I've gone Oscar crazy this week. First I had to update my predictions (ongoing discussion) then, well --next week, less 2008 Oscar chatter. I promise. It's not truly time yet.BUT... as you may remember I'm launching a new Best Picture History series this coming Wednesday the 18th. The motivation behind the launch is a selfish one: to fill in gaps in my movie history knowledge and refresh memories of things I haven't seen since I watched them on TV as a kid. The new series was created in tandem with Goatdog's Movies and Nick's Flick Picks. We joked about calling it Like a Dagger Pointed at the Heart of Oliver! as we're aiming straight for that hungry orphan. You see, we'll be looking at every Best Picture winner but we're not counting backwards or forwards, we're counting toward the middle. We start on Wednesday night with the first and the latest: Wings (1927/28) and No Country For Old Men (2007). Some fun and truly odd showdowns are in store.
To get myself psyched for the series, I started working on a decade by decade feature for my site, starting with 2000-2007. But this is not part of the new series. I live to confuse you! Click on that link for a brief rundown of the Best Picture races from 2000 through 2007, all ranked and graded. There's also polls for you to vote in.Enjoy and comment to your gold grubbing content.
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11 comments:
first of all: awesome!
and also it's good to know how you're running this Best Picture retrospective, as I plan to play along at home and watch all the best pics that I haven't seen (and those I havent seen in ages). Wings just came in at the library... yay!
Awesome new feature!
Random lengthy movie-related lists always make my day.
AMAZING!! Loved reading/doing this!
My 3 picks for Best winner were:
1st Chicago
2nd Million Dollar Baby
3rd The Departed
My 3 picks for Best nominee were:
1st The Hours
2nd Brokeback Mountain
3rd In the Bedroom
4th Lost in Translation
5th Atonement
6th Moulin Rouge!
7th Chicago
8th Babel
(Almost my Top 8 of the decade, with only Eternal Sunshine not there. Hadn't realised how many of my faves were actually Best Pic nominees! I'm so consensus. Bleugh!)
I'll follow amir's lead here.
In my case, most of my favorites (Mulholland Dr, Spirited Away, Innocence, 25th Hour, A.I., Zodiac, Punch-Drunk Love, Wonder Boys) are painfully absent, but at least No Country and Lost in Translation got well-deserved nods.
BEST PIC:
1. No Country for Old Men
2. The Return of the King
3. Gladiator
BEST PIC NOMINEES:
1. Lost in Translation
2. No Country for Old Men
3. Munich
4. There Will Be Blood
5. Sideways
6. Brokeback Mountain
7. The Fellowship of the Ring
8. In the Bedroom
I haven't seen Seabiscuit, Capote, Munich and Ray. As for the others:
Yes!:
Moulin Rouge
Chicago
The hours
Brokeback Mountain
Babel
The queen
Master and commander
No country for old men
Juno
There will be blood
Good choice:
Crouching tiger, hidden dragon
Erin Brockovich
Traffic
A beautiful mind
The Fellowship of the ring
The pianist
Crash
Letters from Iwo Jima
Respectable fondness:
Lost in translation
The return of the king
Little Miss Sunshine
Million dollar baby
Mystic river
If you must...:
In the bedroom
Gangs of New York
Sideways
Good night and good luck
Atonement
Michael Clayton
You’re really testing my patience:
Gladiator
Gosford Park
The two towers
The aviator
What the f***?!:
Chocolat
Finding Neverland
My own preference of the winners:
1. The Departed (A)
2. No Country for Old Men (A-)
3. LOTR: Return of the King (B+)
4. Million Dollar Baby (B+)
5. Chicago (B+)
6. Crash (C+)
7. A Beautiful Mind (C+)
8. Gladiator (C)
(deleted my first reply because of bad html)
Of the winners:
1. Chicago
2. Million Dollar Baby
3. NCfOM
Of the nominees:
1. Moulin Rouge!
2. Lost in Translation
3. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
4. Chicago
5. Erin Brockovich
6. Brokeback Mountain
7. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
8. Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World
I don't know why I didn't click Fellowship of the Ring though, cause that should be there. Hmmm.
My favourites of the decade though have mostly gone unnominated. (in no order) Mysterious Skin, American Psycho, Birth, Billy Elliot, Lantana, Mulholland Drive, Eternal Sunshine, Jindabyne....
The only nominee I haven't seen is Letters from Iwo Jima so that's pretty good, I reckon.
Worst:
1. A Beautiful Mind
2. Ray
3. Finding Neverland
...and Babel. Well, that's Crash 2: Now With More Actual Cinematic Flavor.
teehee!
I think the academy nominated exactly eight masterpieces this decade
Crouching Tiger
LOTR (all three)
Brokeback Mountain
There Will Be Blood
In the Bedroom
Munich
My three winners were Return of the King, No Country for Old Men.... and The Departed, but I think The Departed is only marginally better than the competition (except A Beautiful Mind and Crash, both which are among the worst films of the decade).
Terrific idea, Nat! As I was reading it I was embarrassed by how many films, especially from your lineups, that I have not seen yet. At least that gives me another list of "need to rent"! (It goes without saying that I like your lineups better for every year than the actual AMPAS ones, right? )
On a side note, I saw the MR! promo pic and got excessively excited that this was a link to the next part of the MR tribute, and had to calm myself down.
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