“The American” Poll Results

9 09 2010

All I keep hearing about “The American” is that it got a D- CinemaScore average but still managed to take the #1 spot at the box office.  If that’s not a testament to how much America trust George Clooney, I don’t know what is.

Commercial success is nice (although being #1 in September is hardly anything to brag about); however, it doesn’t always mean that the Oscar love is going to start flowing.

In my Oscar Moment on the movie two weeks ago, I sold its awards case based on the respect for Clooney and director Anton Corbijn.  There weren’t any reviews out at the time of posting, but we know now that it hovers around 60%, which is nothing to scoff at by any means.  That’s not exactly prime Oscar territory when a movie isn’t very baity.

Seems like you all weren’t feeling particularly optimistic about the chances of “The American.”  60% said it was heading down the path to obscurity while 40% said it was heading to glory.  Based on the poor audience response and middling box office and critical reception, I’d say the readers are probably right today.

(P.S. – Take “The Social Network” poll … I want more votes for that one!)


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“Eat Pray Love” Poll Results

22 08 2010

“Eat Pray Love” third wheeled it at the box office this weekend, scrounging a nice $12 million on a fair 48% decrease from its opening.  With $47.1 million in the bag, it’s outpacing last year’s “Julie & Julia,” which wound up with about $94 million overall.  But that

Anyways, box office speculation aside, it’s time to talk about awards.  Back before anyone had even seen the movie, I wrote an Oscar Moment on “Eat Pray Love” speculating on its chances in Best Actress and Best Picture.

With a low 38% on Rotten Tomatoes, it’s doubtful that the movie will garner the critical support necessary to get a Best Picture nod.  Then again, that’s just one point higher than “Nine,” which was still in the hunt for Best Picture last year, albeit as a bottom-feeding disappointment.

But there hasn’t been any hating on Julia Roberts, and good actresses have gotten into the Best Actress field with worse ratings – just ask Cate Blanchett, who scored a nomination in 2007 for “Elizabeth: The Golden Age,” a movie with a 35% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

So I asked the readers where the awards season run for “Eat Pray Love” would end.  Would it wind up with an Oscar nomination of any kind or just be a Golden Globes movie?  Or, heck, would it even have an awards season?

No one seemed particularly optimistic.  Only one-fourth of voters in the poll thought it could manage an Oscar nomination.

The other six were split half and half.  Three think it will be nominated for a Golden Globe, while three others think it won’t have any luck in the winter.  It’s really tough to tell, but Julia Roberts would be an easy fallback if the rest of the season disappoints.  So for now, we will just have to wait and see.


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“Secretariat” Poll Results

17 08 2010

I was less than enthused about “Secretariat” in my Oscar Moment. “Kill me NOW,” I wrote.  Sorry, it’s hard to stay impartial when no one is holding you to journalistic ethics.

But after the inclusion of “The Blind Side” (a hopeful anomaly) in last year’s ten, we have to consider that any movie that is about sports and inspirational might be able to strike a cord with the Academy.  So I left a poll at the bottom, asking you whether you thought “Secretariat” would be a Best Picture nominee.

Looks like you all don’t think “Secretariat” will be trod the same path as “The Blind Side” or “Seabiscuit.”  By a definitive margin, the “no way” option won out, two whole votes over the yaysayers.

I sure hope we bet on the right horse.  Yes, the puns will keep coming all the way through awards season.


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“Inception” Poll Results

9 08 2010

It was almost unanimous.  So, so close.

Four weeks ago, when I featured “Inception” in an Oscar Moment, I left a simple poll at the bottom.  The question: “Inception for Best Picture?”

With 20 votes, a tremendous turnout for this site, I got a better read on people’s opinions that ever.  Thanks to all the voters!

95% of you think that “Inception” will be nominated for Best Picture.  That’s a giant portion.  I sure hope you’re on to something…

And then there was the one Debbie Downer who had to swoop in at the last minute and vote no.  To you, unknown voter, I’m rooting for you to be dead wrong.

So take that, backlash!  Onward to Oscar gold, “Inception” lovers!  (Someone come up with a sweet name for us, please!)


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“The Kids Are All Right” Poll Results

31 07 2010

As “The Kids Are All Right” rolls into over 800 theaters this weekend, including many that are very much in the mainstream, it seems as good a time as ever to check out the results of the poll I ran along with the Oscar Moment on the movie.

The poll was a little bit different than any other one I’ve run before (at least with an Oscar Moment).  Rather than answer a simple “yes/no” question, I asked readers to pick ALL the contenders from Lisa Cholodenko’s film that they expected to wind up nominated at the big dance.

So there might have been some confusion, and I apologize for that.  The results seem normal now, but at first, they didn’t seem … well, all right.

There was a clear favorite candidate: Annette Bening.  With six votes, readers clearly think she is going to be a major threat in the Best Actress race.  (Although I will say, after having seen the movie, I think Bening should be supporting and Moore should be lead.)

Then things got a little more interesting.  Four people think that the movie will be nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.  That’s a nice number, but it shows that not everyone is convinced this is the real deal.  Only one person thinks Lisa Cholodenko will receive a nomination for Best Director, which isn’t too shocking given that the movie isn’t the type where the director gets a lot of credit.  But in 2007, Jason Reitman sneaked in for “Juno” when no one expected it, so you never know.

Among other actors, Julianne Moore received the next highest votes of confidence with four.  In my review, I singled her out as my favorite, and I sincerely hope she wins.  Hopefully no category fraud issues spell her doom.

Surprisingly, Mia Wasikowska wound up with more votes than the elder statesman Mark Ruffalo – two to one, in fact.  Many people consider Ruffalo very overdue for a nomination, particularly after being snubbed for 2000’s “You Can Count on Me.”  But if the field is weak enough, Wasikowska could sneak in if love for the movie is strong.  It wouldn’t be the first time that two actresses from the same movie were nominated in the category; it’s happened the past two years.

Also worth a mention, Josh Hutcherson received a vote, which I sure liked to see.  Represent 17-year-olds!  (Fun fact: he’s two days older than I am.)


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“Winter’s Bone” Poll Results

14 07 2010

The readers have spoken, and it is as close to definitively as you can get with 6 voters.

About a month ago, I wrote about the indie hit “Winter’s Bone,” which amassed some nice prizes at Sundance Film Festival.  Since then, it has made some nice money -$2.5 million from 106 theaters.

As my poll question, I asked what awards path the movie would tread by using two similar movies – the enormously successful “Precious” and the modestly successful “Frozen River.”  And then I also left the option of no success.

Half the voters saw “Winter’s Bone” being more like “Frozen River,” which had a quiet release in the summer and a pretty quiet campaign.  All of a sudden, it exploded onto the Oscar scene with Best Actress and Original Screenplay nominations.  Those are two categories where this movie could easily score.

A third of the voters can foresee it being like “Precious,” getting heavy momentum going into the awards season and then keeping it, cashing in and receiving a Best Picture nomination.

And then there was the one cynic who thinks “Winter’s Bone” isn’t headed for anything great.


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“Shutter Island” Poll Results

23 06 2010

Guess you all didn’t buy it.

In my Oscar Moment about “Shutter Island,” I suggested that Martin Scorsese’s latest might have an outside shot at a Best Picture nomination.

Some people saw it as a possibility, like Dan the Man, who said, “I can see this, but yet, it was released early on in the year, and Oscars tend to look past that, but you may have something going here.”  Dreher Bear added, “It’s the Oscars, anything is possible.”

Others, ultimately the majority, disagreed.  Dave Diggler took the strongest pose against it, saying, “Shutter Island has no chance either at the Oscars or the BAFTAS.”  The Pompous Film Snob, Frank Mengarelli, added, “…no way near best picture, director, or actor – and to be honest, I don’t think it deserves it.”

But apparently, I wasn’t too crazy.  Five people thought it had no chance, and four people didn’t discount it as a possibility.  So you never know.  Just saying.


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“Get Low” Poll Results

11 06 2010

Back in May, I wrote about the Oscar chances of “Get Low,” which premiered at last year’s Toronto Film Festival and opens on July 30.  Particularly, I speculated about Robert Duvall and his status as an acting legend.  Would that be enough to catapault him into the race?  I said:

Here’s my question: does [Duvall] need Oscar bait?  He’s already won Best Actor!  Sure, it was over 25 years ago (1983 for “Tender Mercies” to be exact), but that’s still a trophy on the mantle at Duvall Manor.

People make this argument for Meryl Streep year after year.  ”She won so long ago,” they say.  ”They don’t need to hide their affection; just give her another Oscar!”

The difference between the two is as follows.  Since Robert Duvall won the Oscar, he has received two other nominations (in consecutive years, as a matter of fact).  Since Meryl Streep won her last Oscar, she has been nominated eleven times!  Eleven!

I think he will get nominated for an Oscar.  I polled to see what you all thought, and the results seemed to confirm what I thought.

Be sure to take the poll on the Oscar Moment for “Shutter Island!” I’m not sure how long I should keep a poll running; this one ran for over a month and that’s definitely too long.  I’ll happily field your suggestions in the comments below!


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First Poll Results Post!

28 05 2010

I’m trying out some restructuring of the site, particularly in the sidebar and in the categories column.  In respect to the former, I’m working on reordering the boxes.  I moved the subscription box to the bottom of the sidebar and the LAMB logo to the middle.  As always, feedback is appreciated.

But this post concerns itself with the latter of my concerns, the categories.  I’ve made the first big move already; I took the “Marshall and the Movies” category and removed it as a sub-category of “About Me.”  Now, I’m using the category as an umbrella for all the activity on the site that pertains to the blogosphere as a whole.

One sub-category of “Marshall and the Movies” is dedicated to polls.  I run them fairly often but don’t post the results (with the exception of the monthly most anticipated poll).  Since they are a fairly big part of gauging the opinion of my readers, I decided it was time for me to start sharing them more often.

So here goes nothing!  The first polls ran during the Oscar Moment about “Toy Story 3.”  Using the success of last year’s “Up” as a talking point, I posed two poll questions wondering if Pixar could carve a niche for themselves in the Best Picture race.  The results were fairly definitive.

The polls show that most people think “Toy Story 3” will be nominated for Best Picture, and most people think Pixar’s movies always deserve a Best Picture spot (although by a smaller margin).

Onto the next poll, which was on the Oscar Moment for “How to Train Your Dragon.”  After the unexpected box office and critical success, I wanted to see if people thought it had a chance at winning Pixar’s category.  The results gave little to work with.

As you can see, the same amount of people think that it can win Best Animated Picture as think that it can’t.

The next poll ran with the Oscar Moment on “Robin Hood.”  At the time the post ran, a Ridley Scott-Rusell Crowe combination and a Cannes opening seemed to bode well for its Oscar chances.  Clearly you all weren’t fooled by my writing and saw the writing on the wall.

And you all are 99.9% right, barring some sort of a miracle.

You fell for it in the next poll.  In the poll on the “Iron Man 2” Oscar Moment, I suggested that Mickey Rourke could be a contender for Best Supporting Actor.

And you are very, very wrong.  If Mickey Rourke is nominated for an Oscar for this role, the world will come to an end.

I’ll save the “Get Low” results for another post, but in the meantime, vote on the June poll!  2 votes are unacceptable, people!


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