New York Post Editorial Cartoon.

The New York Post recently published a very controversial cartoon, which many found offensive, as it seemed to portray Barak Obama as a monkey. I honestly don't think that the guy who drew the cartoon meant to insinuate this, rather he made a joke without thinking about the consequences. I mean when I first saw it I did not immediatly think it was shocking, but then I realized that African Americans are sometimes called monkeys, and this is what the controversy is all about. If this was the man's true intention, then he should be vilified for it, like he already is.

The bottom line is, the public has the right to see these images and judge them accordingly.

My Oscar Picks

The Academy Awards is this Sunday and seeing as I actually watched every best picture nomination, I will now precede to judge some of the bigger categories.

Best Picture summary (in order of goodness):
Frost/Nixon- Who knew that a movie about interviewing Richard Nixon could be so awesome? It turns out that Nixon was pretty funny, although he was quite paranoid. Ron Howard has done it again.
Milk- A biopic about a gay Jew, who becomes the first openly gay public official, starring Sean Penn was surprisingly good. The movie gave an interesting look into how gays were treated in the 70's, and stellar casting and directing makes this film stand out.
Slumdog Millionaire- Overall a good film, although the whole love storyline was a bit nauseating. Also the believability of the plot started to annoy me after a while. It was still entertaining, and who doesn't like some good Bollywood dancing.
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button- This movie was aight, although it was Fiddler on the Roof long, at around two and a half hours. Brad Pitt was okay, but all in all a little disappointing, considering how many nominations it received.
The Reader- The worst Holocaust movie I've ever seen, and perhaps one of the worst movies I've ever seen. The moral problems it raises are idiotic, and frankly I don't know what there is to like about this movie.

Best Picture Winner- Frost/Nixon!

Best Actor Nominees:
Richard Jenkins – The Visitor
Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon
Sean Penn – Milk
Brad Pitt – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler

Order of goodness: Mickey Rourke deserves the nod for being awesome in the wrestler. His portrayal of a character on the downside of his career, emulated his own life situation giving his performance extra gravitas. Frank Langella was great as Nixon, while Sean Penn also gave a great performance.
Brad Pitt honestly didn't impress me, and I'm sure the other guy was also fine, unfortunately he was in a movie that only 32 people in the world saw.

Best Actress Nominees:
Anne Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married
Angelina Jolie – Changeling
Melissa Leo – Frozen River
Meryl Streep – Doubt
Kate Winslet – The Reader

Since I didn't see any of these movies I'll give it to the best looking actress.
Congratulations Meryl Streep!
I'm joking, Angelina Jolie wins

Best Supporting Actor:
Josh Brolin – Milk
Robert Downey, Jr. – Tropic Thunder
Philip Seymour Hoffman – Doubt
Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
Michael Shannon – Revolutionary Road

I'll give it to Heath, even though Batman Begins is better than the Dark Knight.
Josh Brolin and Robert Downey were also good. Sorry I didn't see your movies other guys.

Best Supporting Actress:
Amy Adams – Doubt
Penélope Cruz – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Viola Davis – Doubt
Taraji P. Henson – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Marisa Tomei – The Wrestler

What? Marisa Tomei wins another Oscar? What?
George Costanza is fuming he blew his shot with her
The person in Benjamin Button was aight.
Didn't see others.

Best Animated Film:
Bolt – Chris Williams and Byron Howard
Kung Fu Panda – Mark Osborne and John Stevenson
WALL-E – Andrew Stanton

Seeing as WALL-E was actually a good movie it wins.
Sorry Jack Black you'll have to win an Oscar another way, maybe Shallow Hal 2?
I'm sure Bolt sucked.

Best Foreign Film:
Revanche (Austria) in German - Götz Spielmann
The Class (France) in French - Laurent Cantet
The Baader Meinhof Complex (Germany) in German
Departures (Japan) in Japanese
Waltz with Bashir (Israel) in Hebrew - Ari Folman

Whoo Israel! First we get the SI cover, and now Waltz with Bashir wins. If the other movies were in English maybe I would watch them.

Best Director:
Danny Boyle – Slumdog Millionaire
Stephen Daldry – The Reader
David Fincher – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard – Frost/Nixon
Gus Van Sant – Milk

I'll give this one to Danny Boyle, seeing as it must have been hard to kidnap all of those young Indian kids and put them in the movie. Solid job by everyone else, except the guy who directed The Reader. He should jump off a bridge, preferably a tall one.


My 10 Favorite movies of the Year:

1) The Wrestler-Every guy loved wrestling at one point, and that's why this movie about wrestling was so awesome. It was also a fascinating look about a man fulfilling his dreams, and receiving no reward for it.
2) Gran Torino-A great movie about Clint Eastwood living in an ever-changing neighbuorhood. A great examination of youth culture.
3) Iron Man- Number 3 superhero movie ever besides Spiderman and Batman Begins. Tony Stark is cool, and there's a guy named Obadiah.
4)Frost/Nixon-See above.
5)Milk-See above.
6)WALL-E- E-VAH
7)The Dark Knight- Oh, how I wish this was the best movie ever, alas it was only decent. Heath was great, but the plot was somewhat fragmented, and all of the gadgets pissed me off. Less moral conflict than the first movie.
8)The Incredible Hulk-Edward Norton was awesome and Liv Tyler was better looking than I remembered. It was also filmed in Toronto, yay Canada!
9)Slumdog Millionaire-See above.
10)Body of Lies- A solid movie with Leo and Russel Crowe. Lots of action with a somewhat political message made for a good movie.

Why is everybody such a downer?

I haven't written a blog in a couple of days, but others have been eagerly reporting on the demise of Western Civilization. The way I see it is that we have a few problems to deal with, that may lead to a quick and certain Armageddon.
1)Global Warming- Either it doesn't exist, it will kill a large minority of us, or all of mankind will be in mortal peril from this menace. As of now the economy sucks so nobody cares about this issue. Hopefully it isn't so serious, otherwise we will all be eating each other soon, with Al Gore as our benevolent overlord.
2)Nukes-I could probably buy a nuke from Russia, so I have no clue what Iran is doing trying to build one of its own. On that note, how can North Korea build a nuke quicker than you??? And with nobody noticing! Kim Jong Il is a sneaky fellow, you have to give him that much. Anyways, Iran has threatened to nuke Israel, possibly starting a nuclear holocaust in the process. This in turn will lead to us being mutated freaks, and yes people will probably eat each other.
3)Money-Where did it go? Maybe 7 people in the world actually understand what is going on, everyone else just pretends. Seriously, how does getting a journalism degree lead one to be an expert on subprime mortgages. In any event, if we all run out of money we can become farmers again, and I imagine our lives will be like that of Tom Sawyer.
4)Demographics-We don't have enough children, thus we will be overrun by people that do have children. This kid in England has the right idea. Don't let anyone tell you that 13 is to young to become a father.
5)Sad news articles-The situation seems so bad from the news that everyone will spontaneously agree to drink the Kool-Aid.
6)Aliens-You know they're out there, David Duchovney told me.
7)Robots-I'm hoping they'll be like the robots in futurama, awesome. Although they may kill you.
8)Lastly, Killer clowns-Clowns are scary.

Hopefully, we'll stay resilient and manage to survive without eating each other.