12 100's now for the Departed, although it did get it's worst review yet at MC.

I think it will win Picture, Director, Actor.

I have a hard time seeing Jack Nicholson beat out Brad Pitt for supporting.

Two more 100's at MC brings The Queen's total to 8 and score to 91. This one is locked.

I'm updating the critics chart.

updated

Last King and Little Children each got another 100.

Updated again, as a ton of new Departed reviews were just added. The score is down tom 93%

Little Children is still in the game with that BFCA rating (95) and its metacritic rating getting better and better (it's now at 71 with 17 reviews and 2 100's)...

The Departed is now at 92%.

I am watching Fox News right now and they were talking about Oscars. The guy said the following.

The Departed is a real contender.

He's heard mixed comments about Flags of Our Fathers.

Helen Mirren is unbelievable in The Queen.

Little Children might be the "little" film that gets a Best Picture nomination.

Take those comments with a grain of salt.

Holy shit, The Departed's average rating at RT went UP??

It is currently at:

Overall: 92% and 8.4 rating
COTC: 94% and 8.2 rating
(126 reviews counted)

Both of those ratings went up from originally (usually ratings go down), and the 8.4 rating is really impressive. On RT, thats really high in terms of passion. I never expected these results for The Departed at RT, especially not the rating. A lot of films may get in the 90% range at RT, but not get such a good rating (in other words, the reviews aren't as passionate). And 37 of the 105 reviews that have an author-given grade are perfect grades (4/4, 5/5, 10/10, A or A+).

In comparison, The Aviator's average rating was 7.9 overall and 7.5 COTC.

PEACE, Mike.

Oh oh, Slant's Ed Gonzalez loved Inland Empire and Marie Antoinette.

56 out of 57 fresh now for The Queen, and the average went up as well to 8.3 overall and 8.4 COTC. When was the last time a film lasted this long without getting a second negative review?

Letters From Iwo Jima, Clint Eastwood's companion piece to Flags of Our Fathers will open February 9th, 2007 in limited release.

Oscar polls close January 13 but the final polls close Feb. 20.

It's too late of a release date (Feb 9th) I think to be realistically considered for any noms.

interesting decision.

Maybe they think that Flags is already locked for a BP nom and they're now focusing to get votes to win...

Letters from Iwa Jima is getting a release to help Flags, give it another boost of Oscar hype. Good call WB.

I'm going to see Little Children tonight. Will let you all know how it is.

I didn't know it had such a lengthy running time. 130 minutes. Not too long but more than expected for this kind of movie.

Kris Tapley hinting at Flags:



Word should be pouring out from many sources by or on Monday.

Thats a bold f'in move i'll tell you now. They're basically saying, we dont need Iwo Jima as backup support for Flags, we just want Iwo Jima to make money once Flags wins.

A release date like Feb 9th is not helping Flags much, theres only 11 days in voting left from the time it gets released. They might end up sending out dvds before the film even comes out though, maybe thats the move? Could result in big time piracy though.

NVM

Levy gave the film an A

http://www.emanuellevy.com/article.php?articleID=3421

It's early Oct and with The Departed, The Queen and Flags of our Fathers later this month awards season is already in full swing.It's possible we could already have three of the five BP Oscar nominees by the end of Oct. Use to be we had to wait until Thanksgiving for awards season to begin.

Indeed. Look like FOOF should get at least 80% fresh. Won't be as high as The Departed or The Queen, but Levy isn't a critic who gives out A easily, so the positive reaction should be echoed by most critics. These three are in, and I still think Dreamgirls is in as well. So to me there is really only one slot left, and I think that'll be the one nomination with BP/BD split.

If Little Children finds a way to sneak into the top, 4 out of 5 of the nominees could be from October.

If that does happen, does anyone expect at least some type of shift in release of films during the end of the year?

I truly think Little Children is toast with weak first day box office and polarized reviews. Overall I don't think it will shift the release strategy. The Departed and FOOF are heavyweight to begin with, so they could've been released in Oct, Nov, or December and still be fine; they just need to choose a good date for box office gross. And for smaller films, yes, The Queen is a success, but also few films could get such good reviews, and once it's less than stellar by comparison like The Last King of Scotland and Little Children are, it's pretty much dead before October is over, so it's a gamble either way.

Does Little Children's weak box office put it out of the running, or is there precedence for it to have a chance at a nomination? Right now I think it will go the way of House of Sand and Fog.