Archive for the ‘Polls’ Category

With "500 Days of Summer" (above) and "The Hangover" both being critically acclaimed comedies, which film received the bigger Oscar snub?

A recent Variety article by Glenn Whipp takes a (very) light jab at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences by pointing out, as many have done, that comedies have yet again stayed out of the Oscars’ list of Best Picture nominations. Two pics he mentions specifically are 500 Days of Summer and The Hangover. The latter made the American Film Institute’s Top 10 of the year, and the former even made the Movie-Thoughts Top 10. Both films were critically acclaimed, with The Hangover earning 78% on RottenTomatoes.com and 500 Days of Summer earning 86%.

Whipp notes in his article that it is not the concept of comedy that the Academy has excluded, being that A Serious Man has black comedy, Up in the Air has spurts of humor, Up is debatably an action/comedy, and Inglourious Basterds is peppered with tongue-in-cheek fantasy.

So what’s keeping The Hangover away? Crudeness is no doubt the answer, but that’s only an explanation for its brand of humor. In other matters that the Academy judges, which include artistic quality and technical prowess, the film can be said to fall short. The topic of human interest (which couldn’t be a broader label) is another favorite of the voters, so if Judd Apatow’s 40 Year Old Virgin didn’t have a chance, then certainly The Hangover wouldn’t. But what about 500 Days of Summer? A smart, funny film about how to get over what you thought was a great relationship surely satisfies the Academy’s criteria, right? Apparently not. We are left to only guess, which is really all we can do.

This all begs the question of, if we were to consider these two films’ omission by the Academy a snub, which was the bigger snub? Leave your vote in the comments section of this post or via this site’s Contact page. Tell the world what you think!

Hopefully the holidays aren't as hard on you as they are on the Griswalds

Here at Movie-Thoughts we try to be as unbiased in our analysis as we can, but we also like to take your opinion into the equation as much as possible. Public opinion plays a huge roll in the cultural status of films, and such a value must (at least when most appropriate) be considered in a film’s long-term evaluation. Being that it is the Christmas season we would like to know which Christmas/holiday movies you consider to be the best of the best. Our only requirement is that the film you choose be of feature length (80mins or longer) – sorry, votes for A Charlie Brown Christmas or How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version) wont count. Some movies to mull over are listed below, in no particular order.

The Santa Clause

White Christmas

It’s a Wonderful Life

A Christmas Carol (you must identify a specific version, e.g. the one with George C. Scott, the one with the Muppets, etc.)

Christmas Vacation

A Miracle on 34th Street (1947)

The legitimacy of each vote will be judged on a case by case basis, as many films incorporate the holidays into their storylines (such as Die Hard, Sleepless in Seattle, Edward Scissorhands, and this year’s The Merry Gentleman). So in other words, candidates require only minimal justification. We can’t wait to hear what you think, so let us know by submitting your vote in this post’s comments section or our contact page!