(GuySpeak.com) -- The Oscar nominations came out this week, and as usual, they're a mixed bag. Overall, some great films were nominated (glad to see Hugo, The Tree of Life and Midnight in Paris get Best Picture nods) but many strong performances and excellent behind-the-scenes artists were ignored. 

Here are my thoughts on what Oscar got wrong. Share yours in the comments. 

1. Drive didn't get a Best Picture nomination 

With nine movies nominated, this is huge oversight. (See my thoughts on Drive, one of the 2011's best movies, here.) I don't buy the argument that it was too violent -- plenty of edgy, violent movies from Pulp Fiction to The Departed have scored nominations and wins. The fact that the critically-panned Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close got a nom while Drive was snubbed just proves that the Academy always falls for the overhyped "classy" movies starring safe, previous Oscar winners like Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock

Once again, the Academy snubs a comedy beloved by both audiences and critics. In fact, I'm hard-pressed to even think of the last time a comedy scored a Best Picture nomination. The Hangover? Nope. Borat? No way. When comedies do get nominated, they're almost always dramedies like Juno or Jerry Maguire. A straight-up comedy hasn't been nominated for Best Picture in decades. Every year the producers of the Oscars bemoan the fact that ratings have slipped. Is it any wonder that moviegoers have tuned out? The same types of movies get nominated every year -- serious, weepy dramas. Movies that connect with both audiences and critics (The Dark Knight, Bridesmaids) are almost always ignored. The Oscars' disdain for genre films is a real shame. If you look back at films nominated in the past (The Godfather, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Fargo), you'll see a much wider variety of genres than you do today. What happened?

 

Cliff Martinez's '80s synth-driven score for Drive was one of the most talked about of the year. (Heck, we even talked about it.) It was also like another character in the movie, setting the mood and creating a surreal, dreamlike atmosphere to offset the film's sudden bursts of violence. How that doesn't equal an Oscar nomination is beyond me. Also surprised that Trent Reznor (previously nominated for The Social Network) didn't score a nomination for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Looking at the nominated scores (War Horse, The Artist), one wonders if the Academy members just checked off whatever movies they were choosing for Best Picture for the Best Score category and called it a day

 

One of my favorite performances of the year was half-created by special effects wizards. But without Andy Serkis (who you may also know as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings) performing the movements of Ceasar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the film wouldn't have been nearly as successful. Serkis gave real personality and life to the character that couldn't have been accomplished solely with CGI. For proof, look at movies like Transformers: Dark of the Moon or, say, pretty much any summer blockbuster. The computer-generated characters in most movies aren't as believable and heartfelt as Ceasar was in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. While it's nice that the visual effects team from Rise got a nom, the Academy missed the fact that there was actually a person under all those pixels. 

 

To be fair, I haven't seen Moneyball. He could be great in it for all I know. But he should have the nomination revoked just for The Sitter. 

For a complete list of Oscar nominees, go here. What do you think of the nominees?