comment #1

JD says ...

These awards are redundant and irrelevant. Unless you watch movies for a living -- or as a very serious hobby -- taste has very little to do with kind of thing. When asked what your favorite movie of 2006 was, most people are drawing from a pool of 5 or 6 movies. In other words, this is just a re-iteration of the box office. Obviously, the movies seen by the most people will get the most votes. It's not rocket science or a measurement of how stupid these people are. Movies just aren't a big part of their lives, which may simply be an indication that they're busy with more important thing... or TV.

comment #2

Mark says ...

Does the Break-Up DVD comment imply that it fizzled in theaters? You know that it did bring in Borat/Devil Wears Prada type money, right? A lot of tickets were purchased.

comment #3

bmcintire says ...

Yes, Jeff, the People's Choice awards are a parade of rube-level stupidity. But I have a questions for you: in terms of the "grossly unsophisticated American flyover class," are you referring to the populace of the flyover states, or the douchebags filling the planes flying over said territory? If you hadn't noticed, pieces of shit like Pirates of the Caribbean and Click line them around the block in New York and Los Angeles as well. I think it's time to go ahead and mothball your Red/Blue state mentality and face up to the fact that the US is evenly populated by knuckle-draggers and cultural snobs from coast to coast.

comment #4

cobhome says ...

Is Jen Aniston really a movie star ???

comment #5

VedaPierce says ...

Jeff should be thrilled with these results, considering neither Forrest Whitaker nor Helen Mirren won.

comment #6

Craig Kennedy says ...

Jeff, I don't take issue with the idea that American's are grossly unsophisticated...they (we) are...but to exempt the fine citizens of New York and Los Angeles from this characterization is rather myopic. I can't speak about New York at least, but in Los Angeles I'm surrounded by slack jawed simpletons. You and your circle of friends may indeed be a gaggle of worldly sophisticates, but that guy you're driving next to on the 405? He's a douchebag. That woman in the line in front of you at Urth Caffe? Moron. I hate to break the news to you, but this isn't exactly Left Bank Paris in the 1920s.

comment #7

Craig Kennedy says ...

See? Some of us don't even grasp the proper use of the apostrophe.

comment #8

Walter Sobchak says ...

Have you seen the Billboard Top 10 in recent years? Have you seen any of the wretched sitcoms that dwell in the Nielson Top Twenty shows in lately? (while shows like "Arrested Development" die on the vine) It's maddening, but one must remember this is art, and you, J.W. and many others on this forum are film afficianados. Film is what we do. It's a waste of time to get frustrated over the vast majority of people in this world who will never see the heatbreaking complexity exhibited by Louise Brooks' eyes in "Pandora's Box" or appreciate "that Lubitsch touch". One of my best friends is a market analyst in St. Louis. He and the fam saw one movie last year. You guessed it, "Pirates..." Of course they loved it. Of course I gave him shit. Of course he'll probably never see "Little Children" and if he did he'd probably think it was boring. But then again, he can explain progressive variable trend economics and describe in one brief sentence how escrow works. These people may not be fun to hang out at the Nuart with, but they make the country run. Besides, why would you even bother with the People's Choice Awards? Last time I watched it I was nine and pscyched to see Burt Reynolds win favorite actor for "Smokey and the Bandit", (inexplicably beating Marcello Mastroianni's work in "Una Giornata Particolare")

comment #9

AH says ...

Walter: Long-winded but well said.

comment #10

corey3rd says ...

There's nothing flyover about the People's Choice awards. It's the LA city slickers just trying to make the rubes in Iowa think their taste counts. It's a Dick Clark production - which means right away that if you want to win - you better show up.

comment #11

christian says ...

"Last time I watched it I was nine and pscyched to see Burt Reynolds win favorite actor for "Smokey and the Bandit", (inexplicably beating Marcello Mastroianni's work in "Una Giornata Particolare")"

inexplicably?

we're talking about the bandit, son...

comment #12

nola says ...

the break up did not make Prada or borat numbers. did well but not that well.

comment #13

GeeseOPlenty says ...

The Bandit could beat the CRAP out of "Captain" Jack Sparrow. Is that a sophisticated enough comment for this high falutin' web site? And speaking of that, this is a web-enabled world--so can we say that Walmart.com and Marshalls.com are "flyover" web sites?

comment #14

Mr. Muckle says ...

Yaysoos frickin Dios, we're not the ones who MADE those stupid movies! And how have the Oscar choices gone for you lately? "Crash," my ash!

comment #15

Mcflyboy says ...

actually the break up did do prada and borat numbers. it was only about 6 or 7 million behind both of those films total grosses, which to me means it did do "that well"

comment #16

jeffmcm says ...

The year's highest grossing comedies were:

Talladega Nights ($148m)
Click ($137m)
Borat ($127m and still running)
The Devil Wears Prada ($125m)
The Break-Up ($119m)
Scary Movie 4 ($91m)

So yes, The Break-Up was in the same territory.

comment #17

Craig Kennedy says ...

You know Jeff is just sitting their chuckling at the shit storm he stirs up every time he makes one of these cultural generalizations.

comment #18

Craig Kennedy says ...

their = there. That's it, I'm moving to Rubeville.

comment #19

christian says ...

unike the sophisticate rubes of la who think american idol represents real talent and that survivor is a great show and that paris hilton is hot.

ha ha!

comment #20

MilkMan says ...

amen to mr muckle the morons are the people making the product not the people consuming the product halle berry looked freaking hot last night i kept telling my wife to turn back to the show so that i could see her in that golden mini dress robin williams is embarrassing jeff: i'll take the company of any garden variety american red state rube over a human as grossly unfunny as robin williams his black voice is the same black voice my uncle uses and the last time it was funny was '76 when it was still kind of novel to be a white person and be able to impersonate someone from the ghetto as if you had actually been to the ghetto or spent enough time with a black person to get down their vocal tics johnny depp has that annoying british twang and anyone who thinks that the 'people' vote for these awards and are the inspiration behind this boorstin-esque pseudo-event is dumber than they know my sister just loved the breakup and pirates of the carribean and she is an lawyer who works in new york city la and nyc are where the assholes from the rest of the country congregate

comment #21

Josh Massey says ...

Malign the so-called "flyover" states as much as you want to, but it was the oh-so-enlightened folks of California who named Crash the most recent "Best Picture."

I thought Dead Man's Chest was an immortal classic compared to that one.

comment #22

pm123 says ...

Hmmm. Is it a coincidence that those "flyover" people are the same ones that "Borat" so mercilessly humiliated? Shaking one's head at the ignorant morons is not art, nor is it art criticism. A great work of art (or a great film) is one that both 12 year-old boys and 40 year old women with PhD's love. What was the last one of those? "Titanic"? "The Godfather"? They don't happen very often...

comment #23

sandekat says ...

Red state Rube to Wells: "More prunes."

comment #24

dixiedugan says ...

Hey, I live in a flyover state and I wasn't asked my opinion about any of that shit. I'd rather talk crop prices with farmers in a coffee shop any day than be subjected to supposed 'people's choices'.

Walter, Pandora's Box was the best dvd release of 2006, next to some of the Warner releases. Bless you.

comment #25

darentu says ...

Precious has gathered eight nominations for the 41st annual NAACP Image
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