Oscar Nominations!

I must say, I'm ever-so-pleased to see Johnny Depp nominated for Best Actor in PotC. I thought for sure that he would be overlooked! I doubt he'll win, but hey, I'd be delighted if he did. However, in that same vein, Sean Astin and Andy Serkis? Robbed. No other word for it. I would have thought Andy would be a good excuse to make Oscar history, regardless of the fact that I think he royally deserves it. Of course, I've only seen one of the "Best Supporting Actor" nominated movies, so I don't really have a fair idea of the competition, but seriously. Snub city. I don't care that LotR got 11 other nominations. Andy and Sean deserve some major props. And to think, many theorized that Peter gave Andy the pre-ring!Smeagol cameo to improve his chances of being nominated, so that his character wasn't 100% digital. Just when you think you've got the Oscar politics figured out... ah well. His name wasn't even on the LotR "For Your Consideration" Oscar ads, so my hopes weren't incredibly high to begin with. Still, Sean Astin? Hello, McFly? Hello?

Meanwhile, on the Best Actress side, what a surprise to see Keisha Castle-Hughes nominated for "Whale Rider"! Another pleasant surprise! But again, on this list, I've only seen two out of the five. I really need to see some of these other movies before I can pretend to be an authority or have any kind of opinion.

Hmm, so 11 nominations. Does that count include the Sci-Tech nomination for "Massive," the AI fight simulator thing? I don't feel like counting, myself. But can I gloat for a second? NUMBER OF NOMINATIONS FOR FILMS STARRING BILLY BOYD: 21. BOOYEAH. Okay, I'll count anyway. Art Direction, Costume Design, Directing, Film Editing, Makeup, Music, Song, Picture, Sound, Visual Effects, Writing (Adapted Screenplay)... hey, it doesn't include the Sci-Tech nom! Go Weta! And hey, two out of the three men nominated for their work in rendering realistic-looking skin worked on LotR! Ken McGaugh and Joe Letteri!

I'm surprised to see "Master and Commander" raking in so many nominations. I mean, it was a great movie, but it wasn't that great. Not One-Nomination-Less-Than-LotR-Great. I mean, "Best Makeup"? What outstanding achievements in makeup did they achieve? The "windswept look"? Yeah, there was the kid with the arm and all the bullet wounds and the wigs and stuff, but seriously.

And might I point out that a large number of "Master and Commander" special effects were executed by Weta, Peter Jackson's special effects company, when Peter Weir was so impressed with the miniature work in "Fellowship of the Ring". So props to Richard Taylor! (Of course, Weta is just one of six FX companies to work on M&C, but oh well.) But... wait a second! What the... why are neither of the Matrix sequels nominated for best special effects? Sure, the final result really wasn't that realistic-looking and the context was cheesy (in fact, probably one of the worst movies of the year), but the techniques they pioneered were unbelieveable. I don't want them to win, I just want them to have been nominated! Heck, I would nominate them solely for the sake of that poor, poor woman who had to fake an orgasm over 100 times in the filming of the Merovingian's first scene. The motion control for that one special effect took over six hours to shoot. So Priscilla's Honorary Oscar Nomination For Putting Up With Horrible Working Conditions and Psychotic Directorial Demands goes to Tory Musset, the other nomination of course going to Andy Serkis. Hee, poor Andy.

Mkay, the other awards very quickly: Best Picture/Director: I agree with Rave, I think RotK is the "sentimental favourite" for Best Picture/Director. They've been holding out on the other two, I belive, so that RotK can get the glory. I mean, TTT vs. Chicago? Give me a break. The politics are on our side, even. Besides, I'm hard-pressed to think of any film ever made that deserves Best Director more than RotK. Makeup: They're competing against PotC and M&C... Funny, because I was under the impression that all the zombie effects in PotC were CG. So where does that leave us? I would think anything PotC would have to offer in terms of makeup would qualify more as Costume Design. And I've already expressed my sentiments on M&C makeup. So LotR for the hobbit feet and ear tips and filthy orcses and wigs, wigs, wigs. Art Direction: Tossup. Costume Design: I haven't seen "The Last Samurai" or "Girl with the Pearl Earring", but regardless, I doubt this will go to RotK, as so many of the costumes were reused from FotR and TTT. Ah well, can't win 'em all. Editing: I would find it hilarious if we won this, as after November, no one will ever watch the theatrical release of RotK ever again, as they'll all just watch the Extended Edition. Score: I never paid any attention to the score in the other nominees, so I can't really judge. But Danny Elfman is among my favourite movie composers, so I'd be tickled pink if Big Fish won instead of LotR. I haven't seen Cold Mountain or The House of Sand and Fog and never noticed the score in Finding Nemo, so yeah. Song: Again, of those nominated, I've only seen two, and of the two, I prefer "Into the West" a hundredfold to "Kiss at the End of the Rainbow." Can't speak for the others. Sound: Not RotK, but did you know that the sound of the battle cries of the massive orc army at Helm's Deep were made by the crowd at a cricket match? Visual Effects: LotR by far. Pit them against Gollum and it's no contest. Adapted Screenplay: I have more and more respect for the screenplay with every page of the text I read. Still, the only two of these I've seen are LotR and Seabiscuit and I haven't read Seabiscuit, so I'm not entitled to an opinion.

Okay, that's all the Oscar blathering I'll be subjecting you to today. You can go about your business now. Gah, this entry is long. As a reward for reading this far, Survival Tips for seeing LotR in Theatres (ganked from Ashley and Tanja).