When Jones' name came up I foolishly hoped it was for No Country. Alas....

What's funny is that all his films were either last minute contenders or surprises.

MDB: late contender, release moved up. No one saw it coming.
Crash: enough said
Letters from Iwo Jima: surprise nom
Tommy Lee Jones: surprise nom

I wouldn't really attribute Tommy Lee Jones' nomination this year in any way to Paul Haggis or his film. At least in the past 3 years, Haggis had something to do with it. Jones was nominated on his own merit and hard work in acting in both The Valley of Elah and No Country for Old Men (since I'm sure it acted more like a combination award).

I'm finding it hard to rag on Haggis anymore though, with his really great support of his fellow writers during this writers strike, and his hilarious work in one of the Speechless videos.

Peace,
Mike

Don't forget that he's Canadian too!

I don't get the Haggis hate. Million Dollar Baby was a deserving Best Picture winner (in my opinion), Crash was pretty good (though I will agree that it had no place among the Best Picture nominees), Flags of our Fathers was excellent, and Letters from Iwo Jima was all the way up at #2 on my 2006 list (trailing only The Departed). I have yet to see In the Valley of Elah, but it looks pretty good.

Well, for me it always was and will always be Crash. And it wasn't even directly him I hated because initially I loved Crash. Over time, though, I liked it a bit less but what really will forever taint Crash in my eyes is it taking BP over Brokeback.

My Haggis hate, which I wouldn't call hate because I don't hate him or even dislike him nearly as much as some others here, came when he made that remark about admitting how contrived and silly Crash was and how he was utterly surprised it won.

Elah was pretty good, but Jones was undeniably strong. He definitely held the movie together. He isn't in my five, but a nomination is not undeserved, especially when you factor in a solid performance in No Country.

I agree his performance in Country helped him land this award.

Does anyone else hate Million Dollar Baby and love Crash? Or am I the only one.

I'm surprised Jones got in because his performance was so understated. It didn't help that the movie tanked, but I agree about NCFOM playing a big role. Sorta like Hoffman for CWW (helped by The Savages & Before the Devil...)

I thought Million Dollar Baby was great and found Crash to be a remarkably weak Best Picture winner, so I think we have opposite views on the matter

The Jones nomination to me feels like DiCaprio from last year. If they had said No Country I'd be like "Okay, great," but instead of The Departed for Leo we got the far inferior Blood Diamond performance.

^^^

The weird thing is that a lot of people would beg to differ regarding DiCaprio's performance

At least during the time of the nomination. Either way, it was a huge blow on his chance to win.

DiCaprio wasn't gonna beat Whitaker, regardless of which movie he was nominated for. He wouldn't even get more votes than O'Toole.

I still feel Leo should have won for The Aviator, in my opinion one of the best performances ever.

The Aviator was the first film to truly show his turn into a mature actor, although I felt like he managed much more depth in The Departed and was equally strong in Blood Diamond, after developing even a bit further. I bet one of his two big performances this year will blow the rest away.

If it's as good as Casino Royale I wouldn't mind if Bond 22 got nominated for BP...

I dunno...I mean judging by what I have read, Jones actually IS good in that film...so what's the fuzz?

Now that I would agree with. I mean it's not like Blood Diamond featured a bad turn by him, but The Departed was clearly his best turn.

Nothing about his No Country for Old Men performance was any better than his Elah performance; it's just surrounded by a better film, so people would rather see it get in.