Hollywood’s Paramount Pictures decided to postpone the release of Martin Scorsese’s film “Shutter Island” from October 3, 2009 to sometime in 2010. In effect, this knocks the film out of Oscar contention for 2009.

Paramount Chairman Brad Grey was quoted as saying, “Our 2009 slate was green-lit in a very different economic climate and as a result we must remain flexible and willing to recalibrate and adapt to a changing environment.”

That may be what he said but what he meant was “We have Oscar bait with “Up In The Air”, not “Shutter Island.” The fact is that Paramount did not want to overspend marketing a movie that wasn’t going to win any awards on March 7.

In movie circles, Martin Scorsese is as close to God as you will find. He is considered the best filmmaker alive today. So I wonder how the conversation went down between Brad and Marty:

Brad: Sir Martin, could I have a moment of your time?

SFX: FOOTSTEPS AS MARTY WALKS AWAY

I love going to movies and I love talking about the movies. So when the year comes to a close, I’m a sucker for the Top 10 lists of best movies from various critics.

This weekend, I got on the computer and looked at some of these lists. It’s interesting to see what my favorite critics like. It’s surprising, however, how much little duplication there is from critic to critic. It really just comes down to individual taste. There is no definitive right or wrong answer.

And yet, there is something definitive about a list. The Top 10. It sounds pretty official to me. And yet, if you compiled a master list from say, 10 critics, you would probably arrive at a list of 25-30 movies. So, the Top 10 list as gospel is a myth.

Roger Ebert used to rate movies in descending order from 1-10. He no longer does that because he says fundamentally he can’t really make a case for why one movie is #7 and one is #8. It’s too arbitrary.

We like lists because they make our lives easier. That’s why the Christmas list and the grocery list will never go out of vogue. But when it comes to something more subjective, like movies or advertising, it’s best to take lists with a grain of salt.