The Oscars 2011 - How did we do?

Last night, the Academy Awards took place. A few weeks ago we confidently and rather arrogantly made our predictions as to who would be the big winners. So, how did we do? Well, let's find out, shall we?

BEST PICTURE
The winner was: The King's Speech
Were we right?
We couldn't have been more wrong. We hedged our bets and mentioned three films when predicting this category. Toy Story 3, Inception and The Social Network. Pretty pathetic predicting really. We stand by the fact that Toy Story 3 was the best film though.

BEST ACTOR
The winner was: Colin Firth - The King's Speech
Were we right?
Emphatically, yes. We said, "Sometimes the Oscars throw up dead certs. Colin Firth will win Best Actor. No doubt." Well done us.

BEST DIRECTOR
The winner was: Tom Hooper - The King's Speech
Were we right?
Emphatically, no. We said: "We're going all out on Fincher. Mark our words."

BEST ACTRESS
The winner was: Natalie Portman - Black Swan
Were we right?
While we desperately wanted Jennifer Lawrence to win, we knew that it was never going to happen and so said that, "Natalie Portman will probably walk away with it." Right again.

BEST ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
The winner was: Christian Bale - The Fighter
Were we right?
We favoured Geoffrey Rush or the brilliant Mark Ruffalo so, no, we weren't.

BEST ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
The winner was: Melissa Leo - The Fighter
Were we right?
We were kinda bored of predicting by this stage, so we lazily suggested that Helena Bonham Carter might sneak it. We were not right.

So, what have we learnt here? Well, with only two out of six correct, we have learnt that we aren't very good at predicting stuff. We're also just starting to realise that, if you are going to get two-thirds of your predictions wrong, then it's not the wisest idea to write a post highlighting the fact. We shoulda kept schtum really, hey? As if anyone would've remembered what we'd said all those weeks ago.

In the other categories, we're pleased Toy Story 3 won the consolation prize of Best Animated Picture (although it would have been an absolute travesty had it not) and we're also happy that Aaron Sorkin was recognised for The Social Network and that the movie also deservedly picked up the Film Editing award. Inception was criminally overlooked, but at least it got a nod for Visual Effects. Where the heck was 127 Hours though?

Anyhoo, here are the results of all the other categories that we couldn't be arsed to speculate on in the build-up.

Foreign Language Film - In a Better World - Denmark
Adapted Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin - The Social Network
Original Screenplay David Seidler - The King's Speech
Animated Feature Film - Toy Story 3
Art Direction Alice in Wonderland
Cinematography Inception
Sound Mixing Inception
Sound Editing Inception
Original Score The Social Network, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
Original Song We Belong Together from Toy Story 3, Randy Newman.
Costume Design Alice in Wonderland
Documentary Feature Inside Job
Documentary (short subject) Strangers No More
Film Editing The Social Network
Makeup The Wolfman
Animated Short Film The Lost Thing
Live Action Short Film God of Love
Visual Effects Inception

Words by Rob Townsend

2010 End Of Year Review - Top 10 Films

Tomorrow is the big day where BobbySix.com announces it's Top 10 Albums of the Year, so in order to tidy up the housekeeping, here are the best movies of the year and everything else of note:

TOP 10 MOVIES

1. TOY STORY 3
"Seeing the likes of Woody and Buzz on screen again offers the warmth and familiarity of delving into your own childhood toy box, and there are also new characters to enjoy, not least a vacuous Ken doll voiced, brilliantly, by Michael Keaton. The story whizzes along at pace, with moments of humour punctuating exciting and inventive set pieces. There is laugh-out-loud hilarity (and not the tiresome in-gags that have littered other animated movies, but, rather, well-crafted and perfectly-delivered jokes) and, importantly, there are tear-inducing moments too.

Toy Story 3 has clearly been created with genuine loving care, rather than having its dots joined by accountants and marketing executives. It is a work of art, and as perfect an example of storytelling with a heart as you are likely to find." (full review...)

2. INCEPTION
"Finally, a blockbuster with a brain in its head that pays the audience the respect of assuming they have one too. If you want your movies to offer food for thought rather than chewing gum for the eyes, then give Nolan's cracker your true support and show the money men that audiences are cleverer than they give us credit for. Maybe then we'll get a few more Inceptions and a few less Tranformers." (full review...)

3. KICK ASS
Really funny and charming, with its mix of superhero movies like Spiderman and Batman and teen-flicks-with-a-heart like Juno and Ghost World, all held together with a small sprinkling of Superbad-style comedy and some mega violence/swearing. Oh and with and a bit of Leon thrown in.

4. MADE IN DAGENHAM

The remarkable true story of a group of women workers as they battle for equal rights. As many tears as there are laughs, Made in Dagenham might end up being this year's Slumdog when the award season comes around. And some of it is set in Eastbourne - the birthplace of Bobby Six!

5. THE SOCIAL NETWORK
"It’s as simple as this: The Social Network is much, much better than a film about obnoxious, affluent young men either sitting in rooms bickering over litigation or sitting in rooms writing computer code has any right to be." (full review...)

6. FOUR LIONS
A comedy about suicide bombers? Surely such a thing is not possible. Well, when it pours out of the brain of Chris Morris then, of course it is. What's more, it is perfectly-measured. Close to the bone yet neither judgemental nor especially sympathetic, it is a funny and strangely touching account of four men's rather misjudged and half-baked plan.

7. EASY A
"A loving homage to the John Hughes teen movies of the 1980's, Easy A is well-observed, nicely paced and, crucially, very funny. The dialogue, similarly to Juno, is snappy and sharp as hell, and just like you did with Ellen Page, you'll find yourself totally engaged and charmed by Stone. In fact, the redheaded young actress is by far and away the best thing about Easy A. For someone that we have only really seen in the supporting roles in Zombieland and Superbad, she absolutely owns the screen from start to finish. Funny, sassy and intelligent while all the time purveying the kind of vulnerability that most teenagers feel, Stone's performance suggests we'll be hearing a lot more from her in the future.

Easy A might be a love-letter to the likes of Sixteen Candles, Say Anything and Ferris Bueller's Day Off rather than being an equal to them, but it may well stand the test of time and isn't too far away from those era-defining, female-led teen flicks like Mean Girls and Clueless." (full review...)

8.WINTER'S BONE
Jennifer Lawrence delivers an astonishing performance in this bleak drama about a teenager who has to hunt down her absent father in order to prevent her family from having their home repossessed.

9. THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT
An intelligent comedy that boasts fine turns from Julianne Moore (although when has she ever put in anything less?) and Mark Ruffalo. It is far less annoying and smug than it could have been and has plenty of laugh-out-loud moments.

10 (joint place). SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD and STEP UP 3D (yes, really)
These two films deserve mentions for different reasons. Scott Pilgrim was clever, fairly witty and offered heaps of winks and nudges towards the computer game generation. The problem is that it was just too ambitious. There was too much plot to squeeze into one film and too many big budget set-pieces. It seemed not to know what it wanted to be -  a blockbuster or an indie flick. In the end it landed awkwardly and messily between the two. And so it is with disappointment that it only just squeezes into the top ten. It was good, but it should have been great.

Conversely, a film with seemingly little to offer turned out to be the most accidentally funny movie of the year and, consequently, massively entertaining. Take a bow, Step Up 3D. The plot? Well, plot schmot. Essentially the exposition - clunky, cheesy and hackneyed as it was - merely served to join the dots between fantastic dance routines and featured some brilliantly hopeless dialogue. Characters would say something like: 'The biggest decisions in life are never easy,' before looking into the mid-distance with a thoughtful/troubled expression, like Plato in pumps. Another example came when, as the romantic leads were considering leaving New York, the girl with the abs said to the guy with the pecs, 'We could go anywhere,' before slightly undermining the world of possibilities by adding, 'Even California.' (full review...)
 
BEST TELEVISION MOMENT
“So, the winner, and Australia’s Next Top Model for 2010 is…. It’s you Kelsey. Wait… what? Oh."

TOP 3 PODCASTS
Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo’s Film Review Podcast, BBC Five Live
Guardian Football Weekly Podcast
The Collings and Herrin Podcast

BEST SPORTING HIGHLIGHT
Well, this. Obviously.

Toy Story 3

It has been a good year for animation. Up took it to a new emotional level with its fable about friendship, love, living-for-the-moment and helping/relying on others. Anyone who didn’t cry in the first 15 minutes has a heart made of granite. Then came Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - a wittily scripted and truly madcap comedy about raining hamburgers. The latter was, in fact, winning the race to be film of the year at Bobby Six headquarters (not just animated film of the year, film film of the year), until, one rainy afternoon in early July, Pixar dropped their latest bomb. And not just any bomb. Toy Story 3.

Because Toy Story 2 was so close to perfection, it was always going to be tough for this third instalment to live up to expectations. And it has been a really long time coming too… surely it wouldn’t be worth the wait. Well, gloriously, the toys are back in town and their adventures are every bit as good as the two films that came before. In fact, Toy Story 3 might just be the best of the bunch.

Seeing the likes of Woody and Buzz on screen again offers the warmth and familiarity of delving into your own childhood toy box, and there are also new characters to enjoy, not least a vacuous Ken doll voiced, brilliantly, by Michael Keaton. Visually, the movie is stunning (at times you have to remind yourself that Andy is not a real boy, so lifelike are his skin tones and the way he moves). The story whizzes along at pace, with moments of humour punctuating exciting and inventive set pieces. There is laugh-out-loud hilarity (and not the tiresome in-gags that have littered other animated movies, but, rather, well-crafted and perfectly-delivered jokes) and, importantly, there are tear-inducing moments too.

Like the aforementioned Up and Cloudy…, Toy Story 3 has clearly been crafted with genuine loving care, rather than having its dots joined by accountants and marketing executives. It is a work of art, and as perfect an example of storytelling with a heart as you are likely to find.



As an aside, because I chose to see the film in 2D, I found myself having to attend an afternoon showing as there were no evening screenings on that or any other day, whereupon I was herded to a tiny room at the very far corner of the multiplex. The screen was the size of a postage stamp and the audio seemed to coming through speakers with the same power as a pair of ipod headphones. I’m sure those who paid double to see the film in 3D watched it on a massive screen and with beautifully clear surround sound, but, if cinemas are going to charge exorbitant prices for 3D movies, then surely they have a duty to provide as good an experience as is possible for those who can’t afford it. Am I wrong?