I know it’s not fashionable in some quarters but I loved Titanic.

While I haven’t seen Crash yet, it gets a *bit* of a pass from me because that year was a big example of why non-industry people *despise* Academy nominees. *Nothing* winning that year would have made me particularly happy, but Crash seemed the least offensive of the five to me.

The Best Picture nominees that year were Crash, Capote, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night And Good Luck, and Munich. That’s a liberal wish-list of the kinds of movies they want to nominate (The “OMG, racism~!” film, the pro-gay films, the “evil politician vs. virtuous journalist” film, and the “OMG, Israel is evil!” film.)

teke184 on March 16, 2009 at 11:05 AM

See Crash, it is certainly overrated but it is soooo much better than Capote, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night And Good Luck, and Munich. All were absolutely horrible but you forgot the other crap movie that year – Syriana.

The best movie of 2005 should have been either

Star Wars: Episode III
Cinderella Man
or Batman Begins

That would be The Edge.

teke184 on March 16, 2009 at 2:54 PM

No it is Legends of the Fall which was not that bad a movie. The Edge was Baldwin/Hopkins which was bad.

God I hate that woman! That is one reason Seven is one of my favorite movies! Nothing like the idea of Gwyneth’s head in a box!

hawkdriver on March 16, 2009 at 3:53 AM
You must be a lot of fun at party’s…

right2bright on March 16, 2009 at 10:13 AM

As long as he doesn’t bring up the benefits of the Beetabaga, I’m ok with it.

She brought home Dumb and Dumber and that stupid Brad Pitt/Anthony Hopkins movie about the killer bear (the name escapes me and I lack the interest to look it up) the same night.

That would be The Edge.

I had no choice but to vote for The English Patient. My wife brought it home when I was bedridden, recovering after nearly dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. I only sat thru it because I lacked the strength to get up and move or pry the remote from her hands. Viewing that disaster almost made me wish I hadn’t survived. She brought home Dumb and Dumber and that stupid Brad Pitt/Anthony Hopkins movie about the killer bear (the name escapes me and I lack the interest to look it up) the same night. All were horrible. But, given a choice between the three, I’d take Dumb and Dumber hands down.

given it to do all over again….Sam Peckinpaughh’s bloody great classic The Wild Bunch

1. Amazing cinematography

2. A true “anti western”, where the outlaws are the “heroes” possesing their own (twisted but its there) honor code.

3. Peckinpaugh’s quick cuts and cinematically amazing gun fights. I once read the average film has about 400 – 600 edits (sepeate shots). Bloody Sam’s masterpiece had 2,600.

4. The cast and the performances: William Holden, Ernest Borgnaine, Ben Johnon, Warren Oates, Robert Ryan and on and on….

5. One of the greatest GUY MOVIES of all time, speaking to that code that we men wish we could still live by:

* “When you side with a man, you stay with him…”

* The Bunch’s going back for their comrade and facing their certain death

* PIKE: “Let’s Go” TECTOR: “Why not?”

* PIKE: “He gave his word.” DUTCH: “Gave his word to a railroad!” PIKE: “Its HIS word!”

*

Another good idea for a poll might be to list several notable movies from each of the years in question, (not just the Oscar nominees), and let people pick which ones they’d give the Oscar to now, in hindsight.

joe_doufu on March 15, 2009 at 7:42 PM

I could go for this…

For example, I’d pick Saving Private Ryan over Shakespeare In Love, Midnight Express over Deer Hunter, LA Confidential over Titanic, etc.

SPR and LA Confidential both got robbed, IMHO, while Midnight Express over Deer Hunter is more of a personal preference.

(Michael Cimino needed a freakin’ story-editor to make Deer Hunter more watchable. His win for this lead to Heaven’s Gate, which helped destroy the “auteur” movement for US directors.)

While I haven’t seen Crash yet, it gets a *bit* of a pass from me because that year was a big example of why non-industry people *despise* Academy nominees. *Nothing* winning that year would have made me particularly happy, but Crash seemed the least offensive of the five to me.

The Best Picture nominees that year were Crash, Capote, Brokeback Mountain, Good Night And Good Luck, and Munich. That’s a liberal wish-list of the kinds of movies they want to nominate (The “OMG, racism~!” film, the pro-gay films, the “evil politician vs. virtuous journalist” film, and the “OMG, Israel is evil!” film.)

Best Film on your list: Godfather II. Yes it’s better than Godfather I. Both are the closest anyone has come to film-making perfection.

The single best acting performance in all of these movies is George C. Scott’s ‘Patton’, although there is strong competition from Pacino’s Michael Corleone, Hackman’s Popeye Doyle, Kingsley’s Gandhi, and Bardem’s Anton Chigurgh.

Worst film to win best picture in the last 40 years: Gladiator. It’s not a terrible movie or anything, it just is much more run-of-the-mill than the Best Picture award would imply.

hawkdriver on March 16, 2009 at 3:53 AM

You must be a lot of fun at party’s…

Out of Africa: Absolutely the worst. I don’t care about your farm in Africa and please go ahead and die so this torture will end. My wife dragged me to this thing and I was almost in a coma by the time it ended. I needed electric shock to get my heart going again. This movie redefined the word boring, taking it to a whole new level reached again only recently by listening to Al Gore.

Braveheart struck me as a movie put together by people who cared for accuracy. Before the invention of gunpowder, what would be the command for a group of archers to release their arrows? “Loose!” certainly is a better word than “Fire!” Although using “fire” instead of “loose” or “shoot” would not disqualify a best picture nominee, it shoud deserve an asterisk.

Pelayo on March 15, 2009 at 9:22 PM

Sorry, I loved BH but it is filled with goofs and historical inaccuracies. From the IMDB:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: This is neither a biopic nor a historical documentary but is, rather, a romantic fiction inspired by true events. Many of the “real” characters and events have been deliberately reinterpreted to suit the story, as have some details of costume and custom.

This is my own. The entire premise of the Battle of Stirling in the movie is incorrect in the manner in which it was fought and won. The battle involved a narrow bridge that the British made the mistake of committing troops to one side of in too small a numbers to adequately present a superior force. Wallace took advantage of that and then advantage of their inability to retreat across the same bridge. In fact the correct title of the engagement is The Battle of Stirling “Bridge”.

Factual errors: King Edward II was almost certainly not gay or bisexual.

Factual errors: King Edward II was always bearded, even when Prince of Wales.

Audio/visual unsynchronized: A man is playing the Highland Pipes at William’s father’s funeral, but they sound like Uillean Pipes. This was a deliberate artistic decision because “they sounded better”.

Revealing mistakes: MacGregor is shown standing in the background at Murron’s funeral, but he doesn’t arrive in Wallace’s town until the next scene.

Anachronisms: When Wallace’s wife’s throat is cut, a white Ford Transit van can be seen briefly in the distance.

Anachronisms: After Wallace makes love to the future queen he rides off and is then part of a group riding down a long and winding road. Far off in the distance (at the bottom of the hill) a car or van can be seen moving towards the camera.

Factual errors: Wallace sleeps with the English princess, Isabella of France, however, at the time this film is set, Isabella was two years old according to many western civilization books. She was not in her teens or early twenties as depicted in the film.

Factual errors: Wallace and Edward I are seen dying at the same time, when in fact, Edward I died 2-3 years after Wallace.

Factual errors: Whenever pipes are heard in the movie, they are never Highland pipes. Highland pipes (characteristic of Scotland) are shown, but what are actually played are Uillean pipes which are Irish.

Factual errors: It is a widely accepted historical fact that woad (the blue face-paint Wallace and his men wear during battle scenes) was not used by Scottish warriors during the 13th century, but was in fact used much earlier by ancient Celtic warriors, and was obsolete by Wallace’s time.

Factual errors: Several costumes in the movie depict Scottish men wearing tartan and other checkered cloth. Tartan and such checkered cloths of this type did not begin to appear until 16th century, and were not worn in battle until the Battle of Culloden in the 1700s. It would not have been worn in the 13th century.

Errors in geography: The landscape in the opening credits and early scenes is the Western Highlands (specifically Glen Nevis) which look utterly unlike the Western Lowlands where Wallace grew up. Wallace never visited the Western Highlands.

Factual errors: At the funeral of Wallace’s father, the child Murron plucks a thistle, the symbol of Scotland, and gives it to the boy Wallace. This is both physically impossible (every species of thistle in the British Isles is so prickly and so tough-stemmed that you could only wrench one from its stem wearing protective gloves) and symbolically absurd (the toughness and prickliness of the thistle is its whole point as a symbol of Scottishness).

Factual errors: Wallace and many other Scottish characters ride horses while dressed in kilts. Even in times and places where the kilt was genuinely worn (it wasn’t worn anywhere in Scotland in Wallace’s time, and at no time in history was it worn in Wallace’s part of Scotland), men who expected to ride anywhere wore trews, not kilts, for the very good reason that it would have been an extremely painful and impractical experience; no underwear was ever worn under the kilt.

Similarly the old version of the Titanic sinking, A Night to Remember is far superior to the politically correct modern Titanic with it’s horrible sappy overplayed stereotypes of class system. I have watched the black and white version more times than I can count and find it simply wonderful for the way it marches you into the disaster. It is similar to watching Jaws, another excellent movie, that can be watched over and over because the presentation and timing are so good they cannot grow old, any more than a repeat ride on a roller coaster could ever become dull. The timing of A Night to Remember, and the low key deliveries make the inevitable much more excitiNG

Ben Hur will always be in my top ten. Mesmerizing The Ten Commandments is good, but Ben Hur is great.

The first Jaws is a classic. As I understand it, a lady editor is responsible for a serious chunk of Jaws success. She controlled the length of scenes, drawing out suspenseful moments perfectly using timing that others would never have considered. An unnamed genius.

The Godfather created an image of the mob that changed the mob’s own perception of itself. The timing (editing) was brilliant and drove the excitement of the story. The music created an aura of tragic romance that cast the mob as tragic heros. A major creation, unfortunately based upon a mixture of true events. The wedding was a depiction of a true wedding and unfortunately, art was imitating life.

Hollywood has created some great and wonderful movies, most of which are not on the list of insipid Oscar movies.

I part with my friends in not enjoying the Lord of the Rings at all. I like stories about Christ much more than stories about Christ figures. Rings is grey and slow which is a joy to Hobbit fans and extends their pleasures but excruciating to people like me who are bored by the story

Add to the list of films I have little regard for, Saving Private Ryan, Schindler’s List (documentaries blow away the pretentious list). I just realized I dislike most of the list. Oh well. I am not a star. Just a consumer