There's a film on your list Mav that I'm scheduled to see at an advance press screening next week. I'm really geeked about it. But I won't be able to say much about the film officially (embargo). And I haven't read any other reviews of the film, so I'm going in on blind faith.

I hope it Flags! (or the Departed)

I should point out I haven't read any other reviews because no other reviews have been published (to my knowledge).

So yeah, that rules out a number of films.

I knew Leo was a geek who hung out at movie sites.

http://www.moviecitynews.com/arrays/med ... aprio.html

I've never seen a photo or footage of Poland before. The mystery is gone.

The Matt Damon interview is really cool. Insightful.

Another positive for The Queen, while Last King has been hit with a few mild negatives and a positive. It's looking like it's more of an 80+ rating film than a 90+.

MC score comparison between the two from common critics:

[table]
[row]Critic[col]The Queen[col]The Last King of Scotland
[row]New York Magazine[col]100[col]90
[row]Entertainment Weekly[col]91[col]83
[row]The Hollywood Reporter[col]90[col]70
[row]Variety[col]90[col]70
[row]Newsweek[col]90[col]90
[row]Slate[col]90[col]70
[row]Village Voice[col]80[col]70
[/table]

The Queen is 6-0-1 so far. Maybe because it's a lighter fare, it's easier to enjoy and harder to find faults with, but it looks like The Queen will be consistently placed higher in critic's end of the year list.

I meant to mention this earlier. It would be a good idea to keep an eye on the potential influence that those critics have, specifically. Those are the things that academy members are most likely to be reading, and who knows, such things may help form opinions in Hollywood.

I would count The Last King of Scotland out.

I agree. Having a comparison table with just these big name magazines/newspapers on all the contenders will be fun.

Two more 100's for The Queen at MC takes its average up to 93, a staggering number, and another positive review at RT. This is certainly doing far better with critics than I could've imagined.

Last King is down 85% at RT, and the COTC average is still relatively low at 7.1.

Updated.

Little Children is making a comeback and The Queen is entering elite staus. 3 new fresh reviews each.

I'm guessing The Prestige.

With 11 reviews, The Queen is now up to 93 on Metacritic, with 3 100s and 5 90s (Counting EW's 91).

That's it, it's going in my predicts.

Eh I'm still not convinced this has any appeal to the general public whatsoever, it just looks so dry. Mirren will probably get her nomination, but unless it pulls 40+ million it'll have to settle for a Screenplay nod and one other at most.

Are you trying to say the movie is as dry as Helen Mirren's vagina?

Shite, Spain actually ended up submitting Volver for foreign-language.

Sucks for Labyrinth.

I think with the kind of reviews the film is getting (and somewhat cooler reviews for Little Children), Mirren has separated herself a bit from Winslet as the frontrunner at the moment. Certainly still a long way to go. It's interesting how all the frontrunners (O'Toole and Whitaker, Mirren and Winslet) in the actor and actress races are considered due, regardless of their ages, as the categories are kind of mirroring each other.

I can already see the image of O'Toole holding his Oscar with a cheeky/stunned look on his face while all the actors in the crowd stand up and give him a standing ovation. It is written!

I think Penelope Cruz is not too far behind either.

Looks like it's time for The Fountain to move out of any Oscar talk.

4 100's and 5 90's out of 14 MC scores for The Queen, already passing Little Miss Sunshine.

I never really considered it as an "Oscar" movie... (except for technicals, which is still possible)

Actually, I've heard Mexico is submitting Pan's Labyrinth from a few sources.

If that is indeed true, then YAY!

And MD, I could see The Queen getting great WOM that brings it past $20M by oscar time. There ARE people out there that enjoy these kind of movies. Mrs. Henderson Presents did make $10M on mostly tepid reviews.

Yeah, but Spain submitting Volver means Pan's Pabyrinth had no shot.