[QUOTE=Liberal]
Case in point: 1980. The most tedious, pretentious, and preachy drama imaginable — Ordinary People — won out over Nine to Five, Stir Crazy, Airplane!, and Any Which Way You Can. The four comedies each drew far more box office than that wretched, hand-wringing, moralistic screed. Hell, even Blue Lagoon drew bigger crowds. Yeah, I know. The Oscars aren’t about popularity […stifling chuckles…].
[/QUOTE]
I’m confused by your chuckles.
Are you saying that the Oscars really are about popularity despite what is said? Then how do you account for the fact that unpopular movies such as Ordinary People end up winning?
-FrL-
[QUOTE=Zsofia]
Roger Ebert always (or at least used to) claimed to rate movies by how succesfful they are at achieving their objective - not “is it a great film” but “is it a great shlock horror film”, etc. I think he did a fairly good job of it, too.
[/QUOTE]
Yes. I love that about him. He said (paraphrased) “If you want to know what I thought about Hellboy, you don’t want to know how it compares to Casablanca, you want to know how it compares to Raiders of the Lost Ark”. Excellent attitude, and rare for a critic.
[QUOTE=Frylock]
I’m confused by your chuckles.
Are you saying that the Oscars really are about popularity despite what is said? Then how do you account for the fact that unpopular movies such as Ordinary People end up winning?
-FrL-
[/QUOTE]
It’s a matter of popularity within the Academy. Like everything else, it’s infested with politics.
Liberal writes:
> Yeah, I know. The Oscars aren’t about popularity […stifling chuckles…].
The Oscars aren’t about quality either exactly. The Oscars are determined by very definite prejudices, and they aren’t what you might think. The Oscars go to middle-brow films. The Academy voters don’t want to be seen as being too low-brow, so low-brow films don’t get nominated and don’t win, but they don’t want to be seen as being too high-brow either, so nothing too avant-garde wins or gets nominated either. They like films with political points that are reasonably well accepted among the Hollywood crowd but not political ideas that are too far out. They tend to vote for actors and actresses who are popular among fellow actors and actresses.
The Oscars tend to be more prejudiced against comedies (and genre films in general) than the average critics, I think. Look at a wider selection of critics. Many of them are more favorably inclined towards comedies than you might think.
I love a light comedy when I’m in the mood. Some are done better than others, nd I’m sure that has to do with the lower ratings, but there’s a place for them. I also love dark, brooding films. I think most people have multiple genres that they enjoy.
Also, Comcast evidently has chimpanzees doing their movie stars and synopses. They’re fucking idiots. You really can’t go by their recommendations.
*Overboard * is one of my all-time favorite movies.
[Goldie Hawn] “I was a short, fat slut.”[Goldie Hawn/off]
[QUOTE=Kalhoun]
[Goldie Hawn] “I was a short, fat slut.”[Goldie Hawn/off]
[/QUOTE]
[Her mother] You don’t push the food down Shitaki’s throat. You place it on her tongue. Don’t they have dogs in Sweden? [/Her mother]