SURVEY SAYS: What's the Oscar Moment-um?

This week I asked readers:

• how many of the “best pictures” they had seen,
• which one they thought would win,
• which they thought SHOULD win, and
• their pick for the year’s best picture

And that was just for starters.

Seen Stealers?

I’m not sure what it might mean for the ratings of the Oscar event, but more than half ( 52.8% ) said they had seen exactly NONE of the five films nominated – and just over one-in-five agreed with the sentiment, “Heck, I hadn’t even HEARD of all of them.”  

As for the one(s) that readers had seen (and how many had seen them – you could see more than one):

19.2% – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

18.1% – Slumdog Millionaire

  9.7% – Milk

 6.9% – Frost/Nixon

 2.8% – The Reader

Having said that, there was little doubt among this week's respondents as to which picture would be victorious - just over 70% said it would be "Slumdog Millionaire".   About 13% each went with "Milk" or "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", while only 3.7% favored "Frost/Nixon."   No one thought "The Reader" would win.

Which SHOULD Win?

That said, nearly half ( 41.2% ) of this week's respondents didn't think any of the foregoing films were deserving of the "Best Picture" honors.   Among the rest, 29.4% did lean toward "Slumdog Millionaire", with the rest as follows:

9.8% - The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

7.8% - Frost/Nixon

7.8% - Milk

3.9% - The Reader

I asked respondents what they thought SHOULD be the Best Picture of the year - " The Dark Knight " and " Gran Torino " stood out from the rest.

Coinciding with the Oscars each year is a group of awards called the "Razzies", which purport to acknowledge Hollywood's "Worst."   I asked readers which of the nominations for that "honor" they had seen.

Here too, nearly two-thirds ( 62.5% ) said "Heck, I hadn't even heard of half of them, while a third simply said "none of the above".  

However, of the ones on the Razzie roster, 6.9% had seen M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening", 5.6% had checked out Mike Myers' "The Love Guru", and 4.3% had met "Meet the Spartans" (a spoof of "300").   Just 1.4% had seen the disastrous "Disaster Movie", while none had seen Paris Hilton's "The Hottie and the Nottie" or 'In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale' - a not so memorable outing for Jason Statham.

Since no one had seen it, I found it interesting that "The Hottie and the Nottie" tied for our reader's pick for the Razzie (hey, the title alone could account for that - or, as one reader noted, "I didn't see it, but anything with Paris Hilton in it has got to be awful" ) with "The Love Guru" (a truly awful film, IMO), with both getting 35.5% "support."   Just 16.1% went with "Meet the Spartans", while 9.7% opted for "Disaster Movie", and 3.2% chose "The Happening."  

No votes were cast in "favor" of 'In The Name of The King: A Dungeon Siege Tale' (let's face it, you could fall asleep watching the title credits).  

But this survey's Editor's Choice goes to the reader who admitted, "I must say that I want to see " et the Spartans" and "Disaster Movie." 🙂 Does that make me a bad person?" - to which I would say, "Only if you paid money for the ticket."

Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey!