Wednesday, December 14, 2005

The Golden Globes (part 1)

The Golden Globe Nominations came out today. (In honor of this, I started a huge series on Rank Everything.)

You can check the link for the nominations, but I wanted to go through them. Today I thought I'd tackle the best picture nominees, tomorrow the TV ones, and Friday all the rest.

I have to say I was sort of shocked. I just assumed KING KONG would get a bunch of nominations. Golden Globe is often a forerunner to Oscar, but not always, so I'd still expect KING KONG to garner award nominations in the big show. Of course, it could suck, but reviews have been generally massive, except for a few who have hard-core reputations as haters. (I was supposed to see the midnight showing last night of KING KONG and bring you a review, but this didn't happen, for sad reasons I'll tell you about another time.)

Anyway, the five best picture nominations (Musical or Comedy) are:

MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS
PRIDE AND PREJUDICE
THE PRODUCERS
THE SQUID AND THE WHALE
WALK THE LINE

I have to admit, I've seen none of these. Most aren't even available in regular theatres yet. I assume I'll see most of them and get back to you. I was very surprised not to see THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN, which was very well reviewed and seemed like the type of movie the GGs love. I thought WEDDING CRASHERS had a shot as well. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and WALK THE LINE were the only gimmes, but I thought THE FAMILY STONE was a lead-pipe cinch too, so goes to show what I know. WALLACE AND GROMIT would be my favorite from those I've seen.


Next, the best picture nominees (Drama):

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN
THE CONSTANT GARDENER
GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK
A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE
MATCHPOINT
(the films I've seen and reviewed are linked in case you're interested)

BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN is the early front-runner and a lock, and I was pretty sure THE CONSTANT GARDENER would be there too, but like I said; KING KONG's absence seems large. I loved A HISTORY OF VIOLENCE but was surprised to see it here. GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK was well-reviewed, but SYRIANA has gotten even more buzz, and I thought that would be the George Clooney film to make the list. (Although: Clooney did direct GOOD LUCK, and the Golden Globes are obsessed with stars, so that may explain it.) Woody Allen directed MATCHPOINT, but I don't know much more about it other than it's about a tennis player and (unusually) is set in England rather than Woody's beloved Manhattan. I'm a big fan of his, though, so I'll have to check it out. I held a slim hope that SIN CITY, BATMAN BEGINS and REVENGE OF THE SITH might get noticed, but sometimes movies are too big to be taken as contenders. Sigh.

Tomorrow: TV show nominations.

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