Oscar Watch »

With all the presenters' banter heavily scripted and a lot of the winners easy to guess beforehand, the only truly unpredictable part of the Academy Awards is the acceptance speeches. Those Hollywood types -- especially actors, who love being the center of attention and looove the sound of their own voices -- might say anything in a rush of excitement and emotion.

Over at Esquire, they've compiled an amusing list of the various types of Oscar speeches: the Crusading Blowhard, the Weepy Babbler, the Short-and-Sweet, and so forth. Then, for added fun, they've dug up historical precedents for each of them. For example, Rita Moreno was the "Adorably" Bombastic Foreigner, cha-chaing up to the podium and shrieking into the microphone, long before Roberto Benigni embarrassed everyone with his antics. And while Juila Roberts was definitely a Meddling Presenter when she gave Denzel Washington his trophy, she was nothing compared to the way Frank Sinatra hogged Cary Grant's spotlight when he gave him his lifetime achievement award.

It's a fun list, presented in the ever-popular slide-show-with-occasional-ad-interruptions format. As a bonus, consider that each of the labels they've come up with for the types of speeches could also serve as the name of an obscure sexual maneuver. The Meddling Presenter indeed!

Just a couple of weeks back, it seemed that only film bloggers could bring themselves to crack jokes about how Dakota Fanning's super-power sub-performer Push might get confused with the award-winning and far-from-fantasy Sundance title Push: Based on a Novel by Sapphire -- and lo, most did.

Well, hopefully, they've gotten that out of their system, because attached today to the release of Tyler Perry's Madea Goes to Jail is a trailer that now refers to it as Precious: Based on a Novel by Sapphire, after the protagonist's preferred nickname.

Having not seen the film -- which our Eric D. Snider referred to as "unsettling and bleak," though "ultimately triumphant and hopeful" -- I can't help but think that the change not only avoids confusion with that other film's eventual DVD release (an admittedly unlikely scenario), but it adds a sense of the personal that was lacking before (having seen the trailer, which is not yet online, I still wouldn't know what "Push" referred to). Wouldn't you rather want to know who this Precious is exactly and what she's about?

Better yet, the very word itself lends a hint of the positive, which could very well make the difference between some Academy voter either picking it up or passing it over in their mounting pile of screeners in favor of something a bit more obvious like So The Holocaust Kinda Sucked.

All this week we'll be highlighting some of our favorite scenes from Oscar-winning films and performances leading up to this year's Academy Awards on Sunday night.

There will only ever be one "best actress" for me, and her name is Katherine Hepburn. As everyone knows, she racked up 12 nominations and 4 wins in her legendary career (a record beaten at last by Meryl Streep), and she earned them all without playing a prostitute, feigning mental or physical handicap, or wearing prosthetic make-up. Instead, she won for her performance as one of the most formidable queens European history has ever seen: Eleanor of Aquitaine. Her solo monologue, as featured above, proves why. When I featured this film as a Christmas favorite, one commenter noted that you never know when Eleanor is being honest. In this scene, the brilliant tactician is seemingly all alone, emotionally vulnerable, and shook up by Henry's devotion to the young Alais. But are we really seeing Eleanor, or is she merely weaving us in her political web?

Some facts about The Lion in Winter, as per IMDB and Alison Weir:

• Hepburn is reportedly descended from Eleanor of Aquitaine -- and not just from her marriage with Henry II, but from the children she had with her first husband, King Louis VII of France.
  

• Peter O'Toole was 25 years younger than Hepburn(!), which makes the real life age difference between Henry and Eleanor of 11 years seem pretty darn ordinary.

• All historical fact suggests Eleanor really did sleep with Henry's father, Geoffery, although no one knows for sure. She really did go to the Crusades and eyewitnesses describe her as having entered Constantinople dressed as an Amazon -- though not bare-breasted, as she claims to Henry.
  

Okay, really this should be more of a top 100 list, so these seven are more "off the top of my head" than any kind of definitive selection. There are several kinds of Oscar snubs. There are talented actors, artists and filmmakers who have never been nominated, and others who have been nominated many times and never won. There are great films that received one or two nominations in minor categories (Vertigo, Singin' in the Rain) and great films that received none at all. The ones I've chosen here are the ones that, especially in retrospect, seem like the most obvious omissions.

1. Naomi Watts in Mulholland Drive (2001)
Watts did receive a nomination two years later for 21 Grams, though that was clearly a case of making up for this mistake. In 2001, no one gave a slyer or more canny performance, in any film, in any category. Watts not only plumbed the depths of her soul for material, but also stretched to two opposite extremes of the character's personality, making up the two parts of this great, enigmatic film. It was historically important that Halle Berry won the Oscar that year, but considering the other nominees: Renee Zellweger (Bridget Jones's Diary), Sissy Spacek (In the Bedroom), Judi Dench (Iris) and Nicole Kidman (Moulin Rouge), Watts' snub is a real head-scratcher.

Confession: I have been watching the Oscars for as long as I can remember but I have never, and I mean ever, managed to see all five best picture contenders before the ceremony. Embarrassing? Maybe. But this year I have made myself a promise. I'm going to see all five films before the winner is announced on Sunday.

Lord knows I watch a lot of movies, so how did these five slip through the cracks? I don't want to point the finger, but I blame the Academy -- wait, hear me out. This was the year that I thought I was on top of my game. So like most of the civilized world I went to see The Dark Knight assuming that it was an Oscar lock (and how wrong I was). Then, I thought, hey, Revolutionary Road is bound for glory, right? I'll catch it early, but nope, other than an acting nod for Michael Shannon, I had managed to pick another dud.

Like most people, I have a job and a life outside of a movie theater (even though it doesn't seem that way sometimes), so there isn't always as many hours in the day to see all the movies I would like. I usually end up seeing the rest of the films after the awards season has long past. I have probably wasted a little more time than I should have watching films that didn't have a chance in hell of making it to the podium -- Thanks a lot Mr. Shyamalan.

The producers of this Sunday's Academy Awards telecast have been vocal about their intentions to change some things about the show. But apart from hiring a non-comedian, Hugh Jackman, as the host, they've been silent on what those changes might be -- until now! Cinematical has obtained an exclusive look at some of the surprises in store for Oscar viewers this weekend, and we're pleased to share a few of them with you here.

• Just for laughs, the "In Memoriam" montage will feature several people who are still alive.

• The audience seat-fillers were all recruited from Burbank's homeless population.

• If Heath Ledger wins the Oscar for his role as the Joker in "The Dark Knight," it will be accepted by Cesar Romero.

• You know how the president of the Academy always comes out and gives a long, boring speech about goodness-knows-what, and you take that opportunity to go to the bathroom? Well, stay put, because this time he's going to be set on fire.

• No more courteous orchestra music to cue long-winded award recipients, as the stage now has a trapdoor.

• The show will be broadcast only in Spanish.

By: Eric D. Snider (originally posted on 11/15/08)

Note: The ruling on The Dark Knight was later reversed, and it was eligible for a Best Score nomination -- though it still didn't get one.

With the news that the musical score from The Dark Knight has been disqualified from Academy Awards consideration on the grounds that too many people were credited with composing it, outrage against the Academy's stringent, complicated rules has erupted afresh. In the interest of fueling this indignation and making the world an angrier place, let's take a belligerent march down memory lane and look at seven other controversial disqualifications.

The Jazz Singer disqualified for being a talkie. When the very first Academy Awards were held in May 1929, honoring films released between August 1927 and July 1928, everyone was talking about The Jazz Singer -- the first feature-length movie to use recorded sound in some of its talking and singing scenes. So great was the attention that the Academy disqualified the film from the inaugural Best Picture category, reasoning that its use of sound put it on an uneven playing field against the films still stuck in silence. Instead, the Academy gave Warner Bros. a special award "for producing The Jazz Singer, the pioneer outstanding talking picture, which has revolutionized the industry." It's true, too! I don't know if you've noticed, but pretty much all movies nowadays have talking in them.

We've all been there before: You're invited to some cool kids Oscar party, but you're afraid to go because you didn't even see half the nominated films. And you just know everyone will be chatting up this year's nominees as if they directed the films themselves, leaving you tired, scared and alone off shivering in the corner near those tasty mini franks. But what if you had some sort of cheat sheet -- like a guide that shows you how to fake your way through any Oscars party? Would that help?

Luckily, our peeps over at Moviefone have flown in to rescue those last-minute Oscar bandwagon fans who desperately want to pretend they know all about Frozen River ("It's kind of like 'Maria Full of Grace' meets 'Fargo.'"), Milk ("It's got a positive, uplifting message that anyone -- gay or straight -- can connect with."), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ("It's kind of like 'Forrest Gump' meets 'Cocoon.'"), Slumdog Millionaire ("The dance scene at the end made me want to run out and rent a week's worth of Bollywood movies.") and those other Oscar-nominated movies ... even if they didn't yet have a chance to actually watch them. So head on over to Moviefone to snag some of these fantastic one-liners, then thank us later ... after you impress your friends and woo everyone with your slick, snarky movie knowledge.

Also on Moviefone: Oscars Made Easy. Still trying to decide which films to see before the big event on Sunday? Check out this very cool break down on all the Oscar contenders, and use it to help steer you in the right direction.

All this week we'll be highlighting some of our favorite scenes from Oscar-winning films and performances leading up to this year's Academy Awards on Sunday night.

Even though there are plenty of people who think Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe may not have deserved Oscar gold back in 2001, I will respectfully disagree ... and the opening scene of Gladiator is why. Say what you will about the film's hyped-up machismo, uneven pacing, or cavalcade of accents, but you have to admire a flick that in under 10 minutes can make you feel like you're ready to charge into a battle to the death. Not to mention that this scene is responsible for making the phrase "Hold the line!" something a lot cooler than just a song by Toto.

The success of Gladiator mainly rests on the shoulders of Crowe, who manages to make you give a damn about a relatively 2-D character. So even though the box-office and the Academy rarely agree, I still think Ridley and company deserved the Oscar for creating a 'thinking man's action hero'. Gladiator might not be a perfect film, but thanks to this opening scene, it has earned a permanent place on my list of movie favorites.

Gladiator trivia (via IMDB)

• Among the chanting of the Germanic hordes at the beginning of the film are samples of the Zulu war chant from the film Zulu (1964).
  
  
• The wounds on 'Russell Crowe's face after the opening battle scene are real, caused when his horse startled and backed him into tree branches.

• Mel Gibson was offered, but turned down the part of Maximus.

So long as there are movies, they will have endings, and so long as there are endings, we will have spoilers, and so long as there are spoilers, the Fine Brothers will be sure to cover the lot of 'em in a remarkably condensed span of time.

Yes, from the makers of "100 Movie Spoilers in 4 Minutes" comes all Best Picture winners (and this year's nominees) spoiled in 5! That's right, five glorious minutes of all the action, intrigue, romance, Crash-bashing and Milk-mocking one could possibly ask for -- and yet again, clothing is optional. (Even Meg Ryan's back in the mix!) And if you think Hitchcock didn't want late moviegoers to know the ending of his films, it's a good thing he didn't see these videos.

I admittedly went with some selective muting when watching the earlier portion (sorry if we haven't all seen How Green Was My Valley), but the provided trivia up top and take-offs later on were welcome still. Kudos, you brothers from an entirely different mother I don't hardly know myself, for keeping even the spoiler-wary entertained.