Postby OscarGuy » Tue Dec 15, 2015 7:13 am
There is absolutely no comparison between Out of Africa, Braveheart, Crash and Mad Max, other than you hated them. I don't care much for the prior three, but Mad Max is sensational. On MetaCritic, it's at 89, which is better than Son of Saul, Brooklyn, Room, Bridge of Spies, The Martian, The Revenant and many others. It's currently tied for #11 for best score of the year from them. At Rotten Tomatoes, it's at 97% with an average rating of 8.6. That puts it at the current #1 position for the year on RT according to their own weighted rankings (I have no idea how they figure that one out).
Before Braveheart won the Golden Globe for Best Picture, the Broadcast Film Critics (before they were Critics Choice) gave their Best Director award to Mel Gibson, giving Best Picture to Sense and Sensibility. The only other critics group that recognized it was SEFCA, which put it in second place for the year behind Best Picture winner Apollo 13.
Crash won the Chicago award for Best Picture, a couple of Supporting Actor awards, Supporting Actress from BAFTA and 9 Original Screenplay awards.
Out of Africa came in runner-up at LAFCA, 3rd place at NYFCC and won various other prizes from those two groups plus NBR, London Critics & NSFC, since that's really all there were back then.
None of these films had the level of support from critics that Mad Max has. Crash had a 69 at Metacritic. Braveheart had a 68. Out of Africa predated the site. Crash had a 75% at RT, Bravheart was at 78% (only 65 reviews since the site predates Braveheart), Out of Africa is at 53% (43 reviews, most likely nostalgic reviews...of which I'm one of them, though I gave it a Fresh rating, just because I don't think it's so bad as to deserve a rotten).
I haven't updated my precursor tallies yet, but I already know that Mad Max is doing substantially better than any of those films in terms of awards. This is not a repeat of 1985, 1995 or 2005. You may not be in agreement, but I can find people who don't like any number of Best Picture winners of the last 10 years. I agree that none of those three films should have won. Mad Max isn't my favorite film of the year, but it would easily be a better winner than Braveheart, Crash or Out of Africa.
Currently, Carol leads my list just ahead of Brooklyn. I wouldn't mind seeing either of those two films win at this point. I will watch my Spotlight screener some time soon, just not sure when.
Wesley Lovell
"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." - Benjamin Franklin