Posted on 01/29/2018 6:44:31 AM PST by dangus
The Academy Awards continue to become more and more irrelevant, selecting "Best Picture" winners that are both abhorrent and terrible. Movies so unappealing that even a Best Picture award couldn't make anyone want to go see them.
But popular doesn't mean great either: spending $300 million to make a movie that makes $400 million, doesn't mean a movie was great. In fact, it probably means the movie-makers didn't take any risks that might jeopardize its enormous investment. What we get is noisy yet bland.
So what are the great movies? That's what I'm asking FReepers to vote on.
For the nominees, because I can't possibly have seen all the nominable films, I've tried to infer what movie-goers have enjoyed AND found memorable:
I've supposed that a surprise hit means that people liked the movie. Making a lot of money relative to investment is suggestive, but we also have to discount cheap movies where the investment was really devoting the roll-out space to the movie, such as horror movies, formulaic children's animation, and low-budget comedies. I've tried not to completely exclude genre-exploitation movies, like "black" movies or "Christian movies." If they've been successful enough to transcend their genres, I'll include them even though their massive profitability may be PARTLY due to low budgets.
Being a "surprise hit" also means "franchise films" with massive budgets *can* be nominated, but they really have to outperform their investors' expectations.
Lastly, I've added one extra nominee per year for movies that were very successful, but don't at all seem to be worthy of nomination. Maybe they were low brow. Maybe they were genre exploitation. Maybe they were innovative but bad in other ways. But I tried not to make such judgments. They're in parentheses.
If I've missed a gem, however, by all means, nominate your own favorites.
Here are the nominees.
2017: Dunkirk, Get Out, The Greatest Showman, Split, Wonder Woman, (The Shack) 2016: Finding Dory, Hacksaw Ridge, Hidden Figures, Miracles from Heaven, Sully, (Deadpool) 2015: Inside Out, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Martian, The Revenant, The Visit, (Star Wars: the Force Awakens), (Peanuts) 2014: American Sniper, God's Not Dead, Interstellar, Malificent, Saint Vincent, (300) 2013: 12 Years a Slave, The Butler, Captain Phillips, Gravity, Lone Survivor, (The Conjuring) 2012: Argo, The Dark Knight Rises, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty, (Skyfall)
Sound effects, too. Took WBill Jr. to see it. At the beginning of the movie, when the Germans touched off the MG, the sound effect was directly over our right shoulder, at near actual db levels, and my son nearly jumped out of his skin.
Neat, sez me, and I'm sure that's what the director was going for.
Yup, when the credits started rolling all I could think was "I want my hour and forty six minutes back.
Mrs. WBill liked Wonder Woman. Raved and Raved about it. She liked seeing a female superhero, I guess, because I watched it and said “Meh. Superhero takes down the big baddie. There’s an original idea...”
The best movie I’ve seen this year: Brawl in Cellblock 99 with Vince Vaughn...wow!
I was in the front with the large screen.
It was as though I was in it rather than watching it.
Dunkirk was kind of confusing and stupid. Not enough story telling in it. Not a lot of explanation about what was going on. And I KNEW the basics of the historical event...can imagine how someone less knowledgeable of history would not be totally lost.
Dunkirk plot was weak, but sound track and filming were excellent.
Who is Ed Herman?
2016 : Arrival. Great movie with a prolife message.
Funny, that's the one criticism I had for "The Longest Day", there was too much explaining in it, of course back then, people were more knowledgeable about what happened, so for those watching it today, it's probably just as well it was done the way it was.
Thanks for the ‘13 Hours’ recommendation. I’ve seen that movie and it’s a winner. I suspect politics keeps it off the list of popular movies.
I read the book first and the movie followed the book most closely.
I'm sure a lot of the guys who actually experienced it felt the same way...
Reminds me of a blind date someone tried to get me to go on years ago by telling me "she has a great personality".
I lived in Los Angeles for 40 years and met numerous Hollywood types. Only a scant handful stood out. Most were meh...just people, not particularly striking or interesting. The small number who stood out (each for a different reason) were Cary Grant, John Forsythe, Bo Derek, Charlton Heston, Muhammad Ali, and Katherine Ross. I met my fair share of politicians too, and all of them were useless people.
“.....Academy Awards continue to become more and more irrelevant............
Noting more than a bunch of arrogant people patting themselves on the back. I could care less.
Now, Katherine Ross and Bo Derek I would love to meet! Once ‘met’ Jacqueline Bisset outside Harrod’s In London. She was very gracious. Beautiful too.
I haven't seen a Hollywood movie in that period. Saw a few foreign ones, but that's about it.
I am so jealous! I had that poster from "The Deep" on my wall when I was a teenager.
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