Nick Martin

As we have all seen over many, many years award wins and award nominations (and of course pass-overs and shut-outs) make for intense debate and fun conversation.

Do they ultimately matter to you when you sit down and watch these films?

Does knowing that "Titanic" won 11 Oscars change how you see it? Or the fact that "Brokeback Mountain" suffered some political shut-outs?

It's one thing to talk about these things like they matter, using them as either examples or ammunition to try to win arguments, but it's another to have them actually influence your perception of these films as you sit and watch them - or even avoid them out of spite.

RichC2

It puts me in the mind set of "This movie is getting more acclaim than it deserves" usually, and that makes me a little more critical of it. But it doesn't change my "Hate it, Like it, Love it" opinion.

Nick Danger

No. I disliked Gladiator when I saw it. I still disliked it after it won the Oscar for Best Picture. Whether a movie wins a major award is more a matter of movie-business politics than the actual merit of the movie.

RagingBull80

It's nice to see a movie or director or an actor win an award that you think they deserve but that's about it. These award shows are high school.

Patman

Crash.

toddly6666

Blind Side.

Travis McClain

I'll never understand why fans get so caught up in this stuff. I can even understand rooting for a movie because you really enjoyed it. But to be upset at other winners? Unless you have an actual stake somehow in the outcome of awards shows (i.e., you invested in the movie, you own stock in the studio, you placed a bet on the award, etc.), I'll never understand why fans get so caught up in them.

That said, I will confess that reading something like, "Sundance Official Selection" can persuade me to add something to my Netflix rental queue.

Supermallet

I ultimately don't care, but it does annoy me when a movie hoodwinks award voters, like Juno, or they award movies for the past achievements of the people involved, like Gladiator.

BJacks

Awards only matter to me in that they oftentimes help alert me to a film that I otherwise wouldn't have known about. Not so much tripe like the Golden Globes, but festival awards at Cannes, Toronto, Sundance, etc.

gotrice487

Awards change my perception in that it makes me want to see something that I may have passed over before. Often times though I will watch something that is made out to be the savior and it is thoroughly disappointing

wendersfan

This, basically.

If a movie by somebody I've never heard of wins a Jury Prize at Cannes, then I'll make an effort to check it out. But with a movie like Avatar winning the Golden Globe? Wasn't interested before, not interested now.

Sonic

Awards do nothing for me and neither do actor's personal lifestyle.

For example many people hate Tom Cruise in person, so they hate his movies. I think that is dumb but to each it's own.

toddly6666

the same goes for Mel Gibson. How can anyone not love his films?

Aegean2007

No, they don't. This is because I've usually seen most (if not all) films nominated for the Golden Globes and Oscars before the awards are given out. For example, of all the English-language films nominated for a Golden Globe this year, I only have 4 left to see (Nine, Crazy Heart, A Single Man, and The Last Station).

It is nice to see films I like win awards, but if they don't, I don't get upset. I'd like to see The Hurt Locker win Best Picture - but if it doesn't, I'll just shrug and go on with the rest of my night.

superdeluxe

No, but I might be inclined to go see a movie that I was on the fence about..if it wins a award/nominated.

Patrick_N

I find it difficult to not be biased when I watch a film that I know has won some major(?!) awards.

And as everything affects everything I believe that we all are to some degree moved in our expectation knowing how movies have been received by other groups or people.

I'm almost certain I would view 'Slumdog Millionaire' differently if I had seen it before the GG/Oscars last year. On the other hand I'm happy I avoided to learn ANYTHING about 'Avatar' before seing it.

Neeb

Yes.
I view a lot of 'awarded' films as inferior where I would once have found them worthwhile or impressive.
Example: In Summer 2005. I walked out of CRASH and found it mildly entertaining and an admirable piece of film-making.
In 2006, when it won Best Picture, my opinion immediately went south.
There's lots of films like that: Films that are well made and laudable, but just don't have enough substance to be regarded as "Best."

Draven

I'd say the same thing about sports, actually. Don't understand that mentality at all.

The only thing that matters to me less than the opinion of other people about a movie is the opinion of an award committee. I am more than able to make up my own opinion and I don't need anyone to agree with me to feel better about my decisions.

UAIOE

This.

All I care about is if the movie looks interesting to me or not. If I have no interest in a movie, there aren't enough awards in the world to make me want to go see it.

Brian Shannon

No not all, never have and never will

devilshalo

Fixed.

bunkaroo

Usually it just makes me like a movie even less than I already did if it wins or is even nominated undeservedly. Crash, Slumdog Millionaire, Milk, etc., etc.

Nick Martin

Unfortunately many people do base decisions on what others think - critics.

Two Thumbs Up / Down, 72% "fresh", 80 % "rotten" and all that bullshit.

If someone loves a movie that got '1 star out of 5', so what? How is that a bad thing?

You like what you like, and it's great when people see movies, read books and watch TV shows based on their own choices and not how many stars a critic gave it.

Brack

I think this depends on the review. I tend to read few movie reviews, because most are horribly written and don't get a feel for the movie at all. Critical, but not insightful.

Nick Martin

I agree - reviews are great for insight into a film. The ones that spend the time to just trash a movie, or the opposite and say everything's golden aren't helpful in understanding what the film is about.

Take reviews here - DVD and Blu-ray reviews.

Detailed descriptions of the audio and video quality are indeed helpful for all concerned, while the analysis of the movie / TV show itself is secondary, because with these things chances are a reader has likely made their mind up on whether or not to see the film / show, but needs the A/V descriptions to point in the right direction. Lots of movies have bad presentations and are purchases / rented anyway because the film itself outweighs that, and horrible movies that may look spectacular are purchased because they'll make for good demo material or just eye / ear candy.