Collins's song from the Disney-muddled Tarzan getting the Oscar? It was ok, for the kind of characterless stuff Disney uses, but Blame Canada certainly should have beaten it.
  • If the humans used EMP to blow up the matrix, then 'most' of mankind in the matrix would be killed. Their goal is not to kill everyone, but to save them one by one.
    I think you might have misunderstood. I was pondering why the pre-matrix humans didn't use EMP to destroy the AI that they were warring against. It seems like that would take less energe than tourching the sky, and it'd have a less harmful effect on the environment.
    There were a few inconsistancies with the Matrix, actually, but that's the one that bothered me the most.
  • I'm pretty sure the prople "exploiting someone for personal gain" were his parents. They also helped him back into his chair before they left. It looked like a very common occurence and they seemed to handle it very matter of factly.
  • The cube really was excellent. The academy doesn't go for movies that aren't widely released, however (I never saw cube in a theatre here). I think the budget was under 1 million...

    It was one the rare sci-fi movies that actually made me think (the best kind of movie, IMO). It's too bad that most sci-fi movies these days are nothing more than action flicks. Oh well...nothing beats a book in the end.
  • Other good movies are 'Pi' and 'The Cube'.

    I don't know, some friends of mine have seen 'Pi' and they said that it was OK, but it kept going on and on in circles and seemed like it would never end....

  • This was one of the films which I enjoyed the most this last year, and I would certainly rate it as being on a par with American Beauty. It didn't get a single nomination, despite the best performance from Nicolas Cage ever, a seamless yet unpredictable plot progression, direction which was clearly smooth as silk (as you'd expect from Martin Scorcese), a soundtrack which I enjoyed immensely and a further excellent performance from Patricia Arquette. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the films which did win a lot too. I'm just baffled as to what happened here.
  • Unabashed Star Wars Geekiness Begins....Now...

    Phantom Menace? Giant toy commercial? Ok, granted.
    But you know what, it made me feel seven years old again. Sure, most of the dialogue was written BY a seven year old, but I did recaptur some of that Summer of '77 magic. Was Phantom Menace Best Picture? Ah...no. Did it have all the Han Solo adventure magic. No...but it was a load of fun. I took my 11 year-old brother-in-law. To see his bouncing, enthusiastic reaction was classic. To hear his recitation of every move in the lightsaber battle was awesome. A little magic was passed on.

    So Lucas drew inspiration from WWII battle flicks, Japanese epics, and Westerns. The result is a synthesis: Star Wars movies. Fun, bubblegum, Saturday afternoon at the movies. Good versus evil.

    The Matrix. Awesome, technical achievement. Really, really cool effects. On purely technical merits, did it have superior visual effects than Menace? Toss-up. Hollywood gave it to the young guns. Just like they lauded Lucas and Spielberg for being young guns in the 70's and early 80's.

    Technical achievement. Grumbling admiration from a
    huge Star Wars geek. But cinematography? A GREEN FILTER? Story? Uh...everything written by Sterling, Gibson, Dick, and Brunner---cut out all the big words for Keanu---run everything through a green filter, take some notes from the TRON script---BANG! There's your story.

    The Matrix. No One Can Stay Awake Through The Matrix. Larry Fishburne---cool actor. The scrawny leather chick---cool to look at. The bullet effects and the antigrav ninja fighting---cool to look at. The funny guy from Risky Business and Running Scared---funny guy. Filter---very green. The bad guy---only interesting character in the whole film. I wish to god he had just spent the first five minutes disemboweling Keanu. The rest of the film could have then involved the Bad Guy allying himself with Darth Maul for a final battle against Laurence Fishburne and Samuel L. Jackson.
    Now that would have been cool.

    "Which one is your lightsaber?"
    "Its the one that says, 'BAD MOTHERFUCKER'."

    Now that would have been entertaining. Not for eleven year olds, though.

    The Matrix. Please.

  • Well, what he should have said was that it had never been done before on the big screen.

    Phantom Menace was far from robbed. It relied on special effects to carry a weak plot with poor character development.

    The Matrix, OTOH, merged its visual effects with its theme quite nicely. We've all seen the 3D freeze-frame pan around an object in the Gap commercials and the occasional QuicktimeVR...it's obviously computer-generated, similar to the world they were in, which merely strengthened the movie. Had these effects been cut, I suspect that the movie would have fallen flat on its face.

    Don't get me wrong, I'm a Star Wars fan, but Episode One blew dead Jawas.

  • All I can say is that you must have been so fascinated at seeing the guy go into spasm that you didn't notice the filmmakers standing there looking at him in concern and even reaching to help while others there told them to go and get their award.

    Their concern with getting on stage fast had to do with the fact that they were practically sitting in the back row. What other winner had to walk up from the area under the balcony to accept their award? They obviously insisted on bringing the guy they filmed with them and the Shrine was unprepared to seat a wheelchair anywhere but the very back of the place.

    Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
  • Was it just me or did it look like Sean Penn was praying come time for the best actor award.

    What show were you watching last night?

    Sean Penn wasn't at the Oscars! The picture they used of him for nominations was from the film he was nominated for.
  • when the Oscar for short subject documentary "King Gimp" was announced. The guy they made the film about was sitting in his wheelchair clapping and just fell out and was trashing around on the floor. The film makers just walked up on stage and left him! Really weird.

  • Fight Club? (Score:3)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 27, 2000 @05:57AM (#1168133)
    Where was Fight Club? I can't believe it was only nominated for "sound effects editing". The film industry finally comes out with a violent film which has a godo story, and doesn't have the guts to admit it. You know who I'd fight? I'd take on the Academy.

  • Re:Shafted! (Score:3)

    by Kurt Gray ( 935 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @07:25AM (#1168134) Homepage Journal
    I totally agree. Being John Malkovich got a few nominations (including director Spike Jones) but Fight Club was only nominated for Sound Editing.

    Fight Club is a great movie full of memorable moments and great quotes "I am Jack's ..." The writing was brilliant. Unfortunately I think it got panned because a lot of people are annoyed by Brad Pitt or assumed the whole movie is about gory bare-knuckle-boxing. Also the writer has been panned by critics as being a hack since this is his first novel.

    Compared to all other films this year, Phantom Menace was a over-budgeted debacle. Lucas should've restricted himself to a $5 million budget and then maybe the film would've been interesting -- it would've forced him to to rely more on the story than the effects.

    Last year I think Saving Private Ryan should've won hands-down, but instead it was Shakespeare In Love. Bah!

    Basically the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences is like a club, and the Oscars is the process by which the existing members (previous Oscar winners) welcome new members into their club. Votes are not always cast for best in each category but rather with consideration of who's in and who's out.

  • Supporting (Score:3)

    by cah1 ( 5152 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @05:45AM (#1168135) Homepage
    Shouldn't they rename best supporting actor/actress "lifetime achievement"?

  • Am I the only person who didn't like American Beau (Score:3)

    by kavi_3 ( 5872 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @06:24AM (#1168136)
    While I always like watching Kevin Spacey, he was good in this film, the more I think about this movie, the more I dislike it.

    Caution, mild spoilers:

    My main problem with the movie is that all the characters are 1 dimensional, even Spacey's character.
    --The wife was a typical unhappy houswife.
    --The neighbor's father, the homophobic Marine who just happens to be a closet homosexual.
    --Spacey, the unhappey middle aged suburban father.

    Also, I really find it insulting that Hollywood is trying to tell me that Americian life if vapid and materialistic. Gee, that's like Al Gore and George Bush calling for campaign finance reform. Also, I don't think that Americian life is vapid and materialistic. I might hate suburbia, but I think that most people who live there are fairly happy.

    And finally there is the fact that the kid who has the camera, the one who films everything, find beauty everwhere, but only throught the lens of a camera. Gee, more Hollywood self validation.

    All in all this movie left a bad taste in my mouth.

    All in all, that movie

  • ExistenZ (Score:3)

    by redhog ( 15207 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @05:48AM (#1168137) Homepage
    Why doesn't anyone even know of 'ExistenZ'? It is far better than 'The Matrix', but from the same genre... Go see it!

    Other good movies are 'Pi' and 'The Cube'.

    --The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.

  • Shafted! (Score:3)

    by Ralph Wiggam ( 22354 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @06:16AM (#1168138) Homepage
    I did enjoy American Beauty a lot..but...

    Fight Club and Being John Malkovich got shafted. Those were the two of the most original films I've seen in years.
    There's a shot in Fight Club where the camera pans around Ed Norton's empty apartment and each item he owns starts appearing along with its catalog description. It was absolutely brilliant.

    -B

  • Should We ... (Score:3)

    by Jim Tyre ( 100017 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @05:47AM (#1168139) Homepage
    ... blame Canada for "Blame Canada!" not winning?

  • A few highlights (Score:3)

    by Spiff28 ( 147865 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @06:11AM (#1168140)
    Okay, so, a few observations:

    - Hollywood continues to amaze me at how hard they can pat themselves on the back. I mean really, I thought they damn near broke their arm off last time, but oh... oh no. Because of one kid's fantastic job in a movie this year, we got to see other fantastic kids in other movies in other years. There must have been about an hour and a half of this useless junk.

    - Roberto Beninni should host the oscars. You'd never know what was coming next. He was just as excited to stand up there giving an award as he was receiving it.

    - Spielberg. Just get on, and say here are the nominees.. oh damn! Smile! I knew I forgot something!

    - Blame Canada was given the full treatment, I was pretty impressed. They went at it full force (even though it was ironically censored at points).

    - Warren Beaty... please, next time you have to make a speech, have some of whatever Roberto's drinking.

    - Billy Crystal... yeah, you were funny... the first time. The parodies were lacking this year, although the opening songs weren't bad.

    - Was it just me or did it look like Sean Penn was praying come time for the best actor award. Dude, look around you... you actually think you had that much of a chance?

    - Tommy Lee Jones is waaay cooler. He at least knows when to get a haircut.

    All in all I liked the choices they made for oscars, but the show was so obviously bloated and forced, it set a new low.

  • some surprises (Score:3)

    by adpowers ( 153922 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @06:03AM (#1168141)
    I thought when I first saw Episode 1 [starwars.com] I would have sworn that it would win best costume (or at least one oscar). I think the Matrix [whatisthematrix.com] deserved all the oscars it got, and I think it should have been a nominee for best picture. Oh well. Also, all the awards that American Beauty won makes me want to go out and watch the movie. Did you know that it took the screenplay person 50 rewrites of the script to get it right. True.

    Who mourns for Q? I do, he was a great actor and it was sad to see him go. (car accident)

  • Phantom Menace was absolutely robbed. (Score:4)

    by lilgorgor ( 7238 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @06:06AM (#1168142)
    Sorry, but the matrix had a few 'neato' effects, most notably the bullet-time sequences, but TPM was probably the most visually stunning movie in history. Say what you will about the movies problems, but to brush off ILM's groundbreaking work like this was a slap in the face.

  • WTG Matrix (Score:4)

    by tilly ( 7530 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @06:04AM (#1168143)
    Some little-known facts about the Matrix.

    The directors came from a background in superhero comics, not movies. This shows in their choice of effects, angles, etc.

    Secondly they did an extremely good job of cutting the film back. Partway through shooting their budget was cut drastically - after they had already spent a lot. Which is why some of the special effects are high tech, and some are painfully obviously low.

    Somehow I think that their next version won't have the budget problems...

    Cheers,
    Ben

  • The Red Pill (Score:4)

    by stx23 ( 14942 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @05:45AM (#1168144) Homepage Journal
    The Matrix got 4 Oscars namely:- Editing, Sound, Sound FX & Visual FX. Better information here [oscars.com].

  • Re:The weirdest moment in the Oscars was... (Score:4)

    by PieceMaker ( 16268 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @07:19AM (#1168145)
    Please, somebody either moderate the original comment back down or moderate up a correction.

    It is true it was a wierd moment, but the original comment's description creates a strong negative impression about the award recipients that I think is unjustified. Here's what actually happened:

    The award to "King Gimp" was announced and the guy in the wheelchair (who the documentary was about) appeared to be so overcome with emotion at the win that he became highly spastic and ultimately slipped forward out of his wheelchair, onto the floor, where he continued "thrashing around." This apparently is the condition the guy suffers from -- uncontrollable spasms. Anyhow, the film makers, seeing this, appeared torn over what to do -- assist the guy on the floor back into his wheelchair, or go forward. Remember, the whole auditorium is applauding them, a national (international, actually) T.V. audience is watching, and all are waiting on them to go forward. It is only a few moments in which they hesitate when some other people in their entourage move to help the guy back into his wheelchair. Seeing this, the film makers then head for the stage to accept the award. They did not just walk forward and leave a wheelchair-bound person thrashing on the floor, unassisted.

    In fact, the impression I got was that this kind of episode was not necessarily uncommon for the guy and, regardless, it was clear he was not hurt and was not going to hurt himself. During their acceptance speech they spoke glowingly about the guy and his "beautiful spirit" and a few camera closeups were shown of him watching their acceptance speech and it was plain he has uncontrollable spasms -- at least when filled with strong emotions. But, it was also plain that he was happy and not harmed.
    --

  • Re:Thank God for the Matrix (Score:4)

    by scumdamn ( 82357 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @07:29AM (#1168146)
    I've go a spoiler explanation for the Matrix:
    The Matrix didn't contain any information about EMPs because the AI knew that if by chance anyone escaped they'd use EMP against them. The real questions are:
    How did they know the term for "EMP"?
    Why didn't the humans use EMP against the AI in the beginning? If they had enough tech to torch the sky they had enough to unlease a massive EMP that would have disabled all the AI. If that's explained away by saying that the AI had protection against EMP built into them, why didn't they use it with the squids? Hmmm?

  • I Expect More From Slashdot (Score:4)

    by great throwdini ( 118430 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @06:23AM (#1168147)
    Was I the only one who walked over to his (or her) computer to check up on Slashdot after Mr. Williams's rendition of "Blame Canada"? I would have thought that, given the number of Slashdot headlines about the song *prior* to the Oscars, some enterprising newshandler here would post a tidbit about how things turned out *afterwards*. Sadly, it was not to be. And no wrap-up on the Oscars here after it concluding early Monday morning -- was I also the only one to make it all the way through to the other side this year? But to wait until late this morning to post a story about the Oscars ... inexcusable for a site that (over)hyped the Oscars in advance, IMHO. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Oscar awarded to "One Day in September", the speech delivered by its maker (did the Academy buy this guy off?), the deserved multiple awards for "Topsy Turvy", Russel Crowe's brooding throughout the ceremony, the numerous close-ups of the Cruise/Kidman combo, etc. etc. After midnight, when it became clear that "American Beauty" was walking away with the remaining hardware, I had more fun watching "Rocky" on TCM ... I just don't think they make them like they used to. Interpret that as you will. Just my two cents.

  • Re:some surprises (Score:5)

    by evilpenguin ( 18720 ) on Monday March 27, 2000 @10:42AM (#1168148)
    Throwing all karma to the wind, let me leap in here again and just point out what a poor and pathetic excuse for a movie The Matrix was. It was pretty to look at. It was loud. It thought brass shell casings falling on ceramic tile was friggin' ballet.

    What it also was was inane: The notion that human beings can be an energy source is absolutely ludicrous. You could live only about a week on the liquified remains of another human being, so it would take 52 people dying a year to keep one human battery alive. Can you say diminishing returns?

    Okay, even suspending the laws of thermodynamics, we are still left with the idea that an AI with capability to write anything it likes into everyone's brain can be overcome by Keanu Reeves because "he is the one." What the heck does that mean? Does this mean he can stop the AI from writing whatever it likes into his brain? Whoop-de-doo! It can still write whatever it likes into the brains of everyone else. Does it mean he can kill the virtual entities the AI has placed in the Matrix? How?

    I am completely unsatisfied by the explanations the movie offers. They simply don't make sense. The hero wins in the end not because of what he does, how he grows, but merely by coming into his own. He wins because he had to win.

    One of the most pernicious myths is that there is an indomitable human spirit. There is no such thing. Read "Night" by Eli Weisel (I may have misspelled his name) which recounts his experiences as a prisoner of the Nazis. Anyone who believes in the indomitable human spirit has not read of the night train ride near the war's end where Eli sees a young man beat his father to death for a crust of bread while the father cries and says the son's name over and over again.

    Now all of this bashing is not to say that there isn't something good in the Matrix. First off, it is eye candy. Second off, the one good thing it says basically is that the struggle for authenticity (a REAL life) is a struggle worth undertaking, even when the illusion is more comfortable. The problem is, there is nothing real about the solution. It ends because it must end. It ends with the triumph of the hero because the hero must triumph.

    The truth is, given the situation posited, it makes much more sense for Keanu to be beaten to a pulp and turned into a good little zombie, because barring the Deus Ex Machina of "he's the chosen one" that's what the AI should be able to do.

    Finally, I am really disappointed by the violence in the movie. I really and actually am made uncomfortable by beauty of the scenes of profligate gunfire. They are beautiful. The problem is that the effects of gunshots on human beings are not even remotely beautiful.

    Real pain and suffering an death are not pleasant. Watching your father waste away from cancer is not pleasant. Believe me. I stood there and watched. I watched as his eyes popped open to take one last look at this world, to try to take it all in, to bring with him this world he loved but never fully knew how much. I watched as his eyes glazed over and his rattling breath ceased and all that he was was gone.

    Death is not f-ing entertainment. Death is loss, permanent, searing, incosolable. Death is not an amusement park. And I am really, really tired of movies that make it into one.

    I'm not saying people shouldn't make these movies. They can do whatever they damned well please. I just beg you to take a moment now and then to think about what goes through your eyes to your brain, and then think about the fact, the incontrovertable fact that one day your eyes will pop open to take one last look at this world that you never knew how much you loved, that they will glaze over and your last rattling breath will leave your body and everything that you are will be gone.

    What did you do with that time?

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