Oops, I tohught he meant he thought Spain was submitting Volver instead of Pan's.

But I don't think it would've had a shot anyway, volver or no Volver. How often has a fantasy film won Foreign Language?

The Queen has entered into the 8.0 rating after another positive review. That's not the story, though, the Departed is. Although it's not official, look at the rating.

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/departed/?show=all

Reviews Counted: 5
Fresh: 5 Rotten: 0
Average Rating: 8.7/10

Here's the latest review:

http://www.cinemablend.com/reviews/The- ... -1834.html

The Queen is kicking asssss, I'd put it ahead of U93 for that 5th spot now. If you read through the RT quotes too, almost all of them are praising the movie 1st and the Mirren 2nd, unlike say The Last King of Scotland which is all Whittaker.

One is DVD review, so it's actually only four so far at RT, but of course there are a couple of others we've read but haven't been added. I think the splendid reviews for The Departed will simply be too hard to ignore. If the box office corporates (no reason to see why not yet), it should become the first real lock in a month.

The great reviews The Queen and The Departed are getting are bad news for both Little Miss Sunshine and U93. They need to dominate critic awards instead of seeing them divided. They would rather see more of The Last King of Scotland, where the reviews are universally good but no absolute raves, instead of Little Children, where it has some passionate supporters along with detractors. Actually, I don't think LMS will win any critic BP awards or runner-ups now. Even its screenplay will be challenged by The Queen or Little Children or a few others in many places.

Now I can see The Queen winning a best picture from a NY critics group, considering NY Magazine, NY Times, and NY Post all gave it a perfect score and NY Daily News gave it an 88.

Eh, I don't know, Million Dollar Baby and The Aviator got splendid reviews, but Sideways still dominated the critics groups. U93 and LMS seem like perfect "critics" movies, though The Queen is definitely catching up with them The Departed won't make such a splash, I think.

The Queen is the bad news, The Departed, not so much.

Fox Searchlight can play LMS one of two ways. Reintroduce it into theatres following Golden Globes nominations (3 noms, perhaps 4). Or go on and schedule the DVD release.

I just have that feeling all enjoy LMS, but few think it's one of the very best of the year. Reading the RT quotes, the repeated words are "delighted", "funny", "touching", "entertaining", but no masterpiece, unlike Sideways. The 7.5 COTC average reflects that. Also Sideways' theme of middle-life crisis resonates a lot more with critics themselves. U93 is certainly still in the game regardless how many challengers emerge since it does generate passion and a lot of 4-star reviews.

I wouldn't count out The Departed. Goodfellas swept NY, LA, and Chicago, after all. Different era and different circumstances, but still I can see it grabbing a few.

But the first words out of every critics mouth seems to be Goodfellas, it aint.

I wouldn't start planning funeral services quite yet for LMS. Get back to me in 3 weeks.

All I can say is that if The Departed actually sweeps at vleast half of the critics, it'll have BP locked up.

I would tend to agree (though I don't expect it will).

Me neither.

But if it does...they can't ignore praise + box-office (which it will have) and the overdue status.

If it's between that and a musical and a war film from Eastwood who's gotten lots of love lately, it's a no-brainer in Departed's favor.

I just suspect that once Flags hits, the proverbal shit is going to hit the fan and the game will change for seemingly the thousandth time.

Frankly, if either of these three sweeps the critics, it will win. Though I suspect none of them will.

Really, is LMS's B.O. enough to put it over the top? I'm not denying it was a great run and probablyone of the best of the year, but $60M is hardly enough to qualify it. If it made $90M+ I'd agree, but it stopped just short of phenomenal run. I'm also guessing Fox opts for a December DVD release for Christmas instead of an awards rerelease (When was the last time amovie out before September even did that?). And as Xia said, it doesn't have the universal love to grab it critics awards like Sideways did.

See Mav, I'm not just hostile towards you!

I really dont think i've ever heard someone call Bringing Out the Dead a masterpiece.

5 more positive reviews popped up for The Queen, now 96% with an 8.2 average and 100% with 8.3 COTC.

Looks like we actually do have this year's Capote.

The DVD review is gone, a few more added and it is still looking awesome:

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/departed/?critic=1

Speaking of which, I finally watched the trailer for Infamous today. It's like Capote on crack.

Yeah...or like "Capote: Gayer than ever before!"

Infamous couldnt be further from Capote. It's glam and glitz with incredible cameos. It'll probably end up being too cool for school. But Toby does a great job (judging by the trailer).

Updated.

Little Children got a negative.

You need to update The Departed Its official Tomatometer has started.

Nice start for the Departed!

After reading The Departed's reviews, I think it'll come down to this and Dreamgirls for the Best Ensemble SAG win.