The Oscars: random thoughts/semi-live blogging

I’m starting this at 10:30pm (eastern time) on the dot.

Random thoughts as of 10:30pm:

1. The simpler, less extravagant Oscars are a plus.

2. Heath Ledger winning The Oscar was a powerful moment in Oscar history.

3. Bill Maher is an awful, awful comedian – I hesitate to even call him a “comedian.” Damn, he sucks. I mean, he really, really sucks. What an arrogant, terrible human being.

4. I’ve enjoyed the comedy so far – Seth Rogen, Ben Stiller, and Tina Fery come to mind.

5. The opening was pretty damn good.

6. I am ashamed of how behind I am this year when it comes to movies.

7. What is the deal with Hoffman’s hat?

10:35pm

Will Smith was a good choice. And Slumdog Millionaire is looking good for the win.

10:55pm

I really enjoyed the last acceptance speech (score for Slumdog Millionaire) – why? Because the guy finished with “God is great.” In your pompous face, Bill Maher!

11:06pm

Hugh Jackman has been a good host.

11:16pm

Roy Schneider, Isaac Hayes, Charlston Heston, and Paul Newman… where was Heath Ledger?

11:20pm

Boyle just won Director.

11:32pm

Kate Winslet has won Best Female Actor.

11:47pm

Sean Penn just gave one hell of an acceptance speech – I’ll be sure to post it ASAP.

11:56pm

Slumdog wins Best Picture. I was very pleased with The Oscars this year. Sean Penn > Bill Meyer.

Pineapple Express

Dir. David Gordon Green; Writ. Rogen, Goldberg, Apatow; Star. Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, and Gary Cole

Another great comedy from Goldberg, Rogen, and Apatow.

I don’t think it was as funny as Superbad, but it’s the funniest movie of the summer.

Pineapple Express is like an Apatow Hot Fuzz in the building up to the conclusion. The less outlandish scenes in the beginning of the movie were the funniest. That’s where these guys’ comedic skill really shows, in the exaggeration of the relatable.

The movie is hilarious, especially in the beginning, while you watch a deadbeat Rogen and his drug dealer Franco hang around and freak out. In the end, it’s still funny, but it’s not the Apatow crew’s specialty.

Danny McBride performs greatly as Red. He really steals the show. McBride is the guy from the Fist Foot Way.

It’s good. Go see it. You should probably get stoned before hand.

8/10

Drunk History

Yesterday I was introduced to this little piece of webtainment featuring Michael Cera, Jack Black, Dereck Waters, and more. Could this be one of the best, if not the best, web series currently up? The answer is in the affirmative.

Here’s the link for all four of the episodes – I believe more are coming; I hope more are coming.

It is so good.

ALSO: Have you seen this? (Note: unrelated to Drunk History, but, nonehteless, very much worth watching – Rock-afire Explosion performing Usher song)

ALSO ALSO: IFC News has uploaded a video of Pineapple Express discussion panel. And here’s a 60 second clip from the film. You can see more videos from the film on RideTheExpress.

Some good new red band trailers

Here’s one for the Coen’s latest, Burn After Reading:

Amazing cast, right? Plus Pitt looks pretty hilarious.

This next one’s for the new Kevin Smith project. I normally wouldn’t be too excited, but he’s got Seth Rogen in the lead:

Let’s hope Smith redeems himself with this one.

The Spiderwick Chronicles

Directed by Mark Waters. Starring Freddie Highmore, Sarah Bolger, Nick Nolte, Mary-Louise Parker, David Strathairn. Starring voices by Seth Rogen and Martin Short.

The Spiderwick Chronicles was a film, based on a children’s book, I wasn’t exactly anticipating, but I did want to see it after being exposed to a few trailers. The story follows the Graces, a family that moves into an old house in the country once owned byt heir great uncle, a Arthur Spiderwick. Spiderwick spent the bulk of his life documenting the magical world beyond our senses, filled with goblins, ogres, hobgoblins, and so on.

Anyways, the kids find the book Spideriwck compiled, which is wanted by Mulgarath – the evil orge, and they battle a bunch of magical stuff an, well, you know the sort of story.

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The film has its plot-falls and I wish there had been more variation in the magical creatures shown, but those are really my only complaints about the film. The story is fun. What human being with even a bit of a heart and a little imagination wouldn’t be excited by the prospect of a crazy, fantastical world in their backyard? That’s really what the film is about. Remember when you were a kid and you’d run into the woods behind your house and pretend to fight fantastical creatures? Well, Spiderwick will conjure up similar memories, which I thought was premium bad ass.

Without giving undue credit to the film, it did present an interesting philosophical question: is security and safety worth sacrificing for knowledge, knowledge that has no practical use? The film answers “yes,” and whether or not the question it posed was intentional or not is debatable. Still, it gave the film a level of sophistication, not much of one, but I won’t complain considering it’s a children’s film.

Seth Rogen as the voice of Hogsqueal was legitimately lough-out-loud funny – a great character. Freddie Highmore (Finding Neverland) gave a pretty good performance as the the pair of twins, Jared and Simon Grace (is Freddie the next Lindsey Lohan?).

With this film, if you want to enjoy it, you need to just let your imagination go and enjoy the adventure.

8/10