Academy Award (Oscar) Nominations Announced

I'd rather watch the Dark Knight over the Million Dollar Baby anyday

 

I'd rather watch "Hardbodies" than "The Dark Knight."

 

Not fair, you can't compare it to the classics.

 

I also finds the superhero genre mediocre and unpleasant.

 

We all have our opinions but, artistic merits aside, the fact that Dark Knight rises wasn't even considered for the technical awards is unfair. Production design, cinematography, visual effects, sound mixing and editing are outstanding. I am sure those guys worked their a$$es off and the academy didn't even consider them...

 

Complaining that something wasn't considered in and of itself is worthless because there are only 5 films (or so) that can be nominated for each category except Best Picture. So you have to say which movie you would un-nominate to make room for the Dark Knight, but of course the people on that movie also "worked their a$$es off."

I mean does Dark Knight have clearly better "sound editing" than Argo, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Skyfall, or Zero Dark Thirty? Make your case.

(Of course, the answer is- man, how do you even judge that? The correct answer it is- it's preposterous to treat movies like it's sports and to even play this game.)

 

I was disappointed that Ben Affleck didn't get nominated for Best Director, but I didn't say it was unfair. Life's not fair. Giving The Dark Knight a bunch of awards because the people who made it tried really hard is like modern youth sports where everyone gets a trophy for trying. I think it's a given that everyone who worked on every one of these movies worked really hard.

 

I dunno...the sound team on The Dark Knight Rises did a pretty darned good job making Bane's dialogue almost indecipherable, that deserves some kind of award, right?

 

Ok, I should have been more specific: the people who worked on DKR also delivered an excellent product imho: I haven't seen every movie nominated (Django, Lincoln, Les Miserables, Zero dark thirty, Silver Linings playbook have yet to be released in my country) but I'm surprised that DKR didn't even get a single technical award nomination. Just an example: "Snow white and the huntsman" got a "best visual effects" nomination. Are the visual effects on DKR really worse than the "Snow white" ones?

PS: I'm not affiliated to WB and sorry to look like a DKR fanboy

 

Yeah that reminds me of the MTV Movie Awards (which I don't even know if that's still a thing?) where they'd have "best kiss" and "best action team"- silly but fun categories. So "least comprehensible character dialogue" to Dark Knight!

I saw Silver Linings Playbook last night and it was a fun little movie but I genuinely couldn't tell if it was for-real or some sort of subtle satire of romantic comedy tropes. It had characters saying things like "I like all the parts of me even the messy ones!" and such, and the guy chases the girl and there's a wacky misunderstanding and a climactic dance number and a silly best friend comic relief guy?... I mean, it's like a some warped 80s movie. I genuinely can't tell if it's too lazy or too snarkily clever.

 

No, it wouldn't win that award. Great films don't win awards for mediocrity, though apparently they give high prizes to mediocre films - that's the only explanation for the continued Oscar love thrown at Kathryn Bigelow...

 

Meeeoowww.

[I didn't think The Hurt Locker was that great, either]

 

Have you seen "Zero Dark Thirty" yet? Like "Hurt Locker", I went into it with high expectations. Like "Hurt Locker", I left perplexed at all the praise it's received...

 

No, but I will catch it at some point. I was also puzzled by the Hurt Locker's acclaim. Oh, well.

 

Nobody even has a chance of winning Best Sound over Les Miserables. Not possible. I'd bet both my cars that it will win both the Cinema Audio Society award and also the Oscar.

In any other year, I would give Django hands-down the award for best sound just because of the dialogue. This is a very, very good-sounding film, with some of the best dialogue I've ever heard. And very little dubbing.

 

Why not enjoy both. I did.

 

I for one DO love Bigelow's last two films and ZDT would get the Best Picture award if I were King of Oscars.

 

I'd love to enjoy both, but I thought "Million Dollar Baby" was awful. Not mediocre, not disappointing - AWFUL!

 

I saw ZDT this week. Thought it was too long and a few too many slow spots. Jessica was outstanding.

Wished I had seen something else.

 

Speaking as a guy who has worked in the film sound business for quite a few years now, I can tell you all those films would deserve accolades, both for editing and for mixing (and those are greatly different jobs). The film that will win is Les Miserables, because of the immense technical challenge they had in capturing live music being sung on set. In any other year, I would're predicted Lincoln or possible Django, both of which had incredibly good dialogue (and also directors who are extremely sound-aware).

Check out who members of the Cinema Audio Society nominated for last year:

http://cinemaaudiosociety.org/

I thought Dark Knight Rises had incredibly good cinematography by Wally Pfister and his crew, but there were quite a few challengers in this category -- all very different. I'd give it to Wally only because of the hurdle of trying to wrangle 65mm Imax, which is incredibly challenging for a narrative feature.

 

Vidiot,
Interesting insight. Makes sense. I will use your logic to select Les Mis in the sound categories for my family Oscar pool.

 

Just saw "Les Mis"...had a screener. After an hour, I just couldn't take it anymore. THE WORSE MOVIE I HAVE EVER SEEN.

 

At this point it looks like Lincoln will be the big winner...Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor at the very least. The most interesting race is for Best Actress...Jennifer Lawrence vs. Jessica Chastain. After seeing ZDT the other day, I'm going to root for Lawrence--she really captured my heart while Chastain just had way too many scenes where she just stood there and watched what was going on around her (the final shot of her was great, though). I thought ZDT would be the frontrunner, but it's an emotionally distant procedural--thrillingly made, nonetheless--but nowhere near as engaging and human as The Hurt Locker (which I do love).

But after seeing just about everything, I'm going to pick Django Unchained as my favorite film of the year. It just kicked ass and made me happy for days after I saw it. Hopefully it wins Best Original Screenplay at the very least.

 

Congratulations to Jennifer Lawrence for winning the SAG best actress award last night, I'm hoping that's a good sign for her grabbing the Oscar as well. She most definitely deserves it.

 

Watch Movie 43.