Gold Bugged

[Smiley Face]

Crying shame that Cloud Atlas didn't get ANYTHING. I mean, on the minor level, it should've at least gotten some consideration for Film Editing and quite possibly Best Original Score - on a personal note it should've also been up for Best Picture and possibly Best Director, though that's tricky because of the whole triple-director thing. But I guess you only recognize how flawlessly the film editing and music are pulled off if you're actually enjoying it.

It really amuses me how some of the reviews trashing Cloud Atlas claimed you'd only be able to understand it if you'd read the book, when it is actually a very different creature, what with simultaneous presentation of the stories and TOTALLY different (much more pessimistic) connotations to the endings of the individual stories.

Spoiler: For example, the end of Sonmi's story?

Rather than delivering her dramatic manifesto, she is arrested shortly after writing it, and it is held up as a justification for why fabricants mustn't be allowed to reach consciousness. Sonmi confides in the archivist that she expected this, having realized that the Union Rebellion was another cog in society, designed to attract dissidents to where they couldn't do any harm and provide an enemy to justify the semi-benevolent totalitarian state. The only light note to the whole ending was that, having recognized what she'd do, she wrote her manifesto knowing that it'd be read by many as dissident nonsense, but made it as convincing as possible - and as a result, pretty much all of society collapses. So, basically, turns out to be a more up-to-date Brave New World. Loved reading it, but still, a VERY different creature from the movie, which its excellent in its own right.

 

[Kurt Cristal]

This is ridiculous. Every year, the same undeserving film just pops up in every single award category while all the good movies of the year go to waste. You know, screw it. I was going to give a big long explanation to this, but I'm just going to go ahead and say it. As of this year, the SpikeTV Video Game Awards officially hold more merit than the Oscars. Come at me.

 

[irishda]

I said it on your blog and I will say it again; at least ParaNorman got a best animated feature nomination (that it won't win).

And there I was about to make a standard 'Don't want to/havn't seen any of these' comment (except for Django but thats not out in the UK till next week) when you tell me they actually reckonised that amazing film!

Whats it up against:
Brave
Wreck-It Ralph
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

...hrrrm, 'Wreck-It Ralph' is STILL not out here in the UK and 'Frankenweenie' was out for all of one week so I missed it *annoyed mumbling*, id like to think the academy better then to just go for Pixar what with it being the safe option as 'Brave' had alot of issues but still... ParaNorman was freaking amazing.

The Pirates! are the only ones that deserve to win. Theirs was probably the funniest of the bunch, although it didn't lack gravitas. It's not fuckin Toy Story 3 when it comes to the heartfelt stuff, but it still had its moments

 

[Darth_Payn]

What? Argo's not nominated for best director or best Actor? WHAT THE DEUCE?! I thought Ben Affleck knocked it out of the park! And Zero Dark Thirty getting shafted like it did just confirms my suspicion about the Academy, if not most of Hollywood: they hate the CIA. So why not take it out on the two movies that show CIA agents not only doing their job, but accomplishing something too?

 

[BehattedWanderer]

Honestly, I find I've stopped caring what the Academy thinks. When I see an actor, I don't think "ooh, they won an award for ___!", I think "ooh, they're really good in most of their stuff, I like seeing them onscreen." I know how amazing Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight, and Cloud Atlas are, I don't need them winning a tiny statue of a dude to show it. Watch, as all the fucks I give about this practice blow off into the wind...It didn't take long. There aren't a lot of them.

 

[Trishbot]

I forget which year it was that I stopped caring about the Oscars. It was the year Mickey Rourke didn't win for "The Wrestler", "Milk" won for "best original screenplay" (how can it be original if it's based on history?), and "Hellboy 2" lost best make-up to "Benjamin Button" (despite Benjamin Button using CGI, not make-up).

That being said, the lack of acknowledgment towards movies like "Argo", "Cloud Atlas", or "Zero Dark Thirty" is very peculiar.

I'd also say that "Rise of the Guardians" was a significantly better animated film than "Brave", so I have no idea why it wasn't nominated for contention.

 

[PunkRex]

I said it on your blog and I will say it again; at least ParaNorman got a best animated feature nomination (that it won't win).

And there I was about to make a standard 'Don't want to/havn't seen any of these' comment (except for Django but thats not out in the UK till next week) when you tell me they actually reckonised that amazing film!

Whats it up against:
Brave
Wreck-It Ralph
Frankenweenie
ParaNorman
The Pirates! Band of Misfits.

...hrrrm, 'Wreck-It Ralph' is STILL not out here in the UK and 'Frankenweenie' was out for all of one week so I missed it *annoyed mumbling*, id like to think the academy better then to just go for Pixar what with it being the safe option as 'Brave' had alot of issues but still... ParaNorman was freaking amazing.

The Pirates! are the only ones that deserve to win. Theirs was probably the funniest of the bunch, although it didn't lack gravitas. It's not fuckin Toy Story 3 when it comes to the heartfelt stuff, but it still had its moments

'The Pirates!' was damn good, then again it is Aardman so that was obvious, the third act in particular was all sorts of daffy goodness but ParaNorman just clicked for me. 'Pirates!' stands a good chance but I get the feeling it would be selected due to who made it opposed to whats in it.

 

[RTR]

Living in Mexico, most of the big Oscar films are usually crammed into January and February, which means I still haven't seen Lincoln, Django or ZDT. It kinda sucks.

I've been meaning to ask Bob why he hated "Silver Linings" (haven't seen it) and why it's such a critical darling. Apparently, it's plot is reminiscent of a sitcom and a lot of critics seem to be fixated on Jennifer Lawrence's character, which is apparently THE solution to Bradley Cooper's character's condition.

 

[Tiger Sora]

News today, for the umpteenth time old men choose movies they like and give out gold statues of a naked man to those that were in / made to what the majority of old men voted for.

Public enthralled, many internet users cynical and crabby.

MovieBob gets more promised material to work with. Make us proud Bob.

Thats close enough to the gist of it.

 

[AlbertoDeSanta]

It was really just obvious that Les Mis would get a nomination in most catagories. And that's the thing that upsets me the most. A musical will beat better stories with better Actors and better characters. Thanks Academy Awards. Thanks for proving that good stories are meaningless.

 

[antipunt]

because her character - a magical imaginary girlfriend pastiche (semi-punk/goth, nymphomaniac, bisexual, unstable but in a cute "quirky" way that brings her significantly older male counterpart out of his shell - appears to be the number one reason that otherwise sensible film people have lost their damn minds over Silver Linings. Repeat after me, fellas: Tiffany isn't real. I know she reminds you of every baby bird with a broken wing enchantress who's ever fluttered through your life just out of reach ... but she's not real

*clutches heart

Augh...gah..ugh.... it hurts...

it hurts...

;_;

 

[Devin Barker]

wow... i have seen zero of these movies... guess i can skip this year

 

[Zetona]

Silver Linings Playbook isn't much story-wise and probably shouldn't win Best Picture, but it was very well-acted. Probably the best endorsement I can give it is from my mother, who as a social worker has lots of experience with patients suffering from bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses, and who said that the film's portrayal of mental illness was spot-on. You can make other criticisms about the film (everything that happens to Pat and Tiffany after the dance competition is a bit hard to believe, for instance) but the actors sure knew what they were doing.

I could argue that MovieBob has no business saying that The Avengers deserves a nomination when he thinks Les Mis and Silver Linings Playbook shouldn't. Not because of the relative quality of the movies, but because The Avengers really doesn't have much more depth than the other two. You can make the case that they're all "fun" or "lightweight" movies in some sense: Avengers and Les Mis get a rise from the audience for having beloved characters on the big screen for the first time; Playbook and Avengers rely on humor, charm, and in Avengers' case action.

Given the nominees, I'd like to see Life of Pi win some sort of recognition (Direction or Cinematography) for the spectacular things it did with water. The middle two-thirds of that movie would win Best Picture on aesthetics alone, but the rest drags it down. Lincoln would be a fine if obvious winner, but I still want to see Django and Beasts of the Southern Wild and I'd kind of love to see Quvenzhane Wallis become the youngest Oscar winner just because.

 

[LiMaSaRe]

I find the lack of Cloud Atlas really, really sad.

I was checking a ballot [http://oscars.nytimes.com/2013/ballot?&ref=arts] and I was shocked that there wasn't even a nomination for best make up (there's only three choices where every other category has five).

That said, much like Zero Dark Thirty, the Academy appears to want to avoid controversy if it can. Cloud Atlas was a "love it or hate it" film with a lot of concerns over the casting in terms of race. Giving them a nod in the form of a nomination, especially for make-up, would likely set a very negative precedent for future movie makers ("hey, you don't need minority actors, just good ones you can make-up into minorities, and you may even snag a pity Oscar for your troubles").

There were plenty of minorities casted. you might as well say "hey , you dont need white actors, just minorities you can make-up into whites" because it happened just as much. Cloud Atlas may not have award-worthy makeup but Im shocked that such an original, ambitious movie isnt winning something.

 

[thanatos388]

Am i the only one who thought Zero Dark Thirty was boring? Really people will study it. Its like 2001 all over again with this.

 

[Arcane Azmadi]

Can someone remind me again why we still pay attention to the meaningless rubbish that is the Oscars?

 

[walrusaurus]

Having just gotten home from Zero Dark thirty I am absolutely staggered that Katherine Bigelow didn't get a nomination. The only movie on the best directors list that i've seen thus far is life of pi, but she is easily 3x more deserving of a nod than Ang Lee. Life of Pi was hardly his best work, and Zero Dark Thirty is nothing short of unforgettable.

 

[Woodsey]

What was so impressive about The Hulk?

Moreover, I can't really understand people being disappointed about a lack of recognition for The Avengers. It's quite amazing that it wasn't the disaster it so easily could have been, but otherwise it's not particularly noteworthy in what it achieves. It's fluff, which is perfectly fine, but it's not the best fluff I've seen anyway.