10 Worst Oscar Best Pictures

[mattstick]

http://www.screenjunkies.com/movienews/10-worst-oscar-best-pictures-all-time

As awards season heats up, I want to remind you not to take things so seriously. No matter what wins Best Picture, all the other nominees, and even the snubbed favorites, continue to exist. You'll always be able to enjoy whatever movies you liked. In fact, years from now people might laugh at the Best Picture winner. I looked back over Oscar's history and picked out some of the more dubious winners, certainly movies that wouldn't be on any "Best of Anything" lists today.

10) Ordinary People

Robert Redford has directed some great movies. Besides his other nominated films like Quiz Show, I also like The Horse Whisperer. Maybe we have this Best Picture winner to thank for giving him the confidence to keep stepping behind the camera, but it couldn't have been for its own merits. I mean, a family death drama is so obvious. In the year of Raging Bull, The Elephant Man and the unnominated The Empire Strikes Back, we say no. Even though Donald Sutherland always rules.

9) Shakespeare In Love

I always thought this just got the generic costume drama award. It's cute, and a tiny bit literate (though it's not that highbrow to make Romeo and Juliet references), but it's still just your standard romance. If you still have fond memories of it, just remember that it beat Saving Private Ryan and Life is Beautiful, and that Joseph Fiennes is now on a failing TV show.

8. Around The World In 80 Days

This movie makes everyone's list of the worst Best Picture winners, so it would be irresponsible to leave it off mine. The overlong three hour Jules Verne adaptation seems an unusual choice at all. Guess it's the costumes and the literary cred. I actually like the Jackie Chan version that came out in 2004. Sammo Hung as Wong Fei-Hung and a fight on the Statue of Liberty's head, that's some good stuff.

7) How Green Was My Valley

In 1941, this sprawling coal miner epic must have seemed like solid Oscar bait. Back then, they might have thought that competing nominee Citizen Kane was just a technical gimmick that wouldn't be remembered as technique moved on. They couldn't have known that it would become the go-to study in film schools for generations. And I don't think Citizen Kane is the most moving or emotional movie of all time either, but history and the A.F.I. have definitely spoken on this one.

6) Rebecca

I know, it's blasphemy to say anything negative about the master, Alfred Hitchcock, but his one Best Picture winner is the one that never worked for me. It's such a slow, boring marital drama where nothing happens. When Olivier finally reveals the big twist, it's less of an "ah-ha!" and more of a "Why didn't you just say so to begin with?"

5) Crash

I actually think Crash was a perfectly good story about ensembles intersecting and ironic things happening. I just think the idea that it "tackled" racism was preposterous. Its idea that L.A. is racist because we drive cars is childish. Also, making every story have racism in it is as unrealistic as telling a story with no racism in it. They should have just told entertaining dramatic stories and not been so proud of themselves.

4) Chariots Of Fire

Yes, I'm putting the "classic" sports movie with the landmark score on this list. Maybe I'm a product of the modern age (I'm no fan of MTV editing though), but this movie is boring. I'll pretend that watching people run is exciting if that's the "gripping" subject material, but it's mainly about talking about running. Shin splints are more exciting.

3) Forrest Gump

I actually liked Forrest Gump when it first came out. It was never better than Pulp Fiction, Shawshank Redemption or Quiz Show, which it beat (man, 1994 was a great year for movies), but it certainly seemed like a fine mainstream choice. Well, watch it again and from today's perspective it doesn't hold up at all. In a post 9/11 world, some not-full-retard telling strangers about how his childhood girlfriend got molested just seems creepy. Now that the presidential visual effects are nothing special, the movie's not really about anything.

2) The English Patient

This one always pissed me off. Just make it long and put it in the desert and it's a Best Picture, right? I resent that. I also resent that people rave about this film's cinematography. What, they pointed the camera at the desert and it was pretty? This was probably the beginning of the end for Best Picture credibility, as most of this list was inspired by recent winners. We had to struggle to go back before the '90s.

1) A Beautiful Mind

This is just the most blatant case of let's do a movie about somebody with a disease and win awards for it. Now, the real John Nash triumphed over amazing adversity and his wife was a warrior. Just don't get all smug about how likeable his imaginary friends are and how magical the visual connections he sees in newspapers are. FYI: That's not an enlightening perspective on schizophrenia. It's just Oscar bait.

[Hicks]

That's a pretty good list, although Forrest Gump would easily make my number 1.

While it isn't surprising it does still kind of piss me off that a movie praising the virtues of being unintelligent was named best picture. 

[mattstick]

I would have put The English Patient at the top of the list, never been able to get through that film.

[thatfargone]

Hmmmm....I like A Beautiful Mind...mainly because Connolly's performance was great, but yeah, otherwise I agree.  Forrest Gump I never got as anything special.  Shakespeare was totally a costume award.

However I only truly despise and utterly hate 1 best Picture:  Gladiator. 

[Hicks]

I like Gladiator, but it is pretty much popcorn fluff and not worthy of best picture.

It does feature some outstanding performances from Joaquin Phoenix and the late Richard Harris and Oliver Reed.

[PIE-GUY]

That's a pretty good list, although Forrest Gump would easily make my number 1.

While it isn't surprising it does still kind of piss me off that a movie praising the virtues of being unintelligent was named best picture. 

QFT. I hated Forrest Gump from the start. I like it better when it was under 4 minutes and called "We Didn't Start the Fire." What a gargantuan waste of time and money that movie was!

[Superfreakie]

Every time I have seen the English Patient playing on TV I have fallen asleep. Rented it, fell asleep.

Pulp Fiction was robbed. 

[thatfargone]

Pulp Fiction was robbed.

Especially considering Tarantino has not and will not top it.

[Gol D. Roger]

I love Forrest Gump.

[Superfreakie]

I love Forrest Gump.

I loathe Forrest Gump.

[thatfargone]

I love Forrest Gump.

I loath Forrest Gump.

The ONLY redeeming quality of Forrest Gump is if you use it as a drinking game.  My brother and friend were bored and created "Jenny" 

1.) Get massive amounts of alcohol (you will need a lot)

2.) Put on Forrest Gump

3.) Take a drink/shot (depending on level of difficulty) each time Gump says "Jenny"

Good luck getting past Act II!!!

[sls.stormyrider]

I like Gump but wouldn't have nominated it for best pic.
I like Rebecca. I have no idea what else was up that year, but no problem with it getting an Oscar.

From the movies I've seen and remember, the most undeserved Oscar goes to



Titanic.

ok, the effects were good. The dialogue was total crap. The love story that the picture centered on was more than a little sappy.
and, LA Confidential is a great film.

[cactusfan]

Ordinary People, Shakespeare In Love and Rebecca don't belong on the list. There were no doubt better movies in those years, but those three aren't at all bad.

If we want to go with the actual worst movies ever to win, here's my top 10, weighted to more recent movies, since a lot of those old winners i barely recall or never saw.

1. Dances With Wolves. It was terrible when it came out and it's aged like milk. Not only that, but Costner won the best director oscar. Know what else came out that year? Goodfellas. At which time Scorsese had not ever won a best director oscar. Kubrick? Never won.

Around The World In 80 Days

Tom Jones

Chariots of Fire

Titanic

English Patient

Forrest Gump

Chicago

Crash

Million Dollar Baby

[fauxpaxfauxreal]

Gladiator is the worst.

People who didn't like Forrest Gump are dumber than Forrest is.

[Superfreakie]

I hated Forrest Gump from the start. I liked it better when it was under 4 minutes and called "We Didn't Start the Fire."

:evil: