Oscars 2010

AllAroundFilmLV

AllAroundFilmLV

Well-known member
Is there anybody who feels that a different movie should have won for Best Film?

I would have personally liked to see District 9 take the big one, although that's just a pipe dream I know. I am COMPLETELY satisfied with The Hurt Locker taking Film, Director, Screenplay, Editing (my niche), as well as Sound Editing and Mixing.

Congrats to Bigelow!
 
I feel what deserved to win, won IMO.

I felt like while district 9 was great, it wasn't flawless. It had it's interesting ideas, but the main guy I just couldn't stand, and something about the dialogue that he was throwing out... a bit flawed for me on that.

As for hurt locker, it's not a perfect film, but in my eyes it had nothing bad going for it. It was an over all solid film.

I'm just surprised Avatar even got nominated for best picture. What a crummy script.
 
I think Avatar won just what it should have won. I think there was a legitimate competition between Avatar and Hurt Locker for Best Director, but I don't think there was ever much doubt that Locker would take Best Picture.
 
I'm glad that Hurt Locker got the accolades it deserved. As for Avatard...well it touched a nerve to a certain iq impaired demographic sector of the population.
 
I am stoked for Katherine (and want to sleep with her) but I thought The Basterds should have won.

Avatar
District 9 and Up

... had no business being nominated in this category.
 
I got to work with Katherine Bigelow on K-19 back in 2001.... I'm glad she won what she did, she's ridiculously talented on set...and she's a major hottie too!!
 
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J.R. Hudson said:
Avatar
District 9 and Up

... had no business being nominated in this category.
Click to expand...

The academy nominates films that don't deserve it constantly. I don't think many of the voters really think of it as a 'best film' award, but rather as its own sort of thing. For the Best Picture award to really be meaningful they would have to include very small indie films and especially foreign films.
 
I wanted Harry Potter to take best cinematography. But knowing the academy wouldn't since they look more of the movie than the camera work.
That movie truly had some beautiful and amazing shots.

Also Up did have an awesome score. But if you use the word ORIGINAL more then I would have liked Sherlock Holmes to take that. That whole soundtrack is filled with the word Original.
 
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J.R. Hudson said:
I am stoked for Katherine (and want to sleep with her) but I thought The Basterds should have won.

Avatar
District 9 and Up

... had no business being nominated in this category.
Click to expand...

Again, John, couldn't agree more.

EDIT- Seriously, compare Hurt Locker to Apocalipse Now, Platoon, Thin Red Line, etc. And you'll see the film is not up to that leve l of excelence.

Basterds was Cinema with a capital C- a film on a league of its own amongst the nominees.
 
Saw a little clip on the news about the Hurt Locker with some of the stunt guys from New Zealand today, one guy said that
Kathryn Bigelow didn't seem to know what she was doing a lot of the time on set, not sure about what she wanted, and they thought it was going to go straight to DVD! Funny how that turned out.

Anyway I still haven't seen it (not out here yet) but I loved Inglorious Bastards, I thought that was insanely powerful writing and filmmaking. That was my pick for directing, but I guess not.

I liked the score for UP, the academy definitely favours the simpler, melodic and memorable scores, which is awesome for anyone that wants to compete with John Williams on a really bad day, but otherwise kinda meh. Still liked the score a lot, though.

Still need to see some of those foreign films, they looked cool.
 
The oscars this year sucked hardcore. I didn't think any of the movies that came out last year were any thing amazing. I really liked "Inglorious Basterds", and I thought "Watchmen" was one of the better movies of the year even though it bombed and got smashed by critics. I can't think of to many movies released that I enjoyed every moment of. Moon was good, although a bit to quiet for me. I haven't seen The Road (and it wasn't even nominated for anything). shi*, some of the movies that entertained me the most were movies I thought I'd never watch one being "The Hangover". Avatar was a let down for me, as I'm a huge Cameron fan and Aliens, T1, and T2 are a few of my favorite films.
Basterds really had one of the best original scripts I thought (even if most of Tarantino's stuff is a homage) I thought it had the most heart out of all the films made last year. A lot of soul, a lot of movie making magic and movie making spirit. The kind that I didn't find in the glossy worlds of AVATAR and STAR TREK. Although I thought Star Trek was better than Avatar. Very few of the movies released last year made me remember why I love going to the movies. Basterds was one, although I still thought some parts were unnecessary and could have been cut.
The Hurt Locker is a good film, but I think it was to small in scope to win best picture. It was really a character peice. Maybe I'm wrong thinking that Best Pic should go to a big film, but out of the 10 nominated none really strike me at all.
 
Personally I despise Inglorious Basterds. I'm not the biggest Tarantino fan, but I've enjoyed some of his work. But Basterds for me was long, laborious, and halfway through I realized I was watching it simply because I'm a filmmaker and had to force myself to see the rest. Half the movie could have been cut out just to make it paced better. Maybe it's because I'm the MTV generation, but it was just wayyyy too slow for me, every conversation taking 10 times longer than I think it should have. I kind of connected to the characters, but not enough, and there were maybe 1-2 cool moments. For me it was just one big conversation piece with occasional moments of action.

Hurt Locker on the other hand was phenomenal for me. I think stories are all about character, and while it was a character piece, I think it was well put together for one.

No not a lot of great movies this year, and Avatar was in fact a let down, but I'm happy with Hurt Locker winning.
 
Hurt Locker was a competent War film, but nowhere near the masterpieces of war cinema. A Competent film shouldn't be Best Film, IMO. And as for Directing, probably the "semi-Indie" way it was shot (we all know what Indie trully means- they must be joking to say a multi million dollar production being "Indie") was a major selling point for the academy, as well as the fact that Kathryn is a woman. These factors, while important however, shouldn't have such a significant weight on the selection, compared to the likes of performances, script, Photography and cinematic language- things that exceled in Inglorious Basterds.

Let me be a bit harsh with "the Hurt Locker" (SPOILERS AHEAD): Didn't anyone feel the movie weighting on the melodramatic and cliché?

The main lead was a glorified "Jack Bauer", the anti-hero, a reckless man but a good leader with personal problems. A mixture of John Rambo with Jack Bauer, if one might say.

The Therapist military man was such a cliché. The moment the man says he wants to join them on a routine trip we immediately know his fate- anyone seen "Hot Shots!"? This character fits very well the role of "Dead Meat" .

All the realism setup in the first scene with the trouble of disarming that street bomb is completely pulled away with the appearance of our "anti-hero", who disobeys and disrespects his team, puts them in jeoparty, etc. etc. It looks cool, gives good slow motion shots- specially the end one- but it just completely passes the image that the military is made of incompetent strategists or "Jack Bauers".

It was, however, entertaining, the Dead Beckham scene was impressive and actually made a good emotional plot, however, created a strong inconsistency on the character, who one day is completely shocked and protective of family values and compromises his life for avenging a young boy, and the next moment just, well, doesn't care about his own "Beckham". yes, he feels good in the line of battle, but didn't he have an awakening with "Beckham"? Ok, he's complex, but that final act with him returning home was just too short and seemed rushed to present the cool slow motion "we have these badasses in the war" closing shot.

Notice that this is me being the harshest possible to a very competent film. However, its nowhere close to the cinematic masterpieces of Appocalipse Now, Platoon, the Thin Red Line, or Good Morning Vietnam, for example.
 
I'm trying to think of an amazing movie I saw this year... Will get
back to you.
 
Personally, seeing the quality of these year's nominees for Best Film, I cannot see why Invictus wasn't there. Personally, I think it was a superior "FIlm" as, say, nominees like Avatar, "Up" or "The Blind Side".

To me, Precious was a film trying too hard. Monique deserved the Oscar, but man was her character over the top. It was a film trying too hard to present the "harsh reality of urban America"- shock after shock, melodrama after melodrama, blow after blow, twist after twist. Greek tragedy, indeed. And what was Mariah Carey doing in there? That was distracting.

Up In the Air, on the other hand, was consistent, not pretentious, and was a movie that came in good timing. As much as I don't like George "Nespresso" Cloney, he did a very good job playing his own cliché, or the role of the charming man in his 40'ies of our generation. Jealousy for the man's good looks and effect on women aside, I felt the movie was well done, clever, without being preachy- this year's As Good As It Gets, or Jerry Macguire.

Up was not as good as a film as last year's Wall-E. It had a very powerful first 10 minutes but loses its way in the middle, coming back in the third act with a solid conclusion. Its inclusion automatically presented the result for best Animation film, and probably served to show how the quality of these year's films were not as good as the previous years.

District 9 was a very refreshing blockbuster that deserved its nomination for best film, more than Avatar. The CG was IMO, much more impressive than AVATAR's. But Avatar's Oscar's were all deserved, including art direction.

Inglorious Basterds was the best script for miles- amazing dialogue, cinematic brilliance and setup, poignant and insisive dialogue that not only entertains but questions the pure essence of war films and the realism of characters in film, it has an incredible subterxt of the role of the filmmaker and its importance in portraying history, etc. Its a film that IMO will figure in Film School studies. (I've said this before)

And Directing should've been to Tarantino: he brings amazing performances from all actors of the film, specially, of course, from Waltz: his performance was so outstanding that they introduced the Oscar for best supporting actor as the first award of the night, since it was such an unanimous award that there was no surprise whatsoever on the audience and peers, and they needed to keep the ball roling to the more suspense and disputed awards. He created a film with memorable characters, revisited and redefined old "character studies" from his previous works- the lead actress is a perfected and more feminin "Bride"- and showed that he was completely on the top of his game on his craft and his own cinematic language, like pacing, editing, mise-en-scene character interaction, etc and etc, all those things that truly makes this IMO, Cinema with a capital C, a work of Art that stands beyond the test of time. Its a good representative of American Cinema for this year.

The Cohen's Brothers Serious Man is another auteur film, that, like Inglorious, reflects the personality, style and cinematic language of the filmmakers. The script is typical Cohen Bros, with harsh, complex characters and a sense of realism that confronts the audience, puts it on their toes and makes it think. Its not an Oscar film, but more of an European Festival film. Its a good film, but somehow feels out of place from the other nominees, and personally, I would say not as consistent as No Country.

These are just my subjective views on the main nominees of this year for best film.
 
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As I said in a previous thread...

my subjective opinion is that Avatar, Inglorious Basterds, UP, and Up in the Air all should have won Best Picture before The Hurt Locker did... and yes, I've seen all of those movies.
 
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