Oscars Of The Oscars

[Tomas]

The lord of the rings series sucks and you suck. Peter jackson owes me 3 hours of my life back, one of those boring ass elf or orc or whatever pseudo medieval horse **** movies was enough.

Yes, officer, i have had some scotch

I probably would have said it more politely, but yea - this. One of my best friends went through his divorce before the last installment, and so because I had to be a good buddy, I could not say no to him dragging me to see that poinless movie - preceded, of course, by him bringing the first 2 movies to my house, which I had to watch as well.

The worst thing for me was that when I thought the movie finally ended (good won, evil got beat), they spent another "forever minutes" yapping about what happened in their lives after. At that point, I felt 100% like Elaine Benes watching "The English Patient" - just wrap up your boring story and die already...!

Anyway, for me the only positive coming from the whole trilogy is that it brought us The Gandalf Raping Day - one of the two sketches where I nearly fell from the couch laughing the first time I saw it (the other being the "twist" in the Woodland Critters Christmas Story)...

Anyway, here is my personal undisputed top 3 movies I have ever seen:

1. One flew over the cockoo's nest
2. Das Boot (which, sadly, has not won anything)
3. Godfather(s) - I consider I and II pretty much one movie

[eddysnake]

I tried to keep it to 5 choices and it was really difficult and if I did it again, I'd probably have different choices

Best Picture:
It happened one night (1934)
Gone with the Wind (1939)
Godfather (1972)
Unforgiven (1992)
Braveheart (1995)


Best Director:
Victor Fleming, Gone With the Wind
John Ford, The Quiet Man
William Wyler, Ben Hur
FFC, Godfather II
Spielberg, Saving Private Ryan

Best Actor:
Clark Gable, It Happened One Night
Robert De Niro, Raging Bull
Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune
Denzel Washington, Training Day
DDL, There will be blood

Best Supporting Actor:
Peter Ustinov, Spartacus
George Kennedy, cool Hand Luke
Robert De Niro, Godfather II
Christopher Walken, Deer Hunter
Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting

Best Actress:
Claudette Colbert, It Happened One Night
Vivien Leigh, Gone With the Wind
Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins
Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest
Frances McDormand, Fargo

Best Supporting Actress:
Hattie McDaniel, Gone With the Wind
Eva Marie Saint, on the Waterfront
Ingrid Bergman, Murder on the Orient Express
Marisa Tomei, My Cousin Vinny

Biggest surprise going over the list is that Once Upon a Time in the West wasn't nominated for anything. I don't think there has ever been a better movie than that. Absolute masterpiece.

[Dickie Dunn]

I went with 10 selections in each category. I haven't seen a lot of the older films (including Gone With the Wind), so my choices definitely skew toward more recent movies. I didn't nominate anyone twice in the same category. If I had them listed twice I just went with what I think is their best performance.

Best Director was hard to fill because I don't know what the hell I'm talking about and I didn't want to just choose directors from my Best Picture nominees. Best Supporting Actress was also difficult to fill. A lot of winners are from movies I haven't seen and were chosen over what I would think was a more obvious selection. I found Best Supporting Actor the most difficult category to narrow down. My original list had over 20 selections.

Best Picture
- The Departed
- Braveheart
- Schindler’s List
- Unforgiven
- The Silence of the Lambs
- The Deer Hunter
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- The Godfather Part II
- The Godfather
- The French Connection

Best Director
- Steven Spielberg – Saving Private Ryan
- Martin Scorsese – The Departed
- William Friedkin – The French Connection
- Francis Ford Coppola – The Godfather Part II
- Milos Forman – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Michael Cimino – The Deer Hunter
- Jonathan Demme – The Silence of the Lambs
- Clint Eastwood – Unforgiven
- Mel Gibson – Braveheart
- Sam Mendes – American Beauty

Best Actor
- Matthew McConaughey – Dallas Buyers Club
- Daniel Day-Lewis – There Will Be Blood
- Denzel Washington – Training Day
- Anthony Hopkins – The Silence of the Lambs
- Paul Newman – The Color of Money
- Robert DeNiro – Raging Bull
- Peter Finch – Network
- Jack Nicholson – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
- Marlon Brando – The Godfather
- George C. Scott – Patton

Best Actress
- Kate Winslet – The Reader
- Helen Mirren – The Queen
- Hilary Swank – Million Dollar Baby
- Frances McDormand – Fargo
- Holly Hunter – The Piano
- Jodie Foster – The Silence of the Lambs
- Kathy Bates – Misery
- Meryl Streep – Sophie’s Choice
- Faye Dunaway – Network
- Louise Fletcher – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Best Actor in a Supporting Role
- Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club
- Christian Bale – The Fighter
- Christoph Waltz – Inglorious Basters
- Heath Ledger – The Dark Knight
- Robin Williams – Good Will Hunting
- Gene Hackman – Unforgiven
- Joe Pesci – Goodfellas
- Denzel Washington – Glory
- Christopher Walken – The Deer Hunter
- Robert DeNiro – The Godfather Part II

Best Actress in a Supporting Role
- Lupita Lyong’o – 12 Years a Slave
- Octavia Spencer – The Help
- Tilda Swinton – Michael Clayton
- Jennifer Connelly – A Beautiful Mind
- Kim Basinger – L.A. Confidential
- Anna Paquin – The Piano
- Maria Tomei – My Cousin Vinny
- Meryl Streep – Kramer vs. Kramer
- Beatrice Straight – Network
- Ruth Gordon – Rosemary’s Baby

Last One's Out
Best Picture: Patton
Best Director: Kevin Costner, Dances with Wolves (I think Scorsese should have won that year, but still find what Costner did to be very impressive)
Best Actor: Gene Hackman, The French Connection
Best Actress: Julie Andrews, Mary Poppins
Supporting Actor: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine/Javier Bardem, No Country for Old Men/Kevin Spacey, The Usual Suspects - Like I said, difficult category to narrow down
Supporting Actress: Cate Blanchett, The Aviator

[Letang Is The Truth]

was denzel washington really that good in training day that is an all time legendary performance? he shouldnt have even won that year. russell crowe was infinitely better in beautiful mind

[skullman80]

Clerks 2 sums up the LOTR trilogy perfectly in one scene..(NSFW)

Spoiler:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKbyWSwd7hk[/youtube]

[canaan]

that was my reference earlier =)

[tifosi77]

The best argument against Return of the King is that the Two Towers might actually be better. Other than that, yeah, its that good.

The Two Towers is clearly the worst of the three LOTR adaptations. It's still a good movie, but it's the red-headed stepchild. The filmmakers even concede as much in the documentary materials.

they pretty much just made one 9-hour movie and then broke it up for release.

An 11.5 hour movie if you have the extended editions, and I've watched it that way a couple times.

Arclight Hollywood did a screening of the extended editions of Fellowship and TTT before the midnight showing of ROTK. That was a very long day, one that I don't imagine I'll ever repeat. That's a lot of Elvish.

[pittsoccer33]

Two Towers was my favorite to watch by a mile. The Helms Deep battle was my favorite thing about the entire trilogy.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

The best argument against Return of the King is that the Two Towers might actually be better. Other than that, yeah, its that good.

The Two Towers is clearly the worst of the three LOTR adaptations. It's still a good movie, but it's the red-headed stepchild. The filmmakers even concede as much in the documentary materials.

what?

if anything the Fellowship of the Ring is the redheaded stepchild. It's the most different because there aren't as many action sequences and they have so much story setting up to do

[Letang Is The Truth]

i thought TTT was the worst

[count2infinity]

All 3 are bad, and should feel bad.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

if you want to use online ratings as a measure:

IMDB - Fellowship 8.8, Two Towers 8.8, ROTK 8.9
Rotten Tomatoes - Fellowship 91%, Two Towers 96%, ROTK 95%

saying anything is "clear" is stupid. They're all extremely highly rated films

[tifosi77]

MIMH, I suggest reading the books and watching the documentary features before commenting further. And also, perhaps age another 3-5 years.

[pittsoccer33]

I think Fellowship is pretty boring (don't most people?)

And ROTK is so incredibly anti climactic (a green cloud of doom?). Though it definitely does have the best acting performances in it (Sam, Eowyn, Faramir especially).

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

[skullman80]

that was my reference earlier =)

haha.. sorry must have scrolled past it.

[slappybrown]

All 3 are bad, and should feel bad.

[slappybrown]

MIMH, I suggest reading the books and watching the documentary features before commenting further. And also, perhaps age another 3-5 years.

lol

[stopper40]

The best argument against Return of the King is that the Two Towers might actually be better. Other than that, yeah, its that good.

The Two Towers is clearly the worst of the three LOTR adaptations. It's still a good movie, but it's the red-headed stepchild. The filmmakers even concede as much in the documentary materials.

what?

if anything the Fellowship of the Ring is the redheaded stepchild. It's the most different because there aren't as many action sequences and they have so much story setting up to do

I think Fellowship is the best of the 3

[tifosi77]

if you want to use online ratings as a measure:

I do not. I wish to use JRR Tolkien's source material as the measure. TTT is the least like the book it is based on. Because of the way they structured the storytelling, they had to pad a lot of action into TTT that simply isn't from the book. The Battle of the Hornburg - Helm's Deep, the dramatic high point of the movie - is dispensed with in less than 1,000 words in the book. There is no warg attack, with Aragorn being dragged over a cliff. Faramir is turned into an adversary to Frodo. The Elves do not join the Rohirrim at Helm's Deep.

Granted, you can't film a book of that scope and scale word for word. You just can't; they'd probably still be shooting it if they tried. But because of the dramatic changes they made in the structure of the films vs the book, that left them with the unenviable task of really padding out TTT. It's a very good movie, and I enjoy watching it. But it's the least Tolkieny of the three, and by a substantial margin.

[MalkinIsMyHomeboy]

if you want to use online ratings as a measure:

I do not. I wish to use JRR Tolkien's source material as the measure. TTT is the least like the book it is based on. Because of the way they structured the storytelling, they had to pad a lot of action into TTT that simply isn't from the book. The Battle of the Hornburg - Helm's Deep, the dramatic high point of the movie - is dispensed with in less than 1,000 words in the book. There is no warg attack, with Aragorn being dragged over a cliff. Faramir is turned into an adversary to Frodo. The Elves do not join the Rohirrim at Helm's Deep.

Granted, you can't film a book of that scope and scale word for word. You just can't; they'd probably still be shooting it if they tried. But because of the dramatic changes they made in the structure of the films vs the book, that left them with the unenviable task of really padding out TTT. It's a very good movie, and I enjoy watching it. But it's the least Tolkieny of the three, and by a substantial margin.

but that doesn't mean it's bad.

Aliens is completely unlike Alien, but is still a great movie on its own.

I haven't read the books so I don't have the bias of "but it's unlike the book!" I like not having the bias. Then I can judge the films on what they are, films, instead of just thinking it's a word for word transcription of the book.

[eddysnake]

The best argument against Return of the King is that the Two Towers might actually be better. Other than that, yeah, its that good.

The Two Towers is clearly the worst of the three LOTR adaptations. It's still a good movie, but it's the red-headed stepchild. The filmmakers even concede as much in the documentary materials.

they pretty much just made one 9-hour movie and then broke it up for release.

An 11.5 hour movie if you have the extended editions, and I've watched it that way a couple times.

Arclight Hollywood did a screening of the extended editions of Fellowship and TTT before the midnight showing of ROTK. That was a very long day, one that I don't imagine I'll ever repeat. That's a lot of Elvish.

wife and I usually make an entire day out of all 3 extended additions. It's a blast, I can't wait to do it with the kids. Trying to wait a couple more years until they can really appreciate it (I don't want to ruin the experience. Waiting to introduce your kids to your favorites is very difficult)

[tifosi77]

but that doesn't mean it's bad.

I never once said it was bad. In fact, I quite clearly stated it's very good. I consider LOTR to be one of the high points of cinema history, and that certainly includes TTT. But I just don't feel it's in the same class, on its own merits, as the other two films.

[tifosi77]

Also, I'm going to suggest that if we continue this discussion, we do it in the Movie thread; LOTR has already taken over the game thread.

[MWB]

How does one judge the director of a film? Overall flow of a movie?