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This year’s nomination for his leading role in The Revenant marks Leonardo DiCaprio’s fifth time up for an acting Oscar. As yet, he has not won one. That’s a lot, kind of — I mean, it’s not Peter O’Toole’s eight winless nominations, or Richard Burton’s seven, or Glenn Close’s six. But sure, it’s a lot. Enough to the point that Leo’s thirst for an Oscar has become a recurring joke in some rather wide circles of the Internet, his apparent desperation for Academy gold evident in the flashy, demanding roles that DiCaprio takes on. (Have you heard that the man slept in a horse carcass while shooting The Revenant? Or that he ate a bison’s liver? Have you heard? HAVE YOU?)
These recurring jokes have now culminated in a clever little 8-bit game called Red Carpet Rampage, in which an animated representation of Leonardo DiCaprio races after the elusive, glowing Academy Award down an endless red carpet while evading the hazards of paparazzi, Lady Gaga, and other obstacles. The Line Animation from the Electric Theater Collective clearly made this as a lark, and yet some of the details are hilariously well-observed. Naturally, the BAFTA and SAG Award power-ups boost his energy and bring him closer to his goal, but he’ll have to race past the supernaturally speedy Eddie Redmayne to get there first. The best moment revealed in the clip package of gameplay embedded above has to be the Act Harder meter, which supports Leo’s evident theory that if you haven’t won an Academy Award, it’s because you just weren’t acting hard enough. In all likelihood, Leo’s gonna take home the gold on the 28th of this month, rendering this game all but moot, but for the moment, it’s a pretty sharply snarky way to kill 10 minutes as the workday winds down.
