Sunday, February 22, 2009

Oscar Who?

Meyer? Fischinger? De La Renta?

The Academy Awards are on tonight, and I will not be watching them, because I just don't care.

For a great dissection of their meaninglessness, check out this New York Times article from a couple of days ago - it starts by stating You may not care about the Oscars, but the Oscars definitely don’t care about you.

I did rent, yesterday, two movies that are up for technical awards.

Wall-E - which was mostly* brilliant, and a model for what a fun movie can be. My only criticism was that it wasn't as monumental as the hype surrounding it. But that's not the movie's fault. *I have to agree with Den of Geek's take on the second half of the movie.

The Dark Knight - After its bewildering start, I thought it was getting exciting. But then it turned into torture porn. Then I got hung up on convincing myself that the Joker just decided to leave the DA's fundraiser thrown by Bruce Wayne, after the jokemeister dispatched Batman and the girl out the window. Plot holes like that opened up all the rest of the way through the movie. Near the end, the Joker tells Batman that the caped crusader has "too many rules" governing his morality. But where were the rules? I didn't see or hear any. Plus, whatever rules Batman has, they don't extend to wrecking public and private property.

I would have let the Joker fall to his death.

And I was left wondering: If Bruce Wayne is so bleedin' rich, and brilliant in the ways of martial arts, why doesn't he just fund development and training in his high-tech crime fighting ways for Gotham's police department?

P.S. You know spring is around the corner when it's time to read Tom Shales's dismantling of the Oscar show in the Washington Post.