What Are These Movies?

The Hours? Chicago? The 12-Inch Pianist? Do these names mean anything to anybody? I haven't seen a movie in over a year, so I'll leave the catfighting over this year's Oscar nominees to you.

Comments

[Steve]

who gives two flyin' shits about an award that's nothing more than self-aggrandizement (is that the right term?) to a bunch of self-important people who contribute almost nothing to society except maybe a little T&A. Yeah, the entertainment is great, but there's little beyond that. I mean, how many movies are worth $8-$10 per person? You can rent them later or see them on the cable or even BUY them for a whole lot less. But I digress.

When they put back to the community the way they want the rest of us to, maybe I'll care. Otherwise, Kiss my ass.

[Steve]

Sorry about the rant. Forgot my Prozac this morning.

[Jesse Walker]

Actually, Mark, I think there's a strong chance that *The Return of the King* will get a Best Picture Oscar next year. I don't think they'll give the award to the middle section of a trilogy -- one expects a Best Picture to have at least a beginning OR an end -- but the final installment has a serious shot.

Me, I'm an sf fan who doesn't think the LoTR movies are all that great. I expect to enjoy the forthcoming *Matrix* sequels a lot more -- and I doubt they'll be nominated.

The Academy rarely honors genre movies because it thinks they're lowbrow; and it doesn't honor genuinely difficult or deep art films because they usually don't do well at the box office. The prototypical Best Picture winner is a financial success that also bears what Hollywood takes to be the marks of "quality" -- period costumes, liberal politics, handicapped characters, "epic" scope, English accents, the Holocaust, etc.

Sometimes, of course, these are genuinely good movies. But they're almost never the best.

[Charles Oliver]

Am I the only one who went into Chicago thinking it was a gangster film and was disappointed to find it was really a musical?

[Steve]

Charles, I'm ashamed to share the same last name with you.

;-))

[Brad S]

Charles - that reminds me of that episode of the Simpsons where Homer thinks he's renting a Western movie and ends up renting a musical. Classic stuff.

[Franklin Harris]

As long as "Spirited Away" gets the animation Oscar.

[Brad S]

"The prototypical Best Picture winner is a financial success that also bears what Hollywood takes to be the marks of "quality" -- period costumes, liberal politics, handicapped characters, "epic" scope, English accents, the Holocaust, etc."

Jesse - I think you pretty much summed it up right there. A look at recent years' best pictures from the Academy pretty much proves that you're right.

[Warren]

"industry suck-ups" dead on Jesse. The problem isn't so much that LotR will not win, it's that Greek Wedding can't eve get nominated. Independant Film is where all the best (movie) art is crafted. But don't think you're going to find it amongst the Sundance sellouts.

[Jesse Walker]

Greek Wedding did get nominated for Best Screenplay, actually. And it'll probably win, which is a shame, since I hated hated hated that movie...

[Jesse Walker]

OK, I merely disliked it. But it sure felt good to say "hated hated hated"...

[Steve]

Hey...for a "chick flick", Greek Wedding was pretty good. In fact, I'm gonna buy the DVD after work.

[Roy Lofquist]

Are you referring to the joke whose punchline is:

You don't think I wished for a 12-inch pianist do you?

[Brad S]

"The frisky musical Chicago"...

That's about all I need to know about it right there. Anything that can be described as a "frisky musical" falls into the Man Show category of "Movies Men Don't Want to See".

[Anonymous]

I dunno, Brad. It also includes a lotta T&A.

[gandu]

T&A! Where, when....

[Brad S]

Suffice to say I can get my "T&A" from sources other than "frisky musicals".

[Chet]

Surely, Tim, you're not wholly unfamiliar with these films. Chicago gets the nod, I expect, largely because it's an old-style Hollywood production. The Hours and The Pianist are reportedly stellar little films of the kind produced all too rarely by an industry obsessed with first-week-grosses. Gangs, well, I'm not sure about that -- I found it kind of tedious, but it's Scorsese, so maybe it gets a pass.

I'm very glad to see Jackson get the nomination, too, though I'm sure it's a pro forma thing. There's no chance the Academy will give the Oscar to a genre film, no matter how well done it is.

[rob]

yap, i see all movies.

and all award shows are are awarding the critic favorites, not the crowd favorites.

not one of the movies that have won awards over the decade are worth two shits, some nominated are, but the ones that win arent.

[Brad S]

rob - if the Academy acquiesced to the masses' preferences, it would cease to be a sort of hoity-toity organization of art snobs, at which point its whole existence would be pointless.

[Jesse Walker]

Art snobs? Are you kidding? The Academy's a bunch of middlebrow industry suck-ups.

[David F]

how about this: pointless, middle-brow snob wanna be types...

and isn't T&A okay when it's "artsy"?????

[rob]

Screw artsy T&A ill take good ol' fashion porn.

[Mark S.]

Chet: You're correct sir. Whether they're "art snobs" or "middlebrow industry suck-ups," the Academy will not give LotRs, or any other well made science fiction/fantasy/horror film, the respect that it deserves. After all, genre films are the red-headed step children of cinema. They'll make the studios millions, but the "serious" film connoisseurs see them as boob bait for the bubbas.

Also who isn't surprised that Michael "Fat Ass Commie" Moore gets a nomination for "Bowling for Columbine?" I'll be even less surprised when left-leaning Hollywood gives him the Oscar.

[Kevin B. O'Reilly]

Yes, Charles you are the only one. "Gonna paint your wagon / Gonna paint it good / We're not braggin' / We're gonna coat that wood!"