The Oscars 2019 will be a parade of tedium, eclipsing some great work

Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born. But it looks like their Oscar love is fading.
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Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper in A Star Is Born. But it looks like their Oscar love is fading.

OPINION: Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy?

That's what most people associated with The Academy Awards (Monday, TVNZ2) will probably be thinking after the past few months, which have been less about the films and more about the controversy.

Whether it's if A Star Is Born's light deserves to fade, whether Green Book's race issues will affect it, whether Kevin Hart will host or won't host - the list this year is endless; messy and endless.

Yet, it's all coming at a cost - not one person is talking about some of the excellent performances that will be eclipsed on the night by their peers.

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* Oscars 2019: Roma and The Favourite scoop most 91st Academy Awards nominations
* Here's what to expect when the Oscar nominations are announced

I suspect Rami Malek's cosplay-in-extremis turn as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody will be Queen Bee on the night, beating out the others.

Are the Academy feeling Bohemian like so many of you who went to see the Rhapsody?
Alex Bailey
Are the Academy feeling Bohemian like so many of you who went to see the Rhapsody?

The film's just been released on DVD and it still does little to assuage my fears that it's nothing more than a crowd-pleasing jukebox of Queen hits in among the corny musical biopic tropes.

It's the actress category that offers the most hope, primarily because the nominees are so strong.

Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant don't deserve to be overlooked for their work in Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Melissa McCarthy and Richard E Grant don't deserve to be overlooked for their work in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

While Glenn Close, Lady Gaga and the ever-brilliant Olivia Colman have already won, I'd dearly love to see some appreciation for Melissa McCarthy's nuanced turn in Can You Ever Forgive Me? But I'd equally love Olivia Colman to take it out for The Favourite, if only because her unpredictability and honesty in acceptance speeches would make the win more than memorable.

Netflix's Roma is likely to continue sweeping the awards as well, presenting the Academy with the unwatched, less populist problem once again. Sure, it's black and white, foreign and gorgeous-looking - but it's barely been seen, with many - myself included - putting it on a Netflix watchlist and never quite getting to it. 

Will Roma receive a protest vote?
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Will Roma receive a protest vote?

The Trump factor could be at play here. A film about Mexico is likely to stir the voters, potentially to send the US President a message as the debate about that wall rumbles on. Isn't that sad though, that one could even consider it a protest vote rather than a win on merit?

IF YOU HAVE A MOMENT THIS WEEKEND

If you're working for Air New Zealand, you may want to pay attention to this.

Following the series of terribly cringe-worthy safety videos, it looks like the fad isn't going away any time soon.

Thankfully, Turkish Airlines has taken the idea and run with it as much as they can.

Using characters from the myriad of LEGO Movies, there's now a safety video where everything is awesome. And where the tropes of the safety videos are mocked.

Just search Safety Video - Turkish Airlines on YouTube, and you'll get some clue of the anarchic style the gang's brought to the genre, with the likes of Batman, Emmet and Wyldstyle​ giving you the information you need for everyone to pay attention.

The great thing about this video, is that it may actually stop the kids from being a pain the moment the flight's about to take off. Alternatively, it may hype them into an overly silly mode and leave you unable to contain them in their seats.

Either way, it's a massive improvement on anything our national carrier's put out recently.

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