The Shape of Water - Guillermo del Toro

Good movie but not great. I wasn’t moved. Pan’s Labyrinth is still his best.

 

Well, the critics and the movie-watching public aren't always in agreement. There is also the possibility that a movie can be a little too much in love with itself.

I enjoyed The Shape of Water. There were some great performances (esp. Sally Hawkins) and the FX were brilliant. But I think the screenplay was a bit flawed and, for me, some scenes didn't serve the story.

del Toro deserves a nomination for best director and the movie certainly deserves a nomination for FX and score. Sally Hawkins deserves a nomination for best actor as well. But Dunkirk, The Post, Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, Get Out and Three Billboards - along with The Shape of Water - are likely to be best picture nominees and I would be surprised/shocked if the academy chose TSoW over these other films.

 

That would be quite novel, considering she's an actress... hence separate categories .

 

Yep.. should have said actress. It's funny, in many cases actresses are referred to as actors, or "female actors". Guess it's a PC thing.

 

Now the nominations are up to 215, with 46 of those awarded.

List of accolades received by The Shape of Water (film) - Wikipedia

Some Oscar predictions are guessing the film will get 10 nominations (which I think is possible)...

2018 Oscars guild awards scorecard: ‘The Shape of Water’ is 10 for 10 with nominations

 

That's pretty amazing. TSoW just didn't hold together for me in the second half. I'm spit-balling that the Oscar for best movie will go to The Post although Water may earn Oscars for special effects, cinematography, and even director.

 

Wasn't overwhelmed by it.

Didn't care for the last 1/3 of the movie.

 

Oh. man, that's it? What a weak year. Need to see Call Me and Billboards. I enjoyed Get Out, but it's a slow year at the Oscars if that film gets nominated. I'm seeing Dunkirk win big at this point, no matter how dull it was. Then again, The English Patient...

 

Could it be you’ve grown weary of the: There is a bad guy and a good guy and the good Guy has to save someone, so and the hero and the baddie are going to wind up facing off against each other story? Of course there were so many more clichés. Healing powers. Got to get them back in the water. The Harpo Marx like Waif ( La Strada redux). And then there’s the slow drudge to the show down, featuring one of the clumsiest most boring escapes ever put on film. I’m just surprised he didn’t squeeze in a little boy and his father finding redemption. And maybe there’s a new drinking game in the works in college? Every time Michael Shannon electrocutes a grimacing and defenseless beast you have to do a shot. Because it seems like he was doing it about 50 times a minute in this movie. With blood! ( bonus points for eating a taco during the crowbar in the guts scene). What a pleasant time at the movies.

 

I just looked at the list of academy,s list of movies that are eligible for the Oscar. Where the heck is Beauty and the Beast in all this talk? Was that this year? A really well made film. And Mother! Ignored! Loved it. Are they going to drown us again this year with the little quiet pictures like two postcards and ladybird? Cute movies but you seen one you seen all of those movies. I enjoyed ladybird but I feel like I’ve walked that road too many times before. My list would probably include Dunkirk (not my choice, but the best of the dreck and my guess for Oscar bait— haven’t seen The Posr, newspaper movies depress me. My like: blade runner 2049, beauty and the beast, The disaster artist, Mother! (Yes!), Victoria and Abdul. Otherwise it was kind of a crappy year.

 

I think Get Out will be nominated as it should imho

 

I saw Beauty and the Beast and I know it was one of the biggest hits of the year. Enjoyable but It was basically a frame by frame zerox of the great animated version. Not original in any way so not deserving of a nomination.

 

I dunno. My Fair Lady, Oliver! and Chicago all won best picture, and they were just straight adaptations of plays. Best film encompasses acting, production, screenplay, music, it's the film as a whole, it's not just about direction or originality.

 

Exactly. Those were good adaptions of plays. They were changed and added to. The new Beast looked like they used the first one as storyboards

 

Never saw it. Cartoons bore me, now. It must be an age thing. I need real faces.

 

Rex is still alive ?

 

Well the animated version is amazing and in fact it was the first animated film in history to be nominated for a best picture academy award. I saw it because I had a young son at the time but loved it and have seen it many times.

The new live action film is pretty much frame for frame identicle so really unoriginal . It lacks that added magic the animated version had.

But I guess for those who never saw the original, the new one works just fine.

 

The Shape of Water got 2 1/2 stars out of 4 on Roger Ebert's site, a review written by Sheila O'Malley. I dunno, how many clothes does this emperor really have? I wanted to be wowed and amazed and unfortunately I wasn't, and I'm not that picky about movies.

I think The Post has a great shot at winning because the academy might feel that the film's very timely message (speaking truth to power, the public's right to know) is important enough to honor it with Best Picture. Two other things in its favor: 1) it's a true story and 2) the pedigree - Hanks/Streep/Spielberg. Academy voters can feel good about voting this one best pic.

 

Ebert's name shouldn't lend credence to many of those reviews.

That one specifically ends in the critical equivalent to a dine and dash.

"All of this is true of "The Shape of Water," but still, something's off."

 

I really feel this has no chance...it's called buzz and this film has none. Obviously it has the pedigree but it's so boring and unappealing. Do we ever need to see another Hanks or Streep or Spielberg nomination? Yawn. Remember Moonlight won last year over the highly lauded La La Land. I think the voters will go with their gut feelings and vote what film moved them the most (remember Crash winning?). The Shape Of Water may come through but I like the buzz with 3 Billboards however I'm hoping for a Lady Bird win, so perfect.

 

You are probably correct, we'll see.

 

I worked with Rex for a few years at Video Review, and actually edited and rewrote his copy a few times. He's an interesting guy.

 

And... The Shape of Water just won Best Picture at the Producers Guild Awards tonight in LA...

‘The Shape of Water’ Wins Producers Guild Award for Best Feature