While watching the Oscars last night wasn’t quite as entertaining as many of us would have hoped (why the heck was Ellen DeGeneres so tame?), several new commercials aired that really had me laughing. The best of the pack was the latest in American Express’ long line of look-what-celebrity-uses-our-credit-card commercials featuring director Wes Anderson in a single-shot ad that’s both hilarious and impressive.
Take a look.
The 79th Annual Academy Awards have come and gone, and while many believed that the show would be a pretty lackluster affair, it was filled with its share of welcome surprises and disappointing upsets just like any year. Award hogs Helen Mirren and Forrest Whitaker completed their sweeps with gold statues for their performances in “The Queen” and “The Last King of Scotland,” respectively, while Jennifer Hudson beat out the most deserving Rinko Kikuchi for her Best Supporting Actress performance in “Dreamgirls.” The more I think about that race, the more unfair it seems that Hudson won simply for singing, but I digress. The last of the four acting races, Best Supporting Actor, chalked up the first surprise of the night when Alan Arkin stole the award away from frontrunner Eddie Murphy. Again, this is one that Murphy should have had in the bag, but most likely lost in the end because he has no friends in Hollywood.
The rest of the night was pretty lame. “Children’s of Men” was shut out of every category it was nominated in, “Pan’s Labyrinth” managed to win three awards against much bigger films but failed in taking home the one that mattered (Best Foreign Language Film), and “The Departed” kicked the competition’s ass by winning in four of the five categories it was nominated in (sorry, Marky Mark).
Still, it was nice to see Marty finally get his Oscar, as well as a film like “The Departed” win for Best Picture. And while we’re on the topic: what the hell is going on with Jack Nicholson’s bald head? He looks horrendous.
The list of nominees are below, with the winners in bold.
Best Picture
“Babel”
“The Departed”
“Letters from Iwo Jima”
“Little Miss Sunshine”
“The Queen”
Best Actor
Leonardo DiCaprio, “Blood Diamond”
Ryan Gosling, “Half Nelson”
Peter O’Toole, “Venus”
Will Smith, “The Pursuit of Happyness”
Forest Whitaker, “The Last King of Scotland”
Best Actress
Penelope Cruz, “Volver”
Judi Dench, “Notes on a Scandal”
Helen Mirren, “The Queen”
Meryl Streep, “The Devil Wears Prada”
Kate Winslet, “Little Children”
Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jackie Earle Haley, “Little Children”
Djimon Hounsou, “Blood Diamond”
Eddie Murphy, “Dreamgirls”
Mark Walhberg, “The Departed”
Best Supporting Actress
Abigail Breslin, “Little Miss Sunshine”
Jennifer Hudson, “Dreamgirls”
Cate Blanchett, “Notes on a Scandal”
Adriana Barraza, “Babel”
Rinko Kikuchi, “Babel”
Best Director
“Babel” (Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu)
“The Departed” (Martin Scorsese)
“Letters from Iwo Jima” (Clint Eastwood)
“The Queen” (Stephen Frears)
“United 93” (Paul Greengrass)
Since the dawn of creation — well, the creation of this feature, anyway — Jack Bauer sat atop Bullz-Eye.com’s TV Power Rankings, owning the #1 slot for better than a year and a half. Some would say it was only a matter of time, but now that it’s finally happened, the sudden fall from grace of Fox’s hit show “24” is actually a lot more embarrassing than it is depressing. But the real-time thriller isn’t the only major shakeup in the winter 2007 edition of the rankings. HBO’s “The Wire” makes its grand (and, forgive us, long overdue) debut, while NBC experienced a big surge thanks to its fresh fall lineup. Of course, HBO still came out the big winner with five shows emerging in the Top 10 (four in the first six), proving once again that it pays to, well, pay for quality television.
Here are a few entries from our list:
11. Scrubs (NBC): It shouldn’t surprise anyone to see that “Scrubs” has dropped so low in the rankings. Coming off one of the best years since its debut, expectations for the show were certainly higher than usual – especially when it was called up to the big leagues and given a spot in NBC’s highly coveted Must See TV lineup – but no one could have guessed that the sixth season would start out on such a sour note. Whether it was the accelerated progression of J.D. into adulthood (he’s got a baby on the way, with guest star Elizabeth Banks, no less) or Carla’s all-too-brief post-partum depression (a subplot added to accommodate Judy Reyes’ real-life hip injury), the first five episodes of the new season were particularly somber. Things were looking so bleak, in fact, that fans of the show were preparing to concede that the medical comedy was finally showing signs of wear, but with the much-publicized musical episode creatively rejuvenating everyone involved with the show, things are finally getting back on track. And as long as things remain this kooky and fresh (read: Kelso getting his own episode, or the Janitor using a stuffed rabbit as a salt and pepper shaker), we don’t see any reason why “Scrubs” won’t being making a triumphant return to the Top 5 in the very near future. ~Jason Zingale
17. Deadwood (HBO): Well, despite all the rumors, “Deadwood” isn’t quite dead…yet. Last year, HBO decided not to extend the options of the terrific ensemble cast, making a fourth full season unlikely, but the network and series creator David Milch agreed to produce two two-hour telefilms to wrap up the show’s loose ends. Season Three contained a myriad of intertwining storylines, but focused on the growing influence of businessman/asshole George Hearst, which put former adversaries Al Swearengen and Sheriff Seth Bullock in an unlikely alliance. “Deadwood” features stronger language than any other HBO show, and with “The Sopranos” and “The Wire” on the network’s roster, that’s saying a lot. The truth is that everything about the show – the language, the acting, the story, the sets and the costumes – is colorful, and whether or not HBO wants to admit it, they’re going to miss “Deadwood” once it’s gone for good. ~John Paulsen
Check out the full list here.
This is the episode where the audience was supposed to finally discover the secret behind Jack’s tattoo, but after all the build up, it didn’t amount to very much. First off, anyone who took a glance at the title of the episode already knew what its relation would be to the tattoo, and second, the writers still never explain why he decide to enhance the ink job with the pyramid and number 5 placed right above the Chinese phrase. All we know is that Jack visited Phuket, Thailand some time after his riff with his father, met a hot Asian chick (Bai Ling) with a gift for reading others, and then got a tattoo from her marking his destiny. Wow, exciting stuff.
Actually, despite the fact that it wasn’t nearly as revealing as the last few weeks, not to mention that it was yet again centered on the Mod Squad, I actually thoroughly enjoyed most of the episode, and think that it marks a big turning point in the series. With Sawyer and Kate on their way back to camp (sans Carl, after Sawyer convinced him to head back), and Jack on a boat back with Juliet and Ben (after Jack made a deal with Ben to save Juliet’s life), it looks like we’re finally getting back to the group dynamic that has been missing since the end of season two.
Will Jack finally learn to live amongst the Others? Or better yet, will Ben and Juliet be assimilated into the group of survivors? Things are finally starting to get interesting again ABC, so you had better not screw it up.
“Gymkata”
This may just be one of the worst movies that I’ve ever seen. World gymnastics champion Kurt Thomas stars in the cheesy 70’s action flick revolving around a deadly competition ineptly titled The Game. When Thomas’ character agrees to participate in the contest after learning of his father’s involvement, he must learn to master a new fighting style vital to his survival. Combining his gymnastics skills with karate, the art of gymkata is born. Oh yeah!
“Flicka”
Practically ripped from the pages of the Hallmark Movie-of-the-Week Guidebook, “Flicka” tells the coming-of-age tale of Katy McLaughlin, a 14-year-old girl who desperately wants to work on her family’s ranch, but is instead forced by her overbearing father (Tim McGraw) to finish school and attend college. When she discovers a black mustang up in the hills surrounding their home, Katy decides that she’s going to tame the wild animal by any means necessary. Based on the popular children’s novel, “My Friend Flicka,” as well as previous big screen (and small screen) adaptations, the family drama is brutally unoriginal and delivers the embarrassingly backward message that kids can do whatever they want because, well, your parents will give in eventually.
“Facing the Giants”
What better way to win than with the power of the Lord on your side? That’s right, it’s all about Jesus football in the direct-to-DVD flick “Facing the Giants” when the head coach of a failing Georgia private school team is taught a thing or two about faith. Filled with all the usual stereotypes you’d expect in a family sports drama – the star player leaves for a better team, the players are horrible students, and the new kid is given a chance to shine – “Facing the Giants” displays some of the worst acting I’ve seen in years. The film market has been flooded with football movies as of late, but not even I saw this coming.
“Dead Mary”
In this blatant rip-off of Sam Raimi’s “Evil Dead” series, a group of friends meet up for a weekend in the woods and accidentally summon the vengeful spirit of Dead Mary. Based on the old Bloody Mary game that we all played as a kid, “Dead Mary” is the most slow-going horror film in years. At a horribly paced 100 minutes, it takes well over an hour before anything remotely exciting happens, and even then it’s a bit lackluster. A poor showing from a genre film that you’d expect to excel in the direct-to-DVD market.
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