The Oscars is always highly rated and watched but for some reason this year has a lot of buzz about it. Many speculate the Oscars move to having ten Best Picture nominees is a part of this, I disagree actually I believe that has very little to do with it. This year I believe movie audiences simply grew up. Fantastic films like True Grit, The King’s Speech, Black Swan, The Fighter and others are all huge hits. Other films like Social Network, 127 Hours and Winters Bone might not have been huge hits but were talked about a lot in different media outlets. On top of that two summer hits have multiple nominations like Inception and Toy Story 3. Just like in sports if more people have horses in the race then more people care who wins. I hope this year proves to Hollywood that good and smart movies actually are better than cookie cutter nonsense that usually clutters each month in theaters. Return to this blog after the Oscars for my thoughts on who got snubbed and who won. Also Chris Nolan should have been nominated straight up.
Tag Archive: True Grit
So the Oscar nominations were announced and across the board they were kind of a let down. I almost have problems across the board with the nominations. Let me get this off my chest, I already know The Social Network will win most of the awards. I feel most people know this and I expect ratings to drop because of it. The Globes ratings rose because of their host, Ricky Gervais. The Social Network was a very good movie, but does not deserve everything it’s winning. I believe these awards shows believe the “Young generation” have some connection to The Social Network and awarding it dozens of awards will connect these shows with the internet generation. It’s just not happening, most people think the movie is “alright” and not brilliant. Anyway here is the list of nominations and I’ve added my thoughts to a couple of them.
Actor in a Lead Role:
Javier Bardem – Biutiful
Jeff Bridges – True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg – The Social Network
Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
James Franco – 127 Hours
– I have no real issue with this group. If they were not going to nominate Mark Wahlberg then they should have given it to Christian Bale. I would also drop Eisenberg for Ryan Gosling for his performance in Blue Valentine. I also think it was pointless to nominate James Franco, since the dude is co-hosting I doubt he’ll win, even though I hope he does.
Actor in a Supporting Role:
-Christian Bale – The Fighter
John Hawkes – Winter’s Bone
Jeremy Renner – The Town
Mark Ruffalo – The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
– Christian Bale should walk away with this award, Geoffrey Rush is a dark horse though. I dig this list.
Actress in a Leading Role:
Annette Bening – The Kids Are All Right
Nicole Kidman – Rabbit Hole
Jennifer Lawrence – Winter’s Bone
Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Michelle Williams – Blue Valentine
– Natalie Portman will probably win but will see if her recent movie choices will sway voters to give it to Kidman or possibly Lawrence. Good list here but Hailee Steinfeld should have one of these spots… I’ll get to that in a second.
Actress in a Supporting Role:
– Amy Adams – The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Melissa Leo – The Fighter
Hailee Steinfeld – True Grit
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom
– So it should go to Adams or Leo or Carter. It could go to Steinfeld but I have a serious problem with her being nominated for best supporting actress here. She was in every scene of True Grit. If anything Jeff Bridges was supporting her role. So having her placed here is a cop out and might take the award away from other great performances.
Animated Feature Film:
– How to Train Your Dragon
– The Illusionist
– Toy Story 3
Only three nominations here? What about Tangled? Toy Story 3 will win here and then instantly not stand a chance in the best picture category. Remember Up?
The list of course is longer but I’m skipping to the major awards…
Best Director:
– Darren Aronofsky – Black Swan
– David O. Russell – The Fighter
– Tom Hooper – The King’s Speech
– David Fincher – The Social Network
– Joel and Ethan Coen – True Grit
– All worthy nominations, but where is Christopher Nolan? The man made the most complex sci-fi movie ever and he gets ignored here. I thought the whole reason why they expanded best picture category because The Dark Knight got dissed. I love the Coen Brothers but they are not going to win. That slot should have went to Nolan. Fincher will win it but it’s for the wrong movie, he should have won the award for Zodiac.
Best Picture:
– Black Swan
– The Fighter
– Inception
– The Kids Are All Right
– The King’s Speech
– 127 Hours
– The Social Network
– Toy Story 3
– True Grit
– Winter’s Bone
– The Social Network will win this but it doesn’t deserve it, I’d give it to Inception or The King’s Speech. The Fighter is also worthy of the award but I don’t think it will win.
So I have a bigger problem with the awards and it has to do with what I think is a huge snub. Tron: Legacy, I know it’s a silly movie but the soundtrack by Daft Punk was the best of the year. The graphics were also amazing and yet the movie gets no attention. Oscars are the fail this year really but will see once it airs.
January is a slow month for movie studios, it’s usually called a “dumping” month. A place where studio’s drop films they don’t have a lot of faith in. The film No Strings Attached has been getting a lot of dung thrown at it the last couple on months. Most of it unfairly of course as the film is getting dissed since this film comes out so closely to Natalie Portman’s award winning performance in The Black Swan. The romantic comedy managed a decently impressive opening a little over $20 million in ticket sales. The Green Horney managed to stick in second place with $18 million, which brings its total to over sixty million. So the film isn’t a huge flop but not a huge hit either. The Dilemma sits in third but what’s more impressive is The King’s Speech which is in fourth did not drop at all. It has made the same amount two weeks in a row. I guess the nominations and awards it keeps rounding up is helping make people pay attention to it. The rest of the list is not a major surprise. A lot of movies come out next weekend and it will be interesting to see which films will have legs. Will the award nominated films just sit around for weeks or will the new films dominate? Will be interesting to see how this goes down.
1. No Strings Attached $20. 3 Million
2. The Green Hornet $18.1 Million
3. The Dilemma $9.7 Million
4. The King’s Speech $9.2 Million
5. True Grit $8 Million
6. Black Swan $6.2 Million
7. The Fighter $4.5 Million
8. Little Fockers $4.5 Million
9. Yogi Bear $4.1 Million
10. Tron: Legacy $3.7 Million
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