Posted on 12/11/2018 9:26:23 AM PST by Rummyfan
On Monday I received an email from the Motion Picture Academy informing me that if I didn't pay my dues, I wouldn't be able to vote in the Oscar nominations in a couple of weeks. I debated for a few minutes. Dues have inflated since I joined in the eighties and are now a hefty $450 per annum. Nevertheless, spendthrift that I am, I bit the proverbial bullet and went for it. Call it the inability to break a bad habit. Or an addiction to the non-stop influx of screeners that arrive at my door every December, not that I watch many of them. (I suspect I'm not alone in that.)
But it wasn't just the money that had made me hesitate. On one level, I wouldn't have re-upped up for $4.50, let alone $450. I mean -- what was the point of this? Does anybody care who wins the Oscar anymore? I certainly don't -- and I'm a voter.
Even the recent dust-up over the Oscars now having no host, since Kevin Hart ankled (as they used to say in Variety) over obscure homophobic tweets for which he had apologized years ago -- talk about tempest in a tea pot -- was of little interest to me. Drudge apparently felt otherwise, having put the "scandal" briefly at the top of his page, but I suspect not many feel similarly and that this year the Oscars will continue on their downward spiral toward life support.
(Excerpt) Read more at pjmedia.com ...
ping
“but these Marvel movies are the only proven winners that you can walk in and feel entertained for two hours”
yeah, but after seeing the first 100 or so, they all seem alike: nothing but CGI, no real plot, bad acting, bad dialog, and interminable fight scenes that seem to last for decades ...
Yes, which is why when I go to rotten tomatoes I pay attention to the audience score. If the reviewers give a movie a splat, but 89% of viewers like it, it must be because it is not some lame art house movie the reviewers prefer.
Sometimes they are both wrong. Watched the movie “The Core” again from 2003, and I love that movie. But no one else does.
If I wanted to watch something totally meaningless with no entertainment value at all, I’d watch the NY Knicks.
Wonderful film; and hey, it even has "unobtainium"! :o)
Some of the independent stuff is getting pretty good and computers make editing, special effects, and distribution to anyone willing to show it easy.
For example, there is a micro-brewery nearby that presently turns itself into a theater one night a week. With more venues doing this a consumer would be able to choose a venue that not only showed the type of movie a person was interested in watching but also choose the type of setting (and also thereby the crowd), the food and drinks available, and better choose who is being supported by your admission price. Isnt choices part of what America is all about?
Unless the movie industry and the cinemas make some huge technological leap, like 3d hologram projections or something similar that is too expensive for small venues to keep up with, Hollywood is terminal. I believe this was part of the reason for the forced upgrade to digital theater systems, they saw what was happening too and tried to force out all the independently owned theaters in support of the big chains. Its too little, too late, and technology has leapfrogged their effort.
Though most people don't seem to recognize it, its just a small part of changes still coming that will continue to effect culture and society in ways more significantly than the arrival of the first iron horse.
Buggy whip manufacturers insist Im wrong, they just cant see it ever catching on.
To me it is.
Roger needs to pay his dues and vote. What a whiner. He’ll get that much back in screeners.
The point of giving them awards is to alert the public to their existence and give them a bigger profile.
11 billion dollars in domestic theatrical revenue this year. so that’s a no.
No. The point of giving them awards is because people who seek fame are usually missing some part of their personality and are desperate for love. Awards are just the entertainment industry masturbating. That’s why there’s so damn many of them, they just can’t get enough of themselves.
As far as I am concerned it is.
The Oscars are the only de facto general industry award for American movies. Everything else is either external to the industry (Golden Globes, critic and audience awards) or awards no one cares about outside of the industry (SAG awards).
And they are ALL just jerking off.
I assume you feel that way about all awards not just those for cinema. Nobel Prize? Cannes?
Nobel sciences prizes no, peace prizes DEFINITELY. Cannes for sure. Awards exist to stroke egos, generally of sad people who feel incomplete.
The Cannes jury generally does a good job of predicting what will last. Fahrenheit 9/11 was an unfortunate exception. And the Oscars used to (although I could pick a film I like more for most every year of their history). The Oscars have traditionally done a good job of educating the American public about movies.
Doesn’t matter what Cannes “predicts”. The Oscars have always been dominated by insider BS. and no the Oscars don’t educate anybody about anything.
No they do. Who would know about Edith Head or Roger Deakins if not for the Oscars.
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