Holy Canoli! Marty inadvertently mentioned my 7 ticket purchases.
Scorsese has made a film he never tought would be an Oscar contender; that's the weirdest thing about at least three of the nominated five; they weren't made with Oscar in mind. No way the Sunshine duo figured their movie for the Oscars. It was just a good movie. The Departed was just a good movie; it never succeeded on Scorsese's name alone. Audiences ate it up, and still do. The Queen was a come-from-behind surprise, with the exception of perhaps Mirren's grand performance, probably no one saw a best pic nomination out of the gate. Letters was the late entry that was going to be released next year - though it's a sweeping war epic, probably Flags is the one they thought would go Oscar's way. Babel is probably the only one that was aiming high from the beginning. Where it goes from here is still a big question mark. Some are saying The Queen is picking up steam; others say it's still Little Miss Sunshine. Hollywood Stock Exchange, Yahoo Movies, EW's poll are all saying Departed by a mile - IMDb's poll has Departed ahead by a landslide. One thing many progs are overlooking, I think, is how genuinely popular The Departed is. It is a film the public loves. Whenever a movie like that is in the lineup, it usually wins. I know, the ending, the violence, the subject matter, the language. But the bottom line is, if they like it, they like it. I think it's between Little Miss Sunshine and The Departed, as the two most popular of the five films.
