Comments on: Skip the Oscars this year! Join me, and host a WALL-E party on Feb 22.

By: Caleb

Caleb — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 07:13:33 +0000

oh man. i forgot about THE FALL. hmmm. i guess i am pretty mad now that you mentioned it.

rewrite of Forest Gump. hahaha. thanks.

By: will

will — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 04:32:20 +0000

Several comments I could give here, but can I ask one question?

Did you review The Reader? If so, I must have missed it.

Don’t wanna be another sour grape muncher. Thanks for the comic relief, Seth. One of the best one-liners I’ve read in a comments section in quite a while.

By: Glenn

Glenn — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 00:23:47 +0000

I’m down with all the disappointment over Wall-E. Taken as a piece of thought-provoking film, character development, and storytelling, it was peerless this year. And the comment about “sour grapes” would be witty if it made any sense at all. The “sour grapes” phrase is supposed to be used in the context of one’s own accomplishments being not recognized. The reason most of us are upset that Wall-E was snubbed springs from the larger issue – the Academy spiralling into its own irrelevance and losing more and more people every year. It seems the majority of the people who get caught up in Oscar fever are people who diligently see the movies nominated because they feel they SHOULD. I used to be one of those. Now, I only seem to have time for movies I want to see (that and the movies Jeff recommends, of course, wink). My two cents.

By: Dave Von Bieker

Dave Von Bieker — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 23:16:33 +0000

I too am disheartened. But I won’t add my loud voice to the din. I already blogged about it.

I will silently pout instead. And plan an anti-Oscar party! What a great idea!

By: Chris

Chris — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 15:15:25 +0000

The Reader was nominated because there were so many Holocaust movies out this year, that it would just be terrible for Hollywood not to nominate one…Holocaust movies are award gold.

Incidentally, any Extras fans here? Remember Kate Winslet in the premiere, doing a Holocaust drama and cynically noting that she was only doing it because Holocaust movies get Oscars?

By: Seth H.

Seth H. — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 13:50:25 +0000

It’s getting pretty loud in here, what with everyone ferociously munching on their sour grapes.

By: chessncoffee

chessncoffee — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 00:29:52 +0000

FWIW, I decided to compare the Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic ratings of the five best picture nominees with WALL-E’s ratings. WALL-E better ratings on both sites than any of the nominees.

I also thought it was interesting that The Reader has such low ratings for a Best Pic nominee- 60% on RT and 59 on Metacritic.

By: Jeremy Landes

Jeremy Landes — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 22:20:07 +0000

And where oh where were the Fireproof nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Screenplay…

I’ll watch for the chance to see Richard Jenkins and Thomas Newman and Danny Boyle accept their first Oscars. I don’t understand why Millions, on this site, is deemed so much better than Slumdog Millionaire–the latter film was moving and managed to generate suspense when I ought to have known how it would end. Riveting entertainment and an especially rollicking soundtrack.

How can I do an Oscar night screening of Rachel Getting Married if the DVD isn’t being released until March 17th? Do we rent a hotel room and try to access it through their pay TV?

By: Peter T Chattaway

Peter T Chattaway — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:57:37 +0000

For what it's worth, Brett, I preferred Winslet in The Reader -- but that might be because I found her character in Revolutionary Road so annoying that I responded as though it were the actress who was annoying. That's just one of many things that I'd revisit if I had time to do a round of second viewings. Also for what it's worth, when the local film critics group did its awards, I nominated Winslet for The Reader, but she ended up being nominated for both performances (that is, one nomination for two movies, rather than two separate nominations), and I made a point of voting for someone else just because I didn't care to honour Revolutionary Road or her performance therein. She won anyway, though. Count me among the people who like the idea of Gran Torino better than the film itself. As for The Dark Knight, I like it a lot, and it will almost certainly make my top-ten list, but there are just enough "issues" to be had with the film that I don't begrudge the Academy or anyone else for leaving it out of the top five.

By: Ryan H.

Ryan H. — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 21:35:14 +0000

I fail to see how these nominations are any worse than usual.

Furthermore, I don’t think WALL-E is that great. It’s as over-hyped as any single film from the past year.