Golden Globes 2009
// January 18th, 2010 // 7 Comments » // Random Movie Musings
So the Golden Globes have come and gone, and once again, just like the Oscars last year, they really screwed the pooch in one major category. We will get to that, but first Ricky Gervais was absolutely brilliant as the host. His constant jabs at actors and celebrities were incredibly funny, and he proved once again that he is the funniest man in the world. My favorite speech of the night belonged to Mo’Nique (surprisingly enough) and Jeff Bridges. Just about everybody else’s were pretty boring. And my favorite award of the night went to Michael C. Hall for Dexter. It’s about time he got an award for his incredible performance on that show. He has been deserving for three seasons and I am really glad he finally got his due. Here are the winners in case you didn’t see the show. Film results only though, after all this site isn’t called “justin on the couch.”
Best Motion Picture–Drama
Avatar
Best Motion Picture–Musical or Comedy
The Hangover
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture–Drama
Jeff Bridges–Crazy Heart
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture–Drama
Sandra Bullock–The Blindside
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture–Musical or Comedy
Robert Downey Jr.–Sherlock Holmes
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture–Musical or Comedy
Meryl Streep–Julie & Julia
Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Christoph Waltz–Inglourious Basterds
Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Motion Picture
Mo’Nique
Best Director Motion Picture
James Cameron–Avatar
Best Screenplay
Up In The Air–Jason Reitman/Sheldon Turner
Best Animated Film
Up
First, Avatar winning best picture for the drama category?! Really?! James Cameron really owes all the awards he is going to win to his marketing team. They managed to come out of their meetings and tell everybody that Avatar was going to change filmmaking and the way films are made. What about Avatar is going to change the filmmaking? Somebody answer this question for me. This is all over the trailer and the posters, and now it’s all over forums and discussion boards, and yet nobody every says how it is doing this. The Avatar team has been saying this so much that everybody else just believes them and spews it out to the next person they talk to. Kudos to the marketing team for making this movie seem way more important then it really is. I like Avatar, I think it is a good movie, but the Hurt Locker should have won. The Hurt Locker is a superior film in every aspect, with the exception of animation and that’s because it doesn’t have any. Avatar is good, but it isn’t in the same league as the Hurt Locker. This was the biggest screw job of the night. The Hurt Locker is filmmaking at it’s finest, and it better get the oscar, although I don’t believe that’s going to happen.
Secondly, I am perfectly ok with The Hangover winning best picture for musical or comedy, and for Jeff Bridges winning best actor. These awards are both well deserved and I couldn’t think of a bad thing to say about either. On the positive side, I love Jeff Bridges, always have, and his speech was awesome. I love to see an actor who is completely humble and dedicated to his wife of 33 years. That’s an impressive feat for anybody, especially for a celebrity.
I have serious issues with the next three acting categories. Sandra Bullock winning best actress for the Blind Side? Really? Sandra Bullock has never proved to me that she can act. Even with good material in Crash, she does a sub par job. I won’t believe it until I see it. Meryl Streep winning for Julie & Julia was no surprise at all. Anybody with half of a brain knew that she was going to win. I wasn’t impressed at all by her impression of Julia Child. It wasn’t very accurate, and in fact, Jesse can do an almost exact impression of Meryl Streep doing it. So apparently, Jesse could also win a Golden Globe. And her fake humility is getting really old. She is so transparent, and I honestly think she is getting tired of trying to hide her ego, because it shines through more and more everytime I see her. And finally, to wrap up this paragraph, we have the completely one dimensional Robert Downey Jr. winning for Sherlock Holmes. Apparently ANYBODY can win a Golden Globe. This dude is always the same, and yet he didn’t get nominated for his other very similar roles. Hmm….that’s weird. There were four other much more deserving candidates that should have won. This makes me semi nauseated.
I am ok with James Cameron winning Best Director, although I felt Kathryn Bigelow deserved it more, but I understand the work that went into his film as well, so whatever. But oh boy does “Up” winning best animated feature really bother me. Award shows and Pixar have become a lot like college football polls. It no longer matters the quality of the film, it is all just depends on what the name on the box says. If it has pixars name on it, then it must be brilliant. Right? Just take one film that it was up against, let’s use “Coraline.” Up wasn’t as good of a story as Coraline, and the animation wasn’t as good as the animation was in Coraline, the directing was about the same quality, so I am not really sure how Up wins over Coraline. I think Coraline is a better film in almost every respect, and it doesn’t have damn dogs flying damn airplanes. Man, that is so dumb. I would give that award to Coraline, easy. But then again, I really enjoy watching the love affair between the awards shows and Pixar. Don’t I? Yes, I do, well, that’s what they tell me anyway.
And finally, I was going to have my oscar predictions up before the Golden Globes aired, but that didn’t happen. I really wanted to because I didn’t want anybody thinking that the results of the Golden Globes had anything to do with my predictions. I do already have them written down though, so take that. And for the record, I have been saying that Avatar was going to win best director and best picture for weeks now. It’s pretty obvious, although not completely deserved.
*PICK OF THE WEEK*
