Billy Crystal returns as Oscar host...more discussion than news.

[JoeyB]

I'm putting this in chat on purpose. The only real news is that, yes, he has been confirmed as host again.

I was always a big Oscar fan as a kid...from sometime around 1980 until recently I saw every telecast. When I was in school, I would often miss the Tuesday after the broadcast because I was sleeping in. Crystal was always the perfect host, with really great charisma and top notch singing in his opening sets.

A couple of years ago I realized the Oscars had stopped being fun...I was watching each year but not even looking forward to it. So after nearly thirty straight broadcasts, I stopped viewing. It was tough, but liberating. I've missed a couple of them now with no regret. The movies no longer seemed special, the awards no longer seemed special...hell, even when they showed the audience it seemed to be mostly b listers, very little star power. The Academy Awards used to be oozing stars...now, not as many were there and today's stars are pale imitations in the shadow of the likes of, say, a Paul Newman. Nobody today really matches up. It just felt less than special.

But, with Crystal back, the man I felt should have been the new Bob Hope and just hosted the fucking thing every year, I might MIGHT watch again.

Yet...I've seen none of the films it will recognize, it will still be a shoddy production, and the junior league stars will still dominate the proceedings.

Oh, and they are giving Oprah an Oscar (sigh)...though, I've heard rumors her award may not be given during the actual broadcast. She might get the second tier treatment they award to the technical wizards.

[Hal-9000]

I've watched off and on over the years, it's a meh thing for me...

I think part of the reason you're only seeing B listers in the audience is that there aren't really any good modern film stars and the ones that are, don't show up in the A list movies.

As part of a side thread thingy - Let's list who we think are great contemporary actors and actresses.We need a format so we don't include stars from 'yesteryear' like Pacino, DeNiro, Streep etc...

[Hal-9000]

Leonardo DiCaprio impressed me in The Departed...in everything else he still seems like a cherubic faced kid playing a part.

Should we include him on what I think will be a very short list?

[JoeyB]

Leonardo DiCaprio impressed me in The Departed...in everything else he still seems like a cherubic faced kid playing a part.

Should we include him on what I think will be a very short list?

Actually...DiCaprio has been consistently impressing me since his role as the mentally retarded kid in What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Leo, to my way of thinking, is a quality movie star.

People will shit on me for this, but I set Tom Cruise there as well...always great in a film, always.

Sean Penn...consistently brilliant.

Daniel Day Lewis is always mesmerizing. And he is bat shit crazy in real life, so that's a bonus.

Liam Neeson, very talented.

Hugh Grant is a lightweight, but good and has a real star quality about him.

There are a lot of stars I like, but who pick bad roles over and over again. I really like Antonio Banderas, yet, to be honest I can't think of a single film of his I truly love except The 13th Warrior. Bill Murray made some great movies, but, he's also spent most of the last thirty years drifting into pretentiousness. Eddie Murphy...I love that guy, but his movies are all over the place quality wise. Still, when Eddie hits it...he really hits it.

Then there are the posers, guys who want to be bigger than they are and who carry themselves like stars but never really back it up performance wise. Brad Pitt, George Clooney...

Then you have really great performers who never get to be stars...but always deliver the goods nonetheless...guys like Donald Sutherland and Stephen Rea.

Or the guys who are now drifting out of stardom, which happens to all great actors, but who are no longer the top draws they were. Best example: Harrison Ford, arguably my all time favorite actor of the modern age (basically, from Star Wars on), not the star he once was. I blame some bad movie choices in the nineties, because his presence is still as strong as ever despite his age.

[Hal-9000]

Ok

Leo
Brad Pitt
Liam Neeson
Daniel Day Lewis
Sean Penn


Are all actors I can agree with.We can't get too close to the older generation (Liam borders it IMO) so is there any more feedback?

Any of today's generation female actors that wow you?

[deebakes]

[deebakes]

oops, sorry actual discussion needed. the return of crystal seems like just a return to safe after going "out on a limb" in recent times. last year was an abomination because franco clearly didn't want anything to do with the production in the slightest. i honestly think hathaway would have been alright on her own and it wouldn't have been such a disaster.

i think russell brand is the person they should have though

[JoeyB]

Ok

Leo
Brad Pitt
Liam Neeson
Daniel Day Lewis
Sean Penn


Are all actors I can agree with.We can't get too close to the older generation (Liam borders it IMO) so is there any more feedback?

Any of today's generation female actors that wow you?

I'll be honest, I'm sure there are, but none leap to mind. I like actresses, but, all the ones I can think of are from an older era altogether. Susan Hayward and Ida Lupino for instance.

i think russell brand is the person they should have though

You are dead to me.

[Hal-9000]

That's kinda what I was leading to....which actors do we see consistently in movies today that are great?

Maybe age wasn't the best way to define it.I guess Leo and Pitt are considered superstars and they're prolific, but I can't think of any girls and most of the guys on our impromptu list make one movie every five years it seems...

[JoeyB]

That's kinda what I was leading to....which actors do we see consistently in movies today that are great?

Maybe age wasn't the best way to define it.I guess Leo and Pitt are considered superstars and they're prolific, but I can't think of any girls and most of the guys on our impromptu list make one movie every five years it seems...

See? No great movie stars anymore.

[deebakes]

[COLOR="blue"]
You are dead to me.

so much for discussion

[JoeyB]

so much for discussion

No no, it's alright, I'm like that creepy little kid...I see dead people.

[deebakes]

[JoeyB]

On the downside, I also fuck dead people, so...kind of win/lose for you.

[deebakes]

where is the lose part?