So, the Oscars are over, and Titanic has tied Ben-Hur for the most Oscar wins.
Did they deserve more? Were Kate Winslet and the come-back lady Gloria Stuart
shafted? Should Leo have been nominated? Or did this film get more than it
deserved to begin with?

My opinion: I'm happy that Kim Bassinger has finally won something. She's
overcome a lot of personal demons on her road to the podium last night. Gloria
Stuart, while she was charming, just wasn't given enough to work with. But
she did great with what she had, you could still see her love for Jack in her
eyes after all those years. I was ecstatic when Robin Williams nabbed best
supporting actor. He's done some great work over the years, he's not *all*
about comedy. Congrats to him. Jack Nicholson definately deserves to be in
the elite 3+ Oscar group, and Helen Hunt's win was I think fairly expected.
I didn't see As Good as it Gets so I can't rate her performance. Titanic won
in nearly every technical category except make-up. Overall, I beleive Titanic
deserved each and every award it got. So many people worked incredibly hard
for a LONG LONG time to make this sinking as authentic and terrifyingly real
as possible. And a hip-hip-hooray to Celine Dion for her excellent on-stage
performance of her song. She looks great in that necklace. ;)

Now let's hear your opinion....

56 responses total.

(I wasn't disappointed with the awards that I'm aware of. certainly, 
Cameron deserved Best Director, and I'm glad that _Good Will Hunting_
took Best Screenplay, with Robin Williams taking Best Supporting Actor.
I haven't yet seen either _L.A. Confidential_ or _As Good As It Gets_,
but I certainly wouldn't doubt that Basinger, Hunt, and Nicholson earned
the awards they received.)

I thought that James Cameron was a horses patoot for the speech that he gave
for best producer...Rub noses, why don't you! I didn't want to see the other
one.

I thought Hunt most definately deserved hers for best actress.  I haven't seen
Titanic, and have no intention of seeing it at least until it goes to the
cheap theater, so I can't say as to it.  I doubt I'll agree with best picture.
The technical ones I'll probably agree with.

I didn't see many of the others, but I was in awe of Titanic for a few days
after seeing it.  It was amazing, and I think it deserved the awards it got.
Dan -- definitely see it in a theater, rather than waiting for video.  It was
the sort of move that really benifited from the big screen.

Meg -- what was it in Cameron's speech that you objected to?  I'm wondering
if I missed something.  It didn't strike me as too different from most of the
other speeches.

  I'm pleased to see that my cynical Oscar picks (in Winter Agora)
  were only 50% correct..  Considering I had only seen one of the
  movies ("L.A. Confidential"), though, I still think that the
  awards say a lot more about the people doing the picking than
  they do about the movies that win or lose.

After Jennifer Lopez made her presentation everything was a blur.

Was that in the third hour? heh...

BTW, Billy Crystal stated in the beginning how they were trying to cut down
on the length of the awards. At 3 hours and 42 minutes, it was the longest
Oscars yet. Good job at speeding things up, guys! =P

(was he kidding?)

Second longest.  The longest was three minutes longer.

I was rather happy with the Oscars.  Movies like Titanic don't just happen
every year, and I think that it deserved everything it got (I would have liked
to see it get the acting Oscars, but the acting wasn't earth-shattering). 
Granted, a lot of the awards were minor awards that the academy handed to it
on a silver platter, but it was still nice.  Titanic, like it or not, is the
pre-eminent movie of the past two or three years, at the very least, probably
dating back to Schindler's list.  The Oscars reflect that.

Billy Crystal was hilarious in the opening of the show, which makes me glad
I taped it.  Unfortunately, scheduling difficulties forced him to clam up for
the rest of the program to allow for them to fit everything.  The lifetime
achievement acceptance was delightful.  I enjoyed the fact that some of the
presenters and acceptors actually decided to be amusing, too.  

I agree, Titanic deserved best picture and the oscars it got, but
Kate Winslett and Gloria Stuart did not deserve oscars.  This is and
accurate picture... Titanic is a great movie but not because
of the performances of the stars... they did an adequate job, but
they are not the reason for the film's greatness.

For me, the highlight of the ceremonies was Stanley Donen's
song-and-dance acceptance of the Life-Achievement award. It's
nice to see someone as old as he must be (Donen started
directing movies about 50 years ago) doing so well.

As to the awards themselves, I can't say I cared a lot about
who won. With the exception of Best Supporting Actor, where I
was rooting for Robert Forster. (He didn't win.)

As I've mentioned on M-Net, I'm in love with Kate Winslet.

No, she's no great actress, and I don't even think she deserved a nomination,
but damn I'm glad she was there!  WOW!  I don't think that dress could've been
any tighter. :)

Congrats definately to Robin Williams for his first Oscar.

Hehe Kate's got her own funky style...gotta love her for it:)

I loved her dress. :)

Steve: I objected to two of Cameron's comments
"I am King of the World!!!"
"Everybvody else that I would like to thank have been nominated for or already
recieved their Oscars..."

I loved Stanley Donen...Like remmers, I liked seeing him doing so well, he
amused me bercaus he seemed to be a real person on the stage.  :)

I love seeing people getting giddy for their awards...Robin Williams deserved
his, and it was great to see him so excited about it.  Also Ben Afleck and
Matt Damon, the young guys....I thought that it was great that they got that
award!!!  :)

I thought those comments from Cameron were funny, in context.  Out of context,
they do look snobbish, to say the least.  He did thank a long string of people
before he got to the line about everybody else he wanted to thank.

        agora 26 <-> cinema 19

What's objectionable about saying everything else you can think of thanking
had been nominated or accepted already?  Cameron was right... all his
associates in making the film had essentially either already been thanked or
had been nominated and/or given oscars.  Didn't bother me.  (And I think the
"King of the World" was something of an amusing joke)

Whatever, though.  When I was referring to the acceptance speech, I meant
Donan's, which was definitely the highlight of the evening for everyone in
my family.

In case folks are not familiar with who Stanley Donen is, he is
best known as the director or co-director (usually with Gene Kelly)
of several of the classic Hollywood musicals: "On the Town",
"Singin' in the Rain", "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers",
"It's Always Fair Weather", "Funny Face", "The Pajama Game", and
"Damn Yankees".

He also did movies like "Charade" which was a comic/thriller/mystery
type thing.  Detroit PBS (56) showed it a month or so ago on their
classic movie show.  It was a little cheesy by today's standards, but
very entertaining.  With Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau
and James Coburn you can't go too wrong.

        I thought the "king of the world" comment was also a 
famous line in his movie.  Looks like I need to get to Titanic.
        James Cameron won Oscar for Titanic.
        Titanic was about being in water.
        James Cameron also directed Abbys, also about being in water.
        So, coming soon to a theature near you:  "Son of Abbys".

It was in the movie.  Fairly well joked about, too, which is why I think he
did it.

(The Name Spelling Police [NSP] finally manage to pull tpryan over)

The correct name spellings:
"Abbyss" , not "Abbys"
"Fibber McGee", not "Fiber McGey" (this one calls for a court appearance ;)

(The officer himself gets a deparmental reprimand for spelling "abyss" wrong)

after a month in theaters...i've finally find time to watch it and i' may say
its woth it...although the price did not change...two thumbs up to titanic...

I dunno. I'm being a grump abou t most of the recent Oscar best pictures --
every one of them that I've seen has been big and shallow and unworthy
to lick the boots of the winners before, say, 1965 and after 1930... 

Three months in the theaters, actually.

 re #22, 23:  Thank god..  For a while there, I thought Cameron's next
 film was going to be about Arbys..

(bwings' plan says that bwings comes to us from Tokyo, so TITANIC
may indeed have played there for only a month so far.)

Well i certainly do not thing Titanic deserved all those Oscars, there were
much more deserving films, what about The Full Monty?  If you have seen this
film you would realise what i am talking about.  Being English though,it's
abot time you gave us some credit:help

It's "Abyss", not "Abbyss", as the person correcting the incorrect spelling
wrote...

Isn't it?

Hi, ezzaroo, welcome to Grex!  THE FULL MONTY was fun, but I didn't find 
myself thinking "Best Picture of the Year" when I saw it.  
 
If you want to take a nationalist perspective, the British *almost* had 
the Best Actress category sewn up, with only li'l old American
Helen Hunt getting a nomination... and the award...  :)
 
I've got a videotape of Cameron's director's cut of THE ABYSS, which 
runs about an hour longer than the theatrical release; I need to free 
up a couple of nights to watch it.  Curiously, after THE ABYSS I stopped
watching Cameron films for a while: I still have not seen TERMINATOR 2
or TRUE LIES.

Terminator 2, in my opinion, is quite worth seeing.  It was also a landmark
(at the time) for technology and special effects.  True Lies really isn't that
crucial to film lore.

I didn't understand the Kim Basinger nomination, much less the Oscar.
It seemed that she was being nominated because she looks like Kim
Basinger.  (Not a bad idea, in my opinion, but probably not a good
enough reason for the Academy.)  If anyone else has seen L.A.
Confidential and knows what was so great about her performance in
it, do share.

  I agree..  I might've supported a lifetime achievement award for putting
  up with the incredibly annoying, perpetually smirking Alec Baldwin, but
  best supporting actress?  My personal theory is that this was a way to
  give "L.A. Confidential", an excellent movie for its genre, an extra Oscar.

I saw Titanic last Sunday (the cheap showing).  Frankly, Titanic
wasn't best picture in my book.  Diverting?  Sure.  Spectacular
special effects?  Absolutely.  But not best flick of this year.

"Good Will Hunting" should have gotten the nod.

imo.

I must say that I didn't find Good Will Hunting to be all
that wonderful.  It was pleasent enough, but there wasn't 
much in it that was particularly original or enlightening. 
And, other than a nicely subtle South Boston accent, I 
thought Robin Williams's performance to be rather pedestrian;
he's done much better with other roles.

He's lost Oscars for much better roles, true. But this makes up for those
losses.

He said after his acceptance speech that he tried to be somewhat serious,
thinking he might not be up there again. I think we'll see more of Robin
Williams at the podium before his career is over.

(This is what's great about these Awards ceremonies.. we all get to have fun
"discussing" which awards were given to the right person/film, and which
awards were given to the wrong person/film)

Robin Williams is an absolutely magnificent actor and entertainer.  In my
opinion, he is by far the most underrated actor of the generation.  Sure,
people give him all kinds of credit, but not nearly enough, particularly for
his serious acting ability.  They tend to get distracted by Mork and Mrs.
Doubtfire and ignore the wonderful jobs he's done in serious roles.  If he
didn't have such a sense of humor, he could be up there with the best.  As
it is, he has so much talent it's hard to pin him down.

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