Could they be any more predictable?



EDIT: Just went to RT to read.

Two writers for Slant, Nick Schager and Jeremiah Kipp, both gave The Last King of Scotland thumb up (B and 3-star). That makes me wonder what its first negative review will come from.

The metacritic scores are not as high as I expected, only 70 from both Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

It's IN!!!

Two negative reviews for The Last King of Scotland just came in.

From New Yorker and Variety

Another positive review came in for Last King Of Scotland

Updated it's charting.

And the average is down to 7.2, with COTC only 5.5, not what I expected after Toronto. Look like the buzz may be exaggerated a little by online columnists. Forest Whitaker should still win plenty of critic awards, especially in the NY area, but without the strength in other departments for the film, it becomes less and less likely that he could challenge O'Toole (if that's not the case already).

On a separate note, someone at OW posted that Spain has selected Alatriste instead of Volver for their foreign language film entry. The official announcement will be on Thursday. Well, not the first time Spain ditched Almodóvar, and it may help its chance elsewhere, if nominated.

See, now Spain is just being moronic. Volver would have been a guaranteed win. Alatriste is guaranteed not to win.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0395119/

Ah well, this lifts my hopes of the German film winning then:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0405094/

Reviews of it over here are absolutely splendid. Actually, just see what Best Foreign Picture nominees Germany has brought out this decade:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0161860/

http://imdb.com/title/tt0363163/

http://imdb.com/title/tt0426578/

All an average of 8.0 or above. All with an RT score of 85% or more.

Now maybe The Life of Others...

Another good review came in for Last King of Scotland.

Reviews Counted: 14
Fresh: 12 Rotten: 2
Average Rating: 7.3/10

86%

I also updated The Queen, which has had several reviews recently. It got it's first negative. It was from the BBC of all things. (Slant has yet to turn in their review)

David Denby's Last King of Scotland blurb above is hilarious. Nice.

If Spain doesn't go with Volver for its selection, I'd place it quite high on the Best Picture short list.

Someone from Slant still gave Last King a negative review, and there is still Ed Gonzalez to come.

James Berardinelli just gave Last King of Scotland a positive.

Reviews Counted: 16
Fresh: 13 Rotten: 3
Average Rating: 7/10

81%

It is supposed to be "insider information"... Nothing official. It could happen, but we will have to wait till thursday. In any case, "Alastriste" won´t win - I bet It won´t even be nominated - but this could be actually good for "Volver". It was definitely great for "Talk to her".

P.S.: Alatriste is a huge production, and this is a small industry. Meaning, many many voters have worked in it and are probably -and understandably - proud of the film on a technical level.

Stupid decision, if it's true...


But yes, I think this also helped Hable Con Ella, so... it might turn out to be better for Penelope, Pedro and the movie's chances...?

I'm going to make a risky prediction and say that if they don't select Volver, the movie itself is going to be nominated for BP

Latest BFCA ratings:

Babel 94
Last King of Scotland, The 88
Little Children 95
Queen, The 95

88 is not high by BFCA's standard; may not even make their top 10. But 95 and 94, wow. I didn't expect that high a score for The Queen.

I agree. Good news for Volver in major categories!!!

The Last King of Scotland seems to be out of the BP race. With its reviews, it'd need the box-office to be nominated and it won't have much of that.

Crash had worse reviews across the board, so it's not over, and it's rather early.

It just got another positive review. I'll update everything when I get a chance.

We can't use Crash as an example for every movie. The Last King of Scotland doesn't have the stars to pull it through. I have always used Hotel Rwanda as the comparison, and look like King will certainly fall short in term of reviews. As Lecter said, it needs box office now, at least $40m, but hard to see it getting that. Fox Searchlight is going to decide which film they will push heavily, Little Miss Sunshine or The Last King of Scotland, and I think they'll be wise to put their weight behind the former.

I could only see Bobby pull a Crash this year with its cast and Harvey behind it.

Capote also had an 89 BFCA score. It's just too early to jump the gun and count it out right now. The next 20 reviews could all be stellar. We'll see.

Updated.

Little Children just got another bad review at RT.

A second negative review for Little Children at RT and dragged the average down to 6.6.

All these developments are good news for United 93 (I'm getting confident of its nomination), O'Toole (very confident of his win), and Volver (looking better and better).