Over the last couple weeks leading up to last night’s Academy Awards it appeared, based on numerous reports from many different movie pundits, that The King's Speech had overtaken The Social Network as the frontrunner for the Best Picture of 2010. After reading these reports, my hope was that this was just a bunch of last minute Hollywood hype and that the Academy wouldn’t make yet another bad choice in the selection of their top honor. Unfortunately, as I sat in front of my friend’s new flatscreen last night and listened to Steven Spielberg officially name The King’s Speech the Best Picture for 2010; I was saddened and disappointed with the Academy’s selection to say the least.
After viewing The King's Speech a few weeks ago, my initial reaction was that it was a solid, above average, feel good film with an outstanding performance from lead man Colin Firth, and that it deserved a Best Picture nomination. However, it is my humble opinion that The King’s Speech is NOT the best movie of 2010, and as a film there is nothing truly remarkable or memorable about it other than Colin Firth's performance. It doesn't speak to a generation and it will never crack an All-time top100 film list. Please don’t misunderstand me; The King's Speech is a very good film that is worth seeing if you haven’t yet. But it is the type of movie that should have been remembered for being the film that won Colin Firth his Best Actor award. I foresee in a couple of years The King's Speech becoming this decade's Shakespeare in Love; that movie where people look back and scratch their heads wondering why in the world it won Best Picture. I also have a more personal bone to pick with The King's Speech. Every year it seems that the major studios release their best films later and later in the year in hopes of getting the attention of the Academy. The Social Network was released October 1st to critical acclaim and was all but anointed the Best Picture winner for 2010. The King's Speech on the other hand was officially released in the US on December 24th. The fact that this year’s Best Picture spent a grand total of seven days in theaters in the year 2010 is a joke. The King's Speech’ victory sets yet another bad precedent to the studio execs that they need to release their Oscar hopefuls at the last possible minute to give them any chance at winning, leaving us movie fans to suffer the rest of the year watching below average Hollywood crap. So in order to stop this practice from taking place, I propose a new rule that states; if any studio wants a film to be in consideration for Oscar nominations, that film must be released before December 1st of that calendar year. This will then guarantee that all films in consideration for any Academy awards have spent ATLEAST one month in the theaters in that given year. Perhaps then, we might be able to watch a quality film in April or September that has the same chance at winning Best Picture as those films released just weeks before the awards are handed out.
Oh, and I would like to congratulate Harvey Weinstein for now having three of most unworthy Best Pictures of the last 20 years, Shakespeare in Love (1998), Chicago (2002) & The King’s Speech (2010).
