Unpopular/Controversial Opinions

[Fallout]

Close thread its never going to get more controversial than this

Heh, given our current climate, it's kind of taboo nowadays. Just look at the hand-wringing over Boris Johnson's joke about burqas, and Rowan Atkinson's subsequent defence of it.

[BestSportsEntertainer]

Close thread its never going to get more controversial than this

I know you're not my biggest fan, but that's a very controversial opinion

[Jack-Hammer]

I'm kinda sorta cautiously optimistic about changes that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences are going to make in regards to the Oscars, though I may be in the minority on this. In case you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll give you the gist and what few, very few, existing details there are.

In a letter sent out to its 9,200 members, it was stated that they intended â??to keep the Oscars and our academy relevant in a changing world.â? First, a new category that would honor what the letter called â??popularâ? movies, which is now officially called the Best Popular Film category, with â??Eligibility requirements and other key details will be forthcoming.â? The telecast will be cut to three hours from four and statuettes in â??certainâ? categories will be awarded during commercial breaks. Which categories will be impacted should be pretty easy to garner. The announcement wasnâ??t very popular online and it raised questions on how this would impact movies like Black Panther, which was getting solid buzz for Best Picture consideration.

As I said, I'm cautiously optimistic about this and that might disappear entirely once more details come out. As for the run time being trimmed down, I'm all for it as the Oscars are among the most wretched 4 hours of TV to watch because it's so abysmally dull. Part of the reason for that is because so many of the categories that have awards are categories that, quite frankly, viewers don't really give a damn about. I'm sorry for the sound mixers and film editors who're nominated but the truth is the truth in that most viewers don't really give a damn. With this new "Best Popular Film" category, the total categories in which the Oscar statues are awarded currently stand at 25 and with what people tune in to see are some of their favorite stars.

There's been a big backlash against this and a Tweet sent out by actor Rob Lowe which said, â??The film business passed away today,â? seems to represent the overall feelings of most. On the flip side, Jason Blum, whose Blumhouse Productions has Spike Leeâ??s BlacKkKlansman arriving in theaters, predicted that the revamped Oscar telecast would make more sense once the academy provided more details. The Academy Awards have always sorta been seen as the night specially made for Hollywood insiders to basically rub elbows with each other and, for all intents and purposes, jerk each other off over how talented they are. That's all well and good but a growing criticism over the years is the lack of recognition for "popular" films and the dwindling viewership of the broadcast of the Academy Awards ceremony over the years because ordinary, everyday people often don't see a lot of movies they like, many they've never even heard of, nominated. Last year's ceremony did about 26.5 million in viewers, down from 34.4 million the year before, down from 37.2 million from 2 years earlier and down from 43.7 million 3 years earlier. It's not all just on the changing ways in which we view our popular media as a lot of plain ol' ordinary folks feel that the Oscars are out of touch with a lot of what they're into. That's not to say that there aren't many genuinely great movies worth seeing, it's just that some feel a few tweaks need to be made. After all, animated feature films have had their own category since 2001 so it's not as if the Academy hasn't made concessions when it comes to recognizing popular films. I did a little research and I think this whole thing calls into question of where the blockbusterâ??s place is in Hollywood. In 2017, not one of the nine Best Picture nominees was in the top-ten-grossing movies of the year. In an article I read a few days ago, the 200 top-grossing films of the past 20 years, 42 have been animated, 28 have been Marvel or DC comic book movies, 8 have been Harry Potter movies, 6 were Star Wars movies, 5 were part of the Twilight franchise, and 4 were installments of Disneyâ??s Pirates of the Caribbean. These are the films that keep the lights on and the bills paid in Hollywood.

Film quality is always going to be debatable just like everything else. I mean, just because a film has a $150 million dollar budget doesn't automatically mean that it doesn't have compelling stories and memorable characters portrayed by talented actors just like some arthouse film with a $2 million dollar budget automatically has those things.

[Alex]

One of my favourite bands (I Killed The Prom Queen) reformed their When Goodbye Means Forever line-up to play Unify festival next year in Australia.

They've now been taken off the bill because of some things the vocalist (Michael Crafter) said a few years ago online. Yes they were dickish things but similar to the James Gunn issue, what is the point of changing as a person if people are going to judge you for what you said several years before. He also apologised and gone on to explain how he's changed.

If you've shown in the intervening years you've changed its water under the bridge in my opinion.

[Yaz]

I tend to agree with that. Gunn, who used to write for Troma and has a weird sense of humor, said he doesn't really believe what he said, he was just trying to be edgy. Dan Harmon shut down his entire Twitter because of a video he did involving puppet rape years ago, despite the fact that the video was made for a festival devoted to dark and morbid humor and had been available to the public for years. The recent wave of athletes getting tweets from their high school days posted and then them being shamed doesn't take into account them using words like faggot or nigga is super common among dumb ass high school aged boys. Sean Newcomb of the Atlanta Braves was in the midst of a no hitter a couple weeks ago and the news broke mid game of some offensive Tweets he made when he was 18/19. If people feel the need to publicly shame a celebrity, I guess go ahead, but don't hold something against them if they have made a real effort to change as a person.

That said, if you are in the public eye, you should probably go back and check for stupid shit you may have said in your youth. Don't most celebrities have a publicist or image consultant that could do that?

[Alex]

That said, if you are in the public eye, you should probably go back and check for stupid shit you may have said in your youth. Don't most celebrities have a publicist or image consultant that could do that?

Most do. But I think it's mainly if you can afford one. Crafter's bands were never massive even I Killed The Prom Queen and he just runs small businesses now. and he does most of his social media himself and if you follow him he's very trolly with his comments which I guess could be taken out of context. Not saying what he said isn't bad but I think context is key (something that is hard online)