Oscars 2013!

*SPOILERS* (if you haven't watched it yet)

A very quick round up of the Oscars 2013 and my thoughts. I truly believe that Seth Macfarlane's humour is more Golden Globes and not so much Oscars. He's funny as hell but I think a couple of his jokes fell flat due to this being the prestigious old school Academy Awards. He got lashed through twitter but people with a sense of humour loved him and so did I. With regards to the handing over of the awards...in the future the Academy Award producers need to shy completely away from a number of presenters at once handing out the awards. The 'Avenger's' all on stage handing out an award felt very awkward and either not rehearsed or over rehearsed...either or it was horrible to watch as was the banter between the cast of 'Chicago'. Stick to 2 people MAX, Academy. Overall it was a great show, albeit very long, with great performances by Adele, Jennifer Hudson and Dame Shirley Bassey. The stage was beautiful and there were no unnecessarily long speeches, well there was one, but he was cut very short by the theme music to 'Jaws'.  Here's the basic list of winners: 

Best Animated Film: Brave (great choice)

Best Original Screenplay: Quentin Tarantino - Django Unchained (the undisputed champion of original screenplay)

Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway - Les Miserables (still battling to take her seriously)

Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz - Django Unchained (deserved, but would've liked Tommy-Lee Jones to win)

Best Actress: Jennifer Lawrence - Silver Linings Playbook (deserved!)

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis - Lincoln (first actor in history to have won 3 best actor Academy Awards!)

Best Director: Ang Lee - Life of Pi (Didn't call it but SO glad he won!)

Best Picture: Argo (Deserved!)

Django Unchained

Director: Quentin Tarantino (Won Golden Globe for best screenplay for this film)

Starring: Jamie Fox (Ray, Law Abiding Citizen); Christoph Waltz (Inglourius Basterds); Leonardo Di Caprio (Titanic, Inception)

Running Time: 165mins

If there were only 3 reasons to watch this movie, then here they are: Scenery, Soundtrack & Jamie Foxx. Besides Ray, this has to be Foxx's (Django - the 'D' is silent) finest moment as a freed slave seeking revenge for his wife. Having said that though, some of his performances were overshadowed by the awesomeness that was Samuel L. Jackson in his portrayal as Stephen the housekeeper. I enjoyed him in Pulp Fiction but I think it's safe to say that I enjoyed this performance much more. Other terrific performances included the likes of the unwavering Christoph Waltz as Dr. King Schultz the dentist/bounty hunter as well as Leonardo DiCaprio as Calvin Candie (ruthless plantation owner who has Foxx's wife). The violence left me reeling every once a while and it's long, perhaps a little too long, but the interaction between the actors, the story, camerawork, blood, script and the pretty cool cameo from director Tarantino make the 165 minutes worth it! Do yourselves a favour and download the soundtrack. It's fantastic! And by the way, ignore what Spike Lee said about this film, it's not racist. Even if Foxx's character uses the 'N' word one too many times in the derogatory sense, it's a fantasy. Enjoy it as such and also let the figures speak for themselves, so far the movie has made around $150m at the box office...