Adam@Home by Rob Harrell for March 07, 2010

Tranformers 2? That was of the WORSE flicks ever!!

no Kevin Costner’s Water World is.

i must be off: thought The Postmam was very good, liked Waterworld, watched Dances with Wolves twice….

think Heavens Gate is the BEST and Mr&Mrs Smith is a absolute hoot, funniest show in town.

when it comes to film, I must live in a different world.

Go Hurt Locker and UP.

Well, Adam is right.

The baby seems to have lost weight. Adam must be sharing his coffee with him.

Katy knows about politics that well?!

Kevin Costner has fallen pretty far. I don’t remember a movie with him in since The Postman or Waterworld.

“Waterworld” is a fun movie, and in parts it’s excellent, and it wouldn’t have the bad reputation is does if it hadn’t cost so much to make. I haven’t seen “Heaven’s Gate”, but my understanding is that it, too, is remembered more for its budgetary excesses than its filmic worth or lack thereof. (I don’t know about “Heaven’s Gate”, but “Waterworld” DID make its investment back, and more; it’s action/adventure, and those always do very well internationally.)

Costner’s great in the right role, and bad in the wrong ones. He’s best when he’s playing a “regular guy”, albeit one with an unpleasant streak, like in “Bull Durham” or “Field of Dreams”; he was even a lot of fun in “Swing Vote”, athough the movie itself wasn’t much to write home about.

The Oscars aren’t all about politics, and they aren’t just a popularity contest, but neither are they objectively determined like sporting results. There are few if any objective standards by which to judge. If they changed the terminology to “Picture of the Year” and “Actor of the Year” and so on instead of “Best…”, it would more accurately reflect what the awards mean and how they’re determined. Even the wording “Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Lead Role” isn’t satisfying, because it implies that only one actor every year stands out. All the nominees are “oustanding” simply by virtue of being nominated. Being the one from the five to receive the little gold guy is more like being recognized as “First Among Equals.”

On an unrelated note, it’s a pity that Rob Harrell doesn’t seem to know what to do with Nick. He doesn’t draw the baby very well, and only seems to bring him out from time to time as a prop for Laura to hold. Harrell probably would be happier if there were some way to unnoticably have him disappear, like Richie’s brother Chuck on “Happy Days.”

pearlandpeach-you and I might be the only 2 people who liked Heavens Gate. Didn’t care for Waterword or The Postman. I did like Costner in The Upside of Anger with Joan Allen.

The Oscars is just a bunch of “who ha”! I have MUCH better things to do with my time. Who really cares who wins what? I know I don’t!

Dry, that’s precisely how I feel about American Idol, Survivor, the Bachelor, the Bachelorette, the Miss America Pageant, the World Series, the Stanley Cup, World Cup, America’s Cup, the NBA finals, March Madness, the Indy 500, NASCAR, Wimbledon, the Masters, the Olympics, the X Games, the WWE, the Orange Bowl, the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl, the Allstate/Poulan Insure-Your-Chainsaw Bowl… Some years I watch the Super Bowl, but only for the commercials. And yet I don’t get my knickers in a twist when these things are mentioned in comic strips, or in the comments thereto.

If they televised the Rube Goldberg Awards, I’d watch that, though…

There are the Oscars, the Golden Globes, The People’s Choice, Tonys, Grammys, CMA and probably some others I missed. I don’t get why performers have to pat themselves on the back all the time.

Well, the Tonys, Grammys, Emmys, and Oscars are all mutually exclusive. I could ask “Why do we need separate championships for the NBA, the NFL, the NHL, and MLB?”, and it would be just as nonsensical, no more and no less.

The Golden Globes and People’s Choice awards and such have broader scope, and the CMA is for a mere subset of one industry, like the MTV Music Awards. These arose because somebody thought there was a demand for them, or they filled a niche.

Awards shows are good business, and they’re good FOR business. They promote the industries, and they’re good ratings-getters. The Oscars are not only the oldest of them all, they’re still the most popular and most-followed.

I can’t think of a single Kevin Costner movie I haven’t liked. I haven’t seen them all, but have seen most.

@benbrilling You are right. Maybe the baby is on a diet?

Kevin Costner ALWAYS plays Kevin Costner, so regardless of which movie he’s in, you’re going to see Kevin Costner, period. He is NOT a Johnny Depp, Gene Hackman or Jimmy Cagney type actor. That said, I happen to enjoy Kevin - I still have the “Silverado”, “Waterworld”, “Postman” and “Dances With Wolves” DVDs.

The human actors in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen were even more mechanical than the robots they coexisted with. Transformers 2 won Worst Picture, Worst Director (Michael Bay), and Worst Screenplay (Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, and Ehren Krueger). Had it won its other nominations (Worst Actress-Megan Fox, Worst Supporting Actress-Julie White, Worst Screen Couple-Shia LaBeouf and Megan Fox or any Transfromer, Worst Prequel, Remake, Ripoff, or Sequel-Sequel to Transformers, Ripoff of the TV series), it would have tied the amount of Razzies won by cinematic clunkers Battlefield Earth and Showgirls.