Academy Award Show Rant

Every year I get tired of the hype leading up to the Academy Awards, this year being the 82 year of the show. I do not like the show for many reasons so I will limit my rant to a couple of reasons. I am tired of spoiled actors who arrive in limos walking the red carpet in what is basically one long commercial for fashion and jewelry designers. Don´t get me wrong, I love movies and actors who are good at their craft, can tell a well written story that entertains us and leads us to a different time or place for a moment in our lives. The problem is, the awards and Hollywood are very political so the best actor or movie may not be the one that gets acknowledged. I always think back to the 1950´s and Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz of Desilu Studios, and I liked their style and elegance, their acting, and their business acumen. As well, they drove their own car to the awards shows ( which were still political even then) and Desi used to wash and wax his car the day before, they wore their own clothes, and had little plastic surgery. I do not begrudge anyone the right to work hard and get paid for it when the system is truly based on merit, but what I see now is just a disgusting display of plastic surgery, fake hair, and the designer clothes and jewels that are loaned to and not owned by the actors, the show and some movies are not about the craft of acting.
I mention Desilu studios because Lucille Ball was the President at the time of giving the green light to Star Trek and putting the show on a tight budget that made special effects important but made more important the writing. With a great script, even the over-acting and few special effects did not take away from the overall message of the show. I even watched Planet of the Apes(1968) last night and all the over-acting, Carlton Heston running around in a loin cloth, and few costumes did not distract from the great story being told, which leads me to my next complaint about the Academy Awards and that is science fiction is always ignored, again due to the politics, I guess. I still get angry when you get a great science fiction movie that is well acted such as Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986) and Sigourney Weaver was nominated for best actress and did not win, the story was probably not up to snuff to the "dignified" Academy voters.
This year the big buzz is about Avatar (2009), but James Cameron seems to have a lot of political influence in Hollywood, so we shall see what happens, but to me that movie was a big video game in 3-D, I know a lot of people loved it, but I did not. I prefer less special effects or some effects that are well placed, but instead I like a great story such as Blindness(2008), if you have not seen this movie it is a must see because the acting is great and the special effects minimal.
As I said, it will be interesting to see what happens with Avatar, District 9, and the Star Trek reboot movie this year since all are in contention for awards..

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