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The American Film Institute named its 2009 awards for “most outstanding achievements in film and television” in front of and behind the cameras. Top films are The Hurt Locker, Coraline, The Hangover (which was a funny movie but no way an “outstanding achievement”), The Messenger, Precious, A Serious Man, A Single Man, Sugar, Up, and Up In The Air. Top TV shows are The Big Bang Theory, Big Love, Friday Night Lights, Glee, Mad Men, Modern Family, The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, Nurse Jackie, Party Down, and True Blood. AFI will honor the creative ensembles in LA on January 15th.
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Icarus-
“It claimed to take place in some kind of plausible reality”? Really? Movies don’t make claims. The people responsible for them might, but movies don’t claim or believe or strive or intend or fail or succeed or do ANYTHING but play on a screen.
The movie was lauded by critics. Sure, film criticism is subjective, and yes, the critics usually disagree amongst themselves on relative the merits of any given film. But these are people who are paid to watch and review hundreds (and in the case of some of the old-timers, thousands) of movies from every genre imaginable. They’ve seen crappy romantic comedies, sword-and-sandals historical epics, melodramas, action movies, Oscar darlings, and pandering piles of garbage, and they’ve rated and reviewed them accordingly.
What, may I ask, are your criteria for deeming these people retarded? Is it the fact that they’re professionals? Is it their extensive knowledge and experience? Perhaps it’s because their opinions of movies are sought, respected, and taken into account by millions of people. You know, I’m starting to agree with you. Buncha retards, they are.
Hangover was a nice comedy. I saw a screener solo late in the run so I may have been at a disadvantage.
Nikki, you certainly have a lot to say about other’s lists, so why not publish YOUR best of 2009 list. Since you clearly have so much negative to say, I think you should balance it with something positive.
Opinions are like noses, but here goes.
Where’s the love for The Stoning of Soraya M? Very difficult movie to watch, tough subject matter, but Shohreh Aghdashloo was amazing.
Inglourious Basterds was a great movie, period, not just for Christoph.
For the deserving mainstream flick, I’d have gone with Star Trek, but that’s not a knock on The Hangover.
I can’t explain for the life of me how A Single Man has charmed anyone, really. I walked out on this movie less than half an hour in. First time I’ve done that in YEARS.
I managed to sit through Coen Brothers’ latest, and that doesn’t belong on this list either. If it were up to me, I’d sentence those two (and I LOVED Fargo and O Brother Where Art Thou) to a weekend McKee seminar. Dropping your third act and slapping a random meteorological event at the end of what I’m guessing was the second act is not an artistic choice, it’s laziness. Okay, it’s an artistic choice if laziness qualifies.
On the TV side, I won’t quibble too much. Okay, I’d have definitely had Dexter, Breaking Bad, and Californication on the list.
And if they hadn’t included “The Hangover” then the headline would have slammed them for being irrelevant as in out-of-touch with the movie-going public. This is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
There’s nothing less amusing than trying to explain what is funny to someone who does not or WILL NOT get the joke. Sorry Nikki, but irrelevant in this context is too harsh a call. I gotta say I didn’t think the first 20 mins of THE HANGOVER was funny, but it is structured to get funnier as it goes along. So tough luck to those who walked out before the long and hilarious pay-off. Most modern comedies exhuast themselves in the title or before the first act is over. If a contemporary version of either Preston Sturges or the Marx Brothers arrived in 2009, many commentators would turn up their noses. And if it’s not too far off topic: the fest circuit that showers meaningless prizes on video amateurs from LA to Locarno wouldn’t appreciate the talent of Yasujiro Ozu or Jean-Pierre Melville if it bit them on the arse either!
Any TV list without Dexter is a joke.
I think Chuck Bartowski is right. True Blood is a great show and deserves to be on that list.
I’ll save the treatise on the subjectivity of art for another day…or maybe never. I haven’t seen everything listed so I can only comment generally, but as someone who works in publishing I’m constantly faced with the challenge/balance of commercial success vs. literary acclaim. Actually, that’s not really true because I still have my job so commercial success wins out. Stalin famously said quantity has a quality all its own and in the case of wildly popular mass media I think there’s a validity to that. I view this the way I view a menu – as much as I love Atlantic salmon there are times I want a big, juicy burger. On those occasions I find the salmon pretentious and unfulfilling while the burger is sublime.
Great, now I’m hungry. What were we talking about?
You’re missing the point. The Hangover was a funny movie, no doubt, but the geniuses at AFI completely dismissed such incredible achievements and audience favorites as Star Trek, Inglourious Basterds, District 9 and (certainly not a great film but a miraculous achievement for it’s mini-budget and maxi box office) Paranormal Activity. And, in my not so humble opinion, Coraline was stupid and pointless. I was bored to tears and resented the time I spent watching it.
I’m more confused by Coraline in this list.
While it was amazing to look at, the story felt really thin and quite frankly, run of the mill. So, does it exist on the list solely due to its artistic visual appeal?
Forget the list, how bad is that video? The grotesque synthesized music and the lack of any discernible pacing is a master class in precisely how not to do this sort of thing. The irony of honoring excellence with…”bleh” is too good, even for the outdated and (Nikki’s right) irrelevant American Film Institute.
People pay to be taught by these people?
i sat through the hangover and didn’t laugh once. humpday was like 3 million times funnier
Every message board is full of people who get so personally irate and offended if someone likes/dislikes a movie they like/dislike. Does emotional and psychological maturity just go out the window when we all log on? I think it really gained traction with The Dark Knight fanboys who have set a precedent of irrational intolerance and immaturity that has ruined the possibility of intelligent online discourse about film tastes.
I saw The Hangover and thought it was just meh. Wedding Crashers, Talladega Nights, Blades Of Glory, the first half of Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, the first half of Tropic Thunder all made me laugh more and harder. That doesn’t mean The Hangover is bad. It’s a cliche, but humor is (let’s all say it together) SUBJECTIVE.
I’ve never found Apatows comedies the least bit funny, and, unlike a poster above who hates the Big Bang Theory, I love that show. I’m sure both sides could form sizable camps to support their opinion.
And by the way, a huge boxoffice doesn’t mean a movie is good since that presupposes that everyone who buys a ticket liked the movie, which is highly unlikely.
The Hangover may indeed be funny but even the trailer for it recycles the shoot the guy in the face with a dart/taser bit they used in Old School – and I don’t even know what to say about Tyson being used in the marketing – much less the movie. A good comedy in its year and even a standout in its genre in the near term but this is filed under the same category that says Hollywood breaks all time box office every weekend every summer. Adjusted for inflation it makes no sense.
Hangover, was over-hyped, well promoted, and only moderately funny. Bravo. But I’ll never get why shows like “Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men”(though not on the list) stay on the air, and
“Kings” gets cancelled. True Blood and Mad Men are quality shows.
Congrats to The Hangover!
hangover was big and dumb and offensive. not that there’s anything wrong w/ that in a studio comedy mind you but the issue is the AFI including it a year-end list. A naked ploy to attract some attention from the bumbling masses for an irrelevant sputtering organization. Why not support actual filmmakers making actual films instead of packaged shite?
That The Hangover made almost $300 million is not an “achievement”. It’s business.
Some of you people confuse business with quality. They’re not the same.
One would think AFI would care about quality, since business doesn’t really need its help.
I Love You, Man was a better film than The Hangover. Just was. I liked Hangover and it deserves all it’s successes. Up In The Air – highly overrated. Good, solid, well executed movie – but no “Best Film of the Year” nod.
I agree, Nikki. I laughed out loud once through “The Hangover.”
Felt like it new the notes but couldn’t play the comedic music. I wanted to find it hilarious, I just didn’t.
IMHO.
Another example of the neverending Nikki Finke contradiction. Call someone irrelevant for citing a mainstream popular movie in their list, or say they’re out of touch for not citing said mainstream popular movie. seems like a can’t win situation…
You win the snob award again, Nikki… HANGOVER is top-ten worthy.
I LOVED “The Hangover”, BUT Nikke is correct. Why does everyone fawn all over AFI? They have been resting on long ago tired laurels for years!
If we could only put Avatar in the AFI Top Ten…
Off base on this one, Nikki, especially coming from someone who posted a dozen pics of kids waiting in line for Twilight: New Moon, simply to attract page hits.
or perhaps she posted them because it was a huge entertainment story and this is an entertainment news blog. jeez