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Inglorious Basterds
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Avatar
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Up
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Hurt Locker
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Up In The Air
Have not seen the rest, but I did not enjoy Up In The Air at all, so I think it would be last anyway .
I’ve seen Avatar, The Hurt Locker, Inglorious Basterds, District 9, and Up. I went with Avatar because of its technical and commercial achievements, but I’d be happy to see any of those five win. If it doesn’t go to Avatar, I expect it to go to The Hurt Locker.
There isn’t a chance of a “make-up” Oscar, is there? Either for Best Picture or for Director?
What do you mean? They have Lifetime Achievement awards for individuals, but the only time a film can win something is for the year it was first released. There are no revotes or “take-backs”.
He means that sometimes people don’t get awards for the films that deserve the award. Denzel Washington should have a Best Actor award for ** Malcolm X**, but that didn’t happen, so the Academy made it up to him later with Training Day. It’s a rather cynical view of the Oscars but not an inaccurate one, IMHO.
As for the OP, my ranking is Inglorious Basterds at #1 and everything else somewhere below it.
I can see this, except he asked about Best Picture, which has traditionally never been a source of the “make-up” rationale as you described it. And he asked if there was a chance of one, which again, doesn’t quite jive with my familiarity with the “make-up” scenario that I agree often persists in some Academy members’ minds.
I’m surprised at the low vote total for Up in the Air - apparently only one person agrees with me. Mahaloth, since you indicated that you would expect to like it the least of any of the nominees, can you tell me what you didn’t like? I thought it was pretty fantastic.
Writing as that other person, I’d be interested in the lack of votes for “Up in the Air” as well.
I would be really happy if either The Hurt Locker or Inglourious Basterds won. While Up in the Air has great acting and certainly captures a zeitgeist, it just didn’t have the same level of emotional impact or riveting storyline that those two films had.
I’ve already braced myself for an Avatar win though.
I’ve seen Avatar, Up, Inglorious Basterds, and The Hurt Locker. Of those four I would choose Hurt Locker, which I thought had some of the most intense scenes and best character developments I’ve seen in a movie in a long time, but unfortunately so few people saw it that it will probably hurt its chances.
I liked all of the movies to some extent, but UP! is too special effects reliant, Avatar is too simplistic (could the Navi have been just a little more romanticized do you think?), and while I’d vote for Christopher Waltz to win for Inglorious Basterds I wouldn’t vote for the movie as Best Picture. Best Actor should of course go to President Obama to display next to the Nobel Peace Prize.
(No flaming please; I’m an Obama supporter.)
My ranking:
- Up in the Air
- Avatar
- Precious
- The Hurt Locker
- Inglorious Basterds
- Up
- A Serious Man
- The Blind Side
- District 9
I’m outraged that The Soloist wasn’t nominated, nor were Robert Downey, Jr. or Jamie Foxx for their roles in that film.
Missed edit window to add:
I didn’t see An Education, but I’m guessing I’d put it somewhere after Up but ahead of District Nine.
I always view the Gladiator win as a sop to Dreamworks: SKG for their not winning B. Picture for Saving Private Ryan.
At least, that’s the only reason I can figure out as to why Gladiator won B. Picture.
That would never happen, not in a million years. People might want to reward actors, maybe, but never studios.
Gladiator won because, well, because a majority of the voters liked it best. It’s as simple as that. Keep in mind that “THE ACADEMY” isn’t one mind-hive entity, sending out signals as to how to vote. It’s easy to say “The Academy” and I even do it myself, but the Academy consists of thousands of individuals, voting individually, in their offices or dens or living rooms or on the dining room table or sitting at their kitchen table, in cities and towns all over the world. Some vote with their heads, some vote with their hearts, some vote with their heads up their asses, but they’re all individuals. (“I’m not!”)
A majority happened to like Gladiator more than Traffic or Chocolate or Erin Brockovich or Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon that year. We don’t know what the totals were, they never release the vote counts, but Traffic may have missed by 2 votes, we don’t know and we’ll never know. It had to have been close, since Steven Soderbergh won Best Director over Ridley Scott. There again, the vote might have been thisclose and a couple of extra votes put Steven over the top.
I saw all the movies and liked them all quite a bit. Yes, even The Blind Side. It’s hard to rank but here goes:
- Inglorious Basterds
- The Hurt Locker
- Avatar
I’d be thrilled with any of those winning.
- A Serious Man
- District 9
These two don’t stand a chance, but I’d whoop for joy if either one got a surprise win.
- Up in the Air
I’d be a tad disappointed if this won over 1-5, but I liked it a LOT so I wouldn’t be TOO disappointed.
- An Education
- Precious
- The Blind Side
I liked all these, but they have no chance to win, and their nomination is their reward.
- Up
Loved it, I really did, but no. It’ll win Animated (though I’ll be voting for Fantastic Mr. Fox in this alternate universe) and getting a nomination here is its reward. A Pixar film will one day win Best Picture, but not this year.
I’m gonna have to put you and my girlfriend in a room to see who gets out alive. She HATED that movie. After seeing it she went off for quite some time (don’t really remember why).
I don’t have an opinion one way or the other. It just was…
So it’s an honor just to be nominated, but only half the honor it usually is.
Of the ones I’ve seen:
- A Serious Man
- Up in the Air
- Inglourious Basterds
- Avatar
- District 9
She wasn’t alone…a quick check of IMDB shows that The Soloist was not, in general, a well-loved film. My mileage varied…oh, well.
2000 was a crappy year for movies, there wasn’t much competition.
I’ve seen 7 of the ten.
I voted for Avatar.
Would be equally happy if Inglorious Basterds or A Single Man won.
Yes, I know Avatar was a “popcorn” movie, but as far as cinema goes, it has changed things in so many ways. Technically it was quite a marvel and although the story was not all that original, it still had some ethical and moral issues that made it worth discussion in future classes to come.
I liked all seven I have seen so far, and most likely will like the other three when I finally get around to seeing them. I guess that means the selections this year are all fairly decent, if not quite good.
I think that “Best Picture” is an honor that should go to a film that ensures students in film schools will see it 5, 10, 50 and 100 years from now to learn the evolution of films. Avatar is certainly worth keeping in the mix as an example of current technology and world-wide financial and popular success. It’s no Casablanca, but then again - few Best Pictures come anywhere near that level.
I think I would vote for Up in the Air, actually. Not a flawless film, but it was ambitious and I love the screenplay/story of it all.
As for ranking:
- Up in the Air
- An Education
- Avatar
- Precious
- District 9
- The Blind Side
- Inglourious Basterds
- Up
Haven’t seen The Hurt Locker or A Serious Man. I have only seen Inglourious Basterds once and would expect it to jump up a few slots if I saw it again (I hated it, but there’s so much about the movie I remember fondly that seems to outshine the flaws…). I actually thought The Blind Side was a pretty effective execution of a kind of trashy concept (and it’s a true story, so it’s hard to blame reality for the storyline).
The love for Up - Pixar’s laziest screenplay yet - puzzles me. Too bad that it will be remembered as a Best Picture nominee when Pixar creations like Finding Nemo and Wall-E deserved the honor so much more.
Overall, though, a great group of movies, imo. Good diversity of genre, subject matter, etc.