Commentaries - February 2008

Impressions on the Oscars - 02/25/08

As a whole, I think last night's ceremony was only good. I wasn't boring and I was satisfied with most of the winners, but I think it could've been better. Much better. I would've liked more shows, more of a spectacle, for example. I mean, that's what this kind of ceremony is supposed to be, right? All we had last night was the following: an award was given, then a song, then another award, then a collage video, then commercials, then another award, and so on. It was all predictable, and although it didn't actually bore me, it wasn't particularly fun.

Jon Stewart wasn't bad, though, although from what I've seen in the last few years, I think the Academy somehow manages to "mute" the comedy of famous comedians. Ellen DeGeneres is supposed to be hilarious - at least that's what people say about her shows - but she was lame in last year's ceremony. Jon Stewart is pretty funny too - ever seen The Daily Show? - but his comedy last night was pretty stale. He had a couple of good gags, but most of his jokes were either stupid or unfunny. Like I said, he wasn't bad, but I somehow was expecting more of him; at least more than what he did two years ago.

And the awards? Well, there were very few surprises, but I can't say I'm not satisfied by them. I guess the only surprises would be The Bourne Ultimatum winning all three categories it was nominated for (Sound, Sound Editing and Film Editing), and Tilda Swinton winning the Best Supporting Actress Award. She was superb in Michael Clayton, but for some reason I wasn't expecting the Academy to recognize her work. It might have to do with their previous track record.

Last night I gave my impressions of the Awards announcement I had seen until that point. Since you already know what I think about them, I will only talk now about the Awards I haven't talked about at all.

- Best Motion Picture of the Year: No Country for Old Men. I guess it was pretty obvious, and since the flick is really excellent, I have no complaints here.

- Best Performance by a Leading Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis. I haven't seen There Will Be Blood - yet - but since, from what I hear, his performance was amazingly great, and he was the favorite, it's fair to say he deserved it.

- Best Directors: The Coen Brothers! No surprises in here, although I really wanted There Will Be Blood to win at least one major Award apart from Best Actor, for some reason.

- Best Original Screenplay: Juno. Obvious. Again, I haven't seen the movie - all right, kill me - but Diablo Cody was the favorite and Juno was the underdog. Great!

- Best Screenplay based on previously produced material: No Country For Old Men. This was a little more difficult to predict; seems the Academy really liked the Coens' movie!

Cinematography: There Will Be Blood. Even though No Country For Old Men looked amazing and The Assasination of Jesse James looked beautiful, I really liked that PT Anderson's film won this award.

- Best Costumes: Elizabeth: The Golden Age. Well, at least they got one award. The Academy loves period pieces, especially the ones that have such pretty dresses as this flick.

- Original Score: Atonement. I forgot to mention it in my review, but Dario Marianelli's music is absolutely beautiful and excellently-composed, and I'm glad he won this award.

- Best Original Song: Haven't seen Once, but the song was not bad at all.

Okay, so that's it, I guess. Haven't seen the documentaries that were were nominated or that won; the same is for the short films. From what I hear, though, most of them deserved their awards, so I guess there's no complaint in there either.

So yeah, the Oscars weren't bad; they were predictable, and there were very few surprises, but were kinda fun, nonetheless. I won't stop watching these ceremonies every year, but I just hope the members of the Academy will hold more surprises for us next year.

What will I be doing this next? Expect some pretty cool reviews of Oscar-nominated flicks. I'm kinda late, but I believe you'll appreciate reading my opinion about them. Talk to you soon!

Sebastián "GG" Zavala

Watching the Oscars - 02/24/08

Yup, I'm watching the Oscars right now, and, unlike other critics, I actually like watching this event. Granted, this 80th ceremony hasn't been particularly excellent up to this point, but is by no means boring. Jon Stewart is pretty funny and the hosts have been pretty lively, although I would've liked more showy numbers. What about the awards? I've been surprised by a couple of them, actually, although there's still much more to see.

- OK, the Coens have won for No Country for Old Men. No surprise there.

- Javier Bardem won the Best Supporting Actor Award. Again, no surprise, although I was very glad.

- Sweeney Todd won the Best Art Direction Award... it truly deserved it!

- Visual Effects... The Golden Compass? WTF? The special effects in that flick (a pretty average one, by the way) were lame; even though Transformers was no masterpiece, special effects in there were MUCH better... that movie deserved the award.

- La Vie en Rose won Best Makeup. OK, deserved it.

- Ratatouille won the Best Animated Feature award. Although I loved all three movies, I wasn't surprised by the announcement.

- Then there's Tilda Swinton... I was surprised by that one, and I was also glad... her performance in Michael Clayton was really great.

- The Best Actress Award... wow, Marion Cotillard! I wasn't expecting that, and although I haven't watched La Vie en Rose - yet -, from what I've seen in clips and trailers and stuff, I guess she deserved it. She did look amazed and excited.

Okay, so that's what I've seen until now. I don't know if I'll post another commentary later, but I'm definitely writing tomorrow about my general impressions of the Ceremony. It's not bad, up to this point. Is anybody reading this right now? I'm not too sure, but I guess tomorrow you'll have the opportunity to do it. I've always liked watching the Oscars, and I haven't become synical enough for not getting excited about it.

Yeah, I don't care if most of the Awards are predictable. It is exciting.

Hope you'll have fun watching them!

Sebastián "GG" Zavala

A new look, and a new site - 02/13/08

I have a couple of announcements to make, for a change. As you may have already noticed, the site's home has changed its look. Instead of sporting its plain, text-only, James-Berardinelli's-site-copy-cat feel, it now looks a little, well, prettier, I guess. I've moved the logo up and the main menu down. To the left, you can find the updates, the new reviews, older reviews, and my top and bottom lists. To the left, is the newest addition: the recommendations. In there you can take a look at the latest best-reviewed movies, and decide if you wanna read the reviews or not. Content's changed a little, and also the home's look, but I think it's for the better. Do you like the new look? Or don't you? Any comments you have about the site's redesign, you can send me.

Then there's the other novelty: M's Film Spot. This is a new "partner" site, which will dedicate to reviewing films much like GG's Movie Reviews does, and it will be both written and managed by Mauricio Kahn, my cousin. The thing is, Mauricio is a movie-lover much like me, and he's always been writing and commenting reviews as a hobby. He decided he wanted to make his work public, and now he has his very own film criticism website. For the moment, he's only been able to publish one polished review - the Taxi Driver one -, but tomorrow he will post a proper introduction, as well as another review. He's told me he'll try to publish a new review everyday, so I hope he'll attract new readers. So, do you want a second opinion? Do you enjoy reading reviews? Well, now, apart from GG's Movie Reviews' you've got M's Film Spot, and I bet you'll enjoy that web site too. Check it out, it's pretty harmless and it's incomplete, but I bet Mauricio will be able to update and upgrade his website little by little. Ah... it's always refreshing to get new partner sites.

And now the last announcement, and the gravest, I guess. You already must know I'm still in school - I'm 17 - and that I don't work; you know, I don't have a fixed, monthly income. That means that I pay for the maintaining of this website, but I don't get nothing in return. This had been a non-commercial website until now, but I'm afraid that will have to change. I did the same thing with the Star Wars Epica, actually. What I will do is to subscribe to a couple of sites, and basically add commercial banners to the site. Now, the thing is, I don't want to lose readers with this decision. I didn't lose any when I put the banners in the Star Wars Epica, so I don't think it should happen in here. I know, banners can be annoying. But I've chosen, well, wisely, and I promise these banners won't alter your reading experience.

Nah, they won't be annoying.

On the other hand, I would appreciate if, the moment I add these banners, you'd click as many of them as possible. Like I said, I have no fixed income and I don't work - because I'm underage and I'm still at school - so it would be cool if you'd collaborate with me. I don't wanna beg, it's just a favor. The thing is, I don't wanna irritate viewers, so I've chosen modest banners which won't annoy anyone. When will they be put in the site? In a couple of days or maybe a week. Really, I don't expect anyone to complain about them, and I'm sure they won't annoy you.

So yeah, these days are full of novelties. The site now looks much better - to me, at least - and my cousin - who's a great reviewer, by the way - now has his own film criticism website. Please, try to take a look at M's Film Spot and, if possible, become a recurrent reader. I'm sure that if you enjoy my writing and especially the movie business, you'll enjoy his reviews.

Well, I'll continue posting my reviews, writing commentaries from time to time, and receiving support e-mail from all my readers. Hope you'll continue enjoying the starwarsepica websites.

Sebastián "GG" Zavala

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