And the Oscar goes to a movie you have never seen

Quote: Nareed

But that wouldn't be Artsy.

I know but then the ratings for the show would be a lot better. I think a movie that took 12 years to make about a boy coming of age and having heartbreaks, first girlfriend, and first drug use is fine, but I don't mind being pandered to a little bit.

Critic's Choice Award had it correct with the following three categories.

BEST ACTION MOVIE
American Sniper
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Edge of Tomorrow
Fury
Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ACTOR IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Bradley Cooper – American Sniper
Tom Cruise – Edge of Tomorrow
Chris Evans – Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Brad Pitt – Fury
Chris Pratt – Guardians of the Galaxy

BEST ACTRESS IN AN ACTION MOVIE
Emily Blunt – Edge of Tomorrow
Scarlett Johansson – Lucy
Jennifer Lawrence – The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1
Zoe Saldana – Guardians of the Galaxy
Shailene Woodley – Divergent

Quote: Paco

And the Oscar goes to a movie you have never seen

I saw Boyhood -- the only Best Picture movie I've seen, although plan to see Selma.

Boyhood was pretty good. Clearly low budget and seemed to last a long time. I watched it on a plane and paused it multiple times because I couldn't take too much at one time. You have to give due points for the concept for following the lives of a family for ten years, although it is a fictional story. I hope they will do a sequel.

Quote: rxwine

Birdman.
This is slightly different trailer than the one I've seen.

Just watched the trailer.
I still don't know what this movie is about :-)

Quote: terapined

Just watched the trailer.
I still don't know what this movie is about :-)

The trailer was unwatchable, so is the
movie probably.

They could give an award for Best Picture released in China

Films Released in China listed by date
59 Fury (2014) China Film $19,180,000 11/21
5 Interstellar China Film $121,990,000 11/12
54 The Maze Runner HuaXia $23,990,000 10/28
37 Lucy China Film $44,780,000 10/24
73 Hercules (2014) China Film $13,170,000 10/21
12 Guardians of the Galaxy HuaXia $96,470,000 10/10
75 Divergent China Film $12,320,000 9/8
21 The Expendables 3 China Film $72,870,000 9/1
9 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes HuaXia $107,355,317 8/29
131 Tarzan (2013) HuaXia $3,010,000 8/21
133 American Hustle HuaXia $2,810,000 7/4
1 Transformers: Age of Extinction HuaXia $301,000,000 6/27
18 Godzilla (2014) HuaXia $77,630,000 6/13
23 Edge of Tomorrow HuaXia $65,660,000 6/6
6 X-Men: Days of Future Past HuaXia $116,490,000 5/23
13 The Amazing Spider-Man 2 China Film $94,430,000 5/4
57 Transcendence HuaXia $20,280,000 4/18
121 The Legend of Hercules HuaXia $3,920,000 4/11
7 Captain America: The Winter Soldier China Film $115,620,000 4/4
94 The Monuments Men China Film $7,350,000 3/28
80 Snowpiercer China Film $11,100,000 3/17
22 Need for Speed China Film $66,240,000 3/14
31 Robocop (2014) China Film $50,820,000 2/28
19 The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug China Film $74,730,000 2/21
52 Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit China Film $26,210,000 1/17
56 Ender's Game China Film $22,710,000 1/7
115 The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones HuaXia $4,260,000 1/3

Animated Films Released in China in 2014
108 The Nut Job HuaXia $4,960,000 12/26
39 Penguins of Madagascar China Film $40,730,000 11/14
27 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (2014) HuaXia $62,130,000 10/31
100 Ice Age: The Meltdown 3D n/a $5,855,762 10/17
26 How to Train Your Dragon 2 HuaXia $65,100,000 8/14
41 Rio 2 China Film $39,400,000 4/11
60 Mr. Peabody & Sherman China Film $19,130,000 3/28
33 Frozen (2013) China Film $48,240,000 2/5
30 Despicable Me 2 China Film $52,980,000 1/10

Quote: Pacomartin

I know but then the ratings for the show would be a lot better.

There's a show after the red carpet?

The Academy is too wealthy and influential.

It skews the two extremes (Art Who? and Salted Peanuts v Art, Education and Caviar).

I recall one movie entitled Star Chamber about which some movie mogul inquired about the name having been an attempt to draw an audience from Star Wars. Should I have educated him about the Star Chamber or let him get into his chauffered limousine?

In 2009 when they opened up the nominations for Best Picture to 5-10, there was a mix of high grossing films on the list. You knew that the sci-fi and animated films weren't going to win, but it was nice to see them recognized.

1 Avatar
5 Up
8 The Blind Side
25 Inglourious Basterds
27 District 9
38 Up in the Air
65 Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire
116 The Hurt Locker
132 An Education
145 A Serious Man

I just saw The Imitation Game. As a math nerd who likes the topic of code-breaking, I couldn't help but see it. However, the movie is much more about the primary code breaker Alan Turing than the German Enigma machine itself and the effort to crack it. I'm sure Hollywood thought, probably correctly, a movie centered on the actual Engima machine and trying to crack the code would only appeal to math geeks like me. So there was quite a bit of emphasis placed on Turing and various other things that were going on in his life, both before and after Enigma.

I certainly don't know much about the man, but Benedict Cumberbatch played him exactly the same way he plays the extremely arrogant Sherlock Holms on Sherlock. It seemed a bit over the top, but then again, I never knew him or much about him.

I always like movies where the audience learns something, and they will learn quite a bit from this movie. Personally, I would have liked it better if it were more of a documentary than a glossy Hollywood movie. BTW, I don't even know if this was made by Hollywood, but it sure felt like it, especially with the overdone musical score.

So, in short, I liked it but didn't love it.

Quote: Wizard

I certainly don't know much about the man,...

The film is listed as a join US/UK production although every actor writer and director is either British or Irish.

The Queen officially pardoned Turing last summer just over 61 years from his conviction.

Turing was convicted in early 1952, of gross indecency for homosexual acts with a 19 year old man. Turing's conviction led to the removal of his security clearance and chemical castration which was probably a factor in his death. His trial was three weeks after QEII became monarch. In contrast, the celebrated Shakespearean actor John Gielgud, who was knighted as part of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, was arrested for soliciting homosexual sex in public rest rooms, and ended up with only a fine. After decades he could finally make jokes about his homosexuality, but he never became an activist.

Turing was accepted into a private school at the age of 13, but on the first day there was a general strike. He rode a bicycle 60 miles at the age of 13 without being accompanied by an adult in order not to miss the opening day. He was a world class athlete and nearly made the Olympics for running. I have never heard him described as being any more arrogant than any other driven, brilliant prodigy, but it certainly makes him more interesting as a movie character.

While you don't expect a film to concentrate on the enigma machine, did they at least not ruin the mathematics completely. When Jill Clayburgh played a math professor in 1980, they made sure that all the mathematics in her talk and on the board made actual sense. Even the pushy student's comments were accurate.