and the Oscar goes to...

Last night was the Academy Awards and the biggest winner seemed to be the film "The Kings Speech". It was an enjoyable movie and one that I thought was both interesting on both a historical level as well as in terms of enjoyment. But, what I find interesting is that most of the snarky entertainment blogs that I read just do not seem to get it. One called "Film Drunk" had this to say

"The Oscars happened last night and The King’s Speech was the big winner, taking home Best Picture, Best Director for Tom Hooper (he didn’t deserve it for this, but call it a late award for John Adams), Best Actor for Colin Firth, and Best Original Screenplay for 73-year-old David Seidler. It’s ironic, because that movie really sucked huge old wrinkly British gravy-covered stuttering balls. Okay, maybe it wasn’t terrible, but if you made a parody of The Oscars, The King’s Speech is the film that would win Best Picture there. If Seltzer-Friedberg were slightly talented and made a film called “Oscar Movie,” it would look exactly like The King’s Speech. Colin Firth is great and Geoffrey Rush is a gangster, but seriously? That was the best movie of the year? A stuttering king and his unorthodox mentor? It really drives home the fact that the people who vote on this are a thousand years old, and probably babysat for Kirk Douglas when he was in elementary school."

Well now! I am sure that feels very proud of his phrasing in that quote. Oh how clever he must feel. But what I do not think he gets is that the film is a true story. What does he want them to do? They could have added dragons to it I suppose or perhaps a sparkling vampire? Sometimes when you make a movie based on an historical event it may be a little predictable.

As far as I am concerned, the best movie chase came down to two films "Black Swan" and "True Grit". I enjoyed "The Kings Speech" but I did not feel it matched the power or had the technical expertise of the the two that I preferred. This doesn't mean I am going to go on some sort of rant about the state of cinema today or anything like that. I just liked the other films better. Because if I wanted to I could work myself up into a rant about film that would make Charlie Sheens coke fueled rant on the Alex Jones show pale in comparison. WINNING!!

Ah I amuse only myself at times but that is enough for me.

On a side note I spent some time in the Highland neighborhood this weekend with a certain family. A fair amount of wine was consumed and some pasta but the high light was the matriarch of the family casually admitting that she had thrown her childs "slap hand" into the garbage!!! The horror of it all. Imagine this poor child home from a hard day of basketball excited about playing with the new toy, that I believe may have been an award, for their efforts on the courts and it is tossed away like yesterdays news. the child was so upset that once they retrieved the "slap hand" from the garbage they wandered off and I did not see them again. They may be stumbling around the neighborhood still. It just goes to show that even in a nice place like the Highland neighborhood parents can still be mean. But rest assured that this reporter is going to continue to be on hand to shine the light of justice on these kinds of shenanigans.

Witty or Just Plain Mean?

I am a big fan of the sarcasm. I like to use my tone to convey my dissatisfaction with the world around me. I often curl my lip and look down at the common people and ask myself "why is it that people would...?" You can fill in the blank there. It could be a certain popular movie or song, perhaps a book or magazine or an actor or actress that I do not care for.

But, I wonder as I get older if all of that sarcasm is wearing me down and stopping me from just enjoying life. I just read a line from a magazine

"One of the freedoms you can find away from the nation's coasts is freedom from the curse of trying to be cool."

I really like how that sounds. I think as I try to stay abreast of current events both politically and pop culturally I find myself reading some things that are pretty snarky and not informative. It seems like if I am reading something that has a liberal side to it there is more time spent making fun of the latest "dumb" thing that Glenn Beck or Sarah Palin has said and I am as guilty of that as most people. But I wonder if it really should be more about the issues at hand when it comes to politics and not about what some cult of personality person said.

I realize I am just rambling here but I sometimes use this blog to process my ramblings so there you a special treat today a look into the head of Lance. I hope it wasn't to scary.