Loki, surely you are kidding about Sean Penn criticizing John Steward's making fun of actors. There's a big difference between the light hearted and good spirited making fun he was doing and the downright rude things Chris Rock said about a really fine actor. HUGE DIFFERENCE. I sincerely hope that you are able to distinquish the difference between the two.

Hi Tess! A Joaquin fan club is a great idea! You can be prez, and i'll be the liaison between the club and Joaquin! ;) ((L))

Bennie and tess, we did the same thing after seeing the movie - immediately bought two cds, our FIRST country music EVER. And last tuesday we bought the DVD - i just loved their sweet yet intense story!

And we did the same thing last year after seeing "Ray" - bought a couple cd's and the dvd. Such an amazing artist.

Regarding "It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp", from the really good film "Hustle and Flow". We saw it at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival where it won the Audience Award. Great characters and acting, fun music, humor and pathos. They really made you care about people trying to make their lives better. I recomend it!

Jake Gyllenhaal,,,most gorgrous man alive! I drooled over him in Jarhead....more Santa dancing please! If I was Heath(Ennis), I would have fallen in love too!

Neo, it's called a "joke". I hear Kmart is having a blue light special on senses of humor, you might want to pick one up. I didn't hear Jude Law griping...

I haven't watched it in years and years. I could care less about Hollywood and the award they constantly give to themselves. But I enjoyed reading some of your critiques of the related movies.

I didn't even like the Academy Awards Show when the movies were actually good.

JJ5, I'm in total agreement with you. By the way, how do you think John Ford would have asked Jimmy Stewart and John Wayne to portray the Brokeback Mountain roles?

Loki, if your comments represent the sense of humor one can buy at K-Mart (and I believe they must be) then I'll pass thank you.


"Where was Sean Penn? I was waiting for him to come up there and criticize John Stewart for making fun of actors (egad!) like he did to Chris Rock." Hmm. Why are we supposed to think you were joking and not serious. The way you said it, certainly suggested that you thought Sean Penn was out of line for criticizing the racist remarks made by Chris Rock. Sorry, but that kind of humor totally escapes me.

Is your comment "I didn't hear Jude Law griping" also supposed to be funny and leave us on the floor laughing? It's really hard to tell.

Missed most of the Oscars because I TRAVELED over to the Kimball to watch Judi Dench in Mrs. Henderson Presents. Fantastic movie, great actress.

Birdie, I loved Mrs Henderson Presents!!! Much better than a lot of the others. I heard that she was rejected for an appearance on a live morning show...too old, they said...would not appeal to their demograhics!!!! I adore Judi Dench!

So glad I found this! Just watched "Walk the Line" for the second time and I have to express that I think it is an absolute travesty that Joaquin Phoenix didn't win best actor. I mean, come one. Philip Seymour Hoffman was good, but he learned one character and stuck with it. Joaquin learned at least three characters and portrayed them all... RRRRRAAAARRR!!!

ceb1222,

Welcome to our Joaquin fan club! :-)

I was very disappointed when they were announcing the names of the lead actor nominations and they referred to one of them as a former heartthrob. It was meant to refer to Matt Dillon. He has done many movies and has a great portfolio. It is a shame that people would still want to label him as a "heartthrob". In fact I though it was insulting to an Oscar nominated actor.

Gee I don't think being labeled a "hearthrob" is a bad thing. It was the "former" hearthrob that was bad.

PS. Did you see him do his unused acceptance speech last night on SNL? Kind of funny -- total sendup on his racist character in CRASH.

RB_travelerx, did someone at Fodors decide to make boss of this forum? Go pout and whine somewhere else.
To make this travel-related (RB, are you happy now?), I watched the Oscars from a hotel room in Vienna, Austria. I had to wake up at 2 am. It was frustrating: I am a big fan of Jon Stewart too and the Austrian tv channel kept cutting away anytime JS was talking. They would only show the "meat", that is the awards presentations themselves. So I missed the gay/straight cowboy movie scene pastiche (heard it was great though--can you watch it anywhere on the web?) and some other juicy bits. George Clooney was very classy--his speech about the Oscars changing his obituary was funny. Also, FWIW it's worth (and this IS travel related so RB crawl back into your cave), Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana were both playing at numerous cinemas in Vienna and in English with subtitles instead of dubbing. That was quite surprising. In fact, I saw them showing at more cinemas in Vienna than I did in Orlando when I was visiting there earlier this year.

Brokeback’s writer can’t come to grips with the reality that Crash won best picture so she wrote an essay identifying the reasons that the academy didn’t vote for it. http://books.guardian.co.uk/comment/...727309,00.html

Of course the article is not self-serving or anything. A story about racism in LA is important and relevant. The finding the issue of racism relevant and awarding an amazing cast is not being out of touch as Proulx says. Hope she doesn’t choke on the sour grapes. :(

Wow. Interesting article. Sour grapes is right. So "Best Picture" should really be titled "Most Controversial Issue of the Year" and not given for overall "greatness" of the film in all aspects?
I really can't believe how many people act like the award for best picture came down to just the themes of the pictures involved. Give me a break.