No awards for Summer Glau's feet? The deuce you say!

ZachsMind | February 21, 19:45 CET

Great categories to find Serenity listed in.

As a sidenote, under the category of "Best Scene", can anyone explain what was meant by "a really good cloak" as a description for Crash? Is that a reference to the movie style or what? So confused here.

WhoIsOmega? | February 21, 19:51 CET

River's bar fight doesn't make it as best action scene?
Serenity doesn't make it in the list as best movie?
Fie on't.

Lioness | February 21, 20:17 CET

For the "a really good cloak" from Crash, I'm going to have to say you should probably see the movie as it's quite the emotional scene. All I can say is it involves a child's imaginary magic cloack that her father "gives" her to protect her from harm.

KypTheMovieGeek | February 21, 20:37 CET

I would diss this list for similar reasons, Lioness, but I think the problem is many who make these kindsa award shows just didn't watch Serenity so they are not an authority on judging it. Since the only movies on that list I recognize offhand are Revenge of the Sith and Batman Begins (which I didn't particularly like all that much btw) I'm not an authority to judge any of those other movies, more than I already have. I judged them not worthy to see. I gave BB & RotS the benefit of the doubt and now regret it.

So far as I'm concerned none of these other films deserve anything more than to be ignored, and Serenity deserves all the awards, but then I'm a little biased.

...

To be fair, a friend of mine talked me into going to see Batman Begins and I remember enjoying it at the time, partly cuz I enjoyed the company, but in hindsight Batman Begins doesn't linger in the heart and mind like Whedon's work does. Batman Begins was ...well it didn't have to be Batman or one thing. It coulda been a prequel to Darkman or The Crow and the only difference would have been the box office reciepts. It was very okay. Enjoyable. Averagely entertaining. I liked what Michael Caine did with the role of Alfred. I don't mean to indicate Batman Begins was terrible. It's just not award saavy.

Revenge of the Sith was just terrible. Visually stimulating at points, but terrible. Bad dialogue. Forced plot elements. Special effects for the sake of special effects. Ideas and concepts designed by committee that should have been left on the cutting room floor. A completely unbelievable romantic storyline. Totally unemotional performances on the part of the principals and can you blame them? They were performing against air 90% of the time. Can't blame Greenscreens though. The acting in Sky Captain was better than this. Sir Lawrence Olivier did a better job in that film than any of the living actors in RotS. Sad. I'm just so disappointed with how the Star Wars prequels turned out. One can only overlook so much on the assumption that Lucas is aiming for "family fare." That doesn't mean one throws acting out the window for eye candy. The MUPPETS are better actors than Hayden Christiansen by leaps and bounds!

I also got to see Sin City, now that I think about it. For what it was, it was breathtaking. It proved that yes one can sincerely capture the visuals of a comic book and put it to the silver screen with a near religious conviction and come up with something artistically gritty and sincere, but not particularly relevant. Sin City reminded me of the music that accompanied American McGee's Alice, which was by Chris Vrenna if memory serves. Great music. Accompanies the video game superbly. Reportedly, Vrenna used actual toys to make many of the instruments. Cool. Impressive. Artistically uhm... neato. ...Why do that? Beyond being artsy fartsy and able to say to people over cocktails that yes you did use actual toys to make the music score, why take that time when there's more conventional and economical ways to accomplish the same thing with resources that are more readily available. You don't have to scour garage sales for six months to use instruments already at one's disposal. Just seemed, frivolous. Sin City was trying to prove a point, but in the end it was frivolous... and bloody. It was unnecessarily gross.

Crash, King Kong, Alone In The Dark, Be Cool, Fantastic Four, The Ring sequel, Son of the Mask, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, Forty Year Old Virgin, War of the Worlds, Red Eye, Walk the Line, Pride & Rejudice, Upside of Anger, Capote, Constant Gardener, Wedding Crashers, Constantine, The Island, Jarhead, Hustle & Flow, Oldboy, Kung Fu Hustle, the remake of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory with Jonny Depp (omigodno) Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, the Saw sequel, The Devil's Rejects, The Exorcism of Emily Rose, High Tension, Corpse Bride, How's Moving Castle, Madagascar, Robots, Wallace & Gromit blah blah blah, Brothers Grimm, Dukes of Hazzard, Into the Blue... as far as I'm concerned none of them exist. They're not great. They're sufficiently ignorable.

[ edited by ZachsMind on 2006-02-21 19:43 ]

ZachsMind | February 21, 20:48 CET

So...these great movies that you haven't seen you're judging not worthy to see? Ay carumba.

UnpluggedCrazy | February 21, 21:29 CET

Aw, kyp thanks. I get it (about the cloak in Crash. I was spacing out when I posted that I guess). Been awhile since I saw it. A precious moment or two, no doubt.

Zachsmind... were all of those ignorable? Some of them, sure. But not all.

I hope Serenity wins each category. Kyp, it wouldn't hurt to post again on the day voting starts, if that's not considered posting the same thing again, anyway.

WhoIsOmega? | February 21, 22:20 CET

Hey ZachsMind, Keep in mind the catagories theat all these movies are in. You'll notice Alone in the Dark, Be Cool, Fantastic Four, The Ring 2 and Son of the Mask were nominated in the "Worst Movie of the Year" catigory. There are also best Trailer and "T&A" catagories which have nothing to do with the quality of the movies.

KypTheMovieGeek | February 21, 23:01 CET

I take personal affront that Kung Fu Hustle was dissed. And I would complain that Hayden Christensen is actually pretty decent in anything not Star Wars but I've been burned out having to explain that.

How was this list compiled though? I think it's interesting that Brokeback Mountain get's stuff like best screenplay nods yet is still in the overrated category. (I think that's reasonable in this case, it is good but everyone is ceaselessly praising it.) I think it's pretty fair range of geeky and "serious" films though, my only major non-Serenity related complaint being Gong Li being overlooked for best supporting actress, but I think I just find fiery bitchmonsters from hell (Like Buffy's psych professor!) far too entertaining to watch.

orangewaxlion | February 21, 23:43 CET

I have to agree with Zachsmind about Batman & ROTS, Batman was ok... wasn't specatcular as I was expecting it to be and ROTS.... I waited 6 weeks after the release, after all of the hype, and had low expectations(even after friends told me it was decent).... and I wanted my money back. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I should have done what I did for the second movie, wait for video release(or not see it at all).

But in terms of memorable movies, how would you, Zachminds, know they are great or not if you havent seen them. Alot of them I was not interested in seeing, but I saw Munich, and it was really good. Brokeback ,mountain was good too, a bit over-rated. So... before you write them off, I earnestly suggest you check them out. They weren't ignorable for me at least. There are other good movies besides Serenity, one has to be willing to take the risk of spending the cash. If you don't want to see it on the big screen at least consider renting thse movies.

kurya | February 22, 00:00 CET

I don't know, Lioness, I feel that the Alliance/Reaver sequence would fit better for an action sequence(instead of the River/Maidenhead scene). That is, of course, if Serenity was nominated in that category. And of course, Simon would automatically win in the "Hot Half-Naked Man" category. ;0)

Danica | February 22, 00:51 CET

But she kicks around a pillar! The flow of that is just so great, that it took my breath away and I am not big on action sequences generally. I agree, the Alliance/Reaver sequence is worthy of a nod but it would be nice to see her fight recognized somehow and what is it if not action? Well, poetry in motion (to coin a phrase) but action, none the less.

Lioness | February 22, 01:30 CET

So... exactly which action sequence do you take away to list Serenity? The only one I can think of is The Island's, as the other four, action-wise, pretty much out-do anything Serenity puts up on-screen (which isn't fair, since their budgets are so much bigger).

The Dark Shape | February 22, 02:00 CET

The Island was lame. Long live Serenity!

Touche, Lioness, the pillar kick was awesome.

Danica | February 22, 03:08 CET

Depends what you mean by "out-do," of course TDS. I enjoyed King Kong, but I thought the Kong vs. T-Rex fight was the weakest link in it. By comparison, as you are all too aware, I didn't enjoy ROTS, but thought the climactic Anakin v. Obi-Wan showdown was OK. And I found both of these action sequences rather mechanical and laborious.

Whereas I was moved by both of the River sequences in Serenity because those fights punctuated the film better - they didn't drag the pace down, - and because I was emotionally invested in them.

As for the Batman Begins "tumbler" sequence, I honestly can't remember what that was. Which says something either about the movie or (more likely) about my advancing dementia. Was it the fight in the monastery, or the big chase thing at the end? Or something else? Still and all, I didn't especially enjoy the more action-y parts of BB, and would happily sacrifice that place for Serenity.

Which also leads me to wonder how useful a separate "best action sequence" category is, since, for me at least, it'll invariably follow the movie that I enjoyed most (because I'll care about what the action signifies). I'm thinking that even if Underworld had featured great action sequences, I would never have noticed . . .

SoddingNancyTribe | February 22, 03:47 CET

Blushes.

Oh wait.

Wrong Simon.

Bugger.

Simon | February 22, 03:48 CET

Well, none of us can comment on that one way or another without worrying your wife!

Lioness | February 22, 04:18 CET

I successfully ignored those films, thus for me making them ignorable. I might catch them on DVD if they're like really cheap. Some of them though, you'd have to pay me to check them out.

ZachsMind | February 22, 09:32 CET

OK, Zachsmind, I can see why you'd ignore 'Brokeback Mountain', given the constant media attention, but 'Alone in the Dark' ? It's a modern classic in the making (seriously, check out 'Crash', yes, it's at times quite manipulative but it certainly has a power to it - the 'cloak scene' has to go down as one of the most emotive portions of any film from 2005).

I'd swap out Kong vs T-Rex for River vs Reavers (close up of Reaver face, tiny yet apparently very tough little fist coming into frame to hit it - what's not to love ?) cos the Kong scene was, IMO like the entire film, way too long.

Also, Summer for Dakota Fanning in Best Supporting (good as she is, creepy good in fact, she didn't do too much in WotW), 'Serenity' for 'Batman Begins' in Best Screenplay, Nathan for Christian Bale in Best Actor (if he can be in two categories) and 'The Descent' for any of the horrors (I haven't seen any of those listed but 'The Descent' was so good, i'm still happy to put it in).

The tumbler chase from 'Batman Begins' was the car chase with the Gotham PD vs Batman, going over roofs, through walls, into stealth mode etc. It was pretty well done but at the end of the day, just a car chase, without the emotional resonance of 'Serenity's action scenes (or the final scene in Kong where *spoiler alert ;)* he gets killed by the planes). The main appeal for me of BB wasn't really what was in it but rather the way that finally someone had got what Batman is all about and instead of just giving us fisticuffs, gave us a sort of urban horror movie. With ears ;).

Also, I fancy Jessica Alba. Oh wait, I meant, I fancy Jessica Alba's chances in the T&A category (2 nominations after all).

Saje | February 22, 15:50 CET

Um, I guess that's one way to approach movies... or books... or any new experience. Though I'd hesitate to completely dismiss or classify as "not great" something I hadn't checked out for myself.
I, for one, didn't ignore Capote, Crash, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, The Constant Gardener, War of the Worlds, The Forty Year Old Virgin, King Kong, Walk the Line, Pride and Prejudice, Hustle & Flow, Kung Fu Hustle, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Wedding Crashers, or Wallace and Gromit - and I'm very glad I didn't. I'm not saying every one of those movies was an instant classic, but most (not all... I could have done without C&theCF and Wedding Crashers) were very enjoyable, all had some great points, and a few – Capote, the Constant Gardener, Brokeback Mountain, Munich, and Crash in particular – were truly excellent. Perhaps even better (gasp!) than Serenity (though really, they're such different types of films you can't compare them). And if anyone (most people, judging by the box office) didn't catch Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, check it out on DVD - one of the most purely entertaining popcorn flicks I've seen in some time.

Granted, I ignored (and will continue to ignore) many of the others on that list (Son of the Mask? The Island? no way...), but I won't comment on their greatness or lack of greatness since I have no way of knowing. Who knows, maybe the Ring 2 holds subtleties and directorial genius that I'll never get to see... :-)

[ edited by acp on 2006-02-22 19:03 ]

acp | February 22, 20:56 CET