Worst. Ratings.
14 percent lower than the least-watched ceremony ever.
O, Hail to Thee! O Lofty Movies with ART in them!
No Country For Real Audiences
There Will Be Bored
Juno At Least I've Heard of This One
Atone... Altune... Atonal... Whatever. Preachy Title
Some Guy's Name With George Clooney In It
CNN link
I'd rather them nominate the correct films and have low ratings than nominate less-worthy fare just to get more of an audience.
Besides, I think part of this can be blamed as aftermath to the writer's strike.
YEEHAW!
Raise your left paw if you didn't watch!
*raises paw*
I went out and saw the kick-ass final performance of a marvelous Off-Off Broadway play!
SO much more exciting.
I KNEW they should have nominated Spiderman 3, Pirates 3, Shrek 3, Norbert and Transformers. When will the Academy LEARN? I am sticking to the MTV Movie awards from now on.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
The only movie I saw this year that racked up major awards was Juno. It won for best screenplay. If that was one of the best written films of the year I'm glad I missed the losers.
See how powerful we Nielsen families are? We didn't watch, but we never watch anything involving awards. Not because of the nominations themselves, but because the presentations are just so boring.
For a ratings bonanza, these classic performances should have been nominated.
Best Actor in a Leading Role
Nicholas Cage for NATIONAL TREASURE 2: BOOK OF SECRETS
Will Smith for I AM LEGEND
John Travolta for WILD HOGS
Shia Lebouf for TRANSFORMERS
Will Ferell for BLADED OF GLORY
Best Actress in a Leading Role
Keira Knightley for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END
Katherine Heigl for KNOCKED UP
Kirsten Dunst for SPIDERMAN 3
Emma Watson for HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX
Jessica Alba for FANTASTIC FOUR: RISE OF THE SILVER SURFER
You know... maybe next year they'll go and pick movies that are actually good AND popular.
BOTH.
I'm tired of "cinematic caviar" being shoved up my nose by heady, out-of-touch critics and their "knowledgeable" regional critic's awards/lists... and being told I must LIKE this or that film.
When I don't, 9 times out of 10. Not even close.
The Academy and their prestige party are risking total alienation and the loss of any relevance being placed on their Golden Guy.
Wake up. It IS a popularity contest, every bit as much as artistic achievement. That's the deal!
Without it, you're playing to an audience of 4 passionate people, and you're ignoring HALF the reason this award was created in the first place.
End of rant.
Best picture nominees should have seriously considered:
Ratatouille
The Bourne Ultimatum
Hairspray
Movies that were HITS, in all ways.
I completely agree with you on Ratatouille. I even think Brad Bird should have gotten a Best Director nomination.
Broadway Legend Joined: 12/31/69
Best I'm with you man. I have stopped going to the "Prestige" films because I just don't care. I've sat through so much dreck- dull boring pretentious crap. I am a big Coen brothers fan and wanted to see their film but missed it- I'll see it for sure and I'm glad they won some awards- they've made great enteratining films.
It was rather mystifying to me to see Bourne Ultimatum get award after award after award- was it that good?
The Bourne Ultimatum was great. I'm not with best in thinking it should have been up for Best Picture, but it was my favorite summer action movie in a while.
ETA: I just read today that Damon has signed on for a fourth Bourne film.
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/19/08
"It was my favorite summer action movie in a while."
Why SHOULDN'T that be enough for a Best Picture nod, Priest? Sounds great to me.
Gone are the days when Jaws, The Exorcist, Star Wars, Indiana Jones and E.T. are recognized. And they all got nominations for Best Picture.
Those were big, fat POPCORN movies. They were summer blockbusters that were also well-reviewed.
We had some this year, but the lofty noses turned toward artistic merit only to mark their ballots.
And guess who lost?
THEY did.
The only movie I saw this past season was HAIRSPRAY, and it wasn't nominated for anything.
It just goes to show that even movies that are hits with the critics -- if they're comedies, or worse, bubblegum musical comedies, they are treated like they don't exist by the academy because they're not boring, err...serious, enough.
SNOOZE.
If Hairspray was nominated for song, mamamamillions would have tuned in to see COME SO FAR.
And that ain't no lie.
"Why SHOULDN'T that be enough for a Best Picture nod, Priest? Sounds great to me."
I wouldn't have minded had it been nominated. But I felt there were five better films. I would have put it in over MICHAEL CLAYTON, though. But I would have put SWEENEY in there over both of them.
Seven Brides For Seven Brothers was a Best Pic nominee.
So was Music Man.
Why NOT Hairspray?
We've decided it wasn't "artistic" enough?
How boring.
Either spectacle is too expensive now or the producers are cheap.
When I was young I remember elaborate musical numbers, spontaneous bits and guest appearances that would have people on their feet.
All the fun has been sucked out, and most people don't want to see envelope, award, speech, envelope, award, speech etc etc...
Maybe the Academy just thought there were better movies this year?
And then other years, there might actually be musicals they think are in the top-tier. It was only six years ago that MOULIN ROUGE was nominated. And the next year CHICAGO won.
I agree.
I was really shocked that Sweeney was snubbed BP nom though.
I think that in previous years - had 4 or 5 musicals come out in one year they would have done a montage of live performances.
Perhaps this was due to the writes strike , and had the producers time, something of higher entertainment value would have been produced.
MOULIN ROUGE and CHICAGO were sexy-skinny people-musical-dramas.
HAIRSPRAY was a musical COMEDY, plain and simple, about fat people and a man dressed up like a woman.
From the reviews I read, SWEENEY TODD was a *horror* movie.
I remember the year Jurassic Park came out, Elijah Wood presented an award for Special Effects, and a large animatronic TREX came in through the wings to hand the envelope to Elijah.
Moments like that, just don't happen anymore.
You are only as good as your last award show.
"The Oscars rocked last year, I cant wait to see this years..."
"The Oscars sucked last year, why bother..."
True confession...
the minute some regional film critic pronounces that big hollywood movie x is a shoo-in for an oscar nod, i avoid it like the plague.
i took a chance on 'la vie en rose' because i was familiar with the story of Edith Piaf. thankfully, i wasn't disappointed. it was engrossing with only minor editing issues.
had to check out the bourne ultimatum b/c it's just my kind thinking person's action flick.
i'll have to catch the others on dvd.
i'm still po'd that the academy has passed over annette benning twice for a certain equus-faced tranny.
It really is a shame that well reviewed and well received popular movies aren't nominated in in the major categories. Hairspray, The Bourne Ultimatum, and Ratatouille all could have been major contenders. All 3 were among my favorite movies of 2007. I don't have a problem honoring art house films, but I see no reason why they can't mix it up.
I think if the Oscars continue to nominate only small art-house films, and ignore the public's opinion on films they're going to see their audience continue to shrink.
Perfect example: I asked my mother, a casual filmgoer yesterday morning if she was going to watch the Oscars.
Her response: "No, I've never heard of most of those movies, so I could really care less who wins what. "
And mateo, you said it: with all the montages they had, I'm very surprised there wasn't one featuring the musicals. This past year had 5 major movie musicals come out, which is really something. It's too bad they couldn't put together something to showcase them.
Why is it so hard for people to accept the fact that Hairspray just wasn't THAT GOOD?
And James, I am not sure what you meant by " with all the montages they had, I'm very surprised there wasn't one with footage from musicals."
Both the Best Picture and Dead Reel had numerous nods to musicals. And I am sure in that opening mess of a montage there were quite a few, too.
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