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What is the worst Oscars Best Picture winner that you have seen?

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Josh5890

Member
It took 2 attempts to get through and only managed the last time because my friend said Mena Suvari (spelling is way off) got her breasts out. I was young so unsure if I'd enjoy it more now I'm more mature.

American Beauty is a film that is probably enjoyed by someone more mature like you said. You never know. You might have a better appreciation for it down the road.
 
Easily Crash. Just a straight shit movie.

I'm also still baffled that a movie that reviewed poorly (Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close) even sniffed a Best Picture nod at 46% RT

I didn't think Birdman was bad, but didn't think it was great. It was okay. After eventually getting to see maybe half of last year's nominees I think Whiplash was my favorite 2014 movie.

I remember being salty as hell when Chicago won over The Two Towers but I was also a teenager.

I really liked American Beauty when I was younger and I tend to like Alan Ball's work. I think just in retrospect it seems a bit full of itself and today's climate no one's really giving a shit about white suburbia angst.
 
Argo
I think all of these were miles better than Argo:
Amour
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Django Unchained
Les Misérables
Life of Pi
and even Lincoln and Zero Dark Thirty. I didn't like Silver Linings Playbook though.
---------
And 12 Years a Slave. It was a good movie without a doubt, but I think movies like Dallas Buyers Club, The Wolf of Wall Street, Nebraska and Her were much better.
 
What was illogical or stupid about it? The father makes up a story about a "magic cape" to give his young daughter a feeling of safety. Something almost every parent has done. Then later that daughter "saves" her dad with her "magic cape". Of course, we as an audience know the truth, there is no cape and the gun had blanks, but to the daughter, the truth is she saved her dad. And that is touching.

I am well aware of the intended meaning. The point is that it doesn't work. At all. "But it works if you have kids" is not a valid argument. It doesn't matter because of how absurd the entire situation is in the first place, nor the naivete of the characters involved.

Yeah, no. The dad doesn't think there is a real "magic cape". C'mon, bro.

He accepts it at face value. He never asks the other man what bullets were in the gun. He simply walks off content in the knowledge that he was "somehow" saved.

Come on. It's not difficult to understand.
 
I have seen:

All Quiet on the Western Front
Casablanca
The Greatest Show on Earth
Around the World in 80 Days
Ben-Hur
West Side Story
The Sound of Music
Midnight Cowboy
The French Connection
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Ordinary People
Gandhi
Amadeus
Rain Man
The Silence of the Lambs
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
American Beauty
Gladiator
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The Departed
No Country for Old Men
Slumdog Millionaire
The Hurt Locker
Argo
Birdman

I suppose Crash is the worst of them. It's an incredibly wrongheaded film. However, I also hated The Departed (Scorcese's worst by a country mile, overwrought and hamfisted), Birdman (not a fan of Inarritu, but I suppose it's a better nominee than The Revenant, which is total garbage), Braveheart (laughably moronic), The Silence of the Lambs (I always preferred Manhunter), Gandhi (awful biopic) and The Sound of Music (Christopher Plummer was right).

My favorites from the list are All Quiet on the Western Front, The Godfather Part II, Amadeus and No Country for Old Men.
 
Shakespeare in Love is shit enough on its own, but that the morons at the Academy somehow thought it was better than Saving Private Ryan is infuriating to this day.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
He accepts it at face value. He never asks the other man what bullets were in the gun. He simply walks off content in the knowledge that he was "somehow" saved.

Come on. It's not difficult to understand.
I really don't even know where to start.

I want to be sure I get your meaning; by "he accepts it at face value," you're saying that your interpretation is that the father actually believes a magic cape stopped the bullet because his daughter says so?
 
For me it would be Hurt Locker and Crash to say the least. I can understand Crash winning that year though since it was a down year for Hollywood.

I'm pretty sure I'd take any of the other nominees over Crash, particularly Munich. Of those not nominated(not including Foreign films): The New World, A History of Violence, Mysterious Skin, Hustle & Flow.
 

gutshot

Member
I am well aware of the intended meaning. The point is that it doesn't work. At all. "But it works if you have kids" is not a valid argument. It doesn't matter because of how absurd the entire situation is in the first place, nor the naivete of the characters involved.



He accepts it at face value. He never asks the other man what bullets were in the gun. He simply walks off content in the knowledge that he was "somehow" saved.

Come on. It's not difficult to understand.

So you think the movie would have been better served showing a scene where the father finds out it was really blanks in the gun? Just to rule out the insanely illogical assumption that the father thinks there is really a "magic cape"? OK then.

And really, you are missing the entire point of the scene, which is the moment between the father and his daughter.
 

Goldmund

Member
Casablanca
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Lawrence of Arabia
The Sound of Music
In the Heat of the Night
Patton
The French Connection
The Godfather
The Sting
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
Gandhi
Platoon
Driving Miss Daisy
The Silence of the Lambs
Unforgiven
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Titanic
Gladiator
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The Departed
No Country for Old Men
The King's Speech
Argo
12 Years a Slave
Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)

I've seen the bolded.

My personal least favorite is by far The Departed. Maybe it simply stuck too close to the original films, which I haven't seen, and then couldn't find a matching setting in the US. There's this really emblematic scene where Damon and Farmiga, having moved in together, discuss not displaying pictures and then Nicholson has to call that very moment to spell out the meaning of it all for an audience presumed to be too stupid to get it themselves. This is soap opera level writing. The movie is riddled with such clumsiness. Another example is that microchip exchange scene made. Awful, just awful. I can't believe Scorsese made this.
 
I've seen:
Lawrence of Arabia
The Godfather
The Godfather Part II
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Rain Man
The Silence of the Lambs
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
Titanic
American Beauty
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
The Departed
No Country for Old Men
Slumdog Millionaire
12 Years a Slave

I didn't know Gladiator won best picture, I like it but that's still surprising.
I don't think so highly anymore of The Departed after finding out it's so close to the original Korean movie (which should get the recognition instead). Still great though.

I didn't like 12 Years a Slave, Slumdog Millionaire, American Beauty and Rocky enough to warrant best picture but my vote goes to Titanic which is just unbearably hokey and I was so happy once they all died.
 
After I finished watching Birdman, I said aloud "wow, that was terrible." Over the next few days, the movie consumed by thoughts. I just couldn't get over how much I hated the movie. It seems like it was a movie made for people who make a living off of movies and is nothing more than that.
 
I really don't even know where to start.

I want to be sure I get your meaning; by "he accepts it at face value," you're saying that your interpretation is that the father actually believes a magic cape stopped the bullet because his daughter says so?

Trust me when I say this is not the hill you want to die on.

Watch the scene again and tell me I'm wrong. The guy accepts that, regardless of whether it was an act of God or it really was his daughter's magic cape (which he never questions or replies to), he was magically saved.

And by the way, it's just one of many stupid events like this. Like others said, it's irredeemable trash.
 

DeathoftheEndless

Crashing this plane... with no survivors!
The worst I've seen is probably Platoon. I don't know how fair that is, since I saw once a few years ago and don't remember much. I remember not caring for it though and I like the rest that I have seen.

Seen:

All Quiet on the Western Front
Rebecca
Casablanca
On the Waterfront
Lawrence of Arabia
The Godfather I & II
The Sting
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Deer Hunter
Chariots of Fire
Platoon
Silence of the Lambs
Unforgiven
Schinder's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
American Beauty
Gladiator
Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
The Departed
Slumdog Millionaire
The Hurt Locker
Argo
 
Of the ones I have seen. The best are Godfather 1 and 2, Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, Casablanca (GOAT), Schindler's List, Annie Hall

The worst of the ones I have seen Crash, Gladiator, Rain man, Slumdog Millionaire, Silence of the Lambs, Amadeus.

French Connection and Midnight Cowboy have dated terribly. You can tell some years where there was no standout so a really popular and generally well made film wins. Nothing outright terrible has won. There's no best picture oscar for Battle of the Five Armies, Phantom Menace, Last Action Hero or the like.


2014 - "Birdman"
2012 - "Argo"
2011 - "The Artist"
2010 - "The King's Speech"
2009 - "The Hurt Locker"
2008 - "Slumdog Millionaire"
2007 - "No Country for Old Men"
2006 - "The Departed"
2005 - "Crash"
2003 - "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
2000 - "Gladiator"
1999 - "American Beauty"
1998 - "Shakespeare in Love"
1997 - "Titanic"
1995 - "Braveheart"
1994 - "Forrest Gump"
1993 - "Schindler’s List"
1992 - "Unforgiven"
1991 - "The Silence of the Lambs"
1988 - "Rain Man"
1986 - "Platoon"
1984 - "Amadeus"
1982 - "Gandhi"
1981 - "Chariots of Fire"
1977 - "Annie Hall"
1976 - "Rocky"
1975 - "One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest"
1974 - "The Godfather Part II"
1973 - "The Sting"
1972 - "The Godfather"
1971 - "The French Connection"
1970 - "Patton"
1969 - "Midnight Cowboy"
1965 - "The Sound of Music"
1962 - "Lawrence of Arabia"
1957 - "The Bridge on the River Kwai"
1943 - "Casablanca"
1939 - "Gone with the Wind"
 
2000-2005 was a travesty every year for best picture

Gladiator, A Beautiful Mind, Chicago, LotR:RotK, Million Dollar Baby, and Crash. These are all bland, boring movies (with the exception of Million Dollar Baby, which was just ok).

That's all ok though. The academy award almost never gets the actual best picture, except in 1977 when the genius Woody Allen's Annie Hall beat out that silly little children's film Star Wars.
 
For me its clear

Its The French Connection. I'm a big Hackman fan but its not a top 10 performance by him. Its aged badly, so badly its feels like a spoof. The car chase is highly overrated and poorly shot and edited.

Most underrated is Crash. Best film of that year and best performances of most of the actors careers.

What an interesting question, followed by two atrocious examples.
 
For me its clear

Its The French Connection. I'm a big Hackman fan but its not a top 10 performance by him. Its aged badly, so badly its feels like a spoof. The car chase is highly overrated and poorly shot and edited.

Most underrated is Crash. Best film of that year and best performances of most of the actors careers.

youre_serious_futurama.gif


This is the thread for you
 

eLGee

Member
These I've seen:

Gone With the Wind
Rebecca
Casablanca
Hamlet
The Bridge on the River Kwai
Ben Hur
The Apartment
West Side Story
Lawrence of Arabia
The Sound of Music
In the Heat of the Night
The Godfather
The Sting
The Godfather Part 2
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Annie Hall
The Deer Hunter
Kramer vs Kramer
Ordinary People
Chariots of Fire
Gandhi
Terms of Endearment
Amadeus
Platoon
The Last Emperor
Rain Man
Driving Miss Daisy
Dances With Wolves
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
The English Patient
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
Chicago
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The Departed
No Country For Old Men
Slumdog Millionaire
The Hurt Locker
The King's Speech
The Artist
Argo
12 Years a Slave
Birdman

Worst movie? Easily Chicago, The Pianist should've won that year.

Though I was more pissed when Crash won over Brokeback Mountain, Good Night and Good Luck, Munich, and when Shakespeare in Love won over Saving Private Ryan.

A Beautiful Mind shouldn't have won over LoTR: FotR or In the Bedroom. It felt more like they were giving the Oscar to Ron Howard for old times sake.
 

Hawkian

The Cryptarch's Bane
Trust me when I say this is not the hill you want to die on.

Watch the scene again and tell me I'm wrong. The guy accepts that, regardless of whether it was an act of God or it really was his daughter's magic cape (which he never questions or replies to), he was magically saved.

And by the way, it's just one of many stupid events like this. Like others said, it's irredeemable trash.
Attempt murder on whatever hill you like: these are your words
The notion that a man would think a "magic cape" stopped bullets from hitting his daughter is ridiculous
Either you take that notion to be what happened (a man thought a "magic cape" stopped bullets) or you don't. From your more recent phrasing- "regardless of whether," etc.- it appears that you don't, so this exchange is moot. I'm not even remotely commenting on the quality of the movie.

If you were claiming that he actually believed that was what happened I wouldn't have to watch the scene again to tell you that you're wrong. Since you've either changed your mind about what you're claiming or just misspoke in the first place, there's no wrong to point out.
 

Meowster

Member
Not sure about worst but Argo has to be the most forgettable of all the ones I have seen.

A shame considering how strong that year was for movies too.
 

Toothless

Member
Ones I've seen:

The Sound of Music
Oliver!
Rocky
Forrest Gump
Titanic
Gladiator
Crash
Slumdog Millionaire
The King's Speech
The Artist
Argo
12 Years a Slave
Birdman

Worst is between Birdman or Crash. They're both pretty awful.
 

marzlapin

Member
I've seen:

Gone with the Wind
Casablanca
West Side Story
My Fair Lady
The Sound of Music
Midnight Cowboy
The Godfather
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Rocky
Annie Hall
Chariots of Fire
Amadeus
The Last Emperor
Dances with Wolves
The Silence of the Lambs
Schindler's List
Forrest Gump
Braveheart
The English Patient
Titanic
Shakespeare in Love
American Beauty
Gladiator
A Beautiful Mind
Chicago
LOTR: ROTK
Million Dollar Baby
Crash
The Departed
No Country for Old Men
Slumdog Millionaire
The Hurt Locker
The King's Speech
Argo

I really need to see more of the older winners but I'd say probably Crash.
 
Who Won:

The English Patient

Who Should have won:

Fargo



Who Won:

Shakespeare in Love

Who Should have won:

Saving Private Ryan


Who Won:

American Beauty

Who Should have Won:

The Insider
 

DOWN

Banned
Crash was such Oscar bait it should have failed. It was just gross and I'm shocked it made it that far. I don't hate it, but no way would it get awards.
 
Man now I gotta go rewatch Crash cuz I didn't think it was that awful the first time I saw it.

As for the worst, tossup between Hurt Locker and Birdman, first was super boring and the latter, while shot beautifully, was total hollywood self-fellating nonsense.
 

Raptor

Member
Have seen:

Birdman (2014)
12 Years a Slave (2013)
Argo (2012)
The King's Speech (2010)
The Hurt Locker (2009)
Slumdog Millionaire (2008)
No Country For Old Men (2007)
The Departed (2006)
Crash (2005)
Million Dollar Baby (2004)
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Chicago (2002)
A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Gladiator (2000)
American Beauty (1999)
Shakespeare In Love (1998)
Titanic (1997)
The English Patient (1996)
Braveheart (1995)
Forrest Gump (1994)
Schindler's List (1993)
Unforgiven (1992)
The Silence of the Lambs (1991)
Dances With Wolves (1990)
Driving Miss Daisy (1989)
Rain Man (1988)
The Last Emperor (1987)
Platoon (1986)
Out of Africa (1985)
Amadeus (1984)
Rocky (1976)
The Godfather, Part II (1974)
The Godfather (1972)
Patton (1970)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Lawrence of Arabia (1962)
Casablanca (1942)

And the worst are the ones bolded, those aint my cup of tea.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Crash, Argo, Chicago are all mediocre movies that belong nowhere near the oscar nominations.

Yet they all won. This is why black people shouldnt get too worried about not getting nominated. Oscars have always snubbed people deserving of awards. Idris Alba isnt the first person to be snubbed. He wont be the last. When trash like Shakespeare in Love and English Patient wins over Saving Private Ryan and Pulp Fiction respectively you know that these oscars are a fucking joke.

They always have been.
 

Eidan

Member
Man now I gotta go rewatch Crash cuz I didn't think it was that awful the first time I saw it.

As for the worst, tossup between Hurt Locker and Birdman, first was super boring and the latter, while shot beautifully, was total hollywood self-fellating nonsense.

Crash isn't that awful honestly. It just one against a film that was the clear, strong favorite. From that year, Good Night, and Good Luck would've been my choice.
 
Birdman was such a "WE ACTORS ARE SO AWESOME" trash movie. I think I watched Crash but don't remember a thing about it, hopefully I forget Birdman in the next year or two.

Man that list makes me realize how wildly my tastes diverge from Oscar voters, I've only seen Birdman / Departed / No Country from the last 10 years of oscar winners.
 

Catdaddy

Member
Chariots of Fire - pretty sure I fell asleep most of the way through and no desire to ever see it again.

That's all for the shitty Best Pictures, there are several that I liked but think that other pictures should have won. Forrest Gump winning over Pulp Fiction or Shawshank was a crime.
 
I thought Crash was excellent. I've never agreed with all of the backlash. I agree with it being one of the most underrated BP winners.

French Connection is mostly great, but I absolutely hated the way it ends. It definitely soured it for me a bit. Maybe Clockwork Orange would have been more deserving, but I could go either way on it.

1975 probably would have given me the most heartburn to make a choice. I absolutely adore both Cuckoo's Nest and Dog Day Afternoon. I think they got it right, but it's a bummer they had to come out the same year.

I've seen:

Birdman
12 Years a Slave
Argo
The King's Speech
The Hurt Locker
Slumdog Millionaire
No Country for Old Men
The Departed
Crash
Million Dollar Baby
The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
A Beautiful Mind
Gladiator
American Beauty
Shakespeare in Love
Titanic
The English Patient
Braveheart
Forrest Gump
Schindler's List
Unforgiven
The Silence of the Lambs
Rain Man
Platoon
Ordinary People
The Deer Hunter
Rocky
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
The Godfather Part II
The Sting
The Godfather
The French Connection
Patton
West Side Story
Casablanca

My biggest disagreements with the winner:

* Slumdog Millionaire: Not a good movie, but I don't feel that strong about the other nominees either (Frost/Nixon is probably the best on that list). This would have been the year to award a great blockbuster (The Dark Knight)

* Titanic: Not when L.A. Confidential and Good Will Hunting were nominated. This was the Academy getting swallowed up by the hype (thankfully they got it right in 2009).

* The English Patient: It's a pretty terrible movie. It's probably the worst BP winner I've watched.

* Forrest Gump: I like Forrest Gump, but not over Shawshank and Pulp Fiction.

* Maybe not the most popular choices, but I'd have gone with Chinatown over Godfather II, and All The President's Men or Taxi Driver over Rocky. I'm really not that high on Godfather II. I don't think it was anywhere near as good as the first one.
 
Argo won not because it was the best film, Argo won because it had the 'least' enemies if that makes sense. It had enough support across all voters that it won, despite not being the best.
 
I agree that it had a lot of good scenes but man, the protagonist was pretty terrible, and I ended up disliking the movie because of that. I was surprised that more people weren't as disgusted as I was with him. He puts his fellow soldiers in terrible danger because it's a rush for him. What scum.
That's the point man
 
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