Rate That Movie 2!: Electric Boogaloo

[Buscemi]

Rotten Tomatoes didn't exist then. And many of that film's negative reviews came after winning Best Picture.

[Brockster]

Well I did some research...since Rotten Tomatoes started there have only been 5 movies with less than 74% (The Helps current rating) that have been nominated for Best Picture...so while certainly you can make the assumption that Rotten Tomatoes scores (critics reviews) of movies go hand-in-hand with Best Picture nominations, there are some exceptions:

The Blide Side - 66%
The Reader - 62%
Babel -69%
Chocolat - 63%
The Cider House Rules - 71%

It looks like the odds are against The Help, but it's certainly possible.

[Buscemi]

Three of those were Weinstein titles (he promotes heavily), one won the Golden Globe award for Best Picture and the other one squeezed in due to it being the first year with 10 nominees (it also grossed over $200 million at the box office). The Help will need heavy promotion to the Academy (unlikely since it will be on DVD by then) or a win at the Golden Globes (also unlikely, since it has limited international appeal) to clinch a nomination.

[Brockster]

I was surprised all of those titles had such low scores, except of course for The Blind Side

[NSpan]

Considering the subject matter and the box office reception, I wouldn't be surprised to see The Help get some big noms.

Midnight in Paris will definitely get some attention.

I haven't seen Tree of Life yet (despite planning on seeing it opening weekend!), but I think the buzz might fizzle out before nominations begin. And Sean Penn talking shit about it is going to do some major damage, in my opinion.

[Chienfantome]

Sean Penn doesn't know what he's talking about...

[Buscemi]

Considering the subject matter and the box office reception, I wouldn't be surprised to see The Help get some big noms.

Midnight in Paris will definitely get some attention.

I haven't seen Tree of Life yet (despite planning on seeing it opening weekend!), but I think the buzz might fizzle out before nominations begin. And Sean Penn talking shit about it is going to do some major damage, in my opinion.

As I said before, subject matter and box office didn't help Gran Torino. The Help is just that, but with weaker reviews.

[W]

It does seem like a rather weak year to me as well, and there aren't really any Oscar bait films that already have huge buzz coming up, so that should help The Help. Especially in a year when a Harry Potter film may be considered for anything more than visual/sound/costume categories. Let's see what happens during Oscar season.

[Buscemi]

The film festivals are going on right now so buzz will begin to build. Right now, The Ides of March, The Descendants, A Dangerous Method and Shame are building buzz at the festivals.

Also, The King's Speech didn't build buzz until Toronto.

[silversurfer19]

I actually think it's been a really strong year so far, with much more blockbuster movies being of higher quality than normally. And with the amount of Academy worthy directors releasing movies in the next few months I think it's going to be much stronger competition than usual. Adding to Boussh's picks there's also Carnage, Take Shelter, The Iron Lady, Young Adult, I could go on and on...

[BanksIsDaFuture]

The Change-Up - C

Noticed this was playing at the local dollar theatre and decided to check it out. Talk about pandering to the lowest common denominator for laughs. It's all shit jokes, fuck's and cock's, and (apparently CGI) boobs. It felt like an Apatow comedy minus the heart. And wit. And likeable characters.

It managed to squeeze some laughs out of me, but I've never felt wrong about laughing at a movie before. Here, I felt dirty.

I will admit that seeing Jason Bateman play a complete douchebag ass was pretty funny for a short while before they ran it into the ground.

[NSpan]

Sean Penn doesn't know what he's talking about...

Totally agree.. but his Hollywood buddies (many of whom vote in the Academy) don't feel the same way as we do.

[BanksIsDaFuture]

Back to the Oscar talk....I really doubt any movies that have been released will be remembered by next January. Midnight in Paris definitely won't, Harry Potter will never be taken seriously by non-fans, and The Help would've had an outside shot way back when 10 nominees were guaranteed. But now this %5 number 1 votes? Those will all go to big, flashy Oscar bait in November/December.

[undeadmonkey]

i agree, there seem to be quite a lot of oscar pedigree films on the horizon. Unless a lot of these flashy oscar baits fail not a lot of films that have opened so far will be mentioned. Tree of Life might, haven't seen it yet so can't really judge. Midnight in Paris might, but it's not strong all around, it could only get noms for screenplay and maybe direction, but nothing else. It seems that oscar films nowadays need to be strong on all fronts to really make it anywhere. Oh and as much as i love Harry Potter, it will only get technical nominations.

[Buscemi]

Harry Potter got a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Almost everyone (critics, audiences and possibly the Oscar members) loved it. If it gets ignored, it will be The Dark Knight all over again.