January 15, 2010

Live Blogging the Critics Choice Awards...

I will be live blogging the show starting between the Pre-show at 8:30 and the actual show at 9, so be sure to follow along, and watch it on VH1 (I'll list times for all posts so everyone will be able to know what I'm talking about). Until then, use this post to comment with anything in relation to the show tonight, including predictions, running commentary, post show comments, etc. Without further ado, let the Live Blogging begin!

11:15- That's it for the coverage tonight. The Hurt Locker and Inglourious Basterds were the big winners here in my eyes. Will it mean anything for the Oscars? Who knows, but we'll find out soon enough. Hope everyone enjoyed my coverage and that I didn't bore you too much!

11:11- We finally come to Best Picture. The 10 nominees are Avatar, An Education, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, Invictus, Nine, Precious, A Serious Man, Up, and Up in the Air. It could go to Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, or Up in the Air. I have no clue which will win, but Basterds isn't the long shot it was going into tonight and Avatar is falling behind. The Hurt Locker and Up in the Air did really well with critics this year, so I'd say they're in the lead, but who knows, especially with what Tarantino's film has done tonight. Pick em, as the sports world says...
THE AWARD GOES TO...The Hurt Locker. This is where it needed a win, and it got it, simple as that.

11:05- They're certainly going to make us wait for Best Picture...

11:02- Yes, we've ventured into overtime for the final award (though technically the Best Actress tie and speeches did it)...

10:59- Best Actress is here, and the nominees are Emily Blunt for The Young Victoria, Sandra Bullock for The Blind Side, Carrie Mulligan for An Education, Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones, Gabourey Sidibe for Precious, and Meryl Streep for Julie & Julia. Streep is the likely winner, though Mulligan would be the one to take it away from her.
THE AWARD GOES TO...both Meryl Streep AND Sandra Bullock. Yes, it's a tie! Goes to show what I know. This doesn't help us at all with any new predictions, but it is pretty cool to see, at least in my book, and makes this perhaps a 3 person race now.

10:52- Is it just me, or are the commercials for awards films not really jiving with the ones for VH1 programming?

10:47- We're up to Best Actor, and this is a big one. The nominees are Jeff Brides for Crazy Heart, George Clooney for Up in the Air, Colin Firth for A Single Man, Morgan Freeman as Invictus, Viggo Mortensen for The Road, and Jeremy Renner for The Hurt Locker. I'd lean towards Bridges winning, but Clooney could easily win. Mortensen and Renner are the spoilers.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Jeff Bridges. He's on a track to the Oscar win, but he still needs to win a few more to make it a sure thing.

10:42- The big three categories are coming up now. The 4 main contenders (Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Up in the Air) have all won something, though I'd say that, perhaps surprisingly, Avatar is now the least likely to win. Still, it's a toss up...

10:39- The next award is Best Director (pay attention to this one). The nominees are Clint Eastwood for Invictus, James Cameron for Avatar, Lee Daniels for Precious, Jason Reitman for Up in the Air, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker, and Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds. Your guess is as good as mine, though Bigelow might have the critic edge.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Kathryn Bigelow. That's very nice to see, and could be a sign of bigger things to come for her.


10:37- He gave a pretty good speech...

10:31- Time for Kevin Bacon to be presented with the Joel Siegel Award. Meryl Streep is doing the honoring. Should be good, if not quite life changing.

10:24- Best Original Screenplay wraps up the writing awards. The nominees are (500) Days of Summer, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, A Serious Man, and Up. It's between (500) Days and Basterds.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Inglourious Basterds. Could Tarantino be soon accepting his second writing Oscar?

10:21- The screenplay awards are up now. They start with Best Adapted Screenplay. The nominees are Fantastic Mr. Fox, District 9, Precious, A Single Man, An Education, and Up in the Air. This should go to Reitman for Up in the Air.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Up in the Air. This was a slam dunk, more or less. Reitman and co-writer Sheldon Turner need to start writing speeches to thank the Academy.

10:18- They just skipped over a whole bunch of technical awards, which they spread out between a few films, though Avatar won a bunch of them. I'll get the full list to you when I can. Damn time constraints.

10:15- Frankly, these fake screen tests suck out loud. She's certainly trying hard, but perhaps too hard. It could be worse, I suppose...

10:11- Best Documentary now. The nominees are Anvil! The Story of Anvil, Capitalism: A Love Story, The Cove, Food, Inc., and This is It. I think it's between Anvil! and The Cove.
THE AWARD GOES TO...The Cove. Expect to see this win the Oscar, so this is a good precursor to it.

10:08- Time for Best Song to be named. The nominees are All is Love from Where the Wild Things Are, Almost There from Princess and the Frog, Cinema Italiano from Nine, (I Want To) Come Home from Everybody's Fine, and The Weary Kind from Crazy Heart. I think it's between Cinema Italiano and The Weary Kind, though the latter should win.
THE AWARD GOES TO...The Weary Kind. Aside from Help Yourself from Up in the Air, this is the best song of the year, so it's great to see.

9:59- After a rough bit of joking around by the host (saved by the presenters of this award having some raunchy fun), we're up to Best Comedy. The nominees for this one are (500) Days of Summer, The Hangover, It's Complicated, The Proposal, and Zombieland. I'd say this goes to The Hangover, though I'm honestly crossing my fingers for (500) Days.
THE AWARD GOES TO...The Hangover. While not my favorite movie of the year, it does happen to be very funny, so this is an appropriate win.

9:55- We come to Best Supporting Actor at this point. The nominees here are Matt Damon for Invictus, Woody Harrelson for The Messenger, Christian McKay for Me and Orson Welles, Alfred Molina for An Education, Stanley Tucci for The Lovely Bones, and Christoph Waltz for Inglourious Basterds. Waltz should, well...waltz away with this one.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Christoph Waltz. This could end up being a good night for Tarantino's film, but it's too early to tell.

9:47- They focused more on the films than the man, but it was a pretty fitting tribute to Mr. Hughes.

9:42- Now it's a tribute to John Hughes, which should be rather touching.

9:40- The next award is for Best Young Actor or Actress. The nominees are Jae Head for The Blind Side, Bailee Madison for Brothers, Max Records for Where the Wild Things Are,, Saoirse Ronan for The Lovely Bones, and Kodi-Smit McPhee for The Road. This is between Ronan and Records, though Madison deserves it.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Saoirse Ronan. She's one of the better parts of the film, so this was the category to honor it.

9:37- Comparing The Lovely Bones to Orphan just shows how far the mighty have fallen...

9:31- We now have Best Animated Feature. The nominees are Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, Coraline, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Princess and the Frog, and Up. I can't see Up not winning this, though Fantastic Mr. Fox would be the only one that could ruin it for Pixar.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Up. As expected...

9:27- Best Action Movie is up now. The nominees are Avatar, Disctrict 9, The Hurt Locker, Inglourious Basterds, and Star Trek. It's between Avatar, The Hurt Locker, and the Basterds in my eyes, though this is a weird award, so it could go a number of ways.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Avatar. That makes sense, and also leaves the bigger awards still up for grabs.

9:17- The next award is Best Supporting Actress. The nominees are Mo'Nique for Precious, Marion Cotillard for Nine, Vera Farmiga for Up in the Air, Julianne Moore for A Single Man, Samantha Morton for The Messenger, and Anna Kendrick for Up in the Air. This is likely Mo'Nique's, though Kendrick's the spoiler.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Mo'Nique. No surprise there, at all.

9:13- They mention the 10 Best Picture nominees quickly, which leads into Chenoweth making some small jokes about some of the nominees in general.

9:10- The first award of the evening is for Best Acting Ensemble. Nominees are Inglourious Basterds, Nine, Precious, Star Trek, and Up in the Air. The award could go to either Basterds, Nine, or Up in the Air, if I had to guess.
THE AWARD GOES TO...Inglourious Basterds! Could this bode well for its Best Picture chances later tonight? We shall see...

9:07- The Inglourious Basterds inspired opening was decently clever, but host Kristin Chenoweth's song following it left something to be desired (especially since she's wearing the Kate Hudson dress from Nine, but pretty much ignored that fact).

9:00- Now, we can get the show on the road. The awards have officially started!

8:56- Kevin Bacon talking now. He's getting the honorary award tonight, which will be cool to see.

8:55- Thankfully, only 5 minutes left...

8:48- The first curse of the night, and the host took it so awkwardly...cut into a weird transition for the talk with Mo'Nique. I really need to not be so critical of a Pre-show, but then again, if I'm not commenting on it, what is there to comment on? 12 minutes to go...

8:45- Quentin Tarantino wants to win for Best Director? I'm shocked. 15 minutes to go...

8:37- So far, it's a very standard Red Carpet type deal. No worse than any other, but no better.

8:34- Zac Efron is a fan of 'The Hurt Locker', so maybe he's not all evil...

8:30- And we're off...Nick Jonas doesn't make me think "Movie Awards", but what do I know?

22 comments:

  1. The most tasteless awards show there is.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Depends on what you compare it to...

    ReplyDelete
  3. Avatar over The Hurt Locker yes!!!
    The Weary Kind!!
    hope the rest is for Colin as for Meryl and Up in the air

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great Job there Joey! here is like midnite!! im staying with u til the end!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Much obliged sir. I'm doing my best to not bore anyone.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I enjoyed her deferring a lot of credit to Mark Boal, which she does in every speaking engagement she does. When I spoke with them both, Boal sort of does the same thing, giving credit to her, so if they both were to win at the Oscars, it'd be interesting to see the gratitude reciprocated...

    ReplyDelete
  7. 10.59: So this means Muligans goes to the back or something like that? I mean it confirms that Meryl has the strongest choice now rite?
    And is a first step for Bullock actually let see...

    10.49: Im wondering what will happen this sunday in this cat. it really can be any of the 3 front runners, in that award my bet is for Clooney,

    ReplyDelete
  8. That tie certainly muddles things a bit, though I think ultimately Streep will likely win.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Last year Streep and Hathaway both won the CCM Award but neither ended up winning the Oscar.

    ReplyDelete
  10. this year is and has to be diferent...
    bad ending by the way! hahaha
    Once again ThanXz Joey!!

    ReplyDelete
  11. They split up the awards nicely, so essentially it tells us nothing, though Avatar took a minor hit, but it doesn't matter much...

    ReplyDelete
  12. Fantastic ending with the best movie winning, for once.

    I'm starting to think Avatar may not be critically-acclaimed enough to take home Best Picture or Best Director. As for the technical categories, they got that sewn up.

    I only with Renner was closer.

    Great speeches by Bigelow and Boal.

    By the way, F Sandra Bullock for not mentioning Michael Oher's name once. As usual, it's about the poor actress overcoming the obstacles the "critics" placed in front of her (they told her to do All About Steve); instead, of even mentioning the man (or even the woman she portrayed to sudden "acting" acclaim) who overcame the true obstacles (Oher).

    I love how Bullock has cashed in major $$$ and lately it seems, she's pissed no critics think she's a good actress.

    Seriously, why wasn't she nominated for Armed and Fabulous!?!?!

    Good coverage. I saw the all-too-average The Lovely Bones tonight. Much much much better book, but the effort was there from Jackson and the iffy-cast.

    Thanks for all you do via the blog Joey. It's a daily read.

    Hurt Locker in '10. Maybe the hope is more alive than I once thought (even if the Globes can sink the Critics Awards in a matter of moments).

    ReplyDelete
  13. Well that's it. Hurt Locker has the Oscar in the bag. Critics haven't been wrong in 3 years. Heck they even called The Departed.

    Unless over the next month and a bit Oscars decide to dramatically go Avatar for crowds (highly unlikely) looks like HL will take it. Shame cos there's going to be so many non-Oscar buzz knowledgeable movie goers asking "Hurt What-ner?"

    Great job on the blogs Joey. They didn't air the awards here down under this year so I VERY much appreciated your coverage :)

    ReplyDelete
  14. Very possible, and my pleasure. Glad I could help!

    ReplyDelete
  15. @ Nathan: Why would spotlighting a great film that didn't do that well at the box office be a "shame?" Major awards attention is EXACTLY what The Hurt Locker needs to pique the interests of non-Oscar buzz knowledgeable moviegoers. It's not like Avatar or Inglourious Basterds need any more exposure.

    My only hope now is that Avatar wins Best Motion Picture - Drama at the Golden Globes, so that the GG/AMPAS curse afflicts Cameron's film.

    ReplyDelete
  16. If only they didn't waste so much time with their horrible jokes, then maybe they wouldn't have had to squeeze eight categories into a 1 minute video clip. I loved the awards, the John Hughes tribute, and the speeches (especially Jason Reitman), but all of the gags were pointless and fell flat.

    -Robbie

    ReplyDelete
  17. I kind of agree with you. I thought that Kristin Chenoweth did such a horrible job hosting.

    Actually, I think it was last year's BFCA's which was actually a great show. I didn't really understand their choice of her to host something that's out of her reign. And all the sexual puns and references to her boobs were just completely stupid and fell flat entirely.

    ReplyDelete