The Good, The Bad & The Oscars

The Good, The Bad & The Oscars
Hello, and welcome to a very special The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Yes, roll out the red carpet, hire yourself a white tuxedo and make sure you’ve got that tit tape firmly stuck down because the Oscar nominations have hit town and we’re taking some very personal looks at what we think is good, bad or ugly.

Gina Reay, Foreign Correspondent

The Good:
Who would’ve thought a film about fictional blue creatures could be nominated across the board at the Oscars! No I’m not talking about Smurfs, Avatar is my favourite nomination. I went into the cinema thinking science fiction wasn’t really my thing and came out in my 3D specs, disappointed with our consumerist, industrial world and wanting to move to Pandora! If only it were real.

The Bad:
Nazi movie Inglourious Basterds pushed none of my buttons. Although not surprised to see Tarantino up for Best Director and the movie up for Best Picture, I secretly hope it doesn’t win. A film with that much blood, violence and terrible fake accents doesn’t rev my award engine.

The Ugly:
Although we could never dub the beautiful George Clooney as ugly, I have to admit the numerous nominations for his quirky ‘Up in the Air’ did surprise me. Although not a bad film by any means, I would never have rated this move Oscar-quality. It triggered a few giggles and Georgey got my heart beating, however I think the plot lacked depth, the supporting actors lacked believability and the ending was too enigmatic for even the most deep-thinking among us. Sorry Mr Clooney.

Luke Walsh, Film Critic Extraordinaire

The Good:
It’s fantastic to see the very worthy Up nominated for Best Picture (only the second animated film to achieve such a feat after Beauty and the Beast in 1992, for all you interested film buffs), but the real highlight is the eight nominations for Inglourious Basterds, including the first recognition for Quentin Tarantino since Pulp Fiction all those years ago. Plus, it’s great to see the lovely and up-and-coming British talent Carey Mulligan in Best Actress for An Education, along with Sandra Bullock in The Blind Side. She just seems really nice.

The Bad:
Was Avatar actually that good? Probably not. And Meryl Streep didn’t really need another nomination to add to her record haul of 15 - we don’t doubt your brilliance, Meryl, but give someone else a chance, like the luminous Mélanie Laurent of Inglourious Basterds or the 18 year old Katie Jarvis for her debut in Fish Tank.

The Ugly:
There’s a notable lack of a Screenplay nomination for (500) Days of Summer, which was possibly the freshest film of 2009. Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s star performance was also cruelly snubbed; instead, the ever elusive and shy George Clooney will experience some rare publicity.

Philip Bloomfield, Snooty Ents Editor

The Good
Absolutely thrilled to see The Hurt Locker get itself eight well-earned nominations. What makes it all the more interesting is that director Kathryn Bigelow is up against her old ex boyfriend James Cameron in a few categories. Let’s hope she makes Avatar’s nine nominations look as farcical as it’s horrendous script and terrible screenplay.

The Bad
Aside from Avatar getting predictably lauded for being a fancy remake of Pocahontas with a dose of Fern Gully and some guns, I’m disappointed to see a lack of Brit films making the cut: by all accounts the excellent Fish Tank was as worthy as most of what passes for film in the nominations. See also ‘In The Loop’ getting one miserly nomination. Though maybe that upsets me as I’d really have loved to have heard Malcolm Tucker’s expletive-laden acceptance speech.

The Ugly
Quentin Tarantino. Let’s face it, he’s a very unattractive man, however much of an enjoyable romp Inglorious Basterds was.