OldBoy

I was reading about some of these movies that even won, but some got nominations in good categories.

I was absolutely shocked that The Godfather III got 7 noms including best picture. I saw this once many moons ago (really only remember terrible Sophia Coppola scene getting shot or whatever) and know it is reveiled so I was quite surprised...

What are some nominations or even wins that you drop your jaw at for some movies?

Bluelitespecial

Shakespeare in Love winning Best Picture over Saving Private Ryan, especially now since Harvey Weinstein pretty much bought the Best Picture Oscar. It was a stupid movie with a lot of sex in it, thats it, nobody gives a shit about it today.

dex14

Bridesmaids

Half the shit Meryl Streep was nominated for.

I understand the nomination of The King’s Speech, but it shouldn’t have won Best Picture.

Bluelitespecial

Yep, I thought that might be worth a blind buy being a Freaks and Geeks fan, I got rid of it immediately after Ghostbusters came out.

Brack

Gladiator, dear god what a boring movie. Russell saved some it with decent lines here and there, but there are so many better Scott films out there that’s in not even funny. It was first with Shakespeare In Love, but it was after Gladitor winning that I had finally written off the Academy. Erin Brockovic has no business being nominated either, so the reason Traffix didn’t win was probably because of a split over.

Having said all that, I need to see it again to see if I was missing something since I haven’t it in a very long time., but I never got the impression that I did.

It’s a crime Kindom Of Heaven wasn’t nominated, but I forget I’ve only seen the Directors Cut. That would have been nominated for Oscars I have no doubt

Ash Ketchum

Pretty much every Best Picture winner from 1996 (THE ENGLISH PATIENT) on.

Brack

When the emphasis of releasing Oscar contenders near the end of the year became the norm, the films released became more Oscar baity, and thus less special. Movies released post Shakespeare in Love seem more guilty of this trend.

Hazel Motes

A lot of my choices are based on the context that something or someone else was much more deserving.

How Green Was My Valley over Citizen Kane
John Ford for How Green Was My Valley over Orson Welles for Citizen Kane.
Ordinary People over Raging Bull
Robert Redford for Ordinary People over Martin Scorsese for Raging Bull
Dances with Wolves over Goodfellas
Kevin Costner for Dances with Wolves over Martin Scorsese for Goodfellas
Forrest Gump over Pulp Fiction
Shakespeare in Love over The Thin Red Line
Julia Roberts for Erin Brockovich over Ellen Burstyn for Requiem for a Dream
Carol Reed for Oliver! over Stanley Kubrick for 2001

DVD Josh

Training Day.

mcnabb

Driving Miss Daisy winning the Best Picture in 1990 over films like Glory, Dead Poet’s Society, Field of Dreams, and Born in the 4th of July.

Bluelitespecial

I have seen various news articles criticize it as well now, which I never understood. Didn't Denzel only get nominated from the movie? I still think he deserved his oscar that year.

orangerunner

In many cases I think a Best Picture win would have hurt the reputation and integrity of certain films.

I'm glad Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas, Saving Private Ryan and Raging Bull didn't win as they avoided the Oscar bash-lash and fierce criticism that most Best Picture winners receive.

They are often the "cool" films to admire years later because they didn't receive that official Oscar recognition.

B5Erik

Godfather III isn't a bad movie. It's got a bad supporting actress (not entirely her fault), but the movie itself was still one of the better movies of that year.

It just paled in comparison to the first two Godfather movies. It was a huge disappointment. Thus the hate it gets.

But a couple decades later, when viewed on it's own merits, it is a good movie. Definitely not without flaws, but, still, a good movie.

Did it deserve the nominations? Some of them yes, some no. As to which it deserved is open to debate.

islandclaws

Crash winning anything.

Juno winning anything.

Ringmaster

A lot of head scratchers on this list. Who talks about Ordinary People in the same vein as Raging Bull?? Raging Bull was listed as the greatest movie of the 80s and that came out in 1980!

mcnabb

I actually think the list of Oscar winners and losers is a good barometer of how films age better and worse. I also think it takes years to properly call a film a classic (we Star Wars fans are in heavy debate of how great or bad The Last Jedi is).

I think an example of Ordinary People and Raging Bull is a good one about looking back at a film years later. I still think Ordinary People is a powerful film but I think Raging Bull is just so great that it makes the other films pale in comparison now.

Hazel Motes

Maybe moreso in the last 20 years. But I don't recall many people ever bashing The French Connection, The Godfather 1&2, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, The Deer Hunter, Platoon, Annie Hall, Midnight Cowboy etc.

Deadman31

I don't think Pulp Fiction or Forrest Gump have aged well.

TomOpus

Suddenly, the Oscars are important?

Defiant1

I still don't get the love for Silver Linings Playbook. Such a blah movie, and Jennifer Lawrence most certainly did not deserve to win Best Actress over Jessica Chastain for Zero Dark Thirty.

Why So Blu?

I hate that fucking movie.

Why So Blu?

Pulp Fiction is a masterpiece.

Mabuse

It even ended with a big dance competition. How cliche is that? When that plot development happened I thought it was a joke.

RichC2

The acting was solid but as a movie overall yeah, SLP was pretty lackluster. But the Academy usually has one "feel good" or semi-uplifting indie-style flick mixed in every year. Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, Slumdog Millionaire, Silver Linings Playbook, Philomena, Whiplash, Brooklyn, Lion, etc;

They're not all of equal quality, but there's usually a slot dedicated to having at least 1 each year.

And I recently rewatched Juno, I don't get the hate for it. The first 2 minutes are excruciatingly bad (the whole back and forth between Page and Rainn Wilson is just god awful), the rest is a pretty solid movie.

Why So Blu?

Yeah, not a fan of SLP.