I know I complain about this every year but Oscar season is the dumbest concept ever created by Hollywood. We've sat through 11 months of mostly mediocre to bad films and now in the last three weeks of the year, we're going to be hit with a deluge of dramas. It just makes no sense.

This summer, there was a minor controversy when The Love Guru and Get Smart opened on the same weekend. Usually studios plan their summer schedules out so there isn't that kind of head-to-head battle. It's better for business. Also, when the summer schedule started getting more and more packed, the studios decided to open the summer season earlier and earlier. Even though the initial thinking of releasing blockbusters in the summer is that kids are off from school and more likely to go to a movie, the season now starts in May when kids are still stuck in class. Not that that matters, films like Iron Man still make tons of money.

With Oscar season, the thinking is completely different. The Oscar slates have been becoming more and more packed but instead of spacing the films out, the scedule has been condensed. You used to see Oscar season start in November. This year, most of the top Oscar prospects don't come out until the second week of December. While people were amazed that Steve Carrell and Mike Myers went head-to-head this summer, nobody seems to bat an eye at the fact that the final weekend of 2008 features Tom Cruise vs. Brad Pitt vs. Leonardo DiCaprio (with an Adam Sandler kids movie and that Marley and Me flick thrown in just for fun).

The funniest part is that in terms of box office success, most of these films are still blown away by mainstream fodder like Night at the Museum or National Treasure 2 so it's not like these movies are somehow more successful at the end of the year. (And don't give me that crap about the Oscar bump. More films are lost in the shuffle than get a boost after the Oscar nods or Golden Globes). 

Thankfully, next year seems better. They are opening a few Oscar-type films in October and even have some opening in the spring (most notably State of Play, which boasts an impressive cast and is based on a great British mini-series). Hopefully this will be the last year we have to deal with the cinema tsunami at the end of the year and can instead be treated to quality films throughout the calendar.