2012 Oscar nominations

2012 Oscar Nominations

The big shocker: a Best Picture nomination for Extremely Loud, which has been maligned by critics, ignored by audiences, and is rated only 6.1 at IMDb, in the same general range as Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey and Deuce Bigalow, Male Gigolo.

No nomination for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, which is rated 8.2 at IMDB, third highest of the year's eligibles, behind only Hugo and The Artist.

The fourth, fifth, seventh and eighth highest rated films at IMDb were also ignored, namely Harry Potter, Drive, The Muppets and 50/50.

Replacing them were The Tree of Life, which is rated a mediocre 7.1, and War Horse, 7.4. Both of those films are lesser offerings in the catalogues of directors who are acknowledged film geniuses, Malick and Spielberg. The same is true of Extremely Loud, which was directed by Stephen Daldry.


Other surprises

No nominations for Albert Brooks, Michael Fessbender, or Leo DiCaprio. (Gary Oldman got more-or-less a lifetime achievement nomination. It was long overdue, albeit perhaps not for this particular performance.)

In addition to the Brooks snub and the Best Picture omission, there were no other nominations for Drive, except for one minor technical nod.

Margin Call (only 7.2 at IMDb, only $5 million at the box office) got a surprise nomination for best original screenplay. I didn't see that coming. That surprises me more than the best picture nod for Extremely Close.

Many expected Dragon Tattoo to get a screenplay nomination. That slot went to Tinker Tailor.

They only nominated two tunes for Best Song!