Hope it wins as an acknowledgement for the trilogy, my favourite being FOTR. PJ should win hands down best director as I feel he should've won even in the previous years.

for me its a toss up, I wouldnt be disappointed with the Best Picture Oscar if RotK or Seabiscuit won. Pretty much anything else would be a joke... but then the oscars usually are.

j

There is a dedicated thread in the Movie Talk forum - 2003 Rank Them As You See Them. I have my rankings on the second page:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthr...5&pagenumber=2

I don't feel the need to explain why each film that was rated higher than RotK was given such a rating. Plain and simple - I was more entertained by those movies.

Okay, well, given that you give these films the same rating as RotK, I can understand now the kinds of films you like, and see also that the LOTR films obviously aren't of the same caliber as:

Bad Boys II (2003) - ****
Old School (2003) - ***1/2
Phone Booth (2003) - ****
The Italian Job (2003) - ***1/2
Hulk (2003) - ***1/2
The Recruit (2003) - ***1/2
American Wedding (2003) - ****
The Rundown (2003) - ***1/2
Underworld (2003) - ***1/2
School of Rock (2003) - ***1/2

to you. But there weren't a dozen films on your list rated higher than RotK.

Well, I gave FotR (*****)and TTT (****1/2). I was disappointed w/ RotK, hence the ***1/2.

And I counted 15 movies that I rated higher than RotK.

I just saw ROTK tonight,yeah im a little slow but i always wait for the crowds to die down.I usually dont care much about who wins awards and usually i cheer for the "smaller" films but i will be really dissapointed if it doesnt win best picture if not for ROTK itself(which i loved) but for all three films which were something spectacular and captivated so many people over the last couple of years.

And of course i would also love to see Peter Jackson win for direction,that goes without saying.

Including Bad Boys II, the most racist, stereotypical, mysoginistic, homphobic and hateful piece of film I've seen all year. How anyone could rate a movie with scenes of borderline necrophilia and a sequence with realistic looking cadavers getting run over by vehicles over ROTK is beyond me, but hey, different strokes for different folks. Getting back on topic, I just thank God you do not vote for the Oscars in any way, shape or form.

Don't tell me that if Nekromantic had come out this year, you wouldn't have been compelled to rate it higher than Return of the King.

Why would it be a "joke" if something like Mystic River, Cold Mountain, Lost in Translation, In America or Master and Commander won the award over ROTK or Seabiscuit? Try to look past your bias and realize that there are many other opinions out there and many people liked films other than ROTK this year.

I'm sad that no one seems to consider "The Last Samurai" a legitimate contender. I'd like to see it get a nomination.

There were at least ten good films this year that would be Oscar-worthy (Best Picture). Only half of them will get nominations, and of course only one can win.

The winner is usually the one that's best marketed, especially if the academy members don't get screeners to watch the films.

Lost in Translation will get a push due to its coming out on DVD shortly before the Oscars. But it's a small independent film. When was the last time one of those won Best Picture?

And as far as I can remember, New Line has never won a Best Picture statue (even though they're owned by Warner Bros. which isn't exactly a small independent studio).

OMG, please calm down - I don't think it's Oscar-worthy material. It was just a completely over-the-top action movie that I happened to enjoy quite a bit. That movie isn't meant to be taken seriously...

prolly cause I dont consider any of those to be in SB/RotKs class... i stated an opinion.. its not any more biased than anyone elses. Take ur pills and calm down a little.

j

ROTK wins the Producers Guild Award for Best Picture. So, uh, yeah, I think it is really a legit Best Picture contender.

I feel a little something like momentum happening here...scuttlebutt is that even the fickle, idiosyncratic Golden Globes may not be going Harvey's way this year...

im sure "oscar calibur" voters are probably trained to look at several categorys during a theatrical viewing which would include things like quality of acting, cinematography, dialogue, screenplay etc. not just the overall feel good/feel bad experience

in that case, although id LOVE to see ROTK take best picture, it is up against a few good contenders. in reality, i wouldn't be surprised if it didn't win (you never know with the oscars), just dissapointed. for some reason im pulling more for the $1 billion mark than i am the oscars.. something about only the second film in history to reach that status sounds like plenty of an acheivement (if the oscars dont like it, clearly the masses do)

Now that the list of nominees is out, i won't feel bad if ROTK loses the best picture Oscar. All five movies are damn_fine flicks in their own right. It's not like Jackson and company are going to get Annie Hall'ed or something.

I still would love for it to win, of course.

Bah. Annie Hall deserved the win over Star Wars.

^^
Sorry, Annie Hall is a glorified romantic comedy (this isnt inherently bad, although usually it is). '77 was Star Wars' year. Well, Lucas has the satisfaction of knowing that year will always be remembered for SW, not Hall.

Just to jump in on the completely off topic debate:

1. Annie Hall most definitely deserved to win over Star Wars. Annie Hall is more than a romantic comedy. It's an extraordinarily intelligent film, while still being hilarious. Few romantic films, comedy or drama, have managed to capture the nature of a courtship as well as Annie Hall. Also, cinematically, the film is very daring. For example, the sequence where Hall and Singer have a very shallow conversation on her deck, and their true thoughts are revealed via subtitles, or the reveal of Marshall McLuhan, the animated sequence, etc. It's a very personal film. It may not have the epic arc of Star Wars, but it resonated with more academy voters because so many of them have been in good relationships that for one reason or another went sour. I'd still choose to watch Annie Hall over Star Wars any day, and I'm a huge Star Wars fan.

2. Lord of the Rings could certainly be Annie Hall-ed by Lost In Translation. However, I think there's a bit of a difference in that Lord of the Rings has the power of persuasion in that most people have been waiting from the first one to award Return of the King for all three.

Hell, I'd like to see Lost In Translation win simply because it would give the studios pause for thought as to exactly what films they should be making.

Annie Hall and Star Wars are two of the best films ever, in their respective genres. The Lord of the Rings films are clearly the best in theirs. Lost in Translation is not worthy of being mentioned with any of these. It is the most overrated movie in many, many years.

"Lost in Translation is not worthy of being mentioned with any of these. It is the most overrated movie in many, many years."


true reviews and critiques are based on more than just entertainment value, there are many categories that are looked upon with great detail.

If it wasn't for the staggering achievement that is the Lord of the Rings films, I think "Lost in Translation" would be a worthy contender for Best Picture.

I disagree with the notion that it's not one of the best films of its genre. I'm quite a Star Wars fan, but realistically I know that Annie Hall was the best film of 1977, and that while I also believe that RotK was the best film of 2003, Lost in Translation will also be remembered for a long time. I don't have RotK on DVD yet, but I'm sure LiT will get more replay at my house.

sounds like a great place to take a nap.