Brian Tierney Out of His MInd

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The only explanation we can come up with is that Brain Tierney’s big dream was always to become the least popular man in Philadelphia since Rich Kotite. If that is indeed the case, he has succeeded. Turns out that while the Inky and Daily News were spiralling towards bankruptcy, Tierney was awarding himself an enormous raise! Does this guy actually possess arms and legs or does he physically slither across the floor?

Oscar thoughts?

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Any of ’em you think they screwed up? Any they got right? I heard the Kate Winslet movie was slow as all get out. But Holocaust movies always get Oscars, even if they make Nazis sympathetic, like they did in The Reader. So you knew she was going to get it. And sorry, but I thought Penn had the third best performance I saw over the weekend. Shoulda gone to Langella, though Rourke woulda been fine as well. I thought it was I liked Slumdog a lot, but I wasn’t crazy about the ending. But I can see why it got Best Pic. I never did get around to seeing Benjamin Button. I understand it was a perfectly good movie, but not Best Picture Worthy. And I have to disagree with Smackdown’s assessment that Penelope Cruz is one of the best actresses going. But I didn’t see any of those Best Supporting Actress Movies, so sure, she wins. Best Supporting Actor? I only saw two films, and thought Brolin and Ledger were both terrific, but it was pretty predetermined that Ledger was gonna win. Your thoughts?

The Wrestler


And the award for Best Actor goes to…The back of Mickey Rourke’s head. Seriously, the back of his head took up like half of the running time. That being said, though, I thought this was a great film. As a fan of wrestling in the 80s, more than a few of my old heroes are dead now due to the same excesses that Rourke grapples with. And Marisa Tomei, wow. That was a, ahem, terrific performance. In terms of Best Actor, I still think Langella was more impressive. Sorry, but asking Mickey Rourke to play a down and out hero hero from the 80s with a drug problem wasn’t exactly asking him to play Hamlet. But I do think the film probably deserved a nom for Best Picture instead of the Reader. Not a single person who has seen that movie thought it was very good, and the reviews weren’t all that great either.

Slumdog Millionaire and the Freaking Riverview Theatre

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Before we get to my Slumdog review, a little venting: Leave it to the stupid Riverview Theatre to take a movie off the marquee two days before it goes up for a best pic award. Last night, it showed that Benjamin Button was showing at 10 p.m. Now it’s appears that the movie isn’t showing at all in Philadelphia. Crap. I guess those showtimes I looked up ended last night. Oh well, it might be a blessing in disguise. If memory serves, somebody got shot watching Benjamin Button at the Riverview over Christmas. Anyhow, the closest place to watch it is apparently Voorhees. I don’t even know where in the hell Voorhees is.

Where was I? Oh yeah, so Slumdog Millionaire was pretty awesome. Wasn’t as well done as Frost/Nixon, I didn’t think, and none of the performances were as incredible as Langella’s, but it was a better story. So as of right now I’m torn as to which one should win. Gonna see Milk at 7:15. Maybe I’ll find a way to get to Voorhees tomorrow night and go see Button then. But it’s really dumb that you can’t watch one of the films up for an Oscar anywhere in Philadelphia. Still waiting for somebody to invite me to a freaking Oscar party. Um, hello? I’ll even bring over some good Oscar questions.