Oscar's Best Picture (2008)

This is what the Academy picked as their top five movies of the year. Which do you think is the best? What do you think will win? What got snubbed? Make your vote, then tell us your reasoning. Chat it up, folks.

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I'm going to have to wait until I've seen all the nominees. Sorry.

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I HOPE Juno, I know the Acaemy hates comedy, but my heart is there, but I THINK There Will Be Blood will win

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Out of those 5 There Will Be Blood is my obvious choice. I'm one of the few who wasn't blown away by No Country For Old Men (maybe I'll like it better on a 2nd viewing).

Anyway - last year the oscars picked some of my favorite : this year they really missed.

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Juno is my choice but There Will Be Blood will probably unfortunately win

The only film nominated for an award that I've seen so far is the latest Pirates of the Caribbean that is up in some obscure category. I didn't think it was a very good film, however, only marginally better than the No. 2 episode. I think they've about sucked all the juice they can from that lemon.

I'm sure No Country for Old Men is good--the Cohens did it and Tommy Lee Jones is in the cast. But I've had a gutful of violence for violence's sake, so I doubt if I'll be seeing that movie.

I feel about the same about Charlie Wilson's War--not that it's a violent film but Texans knew all about Charlie Wilson and his war when he was following "Gunga Dan" Rather's footsteps into that war zone. The film claims Wilson secretly cranked up US participation over there, but one of my political writer colleagues at The Houston Post accompanied him on several of his trips in to Afghanistan and wrote front page articles about it. Believe me, no one in Texas ever thought Charlie Wilson was as slick and exciting as the book and movie made him out to be! Just another low-level politician making an ass of himself on expensive international junkets.

I read a review of There Will Be Blood--what a potboiler! Don't know how they can get so many characters and subplots into a single motion picture! Sounds like they didn't have much of a cohesive story, however, until they started cribbing stuff from Sinclair Lewis's book Oil!

Of the best picture nominees, I've only seen There Will Be Blood. I loved that movie. I love everything Paul Thomas Anderson makes.

I haven't seen No Country For Old Men, but I imagine I would like that too.

Michael Clayton looks interesting enough.
Atonement, from the synompsis I've read, looks like another typical World War whatever drama.

Juno I have absolutely zero interest in. I see crap like that everyday. I don't much care for teenager dramas (with a few exceptions), or their pregnancy problems, or a little girl finding a mommy and daddy for the kid. No interest at all. I didn't really care for Hard Candy that much. The film or Ellen Page. Page, for some reason, strikes me as being a major bitch, both on and off screen. I dunno, I just don't care much for her. I could be wrong.

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Your loss, and you totally have the tone and intent of the movie misconstrued. It's much more like Rushmore than an ABC After School Special. It's a darkly funny but also sincerely sweet and romantic little movie. It's also very smart.

And yes, you're also wrong about Ellen Page.


But your stubborn ignorance is what makes viddy viddy, so enjoy it!

What? Juno is practically the best of this year.

Oh, and I don't what you were watching but Amanda Peet has nothing to do with this picture.

I think viddy has confused Amanda Peet with Jennifer Garner. Or he doesn't know the difference. Or doesn't care.

Anyway, as I say, your loss, Dude.

Well when I wrote "teenage dramas" I knew the movie was a quirky comedy from what I've read about it. By "teenage dramas" I meant on a plot level, not a stylistic or genre level. Sorry for that confusion. An unwanted pregnancy is a drama, whether it is played for comedy or drama, or satire.

I loved Rushmore. I would be willing to watch Juno, but the interest is not there, so I won't be catching it in the theater.

I guess I'm tired of teenage oriented films of late. Maybe that has something to do with that fact that they are my job. The teenagers that is, not the films. The subject matter is the biggest turn off for me, Holden. The other of course, Ellen Page. This only after having seen her in Hard Candy, which featured a very weak and contrived performance I thought. Plus something about her - those things that an actor has about them that they can't control - I just don't like. Just in a way how certain actors have things about them that I do like that has nothing to do with their acting ability whatsoever, i.e. Clift, that I love.

Yeah, Viddy had his boring, ruin a-scene and a film, why the Hell are they even in film-instead of at a bank-teller window, tall, boring, bouncy busted brunettes, confused.

I meant, I see teenagers everyday because I teach. Some of them pregnant. Actually to be honest I only had to teach one pregnant girl last semester... none this semester... yet.

I like what Jen Garner did in Juno. It's not award-worthy or anything, but by far the best work I've seen her do thus far. The script, the direction and her choices nicely take the stereotype Juno and the audience initially judge her as and subvert it, making her quite sympathetic and adding layers to her in the third act. Nicely done. I can easily separate her from the tabloid interest as Ben Affleck's squeeze - it's not really on my radar. All I can tell you is she was very well used in Juno.

And I rather like Amada Peet. Not just because she's easy on the eyes (and my goodness, she is that), but when given the opportunity - and admittedly she has mostly been associated with junk, she can be quite good, in both comedy and drama. I think. The first thing I ever saw her in was an episode of "Law & Order", where she played a Patty Hearst-type kidnapping victim who started participating in the crimes. She was very strong in that. Small role as Damon's wife in Syriana, but I thought she was solid, and I thought she was terrific as the addicted, insecure beauty of Igby Goes Down. "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" was cut down after only one season, but I thought she was perfectly cast for that one.

Anyway, judging Ellen Page on one role in a manipulative and trashy little flick coupled with some "sense" of her you got from said manipulative flick...up to you.


And for the hat trick, it really is your loss.

For every hat trick. There must be. A watership down.

Where's the love for Hot Fuzz ?

Out of the nominations, I've only seen Atonement, so i can't really say much about who i think will win, but for the record, Atonement was very good. Great acting, great score, and put together so well. But i don't think it's Oscar winning material.

HP, can you extend the closing date of the poll for us Brits? Juno, and There Will Be Blood don't open here until 8th of Feb, and there hasnt been hardly any press screenings for either. I would like to participate in this jolly little vote but cannot due to YOUR BLATENT XENOPHOBIA

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I chose No Country for Old Men. All the nominees were great movies, but this one had me gripped from start to finish with it's story, and cast of actors. I liked how things unfolded and developed.

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Like others, I'll have to wait until I've seen all the nominees. It's two down, three to go for me. Juno, There Will Be Blood and Michael Clayton are the ones I need to see.

And blib, isn't There Will Be Blood released the week after, February 15th?

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