...to bribe and blackmail the academy and all the other departments that are nominating it for all these awards? Best Costume? WTF Best pciture,d irector, writing and so on. This is a joke and I have honestly lost what little respect I had for the academy. I just don't get it. Even those that think the film is good have to admit that it just simply is not oscar material. It is maddening to see and watch it get all of the nominations when the film is so pretentious and insignificant and no one is watching it. When will the madness end? If it wins acting or directing or (GASP) picture, I'll puke my guts out.

It probably WILL win Best Picture as it fits in the Crash mold of filmmaking. There are obvious similarities between the two. I'd rather it win than Dreamgirls though, a pukey musical.

It's nothing like Crash. I don't think Crash deserved Best Picture, but it is at least a coherent film. It's a film, more than can be said for Babel.

There are similarities between the two in that they both tell multiple stories with an eye towards a bigger issue.

Like I said, Crash is at least a movie. Babel is an incoherent mess.

i'm baffled too by all these nominations, neither the reviews nor the box office indicated that. there must be some pretty powerful lobby behind this film.

Any part of me that liked Babel (a very small amount, as I've said before, thanks to Rinko Kikuchi's storyline) believes that this should not even be in consideration for Best Picture. I now know how people felt last year when Crash got all the attention.

I simply don't get it either. Nothing about the film really should make it more of a contender than 21 Grams. Its reviews are just mixed and the passion for it doesn't come close to the one for Crash (which was in IMDB's Top 100 at the time of the Oscars!!!). Its box-office is also lackluster in comparison.

It truly is baffling how this is still in the running.

I agree, but to be fair, im not suprised its getting all the awards nom, there is always a film like this(mediocre film) that gets awards praise.

Baumer, you should try and be a little more understanding of the fact that some people obviously didn't agree with you about the movie, and that's life.

Even if you think the film is good (which I believe you do), do you really think it should be in the league of the supposedly five best movies of the year? From what I can tell, those who do like it (excluding Gunslinger) say that it was good, but they don't think it was Oscar material. Even critics' reviews weren't glowing.

Obviously, it's a case of "some agree, some don't", but it does seem to have a big backlash, even bigger than Crash. To be fair, the majority here seems to love Children of Men, but that's almost a lost cause. It's the opposite of Babel.

I don't really care if it gets nominated (which it obviously will). I think I'm just getting caught up in this excitement on KJ.

No, I wouldn't nominate it for Best Picture, either.

But it seems useless and a waste of time to complain about the attention the movie is getting because you don't like it. Movies and what people think of them are obviously subjective.

Well yeah, it's pointless to get in a tither over this. I'm a bit peeved over Children of Men's snubbing so far, but I'm not going to complain.

In Baumer's defense, I think the main point from all this is that Babel sort of came out of nowhere as a top contender (as opposed to a possibility or "a secondary pick"), despite the lack of major support from critics and audiences.

I do, so... there's that.

And thank you, Libs. I'll try not to be so hard on Dreamgirls from now on.

Or, at least, I'll think about it.

Baumer, I think the Weinsteins are too preoccupied with bribing the actors to vote Bobby into Best Picture to mess with Babel.

I get that Libs, but the majority of the people, even though they might now agree with my assessment of the film, do not think it is oscar worthy. I hate it, true, but even those that like it say that it is not oscar worthy. I liked DaVinci Code, but I wouldn't say it is oscar material.

If Bobby gets nominated, I'll just throw up a little.

It doesn't matter if the majority likes it. The Oscars aren't about it, so stop using the populist argument and swallow the fact that it's getting attention.

Is it so hard to accept the fact that a film you dislike is getting some attention? If it upsets you so much, if you feel compelled to post about it every single day, if it makes you feel less respect for the opinion of the academy, then just do the rest of the world a favor and stop posting.

This is not personal. I like Babel. I don't think it should win BP. I do think you need to move on because bitching about a film you dislike (trust me, I've disliked plenty of winners so I feel your pain) is just useless.

We'll always have the metro in common.

I don't think people, me included, who don't get how Babel is getting such enormous support, is not because they don't like it personally (I haven't seen it), but more about what Lecter said. Simply objectively speaking, Babel is one of the weakest contenders we've seen in years in term of numbers. Crash is at 75% RT and 75% COTC, 5 100s at MC, one of which is from Roger Ebert, high IMDb score, loved by the audience, good box office run. Babel has only two 100s at MC and barely fresh at RT's COTC, but somehow has become the 8th best reviewed film of the year when critics start compiling their top 10 lists, according to MCN's chart. With the nominations it's been getting everywhere, it feels it should've at least been 80% fresh with 5-10 100s.

I do not like the film, true, but it is so lowly rated by many, icnlduign critics and the public that it should not be getting this much attetiontion. I just can't fathom how anyone could think this is worthy of anything but a cursory glance.

I think there could be a suprise winner again this year for best picture. I think Scorcese is a lock for best director, but like 1998 when The Weinsteins bought best picture and spielberg won BD, there could be an upset this year.

I hope there's an upset too. The movie many once tried to write off, Babel, beats the heavyweights, The Departed and Dreamgirls (though I'd love for either of those to win too). Just. Not. Little Miss Sunshine. Gah.