Best Actress must be next. They're doing the five past winners thing again. The nominees: Anne Hathaway, Kate Winslet, Melissa Leo, Meryl Streep, and Angelina Jolie. I only saw The Reader and Changeling, and I liked Jolie in Changeling better. It will almost certainly go to Winslet or Streep, but Jolie is my pick anyway. The winner: Kate Winslet. Oh, hey, she thanked Peter Jackson too. He directed one of her first films (if not *the* first film for her).
Wow, her speech went on for a while, and they didn't interrupt her with music. They haven't done that all night. They must just be letting this one go long tonight if it has to.
Best Actor is next. The presenters: Michael Douglas presenting Frank Langella. Robert DeNiro presenting Sean Penn. Adrian Brody presenting Richard Jenkins. Anthony Hopkins presenting Brad Pitt (they were together in the great movie Meet Joe Black), and Ben Kingsley presenting Mickey Rourke. My pick is Frank Langella, though Mickey Rourke is almost certain to win. Winner: Sean Penn. Wow, his wife Robin Wright Penn looks great! Dude, thank your wife. Thank your wife. There's the political commentary. Two more things? More political commentary. Mentions Mickey Rourke. Did he thank his wife??? If he did, I sure did miss it.
Best Picture, presented by Steven Spielberg. First, a Best Picture nominee montage, with a focus on this year's nominees but with clips from past winners sprinkled in. The nominees: Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire. My pick: Slumdog Millionaire. Winner: Slumdog Millionaire. Good. It truly was the most deserving out of those nominated.
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Comments on the show:
The new way of presenting acting nominees with five past winners per category saying nice things about the current year's nominees was a good idea in a way, but it carried on a little long and dragged down the momentum of the show.
I don't understand why there were only three Best Song nominees instead of five, but I do like the fact that they combined shorter versions of them all together into one performance rather than doing full versions of each, sprinkled throughout the show.
I also like how they clumped similar categories together back to back using the same presenters to save time, though I think having Will Smith present four or five awards all on his own was a little excessive.
I wasn't so sure about Hugh Jackman hosting since I've never watched him host the Tony Awards, but it really didn't matter much because once the show got started, there really wasn't too much for him to do.
And, not once did they start music in the middle of a person's speech. That was respectful. Now, if winners will just learn to police themselves on how long they go on crying and catching their breath, the show might be over by 11:30.
Overall, I liked the show. You could tell they were trying new things, and many of them worked or were at least improvements. With a little tweaking (and, I'm sorry, some overall better nominees), next year's show could be excellent.
Showing posts with label live blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label live blogging. Show all posts
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Live Blogging: 81st Annual Academy Awards [Half-Hour 7]
Liam Neeson and Freida Pinto are up to present Best Foreign Language Film. Woops. I don't think the nominees were in the same order on the screen as they were in which they read them aloud. Whatever won, it's a Japanese film.
Queen Latifah is on stage. Oh, here we go... In Memoriam (with Queen Latifah singing "I'll Be Seeing You"): Bernie Mac. Michael Crichton. Pat Hingle. Roy Scheider. Isaac Hayes. Ricardo Mantalban. Stan Winston. James Whitmore. Charlton Heston. Sydney Pollack. Paul Newman.
I wish they had filled the screen with the memoriam images. Instead we got a view of the stage which had monitors showing various pictures of those that passed away and their work. The end result is that the images of them were very small on the TV screen. A few times, a person's name got cut off at the bottom of the screen or was just too small to read well. I know they're trying some new things this year, but I'd rather they just let the memoriam fill the screen as they have in the past.
Reese Witherspoon is up to present the Best Director award. Her dress is a little weird. Anyway, my pick is Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (although Chris Nolan for The Dark Knight would have been just as deserving had he been nominated). Winner: Danny Boyle -- who, in my defense, really does look like Rudy Giuliani, so it was an honest mistake.
Queen Latifah is on stage. Oh, here we go... In Memoriam (with Queen Latifah singing "I'll Be Seeing You"): Bernie Mac. Michael Crichton. Pat Hingle. Roy Scheider. Isaac Hayes. Ricardo Mantalban. Stan Winston. James Whitmore. Charlton Heston. Sydney Pollack. Paul Newman.
I wish they had filled the screen with the memoriam images. Instead we got a view of the stage which had monitors showing various pictures of those that passed away and their work. The end result is that the images of them were very small on the TV screen. A few times, a person's name got cut off at the bottom of the screen or was just too small to read well. I know they're trying some new things this year, but I'd rather they just let the memoriam fill the screen as they have in the past.
Reese Witherspoon is up to present the Best Director award. Her dress is a little weird. Anyway, my pick is Danny Boyle for Slumdog Millionaire (although Chris Nolan for The Dark Knight would have been just as deserving had he been nominated). Winner: Danny Boyle -- who, in my defense, really does look like Rudy Giuliani, so it was an honest mistake.
Live Blogging: 81st Annual Academy Awards [Half-Hour 6]
Okay, if they still have to do Score, Song, Best Foreign Film, Best Picture, a tribute to Jerry Lewis (?), and the In Memoriam parts, they must not be trying to finish by 11:00. They haven't done the boring lawyer part yet either.
Eddie Murphy is out to present the Jean Hersholt Award (whatever that is). The recipient is Jerry Lewis. These parts are usually long & boring. Time for raspberry jelly toast.
And, now a music montage of the Best Score nominees. Zac Efron & Alicia Keys are out to present the award. My pick: Slumdog Millionaire. Winner: Slumdog Millionaire.
Now, the best Original Song. One nominee from WALL-E and two from Slumdog Millionaire. Being performed on stage. Why are there not five nominees? My pick: WALL-E. I have to admit a little bit of language bias for my pick. Although, wow, the Indian songs are pretty catchy & lively. And, they did a little bit of a blend of songs at the end. Nice. The winner: "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire. And, now that I see the songs performed, which jogs my memory how they sounded in the movie, I think I'm okay with the Slumdog win. That was a great song, even if the lyrics were in a different language.
Eddie Murphy is out to present the Jean Hersholt Award (whatever that is). The recipient is Jerry Lewis. These parts are usually long & boring. Time for raspberry jelly toast.
And, now a music montage of the Best Score nominees. Zac Efron & Alicia Keys are out to present the award. My pick: Slumdog Millionaire. Winner: Slumdog Millionaire.
Now, the best Original Song. One nominee from WALL-E and two from Slumdog Millionaire. Being performed on stage. Why are there not five nominees? My pick: WALL-E. I have to admit a little bit of language bias for my pick. Although, wow, the Indian songs are pretty catchy & lively. And, they did a little bit of a blend of songs at the end. Nice. The winner: "Jai Ho" from Slumdog Millionaire. And, now that I see the songs performed, which jogs my memory how they sounded in the movie, I think I'm okay with the Slumdog win. That was a great song, even if the lyrics were in a different language.
Live Blogging: 81st Annual Academy Awards [Half-Hour 5]
Looks like Best Supporting Actor is up next. They're bringing out five past winners again. This could take a while. Cuba Gooding, Jr. did a great job introducing Robert Downey, Jr.'s nomination. Kevin Klein is doing the introduction for Heath Ledger. And, the winner is: Heath Ledger. No surprise. His parents & sister are accepting the award on his behalf. Very nice.
The next award must be for Best Feature Documentary. Interesting how they're introducing them by showing clips of some of the filmmakers talking about their films. Bill Maher (urgh) is there to take a pot-shot at religion and maybe just present a freakin' award in the process. The winner: Man on Wire. Now, the Best Documentary Short Film. Winner: Smile Pinki.
And, now the 2008 action movie montage. Kind of weird that they take the effort to recognize action movies, but they never consider nominating one.
Will Smith is up to present the award for Best Visual Effects. There should be more than two nominees for this. My pick is Iron Man. The Dark Knight would be okay. *But,* *of course,* it goes to Benjamin Button.
Will Smith stays for Best Sound Editing. The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Slumdog Millionaire, WALL-E, and Wanted. Great nominees. My pick: WALL-E. Winner: The Dark Knight. Wow! I wasn't expecting that. It probably would have been my 2nd choice, though Iron Man would have been an extremely close 3rd.
Will Smith still up for Best Sound Mixing. Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, WALL-E, and Wanted. My pick: WALL-E. Winner: Slumdog Millionaire. Wow! Another surprise.
Oh, that's not Rudy Giuliani in the audience. That must be Danny Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire. Woops.
Will Smith *still* up for Best Film Editing. I do like how they're grouping the awards together this year. The nominees: Frost/Nixon, The Dark Knight, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, and Benjamin Button. My pick: Slumdog Millionaire. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire.
The next award must be for Best Feature Documentary. Interesting how they're introducing them by showing clips of some of the filmmakers talking about their films. Bill Maher (urgh) is there to take a pot-shot at religion and maybe just present a freakin' award in the process. The winner: Man on Wire. Now, the Best Documentary Short Film. Winner: Smile Pinki.
And, now the 2008 action movie montage. Kind of weird that they take the effort to recognize action movies, but they never consider nominating one.
Will Smith is up to present the award for Best Visual Effects. There should be more than two nominees for this. My pick is Iron Man. The Dark Knight would be okay. *But,* *of course,* it goes to Benjamin Button.
Will Smith stays for Best Sound Editing. The Dark Knight, Iron Man, Slumdog Millionaire, WALL-E, and Wanted. Great nominees. My pick: WALL-E. Winner: The Dark Knight. Wow! I wasn't expecting that. It probably would have been my 2nd choice, though Iron Man would have been an extremely close 3rd.
Will Smith still up for Best Sound Mixing. Benjamin Button, The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire, WALL-E, and Wanted. My pick: WALL-E. Winner: Slumdog Millionaire. Wow! Another surprise.
Oh, that's not Rudy Giuliani in the audience. That must be Danny Boyle, director of Slumdog Millionaire. Woops.
Will Smith *still* up for Best Film Editing. I do like how they're grouping the awards together this year. The nominees: Frost/Nixon, The Dark Knight, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, and Benjamin Button. My pick: Slumdog Millionaire. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire.
Live Blogging: 81st Annual Academy Awards [Half-Hour 4]
Natalie Portman & Ben Stiller are out to present Best Cinematographer. Ben Stiller looks like Joaquin Phoenix did on David Letterman with the wild hair, shaggy beard, and sunglasses. It's the funniest thing Stiller has ever done (which isn't saying much). Natalie Portman looks hotter than Angelina Jolie too, though I'd prefer to see her hair down. My pick is Slumdog Millionaire with The Dark Knight an *extremely* close 2nd choice. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire. Woohoo.
Now, the guys from Pineapple Express are watching clips from 2008 comedies. So, were there only 1.5 comedies last year. Most of their clips are from dramas.
Those guys are up to present Best Short Film. No clue here. The winner is...something from Germany.
Hugh Jackman is singing & dancing in a tux & top hat. Very un-Wolverine-like. I think that's Beyonce who's joining him now. They're doing a Oscar song montage.
Ooh, a commercial for a Sandra Bullock movie with Ryan Reynolds and Betty White. I am there. It's called The Proposal. I have to wait until June for it. Bummer.
Now, the guys from Pineapple Express are watching clips from 2008 comedies. So, were there only 1.5 comedies last year. Most of their clips are from dramas.
Those guys are up to present Best Short Film. No clue here. The winner is...something from Germany.
Hugh Jackman is singing & dancing in a tux & top hat. Very un-Wolverine-like. I think that's Beyonce who's joining him now. They're doing a Oscar song montage.
Ooh, a commercial for a Sandra Bullock movie with Ryan Reynolds and Betty White. I am there. It's called The Proposal. I have to wait until June for it. Bummer.
Live Blogging: 81st Annual Academy Awards [Half-Hour 3]
Jennifer Anniston and Jack Black are up to present Best Animated Feature: Bolt, Kung-Fu, and WALL-E. My pick: WALL-E (duh). The winner: WALL-E!
Anniston & Black stay up there for Best Animated Short Film. A couple of them look foreign. I think Presto will win, and I base my prediction on absolutely nothing. Hmm. The French one won. Well, the title sounded French, but the award acceptor is Japanese and speaks barely any English. Interesting.
Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker are up to present Best Art Direction. I totally forgot to make my pick for this earlier. The winner: Benjamin Button. Let me look again at the nominees. Nope, out of the three I saw, I would have picked The Dark Knight or Changeling instead.
Craig & Parker remain to present Best Costume Design. Benjamin Button is the only one I saw. The winner: The Duchess. Don't know; didn't see it.
And, they're still up there for Best Makeup. My pick is Hellboy II. Benjamin Button will probably get it though. And, it does.
Two people I don't know are to present...a 2008 love montage. Oh, that reminds me, I still wanted to see Last Chance Harvey.
Anniston & Black stay up there for Best Animated Short Film. A couple of them look foreign. I think Presto will win, and I base my prediction on absolutely nothing. Hmm. The French one won. Well, the title sounded French, but the award acceptor is Japanese and speaks barely any English. Interesting.
Daniel Craig and Sarah Jessica Parker are up to present Best Art Direction. I totally forgot to make my pick for this earlier. The winner: Benjamin Button. Let me look again at the nominees. Nope, out of the three I saw, I would have picked The Dark Knight or Changeling instead.
Craig & Parker remain to present Best Costume Design. Benjamin Button is the only one I saw. The winner: The Duchess. Don't know; didn't see it.
And, they're still up there for Best Makeup. My pick is Hellboy II. Benjamin Button will probably get it though. And, it does.
Two people I don't know are to present...a 2008 love montage. Oh, that reminds me, I still wanted to see Last Chance Harvey.
Live Blogging: 81st Annual Academy Awards [Half-Hour 2]
And, the Oscars have begun. Less fanfare than usual. No prelude, clip montage, etc. Just Hugh Jackman.
It's going to be hard to get used to hearing Jackman's Australian accent. I'm so used to hearing him as Wolverine. He's singing now. He's bringing back the nominee music montage that only Billy Crystal used to do. He brought Anne Hathaway on stage to help with the Frost/Nixon segment. Oh, she can sing too.
I like how the The Reader portion of the music montage had nothing to do with The Reader. The lyrics implied that Hugh never got around to seeing The Reader. That's okay; he didn't miss much. Now, Hugh's sitting on Frank Langella's lap.
Hugh's pointing out several nominees in the front row. Where is Jack Nicholson? He's not nominated for anything, but doesn't he usually get an honorary front row seat anyway?
Woops. They had a little trouble with the curtains when revealing the screen to show the previous Best Actress montage. You could actually hear someone say, "Open them!"
Five actresses are up to present the Best Supporting Actresses. My pick is Taraji P. Henson out of the two movies I saw, but she may be the least likely of the five to win. Wow, this is a long presentation. They're talking about the roles of the nominees rather than showing clips. If they do this with every award, this will be a long night. The winner: Penelope Cruz. Wow, they're letting her go on forever with her acceptance. This show may last until Tuesday.
Steve Martin and Tina Fey are up to present one of the screenplay categories. Tina Fey looks better than Angelina Jolie too. This is the Original Screenplay category. The only one I've seen here is WALL-E, so it's automatically my pick. I wish J. Michael Straczynski had been nominated for Changeling. And, the winner is: Milk.
Now, the Adapted Screenplay category. Benjamin Button, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire. My pick is Slumdog, with Frost/Nixon a very close 2nd choice. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire. Woohoo.
Was that Rudy Giuliani in the crowd?
It's going to be hard to get used to hearing Jackman's Australian accent. I'm so used to hearing him as Wolverine. He's singing now. He's bringing back the nominee music montage that only Billy Crystal used to do. He brought Anne Hathaway on stage to help with the Frost/Nixon segment. Oh, she can sing too.
I like how the The Reader portion of the music montage had nothing to do with The Reader. The lyrics implied that Hugh never got around to seeing The Reader. That's okay; he didn't miss much. Now, Hugh's sitting on Frank Langella's lap.
Hugh's pointing out several nominees in the front row. Where is Jack Nicholson? He's not nominated for anything, but doesn't he usually get an honorary front row seat anyway?
Woops. They had a little trouble with the curtains when revealing the screen to show the previous Best Actress montage. You could actually hear someone say, "Open them!"
Five actresses are up to present the Best Supporting Actresses. My pick is Taraji P. Henson out of the two movies I saw, but she may be the least likely of the five to win. Wow, this is a long presentation. They're talking about the roles of the nominees rather than showing clips. If they do this with every award, this will be a long night. The winner: Penelope Cruz. Wow, they're letting her go on forever with her acceptance. This show may last until Tuesday.
Steve Martin and Tina Fey are up to present one of the screenplay categories. Tina Fey looks better than Angelina Jolie too. This is the Original Screenplay category. The only one I've seen here is WALL-E, so it's automatically my pick. I wish J. Michael Straczynski had been nominated for Changeling. And, the winner is: Milk.
Now, the Adapted Screenplay category. Benjamin Button, Doubt, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, and Slumdog Millionaire. My pick is Slumdog, with Frost/Nixon a very close 2nd choice. The winner: Slumdog Millionaire. Woohoo.
Was that Rudy Giuliani in the crowd?
Live Blogging: 81st Annual Academy Awards [Half-Hour 1]
Red carpet time...
Kate Winslet looks great. Josh Brolin, yeah who cares, he's with Diane Lane. Diane Lane always looks great. I can't tell if she's got short hair or just wearing it up. I like her better with longer hair (I like just about any woman with longer hair). But, she looks good anyway. Amy Adams look good too.
Taraji P. Henson looks good too. There's Pitt & Jolie -- super briefly. I'm sure everyone will be saying how hot Jolie is. I actually think Diane Lane and Amy Adams are hotter.
There's the cast of Slumdog Millionaire, including the kids that played the younger versions of the main characters. Freida Pinto -- another woman hotter than Angelina Jolie.
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens -- Who are they? Am I that old already? Am I that out of touch? Okay, yes. I am, and I know it.
Holy crap, Robert Downey, Jr.'s wife is the hottest yet. Dude, keep staying off the drugs. Screwing up that marriage would be a crime. :)
Miley Cyrus looks like she's wearing a silver Christmas tree from Wal-Mart. Anne Hathaway looks good. Her dress makes her look like a metallic mermaid.
And, here are the lawyers from Price Watershouse Coopers dressed in boredom. Penelope Cruz looks good from the waist up, but from the waist down she looks like she's wearing the curtains from old haunted house. Richard Jenkins -- I don't know who he is.
There's Marisa Tomei. She looks really great, but it's surprising how un-revealing her dress is. Maybe that's intentional since she shows nearly everything in The Wrestler. Also, it's probably cold out there. Practical choice Marisa.
Now they're talking about the stage and the music. And, that's pretty much it for the red carpet.
Kate Winslet looks great. Josh Brolin, yeah who cares, he's with Diane Lane. Diane Lane always looks great. I can't tell if she's got short hair or just wearing it up. I like her better with longer hair (I like just about any woman with longer hair). But, she looks good anyway. Amy Adams look good too.
Taraji P. Henson looks good too. There's Pitt & Jolie -- super briefly. I'm sure everyone will be saying how hot Jolie is. I actually think Diane Lane and Amy Adams are hotter.
There's the cast of Slumdog Millionaire, including the kids that played the younger versions of the main characters. Freida Pinto -- another woman hotter than Angelina Jolie.
Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens -- Who are they? Am I that old already? Am I that out of touch? Okay, yes. I am, and I know it.
Holy crap, Robert Downey, Jr.'s wife is the hottest yet. Dude, keep staying off the drugs. Screwing up that marriage would be a crime. :)
Miley Cyrus looks like she's wearing a silver Christmas tree from Wal-Mart. Anne Hathaway looks good. Her dress makes her look like a metallic mermaid.
And, here are the lawyers from Price Watershouse Coopers dressed in boredom. Penelope Cruz looks good from the waist up, but from the waist down she looks like she's wearing the curtains from old haunted house. Richard Jenkins -- I don't know who he is.
There's Marisa Tomei. She looks really great, but it's surprising how un-revealing her dress is. Maybe that's intentional since she shows nearly everything in The Wrestler. Also, it's probably cold out there. Practical choice Marisa.
Now they're talking about the stage and the music. And, that's pretty much it for the red carpet.
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Live Blogging: 80th Annual Academy Awards [Hour 4]
Harrison Ford is up to present Best Original Screenplay. Noms: Juno, Lars and the Real Girl, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille, The Savages. My pick: Juno. The winner: Juno!!! Yay! The screenwriter, Diablo Cody, looks a little like a weirdo, uh, I mean, free spirit, but she is talented to pull off the script that she did.
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Helen Mirren is up to present Best Actor. Is it just me or is Helen Mirren kind of hot for an old chick. I'm pretty sure I said the same thing last year. I loved the fact that after winning an Oscar, she didn't mind being in National Treasure 2. Noms: George Clooney (he was very good in Michael Clayton, the best part of the movie); Daniel Day-Lewis (for There Will Be Blood, my personal pick and sure winner); Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd (ugh, I'm not a Johnny Depp fan); Tommy Lee Jones (for the Valley of Elah; I didn't see that one, but he was really good in No Country for Old Men); Viggo Mortensen (for Eastern Promises). And the winner: Daniel Day-Lewis. No big surprise. Wow, his voice is very difference in real life. Just makes the performance that much more powerful.
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Best Director. Presented by Martin Scorsese. Noms: Diving Bell & Butterfly, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood. The Coen brothers win for No Country for Old Men.
Best Picture. Presented by Denzel Washington. Noms: Atonement (my 5th choice), Juno (my 1st choice), Michael Clayton (my 4th choice), No Country for Old Men (my 3rd choice), There Will Be Blood (my 2nd choice). No Country for Old Men wins. Hmmm. I would say, "It was good, but I don't think it was quite *that* good," because frankly, I felt that way about all the entries this year. I think this was just an "off" year. As a normal, everyday, mainstream movie-goer, Waitress and Ocean's 13 tied as my favorite movies of 2007. I also really respect Juno, Charlie Wilson's War, and The Bucket List. So what do I know.
All in all, a boring, uneventful Oscars ceremony. Nothing wrong with it, just not exciting either. We need another Lord of the Rings movie. ;)
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Helen Mirren is up to present Best Actor. Is it just me or is Helen Mirren kind of hot for an old chick. I'm pretty sure I said the same thing last year. I loved the fact that after winning an Oscar, she didn't mind being in National Treasure 2. Noms: George Clooney (he was very good in Michael Clayton, the best part of the movie); Daniel Day-Lewis (for There Will Be Blood, my personal pick and sure winner); Johnny Depp for Sweeney Todd (ugh, I'm not a Johnny Depp fan); Tommy Lee Jones (for the Valley of Elah; I didn't see that one, but he was really good in No Country for Old Men); Viggo Mortensen (for Eastern Promises). And the winner: Daniel Day-Lewis. No big surprise. Wow, his voice is very difference in real life. Just makes the performance that much more powerful.
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Best Director. Presented by Martin Scorsese. Noms: Diving Bell & Butterfly, Juno, Michael Clayton, No Country for Old Men, and There Will Be Blood. The Coen brothers win for No Country for Old Men.
Best Picture. Presented by Denzel Washington. Noms: Atonement (my 5th choice), Juno (my 1st choice), Michael Clayton (my 4th choice), No Country for Old Men (my 3rd choice), There Will Be Blood (my 2nd choice). No Country for Old Men wins. Hmmm. I would say, "It was good, but I don't think it was quite *that* good," because frankly, I felt that way about all the entries this year. I think this was just an "off" year. As a normal, everyday, mainstream movie-goer, Waitress and Ocean's 13 tied as my favorite movies of 2007. I also really respect Juno, Charlie Wilson's War, and The Bucket List. So what do I know.
All in all, a boring, uneventful Oscars ceremony. Nothing wrong with it, just not exciting either. We need another Lord of the Rings movie. ;)
Live Blogging: 80th Annual Academy Awards [Hour 3]
After the commercial, Jon Stewart is seen playing Wii Tennis against a little girl. That's pretty funny.
Colin Farrell is up to present another nominated song, this one from Once, a movie I've heard good things about and may have to check out on video. The song sounds okay. The guys over at TheMovieBlog.com *hate* the live performances of Best Song nominees, calling it a waste of time. I disagree. Best Song is the only category in which you can enjoy the content live. For everything else, you have to have to have either seen the movie or gotten a good impression from the quick clip.
Jack Nicholson is up to present a montage of Best Picture winners throughout Oscar history.
Renee Zellweger is up to present Best Film Editing. My personal pick and the winner... The Bourne Ultimatum. Wow, Bourne may not be in the main categories, but it's cleaned up in the technicals it was nominated for.
Nicole Kidman is up to present... a freakin' huge necklace she's wearing. It looks like she fell through a chandelier on the way to the stage. Anyway, she's presenting Robert Boyle for an Honorary Oscar in art direction.
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Penelope Cruz is up to present Best Foreign Language Film. I actually saw one or two of the foreign language nominees last year, but last year was a good year. This year, not so much. An Austrian film wins. It's called The Counterfeiters.
Patrick Dempsey is up to present the final Best Song nominee, also from Enchanted. Continuing my earlier argument in support of the live Best Song performances, it breaks up the night. Without the songs, it's just awards and montages. And, frankly, it's the montages I'd like to get rid of.
John Travolta is up to present the winner for Best Song. The winner is the song from Once. Marketa Irglova is really pretty, but unfortunately she wasn't given a chance to say her thanks as her fellow music partner and co-star took up all the time. There's no way he hogged it intentionally. They just didn't give them enough time. When they have two people winning an award, they should let both of them talk, even if each person gets half the time.
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Oh, that's so nice. Jon Stewart gave Marketa her chance to say her thanks. She looks & sounds so nice. Nice job, Jon Stewart.
Cameron Diaz is up to present Best Cinematography, something she can barely pronounce, apparently. Noms: Jesse James, Atonement, Diving Bell & Butterfly, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood. My vote, Blood. And, it wins. Yay.
Hillary Swank is up to present the memoriam montage, the only truly worthy montage of them all. Dabbs Greer, the pastor from Little House on the Prairie. Lois Maxwell, Moneypenny from James Bond movies. Suzanne Pleshette. Ingmar Bergman (not familiar with his work, but his name is very recognizable). And, of course, Heath Ledger.
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Amy Adams is up to present... her really, really pretty, awesome good looks. She's so pretty. Such nice, long, silky, red hair. Such a sweet voice. What is she doing? Oh, she's presenting Best Original Score. Noms: Atonement, Kite Runner, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille, and 3:10 to Yuma. No strong preference here. Dario somebody won for Atonement. Okay. Bye, bye, Amy.
Tom Hanks is up to present U.S. soldiers in Iraq who are presenting Best Documentary Short Subject. That's pretty cool to do it that way. Tom Hanks gets to present the nominations for Best Documentary Feature, which all sound very serious. Taxi to the Dark Side wins.
Colin Farrell is up to present another nominated song, this one from Once, a movie I've heard good things about and may have to check out on video. The song sounds okay. The guys over at TheMovieBlog.com *hate* the live performances of Best Song nominees, calling it a waste of time. I disagree. Best Song is the only category in which you can enjoy the content live. For everything else, you have to have to have either seen the movie or gotten a good impression from the quick clip.
Jack Nicholson is up to present a montage of Best Picture winners throughout Oscar history.
Renee Zellweger is up to present Best Film Editing. My personal pick and the winner... The Bourne Ultimatum. Wow, Bourne may not be in the main categories, but it's cleaned up in the technicals it was nominated for.
Nicole Kidman is up to present... a freakin' huge necklace she's wearing. It looks like she fell through a chandelier on the way to the stage. Anyway, she's presenting Robert Boyle for an Honorary Oscar in art direction.
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Penelope Cruz is up to present Best Foreign Language Film. I actually saw one or two of the foreign language nominees last year, but last year was a good year. This year, not so much. An Austrian film wins. It's called The Counterfeiters.
Patrick Dempsey is up to present the final Best Song nominee, also from Enchanted. Continuing my earlier argument in support of the live Best Song performances, it breaks up the night. Without the songs, it's just awards and montages. And, frankly, it's the montages I'd like to get rid of.
John Travolta is up to present the winner for Best Song. The winner is the song from Once. Marketa Irglova is really pretty, but unfortunately she wasn't given a chance to say her thanks as her fellow music partner and co-star took up all the time. There's no way he hogged it intentionally. They just didn't give them enough time. When they have two people winning an award, they should let both of them talk, even if each person gets half the time.
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Oh, that's so nice. Jon Stewart gave Marketa her chance to say her thanks. She looks & sounds so nice. Nice job, Jon Stewart.
Cameron Diaz is up to present Best Cinematography, something she can barely pronounce, apparently. Noms: Jesse James, Atonement, Diving Bell & Butterfly, No Country for Old Men, There Will Be Blood. My vote, Blood. And, it wins. Yay.
Hillary Swank is up to present the memoriam montage, the only truly worthy montage of them all. Dabbs Greer, the pastor from Little House on the Prairie. Lois Maxwell, Moneypenny from James Bond movies. Suzanne Pleshette. Ingmar Bergman (not familiar with his work, but his name is very recognizable). And, of course, Heath Ledger.
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Amy Adams is up to present... her really, really pretty, awesome good looks. She's so pretty. Such nice, long, silky, red hair. Such a sweet voice. What is she doing? Oh, she's presenting Best Original Score. Noms: Atonement, Kite Runner, Michael Clayton, Ratatouille, and 3:10 to Yuma. No strong preference here. Dario somebody won for Atonement. Okay. Bye, bye, Amy.
Tom Hanks is up to present U.S. soldiers in Iraq who are presenting Best Documentary Short Subject. That's pretty cool to do it that way. Tom Hanks gets to present the nominations for Best Documentary Feature, which all sound very serious. Taxi to the Dark Side wins.
Live Blogging: 80th Annual Academy Awards [Hour 2]
Nice montage of bincoulars & periscopes. Now one of bad dreams. I know they're just joking. But, I could do without all montages.
Keri Russell is up to present a song from August Rush, something I never got around to seeing but am still very tempted to. Keri Russell should be nominated for Best Actress in Waitress. Waitress is one of two great films sadly overlooked this year, the other being Charlie Wilson's War. Waitress ties with Ocean's 13 as my favorite movie of 2007, but Waitress would be far more Oscar-friendly. Unfortunately, it came out during the summer, so I guess it got forgotten by Oscar season. If I had done a top 10 list of 2007 movies, Charlie Wilson's War also would have been in the top 10, if not top 5.
Owen Wilson is up to present Best Live Action Short Film. Needless to say, I didn't see any of these. The winner sounds like a French film. Whatever.
Jerry Seinfeld's character from Bee Movie is "up" to present Best Animated Short Film. Wow, bunch of foreign stuff here too. Something called Peter and the Wolf won. Looks like claymation. And, the makers are British this time. American short films must suck.
Alan Arkin is up to present Best Supporting Actress. Tilda Swinton won for her role in Michael Clayton. That's one of only two of the movies that I saw. She said she's giving her award to her agent for bringing her to America. She then jokes about George Clooney wearing the nippled Batsuit under his costume on the the set everyday. George looks embarrassed. But, even he mentioned the horrible movie Batman & Robin during the red carpet pre-show. I think he beats himself up quite a bit for that movie, but I don't blame him at all. I think all the blame rests with Joel Schumacher.
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Jessica Alba is up to present some of the awards already given out previously. Jon then makes a joke about Jessica Alba and Cate Blanchett both being pregnant but that with Jack Nicholson there, they may have to re-tally after the show. That's pretty funny.
Josh Brolin and James McAvoy are up to present Best Adapted Screenplay. Did Josh Brolin just call Jack Nicholson, Mike Nicholson? My pick here is There Will Be Blood. The winners are the Coen brothers for No Country for Old Men.
A boring business guy is up now to explain the voting.
Mylie Cyrus is up to present another song from Enchanted, this one sung by Kristen Chenoweth. Chenoweth is really pretty. She's wearing a pretty nice grey dress. I like grey dresses. Women should wear that color more often. The song, however, is not that great. The choices must not have been that good this year.
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Judi Dench and Halle Berry are up to present... wait, no they're not. Two big curly headed guys whose names I can't remember who starred in movies I can't remember are presenting Best Sound Editing. My vote is for The Bourne Ultimatum. Sweet!!! Bourne won!!! And, I just realized something. This is the only category, other than Best Picture, for which I had seen all five movies. I would have been okay with anyone of them, except Transformers, winning. There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men both had great sound.
Best Sound Mixing. Bourne Ultimatum is up for this one also, so are Old Men, Ratatouille, and Transformers, as well as 3:10 to Yuma which I didn't see. Sweet!!! Bourne Ultimatum won for this one too!!! Excellent.
Forrest Whitaker is up to present Best Actress. From this category, I've only seen Juno, so my vote is for Ellen Page by default. Though, it's not like Cate Blanchett can do any wrong. I also like Laura Linney even though I haven't seen her in much. Marion Cotillard won for La Vie En Rose, a French film. Eehhhh. Whatever.
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Keri Russell is up to present a song from August Rush, something I never got around to seeing but am still very tempted to. Keri Russell should be nominated for Best Actress in Waitress. Waitress is one of two great films sadly overlooked this year, the other being Charlie Wilson's War. Waitress ties with Ocean's 13 as my favorite movie of 2007, but Waitress would be far more Oscar-friendly. Unfortunately, it came out during the summer, so I guess it got forgotten by Oscar season. If I had done a top 10 list of 2007 movies, Charlie Wilson's War also would have been in the top 10, if not top 5.
Owen Wilson is up to present Best Live Action Short Film. Needless to say, I didn't see any of these. The winner sounds like a French film. Whatever.
Jerry Seinfeld's character from Bee Movie is "up" to present Best Animated Short Film. Wow, bunch of foreign stuff here too. Something called Peter and the Wolf won. Looks like claymation. And, the makers are British this time. American short films must suck.
Alan Arkin is up to present Best Supporting Actress. Tilda Swinton won for her role in Michael Clayton. That's one of only two of the movies that I saw. She said she's giving her award to her agent for bringing her to America. She then jokes about George Clooney wearing the nippled Batsuit under his costume on the the set everyday. George looks embarrassed. But, even he mentioned the horrible movie Batman & Robin during the red carpet pre-show. I think he beats himself up quite a bit for that movie, but I don't blame him at all. I think all the blame rests with Joel Schumacher.
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Jessica Alba is up to present some of the awards already given out previously. Jon then makes a joke about Jessica Alba and Cate Blanchett both being pregnant but that with Jack Nicholson there, they may have to re-tally after the show. That's pretty funny.
Josh Brolin and James McAvoy are up to present Best Adapted Screenplay. Did Josh Brolin just call Jack Nicholson, Mike Nicholson? My pick here is There Will Be Blood. The winners are the Coen brothers for No Country for Old Men.
A boring business guy is up now to explain the voting.
Mylie Cyrus is up to present another song from Enchanted, this one sung by Kristen Chenoweth. Chenoweth is really pretty. She's wearing a pretty nice grey dress. I like grey dresses. Women should wear that color more often. The song, however, is not that great. The choices must not have been that good this year.
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Judi Dench and Halle Berry are up to present... wait, no they're not. Two big curly headed guys whose names I can't remember who starred in movies I can't remember are presenting Best Sound Editing. My vote is for The Bourne Ultimatum. Sweet!!! Bourne won!!! And, I just realized something. This is the only category, other than Best Picture, for which I had seen all five movies. I would have been okay with anyone of them, except Transformers, winning. There Will Be Blood and No Country for Old Men both had great sound.
Best Sound Mixing. Bourne Ultimatum is up for this one also, so are Old Men, Ratatouille, and Transformers, as well as 3:10 to Yuma which I didn't see. Sweet!!! Bourne Ultimatum won for this one too!!! Excellent.
Forrest Whitaker is up to present Best Actress. From this category, I've only seen Juno, so my vote is for Ellen Page by default. Though, it's not like Cate Blanchett can do any wrong. I also like Laura Linney even though I haven't seen her in much. Marion Cotillard won for La Vie En Rose, a French film. Eehhhh. Whatever.
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Live Blogging: 80th Annual Academy Awards [Hour 1]
The show is opening with computer graphic montage of images from various movies throughout history. Many of the images come from movies that were probably never up for Oscars, except maybe the technical ones. Lots of sci-fi images.
And, with no fanfare or buildup, here's Jon Stewart. He brings up the Writer's Strike first. "Welcome to the make-up sex," he says.
Jon comments about the focus on killers in several of the nominations this year. "Thank goodness for teenage pregnancy," he says, referring to Juno.
Dang, who is that with George Clooney. Is that his wife, his girlfriend, his cousin? Whoever she is, she's quite, quite nice looking.
Jon awkwardly throw in an Iraq War reference. Then he jokes about John McCain's age.
Jennifer Garner is presenting the first award. Nice dress; slightly weird hair-do. Best Costume Design. I only saw Atonement. The designer for Elizabeth: The Golden Age won. Although I didn't see it, I could tell from clips & previews that it's a pretty deserving movie for this category.
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George Clooney is up to... talk about something, I think the history of the Oscars. He looks less grey right now. I wonder if colors his hair in movies or in real life. Wow, these clips of past Oscars make me wish the more recent Oscars were more interesting.
Anne Hathaway and Steve Carrell are up to present Best Animated Film. Steve was "thinking" he was presenting Best Documentary. Anne corrected him. Did Steve Carrell just say, "Shit"? My vote goes for Ratatouille, but just barely. I think it was good but over-rated. Truthfully, I didn't see Surf's Up, and I wouldn't want to see Persepolis. Ratatouille won. Whatever.
Katherine Heigl is up to present Best Make-Up. She looks pretty nice. She apologizes, saying she's not very good at this and incredibly nervous. I thought she was joking, but maybe not. She pretty much just presents the nominees, and she does look & sound genuinely nervous. La Vie En Rose won for Best Make-Up. Ehh, whatever. This was not a compelling category this year.
Amy Adams is up to sing a nominated song from Enchanted. I like Amy Adams. She was about the only thing I liked about the movie Junebug, and she also played a nice yet under-used character in Charlie Wilson's War. I've heard good things about Enchanted, even from a few male critics, but I haven't brought myself to see it yet. Maybe I'll break down and rent it one day.
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Dwayne Johnson is up to present Best Visual Effects. Noms: Golden Compasss, Pirates 3, Transformers. My picks is Golden Compass. And, it wins. Whoa. I was a little worried it would go to Transformers. Granted, Golden Compass wasn't a great movie (neither is Transformers), but specifically in terms of visuals, I had more problems with Transformers.
Cate Blanchett is up to present Best Art Direction. Noms: American Gangster (probably should have caught that one), Atonement, Golden Compass, Sweeney Todd, and There Will Be Blood. My pick is Golden Compass again. Ugh. Sweeney Todd got it. I didn't see that movie, but I could tell just by looking at it that I wouldn't want to.
Jon is joking about the wide acting range of Cate Blanchett, saying that the pitbull in No Country for Old Men was even played by Cate Blanchett. He then says that even he, right now, is being played by Cate Blanchett.
Jennifer Hudson is up to present Best Supporting Actor. Noms: Casey Affleck, Javier Barden (he'll probably win and is deserving), Phillip Seymour Hoffman (my personal pick), Hal Holbrook, and Tom Wilkinson (good but not super). The winner is: Javier Bardem. No big surprise. Is it just me or does Javier Barden look a lot like Jeffrey Dean Morgan (I think that's the right name of the actor who played Denny in Grey's Anatomy)?
And, with no fanfare or buildup, here's Jon Stewart. He brings up the Writer's Strike first. "Welcome to the make-up sex," he says.
Jon comments about the focus on killers in several of the nominations this year. "Thank goodness for teenage pregnancy," he says, referring to Juno.
Dang, who is that with George Clooney. Is that his wife, his girlfriend, his cousin? Whoever she is, she's quite, quite nice looking.
Jon awkwardly throw in an Iraq War reference. Then he jokes about John McCain's age.
Jennifer Garner is presenting the first award. Nice dress; slightly weird hair-do. Best Costume Design. I only saw Atonement. The designer for Elizabeth: The Golden Age won. Although I didn't see it, I could tell from clips & previews that it's a pretty deserving movie for this category.
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George Clooney is up to... talk about something, I think the history of the Oscars. He looks less grey right now. I wonder if colors his hair in movies or in real life. Wow, these clips of past Oscars make me wish the more recent Oscars were more interesting.
Anne Hathaway and Steve Carrell are up to present Best Animated Film. Steve was "thinking" he was presenting Best Documentary. Anne corrected him. Did Steve Carrell just say, "Shit"? My vote goes for Ratatouille, but just barely. I think it was good but over-rated. Truthfully, I didn't see Surf's Up, and I wouldn't want to see Persepolis. Ratatouille won. Whatever.
Katherine Heigl is up to present Best Make-Up. She looks pretty nice. She apologizes, saying she's not very good at this and incredibly nervous. I thought she was joking, but maybe not. She pretty much just presents the nominees, and she does look & sound genuinely nervous. La Vie En Rose won for Best Make-Up. Ehh, whatever. This was not a compelling category this year.
Amy Adams is up to sing a nominated song from Enchanted. I like Amy Adams. She was about the only thing I liked about the movie Junebug, and she also played a nice yet under-used character in Charlie Wilson's War. I've heard good things about Enchanted, even from a few male critics, but I haven't brought myself to see it yet. Maybe I'll break down and rent it one day.
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Dwayne Johnson is up to present Best Visual Effects. Noms: Golden Compasss, Pirates 3, Transformers. My picks is Golden Compass. And, it wins. Whoa. I was a little worried it would go to Transformers. Granted, Golden Compass wasn't a great movie (neither is Transformers), but specifically in terms of visuals, I had more problems with Transformers.
Cate Blanchett is up to present Best Art Direction. Noms: American Gangster (probably should have caught that one), Atonement, Golden Compass, Sweeney Todd, and There Will Be Blood. My pick is Golden Compass again. Ugh. Sweeney Todd got it. I didn't see that movie, but I could tell just by looking at it that I wouldn't want to.
Jon is joking about the wide acting range of Cate Blanchett, saying that the pitbull in No Country for Old Men was even played by Cate Blanchett. He then says that even he, right now, is being played by Cate Blanchett.
Jennifer Hudson is up to present Best Supporting Actor. Noms: Casey Affleck, Javier Barden (he'll probably win and is deserving), Phillip Seymour Hoffman (my personal pick), Hal Holbrook, and Tom Wilkinson (good but not super). The winner is: Javier Bardem. No big surprise. Is it just me or does Javier Barden look a lot like Jeffrey Dean Morgan (I think that's the right name of the actor who played Denny in Grey's Anatomy)?
Sunday, September 16, 2007
Live Blogging: 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards (Hour Three)
[10:04] Masi Oka from Heroes is up to introduce Tom from MySpace who is presenting an Emmy to Al Gore for Achievement in Interactive Programming (over the internet). I wonder if Gore will announce a presidential bid, or at least joke about doing so.
[10:07] No presidential announcement from Gore.
[10:08] Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher are up to present... Holy crap, Joely's cleavage is moving around!!! I don't know if those are real or not, but either way, she's got some muscles underneath, uh, those. Brad is joking about them. What award is this for? Oh, Best Performance in a Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. The winner is: Tony Bennett, yet again.
[10:10] Anthony Anderson and Teri Hatcher are up to announce the nominees for Best Guest Actors & Actresses in Comedies. The winners were: Stanley Tucci and Elaine Stritch (sp?) for, uh, two shows. I'm losing focus. Can you tell?
[10:13] Elaine has trouble reading the teleprompter. She says she's not faking it, that she really doesn't know what the hell she's doing. Then she struggles to read out the joke on the teleprompter. She won an Emmy??? Anyway, they're presenting Best Directing for a Comedy. The winner is: Richard Shepherd for the Ugly Betty pilot. Okay, I can see that. Really good episode; really good pilot. The director for the musical episode of Scrubs was also nominated, and he/she would have been my first choice.
[10:16] Anthony and Teri are back for Best Writing in a Comedy. Two of the nominees are for 30 Rock. The winner is: Greg Daniels for the "Gay Witch Hunt" episode of The Office.
[10:24] Wayne Brady is out to present... something. But, first, he's making two semi-randomly chosen stars to do some kind of competition. It's Rainn Wilson, from The Office, and Kanye West. The competition is regarding the lyrics of music of... Kanye West. Kanye West goes first and gets it wrong because he pronounces the last word "you" instead of the more proper "ya." Rainn does it and gets it right. That was kind of dumb and took way too much time. It's crap like this that makes award shows three hours or longer, which also causes the winners of some of the more anticipated awards have to rush through their acceptance speeches. If they cut out half of the "cute" little comedy moments and half the musical numbers, they'd have time to let the more important winners at the end have just as much time as the obscure people who win awards in the middle of the show.
[10:29] Rainn and Kanye are presenting Best Reality Competition. The winner is: The Amazing Race. Wow, don't they win every year? They practically have an army on stage to accept the award.
[10:35] Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are up. Colbert has a gas-powered leaf blower on his back. Stewart berates him for using a gas-powered motor indoors at the first "green" Emmys. Colbert claims that the motor runs on alternative fuel -- the tears of Al Gore. Okay, I like these guys, but even their skit is going on too long. Hello, third hour of the show. Important awards still to give out. Tick-tock, tick-tock.
[10:38] Finally... Stephen and Jon are presenting the Lead Comedy Actor. The winner is: Ricky Gervais, for Extras. Gervais is not there, so Jon jokes that they're going to give the award to their friend Steve Carell, who then runs up on stage and jumps with Stephen and Jon for joy.
[10:40] Felicity Huffman and Hugh Laurie are presenting Best Lead Drama Acress. The winner is: Sally Field. Yay!!! She was my first choice. Of course, it's partly because I don't watch any of the other shows of the other actresses. Okay, Field hasn't been cut off by the music quite yet, but she's also talking really, really fast.
[10:42] Okay, now Field's trying to continue over the music, but she forgets what she's saying. Then, she remembers, they give up on the music, and then they cut off the sound and cut to the weird ceiling angle again. I wonder if Field got censored.
[10:43] Now, their doing the In Memory portion for those that died during the year. Larry "Bud" Melman (from David Letterman Show) Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard). Steve Irwin. Joel Siegel (movie critic). Jack Palance. Tom Poston. Tom Snyder. Ed Bradley. Merv Griffin.
[10:51] William Shatner and Debra Messing are up to present Best Lead Comdedy Actress. Come on America Ferrera!!! The winner is: America Ferrera, for Ugly Betty!!! Yay!!! Granted, I don't watch the other shows people are nominated for either. But, America really is deserving too.
[10:54] Jimmy Smits and Kate Walsh are up to present... Their new shows coming this fall. Okay, the award... Best Lead Drama Actor. The winner is: James Spader, for Boston Legal. Wow!!! That's a surprise. I love Hugh Laurie (House), Spader, and Denis Leary (Rescue Me), but Laurie was slightly more my 1st choice. Spader was my 2nd, with Leary being an equally close 3rd. I'm shocked that it wasn't James Gandolfini, for The Sopranos. In fact, in his acceptance speech, Spader said he felt like he just stole a bunch of money from the mob. Well, if Spader can get the acting Emmy over Gandolfini, maybe Sopranos won't necessarily get the Drama Series award.
[11:02] Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton are presenting Best Comedy Series. The winner is: 30 Rock. (???) I'm surprised Ugly Betty didn't get it. Again, I don't watch any of those shows other than Ugly Betty.
[11:08] Helen Mirren is up to present Best Drama Series. Nominees: Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, House, Sopranos. The winner is: The Sopranos. Boooo!!! Oh well. It's not much of a surprise, with it being their last year. Maybe it's as good as most say. I don't have HBO, so I've never seen a single episode. My hopes were for House or at least Heroes. I would also have been pleasantly surprised with Boston Legal and somewhat okay with Grey's Anatomy.
[11:11] Yay!!! It's over. Now I can watch the season finale of The 4400 on TiVo. Good night.
[10:07] No presidential announcement from Gore.
[10:08] Brad Garrett and Joely Fisher are up to present... Holy crap, Joely's cleavage is moving around!!! I don't know if those are real or not, but either way, she's got some muscles underneath, uh, those. Brad is joking about them. What award is this for? Oh, Best Performance in a Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. The winner is: Tony Bennett, yet again.
[10:10] Anthony Anderson and Teri Hatcher are up to announce the nominees for Best Guest Actors & Actresses in Comedies. The winners were: Stanley Tucci and Elaine Stritch (sp?) for, uh, two shows. I'm losing focus. Can you tell?
[10:13] Elaine has trouble reading the teleprompter. She says she's not faking it, that she really doesn't know what the hell she's doing. Then she struggles to read out the joke on the teleprompter. She won an Emmy??? Anyway, they're presenting Best Directing for a Comedy. The winner is: Richard Shepherd for the Ugly Betty pilot. Okay, I can see that. Really good episode; really good pilot. The director for the musical episode of Scrubs was also nominated, and he/she would have been my first choice.
[10:16] Anthony and Teri are back for Best Writing in a Comedy. Two of the nominees are for 30 Rock. The winner is: Greg Daniels for the "Gay Witch Hunt" episode of The Office.
[10:24] Wayne Brady is out to present... something. But, first, he's making two semi-randomly chosen stars to do some kind of competition. It's Rainn Wilson, from The Office, and Kanye West. The competition is regarding the lyrics of music of... Kanye West. Kanye West goes first and gets it wrong because he pronounces the last word "you" instead of the more proper "ya." Rainn does it and gets it right. That was kind of dumb and took way too much time. It's crap like this that makes award shows three hours or longer, which also causes the winners of some of the more anticipated awards have to rush through their acceptance speeches. If they cut out half of the "cute" little comedy moments and half the musical numbers, they'd have time to let the more important winners at the end have just as much time as the obscure people who win awards in the middle of the show.
[10:29] Rainn and Kanye are presenting Best Reality Competition. The winner is: The Amazing Race. Wow, don't they win every year? They practically have an army on stage to accept the award.
[10:35] Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are up. Colbert has a gas-powered leaf blower on his back. Stewart berates him for using a gas-powered motor indoors at the first "green" Emmys. Colbert claims that the motor runs on alternative fuel -- the tears of Al Gore. Okay, I like these guys, but even their skit is going on too long. Hello, third hour of the show. Important awards still to give out. Tick-tock, tick-tock.
[10:38] Finally... Stephen and Jon are presenting the Lead Comedy Actor. The winner is: Ricky Gervais, for Extras. Gervais is not there, so Jon jokes that they're going to give the award to their friend Steve Carell, who then runs up on stage and jumps with Stephen and Jon for joy.
[10:40] Felicity Huffman and Hugh Laurie are presenting Best Lead Drama Acress. The winner is: Sally Field. Yay!!! She was my first choice. Of course, it's partly because I don't watch any of the other shows of the other actresses. Okay, Field hasn't been cut off by the music quite yet, but she's also talking really, really fast.
[10:42] Okay, now Field's trying to continue over the music, but she forgets what she's saying. Then, she remembers, they give up on the music, and then they cut off the sound and cut to the weird ceiling angle again. I wonder if Field got censored.
[10:43] Now, their doing the In Memory portion for those that died during the year. Larry "Bud" Melman (from David Letterman Show) Don Herbert (Mr. Wizard). Steve Irwin. Joel Siegel (movie critic). Jack Palance. Tom Poston. Tom Snyder. Ed Bradley. Merv Griffin.
[10:51] William Shatner and Debra Messing are up to present Best Lead Comdedy Actress. Come on America Ferrera!!! The winner is: America Ferrera, for Ugly Betty!!! Yay!!! Granted, I don't watch the other shows people are nominated for either. But, America really is deserving too.
[10:54] Jimmy Smits and Kate Walsh are up to present... Their new shows coming this fall. Okay, the award... Best Lead Drama Actor. The winner is: James Spader, for Boston Legal. Wow!!! That's a surprise. I love Hugh Laurie (House), Spader, and Denis Leary (Rescue Me), but Laurie was slightly more my 1st choice. Spader was my 2nd, with Leary being an equally close 3rd. I'm shocked that it wasn't James Gandolfini, for The Sopranos. In fact, in his acceptance speech, Spader said he felt like he just stole a bunch of money from the mob. Well, if Spader can get the acting Emmy over Gandolfini, maybe Sopranos won't necessarily get the Drama Series award.
[11:02] Kelsey Grammer and Patricia Heaton are presenting Best Comedy Series. The winner is: 30 Rock. (???) I'm surprised Ugly Betty didn't get it. Again, I don't watch any of those shows other than Ugly Betty.
[11:08] Helen Mirren is up to present Best Drama Series. Nominees: Boston Legal, Grey's Anatomy, Heroes, House, Sopranos. The winner is: The Sopranos. Boooo!!! Oh well. It's not much of a surprise, with it being their last year. Maybe it's as good as most say. I don't have HBO, so I've never seen a single episode. My hopes were for House or at least Heroes. I would also have been pleasantly surprised with Boston Legal and somewhat okay with Grey's Anatomy.
[11:11] Yay!!! It's over. Now I can watch the season finale of The 4400 on TiVo. Good night.
Live Blogging: 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards (Hour Two)
[09:02] Queen Latifah is introducing a tribute to Roots.
[09:05] Now, they've got seven of the cast members of Roots on stage. Cicely Tyson, Ben Varene, Levar Burton, John Amos, Louis Gossett Jr., Ed Asner, and one other person whose name I don't remember (not familiar with her at all). Anyway, they're up there to announce the winner for Best Mini-Series. And, the winner is: Broken Trail. Robert Duvall gives the acceptance speech.
[09:09] Neill Patrick Harris and Hayden Paniteirre (sp?) are announcing the nominees for Guest Actor/Actress Awards.
[09:11] The winner of the Guest Actress Award -- who I don't recognize -- is presenting the Best Drama Directing Award. The winner is: Alan Taylor for Sopranos. Some of the other nominees included directors from a great episode of Battlestar Galactica, an episode of Heroes, and the pilot for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
[09:14] Hayden and Neill are back with Best Drama Writing. The winner is: David Chase for Sopranos. Sopranos had three nominations, two of which were from David Chase. The other two were from Battlestar Galactica and Lost.
[09:20] Steve Carell is presenting Best Variety, Music, or Comedy Series. The nominees are the usual late night shows. The winner is: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. That definitely would have been my first choice. Yay!
[09:24] Carell is back with Best Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. The nominees are varied and obscure. The winner is the Tony Bennett special.
[09:27] Ryan is introducing some suits from Ernst & Young who are in charge of something dealing with the Emmys. Whatever.
[09:28] Mark Harmon and Marcia Cross are presenting Best Supporting Mini-Series or Movie Actress. The winner is: Judy Davis for The Starter Wife. She's not there. Oh well.
[09:29] The chairman of the TV Academy is up now doing a general tribute to TV and the Emmys. Boring.
[09:36] Glenn Close, Kyra Sedgwick, and May Louise Parker are up now presenting an award for Best TV Movie. Their microphones don't seem to be working, and Mary Louise almost acts like she doesn't want to be there, at least for a second. Myabe she realized her mic was messing up and it distracted her. The winner: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
[09:39] Joe Montegna (sp?) is introducing musical group The Jersey Boys, which maybe is a musical tribute to the Sopranos (???). I don't know.
[09:44] Now, the entire cast of The Sopranos are up on stage. Hmm. I guess the musical number was a tribute. So, they haven't even won the Best Drama Series award yet, and they get stage time anyway? Odd.
[09:49] Sally Field and Patrick Dempsey are presenting Best Lead Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie. Lot of big names in this category. The winner is: the biggest name of them all, the Queen herself, Helen Mirren, for Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Masterpiece Theater). I like her. Didn't see her mini-series or movie, but I'm very cool with her winning. She just made a comment that Americans are very generous. Wow, she actually requested that the music cut her off because she knew she was babbling. Yeah, I like her a lot.
[09:52] Lewis Black is up presenting... nothing. He was just up there for a tirade that I chose not to pay attention to because I'm multi-tasking and commenting on someone else's blog right now.
[09:56] Two people I don't recognize are presenting Best Director for a Mini-Series or Movie. The winner is: Phillip Martin for Prime Suspect: The FInal Act (Masterpiece Theater) Wow, he had a super short speech.
[09:57] The same two people are back for Best Writing for a Mini-Series or Movie. The winner is: Frank Deasy for Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Masterpiece Theater). Wow, he was super short with his speech too. These British guys know how to say it and get it over with.
[09:05] Now, they've got seven of the cast members of Roots on stage. Cicely Tyson, Ben Varene, Levar Burton, John Amos, Louis Gossett Jr., Ed Asner, and one other person whose name I don't remember (not familiar with her at all). Anyway, they're up there to announce the winner for Best Mini-Series. And, the winner is: Broken Trail. Robert Duvall gives the acceptance speech.
[09:09] Neill Patrick Harris and Hayden Paniteirre (sp?) are announcing the nominees for Guest Actor/Actress Awards.
[09:11] The winner of the Guest Actress Award -- who I don't recognize -- is presenting the Best Drama Directing Award. The winner is: Alan Taylor for Sopranos. Some of the other nominees included directors from a great episode of Battlestar Galactica, an episode of Heroes, and the pilot for Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.
[09:14] Hayden and Neill are back with Best Drama Writing. The winner is: David Chase for Sopranos. Sopranos had three nominations, two of which were from David Chase. The other two were from Battlestar Galactica and Lost.
[09:20] Steve Carell is presenting Best Variety, Music, or Comedy Series. The nominees are the usual late night shows. The winner is: The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. That definitely would have been my first choice. Yay!
[09:24] Carell is back with Best Variety, Music, or Comedy Special. The nominees are varied and obscure. The winner is the Tony Bennett special.
[09:27] Ryan is introducing some suits from Ernst & Young who are in charge of something dealing with the Emmys. Whatever.
[09:28] Mark Harmon and Marcia Cross are presenting Best Supporting Mini-Series or Movie Actress. The winner is: Judy Davis for The Starter Wife. She's not there. Oh well.
[09:29] The chairman of the TV Academy is up now doing a general tribute to TV and the Emmys. Boring.
[09:36] Glenn Close, Kyra Sedgwick, and May Louise Parker are up now presenting an award for Best TV Movie. Their microphones don't seem to be working, and Mary Louise almost acts like she doesn't want to be there, at least for a second. Myabe she realized her mic was messing up and it distracted her. The winner: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.
[09:39] Joe Montegna (sp?) is introducing musical group The Jersey Boys, which maybe is a musical tribute to the Sopranos (???). I don't know.
[09:44] Now, the entire cast of The Sopranos are up on stage. Hmm. I guess the musical number was a tribute. So, they haven't even won the Best Drama Series award yet, and they get stage time anyway? Odd.
[09:49] Sally Field and Patrick Dempsey are presenting Best Lead Actress in a Mini-Series or Movie. Lot of big names in this category. The winner is: the biggest name of them all, the Queen herself, Helen Mirren, for Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Masterpiece Theater). I like her. Didn't see her mini-series or movie, but I'm very cool with her winning. She just made a comment that Americans are very generous. Wow, she actually requested that the music cut her off because she knew she was babbling. Yeah, I like her a lot.
[09:52] Lewis Black is up presenting... nothing. He was just up there for a tirade that I chose not to pay attention to because I'm multi-tasking and commenting on someone else's blog right now.
[09:56] Two people I don't recognize are presenting Best Director for a Mini-Series or Movie. The winner is: Phillip Martin for Prime Suspect: The FInal Act (Masterpiece Theater) Wow, he had a super short speech.
[09:57] The same two people are back for Best Writing for a Mini-Series or Movie. The winner is: Frank Deasy for Prime Suspect: The Final Act (Masterpiece Theater). Wow, he was super short with his speech too. These British guys know how to say it and get it over with.
Live Blogging: 2007 Primetime Emmy Awards (Hour One)
[08:04] Okay, getting a slightly late start on the live blogging. Two characters from The Family Guy just sang a cute song about today's TV shows. And now, Ryan Seacrest, the host, is on stage.
[08:06] Ryan just hit on two of the women from Desperate Housewives. Then he talked to William Shatner. Ryan knows too much about fashion. He keeps commenting on people's clothes.
[08:08] We just dodged a bullet. I thought Ryan was about to sing. It was just a fake-out. Before that, he pointed out that the Emmys are "in the round," with the stage being in the center and the audience surrounding all sides.
[08:09] Ray Romano is on stage for the first award. He's babbling right now, and the camera cut to a weird ceiling angle for a few seconds with the audio cut off. I wonder if something happened requiring some censoring or it was a random glitch.
[8:11] After two minutes of a stand-up "comedy" routine, Romano is finally getting to the nominations of Best Supporting Comedy Actors. Jeremy Piven from Entourage got it. I don't watch any of these shows, so I don't care.
[08:14] America Ferrera and Vanessa Williams are on stage for Best Supporting Drama Actors. My vote is for Michael Emerson from Lost or Masi Oka from Heroes. Williams Shatner wouldn't be bad either. The winner is: Terry O'Quinn. Wow. He would have been my 4th choice. I didn't even think he had much to do on Lost this season. I guess the nomination and win were based soley on the one or two episode that were Locke-centric. That's nice; he commends his castmate, Michael Emerson. The music cuts him off.
[08:21] We're back from break, and Ryan is going on about women on TV. He works in a joke about drugs and Paula Abdul that catches Paula off guard.
[08:22] Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tiny Fey are giving out the award for Best Supporting Comedy Actress. My first choice is Vanessa Williams, because Ugly Betty is the only comedy I watch. And the winner is: Jaime Pressley, from My Name is Earl. I would have been okay with Jenna Fischer winning too. I saw my first episode of The Office today, and from what I know of Jenna's character Pam from that episode and random clips I've seen, I'd say I could easily get a crush on Pam.
[08:26] Kyle Chandler and Katherine Heigl are presenting Best Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series or Movie. Katherine couldn't resist correcting the announcer on the pronounciation of her last name (high-gul, not high-jel). I don't know; I think she should have just let it go. Thomas Haden Church won for Broken Trail.
[08:33] Ellen Degeneres is asking Hugh Laurie is she should have "something" removed. I like her. She's funny. Except right now she's kind of babbling, which I have mixed feelings about. She's introducing a montage of late night show one-liners. The montage doubles as a tribute to Tom Snyder who died this past year.
[08:37] Eva Longoria and the cast of Entourage are presenting Best Supporting Drama Actresses. My main picks are for Rachel Griffiths from Brothers & Sisters or Chandra Wilson from Grey's Anatomy. The winner is: Katherine Heigl. She would have been my 3rd choice. You can tell that Katherine reacted by saying, "Oh, sshhit," because the sound cut out, and they cut to the weird ceiling camera again. Oddly, I doubt you could have heard her anyway, so I guess they didn't want to offend anyone who could read lips.
[08:41] Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jon Cryer are presenting Best Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Series. The nominees come from the following shows: Colbert Report, Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Show with David Letterman, and Real Time with Bill Maher. The visual montages of the writing teams are hilarious. I hope those end up on YouTube. The winner is: Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Weird. That would have been my 3rd or 4th choice. My first choice would have been Daily Show.
[08:50] Ryan just made a good joke about the cast of Kid Nation all on treadmills providing power for the awards show. Now, a musical number with Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera. Say what?
[08:53] Okay, the musical number wasn't bad but was kind of pointless. Christina looks much more mature and classy than she did in her skanky phase, but she also looks over-processed (too much make-up).
[08:54] Alec Baldwin is now presenting Best Directing for Variety, Music, or Comedy Series. The winner is: Rob Marshall for some kind of Tony Bennett special. Okay, I guess that's why they got Bennett to sing beforehand.
[08:55] Ali Larter and Keifer Sutherland are presenting Best Lead Actor in Mini-Series or Movie. The winner is: Robert Duvall for Broken Trail. Didn't see it; don't care. But, I do like Robert Duvall, so good for him.
[08:06] Ryan just hit on two of the women from Desperate Housewives. Then he talked to William Shatner. Ryan knows too much about fashion. He keeps commenting on people's clothes.
[08:08] We just dodged a bullet. I thought Ryan was about to sing. It was just a fake-out. Before that, he pointed out that the Emmys are "in the round," with the stage being in the center and the audience surrounding all sides.
[08:09] Ray Romano is on stage for the first award. He's babbling right now, and the camera cut to a weird ceiling angle for a few seconds with the audio cut off. I wonder if something happened requiring some censoring or it was a random glitch.
[8:11] After two minutes of a stand-up "comedy" routine, Romano is finally getting to the nominations of Best Supporting Comedy Actors. Jeremy Piven from Entourage got it. I don't watch any of these shows, so I don't care.
[08:14] America Ferrera and Vanessa Williams are on stage for Best Supporting Drama Actors. My vote is for Michael Emerson from Lost or Masi Oka from Heroes. Williams Shatner wouldn't be bad either. The winner is: Terry O'Quinn. Wow. He would have been my 4th choice. I didn't even think he had much to do on Lost this season. I guess the nomination and win were based soley on the one or two episode that were Locke-centric. That's nice; he commends his castmate, Michael Emerson. The music cuts him off.
[08:21] We're back from break, and Ryan is going on about women on TV. He works in a joke about drugs and Paula Abdul that catches Paula off guard.
[08:22] Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tiny Fey are giving out the award for Best Supporting Comedy Actress. My first choice is Vanessa Williams, because Ugly Betty is the only comedy I watch. And the winner is: Jaime Pressley, from My Name is Earl. I would have been okay with Jenna Fischer winning too. I saw my first episode of The Office today, and from what I know of Jenna's character Pam from that episode and random clips I've seen, I'd say I could easily get a crush on Pam.
[08:26] Kyle Chandler and Katherine Heigl are presenting Best Supporting Actor in a Mini-Series or Movie. Katherine couldn't resist correcting the announcer on the pronounciation of her last name (high-gul, not high-jel). I don't know; I think she should have just let it go. Thomas Haden Church won for Broken Trail.
[08:33] Ellen Degeneres is asking Hugh Laurie is she should have "something" removed. I like her. She's funny. Except right now she's kind of babbling, which I have mixed feelings about. She's introducing a montage of late night show one-liners. The montage doubles as a tribute to Tom Snyder who died this past year.
[08:37] Eva Longoria and the cast of Entourage are presenting Best Supporting Drama Actresses. My main picks are for Rachel Griffiths from Brothers & Sisters or Chandra Wilson from Grey's Anatomy. The winner is: Katherine Heigl. She would have been my 3rd choice. You can tell that Katherine reacted by saying, "Oh, sshhit," because the sound cut out, and they cut to the weird ceiling camera again. Oddly, I doubt you could have heard her anyway, so I guess they didn't want to offend anyone who could read lips.
[08:41] Jennifer Love Hewitt and Jon Cryer are presenting Best Writing for a Variety, Music, or Comedy Series. The nominees come from the following shows: Colbert Report, Daily Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, Late Show with David Letterman, and Real Time with Bill Maher. The visual montages of the writing teams are hilarious. I hope those end up on YouTube. The winner is: Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Weird. That would have been my 3rd or 4th choice. My first choice would have been Daily Show.
[08:50] Ryan just made a good joke about the cast of Kid Nation all on treadmills providing power for the awards show. Now, a musical number with Tony Bennett and Christina Aguilera. Say what?
[08:53] Okay, the musical number wasn't bad but was kind of pointless. Christina looks much more mature and classy than she did in her skanky phase, but she also looks over-processed (too much make-up).
[08:54] Alec Baldwin is now presenting Best Directing for Variety, Music, or Comedy Series. The winner is: Rob Marshall for some kind of Tony Bennett special. Okay, I guess that's why they got Bennett to sing beforehand.
[08:55] Ali Larter and Keifer Sutherland are presenting Best Lead Actor in Mini-Series or Movie. The winner is: Robert Duvall for Broken Trail. Didn't see it; don't care. But, I do like Robert Duvall, so good for him.
Sunday, February 25, 2007
Live Blogging: Oscars 2007 Hour 4
[11:33] Still scratching my head over the Melissa Ethridge win. How did Dreamgirls lose that category? Maybe by having three songs, the votes got split too much.
[11:35] Will Smith is introducing a montage of Michael Mann movies.
[11:39] Just looked up Michael Mann at IMDb.com. He's a producer. Wasn't sure about that.
[11:40] Kate Winslet is presenting Best Film Editing. My pick: Children of Men. My prediction: The Departed. If Children of Men couldn't even get a Best Dir. nomination and got robbed in Best Cin., it ought to at least win Best Editing. I'd be okay with United 93 too. The winner: The Departed. I guessed it right, but I don't get it. Children of Men is just getting severely robbed. Not happy.
[11:44] Jodie Foster is introducing the montage of those that died this past year.
[11:52] Phillip Seymour Hoffman is presenting Best Lead Actress. My pick & prediction: Helen Mirren (The Queen). The winner: Helen Mirren!!! Yay!!! Best Oscar acceptance speech of the night too. This lady has poise.
[11:56] The tumblers are forming the silhouette of a gun to the tune of James Bond. I think. It didn't sound totally like the James Bond theme.
[12:00] Ellen is vaccuuming the front row. That's funny.
[12:01] Reese Witherspoon is presenting Best Lead Actor. My pick & prediction: Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland). The winner: Forest Whitaker!!! Yay again!!! Oh no, he's rambling like he was at the Golden Globes. He's telling a story. They're going to cut him off, I just know it.
[12:05] Okay, he's not exactly rambling, he just had a shaky start. He's getting to thanking people. Wow, he thanked everyone. He thanked his mom & dad, his wife, his kids, and God. Good for him.
[12:07] Francis Ford Copolla, Stephen Spielberg, and George Lucas are presenting Best Director. My pick: Paul Greengrass. My prediction: Martin Scorsese. The winner: Martin Scorsese. Okay, so the Oscar curse is over for Scorsese, so next year, can we give it to someone who really does the best job on his/her film. The Departed was good, but I thought Paul Greengrass and Clint Eastwood made better films.
[12:11] Yay. Clips from The Queen. Best of the Oscar movies and my third favorite movie of all 2006.
[12:12] Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson are presenting Best Picture. My pick: The Queen. My prediction: Too close to call. The winner: The Departed. Well, that's good enough. I would have preferred The Queen or at least Letters From Iwo Jima, but I'm also *very* glad that Babel and Little Miss Sunshine lost. The Departed was my middle choice, so this is good enough.
[12:17] ...And, just like that, it's over. So weird how there's so much anticipation and build up, but after that last award, the host just says thanks and good night, and that's it. I'll have to review the final tally tomorrow to see how many picks and predictions I got right. There were more upsets than I expected. Well, a fun experience, and now it's over. I can finally stop watching movies. ;) Just kidding.
[11:35] Will Smith is introducing a montage of Michael Mann movies.
[11:39] Just looked up Michael Mann at IMDb.com. He's a producer. Wasn't sure about that.
[11:40] Kate Winslet is presenting Best Film Editing. My pick: Children of Men. My prediction: The Departed. If Children of Men couldn't even get a Best Dir. nomination and got robbed in Best Cin., it ought to at least win Best Editing. I'd be okay with United 93 too. The winner: The Departed. I guessed it right, but I don't get it. Children of Men is just getting severely robbed. Not happy.
[11:44] Jodie Foster is introducing the montage of those that died this past year.
[11:52] Phillip Seymour Hoffman is presenting Best Lead Actress. My pick & prediction: Helen Mirren (The Queen). The winner: Helen Mirren!!! Yay!!! Best Oscar acceptance speech of the night too. This lady has poise.
[11:56] The tumblers are forming the silhouette of a gun to the tune of James Bond. I think. It didn't sound totally like the James Bond theme.
[12:00] Ellen is vaccuuming the front row. That's funny.
[12:01] Reese Witherspoon is presenting Best Lead Actor. My pick & prediction: Forest Whitaker (Last King of Scotland). The winner: Forest Whitaker!!! Yay again!!! Oh no, he's rambling like he was at the Golden Globes. He's telling a story. They're going to cut him off, I just know it.
[12:05] Okay, he's not exactly rambling, he just had a shaky start. He's getting to thanking people. Wow, he thanked everyone. He thanked his mom & dad, his wife, his kids, and God. Good for him.
[12:07] Francis Ford Copolla, Stephen Spielberg, and George Lucas are presenting Best Director. My pick: Paul Greengrass. My prediction: Martin Scorsese. The winner: Martin Scorsese. Okay, so the Oscar curse is over for Scorsese, so next year, can we give it to someone who really does the best job on his/her film. The Departed was good, but I thought Paul Greengrass and Clint Eastwood made better films.
[12:11] Yay. Clips from The Queen. Best of the Oscar movies and my third favorite movie of all 2006.
[12:12] Diane Keaton and Jack Nicholson are presenting Best Picture. My pick: The Queen. My prediction: Too close to call. The winner: The Departed. Well, that's good enough. I would have preferred The Queen or at least Letters From Iwo Jima, but I'm also *very* glad that Babel and Little Miss Sunshine lost. The Departed was my middle choice, so this is good enough.
[12:17] ...And, just like that, it's over. So weird how there's so much anticipation and build up, but after that last award, the host just says thanks and good night, and that's it. I'll have to review the final tally tomorrow to see how many picks and predictions I got right. There were more upsets than I expected. Well, a fun experience, and now it's over. I can finally stop watching movies. ;) Just kidding.
Live Blogging: Oscars 2007 Hour 3
[10:33] The tumblers just formed snakes from Snakes on a Plan.
[10:34] George Clooney is presenting Best Supporting Actress. My pick & prediction is Jennifer Hudson. My pick is kind of a tie with Cate Blanchett being a high choice for me too. The winner: Jennifer Hudson!!! Good for her! I was afraid we were going to have another upset. She's kind of rambling and forgetting names, but she did thanked God and her grandmother. That's good. Yay!!!
[10:41] Eva Green and a guy whose name I can't pronounce are presenting Best Documentary Short. Didn't see any of these. The winner: The Blood of Yingzhou District.
[10:44] Jerry Seinfeld is presenting Best Documentary Feature. Also known as, Another Reason to Have Al Gore On Stage. Seinfeld is joking about those who don't win the award. That's pretty funny. He just called the documentaries depressing. That's even funnier. The winner: An Inconvenient Truth. I'm actually pretty tempted to rent this. It's got me curious. Al Gore is getting to speak now. I like him a lot better now than I did in 2000. I wish I had known.
[10:50] Clint Eastwood is presenting a special award for Marconi who's done a lot of film scores. He was doing well at first, but Eastwood really started to flub up his delivery near the end. Before going to a Marconi montage, Eastwood says, "I should have worn my glasses." Yeah, if you're going to speak to an audience of millions and you can't see, glasses would be good.
[10:55] Celine Dion is now performing a song that I'm not sure has anything to do with recent movies.
[10:58] Man, Celine Dion has the *weirdest* facial expressions when she sings.
[11:00] Clint Eastwood is ?translating? for Marconi, I think. I guess that's Italian. I didn't know Eastwood knew Italian. Okay, why does this guy get to talk forever, but the other winners don't?
[11:06] Penelope Cruz and Hugh Jackman are presenting Best Original Score. I'm guess Best Original Song is up next, and I hope we get to hear Dreamgirls songs. For Score... My pick: The Queen. My prediction: Pan's Labyrinth. The winner: Babel. Wow, I got that one wrong all over.
[11:10] And here's the president of the Academy. They've sped him up in slight fast forward because Ellen bet him $1 he couldn't do his thing in less than 60 seconds. That's funny.
[11:11] Tobey MacGuire and Kirsten Dunst are presenting Best Original Screenplay. Wow, Kirsten Dunst has acted lately like she doesn't want to be in the Spider-Man movies, and she kind of acts like she doesn't want to be at the Oscars either. I used to really like her. For Orig. Screenplay... My pick: The Queen. My prediction: Babel, if not, then Little Miss Sunshine, basically one of the two I didn't like. The winner: Little Miss Sunshine. Frustrating. I just don't get it. The writer just said that the VW bus with the broken clutch actually happened to his family.
[11:15] The silhouette tumblers just formed the pitchfork-heeled shoe emblem from Devil Wears Prada.
[11:20] Jennifer Lopez is introducing the songs from Dreamgirls, performed by Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, and Keith Robinson. Hudson is singing "Love You I Do" and sounds excellent live.
[11:22] Beyonce joins Hudson on-stage. Beyonce's good, but I still think Hudson is better. Now, Jennifer is backing up Beyonce on "Listen". I think I like "Love You I Do" just slightly better.
[11:25] Anika Noni Rose and Keith Robinson are singing "Patience." I love this song on the album too, but it's not quite as good live. Rose and Robinson are either nervous or holding back or just not as powerful compared to Beyonce and Hudson. Beyonce & Hudson and a gospel choir have joined them on stage. This song works better as an ensemble piece.
[11:27] Wow, overall, that was great!!! Love those three songs. John Travolta and Queen Latifah are presenting Best Original Song. My pick: anything from Dreamgirls. My prediction: "Listen" (Dreamgirls). The winner: "I Need to Wake Up" (An Inconvenient Truth) by Melissa Ethridge. Huh? What? Uh, okay.
[10:34] George Clooney is presenting Best Supporting Actress. My pick & prediction is Jennifer Hudson. My pick is kind of a tie with Cate Blanchett being a high choice for me too. The winner: Jennifer Hudson!!! Good for her! I was afraid we were going to have another upset. She's kind of rambling and forgetting names, but she did thanked God and her grandmother. That's good. Yay!!!
[10:41] Eva Green and a guy whose name I can't pronounce are presenting Best Documentary Short. Didn't see any of these. The winner: The Blood of Yingzhou District.
[10:44] Jerry Seinfeld is presenting Best Documentary Feature. Also known as, Another Reason to Have Al Gore On Stage. Seinfeld is joking about those who don't win the award. That's pretty funny. He just called the documentaries depressing. That's even funnier. The winner: An Inconvenient Truth. I'm actually pretty tempted to rent this. It's got me curious. Al Gore is getting to speak now. I like him a lot better now than I did in 2000. I wish I had known.
[10:50] Clint Eastwood is presenting a special award for Marconi who's done a lot of film scores. He was doing well at first, but Eastwood really started to flub up his delivery near the end. Before going to a Marconi montage, Eastwood says, "I should have worn my glasses." Yeah, if you're going to speak to an audience of millions and you can't see, glasses would be good.
[10:55] Celine Dion is now performing a song that I'm not sure has anything to do with recent movies.
[10:58] Man, Celine Dion has the *weirdest* facial expressions when she sings.
[11:00] Clint Eastwood is ?translating? for Marconi, I think. I guess that's Italian. I didn't know Eastwood knew Italian. Okay, why does this guy get to talk forever, but the other winners don't?
[11:06] Penelope Cruz and Hugh Jackman are presenting Best Original Score. I'm guess Best Original Song is up next, and I hope we get to hear Dreamgirls songs. For Score... My pick: The Queen. My prediction: Pan's Labyrinth. The winner: Babel. Wow, I got that one wrong all over.
[11:10] And here's the president of the Academy. They've sped him up in slight fast forward because Ellen bet him $1 he couldn't do his thing in less than 60 seconds. That's funny.
[11:11] Tobey MacGuire and Kirsten Dunst are presenting Best Original Screenplay. Wow, Kirsten Dunst has acted lately like she doesn't want to be in the Spider-Man movies, and she kind of acts like she doesn't want to be at the Oscars either. I used to really like her. For Orig. Screenplay... My pick: The Queen. My prediction: Babel, if not, then Little Miss Sunshine, basically one of the two I didn't like. The winner: Little Miss Sunshine. Frustrating. I just don't get it. The writer just said that the VW bus with the broken clutch actually happened to his family.
[11:15] The silhouette tumblers just formed the pitchfork-heeled shoe emblem from Devil Wears Prada.
[11:20] Jennifer Lopez is introducing the songs from Dreamgirls, performed by Beyonce, Jennifer Hudson, Anika Noni Rose, and Keith Robinson. Hudson is singing "Love You I Do" and sounds excellent live.
[11:22] Beyonce joins Hudson on-stage. Beyonce's good, but I still think Hudson is better. Now, Jennifer is backing up Beyonce on "Listen". I think I like "Love You I Do" just slightly better.
[11:25] Anika Noni Rose and Keith Robinson are singing "Patience." I love this song on the album too, but it's not quite as good live. Rose and Robinson are either nervous or holding back or just not as powerful compared to Beyonce and Hudson. Beyonce & Hudson and a gospel choir have joined them on stage. This song works better as an ensemble piece.
[11:27] Wow, overall, that was great!!! Love those three songs. John Travolta and Queen Latifah are presenting Best Original Song. My pick: anything from Dreamgirls. My prediction: "Listen" (Dreamgirls). The winner: "I Need to Wake Up" (An Inconvenient Truth) by Melissa Ethridge. Huh? What? Uh, okay.
Live Blogging: Oscars 2007 Hour 2
[9:30] Sweet! Randy Newman playing piano and James Taylor singing "Our Town" from Cars. Jame Taylor is great. I'm afraid this song may be way too mellow to compete against the three rousing entries from Dreamgirls. But, I still like it.
[9:33] And now, Melissa Etheridge with "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth. Odd to have two Best Original Song nominees back-to-back. I thought they would have spread it out. The song's oka, but is the least of the five nominees. Melissa looks like Hillary Clinton. I wonder if that's intentional.
[9:36] Leo and Al Gore are up presenting. Leo asks Al Gore if he'd like to announce something (implying a presidential run announcement). That didn't happen. They're talking about the environment. Oh, Leo is prodding for a bigger announcement. He acts like he's going to announce his presidential run when the music interrupts him. Now, that's funny too. Oh, and they didn't actual present anything.
[9:42] Cameron Diaz presenting Best Animated Feature. My pick & prediction: Cars. The winner: Happy Feet. I didn't see it, so I can't complain too much. But, it's hard to believe it was better than Cars.
[9:46] A film about how writers have portrayed in film history. Kind of a boring clip montage.
[9:49] Holy crap. Jack Nicholson has no hair.
[9:50] Tom Hanks and Helen Mirren presenting Best Adapted Screenplay. My picks (tie): Children of Men & Notes on a Scandal. My Prediction: The Departed. The winner: William Monohan for The Departed.
[10:00] Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway presenting Best Costume Design. My pick: Dreamgirls. My prediction: Devil Wears Prada. Oh, cool, they actually have people on stage wearing the costumes. Didn't see Devil Wears Prada, but since the movie was all about fashion, I'm guessing it's a strong contender. Dreamgirls was just so costume-intensive though. ...And, the winner: Marie Antoinette. Crap.
[10:05] Tom Cruise is on stage. He's presenting some kind of lifetime type award for someone named Sherry Lansing. Apparently, she was in chargeof Paramount Pictures for 12 years. She's done charity work for cancer, education, etc.
[10:10] Ellen is ad-libbing some stuff with Clint Eastwood. She gets Stephen Speilberg to take a picture of her and Eastwood.
[10:12] Gwynneth Paltrow is presenting Best Cinematography. My huge pick & prediction: ***Children of Men*** The winner: uh, I didn't hear the name of the film. Oh, Pan's Labyrinth. NNOOOO!!!! I cannot believe Children of Men did not win. AAGGHHHH. Pan's Labyrinth was good, but #@%&, Children of Men was stellar.
[10:16] The tumblers just formed the silhouette of the van from Little Miss Sunshine with one person running from behind.
[10:20] Naomi Watts and Robert Downey Jr. are presenting Best Visual Effects. My pick but not very strong prediction: Superman Returns (only one I saw of the three). The winner: Pirates of the Caribben: Dead Man's Chest. That's what I figured. No desire to see that movie.
[10:23] Katherine Deneuve (sp?) and Ken Wattanabe are introducing a foreign language film montage.
[10:29] Clive Owen and Cate Blanchett are presenting Best Foreign Language Film. My pick & prediction: Pan's Labyrinth (only one I saw, but it's kind of a no-brainer that it'll win). The winner: The Lives of Others (Germany). Okay, never mind about that "no-brainer" comment. I did hear something about it being good, so it does have me curious now (I think I might also like the sound of the German language more than some people).
[9:33] And now, Melissa Etheridge with "I Need to Wake Up" from An Inconvenient Truth. Odd to have two Best Original Song nominees back-to-back. I thought they would have spread it out. The song's oka, but is the least of the five nominees. Melissa looks like Hillary Clinton. I wonder if that's intentional.
[9:36] Leo and Al Gore are up presenting. Leo asks Al Gore if he'd like to announce something (implying a presidential run announcement). That didn't happen. They're talking about the environment. Oh, Leo is prodding for a bigger announcement. He acts like he's going to announce his presidential run when the music interrupts him. Now, that's funny too. Oh, and they didn't actual present anything.
[9:42] Cameron Diaz presenting Best Animated Feature. My pick & prediction: Cars. The winner: Happy Feet. I didn't see it, so I can't complain too much. But, it's hard to believe it was better than Cars.
[9:46] A film about how writers have portrayed in film history. Kind of a boring clip montage.
[9:49] Holy crap. Jack Nicholson has no hair.
[9:50] Tom Hanks and Helen Mirren presenting Best Adapted Screenplay. My picks (tie): Children of Men & Notes on a Scandal. My Prediction: The Departed. The winner: William Monohan for The Departed.
[10:00] Emily Blunt and Anne Hathaway presenting Best Costume Design. My pick: Dreamgirls. My prediction: Devil Wears Prada. Oh, cool, they actually have people on stage wearing the costumes. Didn't see Devil Wears Prada, but since the movie was all about fashion, I'm guessing it's a strong contender. Dreamgirls was just so costume-intensive though. ...And, the winner: Marie Antoinette. Crap.
[10:05] Tom Cruise is on stage. He's presenting some kind of lifetime type award for someone named Sherry Lansing. Apparently, she was in chargeof Paramount Pictures for 12 years. She's done charity work for cancer, education, etc.
[10:10] Ellen is ad-libbing some stuff with Clint Eastwood. She gets Stephen Speilberg to take a picture of her and Eastwood.
[10:12] Gwynneth Paltrow is presenting Best Cinematography. My huge pick & prediction: ***Children of Men*** The winner: uh, I didn't hear the name of the film. Oh, Pan's Labyrinth. NNOOOO!!!! I cannot believe Children of Men did not win. AAGGHHHH. Pan's Labyrinth was good, but #@%&, Children of Men was stellar.
[10:16] The tumblers just formed the silhouette of the van from Little Miss Sunshine with one person running from behind.
[10:20] Naomi Watts and Robert Downey Jr. are presenting Best Visual Effects. My pick but not very strong prediction: Superman Returns (only one I saw of the three). The winner: Pirates of the Caribben: Dead Man's Chest. That's what I figured. No desire to see that movie.
[10:23] Katherine Deneuve (sp?) and Ken Wattanabe are introducing a foreign language film montage.
[10:29] Clive Owen and Cate Blanchett are presenting Best Foreign Language Film. My pick & prediction: Pan's Labyrinth (only one I saw, but it's kind of a no-brainer that it'll win). The winner: The Lives of Others (Germany). Okay, never mind about that "no-brainer" comment. I did hear something about it being good, so it does have me curious now (I think I might also like the sound of the German language more than some people).
Live Blogging: Oscars 2007 Hour 1
[8:28] Finally, the Oscars are starting in just a few minutes. This is the moment I've been waiting for in the last two months. Other than the years that the Lord of Rings movies were nominated, this is the first year I've been this emotionally invested in the Oscars. I think I've seen no fewer than 16 films that have nominated for one award or another. That's also very unusual for me, another reason why I'm unusually excited this time around.
[8:30] The show is starting off with a montage of nominated people doing little monologue snippets in front of a plain white background. Weird. Slightly funny.
[8:33] For Eddie Murphy's snippet, he just stands there and says nothing. A guy behind the camera says, "You're funny just doing that."
[8:35] The announcer has the nominees stand. I think he said there were 177 artists and craftsmen nominated.
[8:37] Here's Ellen.
[8:38 - 8:40] Ellen is doing her talky, nervous-style stand-up comedian type monologue. It's okay, but a little meandering. She did so well at the Emmys in previous years, so hopefully the best of Ellen is yet to come in the middle of the show. I miss Billy Crystal's movie montage openings.
[8:42] Ellen just incoporated Jennifer Hudson's past on American Idol and Al Gore together into a joke about the way people vote. Al Gore is there, nominated for An Inconvenient Truth.
[8:44] Somebody just threw a tamborine into Ellen's hand, and now a huge gospel choir in robes is singing in the aisles. Weird. Brief too.
[8:45] Best Art Direction. My pick: Dreamgirls. The winner: Pan's Labyrinth. I'm okay with that; it was excellent too. Labyrinth was probably my 2nd choice, with The Prestige 3rd.
[8:48] Maggie Gyllenhall (sp?) is up discussing the science awards. She hosted the event a few nights prior.
[8:53] Oh no, Will Ferrell is singing. Why? OH NO!!! Jack Black too!!! If Ben Stiller comes on stage, it's a sign of the apocalypse.
[8:54] This Ferrell/Black crap is horrendous. Anyway, during the break, I checked my picks & predictions again. While Dreamgirls was my pick, Pan's Labyrinth was my prediction. So, I didn't get my way, but I did guess right. That counts for something, right? Now, John C. Reilly is up on stage too.
[8:57] Best Makeup. My Pick & Prediction: Pan's Labyrinth. The winner: Pan's Labyrinth. Sweet.
[8:59] Abigail Breslin and Jaden Smith are up presenting an award. Best Animated Short is the award. Uh, I have no clue about these, so no pick or prediction. Jaden got a little ahead of himself and tried to move on the next award. Will Smith laughed like crazy. The winner: The Danish Poet.
[9:03] The kids are still presenting. Best Live Action Short. The winner: West Bank Story.
[9:11] Now they're having a sound effects choir on stage. They're making wind noises, bird noises, water noises, screams, whistles, etc. Tires screaching, trains, chariots, cars, helicopters, planes, Apollo 13. Wow, that was weird but cool.
[9:14] Steve Carrell and Greg Kinear are presenting, joking that sound editing is like sex... Best Sound Editing: My pick & prediction: Letters From Iwo Jima. The winner: Letters From Iwo Jima. I got another one right (kind of a lucky guess, really). They just said he sound guy's father was an Iwo Jima survivor.
[9:17] Best Sound Mixing: My pick & prediction: Dreamgirls. The winner: Dreamgirls. That's three picks and four predictions correct.
[9:21] Best Supporting Actor. My pick & prediction: Eddie Murphy. The winner: Alan Arkin. Ugh. I like the actor. I've liked several of his previous roles. I even liked part of this character he played, but I also hated part of this character. I guess the performance was excellent even though I wasn't thrilled with the material he was given.
[9:25] Ellen is walking down the aisle and just happens to have a screenplay to give to Martin Scorsese. Now, that's funny.
[9:26] Earlier they had dancers doing life-sized shadow-puppetry. They tumbled onto stage and formed the silhouette of an Oscar award. Just now, they tumbled into the shapes of pengiuns. I think it was to mention Happy Feet as one of the Best Animated Feature nominees.
[8:30] The show is starting off with a montage of nominated people doing little monologue snippets in front of a plain white background. Weird. Slightly funny.
[8:33] For Eddie Murphy's snippet, he just stands there and says nothing. A guy behind the camera says, "You're funny just doing that."
[8:35] The announcer has the nominees stand. I think he said there were 177 artists and craftsmen nominated.
[8:37] Here's Ellen.
[8:38 - 8:40] Ellen is doing her talky, nervous-style stand-up comedian type monologue. It's okay, but a little meandering. She did so well at the Emmys in previous years, so hopefully the best of Ellen is yet to come in the middle of the show. I miss Billy Crystal's movie montage openings.
[8:42] Ellen just incoporated Jennifer Hudson's past on American Idol and Al Gore together into a joke about the way people vote. Al Gore is there, nominated for An Inconvenient Truth.
[8:44] Somebody just threw a tamborine into Ellen's hand, and now a huge gospel choir in robes is singing in the aisles. Weird. Brief too.
[8:45] Best Art Direction. My pick: Dreamgirls. The winner: Pan's Labyrinth. I'm okay with that; it was excellent too. Labyrinth was probably my 2nd choice, with The Prestige 3rd.
[8:48] Maggie Gyllenhall (sp?) is up discussing the science awards. She hosted the event a few nights prior.
[8:53] Oh no, Will Ferrell is singing. Why? OH NO!!! Jack Black too!!! If Ben Stiller comes on stage, it's a sign of the apocalypse.
[8:54] This Ferrell/Black crap is horrendous. Anyway, during the break, I checked my picks & predictions again. While Dreamgirls was my pick, Pan's Labyrinth was my prediction. So, I didn't get my way, but I did guess right. That counts for something, right? Now, John C. Reilly is up on stage too.
[8:57] Best Makeup. My Pick & Prediction: Pan's Labyrinth. The winner: Pan's Labyrinth. Sweet.
[8:59] Abigail Breslin and Jaden Smith are up presenting an award. Best Animated Short is the award. Uh, I have no clue about these, so no pick or prediction. Jaden got a little ahead of himself and tried to move on the next award. Will Smith laughed like crazy. The winner: The Danish Poet.
[9:03] The kids are still presenting. Best Live Action Short. The winner: West Bank Story.
[9:11] Now they're having a sound effects choir on stage. They're making wind noises, bird noises, water noises, screams, whistles, etc. Tires screaching, trains, chariots, cars, helicopters, planes, Apollo 13. Wow, that was weird but cool.
[9:14] Steve Carrell and Greg Kinear are presenting, joking that sound editing is like sex... Best Sound Editing: My pick & prediction: Letters From Iwo Jima. The winner: Letters From Iwo Jima. I got another one right (kind of a lucky guess, really). They just said he sound guy's father was an Iwo Jima survivor.
[9:17] Best Sound Mixing: My pick & prediction: Dreamgirls. The winner: Dreamgirls. That's three picks and four predictions correct.
[9:21] Best Supporting Actor. My pick & prediction: Eddie Murphy. The winner: Alan Arkin. Ugh. I like the actor. I've liked several of his previous roles. I even liked part of this character he played, but I also hated part of this character. I guess the performance was excellent even though I wasn't thrilled with the material he was given.
[9:25] Ellen is walking down the aisle and just happens to have a screenplay to give to Martin Scorsese. Now, that's funny.
[9:26] Earlier they had dancers doing life-sized shadow-puppetry. They tumbled onto stage and formed the silhouette of an Oscar award. Just now, they tumbled into the shapes of pengiuns. I think it was to mention Happy Feet as one of the Best Animated Feature nominees.
Monday, December 04, 2006
Live Blog: Heroes: Fall Finale
Entitled: "Fallout"
Claire has told her father about her power. Her father tells her he has known all along. He says there are others out there like Sylar, and they can all hurt her. He wants her to destroy the tapes she and Zack made.
Matt and his FBI colleague Audrey are investigating the Sylar incident and are going to question Peter who's in custody. Matt is having a lot of headaches.
Peter thinks Nathan has come to get him released from jail, but it's actually just a dream about Sylar.
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Niki/Jessica successfully shot D.L. in the chest. When she aimed for his head, he used his power to have the bullet pass right through him.
Sylar has been injured and is in a large metal room that blocks his power. Eden has held guard overnight, HRG goes to talk to Sylar. Sylar confirms that he can take people's powers, and that why he's after Claire. Eden says she can have Sylar kill himself, but HRG turns down the offer.
D.L. and his son are in the woods and come across an abandoned cabin. He uses his power to unlock the door from outside. Micah helps bandage D.L. up, but D.L. passes out.
Matt & Audrey interrogate Peter where Peter gets Matt's powers. They are reading each others' minds, but it's confusing to both of them.
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Commentary: I can't help but wondering where the Niki/Jessica storyline is going, but I'm glad that Matt & Peter are crossing paths. Hoping we get to see more of Hiro.
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Mohinder returns to his father's NYC apartment. There is a note from Eden that says, "Welcome back. Now get back to work." He finds a sticky note with Isaac's name on it.
Eden talks to Isaac. He said he can't seem to draw the future without the drugs, but he enjoys art without the drugs. Eden tells him Claire was saved. Eden tells him she's leaving and hands him a some kind of card and a cell phone.
Hiro and Ando are at the high school and have heard about Claire's friend but thinks it was Claire. Hiro laments not being able to save Charlie (the waitress from the last episode) or Claire. He says their mission now is to find Peter and the artist and to stop the bomb. Isaac uses the phone from Eden to call Hiro. He says he wants to meet Hiro.
Audrey is questioning Claire with her father there. Matt is outside. Matt is trying to read Claire, but he's getting interference. HRG's Haitian mind-blocker is probably nearby. Claire wants to talk to Peter. Matt talks to HRG but still can't read anything. Matt tells Audrey he recognizes the interference from the bar where he lost a day. Sure enough, the Haitian was in the building.
Jessica is chasing after D.L. and Micah, but then Niki takes over and laments that D.L. is injured (she finds his bloody jacket). Niki & Jessica argue. Niki tries to take over, but Jessica is still too strong. When she/they hear Micah yell for help, Jessica pulls her gun out before running toward his voice.
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Commentary: So far, Matt, Claire, and Peter are all converging together, and Isaac & Hiro are about to meet. I like that we're getting closer to see the "team" get together. I still don't get how the Niki/D.L./Micah triangle factor into everything.
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Peter sees Claire again and meets Peter. Peter is glad to see Claire alive. HRG leaves, and Claire asks Peter how long he's been special. He figures out she can heal herself. He tells her she's the key to saving the world. Peter says he didn't know he was going to heal when he jumped off the building to save Claire.
Niki/Jessica catches up to Micah & D.L. D.L. is ready for Jessica and they fight, with Jessica unintentionally hurting Micah. Niki takes back over. She apologizes to both Micah & D.L.
Zack & Claire meet. He brings the tapes. She stomps on them. He promises he won't tell anyone.
Hiro & Ando meet Isaac, and they go back to the Burnt Toast Diner. They explain each other's powers. Hiro even tells Isaac he finds him dead in the future. Two days ago, Isaac drew Hiro & Charlie together. Isaac says he recently painted a picture of a man exploding. Hiro asks, "How do stop an exploding man?"
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Commentary: Isaac has become such a background character, I almost forgot that he illustrated the comic book about Hiro & Ando that they've been using to guide them and that it was Isaac who Hiro found dead in the future. So, it is actually pretty fitting that these three should meet up together.
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Claire tells her brother Lyle that their dad knows about her power and that he knows Lyle knows. Claire asks Lyle questions he can't answer. He says he can't remember (for a minute there, I thought he was going to be a shape-shifter posing as Lyle to get to Claire).
Niki, D.L., and Micah are now together and trying to go for help. Niki is worried that Jessica is going to come back. When D.L. & Micah aren't looking, Niki sneaks off and tells a cop to arrest her murder.
Matt & Audrey discuss Matt's marriage and whether he should fight for her marriage. They see HRG and the Haitian. Matt starts to get the interferece again, and his nose even bleeds from trying so hard to read them. He only gets one word, "Sylar."
Claire has asked Zack to meet her. He doesn't remember the last few weeks of being her friend. She realizes that Zack & Lyle have had their memories of her powers erased.
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HRG goes back to talk to Sylar. Sylar says in a way, both he and HRG collect people with powers.
Hiro tries to get Isaac to paint the future without the drugs. He goes into the white-eyes trance and starts drawing.
Claire calls her dad and tells here that Zack & Lyle don't remember. She asks where her mom & Lyle are. Someone enters. It's the Haitian. He says her father sent her to make her forget, like he did with Zack & Lyle. He also says he's made her mom forget multiple times, so this is something he does often, and that might explain why Claire's mom is so spacey. However, the Haitian decides that Claire should remember and should keep it a secret.
Isaac has painted a picture of Hiro holding up a katana (sword) near a tyrannosaurus rex. Hiro says if he steps on a bug in the past, he could change the future. ....And that he really needs to find that sword. :)
Eden calls Mohinder, tells him she's been lying to him, says she's sorry and that she'll explain everything, and says that she needs to make things right by eliminating the man who killed Mohinder's father. When she hangs up, she enters Sylars cell with a gun. She says she lived next door to Chandra Suresh and that she's going to make Sylar shoot himself in the head. He telekinetically pulls her through the glass and starts to strangle her. He says he's going to take her power. She raises the gun. He says she can't hurt him with that. Instead, she shoots herself.
Nathan comes to get Peter out of jail. Nathan is still skeptical and annoyed about the superpower stuff that Peter is obsessed with. Peter faints. Either he's having a vision or has been transported in time, but either way, he appears to be in NYC. Time has stopped, as some things are in motion, but everyone has abandoned their cars. He's outside his brother's campaign headquarters. He sees Mohinder leave a cab, and then sees Matt, Niki, D.L., Micah, Claire, Nathan, Isaac, Simone, Hiro, and Ando. Isaac stops Simone from running toward Peter. Claire and the others move away from Peter, except Nathan move near him. Peter's hands and then the rest of his body start to glow. It turns out Peter is the exploding man. It was a vision; Peter is back in the present and is passed out in Nathan's arms.
That's it. The show returns January 22.
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Commentary: Okay, not exactly "live" blogging. I used TiVo to let me pause to catch up on typing and then fast forward through commercials. I'm about 20 minutes behind here at the end.
Anyway, really good episode. I'm glad to see more heroes teaming up. I hate that the one time seeing them all together is in a vision of a future that may or may not happen. Odd to see that Peter is the exploding man that causes the destruction of NYC. I would have thought it'd be the radioactive guy that Matt & Audrey found in a previous episode. Could it be that it's the same power as that guy, but that Peter's close enough that it manifests through his ability to borrow the powers of others? Also, how did Peter see this vision? Does he still have some residual future-telling from his borrowing of Isaac's power? Or, since we've seen Peter have cryptic dreams before, is that a power all his own? Also, if Peter has future-telling dreams and can borrow powers, I wonder if he's the only one with more than one special ability (not counting Sylar). Lastly, it's odd that every hero was in Peter's dream when he has only met Nathan, Claire, Matt, Isaac, and Simone.
The scene with Sylar and Eden was pretty intense. However, I tend to hate scenes of suicide in TV & movies, so I can't say I liked the way things ended there, even though it may have been necessary. I'm guessing that Sylar has to kill to steal a power but that he can't if someone is already dead. If I'm right, Eden's suicide keeps him from stealing her ability and becoming that much more powerful. Logical & necessary, but it still makes me uncomfortable.
Really good show. Can't wait until January 22.
Claire has told her father about her power. Her father tells her he has known all along. He says there are others out there like Sylar, and they can all hurt her. He wants her to destroy the tapes she and Zack made.
Matt and his FBI colleague Audrey are investigating the Sylar incident and are going to question Peter who's in custody. Matt is having a lot of headaches.
Peter thinks Nathan has come to get him released from jail, but it's actually just a dream about Sylar.
-----
Niki/Jessica successfully shot D.L. in the chest. When she aimed for his head, he used his power to have the bullet pass right through him.
Sylar has been injured and is in a large metal room that blocks his power. Eden has held guard overnight, HRG goes to talk to Sylar. Sylar confirms that he can take people's powers, and that why he's after Claire. Eden says she can have Sylar kill himself, but HRG turns down the offer.
D.L. and his son are in the woods and come across an abandoned cabin. He uses his power to unlock the door from outside. Micah helps bandage D.L. up, but D.L. passes out.
Matt & Audrey interrogate Peter where Peter gets Matt's powers. They are reading each others' minds, but it's confusing to both of them.
-----
Commentary: I can't help but wondering where the Niki/Jessica storyline is going, but I'm glad that Matt & Peter are crossing paths. Hoping we get to see more of Hiro.
-----
Mohinder returns to his father's NYC apartment. There is a note from Eden that says, "Welcome back. Now get back to work." He finds a sticky note with Isaac's name on it.
Eden talks to Isaac. He said he can't seem to draw the future without the drugs, but he enjoys art without the drugs. Eden tells him Claire was saved. Eden tells him she's leaving and hands him a some kind of card and a cell phone.
Hiro and Ando are at the high school and have heard about Claire's friend but thinks it was Claire. Hiro laments not being able to save Charlie (the waitress from the last episode) or Claire. He says their mission now is to find Peter and the artist and to stop the bomb. Isaac uses the phone from Eden to call Hiro. He says he wants to meet Hiro.
Audrey is questioning Claire with her father there. Matt is outside. Matt is trying to read Claire, but he's getting interference. HRG's Haitian mind-blocker is probably nearby. Claire wants to talk to Peter. Matt talks to HRG but still can't read anything. Matt tells Audrey he recognizes the interference from the bar where he lost a day. Sure enough, the Haitian was in the building.
Jessica is chasing after D.L. and Micah, but then Niki takes over and laments that D.L. is injured (she finds his bloody jacket). Niki & Jessica argue. Niki tries to take over, but Jessica is still too strong. When she/they hear Micah yell for help, Jessica pulls her gun out before running toward his voice.
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Commentary: So far, Matt, Claire, and Peter are all converging together, and Isaac & Hiro are about to meet. I like that we're getting closer to see the "team" get together. I still don't get how the Niki/D.L./Micah triangle factor into everything.
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Peter sees Claire again and meets Peter. Peter is glad to see Claire alive. HRG leaves, and Claire asks Peter how long he's been special. He figures out she can heal herself. He tells her she's the key to saving the world. Peter says he didn't know he was going to heal when he jumped off the building to save Claire.
Niki/Jessica catches up to Micah & D.L. D.L. is ready for Jessica and they fight, with Jessica unintentionally hurting Micah. Niki takes back over. She apologizes to both Micah & D.L.
Zack & Claire meet. He brings the tapes. She stomps on them. He promises he won't tell anyone.
Hiro & Ando meet Isaac, and they go back to the Burnt Toast Diner. They explain each other's powers. Hiro even tells Isaac he finds him dead in the future. Two days ago, Isaac drew Hiro & Charlie together. Isaac says he recently painted a picture of a man exploding. Hiro asks, "How do stop an exploding man?"
-----
Commentary: Isaac has become such a background character, I almost forgot that he illustrated the comic book about Hiro & Ando that they've been using to guide them and that it was Isaac who Hiro found dead in the future. So, it is actually pretty fitting that these three should meet up together.
-----
Claire tells her brother Lyle that their dad knows about her power and that he knows Lyle knows. Claire asks Lyle questions he can't answer. He says he can't remember (for a minute there, I thought he was going to be a shape-shifter posing as Lyle to get to Claire).
Niki, D.L., and Micah are now together and trying to go for help. Niki is worried that Jessica is going to come back. When D.L. & Micah aren't looking, Niki sneaks off and tells a cop to arrest her murder.
Matt & Audrey discuss Matt's marriage and whether he should fight for her marriage. They see HRG and the Haitian. Matt starts to get the interferece again, and his nose even bleeds from trying so hard to read them. He only gets one word, "Sylar."
Claire has asked Zack to meet her. He doesn't remember the last few weeks of being her friend. She realizes that Zack & Lyle have had their memories of her powers erased.
-----
HRG goes back to talk to Sylar. Sylar says in a way, both he and HRG collect people with powers.
Hiro tries to get Isaac to paint the future without the drugs. He goes into the white-eyes trance and starts drawing.
Claire calls her dad and tells here that Zack & Lyle don't remember. She asks where her mom & Lyle are. Someone enters. It's the Haitian. He says her father sent her to make her forget, like he did with Zack & Lyle. He also says he's made her mom forget multiple times, so this is something he does often, and that might explain why Claire's mom is so spacey. However, the Haitian decides that Claire should remember and should keep it a secret.
Isaac has painted a picture of Hiro holding up a katana (sword) near a tyrannosaurus rex. Hiro says if he steps on a bug in the past, he could change the future. ....And that he really needs to find that sword. :)
Eden calls Mohinder, tells him she's been lying to him, says she's sorry and that she'll explain everything, and says that she needs to make things right by eliminating the man who killed Mohinder's father. When she hangs up, she enters Sylars cell with a gun. She says she lived next door to Chandra Suresh and that she's going to make Sylar shoot himself in the head. He telekinetically pulls her through the glass and starts to strangle her. He says he's going to take her power. She raises the gun. He says she can't hurt him with that. Instead, she shoots herself.
Nathan comes to get Peter out of jail. Nathan is still skeptical and annoyed about the superpower stuff that Peter is obsessed with. Peter faints. Either he's having a vision or has been transported in time, but either way, he appears to be in NYC. Time has stopped, as some things are in motion, but everyone has abandoned their cars. He's outside his brother's campaign headquarters. He sees Mohinder leave a cab, and then sees Matt, Niki, D.L., Micah, Claire, Nathan, Isaac, Simone, Hiro, and Ando. Isaac stops Simone from running toward Peter. Claire and the others move away from Peter, except Nathan move near him. Peter's hands and then the rest of his body start to glow. It turns out Peter is the exploding man. It was a vision; Peter is back in the present and is passed out in Nathan's arms.
That's it. The show returns January 22.
-----
Commentary: Okay, not exactly "live" blogging. I used TiVo to let me pause to catch up on typing and then fast forward through commercials. I'm about 20 minutes behind here at the end.
Anyway, really good episode. I'm glad to see more heroes teaming up. I hate that the one time seeing them all together is in a vision of a future that may or may not happen. Odd to see that Peter is the exploding man that causes the destruction of NYC. I would have thought it'd be the radioactive guy that Matt & Audrey found in a previous episode. Could it be that it's the same power as that guy, but that Peter's close enough that it manifests through his ability to borrow the powers of others? Also, how did Peter see this vision? Does he still have some residual future-telling from his borrowing of Isaac's power? Or, since we've seen Peter have cryptic dreams before, is that a power all his own? Also, if Peter has future-telling dreams and can borrow powers, I wonder if he's the only one with more than one special ability (not counting Sylar). Lastly, it's odd that every hero was in Peter's dream when he has only met Nathan, Claire, Matt, Isaac, and Simone.
The scene with Sylar and Eden was pretty intense. However, I tend to hate scenes of suicide in TV & movies, so I can't say I liked the way things ended there, even though it may have been necessary. I'm guessing that Sylar has to kill to steal a power but that he can't if someone is already dead. If I'm right, Eden's suicide keeps him from stealing her ability and becoming that much more powerful. Logical & necessary, but it still makes me uncomfortable.
Really good show. Can't wait until January 22.
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