2004 TOGIES (or GT's Favorites) MOVIE AWARDS!

[GT]

Hey everybody! The Academy awards (Oscars) will be presented tonight! So I am gonna beat them here as I now present the 2004 Togy Awards! My personal favorites list. Any comments are welcome. I'll post my Oscars predictions later today and see how well I do on that.

BEST PICTURE & Top-10 FILMS:
1. MYSTIC RIVER
2. The Last Samurai
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. Lost in Translation
5. Finding Nemo
6. 21 Grams
7. Cold Mountain
8. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
9. Seabiscuit
10. Monster
- Man, this was a tough one. There really wasn?t a clear cut favorite in my mind this year, any of the top-4 films I listed could be consider my favorite, and as much as I like these films, they were all a little flawed, maybe that?s why it was hard for me to pick a clear winner. But yes in the end I decided ?Mystic River? is my #1 of the year. The story was great, and the performances from the whole cast was brilliant. Director Clint Eastwood gave it a fairly dark mood throughout, it really felt like a Shakespearean tragedy, and I was emotionally involved during every minutes of it.

BEST DIRECTOR:
1. PETER JACKSON (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
2. Edward Zwick (The Last Samurai)
3. Sophia Coppola (Lost in Translation)
4. Clint Eastwood (Mystic River)
5. Anthony Minghella (Cold Mountain)
- The three year journey that Peter Jackson has took us through in Middle-earth has finally came to an end, and it?s doubtful that any other films in the future will be able to match the impact it made. He has done millions of LOTR fans proud and has made himself a directorial legend even if he never makes another movie again.

BEST ACTOR in a leading role:
1. SEAN PENN (Mystic River)
2. Bill Murray (Lost in Translation)
3. Johnny Depp (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
4. Jude Law (Cold Mountain)
5. Sean Penn (21 Grams)
- This was a close one. Law was at his absolute best as a soldier trying to get home in ?Cold Mountain? (or what I like to call the civil war version of ?The Odyssey?), Depp was extremely entertaining and refreshing in the blockbuster ?Pirates??, and Murray showed us that he?s more than his usual funny self in ?Lost in Translation?. But Penn?s performance as a father who have lost his beloved daughter in ?Mystic River? is the one that struck me most. He?s always been great and his performance in ?21 Grams? was also very much worthy of noting.

BEST ACTRESS in a leading role:
1. NAOMI WATTS (21 Grams)
2. Charlize Theron (Monster)
3. Scarlett Johansson (Lost in Translation)
4. Nicole Kidman (Cold Mountain)
5. Kiera Knightley (Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl)
- Ok, I gotta be honest and say that I seriously didn?t see enough movies this past year where the female leads are key to them, but I saw three that probably mattered most. Johansson showed that she has a very bright future in front of her as the lonely traveler opposing Murray in ?Lost in Translation?. And we?ve all heard about how the stunning Theron gained 30 pounds, shaved her eyebrows, and made herself so ugly that it was almost unrecognizable in ?Monster? in which she played a female prostitute/serial killer. For all you who know me in this forum, knows how much I like Miss Theron?haha?I think Mikey once banned a picture that I posted of hers. But my choice this year goes to another stunning blonde, Naomi Watts. Her performance as a woman who lost her husband and kids in an accident was breathtaking, she outdone co-stars Penn and Benicio Del Toro?and that?s no easy task! And oh yeah, I would like to mention that I am very happy that my three favorite actresses (Theron, Watts, and Kidman) all gave great performances this year.

BEST ACTOR in a supporting role:
1. KEN WATANABE (The Last Samurai)
2. Benicio Del Toro (21 Grams)
3. Tim Robbins (Mystic River)
4. Andy Serkis (The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King)
5. Paul Bettany (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)
- Bettany was great as a Darwin-like naturalist and doctor in ?Master??, Serkis deserved notice for playing the lovable villain ?Gollum? in LOTR, Robbins and Del Toro were perfect in their portrayal of broken souls in ?Mystic River? and ?21 Grams?, but seriously?WHO ROCKED like Watanbe did as the war-lord Katsumoto in ?The Last Samurai???? Watanabe might never be a superstar in Hollywood but he proved that he?s got the charm and acting skills to be given a chance for more roles outside of Japan.

BEST ACTOR in a supporting role:
1. RENEE ZELLWEGER (Cold Mountain)
2. Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River)
3. Emma Thompson (Love Actually)
4. Laura Linney (Mystic River)
5. Christina Ricci (Monster)
- Again, I admit I didn?t see enough female driven movies this year, but I am pretty sure it?s hard to beat Zellweger?s performance in ?Cold Mountain? as the multi-talented friend of Kidman?s character. Harden and Linney had limited roles in ?Mystic River? but both were crucial to the film?s story. Thompson stood out among the large and talented cast in the romantic comedy ?Love Actually? as the wife who found her husband having an affair. Ricci was very good as the lesbian lover of Theron?s character in ?Monster?.

BEST ENSEMBLED CAST:
1. MYSTIC RIVER
2. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
3. Cold Mountain
4. 21 Grams
5. Seabiscuit
- Sean Penn, Tim Robbins, Kevin Bacon, Marcia Gay Harden, Laura Linney, Laurence Fishburne?can?t get better than that!

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
1. LOST IN TRANSLATION
2. 21 Grams
3. Finding Nemo
4. Love Actually
5. Bend it Like Beckham
- The touching story of two lonely people in Japan. One is an aging Hollywood star, the other is a lonely wife of a traveling photographer. Director/writer Sophia Coppola wrote this especially for Bill Murray and I gotta say that it worked out perfectly!

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
1. MYSTIC RIVER
2. The Last Samurai
3. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
4. Cold Mountain
5. Seabiscuit
- A dark drama with hints of Shakespearean tragedies. Three childhood friends who were separated by a tragedy are brought back together by another tragedy as they try to sort out these unchangeable events of the past.

Others...

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Finding Nemo
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Last Samurai
BEST EDITING: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
BEST SOUND/SOUND EDITING: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
BEST PRODUCTION/COSTUME DESIGN: The Last Samurai
BEST MAKEUP: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: Cold Mountain

That's it for this year!