Monday, January 23, 2006
Double Team
I'm falling behind here...didn't post last week. So to make up for it, I'll cover TWO years of Oscar ceremonies here, 1987 and 1988.
In 1987, the Academy gave a big giant hand job to "The Last Emperor," giving it 9 awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay. Not to take anything away from "Emperor," but '87 had a pretty large selection of quality films to choose from, and it seems they could have spread the wealth around a little. Hell, classics like "Full Metal Jacket," "Wall Street," "The Untouchables," and "Good Morning, Vietnam" weren't even nominated for Best Picture. For the record, the other 4 noms were "Broadcast News," "Hope and Glory," "Fatal Attraction," and "Moonstruck." I would have taken out all of those and replaced them with my picks. To be fair, Michael Douglas won Best Actor for "Wall Street," Sean Connery won Best Supporting for "Untouchables," Robin Williams got nominated for "Vietnam," and "Jacket" was up for Screenplay, so those films weren't exactly ignored.
Other notable films from '87 that I love (and freely admit are not Academy material): "Lethal Weapon," "Predator," and "RoboCop." And in the wishful thinking department, it would have been great to see Mandy Patinkin get a nod for his performance as Inigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride." Great stuff.
1988 was the year of "Rain Man," taking home Picture, Director (Barry Levinson), Actor (Dustin Hoffman), and Screenplay. Great film, not much to complain about there. One of Oscar's greatest moments in my eyes came when Kevin Kline won Best Supporting Actor for "A Fish Called Wanda." Kline's performance was absolutely masterful; kudos to the Academy for recognizing it. Notable mis-step: Tom Hanks was rightly nominated for "Big," a role which changed the trajectory of his career, but the film itself was shut out from the big one. I think it deserved a slot in the Best Picture race (the other spots were filled with "The Accidental Tourist," "Dangerous Liaisons," "Mississippi Burning," and "Working Girl").
Another non-Academy worthy release from this year that is a personal fave: "Die Hard."
I may double-dip again next time and cover 1989 and 1990.
In 1987, the Academy gave a big giant hand job to "The Last Emperor," giving it 9 awards, including Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay. Not to take anything away from "Emperor," but '87 had a pretty large selection of quality films to choose from, and it seems they could have spread the wealth around a little. Hell, classics like "Full Metal Jacket," "Wall Street," "The Untouchables," and "Good Morning, Vietnam" weren't even nominated for Best Picture. For the record, the other 4 noms were "Broadcast News," "Hope and Glory," "Fatal Attraction," and "Moonstruck." I would have taken out all of those and replaced them with my picks. To be fair, Michael Douglas won Best Actor for "Wall Street," Sean Connery won Best Supporting for "Untouchables," Robin Williams got nominated for "Vietnam," and "Jacket" was up for Screenplay, so those films weren't exactly ignored.
Other notable films from '87 that I love (and freely admit are not Academy material): "Lethal Weapon," "Predator," and "RoboCop." And in the wishful thinking department, it would have been great to see Mandy Patinkin get a nod for his performance as Inigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride." Great stuff.
1988 was the year of "Rain Man," taking home Picture, Director (Barry Levinson), Actor (Dustin Hoffman), and Screenplay. Great film, not much to complain about there. One of Oscar's greatest moments in my eyes came when Kevin Kline won Best Supporting Actor for "A Fish Called Wanda." Kline's performance was absolutely masterful; kudos to the Academy for recognizing it. Notable mis-step: Tom Hanks was rightly nominated for "Big," a role which changed the trajectory of his career, but the film itself was shut out from the big one. I think it deserved a slot in the Best Picture race (the other spots were filled with "The Accidental Tourist," "Dangerous Liaisons," "Mississippi Burning," and "Working Girl").
Another non-Academy worthy release from this year that is a personal fave: "Die Hard."
I may double-dip again next time and cover 1989 and 1990.
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I got overly excited for a minute when I saw the title: thought you were gonna do a write up on the Rodman/Van Dam flick...
Rodman gave one of the best interviews ever when he was promoting that movie; I don't remember where I saw it or even what the interviewer's question was, I just remember his response...it was mostly a garbled mess, but you could just make out "Yeah, we do a double team or a triple team or whatever..." before it just trailed off. Great stuff.
My favorite movie of 1987 was definitely Evil Dead 2. Bruce Campbell did a front flip while acting like his hand was posessed. How did the academy miss that one?
I like Rain Man, but my favorite film of 88 was probably Die Hard or the mindless, but entertaining Red Heat. I bought Working Girl at the Wal-mart bargain bin for $5.50 last month.
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I like Rain Man, but my favorite film of 88 was probably Die Hard or the mindless, but entertaining Red Heat. I bought Working Girl at the Wal-mart bargain bin for $5.50 last month.
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