Oscars: Oh whatever...

Firstly, no posts for the last week for two reasons:

Firstly, I've been helping my friend Paul with his Board Game Website (which I won't name here for reasons of keeping identities separate), writing several articles on board gaming and board games.

Secondly, I spent this weekend with my buddies at home, playing games, watching an atrocious film (In The Spiders Web - review upcoming) and generally having fun. Sorry if you've missed reading my disingenuous Twitter Posts or Blog Posts for the last week.

But I'm back! And today is the day that the film industry pats its favourite folks' backs.

There are two major themes to their award givings...

1. The Crowe Effect - Compensation. Martin Scorsese got an Oscar for Gangs Of New York and The Departed. GANGS OF NEW YORK? This was purely because he'd never had one before.
2. The Forrest Gump Effect - Surprise. Actor shows off their skills by playing either against type, or mentally ill. Obviously, this includes loads of performances - the classics are Tom Hanks, Charlize Theron etc.

At least one major award every year fits these rules. It doesn't take a genius to fit Kate Winslet into the first category and Sean Penn into the second.

For many people, Bollywood will have become interesting thanks to Slumdog Millionaire. Once again, your loyal film correspondent (i.e. me) was ahead of the game - follow this link, or this link for the two Bollywood films I fit in last year.

Other than these regular moans I have every year, I haven't seen any of the films that won major awards due to unemployment apart from The Dark Knight.

Fellow regular blogger Gary questions whether Heath Ledger would have won his Oscar for this movie if he was still alive. I am of the opinion that, no, he would not. He would, however, have won one if he had stayed alive - the performances in Monsters Ball and Brokeback mountain are, by repute. good enough to see he would have been a hugely successful actor.

So this feels to my like a preemptive Crowe Effect - they won't get another chance to reward his talents so they had to now. Meh - I'm not that bothered, really.

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