Oscar Night

Last night, I went to my annual Oscar party with a few co-workers. Or, as Dorene would say, I went to a boring party with a lot of strange people that sit around and talk about movies that nobody in the country has gone to see. I take offense to that, WE saw the movies. Okay, she has a point, the combined grosses of contenders Frost/Nixon, The Reader, Milk, The Wrestler, and Vicky Christina Barcelona are still less than that of Paul Blart: Mall Cop.

The show was quite different than in past years, and at times it was a good thing and at times it wasn't.

• Host: Hugh Jackman started off good with a musical number similar to what Billy Crystal always did. Overall he did pretty good. Although the whole song and dance thing got a little old. Anne Hathaway can sing.
• Excellent bit with Tina Fey and Steve Martin. Also good was the piece with Seth Rogan and James Franco, where they bust up laughing at serious films like The Reader.
• That musical number with Beyonce was pretty lame and just kinda strange at times. Mixed a whole bunch of songs at the same time which just didn't really work.
• Bringing in 5 previous winners to talk about the current nominees? Okay at first, but it got kinda old. Besides, these were just acting awards, they weren't up for a Nobel Prize. Kinda overboard on showering each nominee with praise. I mean, it's not going to change the world that Marisa Tomei and Michael Shannon were nominated for movies no one saw.
• No real surprises with any of the awards.
• Will Smith gave out 4 Oscars. Let someone else help out.
• What was Sophia Loren saying in her tribute to Meryl Streep?
• Where was Jack Nicholson? Tom Hanks? Or last year's Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis? Or last year's Best Actress (bet you can't name her, it took a few of us a while last night to remember).
• Jerry Lewis has been doing the "Jerry's Kids" thing much longer than I realized.
• No memorable acceptance speeches, except maybe when Phillipe Petit balanced the Oscar on his chin.
• Yawn, Sean Penn getting political. Points for making light of his gruff nature though.
• Certainly the moment everyone was waiting for was Heath Ledger winning, and his family coming up to accept on his behalf. That was a good moment.

I did miserably on the Oscar pool. Picked most of the major nominees correctly, but botched everything else. No one correctly guessed that "Smile Pinky" would win Best Live Action Short. I stood alone in picking "Slumdog Millionaire" to win Best Sound Mixing (yes, you should be in awe of me for that).

Did "Slumdog Millionaire" deserve to win Best Picture? Yes, absolutely. Much more deserving than last year's "No Country for Old Men." If you haven't seen Slumdog, I highly recommend it. Certainly one of the best movies I've seen in a while. It's well worth seeking out and needs to be seen on the big screen. Be sure not to hop right out of your chair when the movie ends.

Oscar Movie Review - "Slumdog Millionaire"

This is the third and last of the Best Picture nominees that I've seen. I am not curious at all about "Benjamin Button" and don't even have a 2% interest in seeing "Milk."

But back to "Slumdog." This was a wholly original movie that I highly recommend. To give a synopsis of it doesn't really do it justice, but here goes. A kid from the slums of Mumbai gets on the Indian version of "Who Wants to be Millionaire" and is one question away from winning a bunch of rupees. He's suspected of cheating (no "slumdog" could possibly know all the answers) so he's interrogated/tortured by police to confess. How he knew the answers sets the story in motion as it flashes back to his childhood and works it's way up to the present. Now, all this is put forth in the first few minutes, so I'm not giving anything away here.

The movie is fast-paced and has a kinetic visual style that keeps you interested, and an excellent soundtrack. It is all filmed on location in India and you definitely get a feel for the class warfare that goes on in that country and wonder how anyone could emerge from the widespread poverty there (which exists side by side to some extreme wealth and a fast growing middle class).

The three main characters are the "slumdog" Jamal, his brother Salim, and Latika, an orphan girl that Jamal befriends and spends the rest of the movie trying to get together with. The movie is rated R but it probably could have been a PG-13. There is no sex and no gory violence. There may have been a handful of swear words, but that was it. Much of the violence is directed at children, so that level of brutality probably gave it the rating (overall, the tone is pretty intense).

This is the front-runner for Best Picture and I hope it wins because it definitely deserves to. In a lot of ways, the underlying story is fairly traditional (rags to riches, boy gets girl), but the way it's told makes it seem totally original. It's probably a cliche to say you haven't seen a movie like this before, but the fact of the matter is, you haven't.

Final Justice, 20 Years Later

The Indiana Supreme Court just ruled today that the murder convictions of Jeff Pelley have been upheld. This brings final closure to a case that began in April of 1989 and that my family was very much intertwined with, since dad took over the church shortly after Jeff killed his minister father, stepmother and two stepsisters.

There had been an issue as to whether or not Jeff's right to a speedy trial was violated. Turns out, it was not, so he'll be spending the rest of his life in prison. I don't imagine he's much of a threat in prison and he'll now have a lot of time to think through how his life would have been different had he accepted his dad's punishment and not gone to the prom that night.

Anna @ 10

Yesterday was Anna's 10th birthday. Dorene and I took her out to celebrate minus Cameron and Allie. Anna got to choose where to eat and she chose Olive Garden (fine by us, we love it there).

For her birthday present, we didn't give her an actual present to unwrap. For Anna, the best gift you can give her is time, and that's what we gave her. Her present from Dorene will be a day trip to Chicago to meet up with her sister and go to a museum. Her present from me is a night out going to a movie. Anna said she much preferred getting that as opposed to a present (and she means it, she's very hard to shop for at Christmas time).

However, we still took her to Toys 'R Us and let her pick out a "Littlest Pet Shop" figurine that she collects and gave her a birthday card, which she loved, even though it wasn't like the kind she gets from grandma that has money in it.

We had a wonderful evening and my (first) little girl is quickly growing up on us. She is a true delight, quirky in many ways, and it's been 10 wonderful years with her (well, except maybe you need to talk to Dorene about when she turned 3).

Oscar Movie Review - "The Reader"

Hmm, not sure how to review this movie, the second of the Best Picture nominees I've seen. Parts of it are really good and parts of it are, well, kinda not so good (I'll get to that later).

The movie is primarily set in the late 50's and 60's in Germany, where a young man has an affair with an older woman, who has a secret past which he finds out about later in the movie. It's this later part that is really well done and the most compelling part of the movie. It deals a lot with how Germans have come to terms with their past and asks the question who was and who wasn't guilty during the Nazi regime. Very good stuff here.

However, the affair part during the first part of the movie is a little unsettling. You see, the "young man" is only 15. So, well, there you have it. There's quite a bit of nudity in this section (note to Pam, Kate Winslet is the new Susan Sarandon) and it is just a bit uncomfortable seeing a bedroom scene between characters that are supposed to be 15 and 30. I coulda done without that.

So, I can recommend the final 2/3 of the movie, but the first 1/3, not so much.

Ready for that Stimulus Check

Here's a viewpoint from a year ago that is now relevant to the stimulus checks we may soon be getting:

"You're getting $600 - what can you do with that? Not to be ungrateful or anything, but maybe it pays down a bill, but it doesn't pay down every bill every month." The short-term, quick fix kinda stuff sounds good, and it may even feel good that first month when you get that check, and then you go out and you buy a pair of earrings."

Michelle Obama (7/11/2008)

Super Bowl: Final Notes

• Had the day off on Monday because baby Allie was sick. Spent a lot of time reading Super Bowl recaps. I always like reading columnists from the cities of the teams that played. Most of the articles in the Arizona papers were of the "Destiny Denied" variety while those in the Pittsburgh area were a little more upbeat.


• The consensus was that it was possibly the greatest Super Bowl of all time. I could care less, my team still lost! Yes, I will whine about it for a while.


• James Harrison, who made that play before the half, had barely made the team. As recently as 4 years ago, he had applied to be a bus driver. The Steelers gave him one last chance. I'd be just as happy had he been off driving a bus on Sunday. Still don't know how the Cardinals couldn't at least push him out of bounds on that play.


• Why was 50+ year-old Bruce Springsteen acting like he was in his 20's? Some of his moves looked kinda silly for his age. He started off kind of weak but came on strong towards the end with "Glory Days."


• Many years ago I worked for the State Bar of Arizona (which certifies applicants to practice law). One day a young man fresh out of law school stopped by to get some information on taking the bar exam. His name? Michael Bidwell, who is now President of the Cardinals and a prime reason the team has turned it around.


• The commercials were hit and miss. One of my favorites was one that you would have missed (literally) had you blinked. Miller beer did a 1-second commercial which consisted of their delivery guy saying, "Miller High Life" and that was it. That was clever. The Go-Daddy commercials were very risque for what is a large family viewing audience.


• The Steelers are now officially my arch-villain. They beat my Cowboys in two Super Bowls years ago, handed the Colts two very heartbreaking playoff losses, and now taken out the Cardinals.

Cardinals: Oh, the Agony
Oh my, what a heartbreaking loss this was, after what looked like a thrilling comeback. When Larry Fitzgerald broke through on that touchdown late in the 4th quarter, the room erupted (I was at our pastor's house, and everyone was rooting for the Cardinals). Although all of us were a little leary of giving the Steelers so much time left to score, which of course they did. I think had the Cardinals got blown away, it would have been much easier as it would have been simple to say they were outmatched. But doggone it, they could have won this thing. For Cinderella teams like this, you gotta close it out.

A bunch of "what ifs" on this one. What if the Steelers didn't score before halftime? That was huge. What if the Cardinals defense would have sacked Roethlesberger more? It seemed like he was always getting away when it looked like they had him cornered. Then that last drive. Where was the defense? They just got picked apart. However, that final touchdown pass was perfectly thrown and Holmes made an amazing catch, with 3 defenders around him.

I guess there's always next year and maybe this will finally bring the Cardinals into the fold as one of the league's top teams after being so down and out for so many years. We'll see if Warner comes back or not, I figured he may have retired had the Cards won. But boy oh boy this was a frustrating loss and Cardinals fans will have a hard time forgetting the image of Harrison rumbling and stumbling for that touchdown before halftime.