I would much rather rate films in absolute sense. Most of the time when Oscars hit I have not seen most, or all of the nominees. Usually turns out I did not miss anything.
Case in point - the Hurt Locker. A real exercise in mediocrity, totally weak film any way you look at it. Best film of 2009? Give me a break... Too bad I wanted to see what all that noise was about so I paid six bucks for On Demand. Should have had another Big Mac instead. Truth is - soon everyone will forget about that piece of crap, but somewhere in the anals there will be line: "Best of..."
