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This year's Oscars


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A film's subject matter has an average of about 20% pull when it comes to whether I'm interested in seeing it.

For example - I didn't give a flying fuck about Queen Elizabeth, but I saw The Queen and found it to be poignant, urgent, and funny.

jakobnicholas - you need to broaden your horizons. You've never heard of The Reader so it sucks. Brilliant. Why the hell do I even read your posts in this thread!

 

 

 

You obviously DON'T read my posts, because I never said The Reader sucks.

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You obviously DON'T read my posts, because I never said The Reader sucks.

Semantics. So you didn't say 'it sucks.'

The reason I haven't seen most of them is because either the subject matter or opinions I've read or heard don't make me WANT to see them.

The Reader...I know NOTHING about it. I'd never heard of it before the nomination.

Not exactly an open-minded "I wonder what this movie is about!" type of reaction to the nomination.

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The nominations mean so little to me these days because they don’t always appeal to my taste.

 

 

I think that's the crux of my problem. I'm not meaning to belittle the 5 films, but rather pointing out that for me, I could care less about seeing them....Slumdog Millionaire excluded (I'm intrigued to check it out).

 

The Oscar nominees have hardly ever appealed to my tastes, which is why when Goodfellas or Lord of the Rings or American Beauty or Old Country For Old Men get nominated, it gets me a little more jazzed about the Academy Awards.

 

I was hoping one of "my" movies got a nod. I didn't expect it, but it's happened before.

 

 

In 1998, these movies got nominated:

 

• Shakespeare In Love

• Elizabeth

• Life is Beautiful

• Saving Private Ryan

• Thin Red Line

 

That's a pretty good list of films. I saw 3 of them.

 

But my favorite film that year was Buffalo '66.

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Surely Saving Private Ryan is better than Shakespeare in Love, but that's one of my favorite Oscar moments ever. It's rare when the show actually has a moment that doesn't feel pre-ordained, and that one was a shocker. Great fun, that was.

 

I suppose we could get worked up about who wuz robbed, but seriously: Does Saving Private Ryan, or any other good movie, really need the validation of Oscar to endure or be treasured? A win is merely a footnote, a nice bit of trivia attached to the history of the movie's journey.

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God I hated Shakespeare in Love and really felt it was the worst of the nominated movies. I didn't think it even deserved a nom. It pissed me off that it won and I don't generally care one way or the other about the Oscars (other than it sometimes highlighting some movies for me to check out).

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I was glad Shakespeare in Love won. And I still think it's the better movie of the two. For me, take away the impressive opening sequence of Saving Private Ryan and there isn't a whole lot there. It's a fairly pedestrian story. But it does have some very impressive scenes and I like the movie. I just don't feel it was robbed of anything.

 

Of course, Beltmann hit the nail on the head. There's no reason to think of the Oscars as validation of anything. Either you think a movie's good or you don't. Plus, at least in that instance, it's not like Saving Private Ryan was the little movie you loved that you wanted to see garner more success.

 

And can someone please tell Jakobnicholas that the title of the movie is No Country for Old Men. I think he has used Old Country for Old Men enough times to discount the typo theory.

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I was glad Shakespeare in Love won.

Agreed.

 

I haven't seen either film in many years, but I do recall thinking Shakespeare was the better of the 2 films at the time and was happy it won.

 

Saving Private Ryan was impressive technically, but it didn't stir me as much as it should have considering the gravitas of the subject. Don't get me wrong, I thought it was good, but as far as war films go, it wouldn't even make my top 10. Part of the problem for me was the casting: Tom Hanks is not as good an actor as he's made out to be--maybe it's just me. The film also had too much of a Hollywood blockbuster gild around the edges. I prefer understated realism to overly dramatic manipulation. Maybe I need to watch it again and see if it hits me differently this time.

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I prefer understated realism to overly dramatic manipulation.

Have you seen Frozen River yet? I watched it tonight, and I think it's about as perfect as a movie can be.

 

frozenriver_movie.jpg

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Have you seen Frozen River yet? I watched it tonight, and I think it's about as perfect as a movie can be.

I haven't seen that, but it is on my shortlist of films to see in the next little while. I'm slowly catching up on the current crop of films:

 

Watched "Wendy and Lucy" and "Slumdog Millionaire" yesterday. Today I'm hoping to watch "Frost/Nixon."

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i saw gran torino this weekend and indeed Clint was robbed of a best actor nom. he did a much better job than brad pitt, but that's just my opinion. overall the movie was good, started out predictable, but once it got going, hooked. and in true clint eastwood form, half-way through there's that notion, oh right, i am watching a clint eastwood movie this isn't going to end happy. but i'm not saying if there's a twist in the end or not, :). it is a movie worthy of the $8.

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Guest Gym Teacher Man

i'll never understand the lack of love for tom hanks. to me, he is the quintessential actor of his time. and i actually think his best work was saving private ryan.

 

i also don't understand the love for the thin red line. i tried to watch it three times and failed each time. just way to boring for my taste.

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i'll never understand the lack of love for tom hanks. to me, he is the quintessential actor of his time. and i actually think his best work was saving private ryan.

 

i also don't understand the love for the thin red line. i tried to watch it three times and failed each time. just way to boring for my taste.

 

 

Actually, there's a much better argument to be made for his best work being Big.

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