Dammit! 24 Thoughts and OSCAR Aftermath ...

- So I think I did pretty well with my Oscar picks, right? Okay, so like most people I got tripped up by some of the smaller categories like Foreign Language Film (Waltz With Bashir was robbed!) and Live Action Short (how could a short titled "The Final Inch" lose out ...?), but, I predicted a lot of the major categories including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Supporting Actor. Okay, those weren't exactly giant question marks, but still. As for Best Actor ... as I alluded to in my last post, I did kind of have a feeling that Sean Penn would win for Milk. But I was really pulling for Mickey Rourke and The Wrestler, so part of me had to believe that one of the year's best movies would not get shut out entirely. Again, I did think Penn was great in Milk, but I just don't know if it was quite as powerful a performance as Rourke's. Now, I didn't see The Reader, but I'll have to check it out eventually to evaluate Kate Winslet's performance. Personally, I was just put off by everything that I read about the cutthroat campaigning that went into Winslet's Oscar push, and I guess I assumed that voters would be put off by it to some extent as well. Guess not - but congrats to Winslet on a win that was probably a long-time-coming. I was pretty surprised that Milk won for best original screenplay as well, it didn't strike me really as a writer's movie. But mostly, I was happy to see Slumdog recognized in several key categories, as to me it would have been both an upset and a disappointment if any other film had won for Best Picture or Director or Adapted Screenplay.

As for the show itself ... eh, whatever. The Oscars to me have always been overly long and boring, and I can't stand the scrutiny of what everyone's wearing and all of the other red-carpet celeb-worship. That's not to say I didn't have a lot of fun watching the Oscars with f riends and seeing if my picks were correct or not ... but other than a few funny bits with James Franco and Seth Rogen, and Ben Stiller ragging on Joaquin Pheonix, the Oscars still were not necessarilly great TV despite a change in format. I mean, how many song and dance numbers do you need? I did like the past winners coming out to present this year's nominees, but it still felt too long. I loved the idea of showing trailers for upcoming 2009 movies, it's too bad those were relegated to being shown over the ending credits.

Personally, my movie radar is now firmly affixed on WATCHMEN. The early reviews have so far have been good to great, and I am dying to see how Zack Snyder and co tackled the source material. Rest assured, I will be back here soon to talk a lot more about the hype for Watchmen. All I'll say for now is, as relates to the Oscars ... if Watchmen indeed turns out to be an excellent adaptation of one of Time Magazine's 100 Greatest Novels ... shouldn't that qualify it for some love come next year's Academy Awards? Man, I'm still bitter about nobody but me thinking that Hugo Weaving should have gotten an Oscar nom for V for Vendetta.

But yeah, as for this year's Oscars ... glad that Slumdog was a big winner, very nice to see Heath Ledger get his well-deserved kudos, and cool that Penelope Cruz won for a great turn in Vicky Cristina ... other than that, nothing that really got me too excited, and no huge, jaw-dropping surprises.


- But yeaaah, speaking of excitement and jaw-dropping surprises, it's time to talk ...


TWENTY-BY-GOD-FOUR:

- Well, that's three certifiably kickass episodes of 24 in a row, meaning it's official: 24 is on fire. Boomshakalaka, baby. Last night's 24 was one of the show's classic "one threat ends, another surfaces" installments, which are usually fun since we get the rare satisfaction of seeing Jack actually avert a major threat and see the badguys get their due. Last night, it was the endgame (at least for now) for our old friend Dobaku, who goes out in something of a blaze of tragic glory. But let me just go through some highlights of why this episode kicked some ass:

- DOBAKU IS DOWN ... but the CANDYMAN (Tony Todd) is in the house as our next uber-villain. Sweeet.

- Meanwhile, KURTWOOD SMITH, one of the all-time badass actors, returned, and we can all hope that it's only a matter of time before he and Jack are standin' back to back sporting twin rifles and trading quips.

- Great car chase at the beginning of the episode ...

- Similarly, very nice progression of the whole Mole-In-the-FBI storyline. Sean's desperate schemes to protect his cover were a lot of fun to play out, and his attempt to escape the FBI offices once discovered were suitably intense.

- How is Bill Buchanan basically running the government within a matter of hours? Is he just that damn good?

- Also, why would Jack give Dobaku's data chip to some random dude in a helicopter after all that talk about the FBI being corrupted? I guess it was necessary to progress the story at the needed pace, but still ...

- Did Freckles' #%&$-slap of doom turn out to be as intense as was hinted at in last week's preview? I thought it was a nice scene between her and Jack ... I'm just curious where they're going with it. Earlier in the season, it seemed like Jack was just being Jack, and all the complaining about his methods was just due to him being surrounded by a bunch of FBI pansys rather than his usual CTU compatriots. But now, they do really seem to portraying Jack as a guy one step away from losin' it. Pulling a gun on a random EMT worker, telling Freckles that if she pulls a gun on him to use it, and mouthing off to Tony "Soul-Patch" Almeida? That doesn't seem like the Jack we know. I'll be curious if they really go all the way with this and have Jack truly snap, or if it's just more good-cop / bad-cop shenanigans.

- Anyways, next week's two-hour spectacular looks off-the-chain. White house invasion! Aaron Pierce had better be involved. But man, Bauer, Almeida, Tony Todd and Clarence Boddikker all in one place? Now that's some serious gravitas!

My Grade: A-


- Alriiiight, I'm out for now. On one final note: Andy Richter is going to join Conan O'Brien on the Tonight Show! Awesome ... this is gonna be good.