What are the worst Oscar winning movies? - Movies & TV

bobbyb5

Gender: Male
Location: New York

What do you think are the worst movies to ever win an Oscar? I think these are the worst:

A Beautiful Mind
Shakespeare in Love
Around the World in 80 Days
Terms of Endearment
The Greatest Show on Earth
West Side Story
Rocky
My Fair Lady
Crash
The Sound of Music

badseed

Gender: Male
Age: 35
Location: FL

I assume, judging by your selections, you're specifically meaning Best Picture. I hope so, because the other awards, particularly makeup and costumes, have tons of winners that suck.

In regards to your list, I have a soft spot for West Side Story and Sound of Music. As for what I'd swap them out with, tough call. There are literally dozens of mediocre best pictures.

Edit: while they're possibly still in the bottom HALF of winners, I think My Fair Lady, Rocky and Terms of Endearment are better than bottom 10.

bobbyb5

Gender: Male
Location: New York

badseed wrote:

I assume, judging by your selections, you're specifically meaning Best Picture. I hope so, because the other awards, particularly makeup and costumes, have tons of winners that suck.

In regards to your list, I have a soft spot for West Side Story and Sound of Music. As for what I'd swap them out with, tough call. There are literally dozens of mediocre best pictures.

Edit: while they're possibly still in the bottom HALF of winners, I think My Fair Lady, Rocky and Terms of Endearment are better than bottom 10.

Yeah I meant Best Picture Winner. I should write that in.
Actually, when I looked through the list there weren't nearly as many truly awful ones as I thought. Nominees probably would have turned up the truly horrid ones. I'm going to do nominees. I'm sure it will be a lot more fun, because there's a lot more to choose from.

bobbyb5

Gender: Male
Location: New York

badseed wrote:

I assume, judging by your selections, you're specifically meaning Best Picture. I hope so, because the other awards, particularly makeup and costumes, have tons of winners that suck.

In regards to your list, I have a soft spot for West Side Story and Sound of Music. As for what I'd swap them out with, tough call. There are literally dozens of mediocre best pictures.

Edit: while they're possibly still in the bottom HALF of winners, I think My Fair Lady, Rocky and Terms of Endearment are better than bottom 10.

Yep, I glanced at the list of nominees and that's where the true treasure trove is. I'm starting a list of worse nominees on Letterboxed. It's going to be a blast. Lol

PurpleHazel

A Beautiful Mind
Forrest Gump
Crash
Shakespeare in Love
Slumdog Millionaire
The King's Speech
Mrs. Miniver

Haven't seen a lot of the pre-1970 Best Picture nominees most often cited as the worst. Saw Around the World in 80 Days as a kid, but was too young to be able to judge it.

Last edited by PurpleHazel on 12/22/2018 01:22; edited 1 time in total

Fischman
RockMonster, JazzMeister, Bluesboy,ClassicalMaster

Gender: Male
Location: Land of Enchantment

No shortage of worthy entrants for the least worthy winners here, although my selections may be different than the consensus.

Going back in time (the bolded ones really are the worst):

1998 - Shakespear in Love
1997 - Titanic
1996 - The English Patient (geez, the late nineties were really bad).
1994 - Forrest Gump (yes, Forrest Gump).
1985 - Out of Africa
1973 - The Sting
1961 - West Side Story

PurpleHazel

Fischman wrote:

(yes, Forrest Gump).

I have Gump at #2.

Not going to defend Titanic -- the only good scenes in it were taken from the excellent A Night to Remember (or possibly just Night to Remember's sources).

West Side Story's not so bad, though it hasn't aged that well and plays fairly kitschy now. There must be 60s musicals that won that are worse.

desh79

Gender: Male
Age: 44

West Side Story definitely has its moments, especially that "lalalalala, Am-er-i-ca!"-song. (Oh, it's stuck in your head now too?! You don't have to thank me.) In any case, one can enjoy it as a bit of 60s kitsch which thankfully isn't as cringeworthy as, say, The Sound of Music or Mary Poppins. Yes, they're classics and I particularly enjoyed the latter when I was a kid, but as an adult I simply cannot bear to watch them.

Regarding Titanic, I really hated that film when it initially came out, but I put that more down to me still being in my Angry Young Man phase at that stage, when I basically hated every movie that didn't have dialogue littered with expletives and a shootout every five minutes, whereas these days I suddenly have something in my eye during the last 10 minutes of that film.

Still, I do wonder whether time has been kind to Titanic or not. I suspect many people's memories are still tainted by Cameron acting like a bit of a dick during the Oscars (a true "You like me, you really like me"-moment, something Sally Fields famously never actually said but occasionally the folklore is simply too good not to just take as gospel).

Anyway, long story short, here's my list of Best Picture Oscar winners I can do without:

Chicago
A Beautiful Mind
Gladiator
Shakespeare in Love
Braveheart
Forrest Gump
Driving Miss Daisy
The Deer Hunter
Rocky
The Sound of Music

... at least the ones I have seen.

Hayden

Location: CDMX

CA Dreamin

Gender: Male
Location: LA

Hayden wrote:

Should've watched Sack Lunch instead.

Anyway, here are the worst Best Picture winners I've seen (those I've rated a 6/10 or worse):

1942 - Mrs. Miniver
1947 - Gentlemen's Agreement
1952 - The Greatest Show on Earth
1953 - From Here to Eternity
1956 - Around the World in 80 Days
1961 - West Side Story
1970 - Patton
1976 - Rocky
1983 - Terms of Endearment
1989 - Driving Miss Daisy
1997 - Titanic
2002 - Chicago
2004 - Million Dollar Baby
2005 - Crash
2016 - Moonlight

I'm seeing a similarity between mine and bobbyb5's list.