The Academy Awards (and Golden Globes)

[GrandMoffNick]

I'll take movies winning that no one saw over the "Academy Awards" turning into the Grammys. If you want that then most of the other movie awards are for you (which I realize is partly what you are saying).

I'm not saying it has to go to whoever sold the most tickets, but why not remove all the bias and judge simply on the dimensions of the film itself.  I guess there is some risk that whichever movie sells the most tickets also ends up getting the award, but selling a boatload of tickets is generally an early indicator that the movie is pretty good.  

Because it will never happen.   And wow do I not agree with you "boatload of tickets generally" means it's good theory.

[GrandMoffNick]

Sometimes I think they should have more catagories, like Best Drama, Comedy, Action, Sci-Fi. Dilutes the awards a bit, but really, Up was up for Best Picture and Best Animated... so if they can do a best animated catagory, then I think they can open it up a bit more.

I don't like that either because, like you said, it dilutes it way too much. I don't think any award show will ever be perfect, but I think the Oscars are as close as it gets. With that being said, I'm a huge movie buff. I love movies from the 30s, 40s, 50s, etc. So I think I may be biased myself the opposite direction if that makes sense.

[Paul]

I am more in the camp of if it sells a certain amount of tickets then it is "popular" but not necessarily "good", but I also don't feel that JUST because the ticket buyers like it means it is too "commercial" to deserve Oscar recognition.

Has anybody ever put together the numbers to see how previous Oscar Nominees (and winners) have done in the Box Office (prior to their re-release after their nomination)?

I wonder if back during the Golden Age of Cinema if Ticket Sales and Awards were more in line with one another.

I just dislike the arrogance of most Movie Critics and insiders who feel that WE the ticket buying public are not sophisticated enough to understand why Movie A is so much better than Movie B...  

But then again, I just watched the Winter Olympics and avoided any event that involved a "judge" or had a subjective scoring system. Either you made it across the finish line first, scored the most points or some other objective standard.  

I think I saw 2 of the 10 Nominees this year. Mostly because I really don't need to go to the Movies to get preached at or to intentionally be depressed.  I have the office for latter.


As far as the Oscar Presentation goes though...

Did they go back to "The Winner is...."? OR was it some other show that did away "Winners and losers"?
I recorded it on DVR for my wife and didn't think to add extra minutes since they play music and make people get off stage (even the White Kanye)...so she missed the last 4 (you know the BIG ones)....

[GrandMoffNick]

The "I'm a movie critic and I'm smarter than you moron viewers" is very annoying.

However, I seldomly see a Best Picture winner and think "that wasn't good". I had no want to see Slumdog Millionaire last year. Then I saw it and it was excellent. And this year, no matter how much people say Avatar was good, it does nothing for me. I still have't seen it.

And I am just naming stuff off the top of my head, but as far as box office success winning recentlyish: Return of the King, Forrest Gump, Titanic. I'm drawing a blank now, but it isn't like they poo poo everything popular to look "smarter" than us.

[Phrubruh]

Return of the King and Forrest Gump I can agree with. I think ROTK was more for the entire trilogy then the movie itself. Gump was just a lot of fun.

However, I still don't understand the popularity of Titanic. That movie was about an hour too long and the story was worst than Avatar's. It had too much running up and down the dam ship with very poor acting. Why did they have to film the thing sinking in real time?! Gosh, I hate that movie!

[name]

I redboxed Where the Wild Things are last night, and while the movie itself was...different than expected (I still liked it though) I cannot understand HOW this did not get ANY nominations.  Art direction?  Cinematography?  Effects?  Costumes?  The whole experience was gorgeous to look at. Original score? Even the acting...Jame Gandolfini's voice acting was phenomenal, and Max as a child actor who actually acts like a child?