When my family doesn't know, it won't hurt them.
Until that night.
Next on Eveneroper, Paul Walker and Running Scared.
That'll make me some money today.
Give me some rims and a Rolex.
You've a gooding junior in Dirty.
Plus imagine what wise decisions would be made on Oscar night if we picked the winner.
It's not just any hot piece.
Tommy used it to burn a dirty cop.
If they find it, I'm dead.
Calm down.
Before the cops do.
Paul Walker needs to find a gun or he's dead meat in Running Scared.
I'm Richard Roper.
And I'm Roger Ebert.
When Running Scared was over, I stood up and I complained that they left out the kitchen
sink.
But actually there were three kitchen sinks in the movie.
At least that's how many I counted, along with so much else.
It's a miracle the running time is only 122 minutes.
Paul Walker plays a mob guy assigned to get rid of a gun that killed a cop during a bad
drug deal.
Instead, the little Russian kid next door steals a gun to shoot his stepfather, setting
a bewildering and breakneck chain of events into motion.
Where's the kid?
I'm the one who was shot.
Who is it?
Is he still in the house?
Oleg.
Oleg, what are you trying to say?
Oleg shot you?
I didn't do this to myself.
The walking character chases the missing kid and the missing gun all over the city after
first trying to beat the cops to bullets that would link it to the cop killing.
Police officers.
Sir, you live here?
No.
No, actually I live next door.
There were some gunshots, so I came over, you know, to see what was going on.
What did you see?
I saw Anzor, my neighbor, he was in the kitchen, he'd been shot.
Running Scared was written and directed by Wayne Kramer, who made the Las Vegas thriller
The Cooler.
This movie must contain every other idea he has ever had.
The chase involves a series of weird and unlikely locations and characters and even an opportunity
for Walker's wife to battle a couple of child molesters.
The visual style reflects the manic energy of the story, which is so reckless, but so
compelling that only at the end did it occur to me that the Walker character, if you stop
to think about it, doesn't really need to find that gun.
For general inspired violent goofiness, thumbs up.
Well, you're right, he doesn't need to find that gun and I don't need to ever sit through
this again and I'm very happy about that.
You know, I kind of get what you're saying, it's kind of like the movie last year, Domino,
which you and I liked and a lot of other people didn't because it just had everything.
Everything.
And this, you know, it's so over the top that, yeah, about halfway through I go, okay, this
is not supposed to exist in anything resembling, anything approximating that could be an estimation
of a guess about the real world, but Roger, it's ugly and it's vile and it's disgusting
and it's creepy and it's just got tiresome.
For example, how about the fact that the rushing guy is so obsessed with John Wayne?
Yeah, that's what I mean.
I didn't find that to be clever or original.
How about when he's shot, the bullets go right into the tattoo of John Wayne's eyes.
Isn't that kind of neat?
They lost me.
Kind of Tarantino-ian?
You know, they lost me far, far, far sooner than that.
It either works or it doesn't.
No, this movie is entertaining.
It's a lot of skill on display in there, but it's grotesque and it's silly and it's just
ridiculous.
And it's not going to bore anyone for one second.
Oh, I don't know about that.
Okay, our next movie is Satsi and I think it deserves its nomination for Best Foreign
Film.
Presley Chawanahai has kind of a James Dean-like combination of rage and vulnerability as the
title character, which means thug.
He's the leader of a team of violent small-time criminals who roam the streets and trains
of a township in South Africa, mugging businessmen and getting drunk.
Satsi gets more than he bargained for when he steals a car with a baby in the backseat.
Terry Petto gives a strong performance as Miriam, a single mother in the neighborhood.
Thank you, Beth.
Give them to my baby.
Thank you.
Satsi knows he can't care for the baby.
But he clings to him as if the child can ease all of his own despair and pain.
Based on a novel that was set in the 50s, Satsi is written and directed with great skill
by Gavin Hood, though not as violent or fragmented as The Great City of God.
I thought there were some parallels here.
Both films plunge us into stories of crime and redemption amidst all-encompassing poverty
that will sink your heart.
The last few moments of this film are deeply and memorably moving.
Big thumbs up.
Big thumbs up for me too.
This is the best of the nominated foreign films, at least that I have seen.
And it's based on a novel by Athol Fugard, the Nobel Prize winner from South Africa,
who does an interesting thing.
This movie is about redemption.
It's about a person who gets better, not worse.
It's about a person who finds his own inner nature during the course of the film.
And that struggle was so involving to me, and this actor is so strong.
And the movie is so touching that I think, I really hope people go to see it.
Yeah, and it's obviously so authentic.
And I think the fact that American audiences don't know any of these performers helps plunge
us into that world.
There are some shots where they just pull back and you just see block after block after
street after street of these little sheds, and it's just devastating.
And while people are at it, they ought to rent on video last year's South African Best
Foreign Film nominee yesterday, because South Africa is producing a lot of good films these
days.
Coming up later in the show, what would happen at the Oscars if we picked the winners?
If only that were so.
And next, Give a Goodie Jr. stars in Dirty.
If I said feline.
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Cats?
Bacon!
Kitty, kitty, kitty.
Bacon, bacon, bacon!
Began strips?
It's bacon!
No, it's Began strips, friend.
Talk so, no it's not bacon.
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candy shall colorful, candy shall chocolate inside, kissable's Hershey's chocolate, now
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hey, kissable's!
When my dry contacts bother me, I just can't go on with my day, all the rubbing, the blinking,
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Wow, it feels like it disappeared on my eyes.
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What's important to you?
Is it vacation time?
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Hey, check this, right?
Three million drivers switched to Geico last year, yeah?
I'm telling you this, why?
Well, because I want you to help spread the word.
Broke his app number, he's quite impressed.
He's like, three million?
That's a lot of people.
Why wasn't I invited?
Then you're like, of course you're invited.
So, he stops by Geico.com and he gets his free rate quote.
Okay, sure, all right, it's not a real party, it's a website.
But at least now the fella's done his own work.
Geico, 15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance.
Do you know the definition of opportunity?
No?
A good chance for advancement of progress.
What do you think?
We're in.
In the new thriller Dirty, a cricket police lieutenant briefs two cops,
played by Cuba Gooding Jr. and Clifton Collins Jr.
on a plan to take drugs from the police evidence room
and use them in a sting against Canadians
who are moving in on a drug operation in Los Angeles that pays off the police.
During a long and bloody day, the two cops carry out the operation
while beginning to question a system that basically
just makes them gang members in uniform.
You've got to stop believing in hype.
I'm thinking that there's some gang war out here.
Well, there ain't. It's done.
We're the only gang that's left. So, what's up?
The cops use their authority to harass civilians and steal from them.
This is like crash without the other side of the story.
Zero to 60 in eight seconds. Let's see it.
I'm going to close my eyes. I'm not looking.
Adios, amigo.
I hate white people.
Dirty was directed and co-written by Chris Fisher,
who based it on an actual LAPD scandal from the 1990s.
The film centers on the dynamic between the Latino cop,
who used to be a gang member, and the black cop, who is an outlaw in uniform.
Writing heard on both of them is their ruthless superior officer,
played by Keith David. The movie is hard-edged, violent, relentless, and tragic,
and is showcased for powerful performances by Collins, Gooding, and David,
who create convincing characters in the middle of the chaos.
Thumbs up. Yes, thumbs up.
Giving two thumbs up to two crappy, gratuitously violent movies on this show.
I thought these two actors have juniors after their name,
and it's perfect because this is like Training Day Junior.
We've seen this all before, and it's just another ludicrous one day in the life
where so many zillions of things happen to these two cops,
and there's all this overwrought filmmaking techniques and overexposed
and then underexposed film and handheld stuff,
and we get symbolism with kids with skeleton masks, and it's all just...
I've seen it all a million times before.
But what did you really think about the movie?
It's just like, okay, we get it. All you guys watch the Tarantino movies,
and you watch the Peckinpah movies, enough. Give us something.
I can see I'm not going to be able to persuade you on this,
but you at least can see that Cuba Gooding Jr. gives a very interesting performance.
I will give you that.
Dancing around and trying to be funny.
And he's been kind of shamelessly mugging in these kind of white movies.
And will you give me Clifton Collins Jr.?
And will you give me Keith David?
Yes, all good actors who deserve better material.
Okay, coming up next, the actors in movies that would take home the biggest prizes of all
if only we picked the winners.
We're in the Amazon rainforest to demonstrate rain-sensing windshield wipers on the Lexus ES.
Any moment now, a downpour will activate the wipers automatically.
Any moment now.
Did we mention the power of your sunshade?
See Lexus of Portland.
Five continents, 26 countries, over 45,000 performances to an audience of over 50 million.
Don't miss the 25th anniversary tour of Cats.
Playing at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, part of the Fred Meyer Broadway and Portland series.
Welcome by K103 and K2.
And you thought we only had nine lives.
Introducing Jeep Commander Limited.
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Side curtain airbags.
And an available 5.7 liter Hemi V8.
Would you please stop following me home?
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Get zero percent financing for 60 months on Jeep Commander.
Hurry, offer ends February 28th.
The 78th annual Academy Awards take place on Sunday, March 5th.
And Roger and I have our own annual tradition.
We like to call it, if we, we pick the winners.
We have seen all of the films that are nominated, unlike some of the Academy voters.
And so it's important to note that we're not making our picks on who we think will win, but rather on who should win.
Because if we said who might win, we could be wrong, but we can be absolutely 100 percent right about who we think should win.
Exactly. So why don't we get right to it.
Let's start with the best actor category.
The nominees are Philip Seymour Hoffman as a celebrity reporter and author in Capote.
I did everything I could.
Terrence Howard as a pimp who dreams of becoming a hip hop star in Hustle and Flow.
The same people feel, the same people feel, the same people live in poverty.
Keith Ledger as a stoic rancher torn between traditional romances and the real love of his life in Brokeback Mountain.
I told you it, it ain't going to be that way.
Joaquin Phoenix playing the man in black in Walk the Line.
Among a love walk, the June Carter love walk.
And David Straythorn as Edward R. Murrow in Good Night and Good Luck.
This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent.
Roger, your favorite among those nominees.
You know, this is a very strong category, but I would pick Terrence Howard.
And I think it's because his performance is the most complete in terms of showing the entire arc of a human life
and the way that he changes from within because the art that he wants to make changes him from the person that he was at the beginning of the film.
Well, that is an excellent point and you almost swayed me, but I'm going to stick with my original choice.
My favorite of all these excellent performances, Philip Seymour Hoffman in Capote.
It is just amazing work.
It's not just about affecting the mannerisms and doing an imitation here.
He's really playing a very complex character.
He's a brilliant writer, sympathizes, empathizes with his subjects, yet manipulates everyone around him.
I think actually Philip Seymour Hoffman probably will win, but I still feel Terrence Howard.
OK, moving on to the best actress category.
The nominees are Judy Dench as a widow who shakes up London with a new musical review.
And Mrs. Henderson presents.
What I say is stick a thing out and it will come right.
Felicity Huffman is a man who plans to become a woman in Transamerica.
I will be a woman.
Keira Knightley is Jane Austen's high-spirited heroine in Pride and Prejudice.
I didn't realize that you were the last man in the world I could ever be prevailed upon to marry.
Charlize Theron is a Minnesota minor who fights back against sexual harassment in North Country.
I'm not quitting. I need this job.
And Reese Witherspoon is a country star, June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.
Rule number one, don't propose to a girl on a bus.
Wow, some good performances there as well.
And you know, maybe this isn't fair, but I won't pick Charlize Theron because she has already won.
If she hadn't won before, I might say that I would like to see her win.
But I'm going to go with Felicity Huffman for Transamerica.
I think it's an amazing performance. I told you when we reviewed this movie, I didn't realize it was her.
I thought there was a man that looked a little bit like Felicity Huffman in this role.
It's not stunt casting. It's just such a sad and yet noble character she plays.
It's a very, very good performance.
And of course, I thought it was June Carter Cash in Walk the Line.
I was amazed to find out it was Reese Witherspoon.
That would be an otherworldly piece of work.
But you know what? I'm picking Reese Witherspoon.
And I'm picking her because she does such a good job of different notes.
She's got to be able to sing. She's got to pretend she can't sing very well.
At the same time, she has to love this guy and yet keep her distance from him and yet deal with him.
And it's very complex and I liked it, so she's my choice.
Yeah, well, it may be the best performance in a very good film.
And I think, as you were saying, I think Reese is going to win.
I think Felicity Huffman, Reese Witherspoon, again, you have two fantastic performances.
And I agree with you about Charlize Theron.
Okay, now, best supporting actor and the nominees are...
George Clooney is a veteran CIA operative in Siriana.
I want you to take him from his hotel, drug him, put him in the front of a car and run a truck into him 50 miles an hour.
Matt Dillon is a racist cop in Crash.
That's quite a mouth you have. Of course you know that.
Paul Giamatti is the corner man who won't give up on his fighter in Cinderella Man.
Use the angle Griffin's going to knock on a guy.
I haven't been knocked out.
Jake Gyllenhaal as the cowboy who swears he isn't gay but falls for another man in Brokeback Mountain.
There's no way business but arse.
And William Hurt as a quirky but heartless mob boss in a history of violence.
Jesus, Charlie, you took his eye.
And I would pick Matt Dillon in this category. Matt Dillon has been around for a long time.
He's a very good, usually underrated actor.
In this film, he comes on very strong at the beginning as just a racist pig.
And then there are details of his life, his relationship with his father, his problems, what happens the next day,
to show that not that he's really a nice guy, but that he's a very complex guy.
And that's the thing about the whole film. It's not about good or evil. It's about complexity.
I am going to go with George Clooney in Siriana. It's almost a leading man performance.
He's got a lot of screen time. And it's not just another example of a good-looking guy getting a beard and putting on weight.
I mean, he is the heart and soul of this film.
And this is a guy who believes in what he's doing even if he has to get his hands dirty.
But when he finds out that what he thought was reality isn't and tries to fix it,
just seeing Clooney spiral into this and try to do the best thing, it's one of his best performances.
Okay, the nominees for Best Supporting Actress are Amy Adams as the pregnant young wife,
whose spirit holds a family together in June Bug.
Wow, you're so beautiful.
Catherine Keener as Harper Lee, who goes along for the ride in Capote.
Did you fall in love with him?
True.
Frances McDormand as a persuasive shop steward in North Country.
Okay, now what are you, a cowboy or a cowgirl?
I'm a cowgirl.
No, not up there, you're not.
Rachel Wise as a woman whose death helps uncover a drug company scandal in The Constant Gardener.
If I tell you something, will you listen to me?
And Michelle Williams as a wife who discovers her husband is gay in Brokeback Mountain.
Don't try and fool me no more, and I know what it means.
My favorite here is Rachel Vice in The Constant Gardener,
a film that I think kind of just lost Oscar momentum somewhere along the way.
It was one of the best films of last year.
And again, she's really the centerpiece of this film.
I mean, most of her role, just about all of it, we really see in flashback.
And again, it's somebody who we think we know a lot about.
We find out different things about her.
This is a really, really strong young actress who gets a great role and delivers it every step of the way.
I agree, but you know, I think maybe the best or most effective performance in any category this year is Amy Adams in June Bug.
I think that is an amazing, luminous, complex performance, and I love it, and I love the movie.
And I just hope that enough voters have seen June Bug to realize how good Amy Adams really is.
You know, you've been backing this movie from the start, and I have to agree with you.
And in this case, I applaud the Academy for probably a lot of them probably watched it on the Academy screeners
and said, wow, what a good film, and this young actress who just flies off the screen.
And she's had some interesting roles in movies like Catch Me If You Can,
but here it's like all of a sudden it's like, wow, there's a star in the making.
Okay, when we come back, the movie that would take home Oscar if we picked the winner.
Read Richard Roper at Suntimes.com and Roger Ebert at RogerEbert.com.
How's your diet going?
Last night, I had 14 grapefruits.
I had wild salmon with whole wheat orzo pasta, spinach and carrots, and a savory basil sauce.
It was one of those whole grain spa meals from Lean Cuisine.
Eat right with Lean Cuisine.
We asked Lindsay Allen how New Ambient CR helped her with her sleeping trouble.
Well, there you are.
New Ambient CR has a controlled release formula in a two-layer tablet.
The first layer dissolves quickly to help you get to sleep fast,
while the second layer dissolves slowly to help you stay asleep so you can wake up and get ready for your day.
New Ambient CR is one of many treatment options in addition to lifestyle changes that you and your doctor can consider.
Ambient CR is non-narcotic.
Until you know how Ambient CR will affect you, you shouldn't drive or operate machinery.
Side effects may include next-day drowsiness, dizziness and headache.
You shouldn't take it with alcohol.
All sleep medicines carry some risk of dependency.
Do not use sleep medicines for extended periods without first talking to your doctor.
Be sure you're able to devote seven to eight hours to sleep before you need to be active again.
Ask your doctor about the New Ambient.
New Ambient CR.
Tomorrow, we'll thank you.
Uh, Michelle?
Butterfinger Crisp, the first wafer candy bar with Butterfinger Cree.
Michelle, look at the screen.
What?
Butterfinger Crisp from Nestle Creek out of the ordinary.
Okay, we are making our annual choices for the movies that would take home the Oscars if only we picked the winners.
Wouldn't that be wonderful?
What good choices the Academy would make if we were the only two people to vote.
Well, here we go then.
The biggest category of all best picture.
The nominees are...
Brokeback Mountain, the story of two cowboys who concealed their homosexuality for a lifetime.
You know, it could be like this, just like this always.
Capote, the story of a writer whose life becomes consumed by the book he writes about killings and the killers.
I'm going to help find you a proper lawyer.
Thank you.
Crash, a series of interlocking stories about racism in a society where the same person can be victim and victimizer.
Don't act like you know something about me, okay?
Good night and good luck based on newscaster Edward R. Murrow's battle with the slanders of Senator Joseph McCarthy.
Our next show is going to be about Senator McCarthy.
We're going to go right at him.
And Munich, Steven Spielberg's thoughtful thriller about an Israeli team seeking vengeance for the murder of young athletes.
You do any terrifying thing you have to do, but you have to do it running.
And my choice in this category would be the movie that I picked as the number one film of the year,
and that would be Crash, written and directed by Paul Haggis with this cast of more than 20 characters who deal with each other
in interlocking coincidental ways that show complexities in racial identity in a multicultural society.
This is not just good and evil.
This is situational ethics, and it's also comedy, tragedy, thriller, suspense, all kinds of elements all at once.
Yeah, and it continues to be a polarizing film, not just because of the subject matter, but simply the quality.
I agree with you. I'm also saying if I picked the winner, it would be Crash. I think it's a brilliant film.
You know, Brokeback Mountain has been the movie that people have talked about the most over the last several months.
If I had been given the chance to do the nominations, I wouldn't have had it in my top five.
I had it in the top ten movies of the year, but I think Crash is a better film.
I think ten years from now it's the film that will resonate more from 2005 than Brokeback.
I think it's a very important film. Now, what would you most like to see on Oscar night?
You know, to me, what I'd like to see is a moratorium on Brokeback Mountain jokes on Oscar night.
We've got them. John Stewart's a funny guy. Let it go.
I'll tell you what I'd like to see. They're going to give an honorary Oscar, a lifetime achievement award, to Robert Altman,
who's one of the greatest living directors.
I happen to know that Robert Altman has a very cynical view of Hollywood.
He has worked oftentimes out of the system, and the system has oftentimes been happy to have him work out of the system.
I hope that if he gets up there, he gives them for about 60 seconds exactly what he thinks about the industry
and about their, you know, they give him the lifetime achievement award after having ignored him for a lifetime.
I think that would be a nice speech.
It would be great if he told them what they could do with their award.
And you know, when they present it, they should have a cast of, like, 24 on stage, all in overlapping dialogue.
That would be good. Yeah, that would be good.
All right, we'll be back to recap this week's show and tell you which of the Oscar-nominated films and performances
we've discussed today are available on DVD right after this.
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Morning! Great party, Max.
Come early. Everyone out!
They'll never know.
Thanks to Tidy Cats.
Tidy Cats. Multiple strength for multiple cats.
This whole show was awesome.
Hey, boys. Mr. Wolfson.
What are you guys up to tonight?
Studying. You?
Grading papers.
See you in class on Monday?
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They're away.
So you figure out how this is gonna end!
What was that?
Crunchy!
Guys, I got...
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It hit me square on the chin.
No on DVD this week. Nicholas Cage and Michael Caine on The Weatherman, which got two thumbs up. And Kira Knightley and Domino, which, as you mentioned earlier, also got two thumbs up from us.
And lots more good DVD news. Out of all the Oscar nominees we've covered today, both Pride and Prejudice and Walk the Line will be available in stores on Tuesday.
And Hustle and Flow, North Country, Crash, June Bug, The Constant Gardener and Cinderella Man, they're all available right now.
And make it a real point to rent June Bug. Okay, recapping the movies on this week's show, we split on Runnin' Scared, two big thumbs up for Satsi, and we split on Dirty.
Next week we'll be back with reviews of Bruce Willis in 16 blocks. Until then, the balcony is closed.