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Oscar Wrapup (American Beauty and The Matrix win)
RobertPearse noted that
the winners are on CNN. No surprise that American Beauty cleaned up (I watched it again on saturday: Wow). But The Matrix took Editing, Sound and FX (Edging out Phantom Menace). Sleepy Hollow took Art Direction. Update by nik: "Not a lot of people know that" many of the effects for The Matrix were generated on FreeBSD systems.
I saw it. It was ham-handed, gross, and dull. I know the storyline confusion was deliberate but it scrambled the plotline and left me unmoved.
" I would say that a completely CGI character interacting with real actors was pretty groundbreaking "
Which is why "Stuart Little" had better CGI than TPM... The clothes on Stuart are amazing. There is some excellant CGI work there. I have to agree with the academy's decision tho' "The Matrix" deserves the Visual Effects Oscar... too bad they couldn't have given one to "Stuart Little" as well.
If it were "Stuart Little" vs. TPM, I'd give the award to Stuart... The mouse character was much more visually realistic and complex then those stupid gungans, robots, and spaceships. Not only that, clothes and fur are really really hard to do right.-
[signature]
"THAT had never been done before"
Except maybe in say, a GAP commercial.
I would say that a completely CGI character interacting with real actors was pretty groundbreaking (even if the character itself annoyed people) and the shots they got using completely CGI backgrounds got were a lot more awe-inspiring than digitally removing the wires from kung fu scenes.
Take a look for yourself.
Before movies they worked for Marvel Comics and it shows in their cinematography.
Regards,
Ben
My usual seat in the cluetrain is at A HREF="http://pub4.ezboard.com/biwethey.ht
I'll admit, that when I saw it last year, Matrix impressed the hell out of me.
Then, a few months later, I watched the DVD of Dark City. WOW, no comparison in my mind.
They cover some of the same thematic ground. But Dark City did it without the freeze frame trickery. Frankly, I thought that DC was a much better film. It just didn't have a marquee star like Keanau (god it's sad that he's become a marquee star at all).
If you haven't seen Dark City, go check it out. It's an awesome movie.
"Politicians are interested in people. Not that this is always a virtue. Fleas are interested in dogs." P.J. O'Rourke
1. Pi\Clint Mansell
2. P.E.T.R.O.L.\Orbital
3. Kalpol Intro\Autechre
4. Bucephalus Bouncing Ball\Aphex Twin
5. Watching Windows\Roni Size
6. Angel\Massive Attack
7. We Got The Gun\Clint Mansell
8. No Man's Land\David Holmes
9. Anthem\Gus Gus
10. Drippy\Banco De Gaia
11. Third From The Sun\Psilonaut
12. A Low Frequency Inversion Field/Spacetime
13. 2Pi\Clint Mansell
Should have used 'This Film's Crap, Let's Slash the Seats' by David Holmes...
They did this one sequence of film people that died in the last year, honoring such notables as George C Scott. Unless I blinked and missed it, though, Stanley Kubric was nowhere to be seen.
What the fuck? He was one of the greatest directors ever, and certainly the most original. I saw no menion of him or his recent "Eyes Wide Shut" the entire night. Grrrr....
--
grappler
Vidi, Vici, Veni
...Open Source isn't the only answer -- but it's almost always a better value than the alternatives...
Shirley Manson had a good side-nipple exposure during the VH1 movie awards s few years ago singing "Stupid Girl." Her shirt was buttoned half-way up, and when she turned 90 degrees to the camera, exposure! And the cameras didn't switch to another band memeber.
You can find it on USENET all the time.
Pope
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
It's not to say that The Sixth Sense was a bad movie, (it was a GREAT movie!) it's just that the way the ending is written, you can't really watch it more the once. It's like a murder mystery -- you allready know the butler did it, so what's the point?
Oh, I've got to disagree with you...sort of. I had to watch it twice. Once to see it the first time, then again to see all the scenes where Bruce Willis's character "interacts" with other people, just to see how they fooled us. The scene with his wife in the restaurant, or when he first meets the boy in his home...they were masterfully done, and I didn't really appreciate them until I saw them the second time. After that, though, you're right...what's the point?
ObCoinkyDink: Isaac Hayes was associated with two films last night, and both of them had to censor the F-word in the middle of a song... and both were handled brilliantly. He played the voice of Chef in "South Park", and wrote/performed the theme from "Shaft", which was presented in one of those (actually quite good) retrospective pieces.
Isaac, you still Da Man.
--
That Shaft is one baaaad muthah-Hush yo' mouth!
I'm just talkin' 'bout Shaft! We can dig it!
Well, yes, and that's the main part of the idea of the movie.
-- Abigail
Sad to see Blame Canada not win best song but I think that they should still win best dress of the evening ;)
Matt Stone & Trey Parker
-- "Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
Not that I remember - they (and others helped him back into the wheelchair, and then they walked up. I don't remember them leaving before he was in place, or at least had other people setting him in the chair.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
My understanding (granted from a biased source of the bonus audio track on the dvd of the main editor, the main fx guru, and trnity (forget her name) was that they were running grossly over-budget/time (filming time) and the studio was demanding to know what the story was. The editor put together the first "chunk" of the movie (begining through telephone booth crunch), along with temporary sound effects and music and they sent it back to the studios. The studio execs watched it, and promptly shut up and gave them the extra time/money they needed to finish the film. They may not have had money to shoot over some scenes they would have liked to have done a different way, and they may have made some poor choices for certain effects (the police->MiB morph at the end for instance), but those happen in any movie (with few exceptions).
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
Three words: Eyes Wide Shut
It's terrible, and sad, but what Mike wallace's character said in "The Insider" was very true: You are remembered and judged on what you did last. EWS sucked so badly, that they left him out.
Scott
Hey Rob, Thanks for that tarball!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
Ah, so YOU'RE the other person who saw that movie besides me! I watch ANYTHING with Richard Kieth O'Brien in it. I'm a big Rocky Horror nutcase from way back. Wasn't Dark City last year, or the year before? Maybe even older than that. I didn't think it was eligible this year?
Scott
Hey Rob, Thanks for that tarball!
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion." - Jed Babbin
The category is not about who integrates some new kind of effect, it's about the overall impression you get. And Ep I had a lot of effects which were seen before, but not in that perfection and not in that number. I agree with the original poster that Ep I was robbed, although Denis Muren and his ILM folks must have about a gazillion statuettes already, so they will get over it ;-)
Unfortunately, every member (even 90-year old actors that would not recognize a special effect if it jumps on their head) of the Academy can vote for the award, only the nominations are determined by specialists on the field for each category. I guess Academy members dislike George Lucas because of the commercial success of his films... And they may remember that any other Star Wars film has received the Award, so they might think it's alright to give it to someone else this time.
The Awards have a long history of giving statuettes away for the wrong reasons...
He died March 7, 1999, just in time for last year's Oscar show.
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Wrong again. The GAP Swings commercial merely took two frame from different angles and had a 'Morph tool' generate interpolated frames to simulate a camera pan. OTOH, Bullet-time combined high-speed photography(150frames/s) with a camera pan, and use CGI for compositing and lens distortion cleanup.
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In the word of Gene Siskel (may he RIP); "I disagree Roger"
Bullet-time WAS the most visually stunning FX of '99. Check out the DVDs making-of feature. They had something like 50~100 35 mm cameras circling the set to take those pictures. THAT had never been done before. CGI effects? Been there done that. It was stunning set design, but hardly groundbreaking stuff.
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The acceptance for "One Day..." was the worst speech I've ever heard. 'You all suck and nobody watches good movies, and ours isn't even out yet, and I'm a crotchety old geezer, and thank god I won this so I can go die in peace - did I mention you all suck?' was about the gist of it... on the other hand, the speech for best supporting actor (Caine) was one of the most gracious speeches I've heard, individually praising each of the other nominees, and saying that he was 'representing them' accepting the award. That's class.
"It's tough to be bilingual when you get hit in the head."
Agreed, briliant film. The DVD is a treasure as well, with film critic Roger Ebert contributing a commentary. It's practically a course in film theory, pointing out all the references the director makes to other films.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
To their credit, the producers did work quite hard attempting to make that distinction clear. They presented the "sound editing" clips as an audio-only montage with no visuals other than the titles of the films. You could get a feeling for how much of the film experience is sound effects.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
Well I should think that the deck was decidedly stacked against the Matrix. Many other movies were nominated for as many as 10(?) and Matrix won all 4 that it was nominated for. I would like to believe that it would have easily won cinematography had it been nominated for that (Robbery that it wasnt!!!). Anyway American Beauty was an excellent movie and it did deserve best picture =)
God Fucking Damnit
WTF? Come on. Run Lola Run was one of the best movies this year. It wasn't nominated for one thing! I was, needless to say, more than a little upset. I don't know how many of you have actually seen it, but those of you who have, I'm sure you agree with me.
~Jester
"I have great faith in fools: Self confidence my friends call it." ~Edgar Allan Poe
The only reason why Matrix got the awards it did over Star Wars is because most of the Star Wars effects didn't stand out to the voters. They had seen lightsabres and spaceships and blasters and armies of identical bugs... ah, robots. They hadn't seen the biotech stuff before. They hadn't seen the bullet-dodging, wallwalking bad-@$$ cyber-kung-fu $#!~ before. Sure, we may have, but they haven't and it made an impression.
You hit it exactly here.
Star Wars took existing effects to a all-time high, with more, better, clearer, faster, etc. But when it comes down to it, it was still the same old effects.
However, The Matrix took effects to the next level, with new ideas, procedures, methods, etc.
It's all the difference between mastering what you've got or gambling on something untried.
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"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
My only problem with the Matrix came in the scene where they are trying to avoid those big electric squid type things and someone says they are going to use an EMP bomb to disable the critter. At this point, Keanu's character says, "EMP? What's that?" Now, he's been "chosen" because of his skills. Because he is smart, because he is smarter than most, right? Well then how come he doesn't know what an EMP is?
Think for a second how aware and intelligent YOU'D be after going through the same thing he just went through. I'd have a hard time keeping my wits around me, and would surely have asked the same question.
Besides, he's in a whole new environment, and I'd prefer a person willing to make sure he understands, since there's plenty of chance that things could be different.
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"You know your god is man-made when he hates all the same people you do."
Shouldn't they rename best supporting actor/actress "lifetime achievement"?
No they shouldn't. Often both the supporting and leading actor/actress awards are used this way as could be argued for Michael Caine, or for Jack Palance.
But when a newcomer does manage to get one, it can lift a superior actor from supporting roles to lead roles, which it certainly did for Kevin Spacey. Spacey has had some great supporting roles in the past, such as his Oscar winning role in the Usual Suspects, or for his creepy character in JFK. But he is not your stereotypical leading man type, so were it not for his supporting actor Oscar, he might never have been given leading roles in major films.
Let's hope that the industry starts offering Angelina Jolie challenging leading roles, now that she has proven herself in a supporting role.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
If anything, the ending of The Sixth Sense actually *encourages* you to go see the movie again so that you can actually see what clues you missed and if the entire movie was accurate in leading to the end. The megabucks the Sixth Sense has earned are coming from repeat viewers. They just made another $1 million a couple of weeks ago and had no advertising going on. I agree that American Beauty deserved their award, but The Sixth Sense was a close second in my book.
I haven't seen it and I probably won't but it's hard to believe that American Beauty could be more of a "feel-good" movie than Fassbinder's Merchant of Four Seasons.
Someone please tell me where I can buy a video of that movie, please! I mean the Fassbinder one; I know where to get the Hollywood thing - in fact I can hardly swing my damn arm without slapping up against another videotape store. Hollywood everywhere, everywhere, aaagh!
Yours WDK - WKiernan@concentric.net
I think Uncle F*cka would've been more original, and has a more catchy tune. Can you imagine the censors going on that one....
Shut your f.... face, uncle f.....
you're a c... sucking a... licking uncle f.....
you're an uncle f.... yes it's true
nobody f.... uncles quite like you!
Gackk - Phil Collins's song from the Disney-muddled Tarzan getting the Oscar? It was ok, for the kind of characterless stuff Disney uses, but Blame Canada certainly should have beaten it.
Bill Stewart
New Fast-Compression-only CPR http://preview.tinyurl.com/dy575ks
If the humans used EMP to blow up the matrix, then 'most' of mankind in the matrix would be killed. Their goal is not to kill everyone, but to save them one by one.
I think you might have misunderstood. I was pondering why the pre-matrix humans didn't use EMP to destroy the AI that they were warring against. It seems like that would take less energe than tourching the sky, and it'd have a less harmful effect on the environment.
There were a few inconsistancies with the Matrix, actually, but that's the one that bothered me the most.
I'm pretty sure the prople "exploiting someone for personal gain" were his parents. They also helped him back into his chair before they left. It looked like a very common occurence and they seemed to handle it very matter of factly.
The cube really was excellent. The academy doesn't go for movies that aren't widely released, however (I never saw cube in a theatre here). I think the budget was under 1 million...
It was one the rare sci-fi movies that actually made me think (the best kind of movie, IMO). It's too bad that most sci-fi movies these days are nothing more than action flicks. Oh well...nothing beats a book in the end.
I don't know, some friends of mine have seen 'Pi' and they said that it was OK, but it kept going on and on in circles and seemed like it would never end....
sig not found
This was one of the films which I enjoyed the most this last year, and I would certainly rate it as being on a par with American Beauty. It didn't get a single nomination, despite the best performance from Nicolas Cage ever, a seamless yet unpredictable plot progression, direction which was clearly smooth as silk (as you'd expect from Martin Scorcese), a soundtrack which I enjoyed immensely and a further excellent performance from Patricia Arquette. Don't get me wrong - I enjoyed the films which did win a lot too. I'm just baffled as to what happened here.
"What is freedom of expression? Without the freedom to offend, it ceases to exist." Salman Rushdie
Unabashed Star Wars Geekiness Begins....Now...
Phantom Menace? Giant toy commercial? Ok, granted.
But you know what, it made me feel seven years old again. Sure, most of the dialogue was written BY a seven year old, but I did recaptur some of that Summer of '77 magic. Was Phantom Menace Best Picture? Ah...no. Did it have all the Han Solo adventure magic. No...but it was a load of fun. I took my 11 year-old brother-in-law. To see his bouncing, enthusiastic reaction was classic. To hear his recitation of every move in the lightsaber battle was awesome. A little magic was passed on.
So Lucas drew inspiration from WWII battle flicks, Japanese epics, and Westerns. The result is a synthesis: Star Wars movies. Fun, bubblegum, Saturday afternoon at the movies. Good versus evil.
The Matrix. Awesome, technical achievement. Really, really cool effects. On purely technical merits, did it have superior visual effects than Menace? Toss-up. Hollywood gave it to the young guns. Just like they lauded Lucas and Spielberg for being young guns in the 70's and early 80's.
Technical achievement. Grumbling admiration from a
huge Star Wars geek. But cinematography? A GREEN FILTER? Story? Uh...everything written by Sterling, Gibson, Dick, and Brunner---cut out all the big words for Keanu---run everything through a green filter, take some notes from the TRON script---BANG! There's your story.
The Matrix. No One Can Stay Awake Through The Matrix. Larry Fishburne---cool actor. The scrawny leather chick---cool to look at. The bullet effects and the antigrav ninja fighting---cool to look at. The funny guy from Risky Business and Running Scared---funny guy. Filter---very green. The bad guy---only interesting character in the whole film. I wish to god he had just spent the first five minutes disemboweling Keanu. The rest of the film could have then involved the Bad Guy allying himself with Darth Maul for a final battle against Laurence Fishburne and Samuel L. Jackson.
Now that would have been cool.
"Which one is your lightsaber?"
"Its the one that says, 'BAD MOTHERFUCKER'."
Now that would have been entertaining. Not for eleven year olds, though.
The Matrix. Please.
Well, what he should have said was that it had never been done before on the big screen.
Phantom Menace was far from robbed. It relied on special effects to carry a weak plot with poor character development.
The Matrix, OTOH, merged its visual effects with its theme quite nicely. We've all seen the 3D freeze-frame pan around an object in the Gap commercials and the occasional QuicktimeVR...it's obviously computer-generated, similar to the world they were in, which merely strengthened the movie. Had these effects been cut, I suspect that the movie would have fallen flat on its face.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a Star Wars fan, but Episode One blew dead Jawas.
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All I can say is that you must have been so fascinated at seeing the guy go into spasm that you didn't notice the filmmakers standing there looking at him in concern and even reaching to help while others there told them to go and get their award.
Their concern with getting on stage fast had to do with the fact that they were practically sitting in the back row. What other winner had to walk up from the area under the balcony to accept their award? They obviously insisted on bringing the guy they filmed with them and the Shrine was unprepared to seat a wheelchair anywhere but the very back of the place.
Anomalous: inconsistent with or deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Anomalous: deviating from what is usual, normal, or expected
Canard: a false or unfounded repor
Was it just me or did it look like Sean Penn was praying come time for the best actor award.
What show were you watching last night?
Sean Penn wasn't at the Oscars! The picture they used of him for nominations was from the film he was nominated for.
Feminism is the wild notion that women are human beings.
when the Oscar for short subject documentary "King Gimp" was announced. The guy they made the film about was sitting in his wheelchair clapping and just fell out and was trashing around on the floor. The film makers just walked up on stage and left him! Really weird.
Where was Fight Club? I can't believe it was only nominated for "sound effects editing". The film industry finally comes out with a violent film which has a godo story, and doesn't have the guts to admit it. You know who I'd fight? I'd take on the Academy.
Fight Club is a great movie full of memorable moments and great quotes "I am Jack's ..." The writing was brilliant. Unfortunately I think it got panned because a lot of people are annoyed by Brad Pitt or assumed the whole movie is about gory bare-knuckle-boxing. Also the writer has been panned by critics as being a hack since this is his first novel.
Compared to all other films this year, Phantom Menace was a over-budgeted debacle. Lucas should've restricted himself to a $5 million budget and then maybe the film would've been interesting -- it would've forced him to to rely more on the story than the effects.
Last year I think Saving Private Ryan should've won hands-down, but instead it was Shakespeare In Love. Bah!
Basically the Academy of Motion Picture Sciences is like a club, and the Oscars is the process by which the existing members (previous Oscar winners) welcome new members into their club. Votes are not always cast for best in each category but rather with consideration of who's in and who's out.
Shouldn't they rename best supporting actor/actress "lifetime achievement"?
--
"I do not speak for my employers, though they are controlled from my Teddy's huge pulsating brain."
While I always like watching Kevin Spacey, he was good in this film, the more I think about this movie, the more I dislike it.
Caution, mild spoilers:
My main problem with the movie is that all the characters are 1 dimensional, even Spacey's character.
--The wife was a typical unhappy houswife.
--The neighbor's father, the homophobic Marine who just happens to be a closet homosexual.
--Spacey, the unhappey middle aged suburban father.
Also, I really find it insulting that Hollywood is trying to tell me that Americian life if vapid and materialistic. Gee, that's like Al Gore and George Bush calling for campaign finance reform. Also, I don't think that Americian life is vapid and materialistic. I might hate suburbia, but I think that most people who live there are fairly happy.
And finally there is the fact that the kid who has the camera, the one who films everything, find beauty everwhere, but only throught the lens of a camera. Gee, more Hollywood self validation.
All in all this movie left a bad taste in my mouth.
All in all, that movie
"Attention Citizens, 2+2 now equals 3.947547175. Please recalibrate your equipment now" --The Computer
Why doesn't anyone even know of 'ExistenZ'? It is far better than 'The Matrix', but from the same genre... Go see it!
Other good movies are 'Pi' and 'The Cube'.
--The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
--The knowledge that you are an idiot, is what distinguishes you from one.
I did enjoy American Beauty a lot..but...
Fight Club and Being John Malkovich got shafted. Those were the two of the most original films I've seen in years.
There's a shot in Fight Club where the camera pans around Ed Norton's empty apartment and each item he owns starts appearing along with its catalog description. It was absolutely brilliant.
-B
... blame Canada for "Blame Canada!" not winning?
- Hollywood continues to amaze me at how hard they can pat themselves on the back. I mean really, I thought they damn near broke their arm off last time, but oh... oh no. Because of one kid's fantastic job in a movie this year, we got to see other fantastic kids in other movies in other years. There must have been about an hour and a half of this useless junk.
- Roberto Beninni should host the oscars. You'd never know what was coming next. He was just as excited to stand up there giving an award as he was receiving it.
- Spielberg. Just get on, and say here are the nominees.. oh damn! Smile! I knew I forgot something!
- Blame Canada was given the full treatment, I was pretty impressed. They went at it full force (even though it was ironically censored at points).
- Warren Beaty... please, next time you have to make a speech, have some of whatever Roberto's drinking.
- Billy Crystal... yeah, you were funny... the first time. The parodies were lacking this year, although the opening songs weren't bad.
- Was it just me or did it look like Sean Penn was praying come time for the best actor award. Dude, look around you... you actually think you had that much of a chance?
- Tommy Lee Jones is waaay cooler. He at least knows when to get a haircut.
All in all I liked the choices they made for oscars, but the show was so obviously bloated and forced, it set a new low.
I thought when I first saw Episode 1 I would have sworn that it would win best costume (or at least one oscar). I think the Matrix deserved all the oscars it got, and I think it should have been a nominee for best picture. Oh well. Also, all the awards that American Beauty won makes me want to go out and watch the movie. Did you know that it took the screenplay person 50 rewrites of the script to get it right. True.
Who mourns for Q? I do, he was a great actor and it was sad to see him go. (car accident)
Sorry, but the matrix had a few 'neato' effects, most notably the bullet-time sequences, but TPM was probably the most visually stunning movie in history. Say what you will about the movies problems, but to brush off ILM's groundbreaking work like this was a slap in the face.
Some little-known facts about the Matrix.
The directors came from a background in superhero comics, not movies. This shows in their choice of effects, angles, etc.
Secondly they did an extremely good job of cutting the film back. Partway through shooting their budget was cut drastically - after they had already spent a lot. Which is why some of the special effects are high tech, and some are painfully obviously low.
Somehow I think that their next version won't have the budget problems...
Cheers,
Ben
My usual seat in the cluetrain is at A HREF="http://pub4.ezboard.com/biwethey.ht
The Matrix got 4 Oscars namely:- Editing, Sound, Sound FX & Visual FX. Better information here.
I've go a spoiler explanation for the Matrix:
The Matrix didn't contain any information about EMPs because the AI knew that if by chance anyone escaped they'd use EMP against them. The real questions are:
How did they know the term for "EMP"?
Why didn't the humans use EMP against the AI in the beginning? If they had enough tech to torch the sky they had enough to unlease a massive EMP that would have disabled all the AI. If that's explained away by saying that the AI had protection against EMP built into them, why didn't they use it with the squids? Hmmm?
Was I the only one who walked over to his (or her) computer to check up on Slashdot after Mr. Williams's rendition of "Blame Canada"? I would have thought that, given the number of Slashdot headlines about the song *prior* to the Oscars, some enterprising newshandler here would post a tidbit about how things turned out *afterwards*. Sadly, it was not to be. And no wrap-up on the Oscars here after it concluding early Monday morning -- was I also the only one to make it all the way through to the other side this year? But to wait until late this morning to post a story about the Oscars ... inexcusable for a site that (over)hyped the Oscars in advance, IMHO. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the Oscar awarded to "One Day in September", the speech delivered by its maker (did the Academy buy this guy off?), the deserved multiple awards for "Topsy Turvy", Russel Crowe's brooding throughout the ceremony, the numerous close-ups of the Cruise/Kidman combo, etc. etc. After midnight, when it became clear that "American Beauty" was walking away with the remaining hardware, I had more fun watching "Rocky" on TCM ... I just don't think they make them like they used to. Interpret that as you will. Just my two cents.