I can easily say that 5 minutes of the Golden Globes was 'Dumb', and now 5 minutes of the SAG Awards show is 'Dumberer'
So we have Dumb & Dumberer
Now, what can we call all. three, Globes/SAG/Oscar
Dumb-Dumberer-?
I have never been so BORED watching these stupid shows ever before!
It's like, Who cares if SAG goes on Strike, might as well, your show is DUMBERER...Won't waist 5 minutes trying to Gag thru the Oscars either. Sheesh!

Oh ya, "hey travers," you are right, no performance comes close to Daniel Day-Lewis's. In fact, between "There Will Be Blood," "Gangs of New York," and "My Left Foot," I cannot think of any actor (dead or alive) that can compete with that man. It's always a sad year when he is not in any movies (which happens way too much). If his next movie involved reading the phone book, I'm sure I'll still be 1st in line.

And Noel, how can you see Slumdog as an influencial movie? What great themes did you learn throughout it? Love prevails? Redemption? Those are really unique themes for a movie. There is poverty in India? Learned that in Geography

your about the only critic i trust! i like your opinions cuz your a movie lovers critic.
my best picture nom: slumdog (masterpiece), milk(powerful), dark knight(pure entertainment and heath), frost/nixon(electric), gran torino(funny and exciting)....wrestler and rev road havent come to my city yet... ben button was close- it was unlike any movie i"ve ever seen.

actor: mickey(comeback story), sean penn (wow again), frank langella (franks performance stuck with me the most) no one else gets my vote. none of these three can hang with last years winner daniel day-lewis from "there will be blood".

actress: not meryl streep!love meryl but not this year.
anne hathaway kate winslet and happy-go-lucky girl (her name slipped my mind)

-sup actor: heath ledger can we all agree!
-sup actress: winslet(huge role for a supporting nod)
-director: boyle for slumdog, ron howard frostnixon, fincher ben button, van sant (milk)will probably come in 2nd to boyle.
-best song: clint or the boss? winner gran torino!

thanks again Travers and by the way you missed on marley and me and australia...in my amateur opinion. heard great things about "tell no one" is it worth checking out? mike

Motorcycle Diaries? WTF? That movie came out in '04. Wake up, Rumpelstiltskin.

yeah, where was Milk? that was the greatest movie of the year and it doesn't get shit.

Tropic thunder ommitted and very rightly so. So much jype about the film i was looking forward to it and then---DISSAPPOINTMENT

All the funny parts were in the trailer.
Apart from that crappy film.

Yeah, the globes are a joke. Sulmdog winning best picture? seriously? That and rev. road. are pretty being nominated are pretty redic. That movie was lame with much overacting going on. unbelievable.

Noel

I suggest you watch the motorcycle diaries then come back here and try to sound like you know what you are talking about. Sure slumdog was good, but there is no way it can compare to a movie like the motorcycle diaries. Granted it was in spanish with english subtitles, it contains some of the finer acting I have ever seen in my life and is by far a more influential movie in recent years than slumdog. When it comes down to it, slumdog was a bollywood love story and that does not deserve best picture.

Mike,

I agree Motorcycle Diaries was a great movie but to say that Slumdog was "a good movie" or just a "bollywood love story that doesn't deserve a best picture award" is bullshit. In what way is Motorcycle Diaries a more influtiential movie? Slumdog will be remembered long after Motorcycle Diaries the movie is forgotten. It is an insanely unique story that was perfectly captured onscreen. I would challenge you to name one flaw with the movie.

who cares who or who wasnt nominated...everyone can;t be so grow up and take it for what it is. slumdog millionaire deserved all the awards

How sick was Funny Games? The Boredoms played during opening credits? GO TEAM GO!!!

(The previous message was approved by REO Speedwagon.)

The Wrestler, MILK and even Yes Man were great movies with great performances.
I was torn between Mickey & Sean. Was leaning towards Mickey cuz he was on a comeback and deserved it. Sean Penn was insane as Harvey Milk, though. They both are probably not dabbing tears with all the money they made.

If only they could be as fair and legitimate as the Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame. I'm being sarcastic.

i totally agree with the golden globes are the biggest bullshit joke of an awards
i was actually mad slumdog won all of its awards because I honesstly did not like that movie and thought it was more bad than it was good, i think that all the people acclaiming it are fools. all i thought when the movie was over was that i knew it was goona end that way in the first 10 minutes and that i never want to go to india
revolutionary road should have won because the only other movie that almost deserves it is benjamin button, but thats basically forest gump 2. momma always said you gotta pick the watermelon before the humming birds eat them. and its so ridiculous that the wrestler didn't get nominated, darren arfonsky and wes anderson are such phenominal directors and are yet so underrated. the globes are bullshit

Well, 'Slumdog' has certainly swept up everything- AS PREDICTED by so many sources. It's a very good, well crafted film with a killer soundtrack, but not Oscar worthy by a long shot. 'Rev Road' has not gotten a huge promotional push and I imagine (understandably) that it alienates most who aren't middle class white Gentiles, but it's a beautiful well acted film nonetheless. I'm taking my feeble hopes for this film all the way to the Oscar ceremony! :-)

Benicio del Toro deserves his nomination. What the fuck are you talking about, Mr. Travers?

The Golden Globes only used to be a good indicator for the Oscars. Now, they don't even do that. The Baftas got all the acting awards right last year. Maybe we should refocus our attention in the award season.

Oh, and the Grammys suck even more than the Globes. All the nominees are either based on record sales (read: Jonas Brothers, Lil Wayne, Rihanna) or the taste of the obviously older voters (Herbie freakin' Hancock winning best album last year)

Garrett, you are right about this year's SUCKY Grammy nominees (particularly about the Jo Bros, I mean come on!), but the REAL blasphemy of the highest degree is Rihanna winning a Grammy last year and being nominated again this year, not Britney Spears. Not only she CAN'T sing, but she can't even move a muscle to attempt dancing. At least Spears can dance to make up for her lack of vocal skills. Rihanna's success is due to brilliant producers, luck, and people with POOR taste in music and no concept of what talent REALLY is. Her fashion sense and relationship with Chris Brown makes the headlines more often then her music does. When was the last time you heard someone say "Wow, she can really sing"? She can't. All she can do is stand there and look good, nothing more. As for the Golden Globes and the Oscars, it's just an opportunity for people to award his-and-hers trophies to Brangelina, so the tabloids have something else to gloat about. Sad.

This year's Globe nominations are ridiculous - however, on an annual basis, no awards are as stupid and useless as the Grammys.

Who cares. My advice is to give your personal favorite movies your own oscars. Make a list yourself and run through and award the best. Lets not get worked up over other peoples opinions. But I actually agree with peter, wheres Dark Night and the Wrestler?

Firstly, Mamma Mia! isn't nominated in BEST COMEDY FILM it is nominated in BEST COMEDY/MUSICAL FILM - not that i'm sticking up for the film.

BUT The Oscars in ANYWAY aren't perfect in there decisions either. LOOK at the media for example with Heath Ledger where they continue to say... "with a Golden Globe nomination, further speculates and increases his chances for an Oscar nomination..." Now he hasn't garnered an Oscar Nom yet, but the media say that every year about peoples performances & most of the time the oscars nominate the same ppl who were nominated at the Globes, Baftas & SAG's.

Problem with the Oscars is that they nominate performances that have been talked about so much (& not always necessary great performances)... nominate to please. And then they give the awards to mostly winners from the Globes, Sags & Baftas once again, there decisions are influenced by other awards & the media etc...

I personally believe all the award shows go for the mainstream action with their decisions for acting awards and sometimes other awards also.

HOWEVER i'm pleased that at last year's Oscars they didnt for 2 awards, present them to the actors that gained the most speculation of winning and that had one their previous awards mostly.

Julie Christie didnt win her Best Actress award, instead Marion Cotillard won it for a movie in another language. Now i havent seen either movie so i cant judge, but Julie Christie did get ALOT of praise from a movie that wasnt a blockbuster or gross alot at the box office & the trailer and plot of the film would suspect that it would be a great performance HOWEVER i wont succumb to the Awards Show 's level and say Julie deserved to win since i havent seen either performance.

THIS is the same with Cate Blanchett missing out on Supporting Actress when she was expected to win instead losing to Tilda Swinton. I did see majority of Tilda's performance in Michael Clayton and just found the movie overall boring and slow.

Either way all award shows are the same. Even the Peoples Choice Awards who they claim are CHOSEN BY THE PUBLIC.

Award Shows (musically mainly) award their awards to the stars that show up to the show and perform etc... (MTV, American Music Awards anyone?)

& acting award shows will continue to present their awards to those who gain ratings, pleases people and hopefully doesnt garner criticism from the media.

Back in the 1980's, SCTV did a sketch about the Golden Globe Awards show that was not only hilarious but dead-on accurate---giving out awards to people whose talent was, shall we say, questionable at best. How do you explain Bobby Bittman's younger, talentless brother, Skip, getting a statuette? And in this life, how do you explain ignoring films like "Milk", "Gran Torino", "Burn After Reading", "Frozen River", "The Wrestler" and even "Tropic Thunder"?

I have long hated the Golden Globes, but I do agree that they are fun to watch. The nominations are completely random and while I do appreciate the nominations for seriously over looked categories such as comedies, they could at least nominate good comedies. I also agree that although films may not be as "important as scientific achievements or helping the sick and poor", but they do offer a way to escape and I believe that is the magic of movies. There are awards for everything, if you work hard at what you do, no matter what it is, be you a public service official or a mega movie star or a celebrated athelete or an immensely ingenious scientist, then I say kudos to you and you deserve recognition. Bring on awards season, I'll be watching and you know you will too!

Noel

I suggest you watch the motorcycle diaries then come back here and try to sound like you know what you are talking about. Sure slumdog was good, but there is no way it can compare to a movie like the motorcycle diaries. Granted it was in spanish with english subtitles, it contains some of the finer acting I have ever seen in my life and is by far a more influential movie in recent years than slumdog. When it comes down to it, slumdog was a bollywood love story and that does not deserve best picture.

Slumdog Millionaire is a near perfect moive, instant classic with a scope of characters and emotions that leave the viewer drained, fulfilled, needing time to adjust back to the real world. What movie have you seen in the last 20 years has done that to/for you? There is no other film in the offing that comes even near the brilliance of this movie. Any awards it does not win are the only comment(s) one need to make about politics and award - there are no big stars in this movie, just great actors.

Burn After Reading was, in my opinion, superior to Benjamin Button. However it was less popular and was released at a less opportune time, which might explain why it didn't get the nominations it deserved.

Litsen, i am a Clint fan, but he's doing Dirty Harry pt. 2... He's directed some of the best movies of the past 20 years. I think he should be remebered more for his whole movies (Million Dollar Baby, Unforgiven, Mystic River, Letters from Iwo Jima), than this being his LAST movie role. The man has 4 oscars. Not too shabby.

And, it's heinous that Brad Pitt did'nt get two nods this year. But the Best Actor Comedy is'nt a throwaway category.

This post is hilarious coming from the magazine that gave Britney Spears 3.5 stars for her last two albums (.5 less than their Album of the Year awarded TV on the Radio) and makes a practice of flaunting its cultural irrelevance and soullessness through blatant catering to talentless, corporate artists. Yeah, there are some good investigative journalism articles regarding politics, etc, but as far as art goes, Rolling Stone, are you serious? Just go back and read some of your embarrassing reviews or just scroll down a list of reviews and look at how your hand out your stars.

Wow. I wasn't aware of all the behind-the-scenes political bullshit, but I'm not surprised. It seems that these days, that's the formula, and people just accept it. The idea is to make more money for less work and talent, then flaunt it in front of those who you secretly know are more qualified than you just to make yourself feel less insecure. By the way, what the HELL happened with the Grammy nominations and awards this year? In the past few years, they haven't exactly been stellar about choosing nominees and winners (I don't care how specific the category is...the fact that Britney Spears has a Grammy is just blasphemy of the highest degree), but WHAT? Lil' Wayne may have sold a lot of albums, but there is no way he deserved to be nominated for Album of the Year. Ne-Yo being in that category is even more confusing (Could his R&B be more formulaic and boring?). Leona Lewis? Decent singer, but not as great as she has been hyped to be, and her music/career is so OCD-managed that she cannot call herself an artist, yet. If you preview the rest of the tracks from her album, it becomes immediately apparent that she's just another cash cow for Simon Cowell. Finally, THE JONAS BROTHERS for Best New Artist? They are so manufactured and sugary and mediocre that they should be BANNED from even attending the Grammy awards. I'm sure their name was just thrown in there to round up the children and teens and bring in huge ratings, but the Grammys just lost way more credibility than they can afford to for that nomination.

the golden globes are nothing more than a cocksuckers wet dream. the fact the actors and filmmakers have to lobby and throw parties in order to get a possible nomination is so ridiculous - it's almost like american politics! shame hollywood! i hope kids keep stealing your movies online, so one day will come when you'll have no money left over to keep making shitty movies year after year and will have to rely on making actual quality films again in order to make people feel they're actually worth buying or watching in the cinema.

Here's my beef with the awards:

Nominating the right actors in the wrong catagories.

1. Phillip Seymour Hoffman in Doubt. Don't get me wrong...TERRIFIC performance, but isn't this performance technically deserving of a best LEADING actor nomination instead of a best SUPPORTING actor nomination?

same thing goes for

2. Kate Winslet for The Reader. She should have gotten a best LEADING actress nomination for this role than a best SUPPORTING actress nomination... but then again, voters probably wouldn't want to play favorites by giving her two of the five leading noms along with Revolutionary Road.

and finally

3. Brad Pitt getting snubbed for Burn After Reading. Peter, I'm right there with you. In fact, I much would have rather seen him get nominated for this film than for Benjamin Button.

all these award shows are bullshit now. they are a dying breed. the ratings for these shows have been very poor lately

American Carol didn't get nominated?

Why do we have to award movies any way? Don't these narcissists get enough attention? Lets give them another award on top of their millions of dollars, exposure, and then let them tell us about who inspired them, how they finally reached their dreams, and tell us why Bush is a bad president. How many millions of dollars go into this presentation when hard working coal miners have been getting laid off by corporate fat cats and Africans are starving. Like I really give a shit about your mother, wife, lover, etc.. Heath Ledger is lucky that he does not have to show up. Like I need validation that The Dark Knight is the best movie of the year? Screw that. I'm out. Communism for life.

What? You mean these shows are more concerned with ratings than acknowledging actual artistic achievement?!? I'm shocked!

I've been drifting further from the whole premise. I enjoy the spectacle of the Oscars, and such. But really, what does the validation of an award program mean? Should you like a piece more or less afterwards?

Given the innate subjectivity of art, all an awards program says is that a majority within a particular group of individuals felt a certain way about a handful of pieces. Their opinion isn't worth any more than yours or mine. One could argue that they have a broader frame of reference than the average movie-goer, but plenty of "non-professionals" are accomplished film addicts too.

Enjoy the flash and dazzle of the show, certainly. Hope that others will give your favorite a chance now that it's received a bit more exposure, sure. But don't let it affect your taste.

Travers cuts the balls out from under his criticism when he goes so far the other way.

The Visitor? Frozen River? Happy Go Lucky? Rachel Getting Married? I’ve Loved You So Long?

Who is watching these films?

Revolutionary Road and The Reader have not fared well since getting globe nominations. The Guilds shut them out apart from kate Winslet's Sag nominations.