Return of the King: critics choice for best picture

[Desdichado]

Not exactly Return of the King, but LOTR related... The Two Towers won the 2004 People's Choice Award for Best Drama Motion Picture. It has beaten the Russell Crowe's film, Master and Commander: Far Side of the World (released November, right before the PCA's qualifing nomination deadline).

Sadly, it did not win the Best Motion Picture overall. It went to ... Are they friggin' blind?!?!!! ... Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl.

The next award will be the Golden Globe Awards, where The Return of the King will try to sink Master and Commander and drain the Mystic River of its star appeal.

I think Pirates was a better movie, in most respects. Fellowship was the one that truly should have won, iMO -- based purely on the quality of the movies, I think it's the best of the three.

 

[Sirius_Black]

I think Pirates was a better movie, in most respects. Fellowship was the one that truly should have won, iMO -- based purely on the quality of the movies, I think it's the best of the three.

I agree on both points. I feel Pirates was better than ROTK and still feel Fellowship was the best film of the LOTR trilogy.

Additionally, in regards to Pirates beating out ROTK for the People's Choice, I always got the impression that Awards Group tried to spread the wealth around as much as possible. Thus, they give Pirates one award and ROTK another and fans of both movies are happy.

 

[Ranger REG]

Well, I can't say anything about ROTK since I have yet to watch it. But I did purchased Pirates of the Caribbean (didn't see it in theater), and while it's good, it's not good enough. Maybe because I'm so used to the old-fashioned pirate films with stars like Errol Flynn. While Johnny Depp did show an interestingly different acting performance, he's no Errol Flynn.

As for Orlando Bloom, I prefer his Legolas role over his blacksmith role.

 

[barsoomcore]

Thanks, REG. I was starting feel awfully alone.

I just thought Pirates stank. I mean, it wasn't Cutthroat Island, to be sure, but I just don't get why people liked it.

I mean, did I get this right?

The pirates maroon their captain on the smugglers' island. Three days later he escapes. (I'm pretty sure he said he was only on the island for three days) Some time after that he arrives in town, meets Sir Blacksmith and heads out after his once-was crew.

Okay. So these guys have been undead monsters for, what -- a week? And they're tired of it? I mean, come on. I'd still be going around saying, "Hey check it out: skin -- now bone! Cool, huh?"

And there's all these stories about how he escaped the island -- but didn't it JUST happen?

Okay, I could rant about the performances (sure Johnny Depp was, um, wacky, but neither of the leads accomplished much of anything, least of all convincing me they were attracted to each other), the idiot sailing stuff ("Throw out the anchor! They'll never expect that!") and the crappy fight scenes. But I dunno.

I feel crazy.

Everyone seems to really like this film and I just don't get it. Did they make up a special print for me and my wife? I mean, we thought it was really, really bad. Like one of the worst films of the year. And yet everyone loved it. Even people whose opinions I would normally trust. Weird.

 

[Hypersmurf]

While Johnny Depp did show an interestingly different acting performance, he's no Errol Flynn.

He is Captain Jack Sparrow, though.

I came out of the theatre the first time I saw that film convinced Johnny Depp was God.

-Hyp.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I mean, did I get this right?

Uh, no.

They marooned him on the island. Three days later he escaped. He then went on being a pirate... just not as captain of the Black Pearl. For years.

I'm pretty sure Barbossa was in command of the Pearl when Will's ship was sunk at the start of the movie, when he and Elizabeth were both kids.

Somewhere in the intervening time, Sparrow stole the girly-pirate's boat, and subsequently lost it.

Then, eventually, he ended up in the town looking to steal the Interceptor.

Years, the Black Pearl spent, crewed by the damned and captained by a man so evil that Hell itself spat him out.

"Last time I was here a grand total of three days, all right? Last time the rum runners used this island as a cache. They came by and I was able to barter passage off. By the looks of things, they’ve long been out of business - probably have your bloody friend Norrington to thank for that!"

Remember, the cache of rum was full of cobwebs. "Long been out of business" in a business that relies on transport by sailing ship isn't a week... it's years.

Ah - here we go.

"Gentlemen, the time has come! Salvation is near at hand! Our torment is near at end. For ten years we’ve been tested and tried and each man gathered here has proved his mettle a hundred times over and a hundred times again!"

There you go. So the ten years referred to by the prisoner in the cell (that the Pearl has been plundering and pillaging and leaving no survivors) is the ten years Barbossa's been in command, that they've been suffering the curse, and unable to eat apples.

-Hyp.

 

[barsoomcore]

Well, that sort of makes sense. More sense than it did. I mean, I remember them saying it was ten years, but then he said it was three days, and there was no reference to what had happened in the meantime.

I do wonder why he suddenly decides he wants his ship back, however. I mean, if he's done just fine without it for ten years, what's the big deal?

"Long been out of business" in a business that relies on transport by sailing ship isn't a week... it's years.

I have to say that bringing realities of sail into a film in which two men blithely set off in an otherwise unmanned vessel for a Caribbean cruise isn't really playing fair.

I'm not going to say any more about it -- I keep going off on these long rants and having to delete half this post so I'll keep my tongue still. I don't want to rain on anyone else's enjoyment. Just say I really really didn't like this film.

 

[reapersaurus]

barsoom - you're welcome to keep showing everyone how you completely missed MAJOR portions of the film, and have no leg (even a peg-leg) to stand on.

*waves arm beckoning you to come in*

I'd love to hear you grace us with your criticism of a film you must have been watching with an eye-patch on.
(AHA! Get the PIRATE HUMOR!)

*sits down, munching the popcorn, hoping for a good show*

 

[reapersaurus]

Hyp - great job with the quotes there. That must have taken some time.

re: RotK
I will virtually guarantee that RotK wins Best Picture and Best Director this year.
There really is no competition, but more importantly:
There will be geek-riots in the streets and blood will flow if RotK isn't given the awards.

And noone wants to see millions of Geeks in a Blood Rage, I can assure you.

It would be the last nail in the coffin of the Oscars, effectively PROVING to everyone what many people already feel - that the Academy is hopelessly out of touch with what movies are about.

 

[Hypersmurf]

I do wonder why he suddenly decides he wants his ship back, however. I mean, if he's done just fine without it for ten years, what's the big deal?

He's wanted it back the whole time. Ooh, there's another point - "Ten years ye carry that pistol and now ye waste yer shot?" He's been carrying that pistol since he was marooned, waiting for the chance to kill Barbossa with it.

He's had a run of bad luck, obviously - look at the boat he has at the start of the film. He's looking to steal the Interceptor, because it's the only ship he's heard of that has a chance to run down the Pearl. But he's still no closer to knowing where to find it...

... until it comes looking for the last medallion.

There are no sudden decisions involved!

I'm certainly not going to try and claim that it's a plot with marvellous depth and subtlety, or that it's a classic that will be taught in media classes in thirty years, or anything like that.

But it is the first film since FotR that I've watched three times on the big screen.

-Hyp.