Poll of the Day

I don't think a stunt category should be added because I frankly don't think Academy members are really in much of a position to judge that. Are they just supposed to vote for the most dangerous stunt? The most graceful? The best choreographed fight? It's just going to be a mess, you can't really vote on something like that simply by looking at the movie, you need behind the scenes knowlege to really pick it and I think that would just be a mess.

Tom Cruise would just keep making Mission Impossible movies though, he would get an Oscar every year for the shit he does in those.

I have a proposed poll, but it's not the least bit hip or modern.

Lawrence of Arabia; does it qualify as a war film?

The Revenant or The Hateful Eight?

Tough call, but I'm going with The Revenant. I like the trailer a lot more and Inarritu's coming off greatness.

Choose one!

Uhh, guys, Tarantino clearly has a much better track record...

Pulp Fiction is a stone cold classic, Reservoir Dogs is a cultural touchstone, Jackie Brown is a gem, Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained are in the top tier of recent movies, and the Kill Bill movies are exceptionally entertaining.

On the other side you've got Amores Perros, which is certainly really good, but not pantheon quality (it also plainly owes a debt to Tarantino).  Then you've got 21 Grams, an interesting if frustrating effort.  Babel, which I like better than some people but which is generally seen as a pretty banal effort. Biutiful, which certainly has some good qualities but remains a rather overblown bit of miserablism.  And then you have Birdman, which is certainly a big comeback but we're not exactly sure where that will lead to.

If I were just comparing the directors, than it's pretty even for me (maybe a slight edge to Tarantino), but I have a few reasons for wanting to see The Revenant more. First off, I absolutely love the trailer. Second, it looks like a more ambitious choice for Inarritu than The Hateful Eight does for Tarantino. Third, Inarritu is coming off one of his best films, while Tarantino is coming off one of his weaker efforts (even if it's still a very good movie).

I don't want to come down harshly on either filmmaker though. I have great respect for both of them and to be honest I can't wait for both.

Tarantino of course has the better resume. I'll watch anything he makes, he's yet to make anything less than a good film and is one of the few filmmakers today that truly has a definitive style. It doesn't bug me if he's paying homage to films because he's still very much making them his own and taking them in different directions, which is always a thrill to watch.

I think in this case I'm curious to see where The Revenant goes, where is Innaritu going after Birdman? I agree with Dracula's assessments of the man's films (I just recently finished up the last couple I hadn't seen) and it's amazing how different Birdman is from his other entries. His previous films were all very serious, hardly any humor at all, and often dreary to the point of almost exhaustion. But they're all shot beautifully, have unique film scores (he used to be a DJ in Mexico City), and even if the characters are often drowning in their own misery they're fascinating to watch. Birdman is full of such vibrancy and energy that isn't there in the prior works, even in Amores Perros which is his next best. The Revenant seems to be more of Innaritu going back to the tone of his prior films, but there's an epic scale to it all that is astounding. I cannot wait to see the film, I'm hoping it makes Birdman look like Biutiful, I want it to be that good.

I'm gonna be there opening night for both films and I'm likely going to love both of them as well.

Jumanji for me. Out of left field that it was actually good