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Posts Tagged ‘Saving Private Ryan’

Top Ten Worst BEST PICTURE Winners plus 10 more…

Posted in BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on March 27, 2014| 4 Comments »

English:

English: (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Today my nephew Justin sent me a YouTube video from WatchMoJo.com and as he suspected, it was right up my alley. You can find it on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIsoZd4EHeQ.  The makers of this video are upset over some BEST PICTURE Academy Award winners during years when there were (in their opinion and mine except for one) much better and more deserving movies nominated.   Did you know that the BEST PICTURE category is the only one in which any and all Academy members are allowed to vote.  Every other category is limited to members of the group category.  Here is their list: See what you think of the list and their picks.  What would you pick?  My choices are **

  1. 1998 – Driving Miss Daisy  won BP and therefore Dead Poet’s Society* and The Fourth of July lost. 
  2. 1982 – Ghandi  beat out ET* and Tootsie! 
  3. 1941 How Green Was My Valley won and that meant that The Maltese Falcon and Citizen Kane* lost! Citizen Kane, REALLY??
  4. 1996 – The English Patient – which I actually liked a lot even though it has  been mocked in a SEINFELD episode.  It did win over Jerry MaGuire and Fargo*
  5. 1998 – Shakespeare in Love – a very nice movie but no Saving Private Ryan*.
  6. 1990 – Dances With Wolves – My main disagreement with this list; I loved Dances With Wolves although I can no longer watch it because of the harm of the wolf. It was pitted against Awakenings and Ghost*
  7. 2002 – Chicago – I loved the soundtrack and the movie itself BUT I thought this top award should go to  Lord of the Rings-Two Towers*, The Pianist was an also ran and if I could pick two, it would be included.
  8. 2005 – Crash – A good story however, BP needs to encompass story line, acting, casting, set design and direction and as that is the criteria, it’s hard to believe that this movie won over Capote, Broke Back Mountain* and Good Night and Good Luck.
  9. 1956 – Around the World in 80 Days – fun, cute but the performances in The King and I* and the cinematography and art direction of the Ten Commandments certainly deserved the BP over the winner.
  10. 1968 – Oliver – Hollywood loves its musicals and all things Brittish, but this movie was not as good as 2001 Space Odessey*.

I’m posting my Ten More tomorrow morning. I started this too late, it’s been a long day but the real reason I’m stopping here is because I have to watch Hell’s Kitchen which I DVR’d earlier this evening!

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Academy Awards Oscar UPSETS! Surprises and Controversies!

Posted in BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , on February 23, 2013| Leave a Comment »

The big night is rapidly approaching and the educated guessing is full out by now. It’s not  a science, it’s not a horse race and it’s hard to use statistics all because you can never really second-guess humans.  They can always change their mind at the last minute.   Apparently they did because here’s a few more memorable upsets.

1.1981 – Reds was nominated for 12 categories and yet it was outrun in the race for Best Picture by Chariots of Fire!  Sometimes a race is won in the final sprint to the finish line. Must be the case here.

2. 1998-Titanic, a pathetic remake riddled with special effects drowned out L.A. Confidential  and Good Will Hunting.  Sad but true.

3.1988 – The Academy was Moonstruck by Cher’s outstanding performance and she went home with Oscar and Glen Close and Meryl Streep went home with their husbands.

4. 1999 – He scampered over chairs, he jumped around on stage – Roberto Benigni won Best Actor and none were more surprised than Tom Hanks.  Hanks was the favorite for his role in Saving Private Ryan.

5. 1994 – There really is a pattern here. The Academy seems to vote more often for feel-good, loveable or the down and out rise to good fortune through their courage, fortitude and a measure of luck.  And that’s how it went the night in 1994 when Quentin Tarantino was “Gumped” by Robert Zemekis.   Pulp Fiction must have been just too avante-garde for the Academy voters.

6. 1980 – Martin Scorcese made his first feature length film in 1967 and didn’t win an Oscar for his directorial achievements.  In 1980 he lost Best Director to Robert Redford who won it for Ordinary People and he lost it for Raging Bull.

7. 2008 – More than an upset, the fact that The Dark Knight wash’t even nominated! Slumdog Millionaire took home Best Picture and it was an entertaining movie which took audiences to a part of the world they rarely see.  No dispute here, BUT shouldn’t The Dark Knight have been on the table with The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Milk, The Reader and Frost/Nixon?

8. 1969 – Oh how I remember this one!  John Wayne wins Best Actor for his role of a cowboy (wow that’s a switch) in True Grit and Dustin Hoffman and John Voight who were spectacular in Midnight Cowboy.

9. 1985 – Another surprise ! The Color Purple was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won NONE!

10. 1968-Oliver,  won Best Director and Best Picture.  It was a buoyant musical retelling of the story of Oliver Twist and sent Stanley Kubrick’s startling and innovative science fiction epic  2001: Space Odyssey  home hungry.

Best Actress Academy Awards

Best Actress Academy Awards (Photo credit: cliff1066™)

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Thursday’s Top Ten Oscar Upsets!

Posted in BY THE WAY, From My Point of View - Personal commentary on Movies and Books, Smooth or Crunchy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on February 22, 2013| Leave a Comment »

So who do you think is going to win this year?  Unlike some other years, there isn’t just one picture which will run away with all of the top awards.  The field is open and the predicting is hitting fever pitch.  Is it anybody’s guess?  Maybe.  I have my own predictions and I’ll post them before Sunday evening.  Feel free to write in your own choices for Best Picture, Best Actor and Actress, Best Director, and any other BEST you want to pick.

Sometimes a dark horse emerges and at the last moment, streams past all the other contenders and snatches the top prize.  Do you remember these well-known Oscar upsets?

1. 2006 – Crash beats out Broke Back Mountain for Best Picture! WTF? Crash was interesting and full of racial and social tension but when it was announced that it won Best Picture, there were some audible gasps and best of all, do you remember that Jack Nicholson, who announced the winner, raised one of his famous eyebrows in a betcha didn’t see that coming!

2. 1943 – What were they thinking???  Paul Lukas won the Best Actor Award for his role in Watch On The Rhine.  And Humphrey Bogart LOST for his role in Casablanca.  OMG!!

3. 1999 – Shakespeare in Love  was a fine movie, with great costumes but did you expect it to beat out Saving Private Ryan?  I mean really? Tom Hanks, Matt Damon, Edward Burns????

4. 2002 – Who beat out Nicholas Cage, Jack Nicholson, Daniel  Day-Lewis, and Michael Caine for Best Actor?  Adrien Brody! He was relatively unknown compared to the heavy-hitters he was up against.  If his win was a surprise, imagine what Halle Berry was thinking when he grabbed her and planted a great big kiss on her mouth and when they tried to stop his acceptance speech, he said NO. Then gave an anti-war speech and received a standing ovation for it.

5. 1994 – Schindler’s List won Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing and 5 more Best categories, BUT Ralph Fiennes did NOT win Best Actor.  Tommy Lee Jones took the top prize with his role in The Fugitive.  Jones was good as a cop but seriously?  Fiennes was Oscar-worthy as the odious Nazi, Amon Goth.  I can only imagine how awful that night was for him as Schindler’s List racked up win after win.

6. 1991 – It was not a good night for Goodfellows!  Dances With Wolves snapped up the Best Picture Award.  The other nominees were Godfather Part III, Awakenings and Ghost.  And yet another “you lose” for Martin Scorcese.

7. 1942 – Only time will tell and it did…How Green Was My Valley won Best Picture over……are you ready? Citizen Kane!  Consistently on the top of greatest movie lists for years, in 1998 AFI declared Citizen Kane to be the number one greatest movie ever! Better late than never??

8.1977 – Should we have been surprised when a feel-good-loser-wins-in-the-end-against-all-odds movie punched its way to Best Picture and in doing so knocked out Taxi Driver and All The President’s Men? YES! OMG, Taxi Driver? DeNiro?

9. 1993- This was the night the wild card entry won! Marisa Tomei played the sassy and saucy Mona Lisa Vito in My Cousin Vinny.  And Vanessa Redgrave and Miranda Richardson went home empty-handed.

10. 2010– No list of Oscar upsets would be complete without mentioning Kathryn Bigelow.  She was the first female to win Best Director for The Hurt Locker and truly upset her ex-husband James Cameron who was the favorite to win with Avatar!

Academy Awards night has been full of surprises and upsets many times over and this list is by no means complete.  Perhaps I can post another list before the big night!

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