Episode 51

16 Replies to “Episode 51”

1. Great show. Although I don’t care much about the Oscar nominations and the Oscars themselves, but do enjoy people talking about it. I thought I did pretty good last year with 320 movies, but over a 1000 is really a lot!

   1. If nothing else, talking about the nominees gave us one last chance to talk about 2011 at the movies.

2. Thanks for having me again Ryan. it’s always fun to discuss the nominations with someone who cares!

   1. You are most welcome, and “ditto” on the someone-who-cares point. When I eventually make it out to San francisco one of these days, you and your fella are going to have to take me to one or two of these splendid movie palaces I keep reading about.

      1. yes indeed.

3. It’s kind of funny that we all talk about the “Oscar Race” when it seems less like a race each year. Considering that many of the Academy various voting blocks hold their own awards, some of which are televised, there is very little mystery left in the Academy Awards themselves. While I still watch the show each year, I really miss seeing the upset wins. They use to be far more frequent.

   Theatre going pet peeves:
   -mPlay (not its existence per say, but for the fact that it is utilized to push commercials that are not movie related)
   -The fact that it is cheaper to by a full size Gatorade than it is a small coke.
   -Cell phones. Why do people spend $12 to go to the theatre to text, and/or talk, through the entire film.
   -the uneven, aka fall inducing, steps at Cineplex theatres.
   -People who bring newborn babies into big budget action films like Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol.
   -Sitting through 20 minutes of commercials and only getting one movie trailer before the film.
   -Dirty washrooms and dirty threatres.
   -People who arrive just as the previews are starting expecting to find good seats.
   -Strangers who feel the need to sit near you in an otherwise empty threatre.

   1. No kidding! I wonder if we’ll ever get surprises like Adrien Brody or Marisa Tomei again. I think all of those precusor award shows like SAG, Critic’s Choice and the Globes might be the reason the average viewer gets awards fatigue by the time we get to late February.

4. I’ll be sure to check that out. Marya knows her Oscars.

   1. Damned right she does! Hope you enjoy our conversation.

5. Great episode! I’m just glad to hear someone else who doesn’t have loads of extra enthusiasm for The Artist and I share all of Marya’s reservations about it, though I DID like it.

   As for pet peeves, everything Courtney said, but I would also like to add that it really sucks when the ushers (or any employee of the theater) doesn’t close the doors to movies that are in progress. When I was seeing The Artist, the doors to our theater were open and so were the ones to Underworld: Awakening across the hall, so we got to hear all kinds of “fun” sound effects during our silent film screening.

   1. I think Marya might have liked it more than you did (Perhaps she’ll weigh in here) I think what was hanging her up was when she compared THE ARTIST to other silent films, she found a few holes.

      Ushers don’t close the doors down there? That’s idiocy. In that situation I’d get up and yank ’em shut myself.

      Thanks for listening!

      1. The doors aren’t always open, I think it’s just because this was a Sunday morning when attendence was low they didn’t bother. I would have done it myself if I had known that was the problem. While in The Artist I thought the noise was coming from the theater next to us, but when I left I realized the doors to Underworld were open across the hall.

6. How about too many trailers?

   Before nearly every film I pay for (thankfully no trailers before press screenings) we receive somewhere between 5 -7 trailers.

   That’s ridiculous. By the end … I can’t even remember what the hell I just paid to see.

   1. Seems like once a month or so I lean over to Lindsay and ask “What are we watching again?”

      I’m alright with a long trailer reel – it’s the long ad reel that gets me antsy.

7. I’m a little late, but wanted to drop by and say what a great show this was. I particularly liked you discussion of the rules, although I’m not sure whether they would consider the 5% to be a failure. Presuming that we agree on who the top 5 would have been, then they picked up one high class art film (Tree Of Life), two typical Oscar films (War Horse & Extremely Loud), and then one of the two more popular choices (either The Help or Moneyball). In all, probably not a bad mix for them!

   1. Better late than never good sir! I must echo what Marya said, and express how much fun it is to discuss these things with someone who cares. If the show is still going next winter, perhaps you’d like to be the guest!

      I haven’t the foggiest clue what to make of this balloting system Oscar has brought in for BP except to say that it seems overly complicated and weighted towards stuff everyone liked a little more than the stuff a few people really loved. It’s funny because in three years of more than five nominees we’ve seen mainstream join the fray (UP, BLIND SIDE, DISTRICT 9) and indie get some love (WINTER’S BONE, KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT, 127 HOURS), and now this mushy middling mess. My brother has been saying this for two years now, and I must agree – they should go back to five.

      As for what I think are the upper-tier nominees, I think you could follow much of the Best Director category. HUGO, ARTIST, DESCENDANTS, and PARIS for sure…which make up a rather nice “Class of 2011”.

      If you follow it to the letter, you end with the arty and divisive TREE OF LIFE.

      If you think (as often was the case) that only four of five directing nominees would carry over, you round it out with THE HELP. That would be a slightly “lesser” choice, but it’s still a handsome film with outstanding performances.

      No matter how you slice it – it’s a good class.

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