I’ve seen 4 of the 5 (I will be seeing Michael Clayton on DVD before Sunday’s broadcast).
I’m unimpressed with this year’s films.
I really liked Juno, but it isn’t best picture quality.
No Country for Old Men was pretty decent, and I’d be ok if it won, but it wasn’t a classic.
Atonement and There Will Be Blood were not good movies. I do not understand the positive reviews.
Juno was the only one to break $100 million. Here’s a breakdown:
Juno: $125,468,073
No Country for Old Men: $61,336,965
Atonement: $47,898,112
Michael Clayton: $47,775,366
There Will Be Blood: $31,884,615
Not that these figures matter. Films aren’t nominated based on box office receipts or how many people will tune in to the show, thank god. Sometimes blockbusters get nominated, but that’s rare. Quality Film + Wide Audience Appeal + Critical Acclaim + Guild Love = LOTR & Titanic, and there aren’t too many of those.
What does that mean? Ratings only matter to the network, they don’t matter to AMPAS. Of course AMPAS wants people to tune in, but even if ratings got so bad that the network dropped the broadcast (which would never happen) it wouldn’t matter. They’d still go on and someone would pick up the broadcast option, because as I’ve said before, this is an industry event. It’s peers honoring peers for work done over the past year. That’s why they’ll never drop the categories such as Art Direction or Live Action Short or Sound Mixing or those other categories people seem to complain about. AMPAS doesn’t care if the Documentary Short category bores people, they’re not putting on the thing to entertain viewers, they’re honoring craftspeople within the industry. Of COURSE they want viewers to be entertained, but what I mean is the Academy Awards are for the benefit of the craftspeople, not the benefit of the viewing audience. They’d sure like it if people tuned in (so would the network) but that’s not why the Academy Awards exist, so it really doesn’t matter if no one’s seen the nominated movies or decides not to watch for whatever arbitrary or petty reason (“if so and so wins I’ll never watch the Oscars again, so there!”). There will ALWAYS be an Academy Awards ceremony. It will ALWAYS be broadcast in one way or another.
It started out as a private banquet, then someone got the idea that maybe people would like to hear the speeches, so they started broadcasting it on the radio. Then someone got the idea that maybe people would want to see the winners, so they started broadcasting it on TV. If for any reason the TV broadcast were dropped, they’d broadcast them online.
But anyway, the thought that an audience won’t tune in because the nominated movies are too obscure (or, sheesh, violent) isn’t a concern of AMPAS, nor should it be. If they start pandering to the unwashed masses or the supersensitive or the easily offend when it comes to the movies honored, they might as well pack it in, because there’s already a People’s Choice Awards and we sure don’t need another.
Because they are good movies.
I don’t know if I have ever seen two movies that deserve a big screen MORE THAN No Country For Old Men or There Will Be Blood. They’re WESTERNS!!! They’re both nominated for best cinematography.
This OP puzzles me, because I think this is one of the best Oscar fields I’ve ever seen in my life, based almost entirely on those two pictures. I’ve never been as jazzed up to see who wins what as I am this year.
Besides that I LOVED the performances I saw this year.
Charlie Wilson’s War is worth seeing just for PSH’s moustache. Bardem gave one of the greatest performances ever. Hal Holbrook should be booted in favor of Paul Dano. HH should be booted in favor of the other supporting actors in that movie, for what that’s worth.
Viggo was astounding in EP. DDL was mind blowing.
Ratatouille was the best animated movie I’ve probably ever seen. Better than Toy Story. Better than The Incredibles. Better than Pete’s Dragon.
The Sixth Sense was nominated for Best Picture.
I think he means usually when he says, “never”. Silence of the Lambs was popular, as was Star Wars. We can list popular Best Pictures, but it does seem rather true that the voters choose less popular movies.
Yes, exactly. I forgot an “almost always” in there. There are obviously always exceptions with Juno being this year’s.
So the Oscars are not, in fact, rated “R” this year?
Agreed.
Juno and Michael Clayton can wait for DVD, but No Country for Old Men and There Will be Blood deserve the full theater experience.
Atonement, however, would be just fine on a 15" black & white TV. 