Who Wants To Be A (Slumdog) Millionaire?

Last night, I watched the 81st Annual Academy Awards, and I quite enjoyed the show.  Hugh Jackman did an impressive job as host, and I was quite amazed by his dancing and singing abilities.  I also liked the way the main awards were presented, with past winners handing out the Best Actor / Actress and Best Supporting Actor / Actress awards, while giving little speeches about the nominees.  The one thing I deplored about the proceedings was the amount of commercials.  Is the economy so bad that they need a commercial break every 10 minutes or so?

As for the winners, I don't have much to say.  Heath Ledger was a shoe-in as Best Supporting Actor and yes, I did get teary-eyed when his parents and sister accepted the award.  Penelope Cruz was a big surprise for Best Supporting Actress, but I was pulling for Marisa Tomei, even though she was, in all honesty, a long shot for the award.  I'm happy Kate Winslet won for Best Actress and, although the movie she won the award for (The Reader) doesn't interest me in the slightest, she is a superb actress and deserves it fully.  However, I'm disappointed that Mickey Rourke didn't win the Best Actor Oscar for The Wrestler, as it went to Sean Penn (for Milk).  Some people are crying foul, because of the role Penn plays in the movie (a gay rights activist), but I won't go that far.  Sean Penn is a terrific actor and I cannot speak without seeing his performance first.

Which brings us to the night's big winner: Slumdog Millionaire.  Danny Boyle won the Best Director Oscar for it, and the film itself won Best Picture, as well as numerous other accolades.  I've heard nothing but good and wonderful things about this movie and, after seeing its performance last night, I cannot wait to watch it.  I'm pretty sure it'll get a wide release in theaters now that it won Best Picture, so I'll try to go see it on the big screen.

What about you guys?  Do you agree with the winners?  If not, why?

Last night, I watched the 81st Annual Academy Awards, and I quite enjoyed the show.  Hugh Jackman did an impressive job as host, and I was quite amazed by his dancing and singing abilities.  I also liked the way the main awards were presented, with past winners handing out the Best Actor / Actress and Best Supporting Actor / Actress awards, while giving little speeches about the nominees.  The one thing I deplored about the proceedings was the amount of commercials.  Is the economy so bad that they need a commercial break every 10 minutes or so?

As for the winners, I don't have much to say.  Heath Ledger was a shoe-in as Best Supporting Actor and yes, I did get teary-eyed when his parents and sister accepted the award.  Penelope Cruz was a big surprise for Best Supporting Actress, but I was pulling for Marisa Tomei, even though she was, in all honesty, a long shot for the award.  I'm happy Kate Winslet won for Best Actress and, although the movie she won the award for (The Reader) doesn't interest me in the slightest, she is a superb actress and deserves it fully.  However, I'm disappointed that Mickey Rourke didn't win the Best Actor Oscar for The Wrestler, as it went to Sean Penn (for Milk).  Some people are crying foul, because of the role Penn plays in the movie (a gay rights activist), but I won't go that far.  Sean Penn is a terrific actor and I cannot speak without seeing his performance first.

Which brings us to the night's big winner: Slumdog Millionaire.  Danny Boyle won the Best Director Oscar for it, and the film itself won Best Picture, as well as numerous other accolades.  I've heard nothing but good and wonderful things about this movie and, after seeing its performance last night, I cannot wait to watch it.  I'm pretty sure it'll get a wide release in theaters now that it won Best Picture, so I'll try to go see it on the big screen.

What about you guys?  Do you agree with the winners?  If not, why?

Little disappointed that Mickey Rourke did not win, but both Sean and Mickey have won numerous awards, Mickey winning best actor in the independent film awards among other awards. Plus, I think he probably happy that his career is just back on track.

Marisa Tomei definitely should have won, and Sean Penn only won because of the part he was playing in my opinion. Mickey Rourke was far superior in acting.

I think Bruce Springsteen getting snubbed for best original song was one of the biggest crimes of the academy. Other than that, I pretty much knew Slumdog would clean house, and Sean Penn's win surprised me a bit myself. I've heard his performance is superb, but I doubt it has THAT much to do with him playing a homosexual. The Wrestler did get snubbed, but then again I haven't even seen it. I look forward to watching most of the nominees on DVD, though I will most definetly skip The Reader...not my type of movie at all.

I'm hoping Slumdog does get a wider release because I'm dying to see it a second time in theaters.

They were pretty predictable for the most part. Rourke was robbed though.

I wanted Mickey Rourke to win also and that was probably my only disappointment with the night.  I haven't seen Slumdog Millionaire but I want to as it has been getting rave reviews and recognition.

I wanted Jim Reardon (WALL-E) to win best original screenplay.
Only because Jim was a director at the Simpsons for many years.  I have actually yet to see the movie.

i loved slumdog, but i think it was overrated overrated. not worth 8 oscars dude. also, that ji ho song is terrible my goodness. 

Best Actor was a surprise for me aswell.

This year was extremely "meh" though. Slumgdog Millionaire is a good movie, but when you compare it to any other Best Picture, it seems out of place. That's really just a statement of all the other movies nominated, rather than the film itself. The one award that was complete bullshit was "Sound Mixing" it's a niche award that no one knows or cares about, but for those who don't know: Sound Mixing is when the sound crew re-record sound effects for the film.

For instance, throwing a watermelon at pavement to make the sound of a fist hitting a guy's face. Slumdog millionaire only used average normal sounds, and did nothing spectacular. But Wall-E was also nominated for that category, and lost. For animations, every single sound has to be recorded in a studio, it's absurd that Wall-E did not win that, and it made it pretty clear that Slumdog would win every award it was nominated in.

The SHOW itself was the best so far, but in terms of awards, it was predictable as hell.

Awards shows are always a lul for me. Getting sleepy just thinking about it.

Bruce should've won, goddammit. The fact they snubbed him for a nod really bothers me. Besides that, I was satisfied with most of the awards. Slumdog was great, and so was Sean Penn. He was excellent and either him or Rourke deserved the Oscar and one of them got it, 'nuf said. Heath Ledger's win was also very touching. That was very deserved.

I barely seen any of the movies that were major contenders in this years awards: Benjamin Button, Slumdog, Milk, Reader etc. And I can really only see myself getting to see Benjamin Button out of all of those as the rest dont interest me. I was glad that Heath Ledger won as I was a big fan of The Dark Knight but I didnt get sad or teary at all when he did and call me heartless but I find it a bit dreary when a room full of talented pretenders do get the way they do at an awards ceremony. And living in Perth, Heaths home town we are saturated with Heath Ledger.

I have heard of heaps of people calling foul about Mickey Rourke but you know I actually dont mind at all. I found The Wrestler to be over rated. Im not saying it wasnt a good movie I just thought it was over rated. Rourke was actually my prefered choice I just didnt feel strongly about it because of my over view of the movie. I hope we see a lot more of him in the future, and if he keeps getting parts like that I am sure he will cap of his come back with an Oscar some time down the track.

Just watched the wrestler, and it should have won some Oscars, it was so powerful. This is coming from a former wrestling fan, back in the good old dizzays. And the ending, DAMN. Amazing ending. The movie touched my soul in so many ways.

I'm only sad that WALTZ WITH BASHIR didn't win in Best Foreign Film. I'm kinda happy that finally a movie with no big name stars won awards, and was better than the other Best Picture movies. Ok, maybe not better than Revolutionary Road, but oh well, some people don't like that movie. 

The fact that Wall-E didn't win for best sound is bullshit! Slumdog Millionaire was a great film but did NOT deserve all the 8 awards it won.

I liked the awards very much but i didn't really care for the nominees for best picture just because I have not seen any of them

At least Slumdog is more deserving of 8 Oscars than Return of the King deserving like whatever number of Oscars it got...

Here in India much has been talked about Slumdog and how it represents our country in a negative light (by selling "poverty" for Oscars). That's humbug and all as the movie was an entertaining watch and finally drove home a very humane message to it's viewers.

I never even heard of Slumdog Millionaire until the Oscars. I am kinda disappointed that we Americans can't even win our own awards anymore.

I can't say if I agree with the winners because I have not seen most of the movies.