Monday, February 26, 2007

An oscar for every occasion

The academy may not have made the best choice, The Departed was an exceptionally well made morality tale about the pitfalls of power and corruption, yet it was something we have seen numerous times before. Still it was Scorsese's turn and like stoned badger after twinkies, he could not be denied. Part of me thought that momentum Little Miss Sunshine had received would push the sappy Indy pic to victory, Babel's chances having been obliterated by illiterate, transient bloggers. Eddie Murphy's loss can be attributed to a singular force: the miserable failure that is Norbit. Every time I see a commercial for that movie my eyes burn as though they are infected by a new strain of gonorrhea. That fat suit has gotta smell like that area between John Goodman's legs.

I would say only in America, but most people can probably realize that. The once greatly bigoted and hate filled Senator Strom Thurmond's relatives owned not just any slaves, but the ancestors of the venerable Reverend Al Sharpton. Wouldn't it be funny if somehow Strom was Al Sharpton's uncle? You know the other uncle, the one who spews profanities in front of the 3 year olds his whiskey covered breath filling the air. And he was a Senator, at least he wasn't friends with Mark Foley. A cheap shot I know, but I had to get it in there.

Once again the most interesting quote of the weekend went to this suburban dweller, or rather it was a quote about me. Not too often are the words, "What are you doing with that knife?" uttered in a way that does not bring about memories of brutal slayings remembered from the horror films that comforted my youth. Perhaps here lies the answer. If there are still pirates in the world and I'm not one of them, I'm going to defend myself from them. Yet a pivotal point did arise, how many pirates exist in New York City. Probably more than Bloomberg is willing to recognize. Who wants to crew this galleon?

Lastly we come to the tug of war between the steamrolling obsession that is Heroes and my recent enthrallment with the newest episodes of Lost. While I was hooked on Lost from episode 1 only to watch the past season and a half be butchered by writers who had scribed for a show never expected to succeed. High concept rarely succeeds because the conceits needed are usually ignored by Hollywood, so Lost's success certainly came as a surprise. Confused and misguided, the writers used the past season as a filler to figure out exactly where to go from here. Their most recent results: most promising, yet doubts still swim doggingly. Heroes on the other hand learned from Lost, always be a working towards a definitive end when working with high concept. Supposedly there is a 5 year plan which is a step in the right direction. And its funny that high concept applies to what is essentially an X-Men rip off, be it a well done one.