MY BEEF WITH THE OSCARS!
It's been brought to my attention that recent Best Picture winners haven't been great. Common winners that are cited that suck are: "The Greatest Show on Earth," (God was that long) "Chicago" (a satisfactory musical at the most) and "Around the World in 80 Days," which I've yet to see. I omit one Best Picture winner that EVERYONE calls the worst because I sincerely enjoyed it, and that is 2005's "Crash." People take a dump on "Crash" a lot, but I really liked it when I saw it on TV several months ago. Was it the best movie ever? No. Was it the best movie of 2005? I wouldn't even go that far. I'd even go as far as to say there probably was homophobia among Oscar voters, and that's why "Crash" won over the favorited "Brokeback Mountain," because their Rotten Tomatoes scores are:
Crash-76
Brokeback Mountain-87.
That's a significant 11 points. I've yet to see "Brokeback Mountain" but every website anywhere will tell you it deserved to win that year.
What I'd like to discuss now is the recent trend of rewarding movies that could have been made in the 1950's Best Picture of 2010 and 2011! What's going on, Academy! OK, in 2009 the list was expanded to 10 because people were crying over "The Dark Knight" and "WALL-E" not getting Best Picture nods. That year "The Hurt Locker," a contemporary war film won. Good on you. Now the next 2 years a movie about a stuttering English king and a black-and-white silent film get the prize?
Before "The Artist" and "King Speech" lovers start hating, I'll say I gave both films 4 out of 4 ratings. Why? Because they were excellent movies. But "KS" could have been made ANY WHERE IN THE PAST 5 DECADES and it would have won, all the same. When a movie released about the creation of Facebook that catapulted all 3 of it's main actors (Eisenberg, Garfield & Hammer, who played twins) into super-stardom doesn't get Best Picture...that's when I cry foul. "The Social Network" won Best Drama, the Critic's Choice Award for Best Picture...it had so much going for it! But in the end, the old stuffy Oscar voters who probably don't even know what Facebook is went with the period piece. Why not "Toy Story 3" even?
This year's lineup...wasn't exactly the best the Oscars had to offer. The only modern movie you could really pick out out of the whole 9 nominees would be "The Descendants," most of the nominees this year were period pieces. While I enjoyed all of them, some to a smaller degree, "The Descendants" was the clear movie of the year. "The Artist" literally could have been made 8 decades ago, but the whole silent and black and white thing was it's shtick. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" was not nomination worthy, and 2011-reflecting films like "Deathly Hallows Part 2" and "Bridesmaids" were left off.
Can you see where I'm going with this? The Academy isn't rewarding modern films anymore. Perhaps this year they'll make up for it, by rewarding "The Dark Knight Rises" or something mainstream...yet loved.
Crash-76
Brokeback Mountain-87.
That's a significant 11 points. I've yet to see "Brokeback Mountain" but every website anywhere will tell you it deserved to win that year.
What I'd like to discuss now is the recent trend of rewarding movies that could have been made in the 1950's Best Picture of 2010 and 2011! What's going on, Academy! OK, in 2009 the list was expanded to 10 because people were crying over "The Dark Knight" and "WALL-E" not getting Best Picture nods. That year "The Hurt Locker," a contemporary war film won. Good on you. Now the next 2 years a movie about a stuttering English king and a black-and-white silent film get the prize?
Before "The Artist" and "King Speech" lovers start hating, I'll say I gave both films 4 out of 4 ratings. Why? Because they were excellent movies. But "KS" could have been made ANY WHERE IN THE PAST 5 DECADES and it would have won, all the same. When a movie released about the creation of Facebook that catapulted all 3 of it's main actors (Eisenberg, Garfield & Hammer, who played twins) into super-stardom doesn't get Best Picture...that's when I cry foul. "The Social Network" won Best Drama, the Critic's Choice Award for Best Picture...it had so much going for it! But in the end, the old stuffy Oscar voters who probably don't even know what Facebook is went with the period piece. Why not "Toy Story 3" even?
This year's lineup...wasn't exactly the best the Oscars had to offer. The only modern movie you could really pick out out of the whole 9 nominees would be "The Descendants," most of the nominees this year were period pieces. While I enjoyed all of them, some to a smaller degree, "The Descendants" was the clear movie of the year. "The Artist" literally could have been made 8 decades ago, but the whole silent and black and white thing was it's shtick. "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" was not nomination worthy, and 2011-reflecting films like "Deathly Hallows Part 2" and "Bridesmaids" were left off.
Can you see where I'm going with this? The Academy isn't rewarding modern films anymore. Perhaps this year they'll make up for it, by rewarding "The Dark Knight Rises" or something mainstream...yet loved.
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