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Am I the only one who thinks The Hurt Locker was over-hyped? I went out of my way to see it because I had heard all of the praise coming into the Oscars, yet after seeing it I felt slightly let down. It was a decent movie, I felt the cinematography and acting was very good but the plot and cliché protagonist were weak points.

I don't think The Hurt Locker deserved the Oscar for best film because from the list of nominees I would pick at least 4 movies which I felt were stronger candidates, whether or not I liked them. I can still appreciate a quality movie even if I didn't really like it, for example A Serious Man was a movie I didn't really enjoy but I can see the depth and detail put into it, and it's a surprisingly clever mind twisting sort of tale. I really enjoyed Avatar and District 9, they were both amazing and in my opinion sci-fi is a much more difficult genre compared to the contemporary war setting of THL. Even Inglourious Basterds was a better film in a war time setting.

Thats not to say that I think THL is a bad movie, I just don't feel that it stands on the same level as its peers. Did it win because it was an indie film? I don't know much about how it was made, but that's the only reason I can see for why it would win the award.

Which movie would you have picked? My vote woulda gone to Avatar, despite its budget and all the hate for the cliche story I still felt it was unique and Cameron proved he is still a master story teller. (District 9 closely behind)

I saw the thread on the front page and had this reply in mind anyway but then you go and provide such a perfect setup I almost feel like I'm walking in to a trap

My vote woulda gone to Avatar

You talk about overhyped and then actually write that? Are you sh*tting me?

The only one of those I've seen is Up.

MadManOriginal wrote:

I saw the thread on the front page and had this reply in mind anyway but then you go and provide such a perfect setup I almost feel like I'm walking in to a trap

My vote woulda gone to Avatar

You talk about overhyped and then actually write that? Are you sh*tting me?

I was expecting Avatar to be a let down because of all the hype about it, but I came away from it pleasantly surprised. That said, even disregarding Avatar there are still 3 other nominees I would have picked before THL.

The Oscars are almost always heavily influenced by current events and other factors besides the film itself.

I haven't seen "The Hurt Locker," but when you consider the setting, the director, and competition it's easy to see why it won.

Also, Avatar was a great spectacle, but not a great film. I enjoyed the film, but not as much as I enjoyed other films last year. I was actually surprised to find out that it had been nominated.

The Hurt Locker had moments that were just cinema cliche at its worst.
Characters staring at each other or at a nearby scene....minutes go by....still just staring....ugh.
Not a bad movie but no way worth being on the shortlist let alone winning it.

Two favorite movies of the year were Moon and Precious. I would have given the nod to Precious. I've seen all of the movies on the list but The Blind Side and Avatar and frankly I refuse to see both of them and for similar reasons.

Too lazy to go to theaters.
I bought 'Up' DVD long time ago and still love it.

I was quite surprised Avatar didn't come away with Best Film award. Having not seen THL (will be very soon though) I can't make a comment on this being over hyped. I thought District 9 contained a plot equally poignant to Avatar so far as Sci-fi is concerned and heaps more original. However on the basis of pure atmosphere I've never witnessed anything quite like Avatar. The numbers really do speak for the film here. I suspect the attention THL got at the awards was garnered purely on the basis of being "relevant to current times". It seems to me that with the CGI technology injected into movie making there is a cerebral fear of being enveloped in too much fantasy and loosing touch with reality.

TurtlePerson2 wrote:

Also, Avatar was a great spectacle, but not a great film. I enjoyed the film, but not as much as I enjoyed other films last year. I was actually surprised to find out that it had been nominated.

That is a Bingo! [/inglorious basterds]

I think "Up" should have been a runaway winner, but there's a skittishness about giving certain types of movies Best Picture. I think people are afraid of some sort of "they gave it to a cartoon???" backlash. But you know, a great movie is a great movie, regardless of how it's presented.

Function over form, dammit!

They gave it to a budget sci-fi when James Cameron just released a ridiculous expensive Sci-fi as well?

Never!

Hence, no district 9. When was the last time a sci-fi won an oscar anyway for best picture? But i was hoping that it won every single award that it could get. :'(

yogibbear wrote:

When was the last time a sci-fi won an oscar anyway for best picture?

Never, unless you include Return of the King.

Captain Ned wrote:

yogibbear wrote:

When was the last time a sci-fi won an oscar anyway for best picture?

Never, unless you include Return of the King.

So, never. Hollywood = losers. Or at least every single "blockbuster" is crap and does not get a spot in my very limited DVD collection that i've been building up over the years.

Some amazing movies that didn't win... (cause the oscars is rigged):

A Clockwork Orange
ET
Star Wars

yogibbear wrote:

Captain Ned wrote:

yogibbear wrote:

When was the last time a sci-fi won an oscar anyway for best picture?

Never, unless you include Return of the King.

So, never. Hollywood = losers. Or at least every single "blockbuster" is crap and does not get a spot in my very limited DVD collection that i've been building up over the years.

Some amazing movies that didn't win... (cause the oscars is rigged):

A Clockwork Orange
ET
Star Wars

The real shame was Apocalypse Now not winning the academy award for 1979. They gave it to Kramer vs. Kramer, which was good, but not even in the same class as Apocalypse Now. It was just another example of political and social issues getting in the way of a real comparison of films.

I think the Hurt Locker benefited from reverse sexism, honestly. It got the female vote because it was produced and directed by a female and the media really played that up. I haven't seen the movie myself, but I know whenever I heard about it, I heard that 'its great... and was done by a woman.' I think thats insulting that they have to mention that its made by a woman and point it out as if to say 'Its pretty good... for a GIRL!'

Avatar was Pocahontas (which was actually Dances with Wolves) in space. "Master storytelling" indeed... Sure, Cameron had a huge hit with Aliens and (I'll admit) Titanic. And Avatar was visually amazing. But it's plot (or the acting) weren't anything to write home about. At times, it even fell victim to 3-ditis (too much attention to 3-d effects while forgetting you're making a movie, a la Spiderman 3 and G-Force)
The Hurt Locker was a really great film, one of the best I've seen in a long time. I'd put it up there with the likes of Black Hawk Down and Saving Private Ryan.
District 9 was different, and very refreshing in a world full of remakes. A bit of an original interpretation on the idea of apartheid.
But, Hurt Locker has a bit more of a personal appeal to me. I know what it's like out there for them. I know how much that suit sucks.

on a side-note:
to the jerk out there suing the team behind Hurt Locker, I, as well as anyone else who's ever had to wear a bomb suit, kindly asks you to **** off and die. Claiming the story is based on you when there are over 3000 of us that have been through the EXACT same situation on a daily basis... really? I can't wait till the hearing. Your ass is going down.

Apparently the vote was rigged.
http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_gol ... ticle.html

It seems that this year best picture was not based on total votes. So even though Avatar probably had the most first place votes, it also may have had a lot of last place votes. While Hurt Locker did not have the most first place votes it may have had plenty of 2nd place votes.

The producer of the Hurt Locker knew about the change to the voting system and sent out an email advising people how to vote in order to screw Avatar.

Corrado wrote:

I think the Hurt Locker benefited from reverse sexism, honestly. It got the female vote because it was produced and directed by a female and the media really played that up. I haven't seen the movie myself, but I know whenever I heard about it, I heard that 'its great... and was done by a woman.' I think thats insulting that they have to mention that its made by a woman and point it out as if to say 'Its pretty good... for a GIRL!'

I think it's more that the Academy is ashamed of themselves for not having awarded a female director yet in this age of gender equality.
And while I have yet to see the movie, I saw a number of previews and pieces on it and the first time I noticed anything about the director's gender was after it got nominated.

PRIME1 wrote:

Apparently the vote was rigged.
http://goldderby.latimes.com/awards_gol ... ticle.html

The vote wasn't rigged, it was based on preferential balloting. Which is entirely legitimate.

Though of course if people really thought Avatar was second-best and placed it last to make sure The Hurt Locker won then that's a pretty dick move, but there are some mathematical theorems proving that voting systems cannot be fair (according to some very basic set of fairness rules) so there's not really much point in complaining.

tikrjee wrote:

to the jerk out there suing the team behind Hurt Locker, I, as well as anyone else who's ever had to wear a bomb suit, kindly asks you to **** off and die. Claiming the story is based on you when there are over 3000 of us that have been through the EXACT same situation on a daily basis... really? I can't wait till the hearing. Your ass is going down.

so you are saying you have been in a bomb suit before? have you disarmed bombs? Do you think the movie accurately depicts what goes on?

I have read other comments that bombs are never disarmed this way, they only ever do it remotely, and this movie is just pure hollywood. Is that right?

blitzy wrote:

I have read other comments that bombs are never disarmed this way, they only ever do it remotely, and this movie is just pure hollywood. Is that right?

I've never been within miles of a bomb suit, but I'm pretty sure that remote disarming is barely beyond wishful thinking. Wasn't it only a few years ago Anandtech said that they'd deployed a few remote defusing robots to Iraq for testing?

I believe it may have just simply come down to Avatar not being patriotic and THL was. With only 1 degree of separation between a malevolent futuristic human military force, and current day "global climate" its a "no brainer" for sure.

Legend wrote:

I believe it may have just simply come down to Avatar not being patriotic and THL was. With only 1 degree of separation between a malevolent futuristic human military force, and current day "global climate" its a "no brainer" for sure.

Eh? This is Hollywood, not the deep south.

Meh, it's all politics in the end. It was a chance to put a woman in a "first time" position. It was because of heavy CAMPAIGNING by the Hurt Locker's team. It was because Avatar really didn't deserve it (though it was visually stunning, it was rather cheesy in the dialogue & not creative at all in the story). It was because the other movies didn't fall into "artistic" relevance. It was becuase Hurt Locker makes a political statement that most of the Oscar representatives support.

This is nothing new in the Academy Awards. If you watch them enough, you don't even need to see the movies to know which will win. Similar to wrestling.

Inglorious Basterds deserved it imo, it was an excellent film. I haven't seen Hurt Locker but Avatar most definitely didn't deserve best picture. What pissed me off the most was the appearance of Miley Cyrus and the Twilight goofs. Good job disney, you pretty much infested everything on television.

I watched Hurt Locker and it was interesting. The direction, acting and cinematography was top-notch, and the director worked the tension (and tedium) well. It wasn't a particularly realistic portrayal of military life and/or regulations, but that wasn't the point of the movie. It was mainly about the protagonist's disconnect and alienation from consequence, and I certainly felt that the movie did not attempt to portray his gung-ho attitude as 'heroism' in any way. That said, I agree it didn't particularly strike me as worthy of Best Picture. But then, none of the other films I've seen in the list struck me as win-worthy either.

Avatar? What a joke. The film belongs at the bottom of the trash can, along with Titanic. Its success only goes to confirm my suspicions about the moribund depths that humanity is mired in. /vomits.

Up was enjoyable, very touching, and great fun. But not Best Picture material IMHO.

District 9 was good, it was different, it was edgy, it was cutting and insightful and allegorical. But while I am a fan of edgy, low budget and B- movies, I don't see it as a Best Picture either.

Inglourious Basterds was fun from start to finish. It's not even much less historical than the average war movie Hollywood has produced (*cough*U-271*), and if you read into the character assassination of Hitler by 'Jewish Filmmakers' allegory, is probably the most historically accurate WWII movie ever . But I've seen much better WWII movies - recently watched Die Fälscher, which was just fantastic.

As for the others, I have not mustered up the enthusiasm to watch them, so that's saying something about either their lack of marketing muscle or their lack of pull.

So perhaps I would agree with the OP insofar as saying that THL was "over-hyped". From my perspective, though, it's the least worst of a bad bunch so far.

District 9 was a comical mess.

Minus the sniper scene, I didn't have a problem with Hurt Locker. Also, I didn't think Avatar was anything special. More of the same; just prettier.

I'll preface this by saying that I haven't seen Hurt Locker but I heard that it was very unrealistic from a military standpoint. That the movie was based around sending a 3 man team outside of their base alone to conduct unnecessarily dangerous bomb disposal without security. This is something that in a perfect world would be a company level operation but even with thinly stretched troops would never be a team level task.

kvndoom wrote:

That is a Bingo! [/inglorious basterds]

Haha at great quote.

I think "Up" should have been a runaway winner, but there's a skittishness about giving certain types of movies Best Picture. I think people are afraid of some sort of "they gave it to a cartoon???" backlash. But you know, a great movie is a great movie, regardless of how it's presented.

I'm racking my brains for cartoons/animated movies that I think are Oscar-worthy. Here's what I came up with:

Sleeping Beauty - a classic.
The Last Unicorn - very underrated. The book is even better.
The Fox and the Hound - have you seen a grown man cry? Well, okay, I was 5 when I first saw it.
Kiki's Delivery Service - probably my favourite Miyazaki.
Howl's Moving Castle - another one.
Wallace and Gromit series (not the Hollywood film, which was blecch) - too short for best picture rules, though.
A Scanner Darkly - technically rotoscoped, but so was a lot of Rankin and Bass animation. I say it still counts.
The Nightmare Before Christmas
5 cm per second - truly moving.
Jin-Roh
Patlabor WXIII
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time
Perfect Blue - how could I forget Satoshi Kon?
Paprika - more Satoshi goodness.
Memories

Notable mentions:
Angel's Egg - trippy.
Coraline - the book was better, though Dakota nailed the voice.
The Iron Giant
Summer Wars - ending a bit too cliched and melodramatic.
Garden of Sinners series - overall great, but several unremarkable movies kept it off the A-list.


I'm as surprised as anyone that no 3D rendered movies made my list. I liked Monsters vs Aliens, but it was very weak in the middle. And Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs was fun but not filling. Of course, many of those movies would have been disqualified from Best Picture because of nationality, but I'm judging by sheer quality, not locality. Japan may be a bit overrepresented, but they have a large market and an industry that is not afraid to target older and more sophisticated audiences. We're still a long way from that in Western Animation (Scanner Darkly and Heavy Metal series aside).

Dashak wrote:

Minus the sniper scene, I didn't have a problem with Hurt Locker.

The uniforms were a mess. Not to mention that the time frame of the movie ACUs hadnt been issued yet, minor but a mistake. Is it so hard to get at least one former military person on staff to ok the uniforms!?