Oscars 2011

[LL!]

(and yes, I know that a Batman movie really shouldn't get nominated for Best Picture/Director)

Why not?

[VinnyT]

(and yes, I know that a Batman movie really shouldn't get nominated for Best Picture/Director)

Why not?

It would have to be PERFECT for it to really deserve a nomination. And I'm someone that was really unhappy that morning when The Dark Knight wasn't announced for Best Picture. But I think for me it's more that I kinda just tell myself that it SHOULDN'T get nominated so I don't get so stressed about it (I have anger issues in general, so caring so much about the Oscars doesn't help)

If The Dark Knight Rises comes out next summer, and just blows everything else out of the water I'll be supporting it like everyone else. I mean, in the last few years we actually had a Batman film win a ACTING award, which if you were to tell anyone that in 1996 they wouldn't believe you. With The Kings Speech winning Best Picture though, it could mean that The Academy is starting to go back to their old ways, where the "safe" choice wins the big awards.

We had Million Dollar Baby win in 2004. It was safe, sad, Clint Eastwood, and somewhat topical (The right to die, euthanasia, etc) it probably shouldn't have won, but it was a "safe" choice.

Then:

2005: Crash, a film with racism and multiple intertwining plots. It was safer than something like Brokeback Mountain, but showed signs of AMPAS not following whatever was marketed as the best of the year, like Brokeback was. (Personally, I still need to see Brokeback, but I for sure didn't see Crash as Oscar material. Decent, but seriously?)

2006: Scorsese finally wins for The Departed. And if Scorses had already won years before, he wouldn't have gotten it. I could see Little Miss Sunshine winning instead. Either film was not the usual Oscar choice. This was also the same year as The Queen, which if it had been out a few years earlier, most likely would have picked up a Best Picture award over something like MDB, or Chicago even.

2007: They finally award the Coen's for a dark film where

the bad guy gets away with it

. This was the year of Atonement too, which again, in a "safe" year would have picked up the win instead.

2008: They start losing their edge here, although Slumdog wasn't a bad choice. The main sign in the Oscars "reverting" is Mickey Rourke losing to Sean Penn. (Although, this was The Dark Knight year)

2009: The large epic James Cameron movie Vs. everyone else. 12 years before no one would have doubted Avatar. This time, The Hurt Locker was seen as the better choice. Which it was.

2010: The Kings Speech Vs. The Social Network doing its part in defining a generation. And Black Swan making a near legend of Natalie Portman. And Inception being was people will most likely really remember 2010 for. I hope this is a one year thing, and 2011 see's it go to where it's already started 5-6 years ago.

And psyched for 2012 in general, since we're getting so many great movies right before we die.

I should have worded myself better before.

[TKz]

I'm all for Nolan getting some more appreciation, but not this year. Not for Inception, which was 'pretty cool' at best. I WENT THERE.

[GoGo Yubari]

Inception really was the most overrated movie of 2010. I decidedly liked it too but it wasn't that great and Nolan really wasn't the victim people made him out to be this year.

[Jimmy]

I think that The Dark Knight should've got a lot more Oscar recognition, though. I felt Dark Knight was better than Inception, and I couldn't quite understand why it wasn't up for more nominations, despite getting glowing reviews all over by seemingly every critic. If The Dark Knight Rises is good enough, I'd love to see Nolan get his recognition. The man certainly deserves it.

[GoGo Yubari]

To be fair, The Dark Knight getting snubbed is pretty much the exact reason why the Best Picture category expanded so at least that served a purpose.

[Jimmy]

While I agree, I'd argue it was the best movie of the year and deserved it's place regardless if there were five spots or ten. The Academy has proven they don't mind backing blockbusters, e.g The Titanic and Return of the King. I think they missed out on connecting with a larger and younger audience by ignoring the film in some catagories I feel it deserved to be involved in.

[TKz]

It's the Oscars. I really don't think they care about 'connecting with a larger audience'. And they really shouldn't be picking based on that, either.

[Sousa]

The Dark Knight was not better than Slumdog Millionaire, and no, it's not close. You could make a case for any number of other movies that were nominated that year, but Slumdog Millionaire was winning that shit.

[Jimmy]

I wasn't saying that's what they should be picked on, I just think there was the oppertunity there as well. And I guess the preference between slumdog or batman is completley opinion and preference.

[Walker]

I don't think The Dark Knight or Inception deserve a Best Film award, but they were never going to because of the Oscars snubs summer blockbusters. It is one of the silly protentious traditions they have, like how they used to always refuse to acknowledge animated films outside of that category.

[Sousa]

The Dark Knight was a very good, very enjoyable, highly atypical superhero movie marked by a few standout performances from reliably good actors (Heath Ledger, Aaron Eckhart, Morgan Freeman, Gary Oldman, and Michael Caine in particular) and some great, understated special effects. It was a great film and a fun summer blockbuster. Slumdog Millionaire elevated awareness of Indian social concerns, elevated typical Bollywood tropes into the global consciousness, and ended up being not just a fucking good movie but an important one.

Like I said, it's not close.

[TKz]

I liked Dark Knight more because it had Batman.

[Sousa]

Well I like Slumdog better because it doesn't have ten zillion screaming Nolanites jerking their jerkins about how fucking awesome it is.

[TKz]

I feel I would have liked it more, but Batman wasn't really in it.

[Sousa]

I will rape you with a Batarang.

[zero]

Dark Knight had a tough year, the only movie I could've seen it possibly edging out for a nomination was Benjamin Button. Frost/Nixon, Milk, The Reader, Slumdog, those were pure Oscar movies, you couldn't not nominate them.

Christopher Nolan is awesome though, just sayin. Inception is his low point, but he's made some fantastic movies and deserves a lot of praise.

[Sousa]

I'm not disputing the Hypno-Nolan. It just wasn't the best movie from that year.

[apsham]

I could've forgiven anything - except for Hailee not winning Best Supporting Acrtress. That was highway robbery.

[LUKIE]

Fuck Toy Story 3.

This is all.