Blah blah blah work help blah

[trinityofone]

I am soooooooo boriiiiiiing.

Anyway, help me out with something for work! We're putting together our Alternative Oscar Ballot. This means I need to think of humorous categories and five entries for each for this year's (past, current, and upcoming) films. Past examples include:

BEST PERFORMANCE BY ONE OR MORE RODENTS
Mr. Jingles in The Green Mile
Stuart Little in Stuart Little
The rats in The Bone Collector
Mickey Mouse in The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story
Sean Penn in Sweet and Lowdown

or

OVERPRAISED '70S DIRECTOR WHO MOST CLEARLY DEMONSTRATED HE'D LOST TOUCH WITH REALITY
Stanley Kubrick for Eyes Wide Shut
Peter Hyams for End of Days
Martin Scorsese for Bringing Out the Dead
Robert Altman for Cookie's Fortune
George Lucas for Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace

Thank kind of thing. You know, funny and clever. Two things I am (at least currently) not.

So. Any suggestions?

Also: does it bug people that I ask for help with this sort of thing? I've been worried that it might be annoying, but LJ is such a good resource. Still, please tell me if it's annoying. And really, I'll try to post something interesting soon.

ETA: I don't actually need more rodent suggestions—that was just an example. We're actually looking for new categories. Sorry for any confusion!

Comments

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

A few questions you could consider:

- Worst attempt at an American accent by a non-American actor:

- Best attempt: Christian Bale.

- Best use of numbers in a film title: "18 Fingers of Death!", "10.5: Apocalypse"...

- Best use of "Ka-chow!" in a screenplay: "Cars"


I suck at this. I can come up with tons of questions, but I've seen so few films that I can't give any answers.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem! I try to blame it on "I was out of the country!" but that's really a poor excuse.

Still, even categories are very helpful, because I have the Nielsen list of everything that came out and I can try to match things up. So, thank you!

[mecurtin.livejournal.com]

Oh, I think Hugh Laurie is probably winning the "Best Attempt at Speakin Amurkin". But it would be a worthwhile category, all right.

Then there's "Cross-Ethnic Casting" (a Hollywood tradition): e.g. Wentworth Miller cast as White, various Chinese cast as Japanese, etc.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

Total agreement about Hugh. *heart*

I can think of lots of great cross-ethnic examples in TV, but I have to stick to films for this. My brain is lame today.

[roaringmice.livejournal.com]

Korean actors cast as anyone Asian...

BTW, I LURVE Wentworth Miller. But sadly, this is for film, not tv.

I think one of the finest American accents by a non-American in film today is Charlese Theron. She does a remarkable job. Natalie Portman is good, too. Christian Bale, who I'd mentioned before.

Scariest attempt at a Boston accent: Look at the film, The Departed. Boston natives Matt Damon and Mark Wahlberg of course do quite well, and Leo DiCaprio does pretty well, considering. But the rest? Take your pick.

Trin, you can do something where you come up with the questions, and then post them here to have people help you match up answers.

[trinityofone.livejournal.com]

That's a really good idea! I have a Scary Editorial Meeting coming up, but I'll try to put that together.

[wychwood]

Portman's *English* accent, on the other hand... she was good in V for Vendetta, but despite having a "dialogue coach" still sounded more like a South African than one would really expect from an English teenager :)

Does she not naturally use an American accent? I thought she'd lived in the US from an early age.

Trin, you can do something where you come up with the questions, and then post them here to have people help you match up answers.

That sounds like a good plan to me.